Thursday, June 26, 2008

Love To Love You News

A really sad thing happened this week:
There has been a story on the local news about a murder at a hotel in Brooklyn Center (a suburb of Minneapolis). The victim it turns out was a guy I had met several years ago named Mohamed Jama.
He was a great guy that everyone knew around the Cedar Riverside neighborhood, and one of my biggest supporters when I helped start a soccer club there. After getting several cold shoulders from residents he stepped up and welcomed me completely, telling others to get involved. And they responded. He did this all on the quiet, out of the limelight.
He was a really friendly, smiley guy, even though his eyes told you that he had "seen some things" in his short life of only 31 years.
This really bums me out
Here is a story from the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper that says the shooting was not an accident. Which makes it all even worse.
Please have a good thought for his family today won't you.
Today's du Nord is dedicated to him!
Rest In Peace Mohamed Jama.

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Germany pulls a Turkey on Turkey. They move on to the Euro 2008 Final with a 3-2 win in dramatic late game fashion, even though almost no one saw it on TV. The passion was gone by the time we saw the replays. But Turkey got a late goal to tie the game at 2's only to see Germany storm back in the dying seconds to win it! How good will Spain v Russia be today? See details in Euro 2008 section below.

~and~

Liga nabbed a 4-1 half time lead of Fluminense and won 4-2 in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores Final. The second leg is next Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro at the 95,000 sold out seats of Maracana Stadium! See details in Copa Libertadores section below.


MLS Scoreboard

Week 14
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 26
Houston v Dallas - 8pm central on ESPN2
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Tonight is the always fun, yet kinda lopsided, Texas derby! The battle for El Capitan!
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Diego Aparicio of the Dallas Morning News with a match preview.
-Some more pregame notes from Aparicio.
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Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet with a preview.
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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)
18 Houston (14)
17 Chivas (13)
16 Colorado (13) (GD +1)
16 Dallas (14) (GD -3)
11 San Jose (13)

(Goal Differential is the first tie breaker)
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MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

3 from Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his blog the Red Card: Defender Gonzalo Segares says that he needs a rest - and - John Thorrington almost missed his chance to play with Team USA last weekend - and - Both Wilman Conde & Lider Marmol are healthy again.
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CD CHIVAS USA

The Seattle Mariners baseball team has a great story on their website about their Cuban catcher who was reunited with fellow defector Maykel Galindo. They had been boyhood friends.
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COLUMBUS CREW

The Dispatch with an article on coach Sigi Schmid and his wife.
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Shawn Mitchell of the Dispatch on his blog Covering the Crew with lots of new team notes, and plenty of quotes from Technical Director Brian Bliss about world wide player searches.
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FC DALLAS

Tobias Lopez of the Star Telegram says several FCD players are on the radar screens of European teams.
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Buzz Carrick of 3rd Degree with this weeks Practice Observations.
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Goalkeeper Ray Burse who is on loan at Portland will play 2 more games then return to Dallas permanently.
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DC UNITED

Steven Goff of the Washington Post says that the DC defense is going to be seriously tested by LA this Sunday.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO

Bernardo Fallas of the Chronicle says the Dynamo are still looking for their top comfort level this season.
-Fallas with some other teams notes too.
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LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Everyone seems to be forgetting that Carlos Ruiz will be back at top fighting form for LA this weekend.
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NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

John Connolly of the Boston Herald with a story on the record setting pace of Rev's keeper Matt Reis.
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So, not only has Frank Dell'apa left the Rev's beat for the Boston Globe, but Mike Biglin has left the MetroWest Daily News, but at least he will be joining the staff at the Boston Herald.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

The Bulls beat the Goats in Phoenix last night. The real Chivas came to the US for a friendly, but NYRB won it 1-0 on a goal by Oscar Echeverry, that was set up perfectly by the red-hot Sinisa Ubiparapovich. Seth Stammler & Edgar Solis were both Red Carded after nearly starting a brawl. A second player from each team left the field after the skirmish with head injuries after they collided.
-Just over 10,000 were in the stands at the giant American football stadium. Must have made the Red Bulls feel right at home.
Match report from the Arizona Republic.
Match report from Metrofanatic.
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Ives Galarcep of Soccer by Ives reports that NYRB fans are none-too-pleased to hear about Reyna playing in the charity game in NYC last night, instead of being on the road with his team. It's getting bad. (see Soccer In America section below for more on the charity game)
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TORONTO FC

Dean McNulty of the Sun and Morgan Campbell of the Star and Peter Mallett of the Globe & Mail all look at how TFC learns to win on the road. How about hanging out at the beach?
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GENERAL

Goal.com with 2 of their Starting XI columns - How to lure Thierry Henry to MLS - and - Getting to know TV commentator JP Dellacamera.
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Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger with his notes - This Week In MLS.
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MLS Rumor City - Don't Tease Me Bro!

Is Cory Gibbs headed back to MLS? I have heard this rumor 3 times now. Doesn't make it true. Just heard it 3 times in one week.
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Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America adds more names to the list of Americans possibly returning to MLS from Europe: Robbie Russell, Eddie Lewis & Nate Jaqua.
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MLS Expansion News

The Vancouver Province with the latest on possible new teams in Vancouver, Montreal and beyond.
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Soccer In America

Steve Nash & Claudio Reyna joined forces for charity and held a big pick up match in a tiny park in NYC last night. Luminaries from both futbol and basketball took to the pitch. Thierry Henry, Jozy Altidore, Robbie Fowler, Rob Jones, Steve McManaman, Solomon Kalou, Gregg Berhalter, Giovanni Savarese, Gavin "You're Shite! ... So I've heard." Harris (aka Alessandro Nivola)! Baron Davis, Leandro Barbosa, Jason Kidd, Raja Bell! Here is some coverage of the event:
-Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer - a cool photo essay!
-Ronald Blum of the Associated Press (thanks to Joe for this one)
-New York Times
-Jen Chang of Soccernet.
-Shawn Francis from The Offside Rules - with some fantastic video clips.
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Advertising Age has an article on what the advertising world could possibly do for soccer in this country. It doesn't give answers, but the energy is right on and the questions are the correct ones to be asking.
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Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle reports on an Atletico Madrid young-star-in-the-making who was in Houston to do a clinic with kids.
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Americans In Europe

Andrew Hush of Soccernet looks at the comings and goings of Americans at new clubs this offseason. (Article starts in the middle of the page.)
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Canada & CSA News

The third of six games (4 for each team) between Toronto, Vancouver & Montreal to determine their countries entrant in the CONCACAF Champions League takes place this week:
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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 1st Leg Match & Score:
-Wed Jun 25
Liga Deportivo Universitaria de Quito Ecuador 4-2 Fluminense Football Club of Rio de Janeiro Brasil - 7:30pm central on Fox Sports Espanyol
Match report from Reuters.
-Wed Jul 2
Fluminense v LDU Quito
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I spent the evening at Charlys Polleria at 29th & Central in Minneapolis enjoying the game with a handful of Ecuadorians. They love their Liga. The food was great, but on a really hot night, their AC was out. So we had to make do with hot food, cold drinks, ceiling fans and the joy that only a 4-1 half time lead can give you. Great night. Can't wait for the finale next Wednesday live from the legendary Maracana in Rio. Sold Out. 95,000 strong supporting their beloved Fluminense.
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European News

ITALY

Luis Figo has signed another 1 year contract to stay at Inter Milan.
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2008 UEFA European Championship News

Peter Berlin of the International Herald Tribune with a match report from Germany v Turkey.
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2 from the Guardian:
-Raphael Honigstein gives us a closer look at Germany's Michael Ballack.
-Lot's of praise for Turkish coach Fatih Terim.
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Der Spiegel reports on German & Turkish fans partying side by side after the match.
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DS give us a great photo slideshow too. Images from the game and all over Germany.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune says former Austrian stars have really enjoyed the tournament even though their national team is not so hot these days.
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It was just awful missing out on the TV feed from a good chunk of the second half of yesterdays game. Especially all that high drama near the end. Took a lot of my passion for it away. Let's hope today is better. UEFA say a storm was to blame for the loss of signal from the stadium.
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Arrivederci Donadoni!
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Turkish keeper Rustu Recbar retired from his national team after yesterdays valiant loss.
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William at the blog Blades of Blue sent me a link to his blog showing a Turkish player getting patched up during yesterdays game using a staple gun! While the video has been seized by UEFA, and the picture shows very litter, its still a wild story. Thanks for sharing that William.
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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 v Spain - 1:30pm central time on ESPN2
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The Final is on Sunday at 1:30pm central on ABC. And will be preceded at 11am central by DC v LA!

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bruce, why is the staple gun wild? You do realize they used a medical one, not something from the hardware store, right? Doctors used one on my son when he was 3 and hit his head on the corner of a table leg. They're pretty commonly used on the head because they are much faster and easier to use than sutures. They leave a larger, uglier scar than sutures, though, which is why they're usually reserved for places like the back of the head, where hair will cover them.

6:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think two of my three kids had staples in their heads at some point or another while they were growing up.

Not sure how long the video will be available before it's pulled, but you can see it here.

http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=5aec17b2-abc8-40dd-bfbf-64591481ad11

6:50 PM  
Blogger brucio said...

i'm not a complete idiot here, although several readers would beg to differ

i know its a medical staple gun

its the fact that they used the staple gun right there on the sidelines that impressed me

9:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the note about Jama. I'd heard that a Somali man was murdered in Brooklyn Center, but didn't make the connection. I spent some time hanging out with him several years ago when I was working on a story about homeless Somali youths. He was an extremely interesting and engaging man. What magnificent bummer.

3:34 PM  

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