Winnin' Ain't Easy News

I am sorry to report that I have been without my DSL for most of the past 24 hours which leaves me woefully short today. Forgive me. Regular service should resume tomorrow. As you were.


MLS Scoreboard

Week 5
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Apr 24
Dallas v New England - 7:30pm central on ESPN2
-Sat Apr 26
Toronto v Kansas City - 2:30pm central on Direct Kick
Columbus v Houston - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
DC v Salt Lake - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Chicago v Colorado - 7:30pm central on HDNet
Los Angeles v Chivas USA 9:30pm central on FSC
-Sun Apr 27
New York v San Jose - 2pm central on TeleFutura
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Out suspended this week:
-Eddie Robinson - Houston - 2nd of 3 games
-Mauricio Castro - New England - 1 game
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Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet previews the Thursday night ESPN2 game.
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MLS News

COLUMBUS CREW

Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch with word on his blog Covering the Crew of another Cuban defector who is on a try out with the Crew.
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FC DALLAS

FC Dallas Updates has a video interview with players Abe Thompson & Blake Wagner previewing the Thursday night game against New England.
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DC UNITED

The official DCU blog, Behind the Badge, has a translation of a Q & A with Marcello Gallardo South American sports mag El Grafico.
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DC made it official and signed our old buddy from his Minnesota Thunder days, Liberian forward Grandpa Doe.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Big Apple Soccer reports some good news and bad: Injuries kept Juan Pablo Angel & Claudio Reyna out of training today. But Dane Richards & Hunter Freeman both training after recovering from bad injuries.
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REAL SALT LAKE

James Edward of the Deseret Morning News writes about RSL's ongoing search for the perfect forward combination.
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Edward also reports: In support of Earth Day Real Salt Lake will be wearing green jerseys for its US Open Cup game against San Jose next Wednesday. Cool.
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SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

I wanted to mention that I thought Ronnie O'Brien also had a fantastic game last weekend in the teams first win. He also scored the first goal in history for the San Jose Earthquakes Mk. III.
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GENERAL

Steve Davis at Soccernet delivers up 10 highlights from Week 4.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune has a guest blogger today on The Red Card: Marcello Balboa.
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The Daily Mail compares Cristiano Ronaldo to Lionel Messi. To me it is no question who is better, Ronaldo has been sensational. But on the other hand if Messi was healthy, he would be a mile better than even Ronaldo.
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Soccernet with an article saying that although MLS has gotten better about setting rules and forcing teams to live within them, there are still big holes that need answers.
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USL First Division News

Paul Demko at the City Pages sports blog Balls has posted his Minnesota Thunder season preview! A MUST read.
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Matches & Scores:
-Thu Apr 24
Portland v Minnesota
-Fri Apr 25
Puerto Rico v Miami
Atlanta v Montreal
-Sat Apr 26
Carolina v Charleston
Portland v Seattle
Vancouver v Minnesota
-Sun Apr 27
Puerto Rico v Miami
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Team USA

I am going to see the USA play England at Wembley at the end of next month!
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Soccer In America

The Arizona Republic has an article that identifies the most important people to the growth of soccer in AZ. (thanks to Odeen who sent me this)
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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer with an article on one time New York Cosmos coach Gordon Bradley, who is now suffering the effects of Alzheimer's.
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du Nord Americans In Europe Player Of The Week

Brad Friedel - Blackburn
Did everything humanly possible to keep Manchester United off the scoreboard, but after nearly 90 minutes of brilliance his defenders let him down for 5 seconds and a miracle goal was scored. Tough cookies. He was still magnificent. And let me ask you an honest question - Tell me who, right now, is a better goalkeeper in all of world football than Friedel?
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Americans In Europe

The Fulham team website has a mostly-non-football Q & A with Kasey Keller. (thanks to BQ for this one)
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South American News

FIFA.com with an article on River Plate goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo who is all the rage in Argentina these days, and a player they hope becomes the answer to their national team revolving door of keepers.
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Copa Libertadores

Tuesday & Wednesday this week are the end of the Group Stage. The 2 legged knock out phase begins next week!
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Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Apr 22
Colo Colo 1-1 Atlas - Colo goal by Ricardo Rojas. Atl goal by Diego Colotto.
Boca Juniors 3-0 Maracaibo - Boca goals by Gabriel Paletta, Jesus Datolo & Juan Roman Riquelme.
-Apr 23
Sportivo Luqueno v Audax Italiano
Sao Paulo v Atletico Nacional
Flamengo v Coronel Bolognesi
Nacional v Cienciano
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Boca Juniors join River Plate, America, Santos, San Lorenzo, Estudiantes, Lanus, Cucuta Deportivo, Atlas, Cruzeiro, Fluminense & LDU Quito in securing 12 of the 16 spots in the knock out rounds.
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Group Stage Standings
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England News

Aleksander Hleb of Arsenal will miss the final 3 games of this season after being suspended for his involvement in a fracas against Reading. Could this be the end for him at Arsenal as well. There have been a lot of rumors that have him leaving the team.
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European News

FIFA.com talks to Bayern forward Luca Toni who says that some internal team strife earlier in the season has actually helped out in the long run.
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Pitch Invasion has an article on the problems of violence and racism in the game in Poland, but the author feels that reports are often overblown and wants to give another view.
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UEFA Champions League

Semifinal 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Tue Apr 22
Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea - Liv goal by Dirk Kuyt. Chel goal by John Arne Riise(OG).
-Wed Apr 23
Barcelona 0-0 Manchester United
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
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Disaster for the Liverpeople as they score an own goal 4 minutes into second half stoppage time and give Chelsea life with a 1-1 tie and the all important away goal (the first tie breaker). John Arne Riise is the man who put the ball in his own net in the dying seconds of the match. The second leg is next week at Chelsea.
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Andrew Wiebe at the Daily Kansan with an article on English strength in the CL.
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UEFA Cup

Semifinal 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Thu Apr 24
Bayern Munchen v Zenit
Rangers v Fiorentina
Semifinal 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with first leg scores included):
-Thu May 1
Bayern Munchen v Zenit (-)
Fiorentina v Rangers (-)
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Bayern striker Luca Toni is suspended for the 1st leg match due to Yellow Card accumulation.
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The Final will be played May 14 in Manchester at the City of Manchester Stadium.
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2008 UEFA European Championship

The great folks at The Offside are doing tons of coverage as get we nearer to the tournament. They have also created this handy dandy finely detailed wall chart so you to can track the progress of your fave team(s).
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African News

An African Select All Star Team will take on Nigeria on June 26 to honor the career of Jay Jay Okocha!