Some News for Mon Dec 14, 2009

QUESTION OF THE DAY

I am going to get popsicles. Do you want lemon or lime?

STARTERS

In a huge upset Monterey has won the 2009 Mexican Primera Apertura championship. It defeated Cruz Azul 6-4 on aggregate! Hooray Beer! Hoo-Rayados!

dN

Banfield pulled a Minnesota Vikings by winning the Argentine Championship after losing the final game of the season on the road but then watching their rivals Newell's Old Boys choke the title away by losing at home! This is their first ever Primera Division title! Huge congrats to El Taladro. Vamos Banfield!

dN

Universitario Lima has won the Peru championship! Fantastico UL! Felicidades!

dN

The Virginia Cavaliers won the 2009 NCAA Championship. Congrats to them.

dN

I missed this one last Wednesday - In Chile Colo Colo beat their huge rivals Catolica 6-4 on aggregate to claim the Championship! Great job boys!

dN

Hannover scored not 1, not 2, but 3 Own Goals in their 5-3 loss to Monchengladbach!

MLS

Jeffrey Marcus of the New York Times does a short Q & A with Houston midfielder Stuart Holden. Nothing new here.

MLS COACHES MERRY-GO-ROUND

The Washington Post with the lastest on possible DC head coach candidate Caleb Porter.

dN

Preki has added his former Chivas USA assistant coach Leo Percovich to his new staff in Toronto.

MLS STADIUM BUILDING

The Kansas City Business Journal with the latest on the Wizards proposed new stadium - more vaguery.
-Some great quotes from BigSoccer.com posters is included.

NASL NEWS

The Glasgow Herald with an article on new Tampa Bay Rowdies head coach Paul Dalglish. (thanks to BQ for this)

NCAA MEN'S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP

Virginia win the NCAA crown for 2009. Their first title win since coach Bruce Arena took them to the last of their 4 championships in the early 90's.

dN

The loss was Akron's only blemish on the entire season having gone 23 games without one.

dN

Semifinal Matches & Scores:
-Fri Dec 11
Akron 0-0 North Carolina - Akr adv 5-4 on Penalty Kicks after 110 scoreless minutes of play.
Wake Forest 1-2 Virginia - WF goal by Corben Bone. Vir goals by Tony Tchani & Brian Ownby.
Final
-Sun Dec 13
Akron 0-0 Virginia - Vir win it all 3-2 on Penalty Kicks after regulation and extra time end 0-0.

dN

Here is the full official bracket for the tournament.

SOCCER IN AMERICA

Business Net looks at what it means when Walmart starts selling World Cup teams merchandise.

USA U20 TEAM

US Soccer has announced a list of 36 players who have been called into a training camp for 1 week beginning on Wed Dec 16. No games have been announced. Here is the roster.

USA U17 TEAM

Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle with an article on the USA U17 team's exciting goalkeeper Fernando Pina. A very different type of American keeper, more in the Nick Rimando/Jorge Campos mode.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Brad Friedel started game #206 in a row! AND they went to Old Trafford and beat Man U 0-1. This moves Aston Villa into 4th place in the English Premier League.

dN

Jozy Altidore was booked for diving in the box against Blackburn, but he was clearly tripped.

dN

Wolverhampton has now won 2 in a row after Marcus Hahnemann took over in goal 3 games ago, and have only given up 1 goal in that time. Fantastic!

dN

DaMarcus Beasley started his 2nd game in a row for Rangers. This time he played 73 minutes.

dN

In case you are wondering, the SAS Ligaen in Denmark is now on break until Mar 7, '10. Expect to see many players from that league in the USA January training camp.

dN

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

ENGLAND - Premiership
Jozy Altidore - Hull City - came on as a sub in the 66th minute, got a Yellow Card for diving, and drew 0-0 at home against Blackburn.
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - played the full 90 and drew 1-1 at Burnley.
Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - played all 90 as usual and beat Manchester United 0-1 on the road for a huge win.

Marcus Hahnemann - Wolverhampton - went the distance, grabbing another clean sheet to win 0-1 at Tottenham.
Tim Howard - Everton - went the entire match and drew 3-3 at Chelsea.

ENGLAND - Championship
Jay DeMerit - Watford - played the full 90 but lost 0-1 at home to Derby County.

ENGLAND - League One
Jon-Paul Pittman - Wycombe - came on as a sub in the 80th minute but they lost 1-0 at Carlisle United.

GERMANY - Bundesliga
Michael Bradley - Monchengladbach - went the full match, scoring his teams 4th goal, as they won 5-3 over Hannover.
Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - started and played 69 minutes (he was subbed off after a forward was Red Carded and they wanted another attacker on the field) as they lost 5-3 at Monchengladbach.

GERMANY - 2 Bundesliga
David Yelldell - Koblenz - started as usual but a knee injury forced him to come out in the 59th minute as they lost at Kaiserslautern 3-0.

NETHERLANDS - Eerste Divisie
Charles Kazlauskas - Helmond Sport - played the full 90 in a scoreless road draw with AGOVV Apeldoorn.

SCOTLAND - Premiership
DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers -
started and went 73 minutes as they cruised to a 3-0 home win over St Johnstone.

dN

Coming Up:

PORTUGAL
Freddy Adu - Belenenses - Mon Dec 13 v Guimaraes
Kamani Hill - Guimaraes - Mon Dec 13 at Belenenses

AMERICANS IN EUROPE - RUMORS

The official Everton website talks to their goalkeeper Tim Howard about the possibility of the team signing Landon Donovan.

MEXICO

Primera Division Liguilla

Monterrey are the 2009 Apertura champions! They were the #5 seed coming in! Hooray Rayados! Huge congrats to them!

dN

All playoff rounds are 2 Legs.

Final Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Thu Dec 10
Monterrey 4-3 Cruz Azul - Mon goals by Emanuel Villa(OG), Humberto Suazo(2) & Sergio Sanatana. CA goals by Christian Reveros(2) & Emanuel Villa.
2nd Leg
-Sun Dec 13
Cruz Azul 1-2 Monterrey - Mon win 6-4 on aggregate! - CZ goal by Alejandro Castro Flores. Mon goals by Jesus de Nigris & Humberto Suazo.

dN

My friend Andrew who lives in Mexico City sent me this note on Saturday: "According to Record magazine (remember, the infamous sports mag that did the USMNT voodoo doll promotion), the re-sale value on tickets for for tomorrow night's game at Estadio Azul is 5,000 pesos! That's about equivalent to just under $400 USD. Absurd...I had wanted to go down there, but I think I'll watch on the television instead."
-And then Andrew sent this post game: "Game didn't really get going until well after half-time. I couldn't tell if Monterrey's defense was superb or Cruz Azul just couldn't get their shit together. Whatever the case, that's three losses for Cruz Azul in the Finals on the last few years (Santos, Toloca, now Monterrey)... Aldo Di Nigris scoring on a beautiful header and then revealing Antonio Di Nigris' face on an undershirt was pretty awesome!"
-In case you don't remember Antonio was the Mexican player who sadly died of a heart attack on Nov 16 while playing for Larissa in Greece.

dN

The Clausura season kicks off on Jan 16, '10.

dN

Between now and then, select teams will play in the InterLiga tournament to decide places for the Copa Libertadores.
-That tournament starts on Jan 2
2 teams from this tournament get a spot in the 2010 Copa Libertadores.
The 8 teams are split into 2 groups and the teams in each group play a round robin.
Then the winner of Group A plays the runner up from Group B for one spot, and winner of Group B plays the runner up from Group A for the other spot.

Group A
Atlante
Estudiantes
America
Santos
Group B
Tigres
Chiapas
Monterrey
Puebla

BIG EUROPEAN CLUB MATCHES THIS WEEKEND

-Sat Dec 12
Barcelona 1-0 Espanyol - the Barcelona derby goes to the league leaders.
Werder Bremen 0-2 Schalke - the win leaves Schalke in 2nd place just 1 point from 1st, while Werder's loss drops them to 4th, now behind Bayern Munich.
-Sun Dec 13
Liverpool 1-2 Arsenal - the loss leaves the Liverpeople all but dead and buried, while Arsenal (still far from 100%) become challengers once again, in 3rd place just 3 & 6 points behind Man U (lost) & Chelsea (tied) respectively, and with a game in hand.
Lyon 0-1 Bordeaux - Lyon's long long run as champions or at least serious contenders finally appears to be over after this loss. They now sit in 9th place. While Bordeaux are the new kings, winning the crown last season, and opening a 4 point lead at the top.

ENGLAND

John Ashdown of the Guardian gives us Five things we learned from the Premier League this weekend.

SPAIN

Phil Ball of Soccernet looks at the always heated rivalry between Valencia and Real Madrid. Plus the rest of La Liga from the weekend.

dN

Sid Lowe of the Guardian on the disintegration of Real Zaragoza, 6 head coaches in 18 months, and the rest of the weekend in La Liga.

GERMANY

Bayern Munich are now up to 3rd place, and only 2 points behind league leaders Bayer Leverkusen.
-There is one round left before the 4 week winter break. Here are those matches:
-Sat Dec 19
Bayer Leverkusen v Borussia Monchengladbach
Bayern Munich v Hertha Berlin
Borussia Dortmund v SC Freiburg
Eintracht Frankfurt v VfL Wolfsburg
Hannover 96 v VfL Bochum
VfB Stuttgart v TSG Hoffenheim
-Sun Dec 20
Hamburg SV v Werder Bremen
FC Cologne v Nurnberg

dN

The top of the Bundesliga table looks like this:
32 Bayer Leverkusen
31 Schalke
30 Bayern Munich
28 Werder Bremen
28 Hamburg
27 Borussia Dortmund

dN

And the top goal scorers are:
12 Stefan Kiessling - Bayer Leverkusen
8 Kevin Kuranyi - Schalke
8 Lucas Barrios - Borussia Dortmund
7 Mario Gomez - Bayern Munich

ITALY

Inter looked to have choked again in trying to stretch their lead as they gave up a late goal at Atlanta to tie 1-1, but their challengers Milan and Juventus both lost, so Inter actually gained 1 point on them.

dN

Gennaro Gattuso has signed a contract extension with AC Milan that will last through the end of the 2011-12 season.

dN

Paolo Bandini of the Guardian tries to answer this question - Who is Alessandro Matri, and how has he scored in 7 consecutive games for Cagliari? Plus the rest of the news from the weekend in Serie A.

dN

Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports looks at the state of the Serie A league.

dN

FIFA.com does a Q & A with Juventus playmaker Diego.

EUROPE

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune looks at the big Euro leagues as the year comes to an end, and wonders what kind of effort their best players will put forward next spring with the World Cup looming.

SOUTH AMERICA

Peru Championship
2nd Leg
-Sun Dec 13
Universitario Lima 1-0 Alianza Lima UL win it 2-0 on aggregate. UL goal by Jose Villafraz.

ARGENTINA

The top 2 teams both lost, handing the title to Banfield!!

dN

Standings, Matches & Scores - after 17 of 19 games played:
41 Banfield - Finale: L 2-0 at Boca Juniors
39 Newell's Old Boys - Finale: L 0-2 v San Lorenzo

CLUB WORLD CUP

The tournament is being played in Abu Dhabi, and begins on Wednesday.

dN

Tim Vickery of the BBC with an article on Estudiantes, and ponders their possible success in this tournament.

dN

-Wed Dec 9 - Match 1
Al Ahli FC 0-2 Auckland City FC - Auc goals by Adam Dickinson & Chad Coombes.
-Fri Dec 11 - Match 2
TP Mazembe 1-2 Pohang Steelers FC - TPM goal by Mbenza Bedi. PS goals both by Denilson (no, not that one).
Sat Dec 12 - Match 3
Auckland City FC 0-3 Atlante FC - Atl goals by Daniel Arreola, Christian Bermudez & Lucas Silva.
-Tue Dec 15 - Semifinal
Pohang Steelers FC v Estudiantes de La Plata
-Wed Dec 16 - Semifinal
Atlante FC v FC Barcelona
-Sat Dec 19
Final

PODCASTS

Major League Soccer Talk has an audio interview with former USA player and early MLS pioneer Thomas Dooley. Download or listen here.