Some News for Wed Apr 21, 2010

TWITTER

Join the twitteratti - @dunord

STARTERS

Leg 1 goes to Inter in the Champions League, making next weeks game at Barcelona a potential masters level chess match.

dN

Clint Dempsey is hoping to be healthy enough for Fulham to play in the Europa League match on Thursday.

dN

Celtic v Rangers in Boston in July?? It could happen.

THIS JUST IN

Word from US Soccer: The U.S. Men’s National Team has selected Princeton University as the site of its Pre-World Cup training camp in the United States. Players and coaches will begin to report May 15 for the eight-day camp, with the first training session scheduled for May 17 at Roberts Field. All team training sessions will be closed to the public.

Princeton is head coach Bob Bradley's alma mater.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Semifinals Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Tue Apr 20
Inter 3-1 Barcelona - IM goals by Wesley Schneider, Douglas Maicon & Diego Milito. Bar goal by Pedro.
-Wed Apr 21
Bayern v Lyon - live at 1:30pm central on FSC

dN

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune reviews last nights surprising first leg win for Inter.

dN

James Lawton of The Independent on Jose Mourinho's style of "play"..

dN

2nd Leg
-Tue Apr 27
Lyon v Bayern
-Wed Apr 28
Barcelona v Inter (1-3)

Away goals is the tiebreaker.

Final Match:
-Sat May 22

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Final Match:
1st Leg
-Wed Apr 21
Cruz Azul v Pachuca - Live at 9pm Central on FSC & Telefutura.
2nd Leg
-Wed Apr 28
Pachuca v Cruz Azul

Away goals is the tiebreaker.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

What's it really like in South Africa??

Our friend Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer just returned from spending 10 days in Johannesburg, South Africa and he is here to give you a small snapshot. Including some very cool video with a local artist talking about the long term meaning of the World Cup coming to his country.

FACT OF THE DAY

Six times in the past Barcelona has been down 1-3 in European competition every time they have come back to win the series. The last time was in 2000. Reader mbenson6 says "the last time was against Chelsea in the 1999-00 Champions League quarterfinals. Down 3-1 and won 6-4."

STORY OF THE DAY

Incredible!

Part 2 of the Road To South Africa documentary is the USA fans trip to Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. I was there, and lived to tell the story. Many of the folks you will see are my dear FIF - Friendos In Futbol. Lot's of memories here!
-The only thing missing from this video is the ride home in the police paddy wagons!

THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

Some great video here by Laurence McKenna of EPL Talk who does a sit down with long time London football newspaper writer Patrick Barclay. Part 1 - and - Part 2.

MLS WEEK 5

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Apr 22
FC Dallas v Seattle Sounders FC - 7PM Central on ESPN2
Venue: Pizza Hut Park - Frisco TX
-Sat Apr 24
New York Red Bulls v Philadelphia Union - 3PM Central on TeleFutura
Venue: Red Bull Arena - Harrison NJ
New England Revolution v Colorado Rapids - 6:30PM Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Gillette Stadium - Foxborough MA
Columbus Crew v Real Salt Lake - 6:30PM Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Crew Stadium - Columbus OH
Kansas City Wizards v Los Angeles Galaxy - 7:30PM Central on Direct Kick
Venue: CommunityAmerica Ballpark - Kansas City KS
Chicago Fire v Houston Dynamo - 7:30PM Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Toyota Park - Bridgeview IL
Chivas USA v San Jose Earthquakes - 9:30PM Central on FSC
Venue: Home Depot Center - Carson CA
-Sun Apr 25
Toronto FC v Seattle Sounders FC - 1PM Central on Direct Kick
Venue: BMO Field - Toronto ON

MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

Drew Epperly at WVHooligan has a great feature he calls Hot & Not, comparing the positives and negatives from around the league. Great.

dN

Joseph Ngwenya has agreed on a contract to rejoin Houston, bu this former club in Turkey, Analyasapor, has some unknown issue with Ngwenya and are holding up the transer. Stay tuned.

dN

Gregory Sica of South American Futbol says Columbus leader Guillermo Barros Schelotto has told Boca Juniors thanks but no thanks to their offer of the head coaches job.

dN

Sica also talks to Juan Pablo Angel who says he still wants to play for Colombia (but playing in MLS won't make that happen), and would like to finish his career at River Plate.

dN

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer talks to new Red Bulls midfielder Carl Robinson about his recent knee injury and his family.

dN

Lewis also begins previewing the NY v Philly match up that kicks off on Saturday. This one could get wild, and I don't mean this game, I mean this series. Mike Petke talks first.

dN

Andrew Winner at Soccer 365 with a look at New York's much talked about first year centerback Tim Ream.

dN

Leander Schaerlaeckens of ESPN Soccernet on Chicago's new forward, fellow Dutchman, Collins John.

dN

Craig Stouffer of the Examiner touches on DC United's biggest problems right now - injuries, inexperience, inconsistency. That's a lot of "in".

dN

Steve Sandor of Slam Sports looks at another forward (the desperately needed forward) that Toronto has quickly disposed of in its short history - Edson Buddle. Who joins Conor Casey and Jeff Cunningham on the list!

dN

Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch with an article on the French right-sided midfielder that the Crew are potentially signing that we mentioned yesterday in the Rumors section - Leandre Griffit.
-The Crew will have to drop one player in order to bring in another.

dN

Jonathan Tannenbaum of Philly.com with news and notes on the Union. Including some precision PU player ratings from last Thursday's game against Toronto.

dN

Marc Narducci of the Philadelphia Inquirer talks to Union coach Peter Nowak about his disaster prone goalkeeper Chris Seitz.

dN

Seattle introduces an Electric Yellow 3rd uniform, and GM Adrian Hanauer talks about it. Via the Seattle Times.





















MLS INJURY REPORT

New York has lost forward Macoumba Kandji for up to 3 months after he was diagnosed with every soccer players least favorite injury the broken fifth metatarsal.

PODCASTS/VIDEOCASTS

Do yourself a big favor and check out the New York Red Bulls centric podcast Seeing Red starring Mark Fishkin, Nat Baker and Dave Martinez, with great weekly guests, like Dan R of the excellent Metrofanatic this week. Download or listen here.

MLS RUMORS

American Jeremiah White who is currently playing is Saudi Arabia is supposedly in talks with a MLS team.

MLS EXHIBITIONS

Chicago has announced that they will take on AC Milan Sun May 30 at Toyota Park.

dN

Frank Dell'Aa reports that the New England Revolution will host Benfica in late May. No other details obviously.

dN

Celtic and Rangers are lining up a July date to play outside Glasgow for the first time. Gillette Stadium in Foxborough MA is the supposed destination.
-Celtic to face Manchester United - Jul 16/17 in Toronto.
-Rangers potentially taking on Miami and New York.

dN

Behold the New York Football Challenge:
July 22-25
New York Red Bulls
Manchester City
Tottenham
Sporting Lisbon
See some more details here.

dN

The New York Red Bulls will supposedly also play Cruzeiro of Brazil in June.

USSF DIVISION 2

The Portland Statesman on the already changing culture of the Timbers and Timbers Army as MLS looms 11 months from now.

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Apr 21
Puerto Rico Islanders v NSC Minnesota Stars
-Thu Apr 22
Portland Timbers v AC St Louis

SOCCER IN AMERICA

Andrew Hush of ESPN Soccernet with his weekly column on all things American soccer, like Rico Clarke, Herculez Gomez, San Jose and other stuff.

USA WORLD CUP 2010 SOUTH AFRICA

Greg Seltzer of Soccer 365 looks at filling the roster if the injuries don't heal.

dN

Noah Davis of Goal.com looks at the national team arc of Landon Donovan using stats to see the goal scorer has become the linchpin.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Raphael Honigstein of Sports Illustrated on the horrible season for Steve Cherundolo and his Hannover team.

I have a hunch that we will see Cherundolo in the uniform of a MLS team come summer time.

dN

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

NORWAY - Eliteserien
Erik Benjaminsen - Stabaek - Wed Apr 21 v Honefoss
Steve Clark - Honefoss - Wed Apr 21 at Stabaek
Mikkel Diskerud - Stabaek - Wed Apr 21 v Honefoss
Di Vita Jensen - Honefoss - Wed Apr 21 at Stabaek

ENGLAND

Dominic Fifeld of the Guardian on the amazing job manager Roy Hodgson has done with Fulham.

FRANCE

The French federation has moved around Lyon's schedule so that they don't have to play any league games between the 2 legs of Champions League Semifinals.

ITALY

COPPA ITALIA - Semifinals
2nd Leg
-Wed Apr 21
Udinese v Roma (0-2)
Final
-Date TBA
Inter v Roma/Udinese winner

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

Semifinal Matches & Scores:
-Thu Apr 22
Hamburg v Fulham
Atletico Madrid v Liverpool
-Thu Apr 29
Fulham v Hamburg
Liverpool v Atletico Madrid

COPA LIBERTADORES

These are the last 3 days of the group stage.

dN

5 of 14 spots are set:
Libertad, Banfield, Corinthians, Universidad Chile & Alianza Lima have advanced to the knock out stages.

2 teams have already qualified for the knock out rounds after complications with the Swine Flu last season, giving Guadalajara & San Luis of Mexico spots in this years tournament.

Then the 8 Group winners advance, along with the 6 runners up with the best records.

dN

Lanus join Cerro Porteno, Caracas, Emelec, Monterrey, Italia of Venezuela, Juan Aurich, Bolivar, Blooming and Nacional of Paraguay in the eliminated pile.

dN

Just 3 weeks left in the Group Stage.

dN

GROUP STAGE (runs through to Apr 22) - This Weeks Matches & Scores:
-Tue Apr 20
Bolivar 2-0 Juan Aurich - Bol goals by Walter Flores & Alex Da Rosa(PK).
Estudiantes 1-0 Alianza - Est goal by Juan Sebastian Veron.
-Wed Apr 21
Nacional v Monterrey
Sao Paulo v Once Caldas
Nacional v Morelia
Banfield v Cuenca
Universidad v Universidad Catolica
Flamengo v Caracas
-Thu Apr 22
Corinthians v Independiente
Internacional v Quito
Cerro v Ganador G5
Cerro Porteno v Racing Club

dN

Standings (6 Rounds):

Grupo 1 (5 played)
ADV-13 Corinthians (Brazil)
7 Racing Club (Uruguay)
6 Independiente Medellin (Colombia)
OUT - 1 Cerro Porteno (Paraguay)

Grupo 2 (5 played)
11 Once Caldas (Colombia)
10 Sao Paulo (Brazil)
OUT-3 Monterrey (Mexico)
OUT-0 Nacional (Paraguay)

Grupo 3 (DONE)
ADV-15 Alianza Lima (Peru)
13 Estudiantes de la Plata (Argentina)
OUT-4 Bolivar (Bolivia)
OUT-3 Juan Aurich (Peru)

Grupo 4 (DONE)
ADV-12 Libertad (Paraguay)
10 Universitario (Peru)
OUT-8 Lanus (Argentina)
OUT-1 Blooming (Bolivia)

Grupo 5 (5 played)
10 Deportivo Quito (Ecudador)
9 Internacional (Brazil)
7 Cerro (Uruguay)
OUT-1 Emelec (Ecuador)

Grupo 6 (5 played)
ADV - 11 Banfield (Argentina)
6 Nacional (Uruguay)
5 Morelia (Mexico)
4 Cuenca (Ecudador)

Grupo 7 (DONE)
ADV-13 Velez Sarsfield (Argentina)
11 Cruzeiro (Brazil)
OUT-8 Colo Colo (Chile)
OUT-1 Italia (Venezuela)

Grupo 8 (5 played)
ADV-11 Universidad Chile (Chile)
7 Flamengo (Brazil)
6 Universidad Catolica (Chile)
OUT-2 Caracas FC (Venezuela)