Some News for Tue Jul 14

STARTERS

David Beckham has stood up saying loud & clear that his beef with Landon Donovan is over, and he is not talking about it. Very professional. Great job by Becks. Here is some video that shows how adamant he is about that.

TEAM USA GOLD CUP

2 more players have left the team to begin season training with their European clubs:
-Michael Parkhurst at Nordsjaelland
-Steve Cherundolo at Hannover

dN

And later Charlie Davies joined the exodus as he bolted off to sign with his new French club Sochaux. Or did he?

dN

USA Updated Gold Cup Roster:
G:
*Jon Busch - Chicago Fire
*Brad Guzan - Aston Villa
Troy Perkins - Valerenga
Luis Robles - FC Kaiserslautern
D:
*Jonathan Bornstein - Chivas USA
Jimmy Conrad - Kansas City Wizards
Clarence Goodson - IK Start
Jay Heaps - New England Revolution
Chad Marshall - Columbus Crew
Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock
M:
Davy Arnaud - Kansas City Wizards
Kyle Beckerman - Real Salt Lake
Colin Clark - Colorado Rapids
*Ricardo Clark - Houston Dynamo
Sam Cronin - Toronto FC
Brad Evans - Seattle Sounders
Stuart Holden - Houston Dynamo
*Sacha Kljestan - Chivas USA
Logan Pause - Chicago Fire
Robbie Rogers - Columbus Crew
F:
*Jozy Altidore - Villarreal
*Conor Casey - Colorado Rapids
Brian Ching - Houston Dynamo
Kenny Cooper - FC Dallas
Santino Quaranta - DC United
* Player available if needed, but not training with the team.

dN

FIFA.com with an article on Stuart Holden.

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The New Hampshire Union Leader with an article on their homestate son Charlie Davies.

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Quarterfinal Match:
-Sat Jul 18
USA v Panama - 7pm Central on FSC

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USMNT Official Blog

MLS

The week starts off on Thursday night in the Meadowlands with old Golden Balls making his grand re-entrance into "the MLS".

dN

MLS Week 18 Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jul 16
New York Red Bulls v Los Angeles Galaxy - 7pm Central on FSC & FSE
Venue: Giants Stadium - East Rutherford NJ

dN

I thought I felt the planet take a weird hiccup thingy yesterday, and it turns out that's because Toronto forward Chad Barrett was named the leagues Player of the Week. This is an Onion headline right?

dN

The rumors of Czech & Juventus midfielder Pavel Nedved have not subsided. But the new rumor is that he will become a coach at Juventus. We shall see. Do you want him in a MLS uniform?

dN

The New York Red Bulls official blog Red Bull Reader has a general schedule for their stadium construction:
-Beginning of August – Field Drainage System work begins
-Beginning of August – Horizontal roof installation begins
-Mid September – Sod installation begins
-Late September – Seat installation begins

dN

Andrea Canales at Sports Illustrated wonders if David Beckham can finally help LA on the field.

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The Columbus Dispatch reports on the Crew making the traditional "Championship Sports Team Visits The Whitehouse" trip.

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It is probably a safe bet that very soon Chicago Fire centerback Bakary Soumare will leave his club for one in France.

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Brian Lewis of the NY Post talks to new Red Bull signing centerback Leo Krupnik.
-Lewis is also reporting that the team has finalized a deal for midfielder Ernst Obster from their sister club in Salzburg Austria.

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Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger reports that Red Bulls ownership has told the New York teams coaching staff that their jobs are safe. For now.

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The Raleigh News & Observer calls the MLS All-Star game the 2nd best of all the major sports in America. Not bad at all. They like the league v foreign club concept. So do I.

dN

Speaking of the All Star Game, as we said yesterday Dwayne De Rosario will not play in the game due to his team playing in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, so he has been replaced by Cauahtemoc Blanco of Chicago.

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The Kansas City Kansan on where the Wizards sit at this junction of the season.

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Embele Awipi of the Salinas Californian (Bay Area) talks to former San Jose and current Toronto centerhack Nick Garcia about his new team.

THE BECKMAN BOOK

The Beckham Experiment: How The World's Most Famous Athlete Tried To Conquer America
By Grant Wahl

dN

Buy it from your local Independent bookstore like:
The Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge MA
Book Soup in Hollywood CA
The Strand in Manhattan NY

dN

Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer gives us part 1 of a major in-depth interview with author Grant Wahl.

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Beau Dure of USA Today on his blog The Netminder has an interview with author Grant Wahl.

US SOCCER 2009 DEVELOPMENT ACADEMY FINALS

Tournament being held July 10-17 at Home Depot Center in Carson CA.

dN

Here are the scores through the first two rounds (of three): U18 - and - U16.

dN

Standings:

U18 (after 2 of 3 rounds)
Group 1
6 Indiana United Academy
4 IMG Soccer Academy
1 Dallas Texans
0 FC Greater Boston
Group 2
4 PDA(+2)
4 Real Colorado(+1)
3 DC United
0 CASL Chelsea FC Academy

U16 (after 2 of 3 rounds)
Group 1
6 Derby County Wolves(+3)
3 Chicago Magic AS Monaco(+2)
3 FC Dallas(+1)
0 New York Red Bulls(-6)
Group 2
6 Cal Odyssey(+2)
3 PDA(+0)
3 Washington Premier FC(0)
0 Greensboro Youth Soccer(-2)

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Mix Diskerud & his club Stabaek get going in the 2nd qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League. Their first leg match is Wed Jul 15 at Tirana (the biggest club in Albania), with the home leg next Wed at home in Baerum near Oslo.

dN

Ryan Guy & St Patrick's Athletic take on Valletta of Malta at home in the first leg of the Europa League 2nd round qualifying on Thu Jul 16.

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And former USA great Earnie Stewart leads his team NAC Breda, where he is Technical Director, into the same Europa League 2nd round qualifying on Thu Jul 16 at home against Gandzasar of Kapan, Armenia.

dN

Here is some positive news - Danny Szetela has been recalled by his top flight Spanish club Racing de Santander for their preseason training. He was on loan last season at Brescia in Italy's Serie B.

dN

The Press of Atlantic City with an article on forward Jeremiah White of Aarhus in Denmark. (A teammate of Benny Feilhaber.) According to this article White was asked to be on this summers Gold Cup team but his club would not release him. That's odd.

EUROPE

FIFA.com does a Q & A with former German striker and current national team exec Oliver Bierhoff.

UEFA CHAMPIONS & EUROPA LEAGUES

The 2nd qualifying round of the Champs League gets going today. Here are the matches. I have only heard of 10 of the 34 teams partaking in this round.

dN

The 2nd qualifying round of the new Europa League (formerly UEFA Cup) happens on Thursday. Here are those matches. And I have heard of even fewer of these teams.

SOUTH AMERICA

This bums me out - Reuters reports that one of my favorite players Andres D'Alessandro of Internacional in Brazil has been given a 2 month ban for repeatedly trying to start a fight with players from Corinthians during a Copa Brazil match a couple of weeks back. It was wild scene that never totally got out of hand, no thanks to D'Alessandro who appeared to want to fight the entire team.

COPA LIBERTADORES

Wednesday is the big night! The 2nd leg of the Libertadores Final.

dN

Reuters previews Estudiantes big game.

dN

Final
2nd Leg Match:
-Wed Jul 15
Cruzeiro v Estudiantes (0-0)