Friday, May 21, 2010

Some News for Fri May 21, 2010

STARTERS

You need to see the fantastic - NIKE: WRITE THE FUTURE - 3 minute advert for their players headed too the World Cup - except for Ronaldinho that is, oops.



dN

And you USA fans don't want to miss the incredible shot at the 1:10 mark!

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Remember a few posts back when I introduced you to the song that featured crazy 70's rock n roll sounds and looks complete with flute and yodeling? well that song is in this commercial and starts when Wayne Rooney comes on the screen.
Hocus Pocus by Focus! You must check out the video again!
Simply put, Wow!

dN

I love the work of this ad's director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Mexico), who's previous movies include Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel. His latest film Biutiful is showing this week at the Cannes Film Fest!

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And where does Wayne Rooney get off stealing my bearded look!

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

See you all at the Sweetwater in St Paul for the big big game. I will be decked out in Interwear.

dN

The Grand Finale!
-Sat May 22
Football Club Internazionale Milano v Fussball-Club Bayern Munchen - 1:30pm Central on Fox
Venue: Estadio Santiago Bernabeu - Madrid, Spain

dN

The final will be game #700 at Inter for Javier Zanetti. Astonishing!

dN

This is what we have been hearing about for two weeks in the build up to this game: "Mourinho!" Kevin McCarra of the Guardian tells us about the other maestro at this concerto - Louis Van Gall of Bayern Munich.

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Ok then. Back to Mourinho. Gabriel Marcotti of the Times on the Good and the Bad sides of the Inter coach.

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The Guardian with an article on the one star Dutch player from each team who is headed back to play a huge game at a place that rejected them. Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder return to the home stadium of Real Madrid.

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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune on Sneijder and Robben too.

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La Gazzetta dello Sport on Mourinho and Inter.

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Bild on the incredible season at Bayern for Van Gaal.

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Raphael Honigstein at the CBC compares and contrasts the two finalists.

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Martin Rogers of Yahoo on Mourinho, and a funny Twitter by NBA superstar Steve Nash.
-Jose probably doesn't know how much Nash knows about soccer.

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The BBC with a match preview.

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Tons of great stuff on the official UEFA Champions League site.

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In the old days at Barcelona when they sat side by side:
























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The two teams are both hoping to win the coveted triple - thats the three main trophies in one season: League, League Cup and European Cup. Both have already won the first 2 so now one of them will achieve that huge goal.
Bayern:
*Bundesliga - won the league championship on Sat May 8.
*DFB Pokal - won the league cup 4-0 over Werder Bremen on Sat May 15.
Champions League - In the final on Sat May 22 v Inter Milan.
Inter:
*Serie A - won the league championship on Sun May 16.
*Coppa Italia - won the league Cup 1-0 over Roma on Wed May 5.
Champions League - In the final on Sat May 22 v Bayern Munich.

USA WORLD CUP 2010 SOUTH AFRICA

Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer with Part 1 of 5 of a feature story on Sacha Kljestan.

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Ronald Blum of the Associated Press talks to come of the players about just being back on US soil for a change. Via Comcast.

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Ives Galarcep of Fox Soccer with an article on Michael Bradley.

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Brian Strauss of Fanhouse with an article on Oguchi Onyewu. But like most of us Strauss didn't find out much, and will have to wait until game time next Tuesday night to see the progress.

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Kelly Whiteside of USA Today on Gooch too, and an article on Clint Dempsey.

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Martin Rogers of Yahoo with a video report on Onyewu.

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Steve Davis of Sports Illustrated says the biggest news from USA camp so far is the scarcity of news.

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The Washington Post with an article on the surprising Clarence Goodson.

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Yanks Abroad with articles on Sacha Kljestan - AND - DaMarcus Beasley.

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Reuters with an article on Herculez Gomez.

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Michael Lewis of the NY Daily News tries to figure out the USA 23.

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Official Team Blog

The US Soccer video page at You Tube. Fantastic stuff!

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USA OPPONENTS:

Algeria
-Ben Lyttleton of Sports Illustrated gives a better look into the Algerian team.
-Sky Sports reports that star centerback Madjid Bougherra has a torn calf muscle and will not train for the next 10 days. Will that be enough?

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Jose Mourinho on the Champions League Final:
"I'll only feel the tension tomorrow, I know myself by now. Tomorrow morning I'll wake up and realise that there are only a few hours to go. My heart will beat faster, the temperature will rise. But then there will be a series of meetings, lunch, and more meetings. Then when I get off the bus to go into the stadium it will all be over and I'll be in my habitat. And I also know that if you lose it's not the end of the world, and if you win it's not the end of your career. The Champions League is a dream, not an obsession."

FACT OF THE DAY

The Los Angeles Galaxy has allowed just 2 goals in their 10 teams so far this season. If they could some how keep up this amazing pace they would finish the season with just 6 goals allowed! We know that is not going to happen, but its pretty wild to even to consider.

MLS WEEK 9

-Thu May 20
New York Red Bulls 1-3 Columbus Crew - NYRB goal by Tony Tchani. CC goals by Eddie Gaven, Andy Iro & Emilio Renteria.
Venue: Red Bull Arena - Harrison NJ
Attendance: 11,940
FC Dallas 0-1 Los Angeles Galaxy - LAG goal by Mike Magee.
Venue: Pizza Hut Park - Frisco TX
Attendance: 10,947

dN

-Sat May 22
Toronto FC v New England Revolution - 12PM Central on Direct Kick
Venue: BMO Field - Toronto ON
Seattle Sounders FC v San Jose Earthquakes - 2PM Central on FSC
Venue: Qwest Field - Seattle WA
Houston Dynamo v D.C. United -
Venue: Robertson Stadium 7:00 PM Galavision
Chivas USA v Real Salt Lake - 9:30PM Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Home Depot Center - Carson CA
-Sun May 23
Kansas City Wizards v Columbus Crew - 3PM Central on Direct Kick
Venue: CommunityAmerica Ballpark - Kansas City KS

MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

Now that was the Red Bull we all knew from last year. What a brutal game for them last night, getting smoked by a Columbus team missing 3 key starters.
-I know New York hit 2 posts and a cross bar, but they did not deserve 3 goals.

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Dylan Butler of the NY Post on another ugly Red Bulls loss.

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Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch on yet another Crew win. Still unbeaten this season.

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LA remains unbeaten too, and answers the question, "What are we going to do without Donovan & Buddle? Simple, go with Magee & that other guy."

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Andy Friedlander of the Dallas Morning News tells us about the worst Dallas performance of the Schellas Hyndman era.

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Kerith Gabriel of the Philadelphia Daily News reports on what the Union think of French international Robert Pires's comments on their fine city.
-Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz: "A - He's never been here. And B - we never made him an offer."
-Hahahahahaha. I love mudslinging like this.

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CSNPhilly on the Union prospect rookie Danny Mwanga.

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Joshua Mayers of the Seattle Times has a short Q & A with Sounders Freddie Ljungberg.

MLS RUMORS

Brian Lewis of the NY Post on Thierry Henry and other possible Designated Players.

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Soccer 365's Grapevine with words on Oguchi Onyewu, Amaechi Igwe, Marlon Harewood, Ali Karimi, Hasan Salihamidzic and more.

MLS EXHIBITIONS

Sister Cities International Cup
-Wed May 19
Chicago Fire 0-1 Paris Saint-Germain (France)
Legia Warsaw (Poland) 0-1 Red Star Belgrade(Serbia)
-Sat May 22
Paris Saint-Germain v Red Star Belgrade - for the Cup
Chicago Fire v Legia Warsaw - for the pride
Venue: Toyota Park - Bridgeview IL

dN

-Sun May 23
New York Red Bulls v Juventus (Italy)
Venue: Red Bull Arena
Los Angeles Galaxy v Boca Juniors (Argentina)
Venue: Home Depot Center - Carson CA

USSF DIVISION 2

Matches & Scores:
-Sat May 22
Crystal Palace Baltimore v Portland Timbers
Miami FC Blues v NSC Minnesota Stars
AC St Louis v Tampa Bay Rowdies
Vancouver Whitecaps v Rochester Rhinos

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Standings (As of Thu May 20):
14 Austin - 7 played
11 Montreal - 6 played
11 Rochester - 7 played
11 Portland - 7 played
9 Vancouver - 6 played
9 Tampa Bay - 6 played
7 Baltimore - 7 played
7 Minnesota - 8 played
6 Puerto Rico - 3 played
5 Carolina - 5 played
5 Miami - 5 played
4 St Louis - 7 played

SOCCER IN AMERICA

Inter Milan will play Manchester City in a friendly on Sat Jul 31 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore MD.
-Manchester City will also take on Club America on Jul 28 in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome.

USA U20 TEAM

The USA U20's will participate in the Cor Groenewegen Tournamentin Netherlands beginning Sat May 22.

dN

Yanks Abroad has an article on USA keeper Cody Cropper, who just happens to be from my Twin Cities, about the youth set up at Ipswich and getting this shot with the national team.

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YA also has an article on fullback Parker Walsh, who is at Karlsruhe in Germany.

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The start with a 2 game Warm-up.

USA Friendly Matches & Scores:
-Tue May 18
USA 0-0 Senegal
-Thu May 20
USA v South Korea

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Official USA Matches & Scores:
USA v Japan
USA V Atl Mineiro
USA v Lokeren
USA v Utrecht
USA v Heerenveen

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

US Soccer gives us a video interview with Goalkeeper extraordinaire Brad Friedel.


CONCACAF

Friendly Matches & Scores:
-Mon May 24
Argentina v Canada in Buenos Aires, Argentina
England v Mexico in London at Wembley Stadium
-Tue May 25
USA v Czech Republic - in East Hartford CT at Rentschler Field

dN

Here is Canada's roster for Argentina:
G:
Pat Onstad - Houston Dynamo
Haidar Al Shaibani - Nimes
Josh Wagenaar - Falkirk
D:
Andre Hainault - Houston Dynamo
Richard Hastings - Hamilton Acadaemy
Mike Klukowski - Club Brugges
Nik Ledgerwood - Frankfurt
Pedro Pacheco - Nacional (Portugal)
Paul Stalteri - Monchengladbach
Adam Straith - Energie Cottbus
M:
Julian de Guzman - Toronto
Daniel Imhof - St Gallen
Will Johnson - Real Salt Lake
Jaime Peters - Ispwich
Dwayne de Rosario - Toronto
Josh Simpson - Manisaspor
F:
Stephen Ademolu - Ekranas
Rob Friend - Monchengladbach
Simeon Jackson - Gillingham

MEXICO

Clausura 2010 playoffs:

Matches & Scores - Final:
1st Leg
-Thu May 20
Santos Laguna 2-2 Toluca - SL goals by Carlos Quintero & Vicentev Vuoso. Tol goal by Diego Novaretti & Antonio Zinha Naelson.
2nd Leg
-Sun May 23
Toluca v Santos Laguna (2-2) - Live at Noon.

CENTRAL AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN

El Salvador Primera Division Clausura Championship:
-Sun May 23
Aguila v Isidro Metapan

ENGLAND

David Conn of the Guardian reveals more of the poor financial situation inside English football.

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Guillem Balague of the Mirror talks to Liverpool coach Rafael Benetiz about his future. He wants to stay at Liverpool. Really?

dN

Two Championship division teams playoff for the one last promotion spot to the Premier League:
Final Matches & Scores:
-Sat May 22
Cardiff City v Blackpool
Venue: Wembley Arena

COPA LIBERTADORES

A team from Chile is in the Semifinals for the first time ever! Congrats to Internacional. NOTE: Forget that I even wrote that. I was reading from a translated page and obviously I got it all wrong. So thanks to the great readers out there who commented and sent me emails to set us all straight. Anyway, congrats to all 4 Semifinalists!

And 2 more big names are out - Estudiantes & Flamengo.

Universidad & Internacional join Sao Paulo & Guadalajara in the Semifinals.

dN

Matches & Scores - Quarterfinals:
2nd Leg (with 1st Leg scores included)
-Tue May 18
Libertad 2-0 Guadalajara - Gua advance 3-2 on aggregate - Lib goals by Adalberto Roman & Manuel Maciel.
-Wed May 19
Sao Paulo 2-0 Cruzeiro - SP advance 4-0 aon aggregate - SP goals by Hernanes & Dagoberto.
-Thu May 20
Universidad de Chile 1-2 Flamengo - Series ends tied 4-4, with UdC advancing on the away goals tie breaker - UdC goal by Walter Montillo. Fla goals by Vagner Love & Adriano.
Estudiantes de la Plata 2-1 Internacional - Series ends tied 2-2 with Int advancing on the away goals tie breaker - Est goals by Leandro Gonzalez & Enzo Perez - Int goal by Giuliano.

Away goals is the tie breaker.

dN

Matches & Scores - Semifinals:
-Dates TBA
Universidad de Chile v Guadalajara
Internacional v Sao Paulo

RANT FROM READER

Now this is funny. After my rant yesterday about having to put up with Engish commentators for our World Cup viewing here in America I got this email from a guy named Nigel, who must think I am one of the biggest rubes of all time. He obviously has never read this blog before, and thinks I know nothing about the game. I hope you enjoy this screed of high-end pomposity, I laughed my ass off:

You are ‘putting up with’ the English commentators because they are the most knowledgeable in world football. Yes football, not ‘soccer’. Your comments about the Bayern Munich v Lyon game are totally biased. British commentators as with all European fans, watch football at every opportunity, if there were two Sunday morning pub sides being televised on TV at some unearthly time of the day, European football fans would watch it. The British fans are the best and most knowledgeable in the world, and that includes our commentators, its our game, we gave it to the world. If you want to criticize British commentators try learning how to talk football first. It is a football commentary, not someone ‘calling’ the game. A foul in the penalty area is a ‘penalty’ NOT a PK, only Americans use the letters PK and know what that is referring to. You may have a hustle in American Football (which by the way is egg shaped and NOT a football) but there is no where in the world, other than in the USA where the word hustle is put in with football. The back four of a team is not the ‘D’, only in the USA is it called a ‘D’ The football world cup is a proper World Cup, contested by every nation on earth, that’s why it takes 4 years to get to the finals, unlike Baseball or American ‘Football’ where the world champions are always going to be American because Americans are the only teams in it. Can I suggest that if you don’t want to listen to British Commentators, turn the TV off or turn the sound down, I am sure that from your armchair you have probably never seen a live game of professional ‘soccer’, and don’t tell me that the MLS is real ‘soccer’, the USA is where every European and world footballer comes to retire and pick up easy money. If you want to watch the Lionel Messi’s and Wayne Rooney’s of the world get out of your armchair and go to Europe. The MLS is not professional football, the vast majority, with notable exception, Donovan, are not good enough to play in any of the leagues in Europe and that’s why the USA will never win the World Cup. Occasionally the USA will get a good result against a top ranked team, but those rare occasions are few and far between. Try learning how to talk football by listening to the British commentators before you start criticizing people who know what they are talking about because they played and grew up with the game.\
There is a TV programme on UK TV called soccer am, every week, during the English football season, they regularly take the piss out of American Soccer commentators, you should watch it and learn a few things about what the rest of the world thinks about your American Commentators and their own ‘soccer’ language. It may open your eyes, but then again if you are so committed to having non entities who know nothing about the game, commentating on the greatest sport in the world, then perhaps you should protest by turning the TV off.

-Nigel *****
(I left out his last name so as not to embarrass him even more)
P.S.I don’t suppose you noticed that it is Howard Webb, an English Man refereeing the Champions league final?
P.P.S. You probably ARE the only person who even thinks like this because most Americans who like ‘soccer’ realize that the British commentators are the best.

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

YEah Bruce, British football commentators are sooooooo much better than American Soccer commentators blah blah blah. What a crazy rant. Its almost perfect that this guy has the most stereotypical british name, Nigel. You sure you did not make all of this up?

Its sad this guy Nigel, even if we win a world cup, he will still deny it. He will say that was luck. I think the US will have to win 4-5 Cups before this eurosnob will admit that the US is some what good at socc... I mean football. Plus I hope we beat England on a PK. :)

8:32 PM  
Anonymous Doug said...

Thanks so much for printing "Lord" Nigel's email. What a hoot and what a pompous wanker. I hope when you responded that you begged his forgiveness and thanked him for his effort to educate us clueless colonials. Sheesh. Maybe you could also post his email on Big Soccer. The piranhas there would have a field day with it. I also have to say I was quite surprised to learn Lord Nigel thinks an American football is "egg shaped." WTF? He must be eating some mighty strange looking eggs.

8:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

1) Martin Tyler is wonderful....

BUT

2) I don't want to listen to some limey calling the US/England game...

JP and Harkes may not be the greatest, but they are ours.....

ESPN could solve this problem easily by putting JP/Harkes on the SAP channel-what do you think?

8:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bruce,

Big fan of the blog. A few corrections. First, the Chilean team which made the semifinals was Universidad de Chile (Internacional is Brazilian). Second, they aren't the first Chilean team to make the semifinals. Chilean teams have made it quite a few times and Colo Colo won the Copa Libertadores in 1991 (or maybe 92). Otherwise, keep up the good work :)

8:59 PM  
Anonymous Joe J said...

Dear Nigel,

The word Soccer is ENGLISH in origin - Your country invented the word, so live with it. -

Wordorigins.org
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordors.htm
"Soccer
Soccer is an abbreviation for Association Football. The Football
Association was formed in London in October 1863 when representatives
of eleven clubs and schools met in an attempt to standardize the rules
of the game. One of the rules prohibited the carrying of the ball, a
rule that would lead to the Rugby-oriented clubs leaving the
Association several months later. The name Association Football was
coined to distinguish it from Rugby.


Also, What's a 'HUSTLE'? DO THE HUSTLE!

Poor dipstick troll.

9:40 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Best laugh I've had in days. Thanks Nigel, you pompous, arrogant, ridiculous buffoon.

I heard on my TV, while sitting in my armchair, that you guys call and elevator a "lift". Well, WE invented the elevator here in the USA and anyone who would call it something else is clearly an imbecile.

Thanks for following a line of reasoning nearly as deranged as yours.

Bill Archer

5:04 AM  
Blogger prairie said...

soccer
field
cleats
offsides
pk
hustle
clutch
shutout
highway
elevator
cookies
fries
truck

It's been 233 (nearly 234) years. Get over it, chump.

7:40 AM  
Anonymous EricPZ said...

Wow, love the irony of an ignorant Brit explaining how ignorant we are.

Keep fighting the good fight Bruce.

7:41 AM  
Anonymous Kevin A. said...

LOL. Awesome.

What the hell's a "hustle?"

Also, Bruce, you really oughta get out and see a game one of these days. :)

Kevin--

7:58 AM  
Blogger Demko said...

I like Rooney's hustle.

11:56 AM  

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