Monday, July 19, 2010

Some News for Mon Jul 19, 2010

STARTERS

BREAKING NEWS: New England Revolution and MLS legend Steve Ralston is set to announce his retirement tomorrow after he plays in the SuperLiga game.

dN

1 big name from Mexico joined MLS this weekend with another slated to be signed at any moment. Chicago introduced Nery Castillo, and rumors are loud & clear that Kansas City will introduce Omar Bravo.

MLS ALL STARS

Match & Score:
-Wed Jul 28
MLS All Stars v Manchester United
Venue: Reliant Stadium - Houston TX

dN

13 more All Stars were named today, to fill out the roster.

Originally 12 players were to be named today, but Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman is injured and will not take part in the game, so a 13th players was named to replace him.

dN

Next 13:
Kevin Alston - New England Revolution
Juan Pablo Angel - New York Red Bulls
Jonathan Bornstein - Chivas USA
Brian Ching - Houston Dynamo
Wilman Conde - Chicago Fire
Brad Davis - Houston Dynamo
David Ferreira - FC Dallas
Shalrie Joseph - New England Revolution
Jeff Larentowicz - Colorado Rapids
Sebastien Le Toux - Philadelphia Union
Jaime Moreno - DC United
Heath Pearce - FC Dallas
Nick Rimando - Real Salt Lake

dN

Others who hopefully were considered:
-Brian Carroll - Columbus
-Eddie Gaven - Columbus
-William Hesmer - Columbus
-Justin Braun - Chivas USA
-Conor Casey - Colorado
-Drew Moor - Colorado
-Daniel Hernandez - FC Dallas
-Dax McCarty - FC Dallas
-Todd Dunivant - Los Angeles
-Gregg Berhalter - Los Angeles
-Chris Birchall - Los Angeles
-Sean Franklin - Los Angeles
-Sainey Nyassi - New England
-Nat Borchers - Salt Lake
-Javier Morales - Salt Lake
-Alvaro Saborio - Salt Lake
-Bobby Convey - San Jose
-Fredy Montero - Seattle
-Adrian Cann - Toronto
-Stefan Frei - Toronto

Did I miss anyone?

THIERRY HENRY

From No Short Corners: This might seem nuts but the best of the Henry video interviews might have been on Joe Scarborough's show on MSNBC. Sure the hosts are loud buffoons, but they have a (sur)real conversation, and Henry gets to talk beyond the usual cliches.

WHO KNEW?

My new favorite Brazilian footballer is Schwenck, yes Schwenck, who plays for Vitoria! What a name!

QUESTION OF THE DAY

What has happened to all the "new team momentum" in Philadelphia? They have played 3 games at the new stadium, PPL Park, but only game 1 was sold out. And we are not talking about a couple dozen tickets here and there. We are talking 1500 short in both game 2 and 3. You can clearly see the empty seats.

FACT OF THE DAY

Tottenham has banned vuvuzela's from their stadium this season.

FUN FACT OF THE DAY

From a report on Thierry Henry at the NYRB website: "After practice concluded, Henry trained with an academy goalkeeper."

Wow! That kid must be spinning into orbit. Imagine bragging that one up to your teenage buddies!

THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

Brent Latham of ESPN Soccernet on the current surge in world wide youth scouting to grow the talent pool for America. It really is going on world wide.
-If an article like this doesn't get us geeks all fired up, then little will.

Here is that roster for the USA U20 team at the Milk Cup.

See details on the tournament in the USA U20 section below.

STORY OF THE DAY

"If you're in Denmark or Norway or Sweden, you're playing a little bit or you're on the bench, that's not helping you. If you're playing in MLS every week, that's a lot better than playing a minor role on some team in Europe. So if you have the opportunity to actually play games at some of the big leagues in Europe, great. But if not, you're hindering your development by not playing games." - Landon Donovan

Matt Brooks of the Washington Post with an article on Landon Donovan.
-Some extras from the interview not used in the main article.

Fox Sports West with an editorial piece saying MLS needs to let Donovan go to the biggest leagues in the world to advance soccer in America.

WHY NOT!

Barney Ronay of the Guardian asks David Beckman to simply go away and stop bothering England.

MLS WEEK 16

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jul 14
Columbus Crew 0-1 Kansas City Wizards - KCW goal by Teal Bunbury.
Venue: Crew Stadium - Columbus OH
Attendance: 11,304
-Thu Jul 15
DC United 0-1 Seattle Sounders FC - SS goal by Roger Levesque.
Venue: RFK Stadium - Washington DC
Attendance: 13,716
-Sat Jul 17
Philadelphia Union 2-1 Toronto FC - PU goals by Michael Orozco Fiscal * Sebatian Le Toux(PK). TFC goal by Chad Barrett.
Venue: PPL Park - Chester PA
Attendance: 17,251
Columbus Crew 2-0 New York Red Bulls - CC goals by Emilio Renteria & Brian Carroll.
Venue: Crew Stadium - Columbus OH
Attendance: 14,378
FC Dallas 2-0 Real Salt Lake - FCD goals by Brek Shea & Attiba Harris.
Venue: Pizza Hut Park - Frisco TX
Attendance: 11,170
Colorado Rapids 1-1 Kansas City Wizards - CR goal by Conor Casey. KCW goal by Davy Arnaud.
Venue: Dick's Sporting Goods Park - Commerce City CO
Attendance: 12,825
-Sun Jul 18
DC United 1-2 Los Angeles Galaxy - DCU goal by Andy Najar. LAG goals by Edson Buddle & Landon Donovan(PK).
Venue: RFK Stadium - Washington DC
Attendance: 17,688

dN

EJECTIONS:
Frankie Hejduk - Columbus - Red Card

MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

Philadelphia forward Sebastien Le Toux has been named the league's Player Of The Week.

dN

Steve Davis of Sports Illustrated with 5 things to take away from Week 16.

dN

Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com with his Monday MLS Breakdown - Nery Castillo.

dN

Len Zeihm of the Chicago Sun Times on the Fire's signing of the troubled Nery Castillo.

dN

Mike Kuhn of Down the Byline reports that Kansas City has signed Greek defender Nikos Kounenakis who played last season for Aris Limassol in Cyprus.

dN

Shemar Woods of the Denver Post talks to Kansas City Wizards midfielder Roger Espinoza about his trip to the World Cup with Honduras.

dN

Frank Dell'Apa of the Boston Globe tells us about this maturing New England Revolution team.

dN

Dell'Apa tells us more about Revs midfielder Marko Perovic who has had a very positive impact on his new team.
-Dell'Apa with some other Revs notes.

dN

Blaise Nkufo made his Seattle debut in a friendly against Celtic. He started and played 60 minutes, and was said to be effective.

dN

Forward Pablo Hernandez got his first start for DC United against LA on Sunday. While he seemed frustrated and a little out of sync with his teammates you could still see some real quality in him. If Hernandez can team up with Quaranta, Najar, Pontius and Boskovic, they have a chance of salvaging the season. Slight but possible.

dN

Daniel Girrard of the Toronto Star reviews the first half of the season for TFC.

dN

Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch gives a Monday morning look back to the Crew over the weekend.
-Calls Thierry Henry the Anti-Beckham. Nice.

dN

Nigel Reed of the CBC sees Toronto's performance in Philly as an old TV rerun. Oof.

IF MLS HAD SINGLE TABLE STANDINGS

(As of Sun Jul 18)

39 Los Angeles - 17gp, +19gd
31 Columbus - 16gp, +9gd
30 Salt Lake - 16gp, +15gd
26 New York - 16gp, -1gd
25 Dallas - 15gp, +6gd
23 Colorado - 15gp, +3gd
22 San Jose - 14gp, +2gd
22 Toronto - 15gp, +1gd
19 Houston - 16gp, -1gd
19 Seattle - 17gp, -6gd
17 Chicago - 14gp, -1gd
16 Kansas City - 16gp, -7gd
14 Philadelphia - 14gp, -8gd
14 Chivas - 15gp, -4gd
14 New England - 15gp, -11gd
12 DC - 17gp, 16gd

(gp = games played, gd = goal difference)

Thanks to Luke for suggesting we post this.

MLS OFFENSE STAT LEADERS

Goals:
11 Edson Buddle - Los Angeles Galaxy (12 games)
9 Juan Pablo Angel - New York Red Bulls (16 games)
8 Dwayne De Rosario - Toronto FC (14 games)
7 Conor Casey - Colorado Rapids (15 games)
7 Alvaro Saborio - Real Salt Lake (16 games)
6 Sebastion Le Toux - Philadelphia Union (12 games)
6 Chris Wondolowski - San Jose Earthquakes (12 games)
6 Justin Braun - Chivas USA (14 games)
6 Marco Pappa - Chicago Fire (14 games)
6 Kei Kamara - Kansas City Wizards (16 games)
6 Fredy Montero - Seattle Sounders (17 games)

dN

Assists:
10 Landon Donovan - Los Angeles Galaxy (11 games)
8 Bobby Convey - San Jose Earthquakes (14 games)
7 Sebastian Le Toux - Philadelphia Union (12 games)
7 Fredy Montero - Seattle Sounders (17 games)
7 Michael Stephens - Los Angeles Galaxy (17 games)
6 Patrick Nyarko - Chicago Fire (13 games)
6 Javier Morales - Real Salt Lake (14 games)
6 Brad Davis - Houston Dynamo (15 games)
6 Ryan Smith - Kansas City Wizards (16 games)

DU NORD PLAYER OF THE WEEK

The man of hair himself - Brek Shea of FC Dallas. This kid could be a frickin star if everything goes right, and I don't expect to see him in the Dallas red and white hoops for very long.

MLS/SUM BUSINESS

Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post is one of those sports writers who doesn't like the quality of MLS and wants the league to take all their chips and push them into the middle of the table right now! All or nothing. Economics be damned.

dN

Embele Awipi of The Salinas Californian looks at the partnership between the San Jose Earthquakes and Tottenham.

dN

Art Thiel of the Seattle Post Intelligencer questions the value of the Sounder's friendly with Celtic, and then looks at Blaise Nkufo and Freddie Ljungberg.
-From the other side of the Atlantic Ocean the Daily Mail asks 2 important questions of the match too - Why did Celtic fly all the way to Seattle from the East Coast for 48 hours - and - Why did the referee ruin a perfectly good friendly with a Red Card that was correct by the strict law, but could have been avoided for an exhibition.

dN

The Los Angeles Times with a profile of Chivas USA team president Shawn Hunter. (Thanks to the Superrookie for the link)

dN

Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle on the Dynamo's continuing struggle for success beyond the hardcore fans in their city.

MLS RUMORS

Soccer 365's Grapevine has words on Jozy Altidore, Omar Bravo, Chacho Coudet, Danny Spiller, Matt Taylor and much more.

dN

Luciano Emilio to Columbus anyone?

MLS EXPANSION

Doug Roberson of the Atlanta Constitution with a second article on bringing a MLS team to Atlanta. This article is focused on local backers.
-The list of city business people involved is impressive.

MLS EXHIBITIONS

This past weekend San Jose held Tottenham to a scoreless draw, while Seattle lost to Celtic.

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Jul 17
San Jose Earthquakes 0-0 Tottenham (England)
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium
-Sun Jul 18
Seattle Sounders 1-2 Glasgow Celtic (Scotland)
Venue: Qwest Field - Seattle WA
-Wed Jul 21
Philadelphia Union v Manchester United (England)
Venue: Lincoln Financial Field - Philadelphia PA
Toronto FC v Bolton Wanderers(England)
Venue: BMO Field - Toronto ON

US OPEN CUP

Stay on top of the Open Cup.

dN

Columbus, Chivas USA and Seattle are already in the Semis.

dN

Quarterfinal Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jul 21
DC United (MLS) v Harrisburg City Islanders (USL-2)
Venue: Maryland SoccerPlex - Boyds MD

dN

Semifinal Matches & Scores:
-Wed Sep 1
Seattle Sounders FC v Chivas USA
Venue: Starfire Sports Complex - Tukwila WA
-Date TBD
Columbus Crew v DC United/Harrisburg City Islanders winner
Venue: TBD

dN

Final
-Tue Oct 5

Superliga 2010

Group Stage game 2 saw New England and Puebla advance to the knock out stage, with Pachuca and Chicago eliminated.

dN

Group A (2 of 3 played)
ADV-6 New England Revolution (+2)
4 Morelia (+4)
1 UNAM Pumas (-1)
OUT-0 Chicago Fire (-5)
Group B (2 of 3 played)
ADV-6 Puebla (+3)
4 Houston Dynamo (+1)
1 Chivas USA (-1)
OUT-0 Pachuca (-3)

dN

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jul 14
New England Revolution 1-0 UNAM Pumas - NER goal by Zack Schilawski.
Venue: Gillette Stadium – Foxborough MA
Chicago Fire 1-5 Morelia - CF goal by Steve Kinney. Mor goals by Elias Hernandez, Luis Gabriel Rey, Miguel Sabah, Rafael Marquez Lugo, & Jaime Lozan.
Venue: Toyota Park – Bridgeview IL
-Thu Jul 15
Houston Dynamo 2-1 Pachuca - HD goals both by Joseph Ngwenya. Pac goal by Damian Manso.
Venue: Robertson Stadium – Houston TX
Match report by Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle.
Chivas USA 1-2 Puebla - CU goal by Michael Umana. Pue goals by Nicolas Olivera and Álvaro Gonzalez.
Venue: Home Depot Center – Carson CA
-Sat Jul 17
Chicago Fire 0-1 New England Revolution - NER goal by Marko Perovic.
Venue: Toyota Park – Bridgeview IL
UNAM Pumas 2-2 Morelia - UP goals by Leandro Augusto & Javier Cortes. Mor goals by Luis Gabriel Rey & Hugo Droguett.
Venue: Toyota Park – Bridgeview IL
-Sun Jul 18
Houston Dynamo 1-1 Chivas USA - HD goal by Lovell Palmer. CU goal by Jesus Padilla.
Venue: Robertson Stadium – Houston TX
Pachuca 1-3 Puebla - Pac goal Franco Arizala. Pue goal by Gabriel Pereyra & Mario Ortiz(2).
Venue: Robertson Stadium – Houston TX
-Tue Jul 20
New England Revolution v Morelia - 7pm Central on Telefutura
Venue: Gillette Stadium - Foxborough MA
Chicago Fire v UNAM Pumas - 8:30pm Central on Galavision
Venue: Toyota Park – Bridgeview IL
-Wed Jul 21
Houston Dynamo v Puebla - 7pm Central on Telefutura
Venue: Robertson Stadium – Houston TX
Chivas USA v Pachuca - 9:30pm Central on Telefutura
Venue: Home Depot Center – Carson CA

USSF DIVISION 2

Brian Quarstad at Inside Minnesota Soccer gives us Part 4 of a 4 part series looking at the future of second division soccer in North America.

Part 3
Part 2
Part 1

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Jul 17
Rochester Rhinos 0-1 Carolina Railhawks
Miami Blues FC 1-1 Puerto Rico
Austin Aztex 2-0 AC St Louis
-Sun Jul 18
Montreal Impact 1-2 Crystal Palace Baltimore
-Wed Jul 21
NSC Minnesota Stars v Puerto Rico Islanders
Montreal Impact v AC St Louis
-Thu Jul 22
Tampa Bay Rowdies v Rochester Rhinos
Vancouver Whitecaps v Portland Timbers
-Sat Jul 24
Crystal Palace Baltimore v AC St Louis
Puerto Rico Islanders v Rochester Rhinos
-Sun Jul 25
Tampa Bay Rowdies v Miami FC Blues
Vancouver Whitecaps v NSC Minnesota

dN

Standings (As of Sun Jul 18):
35 Austin - 17 played
29 Vancouver - 17 played
27 Rochester - 17 played
24 Carolina - 15 played
24 Minnesota - 19 played
23 Portland - 16 played
20 Tampa Bay - 16 played
20 Montreal - 17 played
19 Puerto Rico - 16 played
19 Baltimore - 17 played
15 Miami - 17 played
13 St Louis - 16 played

dN

Pro-Rated Standings based on Points Per Game:
2.06 Austin
1.71 Vancouver
1.60 Carolina
1.59 Rochester
1.44 Portland
1.26 Minnesota
1.25 Tampa Bay
1.19 Puerto Rico
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
OUT OF PLAY OFF SPOTS
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1.18 Montreal
1.12 Baltimore
0.88 Miami
0.81 St Louis

USL/NASL INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS

Portland and Charleston both lost to big English Premier League teams.

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Jul 17
Portland Timbers (USSF-D2) 0-3 Manchester City (England)
Venue: Harry A. Merlo Field - Portland OR
Charleston Battery (USL 2) 0-2 Bolton Wanderers (England)
Venue: Blackbaud Stadium - Charleston SC

USA U20 TEAM

The team heads to Ballymena, Northern Ireland for the annual Milk Cup tournament.

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Mon Jul 26
USA v China
-Wed Jul 28
USA v Denmark
-Fri Jul 30
Placement match

dN

Teams:
China
Denmark
Japan
Mexico
Northern Ireland
USA

dN

USA Roster:
G:
Samir Badr - Porto
Zac MacMath - Maryland
D:
Gale Agbossoumonde - Braga
Bryan De La Fuente - Chivas USA
Greg Garza - Estoril Praia
Sacir Hot - Boston College
Perry Kitchen - Akron
Zarek Valentin - Akron
Ethan White - Maryland
M:
Fuad Ibrahim - Toronto FC
Francisco Navas Cobo - Houston Dynamo
Alex Molano - Dinamo Zagreb
Ernest Nungaray - Morelia
Dillon Powers - Notre Dame
Conor Shanosky - DC United
F:
Juan Agudelo - New York Red Bulls
Adrian Ruelas - Santos Laguna
Omar Salgado - Unattached

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Clarence Goodson scored yet another goal for Start and winning, while Mikel Diskerud scored in a road draw.

dN

Yanks Abroad talks to goalkeeper Joe Bendik who just signed with Sogndal in Norway's second division. The team is currently in 1st place half way through the season.

dN

Brian Sciaretta of Yanks Abroad tells us about another young phenom with possible ties to the USA.

dN

Sciaretta also reports that Jermaine Jones has finally stepped back on to the field for Schalke.

dN

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

NORWAY - Eliteserien
Mikkel Diskerud - Stabaek - Sun Jul 18 - played the whole game scoring a goal and drew 2-2 at Brann.
Hunter Freeman - Start - Sun Jul 18 - went the full 90 getting a yellow card and won 1-0 at home over Aalesund.
Clarence Goodson - Start - Sun Jul 18 - went the distance scoring a goal and winning 1-0 at home against Aalesund.
Di Vita Jensen - Honefoss - Sun Jul 18 - went the full 90 but lost badly 4-0 at Viking.

dN

Coming Up: (all possible players are listed)

EUROPA LEAGUE - 2nd Qualifying Round, 2nd Leg,
Mikkel Diskerud - Stabaek - Thu Jul 22 at Dnepr Mogilev (Belarus) (2-2)

AMERICANS IN EUROPE - RUMORS

Greg Seltzer at MLS Soccer with the latest scuttlebutt on DaMarcus Beasley.

dN

Seltzer also fills us in the future of two youngsters who went to Everton last year.

AMERICANS IN MEXICO

Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle with an article on Jose Torres of Pachuca.

dN

Yanks Abroad also has an article on Torres.

dN

Game Action:

SUPERLIGA Group Stage:
Herculez Gomez - Pachuca - Sun Jul 18 - went the full 90 but lost 3-1 to Puebla.
Jose Torres - Pachuca - Sun Jul 18 - started and went 65 minutes getting a yellow card and losing 3-1 to Puebla.
Marco Vidal - Pachuca - Sun Jul 18 - came on as a sub in the 79th minute but lost 3-1 to Puebla.

dN

Coming Up:

SUPERLIGA Group Stage:
Herculez Gomez - Pachuca - Wed Jul 21 at Chivas USA.
Jose Torres - Pachuca - Wed Jul 21 at Chivas USA.
Marco Vidal - Pachuca - Wed Jul 21 at Chivas USA.

CANADA

Steve Sandor of the Toronto Suns says the locals are tiring of very high priced tickets for exhibition matches between big European clubs who don't give 100%.

ENGLAND

The Observer tells us all about the hot young prospects at Manchester United.

dN

Some are calling the signing of Joe Cole by Liverpool a big deal. But is it really? Liverpool is struggling badly, and what has Cole ever really done.

EUROPE

Both Bosnia and Croatia are on the verge of being suspended by FIFA if their respective federations cannot sort out their leadership problems.

BRAZIL

Time Vickery of the BBC gets us up to date on the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A aka the Brazilian Championship league, which has just resumed.
-They have played 9 of 38 rounds so far. Here are the current standings, with Corinthians (featuring Ronaldo) in the lead.

BRAZIL 2014 WORLD CUP

The Daily Mail gives us 10 very young players who could be stars in 4 years.

ENDERS

Who is the kid with Ronaldo?















Yup! It's his son.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can answer your Philly question. Single game tickets didn't go on sale until June. By that point people have already started making summer plans so there goes some people. I have spoke to other people who assumed the season was sold out and they just didn't try to get tickets. And walk-up sales are getting crippled by the fact that pretty much every day here has been above 90 and the heat index is regularly above 100. I think every day we have warnings about not being outside for too long due to the heat. Over 17k a game right now is not bad considering the weather out here and the lack of name teams we have played (SJ and TFC have no one you can market to anyone).

9:07 PM  
Anonymous Wes said...

You didn't tell me I should be high whilst watching that Morning Joe interview with Henry... wowza.

11:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Schwenck is not as good as Scheidt, who earned about 3 Brazil caps in the late 1990's!

8:19 AM  
Anonymous humberto said...

also fan fave rafa marquez is rumoured to be joining MLS. Contract talks going on hot and heavy. Will know in 2-3 weeks.

omar bravo is a done deal.

8:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

also, jonathan bornstein to sign with mexican side tigres ?

9:30 AM  
Blogger Demko said...

I don't know how big an issue this is for Philly, but the stadium is pretty much a nightmare to reach. You have to take the train to Chester and then take another shuttle bus to the stadium.

For Saturday's game, we left Philly at 2 p.m. and arrived at the stadium just in time for the 3:30 start. After the match, we had to wait in line nearly an hour to catch the shuttle bus back to the train station. It took just over two hours to get back to Philly.

So in other words, we spent nearly four hours in travel time to watch a 90-minute match. I can't imagine many people will wish to do that on a regular basis.

On the plus side, the stadium is gorgeous and it was a great atmosphere.

1:17 PM  
Anonymous Joe the curmudgeon said...

Justin Braun - Chivas USA!!! Yes, he's a threat!

Demko, I live on public transit here in LA, and for me, a trip to Carson is the same - long travel.

4:52 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Newer Posts Older Posts