Please Leave The Lights On News

Brian McBride is all set to join Chicago when he returns from the Olympics. Chicago paid cash, a draft pick and forward Chad Barrett to Toronto for the rights to McBride. Did they pay too much? I don't think so.

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If you watched the Dallas v LA game last night you may have noticed FCD forward Kenny Cooper grabbing the game ball after full time had been called. I think this is as good a sign as any that his MLS days are over for now and he is off to Europe this week. But where? Rosenborg? Cardiff?

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On MLSnet there is a match report of the FCD v LAG game where the LA goalkeeper is referred to as "Kevin Cronin". It's good to see the lead singer of REO Speedwagon getting a chance at a second career.

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Houston Chronicle soccer reporter Bernardo Fallas officially became a USA citizen last Friday. Huge congrats to the native of Costa Rica. The Dynamo honor him with a little Q & A of their own.


SuperLiga

Dynamo team president Oliver Luck sends an open letter to Houstonians asking them to "Bring The Orange" on Tuesday night! I would love to be there!
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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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MLS Scoreboard

Week 18
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jul 23
DC 0-2 Houston - HD goals by Brian Mullan & Brian Ching.
Attendance: (before rain story) 14,660, (after rain storm) 174
Venue: RFK Stadium, Washington DC
-Sun Jul 27
San Jose 1-1 New York - -SJE goal by Darren Huckerby. NYRB goal by Eric Denton(OG).
Attendance: 9,046
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium, Santa Clara CA
Match report from the San Jose Mercury News.
Match report San Mateo Daily Journal.
Match report by Jay Hipps at Center Line Soccer.
Match report from Big Apple Soccer.
Dallas 4-0 Los Angeles - FCD goals by Kenny Cooper(2), Dominic Oduro & Abe Thompson.
Attendance: 21,020
Venue: Pizza Hut Park, Frisco TX
Match report by Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
Match report by Diego Aparicio of the Dallas Morning News.
Post match notes by Nick Green of the Daily Breeze on his blog 100 Percent Soccer.
Kansas City 0-0 Chicago
Attendance: 10,385
Venue: Community America Ballpark, Kansas City KS
Match report by Bob Luder of the Kansas City Star.
Post game notes by Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his blog The Red Card.
Colorado 0-2 Columbus - CC goals by Steven Lenhart & Jason Garey.
Attendance: 10,647
Venue: Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City CO
Match report by Brian Forbes of the Denver Post.
Match report by Pat Rooney of the Rocky Mountain News.
Post game notes by Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch.
Post game notes by George Tanner of the Rocky Mountain News on his blog FC Rocky.
-Mon Jul 28
Salt Lake v Toronto -
Venue: Rice Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City UT
Match preview by Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Match preview by James Edward of the Deseret News.
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Ejections:
Gonzalo Martinez - DC United - 2 Yellow Cards
Steven Lenhart - Columbus Crew - Red Card
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League Standings
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MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Nick Firchau of the Southtown Star with an article in what the Fire are getting in Brian McBride.
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The team will be without both Cuauhtemoc Blanco & Diego Gutierrez for their match next Saturday at home against Chivas USA due to Yellow Card accumulation.
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CD CHIVAS USA

Head coach Preki will miss the teams next two matches after being suspended by the league for berating officials. He will miss Aug 2 at Chicago and Aug 9 at Kansas City.
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COLORADO RAPIDS

The team sent newly acquired midfielder Bruno Guarda to Dallas for money and some future draft picks.
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COLUMBUS CREW

The Crew had not won in Denver since 1999.
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Michael Arace of the Dispatch feels the Crew really need to add to their roster before the transfer window closes on August 15, if they want to really chase the title.
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FC DALLAS

Dallas hit the crossbar 3 times against LA, meaning that their win could have been even more pulverizing then it already was.
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The team acquired midfielder Bruno Guarda from Colorado for money and some future draft picks. This is no surprise as Guarda just left SMU where he had been coached by new Dallas headman Schellas Hyndman.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO

The team has bought forward Kei Kamara from San Jose.
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LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Not a very good debut match for new defender Eduardo Dominguez. He and centerback partner Greg "somehow-slower-than-Xavier" Vanney got burned for 4 goals. The first one actually deflected off Dominguez to beat Cronin. On goal #2, Cooper stripped the ball from Dominguez passed ahead to Oduro, then took the return pass to shoot and score again. Oduro then got his chance and blew past Dominguez with pure speed for a breakaway goal.
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Martin Rogers at Yahoo Sports hands out a midseason report card for David Beckman.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer has an article on midfielder Dave van den Bergh, who is having a very good season so far, and is by far the most consistent player on their team.
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Stefan Bondy at the Herald News with an article on the teams new signing Jorge Rojas.
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REAL SALT LAKE

Goal.com with an article on Argentine midfielder Javier Morales.
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SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

Auto-golazo - Eric Denton had a nightmare own goal on Sunday against New York. A cross came in from the right and he went to head the ball back to keeper Joe Cannon, but placed the ball perfectly over Cannon, just under the crossbar, and into the net. It was nicely done, but 100% wrong. Pay attention kids, never put your back pass directly on goal.
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TORONTO FC

There is a slight chance we could see Chad Barrett suit up for TFC tonight in Salt Lake.
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Morgan Campbell of the Star reports that forward Jeff Cunningham has seen his team locker moved from the first team to reserve team room. Whoa. You can expect to see him on the train out of town very soon.
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GENERAL

Steve Davis at Soccernet with 5 things to note from Week 18.
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Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com with a team-by-team midseason review/preview.
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Ives Galarcep of Soccer By Ives wraps up the All Star game for us.
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The Daily Texan newspaper in Austin looks at the growth & potential of MLS.
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US Soccer with an audio podcast of their MLS Referee Review for Week 17. I think some of you really like this feature.
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MLS Golden Boot

12 Landon Donovan
11 Edson Buddle
11 Kenny Cooper
10 Luciano Emilio
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MLS Rumor City - Don't Tease Me Bro!

Wales Online says Cardiff City have joined the chase for Dallas forward Kenny Cooper. And that site says some very nice things about Frankencooper. Rosenborg in Norway as the main suitors. (thanks to Bart for this)
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Our friend GS tells us that Clint Mathis could be Norway bound, as he has a try out with 2nd Division team Start. Clarence Goodson currently plays there.
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And defender Hunter Freeman of NYRB could be headed to the same team as Mathis.
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Juan Toja has Rapid Bucharest interested in signing him too now.
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The Paul Dickov-to-Toronto rumors have heated up again.
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MLS Expansion News

NBA star player Steve Nash has officially revealed that he is part of Vancouver's charge to obtain a new MLS team for the 2011 season.
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The Toronto Globe & Mail with more on the Vancouver plans. Very interesting.
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Fox Soccer Report Analyst Bobby McMahon gives his opinion on the leagues expansion ideas.
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College News

The University of Evansville (Indiana) gives us updates on their professional soccer playing alumni, including: Diego Gutierrez, Troy Perkins & David Weir.
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USL First Division News

Minnesota Thunder

On Thursday the Thunder found a new way to win, coming back from a 0-1 deficit to beat defending Champs Seattle 2-1. But then on Sunday they found a new way to lose, giving away a 2-0 first half lead to lose 2-3 to Puerto Rico. Dammit all anyway, I'm sick of it. Four years of this crap. But at least they moved out of last place.
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USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jul 23
Vancouver 1-1 Charleston
-Thu Jul 24
Minnesota 2-1 Seattle
Portland 0-0 Carolina
-Fri Jul 25
Rochester 1-1 Montreal
-Sat Jul 26
Vancouver 1-0 Carolina
Seattle 1-0 Charleston
-Sun Jul 27
Montreal 0-2 Rochester
Miami 3-0 Atlanta
Minnesota 2-3 Puerto Rico
-Tue Jul 29
Miami v Vancouver
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USL First Division Standings

Standings (games played):
31 Charleston (18)
30 Puerto Rico (17)
28 Rochester (19) (GD +5)
28 Vancouver (16) (GD +2)
26 Seattle (20)
23 Miami (20) (GD -1)
23 Portland (20) (GD -4)
21 Atlanta (16) (GD -5)
21 Carolina (19) (GD -8)
20 Minnesota (19)
19 Montreal (18)
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USA Olympic Team

FIFA.com has a Q & A with Jozy Altidore, on the Olympics and Villarreal.
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Salt Lake midfielder/defender Nathan Sturgis has been dropped from the team due to a reoccurrence of a hamstring injury that has kept him off the field for most of 2008. He will be replaced by midfielder Dax McCarty of Dallas.
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US Soccer with a little news on the team from Hong Kong where they are preparing this week.
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Official team blog.
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USA U20 News

Our boys again take part in the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland
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Matches & Scores:
-Mon Jul 28
USA v Northern Ireland
-Wed Jul 30
USA v Wales
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Belgium, Chile & Israel make up the other group.
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The final will be played on Fri Aug 1.
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Soccer In America

FC Barcelona land in America on Thursday to begin several days of training and a couple of friendlies. Here is some info from the teams website.
-Included in this trip is a training session on Mon Aug 4 in Manhattan's Central Park. What a scene that should be.
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Americans In Europe

Ever wondered what Borussia Dortmund defender Neven Subotic looks like? I have. Here he is sliding through a puddle at training.
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Danish SAS Ligaen :
-Dan Califf - Midjtyland - drew 1-1 at Sonderjysk
-Tally Hall - Esbjerg - lost 0-1 at home against Vejle
-Will John - Randers - drew 1-1 at home against Copenhagen
-Lee Nguyen - Randers - drew 1-1 at home against Copenhagen
-Jeremiah White - Aarhus - won 3-1 at home over Horsens
Norwegian Tippeligaen:
-Adin Brown - Aalesunds - did not dress as they lost at home 1-2 to Viking.
-Mikkel Diskerud - Stabaek - no game this weekend.
-Pat Noonan - Aalesunds - played the final 20 minutes but they lost at home 1-2 to Viking.
-Troy Perkins - Valerenga - drew 0-0 at home against Tromso
-Brian Waltrip - Molde - lost 4-0 at Stromsgodset
-Brian West - Fredrikstad - did not suit up as they beat Brann 1-0 at home.
Norwegian Adeccoligaen:
-Matthew Allen - Bryne - lost 1-0 at Sandefjord
-Clarence Goodson - Start - no game this weekend
-Joe Lapira - Nybergsund - drew 2-2 at home against Lov Ham Bergen
-Jay Needham - Alta - won 1-0 at home against Sparta Sarpsborg
-Chris Rodd - Bryne - lost 1-0 at Sandefjord
-Kyle Veris - Hodd - lost 5-1 at Honefoss
-Cam Weaver - Haugesund - won 2-4 at Moss
Swedish Allsvenskan:
-Colin Burns - Ljungskile - did not play as they lost 1-0 at AIK.
-Charlie Davies - Hammarby - was not on the bench as they drew 1-1 at Orebro.
-Etchu Tabe - Ljungskile - played all 90 but lost 1-0 at AIK.
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Americans in Mexico

Luis Bueno at the Sideline Views gives us a recap of weekend matches featuring the Americans.
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Canada & CSA News

Ben Knight of the Toronto Globe & Mail blog On Soccer raves about the last 7 days in terms of Canadian soccer.
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Mexico & FMF News

The big game of the Primera Apertura opening weekend saw America beat defending champs Santos 3-2. Salvador Cabanas continued with his amazing goal scoring skills to bag 2 more in the win.
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Jack Bell of the New York Times has a Q & A with Mexico & Barcelona defender Rafa Marquez.
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England News

Fulham has signed English forward Andy Johnson from Everton.
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Liverpool has signed Irish striker Robbie Keane from Tottenham.
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Newcastle have nearly finished a deal to sign Argentine defender Fabricio Coloccini from Deportivo La Coruna. He was pretty good at one time, but I am not so sure anymore. Maybe though.
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Joey Barton was released from prison today after serving 2 1/2 of his 4 month sentence.
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The Observer with a short personal profile of new Blackburn manager Paul Ince.
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European News

ITALY

Inter has signed Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari from Portsmouth.
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World News

The English newspaper The Guardian has just release a "collection of the newspaper's coverage of the game at every level." The Guardian book of Football can be purchased here. It is a bit pricey for us Americans at $40 plus shipping.
-Here are some samples from the book.
-And here is an article from the book written by Richard Williams on the managerial skills of Brian Clough.
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Middle Eastern News

Last month Qatar knocked Iraq out of World Cup qualifying. But soon after Iraq accused Qatar of using ineligible players. Now it's getting more serious. The New York Times with the story.