Waiting So Long News

La Gazzetta asks Fabio Capello what he wants for Christmas: "A painting, like always. In the letter I write to Santa Claus I put down three contemporary artists: Cy Twombly, an American, Georg Baselitz, a German, and the Englishman Peter Doig." I love it. See the rest of his Q & A in the Italy section.

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Neven Subotic to Napoli? See Americans in Europe - Transfer Rumors for the details from Goal.com.

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The MLS season kicks off in 92 days!


MLS Team News

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

On the teams blog fullback Amaechi Igwe gives us some insight on his trip to England with the MLS Generation Adidas team last week. thanks to Ross for laying this on us
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Ives Galarcep of Soccer By Ives with an article on Matt Kassel who came up through the Red Bulls academy, spent the last season at Maryland (played a big role in winning the NCAA championship) and will most likely sign with MLS. Where will be end up playing.
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SEATTLE SOUNDERS

Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com wonders if the expectations on Sigi Schmid and the Sounders are already to high. Yes they are Kyle.
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Plenty from the 2 local daily papers on the hiring of Schmid.
The Times:
-Sounders coach Sigi Schmid brings championship experience to new club by Jose Miguel Romero
-Sounders strike gold in getting Sigi Schmid as coach by Steve Kelly
-More from today's announcement by Jose Romero
-Sigi Schmid's contract by Jose Romero
The Post Intelligencer:
-Sounders started at top for this hire by Art Theil
-Schmid moved by Seattle family ties by Gary Washburn
-Sounders FC makes giant hire in Schmid by Gary Washburn
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TORONTO FC

Morgan Campbell of the Star on the papers TFC blog tries to rationally look at the deal that brought Dwayne DeRosario home to Toronto. Was it a good deal for TFC?
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Carl Robinson, writing for his hometown newspaper County Times in Wales, confirms that he has reached an agreement on a new contract with TFC!
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MLS Rumor City - Don't Tease Me Bro!

Soccer 365's Grapevine lines up a Costa Rican centerback for Seattle.
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College News

The Soccer America 2008 Men's College Player Of The Year is Steve Zakuani from the Akron Zips!
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US Soccer News

US Soccer gives us audio of DaMarcus Beasley talking about the USA-Mexico rivalry.
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Did you get your US Soccer gift wrap? I didn't see this item coming from our federation.
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Soccer In America

Soccer 365 talks to Ethan Zahn about his massive 550 mile dribble to raise money for his organization Grassroot Soccer.
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Americans In Europe

Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise writes about the Americans who are succeeding in Europe.
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Greg Seltzer at Soccer 365 reports that Frank Simek's hamstring injury is a bad one - he will be out until late January.
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TRANSFER RUMORS

Goal.com reports that in a stunning move Neven Subotic will leave Borussia Dortmund for Napoli! Did you see this one coming?
-But when you want the truth, you go to people you trust - Greg Seltzer at No Short Corners reports that this story is "100% rubbish."
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UPCOMING MATCHES

UEFA Cup
-Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - at Hamburg on Wed Dec 17
-Brad Guzan - Aston Villa - at Hamburg on Wed Dec 17
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard Liege - at Stuttgart on Thu Dec 18
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South America News

ARGENTINA

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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Matches & Scores:
-Wed Dec 17
San Lorenzo V Tigre - played at Estadio Jose Amalfitani, in Buenos Aires, home of Velez Sarsfield
-Sat Dec 20
Boca Juniors v San Lorenzo - played at Estadio President Peron, in Cordoba, home of AC Cordoba.
-Tue Dec 23
Tigre v Boca Juniors - played at Estadio President Peron, in Cordoba, home of AC Cordoba.
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Joel Richards of the Guardian previews the big playoff.
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Gregory Sica of Sports Illustrated previews too.
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Marcela Mora y Araujo of the Guardian tells the tale of two very old clubs from Rosario - Central and Newell's Old Boys.
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England News

Just 10 months after having his leg horribly broken, Arsenal forward Eduardo de Silva played in a reserve match last night. Wow.
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FIFA.com has a Q & A with Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson. They talk financial crisis, foreign players and a couple other topics.
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Former Bolton & Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce has been hired to take over the whip at Blackburn.
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Paul Wilson at the Guardian wonders how Paul Ince got the Blackburn job in the first place.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune talks to England coach Fabio Capello who quickly realized his teams problems were mostly psychological.
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Rob Smyth of the Guardian sees similarity between Dimitar Berbatov at Manchester United, and that teams failed signing of Juan Sebastian Veron.
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European News

FRANCE

Ben Lyttleton of the Guardian wonders if Hatem Ben Arfa who left Lyon last summer for Marseille will help his new team unseat his old team at the top of the French football pyramid. And the rest of Ligue 1 from last week.
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FIFA.com gives us a historic look at Freddy Adu's squad - Monaco.
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ITALY

La Gazzetta does a very good Q & A with Fabio Capello, on all kinds of topics.
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SPAIN

John Molinaro of the CBC reviews his recently ended trip to Spain.
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UEFA Cup

Matchday 5 will take place on Wed Dec 17 & Thu Dec 18. Here are those Matches & Scores.
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Group Standings
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World News

Reuters rewinds 2008 for us.
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FIFA Club World Cup

The FIFA Club World Cup from Japan.
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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 v Manchester United - live at 4:30am central on Fox Soccer Channel
-Sun Dec 21 - Final
Liga de Quito v Winner 2 - live at 4:30am central on Fox Soccer Channel
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Everyone saw Pachuca's huge comeback effort as a sign that they were ready to roll over Liga and into the finals today. But obviously the Copa Libertadores champs from Ecuador had their own magic ready. Liga goes to the final, and the folks at Charlie's Polloria must be in heaven today.
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ESPN Soccernet with an article on the surprise Libertadores champs at the CWC - Liga.
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Martin Samuel of the Times writes about the mess that the CWC can seem to be. You know it's all about money and FIFA ego's right?
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The Road To World Cup 2010 - South Africa News

Business Day in Zimbabwe with an article on how war/poverty/famine/disease in Zimbabwe cannot help but effect South Africa's World Cup, despite strange words to the contrary by the top executive of the local organizing committee. Can you say "delusional." The cold hearted bastard named Danny Jordaan went so far as to make this statement: “Those people barely have the energy to walk, how they can be a threat to us? I can’t understand."