Monday, November 01, 2010

Some News for Mon Nov 1, 2010

STARTERS

So much going on right now it's just insane: D2 finale! MLS playoffs! And UEFA Champions League returns!

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Deuce rolls again! Clint Dempsey scored 2 smokin goals by Fulham this weekend!

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Huge Congrats to Puerto Rico Islanders on winning the USSF Division 2 Championship!

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The du Nord 2010 MLS Best 11. See it here duuuuuuuuuuuuude!

MLS PLAYOFFS

The First Legs Big Heros:

-Edson Buddle brought the crazy mojo to Seattle with him and bagged one of the best playoff goals in MLS history. Check it.

-Eric Avila of Dallas came on as a late sub, then seconds later with his first touch he blasted through the RSL midfielder and launched a pin point perfect shot to the far post stunning the champs. Check it.

-Pablo Mastroeni finished off a classic lowcross-nearpostdummy-backpostsmashandgrab goal. Mastro has 2 goals this season - both against Columbus. Check it.

-Joel Lindpere of NYRB playing with a wounded groin and again crashed home a gorgeous sharp angled back post goal for the road win. Check it.

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Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Thu Oct 28
Colorado Rapids 1-0 Columbus Crew - CR goal by Pablo Mastroeni.
Venue: Dick's Sporting Goods Park - Commerce City CO
Attendance: 11,872
-Sat Oct 30
FC Dallas 2-1 Real Salt Lake - FCD goals by Jeff Cunningham & Eric Avila. RSL goal by Fabian Espindola.
Venue: Pizza Hut Park - Frisco TX
Attendance: 11,003
San Jose Earthquakes 0-1 New York Red Bulls - NYRB goal by Joel Lindpere.
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium - Santa Clara CA
Attendance: 10,525
-Sun Oct 31
Seattle sounders FC 0-1 Los Angeles Galaxy - LAG goal by Edson Buddle.
Venue: Qwest Field - Seattle WA
Attendance: 35,521

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EJECTIONS:
-Javier Morales - Salt Lake - 2 yellow cards
-Attiba The Hun - Dallas - red card

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2nd Leg
-Thu Nov 4
New York Red Bulls v San Jose Earthquakes (1-0) - 7pm Central on ESPN2
Venue: Red Bull Arena - Harrison NJ
-Sat Nov 6
Columbus Crew v Colorado Rapids (0-1) - 3pm Central on Telefutura
Venue: Crew Stadium - Columbus OH
Real Salt Lake v FC Dallas (1-2) - 9pm Central on FSC
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium - Sandy UT
-Sun Nov 7
Los Angeles Galaxy v Seattle Sounders FC (1-0) - 8pm Central on ESPN2
Venue: The Home Depot Center - Carson CA

GENERAL NEWS

Steve Davis of the Illustrated Sports magazine with 5 things we learned from the opening legs of the MLS playoff serieseses.

COLORADO RAPIDS

I searched high and low and could find nothing from the past 3 days on the Raps. Really frickin sad.

COLUMBUS CREW

After a long weekend to ponder, I have not changed my mind in thinking that coach Bob W made a huge mistake for taking Guille out of the game in the second half. Will they pay the price for the second year running for the coach making a moronic move with his big star player? Schelotto is the ONLY game-changer on their roster, and he cannot change the game from the bench. Warczycha will pay with his job if they get knocked out by Colorado.

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Shawn Mitchell of the Dispatch with a review of the team's loss in Denver.

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Michael Arace of the Dispatch with some post game thoughts on the Crew's ugly loss in Denver.

FC DALLAS

3rd Degree grades the Dallas players in their win over RSL.

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Two from Steve Hunt at the Dallas Morning News - one on the excitement of the Dallas win, and the second on the ejections that both teams suffered.

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Nick Green of the Daily Breeze with a match report of LA's win at Seattle.
-Green on his blog 100 Percent Soccer with more post-game notes.

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Kevin Baxter of the LA Times with a match report of LA's win.

NEW YORK RED BULLS

Jack Bell of the Times tell us about that unknown man-child who went the distance for the Bulls in leg 1 - 18 17 year old Juan Agudelo.
-Seth Stammler is no longer with the team, but is still on the active roster, and could play in an emergency. He is working on his masters degree in Chicago.

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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer with post game analysis of New York's win at San Jose.

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Still no word on whether or not Thierry Henry will have a knee to play on in the 2nd leg Thursday night.

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And the peerless Joel Lindpere is playing with a groin muscle strain.

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George Vecsey of the Times on the retiring of Mike Petke.

REAL SALT LAKE

James Edward of the Deseret News looks at what the loss of Javier Morales means for leg 2 in Salt Lake.

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Michael C Lewis of the Tribune talks to the Lakers who say they know how to overcome Dallas and advance at home.

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

Elliot Almond of the Mercury News says the Red Bulls showed SJE how playoff soccer is done.

SEATTLE SOUNDERS

Fredy Montero got his Green Card. He is no longer taking up an "International" spot on the team's roster.

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Joshua Mayers of the Times on the Sounders stunning defeat at the Galaxy's hands.
-Centerback Jeff Parke, who has been one of the seasons big surprises, had to leave the game with a damaged ankle.

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Steve Kelley of the Times writes about the Galaxy taking the Sounders out of their preferred rhythm.

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Art Thiel of the Post Intelligencer on the beating the Sounders took from the LA hardmen.

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Don Ruiz of the Tacoma News Tribune asks lots of people what they thought of Buddle's wonder goal.

USSF DIVISION 2 PLAYOFFS

After winning the home leg Puerto Rico traveled too Cary North Carolina and got the draw they needed to claim the USSF D2 Championship for 2010! So a huge congrats goes out to head coach Colin Clark and his Islanders team. They were the last seed in the playoffs, and showed it does not matter!

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Playoff Matches & Scores:
Final
Leg 1
-Sun Oct 24
Puerto Rico Islanders 2-0 Carolina RailHawks - PRI goals by Sandy Gbandi & Jonathan Fana.
Leg 2
-Sat Oct 30
Carolina RailHawks 1-1 Puerto Rico Islanders - PRI wins series 3-1 on aggregate - CR goal by Tom Heinemann. PRI goal by Sandy Gbandi.

SCANDAL: BIDDING TO HOST WORLD CUP 2018 & 2022

Jack Bell of the New York Times fills us in on a pretty interesting back-and-forth between the Sunday Times of London, and the Russian bid committee.
-To quote the great Ray Davies: "Paranoia. The Destroyer."

STORY OF THE DAY

UEFA has given a 3-0 win to Italy over Serbia from their abandon Euro 2012 qualifier last month when Serbian fans disrupted the game by throwing objects on the field and threatening violence. The referee had initially delayed the game for over 30 minutes, then called the game off after just 6 minutes of action. The referee felt the stadium in Genoa was not safe for fans or players.
-Serbia was further punished by being forced to play their next 2 home games in an empty stadium.
-While Italy was given a suspended sentence of having to play one game behind closed doors, that will only be put into effect if they have another incedent in the next 2 years.

BIG EUROPEAN CLUB MATCHES COMING UP THIS WEEKEND

Lots of league leaders faced off, and crazy shit happened.

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The Bundesliga saw a full turnover of the top 4 teams!

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France is blown away by a new #1, and its newly promoted Brest!! Wow Oh Wow!

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Matches & Scores:
-Fri OCt 29
Bursaspor 1-1 Fenerbahce - the draw keeps the defending champs Bursaspor at #1.
-Sat Oct 30
Milan v Juventus - both have points to prove, and Juve is on the ropes.
Marseille - Rennes - former #2 hosted #1 but the game was postponed due to the swamplike conditions of the field.
Brest 2-0 St Etienne - #4 beat #3 and catapulted them to the top of the table! Unreal!
PSV 0-1 Twente - #1 lost to #2 so they have to switch spots in the standings now.
-Sun Oct 31
Mainz 0-2 Borussia Dortmund - #1 drops down to #2, with #2 rising to #1. Full Switch.
Hoffenheim 4-0 Hannover - #4 moves up a spot, while #3 falls all the way to 6th.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Matchday 4 of the 6 in the Group Stage.

Matches and Scores:
-Tue Nov 2
Tottenham v Inter
Werder Bremen v Twente
Hapoel Tel-Aviv v Schalke
Benfica v Lyon
Valencia v Rangers
Bursaspor v Manchester United
Rubin Kazan v Panathinaikos
Kobenhavn v Barcelona
-Wed Nov 3
Basel v Roma
Cluj v Bayern
Chelsea v Spartak Moskva
Zilina v Marseille
Auxerre v Ajax
Milan v Real Madrid
Partizan v Braga
Shakhtar Donetsk v Arsenal

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Group Standings

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

The pairings for the knock out rounds were announced today. The games will be played next spring.

Quarterfinals:
1st Leg
-Feb 22-24
Toluca v Monterrey
Cruz Azul v Santos Laguna
Columbus Crew v Real Salt Lake
Saprissa v Olimpia
2nd Leg
-Mar 1-3
Monterrey v Toluca
Santos Laguna v Cruz Azul
Real Salt Lake v Columbus Crew
Olimpia v Saprissa

Semifinals:
-Mar 15-17
-Apr 5-7

Final:
-Apr 19-21
-Apr 26-28

THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

Brian Lewis of the NY Post does a Q & A with author and our main man Beau Dure, about his new book - Long Range Goals: The Success Story of Major League Soccer.




















PICTURE OF THE DAY

The new Nike shoe for Cristiano Ronaldo is a mega-mix of ultra modern and ultra prehistoric!















MLS/SUM BUSINESS

LE Eisenmenger of the Examiner does a 2 part Q & A with New England Rev's media staff person Jeff Lemieux. He is one of the new wave of media personal in MLS today.
Part 1
Part 2

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Clint Dempsey scored 2 in a Fulham win.

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Marcus Hahnemann pulled off a huge upset for Wolverhampton!

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Mo Edu got a goal for Rangers, but also got hurt and had to come out at half time. No word on the injury or severity, but he did travel to Spain for the the Champs League game on Tuesday, so it can't be that bad.

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Mike Grella scored one for Carlisle United.

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Sacha Kljestan got on the scoreboard too.

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Tim Howard & Brad Friedel both added another clean sheet to their respective CVs.

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Alejandro Bedoya & Orebro captured 3rd place in Sweden with 1 round left to go, ensuring them of a spot in next season's Europa League.

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Rico Clark got on the field!

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Jermaine Jones due to an ankle injury, but at least they got the tie and moved up one notch from the bottom of the standings.

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Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

BELGIUM - Pro League
Sacha Kljestan - Anderlecht - went the full 90 and scored the first goal in a 1-2 road win at Genk.

DENMARK - Superliga
Michael Parkhurst - Nordsjaelland - went the distance but lost badly at home 1-4 to Odense.

ENGLAND - Premier League
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - went the full 90 and scored both goals in a 2-0 home win over Wigan.
Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - went the distance in a scoreless home tie with Birmingham.
Marcus Hahnemann - Wolverhampton - played the whole game as they won at home 2-1 over Manchester City.
Stuart Holden - Bolton - played the whole game but lost at home 0-1 to Liverpool.
Tim Howard - Everton - in goal as usual for a 1-0 home win over Stoke.

ENGLAND - League One
Mike Grella - Carlisle United - went the distance and scored a goal as they drew 1-1 at Bristol Rovers.
Frank Simek - Carlisle United - played the full 90 in a 1-1 tie game at Bristol Rovers.

GERMANY - Bundesliga
DaMarcus Beasley - Hannover - came on as a sub in the 77th minute but they lost 4-0 at Hoffenheim.
Michael Bradley - Monchengladbach - played the whole game but lost 3-0 at Kaiserslautern.
Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - went the distance in a bad 4-0 loss at Hoffenheim.
Ricardo Clark - Eintracht Frankfurt - came on as a dying seconds sub as they won 1-3 at St Pauli.
Daniel Williams - Freiburg - came on as a sub in the 82nd minute but lost 4-2 at Bayern Munich.

GERMANY - 2 Bundesliga
Luis Robles - Karlsruher - in the goal but lost 2-4 at home to 1860.
David Yelldell - Duisburg - went the distance but lost 1-0 at Fortuna.

NETHERLANDS - Eerste Divisie
Charles Kazlauskas - Helmond Sport - played the entire game but lost 0-2 at home against Volendam.

NORWAY - Eliteserien
Mikkel Diskerud - Stabaek - went the whole game as they won 2-1 at home over Sandefjord.
Clarence Goodson - Start - played the full game but lost 2-1 at Odd Grenland.
Di Vita Jensen - Honefoss - started and played 83 minutes of a 3-1 win at home over Valerenga.

RUSSIA - Premier Division
Yevgeni Starikov - FC Tom Tomsk - played the entire match as they won 1-0 at home against Amkar Perm.

SCOTLAND - Premier League
Maurice Edu - Rangers - started but came out at half time due to an injury after scoring a goal in a 1-1 home tie with Inverness Caley.

SPAIN - Primera Division
Jozy Altidore - Villarreal - came on as a sub in the 71st minute and they came back to tie 1-1 at Gijon.

SWEDEN - Allsvenskan Liga
Alejandro Bedoya - Orebro - played the full game as they won 2-1 at home over IFK Goteborg.
Ryan Miller - Halmstad - started but came off at half time as they lost 2-4 at home to Helsingborg.

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Coming Up: (all possible players are listed)

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - Group Stage

Maurice Edu - Rangers - Tue Nov 2 at Valencia
Jermaine Jones - Schalke - Tue Nov 2 at Hapoel Tel Aviv

AMERICANS IN MEXICO

Games Action: (only those that played are listed)

PRIMERA DIVISION
Edgar Castillo - San Luis - came on as a 67th minute sub and they hung on to win 1-2 at Toluca.
Miguel Ponce - Guadalajara - went the full 90 as they tied 1-1 at Santos Laguna.
Jose Torres - Pachuca - went the distance, getting a yellow card, and also the win 1-2 at Atlas.
Marco Vidal - Pachuca - came on as a sub in the 77th as they won 1-2 at Atlas

MEXICO

Monterrey, Cruz Azul and Santos Laguna are all set for the playoffs, with only 2 rounds left to go. 6 more teams will qualify.
-Tecos and Atlas as the 2 teams eliminated from contention.

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Playoff Standings:
IN-35 Cruz Azul 41
IN-32 Monterrey 38
IN-26 Santos Laguna 32
-------------
4-25 San Luis 31
5-24 America 30
6-23 UANL 29
7-21 Toluca 27
8-21 Chiapes 27
--------------
19 Pachuca 25
19 UNAM 25
18 Queretaro 24
18 Guadalajara 24
17 Morelia 23
16 Necaxa 22
15 Atlante 21
15 Puebla 21
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OUT-12 Atlas 18
OUT-12 Estudiantes 18

THE CARIBBEAN

Digicel Caribbean Cup 2010

Group Stage
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Nov 2
Haiti v Guyana
Trinidad & Tobago v St Vincent & Grendadines
-Thu Nov 4
St Vincent & Grendadines v Haiti
Trinidad & Tobago v Guyana

ENGLAND

Chelsea stays 5 points up on Arsenal & Man U as all 3 rolled, but Man City gagged and lost to Wolverhampton! Liverpool leaped all the way up to 13th.

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Gabrielle Marcotti of the Wall Street Journal takes us through one of the weirdest, ugliest, freakiest, worst-officiated goals you will probably ever see.

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Barney Ronay of the Guardian gives us Five Things We Learned From The Premier League This Weekend.

SPAIN

Real Madrid and Barca both won big at the top 2, while 3 & 4 Villarreal & Valencia both got tied and dropped back. Espanyol is the surprise #5 team.

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Sid Lowe of the Guardian tells us that Jose Mourinho can make Karim Benzema look good, when few others can, and the rest of the weekend in La Liga.

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Phil Ball of Soccernet looks at the bottom of the heap in La Liga - 18th Malaga, 19 Deportivo La Coruna & 20th Real Zaragoza.

FRANCE

A rain-out caused the big Marseille v Rennes match to be canceled yesterday, leaving new promoted Brest to take the #1 spot in Ligue 1. That has to be the biggest story so far this season in Europe! And a win boosted Lyon up to 9th place.

GERMANY

A complete reshuffling of the Bundesliga deck this weekend at #1 Mainz were beaten at home by #2 Dortmund, and now the team's swap spots in the standings. Then #4 Hoffenheim rolled over #3 Hannover, taking their spot, and dropping Hannover to #6. Another win for Bayern moves them up to #7, while Monchengladbach take control of the bottom spot in the league following yet another loss.

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Raphael Honigstein of the Guardian on Borussia Dortmund's rise to the upper echelon of the Bundesliga and the rest of the weekend in the countries top flight.

ITALY

Lazio won again and continues to set the pace at the top with Inter 4 points back, but Milan fell on their face losing to Juve who jump up to 4th place. Roma got a much needed win too.

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Paolo Bandini of the Guardian tells us just how Lazio is doing it, and the rest of the weekend in Serie A.

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Rob Hughes of the New York Times on the brilliant career at Juventus of Alessandro DelPiero.

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The BBC with an article on the fine job Rafa Benitez is doing at Inter.
-They give him high praise. I say HOGWASH! A goat could coach this team to a title with all the talent they have. Nothing short a couple more trophies will be a blunder.

BRAZIL

Tim Vickery of the BBC sees one last shot at national team glory for Ronaldinho.

TOP THIS

Brian Lewis of the NY Post tells us about King Henry hangin' out with King James. (James was dressed by Pee Wee Herman.)




















ENDERS

I was the subject of a Q & A this week conducted by LE Eisenmenger of the Examiner. It comes in two parts:
Part 1
Part 2

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bruce, the interview in the Examiner was great. Very good to get to know your background better. Rock on!

9:42 PM  
Blogger geoffersen said...

Juan Agudelo won't be 18 until November 23. Also, I look forward to reading the interview you did, but it's bed time. Great blog, Bruce. I owe you a beer (or 3).

1:27 AM  

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