Is It Really Real News

MLS Scoreboard

Week 5
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Apr 24
Dallas 0-1 New England - NE goal by Khano Smith.
Attendance: 10,453
-Sat Apr 26
Toronto 2-0 Kansas City - Tor goals both by Amado Guevara
Attendance: 20,045
Match Report by Larry Millson of the Toronto Globe & Mail.
Match Report by Morgan Campbell of the Toronto Star.
Match Report by Dean McNulty of the Toronto Sun.
Match Report from the KC Star.
Post game analysis of Amado Guevara by Campbell.
Post game analysis by Millson.
Columbus 1-0 Houston - Colu goal by Alejandro Moreno
Attendance: 15,271
Match Report from the Columbus Dispatch.
Post game notes from the Dispatch.
Post game notes, in quality and quantity, by Steve Sirk on the Crew website.
DC 4-1 Salt Lake - DC goals by Jaime Moreno(2 PKs), Santino Quaranta & Marcello Gallardo. RSL goal by Carey Talley.
Attendance: 23,269
Match Report by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
Match Report by John Haydon of the Washington Times.
Match Report from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Match Report from the Deseret Morning News.
Post game notes from the Deseret Morning News's Real Salt Lake blog.
Post game notes from Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner on his blog The Pitch.
Post game notes and DC player ratings from Goff on his Soccer Insider blog.
Chicago 2-1 Colorado - Chic goals both by John Thorrington. Colo goal by Tam McManus.
Attendance: 14,251
Match Report by Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune.
Match Report by Len Zeihm of the Chicago Sun Times.
Match Report by Nick Firchau of Chicago's Southtown Star.
Match report from the Denver Post.
Post game analysis by Orrin Schwarz of Chicago's Daily Herald.
Post game notes by Arroyave on his blog The Red Card.
Los Angeles 5-2 Chivas USA - LA goals by Landon Donovan(3) & Alan Gordon(2). Chiv goals by Sacha Kljestan & Ante Razov.
Attendance: 27,000
Match Report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
Match Report by Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise.
Match Report by Scott Wolf of the LA Daily News.
Post game analysis, aka Preki's anti-Donovan hissy fit, from the Press Enterprise.
Post game notes by Nick Green of the Daily Breeze on his 100 Percent Soccer.
-Sun Apr 27
New York 2-0 San Jose - NY goals by Mike Magee(PK) & Jozy Altidore.
Attendance: 9,053
Match Report by Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer.
Match Report by Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger.
Match Report by Brian Lewis of the New York Post.
Match report by Dylan Butler for the San Jose Mercury News.
Post game notes by Ives Galarcep of Soccer By Ives.
Post game notes by B Lewis on his blog Extra Time.
Post game video interviews with NY coach & players on teams official blog Red Bulls Reader.
Post game quotes by NY coach from Big Apple Soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Out suspended this past week:
-Eddie Robinson - Houston - 2nd of 3 games
-Mauricio Castro - New England - 1 game
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

No less than FIVE players had multi-goal games in a very exciting weekend"
-Landon Donovan - 3 goals in LA's bit derby win.
-Alan Gordon - 2 goals for La in their win over Chivas USA.
-Jaime Moreno - 2 goals for DC in a winning effort, both on Penalty Kicks, and brings his all time league leading goal tally to 115.
-Amado Guevara - 2 goals for Toronto to secure a win and become the first multi-goal scorer ever for TFC, not to mention a 3 game winning streak!
-John Thorrington - 2 goals to propel Chicago to a home win over Colorado. Remember when he was a prodigy just waiting to explode and become a USA hero? Could it still happen?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Standings

Eastern Conference
12 Columbus
10 Chicago
10 New England
10 Kansas City
9 Toronto
7 New York
6 DC
Western Conference
8 Dallas
7 Los Angeles
6 Colorado
4 Chivas USA
4 Salt Lake
3 San Jose
3 Houston
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Blanco throws out the first pitch at the White Sox game. Pic stolen from the Red Card blog. Nice pointy shoes!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

COLUMBUS CREW

My fave MLS coach Sigi Schmid won his 100th game league game this weekend. Go Big Sig Go!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shawn Mitchell of the Dispatch with an article on the poor attendance record at Crew Stadium.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

The Times of London with a feature story on LA coach Ruud Gullit. It's not all roses & pretty puppies.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Andrea Canales at Soccernet on the Donovan-Beckham duo. They have been nothing short of amazing.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

RED BULL NEW YORK

George Vecsey of the New York Times chimes in on why most in the NY-NJ area don't know about or care about the NYRBs.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stefan Bondy at the Herald News with an article on goalkeeper Jon Conway, grandson of comedian Tim Conway - bet you didn't know that.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The last time Mike Magee scored a goal was July 22, 2006. Good to see him back healthy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

TORONTO FC

Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated on the return of El Lobo.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Morgan Campbell of the Star on his Toronto FC Blog talks to rookie defender Julius James, and a couple other notes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Campbell in the Star writes about striker Jeff Cunningham and his lack of playing time with the first team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Star has an article on a transit striker that caused TFC to get its own buses for fans.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The National Post with an article on keeper Greg Sutton who is finally recovered from a concussion he suffered in the middle of last season. Post on Friday, but I missed it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GENERAL

Simon Kuper at the Financial Times sits down to chat with Donald B Garber. There is nothing us die-hards don't already know here, but its great to see this story in a such an important European newspaper.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Goal.com has an article written by Colorado defender Kelly Gray in which he tells us how he would run the league.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Steve Davis at Soccernet gives us 10 important things from this past weekend.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle on his blog Soccer y Futbol rounds up all the weekend action.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Steve Goff of the Washington Post on his blog Soccer Insider with a recap of the MLS weekend - The Good, The Bad & The Coyote Ugly.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America reviews the weekends games by the key numbers.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kyle McCarthy at Goal.com reviews the weekends action.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Scoreboard

My Thunder pulled off a great one on Saturday night, winning 0-1 in Vancouver, a place where they had not gotten 3 points since 1997!!!! Fantastic!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Matches & Scores:
-Fri Apr 25
Puerto Rico 0-2 Miami
Atlanta 3-2 Montreal
-Sat Apr 26
Carolina 1-0 Charleston
Portland 2-0 Seattle
Vancouver 0-1 Minnesota
Match report from the Vancouver Sun
Match report from Vancouver Whitecaps website
Match report from Minnesota Thunder website
-Sun Apr 27
Puerto Rico 3-1 Miami
-Fri May 2
Charleston v Rochester
Puerto Rico v Montreal
Atlanta v Seattle
-Sun May 4
Minnesota v Rochester
Miami v Carolina
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Standings

9 Portland (3)
4 Atlanta (4)
4 Carolina (4)
4 Miami (4)
3 Minnesota (2)
3 Vancouver (2)
3 Montreal (3)
3 Puerto Rico (3)
2 Charleston (2)
1 Seattle (1)
0 Rochester (0)
(number of games played)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

Soccer365 has a Q & A with Jay DeMerit at Watford - will they get promoted again?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

How'd their weekend matches go:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - did not dress for a 2-0 home win over Belenenses.
-Bryan Arguez - Hertha Berlin - did not dress for a 2-2 draw at Hannover.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - 2-2 at Borussia Monchengladbach
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - on the bench for a huge come from behind 2-3 win at Manchester City.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - season is over, and the Champions League play offs start next weekend.
-Adin Brown - Aalesunds - went the distance but lost 2-1 at Bodo Glimt.
-Colin Burns - Ljungskile - lost 2-1 at Djurgardens
-Dan Califf - Aalborg - went the distance and won at home 1-0 over Horsens.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - went the whole match and drew 2-2 at home with Hertha Berlin.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - did not dress for a 0-0 draw at Wigan.
-Charlie Davies - Hammarby - went the full 90 but lost 1-0 at Trelleborgs.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - went all 90 and they won 2-3 at Man City.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - back on the field and went 90 but lost 0-1 at home to Scunthorpe.
-Joe Enochs - Osnabruck - lost at home 1-2 to Mainz
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - came off the bench in the 60th minute to help his team get destroyed 2-6 by Arsenal.
-Gabriel Ferrari - Sampdoria - did not play in a 2-2 draw at Fiorentina.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - went the distance as always and got a nice road win 0-1 at Portsmouth.
-Cory Gibbs - Charlton - did not dress for a loss at Barnsley 3-0.
-Clarence Goodson - Start - played all 90 and won 0-2 at Sparta.
-Joshua Grenier - Koblenz - lost at Paderborn 3-2
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - got a clean sheet 0-0 at Wigan.
-Tally Hall - Esbjerg - lost at Copenhagen 2-1
-Tim Howard - Everton - played the whole match but were tied 2-2 at home by Aston Villa.
-Nate Jaqua - Rheindorf Altach - went the full match and scored a goal in a 1-1 draw at home to Salzburg.
-Eddie Johnson - Fulham - was not on the bench for a 2-3 win at Man City.
-Kasey Keller - Fulham - in goal again as they came back and won 2-3 at Manchester City.
-Joseph Lapira - Nybergsund - play Sandefjord at home on Monday.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - played all 90 of a 2-6 beatdown at the hands of Arsenal.
-Clint Mathis - Ergotolis - the season ended with them 1 point above the relegation zone!
-Brian McBride - Fulham - started and went 70 in the great 2-3 win at Man City.
-Jay Needham - Alta - won 1-0 at home over Haugesund.
-Lee Nguyen - Randers - started but came off at half time and his replacement scored twice in a 4-1 home win over 4-1 Aarhus.
-Pat Noonan - Aalesunds - came on in the 74th minute of a 2-1 loss at Bodo Glimt.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - went all 90 a week after they won the leagues title, and they ruined a perfect season by losing 2-1 at Charleroi.
-Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock - came on as a sub in the 39th minute, but lost 2-1 at Energie Cottbus.
-Matt Pickens - Queens Park Rangers - did not make the bench and the team lost at Norwich 3-0.
-Troy Perkins - Valerenga - played all 90 and won 2-3 on the road at Viking.
-Luis Robles - Kaiserslautern - won 2-1 at home over Alemania Aachen
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - still injured and did not play, but the team won 3-1 at Leicester City.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - did not dress for a 2-2 tie at home against Newcastle.
-Neven Subotic - Mainz - won 1-2 on the road over Osnabruck
-Danny Szetela - Brescia - 0-0 at home with Treviso
-Etchu Tabe - Ljungskile - lost 2-1 at Djurgardens
-Brian Waltrip - Molde - came on as a 63rd minute sub of a 0-0 home draw against Stromsgodset.
-Cam Weaver - Haugesund - played all 90 minutes but lost at home 0-1 to Alta.
-Brian West - Fredrikstad - did not dress for a 0-0 draw at Lyn.
-Quentin Westberg - Troyes - on the bench for a 2-2 home draw with Boulogne.
-Jeremiah White - Aarhus - did not dress for a 4-1 loss at Randers.
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - 2-2 at Borussia Monchengladbach
-Sal Zizzo - Hannover - not on the bench for a 2-2 draw at home with Hertha Berlin.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans in Mexico

Luis Bueno of Sideline Views updates us on our guys in the Premiera.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bueno also gives us some info on even more Americans in the 2nd division in Mexico.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF Champions Cup

Final
2nd Leg Match & Score (1st leg score included):
-Wed Apr 30
Pachuca v Suprissa (1-1)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores

Round of 16, 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed Apr 30
Atletico Nacional v Fluminese
Nacional v Sao Paulo
Lanus v Atlas
Boca Juniors v Cruzeiro
America v Flamengo
Santos v Cucuta Deportivo
San Lorenzo v River Plate
LDU Quito v Estudiantes
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Second leg matches will be played on May 7.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

England News

Not surprisingly at all, the professional football players of England named Cristiano Ronaldo as the best this season. Was their even a runner up?
-And here is the winning Best XI:
G:
David James - Portsmouth
D:
Bacara Sagna - Arsenal
Rio Ferdinand - Manchester United
Nemanja Vidic - Manchester United
Gael Clichy - Arsenal
M:
Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United
Steven Gerrard - Liverpool
Cesc Fabregas - Arsenal
Ashley Young - Aston Villa
F:
Emmanuel Adebayor - Arsenal
Fernando Torres - Liverpool
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Very exciting times at the top of the charts in England where #2 Chelsea beat #1 Manchester United to pull level at 81 points. Man U has a much better goal differential, which is the first tie breaker, so they will have to screw up even more to lose the title. I love the drama.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tottenham has signed Croatian midfielder Luka Modric. Seems like every team in England was chasing after him, but I think the only reason they knew about him was because he made the English national team look so bad in the 2 Euro qualifiers against Croatia. Hahahaha. Saps.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Sunday Times has an article on Fulham's odd looking but super talented midfielder Jimmy Bullard. He reminds me of a throw back to the 70's & 80's.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FIFA.com has a Q & A with Ryan Giggs of Manchester United, where the fans asked the questions.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

Super Pippo Inzaghi got a hat trick against Livorno which gives him 8 in the past 3 games!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sport Magazine has a Q & A with Ronaldinho!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sid Lowe at the Guardian tells us about a notorious hussy who is helping a struggling striker get his game together.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Paolo Bandini of the Guardian looks at Fiorentina trying to hold off Milan for the final Champions League spot in Italy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Phil Ball at Soccernet takes us to Deportivo la Coruna and their slight return to good form.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Football Italia with all the highlights from Week 35 in Serie A.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Champions League

Semifinal 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with first leg scores included):
-Tue Apr 29
Manchester United v Barcelona (0-0) - live at 1:30pm central on ESPN2
-Wed Apr 30
Chelsea v Liverpool (1-1) - live at 1:30pm central on ESPN2
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

James Lawton at the Independent says Cristiano Ronaldo owes his coach an amazing performance in the Champions League.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Martin Samuel of The Times says that if you plan on going to the CL final in Moscow, then be prepared to be financially gouged beyond your wildest imagination.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Cup

Semifinal 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with first leg scores included):
-Thu May 1
Bayern Munchen v Zenit (1-1)
Fiorentina v Rangers (0-0)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Final will be played May 14 in Manchester at the City of Manchester Stadium.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Euro League Cup Competitions

KNVB Beker Final
-Sun Apr 27
Feyenoord Rotterdam 2-0 Roda JC Kerkrade
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Big Euro Club Matches This Weekend

Big Euro Matches This Weekend:
Chelsea 2-1 Manchester United - now all even at 81 points but Man U has the advantage on goal differential.
Hamburg 0-1 Schalke - the win puts Schalke 6 points ahead in the battle for the final Champions League spot in Germany.
Galatasaray 1-0 Fenerbahce - Gala take a 3 point lead over Fener with 2 games left.
Celtic 3-2 Rangers - the Old Firm derby - Celtic now lead by 5 points but Rangers have 3 games in hand.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Two teams tried win big Euro leagues this weekend - and while neither Inter or Real Madrid clinched, they didn't stumble either, and next weekend will be that much closer to the end. Here is how the matches went:
-Serie A - now with 3 games to play:
Inter 2-1 Cagliari - Inter 81 points
Roma 4-1 Torino - Roma 75 points
-La Liga - now with 4 games left to play:
Real Madrid 3-0 Athletic Bilbao - Real 75 points
Real Betis 0-1 Villarreal - Villa 65 points
Deportivo La Coruna 2-0 Barcelona - Barca 61 points