Some News for Tue Nov 2, 2010

STARTERS

Goal scoring sensation Taylor Twellman has called a press conference for 12:30pm Central on Wednesday to talk about his future playing career. I'm pretty certain its to say goodbye to the field portion of the game. Damn. But this is what head injuries do to people. I have said it before and I will say it again, head injuries are very scary and need to be treated with the utmost seriousness. My brother has literally lost years off his life due to concussions. Twellman joins a too long list of players leaving MLS early due to concussions.

dN

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

MLS PLAYOFFS

Matches & Scores:
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

dN

GENERAL NEWS

Brian Straus of Fanhouse gives us his best and worst from the first leg games.

dN

Nick Green of the Daily Breeze on an uglier view of soccer - MLS playoff soccer.

COLUMBUS CREW

Shawn Mitchell of the Dispatch reports that the Crew players are not concerned by being down one goal.

dN

The Shin Guardian has a Q & A with Crew forward Steven Lenhart.

NEW YORK RED BULLS

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer looks at the injury healing process going on for Henry, Ibrahim, Tchani and Lindpere.

dN

Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger says Joel Lindpere is the Bulls Most Valuable Player.

SEATTLE SOUNDERS

Joshua Mayers of the Times talks to Steve Zakuani about playing international soccer, and what country he would play for.

STORY OF THE DAY

"According to page 30 I.14 C of FIFA football club regulations clubs are recommended to allocate 5% of the seating in their stadium to the away support."

The Timbers Army, Emerald City Supporters and Vancouver Southsiders have combined forces in order to jointly oppose limiting visiting support in Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland to the 150 tickets stipulated by Major League Soccer.

You can read their joint statement in the press release right here.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Matchday 4 of the 6 in the Group Stage.

dN

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

dN

Group Standings

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Mourinho convinced me to play on the wing saying that we would win the Champions League."
-Football Italia with an article on Inter forward Samuel Eto'o in which he talks about the great changes that Jose Mourinho talked him into.

THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

A very cool new Bumpy Pitch shirt, just for this years MLS Cup final in Toronto!




















NOMINEES FOR OFFICIAL MLS POST SEASON AWARDS

Goalkeeper of the Year - Nov 3
Kevin Hartman (FC Dallas)
Donovan Ricketts (LA Galaxy)
Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)

Fair Play Award - Nov 3
C.J. Brown (Chicago Fire)
Sebastien Le Toux (Philadelphia Union)
Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)

Rookie of the Year - Nov 3
Danny Mwanga (Philadelphia Union)
Andy Najar (D.C. United)
Tim Ream (New York Red Bulls)

MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

General News

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America with the third and final chapter of their long Q & A with league commissioner Don Garber.

MLS/SUM BUSINESS

The Associated Press with an article on the high priority MLS puts on minority hiring practices and the good marks they get for that practice.

dN

Jay Bell at The Shinguardian transcribed the full press Q & A that Don Garber did in Dallas last Saturday.

TEAM USA

Kickoff.com from South Africa is reporting that tickets to the South Africa v USA game on Nov 17 in Cape Town have NOT gone on sale yet. And there is no word coming from the local FA as to when they will go on sale. See the last 2 lines of this article.

USA U20 TEAM

The squad will be part of the 3 team Torneo de las Americas in Kennesaw GA over Thanksgiving weekend.

Matches & Scores:
-Fri Nov 26
USA v Colombia
-Sat Nov 27
Colombia v Mexico
-Sun Nov 28
USA v Mexico

USA U17 TEAM

The team is in England training and playing some friendlies.

Matches & Scores:
-Dates TBA
Manchester City v USA
Blackburn v USA
-Wed Nov 10
Scotland U-17 v USA

Roster:
G:
Kendall McIntosh - Mustang Academy
Fernando Pina - Houston Dynamo
D:
Kellyn Acosta - FC Dallas
Mobi Fehr - Tokyo Verdy 1969
Alessandro Mion - Kendall SC
Nathan Smith - Cal Odyssey
Andrew Souders - Crew Soccer Academy
Danny Zaid - Camp Elite Guatemala
M:
Joe Amon - South Carolina United FC
Alejandro Guido - Aztecs Premier
Nico Melo - Florida Rush
Marc Pelosi - De Anza Force
Esteban Rodriguez - Cosmos Academy West
Tarik Salkicic - Strictly Soccer
Dillon Serna - Colorado Rapids
F:
Daniel Flores - Cal Odyssey
Kellen Gulley - MS Chicago Fire Juniors
Alex Muyl - Cosmos Academy East
Andrew Oliver - Westside United
Mario Rodriguez - Central Aztecs

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Game Action: (only those that played 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

dN

Coming Up: (all possible players are listed)

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE - Group Stage
Jozy Altidore - Villarreal - Thu Nov 4 at PAOK
Sacha Kljestan - Anderlecht - Thu Nov 4 at AEK Athens

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

SPAIN

FIFA.com does a Q & A with Xavi Hernandez. They discuss Spain, Barcelona, Lio Messi and the Balon D'or.

FRANCE

Supporters of both Marseille and Paris St Germain have been banned from traveling to the others stadium for the teams 2 matches this season.

GERMANY

Why would anyone take the job coaching Bayern Munich?!?! The trolls in charge think they know better than everyone else, and are trying very hard to run off another excellent head coach. 2 years ago the honchos all teamed up to undermine Jurgen Klinsmann in the press, eventually leading to his firing. Now they are doing the same thing to Luis Van Gaal.

All Van Gaal did last year was win the Bundesliga, the German Cup and get to the final of the Champions League. A pretty great season if you ask me.

Yes they currently sit 7th Place in Bundesliga. But they only need 1 point from 2 Champions League games to advance to the knock out stages in that tournament.

It started Monday when general manager Uli Hoeness ripped Van Gaal. Via Club Call.

Then team president Franz Beckenbauer piled on Van Gaal by backing Hoeness. Via Peace FM.

And today Van Gaal fired back but in a much more respected tone. Via Four Four Two.

And check out this list of currently injured starters:
Holger Badstuber
Diego Contento
Miroslav Klose
Ivica Olic
Franck Ribery
Arjen Robben
Mark van Bommel

So much for "no one is bigger than the club." Hoeness and Beckenbauer sure seem to think they are.

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

The next round will be played on Thu Nov 4.
-Matches & Scores

BRAZIL

FIFA.com does a Q & A with Big Phil Scolari, head coach of Palmeiras, and former coach the Selecao.

ARGENTINA

Argentina has given interim national team head coach Sergio Batista the keys to the company car. He is now officially driving the under-performing team.