Klaatu Barada Nikto News

It's over for Roy Keane at Sunderland. He resigned the job today. And just two days ago I said he wouldn't do it. Foolish me, but that's nothing new.

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The idea is being kicked around MLS to have the team with the best record host the MLS Cup final. While this might bring out more passion from the locals, I don't think the national coverage will be as good. I love making plans months ahead of time and going to some warm sunny spot for a long weekend in November. Please keep it the way it is.

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Celebrate good times, come on. Gooch scores for Liege in the UEFA Cup. Photo stolen from No Short Corners.


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And Greg Seltzer of No Short Corners tells us that New England Revolution centerback Michael Parkhurst is gone to Nordsjaelland. Done deal.


Copa Sudamericana

Internacional of Porto Alegre Brazil are the 2008 Sudamericana Cup Winners! Big congrats to them.
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Finals
2nd leg Match & Score (with 1st leg score included):
-Wed Dec 3
Internacional 1-1 Estudiantes Internacional win 2-1 on aggregate.
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Gregory Sica of Sports Illustrated with an article on the Champs. But what does winning this title really mean?
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One big reason that I am very happy for Internacional, the team nicknamed Colorado (The Red), is because last summer they signed one of my very favorite players, Argentine midfielder Andres D'Alessandro. He is a guy I have been begging to MLS to go get.
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MLS Team News

CHICAGO FIRE

The team's former forward Andy Herron has been signed by Herediano in Costa Rica. He is going to be coached by another former Fire player, Paulo Wanchope.
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FC DALLAS

The team has announced that they have parted ways with Mexican centerback Duilio Davino. I don't know what he cost them last year, but whatever the number was it was too high.
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Bad news direct from the teams official blog: Brek Shea had surgery to repair the torn medial meniscus in his right knee in September. Last Tuesday, while doing a straight line jogging/running drill, he felt a pop in his knee and said it felt similar to when he tore his meniscus previously. He was advised to take the weekend off, and on Monday the doctors confirmed that he would need surgery again.
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The Laurel Leader newspaper with an article on their local guy - FCD asst coach John Ellinger.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO

The Houston Examiner lists Dynaforward Brian Ching as the #5 on a list of the 10 greatest current athletes in Houston.
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NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Shalrie Joseph and his national team Grenada pulled a big upset last night, winning 2-1 over Trinidad & Tobago in the opening group game of the Caribbean Championship being held in Jamaica.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Jack Bell of the New York Times talks to coach Juan Carlos Osorio about what needs to be done this offseason to keep the Red Bulls moving in a forward direction.
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Dane Richards scored a goal helping his national team Jamaica come from behind to beat Barbados 2-1 on the first night of the group stage in the Caribbean Championship being held in Jamaica.
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Metrofanatic examines the return of defensive midfielder Juan Pietrovilla for next season. Why, oh why?
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MLS Rumor City - Don't Tease Me Bro!

Is Gregg Berhalter headed back to the good old USA?
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MLS Expansion News

The Philadelphia Daily News with a little more info this week on Philly in 2010, since the ground breaking for their stadium.
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USL First Division News

Inside Minnesota Soccer gives us Part 2 of an offseason look into the USL, which seems to be in near constant flux over the years, and no different again this year.
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And it was made official that Cleveland City Stars has moved up to the First Division from the Second! Excellent! Two new teams in the league this year, as sadly 2 others leave (Seattle & Atlanta).
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The Liverpool Echo has a good chat with Austin coach Adrian Heath - an Everton legend. Remember this rival fans - his nickname is Inchy. (He get's some of his facts wrong about our brand of soccer, but I have come to expect that from the all knowing English.)
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Minnesota Thunder

The new Rochester Thunder PDL team will be coached by Neil Cassidy (not Jack Kerouac's friend made infamous in On The Road), and play their home games at play its home games at the new field at Rochester Community and Technical College. They will be in the league's Heartland Division along with Thunder Bay (defending league champions), Colorado Rapids U23, Des Moines, St Louis, Kansas City & Springfield. The PDL is a fast growing 70 team league, split up into 10 geographically defined Divisions.
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US Soccer News

Justin Rodriguez at ESPN Soccernet looks back that the first US Soccer Residency class - 1999. Who was on that team you ask? Just Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Oguchi Onyewu, Kyle Beckerman, Bobby Convey..... But not everyone turned into a star.
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USA U17 News

The always popular Nike Friendlies take place in Lancaster CA [CORRECTED] this weekend. Here are the USA opponents.
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Matches & Scores:
-Fri Dec 5
USA v Brazil - 1:30 pm central on FSC
USA v Australia - 4pm central on FSC
-Sun Dec 7
USA v Brazil - 4pm central on FSC
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Americans In Europe

Soccer365 has some words from Aston Villa backup keeper Brad Guzan about his new team and the future. Things appear to look great.
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Yanks Abroad talks to Gregg Berhalter about his future at Munich 1860.
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YA also checks in with Benny Feilhaber on his progress in recovery from knee surgery.
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Did You Know: Nordsjaelland, the team that is signing Michael Parkhurst, is the former home to USA & Hansa Rostock left fullback Heath Pearce.
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UPCOMING MATCHES

Thu Dec 4
-Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - v MSK Zilina - UEFA Cup
-Brad Guzan - Aston Villa - v MSK Zilina - UEFA Cup
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MOST RECENT MATCHES
(only players who saw the field are listed)

Wed Dec 3
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - started, but was replaced in the 58th minute (groin injury) as they lost at home 1-2 to Tottenham in the Carling Cup quarterfinals.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard Liege - went the full 90, scoring his teams second goal as they won 3-0 at home over Sampdoria in the UEFA Cup.
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Caribbean Championship

The teams are split into 2 groups and play a round robin format within that group. The top 2 from each group move on to the semifinals, and also qualify for next summers Gold Cup.
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Matches & Scores:
-Wed Dec 3
Trinidad & Tobago 1-2 Grenada - T&T goal by Cornell Glen. Gren goals by Kithson Bain & Ricky Charles.
Jamaica 2-1 Barbados - Jam goals by Dane Richards & Luton Shelton(PK). Barb goal by Riviere Williams.
-Thu Dec 4
Guadeloupe v Cuba
Haiti v Antigua & Barbuda
-Fri Dec 5
Barbados v Trinidad & Tobago
Jamaica v Grenada
-Sat Dec 6
Haiti v Guadeloupe
Cuba v Antigua & Barbuda
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Mexico & FMF News

Apertura Semifinals
1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed Dec 3
Cruz Azul 3-1 Atlante - Cruz goals by Miguel Sabah(PK), Edgar Lugo & Jaime Lozano. Atl goal by Luis Rey.
-Thu Dec 4
Santos Laguna v Toluca
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Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise with an article on Cuauhtemoc Blanco who is doing it all over again, at yet another club. This guy just keeps defying the odds.
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South America News

The Independent with a story and photo slide show of my very favorite player - the real Ronaldo. He is not looking good at all these days. Damn, he looks almost as bad as I do when you see pictures from just 10 years ago. That guy was so frickin good and people are already forgetting about him. People said he was done last year at Milan, but the guy scored 9 goals in 20 appearances, mostly as a sub.
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The Guardian with an article on the unraveling violence amongst the crowds at Argentine club matches.
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England News

Rob Smyth and Paul Doyle, both of the Guardian with articles on the end of Roy Keane at Sunderland.
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So who get's that job - Big Sam? (and no he is not the brother of Big Phil even though they have the same first name, "Big")
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The injury to Liverpool striker Fernando Torres's hamstring is worse than first diagnosed and he will now be out of action for a month.
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Carlos Tevez scored 4 goals last night as Manchester United beat Blackburn 5-3 in the Carling Cup!
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The BBC reports that for the 2nd straight year Middleborough’s Muslim Egyptian forward Mido has been abused with anti-Islam chants from the fans in Newcastle. Mido says he complained last year and nothing was done, and now that it has happened again he fears there will be nothing done about it.
-The Guardian follows up by saying that people have been arrested for this latest incident.
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I think it's waaaay too soon to be doing this, but... The Telegraph gives us the top 10 worst buys in the summer transfer window.
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European News

FRANCE

Reuters with an article on the surprise 2nd place team in Ligue 1 - Rennes.
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GERMANY

The Bundesliga website previews the HUGE showdown between Bayern and Hoffenheim tomorrow. You can see that game at 1:30pm central on GolTV.
-The two teams have never met at any level before.
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ITALY

Gazzetta reports that with the new rise in quality at Napoli will come an increase in salary demands for their best players, but the team is not interested in playing that game.
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Coppa Italia Match & Score:
-Wed Dec 3
AC Milan 1-2 Lazio
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SPAIN

Reuters reports that there may be some traction to this story of possible match fixing in the 2nd division at the end of last season. Supposedly Tenerife rolled over on the last day of the season so Malaga could win and be promoted to La Liga.
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Well, that didn't last long - German goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand has been released by Valencia after only 3 months. Oof!
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UEFA Cup

Matchday 4 (of 5) games are being played this week on Wed 3 & Thu 4. Here are those Matches & Scores.