I Am The God Of All Hellfire And I Bring You News

Chad Marshall of the Columbus Crew has been named MLS Defender of the Year. He earned it. Now let's hope this is just the beginning of greatness for him.

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All 4 Mexican teams have advanced to the knock out stages of the CONCACAF Champions League. While 3 of the 4 MLS have been elimidated. The idea that these two leagues are of equal stature is delusional. The gap is still large.

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I am going to be at the Sweetwater in St Paul on tonight watching Chicago v New England in the MLS playoffs. Game time is 7:30pm central. Hope to see you Twin Citians there.


MLS Scoreboard

Playoffs
Quarterfinals - 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (1st leg score included):
-Thu Nov 6
Chicago v New England (0-0) - 7:30pm central on ESPN2
Venue: Toyota Park, Bridgeview IL
Match preview by Nick Firchau of the Chicago Sun Times.
Match preview by Kyle McCarthy of the Boston Herald.
Match preview by Monique Walker of the Boston Globe.
Game day notes and build up by Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his blog The Red Card. Updated throughout the day.
-Sat Nov 8
Columbus v Kansas City (1-1) - 6:30pm central on HDNet
Venue: Crew Stadium, Columbus OH
Chivas v Salt Lake (0-1) - 9:30pm central on FSC
Venue: Home Depot Center, Carson CA
-Sun Nov 9
Houston v New York (1-1) - 2pm central on TeleFutura
Venue: Robertson Stadium, Houston TX
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MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Luis Arroyave of the Tribune on the Fire's version of the Odd Couple - Blanco & McBride.
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Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated thinks the league muckety-mucks WANTS Chicago to win MLS Cup this season.
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CD CHIVAS USA

Grahame Jones of the LA Times with an article on coach Preki. He has done a pretty great job of keeping this team moving through all the injuries this season.
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COLORADO RAPIDS

Yesterday I asked the question "Is Colorado's search for a coach over now that they have hired Steve Guppy as an assistant? That means Gary Smith stays right?" Today Class VI, the Rapids excellent fan blog, ponders the very same question.
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COLUMBUS CREW

Greg Seltzer of Soccer 365 talks to coach Sigi Schmid about the big game this weekend etc.
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FC DALLAS

Buzz Carrick of 3rd Degree reports in from FCD post season practice sessions.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO

Bernardo Fallas of the Chronicle on his blog Soccer y Futbol has some various team notes.
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Greg Seltzer of Soccer 365 talks to Brian Ching, who has no intention of losing this weekend.
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NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Khano Smith will serve the 2nd of a 3 game ban tonight. He got a Red Card for a moronic payback foul on KC's Herculez Gomez.
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And remember, no Steve Ralston or Taylor Twellman either due to injury.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer talks to midfielder Dane Richards who talks about the importance of this game. Let's see if he and his teammates can play like it this weekend.
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Lewis talks to Coach Juan Carlos Osorio about why some of his supposed top players sat on the bench last weekend.
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Metrofanatic looks at the Bulls 3 big midseason foreign signings. Oooof, what is that smell?
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REAL SALT LAKE

Michael C Lewis of the Tribune checks in on RSL as they head to Southern California, and the snow flies in Salt Lake.
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James Edward of the Deseret News with an article on one guy who NO ONE thought would ever pull on a RSL shirt again - Clint Mathis. His contributions to the team have been subtle, but he keeps getting the starts.
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GENERAL

US Soccer has a podcast of their weekly referee review on line now for you to listen to. It is great to hear it before the next round starts. Thanks for the effort, it's much appreciated.
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Jeff Bradley of MLSnet gives us his First XI of the best players who have never been to the MLS Cup final, much less won it.
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MLS Awards

Chad Marshall of the Columbus Crew is named Defender of the Year
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Jair Marrufo was named Referee of the Year.
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MLS Stadium News

Bernardo Fallas of the Chronicle has some up to date and not very positive info on a potential stadium.
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Fallas on his blog Soccer y Futbol has more notes concerning the stadium front.
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Also you should listen to the podcast of Glenn Davis' radio show this week (link in the right column) and hear his interview with a County official.
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MLS Expansion News

I stole this from Zach at Eleven Devils: The Portland Mercury has some good insider dirt on the potential of a team in Portland. No real details, but good stuff anyway.
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The Vancouver Sun gets a peak at some of the Vancouver Whitecaps plans for a MLS team. Some pretty cool stuff here, including a retractable roof!!!
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College News

According to Soccer America, No. 21 UC Santa Barbara drew 9,749 fans on Wednesday night for its 0-0 tie with No. 25 Cal Poly. And the Revs can only draw 5600 on a Thursday for a playoff game against the hated Chicago Fire. What is wrong with this picture. Even FC Dallas could do better than that.
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US Soccer News

USSF is beginning the process of nominations for 2008 "Best of" awards, and you can have your say. Check it all out here.
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USA U17 News

The team is in France for 3 friendlies.
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 5
Bretigny U18 v USA U17
-Thu Nov 6
France U17 v USA U17
-Sat Nov 8
Paris St Germaine U18 v USA U17
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Soccer In America

The very successful Match Fit Academy of New Jersey (they are a member of the US Soccer Development Academy program) has formed a partnership of sorts with Chelsea FC of London. Great for them. The name will be changed to Match Fit Chelsea. Here is an article about the partnership on the Chelsea website.
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Americans In Europe

Sky Sports talks to DaMarcus Beasley about Rangers current form.
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The Observer in South Bend IN has an article on Joe Lapira who bypassed MLS and has been prospering at Nybergsund in the Norwegian 2nd Division.
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UPCOMING MATCHES

UEFA Cup - Matchday 2
-Thu Nov 6
-Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - at Slavia Praha
-Brad Guzan - Aston Villa - at Slavia Praha
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard Liege - host Sevilla
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CONCACAF Champions League

Official CCL website
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Make Up Games
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 5
Marathon 2-0 Saprissa - Mara goals by Mavin Chavez & Tyson Nunez.
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Standings (games played):
Group A
*13 Marathon (6)
*10 Cruz Azul (6)
%10 Saprissa (6)
% 1 DC (6)

* Advanced
% Elimidated
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Marathon, Cruz Azul, UNAM Pumas, Montreal Impact, Atlante, Santos Laguna & Puerto Rico Islanders have advanced to the knock out stage next spring, with 1 last team set to join them.
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Canada & CSA News

Ben Knight of the Toronto Globe & Mail with more ideas good, bad, present, past, future etc for Canadian soccer’s direction.
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Copa Sudamericana

The lesser of the two South American club tournaments is nearing the Semifinal stage. Two participants are already in, and the other two will be known tonight.
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Argentinos Juniors & Estudiantes, two Argentine clubs, have both advanced already. So the possibility exists where all 4 Semifinal teams are from Argentina. Wow.
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Tonight's Matches & Scores (with 1st leg scores included):
-Thu Nov 6
Boca Juniors (Arg) v International (Braz) (0-2)
Guadalajara (Mex) v River Plate (Arg) (2-1)
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CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying

FIFA.com with an article on Colombia who is desperate for goals. Could Juan Pablo Angel be the answer?
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England News

An organized Liverpool supporters group has sent an open letter to the teams owners, Tom Hicks & George Gillett, asking the to sell the team to the supporters. The Times reprints the letter. It will never happen.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports writing about Chelsea, and says that simply put they are not as good as they think they are.
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Emmanuel Adebayor of Arsenal has an ankle injury that could keep him off the field for 3-4 weeks.
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European News

GERMANY

The Telegraph sees Bayer Leverkusen as a team with a real chance at the title this season.
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ITALY

The New York Times blog Goal sings the praises of Juventus forward Alessandro Del Piero who have been playing out of his mind lately. I really do like watching him play.
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UEFA Champions League

Matchday 4
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Nov 4
CFR Cluj 1-2 Bordeaux - Cluj goal by Dani. Bordeaux goals by Yoann Gourcuff & Wendel.
Roma 3-0 Chelsea - Roma goals by Christian Panucci & Mirko Vucinic(2).
Anorthosis 3-3 Inter Milan - Anor goals by Cedric Bardon, Georgios Panagi & Nikolaos Frousos. IM goals by Mario Balotelli, Marco Materazzi & Julio Cruz.
Werder Bremen 0-3 Panathinaikos - Pan goals by Vangelis Mantzios, Giorgos Karagounis & Alexandros Tziolis.
Sporting 1-0 Shakhtar Donetsk - Spor goal by Derlei.
Barcelona 1-1 Basel - Barc goal by Lionel Messi. Bas goal by Eren Derdiyok.
Liverpool 1-1 Atletico Madrid - Liv goal by Steven Gerrard(PK). AM goal by Maxi Rodriguez.
Marseille 3-0 PSV - OM goals by Bakari Kone & Mamadou Niang(2).
-Wed Nov 5
Aalborg 2-2 Villarreal - Aalb goals by Jeppe Curth & Anders Due. Vill goals by Giuseppe Rossi & Guillermo Franco.
Celtic 1-1 Man United - Celt goal by Scott McDonald. MU goal by Ryan Giggs.
Fiorentina 1-1 Bayern Munich - Fior goal by Adrian Mutu. BM goal by Tim Borowski.
Lyon 2-0 Steaua Bucuresti - Lyon goals by Juninho Pernambucano & Anthony Reveillere.
Arsenal 0-0 Fenerbahce
Dynamo Kyiv 1-2 Porto - Kyiv goal by Artem Milevskiy. Port goals by Rolando & Lucho Gonzalez.
BATE Borisov 0-2 Zenit - Zen goals by Pavel Pogrebnyak & Danny.
Real Madrid 0-2 Juventus - Juve goals both by Alessandro Del Piero.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune reviews Wednesdays UCL matches.
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Group Standings
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Juventus becomes the 3rd team to advance to the knock out rounds, joining Barcelona & Sporting.
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Matchday 5 will be played on Tues Nov 25 & Wed Nov 26.
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UEFA Cup

Matchday 2 is today. Here are those matches.
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This Is The End

This one is especially here for Grahame Jones of the LA Times to read. A real journalist from The Times in London put together a list of players Arsenal should look at to help them seal up the middle of the field where they are so weak. He did his research, and came up with an impressive list. Names you know, names you don't, names you may never hear again. But its interesting to read, because us fans learn something from it. Thanks.