Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Some News for Tue May 26

STARTERS



Huge Congrats go out to Maurice Edu, DaMarcus Beasley and Oguchi Onyewu as their teams Rangers and Standard Liege have won the Scottish and Belgian championships, respectively. Awesome seasons for these guys! Edu lead a special charge as he moved into the starting lineup 2 months ago and Rangers hasn't lost a game [CORRECTED] since then!



dN

Got this Twitter from Freddy Adu this afternoon: "a lil bit of a chance i might stay here or somewhere else. Benfica gotta sell to make up for lost money. Ill find out more within next 2 weeks" Still think Twitter is a joke??

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Final
-Wed May 27
Manchester United v Barcelona - From the Olympic Stadium in Rome - 1:25pm Central on ESPN

dN

Manchester United will be wearing their white kit. Barcelona their red/blue shirt with blue pants.

dN

Greg Lalas of Sports Illustrated looks at this seemingly historic matchup.

dN

Martin Samuel of the Daily Mail weighs up what a Manchester United victory would mean.

dN

Amy Lawrence of the Guardian writes that not only does Thierry Henry desperately want to win the Champions League title, he also wants to stuff Man U.

dN

Chad Nielsen of ESPN Magazine with a big story on Lionel Messi.

dN

Soccerlens does a Q & A with Lionel Messi.

dN

The BBC reports that there have been certain limits put on alcohol sales in Rome.

dN

The BBC talks to former Bayern Munich keeper Oliver Kahn about his UCL Final nightmare 10 years ago against Manchester United.

dN

And Teddy Sherringham writing for the Guardian tells the opposite story, how he and his Manchester United teammates pulled off that miracle in '99.

dN

Three of our favorite podcasts have UEFA Champions League Final previews:
-The European Football Show
Final Fantasy - The two best teams, featuring the two most talented players set against the backdrop of the Eternal City. Only the most hard-hearted football fan (Chelsea fans excepted) would argue that this year's Champions League Final is anything but the most romantic possible.
-EPL Talk
UEFA Champions League Final Preview - We preview the 2009 UEFA Champions League final between FC Barcelona and Manchester United. Martin Rogers of Yahoo! Sports, Chris Oakley of Some People on the Pitch, Phil Schoen who calls LaLiga matches for GOL TV and South Florida Sun Sentinel Soccer writer Jeff Rusnak joins us.
-Football Weekly
Where next for Newcastle? - In this Bank Holiday special, the team ponder how Newcastle will cope in the Championship next season and preview the Champions League final

dN

Lionel Messi is The Spark. Is that some kind of new superhero?

MLS

Week 11 Matches:
-Wed May 27
Columbus Crew v San Jose Earthquakes - 6:30pm Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Crew Stadium - Columbus OH
-Thu May 28
Chivas USA v Chicago Fire - 9:30pm Central on ESPN2
Venue: Home Depot Center - Carson CA

dN

Toronto FC midfielder Amado Guevara has been named Player of the Week.

dN

Steve Davis at Soccernet gives us 10 things to know from last weekends matches.

dN

Seattle rookie Steve Zakuani writing for ESPN Soccernet tells us what its like to be a first year professional player on a brand new team.

dN

The Toronto Sun with an article on TFC forward Chad Barrett's seeming inability to score goals even when given dozens of great chances. That is why my friend Pat nicknamed him "The Vasectomy" - where balls go to die.

dN

The Toronto Globe & Mail is the latest to slam the fake turf at BMO Field.

dN

Jack Bell of the New York Times on the hideous New York Red Bulls team. Remember a couple weeks ago when they were great for 45 minutes. Or was that a dream? And has coach Juan Carlos Osorio lost it?

US OPEN CUP

MLS 2nd Round Qualifying Match:
-Tue May 26
Seattle Sounders FC v Colorado Rapids

Winner moves on to the tournament proper.

USL FIRST DIVISION

Games This Past Weekend:
-Fri May 22
Puerto Rico Islanders 1-1 Portland Timbers
Cleveland City Stars 0-3 Carolina RailHawks
-Sat May 23
Charleston Battery 2-0 Rochester Rhinos
Minnesota Thunder 0-0 Miami FC Blues
-Sun May 24
Puerto Rico Islanders 1-2 Portland Timbers
Austin Aztex 0-1 Carolina RailHawks

dN

Standings:
19 Carolina
16 Charleston
13 Rochester
12 Portland
11 Vancouver
9 Puerto Rico
7 Miami
6 Austin
5 Montreal
4 Cleveland
3 Minnesota

SOCCER IN AMERICA

The AP is reporting that USA and Iran have had a discussion about playing a friendly in Tehran. But as we all know, talk is just that.

dN

Ives Galarcep at Soccernet writes about 3 more young players who (could) have duel citizenship in the USA and elsewhere and may be strong prospects for the USA national team - what will they choose to do?

dN

The Washington Post with an article on 2 young talented goalkeeping prospects on the DC United Academy teams.

dN

Another of the foreign glamour candidates that so many fans wanted US Soccer to hire as the latest national team coach has bitten the dust - Jose Pekerman was fired by UANL Tigres in Mexico after they finished 16th in the 18 team Primera. Add him to the Klinsmann list, and take a look at how dreadful Portugal are under Carlos Queiroz, and suddenly Bob Bradley has quite the impressive standing. By the way, who are all these brilliant coaches out there that should be running the USA show right now instead of Bradley? I hear the complaints, I just don't see any solutions being offered.

TEAM AMERICA

Team USA begins training camp today in Miami for the 2 upcoming World Cup qualifiers. (See the roster that I posted here at du Nord on Sunday.)

dN

Tim Howard at Everton and Maurice Edu & DaMarcus Beasley at Rangers will not be in Miami until after their teams have competed for their respective league Cup's next Saturday.

dN

Official blog
-Video interview with Edu on the Scottish League Cup final.

dN

Eric Lichaj of Aston Villa and Luis Robles of Kaiserslautern are with the full national team for the first time (but not on the official roster) as they prepare for the qualifiers and the Confederations Cup. These are the kind of players I fully expect to see on the Gold Cup roster.
-Who are these two you ask? Lichaj is a right fullback [CORRECTED] (converted from a midfielder) who is on the books at the team from Birmingham but has never played for the senior team. He is 20 years old. Robles is a 25 year old goalkeeper at Kaiserslautern in the 2 Bundesliga. He went to the University of Portland - the same school that produced Kasey Keller. He has seen plenty of first team action over the past 2 seasons when their regular keeper has been injured or suspended which this year was about half the games.

dN

The Confederations Cup roster will not be announced until Jun 7, and the team will leave at that time for South Africa.

dN

Worl Cup Qualifying Matches:
-Wed Jun 3
Costa Rica v USA - from Estadio Ricardo Saprissa in San Jose CR -
9pm Central on ESPN Networks & Galavision
-Sat Jun 6
USA v Honduras - from Soldier Field in Chicago IL - 7pm Central on ESPN Classic & Galavision

dN

The US Soccer Development Academy held their Spring Showcase in Sarasota FL this past weekend, with both the USA U17 & U20 teams taking part in matches. Here is a video recap.

dN

The USA U18 team in Portugal - Lisbon International Tournament

Match Schedule:
-Wed May 27
USA v Finland
-Thu May 28
USA v Germany
-Sat May 30
USA v Portugal

Roster:
G:
Justin Luthy - Columbus Crew Academy
Zac MacMath - Maryland
D:
Gale Agbossoumonde - no team
Chad Barson - Akron
Paolo Del Piccolo - Colorado Rush
Greg Garza - Sporting CP
Kofi Sarkodie - Akron
Zarek Valentin - PA Classics
M:
Jose Altamirano - Del Mar Sharks
Steven Birnbaum - California
Miles Byass - Arsenal FC
Nicholas Millington - Wake Forest
Amobi Okugo - San Juan Lightning Crew
Dillon Powers - Andromeda
F:
Dion Acoff - Arsenal FC
Will Bates - Richmond Strikers
Hasani Sinclair - Schulz Academy
Justin Watson - Bridge FA7

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Kenny Mayne of ESPN Magazine does a Q & A with Tim Howard. Ti-May

dN

ESPN also has one of those hypothetical articles where great athletes play another sport - our pal Kristian Dyer writes about Tim Howard on an NFL team.

dN

Yanks Abroad with an article on Oguchi Onyewu and Standard Liege winning the Belgian League championship.

AMERICANS IN MEXICO

Jose Francisco Torres at Pachuca leads his team into the Primera Clausura Liguilla Final against UNAM Pumas.

MEXICO

Primera Liguilla Semifinals
1st Leg Match:
-Thu May 28
UNAM Pumas v Pachuca
2nd Leg Match:
-Sun May 31
Pachuca v UNAM Pumas

CANADA

Canadian Championship tournament - Montreal Impact, Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps face off. The winner of the two legged round robin tournament gets a spot in the 09/10 CONCACAF Champions League.

Match Schedule:
-Wed May 27
Vancouver v Montreal

Standings (4 game home & away round robin):
6 Toronto (2 played)
3 (+1)Vancouver (2 played)
0 (-3)Montreal (2 played)

ENGLAND

Kevin McCarra of the Guardian says that many Manchester United fans once considered midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron to be a very expensive flop, but really he was a precursor to the ultimate Champions League style player. It was the team that failed him, not the other way around.

dN

The BBC with an article on one time Manchester United player Danny Wallace and his fight against MS. Some day I will tell my Danny Wallace story on this blog. He is brave man to have gone through the ugly story I witnessed, and he shows today that his bravery did not end there.

EUROPE

Juventus has officially signed Brazilian midfield general Diego from Werder Bremen. Here is the story from the team website.

dN

Bayern Munich has added another jewel in their offense crown signing German forward Mario Gomez from Stuttgart. I hardly see where they need more players like this though. What they really need are defenders, and lots of them too.

dN

Lyon has agreed to let midfielder Juninho leave the team on free transfer. They have voided the last year of his contract.

dN

Jose Mourinho has signed a contract extension at Internazionale through the 2011/12 season. He looks pretty happy to me!



dN

Gordon Strachan has resigned as coach of Celtic after their end of season collapse let Rangers steal the title.

dN

Ajax has hired Martin Jol as their new head coach. He had just finished a decent season at Hamburg.

dN

Raphael Honigstein of the Guardian reports on Wolfsburg's Bundesliga title, and the rest of the German top division.

dN

Paolo Bandini of the Guardian reports that Milan legend Paolo Maldini played his last home game ever yesterday, but some fans did not give him "many happy returns," and the rest of Serie A. An anti-Maldini banner hung in the stadium read: "Thanks captain. On the pitch you were an undying champion but you had no respect for those who made you rich." Oof! I really don't get that at all. He has always seemed to be the complete package of great skill, shining star, and simple modesty.

dN

Sid Lowe of the Guardian on the only thing worth reporting on in Spanish football this week - the relegation battle.

dN

Ben Lyttleton of the Guardian writes about Bordeaux who got the win, but not the help they needed from others to clinch the Ligue 1 title last weekend, and the rest of the new from the league.

SOUTH AMERICA

Tim Vickery at Sports Illustrated with an article on a Brazilian goalkeeper with a special charm - Marcos.

COPA LIBERTADORES

Here is the Quarterfinal match schedule:
1st Leg Matches:
-Wed May 27
Cruzeiro v Sao Paulo
Caracas v Gremio
-Thu May 28
Defensor v Estudiantes
Palmeiras v Nacional

ENDERS

Sadly, in small town in Northern Ireland on Monday, a gang of Glasgow Rangers supporters drove into a Catholic neighborhood and beat a man to death. Great way to celebrate you bunch of pigs.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Nordy said...

Juninho should come to MLS!

10:21 PM  
Anonymous Kevin said...

Is it time to label the MN Thunder strikers "The Vasectomy"?

8:02 AM  
Blogger Matt said...

Brucio,

Love the site. Just a quick note on Edu--Rangers drew with Hibernian on 5/13 (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/team/results?id=257&season=2008&_league=sco.1&cc=5901). But I believe they won the remaining games he started over the last month or two of the season.

Matt

9:26 AM  
Blogger Greg Seltzer said...

Eric Lichaj is a right back, Brucio.

10:18 AM  
Blogger brucio said...

thanks all for the correction

11:45 AM  
Blogger brucio said...

the thunder are playing more like "The Neutered"

11:46 AM  

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