Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Some News for Tue Jun 1, 2010

STARTERS

USA shirt numbers for the 2010 World Cup:

1 Tim Howard
2 Jonathan Spector
3 Carlos Bocanegra
4 Michael Bradley
5 Oguchi Onyewu
6 Steve Cherundolo
7 DaMarcus Beasley
8 Clint Dempsey
9 Herculez Gomez
10 Landon Donovan
11 Stuart Holden
12 Jonathan Bornstein
13 Ricardo Clark
14 Edson Buddle
15 Jay DeMerit
16 Jose Torres
17 Jozy Altidore
18 Brad Guzan
19 Maurice Edu
20 Robbie Findley
21 Clarence Goodson
22 Benny Feilhaber
23 Marcus Hahnemann

TWITTER

Climb on to our Twitter party train: @dunord

USA WORLD CUP 2010 SOUTH AFRICA

Our team is in South Africa now, and getting down to the nitty gritty.

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Sat May 29
USA 2-1 Turkey - USA goals by Jozy Altidore & Clint Dempsey. Tur goal by Arda Turan.
Venue: Lincoln Financial Field - Philadelphia PA
-Sat Jun 5
USA v Australia - 7:30am Central on ESPN2
Venue: Ruimsig Stadium - Roodepoort, South Africa

dN

du Nord Three Stars Of The Game

3. Jose Torres/Robbie Findley - the young guys that many thought would not be on the team had a big day. Findley has a lot of doubters to prove wrong, including me, while Torres grows in stature, quality and confidence with each appearance for the national team.
2. Arda Turan - not just that pure hustle goal he scored, but the consistent torturing of right back Jonathan Spector made him impossible to resist.
1. Landon Donovan - simple, smooth, effective, and fantastic as usual in setting up both USA goals, while working with the teammates to create several other chances too. (And I didn't disregard a mediocre first half.)

dN

Former USA midfielder John O'Brien writing for the New York Times tells us about going to the World Cup from the inside.
-Excellent to hear from JOB.

dN

Toby Miller at the Chronicle of Higher Education takes a view of the beautiful game and its relationship with modern America.
-Thanks to our old pal David, who is pretty much smarter than all of us put together, sent us this great link.

dN

John Molinaro of the CBC talks to father son duo Bob and Michael Bradley.

dN

2 English newspapers give differeing opinions of the USA:
-The Telegraph - nothing to worry about
-The Sun - Look out
Thanks to Bart for sending us these.

dN

The Telegraph of London also takes note of the rare pro-USA crowds at the 2 east coast games last week.

dN

Ronald Blum of the Associated Press on Day 1 in the SA.

dN

Brian Lewis of the NY Post on Jose Torres.

dN

Jay Greenburg of the NY Post on Landon Donovan's ability to change games.

dN

Noah Davis at Goal.com also on Jose Torres, and his growth as a player.

dN

Wayne Drehs of Soccernet talks to USA legend Walter Bahr about 1950 and today.

dN

Michael Lewis of the NY Daily News gives us a review of the USA at forward - and - midfield.

dN

The Associated Press on the USA lodging in SA.

dN

Jere Longman of the NY Times on the USA's defensive worries.

dN

Arch Bell of Yanks Abroad talks to DaMarcus Beasley now that he is on the team.

dN

Kelly Whiteside of USA Today on Africa, South Africa and African-American players.

dN

Martin Rogers of Yahoo with articles on both Robbie Findley - and - Jonathan Bornstein.

dN

Rogers also writes about American players who could benefit on the club front from a good World Cup.
-Actually, who's kidding who, every single player can benefit!

dN

- - - - -
Official Team Blog

The US Soccer video page at You Tube. Fantastic stuff!
-The latest is a fantastic feature on Jay DeMerit.
- - - - -

dN

USA OPPONENTS

England
-Richard Williams of the Guardian writes about the insanely idiotic running of the English Football Association.
-England struggled mightily on Sunday to beat Japan, who are struggling even more, 2-1. England missed a penalty kick, then got 2 own goals from Japan for the win. Oof.
-Graham Spiers of The Times looks at an old question - Should Scots support England?
-Patrick Barclay of The Times on England's formation.
-Anna Kessel of the Guardian on the teams World Cup home base in Bafokeng.
-The final 23 player roster:
G:
Robert Green - West Ham
Joe Hart - Manchester City
David James - Portsmouth
D:
Jamie Carragher - Liverpool
Ashley Cole - Chelsea
Rio Ferdinand - Manchester United
Glen Johnson - Liverpool
Ledley King - Tottenham
John Terry - Chelsea
Matthew Upson - West Ham
Stephen Warnock - Aston Villa
M:
Gareth Barry - Manchester City
Michael Carrick - Manchester United
Joe Cole - Chelsea
Steven Gerrard - Liverpool
Frank Lampard - Chelsea
Aaron Lennon - Tottenham
James Milner - Aston Villa
Shaun Wright-Phillips - Manchester City
F:
Peter Crouch - Tottenham
Jermain Defoe - Tottenham
Emile Heskey - Aston Villa
Wayne Rooney - Manchester United

Slovenia
-The Slovenia 23:
G:
Samir Handanovic - Udinese
Jasmin Handanovic - Mantova
Aleksander Seliga - Sparta Rotterdam
D:
Miso Brecko - Koln
Bostjan Cesar - Grenoble
Elvedin Dzinic - Maribor
Suad Filekovic - Maribor
Branko Ilic - Locomotiv Moscow
Bojan Jokic - Chievo Verona
Matej Mavric Rozic - Koblenz
Marko Suler - Gent
M:
Valter Birsa - Auxerre
Andraz Kirm - Wisla Krakow
Andrej Komac - Maccabi Tel Aviv
Robert Koren - unattached
Rene Krhin - Inter Milan
Aleksander Radosavljevic - Larissa
Dalibor Stevanovic - Vitesse Arnhem
S:
Zlatko Dedic - Bochum
Zlatan Ljubijankic - Gent
Tim Matavz - Groningen
Milivoje Novakovic - Koln
Nejc Pecnik - Nacional

Algeria
-The Algeria 23:
G:
Faouzi Chaouchi - Setif
Lounes Gaouaoui - Chlef
Raid Ouheb M’bolhi Slavia - Sofia
D:
Habib Belaid - Boulogne
Nadir Belhadj - Portsmouth
Madjid Bougherra - Glasgow Rangers
Rafik Halliche - Madeira
Abdelakder Laifaoui - Setif
Carl Medjani - Ajaccio
Djamel Mesbah - Lecce
Antar Yahia - Bochum
M:
Djamel Abdoun - Nantes
Riad Boudebouz - Sochaux
Adlene Guidoura - Wolverhampton
Foued Kadir - Valenciennes
Medhi Lacen - Racing Santander
Yazid Mansouri - Lorient
Karim Matmour - Monchengladbach
Hassan Yebda - Portsmouth
Karim Ziani - Wolfsburg
F:
Rafik Djebbour - AEK Athens
Abdelkader Ghezzal - Siena
Rafik Saifi - Istres

PODCASTS/VIDEOCASTS

You all must stop what you are doing right now and check out the podcast known as World Cup Buzz. From the fine folks who regularly bring us EPL Talk and MLS Talk - and hosted by Richard Farley, the World Cup Buzz is bringing us a steady stream of amazing interviews in this run up to the big tournament. Here is just a sampling of who they have been talking to over the past week or so: Jonathan Wilson, Andy Gray, Simon Kuper, Grant Wahl, Martin Tyler and Tim Vickery.

Check it all out right here!

MEXICO WORLD CUP 2010 SOUTH AFRICA

Do you ever wonder why a player as seemingly talented as Giovani Dos Santos never gets playing time no matter what club he suits up for? Could it be an extensive conspiracy against him personally? Or maybe because he is an immature child? Check this out:
-He is considering quitting Mexico because his younger brother Jonathan did not make the World Cup squad too, and their fathers says Jonathan will now "NEVER" play for Mexico. Wow.
-According to reports Gio is very upset and is at home with the family, presumably curled up in the fetal position on his mother's lap, with Jonny next to him, deciding on his future.
-And Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle compares the pathetic childish attitudes of the Dos Santos clan with the amazing maturity of Dynamo forward Brian Ching who was shockingly cut from the USA team.

WORLD CUP 2010 - SOUTH AFRICA

Giuseppe Rossi did not make the Italy 23. I feel bad for him, but he has more years ahead to fulfill his dream.
-On the other hand he could be a star for America right now.

dN

The Washington Post on the climate and altitude that await teams at the World Cup.
-I don't recall either playing any role at all last summer at the Confederations Cup also in South Africa.

dN

In the end, South Africa chose not to include forward Benni McCarthy on their squad. He is undoubtedly talented, but just not the type of team player they really need to move out of the group stage.

dN

Gabriele Marcotti at the Wall Street Journal tells us about the new era German team.

dN

Marcotti writing for the Times of London looks at Spain, who have the most talent, but can they win it?

dN

John Duerden of The Observer with an article on "the People's Rooney" from North Korea.

dN

Rob Bagchi of the Guardian on all of the Netherlands' high quality and low reward trips to the World Cup.

dN

Samuel Eto'o got 2 yellow cards and was sent off in Cameroon's friendly against Portugal today.

And the Netherlands did a little asskicking today, 4-1 over Ghana.

Friendly Matches & Scores:
-Fri May 28
Ireland 3-0 Algeria
-Sat May 29
Slovakia 1-1 Cameroon
Germany 3-0 Hungary
New Zealand 1-0 Serbia
North Korea v Congo DR - no one knows if it was played
Spain 3-2 Saudi Arabia
USA 2-1 Turkey
-Sun May 30
Chile 1-0 N Ireland - Chile split squad
Chile 3-0 Israel - Chile split squad
Cote d'Ivoire 2-2 Paraguay
England 2-1 Japan
France 1-1 Tunisia
Mexico 5-1 Gambia
Nigeria 1-1 Colombia
South Korea 0-1 Belarus
-Mon May 31
South Africa 5-0 Guatemala
-Tue Jun 1
Australia 1-0 Denmark - Aus goal by Josh Kennedy.
Cameroon 1-3 Portugal - Cam goal by Pierre Webo. Por goals by Raul Meireles(2) & Nani.
Ghana 1-4 Netherlands - Gha goal by Asamoah Gyan. Neth goals by Dirk Kuyt, Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder & Robin van Persie(PK).
Switzerland 0-1 Costa Rica - CR goal by Winston Parks.
-Wed Jun 2
Greece v Paraguay
Honduras v Azerbaijan
Serbia v Poland

FUN FACT OF THE DAY

We have finally learned why Shalrie Joseph of New England was suspended for 5 games earlier this season - he tested positive for marijuana.

STORY OF THE DAY

The Associated Press with a great article on soccer pubs in America.
-Many of the pubs we frequent are in here, including the main focus of the article Milwaukee's famous Highbury Pub - a huge du Nord fave!

THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

Get the new shirt from Bumpy Pitch inspired by the USA's 1-0 World Cup win over England in 1950.




















WHY NOT!


Did you read Grant Wahl's book The Beckham Experiment last year? Well the paperback edition is on the way and there is a new afterward, and Sports Illustrated gives us some of that.
-How did the famous airing of grievances between Landon Donovan and David Beckham take place? "Let's get this done," said LA coach Bruce Arena. Ya gotta love that guy.

WTF???

Wayne Drehs of Soccernet tells us that during last years Confederations Cup "Jozy Altidore [ran] up a cell phone bill in excess of $6,000."

MLS WEEK 10

-Thu May 27
Chicago Fire 1-1 FC Dallas - CF goal by Brian McBride. FCD goal by David Ferreira.
Venue: Toyota Park - Bridgeview IL
Attendance: 12,522
-Sat May 29
DC United 3-2 Chivas USA - DCU goals by Andy Najar, Adam Cristman & Carey Talley(PK). CUSA goals by Justin Braun & Maykel Galindo.
Venue: RFK Stadium - Washington DC
Attendance: 13,043
Columbus Crew 0-2 Los Angeles Galaxy - LAG goals by Michael Stephens & Tristan Bowan.
Venue: Crew Stadium - Columbus OH
Attendance: 18,139
New England Revolution 3-2 New York Red Bulls - NER goals by Marko Perovic, Tim Ream (OG) & Zach Schilawski. NY goals by Seth Stammler & Juan Pablo Angel.
Venue: Gillette Stadium - Foxborough MA
Attendance: 11,316
Houston Dynamo 2-3 Philadelphia Union - HD goals by Brian Ching & Eddie Robinson. PU goals by Shea Salinas, Sebastian Le Toux & Danny Mwanga.
Venue: Robertson Stadium - Houston TX
Attendance: 13,555
Colorado Rapids 1-0 Seattle Sounders FC - CR goal by Conor Casey.
Venue: Dick's Sporting Goods Park - Commerce City CO
Attendance: 18,000
Real Salt Lake 4-1 Kansas City Wizards - RSL goals by Fabian Espindola, Alvaro Saborio, Robbie Russell & Ned Grabavoy. KCW goal by Josh Wolff.
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium - Sandy UT
Attendance: 15,588
San Jose Earthquakes 1-3 Toronto FC - SJE goal by Ramiro Corrales. TFC goals by Chad Barrett & Dwayne DeRosario(2).
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium - Santa Clara CA
Attendance: 10,214

dN

Ejections:
Carlos Mendes - New York - 2 yellow cards
Roy Miller - New York - red card
Zach Thornton - DC - red card
Davy Arnaud - Kansas City - 2 yellow cards

dN

Week 11 gets going early:
-Wed Jun 2
New York Red Bulls v Houston Dynamo - 6:30PM Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Red Bull Arena - Harrison NJ
San Jose Earthquakes v Columbus Crew - 9PM Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium - Santa Clara CA

MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

In a big surprise Real Salt Lake forward Alvaro Saborio has been named the league's Player Of The Month for May! Wow, I did not see that coming.

dN

Toronto midfielder Dwayne De Rosario was named Player of the Week.

dN

Steve Davis of Sports Illustrated with 5 things to take away from Week 10.

dN

Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com with his regular top notch Monday Morning Breakdown.

dN

Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger now recognizes this pile of mediocrity in New York as the local team comes down from a great start to their usual place in the league. Ouch. But true.

dN

Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune on the high quality being emitted by the RSL forwards.
-This should be expected seeing as their head coach Jason Kreis was once not long ago the league's all time top goal scorer.

dN

Soccernet on DC's latest teen prodigy - Andy Najar.

dN

Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com on the Union's midfield, and plenty of other thoughts on the improving squad.

MLS INJURY REPORT

A horrifying leg break has ended the season for New England goalkeeper Preston Burpo. He collided with New York's Dane Richards and snaps his leg below the knee. This video is very graphic, especially after the 30 second mark. Its the worst I have seen in MLS. You have been strongly warned.
-Frank Dell'Apa of the Boston Globe with more on Burpo and the return from long term injury for New England's #1 keeper Matt Reis.

DU NORD PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Goalkeeper Donovan Rickets of the Los Angeles Galaxy is our Player of the Week.
-He was amazing not so much for saves, which he had a couple nice ones, but for keeping his back 4 tightly organized throughout a near 90 minute barrage from Columbus.

MY THOUGHTS

Here is Houston's season after 11 games: T-W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L - That is a yo-yo that even Kenny Strasser would recognize.

dN

Kansas City is even worse off without a win since Apr 10, going 6 losses and 2 ties since then.

dN

What has happened to all of those key foreign acquisitions from the offseason. Only 2 started on Saturday, and only 3 played. That is a lot of salary cap doing nothing.

dN

Colorado announced a sellout - does anyone know why? Was it a special occasion? Maybe they are doing 4th of July style fireworks with every game now?

dN

In the past I have made fun of goalkeeper Preston Burpo, but with an injury like the one he suffered over the weekend, its time to drop silly things and just have a good thought for him now.

dN

Shea Salinas' goal for Philadelphia was a masterpiece, especially as it came against Houston who have a great defense and goalkeeper. He smoked centerback Bobby Boswell, then outwitted keeper Pat Onstad with a no look chip shot for the score. Check it out. Easily my fave goal of the week.

dN

Columbus may try to impress people with their stat of 21 shots against LA, but they only put 4 of them on goal. That is not impressive.

dN

Phila got their first ever road win. Always a good milestone to get past.

MLS/SUM BUSINESS

The Colorado Rapids are about to fall another big step down the importance ladder of owner Stan Kroenke as he is all but completed a deal to by the St Louis Rams of the NFL.

MLS TEAM STATS

Best Offense
Salt Lake - 21 goals scored
Los Angeles - 18
Houston - 16
Toronto - 15
Columbus - 14

Best Defense
Los Angeles - 2 - goals allowed
Colorado - 7
Columbus - 8
San Jose - 10
Salt Lake - 11
Dallas - 11

Worst Offense
DC - 7 goals scored
Kansas City - 9
Seattle - 9
Colorado - 10
Philadelphia - 10

Worst Defense
DC - 20 goals allowed
Philadelphia - 17
New England - 17
Chivas - 17
New York - 15

MLS RUMORS

Soccer 365 with the latest whisperings on Fredy Montero, Manuel Salazar, David Beckham and more.

dN

Who is this Giancarlo Maldonado that Chivas USA is reportedly signing? A high scoring Venezuelan who has had trouble finding a spot on a team the past year.

MLS EXHIBITIONS

Matches & Scores:
-Sun May 30
Chicago Fire 0-1 AC Milan (Italy) - ACM goal by Clarence Seedorf.
Venue: Toyota Park
Attendance: 20,356

US OPEN CUP

MLS - the final Play-In Round game with the winner advancing to the Round of 16:
-Wed Jun 2
DC United v Real Salt Lake
Venue: RFK Stadium - Washington DC

dN

All the best Open Cup info can be found right here at The Cup.

USSF DIVISION 2

International Friendly:
-Sat May 29
Portland Timbers (USSF-D2) v Boca Juniors (Brazil)
Venue: PGE Park - Portland OR

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Sat May 29
Rochester Rhinos 2-1 Vancouver Whitecaps
Crystal Palace Baltimore 0-2 Austin Aztex
Tampa Bay Rowdies 2-1 Puerto Rico Islanders
NSC Minnesota Stars 3-2 AC St Louis
-Sun May 30
Montreal Impact 0-2 Carolina RailHawks

dN

Standings (As of Mon May 31):
20 Austin - 9 played
18 Tampa Bay - 9 played
14 Rochester - 9 played
12 Vancouver - 8 played
11 Montreal - 7 played
11 Carolina - 7 played
11 Portland - 8 played
10 Baltimore - 9 played
10 Minnesota - 11 played
8 Miami - 7 played
6 Puerto Rico - 5 played
4 St Louis - 9 played

dN

Standings base on Points Per Game:
2.22 Austin
2.00 Tampa Bay
1.57 Carolina
1.57 Montreal
1.56 Rochester
1.50 Vancouver
1.22 Portland
1.20 Puerto Rico
1.14 Miami
1.11 Baltimore
0.91 Minnesota
0.44 St Louis

USA U18 TEAM

Lisbon International Tournament

Matches & Scores:
-Thu May 27
USA 0-1 Norway - Nor goal by Orjan Hopen(PK).
Match report from US Soccer.
-Fri May 28
USA 1-0 Romania - USA goal by Victor Chavez.
Match report from US Soccer.
Note: the USA played with a 1 man advantage from the 47th minute, and a 2 man adv from the 53rd min. The goal came in the 74th.
-Sun May 30
USA v Portugal

Roster:
G:
Earl Edwards - UCLA
Andrew Wolverton - Concorde Fire
D:
Michael Ambrose - FC Dallas
Bryan Gallego - New York Red Bulls
Andrew Jean-Baptiste - Albertson
Jordan McCrary - Concorde Fire
Boyd Okwuonu - FC Dallas
Eriq Zavaleta - FC Pride
M:
Sean Davis - New York Red Bulls
Amadou Dia - Real Colorado
Daniel Garcia - FC Dallas
Luis Gil - Real Salt Lake
Perry Kitchen - Akron
Miguel Lopez - Lonestar SC
Daniel Metzger - PDA
Jared Watts - Wake Forest
Riley Wolfe - LA Galaxy
F:
Victor Chavez - Real So Cal
Stefan Jerome - West Pines United FC
Sean Okoli - Washington Premier

USA WORLD CUP 2018/22 BID

Martin Rogers of Yahoo on the big big big money of a World Cup bid.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Greg Seltzer of No Short Corners reports that Earnie Stewart has been hired by AZ Alkmaar to become their new Technical Director. He was previously in the same role at NAC Breda. Fantastic!

AMERICANS IN ASIA

Friendly Matches & Scores:
-Sat May 29
USA 2-1 Turkey - in Philadelphia at Lincoln Financial Field
Venezuela 1-1 Canada - in Merida, Venezuela
-Sun May 30
Mexico 5-1 Gambia - in Bayreuth, Germany
-Tue Jun 1
Switzerland v Costa Rica - in Sion, Switzerland
-Wed Jun 2
Honduras v Azerbaijan in Zell Am See, Austria
-Thu Jun 3
Italy v Mexico - in Brussels, Belgium
-Sat Jun 5
USA v Australia - in Roodepoort, South Africa at Ruimsig Stadium
Honduras v Romania in St. Veit An Der Glan, Austria
Slovakia v Costa Rica in Bratislava, Slovakia

dN

Here was Canada's roster for Venezuela match:
G:
Haidar Al Shaibani - Nimes
Josh Wagenaar - Falkirk
D:
Richard Hastings - Hamilton Acadaemy
Mike Klukowski - Club Brugges
Nik Ledgerwood - Frankfurt
Pedro Pacheco - Nacional (Portugal)
Eddy Sidra - Energie Cottbus II
Paul Stalteri - Monchengladbach
Adam Straith - Energie Cottbus
M:
Terry Dunfield - Shrewsbury
Gavin McCallum - Hereford united
Issey Nakajima-Farran - Horsens
Gianluca Zavarise - Bochum
F:
Stephen Ademolu - Ekranas
Rob Friend - Monchengladbach
Simeon Jackson - Gillingham

ENDERS

My pal The Lightning Striker posted a video of me at the final whistle of the UEFA Champions League final - Inter are winners.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Kevin A. said...

My contempt for Burpo is huge, but after seeing that video, I gotta agree w/you Bruce...

Kevin--

6:46 AM  
Blogger Jay said...

I'm all for BPFC sporting some Gaetjans glory for a shirt, but did they have to use the horribly doctored fake of the goal? Come on.

11:28 AM  

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