Crank Up The Barrell News

When I walked out my front door this morning, the ground was covered in snow!

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Landon Donovan was awarded the 2008 Honda Player of the Year by Futbol de Primera and the national sports media for the 5th time yesterday. Congrats to him.

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Pablo Mastroeni on his surprise re-signing with Colorado (he said all season long he was headed to Europe): "I can honestly say it wasn't a hard decision for me. The last few months of the season, with Gary at the helm, I think completely changed my mind about where I wanted to be (and) where my heart was." See more details in the Colorado Rapids section.

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Gamba Osaka has won the Asian Champions League. They defeated Adelaide United 5-0 on aggregate.


MLS Scoreboard

Playoffs
Semifinals Matches & Scores:
-Thu Nov 13
Columbus Crew v Chicago Fire - 6:30pm central on ESPN2
Venue: Crew Stadium, Columbus OH
Match preview by Jeff Carlisle of ESPN Soccernet.
Match preview by Michael Lewis at MLSnet.
-Sat Nov15
Real Salt Lake v New York Red Bulls - 8:30pm central on FSC.
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy UT
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I will be at the Sweetwater in St Paul watching both of these games. Come and join me.
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Kyle McCarthy uses his breakdown skills to preview the two semifinal matches.
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Jeff Carlisle of ESPN Soccernet looks at the 4 semifinalists.
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MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Luis Arroyave of the Tribune compares and contrasts Cuauhtemoc Blanco with Columbus play maker Guillermo Barros Schelotto.
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Arroyave with a few other Fire notes.
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Arroyave on his blog The Red Card calls Chris Rolfe Mr ESPN2.
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Nick Firchau of the Sun Times on the great season in the center of defense for Bakaray Soumare.
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COLORADO RAPIDS

Brian Forbes of the Denver Post on the confirming of the head coaches job for Gary Smith and the re-signing of captain Pablo Mastroeni.
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COLUMBUS CREW

Steve Sirk with his great notes on all things Crew - Sirk's Notebook.
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Shawn Mitchell of the Dispatch reports that coach Sigi Schmid's TV died on him. Maybe that is signal to the owners that the contract they are offering him is way too low. And besides that, the coach has to be able to feed himself and his family.
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Beau Dure of USA Today with an article on the Crew and their most rabid fans.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune compares and contrasts Cuauhtemoc Blanco with Columbus play maker Guillermo Barros Schelotto.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO

The team has awarded Bobby Boswell as their Defender of the Year, and Brian Ching as their Most Valuable Player.
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KANSAS CITY WIZARDS

The teams official blog, Hillcrest Road, has a link to a Q & A that Jack Jewsbury did with college players. Some interesting stuff here.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Metrofanatic attended the Red Bull training today and has short Q & A's with Kevin Goldthwaite, Sinisa Ubiparapovic, Dane Richards & Danny Cepero. You find out how the readers of Metrofanatic rate Dane Richards performance in Houston.
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Ives Galarcep of Soccer by Ives also took in the Bulls practice today. This is what he took in.
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Luis Bueno of The Touchline was on a confernece call today with members of the Bulls as they prepare for face RSL on Sunday. Here are his notes.
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REAL SALT LAKE

Michael C Lewis of the Tribune ways RSL are not taking these playoff games for granted, nor are they content with what they have achieved so far.
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James Edward of the Deseret News on the Lakers excitement to host another home playoff game.
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Brad Rock of the Deseret writes about RSL's shot at the big time. Is that now?
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GENERAL

The Michigan Journal feels that MLS deserves more respect than it gets.
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Andrew Hush of ESPN Soccernet with his weekly notes from around the league.
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MLS Stadium Talk

Bernardo Fallas of the Chronicle on his blog Soccer y Futbol reports that the Houston city Chamber of Commerce is holding a press conference on Thursday morning to show their support in helping the Dynamo get a stadium built.
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USL First Division News

The Portland Timbers officially announced that they will field a team in the PDL next season. Great to hear. There has been talk since midsummer that my Minnesota Thunder are going to do the same thing for next season and have the team play about 100 miles south of here in Rochester MN. Let's hope this happens.
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USL General News

The star striker for surprising German contenders Hoffenheim is Vedad Ibisevic, who played for two PDL teams in the 2000's - St Louis Strikers and Chicago Fire Premier.
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US Soccer News

US Soccer is doing their year end awards and they need YOUR pictures to be submitted for "Best Fan Photo". I know many of you have been to USA games and have some outstanding pictures. So send them in today! centercircle@ussoccer.org
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Team USA

While Landon Donovan won the Honda Player of the Year award yesterday, I think Tim Howard deserved it.
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USA U20 News

They have announced the dates for the CONCACAF U20 World Cup Qualifiers.
March 6-15 in Trinidad & Tobago.
There will be 2 groups of 4 teams, and the best 4 will go on to the World Cup.
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6 teams either got a buy into this tournament or have already qualified. Host Trinidad & Tobago is in. Buys went to USA, Canada & Mexico. Already qualifed are Costa Rica & El Salvador. That leaves 2 spots to be determined with the Caribbean Champion advancing, and the Caribbean 2nd place team taking on Central America 3rd place team Honduras for the 8th and final spot.
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The 2009 U20 World Cup will take place in Egypt.

Soccer In America

This is the best blog I have found so far on the Women's Professional Soccer league, and American women's soccer in general: Women's Soccer USA
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TRANSFER RUMORS

Bayern Munich now have a story on their site about Landon Donovan that is in English. There is a photo gallery too, with pictures from training etc.
-Brant Parsons at the Orlando Sentinel soccer blog The Other Football posted some additional photos.
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Andrea Canales of Goal.com talks to Eric Wynalda and gets his feelings on Donovan's move.
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times on Donovan going to Bayern, and winning the POTY award.
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Mike Woitalla of Soccer America on the Donovan story. Via Sports Illustrated.
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Greg Seltzer of No Short Corners reports that Landon Donovan is going to hold a press conference in Munich on Thursday.
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UPCOMING MATCHES

Scotland Premier League
-DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers - at Motherwell on Wednesday.
-Maurice Edu - Rangers - at Motherwell on Wednesday.
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Spain Copa Del Rey
-Jozy Altidore - host Club Polideportivo Ejido on Wednesday in the 2nd leg, but trail 5-0 from the 1st leg.
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France Coupe de la Ligue
-Carlos Bocanegra - Rennes - at Le Havre on Wednesday.
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Austria Bundesliga
-Preston Zimmerman - Kapfenberg - host Mattersburg on Wednesday.
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MOST RECENT MATCHES
(only players who saw the field are listed)

English League Cup
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - started and went the full 90 as they knocked off Swansea 0-1 on the road.
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CONCACAF News

The Jamaica Gleaner with an article on Colorado forward Omar Cummings, who is not very well known in his home country.
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The Cay Compass reports on the Reggae Boyz who are in the Cayman Islands training for their big game next Wednesday v Canada.
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Mexico & FMF News

Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune with an article on the qualifying struggles of Mexico. While we are getting one story after another about these struggles, they will most likely qualify for the next round and then breeze through the Hex and no one will remember any of this.
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Friendly Match & Score:
-Wed Nov 12
Mexico v Ecuador - in Phoenix AZ
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South America News

Marcela Mora y Araujo of the Guardian writes about the disastrous season of River Plate and now fired coach Diego Simeone. He came into the job expected to take the team to even great heights. He bombed.
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Copa Sudamericana

Semifinals
1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 12
Guadalajara v International
-Thu Nov 13
Argentinos Juniors v Estudiantes
2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with 1st Leg scores included):
-Wed Nov 19
International v Guadalajara
-Thu Nov 20
Estudiantes v Argentinos Juniors
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England News

The reports were all wrong. Phil Anschtuz released this statement yesterday: “Neither AEG nor anyone affiliated with the organization is contemplating the purchase of Newcastle United Football Club.” Why do I ever trust the English papers?
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The International Herald Tribune has a story on the tiny fan owned club Ebbsfleet, that was bought by raising money on the internet 5 Pounds at a time.
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European News

FRANCE

Results from the Coupe de la Ligue Round of 16 matches. Here are the scores. (This is the lesser of the 2 cups in France)
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GERMANY

The Independent of England has an article on the most surprising team in all of Europe so far this season - Bundesliga team Hoffenheim.
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ITALY

Results from the Coppa Italia Round of 16 matches. Here are those scores. (The last match of this round will not be played until Jan 14 though.)
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SPAIN

World Soccer has a Q & A with Barca & Cameroon star Samuel Eto'o.
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The results from Copa Del Rey 4th Round 2nd leg matches. Here are those scores, with 1st leg scores included.
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World News

ESPN Magazine on the art of being a football manager for a top team.
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Asian News

The Asian Champions League final
Matches & Scores (with first leg score included):
-Wed Nov 12
Adelaide 0-2 Gamba - Gam win it 5-0 on aggregate.
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This Is The End

MSNBC tries to shed some light on how the world wide financial melt down may effect big time sports in America.