Some News For Mon Jun 29

STARTERS

Landon Donovan On if the USA’s run in the tournament gained respect for U.S. Soccer: “... we’re at the point where we don’t want respect, we want to win."

CONFEDERATIONS CUP SOUTH AFRICA 2009

Final match:
-Sun Jun 28
USA 2-3 Brazil - USA goals by Clint Dempsey & Landon Donovan. Braz goals by Luis Fabiano(2) & Lucio.

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After the big game yesterday I had the pleasure of appearing on the Major League Soccer Talk podcast recapping the match and the tournament. It was a another great show hosted by Kartik Krishnaiyer, with fellow guests Brian Zygo from 1560 AM Radio The Game in Houston TX, Chris Webb from United Mania, and Chris Reardon from MLST.

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Match report and such & such etc:
Match report by Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America.
Player ratings by Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America.
Post game analysis by Paul Gardner of Soccer America.
Match report from US Soccer.
Post game quotes by USA coach and players from US Soccer.
Game photos from US Soccer.
Match report by Jere Longman of the NY Times.
Post game analysis by Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune.
Post game analysis and players ratings from The Washington Post blog Soccer Insider.
Post game analysis from the Boston Globe blog Corner Kicks.
Player ratings by Greg Seltzer of Soccer 365.
Post game analysis by John Henderson of the Denver Post.

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William Rhoden of the NY Times gives us some "high brow" post game analysis including quotes from many people involved in soccer around America. Is there anything worse than having to read this crap from a major-event-only band-wagon-jumper? Please buddy, save it for swimming, gymnastics and figure skating at the Olympics!

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AFP with an article on Clint Dempsey and his impact in the key USA games.

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Gareth Wheeler writing for Slam Sports in Canada gives us his view of what our boys accomplished in the past 2 weeks. He does make quite the dramatic error in his examination though when he says that the USA beat Italy at the 06 World Cup. It was a tie.

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Embele Awipi of the Salinas Californian gives his thoughts on what the rest of the world made of Team USA.

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John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News looks at where the USA needs to go from here. Very good stuff from a guy that I hope writes a lot more soccer as the Union kick off next year.

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USMNT Official Blog

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du Nord 3(6) Star of the Game:
3. Landon Donovan - The best tournament of his still young career. He gave it everything he had for 5 games, and the last one did nothing put prove how great he is. Tireless energy on both ends of the field, and an exhilarating give and go with Charlie Davies to bag the 2nd USA goal. In most cases he wouldn't be nearly as low as Third Star. What a player!
2. Luis Fabiano - got two huge goals and came close several other times. The USA had no defensive answers for him once he got rolling. But for that matter neither did any other team in this tournament.
1. Rikki Kaka - was absolutely brilliant in the 2nd half with his runs and passing, plus he scored a goal that was not counted. Sheer soccer genius through and through.
Honorable Mentions: Charlie Davies, Jay DeMerit and Ricardo Clark.

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Clint Dempsey was awarded the tournaments Bronze Ball for 3rd best overall player (behind Kaka and Luis Fabiano respectively).

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Tim Howard was awarded the Golden Glove as the tournaments best goalkeeper!

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The majority of the USA team was clearly gassed by the end of the game against Brazil. One of the biggest reasons for that was the limited use of the full 23 player roster. 7 players (including the 3rd keeper) never saw the field at all which shows that the team was never in a place to rest the regulars. 11 others saw less than full time action due to injury suspension and change in tactics. That leaves 6 players that played almost every minute of the tournament. That seems like too much stress to me.

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Keep this in mind everyone - Greece won the 2004 European Championship. Where are they today? So don't carried away with this USA performance no matter how much fun it was.

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People Magazine even got in on the Confed Cup hype - Meet The Hunks Of US Soccer!

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Jere Longman of the NY Times with an article on centerback Jay DeMerit who really made a name for himself on the national team at this tournament.

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Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian with "5 things we've learned from the Confederations Cup."

MLS

MLS Week 15 Matches:
-Wed Jun 24
Toronto FC 2-0 New York Red Bulls - TFC goals by Pablo Vitti & Dwayne De Rosario.
Venue: BMO Field
Attendance: 20,902
Colorado Rapids 1-1 FC Dallas - CR goal by Omar Cummings. FCD goal by David Ferreira.
Venue: Dick's Sporting Good Park
Attendance: 10,583
-Sat Jun 27
Columbus Crew 1-0 New York Red Bulls - CC goal by Chad Marshall.
Venue: Crew Stadium
Attendance: 15,575
Real Salt Lake 3-0 Toronto FC - RSL goals by Yura Movsisyan, Kyle Beckerman & Clint Mathis.
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium
Attendance: 18,188
-Sun Jun 28
Seattle Sounders FC 3-0 Colorado Rapids - SS goals by Fredy Montero & Nate Jaqua(2).
Venue: Qwest Field
Attendance: 32,526
Los Angeles Galaxy 1-0 Houston Dynamo - LAG goal by Todd Dunivant.
Venue: Home Depot Center
Attendance: 17,938

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Don't look now but Columbus is only 1 point out of first place in the East!

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After throwing goalkeeper Jon Conway to the wolves, New York has finally signed former Colorado keeper Bouna Coundoul. (As the 6 year old to my right at the Minnesota Thunder game last Saturday night said, "He's not gonna help.")
-Brian Lewis of the NY Post with more.

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Sports YA of South America reports that Colorado is about to add 30 year old Argentine forward Facundo Diz of 2nd Division team CA Platense to it's roster. Includes quotes from the player.

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Crosscut Seattle has a surprisingly quite a good Sounders v Colorado match story.

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The Seattle Weekly sends a new-comer to a Sounders game. What did they think of it all?

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James Edward of the Deseret News on what Clint Mathis has done for RSL since his return to the team last year.

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Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch with a review of the Crew win over the weekend.

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The leagues Top Goal Scorers:
10 Guillermo Barros Schelotto
8 Conor Casey
8 Freddy Montero
7 Kenny Cooper
(with 6 more tied at 6 goals)

USL FIRST DIVISION

Another week and nothing much changes for my Minnesota Thunder. Dead last in the league. Ugh. Another half-assed effort on the part of several players who were being counted on to improve upon last years strong finish. But when nearly half the roster is changed yet again (we go through this year after year) can you really expect cohesion? One describes it for me: Brutal. Now there have been standout players like Nic Platter, Jono Greenfield, Jeremiah Bass and Brian Cvilikas who are doing their best week after week, but even Platter had a poor game by his standards, so what can you do with that. Another guy who showed a ton of heart was new signing Marco Terminesi, who only played a few minutes but seemed to leave flames behind on the turf as he flew around the pitch. (Maybe we need to ask the coach why a guy with this much energy and apparent skill only came on at the very end.) And there are always a few guys who are put in a tough spot making it difficult to show their best, so I don't want to bag on them either. Again though, a great deal of the rest em were just brutally unprofessional. Will the Open Cup change things this week? We can all hope! Then next Saturday they get a chance at revenge on Portland. So opportunities are there for the taking.

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This past week's Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 25
Charleston Battery 1-0 Puerto Rico Islanders
-Sat Jun 27
Cleveland City Stars 2-2 Austin Aztex
Carolina RailHawks 1-2 Puerto Rico Islanders
Minnesota Thunder 1-2 Rochester Rhinos
-Sun Jun 28
Portland Timbers 4-0 Montreal Impact

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Standings:
28 Puerto Rico
27 Charleston
26 Portland
24 Carolina
20 Rochester
17 Montreal
16 Miami
- - Out of Playoffs - -
15 Vancouver
12 Austin
10 Cleveland
7 Minnesota

LAMAR HUNT US OPEN CUP

3rd Round (round of 16) Matches:
-Tue Jun 30
Minnesota Thunder v Kansas City Wizards - See it live at 7:30pm Central on usllive.com
Venue: National Sports Center - Blaine, MN
New England Revolution v Harrisburg City Islanders
Venue: Veterans Stadium - New Britain, CT
DC United v Ocean City Barons
Venue: Maryland Soccerplex - Boyds, MD
Wilmington Hammerheads v Chicago Fire
Venue: Legion Stadium - Wilmington, NC
Charleston Battery v Chivas USA - See it live at 6:30pm Central on usllive.com
Venue: Blackbaud Stadium - Charleston, SC
Rochester Rhinos v Columbus Crew
Venue: Marina Auto Stadium - Rochester, NY
-Wed Jul 1
Austin Aztex v Houston Dynamo - See it live at 7:30pm Central on usllive.com
Venue: Nelson Field - Austin, TX
Portland Timbers v Seattle Sounders FC - See it live at 9pm Central on usllive.com
Venue: PGE Park - Portland, OR

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Quarterfinals to be played the week of Jul 5.

SUPERLIGA 2009

Official Site

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Matchday 3 Matches & Scores:
-Sat Jun 27
Chicago Fire 1-2 UANL Tigres - CF goal by Cuauhtemoc Blanco(PK). UANL goals both by Armando Pulido.
Venue: Toyota Park – Bridgeview IL
Attendance: 9,157
Chivas USA 1-1 San Luis - CUSA goal by Attiba Harris. SL goal by Alfredo Moreno(PK).
Venue: The Home Depot Center – Carson CA
Attendance: ???
-Sun Jun 28
New England Revolution 1-0 Atlas - NER goal by Abdoulie Mansally.
Venue: Gillette Stadium – Foxborough MA
Attendance: 7,411
Kansas City Wizards 1-3 Santos Laguna - KCW goal by Claudio Lopez. SL goals by Agustin Herrera, Vicente Vuoso & Juan Pablo Rodriguez.
Venue: CommunityAmerica Ballpark – Kansas City KS
Attendance: 10,385

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EJECTIONS:
Gerardo Espinoza - Atlas - Red Card
Johnny Garcia - Santos Laguna - Red Card
Michael Kraus - Kansas City - Red Card

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All games are broadcast on Telefutura.

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Standings:
(After 3 of 3 Rounds Played)
Group A
6 UANL Tigres - Advance
6 Chicago Fire - Advance
4 San Luis
1 Chivas USA
Group B
7 New England Revolution - Advance
4 Santos Laguna - Advance
2 Kansas City Wizards
2 Atlas

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Semifinals
-Wed Jul 15
New England Revolution v Chicago Fire
Venue: Gillette Stadium
UANL Tigres v Santos Laguna
Venue: TBD
-Wed Aug 5
Final
Venue: TBD

CONCACAF GOLD CUP

The North & Central American and Caribbean confederation's championship tournament kicks off on July 3. Canada v Jamaica and Costa Rica v El Salvador start the proceedings.

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You will be able to see all the games on FSC!

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Andrea Canales at Sports Illustrated gets us started on the USA prospects for the Gold Cup.

SOCCER IN AMERICA

The Lincoln (NE) Star Journal gives USA supporters group the American Outlaws get some nice pub. The love for our team just keeps building.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer on the growth of the game we love in America.

USA U20

The USA U20 team is in Cairo, Egypt to play a couple of friendlies against the hosts as a warm up before the World Cup in late September.

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Game 1 of a 2 game series sees Mix to the rescue! Mikkel Diskerud aka Mix scores the only goal. And we know the score of Game 2 ended in a tie, but we know almost none of the details yet.

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Matches:
-Sat Jun 27
Egypt 0-1 USA - USA goal by Mikkel Diskerud.
Match report from US Soccer.
-Mon Jun 29
Egypt 1-1 USA - Egy goal by ?. USA goal by Tony Taylor(PK).

AMERICANS IN MEXICO

Soccer 365 with the latest transfer rumors for both Oguchi Onyewu, and Ricardo Clark.

MEXICO

Gold Cup warm up match:
-Sun Jun 28
Mexico 0-0 Guatemala - in San Diego

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Match report by Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune.