Some News for Tue Sep 29, 2009

STARTERS

USA U20 redeem themselves with a great 4-1 win over Cameroon at the World Cup.

Scoring for Cameroon: Banana Yaya! One of the great names of all time!

dN

Reuters reports that Mexico has withdrawn their bid for hosting the 2018/2022 World Cups due to the economy. Odd. That doesn't show much faith in their financial situation improving over the next 9 to 13 years.

dN

Hawk-Eye Innovations, the makers of highly sophisticated technology used in professional tennis world wide to tell if a ball touches the lines has sent an open letter to FIFA pres Sepp Blatter essentially telling him to "put up or shut up." Blatter has said the Hawk-Eye technology needs more work before it can be used in Football on goallines, but the makers of Hawk-Eye says he is not telling the whole truth, and they hint that if he does not stop disparaging their product that they will do something about it!
-Blatter insists he wants high tech gear to help the game, but refuses to use any. I love this kind of challenge. And of course Blatters questionable past makes you wonder if there are other motives at work.

dN

Did you hear that? That was the sound of Liverpool choking on their own vomit in the UEFA Champions League.

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Official Web Site, and video highlights from all the games.

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Group Stage
Matchday 5:
-Tue Sep 29
Columbus Crew v Saprissa
Cruz Azul v Puerto Rico Islanders
Arabe Unido v Metapan
-Wed Sep 30
DC United v San Juan Jabloteh
UNAM Pumas v W Connection
Houston Dynamo v Pachuca
Real Espana v Comunicaciones
-Thu Oct 1
Marathon v Toluca

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Standings (after 4 of 6 Games Played):
Group A
9 Pachuca(4 GP)
7 Houston Dynamo(4 GP)
7 Arabe Unido(4 GP)
0 Metapan(4 GP)
Group B
12 Toluca(4 GP)
6 DC United(4 GP)
6 Marathon(4 GP)
0 San Juan Jabloteh(4 GP)
Group C
10 Cruz Azul(4 GP)
6 Columbus Crew(4 GP)
4 Saprissa(4 GP)
2 Puerto Rico Islanders(4 GP)
Group D
10 UNAM Pumas(4 GP)
6 Comunicaciones(4 GP)
4 W Connection(4 GP)
3 Real Espana(4 GP)

USL FIRST DIVISION PLAYOFFS

The Playoffs!

Semifinal Round
Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Thu Oct 1
Vancouver v Portland
Montreal v Puerto Rico
2nd Leg
-Sun Oct 4
Portland v Vancouver
Puerto Rico v Montreal

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All the games can be seen at USLlive.com.

MLS

Official Web Site

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Week 29
Matches & Scores
-Wed Sep 30
FC Dallas v New England Revolution - 6pm Central on Direct Kick
-Fri Oct 2
Los Angeles Galaxy v Chicago Fire - 10pm Central on ESPN2, Deportes

dN

Columbus has now gone 24 home games without defeat.

dN

Nick Green of the Daily Breeze with an article asking the important question - What has happened to Chivas USA midfielder Sacha Kljestan this season? He has been a non-factor.
-Green with more quotes on the subject on his blog.

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Steve Davis of MLSnet looks at this really tight race for the playoff spots to see who is up for the challenge.

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San Jose backup goalkeeper Andrew Weber got his first game of the season, filling in for Joe Cannon who got the day off.

USL FIRST DIVISION

Here is the USL First Division All-League Second Team

G:
Bill Gaudette - Puerto Rico Islanders
D:
Stephen deRoux - Montreal Impact
Cameron Knowles - Portland Timbers
John Krause - Puerto Rico Islanders
Mark Schulte - Carolina RailHawks
M:
Martin Nash - Vancouver Whitecaps
Lawrence Olum - Minnesota Thunder
Jonathan Steele - Puerto Rico Islanders
David Testo - Montreal Impact
F:
Marlon James - Vancouver Whitecaps
Eddie Johnson - Austin Aztex

MINNESOTA THUNDER

Brian Quarstad of Inside Minnesota Soccer looks at attendance for the Minnesota Thunder.
-This season was an all time low since they went totally professional in '96. A sad state of affairs especially when you consider how cheap their tickets are.

USA U20 TEAM @ U20 WORLD CUP

Official team blog

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Group Stage
Matches & Scores:
-Sat Sep 26
USA 0-3 Germany - Ger goals by Semih Aydilek(PK), Florian Jungwirth & Manuel Schaeffler.
-Tue Sep 29
USA 4-1 Cameroon - USA goals by Bryan Arguez, Tony Taylor, Dilly Duka & Brian Ownby. Cam goal by Banana Yaya(PK).
-Fri Oct 2
USA v South Korea - 11:45am Central on ESPN2

dN

Bryan Arquez looked better than anyone else on the field in the Germany game when he came on as a late sub, and looked even better today, but nearly didn't make this team only replacing Sam Garza on Sep 9. Where would they be without him?

dN

Brian Ownby came in late and immediately drew his second Yellow Card of the tournament meaning he will sit out game against South Korea.

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Brek Shea has some of the worst hair I have ever seen. And this is coming from a guy who doesn't exactly look handsome with his male pattern baldness and a giant beard.











dN

Yanks Abroad talks to Jorge Flores who looks to be the teams left fullback now that Kyle Davies is injured.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Chuck Culpepper of the LA Times with an article on Jozy Altidore. (thanks to JJ for this)

dN

Yanks Abroad rolls out the interviews:
-Jay DeMerit at Watford
-Freddy Adu at Belenenses
-Jon-Paul Pittman at Wycombe

dN

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

DENMARK - Superliga
Benny Feilhaber - AGF Aarhus - played all 90 but they lost 3-2 at Esbjerg.
Jeremiah White - AGF Aarhus - came on as a sub in the 82nd minute as they lost 3-2 at Esbjerg.

SWEDEN - Allsvenskan Liga
Alejandro Bedoya - Orebro - came on as a sub in the 54th minute, got a Yellow Card in the 85th, and lost 3-0 at GAIS.

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Coming Up:

SWEDEN - Allsvenskan Liga
Ryan Raybould - Gelfe - Tue Sep 29 at Brommapajkarna

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE - Matchday 2
-Thu Oct 1
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - v Basel
Tim Howard - Everton - at BATE Borisov
Eddie Johnson - Fulham - v Basel

ENGLAND

Fernando Torres of Liverpool had a great weekend scoring 3 goals in a 6-1 win over Hull.

GERMANY

Hertha Berlin has fired their coach Lucien Favre after getting off to a horrible start to the season. Last year they made a very surprising push to near the top, raising expectations for this season. Frankly both the success and lack of are anomalies, but firing the coach is always a popular thing to do.
-And I bet he doesn't pronounce his name "FAR-v."

ITALY

Reuters reports on Roma who have announced that they want to build a new stadium. But where will the money come from, when they are perennially broke?

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Official Web Site

dN

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Matchday 2
-Tue Sep 29
Fiorentina 2-0 Liverpool - Fio goals both by Stevan Jovetic.
Debreceni 0-4 Lyon - Lyo goals by Kim Kallstrom, Miralem Pjanic, Sidney Govou & Bafetimbi Gomis.
Rubin Kazan 1-1 Inter Milan - RK goal by Alejandro Domínguez. IM goal by Dejan Stankovic.
Barcelona 2-0 Dynamo Kyiv - BAr goals by Leonel Messi & Pedro Rodriguez.
Unirea Urziceni 1-1 Stuttgart - UU goal by Serban Dacian Varga. Stu goal by Serdar Tasci.
Rangers 1-4 Sevilla - Rang goal by Nacho Novo. Sev goals by Abdoulay Konko, Adriano, Luis Fabiano & Frederic Kanoute.
Arsenal 2-0 Olympiacos - Ars goals by Robin Van Persie & Andrei Arshavin.
AZ Alkmaar 1-1 Standard Liege AZA goal by Mounir El Hamdaoui. SL goal by Moussa Traore.
-Wed Sep 30
Bayern Munich v Juventus
Bordeaux v Maccabi Haifa
CSKA Moskva v Besiktas
Manchester United v Wolfsburg
Milan v Zurich
Real Madrid v Marseille
APOEL v Chelsea
Porto v Atletico Madrid

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Standings

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

Official Web Site

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The 2nd of 6 Group Stage games is on Thu Oct 1.

U20 WORLD CUP EGYPT 2009

FIFA.com's tournament news feed.

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Match schedule

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Group Stage
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Sep 24
Egypt 4-1 Trinidad & Tobago - Egy goals by Afroto, Hussam Arafat(2) & Mohamed Talaat. T&T goal by Jean Luc Rochford.
-Fri Sep 25
Paraguay 0-0 Italy
Nigeria 0-1 Venezuela - Ven goal by Yonathan Del Valle.
Spain 8-0 Tahiti - Spain goals by Aaron Niguez(2), Emilio Nsue(2), Fran Merida, Kike(2) & Ander Herrera.
-Sat Sep 26
USA 0-3 Germany - Ger goals by Semih Aydilek(PK), Florian Jungwirth & Manuel Schaeffler.
Cameroon 2-0 South Korea - Cam goals by Andre Akono Effa & Germain Tiko.
Ghana 2-1 Uzbekistan - Gha goals by Ransford Osei & Dominic Adiyiah. Uzb goal by Sherzodbek Karimov.
England 0-1 Uruguay - Uru goal by Tabare Viudez.
-Sun Sep 27
Brazil 5-0 Costa Rica - Bra goals by Alan Kardec(2), Giuliano, Alex Teixeira & Rafael.
Czechia 2-1 Australia - Michael Rabusic & Tomas Pekhart(PK). Aus goal by James Holland(PK).
UAE 2-2 South Africa - UAE goals by Al Kamali Hamdan Ismaeel(PK) & Al Musabi Theyab Awana. SA goals both by Kermit Erasmus.
Honduras 3-0 Hungaria - Hon goals by Mario Roberto Martinez(2) & Arnold Peralta.
-Mon Sep 28
Italy 2-1 Trinidad & Tobago - Ita goals by Michaelangelo Albertazzi & Silvano Raggio. T&T goal by Juma Clarence.
Egypt 1-2 Paraguay - Egy goal by Afroto. Par goals by Federico Santander & Aldo Paniagua.
Nigeria 0-2 Spain - Spa goals both by Fran Merida(one via PK).
Tahiti 0-8 Venezuela - Ven goals by Jose Rondon(3, one via PK), Yonathan Del Valle(3), Jose Manuel Velazquez & Oscar Rojas.
-Tue Sep 29
South Korea 1-1 Germany - SK goal by Kim Min Woo. Ger goal by Richard Sukuta-Pasu.
USA 4-1 Cameroon - USA goals by Bryan Arguez, Tony Taylor, Dilly Duka & Brian Ownby. Cam goal by Banana Yaya(PK).
Uruguay 3-0 Uzbekistan - Uru goals by Nicolas Lodeiro, Jonathan Urretaviscaya & Santiago Garcia.
Ghana 4-0 England - Gha goals by Dominic Adiyiah(2), Andre Ayew & Ransford Osei.
-Wed Sep 30
Australia v Costa Rica
Brazil v Czechia
Hungaria v South Africa
UAE v Honduras

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See all the games live on ESPN2, ESPN Classic or ESPN360.com.

dN

The top 2 from each group and the four best 3rd place teams advance to the knock out stages.

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Standings:
Group A - 2 Played
4 Italy
4 Paraguay
3 Egypt
0 Trinidad & Tobago
Group B - 2 Played
Adv - 6 Spain
Adv - 6 Venezuela
0 Nigeria
0 Tahiti
Group C - 2 Played
4 Germany
3 USA
3 Cameroon
1 South Korea
Group D - 2 Played
Adv - 6 Uruguay
Adv - 6 Ghana
0 England
0 Uzbekistan
Group E - 1 Played
3 Brazil
3 Czechia
0 Australia
0 Costa Rica
Group F - 1 Played
3 Honduras
1 South Africa
1 UAE
0 Hungaria

ENDERS

This is some beautiful video footage, but the story is a little baffling. I highly doubt it is referencing Chicago IL, and I also doubt it's the Ghanain national team, but still very cool looking. Thanks for GF for this one.