Hello Hooray Let The Show Begin News

A report by the Tampa Tribune in Florida says the Tampa Bay Rowdies will be back next season, playing in the USL First Division!

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Barbados captain Norman Forde commenting on last Sunday's 8-0 loss to the USA: "I have never been this down. Since we returned Monday, I have not even left home. I didn't expect we would be so badly beaten." See the full article in the CONCACAF News section below.


Team USA

2nd Round 2nd leg CONCACAF World Cup qualifying Match & Score (includes score from first leg):
-Sun Jun 22
Barbados v USA (0-8)
Kensington Oval in Bridgetown Barbados
TV - 2pm central on ESPN Classic
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The Associated Press with a story on defender Heath Pearce.
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The team is training in Miami, even though we don't know who is on the team yet.
-But if you go to the teams blog (below) you can clearly see Salt Lake goalkeeper Chris Seitz and Brescia midfielder Danny Szetela with the team in training photos. Dallas defender Drew Moor will be on the squad too now.
-The roster will not be released until Friday.
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The official team blog.
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MLS Scoreboard

Week 13
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jun 18
New England v New York - 6:30pm on Direct Kick
Salt Lake v San Jose - 8pm on Direct Kick
-Thu Jun 19
Chivas USA v Chicago - 9:30pm on ESPN2
-Sat Jun 21
Toronto v Kansas City - 2:30pm on Direct Kick
New York v Dallas - 6:30pm on FSC
Colorado v Houston - 8:30pm on HDNet
Salt Lake v New England - 8:30pm on Direct Kick
Los Angeles v Columbus - 9:30pm on Direct Kick
-Sun Jun 22
DC v San Jose - 2pm on TeleFutura
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MLS Standings

Eastern Conference
26 New England (13)
22 Columbus (12)
20 Toronto (12)
19 Chicago (11)
16 DC (13)
15 New York (11)
12 Kansas City (11)
Western Conference
20 Los Angeles (12)
17 Houston (13)
16 Dallas (13)
15 Colorado (12)
15 Salt Lake (12)
14 Chivas (12)
10 San Jose (11)
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MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Luis Arroyave of the Tribune with an article on the difficulty getting Brian McBride on the Chicago roster. Toronto has first shot at his rights, and want a very high price to let him go.
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Orrin Schwarz of the Daily Herald with some Fire updates. (scroll down)
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Nick Firchau of the Southtown Star takes a look back at the Ante Razov's days in Chicago.
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FC DALLAS

Dallas plays their first game under new head coach Schellas Hyndman on Saturday night in New York.
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FC Dallas Updates with video of the press conference introducing the new boss.
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Buzz Carrick of 3rd Degree with his First Impressions of the new coach.
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Both Diego Aparicio of the Dallas Morning News and Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram covered the introduction on Hyndman.
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DC UNITED

Dan Steinberg of the DC Sports Bog takes us to a DCU haircut showdown.
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Steven Goff of the Washington Post says DC is working on a new contract for striker Luciano Emilio, who has had an offer from at least one Mexican team.
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Goff on his blog Soccer Insider gives us some more info that did not make it into his great article on Santino Quaranta.
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NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

John Connolly of the Boston Herald previews tonight's match with New York.
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Shalrie Joseph who lead his native Grenada to a surprise 2-2 tie with Costa Rica in World Cup Qualifying last weekend will play for the Rev's tonight, then rejoin Grenada for the 2nd leg match.
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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe previews tonight as well.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Brian Lewis of the NY Post says the Red Bulls will change their lineup again tonight.
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Stefan Bondy of the Herald News with an article on midfielder Seth Stammler.
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REAL SALT LAKE

Jack Bell of the New York Times talks to Scottish forward Kenny Deuchar about the move to the United States. And other world soccer news.
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Michael C Lewis of the Tribune previews tonight's home game against San Jose.
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The Deseret News previews to.
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The Deseret News soccer blog ponders what formation the home team might use tonight.
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SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

The Mercury News previews tonight’s start of a month on the road for the team.
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Embele Awipi of the Salinas Californian says LA striker Edson Buddle is Equake fans newest villain.
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Ann Killion of the Mercury News tells us just how big the appearance by Beckham was in the Bay Area. He drew more than the Oakland A's last playoff game.
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Center Line Soccer previews the game tonight, saying flank play could be the key to success.
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GENERAL

Andrew Hush at Soccernet with his midweek notes on MLS and USA soccer stuff.
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Pete Grathoff of the Kansas City Star with an article on former Wizards player Chris Henderson who is now the Technical Director for Seattle. And a few other soccer notes.
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MLS Rookie Of The Year

Here's our current list of contenders, in alphabetical order:
-Ely Allen - Los Angeles Galaxy
-Anthony Beltran - Real Salt Lake
-Danleigh Borman - New York Red Bulls
-Kheli Dube - New England Revolution
-Sean Franklin - Los Angeles Galaxy
-Chance Myers - Kansas City Wizards
-Luke Sassano - New York Red Bulls
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USL First Division News

Minnesota Thunder

The Thunder announced yesterday that they will be playing a friendly against English Championship division team Burnley on July 15 at their home field in Blaine. Here is what the Burnley coach had to say about his teams preseason in America.
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USL First Division Standings

22 Vancouver (11)
20 Charleston (11)
18 Portland (14)
17 Seattle (11)
15 Minnesota (11)
14 Atlanta (11)
14 Miami (14)
13 Carolina (10)
11 Montreal (11)
10 Rochester (10)
9 Puerto Rico (8)
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US Soccer News

The Vegas Review with a great story on one of those bright young stars we hear about from the US Soccer Academy in Bradenton - Carlos Martinez. I have seen him play 4 times now, and he is something else.
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Americans In Europe

The BBC reports that English League One team Scunthorpe United is chasing after an unnamed American LA Galaxy player. The only clue is that the player is married to an English woman, and can therefore get a work permit. So who is this mystery man? (thanks to Bart for this one)
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CONCACAF News

The Barbados newspaper Nation delivers a brutal condemnation of the countries sports system after the beatdown their football team took last weekend in LA.
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The Nation also talks to team captain Norman Forde about their failings.
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It's interesting that the island's other paper The Advocate had stories leading up to the game, but have pretended it didn't even happen afterwards. Not a single word about the first leg. Let's see if they preview the second.
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CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying News

2nd Round 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jun 17
Antigua 3-4 Barbuda v Cuba
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2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with 1st leg scores included):
-Wed Jun 18
Bahamas v Jamaica (0-7)
-Fri Jun 20
Canada v St Vincent & Grenadines (3-0)
-Sat Jun 21
St Lucia v Guatemala (0-6)
Costa Rica v Grenada (2-2)
Mexico v Belize (2-0)
-Sun Jun 22
Barbados v USA (0-8)
Guyana v Suriname (0-1)
Cuba v Antigua & Barbuda (4-3)
El Salvador v Panama (0-1)
Netherlands Antilles v Haiti (0-0)
Bermuda v Trinidad & Tobago (2-1)
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Canada & CSA News

The second of six games between Toronto, Vancouver & Montreal to determine their countries entrant in the CONCACAF Champions League takes place this week:
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Matches & Scores:
-Jun 17
Montreal 2-0 Vancouver
-Jun 26
Vancouver v Montreal
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Standings (games played):
3 Toronto (1)
3 Montreal (2)
0 Vancouver (1)
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Mexico & FMF News

Luis Bueno of the Sideline Views gives us some info on player movement in Mexico this offseason. Some good ones.
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England News

Reports from England say Ronaldinho has said no to MLS, and AC Milan have dropped out of the bidding. This leaves Manchester City. Why in the world would he play there? The Times of London think they know why.
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European News

ITALY

Roma has signed Liverpool defender John Arne Riise.
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2008 UEFA European Championship News

Peter Berlin on the New York Times goal blog writes about the blinding Orange.
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Brian Glanville of World Soccer with this thoughts on refereeing at the tourney.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports says its time for France to clean house and start fresh.
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Rino Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo will both miss the Italy quarterfinal match due to Yellow Card accumulation.
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2008 UEFA European Championship Schedule

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
(all times are central)
-Sat Jun 7
Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic - CR goal by Vaclav Sverkos.
Portugal 2-0 Turkey - 1:30pm - Port goals by Pepe & Raul Meireles.
-Sun Jun 8
Austria 0-1 Croatia - Croa goal by Luka Modric(PK).
Germany 2-0 Poland - Germ goals both by Lukas Podolski.
-Mon Jun 9
Romania 0-0 France
Netherlands v Italy - Neth goals by Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder & Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
-Tue Jun 10
Spain 4-1 Russia - Spa goals by David Villa(3) & Cesc Fabregas. Russ goal by Roman Pavlyuchenko.
Greece 0-2 Sweden - Swe goals by Zlatan Imbrahimovic & Petter Hansson.
-Wed Jun 11
Czech Republic 1-3 Portugal - CR goal by Libor Sionko. Port goals by Deco, Cristiano Ronaldo & Ricardo Quaresma.
Switzerland 1-2 Turkey - Swis goal by Hakan Yakin. Turk goals by Semih Senturk & Ardan Turan.
-Thu Jun 12
Croatia 2-1 Germany - Cro goals by Dario Srna & Ivica Olic. Germ goal by Lukas Podolski.
Austria 1-1 Poland - Aust goal by Ivica Vastic(PK). Pol goal by Roger Guerreiro.
-Fri Jun 13
Italy 1-1 Romania - Ita goal by Christian Panucci. Rom goal by Adrian Mutu.
Netherlands 4-1 France - Neth goals by Dirk Kuyt, Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben & Wesley Sneijder. Fra goal by Thierry Henry.
-Sat Jun 14
Sweden 1-2 Spain - Swed goal by Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Spai goals Fernando Torres & David Villa.
Greece 0-1 Russia - Rus goal by Konstantin Zyryanov.
-Sun Jun 15
Switzerland 2-0 Portugal - Swis goals both by Hakan Yakin.
Turkey 3-2 Czech Republic - Turk goals by Arda Turan & Nihat Kahveci(2). Cze goals by Jan Koller & Jaroslav Plasil.
-Mon Jun 16
Poland 0-1 Croatia - 1:30pm - Cro goal by Ivan Klasnic.
Austria 0-1 Germany - 1:30pm - Germ goal by Michael Ballack.
-Tue Jun 17
Netherlands 2-0 Romania - 1:30pm - Neth goals by Klaas Jan Huntelaar & Robin Van Persie.
France 0-2 Italy - Ita goals by Andrea Pirlo & Daniele De Rossi.
-Wed Jun 18
Greece v Spain - 1:30pm - ESPN
Russia v Sweden - 1:30pm - ESPN2
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Group Standings
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The Quarterfinals begin on Thursday.
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 19
Portugal v Germany - 1:30pm - ESPN
-Fri Jun 20
Croatia v Turkey - 1:30pm - ESPN
-Sat Jun 21
Netherlands v Sweden/Russia winner - 1:30pm - ABC
-Sun Jun 22
Spain v Italy - 1:30pm - ESPN
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World News

The Telegraph has a long long interview with the one and only Eric Cantona. I have heard rumblings that he is going to play himself in a Danny Boyle movie.
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times with a world soccer news round up - Corner Kicks.
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This Is The End

A new documentary film just opened in a small number of theaters and will make its way across the country. It's called Kicking It, and it's about the summer 2006 Homeless World Cup. Here is the trailer.