Monday, July 27, 2009

Some News for Mon Jul 27

STARTERS

The streak is over. Mexico beats the USA in America for the first time in ages. And Holy Moly did they win! That second 45 minutes was brutal for any USA player or fan. Wow. The first Mexigoal was on a completely bogus Penalty call, and then the dyke colapsyed for our team. It was ugly stuff from minute 55 on. And the result is exactly what I hoped did not happen. It gives Mexico new confidence going into next months World Cup Qualifier. Yes, it will be a very different USA team, but it will be a fairly similar Mexican squad.

dN

Is Ricardo Clark of Houston out the door to Livorno in Italy?? Hmmmmm. They can spend money to get him today, or pay nothing to get him in January. My money is on January.

dN

This, my friends, is the best goal in MLS this season by far! Claudio Lopez! Last time I saw something that spectacular it was Dwayne De Rosario burning Zach Thornton. And as my friend Paul said after seeing this goal, LA keeper Donovan Ricketts didn't go off injured after this, he went off embarrassed. I said he probably left the stadium immediately, went to a car rental agency, got a vehicle and is still driving back to LA.

CONCACAF GOLD CUP

Official Gold Cup Website

dN

Final
-Sun Jul 26
USA 0-5 Mexico - Mex goals by Gerardo Torrado(PK), Giovani Dos Santos, Carlos Vela, Jose Castro & Guillermo Franco.
Venue: Giants Stadium - East Rutherford NJ
Attendance: 79,156
Ejections: Jay Heaps - USA - Two Yellow cards.

dN

Match report from US Soccer.
Post game quotes by coach & players from US Soccer.
Match report by Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America.
Player ratings by Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America.
Match report by Brian Lewis of the NY Post.
Match report by Jere Longman of the NY Times.
Post game analysis by Brent Latham of Yanks Abroad.
Post game analysis by Andrea Canales at Sports Illustrated.

dN

The 79,156 in attendance was the largest ever soccer crowd at Giants Stadium.

dN

du Nord 3 Stars of the Game
3. Troy Perkins - without him it could have been even worse. The only guy who gave it a full 90.
2. Carlos Vela - came on at half time for Mexico and changed the whole game with his speed, style and unpredictability.
1. Giovanni Dos Santos - sure I hate him, and he is a spoiled child, but you have to admit that he tore the USA defense to shreds in those last 35 minutes.

TEAM USA GOLD CUP

My thoughts, and those of a couple other people too:

I want to say this with it being an excuse: That was not a foul that was given a Penalty against the USA. No foul at all. Bogus.

dN

My biggest problem with this game was again the mental weakness of the team. No matter who the players are, no matter what type of game it is, and no matter where it is played, we have still seen way too many moments of mental weakness. Just going back over the last 2 months we have seen the team fall apart for a full 90 minutes down in Costa Rica, the start of the game v Honduras, the second half against Italy, the start of the game against Brazil, a week later in the second half against Brazil again, the start of the second half against Panama, and today the final third of the game against Mexico. That is very troubling to me.

dN

In the end you can only say that is was a completely humiliating loss for the USA, and some serious look at tournament decision making should be taken up.

dN

The loss ended the USA's record streak of 58 games at home without a loss against CONCACAF teams.

dN

Our friend AdSL did some research on big USA losses and came back with this sad info:
USSoccer says that this was the first time since Czechoslovakia in 1990 that the US let in 5 goals, but that was a 5-1 loss. To find the last time we lost by 5, you have to go back to June of 1985, when we lost 0-5 to England in Los Angeles. To find a worse result, you have to go all the way back to 1979 when we lost 6-0 to France in East Rutherford NJ.

dN

The USA has played 13 games in the past 54 days. Wow! That's one every 4 days.

dN

Jay Greenbuerg of the NY Post says Bob Bradley deserves our respect. He has mine.

dN

USMNT Official Blog

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Jere Longman of the NY Times with an article on Houston midfielder Stuart Holden and his contributions to the team during this tournament. (posted before the Final)

MLS

Some big moves in the standings this weekend:
-Columbus leaps to the top in the East. It has taken them to Week 19 to climb back to where they ended last season.
-Los Angeles & Colorado both move up in the Wild Card spots, knocking Toronto back out of the playoff picture for now.
-And don't look now, but New England who have struggled with injuries all season are only a few points out of the last playoff spot, and they have a couple of games in hand on everyone.

dN

MLS Week 19 Matches & Scores:
-Fri Jul 24
Real Salt Lake 4-2 FC Dallas - RSL goals by Yura Movsisyan(2), Robbie Findley(PK) & Daniel Torres(OG). FCD goals by Jeff Cunningham & Dave Van Den Bergh.
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium - Sandy UT
Attendance: 18.822
-Sat Jul 25
Seattle Sounders FC 0-0 Chicago Fire
Venue: Qwest Field - Seattle WA
Attendance: 32,405
Columbus Crew 3-2 Toronto FC - CC goals by Eddie Gaven, Steven Lenhart & Jason Garey. TFC goals by Dwayne De Rosario & Ali Gerba.
Venue: Crew Stadium - Columbus OH
Attendance: 13,775
Houston Dynamo 0-1 New England Revolution - NER goal by Kheli Dube.
Venue: Robertson Stadium - Houston TX
Attendance: 15,179
Kansas City Wizards 1-1 Los Angeles Galaxy - KCW goal by Claudio Lopez. LAG goal by Landon Donovan.
Venue: Community America Ballpark - Kansas City KS
Attendance: 11,906
Colorado Rapids 4-0 New York Red Bulls - CR goals by Jacob Peterson, Pat Noonan, Nick LaBrocca & Mehdi Ballouchy.
Venue: Dicks Sporting Goods Park - Commerce City CO
Attendance: 16,816
San Jose Earthquakes 2-2 DC United - SJE goals by Ryan Johnson & Cornell Glen(PK). DCU goals by Christian Gomez(2 - one via PK).
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium - Santa Clara CA
Attendance: 9,022

dN

EJECTIONS:
Coach Jason Kreis - RSL - Red Card
Drew Moor - FCD - Red Card
John Thorrington - CF - 2 Yellow Cards
Freddie Ljungberg - SSFC - 2 Yellow Cards
Sinisa Ubiparapovic - NYRB - Red Card

dN

Real Salt Lake forward Yura Movsisyan has been named the league's Player of the Week.

dN

Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer turns an old adage sideways: You usually hear people say "It's easier to fire the coach than the whole team!" Well Lewis says "Fire the coach, AND the entire team."

dN

Some chucklehead at the Kansas City Star informs us what is wrong with MLS and how the problems can be fixed. Wow, this guy is a genius. We have never seen this level of brilliance around soccer parts before.

dN

Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated on the return of Danny Szetela to MLS (DC United) from a stint in Spain and Italy. Plus word on Arturo Alvarez of San Jose switching national team alliances to El Salvador.

dN

The Salt Lake Tribune on the evolution of Landon Donovan.

dN

The Washington Post blog Soccer Insider has a Q & A with DC United owner Will Chang about a stadium for his team.

dN

I hear we are about to see Joseph Ngwenya back in Houston Dynamo hunting orange real soon. Or is that highway construction orange?

dN

Our main man Claude Wormbridge in London who runs the fine Fulham blog Craven Cottage Newsround sent us this odd/interesting link to a Seattle sports blog called USS Mariner, which examines the legal text on the back of Seattle Sounders game tickets. Check this out:
The ticket holder will not transmit or aid in transmitting any picture, account or description (whether text, data or visual) in any media now or hereafter existing of all or any part of the Events.
So technically I shouldn't even be telling you this, or giving you the scores on any Sounders home matches. Shame on me. They are weird.

dN

MLS Top Goal Scorers:
10 Guillermo Barros Schelotto
9 Fredy Montero
8 Landon Donovan
8 Conor Casey
7 Dwayne De Rosario
7 Robbie Findley
7 Ryan Johnson
7 Juan Pablo Angel
7 Kenny Cooper

THE BEX MELTDOWN

Bexy-poo got into it with yet another fan, this time during the game in Kansas City on Saturday night. Obviously that massive $1000 fine from the league on Friday did not teach him a lession. Shall we go for $2000 this time. I doubt it very much.
-The LA Weekly with a decent summary of incident #2.

MLS ALL-STAR GAME

Match:
-Wed Jul 29
MLS All-Stars v Everton (England) - 8:30pm Central on ESPN2
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium - Sandy UT

dN

Everton lost 1-0 to River Plate of Argentina in Edmonton Alberta on Saturday night.
-Tim Howard did not play.
-Attendance was a sad 15,800 in a 60k seater.

dN

3 changes have taken place on the MLS All-Star Roster:
-Will Johnson midfielder from Real Salt Lake replaces Houston Dynamo forward Brian Ching.
-Bakary Soumare defender from Chicago Fire replaces New England Revolution midfielder Shalrie Joseph.
-Zach Thornton goalkeeper from Chivas USA replaces Houston Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad.

dN

And here's the rest of the roster:
Kasey Keller - Seattle Sounders FC - GK
Geoff Cameron - Houston Dynamo - D
Wilman Conde - Chicago Fire - D
Jhon Kennedy Hurtado - Seattle Sounders FC - D
Chad Marshall - Columbus Crew - D
Davy Arnaud - Kansas City Wizards - M
Kyle Beckerman - Real Salt Lake - M
Cuauhtemoc Blanco - Chicago Fire - M
Brad Davis - Houston Dynamo - M
Stuart Holden - Houston Dynamo - M
Freddie Ljungberg - Seattle Sounders FC -
Javier Morales - Real Salt Lake - M
Conor Casey - Colorado Rapids - F
Landon Donovan - Los Angeles Galaxy - F
Fredy Montero - Seattle Sounders FC - F

dN

Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune talks to MLS All Stars to get their view on the quality of this team. And what players new to the league think of the whole deal.

dN

Salt Lake Trib with other notes on the game, including Donovan on Beckman.

dN

MLS has announced that the 2010 All Star game will take place in the swealtering heat and humidity of Houston. Wear linen.
-Does this mean the 2010 MLS Cup goes to the brand new Red Bull Arena in New Jersey?

USL FIRST DIVISION

It's now a three way jam up at the top. I guess that makes Charleston the Lucky Pierre.

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Thu, July 23, 2009
Portland Timbers 0-0 Puerto Rico Islanders
-Fri, July 24, 2009
Charleston Battery 2-1 Carolina RailHawks
Minnesota Thunder 1-2 Miami FC Blues
-Sat, July 25, 2009
Rochester Rhinos 4-1 Cleveland City Stars
Austin Aztex 2-2 Montreal Impact
Vancouver Whitecaps 4-2 Puerto Rico Islanders
-Sun Jul 26
Carolina RailHawks 4-0 Miami FC Blues

dN

Standings (with goal differential):
35 Portland(+18)
35 Charleston(+9)
35 Puerto Rico(+4)
33 Carolina(+9)
29 Rochester(+7)
24 Miami (-5)
22 Vancouver(+2)
- - Out of Playoffs - -
22 Montreal(-2)
16 Austin(-13)
14 Minnesota(-9)
12 Cleveland(-20)

SOCCER IN AMERICA

US Soccer gives us word of FIFA Honcho Sepp Blatter's visit to America this past weekend. He has his two main bo-bo's in tow: CONCACAF President Jack Warner & FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke. Whoooo-Wee! Presumably Blatter is taking the countries temperature for football, and judging whether or not we are worthy of hosting another World Cup. I would assume he has a guy or two that walks a few hundred feet behind him & his posse collecting the bags of money. I kid, I kid. That would never happen. Come on you cynical people. Sepp, his gang, and our Honcho's Sunil Gulati & Don Garber, also get a sit down with Prez Obama. How big is that? (Thanks to Maia for the heads up.)

USA U17 TEAM

The USA has won the 2009 Campeoes da Copa Macae Sub 17 in Brazil!

dN

Although, it must be said that the USA was in the tournament against 11 Brazilian club teams. So yes it's a trophy, but.....

dN

Semifinal Matches:
-Sat Jul 25
USA 3-0 Fluminense
Flamengo 2-2 Funorte - Fun win it 4-3 on PK's.

dN

Final Match:
-Sun Jul 26
USA 0-0 Funorte - USA wins it 4-2 on Penalty Kicks after a scoreless match.
-Funote EC is a small club based in the state of Minas Gerais. The team was only established in 2002, and became professional in 2007. Their top team plays in the 2nd division of their state competition - Campeonato Mineiro.

USA U18 TEAM

The team has headed to Belfast Northern Ireland for the annual Milk Cup. Here is the game schedule and team roster:

dN

Matches:
-Mon Jul 27
USA v Denmark
-Wed Jul 29
USA v Germany
-Fri Jul 31
Placement Game (against team from other group - N Ireland, Bulgaria, Israel)

USA U20 TEAM

The team takes part in the Copa Ciudad de Rosario.

dN

Matches:
-Mon Jul 27
USA v Uruguay
-Wed Jul 29
USA v Australia

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Big games for Benny Feilhaber and Ale Bedoya! See below for details.

dN

Weekend Game Action:
SWEDEN - Allsvenskan
-Alejandro Bedoya - Orebro - scored 2 huge goals in the final 7 minutes of the match to give his team a 2-2 road draw at Hacken. Awesome!
DENMARK - Superliga
-Dan Califf - Midtjylland - started and played 70 minutues in a bad 4-0 road loss at Silkeborg.
-Benny Feilhaber - AGF - started and was subbed off in 2nd half stoppage time after he had snagged the game winning goal in a 2-3 road win over Randers!
-Marcus Tracy - AaB - game against Nordsjaelland was postponed.
NORWAY - Tippeligaen
-Mikkel Diskerud - Stabaek - came on as a sub in the 77th minute as they drew on the road at Start.
-Hunter Freeman - Start - started and went the full 90 as they drew 2-2 at home against Stabaek.
NORWAY - Adeccoligaen
-Joe Lapira - Nybergsund - started and went 77 minutes in a 1-5 home drubbing at the hands of Honefoss.
-Jay Needham - Alta - started and played 83 minutes of a huge 0-4 road win at Stavanger.
-Connor Tobin - Nybergsund - played the full 90 but they lost badly, 1-5 at home against Honefoss.
CROATIA
-Johann Smith - Rijeka - won 6-0 at home over Lokomotiva, with all 6 goals scored by Ahmed Sharbini. Can you believe that!?
SWEDEN - Superettan
-Ryan Miller - Ljungskile - went the full 90, and got a Yellow Card, in a 3-2 road win over Qviding Goteborg.
-Etchu Tabe - Ljungskile - went the full 90 in a 3-2 road win over Qviding Goteborg.

AMERICANS IN MEXICO

Edgar Castillo has been loaned out by Club America to UANL Tigres for the 09 Clausura. I did not realize this until I was doing research today.

dN

Soccer America with a roundup of our boys in action south of the border, as the league kicks off the new season.

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Nigel Reed of the CBC previews Toronto's match by telling all Canadians to get behind this team.

dN

Preliminary Round 1st Leg Matches:
-Tue Jul 28
DC United (USA) v Luis Angel Firpo (El Sal) - 7pm Central on FSC
Pachuca (Mex) v Jalapa (Guate) - 9pm Central
-Wed Jul 29
Toronto FC (Can) v Puerto Rico Islanders (PR) - 7pm on FSC
San Francisco (Pana) v San Juan Jabloteh (TnT) - 7pm
Liberia (CR) v Real Espana (Hond) - 9pm
-Thu Jul 30
W Connection (TnT) v New York Red Bulls (USA) - 7pm on FSC
Herediano (CR) v Cruz Azul (Mex) - 9pm
Olimpia (Hond) v Arabe Unido (Pana) - 9pm

MEXICO

14 of the 18 teams kicked off the FMF Primera Division Clausura season.

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Fri Jul 24
UAdG Tecos 2-3 Pachuca
-Sat Jul 25
Cruz Azul 0-2 Chiapas Jaguares
UANL Tigres 1-1 Puebla
Indios Juarez 0-0 Monterrey
Atlas 1-0 UNAM Pumas
-Sun Jul 26
Morelia 1-1 Santos Laguna
Toluca 4-3 Guadalajara

EUROPE

Another huge player transfer deal has been completed: Inter Milan has sold forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona for 46 Million Euros plus forward Samuel Eto'o, and a one year loan for midfielder Alexander Hleb. Wow. I think Inter got the good end of this stick. What do you think?















dN

Here are the new season start dates for the bigger leagues in Europe:
-Holland - Fri Jul 31
-Germany - Fri Aug 7
-France - Sat Aug 8
-Turkey - Sun Aug 9
-England - Sat Aug 15
-Scotland - Sat Aug 15
-Portugal - sun Aug 16
-Spain - Sun Aug 30
-Italy - date still not set

dN

32 year old Francesco Totti of Roma has signed a new 5 year contract.

dN

Marseille has signed forward Fernando Morientes from Valencia.

WORLD FOOTBALL CHALLENGE

Some of the worlds biggest clubs come to America for preseason training and exhibition matches.

dN

Matches & Scores
-Sun Jul 19
Club America 1-1 Inter Milan - CA win it 5-4 on Penalties. CA goal by Juan Carlos Silva. IM goal by Ivan Cordoba.
-Tue Jul 21
Chelsea 2-0 Inter Milan - Chel goals by Didier Drogba & Frank Lampard(PK).
Venue: Rose Bowl - Pasadena CA
-Wed Jul 22
AC Milan 1-2 Club America - ACM goal by Super Pippo Inzaghi. CA goals by Enrique Esqueda & Daniel Marquez.
Venue: Georgia Dome - Atlanta GA
-Fri Jul 24
AC Milan 1-2 Chelsea - ACM goal by Clarence Seedorf. Chel goals by didier Drogba & Yuri Zhirkov.
Venue: M&T Bank Stadium - Baltimore MD
-Sun Jul 26
AC Milan 0-2 Inter Milan - IM goals both by Diego Milito.
Venue: Gillette Stadium - Foxborough MA
-Sun Jul 26
Chelsea 2-0 Club America - Chel goals by Franco Di Santo & Flourent Malouda.
Venue: Cowboys Stadium - Arlington TX

ENDERS

Tickets to USA v El Salvador World Cup qualifier on Sep 5 in Sandy UT at Rio Tinto Stadium are about to go on sale.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Sam Schroeder said...

Massive Post. Thanks for putting in the work Bruce.

10:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I usually agree with you, but that was indeed a foul on Dos Santos. Watch the replay in slow-mo and you can see how Heaps grabs a whole bunch of his jersey.

11:07 AM  
Anonymous Ken said...

while I'm sure that Ricketts was embarrassed, he was also certainly injured. I've never seen a goalpost shake from a player slamming into it as that one did. He practically knocked it from its foundation. Man that's gotta hurt big time.

No professional keeper is going to fake an injury just to get off the field after being embarrassed. With another full 1/2 to play, there was plenty of time for redemption and the chance to make a save that would win the game for your team - keepers live for that. Then no one remembers the Lopez goal except the people who manage the highlight reels.

1:28 PM  

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