Turn Things On Their Side News

Michael Arace of the Columbus Dispatch on the Crew's so far futile attempts to re-sign coach Sigi Schmid: "Traditionally, the Crew has preferred discounts."

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Brad Friedel has set an English Premiership record this weekend by appearing in his 167th consecutive league game. That is a very big number.


CONCACAF Champions League

The Houston Dynamo beat Luis Angel Firpo 1-0 last week and are the final team to qualify for the quarterfinals that begin in February 09. The draw for those matches will on Dec 10. the other teams to qualify are Marathon, Cruz Azul, UNAM Pumas, Atlante, Montreal Impact, Santos Laguna & Puerto Rico Islanders.
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MLS Team News

CHICAGO FIRE

The team released forwards Tomasz Frankowski & Andy Herron.
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CD CHIVAS USA

The team released defender Alex Zotinca.
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COLUMBUS CREW

Shawn Mitchell of the Dispatch gives us the latest on the chase to re-sing coach Sigi Schmid, and some other news of importance, like, what is up with new deals for Chad Marshall & Guillermo Barros Schelotto, for Crewtonians.
-Schmid has never been given permission to talk to any other MLS team, and have now filed tampering charges against Seattle with the league office.
-Chad Marshall is out of contract and could go to a European team for free.
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Michael Arace of the Dispatch with his feelings on re-signing Schmid.
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The team has signed a new deal with defender Danny O'Rourke.
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I didn't get to this one last week, but the picture of Eddie Gaven's mustache is worth the wait! Chris DeVille of Columbus Alive covers the big game and the post game madness.
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The Chivas USA team blog has an interview with John Sandate, the generalisimo of their supporters group Union Ultras, on why they provided the drums for the Crew at MLS Cup.
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FC DALLAS

Team president Michael Hitchcock tells about reviews the teams business side for 08, on the team's official blog.
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Buzz Carrick at 3rd Degree reports that defensive midfielder Pablo Richetti has requested that the team do 1 of 3 things for him this offseason: 1. Give him a raise; 2. Trade him to the LA Galaxy; or 3. Release him from his contract so he can play in Mexico.
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Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram wonders why FCD are dicking around with Cooper & Richetti, their two best players. What signal is being sent to fans and other players?
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Andrea Canales at Goal.com talks to Kenny Cooper about FCD, the Best XI, Team USA & his future.
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KANSAS CITY WIZARDS

KCW released midfielder Carlos Marinelli along with Ryan Pore & Ivan Trujillo. I think we all saw the potential in Marinelli, but his track record of failing everywhere he went was never a good omen.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

New York Red Bulls acquired central defender Mike Petke after he was released by Colorado. NYRB also cut loose Venezuelan centerback Gabriel Cichero.
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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer talks to newly re-acquired Petke who says he is very excited to be with New York.
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SEATTLE SOUNDERS

Seating capacity for Sounders games at their home Qwest Field is set to be 24,500. And the number of season tickets sold is currently floating around the blogosphere is 18,000. These are great numbers indeed. But consider that full capacity of the stadium is 67,000 for NFL games and 72,000 for concerts. On the best days it will look empty. And brand new Field Turf was put down last spring. Double Ugh. Welcome to Foxborough part 2.
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TORONTO FC

Midfielder Carl Robinson checks in from back home in Wales via the County Times.
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GENERAL

Ives Galarcep at ESPN Soccernet feels that the loss of league official Ivan Gazidis to Arsenal is a very big deal. So do I.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his blog The Red Card gives us a round up of his trip to LA and the MLS Cup final.
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Richard Snowden at Soccer 365 offers up his changes to the MLS structure to make it a better league. Is there a version of "relegation" that could work?
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MLS Rumor City - Don't Tease Me Bro!

Would you like to see Valencia forward Fernando Morientes in MLS? I would too, but not at DP money.
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Soccer By Ives suggests that Chicago centerback Bakary Soumare and Houston centerback Bobby Boswell might be headed to clubs in Europe.
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MLS Expansion News

Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald talks to the lead investor of the Miami bid. ANOTHER STADIUM WITH FAKE TURF!! NOOOOO! Includes some very interesting quotes from MLS commissioner Donald V Garber.
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Team USA

ESPN Soccernet has a video interview with Bayern Munich coach Juergen Klinsmann where he kind of slightly addresses why he turned down the top job in US Soccer. Don't count on learning anything though.
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USA U20 News

Andrew Rogers of ESPN Soccernet fills us in on the rough trip the U20 team just took to Spain.
-Coach Thomas Rongen's excuse for failure this time is that the college players were missing. Are you freakin kidding me? A few years ago the excuse was that we had too many college players. Now we don't have enough? I am not buying it for one second.
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Americans In Europe

Ravi Uhba of ESPN Soccernet tells about the little known 3rd American at Aston Villa - defender Eric Lichaj.
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Goal.com talks to an exec at Standard Liege about the future of Oguchi Onyewu at the club. They have offered him a new deal, and other clubs are showing interest as well. It has been fun to see him playing with a renewed self confidence in 08.
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Zak Whitbread at Millwall is still not playing due to a groin muscle strain.
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TRANSFER RUMORS

Will Michael Parkhurst be playing in Denmark come January? Very likely.
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The Deutsche Welle blog Ballspiel on the possibility of Landy landing at Bayern.
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Steve Davis of ESPN Soccernet on the odds of Kenny Cooper going to play in Germany.
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MOST RECENT MATCHES
(only players who saw the field are listed)

French Ligue 1
-Carlos Bocanegra - Rennes - went the full match and they won 1-0 at home against Paris St Germaine. They climb to #2 in the table!
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Spanish La Liga
-Jozy Altidore - Villarreal - at first I looked for Jozy on the subs list and was bummed not to see his name there, but my eye caught a glimmer of something else, and by golly, our man started the game! He went 78 minutes as they won on the road at Recreativo Huelva 1-2.
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German Bundesliga 1
-Michael Bradley - Monchengladbach - started and got the games first goal, ufortunately it was an Own Goal, they subbed him off in the 70th minuten and they wen ton to lost 1-3 at Energie Cottbus.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - started but came off at half time due to an unknown injury, as they went on to win at home 3-2 over Karlsruhe.
-Neven Subotic - Borussia Dortmund - played the full match and drew 0-0 at home against Wolfsburg.
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German Bundesliga 2
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - played the whole match but only drew 3-3 at home against Wehen.
-Grover Gibson - Rot Weiss Ahlen - started but came out at half time, and they lost 4-1 at Koblenz.
-Luis Robles - Kaiserslautern - went the full 90 in goal and drew 1-1 at home against Alemania Aachen.
-Matt Taylor - Koblenz - played the entire match, scoring the final goal, as they won at home 4-1 against Rot Weiss Ahlen.
-David Yelldell - Koblenz - went the distance in a 4-1 home win over Rot Weiss Ahlen.
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Dutch Erstedivisie
-Charles Kazlauskas - TOP Oss - played all 90 minutes as they won at home 2-1 over Den Bosch.
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Belgian Jupiler League
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - played the full match, got a Yellow Card, and drew at Mechelen 0-0.
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Austrian Bundesliga
-Preston Zimmerman - Kapfenberg - went the distance but could not pull it out, losing at home 1-2 to Austria Vienna.
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English Premier League
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - went all 90 but drew 0-0 at Aston Villa.
-Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - played the entire match, getting yet another clean sheet, and drawing 0-0 at home against Fulham.
-Tim Howard - Everton - went the distance beating Tottenham 0-1 on the road.
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English Championship Division
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - started and played all 90 as they drew 1-1 at home against Doncaster.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - played all 90 beating Coventry 2-1 at home.
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Danish SAS Ligaen
-Dan Califf - Midjtylland - went the distance and won at home 3-0 against Nordsjaeland.
-Jeremiah White - Aarhus - came on as a 59th minute sub and they won 2-1 at home over Odense.
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Mexico & FMF News

1st Round 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with 1st leg scores included):
-Sat Nov 29
San Luis 1-2 Santos Laguna - Santos advance 5-2 on aggregate.
Atlante 1-1 UANL Tigres - series ends tied 2-2 so Atlante advance because they were the higher seed.
-Sun Nov 30
Toluca 2-0 UAdG Tecos - Toluca adv 2-0 on agg.
UNAM Pumas 1-3 Cruz Azul - CA adv 3-1 on agg.
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Semifinals 1st leg
-DATES TBA
Cruz Azul v Atlante
Santos Laguna v Toluca
Semifinals 2nd leg (with 1st leg scores included)
-DATES TBA
Atlante v Cruz Azul
Toluca v Santos Laguna
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South America News

Tim Vickery of the BBC teaches us about football in Uruguay. What do you know about it? I know the names Sebastian Abreu & Diego Forlan, a couple of very early World Cup titles, and that's about it.
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Brazil

The Brasileiro goes down to the wire with 2 teams left in the race and only 1 game left to play (includes results against final 4 opponents of the season):
72 Sao Paulo (W 3-1 v Figueirense, W 1-2 at Vasco da Gama, D 1-1 v Fluminense, at Goias)
69 Gremio (W 2-1 v Coritiba, W 4-2 at Vitoria, W 1-4 at Ipatinga, v Atletico MG)
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Copa Sudamericana

Finals
1st leg Match & Score:
-Wed Nov 26
Estudiantes 0-1 Internacional - Int goal by Alex(PK).
2nd leg Match & Score (with 1st leg score included):
-Wed Dec 3
Internacional v Estudiantes (1-0)
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England News

Everton forward Yakubu has blown out his achilles tendon and will be gone for the rest of the 08/09 season. Ouch.
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Manchester United forward scored his 100th league goal on Sunday.
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European News

Ballon d'Or

Winner to be announced on Tuesday December 2.
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GERMANY

The Bundesliga website has a Q & A with Hertha Berlin captain Arne Friedrich. His team would be the talk of Germany right now if weren't for those pesky kids from Hoffenheim.
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The upcoming Friday gives us the biggest match of the German season so far - Bayern Munich v Hoffenheim!
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ITALY

Alessandro Del Piero scored has now scored 250 goals as a member of Juventus.
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Alberto Cerruti of La Gazzetta dello Sport rates the performances of all the Serie A teams this week.
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Football Italia with a Week 14 review of Serie A.
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SPAIN

Check out Real Madrid's injury list: Wesley Sneijder, Pepe, Miguel Torres, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Gonzalo Higuain, Arjen Robben, Mahamadou Diarra, Ruben de la Red, Fabio Cannavaro & Gabriel Heinze. That is simply insane.
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Phil Ball of ESPN Soccernet on Round 13 in La Liga.
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The Weekends Biggest Club Matches From Around The World

England Premiership
-Sat Nov 29
Middlesbrough 0-0 Newcastle - a scoreless draw in the Tyne-Tees derby.
-Sun Nov 30
Manchester City 0-1 Manchester United - the Manchester derby showed City to be frauds and Man U to be the real deal.
Chelsea 1-2 Arsenal - the 2nd biggest London derby sees another chink in the Chelsea armor, and opens another door for the Gunners.
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Italy Serie A
-Sun Nov 30
Roma 1-0 Fiorentina - two teams with a lot of talent but are struggling. With plenty of season left, could this be the turning point for Roma?
Inter Milan 2-1 Napoli - the top team shows the biggest surprise this season how its done, AND opens a 6 point lead at the top of the table.
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Spain La Liga
-Sat Nov 29
Sevilla 0-3 Barcelona - a challenger has nothing to stop the league leaders who roll some more.
Getafe 3-1 Real Madrid - a big big upset in the lesser Madrid derby.
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Germany Bundesliga
-Sat Nov 29
Bayer Leverkusen 0-2 Bayern Munich - the former #2 (now 4th) could not hold off the hard charging former #3 (now 2nd behind Hoffenheim).
-Sun Nov 30
Stuttgart 2-0 Schalke - usually strong contenders every year lately are both struggling, but this is big for Stuttgarts new coach.
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Turkey Super Lig
-Sat Nov 29
Fenerbahce 2-1 Besiktas - old bitter rivals with Fener keeping Besik out of the #1 spot this week.
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Top Of The European Club Standings

Spain La Liga (13 of 38 played)
32 Barcelona
28 Villarreal
27 Valencia
26 Real Madrid
24 Sevilla
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England Premiership (15 of 38 played)
34 Liverpool [CORRECTED]
33 Chelsea
28 Manchester United (only 14 played)
26 Arsenal
25 Aston Villa
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France Ligue 1 (16 of 38 played)
34 Lyon
29 Rennes
28 Marseille
28 Nice
26 Bordeaux
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Germany Bundesliga (15 of 34 played)
34 Hoffenheim
31 Bayern Munich
30 Hertha Berlin
28 Bayer Leverkusen
27 Hamburg
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Italy Serie A (14 of 38 played)
33 Inter Milan
27 Juventus
27 AC Milan
24 Napoli
23 Lazio / Fiorentina
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UEFA Champions League

Group Stage Matchday 5 (of 6) Matches & Scores
-Tue Nov 25
Villarreal 0-0 Manchester United
Aalborg 2-1 Celtic - AaB goals by Caca & Gary Caldwell(OG). Celt goal by Barry Robson.
Bayern Munich 3-0 Steaua Bucuresti - BM goals by Miroslav Klose(2) & Luca Toni.
Fiorentina 1-2 Lyon - Fior goal by Alberto Gilardino. Lyon goals by Jean Makoun & Karim Benzema.
Fenerbahce 1-2 Porto - Fen goal by Kazim Kazim. Port goals both by Lisandro.
Arsenal 1-0 Dynamo Kyiv - Arse goal by Nicklas Bendtner.
Zenit 0-0 Juventus
BATE Borisov 0-1 Real Madrid - RM goal by Raul.
-Wed Nov 26
Bordeaux 1-1 Chelsea - Bord goal by Alou Diarra. Chel goal by Nicolas Anelka.
CFR Cluj 1-3 Roma - CFR goal by Yssouf Kone. Roma goals by Matteo Brighi(2) & Francesco Totti.
Inter Milan 0-1 Panathinaikos - Pana goal by Josu Sarriegi.
Anorthosis 2-2 Werder Bremen - Anor goals by Nikos Nikolaou & Bortolini Pimentel Savio. WB goals by Diego(PK) & Hugo Almeida.
Shakhtar Donetsk 5-0 Basel - SD goals by Jadson(3), Willian & Yevhen Seleznyov.
Sporting 2-5 Barcelona - Spot goals by Miguel Veloso & Liedson. Barc goals by Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi, Caneira(OG), Bojan Krkic(PK) & Gerard Pique.
Atletico Madrid 2-1 PSV Eindhoven - AM goals by Simao & Maxi Rodriguez. PSV goal by Danny Koevermans.
Liverpool 1-0 Olimpique Marseille - Liv goal by Steven Gerrard.
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Barcelona, Manchester United, Villarreal, Arsenal, Porto, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, Lyon, Bayern Munich, Juventus & Real Madrid have all qualified for the knock out rounds.
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The final group stage Matchday, #6, will be played Dec 9 & 10.
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Both spots in Group A, and one spot each in Group B & C are still up for grabs.
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Group Standings
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World News

Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated with the newest World Club Power Rankings - and I think a very surprising #3.
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Asian News

Shandong Luneng were crowned champions of the Chinese Super League this weekend. Congrats to them.