Some News for Wed May 13

STARTERS

Gabba Gabba Twitter: dunord

dN

Atlante of Cancun Mexico has claimed the first ever CONCACAF Champions League title.

dN

Louis van Gaal coach of AZ Alkmaar has been hired to take over Bayern Munich as soon as the current season ends!

dN

The Football Writers Association has named Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard as the English Footballer Of The Year.

MLS

Steve Sirk delivers his latest giant batch of anecdotes from Columbus Crew-ville.

dN

Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet agrees with what I said the other day, San Jose has really stunk up the joint so far this season. And he does not confirm or deny the report that Frank Yallop was seen crying on the bench near the end of the game.

dN

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his blog The Red Card with some weekly notes on the Fire.
-He also gives us a rundown on the status of several former Fire players.

dN

Both the Toronto Star and the Globe & Mail have articles on TFC's Dwayne DeRosario today.

dN

Orrin Schwarz of the Chicago Daily Herald feels the Chicago Fire may be more comfortable playing on the road then at home right now. They are at least more successful.

dN

Cole Young of the Kansas City Star reports that the Wizards have a couple players finally getting healthy that they were counting on to improve the team - Chance Myers and Adam Cristman.

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Beau Dure of USA has an article on Salt Lake forward Robbie Findley who is off to a good start this season.

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Noah Davis at Sports Illustrated with this weeks league notes and power rankings.

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I missed this one last week - Kristian Dyer at Soccernet with an article on the return of Colorado goalkeeper Matt Pickens from a turn to try his luck in Europe.

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Center Line Soccer reports that Trinidad & Tobago forward Cornell Glen is getting a tryout with the EQuakes. He has been in MLS before playing for New York and Los Angeles.

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The Deseret News with an article on the groundskeeper for RSL's Rio Tinto Stadium.

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Paid Content from the UK reports that MLS has a new online video deal set up with an English company called Perform. I am not sure exactly what this means, but they seem to be a company that do this quite well, and have been working with the Premier League lately.

dN

ESPN Magazine looks at MLS and other soccer team logos to pick out the good and the bad.

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Jack Bell of the New York Times blog Goal tells us about an Iron Chef type event featuring New York Red Bulls players and management. I shit you not.

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Several sites are reporting that Ivan Guerrero is about to leave Colorado and go back to his native Honduras to play for Motagua.

dN

Top MLS Goal Scorers:
5 Landon Donovan
5 Robbie Findley
5 Brian McBride
4 Guillermo Barros Schelotto
4 Conor Casey
4 Kenny Cooper
4 Luciano Emilio

dN

It's time to get busy and start voting for your MLS All Star team. They will take on Everton on Wed Jul 29 at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy Utah.

USL

The Miami New Times tells us about Miami FC's new Cuban acquisitions.

dN

Brian Quarstad of Inside Minnesota Soccer has a weekly round up of all the USL First Division. Top rate as always.

SOCCER IN AMERICA

Jeffrey Marcus of the New York Times blog Goal does a Q & A with Warren St John who authored the book “Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town,” about a rag tag team in Georgia.

dN

FIFA.com talks to Carlos Bocanegra about the strength of Team America - togetherness - as corny as that sounds.

dN

The USA U18 team heads to Portugal next week for the Lisbon International Tournament.

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 FA

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Looks like Freddy Adu's miserable year on the bench at Monaco is about to come to an end. He was on loan from Benfica this season and will not be purchased by Monaco so its back to Portugal for the wonder kid.

dN

It's been 4 days since the Old Firm match and the Glasgow papers are still gushing over Maurice Edu. Today it's the Evening Times. They also talk to an agent who is bringing European players to America for college etc, and says Edu's time in college helped him a lot.

dN

Greg Seltzer of Soccer 365 talks to Edu about the big win that took the team into first place with 3 games to go.

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Seltzer also reports that defender Charles Kazlauskas will leave his current club TOP Oss at the end of this season to join rivals Helmond Sport, who play in the same 2nd tier Eerste Divisie.

dN

US Soccer has an audio interview with Oguchi Onyewu as his team Standard Liege go for the title in the final weeks of the season. Download or listen here.

CONCACAF

Champions League

Final
-Tue May 12
Atlante 0-0 Cruz Azul - Atlante capture the title on a 2-0 aggregate score.

dN

Luis Bueno of Sports Illustrated reviews the entire 1st tournament and suggests some ways to make it better. I don't agree at all with #2, because I see the USL First Division success & MLS failure as a fluke not the new standard.

MEXICO

All the stadiums will be open for normal business when the Liguilla kicks off on Wednesday night, except UAdG and Chiapas home games which will be closed to all fans still due to the Swine Flu scare.

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

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)

CENTRAL AMERICA

James Lawton at the Independent of London with a very sad story of Tottenham & Honduras midfielder Wilson Palacios and a huge family tragedy.

ENGLAND

Portsmouth goalkeeper David James writing for the Observer wonders why so few goalkeepers make it as managers. I think its a numbers game my man, if a team has a 25 or so player roster the most gk's they will have is 3. By my math 22:3 odds is very very poor. So there is your answer, I guess no need to read on.

dN

Race for the Premier League title:
86 Manchester United (2 games left to play) - Last: W 1-2 at Wigan - Next: Sat May 16 v Arsenal
80 Liverpool (2 games left to play) - Next: Sun May 17 at West Brom

EUROPE

The Union Berlin team that used to defy the Stasi in old East Berlin have won promotion to the German 2nd division. This is their highest standing in many decades. To make the jump the underfinanced team needs to upgrade their stadium. Reuters reports that supporters of the team are doing the refurbishing with their own money and hands! Amazing.





dN

Bundesliga.com does a Q & A with Bayern Munich's interim coach Juup Heynckes.

dN

Race for the German Bundesliga 1 title:
63 (+30) Wolfsburg (2 games left to play) - Last: W 3-0 v Dortmund - Next: Sat May 16 at Hannover
63 (+28) Bayern Munich (2 games left to play) - Last: W 3-0 v Bayer Leverkusen - Next: Sat May 16 at Hoffenheim
62 Hertha Berlin (2 games left to play) - Last: W 1-2 at Koln - Next: Sat May 16 v Schalke
61 Stuttgart (2 games left to play) - Last: W 1-2 at Schalke - Next: Sat May 16 v Energie Cottbus
58 Hamburg (2 games left to play) - Last: W 3-1 Bochum – Next: Sat May 16 v Koln

dN

With Barcelona on pace to smash all La Liga goal scoring records this season, Rob Smyth of the Guardian looks back at the last high flying Spanish team - Real Madrid 89-90.

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Reuters reports on the Italian Federation trying to keep Serie A from splitting off into their own organization.

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Calciomercato with a little snippet on a potential new owner and stadium for Roma. Including this hilarious picture of team President Rosella Sensi:
















dN

Inter Milan only need to win this weekend to claim the title for the 4th consecutive year.

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Race for the French Ligue 1 title:
71 (+29) Marseille (3 games left to play) - Last: W 0-2 at Nice - Next: Sun May 17 v Lyon
71 (+27) Bordeaux (3 games left to play) - Last: W 1-2 at Valenciennes - Next: Sat May 16 v Le Mans
64 Lyon (3 games left to play) - Last: W 3-1 v Nantes - Next: Sun May 17 at Marseille
63 Paris St Germain (3 games left to play) - Last: W 0-1 at Le Mans - Next: Sat May 16 v Auxerre

dN

Race for the Scottish Premier League title:
80 (+47) Celtic (2 games left to play) - Next: Sun May 17 at Hibernian
80 (+45) Rangers (2 games left to play) - Last: D 1-1 at Hibernian – Next: Sat May 16 v Aberdeen

dN

Other Cup competitions around Europe:

Coppa Italia Final
-Wed May 13
Lazio 1-1 Sampdoria - game ends tied after extra time, and Lazio wins on PK's 6-5.

Copa del Rey Final
-Wed May 13
Athletic Bilbao 1-4 Barcelona - Barcelona win it in a trounce!

Turkiya Kupasi Final
-Wed May 13
Besiktas 4-2 Fenerbahce - Besiktas wins the 2009 Turkish Cup!

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

SOUTH AMERICA

Marcela Mora y Araujo of the Guardian tells us about a new documentary film on the legend of Diego Maradona.

dN

I have no idea if this story is true or not but Four Four Two has an article on Tourists being treated very well by the Boca Juniors barra despite what you might think. It would be pretty cool if it was true.

COPA LIBERTADORES

Luis Bueno at Press Enterprise on the rift between Mexico and South America.

dN

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

2nd Leg Matches (with 1st Leg scores included):
-Tue May 12
Caracas 4-0 Cuenca (1-2) - Caracas advance 5-2 on aggregate - Car goals by Dario Figueroa, Rodrigo Prieto, Emilio Renteria & Jose Manuel Rey.
Sport Recife 1-0 Palmeiras - with series tied 1-1, Palmeiras advance 3-1 on Penalty Kicks - Spo goal by Wilson.
-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 (-)

dN

So far 4 teams, Nacional, Sao Paulo, Caracas & Palmeiras, have advanced to the Quarterfinals.

CONFEDERATIONS CUP SOUTH AFRICA 2009

Business Day of South Africa has nothing good to say about the coach of the countries national team - Joel Natalino Santana. Try this on for size: "A putrid stench of favouritism has continued to spew from this dizzy Brazilian’s mouth each time he’s announced his increasingly mind-boggling squads over the past 11 months."

WORLD CUP SOUTH AFRICA 2010

Bua News reports that Kruger National Park will reserve 3 camps just for World Cup travelers. Several other national parks are doing the same thing. They are expecting 15,000 people to use these facilities.