Greater And Larger And Brighter News

Arsenal & Liverpool played in the Champions League last night, which is only the first or 3 games they play against each other in 6 days. They meet in London again on Saturday in the Premiership, and then again next Tuesday in Liverpool for the 2nd leg of the Champions League. They are gonna hate each other by the end of that run.

~and~

MLS In Seattle will introduce their team name, logo and colors on Monday.

~and~

A picture of ME, down in KC last Saturday, holding someone's flag that celebrates "The Groin". This is in reference to Jimmy Conrad, but I'll damned if it doesn't look like Jamie Moreno. My pal Paul took the pic. See his season predictions below in the MLS General News section.

~and~

The English press are so full of themselves - they are running stories that Seattle will pay Thierry Henry $15.5 million person season to play in MLS. What a joke. He makes about $12m at Barcelona, and there is no way MLS more after the poor season he has had, not to mention his last season at Arsenal.


MLS Scoreboard

Week 2 Matches & Scores:
-Thu Apr 3
Chicago v New England - 7pm central on ESPN2
Los Angeles v San Jose - 9:30pm central on ESPN2
-Sat Apr 5
Kansas City v Colorado - 4pm central on Direct Kick
New York v Columbus - 6:30pm central on FSC
DC v Toronto - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Chivas USA v Salt Lake - 9:30pm central on HDNet
Sun Apr 6
Houston v Dallas - 2pm central on TeleFutura
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dell'apa at the Boston Globe previews tonight's match in Chicago.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated on the renewal of the original Caliderby.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Adam Smartschan of the Cape Cod Times with a New England preview.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Arroyave's has Fire v Revs game day notes on his Red Card blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF Champions Cup

Semifinals - 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Tue Apr 1
Pachuca 2-0 DC - Pac goals both by Luis Montes.
-Wed Apr 2
Houston 0-0 Suprissa
Match report by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.
Post game notes from Glenn Davis on his blog The Soccer Hour.
Post game notes from Fallas in the Chron.
More post game notes and player ratings from Fallas on his Soccer y Futbol blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My thoughts on the game:
Well, we saw Houston go all out for a big win last night, but they could not kick in that door no matter what they tried. A scoreless draw was just not good enough when the so dominantly controlled the ball and the pace. I think they lacked patience and creativity. Too many balls from 25-30 yards chipped into the box - over and over again. I never once saw them ping it around 35-40 yards from the goal and try to draw out the Saprissa defense. They are certainly not doomed because they did look good, but it is going to be very hard to win in Costa Rica next week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Champions League

Quarterfinals - 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Tue Apr 1
Roma 0-2 Manchester United - Man U goals by Cristiano Ronaldo & Wayne Rooney.
Schalke 0-1 Barcelona - Barc goal by Bojan Krkic.
-Wed Apr 2
Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool - Ars goal by Emmanuel Adebayor. Liv goal by Dirk Kuyt.
Fenerbahce 2-1 Chelsea - Fen goals by Kazim Kazim & Deivid . Chel goal by Deivid(OG).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fenerbahce have not lost at home this season in the Champions League!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune takes us to Turkey for Fenerbahce's come back on Chelsea.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hughes also praises the skills of Bojan Krkic and Ronaldo who lead their teams to Champions League victory.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

How about this for turning things on their head - La Gazzetta in Italy raving about the defense played by English teams!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

Jeffrey Marcus of the New York Times blog Goal talks to injured New England forward Taylor Twellman who tells us what he makes him nuts when he watches MLS on TV. It's the same stuff that pisses off the rest of us who care. I live Twellman for saying this stuff!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CHICAGO FIRE

Len Ziehm of the Chicago Sun Times with an article on new Fire forward Tomasz Frankowski from Poland.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nick Firchau of the Southtown Star with an article on the teams owner Andrew Hauptman.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune says the home field is a big advantage for the Fire.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FC DALLAS

Diego Aparicio of the Dallas Morning News with an article on FCD's speedy reserve forward Dominic "The Birdman" Oduro.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

HOUSTON DYNAMO

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle says the Dynamo are coming up short in the goal scoring department.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS

Bob Luder of the Kansas City Star with an article on Ryan Pore who moved into the midfield and had a nice first game there for the Wizards.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Andrea Canales on her Sideline Views blog gives us the third and final part of her translation of a Q & A with Landon Donovan that appeared on ESPN Deportes. (find the first 2 parts of this interview in yesterday's du Nord.)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports sits down with Donald Bornmouth for a rare one on one interview. The man is liking life.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Grahame Jones of the LA Times with an article on former San Jose, former Canada, former LA and now again San Jose coach Frank Yallop.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The LA Daily News ponders the patience of management in Galaxyland.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Frank Dell'apa at Soccernet tells us more about the 2 young Gambian players, Abdloulie Mansally & Sainey Nyassi, who turbo charged New England last weekend.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Goal.com has a Q & A with forward Adam Cristman. With Twellman out injured he figures to see the field even more than originally planned.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Adam Smartschan of the Cape Cod Times has an article on newly acquired defender Chase Hilgenbrink.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

RED BULL NEW YORK

Ives Galarcep at Soccer By Ives runs down some of the possible players the Red Bulls are still chasing.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

Ann Killion of the San Jose Mercury News gives us some of the history of the Earthquakes team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The SJMN also has a season preview of the team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The San Francisco Chronicle also previews the Equakes season.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Andrew Rogers at Soccernet talks to coach Frank Yallop about his return to coaching in the Bay Area.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

TORONTO FC

The Toronto Star on the signing of French midfielder Laurent Robert.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ben Knight of the Toronto Globe & Mail's blog On Soccer gives us Part 3 and The Final installment of his travel journey with the TFC fans to Columbus for the season opener. Great series.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Knight also comments on the signing of Robert.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GENERAL

My compadre Paul Demko at City Pages has written (read: finally gotten around to) his MLS season predictions. Broken down into two parts - The Bottom Seven (Um, I think he means Eight) - and - The Top Six. Also included in this madness is a great picture of ME!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shaka Hislop at the Guardian with his look back at Week 1 and look ahead at Week 2.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his Red Card blog has a Q & A with ESPN reporter Pedro Gomez.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger with a plethora of MLS news and notes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A Sports Illustrated article puts Blanco's on-field value above Beekman's.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It's official - MLS All Stars v West Ham (big whoop) in Toronto on Jul 24.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Rumor City - Don't Tease Me Bro!

Arsenal are again looking at Chivas USA keeper Brad Guzan. I bet the Arse could get him a work permit.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

All the trashy European papers finally picked up on the Thierry Henry to MLS (Seattle?) rumors that flew around here last week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Stadium Talk

The Deseret Morning News says Salt Lake is lining up the corporate sponsors for the new stadium.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying

Belize are looking at stadiums in the United States to host their home leg of the upcoming series v Mexico. LA & Houston are their top choices.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mexico & FMF News

Luis Bueno on his Sideline Views blog serves us up translations of juicy quotes that former Mexico coach Ricardo LaVolpe gave to Cancha about his successor and nemesis Hugo Sanchez. LaVolpe rips Hugo a new one!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Apr 1
Santos v San Jose
Universidad Catolica v Dep Univ San Martin
Bamin Real Potosi v Caracas
-Apr 2
America 4-3 River Plate - Amer goals by Rodrigo Inigo, Enrique Esqueda, Diego Cervantes & Salvador Cabanas. RP goals by Rodrigo Archubi, Diego Cervantes(OG) & Sebastian Abreu.
Fluminense 2-0 Libertad - Flum goals by Cicero & Thiago Silva.
Sao Paulo 1-0 Sportivo LuquenoSP goal by Adriano.
Lanus 3-3 Estudiantes - Lan goals by Jose Sand, Diego Valeri & Lautaro Acosta. Est goals by Leandro Desabato, Leandro Benitez & Ivan Moreno y Fabianesi.
-Apr 3
Atletico Nacional v Audax Italiano
Nacional v Coronel Bolognesi
Cruzeiro v San Lorenzo
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fluminense has joined Group 8 partners LDU Quito in securing a spot in the knock out rounds.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Stage Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

England News

Over in England there is rumor mounting that Manchester City is about bring the hammer down on coach Sven Goren Erickson! Could it be adios for that goofy Swedish dude already?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano mocked and ranted at a referee two weeks ago until he was finally given a second Yellow Card and sent off. Then he really went nuts. Today the league gave him an additional 2 game suspension - that's 3 total. I have always felt that a jackass should get what a jackass deserves.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

World Soccer has a Q & A with Liverpool midfielder Ryan Babel. Via Sports Illustrated.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

The Telegraph with an article on how much money Beckham's departure is costing Real Madrid.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Guardian with an article on Celtic fans who feel they need a better manager than Gordon Strachan to take their team to higher places. But is there a person out there who can do that?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Really sad news from Croatia where Hrvoje Custic of Zadar died after sliding out of bounds and hitting his head on a cement curb. He had been in a coma for a week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Cup

Quarterfinal 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Thu Apr 3
Leverkusen 1-4 Zenit
Rangers 0-0 Sporting
Bayern 1-1 Getafe
Fiorentina 1-1 PSV
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FIFA Scandal News

Reuters with the latest on the court proceedings in Switzerland where exec's of former marketing company ISL have testified and placed the blame for their company's bankruptcy firmly on the shoulders of FIFA. They accuse FIFA of running them into the ground, then taking the business on themselves to great financial reward.