Friday, June 27, 2008

Big Gene's Erectile News

In a game nearly the opposite of the first Semifinal (which was nail biting to the final seconds), Spain slaughtered Russia 3-0 and wasn't even as close as the score. Russia seems to have used every bit of energy and creativity in defeating Holland. Spain lost star striker David Villa to a thigh injury, and THEN began hammering the opposition. Which should lead us to one helluva final on Sunday. See you there? See details below in the UEFA European Championship section.

~and~

Frank Lampard has run to the open arms of Jose Mourinho and Inter Milan. Imagine, an Englishman at Inter. It's been a while.


2008 UEFA European Championship Schedule

Semifinal Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jun 25
Germany 3-2 Turkey - Germ goals by Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslav Klose & Philip Lahm. Turk goals by Ugur Boral & Semih Senturk.
-Thu Jun 26
Russian 0-3 Spain - Spa goals by Xavi Hernandez, Daniel Guiza & David Silva.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Final Match & Score:
-Sun Jun 29
Germany v Spain - 1:30pm central on ABC
-Preceded at 11am central by DC v LA!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~


2008 UEFA European Championship News

It looks like David Villa will miss this game for Spain with a thigh injury.
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Phil Ball at Soccernet says the best is yet to come from Spain.
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Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated on the big game ahead.
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SI has an article by USA U20 coach Thomas Rongen who has been at the Euro tournament. He gives us his look at the final and reviews what he has seen so far.
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Paul Doyle and Richard Williams of the Guardian both drool all over Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who kicked his team into high gear when he entered the game. Whereas Ruskie starlet Andrei Arshavin was missing in action.
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Harry Pearson of the Guardian looks at Germany's main man Michael Ballack.
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Martin Samuel of the Times on Spain’s masterful win.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports on Spain's "little guys".
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Reuters Soccer Blog with their Euro 2008 Flop XI, and a coach to match their massed ineptitude. Harsh, but I love it.
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times bucks the trend of praising the young coaches but throwing congrats in the direction of the older fellas in charge, like Grahame himself.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune with a match report from Spain-Russia.
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James Lawton of the Independent joins seemingly hundreds of other sycophantic English journalists in giving all the credit for Spain's win to the one player who makes his living in the Premiership - Cesc Fabregas. (Yeah, I know Fernando Torres is at Liverpool, and there are others too, but that ruins my dramatic over generalizing statement.)
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The Independent on German keeper Jens Lehman's shot at glory once again.
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MLS Scoreboard

Week 14
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 26
Houston v Dallas - HD goal by Brian Ching. FCD goal by Kenny Cooper. (Were you expecting others?)
Attendance: 16,933
Match report by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.
Match report from the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
Match report from the Dallas Morning News.
Post game notes by Fallas.
-Sat Jun 28
Columbus v Colorado - 6:30pm central on FSC
New England v Toronto - 6:30pm on Direct Kick
Kansas City v Salt Lake - 7pm central on Direct Kick
Chicago v San Jose - 7:30pm central on Direct Kick
Chivas v New York - 9:30pm central on HDNet
-Sun Jun 29
DC v Los Angeles - 11am central on ABC
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dallas claimed the derby prize - el Capitan - after 3 tie games between the two teams due to more away goals. A cheap win, but a win nonetheless.
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Beau Dure at USA Today previews Sundays showcase game.
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Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner previews this weekends DC-LA match.
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Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet previews Sunday as well.
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MLS Standings

Eastern Conference
27 New England (15)
23 Columbus (13)
21 Toronto (13)
19 Chicago (12) (GD +9)
19 DC (14) (GD -1)
19 New York (13) (GD -3)
12 Kansas City (13)
Western Conference
21 Los Angeles (13)
19 Salt Lake (14) (GD 0)
19 Houston (15) (GD -2)
17 Chivas (13) (GD 0)
17 Dallas (15) (GD -3)
16 Colorado (13)
11 San Jose (13)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(Goal Differential is the first tie breaker)
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MLS News

COLORADO RAPIDS

Pat Rooney at the Rocky Mountain News has a Q & A with John Murphy, the Rapids former assistant coach, now director of player development.
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DC UNITED

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America with Part 2 of his Q & A with Santino Quaranta, about his drug addiction, recovery, etc.
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DCU has said adios to Argentine forward Franco Niell only 6 months after they signed him.
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LOS ANGELES GALAXY

The Washington Times says we should believe the Beckham hype. I do. But it's never been hype.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Ives Galarcep of Soccer By Ives gives us a player-by-player look at how the Red Bulls have turned it around, and admits he thought they were dead and buried. Not so quick.
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REAL SALT LAKE

I keep forgetting to tell you all how funny this video show is from RSL starring Kyle Beckerman & Javier Morales. Kyle does the whole show in Spanish, while Javi does it in English. It is a butchered mess. And that is the charm. Enjoy, as your server at Olive Garden would say.
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The grass has been laid in the new Sandy stadium, but I have not found any pictures to show you yet. I am working on it.
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James Edward of the Deseret News on the big reason behind RSL's surge up the charts - consistency.
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SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

Center Line Soccer previews the Quakes visit to Chicago on Saturday.
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TORONTO FC

Morgan Campbell of the Star looks at how TFC will try to win on the road at New England this weekend.
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Centerback Olivier Tebily may miss the game with a bum ankle.
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Left fullback Todd Dunivant will miss at least 3 weeks with a stress fracture in his ankle.
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GENERAL

Shaka Hislop at the Guardian talks MLS, specifically Salt Lake's new vein of good fortune.
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Andrea Canales of Soccer365 takes on the age old argument of real turf v the fake stuff.
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Ridge Mahoney at Soccer American wonders who the next "Beckham" will be for MLS. Via Sports Illustrated.
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MLS Rumor City - Don't Tease Me Bro!

The Eastern Daily Press in Norwich England says Darren Huckerby is one step closer to MLS. (Thanks to Bart for this.)
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MLS Stadium Talk

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle on continued talks between the city of Houston and Dynamo owners AEG on how to get a stadium built.
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USL First Division News

I think there has been some confusion as to when the Tampa Bay Rowdies will join the First D. It'll be the 2010 season.
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USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Fri Jun 27
Puerto Rico v Minnesota
Carolina v Portland
-Sat Jun 28
Charleston v Rochester
Atlanta v Portland
Seattle v Montreal
-Sun Jun 29
Puerto Rico v Minnesota
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USL First Division Standings

23 Vancouver (12)
21 Charleston (12)
18 Portland (14)
18 Seattle (12)
17 Atlanta (12)
17 Montreal (13)
16 Minnesota (12)
16 Miami (16)
14 Carolina (12)
11 Rochester (11)
9 Puerto Rico (9)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer In America

Ives Galarcep at Soccer By Ives gives us his view of the Nash/Reyna Charity game. Some good anecdotes.
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Stefan Bondy at the Herald News says New York loves Henry.
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USA Today with an article on Andy Gray who has been calling Euro games for ESPN. People are saying very good things about him. Like Switzerland, I remain neutral.
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Andrew Dixon at the US Soccer Players Assoc reviews his own writings from the past few months to see how his opinions have played out.
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Canada & CSA News

The third of six games between Toronto, Vancouver & Montreal to determine their countries entrant in the CONCACAF Champions League takes place this week:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 26
Vancouver 0-2 Montreal
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Standings (games played):
6 Montreal (3)
3 Toronto (1)
0 Vancouver (2)
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Copa Libertadores

Final 2nd Leg Match & Score (with 1st leg score included):
-Wed Jul 2
Fluminense v LDU Quito (2-4)
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My future girlfriend Marcel Mora y Araujo of the Guardian revels in the glory of Liga's big win over Flum in game 1.
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England News

Tottenham has signed Brazilian goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes from PSV. Adeus Paul Robinson.
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An outrageously mean & cruel, yet very funny spoof on Liverpool and Everton. (thanks to Nick for this one)
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European News

SPAIN

I predict that when the transfer window closes this summer, Ronaldinho will still be at Barcelona!
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FRANCE

Paul Doyle of the Guardian talks to one of the biggest ego's in the world - Eric Cantona - who says he would be a brilliant manager for France. We can only hope that he could manage better than he can act, cuz he does that quite horribly.
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Lilian Thurman’s moves to Paris St Germain is off after the physical revealed he has a heart ailment called hypertrophy.
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ITALY

Inter claim to have signed both Frank Lampard from Chelsea and Ricardo Quaresma from Porto today.
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While Juventus has signed Dejan Stankovic from Inter.
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It's official - Marcello Lippi is back in charge of Italy. So why did he leave? And after he left why didn't he take one of the zillion jobs offered to him? Read more about it from World Soccer.
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OTHERS

Croatian fans have been accused of flying banners with pro-Nazi slogans during the Euro tournament.

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