Friday, July 10, 2009

Some News for Fri Jul 10

STARTERS

USA President Barak Obama to Brazil President Lula: "We will not lose a 2-0 lead again."

dN

Yesterday I was a guest on Marcelo Balboa's radio show From The Pitch, in Denver. Co-host Brian Forbes manned the show on his own this week, and he and I talked about many soccer related subjects. Download or listen here.

TEAM USA GOLD CUP

Group Stage Matchday 3:
-Sat Jul 11
USA v Haiti - 6pm Central time on FSC
Venue: Gillette Stadium, Foxborough MA

dN

The USA needs at least a draw to finish 1st in the group, where in the Quarterfinals in Philadelphia they would face one of the two third place teams that advance.

dN

US Soccer gives us pre-game notes for Saturday's match.

dN

Benny Feilhaber has also left the USA team to head for preseason at Aarhus.

dN

Kyle McCarthy of the Boston Herald with an article on former Boston College player Charlie Davies.

dN

Arizona Republic with an article on two local players on the USA team - Brad Evans & Luis Robles.

dN

USMNT Official Blog
-Q & A with Michael Parkhurst.

dN

I went back and watched the 2 USA goals from Wednesday night against Honduras and broke them down. They happen because of some real beautiful teamwork. Here are my descriptions (and a video of the goals):
First goal:
Honduras is trying to move the ball out of their own end turn it over and the USA attack quickly down the left flank. The ball does wide to Heath Pearce who drives up field toward a crowd of players from both teams. Pearce cuts a short square ball to Benny Fielhaber to his right. Benny one times it foward to Brian Ching, and as Benny does this he spins 360 degrees toward the middle of the field losing his defender. Ching one times the ball back to Feilhaber who is now charging toward the left hand top corner of the penalty area. Benny takes one touch and deftly plays it insode the top center of the box to Charlie Davies with his back to goal. Davies controls the ball calmly, and as the defenders converge on him he slides the back and to his left directly in the path of an on rushing Santino Quaranta who simply first time side foots the ball into the left center of the goal!!! It is a true bing-bing-bing marvel to watch.
Second goal:
USA with a free kick left of center about 40 yards out from goal and they play a simple cross field ball to a wide open Steve Cherundolo who is cruising up the right side of the field unmarked. Cherundolo takes a couple of touches as he heads towards the box and from 25 yards out launches a perfect high bending ball to the middle of the box where a flying Brian Ching meets it with his head/shoulder and drills it past the keeper. Honduras was asleep on this one!

dN

One of our favorite readers is Chros McDougall, and he has a written a Gold Cup story on the USA team for TeamUSA.org, the website of the United States Olympic Committee. Very cool.

dN

The Daily Tar Heel calls this team the true America's Team.

CONCACAF GOLD CUP

Official Gold Cup Website

After Thursday's results we now know that USA, Guadeloupe & Canada have officially advanced to the next round. Each of those three teams has 6 points after 2 games.

dN

Group Stage Matches - Matchday 1:
-Fri Jul 3
Canada 1-0 Jamaica
Costa Rica 1-2 El Salvador
-Sat Jul 4
Honduras 1-0 Haiti
Grenada 0-4 USA
-Sun Jul 5
Panama 1-2 Guadeloupe
Nicaragua 0-2 Mexico

dN

Group Stage Matches - Matchday 2:
-Tue Jul 7
Jamaica 0-1 Costa Rica - CR goal by Celso Borges.
El Salvador 0-1 Canada - Can goal by Ali Gerba.
Venue: Crew Stadium – Columbus OH
-Wed Jul 8
USA 2-0 Honduras - USA goals by Santino Quaranta & Brian Ching.
Haiti 2-0 Grenada - Hai goals by Fabrice Noel & James Marcelin.
Venue: RF Memorial Stadium – Washington DC
-Thu Jul 9
Mexico 1-1 Panama - Mex goal by Miguel Sabah. Pan goal by Blas Perez
Nicaragua 0-2 Guadeloupe - Guad goals by Stephane Auvray & Ludovic Gotin.
Venue: Reliant Stadium – Houston TX

dN

EJECTIONS:
Luis Noriega - Mexico
Javier Aguirre - Mexico Manager
Ricardo Phillips - Panama
Armando Gun - Panama
Mickael Tacalfred - Guadeloupe

dN

New coach, same old results for Mexico, and another meltdown on top of it all. They were held to a 1-1 draw against Panama in Houston, and saw one player and new coach Javier Aguirre ejected. Word from Houston is that Aguirre may have kicked a Panama player during the run of play. Oh my! Stoppage time was so bad in the 2nd half due to scuffles etc that the referee added 10 minutes. Fans littered the field with garbage too.

dN

At least Aguirre was smart enough to say this after the game: “It was an imprudent act on my part. I sincerely regret it. It was a product of passion. The Panamanian team deserves an apology as well.”

dN

Brian Zygo was at the game and Twittered this later: "Apparently, there was a rather large fight outside of the stadium after the game."

dN

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle called the game "a classless charade" in his match report.
-Fallas with more post game comments on the nights shameful actions, from his blog Soccer y Futbol.

dN

Ryan Johnston of SportsNet Canada with praise for soon to be TFC forward Ali Gerba, who has scored both of Canada's goals so far at this tournament.

dN

Group Stage Matches - Matchday 3
-Fri Jul 10
Costa Rica v Canada - 6pm Central
El Salvador v Jamaica - 8pm Central
Venue: Florida International University Stadium – Miami FL
-Sat Jul 11
USA v Haiti - 6pm Central
Honduras v Grenada - 8pm Central
Venue: Gillette Stadium – Foxborough MA
-Sunday, July 12
Panama v Nicaragua - 4pm Central
Mexico v Guadeloupe - 6pm Central
Venue: University of Phoenix Stadium – Glendale AZ

dN

See all games on FSC & Univision/Galavision.

dN

Standings:
Group A - 2 games played
6 Canada(+2)
3 El Salvador(0)
3 Costa Rica(0)
0 Jamaica(-2)
Group B - 2 games played
6 USA(+6)
3 Haiti(+1)
3 Honduras(-1)
0 Grenada(-6)
Group C - 2 games played
6 Guadeloupe(+3)
4 Mexico(+2)
1 Panama(-1)
0 Nicaragua(-4)

MLS

MLS Week 17 Matches & Scores:
-Sat Jul 11
Seattle Sounders FC v Houston Dynamo - 3pm Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Qwest Field - Seattle WA
New England Revolution v Kansas City Wizards - 3pm Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Gillette Stadium - Foxborough MA
Chicago Fire v Columbus Crew - 7pm Central on ESPN2 & ESPN Deportes
Venue: Toyota Park - Bridgeview IL
Colorado Rapids v FC Dallas - 8:30pm Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Dick's Sporting Goods Park - Commerce City CO
San Jose Earthquakes v Toronto FC - 9:30pm Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium - Santa Clara CA
Chivas USA v Los Angeles Galaxy - 10pm Central on FSC & FSE
Venue: Home Depot Center - Carson CA

dN

The official Chivas USA blog Dentro del Rebano (Inside the Flock) has tons of interviews with players and coaches leading up to this weekends big clash with their neighbors the Galaxy.

dN

Ryan Johnston of SportsNet Canada previews TFC's weekend ahead when they head to San Jose. He talks to new TFC, former SJE, centerhack Nick Garcia.

dN

Deseret News reports that Yura Movsisyan will not leave RSL for his new team Randers until the current MLS season is finished. There had been some talk that he might go as early as the 15th of this month.

dN

Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch with the story on the Crew releasing player Stanley Nyazamba after his most recent run in with the long arm of the law.

dN

Brian Forbes of the Denver Post talks to Colorado Rapids Technical Director Paul Bravo about the tough job he has in the Denver suburbs.

dN

Don Ruiz of the Olympian talks about the giant tarps that are used to cover the upper levels of Qwest Field, and how Houston keeper Pat Onstad came to be one of the images used.

dN

Brian Lewis of the NY Post on another player on trial with the Red Bulls - Leo Krupnick. He is a centerback from California who started last season for title winners Maccabi Haifa in Israel.

dN

Lewis also talks to NYRB veteran Mike Petke who seems like he can barely take much more of this horrible team, but he also seems a long way from giving up.

dN

Jim Alexander of the Press Enterprise feels that whatever you might think about Landon Donovan going off on Beckman in Grant Wahls new book, you have to admit that Donovan was right.

dN

Things may have turned a corner with stadium financing in Portland. Three articles out today on the subject:
-The Portland Tribune asks, what happens if the city were to lose both the soccer team and the baseball team?
-The Oregonian says a new deal has been completed to renovate the Timbers home - PGE Park. The city council is supposed to vote on this latest proposal in 2 weeks time.
-Portland Business Journal also says the deal is done.

MLS SUMMER EXHIBITIONS

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Jul 11
Real Salt Lake v Club America (Mexico)
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium - Sandy UT

USL FIRST DIVISION

Yet another in what is getting to be a long line of brutal nights as a Minnesota Thunder fan. They went out to Vancouver and lost 4-0. Their previous road game was a 5-1 loss in Portland. Ugh.

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jul 9
Vancouver Whitecaps 4-0 Minnesota Thunder
-Fri Jul 10
Rochester Rhinos v Puerto Rico Islanders
-Sat Jul 11
Charleston Battery v Carolina RailHawks
Minnesota Thunder v Montreal Impact
Austin Aztex v Portland Timbers
-Sun Jul 12
Cleveland City Stars v Puerto Rico Islanders
Miami FC Blues v Vancouver Whitecaps

dN

Standings:
30 Charleston
29 Puerto Rico
27 Portland
24 Carolina
23 Rochester
18 Vancouver
17 Montreal
- - Out of Playoffs - -
17 Miami
15 Austin
10 Cleveland
8 Minnesota

SOCCER IN AMERICA

So what did we really take away from the Confederations Cup? Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer takes a cool, calm and collected look at the current state of development of soccer in our country, and it's not exactly championship material.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Club Call talks to the virtually unknown American Anton Peterlin who has just signed with Everton in England.

ENGLAND

Stan "Amazing Mustache" Kroenke has bought more shared in Arsenal FC giving him a 28.6% share of the voting block.

ENDERS

Don't miss out: The International Soccer Film Festival opens next Tue Jul 14 in New York City. For all the details. It's not the greatest line up of films, most have been shown many times before and are available on dvd, but its a start to something that could be very cool in the future. So go now, and then you can say, "Sure, but remember the first year? Now that was cool."

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

USA President Barak Obama to Brazil President Lula: "We will not lose a 2-0 lead again."
----------
Darn, that's not very good foreshadowing for any future Team USA success VS Brazil.
After all, Obama usually means the opposite of what he says !

6:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice one, anonymous. I was going for more of the 'another empty promise' / 'speaking of something you know nothing about' angle, but you have a good idea, too.

10:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Actually, I'm not so certain that Obama was even rooting for Team USA VS Brazil.

I bet Obama even "apologized" to the Brazilian President for Team USA taking a 2-0 lead a couple weeks ago, as well as for defeating Brazil in the 1998 Gold Cup.
"I want to apologize for our aggression and arrogance in winning that 1998 Gold Cup, at the expense of a much poorer nation such as Brazil. Many of our pampered players attended universities on scholarship where they lived in air-conditioned dormitories and wore expensive designer soccer apparel, while many of the Brazilian players grew up in ghettos, where they lacked Columbia-educated community organizers to show them how to take advantage of the state welfare programs. My God, these Brazilian players didn't wear Adidas shoes---or even Diadoras !---they learned to play the sport in their bare feet on uneven fields. This is social injustice---and I blame George W. Bush and the American people...and Israel, too ! I hereby promise to send 15 billion dollars of American taxpayer money to Brazil, so that the sins of the 1998 Gold Cup can be erased ! Saul Alinsky would be so proud of me !"

11:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You poor, anonymous bastards. It's not the President, it's the system...

-Hessian Obsession

12:40 AM  
Blogger brucio said...

Mission Accomplished

8:20 AM  

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