Blazing Hot Sun News

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MLS Scoreboard

Week 7
Matches & Scores:
-Thu May 8
DC v Chicago - 6:30pm central on ESPN2
-Sat May 10
Houston v Colorado - 7:30pm central on FSC
Salt Lake v Dallas - 8pm central on Direct TV
San Jose v Columbus - 9pm central on Direct TV
Los Angeles v New York - 9:30pm central on HDNet
-Sun May 10
Chivas USA v New England - 2pm central on TeleFutura
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Serving suspensions this week:
Roger Espinoza - Kansas City - 1 game
Claudio Suarez - Chivas USA - 1 game
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MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

The team cut loose young Brazilian defender Bruno Menezes. He played in a few games last season.
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COLORADO RAPIDS

On his radio show Monday night, Glenn Davis had Colorado Top Dog Jeff Plush as a guest. Listen as Glenn asks the real questions, and Plush tap dances with cliches & nearly non-answers on several, but makes good points on a few others. Download or listen here.
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FC DALLAS

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America takes a look at Arturo Alvarez who is exploding right before our eyes.
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DC UNITED

Steven Goff of the Washington Post with a big story on the teams newest attacking midfielder Marcelo Gallardo of Argentina.
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Goff also reports on the teams new sponsorship deal with Volkswagen, valued at nearly $3million per season.
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Goff on his Soccer Insider blog with a few more interesting details of the VW deal.
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Dan Steinberg of the infamous Washington Post blog the DC Sports Bog has not 1 but 5 posts on the DC-VW connection. Good stuff as always too.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Ives Galarcep of Soccer by Ives checks in on Red Bulls practice and fills us in on the teams hurts and news.
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Ives also writes about forward Jozy Altidore who the team feels may be worn out from all of his non-stop playing and marketing.
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REAL SALT LAKE

Yesterday I linked to RSL coach Jason Kreis's whining jag about poor treatment from referees. I told him to shut up and play. Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America did the mature thing and broke down the factors Kreis is looking at.
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TORONTO FC

The Star with an article on former Canadian U23 coach Nick Dasovic who has joined the TFC coaching staff.
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Ben Knight of the Globe & Mail blog On Soccer takes in a Blue Jays baseball game and draws the comparisons to seeing TFC at BMO Field. Like Knight I too pretty much gave up on baseball after that 94 strike.
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GENERAL

Steven Goff of the Washington Post on his blog Soccer Insider does a Q & A with MLS Commish Donald B Garber quickly covering several topics.
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USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Thu May 8
Portland v Rochester
-Fri May 9
Charleston v Miami
-Sat May 10
Carolina v Atlanta
Minnesota v Montreal
Seattle v Portland
Vancouver v Rochester
-Wed May 14
Charleston v Montreal
Seattle v Rochester
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USA U20 News

The USA U20 team is heading to England to play a trio of games against the reserves teams of some big English clubs.
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Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 7
Bolton Reserves v USA
-Thu May 8
Manchester United Reserves v USA
-Sat May 10
Liverpool Reserves v USA
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Here is the roster:
G:
Bill Hamid - DC United
Brian Perk - UCLA
D:
Kyle Davies - Southampton
Greg Eckhardt - Clemson U
Taylor Kemp - Real Colorado
Ike Opara - Wake Forest U
Zarek Valentin - IMG Academy
Sheanon Williams - U North Carolina
M:
Jose Altamirano - Del Mar Sharks
Richard Balchan - Indiana U
Jorge Flores - Chivas USA
Matt Kassel - New York Red Bulls
Derek Markheim - Ameins
Alfredo Morales - Hertha Berlin
F:
Steven Cabas - Florida International U
Felix Garcia - Laredo Heat
Peri Marosevic - U Michigan
Billy Schuler - U North Carolina
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Soccer In America

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times looks at the new sponsor on the front of DC United's shirt, and wonders what other American sports league think of this idea.
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Americans In Europe

I erred yesterday when I said Michael Bradley & Heerenveen were done with their season. They were eliminated from the Champions League playoff race, but they are still going for a UEFA Cup spot.
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American Soccer Daily talks to former DC United and now Norwegian [FIXED] club Valerenga's keeper Troy Perkins. Among many topics Perkins takes MLS to task for eliminating the middle class players. He feels it is becoming a Under 23-Over 30 league. Harsh, but true.
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Mexican Primera Clausura Playoffs

Torneo Clausura 2008 Liguilla is all set:
Top 2 from each of the 3 groups go through, then the next 4 best records regardless of group will playoff in the first round for 2 spots in the final 8. All games are home & away throughout the championship run.
-The 3 leaders are: Toluca, Santos Laguna & Guadalajara.
-2nd places belong to : Chiapas, Monterrey & Cruz Azul.
-And the next 4 are: San Luis, Necaxa, Pachuca & Atlas.
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First round 1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 7
Atlas v Necaxa
Pachuca v San Luis
First round 2nd leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Sat May 10
San Luis v Pachua (-)
Necaxa v Atlas (-)
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These 2 winners will advance to be paired off with the top 6 who got a buy in this round.
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Copa Libertadores

Round of 16, 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Tue May 6
Fluminense 1-0 Atletico Nacional - Flum adv 3-1 on agg. Flum goal by Roger.
Atlas 2-2 Lanus (1-0) - Atl adv 3-2 on agg. Atl goals by Bruno Marioni & Ulises Mendivil. Lan goals by Jose Sand & Lautaro Acosta.
Estudiantes 2-1 LDU Quito - LDU adv 3-2 on agg. Est goals by Agustin Alayes & Ezequiel Maggiolo. LDU goal by Luis Bolanos.
-Wed May 7
Sao Paulo v Nacional (0-0)
Cruzeiro v Boca Juniors (1-2)
Flamengo v America (4-2)
-Thu May 8
River Plate v San Lorenzo (1-2)
Cucuta Deportivo v Santos (0-2)
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Here is the bracket for the rest of the tournament.
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England News

Manchester City have offered their managers position to former Brazil and current Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari aka Big Phil. Uh, real nice ... offer the job to someone while you still have another guy in charge, classy.
-Later Big Phil's comes out and says that he has heard nothing from no one.
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Bryan Glanville at World soccer looks at the power of the big managers in England.
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European News

Time Magazine names the Top 100 people in the world today. Rikki Kaka somehow makes that list. Amazing. And guess what - the article on him is written by USA & Fulham goalkeeper Kasey Keller.
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Euro League Cup Competitions

-Coupe de France- Semifinals
Matches & Scores:
-Tue May 6
Amiens 0-1 Paris St Germain
-Wed May 7
Lyon 10 Sedan Ardennes
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So it will be old foes Lyon and PSG squaring off for the Cup title.
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-Coppa Italia- Semifinals
2nd leg Matches & Scores (with first leg scores included):
-Wed May 7
Lazio 0-2 Inter - Inter advance 2-0 on aggregate.
-Thu May 8
Catania v Roma (0-1)
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Big Euro Club Matches This Week

Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 7
Real Madrid v Barcelona - only playing for pride now that Real has claimed the title.