I Think That Curly Haired Blonde Just Waved At Me News

At around 10:20pm central time on Saturday November 15, 2008 the entire planet did a weird flip. Everyone stood up, slightly startled. They looked around, they looked at each other. What was that? They asked. Ah, nuthin, I replied, just that team from New York that plays in New Jersey winning the semifinal and making it to the MLS Cup! I was nonchalant, but that was only to keep from scaring the natives. It was truly mind bending. I woke this morning to find out i still only had 2 eyes, and had not grown a 3rd, but yes it was true - Columbus v New York for all the Major League Soccer marbles next Sunday in LA. Amazing little planet we live on.

~and~

du Nord Best 11 midfielder Dave Van Den Bergh scored the glorious goal for the RB's!

~and~

SOLD OUT stadium in Salt Lake! Fan-freakin-tastic! I loved the enthusiasm! Thank you Salt Lake fans!

~and~

Egyptian powerhouse Al Ahly won the African Champions League this weekend. They are headed to the Club World Cup next month.


Major League Soccer

Final
Match & Score:
-Sun Nov 23
Columbus Crew v Red Bull New York - 2:30pm central time on ABC
Venue: Home Depot Center, Carson CA
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I hope to see all of you at the match. Please contact me if you are going.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Semifinals
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Nov 13
Columbus 2-1 Chicago - CC goals by Chad Marshall & Eddie Gaven. CF goal by Brian McBride.
Attendance: 14,688
Venue: Crew Stadium, Columbus OH
-Sat Nov 15
Salt Lake 0-1 New York -NYRB goal by Dave Van Den Bergh.
Attendance: 20,008
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy UT
Match report by Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Match report by James Edward of the Deseret News.
Match report from Metrofanatic.
Match report by Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer.
Match report by Stefan Bondy of the Herald News.
Match report by Brian Lewis of the NY Post on his blog Extra Time.
Post game notes by M Lewis.
Post game NYRB coach & player quotes by B Lewis.
Post game notes by Ives Galarcep of Soccer by Ives.
Post games notes by Edward.
Analysis of the game winning goal from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Day after notes from Jack Bell of the New York Times.
Day after analysis by Galarcep.
Day after analysis by MC Lewis.
Day after analysis by Edward.
Player grades for NYRB by Bell on the Times blog Goal.
Players grades for RSL by Michael Black of the Deseret News.
Player grades for both teams by Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My notes from the RSL-NYRB game:
-I counted no less than 8 smoke bombs that hit the field! Every time a security person ran out to pick one up I was thinking "Don't burn yer damn hands!" Like streamers it looks great on TV, but it's still pretty out of line to throw anything on the field during a game.
-How in the hell did that New York defense do it again?? It's as close to a miracle as I have ever seen. They are pulling this off using BACKUPS for Jon Conway, Jeff Parke, Andrew Boyens and Seth Stammler. Those 4 would be back ups themselves on many teams in the league. Seriously the d-mid, back 4 and keeper look like this:
D-Mid: Luke Sassano
Defenders: Kevin Goldthwaite - Diego Jimenez - Carlos Mendes - Chris Lietch
Keeper: Danny Cepero
-I really thought Salt Lake should have pushed stronger into the attack much sooner than they did after the Bulls scored. The first sub did not come until the 59th minute. And Fabian Espindola was on the bench, but must still be injured badly if they could not find a spot of that sniper on the field.
-Both semifinal winning teams had to party with those silly little Cups. They looked like silver tea pots! The Crew's Frankie Hejduk gave the thing a "What the fuck is this?" look when it was handed to him. Then he just jerked it aloft and the team went nuts. But it was comedic at best. Not unlike Spinal Tap when they get a 17 inch Stonehenge replica instead of a 17 foot one. It's the difference between ' and ".
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Video of wild celebrating in New York after the Red Bulls win! Stolen from our brother SF of The Offside Rules.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Cup News

Luis Bueno of Sports Illustrated compares the Latino influence of this years final to that one the first Cup in 96.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com uses his weekly column to do some advance scouting on the Cup final.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Cup Finalists

COLUMBUS CREW

Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald with an article on coach Sigi Schmid.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Andrea Canales of Goal.com calls Sigi the King.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

RED BULL NEW YORK

By advancing to the Cup final the RB's have also qualified for next years CONCACAF Champions Cup.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer looks at the Bulls nearly improbable season, and tries to find some explanation for this success. (And he wrote this BEFORE they beat Salt Lake to advance to the final!)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lewis reports that coach Juan Carlos Osorio started planning for the Crew by watching video on the flight home from Utah.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lewis also writes about the pittance some of these guys are getting paid. The league should be embarrassed that players making this little are having this big of an impact.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Harvey Araton of the NY Times writes about the insanity of the Bulls late-late-late season success. (posted before the semifinal)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ives Galarcep of Soccer By Ives calls Dave Van Den Bergh Mr Consistency.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Team News

CHICAGO FIRE

Luis Arroyave of the Tribune on his blog The Red Card gets Jon Busch to offer his side of the story on the post game run in with Columbus coach Sigi Schmid. Hey at least Buschy has got his chewing tobacco to sooth is ailments.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For the 2nd time in one season the Fire fans of Section 8 are at war with their own club. In midseason it was over terrible, some said racist, treatment by stadium security toward some supporters. The team were very difficult to deal with in that matter. Now it has come to light that the team owes the official supporters group approximately $25,000 and keeps passing the buck and playing dumb again. What gives. They are the people who make watching games from Toyota Park so much fun on TV, yet the team treats them like dirt. It's possible the team has perfectly good explanations for all of this, but they never step up and clear the air, which leaves us to speculate the worst.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DC UNITED

The Age reports that the fans of Melbourne are not happy about DC loaning Fred, their former star player, to their rivals in Wellington.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The teams official blog Behind the Badge brings us a story of Bolivia's famed Tahuichi Academy where star player Jaime Moreno got his start.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

TORONTO FC

Carl Robinson writes for his hometown County Times about the offseason, TFC fans, next spring, and the playoffs. Sounds like he expects to be playing for Toronto next year.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GENERAL

Gareth Wheeler of the Toronto Sun bitches about the playoff system, and has no idea that Mexico has one too. Plus other notes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Team USA

After a 4 day training camp in Denver, Team USA has released some players, and added others to make up a 20 player roster for Wednesday nights game v Guatemala. This is the last game of the first group stage for CONCACAF World Cup qualifying. The USA clinched after 4 wins in the first 4 games and has coasted in round 5 and now again for round 6.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here is the roster:
G:
Brad Guzan - Aston Villa
Troy Perkins - Valerenga
Matt Pickens - no club
D:
Jonathan Bornstein - Chivas USA
Sean Franklin - Los Angeles Galaxy
Cory Gibbs - Colorado Rapids
Clarence Goodson - Start
Drew Moor - Dallas
Michael Parkhurst - New England Revolution
M:
Freddy Adu - Monaco
Ricardo Clark - Houston Dynamo
Sacha Kljestan - Chivas USA
Pablo Mastroeni - Colorado Rapids
John Thorrington - Chicago Fire
F:
Jozy Altidore - Villarreal
Davy Arnaud - Kansas City Wizards
Conor Casey - Colorado Rapids
Brian Ching - Houston Dynamo
Kenny Cooper - Dallas
Chris Rolfe - Chicago Fire
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Match & Score:
-Wed Nov 19
USA v Guatemala - 7pm central time on ESPN Classic.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

Despite being out injured for over 6 months now, West Ham has given defender Jonathan Spector a new contract. That is very good news for him.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

So what is going on with Frank Simek at Sheffield Wednesday? He came back from a long term ankle injury to make a substitute appearance in a Cup match 3 weeks ago, but has not been seen with the first team since.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A rumor spread at the end of last week that Borussia Dortmund defender Neven Subotic had chosen to play for the Serbia national team. But several outlets have quoted US Soccer President Sunil Gulati as saying that this is simply "untrue".
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UPCOMING MATCHES

German Bundesliga 2
-Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock - at Kaiserslautern on Monday.
-Luis Robles - Kaiserslautern - host Hansa Rostock on Monday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MOST RECENT MATCHES
(only players who saw the field are listed)

French Ligue 1
-Freddy Adu - Monaco - came on as a sub in the 69th minute but lost 2-1 at Rennes.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Rennes - played all 90 and won 2-1 at home over Monaco. They are now in 3rd place.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

German Bundesliga 1
-Michael Bradley - Monchengladbach - went the full 90, scored the final goal, and they drew 2-2 at home against Bayern Munich.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - played the full match but drew 1-1 at home v Bochum.
-Neven Subotic - Borussia Dortmund - played all 90, scoring 2 goals(!) and they won 4-0 over Eintract Frankfurt.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

German Bundesliga 2
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - went the full 90 but lost at home 0-1 to Augsburg.
-Grover Gibson - Rot Weiss Ahlen - came on as a sub in the 54th minute, and got a 2-2 road draw at St Pauli.
-Matt Taylor - Koblenz - started and went 57 minutes as they lost at home 0-3 to Mainz.
-David Yelldell - Koblenz - went the distance but lost at home 0-3 to Mainz.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Italian Serie B
-Danny Szetela - Brescia - played the full 90 and they tied at Avellino 1-1.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dutch Erstedivisie
-Charles Kazlauskas - TOP Oss - went the full 90 but lost at Apeldoorn 3-2.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Belgian Jupiler League
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - went all 90 and drew at Lokeren 1-1.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Austrian Bundesliga
-Preston Zimmerman - Kapfenberg - started, lasted 68 minutes, but lost at Rheindorf Altach 3-0.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

English Premier League
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - started and played 88 minutes as they beat Tottenham 2-1 at home.
-Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - went the distance, got a yellow card, and beat Arsenal 0-2 on the road!
-Tim Howard - Everton - played the entire match and drew 1-1 at home against Middlesbrough.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

English Championship Division
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - played the full 90 but lost 2-1 at Barnsley.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - went the distance as usual and won 0-2 at Sheffield United. They are in 3rd place.
-Eddie Johnson - Cardiff - played the entire match and they beat Crystal Palace 2-1 at home.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

English League One
-Jemal Johnson - MK Dons - started and played 84 minutes as they beat Hartlepool 1-3 on the road. They are in 4th place
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Danish SAS Ligaen
-Dan Califf - Midjtylland - played the full 90 minutes as they lost 0-3 at home to Copenhagen.
-Lee Nguyen - Randers - came in as a sub in the 82nd minute as they drew 2-2 at Horsens.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying News

Six teams will move on to the CONCACAF Hexagon - 6 teams playing home and away round robin tournament with the top 3 advancing to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and the 4th place finisher taking on the 5th place CONMEBOL finisher for another spot in the WC. USA, Costa Rica & El Salvador have already advanced to the Hex. That leaves 3 spots to be determined on Wednesday night.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The draw for the Hex will take place on Sat Nov 22 in South Africa. Later that day we can all start planning our trips to Mexico City for our teams first ever win at Azteca!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mexico & FMF News

Guadalajara are out of the post season chase!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

South America News

Tim Vickery of the BBC says Brazilian keepers are not as bad as a few glaring examples make them out to be.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Brasileiro Standings with 3 games left to play (including results against last 4 opponents of the season):
68 Sao Paulo (won 3-1 v Figueirense, at Vasco da Gama, v Fluminense, at Goias)
65 Gremio (won 2-1 v Coritiba, at Vitoria, at Ipatinga, v Atletico MG)
63 Flamengo (won 5-2 v Palmeiras, at Cruzeiro, v Goias, at Atletico Paranaense)
61 Cruzeiro (lost 5-2 at Nautico, v Flamengo, at Internacional, v Portuguesa de Desportos)
61 Palmeiras (lost 5-2 at Flamengo, v Ipatinga, at Vitoria, v Botafogo)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Maradona Mania

Argentina plays a friendly on Wednesday in Scotland, and the BBC reports that Diegomania broke out in the Glasgow airport arrival gate.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Time magazine with report from Argentina that says Maradona has gotten a legal injunction to keep people from using search engines to look up his name. Huh? What could possibly be the reasoning of something that stupid?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

England News

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 100th & 101st goals for Man U over the weekend.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Chelsea won their 10th consecutive road game in the league. That is simply amazing to me.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tom Lutz of the Guardian gives us the lowdown on the rest of the Football League divisions.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kevin McCarra of the Guardian writes that Fabio Capello can use this weeks friendly in Germany to experiment with young players.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Capello has said that any player called in to the national team who has an injury must report to the England doctors, not just rely on the word of club doctors! How can you not love this guy!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shaka Hislop of the Guardian defends some of the blunders that goalkeepers make.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

Balon d'Or

Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports feels Lionel Messi will beat out Cristiano Ronaldo for the top award in Europe.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FRANCE

Ben Lyttleton of the Guardian on ball-boys & Lyon, and a Ligue 1 round up.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GERMANY

The Bundesliga website does a Q & A with the leagues surprise leading goalscorer Vedad Ibisevic of Hoffenheim.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

ITALY

Juventus won their 7th game in a row this weekend!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Football Italia with a wrap up of Serie A Round 12.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Alberto Cerruti of La Gazetta rates the Serie A teams performances this week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Paolo Bandini of the Guardian on Roma who for once weren't completely putrid, and a wrap on Serie A.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

NETHERLANDS

Leander Schaerlaeckens of the Guardian reviews the week just ended in the Eredivisie.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

SPAIN

Sid Lowe of the Guardian says its not all coach Berndt Schuster's fault that Real Madrid are stinking it up, and thoughts on the rest of La Liga too.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Phil Ball of ESPN Soccernet looks at the negativity flying around Real Madrid, and other notes from Spain.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Weekends Biggest Club Matches From Around The World

France Ligue 1
-Sun Nov 16
Lyon 2-1 Bordeaux - with winners widened the gap at the top and dropped the losers out of contention.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

England Premier League
-Sat Nov 15
Arsenal 0-2 Aston Villa - now this week it's Villa that seems the more likely of the two teams to be near the top at the end of the season.
Fulham 2-1 Tottenham - Fulham surprisingly wins another of the London derbies this season.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

German Bundesliga
-Sat Nov 15
Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 Schalke - with the win Bayer goes to the top of the Bundesliga while Schalke drops all the way down to #8.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Italy Serie A
-Sun Nov 16
Roma 1-0 Lazio - a big win for the home team in the 129th Roman derby!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Holland Eredivisie
-Sun Nov 16
Ajax 4-1 PSV - the old guard are back on top for the first time in many years!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Russia
-Sun Nov 16
Lokomotiv Moscow 3-2 FC Moscow - one of the 37 Moscow derbies.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Argentina
-Sun Nov 16
Independiente 0-1 River Plate - the win in this old classic puts River back on the road to respectability.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Top Of The European Club Standings & Top Goal Scorers

England Premier League - 13 of 38 games played
32 Chelsea
32 Liverpool
24 Manchester United
23 Arsenal
23 Aston Villa
Goals
12 Nicolas Anelka - Chelsea
8 Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United
8 Amr Zaki - Wigan
7 Darren Bent - Tottenham
7 Robinho - Manchester City
7 Gabriel Agbonlahor - Aston Villa
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

France Ligue 1 - 14 of 38 games played
33 Lyon
26 Marseille
25 Rennes
25 Nice
25 Toulouse
Goals
8 Karim Benzema - Lyon
8 Andre Pierre Gignac - Toulouse
8 Guillaume Hoarau - Paris St Germain
7 Steve Savidan - Caen
7 Fernando Cavenaghi - Bordeaux
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Germany Bundesliga - 13 of 34 games played
28 Bayer Leverkusen
28 Hoffenheim
25 Bayern Munich
24 Hertha Berlin
23 Hamburger
Goals
14 Vedad Ibisevic - Hoffenheim
10 Patrick Helmes - Bayer Leverkusen
9 Grafite - Wolfsburg
8 Artur Wichniarek - Armenia Bielefeld
7 Claudio Pizarro - Werder Bremen
7 Milivoje Novakovic - Koln
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Italy Serie A - 12 of 38 games played
27 Inter Milan
26 AC Milan
24 Juventus
23 Napoli
22 Lazio
Goals
10 Diego Milito - Genoa
8 Alberto Gilardino - Fiorentina
7 Zlatan Ibrhimovic - Inter Milan
7 Mauro Zarate - Lazio
6 Amauri - Juventus
6 Fabrizio Miccoli - Palermo
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Netherlands Eredivisie - 11 of 34 games played
25 Ajax
25 NAC Breda
23 Groningen
23 Alkmaar
19 Heerenveen
Goals
13 Mounir El Hamdaoui - AZ Alkmaar
11 Matthew Amoah - NAC Breda
10 Daniel Pranjic - Heerenveen
9 Frank Demouge - Willem II Tilburg
7 Marcus Berg - Groningen
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Portugal Liga - 8 of 30 games played
19 Leixos
18 Benfica
14 Maritimo
14 Porto
14 Nacional de Madeira
Goals
5 Wesley - Leixos
5 Mobido William - Pacos de Ferreira
5 Nene - Nacional de Madeira
4 Albert Ze Meyong - Braga
4 Oscar Cardozo - Benfica
4 Douglas Maia - Guimaraes
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Russia Premier League - 29 of 30 games played
60 Rubin Kazan
56 CSKA Moscow
51 Dinamo Moscow
48 Amkar Perm
45 Zenit St Petersburg
Goals
20 Vagner Love - CSKA Moscow
10 Marko Topic - Saturn Moscow
9 Peter Odemwingie - Lokomotiv Moscow
9 Dinyar Bilyaletdinov - Lokomotiv Moscow
9 Eldar Nizamutdinov - Zenit St Petersburg
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Spain Primera - 11 of 38 games played
28 Barcelona
25 Villarreal
23 Valencia
23 Real Madrid
23 Sevilla
Goals
13 Samuel Eto'o - Barcelona
11 David Villa - Valencia
9 Gonzalo Higuain - Real Madrid
6 Mate Bilic - Sporting Gijon
6 Lionel Messi - Barcelona
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

African News

The African Champions League final.
Matches & Scores (first leg score included):
2nd Leg
-Sun Nov 16
Coton Sport 2-2 Al Ahly - the Egyptians win the ACL 4-2 on aggregate!