Some News for Wed Nov 4, 2009

STARTERS

Got this note yesterday from a great reader named Anthony who lives in Glasgow: Have you heard of any fans making the trip to Bratislava for the Nov 14 game? I haven't heard anything and US Soccer hasn't even released info about tickets, but I got a cheap flight from Edinburgh to Bratislava so I'm going for the weekend in hopes I can get a ticket there and looking to meet up w any other US fans before the game to march and sing to the stadium together.
-Drop a line to me here at du Nord if you are going and I can put you in touch with Anthony.

dN

Kuwait Sports Club are the 2009 Asian champions. Huge congrats to them!

dN

Former MLS prodigy Devin Barclay is a walk on placekicker for Ohio State University's football team, and with the starting kicker out with a knee injury, Barclay could become a college football player. Wow!

dN

The USA U17 team was bounced out of the World Cup today, losing 2-1 to Italy in the Round of 16. Expect for a start of the 2nd half when they scored, the USA was simply outplayed by a better team.

MLS PLAYOFF NEWS

Peter Wilt writing for Pitch Invasion tells us what he thinks the playoffs should be all about.

dN

Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch on the Crew's desperate need to re-acquire their offensive fire and win at home.

dN

Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune writes about the ever dangerous RSL forward Robbie Findley.

dN

James Edward of the Deseret News looks at how RSL, a notoriously poor road team, will defend their lead in Columbus.

dN

Don Ruiz of the Tacoma News Tribune with an article on Kasey Keller and all his years of experience that have paid off for Seattle this season.

dN

Beau Dure of USA Today looks at the pressure that is on the higher seeds.

dN

Kyle McCarthy of the Boston Herald with an article on New England centerback Emmanuel Osei, and other team notes.

dN

The Chicago Tribune has a Q & A conducted by the Fire's John Thorrington in which he interviews teammate Logan Pause. With a little playoff talk at the very end.

dN

Jose Romero of the Seattle Times has several questions for Sounder coach Sigi Schmid.

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

Jack Bell of the New York Times stalks the new Red Bull sporting director and is granted a few minutes for his efforts. What does the big man have to say?

dN

Young New York midfielder Luke Sassano is off to the mothership in Salzburg to practice for 3 weeks with Red Bull there. Could it lead to a transfer? (Thanks to Rob for the info)

dN

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer looks at the chances of interim head coach Richie Williams staying with Red Bull, or perhaps being snapped up by DC United.

dN

Nigel Reed of the CBC on the importance of Toronto's next head coach.

dN

Ryan Johnston tries to sort out the latest rumors on the next Toronto coach.

dN

Paul James of the Toronto Globe & Mail says TFC needs a distinct blueprint for the future of the team.

dN

Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise says the LA Galaxy are much better prepared to let Beckman go out on loan next year then they were this year.

MLS POST SEASON AWARDS

Zach Thornton of Chivas USA has been named the leagues Goalkeeper Of The Year! No surprise there.

MLS EXPANSION

Some of my Twitter friends are hearing talk of MLS announcing the expansion to Montreal, during MLS Cup weekend.

USA @ U17 WORLD CUP

The USA had an early chance to take the lead on a Penalty Kick, but the Italian keeper made a great save, and from there on out the USA was out played for long stretches of the game, and were eliminated from the tournament by Italy. Yes, the USA stormed out to start the 2nd half, but once they scored a deserved goal, they went right back to being also rans. Both teams had enough good chances to score at least half a dozen goals.

Overall the USA team does have some nice players, but in the bigger picture you could tell that our kids are still just not in the same league as the kids from countries like Spain and Italy. Their players have that touch, that gift, that built in knowledge of the game. Our kids are big and strong and fast, with some vision and determination. But its just simply not enough. Lets hope it gets better soon. But how?

Who were the players that you saw as the bright spots?

dN

Round of 16:
-Wed Nov 4
Italy 2-1 USA - Ita goals by Giacomo Beretta & Pietro Iemmello. USA goal by Nick Palodichuk.

dN

Official Team Blog

SOCCER IN AMERICA

Nominating season is once again upon us, and US Soccer has begun opening up categories for you to suggest your favorites.

TEAM USA

Reuters with an article on the coach of Slovakia, who the USA will play on the 14th. This is all new ground for the former Iron Curtain country.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Greg Seltzer of Soccer 365 tells us about goalkeeper David Yelldell of Koblenz (Bundesliga 2), their current season, and his desire to play for the USA national team.

dN

Coming Up:

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE - Matchday 4:
-Thu Nov 5
Bryan Arguez - Hertha Berlin - at Heerenveen
Dominic Cervi - Celtic - at Hamburg
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - at Roma
Greg Garza - Sporting - v Ventspils
Tim Howard - Everton - v Benfica
Jared Jeffrey - Club Brugge - at Partizan Belgrade
Eddie Johnson - Fulham - at Roma
Matt Luzunaris - Rapid Wien - v Hapoel Tel-Aviv

AMERICANS IN MEXICO

Coming Up:

PRIMERA DIVISION
-Wed Nov 4
Edgar Castillo - UANL Tigres - at Queretaro
Michael Orozco - San Luis - at UAdG Tecos
Jose Francisco Torres - Pachuca - v Cruz Azul
Marco Vidal - Indios Juarez - at Guadalajara Chivas

SPAIN

The New York Times sees a generation gap among fans of certain players at Real Madrid.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

TUESDAY HIGHLIGHTS:
-Bayern Munich took another ugly tumble with a 0-2 home loss to Bordeaux.
-Marseille hosted Zurich and just destroyed them 6-1.
-If Lyon beat Liverpool today can we say that the French sides are for real this season?
-Manchester United found themselves down 1-3 at half time but came back to get a draw with a goal in stoppage time.
-Giant moneyed Real Madrid could only draw at AC Milan.

dN

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune on Man U's near disaster, and the rest of yesterday's action.

dN

Matchday 4
-Tue Nov 3
Bayern Munchen 0-2 Bordeaux - Bor goals by Yoann Gourcuff & Marouane Chamakh.
Maccabi Haifa 0-1 Juventus - Juv goal by Mauro Camoranesi.
Manchester United 3-3 CSKA Moskva - MU goals by Michael Owen, Paul Scholes & Antonio Valencia. CM goals by Alan Dzogoev, Milos Krasic & Vasili Berezutski.
Besiktas 0-3 Wolfsburg - Wol goals by Zvjezdan Misimovic, Christian Gentner & Edin Dzeko.
AC Milan 1-1 Real Madrid - ACM goal by Ronaldinho(PK). RM goal by Karim Benzema.
Marseille 6-1 Zurich - Mar goals by Silvan Aegerter(OG), Fabrice Abriel, Mamadou Niang, Hilton, Benoit Cheryrou & Brandao. Zur goal by Alexandre Alphonse.
APOEL 0-1 Porto - Por goal by Falcao.
Atletico Madrid 2-2 Chelsea - AM goals both by Kun Aguero. Che goals both by Didier Drogba.
-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.

ASIA

The 2009 AFC Cup Final was last night.

Match & Score:
Kuwait Sports Club 2-1 Al Karamah (Syria) - KSC goals by Mosab Balhous(OG) & Ismail Al Ajmi. AK goal by Ala'a Al Shbli.
Match report from the AFC official website.

U17 WORLD CUP NIGERIA

Official web site

dN

In the first day of the round of 16 we saw Colombia beat their neighbors Argentina on a goal in stoppage time. Turkey scored early and late against UAE. The Swiss and Germans tied 2-2 in regulation, then scored 3 more in Extra Time for a 4-3 Switzerland win. And finally Italy survived an early USA Penatly Kick miss, then took control of the game and won it 2-1.

dN

Round of 16
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 4
Argentina 2-3 Colombia - Arg goals by Leandro Gonzalez Pirez & Sergio Araujo. Col goals by Jeison Murillo, Jean Blanco & Hector Quinones.
Turkey 2-0 UAE - Tur goals by Furkan Seker & Ufuk Ozbek.
Switzerland 4-3 Germany - Swi goals by Ricardo Rodriguez, Haris Seferovic, Andre Goncalves & Nassim Ben Khalifa(PK). Ger goals by Mario Goetze, Florian Trinks & Yunus Malli.
Italy 2-1 USA - Ita goals by Giacomo Beretta & Pietro Iemmello. USA goal by Nick Palodichuk.
-Thu Nov 5
Spain v Burkina Faso
Iran v Uruguay
Mexico v South Korea
Nigeria v New Zealand

dN

Quarterfinals
Matches & Scores:
-Sun Nov 8
Colombia v Turkey
Italy v Switzerland

dN

Bracket

ENDERS

Would you like to parade around your hometown with the English Premiership trophy for a day next summer? Why not drink beer out of it? Or make a fine mousse in it? Here is your chance to win that ridiculously fine prize.