The Chemicals News

Done deal. Brad Guzan to Aston Villa. Luis Bueno of the enourmous Sideline Views blog with the details. Does he get the work permit this time? They must be quite certain of it or why would they go through this process again.

~and~

Samuel Eto'o will be in the Twin Cities next Tuesday for the opening ceremony of the massive youth tournament, the USA Cup. He and others will do a clinic and sign autographs at 10am at the National Sports Center.


SuperLiga

It all kicks off on Saturday night. We can only hope its as good as last years tournament. I know its a pretty fraudulent deal, designed just to make money, but the action on the field was pretty serious.
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There is a great game each night this weekend. On Sat with DC hosting the real Chivas, and then on Sun with New England taking on Mexican champs Santos.
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Official Website
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All games live on TeleFutura.
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Round 1 Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Sat Jul 12
DC v Guadalajara - 7pm central
Houston v Atlante - 9pm central
-Sun Jul 13
New England v Santos Laguna - 7pm central
Chivas USA v Pachuca - 9pm central
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Beau Dure of USA Today previews.
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MLS Scoreboard

Week 16
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jul 10
Kansas City v New York - KCW goals by Jimmy Conrad & Davy Arnaud. NYRB goal by Juan Pablo Angel.
Attendance: 8,773
Match report by Bob Luder from the KC Star.
Match report by Bob Rusert of MLSnet.
Match report from Big Apple Soccer.
Post game analysis from Metrofanatic.
Post game video interviews with NYRB players and coach from the Red Bulls Reader blog.
Los Angeles 1-1 Chivas USA - LAG goal by Edson Buddle. CUSA goal by Ante Razov.
Attendance: 27,000
Post game notes, audio, etc by the ton from Andrea Canales & Luis Bueno at Sideline Views.
Match report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
Match report by Scott Wolff of the LA Daily News.
Match report by Luis Bueno at MLSnet.
Match report by Bueno at the Press Enterprise.
Post game analysis by Andrea Canales for Soccernet.amp;&cc=5901
Post game notes by Nick Green of the Daily Breeze on his blog 100 Percent Soccer.
-Sat Jul 12
San Jose v Colorado - 3pm central on Direct Kick
Match preview from Center Line Soccer.
Chicago v Toronto - 7:30pm central on FSC & FSE
Salt Lake v Columbus - 8pm central on HDNet
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Ejections:
Preki - coach - Chivas USA - Red Card (for arguing with officials)
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MLS Standings

Eastern Conference
33 New England
27 Columbus
22 DC
21 Chicago (GD +9)
21 Toronto (GD 0)
20 Kansas City (GD -4)
20 New York (GD -8)
Western Conference
22 Los Angeles (GD +3)
22 Chivas (GD +1)
20 Salt Lake (GD -1)
20 Houston (GD -2)
19 Colorado
18 Dallas
12 San Jose
(Goal Differential is the first tie breaker)
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The 2008 du Nord Midseason Best 11's

Here are 33 players that I think have had a terrific first half of this season. I broke them down into 3 teams in descending order of quality.
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First Team
G1:
Matt Reis - New England Revolution
D1:
Frankie Hejduk - Columbus Crew
Gonzalo Segares - Chicago Fire
Michael Parkhurst - New England Revolution
M1:
David Beckham - Los Angeles Galaxy
Sacha Kljestan - Chivas USA
Guillermo Barros Schelotto - Columbus Crew
Steve Ralston - New England Revolution
Javier Morales - Real Salt Lake
F1:
Landon Donovan - Los Angeles Galaxy
Luciano Emilio - DC United
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Second Team
G2:
Jon Busch - Chicago Fire
D2:
Gonzalo Martinez - DC United
Nat Borchers - Real Salt Lake
Chad Marshall - Columbus Crew
M2:
Cuauhtemoc Blanco - Chicago Fire
Amado Guevara - Toronto FC
Robbie Rogers - Columbus Crew
Shalrie Joseph - New England Revolution
Marcelo Gallardo - DC United
F2:
Edson Buddle - Los Angeles Galaxy
Kenny Cooper - FC Dallas
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Third Team
G3:
William Hesmer - Columbus Crew
D3:
Bobby Boswell - Houston Dynamo
Bryan Namoff - DC United
Jamison Olave - Real Salt Lake
Jimmy Conrad - Kansas City Wizards
M3:
Dave van den Bergh - New York Red Bulls
Andre Rocha - FC Dallas
Brian Carroll - Columbus Crew
John Thorrington - Chicago Fire
F3:
Alejandro Moreno - Columbus Crew
Brian Ching - Houston Dynamo
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MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated with an article that questions whether or not Chicago really even WANTS Brian McBride on their roster.
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Nick Firchau of the Southtown Star says the Fire are looking for that key to winning again.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his blog The Red Card talked to police in Maryland about the Blanco fracas on Tuesday night, and contrary to rumors there was NO altercation between Blanco and the police. Good.
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Arroyave also talks to Justin Timberlake about the beautiful game. Seriously.
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CD CHIVAS USA

The Original Winger, a Designated Player, has a post written by CUSA midfielder Sacha Kljestan about being selected for the MLS All Star game!
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So now Chivas has Dan Kennedy at the wheel of the company goalkeeping truck.
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COLORADO RAPIDS

Brian Forbes of the Denver Post with the latest on team captain Pablo Mastroeni's possible European adventure.
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I should have realized that a site as informed as From College to the Pros would have written about Greg Dalby's arrival in Colorado two weeks ago. Thanks to Bonji for enlightening us.
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COLUMBUS CREW

Shawn Mitchell of the Dispatch sits down in a pub for a Q & A with defender Frankie Hejduk.
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Chris DeVille of Columbus Alive reviews the first half of the Crew season.
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FC DALLAS

Diego Aparicio of the Dallas Morning News says FCD is going to do everything they can to keep Kenny Cooper from making a transfer to Europe.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Soccer By Ives reports that the reason the two young Hondurans could not come to NYRB for a tryout is that New England has already laid claim to one of them.
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REAL SALT LAKE

Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune talks to back up keeper Chris Seitz about his 2nd year as a pro, and the upcoming Olympics.
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James Edward of the Deseret News writes about the 2 game suspension RSL coach Jason Kreis got for again complaining publicly about the quality of refereeing in the league.
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GENERAL

Where in the world is Kyle Martino. He was cut loose by LA in preseason and we have not heard a word about him since then. Anyone?
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MLS Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jul 15
Toronto v Independiente (Argentina)
-Sun Aug 3
Colorado v Everton (England)
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MLS/SUM U17 Cup

Real Salt Lake beat DC United on Penalty Kicks to win the 2nd annual tournament.
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Match & Score:
Salt Lake 1-1 DC - RSL wins 4-2 on Penalty Kicks after regular and extra time ended tied.
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The winner of this tournament is now entered in the pseudo youth world club championship to be held early next year in Spain.
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RSL forward James Rogers was named MVP of the tournament.
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MLS Golden Boot

11 Landon Donovan
11 Edson Buddle
10 Luciano Emilio
8 Kenny Cooper
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MLS Expansion News

The National Post talks to MLS VP Ivan Gazidis about the realistic possibilities of more Canadian teams joining the league.
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USL First Division News

Minnesota Thunder

Tonight marks the reopening of the newly renovated National Sports Center in suburban Blaine that is the home for the Thunder for the foreseeable future.
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The Minneapolis Star Tribune & St Paul Pioneer Press both with stories on the new look field.
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The Thunder play a friendly next Tuesday against Burnley from England.
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USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jul 10
Portland 0-2 Puerto Rico
-Fri Jul 11
Rochester v Seattle
Minnesota v Carolina
-Sat Jul 12
Charleston v Puerto Rico
-Sun Jul 13
Montreal v Seattle
Rochester v Miami
Vancouver v Carolina
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USL First Division Standings

Standings (games played):
27 Charleston (14)
23 Vancouver (13)
21 Puerto Rico (14) (GD +4)
21 Portland (17) (GD -2)
20 Seattle (15) (GD +4)
20 Atlanta (14) (GD -2)
19 Miami (17)
18 Carolina (14)
16 Minnesota (15)
15 Montreal (14)
14 Rochester (13)
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USA U20 News

Match & Score:
-Fri Jul 11
USA v Mexico - 8pm central in Laredo TX
Match preview by Andrew Rogers of Soccernet.
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USA U17 News

The annual trip to South America for Friendlies.
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Matches & Scores:
-Fri Jul 4
Uruguay 0-2 USA - in Montevideo Uruguay - USA goals by Jack McInerney & Carlos Martinez.

Three games in Rosario Argentina as part of Copa Ciudad de Rosario
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jul 9
ARF (Rosario) 1-3 USA - ARF goal by Cabrera Alberto(PK). USA goals by Robert Derschang, Victor Pineda & Jaime Gutierrez.
-Thu Jul 10
Argentina 3-0 USA - Arg goals by Rodrigo Diaz, Lucas Mugni & Adrian Martinez.
-Fri Jul 11
Chile v USA
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US Soccer Youth Development Academy

The first ever U18 & U16 national finals for the new Development Academy will be take place starting tomorrow, Sat Jul 12, and ending on Sat Jul 19.
All matches will be played at the Home Depot Center complex in Carson, CA.
The tournament is set up in two groups per age level and a round-robin tournament will determine #1-#4 in each group. Then those teams will then play the corresponding team in the other group for 1st, 3rd, 5th & 7th place trophies.
The last days U18 games will all be broadcast live on ESPNU, with the Championship (1 v 1) being shown live on ESPN2 at 10pm central on Fri Jul 18.
All 4 U16 final day games will be shown Sat Jul 19 on ESPNU.
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Here are the 8 regional winners and their groups:
A U18
Chicago Fire
Baltimore Bays
Colorado Rush
FC Westchester
B U18
CASL
Columbus Crew
Concorde Fire
LAFC
C U16
Albertson SC
LAFC
Carmel United
Schulz Academy
D U16
Chicago Magic
CASL
Real Colorado
PDA
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The CASL club from Raleigh, North Carolina who just became a part of Chelsea's youth academy have a team in both divisions.
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Americans In Europe

Yanks Abroad talks to Jozy Altidore about heading to Spain.
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RUMORS

Soccer365 quotes an Italian magazine as saying Brescia has bought Danny Szetela outright from Racing Santander. He has been on loan at the Serie B team.
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Former Chicago Fire and current Cleveland City Star forward Floyd Franks is off to Jetsmark aka Blokhus FC (2nd Division) in Denmark for a try out. (thanks to Greg for the heads up)
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Canada & CSA News

Round-robin games between Toronto, Vancouver & Montreal determine their countries entrant in the CONCACAF Champions League this fall.
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The Toronto Sun talks to Montreal coach John Limniatis who says his team if fully prepared to beat TFC and claim the spot in the CCL.
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Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jul 22
Montreal v Toronto
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Standings (games played):
6 Montreal (3)
4 Toronto (3)
4 Vancouver (4) - has been eliminated
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England News

Arsenal has signed young talented attacking midfielder Samir Nasri from Olympique Marseille.
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European News

RUSSIA

Here are the Top 6 teams in the current league standings. Most teams have played 12 of 30 games:
26 Rubin Kazan
22 Amkar Perm
21 Dinamo Moscow
20 Spartak Moscow
19 Spartak Nalchik
19 Lokomotiv Moscow
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SPAIN

The 8 Barcelona board members who resigned yesterday were all anti-Laporte, the teams current President.
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OTHERS

Portugal has officially hired Manchester United asst coach Carlos Queiroz as their new national team coach.
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Reuters talks to Russian national team coach Guus Hiddink about his teams special performance at Euro 2008, and what comes next.