Some News for Wed May 19, 2010

STARTERS

In the first huge move of the European offseason, Barcelona has signed goalscoring machine David Villa from Valencia for a stunning US$49.7 Million. This is definitely a goodbye move to Thierry Henry, and also likely to the failed experiment with Zalatan Ibrahimovic.

TWITTER

Latch yerself on to our twin engined Twitter rocket: @dunord

USA WORLD CUP 2010 SOUTH AFRICA

Oguchi Onyewu & Alejandro Bedoya were the last 2 to arrive at the training camp so all 30 players are now in house.

dN

Landon Donovan did interviews with seemingly everyone yesterday so here are many articles - there is some great stuff here:
-Raphael Honigstein for Sports Illustrated (a well known anti-Donovan guy) - Donovan's fortunes in Europe prove that correct choice of club is key
-Brian Strauss of Fanhouse - Landon Donovan Seeking World Cup Redemption
-The Washington Post - Entering World Cup, Landon Donovan finds himself in a good place for U.S. men
-The Star Ledger - After disappointment of 2006, American star Landon Donovan feels prepared for World Cup
-Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News - Landon Donovan sees greater opportunity with U.S. National team at World Cup in 2010 than in past
-New York Post - American Donovan open about goals, misses
-Kate Fagan of the Philadelphia Inquirer - Donovan ready to lead the U.S.
-Jere Longman of the New York Times - Donovan Pushes Ahead, Looking Inside
-Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports - Divorce helped Donovan reconcile differences

dN

Kelly Whiteside of USA Today on the father-son duo of Bob & Michael Bradley.

dN

Jeffrey Marcus of the New York Times relays some words about the USA from Manchster United manager Alex Ferguson who was in New York yesterday to pimp his teams upcoming summer games.

dN

Andrew Dixon of the US Soccer Players Assoc is pulling for Herculez Gomez and Jose Torres to make the 23.

dN

FIFA.com talks to Ricardo Clark.

dN

Official Team Blog

dN

US Soccer video page at You Tube. Fantastic stuff! - The lastest are with Jozy Altidore and Landon Donovan.

dN

Michael Lewis and Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News will both be in South Africa and have a blog to keep us all up to date - The Beautiful Blog.

dN

Algeria is training is Switzerland.

dN

England is training in Austria.

dN

No word on where Slovenia is training.

WORLD CUP 2010 - SOUTH AFRICA

It is really not looking good for Ghanaian star Michael Essien to have a fully recovered knee in time for the tournament.

dN

Tim Vickery of Sports Illustrated tries to find the reasons behind the choices for who is on and who is off the Brazil roster.
-I have no doubt that Dunga knows exactly what he is doing, but he has to be worried about the disappointing way Kaka has played over the past season.

dN

FIFa.com does a Q & A with Nelson Haedo Valdez of Paraguay.

dN

FIFa.com does a Q & A with Romaric of the Ivory Coast.

dN

After barely 2 days of training Maradona has already cut his Argentina to the final 23. Here are the players that were sent home:
D:
Fabricio Coloccini - Newcastle
Juan Manuel Insaurralde - Newell's Old Boys
M:
Sebastian Blanco - Lanus
Jesus Datolo - Olympiakos
Juan Mercier - Argentinos Juniors
Jose Sosa - Estudiantes de la Plata
F:
Ezequiel Lavezzi - Napoli

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

"I want to go to Real Madrid one hundred percent. When? I do not know."
-Jose Mourinho told Marca newspaper in Madrid yesterday that he wants to coach Real Madrid, and he wants it to be his next job. Whether or not that will be next season he does not know. Here is video of that interview in the original Spanish.

dN

The Grand Finale!
-Sat May 22
Football Club Internazionale Milano v Fussball-Club Bayern Munchen - 1:30pm Central on Fox

QUOTE OF THE DAY

After reporters mentioned to Landon Donovan that Oguchi Onyewu had agreed to play for no salary one season at AC Milan, he replied with some words for his LA Galaxy boss:

"Tell Bruce, I'm not playing for free."

MLS WEEK 9

-Thu May 20
New York Red Bulls v Columbus Crew - 7PM Central on ESPN2
Venue: Red Bull Arena - Harrison NJ
FC Dallas v Los Angeles Galaxy - 7:30PM Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Pizza Hut Park - Frisco TX

MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

Columbus play-maker Guillermo Barros Schelotto will be suspended from their game on Thur at New York for a deliberate arm to the face of a Chivas USA defender. The infraction was not seen by the referee during the game, but was caught on video and the league handed out the punishment.

dN

Columbus has also officially signed French midfielder Leandre Griffit from Crystal Palace.

dN

David Falk of the Examiner shows us some stats that explain the poor start for the Seattle Sounders.

dN

Don Ruiz of the Tacoma News Tribune looks at Seattle forward Fredy Montero who came off the bench last week to snag the win. Will he get the start this week?

dN

3rd Degree with the scoop on newly signed FC Dallas forward Milton Rogriguez, who played most recently for Deportes Tolima and then Real Cartegena (both in Colombia). He is old at 34, but someone needs to push Jeff Cunningham into action.

MLS INJURY REPORT

CSN Washington is reporting that DC fullback Brian Namoff is likely out for the whole season due to concussion issues.

MLS/SUM BUSINESS

Philadelphia has hit their season ticket cap of 12,000 for this season. Great job!

MLS RUMORS

Two new names added to the summer transfer list - striker Ludivic Giuly formerly of Barcelona, and Mexican defender Red Card Rafa Marquez.

dN

Soccer 365 with talk on Steve Cherundolo, Erik Benado and more.

MLS EXHIBITIONS

The summer friendly season gets underway on Wednesday in Foxborough and Bridgeview.

dN

-Wed May 19
New England Revolution v Benfica (Portugal)
Venue: Gillette Stadium in Foxborough MA

LE Eisenmenger of the Examiner reports that New England will have 3 players currently getting a tryout on their roster for the game tonight.

dN

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

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

The draw was held today to determine the opening round of qualifying matches, and set up teams for Group play.

Preliminary Round - 1st Leg matches begin Tue Jul 27.
(Host of 1st Leg listed first)
CD FAS (El Salvador) v Xelaju (Guatemala)
Brujas (Costa Rica) v Joe Public (Trinidad & Tobago)
San Juan Jabloteh (Trinidad & Tobago) v Santos Laguna-Toluca loser (Mexico)
San Francisco (Panama) v Cruz Azul (Mexico)
Los Angeles Galaxy (USA) v Puerto Rico Islanders (Puerto Rico)
Tauro FC (Panama) v Marathon (Honduras)
Seattle Sounders (USA) v Aguila-Metapan winner (El Salvador)
Toronto-Vancouver (Canada) v Motagua (Honduras)

dN

Group Stage - 1st round matches begin Tue Aug 17.
Group A
Real Salt Lake (USA)
Arabe Unido (Panama)
San Francisco/Cruz Azul
Toronto-Vancouver winner/Motagua
Group B
Columbus Crew (USA)
Municipal (Guatemala)
San Juan Jabloteh/Santos Laguna/Toluca loser
Brujas/Joe Public winner
Group C
Monterrey (Mexico)
Saprissa (Costa Rica)
Seattle/Aguila-Metapan winner
Tauro/Marathon
Group D
Santos Laguna/Toluca winner
Olimpia (Honduras)
Los Angeles Galaxy/Puerto Rico Islanders
CD FAS (El Salvador)/Xelaju
-Each team plays all group members home and away, with the top 2 advancing to the knock out stages.

USSF DIVISION 2

Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 19
Rochester Rhinos v Crystal Palace Baltimore
Austin Aztex v Tampa Bay Rowdies
Portland Timbers v Montreal Impact

dN

Standings (As of Mon May 17):
13 Austin - 6 played
11 Rochester - 6 played
11 Portland - 6 played
9 Vancouver - 6 played
8 Tampa Bay - 5 played
8 Montreal - 5 played
7 Minnesota - 8 played
6 Puerto Rico - 3 played
5 Carolina - 5 played
5 Miami - 5 played
4 Baltimore - 6 played
4 St Louis - 7 played

SOCCER IN AMERICA

Greg Seltzer at Soccer 265 with his notes round-up on the LA Galaxy, MLS Western conference, Michael Ballack, the UEFA Champions League final and Team USA.

dN

I missed this last week:
Brent Latham of Soccernet tracks down the USA 1994 World Cup to tell us what they are up to now.

USA U20 TEAM

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

The team started off with a scoreless draw as part of a 2 game pre-tourney warm-up. Coach Thomas Rongen used 18 players in the game.

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

Roster:
G:
Samir Badr - Porto
Cody Cropper - Ipswich Town
D:
Gale Agbossoumonde - Braga
Chad Barson - Akron
Bryan De La Fuente - Chivas USA
Perry Kitchen - Akron
Kofi Sarkodie - Akron
Zarek Valentin - Akron
Parker Walsh - 1860 Munich
M:
Erik Benjaminsen - Stabaek
Lester Dewee - Olympique Marseille
Bryan Dominguez - Miami FC
Alex Molano - Dinamo Zagreb
Amobi Okugo - Philadelphia Union
Moises Orozco - Real So Cal
George Pantelic - RAD Belgrade
Cesar Zamora - Chivas USA
F:
Juan Agudelo - New York Red Bulls
Jack McInerney - Philadelphia Union
Bobby Wood - 1860 Munich

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

GREECE - Super League European Tournament Playoffs:
Freddy Adu - Aris - Wed May 19 - started and went 83 minutes as they won 3-2 at home over PAOK in Round 6 of 6.
Eddie Johnson - Aris - Already left the team to be with the USA for World Cup training camp.
NOTE: Aris finish the tourney with 8 points, which is enough points to earn a Europa League spot for next season. Hooray Fix!

MEXICO

Brent Latham of Soccernet checks in on the wunderkind Chicharito who is struggling as the World Cup draws nearer.

dN

Clausura 2010 playoffs:

Matches & Scores - Final:
1st Leg
-Thu May 20
Santos Laguna v Toluca
2nd Leg
-Sun May 23
Toluca v Santos Laguna

VOYAGEURS CUP - CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIP

The 3 professional teams in Canada play each other home and away for the annual title.

If Toronto wins tonight the title is theirs.

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Apr 28
Toronto 2-0 Montreal
-May 5
Vancouver Whitecaps 1-1 Montreal Impact
-May 12
Montreal Impact 0-1 Toronto FC
-May 19
Vancouver Whitecaps v Toronto FC
-May 26
Montreal Impact v Vancouver Whitecaps
-Jun 2
Toronto FC v Vancouver Whitecaps

dN

STANDINGS (4 rounds total):
6 Toronto (2 played)
1 Vancouver (1 played)
OUT-1 Montreal (3 played)

The winner represents Canada in the CONCACAF Champions League.

SPAIN

COPA DEL REY - Final
-Wed May 19
Sevilla v Atletico Madrid

ITALY

Juventus has stolen their new head coach Luigi Del Neri from Sampdoria.

COPA LIBERTADORES

Guadalajara are the first team in the Semifinals.

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 v Cruzeiro (2-0)
-Thu May 20
Universidad de Chile v Flamengo (3-2)
Estudiantes de la Plata v Internacional (0-1)

Away goals is the tie breaker.

dN

Here is the full Knockout Stage Bracket:
16 Flamengo v Universidad de Chile
13 Guadalajara
- - - - -
3 Estudiantes de la Plata v 6 Internacional
10 Cruzeiro v 2 Sao Paulo

ENDERS

The Daily Show stopped by the USA training camp in New Jersey today to tape a segment. That should be good!