The Green Prototype News

Breaking News: German goal keeper Jens Lehman blames the referee for their loss in the Euro Final. It was not Lehman's crappy play on the game winning goal that caused it! Hahahahahahaha. And good times were had by all.


UEFA European Championship 2008

The Final
-Sun Jun 29
Spain 1-0 Germany - Spa goal by Fernando Torres.
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Xavi Herandez was awarded the Golden Ball as the Player Of The Tournament. I think David Villa could have won it if he had not gotten hurt before the final. And I think Michael Ballack or Bastian Schweinsteiger could have claimed it if their team had won the title. What do you think about the winner?
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Here is the full 23 player Team Of The Tournament.
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My notes from the big game:
-Spanish right back Serio Ramos was seen after the game with a green & white flag wrapped around himself (from his native Andalusia) and a tshirt with a picture of his old friend, Antonio Puerta, the left back from Sevilla who collapsed on the field during the first game of this past season and died three days later due to a heart failure. What a great tribute!
-Spanish forward Fernando Torres gave everything he had to get that goal. It was a fantastic personal performance, which even saw Germany replace a defender, Philipp Lahm, who could not keep up with him. Why Spain coach Looneybin Aragones insists on always subbing out Torres is beyond me, but at least he gave FT enough time to work his magic in the Final.
-What a genius site it was when the Spain players grabbed the old coach and began tossing him into the air after the game. It looked like he was going to break in half at any time. Fantastic.
-Germany could have used another brilliant performance from Bastian Schweinsteiger to give them a shot at winning, but Spain virtually erased him from the action.
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Phil Ball of Soccernet who is a through and through Spain lover says the best team won.
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George Vecsey of the New York Times on how Spain's win unites an often very divided country.
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Many from the Guardian:
-Sid Lowe on the alcohol fueled celebrations in Spain.
-Raphael Honigstein feels that Germany are OK in defeat and most people have a lot of sympathy for their leader Michael Ballack who just can't get the big trophy.
-Final match report by Kevin McCarra.
-Paul Doyle says Spain deserved it.
-Richard Williams writes about the Spanish game being loved by beautiful football purists everywhere.
-David Pleat on the bullheaded and successful tactics of Aragones.
-They rip Alan Shearer's TV commentating on the BBC to shreds. He is not much loved these days.
-Barney Ronay with 10 things we learned. Sadly, not a very good article. It could have been fun, but its just not.
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The Telegraph with two stories, one on what they call the dreadful defending that went on in the tournament, and a second on Michael Ballack coming in 2nd place yet again.
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Here is a list worth reading: The best & worst from the Observer. Surprisingly I found the most entertaining category to be "Mr Fashion". Hilarious.
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The Observer also writes about the future of German fussball - Lucas Podolski & Bastian Schweinsteiger. It's a bright future.
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Martin Samuel of the Times loved the tournament and uses it as another platform to rage against the FIFA plan to limit international players in domestic leagues.
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The Times with their best & worst list. Another great list. (Except for their Team of Euro 2008 - I think they got 5 of 11 wrong). Funniest answer - Worst Drink.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune on Spain's big win.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports declares "the beautiful game" to be the real winner of the tournament.
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Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated with some post game/tournament thoughts on his blog.
-Wahl also picks his Best XI.
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Jack Bell on the New York Times blog Goal rips open the ESPN TV announcer debate.
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But then our friend Chris Harris at EPL Talk thinks our friend Bell is way off base with this opinion on the announcers, and let's Bell have it.
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MLS Games

Week 14 Matches & Scores:
Chivas 1-1 New York - CUSA goal by Ante Razov. NYRB goal by Dave Van Den Bergh.
Match report by Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise.
Match report by Scott Wolf of the LA Daily News.
Match report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
Match report from Big Apple Soccer.
Match report from the Herald News.
Columbus 2-1 Colorado - CC goals by Guillermo Barros Schelotto(PK) & Emanuel Ekpo. CR goal by Nick LaBrocca.
Match report by Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch.
Post game notes by Mitchell.
Post game analysis by Mitchell on the blog Covering The Crew.
Post game notes by George Tanner of the Rocky Mountain News blog FC Rocky.
New England 2-1 Toronto - NER goals both by Steve Ralston. TFC goal by Shalrie Joseph(OG).
Match report by Kyle McCarthy of the Boston Globe.
Match report by Morgan Campbell of the Toronto Star.
Kansas City 1-0 Salt Lake - KCW goal by Anthony Beltran(OG).
Match report by Bob Ludor of the Kansas City Star.
Match report from the Deseret News.
Match report from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Player ratings for RSL from the Deseret Morning News RSL blog.
Chicago 0-0 San Jose
Match report by Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune.
Match report from the San Jose Mercury News.
DC 4-1 Los Angeles - DCU goals by Jaime Moreno(PK), Luciano Emilio(2) & Marcelo Gallardo. LAG goal by Edson Buddle.
Match report by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
Match report John Haydon of the Washington Times.
Match report by Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner.
Post game notes & DC player ratings by Goff on his blog Soccer Insider.
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My Notes from the weekend:
-Miracle of miracles, there were NO Red Cards this week.
-Edson Buddle & Luciano Emilio both moved with one goal of Landon Donovan at the top of the race for the Golden Boot. LC still stands on 11, while EB scored 1 and LE got 2 to both land on 10 for the season. Kenny Cooper has scored on Thursday night to bring his total to 8, in fourth place.
-On the all time goal scorers list Jaime Moreno added another with a PK to bring his all time league leading total to 118! 2nd place Ante Razov tallied as well to rise to 111.
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MLS Standings

East Conf
30 New England
26 Columbus
22 DC
21 Toronto
20 Chicago (GD +9)
20 New York (GD -3)
16 Kansas City
West Conf
21 Los Angeles
19 Salt Lake (GD -1)
19 Houston (GD -2)
18 Chivas
17 Dallas
16 Colorado
12 San Jose
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MLS Team-by-Team News

CHICAGO

Uh Oh! Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his blog The Red Card gives us the word on a fight between Fire players Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Wilman Conde. Not good. But everyone involved says all is cool.
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COLORADO

The team cut loose Brazilian midfielder Rafael Gomes.
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Class VI has a Q & A with coach Fernando Clavijo. Got posted last Friday, and I am sorry I missed it, but still contains relevant information.
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COLUMBUS

Columbus released Argentine forward Niko Hernandez today. As of tomorrow all players currently under contract become guaranteed for the rest of this season. Hence today being the day for cut downs.
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In one of the weekends most exciting moments, young Nigerian midfielder Emanuel Ekpo raced at least 55 yards with the ball, straight throught the Colo defense, ripped a low shot to the back post from outside the Penalty Box and scored the game winner!
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FC DALLAS

Played a friendly against Guadalajara Chivas and lost 2-1.
-FC Dallas Updates with a little wrap up on the game.
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DC UNITED

So how did Marcelo Gallardo not get a Red Card for that smash in the face to Landon Donovan. Everyone who saw the replay knows it was deliberate, and it happened right in front of the 4th official, and very close to the assistant referee on that side? Did you hear Donovan screaming at the two ref's with blood streaming down his face: To the 4th official "You fuckin suck!", and then to both officials on that side "You both fuckin suck! Look at my nose!" Wow. ABC quickly hit the mute button, but not until that exchange was all over the airwaves! Priceless! Both players got Yellow Cards.
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The Washington Post on the incredible return of Ben Olsen to the playing field. He chose not to have another surgery on his ankles, and will play in pain instead.
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Goal.com has a fun Q & A with defender Bryan Namoff.
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KANSAS CITY WIZARDS

The team made it official late today that it reacquired forward Josh Wolff. He has spent the past year and a half in Germany at 1860 Munich. And boy does KC need goals. But can he really provide them? We have to wait until the transfer window opens on July 15 to find out.
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LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Where is Carlos Ruiz??? LA needed attackers on Sunday and they brought on Alan Gordon because Pescadito did not even travel with the team to the East Coast. Why? Is he out the door already? It sure seems so. Where is he headed?
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In the offseason they dumped "expensive" goalkeeper Joe Cannon in favor of youngster "cheap" Steve Cronin. Now at midseason we see that Cronin is horrible, I mean horrible, maybe the worst in the league, no maybes about it, the worst. And Cannon has 5 clean sheets for the worst team. Think LA regrets getting rid of his salary and adding Greg Vanney's, who doesn't even play, and is clearly washed up.
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Pat Walsh at Goal.com took in the Beckman circus at RFK this weekend.
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NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe on the Rev's preparations for the Open Cup tomorrow, and says Taylor Twellman will start.
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Kyle McCarthy of the Boston Herald looks at the strong presence of the Rev's midfield.
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A blurb from the Boston Globe on the Rev's youth development program.
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NEW YORK RED BULLS

They have finally signed long chased after Jorge "El Zurdo" Rojas, Venezuela's captain and left sided midfielder. He played this last season with Union Atletico Maracaibo & the season before with America de Cali. He will be available to play when the transfer window opens on July 15.
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For the 2nd year in a row NY makes a horrible back pass, this time leading to a steal and goal by Ante Razov, where last year it went straight into the net for an own goal. Horrible!
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GENERAL

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle on a very sick local kid who got his dream - to meet Cuauhtemoc!
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Steven Goff on his blog Soccer Inside with his weekly round up - The Good, The Bad and The Coyote Ugly.
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Kyle McCarthy at Goal.com breaks down the weekends games for us.
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Steve Davis at MLSnet with his top 10 notes from this weekend.
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Davis writing for Soccernet on LA breaking from the heat and DC pressure, plus other weekend notes from around the league.
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Ives Galarcep at Soccernet reveals his votes for the All Star Team.
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US Open Cup News & Schedule

Third Round Matches & Scores
-Tue Jul 1
Crystal Palace Baltimore v New York Red Bulls
New England Revolution v Richmond Kickers
Chicago Fire v Cleveland City Stars
DC United v Rochester Rhinos
FC Dallas v Miami FC Blues
Charleston Battery v Houston Dynamo
Carolina Railhawks v Kansas City Wizards
Seattle Sounders v CD Chivas USA
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USL First Division Scores & Standings

Match Scores:
-Fri Jun 27
Puerto Rico 1-0 Minnesota
-Sat Jun 28
Charleston 3-1 Rochester
Atlanta 0-2 Portland
Seattle 1-1 Montreal
-Sun Jun 29
Puerto Rico 3-1 Minnesota
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Standings (games played):
24 Charleston (13)
23 Vancouver (12)
21 Portland (16)
19 Seattle (13)
17 Atlanta (13)
17 Carolina (14)
16 Minnesota (14)
16 Miami (16)
15 Montreal (13)
15 Puerto Rico (11)
11 Rochester (12)
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Soccer In America

Andrea Canales at Sideline Views found a great story from a smaller town newspaper where soccer is making the inroads. Here is a link to her link.
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Americans In Europe

The Fulham website has one final interview with their now ex-Captain Brian McBride. He played in 153 games, and scored 40 goals. (thanks to BQ for this one)
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English News

The Times asks, what can England and Fabio Capello learning from Euro 2008?
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Chelsea have signed Portuguese midfielder Deco from Barcelona.
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Joey Barton has pleaded guilty to assaulting a teammate. I am going to assume this will mean even more jail time for the career assaulter.
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Italiano News

Daniele De Rossi has signed a 4 year contract extension with Roma.
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Costa Rican News

Costa Rica has fired head coach Hernan Medford. Where do they go now? Rodrigo Kenton has been hired to replace Medford. Kenton is a Costa Rican who has coached some youth international teams, and been assistants on other teams. CR have the easiest qualifying group ahead, by far, so what is the point of this timing?
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South American News

The LA Times with a story on the 1978 World Cup winning Argentina team and how their victory was co-opted by the dictatorship running the country. (thanks to Joe for this one)
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FIFA has a Q & A with Schalke's Uruguayan midfielder Vicente Sanchez who made his name at Toluca in Mexico before heading east.
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Norway Scores & Standings

The Norwegian championship was back in action this weekend after a break for the Euro's. Several Americans play in this league, so check it out.
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Match Scores:
-Mon Jun 30
Fredrikstad 2-1 Valerenga Oslo
-Sat Jun 28
Aalesund 1-1Molde
Lyn Oslo 1-1 Viking Stavanger
HamKam Fotball 0-0 Brann Bergen
Stabaek 2-4 Tromso
Stromsgodset IF 2-1 Lillestrom
-Fri Jun 27
Bodo Glimt 1-1 Rosenborg Trondheim
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Standings:
24 Stabaek
22 Fredrikstad - Brian West
18 Bodo Glimt
17 Lyn Oslo
16 Stromsgodset IF
16 Brann Bergen
16 Viking Stavanger
15 Rosenborg Trondheim
15 Tromso
14 Valerenga Oslo - Troy Perkins
11 Molde - Brian Waltrip
10 Aalesund - Adin Brown & Pat Noonan
9 Lillestrom
6 HamKam