Some News For Tue Jun 9

STARTERS

Larry King lays his infinite wisdom on us via Twitter: "Just saw Woody Allen's new movie "Whatever Works", It's his greatest movie, even better than "Annie Hall" I can't say good enough about it!" Yes, he has been smoking crack! Catch me on Twitter at: dunord

US OPEN CUP

The tournament proper kicks off tonight all over the country. And my team, Minnesota Thunder takes on some amateurs from Nebraska called 402. Will my team win their first game of the season tonight? You better hope so, or you just might see fans take the field with pitchforks and torches!

dN

1st Round Matches:
-Tue Jun 9
Orange County Blue Stars v Sonoma County Sol
Chicago Fire PDL v Bavarian SC
Real Maryland Monarchs v Dallas Sportsplex Aegean Hawks
Carolina RailHawks v Richmond Kickers
Western Mass Pioneers v Emigrantes Das Ilhas
Wilmington Hammerheads v Charlotte Eagles
Rochester Rhinos v Pittsburgh Riverhounds
Cleveland City Stars v St Louis Lions
Harrisburg City Islanders v Reading Rage
Minnesota Thunder v 402
Charleston Battery v Atlanta FC
Miami FC Blues v Lynch's FC
Austin Aztex v Mississippi Brilla
El Paso Patriots v Arizona Sahuaros
Kitsap Pumas v Portland Timbers
-Wed Jun 10
Orange City Barons v Crystal Palace Baltimore

dN

You can follow the games lives here.

MLS

Week 12 Matches:
-Thu Jun 4
DC United 2-0 New York Red Bulls - DCU goals by Santino Quaranta & Jaime Moreno(PK).
Venue: RFK Stadium - Washington DC
Attendance: 11,226
-Fri Jun 5
Chicago Fire 0-1 Houston Dynamo - HD goal by Stuart Holden.
Venue: Toyota Park - Bridgeview IL
Attendance: 13,246
-Sat Jun 6
Toronto FC 1-2 Los Angeles Galaxy - TFC goal by Danny Dichio. LAG goals by Alan Gordon & Edson Buddle.
Venue: BMO Field - Toronto ON
Attendance: 20,753
Kansas City Wizards 0-2 Columbus Crew - CC goals both by Guillermo Barros Schelotto (1 via PK).
Venue: Community America Ballpark - Kansas City KS
Attendance: 10,385
Real Salt Lake 1-1 Colorado Rapids - RSL goal by Yura Movsisyan. CR goal by Omar Cummings.
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium - Sandy UT
Attendance: 19,546
Chivas USA 1-0 Seattle Sounders FC - CUSA goal by Eduardo Lillingston.
Venue: Home Depot Center - Carson CA
Attendance: 13,117
-Sun Jun 7
FC Dallas 2-2 San Jose Earthquakes - FCD goals by David Ferreira & Kenny Cooper. SJE goals by Pablo Richetti(OG) & Arturo Alvarez.
Venue: Pizza Hut Park - Frisco TX
Attendance: 5,724
New England Revolution 4-0 New York Red Bulls - NER goals by Jay Heaps, Steve Ralston & Taylor Twellman(2).
Venue: Gillette Stadium - Foxborough MA
Attendance: 11,183

dN

EJECTIONS:
-Luciano Emilio - DC - 2 Yellow Cards
-Chad Marshall - Columbus - Red Card
-Robbie Russell - Salt Lake - 2 Yellow Cards
-Nate Jaqua - Seattle - 2 Yellow Cards

dN

Taylor Twellman making only his second appearance of the season for New England scored the 100th & 101st goals of his great MLS career. He is the youngest player in league history to hit the century mark.

dN

Speaking of goal scoring greats - Jaime Moreno of DC United scored another goal this weekend giving him 126 for his all time league leading total.

dN

Houston acquires forward Cam Weaver from San Jose in exchange for forward Chris Wondolowski.

dN

TFC acquires centerback Nick Garcia from San Jose for a future draft pick. I would have offered a bag of loose screws, and chocolates with bitter aftertaste.

dN

Top Goal Scorers this season:
8 Guillermo Barros Schelotto - Columbus
8 Conor Casey - Colorado
6 Landon Donovan - LA
6 Robbie Findley - Salt Lake
6 Kenny Cooper - Dallas
6 Brian McBride - Chicago
6 Josh Wolff - KC

MLS COACHES HOT SEAT

Who might be the next coach to get the boot:
6. Curt Onalfo - Kansas City
5. Chris Cummins - Toronto
4. Schellas Hyndmann - Dallas
3. Jason Kreis - Salt Lake
2. Frank Yallop - San Jose
1. Juan Carlos Osorio - New York

Wow, that is a lot of coaches in trouble!

TEAM USA - CONFEDERATIONS CUP

USMNT Official Blog

dN

The team is in South Africa preparing for next Monday's game against Italy. Do you smell revenge?

dN

FIFA.com talks to Carlos Bocanegra & Coach Bob Bradley.

dN

USA match schedule:
-Mon Jun 15
USA v Italy - 1:30pm Central on ESPN
-Thu Jun 18
USA v Brazil - 9:00am Central on ESPN2
-Sun Jun 21
USA v Egypt - 1:30pm Central on ESPN2

CONFEDERATIONS CUP SOUTH AFRICA 2009

The tournament starts on Sunday with a double header:
-Sun Jun 14
South Africa v Iraq
New Zealand v Spain

dN

Italy names their roster:
G:
Marco Amelia - Palermo
Gianluigi Buffon - Juventus
Morgan De Sanctis - Galatasaray
D:
Fabio Cannavaro - Juventus
Giorgio Chiellini - Juventus
Andrea Dossena - Liverpool
Alessandro Gamberini - Fiorentina
Fabio Grosso - Lyon
Nicola Legrottaglie - Juventus
Davide Santon - Inter Milan
Gianluca Zambrotta - Milan
M:
Mauro Camoranesi - Juventus
Gennaro Gattuso - Milan
Riccardo Montolivo - Fiorentina
Angelo Palombo - Sampdoria
Simone Pepe - Udinese
Andrea Pirlo - Milan
Daniele De Rossi - Roma
F:
Alberto Gilardino - Fiorentina
Vincenzo Iaquinta - Juventus
Fabio Quagliarella - Udinese
Giuseppe Rossi - Villarreal
Luca Toni - Bayern Munich [CORRECTED, BUT DON'T BLAME ME, I JUST CUT AND PASTED THE LIST]

USL FIRST DIVISION

Scores:
-Thu Jun 4
Puerto Rico Islanders 2-1 Cleveland City Stars
Portland Timbers 1-0 Montreal Impact
-Fri Jun 5
Austin Aztex 2-0 Charleston Battery
-Sat Jun 6
Rochester Rhinos 0-0 Minnesota Thunder
Puerto Rico Islanders 2-2 Cleveland City Stars
-Sun Jun 7
Austin Aztex 1-1 Charleston Battery
Vancouver Whitecaps 1-2 Montreal Impact

dN

Standings:
23 Charleston
22 Carolina
18 Portland
16 Puerto Rico
14 Rochester
11 Montreal
11 Vancouver
10 Austin
7 Miami
5 Cleveland
4 Minnesota

CONCACAF - WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

Matches:
-Wed Jun 10
Honduras v El Salvador
Mexico v Trinidad & Tobago

dN

Standings (after 4 of 10 rounds):
12 Costa Rica (5 played)
10 USA (5 played)
5 El Salvador
- - PLAYOFFS - -
4 Honduras
- - OUT - -
3 Mexico
2 Trinidad & Tobago

EUROPE

Real Madrid has made it official and paid an obscene amount of money to acquire Rikki Kaka from Milan. Here is official word from the team.

dN

Sid Lowe for Spain and Raphael Honigstein for Germany reporting in the Guardian each hand out their 2008/09 season awards.

ASIA

How far the mighty have fallen: Luiz Felipe Scolari aka Big Phil who led Brazil to the 2002 World Cup win has been hired as head coach of Bunyodkor in Uzbekistan. This is the team reported to be supported by vicious racists and used as a PR tool by the country's violent dictator Ismail Karimov. The team also recently signed Rivaldo.

WORLD CUP QUALIFYING MATCHES

ASIA
-Wed Jun 10
Iran v UAE
Japan v Qatar
Australia v Bahrain
South Korea v Saudi Arabia

dN

UEFA
-Wed Jun 10
Macedonia v Iceland
Sweden v Malta
Faroe Islands v Servia
Ukraine v Kazakhstan
England v Andorra
Finland v Russia
Netherlands v Norway

dN

CONMEBOL
-Wed Jun 10
Ecuador v Argentina
Colombia v Peru
Venezuela v Uruguay
Chile v Bolivia
Brazil v Paraguay

INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLIES

-Tue Jun 9
Bosnia-Herzegovina v Oman
Iraq 1-1 Poland
Azerbaijan 0-6 Spain
-Wed Jun 10
Italy v New Zealand
Greneda v Panama
Albania v Georgia
Belarus v Moldova
Estonia v Portugal
-Thu Jun 11
Tonga v Cook Islands
-Sat Jun 13
Tonga v Cook Islands - Yes, again!
Angola v Giunea
Cote d'Ivoire v Cameroon

ALL AROUND THE WORLD

International football broadcaster Setanta has in emergency talks to avoid bankruptcy which could happen this week.

ENDERS

MLS Week 13 Matches:
-Wed Jun 10
Houston Dynamo v Chivas USA - 7:30pm Central on ESPN2 & ESPNDeportes
-Sat Jun 13
DC United v Chicago Fire - 6:30pm Central on Direct Kick
Toronto FC v New York Red Bulls - 7pm Central on Direct Kick
FC Dallas v Houston Dynamo - 7:30pm Central on FSC & FSE
Kansas City Wizards v New England Revolution - 7:30pm Central on Direct Kick
Los Angeles Galaxy v Real Salt Lake - 9:30pm Central on Direct Kick
Seattle Sounders FC v San Jose Earthquakes - 9:30pm Central on Direct Kick
-Sun Jun 14
Columbus Crew v Chivas USA - 2pm Central on Telefutura

dN

Thanks again to our friend Graham from Advantage Played who filled in for me here at du Nord last Friday while I was making my way to Chicago for that fun weekend.