Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Some News for Tue Aug 4

STARTERS

Rumor says Hull wants Jozy Altidore, but it's coming from the Daily Mail, England’s worst rag for bad rumors.

Then late this afternoon we get this Twitter from Jozy: "England early in the morning so im going to get some sleep ill tweet all day tomorrow on my bb and let you guys know whats going on!" (thanks to BQ for the heads up)

dN

I had this thought yesterday: Since Thierry Henry is interested in playing for an MLS team, and his buddy Steve Nash is an investor in the Vancouver Whitecaps who will join the league in 2011, would that be the team he plays for? I love the idea.

SPECIAL NOTE FROM NBC REGARDING MEXICO V USA WORLD CUP QUALIFIER ON AUG 12

Match: Wed Aug 12 Mexico v USA 3pm Central time on mun2

NOTICE: According to NBC Universal TV, the obscure channel mun2 will be free for the day of the game via your regular cable or satellite system.

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Preliminary Round Second Leg Matches:
-Tue Aug 4
Puerto Rico Islanders v Toronto FC (1-0) - 7pm Central on FSC
Jalapa v Pachuca (0-3) - 9pmv on Galavision
Luis Angel Firpo v DC United (1-1) - 9pm Central on FSC
-Wed Aug 5
New York Red Bulls v W Connection (2-2) - 7pm Central on FSC
Cruz Azul v Herediano (6-2) - 7pm Central on Telefutura
-Thu Aug 6
Arabe Unido v Olimpia (1-2) - 7pm Central
San Juan Jabloteh v San Francisco (0-2) - 7pm Central
Real Espana v Liberia Mia (0-3) - 9pm Central on Galavision

dN

The winners of these series move into the group stage.

dN

Daniel Girrard of the Toronto Star on TFC's trip to Puerto Rico.

dN

Ben Rycroft of Metro News Toronto calls this a must-win for TFC.

dN

Sportsnet previews TFC at Puerto Rico.

dN

The Washington Post with a short preview of DC's trip to El Salvador.

dN

Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner with a little preview of Firpo v DC.

dN

Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger looks at the Red Bulls chance to improve their dismal season on Wednesday night.

dN

Michael Lewis of the NY Daily News previews the Red Bulls hosting W Connection.

SUPERLIGA 2009

Official Site

Final
-Wed Aug 5
Chicago Fire v UANL Tigres - 7pm Central on Telefutura
Venue: Toyota Park - Bridgeview IL

MLS

Dallas forward Jeff Cunningham was the easy pick to be named Player of the Week.

dN

Brent Latham of Yanks Abroad talks to Kenny Cooper's father/agent about the ins & outs of MLS transfers and salaries in his dealings with the league. He has a good perspective on all of this.

dN

The Kansas City Wizards fired head coach Curt Onalfo on Monday night. It was just 2 days after they went down to Dallas and got whooped 6-0 by a below average team. Technical Director Peter Vermes takes over the day to day running of the squad while they search for a replacement. The search for a new head coach will not happen until the season is over.
-Randy Covitz of the KC Star with an article, including quotes from Onalfo.

dN

I made an appearance yesterday on It's Called Soccer, the TFC & MLS talk show form Toronto starring Ben Rycroft, Ben Knight & Duane Rollins that always has guests talking about different clubs from around the league. I gave my thoughts on the Columbus Crew. Listen here.

dN

Jack Bell of the New York Times blog Goal talks to former MLS player Zak Ibsen who says that Crystal-Meth put an early end to his pro career. Wow.

dN

Nick Green of the Daily Breeze checks in on the progress of the LA Galaxy after one year in the charge of Bruce Arena. How will the next 3 games on the road go?

dN

And Green on his blog 100 Percent Soccer gives us an update on the thigh muscle injury that Chivas USA keeper Zach Thornton suffered in the All Star game last week. Remember that Thornton came into the game after halftime and was subbed back out about 10 minutes later due to a tweak, and the MLS team had to put Kasey Keller back into the game. Now they have a real goalkeeper mess. Green also takes a nice shot at coach Preki.

dN

William Rhoden of the New York Times with an article on the desire to get Thierry Henry into MLS.

dN

Colombia has called Seattle forward Fredy Montero in for their Aug 7 friendly against El Salvador, but the club has said no. The game is not on an international date, so they don't have to let him go. But they do run the risk of pissing off an important player.

dN

Beau Dure of USA Today looks at the crazy-packed summer schedule for many MLS teams and wonders if more space shouldn't be made available on the calendar.

dN

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer talks to Red Bulls captain Juan Pablo Angel who's contract runs out at the end of this season. Will he re-up?

dN

New York has signed Argentine centerback Walter Garcia for the rest of this season. He has been without a club since leaving Nacional in Uruguay at the end of 08.

dN

The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports that the migraine that downed Sounder's midfielder Freddie Ljungberg after the All Star games is still causing him trouble.

MLS COACHES HOT SEAT

Are there coaches who would not be surprises if they were fired in the near future? No. Who might they be?

We had Curt Onalfo at #5 on the charts last week, and now he is gone. Is someone else going soon?

1. Juan Carlos Osorio - New York
2. Tom Soehn - DC United
3. Jason Kreis - Salt Lake
4. Frank Yallop - San Jose
5. Preki - Chivas USA
6. Denis Hamlet - Chicago

MLS SUMMER EXHIBITIONS

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 5
Seattle Sounders FC v Barcelona (Spain) - 9:30pm Central on ESPN
Venue: Qwest Field - Seattle WA

dN

Jose Romero of the Seattle Times talks to Sounder coach Sigi Schmid about his teams brutal game last weekend and Barcelona.

dN

Don Ruiz of the Olympian says Seattle keeper Kasey Keller is not a big fan of this midseason friendly extravaganza. He wants to focus on MLS.

dN

The Seattle Times on the two teams supporting United Against Malaria.

dN

Lance Hornsby of the Toronto Sun looks ahead to TFC's game against Real Madrid on Friday, and tells us all about the Madrid soccer royalty.
-He also previews the game a little.

SOCCER IN AMERICA

Greg Seltzer at Soccer 365 does a Q & A with GolTV main man announcer Phil Schoen. Schoen will be doing the Mexico v USA game for mun2.

dN

The Oneonta Daily Star talks to the new president of the Nation Soccer Hall of Fame about the future.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

The Winston Salem Journal reports that Everton has signed yet another young American - Cody Arnoux - a 21 year old forward from Wake Forest U. He just finished his season with the Carolina Dynamo in the PDL.
-The Everton website has a short mention as well.

dN

Jermaine Jones has not been a participant in Schalke's preseason so far while still recovering from a broken leg. This was news to me.

dN

Game Action:

UEFA Champions League - 3rd qualifying round - Second Leg
-Wed Aug 5
Mix Diskerud - Stabaek - v Kobenhavn (1-3)

MEXICO

Club America centerback Aquivaldo Mosquera has been given a 3 game suspension for punching Morelia's Mauricio Romero during their game on Sunday (America lost 1-2 at home). The referee did not see the action and handed out no punishment during the game.

EUROPE

Real Madrid has paid too much for yet another player today, this time its midfielder Xabi Alanso from Liverpool. I guess this is adios to Fernando Gago then.

dN

Not content with just the two top goal scorers in Germany last season, Wolfsburg has signed Russian striker Pavel Pogrebnyak from Zenit St Petersburg, and Obafemi Martins from Newcastle to go along with Grafite and Edin Dzeko. Holy smokes.

The Bundesliga kicks off this Friday with a great game:
-Fri Aug 7
Wolfsburg v Schalke - 1:30pm Central on GolTV

dN

It's looking more and more like Italian midfielder Andrea Pirlo will leave Milan and sign with Chelsea and his old boss Carlo Ancelotti.

dN

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune with an article on Bayern winger Franck Ribery who is staying in Munich this season, no, he's leave, oh, he's staying, wait, he's going....

dN

FIFA.com does a Q & A with Germany & Hertha Berlin centerback Arne Friedrich.

UEFA CHAMPIONS & EUROPA LEAGUES

Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round, Second Leg matches on Tue & Wed. See the scores here.

SOUTH AMERICA

The Associated Press with an article from Colombia, where visiting fans at league club matches have been banned from wearing team colors, carrying team flags, or posting team banners etc. The violence between home and away fans has gotten out of control is this is one way of trying to deal with it. Via Sports Illustrated.

dN

Tim Vickery of Sports Illustrated looks at Brazil's 1994 World Cup winning team and the energy it gave that national team right up to this day.

AFRICA

Andrew Guest writing for Pitch Invasion gives a first hand account of being a minority player in the leagues of South Africa. He is a white guy.

ALL AROUND THE WORLD

Tom Dunmore with more from Pitch Invasion - an article on the meeting of Twitter and pro sports athletes.

ENDERS

The Financial Times reviews the just released book (in Europe) by du Nord fave Simon Kuper (co-authored with economist Stefan Szymanski) called Why England Lose & other Curious Football Phenomena Explained.

This book takes a statistical and analytical looks at the world of football, drawing out the deep nuances that explain so many facets of the game that seem random.

This title and cover are European aka English specific.















The book will be released in the USA in October under the title Soccernomics. We will have tons on this book upon its release here, including an interview with the Kuper.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Ed said...

Not to be a dick, but Pogrebnyak signed with Stuttgart, not Wolfsburg

8:21 PM  
Anonymous joe said...

dick.

12:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is a total bummer that Kuper's book isn't gonna be released in the US until October.

smatthew

8:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bruce,
I haven't been hearing any calls for Hamlett's removal as Fire head coach...not even on the Section 8 boards. They are near/at the top of the table and unlike sir Dave the Short, Hamlett actually makes attacking substitutions when needed. I don't see him going anywhere , at all, this year. Nope. Yep. Thanks.
Dang

9:25 AM  
Blogger brucio said...

Thanks Ed

The report I read yesterday said Wolfsburg and I thought it was insane to have 4 top strikers on one team. Stuttgart makes a lot more sense.

Always appreciate the correct information.

9:27 AM  
Blogger brucio said...

Thanks Dang
I will drop Hamlet off the next list.

9:35 AM  
Blogger Mr.Brown said...

Would've made great summer reading

3:22 PM  

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