Friday, September 12, 2008

Next Great Project News

Roy Keane talking about Jack Warner: "He's a clown." Oh yeah! I have had my problems with Keane but this is priceless. See video in the Jack Warner/Sepp Blatter/FIFA Idiocy & Scandal News section.

~and~

Luxembourg scored one of the great upsets of all time on Wednesday, beating Switzerland 1-2 Zurich. This is only Luxs 2nd win in their last 56 matches! And to make it worse for the Swiss, it was their second [corrected] game with new coach Ottmar Hitzfeld.


Team USA

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Sep 10
USA 3-0 Trinidad & Tobago - USA goals Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey & Brian Ching.
Attendance: 11,400
Venue: Toyota Park, Bridgeview IL
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The USA has now kept 6 clean sheets in a row. (Argentina, Barbados, Barbados, Guatemala, Cuba and Trinidad & Tobago)
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Official team blog.
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Ever need some tickets to a USA game? Here is how I got mine.
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du Nord 3 Stars Of The Game

3. DaMarcus Beasley - Although he should have scored (again) he still played fantastic defense, and when he cut inside it seemed baffle the T&T defenders on how to stop him. Plus his give & go pass with Dempsey as a thing of beauty.
2. Clint Dempsey - By playing on the outside he allowed Landon Donovan to go inside and attack more. His interplay with Beasley for goal 2 was huge, and his finish was again rock solid. Then he helped put the heavy clamps on Keon Daniel who had been dangerous for T&T in their previous 2 games.
1. Michael Bradley - You can start with that first goal. It's exactly the kind of thing he did for Heerenveen last season. And he kept intercepting the T&T offense he would then immediately get the ball moving forward and into the USA attack over and over again. Nothing got past him.

(NOTE: These picks were a really tough call, cuz many players did their job very well, and it was tough to keep Landon Donovan, Steve Cherundolo and Oguchi Onyewu off this list.)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying Schedule & Standings

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Sep 10
USA 3-0 Trinidad & Tobago - USA goals by Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey & Brian Ching.
Guatemala 4-1 Cuba - Guat goals by Carlos Ruiz(2), Mario Rodriguez & Jose Contreras. Cub goal by Roberto Linares.
Honduras 2-0 Jamaica - Hon goals by Ramon Nunez & Amado Guevara.
Mexico 2-1 Canada - Mex goals by Omar Bravo & Rafael Marquez. Can goal by Ali Gerba.
Surinam 0-2 El Salvador - ES goals by Shawn Martin & Marion Felter(OG).
Haiti 1-3 Costa Rica - Hai goal by Alain Vubert. CR goals by Brian Ruiz(2) & Alejandro Alpizar.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Standings after 3 of 6 games played:
A
9 USA
4 Guatemala
4 Trinidad & Tobago
0 Cuba
B
9 Mexico
6 Honduras
1 Canada
1 Jamaica
C
9 Costa Rica
6 El Salvador
1 Haiti
1 Surinam
(top 2 from each group advance to the final group stage)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Scoreboard

Week 25
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Sep 11
New England 4-0 Chivas USA - NER goals by Taylor Twellman, Jeff Larentowicz, Khano Smith & Steve Ralston.
Attendance: 7,606 - just brutal!
Venue: Gillette Stadium, Foxborough MA
-Sat Sep 13
Toronto v Columbus - 2:30pm central on Direct Kick
Venue: BMO Field, Toronto ON
Kansas City v Los Angeles - 4pm central on HDNet
Venue: CommunityAmerica Ballpark, Kansas City KS
DC v Dallas - 6:30pm central on FSC
Venue: RFK Stadium, Washington DC
New York v Salt Lake - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Venue: Giants Stadium, East, Rutherford NJ
San Jose v Houston - 9pm central on Direct Kick
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium, Santa Clara CA
-Sun Sep 14
Colorado v Chicago - 2pm central on TeleFutura
Venue: Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City CO
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

League Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

TORONTO FC

Defender Marco Velez has been given a 2nd game on his Red Card suspension from a clash of heads with Alecko Eskandarian of Chivas USA. The league disciplinary committee said the 2nd game was "for endangering another player with a deliberate blow to the head."
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GENERAL

Forbes takes a look at the financial value of MLS teams. Very good stuff here.
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MLS Expansion News

The FC Barcelona Blog has new rumblings about Barca investing in a MLS team in Miami with the company Traffic who already own USL-1 team Miami FC. Lots of details here too. (thanks to Julio for this one)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF Champions League News

Official CONCACAF website
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The Group Stage kicks off on Tuesday September 16!!
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USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Sep 10
Seattle 1-2 Montreal
-Thu Sep 11
Portland 1-2 Charleston
-Fri Sep 12
Rochester v Puerto Rico
-Sat Sep 13
Minnesota v Charleston
Seattle v Atlanta
Vancouver v Montreal
-Sun Sep 14
Carolina v Rochester
-Tue Sep 16
Montreal v Puerto Rico
-Wed Sep 17
Miami v Rochester
-Fri Sep 19
Charleston v Carolina
Puerto Rico v Atlanta
-Sat Sep 20
Carolina v Portland
Minnesota v Montreal
Seattle v Vancouver
-Sun Sep 21
Miami v Atlanta
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Standings

Points - Team - Games played of 30 (goal difference):
49 Puerto Rico (27)
47 Vancouver (28)
41 Montreal (27)
40 Rochester (27) (+6)
40 Charleston (28) (+3)
39 Seattle (28)
33 Minnesota (28)
- - - - - - - - -
32 Atlanta (27)
31 Portland (29)
30 Carolina (27)
28 Miami (28)
(The top 7 teams advance to the playoffs.)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mexico & FMF News

The old crazy hunchback Cuauhtemoc Blanco played his 100th and now final game for Mexico. After making a short 2 minute sub spell he announced his retirement from international play.
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South American News

CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Sep 9
Paraguay 2-0 Venezuela
-Wed Sep 10
Uruguay 0-0 Ecuador
Chile 4-0 Colombia
Peru 1-1 Argentina
Brazil 0-0 Bolivia
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Standings
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England News

Gianfranco Zola was indeed announced as the new coach at West Ham.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

No word yet on who will be driving the Newcastle bus. Do they give Alan Shearer his shot?
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UEFA Champions League

The group stage kicks off next Tuesday! Hooray Beer! Boo creepy FIFA VP.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA World Cup Qualifying Schedule

Some rather stunning results from Wednesday night. First of all Luxembourg won for only the 2nd time in 56 matches, winning 1-2 at Switzerland! Finland held Germany 3-3 at home. After beating France in the previous round, Austria went to Lithuania and lost 2-0. And finally England went to the fashionable pick Croatia and destroyed them 1-4, restoring new life into the dull English team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Sep 10
Faroe Islands 0-1 Romania
Iceland 1-2 Scotland
Andorra 1-3 Belarus
Russia 2-1 Wales
Montenegro 0-0 Ireland
Northern Ireland 0-0 Czech Republic
Sweden 2-1 Hungary
Bosnia-Herzegovina 7-0 Estonia
Moldova 1-2 Israel
Macedonia 1-2 Netherlands
Switzerland 1-2 Luxembourg
San Marino 0-2 Poland
Lithuania 2-0 Austria
Finland 3-3 Germany
Slovenia 2-1 Slovakia
Portugal 2-1 Denmark
Albania 3-0 Malta
Italy 2-0 Georgia
France 2-1 Serbia
Croatia 1-4 England
Turkey 1-1 Belgium
Azerbaijan 0-0 Liechtenstein
Latvia 0-2 Greece
Spain 4-0 Armenia
Kazakhstan 1-3 Ukraine
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Big Club Matches This Week

Bundesliga
-Sat Sep 13
Hamburg v Bayer Leverkusen - is one of these two going to challenge Bayern Munich for the title?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Premiership
-Sat Sep 13
Liverpool v Manchester United - we will find out if the Liverpeople are for real or not
Manchester City v Chelsea - the really new money hosts the new money
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ligue 1
-Sat Sep 13
Bordeaux v Marseille - battle of the up and comers
Lyon v Nice - find out if Nice is a con-or-pre-tender
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

La Liga:
-Sun Sep 14
Villarreal v Deportivo La Coruna - the new hotshots take on the former new hotshots
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Argentina:
-Sun Sep 14
Boca Juniors v Independiente - an age old battle
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Brazil:
-Sun Sep 14
Cruzeiro v Palmeiras - #2 v #3
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USA
-Sat Sep 13
San Jose v Houston - the Bay Area new team v the former, then moved, Bay Area team - a parallel universe game
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mexico
-Sat Sep 13
San Luis v America - the newest champs take on the old guard, who are floundering
Pachuca v Guadalajara - two powerhouses both in big need of a win
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jack Warner/Sepp Blatter/FIFA Idiocy & Scandal News

Here is some classic Slappy Jack:
-Trinidad & Tobago midfielder Dwight Yorke is called by to England by his club team, Sunderland, and doesn't play against the USA in the World Cup qualifier on Wednesday night. USA Today with the story.
-Jack Warner, being a representative of T&T, as well as FIFA VP explodes to the press, and sends a letter to Sunderland coach Roy Keane giving him the business. The Times of London with a few clips from that letter.
-Roy Keane takes the "witness stand" and fires back at Warner. The BBC with video.
-Sunderland also has some more details on their own website.
-And Jack fires right back with more huffing and puffing, full of sound and fury signifying nothing, as someone great once wrote. From The Press Association.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A couple of the more interesting subtleties going on here: Why did Warner make this public? If Jack is making claims on behalf of T&T then why is his letter sent on FIFA letterhead? Then the real kicker is that Jack did not have T&T file a formal complaint with FIFA over the recall of Yorke. If this is such a big deal then shouldn't Warner be doing things by the book?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Roy Keane is right, Slappy is a clown.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

African World Cup Qualifying

Africa World Cup qualifiers
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Sep 10
Zambia 1-0 Togo
Chad 1-3 Sudan
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Asian News

Asia World Cup qualifiers
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Sep 10
N Korea 1-1 S Korea - played in Shanghai China
Uzbekistan 0-1 Australia
Qatar 1-1 Bahrain
United Arab Emirates 1-2 Saudi Arabia
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Road To World Cup 2010 - South Africa News

Oceania World Cup qualifiers - 2nd leg
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Sep 10
Vanuatu 2-1 Fiji
New Zealand 3-0 New Caledonia
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Standings

6 Comments:

Blogger Zathras said...

I always had respect for Marco Velez when he was in the USL. He seemed to play a clean defensive game whenever he was in town, and got on with things for the most part, whether he was with the Sounders or the Islanders.
Sad to see that happen in MLS.

9:13 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

RE: Barca & Traqffic potentially investing in a US-based team together - skeevy. I can't believe Barca would associate themselves with a company like Traffic

Traffic is a third-party player contract company in Brazil that buys, sells and markets young talent from Brazil. Just like MSI/Kia Joorabchian - the guy who "loaned" Mascherano and Tevez to West Ham a few years ago and cause dsuch a stink in the EPL. While this sort of third party ownership is relatively common in South America, where the pro clubs are exactly that and not registered businesses, pretty much everyone thinks companies like this are fronts for laundering money via inflated player valuation, transfer fees and agent's fees.

NY Times has the goods:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/business/19soccer.html

10:11 AM  
Blogger Alex said...

As a Swiss person I'm obviously embarrassed about the last week. They should have beaten Israel and Luxembourg and be sitting pretty with 6 points. Instead they have 1.

Brucio -- the Lux. game was Ottmar's 2nd game in charge.

11:43 AM  
Blogger Andrew said...

Bruce -

It was awesome meeting you a halftime of the game. Hopefully we can run into each other at another game in the future.

2:40 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brucio wrote;
'Roy Keane talking about Jack Warner: "He's a clown." Oh yeah! I have had my problems with Keane but this is priceless.'
-------------

YOU have had your problems with Keane ??
Do you mean personally,...or do you just mean as a soccer fan with an opinion in Minneapolis ?

What's funny, is you look more like a clown than Keane does.

Brucio, you're a clown !
Thanks for entertaining us.
Ha, ha, ha.

9:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to getting Friday's post on Friday? Or even on Saturday? I know, you have a life.

10:29 PM  

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