Some News for Mon Oct 12

STARTERS

YES! YES! YES! We are going to South Africa! It's now official, the USA have qualified for the World Cup for the 6th time in a row! Wow! We have come a long way since I was a kid learning about the game in the mid-70's.

dN

The Associated Press has quotes from MLS commissioner Don Garber talking about the league figuring out a way to match the international calendar.
-For the first time we have the league directly addressing this situation with seriousness, which leads me to believe that they will find a way to make it happen.

dN

George Vecsey of the New York Times looks at Team USA and sees great things from MLS helping the team move forward.

dN

Argentina yanked their hand out of the fire at the last possible second. Tied 1-1 at home against last place Peru two minutes into stoppage time Martin Palermo scored a tap in goal at the back post to boost them into the 4th and final spot for the World Cup with an away game coming on Wednesday at Uruguay, who are in 5th place! How huge will that one be?!?!?!?!

TEAM USA

My story:
What a game! What a night. For those of you who didn't get to see it on TV, I send my sympathy. (For those who chose not to watch it on TV, I have other thoughts but will keep them to myself.) My favorite viewing spot, the Sweetwater in St Paul, bought the feed and then packed em in. The crowd was big, friendly, and nervous. And that first 45 minutes didn't due much to help calm nerves. At least it was scoreless. The USA had two primo chances to score, especially Charlie Davies double attempt with a header off a perfect cross from Stuart Holden which the Honduras keeper saved miraculously, and then fired high on the rebound. Choke. At halftime I wandered around talking to people, and at one point out in the lobby I had to sit down for a moment because my legs were shaking. The second half began with the USA emitting that rotten egg smell that we have been blasted with too many times in the past year. Julio De Leon nailed a deadly freekick up and over the wall for a home team lead that left many of us speechless. Note to team: Enough already with the coming out of the lockerroom asleep! But then miraculously, like a giant sleeping ogre who got a sharp rock to the head, our boys woke up, rolled over and cleaned house. First Conor Casey threw his body at a ball in front of net sending the Hondu keeper hurtling back to earth with the ball bouncing off Casey's shoulder and into the net. Moments later it was finesse football with Davies slipping a nice pass to Donovan who did the same to Casey behind the centerbacks where he controlled the ball beautifully, faked once, and then slid the ball pasted the committed keeper for a 1-2 lead. Then a few minutes after that it was Casey again going toward goal when he was hacked down setting up a moment I didn't know we would ever see - Landon Donovan curling a gorgeous free kick around the wall and into the far corner for the third goal of the night! Wow! The Sweetwater almost collapsed at that point. We were going insane. Beer flew everywhere, and the songs got real loud. Now they just had to hang on. And that would not be easy. Honduras grabbed a goal back on another of those awful plays we have seen too often where 5 guys stand around waiting for someone else to make a play. Then the real horror happened as yet another lame ass free kick call led to a ball being handled in the box and a PK going to the home team. "You have got to be kidding me!" Luckily for us Carlos Pavon got a chance to show just why he was so hideous for the LA Galaxy in ‘07 as he shovel footed the spot kick over the bar and into USA safety. Moments later it was game over, jubilation begin. The party went on until they kicked us out at 2, and when I got home I was not getting to sleep anytime soon with all that juice running through me. What a night. I hope you saw it. I will never forget it.

dN

Two Twitters from Jozy Altidore yesterday:
-"I got that World Cup Fever I can't help myself :) Still can't believe it."
-"Wow just got kicked out of a cab because the driver didn't think I could afford the fair?? What's the world coming to..."

dN

When the lineups came up on the screen of the closed circuit feed we saw this name in the USA first 11: C. Kersey. Who the hell is that. Oh, Conor Casey. I see.

dN

Last week I proclaimed loudly that Benny Feilhaber would start of the USA over Stuart Holden - I was 100% convinced of this due to the fact that coach Bob Bradley is very conservative and predictable. And of course I was completely wrong. Hahahahahahaha. Holden played the full 90 and my mental connection to the coach was squelched. I could not be happier to be wrong.

dN

-Sat Oct 10
Honduras 2-3 USA - Hon goals both by Julio De Leon. USA goals by Conor Casey(2) & Landon Donovan.
Match report from US Soccer.
Post game reaction video by USA players from US Soccer.
Post game press conference video by USA coach Bob Bradley from US Soccer.
Match report by Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America.
Player ratings by Mahoney.
Post game analysis by Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated.
Post game analysis by Greg Lalas of Sports Illustrated.
Match report and player ratings by Ives Galarcep of ESPN Soccernet.
Post game analysis by Jen Chang of ESPN Soccernet.
Player ratings by Jack Bell of the New York Times.
Post game analysis by Jere Longman of the New York Times.

dN

Giving up that goal less than 2 minutes into the second half was yet another in a long long series of mental lapses that has cost this team dearly. This attitude can only change from the top down, so unfortunately I don't see anything different going forward.

dN

The USA has 17 goals in the Hex - and Landon Donovan has either scored or assisted on 12 of them. Amazing!

dN

Yellow Cards from qualifying will not carry over to the World Cup, but Red Cards will.

dN

I have seen the handball that gave Honduras the late PK being credited to both Carlos Bocanegra and Stuart Holden, but it was definitely Jonathan Spector that knocked the ball down illegally in front of goal.

dN

Ives Galarcep of ESPN Soccernet on USA coach Bob Bradley.

dN

Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports with the positives and negatives the USA needs to acknowledge before next June.

dN

Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated goes to Honduras for the game, makes a side trip to the political capital, gets robbed at gunpoint and later that same day meets the controversial new president of the country, who is in office after to a military intervention [UPDATED] in June. Wow!

dN

Official Team Blog

dN

On a special note, the big win came on the 3rd Anniversary of the passing away of USA assistant coach Glen Mooch Myrenick. I think that was felt by the whole team.

dN

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS - (Everything there here is from the second half - thanks to Tommy for the link)


dN

du Nord 3 Stars of the Game

3. Julio de Leon - both of their goals came off his foot. The first on a deadly simple free kick, and the second during a mad scramble in the box where he collected a pass and put the ball in the only hole left available to score in.
2. Landon Donovan - eas he been taking free kick lessons from you-know-who? It sure as hell looked like it. He set up Casey as usual for a goal and then took care of the game winner himself. His play in the 2nd half might have been 100% flawless. What a star!
1. Conor Casey - the most unlikely hero of all! Not 1 but 2 huge goals. And he was a work horse too. Yes he is a bit plodding, but he fought hard in the air, and used some amazing footskills to deke the keeper on that second goal. Cool calm and deadly. We needed a surprise performance and he delivered in a major way. What a time to score your first two international goals!!!

SPECIAL HONOREE - Carlos Pavon - he reverted to his Los Angeles Galaxy era choking dog form and missed a Penalty Kick in the dying minutes that could have tied the game! Thank you Carlos! And please say hi to Steve Sampson for me.

CONCACAF WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

USA and Mexico have both qualified for the World Cup. Leaving Costa Rica and Honduras to fight over the 3rd spot and playoff position against the South American #5.

dN

Standings after 9 of 10 rounds:
IN - 19 USA
IN - 18 Mexico
15 Costa Rica
- - - - -
13 Honduras
- - - - -
OUT - 8 El Salvador
OUT - 5 Trinidad & Tobago

dN

Matchday 9
MAtches & Scores:
-Sat Oct 10
Costa Rica 4-0 Trinidad & Tobago - CR goals by Radanfah Abubakr(OG), Walter Centeno & Alvaro Saborio(2).
Mexico 4-1 El Salvador - Mex goals by Marvin Gonzalez(OG), Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Francisco Palencia & Carlos Vela. ES goal by Julio Martinez.
Honduras 2-3 USA - Hon goals both by Julio De Leon. USA goals by Conor Casey(2) & Landon Donovan.

dN

Reuters with a round up of the CONCACAF qualifying matches.

dN

Matchday 10
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Oct 14
USA v Costa Rica
Trinidad & Tobago v Mexico
El Salvador v Honduras

dN

Jeff Carlisle of ESPN Soccernet looks ahead to USA v Costa Rica on Wednesday.

USL FIRST DIVISION PLAYOFFS

Final
1st Leg
Matches & Scores:
-Sat Oct 10
Vancouver Whitecaps 2-3 Montreal Impact - VW goals by Marcua Haber & Marlon James. MI goals by Shaun Pejic(OG), Peter Byers & Eduardo Sebrango.

EJECTIONS:
Martin Nash - Vancouver - Red Card

dN

2nd Leg
Matches & Scores:
-Sat Oct 17
Montreal v Vancouver (3-2)

MLS

Official Web Site

dN

Week 30
Matches & Scores
-Wed Oct 7
San Jose Earthquakes 1-2 FC Dallas - SJE goal by Quincy Amarikwa. FCD goals by David Ferreria & Jeff Cunningham.
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium - Santa Clara CA
Attendance: 9,023
-Sat Oct 10
Toronto FC 1-1 San Jose Earthquakes - TFC goal by Nana Attakora. SJE goal by Cornell Glen.
Venue: BMO Field - Toronto ON
Attendance: 20,571
New England Revolution 0-1 Columbus Crew - CC goal by Gino Padula.
Venue: Gillette Stadium - Foxborough MA
Attendance: 13,297
Chivas USA 2-0 Kansas City Wizards - CUSA goals by Justin Braun & Sacha Kljestan.
Venue: Home Depot Center - Carson CA
Attendance: 12,923

dN

EJECTIONS:
Emmanuel Ekpo - Columbus - Red Card

dN

Chivas USA becomes the 4th team to clinch a spot in the 8 team post season. No one was elimidated this weekend however.

dN

Jeff Cunningham of FC Dallas has been named MLS Player of the Week, again!

dN

Jonah Freedman at Sports Illustrated with an article on the incredible second half of the season run put together by Jeff Cunningham of Dallas.
-And Freedman has it on good authority that JC is definitely on the mind of USA coach Bob Bradley. What a wild story that would make.

dN

Greg Seltzer of Soccer365 talks to Salt Lake centerback Nat Borchers about what its going to take to avoid a disastrous season and get his team in the playoffs.

dN

The Toronto Globe & Mail on TFC's late season belly flop.
-What makes it worse is that DC and New England have flopped too leaving the door open, and the only team that looks willing to race in and grab it from them is Dallas of all teams.

dN

Club Call reports that Plymouth Argyle in England has been given permission to talk to New England assistant coach Steve Mariner about their open Technical Director position.

dN

DC midfielder Santino Quaranta has injured his foot and will need season ending surgery. He should be ready in time for next season to start.

dN

Houston's Corey Ashe suffered a knee injury in their friendly v Monterrey. See details below.

MLS EXHIBITIONS

-Sun Oct 11
Houston Dynamo 2-1 Monterrey

dN

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle on the "friendly" that saw the Mexicans meltdown in sadly obvious manner when losing, and get 3 players Red Carded.

MLS EXPANSION & STADIUMS

The Examiner has a Q & A with Vancouver Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi, talking about the teams new stadium plans, with pretty spectacular renderings.

dN

The Kansas City Kansan reports that the Wizards new stadium proposal got a boost from local politicians at the end of last week.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Word going around today is that Sal Zizzo at Hannouver has blown out his knee and will need some big time surgery.

dN

Freddy Adu is set to get his first start today for Belenense.

MEXICO

Have you seen the footage of the El Salvadoran goal swarmed by bees before kickoff at Azteca Stadium on Saturday night?? What a wild scene that was.

dN

Luis Bueno at Sports Illustrated on Mexico's recovery from the hideous Sven era.

ENGLAND

David James, goalkeeper for Portsmouth, writing for the Observer tells us about life at a club that has been on day-to-day financial life support.

EUROPE

FIFA.com has a Q & A with Netherlands and Liverpool forward Dirk Kuyt.

UEFA WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

Denmark, Germany, Serbia & Italy join Netherlands, Spain & England as 7 of the 9 group winners who qualify for the WC, while the best 8 of 9 runners up will play off for the last 4 European places in South Africa..
-Ireland, France, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Russia will be a part of that playoff, with the other 4 earning their spots on Wednesday.

dN

Several articles on qualifiers from The Observer:
-Jonathan Wilson on Germany's win in Russia, and clinching a spot in South Africa.
-Paul Doyle on the controversial win and qualification for Denmark over rivals Sweden.
-Amy Lawrence on Italy's very lucky draw in Ireland that sent them to South Africa.

dN

La Gazzetta Dello Sport on Italy's qualification for the World Cup.

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Oct 10
Finland 2-1 Wales
Luxembourg 0-3 Switzerland
Belarus 4-0 Kazakhstan
Russia 0-1 Germany
Estonia 0-2 Bosnia-Herzegovina
Montenegro 2-1 Georgia
Ukraine 1-0 England
Denmark 1-0 Sweden
Liechtenstein 0-2 Azerbaijan
Ireland 2-2 Italy
Cyprus 4-1 Bulgaria
Czech Republic 2-0 Poland
Slovakia 0-2 Slovenia
Serbia 5-0 Romania
Austria 2-1 Lithuania
Portugal 3-0 Hungary
Belgium 2-0 Turkey
Israel 3-1 Moldova
Armenia 1-2 Spain
France 5-0 Faroe Islands
Greece 5-2 Latvia

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Oct 14
Andorra v Ukraine
Germany v Finland
Ireland v Montenegro
Portugal v Malta
Switzerland v Israel
Liechtenstein v Wales
Bosnia-Herzegovina v Spain
England v Belarus
France v Austria
Italy v Cyprus
Czech Republic v Northern Ireland
Poland v Slovakia
Slovakia v Slovenia
Denmark v Hungary
Sweden v Albania
Latvia v Moldova
Greece v Luxembourg
Azerbaijan v Russia
Turkey v Armenia
Lithuania v Serbia
Romania v Faroe Islands
Bulgaria v Georgia
Estonia v Belgium
Kazakhstan v Croatia

dN

Standings

SOUTH AMERICA

Reuters on Chile and their suddenly beloved Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa.

ARGENTINA

Simon Kuper of the Financial Times writes about Argentina's recent struggles in World Cup qualifying.

CONMEBOL WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

Top 4 advance to World Cup. #5 goes into a home and away playoff with #4 from CONCACAF.

dN

Chile becomes team #3 to make it to the finals in South Africa.
-Colombia is eliminated.

dN

After Martin Palermo scored to give Argentina the win, coach Maradona ran down the sidelines in the pouring rain and did a huge belly slide! See the video here.

dN

Matches & Scores
-Sat Oct 10
Colombia 2-4 Chile
Ecuador 1-2 Uruguay
Venezuela 1-2 Paraguay
Argentina 2-1 Peru
Bolivia 2-1 Brazil

Matchday 18
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Oct 14
Peru v Bolivia
Paraguay v Colombia
Brazil v Venezuela
Chile v Ecuador
Uruguay v Argentina

dN

Standings

ASIA/OCEANIA WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Oct 10
Bahrain 0-0 New Zealand
-Sat Nov 14
New Zealand v Bahrain (0-0)

AFRICA WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

Ivory Coast joins Ghana & South Africa as the 3rd of 6 African teams to become part of the final 32.

dN

Matches & Scores
-Sat Oct 10
Zambia 0-1 Egypt
Malawi 1-1 Cote d'Ivoire
Cameroon 3-0 Togo
Gabon 3-1 Morocco
-Sun Oct 11
Benin 1-0 Ghana
Nigeria 1-0 Mozambique
Tunisia 1-0 Kenya
Guinea 1-2 Burkina Faso
Mali 1-0 Sudan
Algeria 3-1 Rwanda

dN

Standings

U20 WORLD CUP EGYPT 2009

FIFA.com's tournament news feed.

dN

In the Quarterfinals, Ghana becomes the first team to advance with Hungaria, Costa Rica and Brazil joining them over the next day and half. Semifinals here we come.

dN

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

dN

Quarterfinals
-Fri Oct 9
South Korea 2-3 Ghana - SK goals by Park Hee Seong & Kim Dong Sub. Gha goals by Dominic Adiyiah & Ransford Osei.
Italy 2-3 Hungaria - Ita goals by Antonio Mazzotta & Giacomo Bonaventura. Hun goals by Vladimir Koman(PK) & Krisztian Nemeth(2).
-Sat Oct 10
Brazil 2-1 Germany - Bra goals both by Maicon. Ger goal by Lewis Holtby.
Costa Rica 2-1 UAE - CR goals by Josue Martinez & Marcos Urena. UAE goal by Ahmed Ali.

dN

Semifinals
-Tue Oct 13
Ghana v Hungaria
Brazil v Costa Rica

dN

Final
-Fri Oct 16
Semifinal winners