Some News for Mon May 11

STARTERS

Catch me on da Twitter: dunord

dN

Philadelphia made it official today - naming their team Union, which I give a big thumbs up to, showing off their colors - navy blue and gold - and their team badge. I had images of all this last week, so go check it out if you haven't already. Rock on.

MLS

Engaging TV at its finest: The Commish starring Michael Chiklis as Don Garber - DG updates us on the state of the league as of early May 2009. Hopefully this will continue weekly. It's got some interesting little insights going on.

dN

MLS Week 8 Matches
-Wed May 6
Kansas City Wizards 1-1 DC United - KCW goal by Josh Wolff. DCU goal by Rodney Wallace.
Venue: Community America Ballpark, Kansas City KS
Attendance: 9,077
Real Salt Lake 2-2 Los Angeles Galaxy - RSL goals by Robbie Findley & Will Johnson(PK). LAG goals by Landon Donovan(PK) & Mike Magee.
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy UT
Attendance: 16,155
-Fri May 8
Red Bull New York 4-1 San Jose Earthquakes - RBNY goals by Jorge Rojas(2), Juan Pablo Angel & Macoumba Kandji. SJE goal by Ryan Johnson.
Venue: Giants Stadium, East Rutherford NJ
Attendance: 8,042
-Sat May 9
Columbus Crew 3-2 Kansas City Wizards - CC goals by Emmanuel Ekpo, Guillermo Barros Schelotto & Eddie Gaven. KCW goal by Claudio Lopez & Josh Wolff.
Venue: Crew Stadium, Columbus OH
Attendance: 14,271
DC United 3-3 Toronto FC - DCU goals by Ange N'Silu, Chris Pontius & Jaime Moreno(PK). TFC goals by Dwayne DeRosario(2) & Adrian Serioux.
Venue: RFK Stadium, Washington DC
Attendance: 15,652
Chicago Fire 1-1 New England Revolution - CF goal by Wilman Conde. NER goal by Shalrie Joseph.
Venue: Toyota Park, Bridgeview IL
Attendance: 11,288
Houston Dynamo 1-0 FC Dallas - HD goal by Kei Kamara.
Venue: Robertson Stadium, Houston TX
Attendance: 16,932
Chivas USA 1-0 Real Salt Lake - CUSA goal by Paulo Nagamura.
Venue: Home Depot Center, Carson CA
Attendance: 13,421
-Sun May 10
Seattle Sounders FC 1-1 Los Angeles Galaxy - SSFC goal by Sebastian Le Toux. LAG goal by Alan Gordon.
Venue: Qwest Field, Seattle WA
Attendance: 29,025

dN

Red Cards:
James Riley - Seattle - Red Card for Violent Conduct

dN

New York's Macoumba Kandji gets my vote for Player Of The Week.

dN

As brilliant as New York looked last Friday, it was partly due to the fact that San Jose was as bad as any MLS team I have seen since year one of Chivas and Salt Lake. There are reports that Frank Yallop was seen crying on the bench at one point.

dN

Columbus got their first win of the season! Congrats to the champs.

dN

Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal gives us some info on the opening talks between MLS and their players union over a new contract. The current deal expires at the end of this season.

USL

The Des Moines Menace opened their home season last Friday night drawing 3,444 which is more than my Minnesota Thunder drew in the equivalent game the weekend before in which they drew 3,298. Sad for my team. Hooray beer for Des Moines.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Maurice Edu helped his highly flying Rangers team re-take first place in Scotland with 3 games left to play, over their Old Firm rival Celtic. Rangers won on Saturday 1-0, and the Glasgow Herald slobbered all over Edu's performance. Now, I watched the game and really enjoyed seeing him out there, but I didn't see the same performance they did. Great for him! Here is an example of the ass-kissing: "No-one afield was as swashbucklingly brilliant as Maurice Edu.....Edu played the biggest role in stifling Celtic." And this was written by the guy who covers Celtic! (Thanks to Anthony for the link.)

dN

Carlos Bocanegra scored a goal for Rennes in the French League Cup Final, but they lost 2-1 to the huge underdogs from En Avant Guingamp.

dN

Everton and Tim Howard secured a spot in the Europa League for next years. (This is the renamed UEFA Cup.)

CONCACAF

Champions League

Final
2nd Leg Match (with 1st Leg score included):
-Tue May 12
Atlante v Cruz Azul (2-0)

MEXICO

Of course I had it all wrong on the Primera playoff format. They change it more times than MLS. My pal Luis Bueno warned me about this, and I didn't heed his words. Foolish me.

dN

Quarterfinals
1st Leg Matches:
-Wed May 13
Chiapas Jaguares v Pachuca Tuzos
UAdG Tecos v UNAM Pumas
Indios Juarez v Toluca Choriceros
Puebla Camoteros v Monterrey Rayados
2nd Leg Matches (with 1st leg scores included):
-Sat May 16
Pachuca v Jaguares
Monterrey v Puebla
Toluca v Indios
UNAM v UAG

dN

Both Mexican teams, San Luis and Guadalajara have been withdrawn from Copa Libertadores by the FMF after they could not come to an agreement with CONMEBOL on where to play the games. The Swine Flu Scare had caused the rupture.

CANADA

Canadian Championship
-The winner of the two legged round robin tournament gets a spot in the 09/10 CONCACAF Champions League.

Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 13
Toronto v Montreal

Standings (4 game home & away round robin):
3 Toronto (1 played)
-Montreal (0 played)
0 Vancouver (1 played)

ENGLAND

Race for the Premier League title:
83 Manchester United (3 games left to play) - Last: W 2-0 v Manchester City - Next: Wed May 13 at Wigan
80 Liverpool (2 games left to play) - Last: W 0-3 at West Ham - Next: Sun May 17 at West Brom

EUROPE

Race for the Spanish Primera Division title:
86 Barcelona (3 games left to play) - Last: D 3-3 v Villarreal - Next: Sun May 17 at Mallorca
78 Real Madrid (3 games left to play) - Last: L 3-0 at Valencia - Next: Sun May 17 at Villarreal

Barca could have claimed the crown had they not drawn with Villa. Guess it'll have to happen next weekend.

Guillem Balague gives us the wrap up of the weekend in La Liga.

Sid Lowe of the Guardian on Diego Forlan to the rescue for Atletico Madrid, and the rest of La Liga.

dN

Race for the German Bundesliga 1 title:
60 (+27) Wolfsburg (3 games left to play) - Last: L 4-1 at Stuttgart - Next: Tue May 12 v Dortmund
60 (+25) Bayern Munich (3 games left to play) - Last: W 1-3 at Energie Cottbus - Next: Tue May 12 v Bayer Leverkusen
59 Hertha Berlin (3 games left to play) - Last: W 2-0 v Bochum - Next: Tue May 12 at Koln
58 Stuttgart (3 games left to play) - Last: W 4-1 v Wolfsburg - Next: Wed May 13 at Schalke
55 (+20) Dortmund (3 games left to play) - Last: W 4-0 v Karlsruhe - Next: Tue May 12 at Wolfsburg
55 (+/-0) Hamburg (3 games left to play) - Last: L 2-0 at Werder Bremen - Next: Wed May 13 v Bochum

Raphael Honigstein of the Guardian shows us that just days after coach Felix Magath announced he would not return next season his first place team Wolfsburg took a header off a mental cliff and got shellaced at Stuttgart, plus the late season rise of Dortmund, and the rest of die Bundesliga.

dN

Race for the Italian Serie A title:
78 Inter (3 games left to play) - Last: D 2-2 at Chievo - Next:
71 Milan (3 games left to play) - Last: D 1-1 v Juventus - Next:
67 Juventus (3 games left to play) - Last: D 1-1 at Milan

Inter twice pissed away a chance to claim the title leading 1-0 and 2-1 but the Flying Donkeys said "not on our turf you don't". I guess that makes Inter's new nickname the Choking Dogs!

With the draw Juventus are eliminated from the title race. The Scudetto will now stay in the city of Milan - Will Inter hold on? Most likely. It's been interesting watching Inter Vikings their way into the title.

Paolo Bandini of the Guardian on the old & slow Milan and Juventus, and the rest of Serie A.

dN

Race for the French Ligue 1 title:
68 (+27) Marseille (4 games left to play) - Next: Wed May 13 at Nice - Next:
68 (+26) Bordeaux (4 games left to play) - Next: Wed May 13 at Valenciennes - Next:
61 Lyon (4 games left to play) - Next: Tue May 12 v Nantes - Next:
60 Paris St Germain (4 games left to play) - Next: Wed May 13 at Le Mans

dN

Race for the French Ligue 1 title:
79 Rangers - Last: W 1-0 v Celtic - Next: Wed May 13 at Hibernian
77 Celtic - Last: L 1-0 at Rangers - Next: Tue May 12 v Dundee United

dN

Leander Schaerlaekens of the Guardian tells us the best 11 from Holland this season, and the rest of the Eredivisie.

dN

Other Cup competitions around Europe:

Coupe de France Final
-Sat May 9
Rennes 1-2 En Avant Guingamp
-In a huge upset the little team from Guingamp wins the French Cup!









dN

Turkiya Kupasi Final
-Wed May 13
Besiktas v Fenerbahce

dN

Coppa Italia Final
-Wed May 13
Lazio v Sampdoria

dN

Copa del Rey Final
-Wed May 13
Athletic Bilbao v Barcelona

dN

Ukrainian Cup Semifinals
1st Leg Match:
-Wed May 13
Dynamo Kyiv v Shakhtar Donetsk
2nd Leg Match (1st Leg scores included):
-Wed May 13
Vorskla Poltava v Metalist Kharkiv (0-0)
-Date TBD
Shakhtar Donetsk v Dynamo Kyiv (-)

COPA LIBERTADORES

Both Mexican teams, San Luis and Guadalajara have been withdrawn from Copa Libertadores by the FMF after they could not come to an agreement with CONMEBOL on where to play the games. The Swine Flu Scare had caused the rupture. Their opponents Nacional & Sao Paulo advance.

dN

Round of 16 matches canceled: Nacional & Sao Paulo advance.
San Luis FC (Mex) v Club Nacional (Uru)
Guadalajara Chivas (Mex) v Sao Paulo FC (Braz)

Round of 16 1st Leg Matches:
-Thu May 14
Defensor SC (Para) v CA Boca Juniors (Arg)

dN

2nd Leg Matches (with 1st Leg scores included):
-Tue May 12
Caracas v Cuenca (1-2)
Sport Recife v Palmeiras (0-1)
-Wed May 13
Gremio v Universidad San Martin (3-1)
-Thu May 14
Cruzeiro v Universidad de Chile (2-1)
Libertad v Estudiantes (0-3)
-Thu May 21
Boca Juniors v Defensor (-)

ENDERS

Russell Brand: "When football is played by the rules the only people who get hurt are the fans."