Take Me Off News

I am very excited to see Houston & Pachuca battle it out once again. This time in the SuperLiga semifinals! Every time these two teams meet it's a masterpiece of a game! Oh Yeah!

~and~

The frustratingly talented Arturo Alvarez has been sold by FC Dallas to San Jose. The Earthquakes also gave up a future draft pick in the deal. Let's hope that Alvarez can consistently show his skills for the new team.


SuperLiga

Pachuca will be without their offensive engine tonight - Christian "Chaco" Gimenez is suspended due to Yellow Card accumulation.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Official website
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Semifinals
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jul 29
Houston v Pachuca - 9pm central on TeleFutura
Attendance:
Venue: Robertson Stadium, Houston TX
Match preview by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.
Pre-game notes by Fallas on his blog Soccer y Futbol.
Pre-game analysis by Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle.
Match preview by Pat Walsh at Goal.com.
-Wed Jul 30
New England v Atlante - 7pm central on TeleFutura
Attendance:
Venue: Gillette Stadium, Foxborough MA
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Scoreboard

Week 18
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jul 23
DC 0-2 Houston - HD goals by Brian Mullan & Brian Ching.
Attendance: 14,660
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
Dallas 4-0 Los Angeles - FCD goals by Kenny Cooper(2), Dominic Oduro & Abe Thompson.
Attendance: 21,020
Venue: Pizza Hut Park, Frisco TX
Kansas City 0-0 Chicago
Attendance: 10,385
Venue: Community America Ballpark, Kansas City KS
Colorado 0-2 Columbus - CC goals by Steven Lenhart & Jason Garey.
Attendance: 10,647
Venue: Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City CO
-Mon Jul 28
Salt Lake 2-1 Toronto - RSL goals by Jamison Olave & Robbie Findley. TFC goal by Amado Guevara.
Attendance: 12,319
Venue: Rice Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City UT
Match report by James Edward of the Deseret News.
Match report by Jimmy McNulty of the Toronto Sun.
Match report by Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Player ratings for RSL on the Deseret News RSL blog.
Post game notes by Edward.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ejections:
Gonzalo Martinez - DC United - 2 Yellow Cards
Steven Lenhart - Columbus Crew - Red Card
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

League Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

One name above all others to fear: Cuauhtemodo
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FC DALLAS

Great piece of info from a commenter yesterday: "Cooper got the players to sign the game ball, then gave it to Schellas to commemorate his 1st win as FC Dallas' head coach. Class act."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Diego Aparicio of the Dallas Morning News with info on outgoing Arturo Alvarez and incoming Bruno Guarda.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DC UNITED

Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner looks at the ever-changing line ups, but same old losing results for DCU lately.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

HOUSTON DYNAMO

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle on the teams newest signing, forward Kei Kamara. And several other notes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Kyle McCarthy writing for Sports Illustrated says Pat Noonan did not sign with Columbus, but could be headed back to the Revs.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

RED BULL NEW YORK

The team has lost completely useless forward Oscar Echeverry to a season ending knee injury.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

REAL SALT LAKE

The Deseret Morning News with a story on big strapping defender Jamison Olave.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Robbie Russell was just officially signed by RSL on Friday and made his debut late in the game last night subbing on for an injured Ian Joy. He looked good too. Big, strong and fast.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

TORONTO FC

The Toronto Sun says Chad Barrett is fine, but how about a real star player for TFC.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Midfielder Carl Robinson writes for his native County Times in Wales about the teams loss in the Canadian Championship.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GENERAL

Dallas forward Kenny Cooper was named Player Of The Week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Steven Goff of the Washington Post on his blog Soccer Insider gives us his weekly review - The Good, The Bad & The Coyote Ugly.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ken Roberts at Sports Club Stats sent over this analysis chart that let's you see which way all 14 MLS teams are trending, and their chances of making the playoffs.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division News

First & Second Division Teams Of The Week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ken Roberts at Sports Club Stats sent over this analysis chart that let's you see which way all 11 USL First Division teams are trending, and their chances of making the playoffs.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Minnesota Thunder

Defender Stephen DeRoux and midfielder Ricardo Sanchez made the leagues Team Of The Week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jul 29
Miami v Vancouver
-Fri Aug 1
Atlanta v Charleston
Puerto Rico v Seattle
Carolina v Vancouver
-Sat Aug
Minnesota v Portland
-Sun Aug 3
Charleston v Vancouver
Puerto Rico v Carolina
Rochester v Atlanta
-Tue Aug 5
Atlanta v Vancouver
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USA Olympic Team

ESPN Magazine has an article on Freddy Adu and Olympic preparations.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

ING Cup Friendly Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jul 30
USA v Cote d'Ivoire
-Sat Aug 2
USA v Cameroon
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Official team blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USA U20 News

Our boys are taking part in the annual Milk Cup in Northern Ireland.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Matches & Scores:
-Mon Jul 28
USA 1-3 Northern Ireland - USA goal by Johnny Flynn(OG).
Match report from the Milk Cup website.
-Wed Jul 30
USA v Wales
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Belgium, Chile & Israel make up the other group.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The final will be played on Fri Aug 1.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer In America

Nick Green of the Daily Breeze brings up a great point when writing about how most of us gringos know next to nothing about the Mexican Primera league.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Wall Street Journal with an article on European teams spending more and more money to scout and help produce young American players. (thanks to Mark for this one)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff Rusnack of the South Florida Sun Sentinel with a review of the book Soccer In A Football World by David Wangerin. Out for over a year in Europe, the book has finally been released in the country it was written about.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

Shaka Hislop at Soccernet does a video interview with Kasey Keller.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet with the story of young Neven Subotic. Now defending for Borussia Dortmund, but still not committed to Team USA for the his international career. Why not?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Paul Kennedy of Soccer America calls Freddy Adu the new French ambassador. Via Sports Illustrated.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying News

FIFA.com with a look at the Cuban national team as they gear up for the first group stage of World Cup qualifying next month.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

South American News

Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated calls the Chocolate Box in Buenos Aires, home to Boca Juniors, the greatest sporting venue on earth.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

England News

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune looks at 2 talented young Englishmen from Liverpool who have had slightly different success as professionals: Steven Gerrard and Joey Barton.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Two more articles from the Guardian Book Of Football.
-Why a weary England will never win by David Lacey
-Cool, calm and courageous, Moore is No1 by Sir Geoff Hurst
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

ITALY

Hilarious picture - Luis Figo teaches new signing Sulley Muntari some of the secret Inter dance moves.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

OTHERS

Bloomberg has the story of a local burger chain in Sweden going toe to toe with UEFA over corporate sponsorship exclusivity. (thanks to Joe for this)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Champions League

Second Qualifying Round - 1st leg
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Aug 29
Brann (Bergen, Norway) 1-0 Ventspils (Latvia)
Inter Baku (Azerbaijan) 1-1 Partizan (Belgrade, Serbia)
Drogheda (Ireland) 1-2 Dynamo Kyiv (Kiev, Ukraine)
-Wed Aug 30
Rangers (Glasgow Scotland) v Kaunas (Lithuania)
Tampere United (Finland) v Artmedia (Bratislava, Slovakia)
Sheriff (Tiraspol, Moldova) v Sparta Praha (Czech Republic)
AaB (Aalborg, Denmark) v Modrica Maxima (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
Beitar Jerusalem (Israel) v Wisla Krakow (Poland)
Fenerbahce (Istanbul, Turkey) v MTK Hungaria (Budapest, Hungary)
IFK Goteborg (Sweden) v Basel (Switzerland)
Anderlecht (Montignies-sur-Sambre, Belgium) v BATE (Borisov, Belarus)
Anorthosis Famagusta (Larnaca, Cyprus) v Rapid Wien (Vienna, Austria)
Panathinaikos (Athens, Greece) v Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia)
Domzale (Slovenia) v Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2nd leg matches on Aug 5 & 6.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Cup

First Qualifying Round 2nd leg matches are being played on Thu Jul 31.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

World News

Jack Bell of the New York Times with his world news recap - Extra Time. Focusing on the nature of player contracts.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

African News

The Ethiopian federation has been suspended from international play by FIFA due to non-compliance with regulations set out by FIFA for managing federations.