It's Making Friedman Look Rather Foolish News

Manchester United are the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup champions.


Argentina News

The 3 team playoff for the Apertura title is all set. They finished tied at #1 on points and the league does not use tie breakers to settle the difference - they play the games on the field! And neutral fields at that.
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So what happens if Tigre wins on Tuesday and all 3 teams end up with 1 win and 1 loss. Then, unlike the regular season they will use goal differential as the first tie breaker.)
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Matches & Scores:
-Wed Dec 17
San Lorenzo 2-1 Tigre - SL goals by Pablo Barrientos & Gonzalo Bergessio. Tig goal by Leandro Lazzaro.
-Sat Dec 20
Boca Juniors 3-1 San Lorenzo - Boca goals by Lucas Viati, Rodrigo Palacio & Cristian Manuel Chavez. SL goal by Santiago Hernan Solari.
-Tue Dec 23
Tigre v Boca Juniors - played at Estadio President Peron, in Cordoba, home of AC Cordoba. - Live at 4:30pm central on FSC.
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Goal Differential:
-Boca Juniors (+2) - 1 played
-Tigre (-1) - 1 played
-San Lorenzo (-1) - 2 played
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You think these games might not be too serious? - Go take a look at how many Yellow Cards were handed out in this game, not to mention 2 Red Cards!
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MLS Team News

CD CHIVAS USA

Midfielder Francisco Mendoza is heading south to train with the mother team in January.
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COLUMBUS CREW

The Crew made it official by handing the team over to long time assistant Robert Warzycha.
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FC DALLAS

Midfielder Victor Sikora who was not re-signed by FCD has now singed a short term deal with Perth in the A-League.
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The FCD official blog gives us Eric Avila's personal notes on the trip he just took to England with a young MLS select team.
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KANSAS CITY WIZARDS

Midfielder Roger Espinoza has been called into the Honduran national team camp.
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Now retired midfielder Kerry Zavagnin has been hired by the team as an assistant coach.
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LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports on Beckman's introduction at AC Milan.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Erik Stover, the man who went from being GM of Red Bull Park to GM of the New York Red Bulls in just 5 short months, answers viewer mail on the teams official blog.
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SEATTLE SOUNDERS

Down goes Freddie! Down goes Freddie! The teams DP Freddie Ljungberg is out of action for up to 3 months after having hip surgery. Didn't see this coming did you? (Wink.)
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Jose Romero of the Times, Gary Washburn of the Post Intelligencer, and Don Ruiz of the Tacoma News Tribune on Ljungberg's injury.
-Romero on his SSFC blog posts a note from Ljungberg's surgeon.
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TORONTO FC

Morgan Campbell of the Star stirs the controversy pot on why Dwayne DeRosario has not been introduced as a new player by TFC. Is something bad brewing?!?!? And of course Mo Johnston is having none of it!
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Turns out Campbell wasn't the first to ask these questions? - Gerry Dobson of Sportsnet was.
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Ryan Johnson of Sportsnet writes more about DeRo and various other conspiracy theories of his own.
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GENERAL

Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal reports that SUM & ESPN have sold their MLS foreign TV rights to a distribution company for an astonishing "Eight-Figure deal". Yes that is a minimun of $10 Million. Great news.
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Frank Dell'apa at ESPN Soccernet jumps forward 1 year in time to when the MLS & Players Union collective bargaining agreement comes to an end. What will happen?
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Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram writes about ways MLS is cutting back financially, but not as drastically as some leagues.
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MLS College Draft Talk

Bill Ward of Black Sabbath and the Tampa Bay Tribune writes about all the young gifted Tampa area players who look bound for MLS or are already there. Supernaut indeed.
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MLS Rumor City - Don't Tease Me Bro!

Steven Goff of the Washington Post on his blog Soccer Insider brings us the saga of Ghanaian midfielder Stephen Appiah and MLS.
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Old worn out Mexican striker Jared Borgetti to Chivas USA or Dallas? That is the rumor from Soccer365's Grapevine.
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Soccer In America

Michele Kaufman of the Miami Herald with her soccer letter to Santa Claus.
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Americans In Europe

Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated writes about the Iron Man and Trailblazer that is Brad Friedel.
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Brian Lewis of the NY Post on his blog Extra Time has more raving for Brad Friedel.
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DaMarcus Beasley didn't play again this past weekend, but his car sure did. Vandals trashed his Mercedes. Who leaves a nearly $75,000 car parked outside??? (Thanks to Bart for the heads up.)
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Greg Seltzer of Soccer 365 talks to Jeremiah White about life at Aarhus in Denmark.
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UPCOMING MATCHES

English Premier League
-Tim Howard - Everton - hosts Chelsea on Monday.
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MOST RECENT MATCHES
(only players who saw the field are listed)

French Ligue 1
-Freddy Adu - Monaco - came on as a 75th minute sub, earned a Yellow Card in the 76th, and they lost 3-4 at home to Bordeaux. They were up 3-0 at one point, and 3-2 when Freddy came on. Oof.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Rennes - went the full 90, and got a Yellow Card, but they won on the road 1-2 over Lorient. They also move back up to 3rd place.
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Italian Serie B
-Danny Szetela - Brescia - started, played 89 minutes, and got a Yellow Card, as they won 1-0 at home over Grosseto.
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Dutch Erstedivisie
-Charles Kazlauskas - TOP Oss - played the full match but lost at home 1-2 to FC Eindhoven.
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Belgian Jupiler League
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - went the distance and won 2-1 at home over Gent.
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English Premier League
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - went the full 90, scoring his teams 3rd goal, as they won 3-0 at home over Middlesbrough.
-Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - played the entire match and won 0-1 at West Ham. They are in THIRD place in England!
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English Championship Division
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - came back from injury as a 59th minute sub, but they lost at Derby County 1-0.
-Eddie Johnson - Cardiff - subbed on in the final minute, as they won at home 2-0 over Sheffield Wednesday.
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English League One
-Jemal Johnson - MK Dons - played all 90 minutes and they beat Leeds at home 3-1.
-Zak Whitbread - Millwall - came on as a half time sub and the drew 0-0 at home against Crewe Alexandra.
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CONCACAF News

Saprissa won the Costa Rican championship for the 28th time.
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Canada & CSA News

Gareth Wheeler of the Toronto Sun reflects on 2008 in Canadian soccer, then takes a glimpse forward.
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Tottenham has released defender Paul Stalteri from his contract immediately. Where is he headed? TFC? Nope, it's Monchengladbach in Germany.
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South America News

The Uruguayian season has been suspended indefinitely due to fan violence. There is no word on if or how the rest of the season will be finished.
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Colo Colo won the Chilean championship for the 28th time!
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America won the Colombian championship for the 13th time.
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BRAZIL

John Haydon of the Washington Times on the river of Brazilian players that sign with teams in Europe every year.
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England News

Goalkeeper David James writing for the Guardian says the reason everyone is making a big deal about Paul Ince is because he is English.
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Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas suffered a strained medial ligament in his knee. There is no word as to the severity.
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Martin Samuel of the Times has a derisive chuckle over the price being asked for West Ham United Football Club.
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The Guardian rounds up the week for the English leagues not called Premiership.
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European News

FRANCE

Nike has acquired the rights to outfit the French national team AFTER teh 2010 World Cup. Adidas has been their provider.
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ITALY

Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune takes in a Siena v Catania match. What a great first hand story!
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Paolo Bandini of the Guardian on Beckman's grand entrance at Milan and the rest of the week in Serie A.
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Roma forward Francesco Totti will be out of action for a month with a strained thigh muscle.
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NETHERLANDS

The Netherlands & Belgium will enter a bid to co-host the World Cup for 2018 & 2022 in hopes of landing one.
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Leeander Schaerlaeckens of the Guardian introduces us to Mario Been the man on the bench leading NEC Breda to new heights, and all the other games from around the Eredivisie too.
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SPAIN

Phil Ball of ESPN Soccernet calls it a day from Spain. I will miss his columns greatly. Let's hope for more from somewhere, sometime soon. There are also some links to his finer works intermingled.
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Sid Lowe of the Guardian tells us about Mallorca who are in trouble on and off the field, and the rest of La Liga this week.
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The Weekends Biggest Club Matches From Around The World

La Liga
-Sat Dec 20
Real Madrid 1-0 Valencia - Yes the perennial title contenders won, knocking Valencia down to 4th place, but RM are still 12 points behind leaders Barca and sit in 5th place.
-Sun Dec 21
Villarreal 1-2 Barcelona - nothing changes in Spain as Barca dominate everyone!
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Premiership
-Sun Dec 21
Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool - a stalemate hurts the Arse move than the Liver.
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Eredivisie
-Sun Dec 21
PSV 1-0 Feyenoord - PSV stay at #4 but their rivals tumbled down to #13, a disaster for them.
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Turkish Super Lig
-Sun Dec 21
Galatasaray 4-2 Besiktas - the old rivals did battle leaving Gala in 3rd place, and 5 points ahead of their foe.
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FIFA Club World Cup

Manchester United are the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup champions.
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Official web site
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Matches & Scores:
-Thu Dec 11
Adelaide United 2-1 Waitakere United - AU goals by Daniel Mullen & Travis Dodd. WU goal by Paul Seaman.
-Fri Dec 12
Al Ahly 2-4 Pachuca - AlA goals by Fausto Pinto(OG) & Flavio. Pach goals by Luis Montes, Damian Alvarez & Chaco Gimenez(2).
Sun Dec 14
Adelaide 0-1 Gamba Osaka - GO goal by Yasuhito Endo.
Wed Dec 17 - Semifinal
Pachuca 0-2 Liga de Quito - LDQ goals by Claudio Bieler & Luis Bolanos.
-Thu Dec 18 - Semifinal
Gamba Osaka 3-5 Manchester United - GO goals by Masato Yamazaki, Yasuhito Endo(PK) & Hideo Hashimoto. MU goals by Nemanja Vidic, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney(2) & Darren Fletcher.
-Sun Dec 21 - Final
Liga de Quito 0-1 Manchester United - ManU goal by Wayne Rooney.