Some News for Tue Nov 3, 2009

STARTERS

DC United announced that head coach Tom Soehn has resigned, so the team now join New York, Kansas City and Toronto in the hunt for a new leader.

MLS PLAYOFF NEWS

It was great to see that New England had scrubbed their field of all football lines for Sunday's game. They are to be commended. Big applause for them.

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REMINDER: Players who earn 2 Yellow Cards at any time during the playoffs will miss the following game.

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Steve Davis at ESPN Soccernet reviews all the oddities we witnessed in the 1st leg matches.

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Michael Arace of the Columbus Dispatch on the Crew's gamble to hold Guillermo Barros Schelotto out of last Saturday's game. Will it come back to haunt them? And is there unrest in the team?
-RSL were the dominators at home, like they have been all season, so how did coach Robert Warzycha expect to keep them scoreless?

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Nick Green of the Daily Breeze quotes the great Eduardo Galeano, while lamenting the ugliness of the Chivas v Galaxy game, and all 4 playoff series for that matter.

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Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune sees a huge task ahead for seriously road-win-challenged RSL.
-Lewis also looks at how they plan to defend their lead, and other teams notes. You can expect all hands to the pumps style defending.

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James Edward of the Deseret News wonders what RSL has to do to break their terrible history of crappy play away from home.

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Jose Romero of the Seattle Times is constantly posting info on the papers Sounders FC blog.

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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe with fallout from New England-Chicago game one, and other Rev's notes.

MLS PLAYOFF SCHEDULE

First Round playoff matches, home and away series:

2nd Leg (with first leg scores included)
EASTERN CONCERENCE
-Thu Nov 5
Columbus Crew (1) v Real Salt Lake (4) (0-1) - 7pm Central on ESPN2
Venue: Crew Stadium - Columbus OH
-Sat Nov 7
Chicago Fire (2) v New England Revolution (3) (1-2) - 7:30pm Central on FSC
Venue: Toyota Park - Bridgeview IL
WESTERN CONCERENCE
-Sun Nov 8
Houston Dynamo (2) v Seattle Sounder FC (3) (0-0) - 2pm Central on Telefutura
Venue: Robertson Stadium - Houston TX
-Sun Nov 8
Los Angeles Galaxy (1) v Chivas USA (4) (2-2) - 6:30pm Central on ESPN2
Venue: Home Depot Center - Carson CA

MLS

Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports reports that David Beckman and the Los Angeles Galaxy will meet to negotiate a contract extension.
-I am very curious as to why there are no quotes in this article to back up the headline.

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Rogers also reports that legendary Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos is a candidate for the job of Technical Director at FC Dallas.

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Ben Knight of Onward does his best to try and sort out TFC's post season mess at coach and on the roster. Who's to blame?

MLS COACHES HOT SEAT

Some say that Jon Spencer, assistant coach in Houston, is the front runner for the job in Toronto.

dN

And I would have to imagine that Richie Williams is near the top of the list for DC.

USA @ U17 WORLD CUP

Round of 16:
-Wed Nov 4
Italy v USA - 9am Central in Kaduna.

You can watch the game online at ESPN360.com

dN

Official Team Blog

SOCCER IN AMERICA

Yanks Abroad has an interview with the man who led all USA goal scorers before Eric Wynalda and Landon Donovan came along - Bruce Murray. His biggest goal came in the 1990 World Cup.

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David Beard of the Boston Globe does a Q & A with author Simopn Kuper about his new book Soccernomics, and the state of the game in America.

TEAM USA

Denmark roster for games on Nov 14 (v South Korea) & Nov 18 (v USA):
G:
Stephan Andersen - Brondby
Thomas Sorensen - Stoke City
D:
Daniel Agger - Liverpool
Lars Jacobsen - Blackburn
Simon Kjaer - Palermo
Per Kroldrup - Fiorentina
William Kvist Jorgensen - Kobenhavn
Michael Lumb - AGF Aarhus
M:
Thomas Enevoldsen - Groningen
Thomas Kahlenberg - Wolfsburg
Christian Poulsen - Juventus
Jakob Poulsen - AGF Aarhus
Soren Rieks - Esbjerg
Michael Silberbauer - Utrecht
F:
Johan Absalonsen - Odense
Jesper Gronkjaer - Kobenhavn
Martin Jorgensen - Fiorentina
Soren Larsen - Duisburg
Morten Rasmussen - Brondby
Dennis Rommedahl - Ajax
Jon Dahl Tomasson - Feyenoord

USA WORLD CUP 2018/22 BID

Frank Dell'apa at ESPN Soccernet checks in on how the USA bid is going.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

The Independent reports that Jozy Altidore's club Hull City are in deep financial trouble, and a house cleaning is coming.

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Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

DENMARK - Superliga

Marcus Tracy - AaB - came on as a sub in the 62nd minute as they drew 1-1 at Odense.

AMERICANS IN MEXICO

Arch Bell of Yanks Abroad clarifies a story from yesterday about Edgar Castillo being called in to the USA team for the 2 friendlies later this month. First of all, he has NOT been called in yet, and secondly, the quotes attributed to him were fiction.
-So who really knows the story now...

MEXICO

With three games left to play in the season here is how they stand:
Group 1
29 Toluca
17 San Luis
Group 2
28 Morelia
26 America
26 Monterrey
23 Puebla
23 Pachuca
Group 3
26 Santos Laguna
24 Cruz Azul
19 Atlante

dN

8 teams make the playoffs, but I'll be damned if I can figure out which 8 they are. Even the Wikipedia page is vague. I seem to remember the top 2 from each group advancing, then the next 4 playing off for the other 2 spots.

ENGLAND

This one is for all you Arsenal fans: Ollie at Who Ate All The Pies blog looks at the plethora of Arsenal blogs, and picks out those of the highest quality. There are many.

dN

The Times of London reports that American Stan Kroenke (owner of the Colorado Rapids) has bought more shares of Arsenal stock and now controls 29.6%.
-In London if you buy more than 29.9% of a company then you have to make an offer for the whole thing. So we can only assume that is where he is headed.

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James Lawton of the Independent shows how Carlo Ancelotti of Chelsea builds up a players confidence, while Rafael Benitez of Liverpool does not.

ITALY

Paddy Agnew of World Soccer feels that this Serie A season is wide open for one of several teams to win.
-What he seems to be missing is that Inter's 7 point lead is the largest of all time in Serie A after 11 games played.

EUROPE

The Telegraph talks to UEFA president Michel Plantini about his vision for the future of European football.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Several articles from the Guardian:
-Jonathan Wilson: CSKA Moscow go Russian with Leonid Slutsky after foreign experiment fails
-Sid Lowe: Are 'madhouse' Atlético Madrid the worst run club in Europe?
-New Fernando Torres scare exposes Rafa Benítez's sub-prime deals
-Rafael Benítez pays for being press-ganged into blind alleys

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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune on Barcelona's trip to Russia to meet Rubin Kazan.

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La Gazzetta previews Milan v Real Madrid.

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ESPN Soccernet talks to Lyon's Jeremy Toulalan about their game against Liverpool.

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Matchday 4
-Tue Nov 3
Bayern Munchen v Bordeaux
Maccabi Haifa v Juventus
Manchester United v CSKA Moskva
Besiktas v Wolfsburg
AC Milan v Real Madrid
Marseille v Zurich
APOEL v Porto
Atletico Madrid v Chelsea
-Wed Nov 4
Fiorentina v Debreceni
Lyon v Liverpool
Rubin Kazan v Barcelona
Dynamo Kyiv v Inter
Unirea Urziceni v Rangers
Sevilla v Stuttgart
Arsenal v AZ Alkmaar
Standard Liege v Olympiacos

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

Matchday 4 will be played on Thu Nov 5.

ARGENTINA

Tim Vickery at the BBC wonders why Lionel Messi is so much less of an impact player for Argentina than he is for Barcelona.

ASIA

The 2009 AFC Cup Final is tonight.

Match:
Kuwait Sports Club v Al Karamah (Syria)

WORLD CUP SOUTH AFRICA 2010

Two journalists from the Guardian are touring SA in advance of the World Cup. Here is their first day.

U17 WORLD CUP NIGERIA

Official web site

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Round of 16
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 4
Argentina v Colombia
Turkey v UAE
Switzerland v Germany
Italy v USA
-Thu Nov 5
Spain v Burkina Faso
Iran v Uruguay
Mexico v South Korea
Nigeria v New Zealand

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Bracket