Thursday, August 20, 2009

Some News for Thu Aug 20, 2009

STARTERS

When I was flying home from Mexico City last Saturday we stopped off in Houston, and had to go through customs there. As we approached the main terminal there was a huge "Welcome To Houston Texas" sign. It featured images of the city skyline and natural beauty. It also featured aspects of the area's culture. But what surprised me was the image of a pro sports athlete representing the city. Was it a member of the Houston Astros baseball team? No. Was it a member of the Houston Rockets basketball team? Nope. How about the Houston Texans football team? No again. It was none other than Brian Mullan of the Houston Dynamo soccer team decked out in the customary orange shirt. Very cool indeed.

dN

It's official, Houston has signed Mexican forward Luis Landin. See details in the MLS section.

dN

The Los Angeles Times web site no longer has a specified section for their soccer coverage. To find this stories that are not on their front spots page you have to do a search and you get a ton of other non-soccer stories mixed in on their shabby search engine. [CORRECTION: There is now another small box below and to the right of the headers section, titled MORE SPORTS, with Soccer listed in that section. Thanks to James for smartening me up.]

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

The Group Stage is underway!

dN

Here is the official web site of the tournament for all the up to date standings and game schedules.

dN

Matchday 1
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Aug 18
Columbus Crew 2-0 Puerto Rico Islanders - CC goals by Steven Lenhart & Robbie Rogers.
Marathon 3-1 DC United - Mar goals by Walter Martinez, Jerry Palacios & Mario Berrios. DCU goal by Luciano Emilio(PK).
UNAM Pumas 1-0 Comunicaciones - UNAM goal by Luis Fuentes.
-Wed Aug 19
Houston Dynamo 1-0 Isidro Metapan - HD goal by Brian Ching.
Match report from CONCACAF.
Match report by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.
Post game notes by Fallas on his blog Soccer y Futbol.
Arabe Unido 4-1 Pachuca - AU goals by Orlando Rodriguez, Victor Medieta, Manuel Mosquera & Reynaldo Lewin. Pach goal by Paul Aguilar.
Match report from CONCACAF.
Cruz Azul 2-0 Saprissa - CA goals by Christian Riveros & Joel Hiqui.
Match report from CONCACAF.
-Thu Aug 20
San Juan Jabloteh v Toluca - 7pm Central on Galavision
Real Espana v W Connection - 9pm Central on Galavision

dN

Steve Davis at ESPN Soccernet says this tournament has still not fully caught the attention of MLS teams.

MLS

MLS Week 23 Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 19
Chicago Fire 0-2 Los Angeles Galaxy - LAG goals by Mike Magee & Landon Donovan.
-Thu Aug 20
Seattle Sounders FC v New England Revolution - 9pm Central on ESPN2 & ESPN Deportes
-Sat Aug 22
DC United v Los Angeles Galaxy - 6:30pm Central on FSC & FSE
San Jose Earthquakes v Kansas City Wizards - 9:30pm Central on Direct Kick
Chivas USA v Toronto FC - 9:30pm Central on Direct Kick
-Sun Aug 23
New York Red Bulls v FC Dallas - 2pm Central on Telefutura
Chicago Fire v Colorado Rapids - 5pm Central on Direct Kick
New England Revolution v Real Salt Lake - 5pm Central on Direct Kick
Houston Dynamo v Seattle Sounders FC - 7:30pm Central on Direct Kick

dN

The Houston Dynamo announce the signing of Mexican forward Luis Landin on loan from Cruz Azul. The deal was big enough that they needed to use their Designated Player spot of their roster for him. They have to wait for his work visa before he can play. He will also NOT be available to them for the Champions League because he has already played for Cruz Azul in this years tourney. I would guess that Houston pursued him because forwards Dominic Oduro, Cam Weaver and Ade Akenbiyi have not been enough help at forward for Kei Kamara and Brian Ching this season.

dN

Monique Walker of the Boston Globe talks to the New England Revolution about building their own soccer stadium. They keep saying all the right things, but nothing ever appears to happen. 4 years later and they are in the same spot as before. Talk talk talk. It's like listening to Charlie Brown's teacher.

dN

Former MLS assistant coach John Murphy who was named coach of Livingston in Scotland earlier this summer has been replaced. That is too bad for him.

dN

Bryan Alvarez at Soccer America with a Rising Star profile on centerback Eric Brunner of Columbus.

dN

Bill Archer of Bill Archer Blog asks the question (among other things) that I have been asking since day 1 - why in the world did MLS put a new team in San Jose when the last one couldn't turn a dime or get anyone in the Bay Area to assist them in financial aspects of their endeavors?

dN

Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch tells us about the Crew's new forward Emilio Renteria. He is still waiting for his work visa before he can play.

dN

Real Salt Lake has announced a home friendly v Mexican giants Chivas of Guadalajara on Wed Oct 7.

dN

Michael Lewis of the NY Daily News dissects the Red Bulls post season house cleaning ahead.

USL FIRST DIVISION

Matches & Scores:
-Tue Aug 18
Carolina RailHawks 1-1 Vancouver Whitecaps
Cleveland City Stars 1-2 Montreal Impact
-Wed Aug 19
Rochester Rhinos 3-3 Minnesota Thunder
-Thu Aug 20
Charleston Battery v Vancouver Whitecaps
-Sat Aug 22
Cleveland City Stars v Minnesota Thunder
Rochester Rhinos v Carolina RailHawks
Portland Timbers v Miami FC Blues
-Sun Aug 23
Montreal Impact v Austin Aztex
Vancouver Whitecaps v Miami FC Blues

dN

Standings (with goal differential & games played out of 30):
48 Portland(+25)(23)
44 Carolina(+15)(23)
44 Charleston(+12)(24)
41 Puerto Rico(+9)(24)
33 Rochester(+2)(23)
29 Montreal(-2)(23)
27 Vancouver(+2)(22)
* * Out of Playoffs * *
25 Miami (-10)(21)
20 Minnesota(-9)(22)
15 Austin(-18)(23)
13 Cleveland(-26)(24)

USL SECOND DIVISION

Matthew Delicate of the Richmond Kickers ended the regular season as the leagues top goal scorer with 13 in ? games.

dN

The playoffs start last night with the #4 team hosting the #5 team from the regular season standings. The winner of that will take on the #1 seed in the next round, with #2 hosting #3 as well. The Final is on Sat Aug 29.

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 19
Charlotte Eagles(#4) 3-1 Real Maryland Monarchs(#5)
-Sat Aug 22
Richmond Kickers(#2) v Harrisburg City Islanders(#3)
Wilmington Hammerheads(#1) v Charlotte Eagles(#4)
-Sat Aug 29
FINAL

US SOCCER NEWS

US Soccer has shortened the list of potential World Cup stadiums to 32 in 27 [CORRECTED] cities across the country. My city of Minneapolis has been dropped from the latest list, but I knew that was coming eventually because our 2 stadiums, one of which is too small and the other is a crappy old dome that will just be older and crappier 9 or 13 years from now. I also bet that there will be new state of the art stadiums available by then that are not even in the plannings stages yet.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Greg Seltzer of Soccer 365 talks to Jeremiah White about life this eason at Aarhus.

dN

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

DENMARK - Superliga
Michael Parkhurst - Nordsjaelland - played the full 90 in a 1-0 road loss at Aalborg.

ENGLAND - Championship
Jay DeMerit - Watford - went the full 90 as they beat Nottingham Forest 2-4 on the road.

ENGLAND - League One
Jemal Johnson - Milton Keynes - started and went 87 minutes in a 0-1 road win at Tranmere Rovers.
Jon-Paul Pittman - Wycombe - came on as a sub in the 22nd minute of a home 1-1 draw against Southend United.

NETHERLANDS - Eerste Divisie
Charles Kazlauskas - Helmond Sport - Thu Aug 20 at De Graafschap.

SWEDEN - Superettan
Ryan Miller - Ljungskile - started and played the entire match as they drew 1-1 at Trollhattan
Etchu Tabe - Ljungskile - started and went the full 90 as they drew 1-1 at Trollhattan

EUROPA LEAGUE
Play-Off Round 1st Leg
-Thu Aug 20
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - went the full match, scored the game winning goal, and got a Yellow Card as they won 3-1 at home over Amkar Perm.
Mikkel Diskrud - Stabaek - came on as a sub in the 69th minute but the team got dumped on their heads 0-3 at home by Valencia.
Ryan Guy - St Patrick's Athletic - played the entire game but lost 3-0 at Steaua Bucuresti.
Brad Guzan - Aston Villa - played the full match, but gave up a goal in the games 1st minute and lost 1-0 at Rapid Wien.
Tim Howard - Everton - went the distance in a 4-0 home win over Sigma Olomouc.

AMERICANS IN MEXICO

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Jose Francisco Torres - Pachuca - played all 90 minutes, got a Yellow Card, and lost 4-1 at Arabe Unido.

ENGLAND

Hoohoo! What a way to get the Premiership season off to a weird and wonderful start - Manchester United lose on the road at newly promoted Burnley in just the 2nd game of the season. We love chaos in the top leagues.

dN

Martin Samuel of the Daily Mail raves about the brilliance of Arsenal midfielder Andrey Arshavin. My friend Sean will get a stiffy over this one.

dN

The Guardian with an article on Deco who finally has a manager at Chelsea who will allow him to take to the field and be himself.

dN

Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated does a Q & A with Chelsea & Ivory Coast forward Didier Drogba.

EUROPE

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune sings the praises of Argentine forward Sergio "Kun" Aguero of Atletico Madrid. He really is something else.

dN

Stuttgart & Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has announced that he will retire when this season ends.

dN

Amy Lawrence of the Guardian says Big Phil, Luis Felipe Scolari, is happy coaching in Uzbekistan this season. Sure, it's better than jail or something like that I guess.

dN

The Serie A season kicks off this weekend.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Official web site for all match and tourney info.

Play-Off Round 1st Leg
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Aug 18
Sheriff 0-2 Olympiacos - Oly goals by Dudu & Kostas Mitroglou.
Kobenhavn 1-0 APOEL - Kob goal by Zdenek Pospech.
Celtic 0-2 Arsenal - Ars goals by William Gallas & Gary Caldwell(OG).
Timisoara 0-2 Stuttgart - Stu goals by Timo Gebhart(PK) & Aleksandr Hleb.
Sporting 2-2 Fiorentina - Spo goals by Simon Vukcevic & Miguel Veloso. Fio goals by Juan Manuel Vargas & Alberto Gilardino.
-Wed Aug 19
Panathinaikos 2-3 Atletico Madrid - Pan goals by Dimitris Salpingidis & Sebastian Leto. AM goals by Maxi Rodriguez, Diego Forlan & Kun Aguero.
Levski Sofia 1-2 Debreceni - LS goal by Cedric Bardon. Deb goals by Laszlo Bodnar & Peter Czvitkovics.
Lyon 5-1 Anderlecht - Lyon goals by Miralem Pjanic, Lisandro(PK), Michel Bastos & Bafetimbi Gomis
(2). And goal by Matias Suarez.
Red Bull Salzburg 1-2 Maccabi Haifa - RBS goal by Alexander Zickler. Mohammed Ghadir & Shlomi Arbeitman.
Ventspils 0-3 Zurich - Zur goals by Johan Vonlanthen, Silvan Aegerter & Dusun Djuric.

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

Europa League Play-Off Round first Leg matches take place on Thursday.

SOUTH AMERICA

A deal has been cut with the Argentine government to infuse their Primera Division with enough money to get the Apertura season started this weekend, two weeks after it was initially delayed due to deep financial troubles.

dN

Rodrigo Orihuela of the Guardian reports on the deal that will allow the start (finally) of the new season in Argentina.

AFRICA

Are you getting ready for some African Cup of Nations?? I know I am. I love this tournament. It kicks off January 10th and will be held in Angola.

ALL AROUND THE WORLD

Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated with his first World Club Power Rankings for the fall.

ENDERS

This doesn't look much like Blanco - for instance, if you know anything about Blanco you know he does not have a neck in real life.

7 Comments:

Blogger mamba said...

to think Burnley was on a tour of sub-mls opposition in the US, now their beating Man U...

8:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brucio !

If you were enjoying yourself in that paradise on earth called Mexico, why would you want to return to such a second-rate country like the USA ?!

Everyone loves Mexico---that's why no Mexicans ever leave their homeland to go live in other countries !

The economy is wonderful, access to education and medicine are fantastic, and the country has a worldwide reputation for fighting the great evils of recent times. Everyone knows the Mexican armed forces did an awesome job of helping defeat the Nazis in Europe and Imperial Japan in the Pacific. And they did a fantastic job of helping bring down the Evil Empire of the Soviet Union, which murdered tens of millions of its own people throughout the 20th century, not to mention tens of millions of other people including Jews, Ukrainians, Poles, Afghanis....the list goes on and on.

Plus, Mexico sends enormous sums of monies around the world to nations that are developing, trying to develop, or just pretending to develop while their corrupt leaders take it all for themselves.

And think of all the life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical technologies which have emanated from Mexico---I don't understand why you would want to live here in the States when you could live there in Mexico.

You must really love living in the USA.

12:11 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This year was my breaking point as a Revs supporter. For the past 4-5 yrs we've been hearing the BS out of the Krafts mouth (while us here in CT have heard it 10-12yrs ago). Next year i'll be supporting a team 4hrs south.
After screwing over CT and forcing MA into building a stadium, and now rapei_g the land all around the stadium, it was just too much.

I can't give my money to those people anymore.

- Reid

7:00 AM  
Blogger Frank said...

There are only 27 cities left for consideration...I assume it was just a typo.

7:45 AM  
Blogger brucio said...

thanks frank
that is a typo on my part
proof reading my own posts might fix some of that
hahahahaha

as for the anonymous poster
i have no idea what you are going on about
but its pretty funny to read
and i will leave it up for everyone to laugh at you too

thanks all
i had a great vacation, but its ever better to be back at du nord
bruce

8:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brucio !

Are you DENYING that Mexico's armed forces played a key role in defeating the Nazis and Imperial Japan during WW2 ?
And that Mexico played a key role in the crumbling of the Soviet Empire ?

How can you deny the truth ?

Are you denying that Mexico gives away zillions of dollars in aid to developing countries ?

Are you denying the fantastic medical technologies and pharmaceuticals which have emanated from capital investment and scientific laboratories in Mexico ?

How can you deny the truth ?

Mexico is a paradise on earth.
It is the greatest nation on the planet---and you think that premise is LAUGHABLE ?

1:43 PM  
Blogger brucio said...

Give it up dumbass! No one takes anonymous posters seriously! Yer just a blowhard! And yes, YOU are totally laughable!

3:03 PM  

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