Feeling Some Noises News

BE WARNED: If baseball on ESPN2 runs long tonight, the USA game will start on ESPN Classic.

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Coach Fernando Clavijo is done in Colorado. He went to his native Uruguay last week to attend to personal matters, and has now "resigned". He has never been a great week to week coach, but I think the guy has a great eye for talent, and should be given some credit with setting up the New England team that Steve Nicol make great. See Colorado Rapids section for details.

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The Fish goes to Toronto and the Frog heads home! Carlos Ruiz is traded by LA to Toronto for ?, and TFC release French midfielder Laurent Robert to make room on the roster. Details in the Toronto FC section.


Team USA

Guatemala v USA - 9pm central time on ESPN2
Venue: Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City
Match preview by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
Match preview by Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America.
Match preview from Yanks Abroad.
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The USA were denied their chance to train at the game stadium due to "inclement weather", meaning it rained earlier in the day and we are going to mess with you now. No option was offered either. So the USA went into action and found their own field to train on, but with the sun setting really early in Guatemala they got less than 40 minutes on the field. Ah, welcome to World Cup qualifying in Central America.
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The AP with an article on the ridiculous travel some USA players have done to get to this game.
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From what I can tell, Steven Goff of the Washington Post is the only serious soccer reporter from America at the game. Great for him. Very sad for the rest of us (not that he's there, that there aren't more).
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A picture of Guate coach Ramon Maradiaga. The man they affectionately call Primi, short for El Primitivo aka The Primitive.
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Official team blog.
-Has a quick video interview with Eddie Lewis & Heath Pearce.
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US Soccer has an audio interview with forward Brian Ching. A video interview with various team members. And travel & training photos.
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CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying Schedule

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 20
Group A
Cuba v Trinidad & Tobago
Guatemala v USA
Group B
Canada v Jamaica
Mexico v Honduras
Group C
Costa Rica v El Salvador
Haiti v Surinam
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MLS Scoreboard

Week 22
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 20
New England v DC - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Match preview by Monique Walker of the Boston Globe.
Houston v Chivas USA - 8pm central on Direct Kick
Match preview by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.
-Thu Aug 21
Los Angeles v Chicago - 9pm central on ESPN2
-Sat Aug 23
DC v Colorado - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Toronto v New England - 6:30pm central on Fox Soccer Channel
Columbus v Salt Lake - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Kansas City v Dallas - 7pm central on Direct Kick
Chivas USA v San Jose - 9:30pm central on HDNet
-Sun Aug 24
New York v Houston - 2pm central on TeleFutura
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League Standings
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MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Luis Arroyave of the Tribune rips MLS for scheduling the Fire V Galaxy game tomorrow night, knowing that many key players on both teams could be missing after international duty. Ivan Gazidis of League HQ has very lame excuses. It's a lot like the lame way the league continues to compare the money paid to players on MLS developmental rosters to player in the minor leagues of baseball. The key missing from their argument is that minor leaguers called up to the big leagues get a big big bump in pay, even if its only for a couple games. MLS pays not one penny extra to their "minor league players". Nice try. Now try again with something a little less idiotic.
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COLORADO RAPIDS

Brian Forbes of the Denver Post on the resignation of head coach Fernando Clavijo. Assistant coach Gary Smith will take over for the rest of the season.
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George Tanner of the Rocky Mountain News blog FC Rocky on the debut of centerback Cory Gibbs. The article was prompted by an email I sent George. It's always nice when someone answers you in a public forum. More fun for everyone. Thanks George.
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DC UNITED

John Haydon of the Washington Times with an article on new keeper Louis Crayton.
-DCU's Liberian forward Grandpa Doe is the one who recommended Crayton.
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The Washington Post with an article on Doe & Crayton too.
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Defender Gonzalo Martinez will not play tonight due to Yellow Card accumulation suspension. FYI - Martinez is NOT related to for Oakland A's & Chicago Cub's first baseman Gonzalo Marquez.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO

The Chronicle does a Q & A with goalkeeper Pat Onstad about still being a top athlete at 40 years old.
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LOS ANGELES GALAXY

I don't think they had much choice due to the salary cap, but I think LA will strongly regret sending Carlos Ruiz to Toronto.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his blog The Red Card talks to some Fire players about their former head coach Dave Sarachan who is part of Bruce Arena's new Galaxy coaching staff.
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NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Goalkeeper Matt Reis will not play tonight due to a abductor muscle strain. This will put even more pressure on back up Doug Warren who had a brutal game coming in off the bench at San Jose last weekend.
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The team officially signed 24 year old Costa Rican defender Gabriel Badilla from Saprissa. He is with the CR national team today as they host El Salvador in World Cup qualifying.
-Kyle McCarthy of the Boston Herald with an article on the new defender.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Jack Bell of the Times with an article on Seth Stammler who's versatility has made him a very important part of the team. Plus some other world soccer notes.
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TORONTO FC

TFC has been criticized in the past few weeks for saying they desperately need fire power in the forward positions but then only getting Chad Barrett and Johann Smith added to the roster. Well today they took a bigger step and added Carlos El Pescadito Ruiz to the team. He has scored many in the past, not been a big factor the past few seasons, was injured early this year, but the kind of guy I think still has plenty left in the tank and could be a dominant forward in this league again. But do you really think Ruiz is going to be down with playing on that turf? I highly doubt it. Let's see how long it takes him to report to the team.
-Morgan Campbell of the Star with word on Ruiz and other team roster moves.
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Larry Millson of the Globe & Mail reports that the team released midfielder Laurent Robert to open up a foreign roster spot for Ruiz.
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The one thing of interest though, is that with Edu and Robert gone the team are now short on midfielders. They never seem to be able to get this roster shuffle quite right do they?
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USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 20
Montreal v Atlanta
Seattle v Vancouver
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Americans In Europe

TRANSFER RUMORS

Maurice Edu has to wait until Friday to find out if his transfer to Rangers is really official - that is when he finds out if me received a work permit.
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Mexico & FMF News

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his blog The Red Card talks to Cuauhtemoc Blanco who says Guillermo Ochoa should be the starting keeper for Mexico, not Oswaldo Immature-Is-Too-Light-A-Word-For-How-Big-Of-A-Moron-I-Am Sanchez.
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Olympic Soccer News

I did not see it happen, but I was told that NBC cut to commercials and missed goals in both Men's semifinal games. And they wonder why we feel they don't respect the game. Not cool.
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According to Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post, on his blog DC Sports Bog (aka Beijing Sports Smog), after beating Brazil the Argentine players boarded their bus and started singing, "Un Minuto de Silencio Para Brasil que Esta Muerto" - aka "A moment of silence for Brazil, which is dead!" Brilliant!
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FIFA's Olympic News Site
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Olympic Soccer Scoreboard

Women's Final Match & Score:
-Thu Aug 21
Brazil v USA
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Men's Final Matches & Scores:
-Sat Aug 23
Nigeria v Argentina
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England News

He's not much of a big name, but it's a move you don't see every day - Manchester United has sold fullback Mikael Silvestre to Arsenal!
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Sunderland has signed a loan deal for French forward Djibril Cisse from Marseille.
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Brian Glanville of World Soccer looks at the financial, legal and political mess at Manchester City with team owner Thaksin Shinawatra.
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European News

ITALY

Fiorentina forward Adrian Mutu has dislocated his elbow while training with his national team Romania. He is expected to be out for 2 weeks. I hope its not worse and causes my friend Ken to have a stroke.
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Fans of Roma, at the funeral of their long time team president Franco Sensi, soaked a Milan team executive with water, and heckled staff from other Italian clubs. Classy bunch.
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OTHERS

Radomir Antic has been hired as the new head coach of the Serbia.
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UEFA World Cup Qualifying Schedule

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 20
Kazakhstan 3-0 Andorra - Group 6
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This Is The End

Douglas Todd, who is the Spirituality columnist for the Vancouver Sun finds great depth in books about the beautiful game. Life lessons that go way beyond the field of play. I agree. He lists some of the best reading to be found anywhere. I have read all but the book written by the local Vancouver guy, and will say that he is right on the money, but I would add Simon Kuper's excellent Football Against The Enemy to his list of great reading, to replace How Soccer Explains the World. (thanks to my brilliant brother Bill for this one)