Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Some News for Wed Dec 9, 2009

STARTERS

The Guardian is reporting that Everton is in the final stages of signing Landon Donovan on a loan deal in January.

dN

Not a single home team won in the 8 UEFA Champions League games yesterday. What are the odds of that going down?!?! The road teams got 6 wins and 2 ties. Amazing! See UEFA Champions League section for details.

dN

The Kartik Report has an article on the USL filing a lawsuit against 3 teams that have fled their First Division in the recent weeks to join the breakaway NASL.

THIS IS MY DEAL ABOUT HOW TEAMS SHOULD BE NAMED IN AMERICA

Several folks from St Louis emailed me about dogging their new team's name, AC St Louis, and countered me by saying the Missouri Athletic Club is a well known name of a sports organization in their area. The team even included that justification in their press releases. OK, thats cool.
But I say this: If there wasn't a world-wide-ultra-popular team called AC Milan would they ever in a million years come up with AC St Louis on their own? Nope.

dN

As a follow up to that.....
I sent this note about team names to my friend Brian, and thought it was appropriate to share here:
I have no problem with SC, cuz its a soccer club and we call it soccer.
The name of my blog at times bugs me too - futbol - how pretentious.
But it was meant more in fun originally, because the name du Nord is French, so why not mix it up even more with Spanish.
-FC - we dont call it football, its soccer.
-AC - its not an athletic club, its a soccer team.
-Real - an appointment from the King in a Spanish speaking country.
-United -you have brought two clubs or more together.
All those Euro names have actual meaning, they were NOT done to sound authentic.
You either are authentic or you are not.
But you can't declare yourself to be authentic with a name.
That's as un-authentic as you can get.

dN

As for AC St Louis, I am over it. It's their name, they picked it and thats that. Just like I moved on from hating the names of DC United, Real Salt Lake, FC Dallas, Miami FC, Toronto FC, Seattle Sounders FC......

MLS

Peter Wilt of Pitch Invasion does a Q & A with DC United VP Stephen Zack. Very good stuff.

dN

Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com has video interviews with several new Philadelphia Union players. (Scan down the right hand column)

dN

Keith Gabriel of the Philadelphia Inquirer with an article on the introduction of the new Union players.

dN

Sam Stejskal of Chicago Now does a Q & A with former Fire centerback Bakary Soumare.
-Soumare calls for Chris Armas to become the teams new head coach.

MLS COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT

The current deal expires on Jan 31, 2010.

dN

Beau Dure of the USA Today on the negotiating messiness within MLS, and the USL.NASL fued.

USA WORLD CUP 2010 SOUTH AFRICA

The Mirror says that the USA & England are fighting over the same training location, and the USA may have the upper hand.

USA WORLD CUP 2018/22 BID

Here is the promo video that the US Soccer Federation has put together are the opening of their bid.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

The Evening Times of Glasgow talks to DaMarcus Beasley about his need to leave Rangers.

dN

The Daily Mail reports that Fulham are going to sell players in January, and Eddie Johnson is supposedly on their list.

dN

Soccer 365 talks to Clint Dempsey.

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

ENGLAND - FA Cup Round 2
Mike Grella - Leeds - came on as a sub to start the 2nd half of Added Extra Time and immediately scored the game winner as they finally cruised 5-1 over Kettering Town. Next round (Jan 3) they travel to Manchester United.

ENGLAND

Fanhouse UK looks at England's most glaring weakness - goalkeeper.

EUROPE

The New York Times talks to a player who is involved in the German match fixing scandal.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Here we go for the final group stage matches!

dN

Three quarters of the teams are already advanced to the knock out stage, while the other 4 will be known by the end of Wednesday.
-Bayern Munich, CSKA Moskva, Real Madrid & Milan join the teams that are through: Arsenal, Bordeaux, Chelsea, Fiorentina, Lyon, Manchester United, Porto & Sevilla.

dN

Juventus joins Liverpool on the list of big names out of the Champions League.

dN

Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian on the Romanian club trying to make the big time - Unirea Urziceni.

dN

Matchday 6
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Dec 8
Juventus 1-4 Bayern Munich - Juv goal by David Trezeguet. BM goals by Hans Jorg Butt(PK), Ivica Olic, Mario Gomez & Anatoliy Tymoshchuk.
Maccabi Haifa 0-1 Bordeaux - Bor goal by Jussie.
Besiktas 1-2 CSKA Moskva - Bes goal by Bobo. CM goals by Milos Krasic & Evgeni Aldonin.
Wolfsburg 1-3 Manchester United - Wol goal by Edin Dzeko. MU goals all by Michael Owen.
Zurich 1-1 Milan - Zur goal by Milan Gajic. Mil goal by Ronaldinho(PK).
Marseille 1-3 Real Madrid - Mar goal by Lucho. RM goals by Cristiano Ronaldo(2) & Raul Albiol.
Chelsea 2-2 APOEL - Che goals by Michael Essien & didier Drgoba. APO goals by Marcin Zewlakow & Nenad Mirosavljevic.
Atletico Madrid 0-3 Porto - Por goals by Bruno Alves, Falcao & Hulk.
-Wed Dec 9
Liverpool v Fiorentina
Lyon v Debreceni
Inter v Rubin Kazan
Dynamo Kyiv v Barcelona
Stuttgart v Unirea Urziceni
Sevilla v Rangers
Olympiacos v Arsenal
Standard Liege v AZ Alkmaar

dN

Group Standings

dN

The draw for the knockout rounds will be on Fri Dec 18, the day after the Europa League group stage ends.

dN

The first leg of the first round of knockout games begins Tue Feb 16.

SOUTH AMERICA

Peru Championship
1st Leg
-Tue Dec 8
Alianza Lima 0-1 Universitario Lima
2nd Leg
-Sun Dec 13
Universitario Limav Alianza Lima (0-1)

BRAZIL

Tim Vickery at Sports Illustrated writes about 'Mengo finally winning a Brazilian title.

ARGENTINA

Just 2 rounds left (1 now for Inde) in the Primera Apertura, and 4 teams want the crown. First next round is mid-week and the final round is next Sunday!

dN

Standings, Matches & Scores - after 17 of 19 games played:
38 Banfield - Next: Wed Dec 9 v Tigre - Finale: Sun Dec 13 at Boca Juniors
36 Newell's Old Boys - Next: Wed Dec 9 at Gimnasia La Plata - Finale: Sun Dec 13 v San Lorenzo
33 Velez Sarsfield - Next: Thu Dec 10 at Chacarita Juniors - Finale: Sun Dec 13 v Rosario Central
- - OUT - -
33 Independiente - Last: Tue Dec 8 D 1-1 v Argentinos Juniors

WORLD CUP 2010 - SOUTH AFRICA

Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated makes the case for an African teaming winning the World Cup.

dN

Our man Bora will a scout for Serbia in preparing for the Cup.

CLUB WORLD CUP

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

-Wed Dec 9 - Match 1
Al Ahli FC v Auckland City FC
-Fri Dec 11 - Match 2
TP Mazembe v Pohang Steelers FC
Sat Dec 12 - Match 3
winner Match 1 v Atlante FC
-Tue Dec 15 - Semifinal
Winner Match 2 v Estudiantes de La Plata
-Wed Dec 16 - Semifinal
Winner Match 3 v FC Barcelona
-Sat Dec 19
Final

ENDERS

Another spot to watch soccer on TV in Twin Cities - The Nomad World Pub - say hi to Bjorn behind the bar for me.

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know what source the Mirror is using, but the US, according to the Associated Press, already has secured a training site outside Pretoria - the one the Italians used during the Confed Cup: Southdowns College.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=654843&cc=5901

Kelly

8:50 AM  
Blogger brucio said...

thank you kelly
that is the first and only time i have linked to the mirror, why did i do that, and it will now be the last
hahahahahaha

10:01 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There does seem to be a kefuffle with the Italians thought - reports are they want part of the Southdowns site they claim isn't in the FIFA "approved" package. Both stories to me read as media created dust-ups to make some pre-match "tension" during the slow run-up the tournament.

I can't find any more stories about the US at Southdowns, but the ones about the US Italy feud probably put the US English story to rest. Why would the Italians be threatening the US if the US didn't already have the Southdowns site?

You still do fine work Bucio.

Kelly

11:22 AM  
Blogger brucio said...

I checked in with US Soccer and they expect to make an official announcement in a few days about what site they have chosen.

11:37 AM  
Anonymous Dan said...

Wait, so, an unrelated organization, which actually is an athletic club, calls itself an athletic club, and that is supposed to make AC St. Louis a good name?

The same reasoning applies if they called themselves the St. Louis Fire Department.

I don't think Cooper, based on all the St. Louis United ideas that had been floating, ever intended to put more than two seconds of Eurosnob thought into a team name.

1:30 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Beg to differ Brucio:

What two clubs merged to form Manchester United?

Which Spanish King annoited Honduras's Real Espana?

Was five time US Open Cup Champion Bethlehem Steel F.C. not American?

Team names are always one part fact, one part aspiration. Just look at some of the names in the African and South American leagues.

4:06 PM  
Blogger brucio said...

Get Stuck In - you make my point for me, those teams you named are all phoney names, and I don't like them.

4:44 PM  
Blogger digchros said...

In regards to the naming, I agree in terms of the AC St. Louis. My problem is that it simply doesn't flow.

The St. Louis Soccer United made more sense, as I believe it actually involved some of the bigger youth clubs in the area. Wasn't that the case?

Also, in terms of FC, I think you could make the argument that the U.S. is a "melting pot", and that at least a portion of MLS fans come from an area where the sport is called Football/Futbol. That might not be the best argument, but I personally don't mind FC at all.

Last, of all the phony names, at least we don't have Bayern Baltimore, AEK Atlanta, AS Indianapolis, or ... FC Miami-Barcelona

8:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

FC makes sense since football, futbal, futbol are international words and FC or FK or variations of are found in every country in the world (even the one country on the planet not to have a pro league, Canada)

I can not make a case for AC though.

And Real just irks me. Its like when little kids try on mommy's clothing and we think its cute because they are 6 yrs old. Not so cute when adults do it.
I dont mind when the local 6 yrs olds call their team Real but totally retarded when adults do it.
Actually, that whole association with euro clubs seems fake and nothing more than brand promotion.

10:03 AM  
Anonymous Dan said...

Re: Bethlehem Steel - it was still the US Football Association (or the US Soccer Football Association) back then, so teams from the 20's sporting the FC weren't anachronistic Eurosnobs, necessarily.

I double-checked this on, I'm ashamed to say, Wikipedia. "What is now U.S. Soccer was originally the United States of America Foot Ball Association, formed on April 5, 1913 and on August 15th of that year became one of the earliest member organizations of FIFA. The governing body of the sport in the US did not have the word soccer in its name until 1945, when it became the United States Soccer Football Association. It did not drop the word football from its name until 1974, when it became the United States Soccer Federation."

The soccer v. football nomenclature has been dead for over 30 years in this country, in other words.

12:32 PM  
Blogger brucio said...

what a great discussion, thanks to everyone who voiced an opinion, i really appreciate it

3:16 PM  

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