Friday, June 13, 2008

When Vertigo Goes Vertical News

My newest musical gift to you - du Nord Muxtape #5: The Colour Green Is Gorgeous - is now online for your listening pleasure.


Team USA

-Sun Jun 15
USA v Barbados
Home Depot Center in Carson California
4pm central time on ESPN2 & Galavision from Home Depot Center in Carson California.
Match preview by Ridge Mahoney at Soccer America.
Match preview by Beau Dure at USA Today.
Match preview by Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet.
Match preview and Barbados roster from The Nation, a Barbados newspaper.
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The PA Sports Ticker with articles on DaMarcus Beasley - and - Brian Ching.
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US Soccer has an audio interview with coach Bob Bradley talking about the start of World Cup qualifying.
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USS with more audio, this time an interview with goalkeeper Brad Guzan.
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US Soccer also has photos of the team training on Wednesday.
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Maybe this is one of the big reasons why so few tickets have been sold for Sunday's game in LA......
A reader posted this note in yesterdays comments section, and I think it says a lot about the jaded nature of American sports fans. In my mind you either support your team, or you don't, there is no middle ground. This person is all about middle ground, and probably jumps off the bandwagon when the team loses too. That’s cool. Your prerogative. Read on:
I like watching the national team as much as the next guy, but Barbados? How is that going to get anyone excited? I understand you can only qualify against those countries in your region, but I'll gladly watch the highlights in 90 seconds as opposed to 90 minutes of live action. When the bigger fish roll around, I'm in.
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The official team blog.
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2nd leg
-Sun Jun 22
Barbados v USA
Kensington Oval in Bridgetown Barbados
2pm central on ESPN Classic
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MLS Scoreboard

Week 12
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 12
Houston 0-2 New England - NER goals by Steve Ralston & Kheli Dube.
-Sat Jun 13
Toronto v Colorado - 6pm central on Direct Kick
DC v New York - 6:30pm central on HDNet
Kansas City v Columbus - 7pm central on Direct Kick
San Jose v Los Angeles - 9pm central on FSC
Chivas USA v Salt Lake - 9:30pm central on Direct Kick
-Sun Jun 15
Dallas v Chicago - 2pm central on TeleFutura
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Serving Suspensions:
Brad Evans - Columbus
James Riley - San Jose
Marcelo Gallardo - DC
Brandon Prideaux - Chicago
Bryan Namoff - DC
Alan Gordon - Los Angeles
Facundo Erpen - Colorado
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My notes from the game:
-After last nights game I don't think there is any doubt left as to who is the best team in the league right now. New England is very impressive!
-Is there any doubt that Kheli Dube has vaulted to the top of the Rookie of the Year race? Nope.
-I like it when a referee gives an erroneous Penalty and the keeper saves it. Justice served. Houston forward Franco Caraccio was clearly fouled outside the box, but the ref gave a PK, and Matt Reis stuffed Stuart Holden.
-It was good to see Houston backup keeper Tony Caig has continued with his early season reputation and given up another horrible goal. We here at du Nord coined the term "Caiged" for just such blunders. See video of the 2nd New Eng goal for a perfect example.
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MLS Standings

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

CD CHIVAS USA

Andrea Canales at Soccernet with a story on huge du Nord fave, and TV contest winner Jorge Flores. This kids story is even better than Jay DeMerit.
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FC DALLAS

Goalkeeper Dario Sala is the guest blogger today on Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune's blog The Red Card. What a great guy Sala is.
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Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram says that the coaching job has still not been handed out, but there are 3 up for it.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Forward Jozy Altidore says goodbye to NYRB & MLS in his newest post on the New York Times blog Goal.
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TORONTO FC

Brian Forbes of the Denver Post talks to their home town boy TFC defender Todd Dunivant about life north of the border.
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GENERAL

US Soccer gives us audio of the Week 11 MLS Referee Review.
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USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 12
Puerto Rico 3-0 Carolina
Portland 2-2 Atlanta
-Fri Jun 13
Montreal v Charleston
Rochester v Vancouver
-Sat Jun 14
Miami v Carolina
Minnesota v Atlanta
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USL First Division Standings

22 Vancouver (10)
20 Charleston (10)
18 Portland (14)
17 Seattle (11)
14 Minnesota (10)
13 Carolina (8)
12 Atlanta (9)
11 Miami (13)
9 Puerto Rico (8)
8 Montreal (10)
7 Rochester (9)
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Soccer In America

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader with a story on soccer camp and a local appearance by Eric Wynalda! Sioux Falls sits right at the intersection of South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa & Nebraska.
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Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer has a Q & A with USA Today soccer writer Beau Dure.
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CONCACAF News

So now I guess Colorado Rapids defender Ugo Ihemelu is now CANADIAN! He is training with the Canucks for qualifying. I thought he was Nigerian.
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CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying News

2nd Round 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jun 4
Honduras 4-0 Puerto Rico - Hon goals by Julio Cesar De Leon, Wilson Palacios & David Suazo(2).
-Sat Jun 14
Suriname v Guyana
Grenada v Costa Rica
Guatemala v St Lucia
-Sun Jun 15
USA v Barbados
St Vincent & Grenadines v Canada
Haiti v Netherlands Antilles
Belize v Mexico
Panama v El Salvador
Trinidad & Tobago v Bermuda
Jamaica v Bahamas
-Tue Jun 17
Antigua & Barbuda v Cuba
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England News

Man U star Wayne Rooney got married to his long time sweetheart. Congrats. The gift is in the mail.
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European News

ITALY

Bologna has been bought by a faceless American ownership group. They paid $28 Million for the team. That is less than you can get an MLS team for. How bad is business in Italy.
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Still no word on what will happen to ownership at Roma. But you figure with the size debt that they have a sale is imminent.
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Milan has signed Italian defender Gianluca Zambrotta after two years out of the country at Barcelona.
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2008 UEFA European Championship News

My friend Janefact pointed out that Croatia connected on 17 consecutive passes over 50 seconds before scoring their first goal. That is impressive. Not quite in the league with Argentina's 26 in a row at the last World Cup. Just still impressive.
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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 v Romania - 10:50am - ESPN2
Netherlands v France - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Sat Jun 14
Sweden v Spain - 10:50am - ESPN2
Greece v Russia - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Sun Jun 15
Switzerland v Portugal - 1:30pm - ESPN2
Turkey v Czech Republic - 1:30pm - ESPN Classic
-Mon Jun 16
Poland v Croatia - 1:30pm - ESPN Classic
Austria v Germany - 1:30pm - ESPN
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Group Standings
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The Road To World Cup 2010 - South Africa News

FIFA.com has a list of ALL the qualifiers going on around the world this weekend. Insanity.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The "fan" who left that comment about the Barbados game is probably the kind of "fan" who goes to Galaxy games only to see Beckham. Annoying.

3:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why not play it in another part of the country that would be excited to see the USMNT?

US Soccer gets this stuff wrong all the time.

4:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i am sure if the game was on the east coast (especially anywhere near philly!) the Sons of Ben would be there in numbers!

9:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kansas City has always supported the National Team...If you don't want it we would be more than happy to show our National pride

5:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nobody knew that the Lakers would be in the finals later that day when the match was scheduled.

11:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

'In my mind you either support your team, or you don't, there is no middle ground. This person is all about middle ground, and probably jumps off the bandwagon when the team loses too.'

I have to pipe in here and say this is one of my pet peeves with many sports 'fans'. A true fan will always be there for the team, ESPECIALLY when they are losing. That's when they need the support the most.
If LA doesn't want a national team game, come to St. Louis.

1:46 PM  

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