Tuesday, April 08, 2008

As Easy As Four Three Two One News

UEFA Champions League

Quarterfinal 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with first leg scores included):
-Tue Apr 8
Liverpool v Arsenal (1-1) - live at 1:30pm on ESPN2
Chelsea v Fenerbahce (1-2) - live at 1:30pm on Setanta & delayed at 4pm on ESPN Classic
-Wed Apr 9
Manchester United v Roma (2-0) - live at 1:30pm on ESPN2
Barcelona v Schalke (1-0) - live at 1:30pm on Setanta
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF Champions Cup

Semifinals - 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with 1st leg scores included):
-Wed Apr 9
DC v Pachuca (0-2)
Suprissa v Houston (0-0)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

NOTE: There is no away-goals tie breaker used in this tournament.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

3 Houston mainstays did not make the trip to Costa Rica due to injuries: midfielder Stuart Holden - ankle, goalkeeper Pat Onstad - shoulder, and centerback Eddie Robinson - knee.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle on his Soccer y Futbol blog with some pregame notes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fallas with a preview in the Chron.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Glenn Davis of the Chron gives his thoughts on the early season pressure for Houston and DC.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner on his blog The Pitch with some DC pregame notes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet previews both DC & Houston in the CCC 2nd leg matches. Things don't look good for either.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Andrew Dixon at the US National Soccer Players Assoc tells us what he thinks about the CCC.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Scoreboard

Week 3 Matches & Scores:
-Wed Apr 9
Kansas City v New England - 7pm central on Direct Kick
-Sat Apr 12
San Jose v Chicago - 3:30pm central on FSC
Columbus v Chivas USA - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
New England v Colorado - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Kansas City v Houston - 7pm central on HDNet
Dallas v New York - 7:30pm central on Direct Kick
Salt Lake v DC - 8pm central on Direct Kick
Sun Apr 13
Los Angeles v Toronto - 2pm central on TeleFutura
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune shows us how Blanco is learning to speak English.
-Arroyave also gives us Fire notes on his Red Card blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DC UNITED

DC forward Santino Quaranta had his hand stepped on and bones broken in the game against Toronto on Saturday. They say he won't miss any games.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Nick Green at 100 Percent Soccer tells us that LA midfielder Galaxy's Brazilian midfielder Alvaro El Buffalo Pires has a foot injury of unknown origin and will most likely be out for the next match.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe says the Rev's suddenly have to worry about too many players being out of action. Defender Chris Albright joined the injured list with a bad ankle.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Boston Herald with a story on back up midfielder Gary Flood who may be playing quite a bit with all the injuries and suspensions ahead.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The New England official team blog has some really interesting thoughts as the team heads to KC for Wednesday. I don't know how wrote this entry, but its pretty good.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

RED BULL NEW YORK

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer with some post game analysis from last weekends 2-0 home debut win over Columbus.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A couple of other good bits of info from Lewis.
-Jozy Altidore played with the teams reserves and scored 2 goals against St Johns on Sunday.
-Another player from bankrupt Scottish team Gretna, Chris Innes, is in New Jersey training with the team hoping to get a deal.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

REAL SALT LAKE

James Edward of the Deseret Morning News on the papers blog says Carey Talley took responsibility for this terrible game on against Chivas on Saturday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

TORONTO FC

The deal for Amado Guevara to join TFC is NOT done.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CBC announcer Nigel Reed reflects on Toronto loss #2 of the season, on his Extra Time blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Toronto Sun tries to figure out what kind of mental shape TFC is in after 2 more bad losses to start this season.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Morgan Campbell of the Star says TFC is not wasting any time in bringing in more players to have a look at. They need help.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GENERAL

The North American Soccer Reporters have named Damon Blackburn as their MLS Player of the Week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Grahame Jones of the LA Times with several post-weekend-game notes - his thoughts on Dallas's inability to hold a lead, terrible Houston keeper Tony Caig, desperate Toronto & Amado Guevara, and Seattle's team name.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nick Green from the LA Daily News looks at all the MLS players with Southern California roots. There are currently 64!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Friendlies

-Tue Apr 8
San Luis (FMF) v Chicago in Mexcali, Mexico at Estadio Casas GEO
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Expansion News

Both the Seattle Times and Post Intelligencer with articles on the naming of their cities new team.
-An explanation of the Seattle badge.
-Here is video of the name unveiling.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer talks to MLS Boss Donald G Garber about a 2nd team in New York City that could be owned by the New York Mets. Garber also talks about St Louis and other cities.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division & PDL News

Anne Ramzy of Soccernet tells us how she thinks the teams will rank in the USL1D this season. She puts my blessed Minnesota team at the bottom. I can only hope that everyone takes the team this lightly. They could be in for a rude awakening.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer News

Coach Thomas Rongen will take a USA U20 team to a tournament in Portugal next week. Here is the roster and game schedule.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Team USA

I forgot to mention this after the USA beat Poland, but the team has climbed up to #18 in the World Football Elo Ratings. I find these to be the most accurate ratings of all, and are compiled by the same people who do the world chess rankings.
-The next three USA opponents are ranked like this - England #8, Spain #5 & Argentina #2. The first World Cup qualifying opponent Barbados is #129.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer In America

FIFA.com looks back to 1969 when Peru pulled off a huge upset over Argentina at the historic Bombonera Stadium in Buenos Aires. Very cool stuff.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

Monday match results:
-Colin Burns - Ljungskile - dressed but did not play as the team lost 3-1 at Kalmar.
-Charlie Davies - Hammarby - started and scored his teams final goal in a 5-3 home win over Sundsvall.
-Robbie Russell - Viborg - did not play in the teams 0-0 tie at Aarhus.
-Echu Tabe - Ljungskile - started and played 61 minutes but the team lost 3-1 at Kalmar.
-Quentin Westburg - Troyes - on the bench but did not play as they lost 2-0 at Grenoble.
-Jeremiah White - Aarhus - played all 90 of a 0-0 home tie against Viborg.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mid-week matches coming up:
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - at home v Barnsley on Wednesday.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - play their big derby match at Sheffield United on Tuesday.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - play Portsmouth at home on Tuesday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Greg Seltzer at American Soccer Daily talks to Heath Pearce about the struggle his team Hansa Rostock now faces to avoid relegation.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Tue Apr 8
Libertad v Liga Universitaria Quito
Arsenal v Fluminense
San Jose v Cucuta Deportivo
-Wed Apr 9
Chivas Guadalajara v Santos
Cienciano v Flamengo
Atlas v Boca Juniors
-Thu Apr 10
Colo Colo v Maracaibo
Sportivo Luqueno v Atletico Nacional
Audax Italiano v Sao Paulo
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Cruzeiro, Fluminense & LDU Quito have secured 3 of the 16 spots in the knock out rounds.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Stage Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

Phil Ball at Soccernet says Getafe are currently the team that is all the rage in Spain.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FIFA.com does a Q & A session with Portugal coach Big Phil Scolari.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune looks at 2 top class goalkeepers going through tough times.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

So Houston is traveling to Saprissa with that crappy backup GK? Oy vey, it's not gonna be pretty...

1:55 AM  
Blogger ULTRAS said...

Damon Blackburn? Its funny that you mess up Beckman's name...but now you're just getting carried away! :) Took me a little while to figure out wtf you were talking about...

1:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey bruce, note on the Revolution team blog.
Brad Feldman, the REvs local TV broadcast play by play guy, wrote that piece. he writes alot on that blog and his stuff's always great. Answers questions that readers post on the comment boards too.

3:17 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Newer Posts Older Posts