Some News for Mon Oct 5, 2009

STARTERS

Awesome Awesome Awesome Golazo!
This is one of the greatest goals I have ever seen!
A header goal from 40 yards out! Martin Palermo of Boca Juniors with the near impossible. Thanks to Robert for this one!



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The USA U20 is out of the World Cup. After finishing third in their group they still had a chance to play in the knock out rounds as the 4 best (out of 6) third place teams got to move on. Buuuuuuuut, they ended up tied with Costa Rica on points and goal differential (-3), so the next tie breaker was goals scored, and they lost out 4 to 5. Adios Estado Unidos. Call it what you want, but it was a pretty poor showing, and a in general, a failure.

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For the first time since they won the MLS Cup in 2005 the Los Angeles Galaxy are in the playoffs again. Both them and Houston got the points they needed this weekend to join Columbus in the post season. 5 more spots are waiting to be taken.

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In the best game of the weekend Sevilla beat Real Madrid 2-1 on Sunday. It was a fantastic game.

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The AP with an article on the nearly completed Red Bull Arena in Harrison New Jersey.
-Including this picture:




















Are you jealous yet? You should be.

TEAM USA

I bet there are several scenarios out there in which the USA can clinch a World Cup birth in Honduras on Saturday. These are the 3 that appear to me:
1. If the USA wins in Honduras it is in
2. If Costa Rica loses at home to T&T then the USA is in
3. If the USA and CR both draw the USA is in

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FIFA.com talks to Ricardo Clark.

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Frank Dell'apa at Soccernet doesn't see the USA claiming one of the 8 seeds for the World Cup. Neither do I. Top 16, well Ok.

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Official Team Blog

CONCACAF WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

Standings after 8 of 10 rounds:
16 USA
15 Mexico
13 Honduras
12 Costa Rica
8 El Salvador
5 Trinidad & Tobago

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Matchday 9
-Sat Oct 10
Costa Rica v Trinidad & Tobago
Mexico v El Salvador
Honduras v USA

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

MLS

Official Web Site

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Week 29
Matches & Scores
-Wed Sep 30
FC Dallas 1-0 New England Revolution - FCD goal by Jeff Cunningham.
Venue: Cotton Bowl - Dallas TX
-Fri Oct 2
Los Angeles Galaxy 1-0 Chicago Fire - LAG goal by Landon Donovan.
Venue: Home Depot Center - Carson CA
Attendance: 21,679
-Sat Oct 3
DC United 0-2 Chivas USA - CUSA goals by Milos Kocic(OG) & Jesus Padilla.
Venue: RFK Stadiums - Washington DC
Attendance: 24,175
Columbus Crew 0-1 Seattle Sounders FC - SSFC goal by the Facekicker.
Venue: Crew Stadium - Columbus OH
Attendance: 14,372
Colorado Rapids 1-1 New England Revolution - CR goal by Conor Casey(PK). NER goal by Kheli Dube.
Venue: Dick's Sporting Good Park - Commerce City CO
Attendance: 16,535
San Jose Earthquakes 1-0 New York Red Bulls - SJE goal by Ryan Johnson(PK).
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium - Santa Clara CA
Attendance: 10,525
-Sun Oct 4
Houston Dynamo 1-1 Kansas City Wizards - HD goal by Luis Landin. KCW goal by Zoltan.
Venue: Robertson Stadium - Houston TX
Attendance: 16,854

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Real Salt Lake & Toronto were off this past week.

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EJECTIONS:
Andre Rocha - Dallas - 2 Yellow Cards
Wells Thompson - New England - Red Card
Julien Baudet - Colorado - Red Card
Ben Olsen - DC - Red Card
Cam Weaver - Houston - Red Card

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Houston has been handed a Red Card in 5 of their last 6 league games.

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Columbus' 22 game home unbeaten streak was ended by Seattle on Saturday. Did the Crew take their foot off the gas after they clinched a playoff spot the week before. It's only natural. And they also faced a team in Seattle that was desperate to stay in the 4 wild card playoff spots. It was also kind of shocking to see Guillermo Barros Schelotto miss the goal entirely on his Penalty Kick attempt. He Kljestened it to his left.

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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe reports that New England assistant coach Paul Mariner is quite possibly heading back to his native England.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer with an article on Union head coach Piotr Nowak.

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The Berkley Sports Blog does a Q & A with young strapping San Jose forward Ryan Johnson, a guy that most of us know little to nothing about. I knew he was Jamaican, but thats about it.

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ESPN Chicago wonders if Brian McBride will play next season.

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Sports Business Journal with an article on the future of MLS's official web site. And our main man SF from The Offside Rules has been hired to help run it.

MLS COACHES HOT SEAT

1 Tom Soehn - DC United
2 Chris Cummins - Toronto FC
3 Jason Kries - Salt Lake
4 Frank Yallop - San Jose

USL FIRST DIVISION

The league has been thrown into complete turmoil which all began a few months ago when Nike decided to sell their controlling interest in the league, and insider NuRock mysteriously won the bid and kept the leagues management fully intact. Several of the teams had lead a charge for new management to help restructure the league for the future in this growing world of football in America.
The rogue teams have continued to make waves for the league and 5 of them refused to renew their franchises for the 2010 season (Carolina, Miami, Minnesota, Montreal and Vancouver), leaving the league to drop them all from their official website, even though the season is not even complete yet.
But of bigger note was the league sending letters to players on those teams telling them that their contracts are now void and they are free agents.
I see this all as nothing more than gamesmanship in negotiating the direction of the league. Obviously management is going to play hard ball.
What a crazy mess.

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Several sources on the web are doing the best job they can of following the facts and rumors of this very fluid story:
-Inside Minnesota Soccer
-The Kartik Report
-USL News

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This particular interview, from Triangle Offense, with the Carolina RailHawks team president really lays out the whole story in pretty good detail.

USL FIRST DIVISION PLAYOFFS

Vancouver and Montreal have won their Semifinal series and now play for the title. When was the last time a #5 and #7 seed met for a league championship??

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Semifinals
2nd Leg
Matches & Scores:
-Sun Oct 4
Portland 3-3 Vancouver - Van advance 5-4 on aggregate - VW goals by Marcus Haber, Martin Nash & Marlon James. PT goals by Brian Farber(2) & Alex Nimo.
Puerto Rico 1-2 Montreal - Mon advance 4-2 on aggregate. - PRI goal by Joshua Hansen. MI goals by Peter Byers & Eduardo Sebrango.

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Final
1st Leg
Matches & Scores:
-Date TBA
Vancouver v Montreal
2nd Leg
Matches & Scores:
-Date TBA
Montreal v Vancouver

SOCCER IN AMERICA

Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet tells us about an under appreciated player of the 80's and 90's - Hugo Perez.

USA U20 TEAM @ U20 WORLD CUP

Paul Kennedy of Soccer America dissects the USA corpse. The post mortem is what you would expect.

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Jen Chang of Soccernet puts it in coach Thomas Rongen's lap.

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I thought Bryan Arguez was the best looking American player in the tournament. And he was only a replacement for an injured player.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

DENMARK - Superliga
Benny Feilhaber - AGF Aarhus - started and played 84 minutes as they won 2-1 at home over Sonderjyske.
Jeremiah White - AGF Aarhus - came on as a sub in the 84th minute - for Feilhaber - as they won 2-1 at home over Sonderjyske.

ENGLAND - Premiership
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - started and lasted 84 minutes as they drew 2-2 at West Ham.
Tim Howard - Everton - played all 90 but only drew 1-1 at home against Stoke.
Eddie Johnson - Fulham - came on as a sub in the 82nd minute, drawing a Yellow Card 2 minutes later, as they drew 2-2 at West Ham.

ENGLAND - League One
Mike Grella - Leeds - came on as a sub in the 79th minute of a scoreless home draw against Charlton.
Jemal Johnson - Milton Keynes - started and played all but the dying seconds as they won 0-1 at Brighton.
Jon-Paul Pittman - Wycombe - came on as a sub in the 71st minute but they lost at home 0-1 to Leyton Orient.

FRANCE - Ligue 1
Carlos Bocanegra - Rennes - started but got a Red Card in the 16th minute that led to a Penalty Kick which was the difference as they lost 0-1 at home Auxerre.
Charlie Davies - Sochaux - went the full 90 as they won 1-0 at home over Le Mans.

GERMANY - Bundesliga
Michael Bradley - Monchengladbach - played the full 90 but they lost at home 0-1 to Dortmund.
Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - went the distance as they won big at home 5-2 over Freiburg.

GERMANY - 2 Bundesliga
Kenny Cooper - 1860 Munich - started and went 63 minutes as they lost 3-1 at St Pauli.
Matt Taylor - Frankfurt - came of after half time as they drew 1-1 at home against Kaiserslautern.
David Yelldell - Koblenz - went the full 90 but lost 0-1 at home to Oberhausen.

NETHERLANDS - Eerste Divisie
Charles Kazlauskas - Helmond Sport - played the full match as they won 2-1 at home over Omniworld.

NORWAY - Tippeligaen
Hunter Freeman - Start - played all 90 as they won 2-3 at Rosenborg.
Clarence Goodson - Start - played all 90 as they won 2-3 at Rosenborg.
Tyrel Lacey - Lyn Oslo - went the full 90 but lost 2-1 at Lillestrom.

NORWAY - Adeccoligaen
Joe Lapira - Nybergsund - started and went 84 minutes as they drew 1-1 at home against Sogndal.
Jay Needham - Alta - started and played 75 mintues as they won 1-0 at home over Notodden.

PORTUGAL
Freddy Adu - Belenenses - came on as a sub in the 65th minute as they drew 0-0 at Sporting.

SWEDEN - Allsvenskan Liga
Alejandro Bedoya - Orebro - went the distance but they lost 0-3 at home to Malmo.

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Coming Up:

DENMARK - Superliga
Marcus Tracy - AaB - Mon Oct 5 at Odense

ENGLAND - Premiership
Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - Mon Oct 5 v Manchster City
Brad Guzan - Aston Villa - Mon Oct 5 v Manchster City

GERMANY - 2 Bundesliga
Matthew Dallman - Arminia Bielefeld - Mon Oct 5 at Karlsruhe.

IRELAND - Premier Division
Ryan Guy - St Patrick's Athletic - Tue Oct 6 v Sligo Rovers

NORWAY - Tippeligaen
Troy Perkins - Valerenga - Mon Oct 5 v Viking Stavanger

PORTUGAL
Kamani Hill - Guimaraes - Mon Oct 5 at Nacional de Madeira

SWEDEN - Superettan
Colin Burns - Ljungskile - Mon Oct 5 at Norrkoping
Ryan Miller - Ljungskile - Mon Oct 5 at Norrkoping
Etchu Tabe - Ljungskile - Mon Oct 5 at Norrkoping

AMERICANS IN MEXICO

Game Action:

PRIMERA DIVISION
Michael Orozco - San Luis - started the game but was Red Carded in the 69th minute, although the team hung on to draw 1-1 at league leading Toluca.
Jose Francisco Torres - Pachuca - started and played 70 minutes as they beat America 2-1 at home!

MEXICO

Top teams after 11 of 17 rounds:
Group 1
25 Toluca
14 Atlas
Group 2
23 Monterrey
22 Morelia
21 America
19 Pachuca
Group 3
21 Santos Laguna
18 Cruz Azul

SPAIN

Sid Lowe of the Guardian on Sevilla's steady backbone and the week that was in La Liga.

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Phil Ball of Soccernet on Sevilla beating Real Madrid, the overly abundant arrogance of Hugo Sanchez and other thoughts on La Liga.

FRANCE

League leaders Bordeaux got dropped on their head 3-1 at St Etienne, while Lyon won 0-2 at Lens to become the new league leaders, a spot they got used to winning 7 championships in a row before last season when Bordeaux dethroned them.

GERMANY

Raphael Honigstein of the Guardian on Bayer Leverkusen's rise to the top and the rest of week in the Bundesliga.

ITALY

La Gazzetta in Italy talks to former Inter striker, Brazilian Adriano about his alcohol induced fall from grace. And his new climb toward the top again.

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At the top of the table, Sampdoria drew, Juve lost and Inter won taking the Milan team back to the top of the flip-flopping charts.

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Paolo Bandini of the Guardian on the stumbling Juventus and the rest of Serie A for the week just ended.

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The deal for an American to buy Bari has fallen apart. The date for the first down payment came and went with no action, so the whole thing was canceled. Naturally.

EUROPE

The AP talks to MLS commish Don Garber about the financial stability of world football in the near future. Should big European leagues adopt some of MLS's tight fisted policies. DG thinks so and will tell that next week at the Leaders In Football symposium. That oughta go over well with the English press.

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FIFA.com does a Q & A with Feyenoord striker and the captain of the Danish national team Jon Dahl Tomasson.

BIG EUROPEAN CLUB MATCHES

-Sun Oct 4
Rangers 2-1 Celtic - Ran goals both by Kenny Miller. Cel goal by Aiden McGeady. This win gets Rangers back within 1 point of the lead.
Chelsea 2-0 Liverpool - Chel goals by Nicolas Anelka & Florent Malouda. And this win gives Chelsea a 2 point lead at the top of the English Premier League.
Sevilla 2-1 Real Madrid - Sev goals by Jesus Navas & Renato. RM goal by Pepe. And we see that Real Madrid are not immortal, while Sevilla are for real!

BRAZIL

Soccernet on the reanimation of the Brasileirao. If this continues it would be a great thing for world football.

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Standings after 27 of 34 rounds:
53 Palmeiras
48 Sao Paulo
47 Atletico MG
45 Goias
44 Internacional

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Top Goal Scorers:
15 Adriano - Flamengo
14 Diego Tardelli - Atletico MG
14 Jonas - Gremio
12 Marcelinho Paraiba - Cortiba
12 Roger - Vitoria

SOUTH AMERICA WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

Tim Vickery at the BBC looks ahead to the biggest battle this weekend in CONMBOL qualifiers: Ecuador v Uruguay.

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
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.
-Thu Oct 1
Trinidad & Tobago 0-0 Paraguay
Italy 2-4 Egypt - Ita goals by Umberto Eusepi & Michelangelo Albertazzi. Egy goals by Ahmed Shoukri(3) & Bogy.
Venezuela 0-3 Spain - Spa goals by Daniel Parejo, Aaron Niguez(PK) & Ander Herrera.
Tahiti 0-5 Nigeria - Nig goals by Obiora Nwankwo, Ibok Edet, Kehinde Fatai, Nurudeen Orelesi & Daniel Adejo.
-Fri Oct 2
Germany 3-0 Cameroon - Ger goals by Richard Sukuta-Pasu, Semih Aydilek & Lewis Holtby.
South Korea 3-0 USA - SK goals by Young Gwon Kim, Bo Kyung Kim & Ja Cheol Koo(PK).
Uruguay 2-2 Ghana - Uru goals by Nicolas Lodeiro & Abel Hernandez. Gha goals by Mohammed Rabiu & Ransford Osei.
Uzbekistan 1-1 England - Uzb goal by Ivan Nagaev. Eng goal by Alex Tchuimeni-Nimely.
-Sat Oct 3
Costa Rica 2-3 Czechia - CR goals by Diego Estrada(PK) & Josue Martinez. Cze goals by Jan Chromosta(2) & Jan Vosahlik.
Australia 1-3 Brazil - Aus goal by Aaron Mooy. Bra goals by Ciro, Douglas Costa & Paulo Henrique.
Hungaria 2-0 UAE - Hun goals by Krisztian Nemeth & Vladimar Koman.
South Africa 2-0 Honduras - SA goals by Andile Jali & Sibusiso Khumalo.

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Group Stage Final Standings:
Group A - 3 Played
ADV - 6 Egypt (+4 gd)
ADV - 5 Paraguay (+1 gd)
ADV - 4 Italy (-1 gd)
ELIM - 1 Trinidad & Tobago (-4 gd)
Group B - 3 Played
ADV - 9 Spain (+13 gd)
ADV - 6 Venezuela (+6 gd)
ADV - 3 Nigeria (+2 gd)
ELIM - 0 Tahiti (-21 gd)
Group C - 3 Played
ADV - 4 Germany (+6 gd)
ADV - 4 South Korea (+1 gd)
ELIM - 3 USA (-3 gd)
ELIM - 3 Cameroon (-4 gd)
Group D - 3 Played
ADV - 7 Ghana (+5gd)
ADV - 7 Uruguay (+4gd)
ELIM - 2 England (-5 gd)
ELIM - 1 Uzbekistan (-4 gd)
Group E - 3 Played
ADV - 7 Brazil (+7 gd)
ADV - 7 Czechia (+2 gd)
ADV - 3 Costa Rica (-3 gd)
ELIM - 0 Australia (-6 gd)
Group F - 2 Played
ADV - 6 Hungaria (+3 gd)
ADV - 4 UAE (-1 gd)
ADV - 4 South Africa (-2 gd)
ELIM - 3 Honduras (0 gd)

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Four 3rd place teams: Italy & South Africa with 4 points, and Nigeria, USA & Costa Rica with 3 points. But Nigeria have a +2 goal differential to gain one spot, and Costa Rica tops the USA by scoring 1 more goal after their goal difference was equal.

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Only 1 of 4 CONCACAF teams advance to the knock out rounds, and that was as the last team to move on. What a horrible showing.

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Did you notice the hokey rigged schedule that host country Egypt are getting, with extra days off in every single round going back to day 1 of the tournament, up until the Semifinals. How is that fair??

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

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Round of 16 Knock Out:
-Mon Oct 5
Paraguay v South Korea
Spain v Italy
-Tue Oct 6
Ghana v South Africa
Hungaria v Czechia
Egypt v Costa Rica
-Wed Oct 7
Brazil v Uruguay
Germany v Nigeria
Venezuela v UAE

Quarterfinals
-Oct 9
Paraguay/South Korea winner v Ghana/South Africa winner
Spain/Italy winner v Hungaria/Czechia winner
-Oct 10
Brazil/Uruguay winner v Germany/Nigeria winner
Egypt/Costa Rica winner v Venezuela/UAE winner

Semifinals
-Oct 13
Oct 9 winners
Oct 10 winners

Final
-Oct 16

PODCASTS

The great EPL Talk podcast this week features an interview with Michael Sheen the actor who plays Brian Clough in The Damned United. Download or listen here.
-EPL Talk is also going to start podcasting each and every day! Fantastic. They always have some of the best guests.

ENDERS

Here it comes!
The Damned United
Film Opening Oct 9 in NY & LA
Spreading coast to coast soon thereafter



Set in 1960's and 1970's England, The Damned United tells the confrontational and darkly humorous story of Brian Clough's doomed 44 day tenure as manager of the reigning champions of English football Leeds United. Previously managed by his bitter rival Don Revie, and on the back of their most successful period ever as a football club, Leeds was perceived by many to represent a new aggressive and cynical style of football - an anathema to the principled yet flamboyant Brian Clough, who had achieved astonishing success as manager of Hartlepool and Derby County building teams in his own vision with trusty lieutenant Peter Taylor. Taking the Leeds job without Taylor by his side, with a changing room full of what in his mind were still Don's boys, would lead to an unheralded examination of Clough's belligerence and brilliance over 44 days. This is that story. The story of The Damned United.