Triple Hoop Jump News

When that Champions League game ended on Tuesday, I sat there on my couch and the only thought that entered my mind was this: Did I just watch Barcelona throw the game?!?!? How else do you explain all that talent, making so many bad passes, and creating so few actual deadly chances on goal? And you know what, when I woke up this morning, I thought to myself, could that happen? Because as dumb as the idea was yesterday, it didn't go away today.

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The US Open Cup kicks off tonight in Salt Lake City for MLS teams in the qualifying rounds. See section below for details.

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Greg Lalas of Goal.com calls the TV commentator duo of Sean Wheelock & Bruce Arena... "the most bizarre pairing since Flavor Flav and Brigette Nielsen got together." Genius! See MLS General news section below for Lalas's column.

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And the CONCACAF Champions Cup ends tonight with the 2nd leg from Mexico. Again see the section below.


UEFA Champions League

Semifinal 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with first leg scores included):
-Tue Apr 29
Manchester United 1-0 Barcelona - Man U advance 1-0 on aggregate - goal by Paul Scholes.
-Wed Apr 30
Chelsea 3-2 Liverpool - Chelsea advance 4-3 on aggregate after extra time - Chel goals by Frank Lampard(PK) & Didier Drogba(2). Liv goals by & Ryan Babel.
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Marcela Mora y Araujo, hopefully a future girlfriend of mine, of the Guardian returns to Spain to talk to Jorge Valdano who last year compared Chelsea v Liverpool to "some shit hanging on a stick." What does he think now?
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Richard Williams of the Guardian says All Hail Paul Scholes.
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The Times breaks down the key ManU v Barca matchups and rates the players from both teams.
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Jeffrey Marcus of the New York Times on the Goal blog does a Q & A with former great player Gianluca Vialli about the CL.
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US Open Cup

Some MLS teams will have to play-off against each other to qualify.
1st of 2 Rounds - Matches & Scores:
-Wed Apr 30
Salt Lake v San Jose - winner plays at Columbus in 2nd round of qualifying.
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James Edward of the Deseret Morning News previews the game tonight.
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Salt Lake is wearing a special green shirt in this game to promote Earth Day and environmental awareness. Here's a picture from the teams official blog - Behind the Shield.
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CONCACAF Champions Cup

Final
2nd Leg Match & Score (1st leg score included):
-Wed Apr 30
Pachuca v Saprissa (1-1)
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FIFA.com previews tonight's match.
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MLS Scoreboard

Week 6
Matches & Scores:
-Thu May 1
Toronto v New York - 6pm central on ESPN2
-Sat May 3
New England v Chicago - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Columbus v Kansas City - 6:30pm central on FSC
Houston v Chivas USA - 7:30pm central on HDNet
Salt Lake v Los Angeles - 8pm central on Direct Kick
San Jose v Dallas 9pm central on Direct Kick
-Sun May 4
Colorado v DC - 2pm central on TeleFutura
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Out suspended this week:
-Eddie Robinson - Houston - 3rd of 3 games
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Ives Galarcep at Soccernet previews Toronto v New York.
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MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

If John Thorrington can play well on a consistent basis, maybe Chris Rolfe can get healthy and replace Chad Barrett up top. How good would that make Chicago? Pretty damn good I'd say.
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Orrin Schwarz of the Daily Herald with an article on Thorrington.
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Most of the Chicago papers have stories today on the signing of Lider Marmol - Tribune - Sun Times - Southtown Star.
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Luis Arroyave has more Marmol notes on his blog The Red Card.
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COLUMBUS CREW

Pat Walsh of Goal.com on the leagues top team - Columbus. It's almost shocking to type that, but I like it.
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DC UNITED

Forward Grandpa Doe got his work visa approved and is all set to play now.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO

Team owner Oscar de la Hoya will wearing team colors when he fights this coming weekend at the Home Depot Center!
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Bernardo Fallas of the Chronicle on his Soccer y Futbol blog asks the question - Why not use midfielder Corey Ashe's speed up top?
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KANSAS CITY WIZARDS

Bob Luder of the KC Star looks at the all the former Wizards in management positions these days.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Kristian Dyer of Soccernet with an article on Red Bulls prodigy Matt Kassel.
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Brian Lewis of the New York Post on the Extra Time blog with the latest notes from Redbulltown.
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GENERAL

Greg Lalas at Goal.com with his 3-5-2 column: 3 surprises, 5 reasons & 2 players.
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Martin Rogers at Yahoo Sports gives us his Top 10 most over/under paid players in the league.
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The Brazil v Venezuela match at Gillette Stadium on June 6 will be a double header with New England v Dallas. Cool.
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MLS Rumor City - Don't Tease Me Bro!

Jozy Altidore is being watched closely by Villarreal.
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Columbus will play a friendly against West Ham after the MLS All-Star game.
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MLS Stadium Talk

You just new this one was coming sooner or later:
The Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City says that some of the public stadium funding for Real Salt Lake has run into trouble!
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Soccer In America

Former New York Cosmos coach Gordon Bradley passed away yesterday due to complications from Alzheimer's. Very sad. RIP.
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Americans In Europe

Word from the English tabloids is that Jay DeMerit and Watford coach Aidy Boothroyd are no longer seeing eye-to-eye and JDM will be out the door when the transfer window opens.
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Mexico & FMF News

FIFA.com with a profile of Club America's powerful Paraguayan striker Salvador Cabanas.
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Graciela Resendiz of Soccernet rounds up the Primera with one week left to go before the playoffs.
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I believe the playoffs or Liguilla work like this - the league is split into 3 groups and the winners of each get in, then the next 10 play home and away to leave 5 to join the 3. Those 8 play home and away all the way to the final series.
-Right now the 3 leaders are: Toluca, Santos Laguna & Guadalajara.
-And the next 10 are: Cruz Azul, San Luis, Chiapas, Necaxa, Monterrey, Pachuca, Puebla, Atlas, UNAM & Atlante.
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Someone please set me straight if I am wrong about this system.
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Copa Libertadores

Round of 16, 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Tue Apr 29
LDU Quito 2-0 Estudiantes - LDU goals by Joffre Guerron & Damian Manso.
Lanus 0-1 Atlas - Atl goal by Bruno Marioni.
-Wed Apr 30
Atletico Nacional v Fluminense
Nacional v Sao Paulo
Boca Juniors v Cruzeiro
America v Flamengo
San Lorenzo v River Plate
-Thu May 1
Santos v Cucuta Deportivo
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Second leg matches will be played next week.
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England News

The Guardian with an article on the court jester of Bolton -Ivan Campo. They are the first ones besides myself to refer to him as a long lost Marx brother - Campo Marx. Fantastic article!
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European News

Reuters with the kind of story you don't see often - Roma fans WANT the teams owners to sell the team to American billionaire George Soros.
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The Earth Times is reporting that a player for Polish club LKS Lodz wore an anti-Jewish shirt, directed at the rival team, after a big derby match last week. The player said he is not a racist. Just great.
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CSKA Sofia have won the Bulgarian league championship.
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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)
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The Final will be played May 14 in Manchester at the City of Manchester Stadium.