Delicious Mystery News

MLS Scoreboard

Week 8
Matches & Scores:
-Thu May 15
Colorado v Salt Lake - 8:30pm central on ESPN2
-Sat May 17
Toronto v Columbus - 3:00pm central on Direct Kick
New York v Kansas City - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
New England v San Jose - 6:30pm central on HDNet
Chicago v Houston - 7:30pm central on Direct Kick
Chivas USA v DC 9:30pm central on FSC
-Sun May 18
Dallas v Los Angeles - 2pm central on TeleFutura
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Serving Suspension:
Tom McManus - Colorado - 1 Game - Red Card while he was on the bench
Roger Espinoza - Kansas City - 1 Game - Red Card
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Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet with a preview of Thursday's match in Salt Lake.
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MLS Standings

Eastern Conference
18 Columbus (7)
16 Chicago (7)
13 New England (8)
11 New York (6)
10 Kansas City (7)
10 Toronto (6)
6 DC (7)
Western Conference
9 Colorado (7)
9 Dallas (7)
8 Salt Lake (7)
8 Los Angeles (7)
7 Houston (7)
5 Chivas USA (7)
4 San Jose (6)
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du Nord MLS Player Of The Week

Brian Carroll - Columbus Crew
His new team is off to an amazing start. No one saw this coming, and everyone is excited by it. The one thing every great team needs is a spine. Many of the parts were in place to make it happen for the Crew. Solid goalkeeper in William "don't call me Will" Hesmer. Centerback with huge potential in Chad Marshall. Strong forward who can hold the ball in Ale Moreno. Visionary playmaker in Guille. And then the last ingredient - the defensive midfielder. This is where Brian Carroll comes in to play. All the other components were on the team last season. Carroll landed here because he hit the first rough spot of his career last season in DC. He had been a regular for a couple of seasons in a row. New coach Tom Soehn did not have the confidence in Carroll, and depended a lot more on Clyde Simms in that role. They left Carroll unprotected in the expansion draft and San Jose wisely snapped him up. But then for some odd reason they let him go to Columbus in exchange for unproven forward Kei Kamara. Not a fair trade at all. Carroll has now had 4 months to settle in to a new town, a new coach & team, and a spot back in the first 11. And he has taken over! His consistency is just what the Crew needed. Sure he is not flashy, but I would bet that at some point this year he will hit a bomb of a goal. He has the smarts to take the Yellow Card when it is absolutely necessary, and the smarts to not make the really stupid foul that can kill you. He is a silent assassin in front of a growing back 4. And lastly, many DC fans would very much like him back in black again. But he has a new home now, and he is leading them to the top in his own quiet way. Impressive.
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MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune turns his blog The Red Card over to Houston defender Bobby Boswell today. And what does BB do? He rips Toyota Park in Chicago. Hahahahahaha. Funny stuff, obviously meant to provoke. I love it.
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Beau Dure of USA Today with an article on the great start to the season by the Fire.
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CD CHIVAS USA

The LA Times talks with Chivas exec Shawn Hunter who is trying to cure his team of attendance and perception woes. The team got off to a poor start with marketing, and its not always easy to fix it.
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I got a correction from Luis Bueno on the problems at the Home Depot Center after the most recent Chivas-LA derby:
Just wanted to let you know that you got wrong info about Legion. The attack was on a fellow Chivas USA fan, someone from the Union Ultras. The fan from the Ultras who was attacked subsequently retaliated and both fans were slapped with two-match bans.
The Ultras fan was actually a former member of Legion and had had some lingering bad blood with the person he ended up fighting. It sounds like it was more a personal beef than anything but who really knows.
Thanks Luis.
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COLORADO RAPIDS

Soccer 365 introduces us to forward Omar Cummings.
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FC DALLAS

Buzz Carrick of 3rd Degree with this weeks FCD Practice Observations.
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DC UNITED

Steven Goff of the Washington Post on DCU's injury problems.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO

Glenn Davis of the Chronicle says the rest of Houston, outside the real soccer fans, doesn't give the Dynamo the respect they are due.
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LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Grahame Jones of the LA Times with an article on coach Ruud Gullit who accuses his players of not being leaders.
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Greg Lalas at Goal.com does a Q & A with newly acquired midfielder Joe Franchino.
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Andrew Rogers of Soccer365 does a Q & A with team pres Alexi Lalas.
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Stephen Brunt of the Toronto Globe & Mail looks at the great value David Beckham has been to the league.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Steven Goff of the Washington Post on his blog Soccer Insider tells us how much it will cost a team to buy Jozy Altidore from the Red Bulls.
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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer reports that Juan Pablo Angel is still playing in pain. It's a nerve in his back thing.
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SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

Elliot Almond of the Mercury New says SJE is chasing after English forward Darren Huckerby who was just released from him contract with Norwich. And a couple other EQuakes notes.
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TORONTO FC

The Globe & Mail looks at which players TFC will lose this summer and next fall to national team call ups.
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Morgan Campbell of the Star on the teams fitness programs.
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GENERAL

Jeff Bradley of MLSnet in his column First XI has an ode to the joy of receiving email about the things he writes.
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MLS Friendlies

-Tue May 13
Vancouver (USL1D) 2-1 Los Angeles in Edmonton - Van goals by Nicholas Addlery & Eduardo Sebrango. LA goal by Alan Gordon.
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Attendance was a lower than predicted 37,104. But that still sounds good to me.
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MLS Golden Boot

8 Landon Donovan
5 Kenny Cooper
5 Robbie Rogers
4 Alejandro Moreno
3 David Beckham
3 Cuauhtemoc Blanco
3 Alan Gordon
3 Sacha Kljestan
3 Jaime Moreno
3 John Thorrington
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MLS Rumor City - Don't Tease Me Bro!

New England centerback Michael Parkhurst is being pursued by Ipswich in England's Championship (2nd) Division.
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MLS Stadium Talk

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle on his blog Soccer y Futbol gives us the latest on a proposal for Texas Southern University to own part of the a new Dynamo stadium.
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USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 14
Charleston v Montreal
Seattle v Rochester
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USA U20 News

Andrew Rogers at Soccernet writes about the team after their just finished trip to England for 3 games against Premiership team reserve squads. He rates the USA players too.
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Americans In Europe

Cory Gibbs is officially out of contract at Charlton. Only time will tell where he ends up. But it will not be easy to find a quality team, since he has not played any games in the past 2 years due to injuries. His first stop looks to be St Pauli, his first professional club, where he played 2001-03.
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American Soccer Daily with an article on Marcus Hahnemann who is less than thrilled with the effort some of his teammates showed in their failed relegation battle.
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ASD also wonders what is in store for Jay DeMerit this offseason. He is no longer a starter at Watford.
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Canada & CSA News

Ben Knight of the Toronto Globe & Mail's blog On Soccer looks at Toronto as a "Soccer Town". They sell out all the TFC home games, yet the same stadium only attracts 3000 for a U20 Canada v Argentina game. The good & the bad.
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Mexico & FMF News

Sven Goran Eriksson has turned down the Benfica head coaches job. Does this mean he is a serious contender for coach of Mexico?
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Quarterfinals 1st leg Matches & Scores
-Wed May 14
Chiapas v Cruz Azul
Monterrey v Guadalajara
-Thu May 15
Necaxa v Santos
Toluca v San Luis
Quarterfinals 2nd leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Sat May 17
Cruz Azul v Chiapas (-)
Guadalajara v Monterrey (-)
-Sun May 18
Santos v Necaxa (-)
San Luis v Toluca (-)
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Copa Libertadores

Quarterfinal 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 14
Sao Paulo v Fluminense
Boca Juniors v Atlas
-Thu May 15
America v Santos
San Lorenzo v LDU Quito
Quarterfinal 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Wed May 21
Fluminense v Sao Paulo (-)
Atlas v Boca Juniors (-)
-Thu May 22
Santos v America (-)
LDU Quito v San Lorenzo (-)
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The knockout rounds bracket.
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England News

The Independent with an article on Arsenal who look to be adding Colorado Rapids owner Stan Kroenke to be a member of their board of directors. And the team is close to signing young French midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa from Lyon.
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Paul Doyle at the Guardian rolls out some crazy Premiership stats from the season just ended.
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English Championship Division Promotion Playoffs

Playoff 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with 1st Leg results included):
-Tue May 13
Bristol City 2-1 Crystal Palace - Bristol City advance 4-2 on aggregate.
-Wed May 14
Hull v Watford (2-0)
Playoff Final Match & Score:
-Sat May 24
3rd-6th Winner v Bristol City
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European News

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune looks at the Russian fans headed to England this week for the UEFA Cup final, then next week the English go to Russia for the Champions League final.
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Spain

FIFA.com has a Q & A with Villarreal manager Manuel Pellegrini. What a great season they've just had.
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Barcelona & Argentina defender Gabi Milito has torn a knee ligament, is having surgery, and will not see the field again until early 2009. Damn.
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Italy

Gazzetta with the good and bad of Inter - Injured forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic is ready to play against Parma - and - Matterazzi has been hero since the World Cup, but after blowing a PK last weekend he is a villain again. Don't worry, even though I love Inter, I have never stopped hating Materazzi, the dirtiest player of his generation.
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UEFA Cup

Final in Manchester at the City of Manchester Stadium.
Match & Score:
-Wed May 14
Zenit v Rangers
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FIFA Scandal News

Jack Warner was in Chengdu China yesterday when the earthquake hit. "I saw death", he said. Soccer365 with the story.
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World News

Bloomberg with an article on some English teams that are running their teams on theories built by Oakland A's baseball GM Billy Beane. Seriously.
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Ravi Ubha of the Seattle Post Intelligencer with his world soccer news round up.