Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Some News for Wed Oct 21, 2009

QUESTION ON MY MIND

Will we ever know what happened in the Charlie Davies car accident? Who was driving? How did the crash occur? What was he doing out past 3am? Maybe he had special dispensation from the coach to be out late. Who knows.

Maybe this info is too private, but I know that these are things the fans would like to read about.

But if we learned anything this summer, US Soccer is amazing at keeping this kind of news out of our hands. Remember at the Confederations Cup when Michael Bradley was given a Red Card, and then we read later in a Spanish newspaper that he may have had an altercation with the game officials after the match ended? We never heard at all what went down. Not a word. Yet FIFA slammed him with a 4 game suspension. Can you imagine what you would have to do on the field to get 4 games. Those are not handed out lightly, so something serious obviously happened, and us fans are not privileged to that information. Take it a step further back from that - Why didn't Juergen Klinsmann get hired as the USA coach after WC 06?

US Soccer must have some power clamps on reporters to keep that info quiet. Can you imagine those stories not coming out from the other top sports in America? Nope!

So what is the deal?

PS. There is a good chance that I am the only one on Earth that thinks about this, and in the grand scheme its just not important. That would fit with the way most of my life works.

STARTERS

Not a good night in Glasgow for Maurice Edu as [a couple of] his own Rangers fans taunted him with racist bullshit after the team lost in the Champions League. Here is his Twitter message this morning: "Not sure what hurt more: result last nite or being racially abused by couple of r own fans as I'm getting in my car"

dN

Landon Donovan has been named the 2009 Honda Player Of The Year by Futbol de Primera. This is the 6th time he has won the award.

dN

It's hard to know exactly what this means in the long run, but Fulham of London and the Boston Red Sox have formed a commercial partnership. There is talk of a Premier League game being played at the old baseball field. The Boston Globe fills us in from the Rex Sox side of things.

dN

The Columbus Crew has advanced to the knock out stage of the CONCACAF Champions League. DC United must wait until Thursday to learn their fate.

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

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 1-1 DC United - Tol goal by Israel Lopez(PK). DCU goal by Chris Pontius.
Puerto Rico Islanders v Columbus Crew - PRI goal by Noah Delgado. CC goal by Emilio Renteria.
Saprissa 1-2 Cruz Azul - Sap goal by Kendall Watson. CA goals by Ramon Nunez & Pablo Zeballos.
-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
ADV - 13 Toluca (6 GP)
10 DC United (6 GP)
9 Marathon (5 GP)
ELIM - 0 San Juan Jabloteh (5 GP)
Group C
ADV - 16 Cruz Azul (6 GP)
ADV - 8 Columbus Crew (6 GP)
ELIM - 5 Saprissa (6 GP)
ELIM - 3 Puerto Rico Islanders (6 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.

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

Seven teams are fighting for the final 3 playoff spots this weekend. And the first tie breaker is head to head games. I made a table to chart out who has the advantage. The second tie breaker is overall goal difference, which we can't calculate until the final whistle. Also, if more than two teams are tied on the same point total then head to head is out and goal difference is the first tie breaker. So here we go:







dN


Beau Dure of USA Today looks at the insaneness of the playoff race.

MLS EXPANSION

Miami Soccer Fan does a Q & A with Marcelo Claure who was bidding for a MLS team in Miami with Barcelona. Why didn't it work? And is there a future?

MLS STADIUM BUILDING

The Kansas City Star editorial board is pimping hard for the Kansas to build the Wizards a stadium just across the state line from Kansas City Missouri.
-I have been out to that part of the KC metro area would not wish it on my enemies. But if that is where they build a stadium then that is where they build it. The other teams that have remote suburban stadiums have not felt any benefit in attendance numbers or atmosphere. The 2 teams that play downtown, Toronto & Seattle, are a force to be reckoned with. On the other hand, Kansas City is no Toronto or Seattle when it comes to urban energy.

USA @ U17 WORLD CUP

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Mon Oct 26
Spain v USA - 1pm Central on ESPNU & Galavision
-Thu Oct 29
USA v Malawi - 10am Central on ESPNU
-Sun Nov 1
USA v UAE - 9am Central on ESPNU
-You can also watch all 3 games online at ESPN360.com

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

FIFA has told us that Schalke's German defensive midfielder Jermaine Jones can now officially play for the USA.
-That's if he is ever healthy enough again.

dN


Coming Up:

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

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

It was a completely upside down day with only 1 home team winning, Inter & Arsenal drawing, and Barcelona, Liverpool & Rangers LOSING at home! What just happened?

dN

Matchday 3:
-Tue Oct 20
Debreceni 3-4 Fiorentina - Deb goals by Peter Czvitkovics, Gergely Rudolf & Adamo Coulibaly. Fio goals by Adrian Mutu(2), Alberto Gilardino & Mario Santanta.
Liverpool 1-2 Lyon - Liv goal by Yossi Benayoun. Lyo goals by Maxime Gonalons & Cesar Delgado.
Barcelona 1-2 Rubin Kazan - Bar goal by Zlatan Ibrahimovic. RK goals by Aleksandr Ryazantsev & Gokdeniz Karadeniz.
Inter 2-2 Dynamo Kyiv - IM goals by Dejan Stankovic & Walter Samuel. DK goals by Taras Mikhalik & Jucio(OG).
Rangers 1-4 Unirea Urziceni - Ran goal by Ricardo Vilana(OG). UU goals by Marius Bilasco, Kyle Lafferty(OG), Lee McCulloch(OG) & Pablo Brandan.
Stuttgart 1-3 Sevilla - Stu goal by Elson. Sev goals by Sebastien Squillaci & Jesus Navas(2).
AZ Alkmaar 1-1 Arsenal - AZA goal by David Mendes Da Silva. Ars goal by Cesc Fabregas.
Olympiacos 2-1 Standard Liege - Oly goals by Kostas Mitroglou & Ieroklis Stoltidis. SL goal by Igor De Camargo.
-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

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

The 3rd of 6 Group Stage games is on Thu Oct 22.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Agreed on the Charlie Davies situation and the unlikelihood of ever finding out what happened. But I wouldn't be so charitable with reporters from other American sports. Remember the Patriots' 'Spygate' tapes that were destroyed without explanation by the NFL Commisioner's office? Nobody ever got to the bottom of that story. Or doping in basketball, a story which is surely there to be told if only somebody would risk the ire of the NBA. It's hard enough for real investigative journalists to not be cowed by the threat of losing 'access' (e.g. White House correspondents). Why should we expect any better from sports reporters? In the end professional sports are a business, and the reporters who write about them are there to chronicle the sporting events, not go looking where the sporting association doesn't want them to be looking. Perhaps I'm being too cynical, but I don't think so...

11:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

re Edu. Longtime fan of the blog but for f*ck's sake, Bruce, come on: You make it sound like the entire stadium was abusing him when in truth it was two drunk scumbags outside the park as Mo got in his car. Wrong without question but lets keep a sense of scale here.

Ives' reporting of the incident on SBI set forth a landslide of sanctimonious American commenters with no experience of the old world damning "racist" Europe out of hand. Racism is unfortunately still (scarcely) prevalent in some pockets of Western Europe (and is a serious problem in Eastern Europe/Russia), but as a British Earthquakes fan living in NorCal, I'm not prepared to take any lessons on tolerance from people who live in such a segregated society that is deeply, deeply racist to it's core.

Some yahoo made a big deal of the existence of the British National Party, as though they were a big deal Britain. He failed to mention that these racist nutjobs are reviled in the UK and have no chance of ever gaining any influence there. Racism has no place in British politics, unlike in the US, where the Republican Party and Fox News (both of which are far to the right of any non-lunatic fringe party in Europe) can gain strong enough support in "The Real America" to base their entire current agenda on one motif of racist panic: "There's a N*gg*r in the White House!!!!!!"

I like the US (well, California at least) very much, but I won't be taking lessons in racial harmony from y'all anytime soon.

Go (the proudly Multiracial) Quakes
C. Jordan, Sunnyvale, CA

1:59 AM  
Blogger brucio said...

Thanks for the words C Jordan. Good stuff. Perspective is always necessary.

The only thing I will say in rebuttal is that 1 person yelling stuff is too many in my book, as naive as that my sound. It makes my blood boil, no matter where it happens or by whom. I don't base by loathing of racism or sexism or any other hatreds on nationalities etc.

But thanks for your words. It's important.

8:32 AM  
Blogger dallen said...

In regards to the CD accident, tox reports take around 2-3 weeks to come back. If the driver was a minor, we'll never know their name unless they voluntarily release it. If they are not a minor and charges are filed by the state, the name will be a matter of public record.

I think we'll have our answer as to whether or not alcohol or other substances were involved when the police tox reports return. Until then, I doubt anyone comes out and gives the story of what happened, since there are unfortunately only two people who really know.

12:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

During the 2008 campaign, the media wouldn't report about Obama's various circle of friends who preached anti-Semitism, support of overthrowing America, or whom personally supported terrorist organizations, because they knew such public revelations would damage Obama's public image and therefore reduce his chance to win the election.

It's not surprising that the media and US Soccer are sitting on information about the Charlie Davies auto accident. As far as I know, they have yet to even declare who was driving the vehicle.

I'm just guessing, but if Charlie was merely a passenger (rather than the driver), such an important fact would probably have been publicly established by US Soccer by now.

1:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

C. Jordan of Sunnyvale,

If Old Europe is so wonderful, and you believe America is such a "racist" country, then why would you choose to move here ?

How silly.

America is the greatest nation in history.
It is the most diverse nation in history.
It has provided the most "good" for people all over the world.

Many, many non-white immigrants (particulary many from Africa---including the father of the current President) have chosen to move to America.

By the way, Mr. C. Jordan, I'll remind you that until recent decades, several Old European nations maintained colonies in Africa.

And there was that question of England in India...Gandhi ? Does it ring a bell ?

I'll also remind you that when Hitler was fortelling his plans to invade other nations, and when Germany passed laws against Jews, there were very few Old Europeans who had the courage of conviction to stand up to him. Most of your holier-than-thou Old Europe continent wanted to appease Hitler and allow him to do whatever he wanted to the Jews.

If you really believed America was a horribly "racist" country, you wouldn't have moved here from your holier-than-thou nation of England.

1:46 PM  

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