Insider Feelings News

Landon Donovan declares that wants to play in England, and his agent confirms it is true. See MLS Rumor section.

~and~

Freddy Adu has been loaned to Monaco by Benfica. See Americans In Europe section.

~and~

My team, the Minnesota Thunder, have dismissed coach Amos Magee late today. He will be replaced by assistant Don Gramenz. See USL First Division section for more.


MLS Scoreboard

Week 18
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jul 23 - POSTPONED YET AGAIN
DC v Houston - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Venue: RFK Stadium, Washington DC
Match preview by Mike Martin at United Mania.
Match preview by Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner.
Match preview by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
Match preview by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.
-Thu Jul 24
MLS All Stars v West Ham United - 6pm central on ESPN & TeleFutura
Venue: BMO Field Toronto ON
-Sun Jul 27
San Jose v New York - 2pm central on TeleFutura
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium, Santa Clara CA
Dallas v Los Angeles - 6pm central on Direct Kick
Venue: Pizza Hut Park, Frisco TX
Kansas City v Chicago - 7pm central on Direct Kick
Venue: Community America Ballpark, Kansas City KS
Colorado v Columbus - 8:30pm central on Direct Kick
Venue: Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City CO
-Mon Jul 28
Salt Lake v Toronto - 8pm central on Direct Kick
Venue: Rice Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City UT
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League Standings
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MLS 2008 All Star Game News

-Thu Jul 24
MLS All Stars v West Ham United - live at 6pm central on ESPN & TeleFutura
Venue: BMO Field, Toronto Canada
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Dean McNulty of the Toronto Sun talks to Landon Donovan about what a game against West Ham means to him.
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Steve Davis at Soccernet gives us his 10 best All Star moments.
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MLS News

COLUMBUS CREW

The team has released an official statement on the small fight between Crew & West Ham fans in the north end of Crew Stadium last Sunday.
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The Telegraph in England has their own words on the fight. And it even has a picture. (thanks to Steve for his one)
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Steve Sirk with his indepth Crew notes. Always a great read, even for non-Crew fans. Especially good this week is a chat with Dante Washington (always good for a story) who spent last Thursday's game in the Nordecke, the supporters section, and loved every minute of it.
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FC DALLAS

American Soccer News has separate Q & A's with 3 FCD players: Drew Moor - Kenny Cooper - Brek Shea.
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DC UNITED

John Haydon of the Washington Times on the emergence of the teams newest striker Grandpa Doe.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO

New forward signing Nate Jaqua is available to play his first game tonight for Houston.
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Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle writes that the Dynamo has a long way to go this season to reclaim their dominant status.
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LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Steve Goff on his blog Soccer Insider talks to Abel Xavier about his departure from LA last week. Xavier vents on coach Ruud Gullit.
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Kyle McCarthy at Goal.com also talks to Xavier, who gives even more vitriol.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Steve Davis at MLSnet raves about one of my favorite players this season - Dave van den Bergh.
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REAL SALT LAKE

Soccer America has a Q & A style biography on forward Robbie Findley.
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SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

Midfielder Kelly Gray writing at Goal.com about the teams 3 new signings, and what else he has been doing this summer.
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GENERAL

Columbus midfielder Guillermo Barros Schelotto has been named MLS Player Of The Week.
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SF at The Offside Rules links to a BBC video interview with MLS Commish Donald K Garber.
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Kyle McCarthy at Goal.com with his weekly league wrap up, and a look at the All Star game.
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Jeff Bradley returns to MLSnet to tells us the things he likes most about the MLS All Star game.
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Ives Galarcep at Soccernet tells us who the young MLS players are that impress him the most. If you pay a lot of attention it's a fairly obvious list, and for everyone else reading this it's a good primer.
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Andrew Hush at Soccernet gives us 10 questions to ponder.
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MLS Rumor City - Don't Tease Me Bro!

Yanks Abroad talks to the agent of Landon Donovan who confirms that the player is interested in joining an English team.
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Mexican forward Jared Borgetti's latest rumored MLS club of interest? Real Salt Lake.
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The whispers of Peruvian midfielder Nolberto [CORRECTED] Solano signing with LA grow louder.
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Gregory Sica of Sports Illustrated with some more on Dallas's attempts to sign River Plate attacking midfielder Ariel Ortega.
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SuperLiga

Official match reports and video highlights etc.
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Semifinals
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jul 29
Houston v Pachuca
Venue: Robertson Stadium, Houston TX
-Wed Jul 30
New England v Atlante
Venue: Gillette Stadium, Foxborough MA
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All games can be seen live on TeleFutura.
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Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle writes about yet another Houston v Pachuca battle. This time in the Semifinals of SuperLiga. These have been some great games over the last 3 years. Let's hope for another.
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USL First Division News

The Montreal Gazette has an article expounding on the theory that USL teams are closing the quality gap on MLS teams. This author clearly hasn't seen enough MLS lately. Yes the USL leagues are getting better. But so is MLS. The quality gap is that same as it ever was.
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Minnesota Thunder

It's just brutal. I woke up this morning and looked at the First Division standings again. There is my team - dead last. This is painful! Something has to change. Now.
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And later in the day that change arrived in the removal of coach Amos Magee.
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David La Vaque of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported it first.
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Tim Leighton of the St Paul Pioneer Press has covered the team for a long time and has the story as well.
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Here is the teams press release.
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Believe me, I am not happy about this. I like Amos Magree A LOT. He is one of the good guys. But it just was not working. I hope to talk to him soon and let him know how many of us feel. He is A-1 in my book, and I wish him all the best on what must be a terrible, yet relief filled day.
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USA Olympic Team

Jack Bell of the New York Times blog Goal talks to Robbie Rogers about his inclusion on the team.
-Bell has more with Rogers on the Times blog Goal.
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ING Cup Friendly Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jul 30
USA v Cote d'Ivoire
-Sat Aug 2
USA v Cameroon
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Olympic Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Thu Aug 7
USA v Japan
-Sun Aug 10
USA v Netherlands
-Wed Aug 13
USA v Nigeria
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Soccer In America

Rob Hughes writes about the effect the state of California has on world soccer - the Klinsmann & Beckham effect that is.
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Americans In Europe

Paul Kennedy of Soccer America on Freddy Adu's loan move to Monaco from Benfica.
-The interesting thing about Monaco is that their team President is an American.
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The new season is underway in Denmark, and 5 Americans are in the league.
Danish SAS Ligaen:
-Dan Califf - Midjtyland - played all 90 as he had to play his first game with his new team against his old team, but they won 1-2 on the road. Good move.
-Tally Hall - Esbjerg - did not play as they lost 1-0 at Kobenhaven.
-Will John - Randers - did not play in the teams 3-1 win over Aarhus.
-Lee Nguyen - Randers - started and played 71 minutes in a 3-1 home win over Aarhus. He also earned himself a Yellow Card.
-Jeremiah White - Aarhus - started and went 67 minutes, but they lost 3-1 at Randers.
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How are our Americans in Scandinavia doing:
Norwegian Tippeligaen:
-Adin Brown - Aalesunds - is injured and did not played in a 1-2 win at Brann.
-Mikkel Diskerud - Stabaek - did not play as they beat Fredrikstad 5-1.
-Pat Noonan - Aalesunds - came on as a sub in the 81st minute of a 1-2 road win at Brann.
-Troy Perkins - Valerenga - played the whole game, unfortunately, and lost 5-1 at Molde.
-Brian Waltrip - Molde - came on as a sub in the 84th minute of a 5-1 home victory over Valerenga.
-Brian West - Fredrikstad - did not play as they lost to Stabaek 5-1.
Norwegian Adeccoligaen:
-Matthew Allen - Bryne - did not play as they drew 5-5 at home against Moss.
-Clarence Goodson - Start - went the full 90 but lost 1-2 at home to Sandefjord.
-Joe Lapira - Nybergsund - started and went 89 minutes, they got the 0-2 win on the road at Kongsvinger.
-Jay Needham - Alta - went the distance and got a big road win, 1-2 at Hodd.
-Chris Rodd - Bryne - played the entire match as they drew 5-5 at home against Moss.
-Kyle Veris - Hodd - injured and didn't not play in a home loss, 1-2 to Alta.
-Cam Weaver - Haugesund - started and played until being subbed off in the 90th minute of a 2-0 win at home over Sandnes.
Swedish Allsvenskan:
-Colin Burns - Ljungskile - did not dress but the team won 2-1 over AIK.
-Charlie Davies - Hammarby - played the entire match as they beat Orebro 1-0 at home.
-Etchu Tabe - Ljungskile - went all 90 at they beat AIK 2-1 at home. (Both of their goals came in stoppage time!)
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TRANSFER RUMORS

The current list of teams who are interested in signing Michael Bradley looks like this: Blackburn, Celtic, Everton, Hamburg, Middlesbrough, Monaco & Werder Bremen. Impressive.
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Americans in Mexico

Luis Bueno at Sideline Views gives us the scoop on 3 players who have started a new season in lower division league action already - Jesus Padilla, Carlos Borja & Sammy Ochoa.
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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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Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jul 22
Toronto v Montreal
Match preview by Peter Mallett of the Toronto Globe & Mail.
Match preview from the Montreal Gazette.
Match preview by Dean McNulty of the Toronto Sun.
Match preview by Morgan Campbell of the Toronto Star.
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Ben Knight of the Globe & Mail blog On Soccer feels that this is a fitting cup final for Canada.
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The Toronto Sun calls this the biggest game in TFC's short history. I guess they are right.
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Standings (games played):
6 Montreal (3)
4 Toronto (3)
4 Vancouver (4) - has been eliminated
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South American News

Remember this name - Diego Buonanotte. He is a young Argentine midfielder/forward who currently plays for River Plate. Soon you will know his name.
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England News

Andrew Rogers at Soccer365 does a Q & A with new Chelsea signing Deco.
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Chelsea has signed another of their stars to a long term deal. Michael Essien got a new 5 year contract.
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Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian with a story on Portsmouth midfielder Niko Kranjcar, who was once a symbol of talent gone bad.
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European News

Simon Kuper of the Financial Times on Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and the newly formed European Club Association.
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ITALY

It looks like Roma is about to land Fiorentina & Romania striker Adrian Mutu.
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Football Italia with pictures of Jose Mourinho's first training session with Inter yesterday.
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OTHERS

Ajax has signed fullback Oleguer from Barcelona.
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Portuguese star Joao Pinto officially retired from football today.
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African News

FIFA.com has a Q & A with Patrick Mboma who lead Cameroon to Olympic gold in 2000.