Some News for Tue Oct 20, 2009

STARTERS

ADVANCE NOTICE: Don Garber will take calls on Fox Football Fone-In show on Mon Oct 26 from 6-8pm Central.

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

This is ti! The last round of the group stage.

dN

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

dN

Matchday 6:
-Tue Oct 20
Toluca v DC United
Puerto Rico Islanders v Columbus Crew
Saprissa v Cruz Azul
-Wed Oct 21
Pachuca v Arabe Unido
W Connection v Real Espana
Metapan v Houston Dynamo
-Thu Oct 22
San Juan Jabloteh v Marathon
Comunicaciones v UNAM Pumas

dN

Standings (after 5 of 6 Games Played):
Group A
ADV - 12 Pachuca (5 GP)
10 Arabe Unido (5 GP)
7 Houston Dynamo (5 GP)
ELIM - 0 Metapan (5 GP)
Group B
12 Toluca (5 GP)
9 DC United (5 GP)
9 Marathon (5 GP)
ELIM - 0 San Juan Jabloteh (5 GP)
Group C
ADV - 13 Cruz Azul (5 GP)
7 Columbus Crew (5 GP)
5 Saprissa (5 GP)
ELIM - 2 Puerto Rico Islanders (5 GP)
Group D
ADV - 13 UNAM Pumas (5 GP)
6 Comunicaciones (5 GP)
6 Real Espana (5 GP)
4 W Connection (5 GP)

dN

The first tie breaker is head to head. DC holds that tiebreaker over Marathon. Houston holds the tiebreaker over Arabe. And Columbus holds the tiebreaker over Saprissa.

MLS

Week 32 - The Final Round
Matches & Scores:
-Thursday, October 22
Chicago Fire v Chivas USA - 7pm Central on ESPN2 & ESPN Deportes
Venue: Toyota Park - Bridgeview IL
Value: both fighting for playoff seeds
-Saturday, October 24
New York Red Bulls v Toronto FC - 6:30pm Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Giants Stadium - East Rutherford NJ
Value: Toronto must win for a play off spot.
Kansas City Wizards v DC United - 7:30pm Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Community America Ballpark - Kansas City KS
Value: DC must win to get a playoff spot.
Real Salt Lake v Colorado Rapids - 8pm Central on FSC & FSE
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium - Sandy UT
Value: Salt Lake on the outside of the playoffs need the win and help from others, while Colorado has to hang on to their playoffs spot.
Seattle Sounders FC v FC Dallas - 9:30pm Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Qwest Field - Seattle WA
Value: Seattle playing for seeding, and Dallas needs the 3 points to miraculously make the playoffs.
Los Angeles Galaxy v San Jose Earthquakes - 9:30pm Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Home Depot Center - Carson CA
Value: LS wants the #1 spot in the West,
-Sunday, October 25
Chivas USA v Houston Dynamo - 2pm Central on Telefutura
Venue: Home Depot Center - Carson CA
Value: both teams want the top seed in the West.
Columbus Crew v New England Revolution - 4pm Central on ESPN2 & ESPN Deportes
Venue: Crew Stadium - Columbus OH
Value: The Crew want to take the Supporters Shield, while New Eng need the win the make the playoffs.

dN

Ryan Johnston of Sportsnet compares TFC to first year Seattle. How did they do it?

dN

LE Eisenmenger of the Examiner talks to some of the New England players about the departure of long time assistant coach Paul Mariner.

dN

Don Ruiz of the Tacoma News Tribune says that Seattle is pulling out all the stops to sell out any home playoff games.

dN

Maria Burns Ortiz of ESPN Soccernet on marketing MLS to Hispanics.

dN

Kristian Dyer of ESPN Soccernet looks at how MLS has handled the financial recession.

MLS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

The picks from du Nord:

1 Omar Gonzalez
2 Darrius Barnes
3 Steve Zakuani
4 Rodney Wallace
5 Stefan Frei
6 Sam Cronin
7 Kevin Alston
8 Chris Pontius
9 AJ DeLaGarza

TEAM USA

Oguchi Onyewu is having surgery today to repair his torn patellar tendon in his left knee.

dN

Steve Davis of ESPN Soccernet looks at Onyewu's injury and others that will test the USA depth chart.

USA @ U17 WORLD CUP

Brent Latham of ESPN Soccernet previews the USA team. (Sadly 3 of the best players in this age group will not be on the team.) Is this team about to change everything we have come to know as USA fans?
-Jack McInerney & Stefan Jerome make one hell of a striker combo.

And Latham writing for Yanks Abroad looks at the 3 who were left off the USA roster and why.

dN

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Mon Oct 26
Spain v USA
-Thu Oct 29
USA v Malawi
-Sun Nov 1
USA v UAE

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Ravi Ubha at ESPN Soccernet tells us how our top players are doing lately.

dN

Greg Seltzer of Soccer 365 talks to Vincenzo Bernardo who is getting try outs from several clubs after leaving Napoli this fall.

dN

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

ENGLAND - Premiership
Jozy Altidore - Hull City - came on as a sub in the 69th minute they lost 2-0 at Fulham.
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - played the entire match as they beat Hull 2-0 at home.

dN

Coming Up:

DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers - UEFA Champions League - Tue Oct 20 v Unirea Urziceni

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE
-Thu Oct 22
Bryan Arguez - Hertha Berlin - v Heerenveen
Clint Dempsey - Fulham FC - v Roma
Greg Garza - Sporting - at Ventspils
Tim Howard - Everton - at Benfica
Jared Jeffrey - Club Brugge - v Partizan
Eddie Johnson - Fulham FC - v Roma
Matt Luzunaris - Rapid Wien - at Hapoel Tel-Aviv

GERMANY

The Global Post looks at the city of Berlin and wonders why it can't produce a championship caliber team.

EUROPE

Henrik Larsson, a long time great player for clubs and country has announced that he will retire from playing when the current Swedish season ends in November.

dN

Here are the nominees for France Football's Ballon d'Or, awarded to the European Footballer of the Year:
Andrey Arshavin - Arsenal
Karim Benzema - Real Madrid
Iker Casillas - Real Madrid
Julio Cesar - Inter
Diego - Juventus
Didier Drogba - Chelsea
Edin Dzeko - Wolfsburg
Samuel Eto'o - Inter
Cesc Fabregas - Arsenal
Luís Fabiano - Sevilla
Diego Forlan - Atletico Madrid
Steven Gerrard - Liverpool
Ryan Giggs - Manchester United
Yoann Gourcuff - Bordeaux
Thierry Henry - Barcelona
Xavi Hernandez - Barcelona
Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Barcelona
Andres Iniesta - Barcelona
Kaka - Real Madrid
Frank Lampard - Chelsea
Douglas Maicon - Inter
Lionel Messi - Barcelona
Franck Ribery - Bayern Munich
Cristiano Ronaldo - Real Madrid
Wayne Rooney - Manchester United
John Terry - Chelsea
Fernando Torres - Liverpool
Yaya Toure - Barcelona
Nemanja Vidic - Manchester United
David Villa - Valencia
-So who else should have made this list, and who on this list shouldn't have?

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian on the immense skills of Lyon's teenage Bosninan playmaker Miralem Pjanic.

dN

Rob Hughes of International Herald Tribune on the battle of the old titans this round - Real Madrid v AC Milan.

dN

Matchday 3:
-Tue Oct 20
Debreceni v Fiorentina
Liverpool v Lyon
Barcelona v Rubin Kazan
Inter v Dynamo Kyiv
Rangers v Unirea Urziceni
Stuttgart v Sevilla
AZ Alkmaar v Arsenal
Olympiacos v Standard Liege
-Wed Oct 21
Bordeaux v Bayern Munich
Juventus v Maccabi Haifa
CSKA Moskva v Manchester United
Wolfsburg v Besiktas
Real Madrid v Milan
Zurich v Marseille
Porto v APOEL
Chelsea v Atletico Madrid

dN

Group Stage Standings

FIFA

Sepp Blatter has announced that he will run for reelection as FIFA President in 2011.

PODCASTS

The latest episode of the EPL Talk Podcast features interviews with Warren Barton, Christian Miles and Nick Webster. The trio discuss several topics including how they got their start commentating, how ESPN's acquisition of the Premier League impacts Fox Soccer Channel, the Champions League coverage by Fox, and more. Download or listen here.