Some News For Mon Oct 4, 2010

STARTERS

It would be great to get a status update on Oguchi Onyewu at Milan and Kenny Cooper at 1860 Munich. Wouldn't it?

dN

Did you see the goal celebration by Didier Drogba - he raced to the corner flag, using it as a microphone, and pulled off a royal James Brown mic-stand slap and 360 spin. Just missing the splits! Fantastic. Check it.

LAMAR HUNT US OPEN CUP

Stay on top of the Open Cup.

dN

The 2010 US Open Cup Final - Seattle Sounders FC v Columbus Crew!

dN

Final Match & Score:
-Tue Oct 5
Seattle Sounders FC v Columbus Crew - 9pm Central on FSC
Venue: Qwest Field - Seattle WA

dN

Can Seattle repeat? They are the favorites, simply due to the massive home crowd support they will get. But Columbus has won it before as well!

Columbus brought all 24 players on their roster along on the trip to Seattle. They must be expecting to win!

Joshua Mayers of the Seattle Times has quotes from Seattle heac coach Sigi Schmid.

Mayers with a preview of sorts as well.

Seattle will wear nuclear yellow kits, while Columbus will counter with grim-reaper black.

TEAM USA

Here come 2 friendlies!

US Soccer gives us 5 things from today's first training session.

And a couple more notes as the team gathers in Chicago for a week of training.

dN

Friendly Matches & Scores:
-Sat Oct 9
USA v Poland
Venue: Soldier Field - Chicago IL
-Tue Oct 12
USA v Colombia
Venue: PPL Park - Chester PA

dN

Poland's roster:
-G:
Artur Boruc - Fiorentina
Grzegorz Sandomierski - Jagiellonia Bialystok
Przemyslaw Tyton - Roda JC Kerkrade
-D:
Kamil Glik - Palermo
Lukasz Mierzejewski - Cracovia Krakow
Dariusz Pietrasiak - Polonia Warszawa
Lukasz Piszczek - Dortmund
Grzegorz Wojtkowiak - Lech Poznan
Hubert Wolakiewicz - Lechia Gdansk
Michal Zewlakow - Ankaragucu
-M:
Jakub Blaszczykowski - Dortmund
Grzegorz Bonin - Gornik Zabrze
Radoslaw Majewski - Nottingham Forest
Adam Matuszczyk - Koln
Adrian Mierzejewski - Polonia Warszawa
Rafal Murawski - Rubin Kazan
Ludovic Obraniak - Lille
Bartosz Salamon - Foggia
-F:
Kamil Grosicki - Jagiellonia Bialystok
Ireneusz Jelen - Auxerre
Robert Lewandowski - Dortmund
Andrzej Niedzielan - Korona Kielce
Ebi Smolarek - Polonia Warszawa
-Head Coach: Franciszek Smuda

STORY OF THE DAY

LE Eisenmenger of the Examiner does a Q & A with Columbus Crew technical director Brian Bliss who gives us insight into how the MLS reserve division will be set up for next season.

BIG EUROPEAN CLUB MATCHES COMING UP THIS WEEKEND

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Oct 2
Mainz 4-2 Hoffenheim - the shocking #1 pummells a contender.
Saint-Etienne 1-1 Marsielle - a tie does not help the surprise leaders or another of the teams that are expected to challenge for the title.
-Sun Oct 3
Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal - a fairly easy win for the #1 team in the London derby.
Dortmund 2-0 Bayern Munich - #2 with a very big win over a team they have chased for a long long time.
Inter 0-0 Juventus - a scoreless draw hurts both teams who really do hate each other.
Sevilla 3-1 Atletico Madrid - AM fall back into their role of being pretenders.
Stade Rennes 3-1 Toulouse - a big win pushes Rennes to #1 and drops Toulouse to #4.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"We're 27 weeks in and it hasn't been perfect, but we've been in first place for 27 weeks so write all the crap you want, good or bad, I don't really care."

-Los Angeles Galaxy coach Bruce Arena getting all edgy after winning the LA derby.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Am I jam-packed-full of Grade A street narcotics or is Kansas City Wizards right fullback Michael Harrington quietly having a really good season? Especially lately! I'm serious. Not about the drugs. About Harrington. I'm sober.

FACTS OF THE DAY

A two-for-one:

Jeff Cunningham scored on a Penalty Kick Saturday night for Dallas and is now tied with Jaime Moreno as MLS's all-time goal scoring leader. They both have 132 goals.
-This season Cunningham has scored 11, while Moreno for the first time in his career has not put one in the net.

JC's team Dallas has now gone 18 games without a loss, tying the league record set by Columbus in 2004.

STAT OF THE DAY

Since 2006 Colorado Rapids is 0-51-17 when giving up the first goal. UNBELIEVABLE!

MLS WEEK 27

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Sep 29
Colorado Rapids 4-1 Philadelphia Union - CR goals by Omar Cummings(2), Wells Thompson & Quincy Amarikwa. PU goal by Jack McInerney.
Venue: Dick's Sporting Goods Park - Commerce City CO
Attendance: 10,165
San Jose Earthquakes 0-3 Chicago Fire - CF goals by Steven Kinney, Freddie Ljungberg & Patrick Nyarko.
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium - Santa Clara CA
Attendance: 9,829
-Sat Oct 2
Seattle Sounder FC 3-2 Toronto FC - SS goals by Steve Zakuani, Blaise Nkufo & Sanna Nyassi. TFC goals by Dwayne DeRosario & Chad Barrett.
Venue: Qwest Field - Seattle WA
Attendance: 36,079
Philadelphia Union 1-1 Houston Dynamo - PU goal by Sebastien Le Toux. HG goal by Andrew Hainault.
Venue: PPL Park - Chester PA
Attendance: 16,115
New York Red Bulls 1-0 Kansas City Wizards - NYRB goal by Dane Richards.
Venue: Red Bull Arena - Harrison NJ
Attendance: 24,799
New England Revolution 1-2 Real Salt Lake - NER goal by Kenny Mansally. RSL goals by Nat Borchers & Alvaro Saborio.
Venue: Gillette Stadium - Foxborough MA
Attendance: 18,130
Columbus Crew 0-0 San Jose Earthquakes
Venue: Columbus Crew Stadium - Columbus OH
Attendance: 10,867
FC Dallas 3-0 Chicago Fire SC - FCD goals by Milton Rodriguez, Marvin Chavez & Jeff Cunningham(PK).
Venue: Pizza Hut Park - Frisco TX
Attendance: 10,615
Colorado Rapids 0-1 DC United - DCU goal by Danny Allsopp.
Venue: Dick's Sporting Goods Park - Commerce City CO
Attendance: 15,478
-Sun Oct 3
CD Chivas USA 1-2 Los Angeles Galaxy - CU goal by Alan Gordon. LAG goals by Edson Buddle & David Beckham.
Venue: The Home Depot Center - Carson CA
Attendance:

dN

EJECTIONS:
Eddie Lewis - Los Angeles - red card

MLS PLAYOFF RACE

Salt Lake, Dallas, New York & Columbus joined LA in clinching playoff spots this weekend!

DC, Chivas, New England, Houston & Philadelphia have all been eliminated from the post-season chase.

Toronto is still only in the chase because it can tie San Jose. The first tie breaker is head to head but they beat each other at home, so the next tie breaker is Goal Differential which San Jose leads 0 to -6. Its final 3 games look like this:
Sat Oct 9 at Chivas USA
Sat Oct 16 v Columbus
Sat Oct 23 at DC

KC has the best shot of the outsiders to squeak in as it can surpass all three teams above them in the standings. Its schedule looks like this:
Sat Oct 9 v Seattle
Tue Oct 12 at Chicago
Sat Oct 16 at New England
Sat Oct 23 v San Jose

And Chicago is still alive with two teams it can catch. Here is its schedule remaining:
Fri Oct 8 v Columbus
Tue Oct 12 v KC
Sat Oct 16 v DC
Sat Oct 23 at Chivas USA

MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

General News

NY goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul has been named the official Player Of The Week.

Steve Davis of Sports Illustrated gives us 5 things we learned from Week 27.

Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com on the designated player rule upping the ante around the league, and the rest of the weekend in MLS.

MLS Soccer's list of the best 24 players in the league under 24 years old - #10-#6.

Now the list moves to 1 per day - Numero Cinco.

COLUMBUS CREW

Shawn Mitchell of the Dispatch goes back to look at another lumpy-gravyish scoreless Crew performance.
-The team is currently doing some heavy scouting in Argentina.

Bob Hunter of the Dispatch talks to Stern John about a possible comeback with the Crew next season. (scroll down to the second topic of the column.)

Mitchell also reports that workers at Columbus Crew stadium are trying to unionize and staged a walk out Saturday before the game.

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Phil Collin of the Daily News on Los Galaxia continued dominance of Los Goats.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Gus Martins of ESPN Boston has an interview with Revs COO Brian Bilello. These guys who run the NER rarely talk to the press so its good to read some of their future ideas.
-The team released forward Edgaras Jankauskas.

Comcast has video of an interview with Revs president Jonathan Kraft. A little stadium talk starts it off.

PHILADELPHIA UNION

Marc Narducci of the Inquirer on the special welcome that David Beckham will receive from the Philly fans.

Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com singles out young midfielder Roger Torres for praise.
-I like the cut of this player's jib.

TORONTO FC

Gareth Wheeler of the Sun on TFC's wilting under the huge Seattle wave of pressure.

Paul James of the Globe & Mail compares TFC's best players with Seattle's best, and sees a 2-9 landslide for the Sounders.

IF MLS HAD SINGLE TABLE STANDINGS

Pts - Team - Games - Max Pts Poss
IN-51 Salt Lake - 27 (60)
IN-50 Los Angeles - 26 (62)
IN-49 Dallas - 27 (58)
IN-47 New York - 27 (56)
IN-46 Columbus - 27 (54)
42 Seattle - 27 (51)
41 Colorado - 27 (50)
40 San Jose - 26 (52)
- - - - - - - - - - - -
33 Kansas City - 26 (45)
31 Toronto - 27 (40)
29 Chicago - 26 (41)
OUT-28 Philadelphia - 27 (37)
OUT-27 Houston - 27 (36)
OUT-26 New England - 27 (35)
OUT-25 Chivas - 25 (40)
OUT-21 DC - 27 (30)

MLS COACHES HOT SEAT AND A LOOK AHEAD TO 2011

I am still available for any and all coaching positions.

DU NORD PLAYER OF THE WEEK AND OTHER STUFF

Dane Richards of New York again. He scored another very poised goal, that took them nearer the top of the whole damn table. I know he is not perfect but he can things that few other players in MLS can pull off.

MY THOUGHTS

San Jose went on the road, and not only did they not drop into a defensive shell, they started the game with 4 forwards. Yes 4. Johnson, Eduardo, Seally & Wondolowski up top! How did they not score???

And only slightly behind that we had Kansas City also on the road with their 3 forward lineup! I love it. But they lost.

Great to see New England keeper Matt Reis wearing the pink shirt in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Philly stayed with 3 forward throughout their game too.

How about Beckman's cork popping free kick goal! Vintage.

USSF DIVISION 2

This weekend saw the final round of games in the regular season, which firmed up the playoff match ups.

dN

My NSC Minnesota Stars will play their first home playoff game on Wed Oct 6 against the Carolina Railhawks.

The Railhawks got the number 2 seed by winning their conference, but if you look at the single table they only finished 5th in the standings. So instead of this matchup being 2 v 7 its really 5 v 7. This should be very close.

Go here or call 763-792-7333 for tickets to see the Stars do some whoopin!

dN

Final Matches & Scores of the Regular Season:
-Fri Oct 1
Carolina RailHawks 3-1 Austin Aztex
FC Tampa Bay 6-3 Crystal Palace Baltimore
-Sat Oc 2
Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2-2 Portland Timbers
AC St Louis 1-2 Rochester Rhinos
Miami FC Blues 1-1 Puerto Rico Islanders
-Sun Oct 3
Montreal Impact 2-0 Austin Aztex

dN

Seeding-Standings (As of Sun Oct 3):
1 54 Rochester - USL Conf winner
3 53 Austin
4 49 Portland
2 47 Carolina - NASL Conf winner
5 45 Vancouver
6 43 Montreal
7 40 Minnesota
8 37 Puerto Rico
- OUT OF THE PLAYOFFS -
33 Miami
32 Tampa Bay
29 St Louis
24 Baltimore

dN

BQ at Inside Minnesota Soccer handicaps the playoff field.

dN

Playoff Matches & Scores:
First Round Leg 1
-Wed Oct 6
Montreal Impact v Austin Aztex - 6:30pm Central
Venue: Saputo Stadium - Montreal QB
NSC Minnesota Stars v Carolina RailHawks - 7:00pm Central
Venue: National Sports Center - Blaine MN
-Thu Oct 7
Puerto Rico Islanders v Rochester Rhinos - 7:00pm Central
Venue: Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel - Bayamon PR
Vancouver Whitecaps FC v Portland Timbers - 9:30pm Central
Venue: Swangard Stadium - Burnaby BC
First Round, Leg 2
-Sat Oct 9
Rochester Rhinos v Puerto Rico Islanders - 6:00pm Central
Venue: Marina Auto Stadium - Rochester NY
Carolina RailHawks v NSC Minnesota Stars - 6:00pm Central
Venue: WakeMed Park - Cary NC
Austin Aztex v Montreal Impact - 7:30pm Central
Venue: House Park - Houston TX
-Sun Oct 10
Portland Timbers v Vancouver Whitecaps FC - 8:00pm Central
Venue: Merlo Field - Portland OR

Semifinal
Leg 1
Matches will be played on Wed Oct 13/Thu Oct 14
Leg 2
Matches will be played on Sat Oct 16/Sun Oct 17

Final
Leg 1
Match will be played on the weekend of Sat Oct 23
Leg 2
Match will be played on the weekend of Sat Oct 30

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Clint Dempsey scored Fulham's only goal again, and Eddie Johnson got the start!

A home draw for Carlos Bocanegra & St Etienne dropped them back into 2nd place.

Jermaine Jones was red carded in Schalke's loss. The team has started the league horribly with only 4 points from 7 games leaving them in 17th place in an 18 team league.

Tim Howard led Everton to their first win of the season. Finally.

All 3 Americans at Mariehamn in Finland were on the field together.

OTHER NEWS:
-Jozy Altidore was on the bench for Villarreal as they went to #2 in La Liga.
-Ricardo Clark was not on the bench over the weekend for Eintracht Frankfurt.
-DaMarcus Beasley was on the bench again for Hannover but has still not debuted.
-Jonathan Spector was not on the game day roster for West Ham.

dN

Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

DENMARK - Superliga
Michael Parkhurst - Nordsjaelland - played the full game as they drew 1-1 at Esbjerg.

ENGLAND - Premier League
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - went the distance scoring a goal as they drew 1-1 at West Ham.
Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - played the full 90 but lost 2-1 at Tottenham.
Marcus Hahnemann - Wolverhampton - in goal as usual but lost 2-0 at Wigan.
Stuart Holden - Bolton - went the distance as they drew 1-1 at West Brom.
Tim Howard - Everton - played the entire game as they won 0-2 at Birmingham.
Eddie Johnson - Fulham - got the start and played 77 minutes as they went to West Ham and got a 1-1 tie.

ENGLAND - League One
Frank Simek - Carlisle United - went the distance but lost 0-1 at home to Peterborough United.

FINLAND - Veikkausliiga
Greg Eckhardt - VPS - went the distance as they drew 1-1 at Oulu.
Giuseppe Funicello - Mariehamn - played the full game but lost 3-1 at MyPa.
Lamar Neagle - Mariehamn - came on as a sub at halftime and score immediately but they lost 3-1 at MyPa.
Mason Trafford - Mariehamn - went the distance in a road loss 3-1 to MyPa.

FRANCE - Ligue 1
Carlos Bocanegra - Saint Etienne - played the entire game as they drew 1-1 at home against Marseille.

GERMANY - Bundesliga
Michael Bradley - Monchengladbach - went the distance, getting a yellow card, as they drew 1-1 at home against Wolfsburg.
Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - went the distance but lost at home 0-1 to St Pauli.
Jermaine Jones - Schalke - started but got 2 yellow card and was ejected in the 53rd minute as they lost at Nurnberg 2-1.

GERMANY - 2 Bundesliga
Luis Robles - Karlsruher - got a start in goal(!) as they drew 1-1 at Ingolstadt.
David Yelldell - Duisburg - in goal as usual and they won 3-0 at home over Rot Weiss Oberhausen

NETHERLANDS - Eerste Divisie
Charles Kazlauskas - Helmond Sport - played the full 90 but lost at home 2-4 to Almere City.

NORWAY - Eliteserien
Mikkel Diskerud - Stabaek - played the whole game and won 2-1 at home over Aalesund.
Hunter Freeman - Start - went the distance as they drew 1-1 at home against Tromso.
Clarence Goodson - Start - went the distance as they drew 1-1 at home against Tromso.

SCOTLAND - Premier League
Maurice Edu - Rangers - played the entire match as they won 2-3 at Hearts.

SWEDEN - Allsvenskan Liga
Ryan Miller - Halmstad - went the full 90 as they won 2-0 at home over Brommapojkarna.

dN

Coming Up: (all possible players are listed)

DENMARK - Superliga
Chris Rolfe - AaB - Mon Oct 4 at OB
Marcus Tracy - AaB - Mon Oct 4 at OB

FINLAND - Veikkausliiga
Daniel Antunez - Inter Turku - Mon Oct 4 v Haka

AMERICANS IN MEXICO

The Original Winger does a Q & A with Herculez Gomez.

dN

Game Action:

PRIMERA DIVISION
Edgar Castillo - San Luis - came on as a sub in the 71st minute and got a yellow card but they won 1-0 at home over UANL.
Herculez Gomez - Pachuca - went the distance as they won 1-3 at Atlante.
Sammy Ochoa - Estudiantes Tecos - started and played 53 minutes of a scoreless home draw with Chiapas.
Miguel Ponce - Guadalajara - went the distance, scoring a goal and getting a yellow card and they drew 2-2 at home against Atlas in the Guadalajara derby.
Jose Torres - Pachuca - came on as a sub in the 69th minute as they won 1-3 at Atlante.
Marco Vidal - Pachuca - came on as a sub in the 85th minute as they won 1-3 at Atlante.

dN

Coming Up:

PRIMERA DIVISION
Miguel Ponce - Guadalajara - Wed Oct 6 v Morelia

MEXICO

Cruz Azul, Monterrey and Santos Laguna are dominating the Primera after 10 of 17 rounds.

ENGLAND

Everton finally got out of the starting blocks grabbing points for the first time in 7 rounds. Man U was held tied and scoreless again. Rafael Van Der Vart was again amazing for Tottenham. Blackpool beat the disaster called Liverpool. And Chelsea dominated Arsenal and left no doubt as to who the favorite is.

dN

Barry Glendenning of the Guardian with five things we learned from the Premier League this weekend.

SPAIN

Valencia continuted their amazing run at the top of the table with another win. Villarreal kept pace one point back. Sevilla fired on all cylanders to say "Don't forget about us." Barca were choked at home again this time 1-1 by Mallorca. But then Real Madrid answered all critics with a 6-1 destruction of Coruna.

dN

Sid Lowe of the Guardian on high flying Sevilla and the rest of the weekend in La Liga.

FRANCE

Leaders St Etienne stumbled at home with a tie thus letting Rennes leap frog them into first place with a win. Bordeau & Lyon are getting back on track, with another win each.

GERMANY

Mainz continued their fantastic start with 7 straight wins. Dortmund is also racing away from the pack and crushed Bayern. Everyone else is now in either chase or freak out mode. None more so than Schalke and Stuttgart who are in the bottom 2 spots. Oof.

dN

Raphael Honigstein of the Guardian sees Bayern flat on their face, and not from Octoberfest beer brawling either, and the rest of the weekend in the Bundesliga.

ITALY

Lazio dashes to the top of the standings with their 4th win of the season. While Inter blunders to yet another time. Napoli beat the inconsistent Roma to tie Inter. And Milan catch Inter too.

dN

Paolo Bandini of the Guardian on the soft Inter-Juve derby match and the rest of the weekend in Serie A.

UEFA EURO 2012

More huge qualifiers coming up Fri Oct 8 and Tue Oct 12.

AFRICA

Despite insistence that the Nigerian government keep out of the soccer federation's business, this has not happened, and now FIFA has suspended the country from international competition.

ENDERS

In case anyone was wondering, as a young teen I did attend a nut cutting session on a farm in north central Iowa. (See yesterday's du Nord post by Graham for context.)