Thursday, August 28, 2008

Put Gravy On It News

Personal note: Can someone out there - anyone out there - hook me up with a ticket to see Rage Against The Machine on Wed Sep 3 here in Minneapolis, at the Target Center. I very much want to see this. Anyone. Please. Thank you.



Total heartbreak for Oguchi Onyewu yesterday as this team Standard Liege lost 1-0 in the Champions League at Liverpool, giving up the winning goal in the 118th minute. Just two more minutes and the game would have gone to Penalty Kicks. Damn.

~and~

Bad news for St Louis Expansion?? The Collinsville Herald with gloomy financial words from the lead investor. See MLS Expansion News section for details. (thanks to rns for the heads up)

~and~

US Soccer with video of the announcement of the USA roster for the 2 upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Cuba on Sep 6 and Trinidad & Tobago on Sep 10. See list of rostered players in Team USA section


CONCACAF Champions League News

Official CONCACAF website
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The Preliminary Round - 1st Leg
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Aug 26
Joe Public (T&T) 2-1 New England Revolution - JP goals by Gregory Richardson & Jamal Gay. NER goal by Mauricio Castro(PK).
Tauro (Panama) 2-0 Chivas USA - Tau goals both by Edwin Aguilar.
Cruz Azul 6-0 Hankook Verdes (Belize) - Cruz goals by Javier Orozco(3), Edgar Andrade(2) & Gerardo Torrado.
-Wed Aug 27
Montreal Impact 1-0 Real Esteli (Nicaragua) - Mon goal by Joey Gjersten.
Match report from the Montreal Gazette.
Alajuelense (Costa Rico) 1-1 Puerto Rico Islanders - Ala goal by Argenis Fernandez. PRI goal by Osei Telesford.
Isidro Metapan (El Salvador) 2-2 Marathon (Honduras) - IM goals by Mario Aguilar & William Reyes. Mara goals by Jose Alvarado(OG) & Mariano Acevedo.
-Thu Aug 28
Harbour View (Jamaica) v UNAM Pumas - 7pm central on FSC
Jalapa (Guatemala) v San Francisco (Panama)
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Argenis Fernandez who scored for Alajuelense is on loan there from the New England Revolution! The Revs could have used him on Tuesday night.
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The two USL-1 teams did really well for themselves, especially Puerto Rico. Montreal needed a bigger cushion to take on the road next week, but PR did as good as any of the road teams so far.
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Many people will make the case that the USL-1 teams did better in this first leg then the two MLS teams did. But that is too simple. The MLS teams come in with much much higher expectations. The MLS teams come in as the big dog, and if you ever go see your local team play someone from a perceived higher division there is considerable more tension in the air then if they are playing someone considered their equal or lesser. It's human nature. So great job by the USL-1 teams, but let's see where everyone stands after the 2nd leg, then we can pass judgment.
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Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com reviews the first batch of games in the 1st leg.
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MLS Scoreboard

Week 23
Matches & Scores:
-Fri Aug 29
Salt Lake v Colorado - 8pm central on Direct Kick
-Sat Aug 30
New England v Los Angeles - 6:30pm central on HDNet & Direct Kick
DC v New York - 6:30pm central on FSC
Dallas v Columbus - 8pm central on Direct Kick
San Jose v Kansas City - 9pm central on Direct Kick
Chivas v Toronto - 9:30pm central on Direct Kick
-Sun Aug 31
Houston v Chicago - 6pm central on Direct Kick
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League Standings
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MLS News

COLUMBUS CREW

Michael Arace of the Dispatch urges the Crew owners to give coach Sigmund Schmid a contract extension NOW.
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FC DALLAS

Buzz Carrick at 3rd Degree looks at a possibly bad situation at the club where midfielder Andre Rocha and coach Schellas Hyndman are at odds. Here is his report.
-Diego Aparicio of the Dallas Morning News has more on the story, including quotes from Rocha.
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Carrick also makes his weekly trip to team training and gives us these notes.
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Goal.com talks to the teams newest forward, Jeff Cunningham, who showed up to his first FCD practice session with a cowboy hat on!
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TORONTO FC

Rollin' With Ricketts. The official Rohan Ricketts blog. Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilarious! We need more guys like this in the league.
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Shaka Hislop at the Guardian with an article on coach John Carver. And other MLS notes.
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Dean McNulty of the Sun on the arrival of Carlos Ruiz.
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Morgan Campbell of the Star on the paper's Toronto FC blog has a few words on Ruiz, and other team notes.
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GENERAL

Frank Giase of the Newark Times Ledger gives us his thoughts - This Week In MLS.
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Goal.com with their Starting XI column on the stretch run.
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MLS Expansion News

The Collinsville Herald with bad news pertaining to St Louis expansion plans. Simply put, they don't have the money. If MLS falls through, they are looking at USL. (thanks to rns for the heads up)
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Tom Timmerman of the St Louis Post Dispatch talks to the same people and comes out with a much more optimistic article.
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USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 27
Vancouver 2-0 Atlanta
-Fri Aug 29
Miami v Minnesota
Charleston v Puerto Rico
-Sat Aug 30
Carolina v Montreal
Atlanta v Rochester
-Sun Aug 31
Puerto Rico v Vancouver
Miami v Minnesota
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Standings

Standings (games played) (goal difference):
45 Vancouver (25)
44 Puerto Rico (24)
36 Charleston (25) (GD +4)
36 Seattle (26) (GD 0)
34 Rochester (25)
32 Atlanta (26)
31 Montreal (23)
- - - - - - - - -
28 Portland (25)
27 Miami (24) (GD 0)
27 Minnesota (24) (GD -5)
27 Carolina (25) (GD -11)
(The top 7 teams advance to the playoffs.)
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Team USA

Here is the 20 man roster for the 2 upcoming World Cup qualifiers - Sep 6 in Cuba and Sep 10 v T&T in Chicago. There are no surprises here (unfortunately) - it's the last roster plus a few Olympic team players:
G:
Brad Guzan - Aston Villa
Tim Howard - Everton
D:
Carlos Bocanegra - Rennes
Dan Califf - Midtjylland
Steve Cherundolo - Hannover
Frankie Hejduk - Columbus Crew
Oguchi Onyewu - Standard Liege
Michael Orozco - San Luis
Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock
Marvell Wynne - Toronto
M:
DaMarcus Beasley - Glasgow Rangers
Michael Bradley - Heerenveen
Ricardo Clark - Houston Dynamo
Maurice Edu - Glasgow Rangers
Sacha Kljestan - Chivas USA
Eddie Lewis - Los Angeles Galaxy
F:
Brian Ching - Houston Dynamo
Landon Donovan - Los Angeles Galaxy
Clint Dempsey - Fulham
Eddie Johnson - Cardiff City
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Americans In Europe

MOST RECENT MATCHES

Clint Dempsey - Fulham - was on the bench but did not play in a 3-2 Carling Cup home win over Leicester City.
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UEFA Cup on Thursday:
-Brian Arguez - Hertha Berlin - won 1-0 at home against NK Ljubljana and advance 3-0 on aggregate.
-Vincezno Bernardo - Napoli - won 5-0 at home against Vllaznia and adv 8-0 on agg.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Rennes - won 2-0 at home against Stabaek and adv 3-2 on agg.
-Dan Califf - Midtjylland - had a nightmare game, scoring an own goal at Manchester City in the final minute of regulation time to make the aggregate 1-1. Then the team lost 4-2 on PK's. Damn.
-Mikkel Diskerud - Stabaek - lost 2-0 at Rennes and are elimidated 2-3 on agg.
-Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - drew 1-1 at home against Hafnarfjordur and adv 5-2 on agg.
-Ryan Guy - St Patricks Athletic - won 2-1 at home against Elfsborg and adv 4-3 on agg.
-Brad Guzan - Aston Villa - drew 1-1 at home against Hafnarfjordur and adv 5-2 on agg.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans in Mexico

Luis Bueno at Sideline Views looks in on several mid-week games.
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England News

Steven Gerrard has suffered a torn groin muscle and will have to have surgery. He will not play for 2 weeks! Huge blow for England's World Cup qualifiers. Less so for Liverpool.
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Long time du Nord favorite footballing personality, defender Moritz Volz, has been loaned by Fulham to Ipswich for the season. So Volzy has to leave his beloved London for the east coast.
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European News

ITALY

Inter has signed Nigeria's Olympic captain Victor Obinna, and are rumored to be loaning him to Everton.
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OTHERS

Polish players Artur Boruc, Dariusz Dudka & Radoslaw Majewski have been suspended by their national team for 2 games due to some undisclosed poor behavior after a loss in a friendly to Ukraine.
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Big Euro Club Matches This Week

UEFA Super Cup
-Fri Aug 29
Manchester United v Zenit St Petersburg - the Champions League winner v the UEFA Cup winner in Monaco.
Live at 1:45pm central on FSC
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UEFA News

UEFA announced their list of "Bests" by position in European club football from the past season:
-Goalkeeper - Petr Cech
-Defender - John Terry
-Midfielder - Frank Lampard
-Forward - Cristiano Ronaldo
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UEFA Cup

Second Qualifying Round - 2nd leg matches were today. Matches & Scores here.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Poles stayed past curfew out drinking.

9:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

MLS is becoming more and more of a sham.
1) I think we are all more willing to trust Ives on the Kandji story then MLSHQ.
2) The price tags for expansion teams is rediculous, especially when you have that money being spread around, and you have cheap ass Krafts not willing to build a stadium for one of the original teams.

I wish there was a USL team near me to really support.

-Reid

7:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A RATM concert is insane. Sneak in if you have to.

10:34 PM  
Blogger Nordy said...

Re the title: Then you pick your teeth with tombstone chips?

9:36 AM  

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