Short Hair News

Real Madrid become the 2nd of the pretournament favorites to be knocked out of the Champions League. They went down to Roma and join Milan on the trash heap.

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The field at the Texas Pro Soccer Festival is said to be so small and in such bad shape that both Chivas USA & DC United refused to let their first teams play on it. See details in Texas Pro Soccer Festival section below.

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Former Fulham manager Chris Coleman is trying to get Carlos Bocanegra on a loan deal for his new team Coventry


MLS News

Welcome Back Conrad. Kansas City defender Jimmy Conrad makes his 2008 debut with this column for Soccernet: Introspection according to Jimmy
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Philadelphia has already sold over 2000 season tickets!
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Steven Goff of the Washington Post on his Soccer Insider blog reports that DC has signed former player Santino Quaranta. Some quotes from Q too.
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Goal.com with their column the Starting XI: Most Colorful Characters in MLS History
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The Houston Chronicle with a info on stadium funding from the city of Houston.
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Glenn Davis of the Chronicle gives us the reasons he feels this stadium is so important in their city.
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MLS Preseason Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Mar 5
Velez Sarsfield (Argentina) 2-3 Kansas City in Buenos Aires
Match report from Kansas City official blog, Hillcrest Road.
-Thu Mar 6
Arsenal Reserves (England) 2-1 Colorado In London at the Arsenal Training Centre
Match report from Colorado Rapids website.
Blackburn Reserves (England) 0-1 Columbus in Blackburn
Match report from the Columbus Crew website.
Newell's Old Boys (Argentina) 1-1 Salt Lake in Rosario
Red Bull Salzburg (Austria) v New York in Salzburg
Atlante (Mexico) v New England in Playa del Carmen
Paranaense Reserves (Brazil) v Dallas at Kyocera Stadium in Curtiba Brazil
-Fri Mar 7
Everton Reserves (England) v Columbus in Liverpool
-Sat Mar 8
Avai (Brazil) v Dallas at Gonder Stadium in Florianopolis Brazil
Hong Kong Union v Los Angeles in Hong Kong
-Sun Mar 9
Jockey Club Rosario (Brazil) v Salt Lake in Rosario
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The Arsenal Reserve team that beat Colorado today had Gilberto, Robin Van Persie and Theo Walcott in their lineup. Hahahahahahaha. Reserve team. Hahahahahahaha. All 3 would be MLS stars.
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Colombian centerback Jamison Olave made his debut for Salt Lake.
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Tonight's Dallas game against Paranaense Reserves will be played as part of doubleheader with the Paranaense senior team playing a league match v Corinthians! Fantastic!
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Either England coach Fabio Capello or his top assistant will be in Dallas on March 15 to assess the condition of LA's Davin Beckman and see if he is ready to play for England again.
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Texas Pro Soccer Festival

Could this be a debacle of a tournament? The game field is said to be both tiny and in terrible condition. So much so that both Chivas USA & DC United refused to play their first teams, and instead took them to another field to play a private match (which DC won 2-1 with DC goals by Luciano Emilio & Franco Niell, and Chiv goal by ). They let their reserves play on the cow pasture for the tournament. Sad.
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Preseason tournament March 3-9 in San Antonio TX. Here is the official website.
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Teams:
Chivas USA
DC United
Houston Dynamo
Toronto FC
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Matches & Scores:
-Wed Mar 5
Chivas 1-2 DC - Chiv goal by . DC goals by Quavas Kirk & Cezar.
Houston 4-3 Toronto - Hou goals by Brian Ching(2), Chris Wondolowski & Erik Ustruck. Tor goals by Tony Zairelles, Martin Britton & Kiki Musampa.
-Fri Mar 7
Toronto v DC
Chivas v Houston
-Sun Mar 9
Toronto v Chivas
Houston v DC
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The San Antonio Express tells the Maykel Galindo (Chivas USA forward) Cuban defection story.
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MLS Rumors - Don't Tease Me Bro

Those who dream of Andriy Shevchenko coming to a team in MLS this summer might have to hold their breath a lot longer, cuz Milan has saying that they want him to return to them from Chelsea. Which option would you choose?
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Team USA

ESPN has a video interview with Landon Donovan on setting a new USA goal scoring record, and looking forward to World Cup qualifying.
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USA Olympic Team

Official team blog.
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Team members Stuart Holden and Charlie Davies give us a fluffy peak into team training camp. Via the official blog.
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The US National Soccer Players Assoc has the details on USA coach Peter Nowak's press conference today as he gets his squad ready for qualifying. Nowak explains why they didn't play any public friendlies as a warm up to next weeks tournament.
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Soccer In America

Marc Connolly at Goal.com with Part 2 of his Q & A with Bruce Arena. I know many of you don't like Arena, but I love the guy, love what he has done for US Soccer, and agree with almost every word he says. I wish we could hear from him more.
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Craig Stouffer who covers soccer for the Washington Examiner has a blog now - The Pitch - check it out.
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Americans In Europe

Tim Howard and Everton are in UEFA Cup action today as they travel to Florence to take on Fiorentina.
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Freddy Adu will not be part of the Benfica squad in the UEFA Cup today because he is in Florida with the USA Olympic team getting ready to try and qualify next week.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports with an article on Reading goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann who is persevering through a long tough season.
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Yanks Abroad talks to Greg Dalby who just might be in line to make his debut for Charleroi this weekend at home v Anderlecht in the Belgian league. They also talk Olympics.
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Matches on Wednesday night:
-Matt Pickens - QPR - on the bench for the teams 0-0 draw at Coventry.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - came off the bench in the 63rd minute and was the recipient of a 4-0 beat down at the hands of the Liverpeople.
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Copa Libertadores

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Tue Mar 4
Santos 1-0 Chivas Guadalajara - goal by Mauricio Molina.
Liga D Univ Quito 2-0 Libertad - goals by Patricio Urrutia & Joffre Guerron.
Cruzeiro 3-0 Caracas - goals by Guilherme, Ramires & Marcelo Moreno. (we ran a feature story on Moreno yesterday - check it out)
-Wed Mar 5
Danubio 1-2 Estudiantes - Dan goal by Edro Irala. Est goals by Juan Sebastian Veron(PK) & Enzo Perez.
Fluminense 6-0 Arsenal - Wow - Flum goals by Thiago Neves, Dodo(2), Gabriel, Washington & Cicero
Sao Paulo 2-1 Audax Italiano - Sao goals both by Adriano. Aud goal by Carlos Villenueva.
-Thu Mar 6
Atletico Nacional v Sportivo Luqueno
Nacional v Flamengo
Boca Juniors v Atlas
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Group Stage Standings
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Adriano has been a near disaster off the field in Sao Paolo, but last night he showed why so many people think he is great when he scored both of his teams goals.
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European News

Fernando Torres is really tearing it up right now for Liverpool - he scored 3 more league goals last night in a 4-0 pasting of West Ham. That gives him 18 for the season.
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How bad has it gotten for Andriy Shevchenko at Chelsea. He played an away game with the reserve team this week. Oof.
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And what is up with former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho saying he plans to get back into coaching next season, and then he wants to "KILL" Chelsea. I will bet a large sum of cash that this interview was done in his native Portuguese tongue, and that a tabloid translator came up with the word KILL. Every paper is using those words, but no one is taking credit for the interview that the quotes came from. Every article just says "Wire Services".
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Inter Milan celebrate their 100th anniversary this weekend. Wow.
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And Inter are going to offer Luis Figo another 1 year contract to try and get him to stay put.
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Jack Bell of the New York Times on the Goal blog is in Austria with the New York Red Bulls and gets to spend sometime with the head coach of their Salzburg sister team, Italian near-legend Giovanni Trappatoni.
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World Soccer looks at Bayern Munich naming Juergen Klinsmann as they next head coach. Via Sports Illustrated.
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UEFA Champions League

Round of 16 - 2nd leg Matches & Scores (with 1st leg scores included):
-Tue Mar 4
Barcelona 1-0 Celtic (3-2) - Barca adv 4-2 on agg. Barca goal by Xavi Hernandez.
Man United 1-0 Lyon (1-1) - Man U adv 2-1 on agg. Man U goal by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Sevilla 3-2 Fenerbahce (2-3) - series tied 5-5 on agg and on away goals tie breaker. Fener adv 3-2 on Penalty Kicks. Sev goals by Daniel Alves, Seydou Keita & Frederic Kanoute. Fen goals both by Deivid.
Milan 0-2 Arsenal - Arse advance 2-0 on agg. Arse goals by Cesc Fabregas & Emmanuel Adebayor.
-Wed Mar 5
Porto 1-0 Schalke - series tied 1-1 on agg, with no away goals to break the tie. Schalke adv 4-1 on Penalty Kicks. Por goal by Lisandro.
Real Madrid 1-2 Roma - Roma adv 4-2 on agg. Mad goal by Raul Gonzalez. Roma goals by Rodrigo Taddei & Mirko Vucinic.
Chelsea 3-0 Olympiacos - Chel adv 3-0 on agg. Chel goals by Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard & Salomon Kalou.
-Tue Mar 11
Inter v Liverpool (0-2)
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Sid Lowe of the Guardian writes about Spain's reaction to Real Madrid losing to Roma.
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Kevin McCarra of the Guardian writes about Arsenals youth v Milan veterans.
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And the Guardian on the return of Chelsea's Michael Ballack to true form. and yes, he can play on the field at the same time as Frank Lampard.
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For the record (you know, in the event of a court case): du Nord is a huge fan of Michael Ballack going back many years now.
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The Telegraph compares Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas to a Milan maestro of the 60's - Gianni Rivera.
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Reuters Soccer Blog calls Real Madrid slow and predictable.
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UEFA Cup

Round of 16 - 1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Thu Mar 6
Anderlecht v Bayern
Rangers v Werder
Bolton v Sporting
Leverkusen v Hamburg
Getafe v Benfica
Fiorentina v Everton
Tottenham v PSV
Marseille v Zenit
-2nd leg matches will be played Mar 12 & 13.
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World News

Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated with the new World Club Power Rankings. There is a new #1.
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Which players around the world (read: Europe) are paid the most money by their clubs. Jeffrey Marcus at the New York Times Goal blog has the answer.
-After you read the list, tell me who you think is the MOST overpaid. I vote for Harry Kewell.
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The Canadian Press with an article from Germany where the Bundesliga top brass have been meeting to discuss the topic of foreign ownership and investments. Right now every team must have German majority ownership.