Closest To Something Or Other News

DDR drops the bomb on the CONCACAF Champions League. See CCL section for Houston Dynamo details.

~and~

Italy's big sports daily paper Gazzetta dello Sport sits down and talks to Ronaldinho. A rare thing these days. See details in the European News - Italy section.


CONCACAF Champions League News

Official CCL website
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Matchday 4 Matches & Scores:
-Tue Oct 7
Cruz Azul 1-1 Marathon - CA goal by Javier Orozco. Mara goal by Erick Norales.
Houston Dynamo 2-1 San Francisco - HD goals by Chris Wondolowski & Dwayne De Rosario. SF goal by .
Match report by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.
-Wed Oct 8
Joe Public v Montreal - 7pm central on FSC
Match preview from the Montreal Gazette.
Match preview from the CBC.
Olimpia v Atlante
Municipal v Tauro
Santos Laguna v Puerto Rico Islanders - 10pm central on FSC
-Thu Oct 9
Luis Angel Firpo v UNAM Pumas
Saprissa v DC United - 9pm central on FSC
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My notes from the Houston - SF game:
-In the immortal words of Jack Edwards - "That's why he's here!" Last night with the game tied 1-1 Houston coach Dominic Kinnear sent superstar Dwayne De Rosario into the game, simply asking him to make the difference. And did he ever. He instantly tormented the San Francisco midfield & defenders, then in the 88th minute DDR stole the ball, turned toward goal, took 2 touches, and blistered one of his trademarked shots bending around a defender and just inside the post for the game winner. That is what makes him the great one that he is!
-MLS teams had not won a single one of their previous 9 CCL games until last night. That is a horrible stat.
-Corey Ashe again played fantastic on the left wing. His energy has been something I have admired since I saw him play for the USA U17 team 5 years ago. Impressive, and gaining a ton of international experience.
-Houston certainly rolled out the reserves last night. Gotta keep everyone properly rested for a run at MLS Cup #3.
-Houston's back up keeper Tony Caig really Caiged that goal he gave up. He got chipped from about 35 yards. Brutal.
-Are Dynamo fans suffering from international match burnout? Or are they getting jaded already? Only 4000 at last nights game. Awful.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Scoreboard

Week 29
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Oct 9
Salt Lake v New York - 9pm central on ESPN2
Match preview by Ives Galarcep at ESPN Soccernet.
Match preview by Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

League Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Orrin Schwarz of the Daily Herald with an article on the Fire's 10th anniversary which will be celebrated on Sunday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Southtown Star follows up on the story from Forbes a couple weeks ago that discussed MLS team financial valuations.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CD CHIVAS USA

Elliott Almond of the San Jose Mercury News looks at the Amerigoats who travel north this weekend to take on the Earthquakes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

COLORADO RAPIDS

Beau Dure of USA Today with an article on the Raps increased chances of making the playoffs.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

COLUMBUS CREW

Steve Sirk's great new notebook.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

HOUSTON DYNAMO

Forward Kei Kamara has been called in to World Cup and African Nations Cup qualifiers by his national team of Sierra Leone. Brian Ching goes to join up with the USA for 2 qualifiers. And Dwayne De Rosario will join Canada for next Wednesday's game in Honduras. He is suspended for this weekends home match against Mexico, in Edmonton.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS

Hillcrest Road, the teams official blog, put us on to a very cool article (by a newly converted Eurosnob!) from their local publication KC Ink with a story on the home of the hardcore fans of the Wiz - The Cauldron. A fantastically cool group of people! And a du Nord shout out to our friend Brother Ben!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Amarillo Globe-News (in Texas) with a story on their hometown player-done-good, KC forward Davy Arnaud.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Within days of taking over the KC Star soccer beat Randy Covitz writes the kind of story that we all wished former Wiz writer Bob Luder had been writing all along - Taylor Twellman of New England and his dad, the former NASL standout Tim.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune talks to Bruce Arena about the job of turning around the Galaxy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Former LA, Columbus & Fulham midfielder Simon Elliot trained with the team yesterday. What does it mean? I have no idea cuz that is the only info that the teams official blog gave us.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

RED BULL NEW YORK

Today's Red Bull Arena photo update, courtesy of the teams official blog Red Bulls Reader.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Brian Lewis of the NY Post on their blog Extra Time says the Bulls need to win in Salt Lake. Again, it's a must win game. Don't we hear the same basic story every week and every year about this team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer says coach Juan Carlo Osorio is trying every trick in his book to reduce the pressure on his faltering team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lewis also reports that midfielder Dave Van Den Bergh is set to start and play the full 90 just one day short of three weeks after hernia surgery.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

REAL SALT LAKE

Michael C Lewis of the Tribune and Michael Black of the Deseret News both look at how the team maintains the old home field advantage while playing in a brand new home stadium.
-Black also has some updates on player injuries on the papers RSL blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Randy Davis at Goal.com tells us all about the new stadium in Sandy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

Jeff Carlisle of Center Line Soccer reports that tomorrow the EQuakes will announce a partnership of sorts with English team Tottenham.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Embele Awipi of the Salinas Californian looks at the amazing growth of the Quakes this season.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

TORONTO FC

John Molinaro of the CBC quotes coach John Carver as saying that if he doesn't get the players he needs (and was promised) then he is out of there.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nigel Reed of the CBC tries to find inspiration for TFC.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Last 5 Games

How have teams performed since Sep 1?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Colu HW-AT-HW-AW-HW - 13 of 15
Chiv AW-AL-AW-HW-AW - 12 of 15
Colo AW-HW-HT-AW-HL - 10 of 15
Hous HW-AT-PP-AT-AW - 8 of 12
Dall HL-AT-AW-HW-HT - 8 of 15
Kans AL-HW-HW-AL-HT - 7 of 15
Chic HW-AL-HL-HW-AT - 7 of 15
SanJ HW-HT-PP-HL-AT - 5 of 12
NewE AL-HW-AT-HL-HT - 5 of 15
Real AT-AL-HL-AW-AT - 5 of 15
Toro HL-HT-AL-HT-AW - 5 of 15
LosA HT-AL-HW-AL-AL - 4 of 15
NewY AL-HW-AL-HL-HL - 3 of 15
DCUn AL-HT-AL-AL-HL - 1 of 15

Key:
H - home
A - away
W - win
L - loss
T - tie
PP - postponed
points out of possible points
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Exhibition Matches

Friendly Matches & Scores:
-Tue Oct 7
San Jose Earthquakes 2-1 FAS (El Salvador)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Expansion News

The Oregonian reports that the Portland Timbers are asking the city for a lot financial help in gaining a MLS team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It took me until today to add 1 + 1 and realize that Timbers owner Merritt Paulson is the son of America's new financial Tsar Henry Paulson.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division News

The Arizona Republic is reporting that Mexican team Pachuca are in talks with the USL to start a First division team in Phoenix, San Antonio or San Francisco! Fantastic news. But honestly, how could they possibly consider playing games in the summer in Phoenix area? And the stadium they mention in suburban Mesa is a baseball park. Otherwise this is fantastic news.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Team USA

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Oct 11
USA v Cuba - live at 6pm central on ESPN Classic
-Wed Oct 15
Trinidad & Tobago v USA - live at 7pm central on ESPN
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer has an audio interview with coach Bob Bradley. Listen to or download here.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ives Galarcep of Soccer by Ives feels that Brian Ching deserves more credit than he gets.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Brent Latham of Yanks Abroad likes many of the new selections to the national team roster.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Associated Press with an article on the Freddy & Jozy show.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Official Team Blog
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer In America

This Is American Soccer has an article written by a journalist who just can't give up the desire to play on a pro team. Even at age 45.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kenya Brown at Yanks Abroad looks at what immigration means for the future of soccer in our country.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

Yanks Abroad does a Q & A with Freddy Adu, with readers asking the questions.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Greg Seltzer of Soccer 365 gives us an update on Frank Simek's ankle. He's close, real close to returning now.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Canada & CSA News

Sportsnet reports that defender Jim Brennan is not happy about being left off the roster for the 2 upcoming World Cup qualifiers. Not happy at all.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

South American News

The New York Times takes a visit to the brand new Brazilian futebol museum to see why this country is so insane for the game.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gregory Sica at Sports Illustrated previews the next round of CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

England News

The Times has an article on England & Man City winger Shaun Wright Phillips who credits England coach Fabio Capello with getting him focuses on improving his game.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Independent reports that many foreign players are stepping into local classrooms to help spread cultural awareness and lend a hand in the language department. Arsenal have embraced the idea. Excellent.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

ITALY

Gazzetta dello Sport does a Q & A Ronaldinho who promises to return to his peak form for Milan.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Telegraph has an article on Inter forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic was says he has probably learned more in 3 months with new coach Jose Mourinho than he did under former coachs Fabio Capello and Robert Mancini.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

OTHERS

FIFA.com talks to the player who is leading Lithuania to a surprising start in World Cup qualifying - a Q & A with Tomas Danilevicius.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

World News

Marcela Mora y Araujo of the Guardian tells us about an amazing looking football book called Tacalabala. I am going to try to get my hands on this one.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ravi Ubha at the Seattle Post Intelligencer with a round up of soccer news from around the globe.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jack Warner/Sepp Blatter/FIFA Idiocy & Scandal News

AFP has an article on England & Man U defender Rio Ferdinand who rips FIFA a new one over their weak-ass stand against racism, which is little more than lip service. Via Yahoo Sports.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

African News

After 43 years of Benin being known as The Squirrels, the have officially dropped the nick name. Damn. They want to be known as the Emerging Panthers now.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This Is The End

The Guardian show us the wild new shirts to be worn by rugby team Stade Francais! Holy Warhol-y.