Monday, December 13, 2010

Some News for Mon Dec 13, 2010

STARTERS

Liga de Quito has won the Ecuador Primera A Championship! Oh Yeah! Huge congrats to los Liga! Hooray Biela!

dN

Estudiantes won the Argentina Primera Apertura title! Congrats to the Rat Stabbers! Hooray .
-It is the clubs 5th championship.

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Akron is the NCAA Division I champs for 2010. Congrats Zips. Congrats Keeper Ken. Hooray Near Beer!

ARGENTINA

Primera Apertura

A new champion is crowned and it is Estudiantes de la Plata!

The standings and who they face in the finale:
45 Estudiantes - Last: Sun Dec 12 W 2-0 v Arsenal de Sarandi
43 Velez Sarsfield - Last: Sun Dec 12 W 0-2 at Racing Club

COLLEGE SOCCER

The 2010 Division I champion is the Akron Zips.

dN

Matches & Scores:
Semifinals
-Fri Dec 10
North Carolina 1-2 Louisville
Akron 2-1 Michigan
Venue: Harder Stadium - Santa Barbara CA

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Final
-Sun Dec 12
Louisville 0-1 Akron - Akr goal by Scott Caldwell.
Venue: Harder Stadium - Santa Barbara CA
Attendance: 9,672

FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP

United Arab Emirates - The club champion from each of the 6 federations (plus the host) face off for the world title.

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The semifinals are set for Tue & Wed.

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See the games on Fox Soccer Channel.

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Matches & Scores:
Quarterfinals
-Fri Dec 10
TP Mazembe Englebert (DR Congo) 1-0 CF Pachuca (Mexico)
-Sat Dec 11
Al Wahda SC (UAE) 1-4 Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma FC (South Korea)

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Semifinals
-Tue Dec 14
TP Mazembe v Internacional (Brazil)
-Wed Dec 15
Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma v Inter Milan (Italy)

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Final
-Sat Dec 18
Winners

STORY OF THE DAY

Clint Dempsey has been awarded the BBC London 2010 Sporting Moment Of The Year, for his inspired goal against Juventus last spring in the UEFA Europa League tournament. (thanks to BQ for the heads up)

BIG EUROPEAN CLUB MATCHES COMING UP THIS WEEKEND

-Sun Dec 12
Tottenham 1-1 Chelsea - one of the most meaningful meetings between these two London rivals in a long time saw them end tied leaving The Tots at #5 but bumping Chel$ea to #4.
Juventus 2-1 Lazio - with the win by Juve the former #3 v #2 swap spots while tied on points.
-Mon Dec 13
Manchester United v Arsenal - #2 v #1 - and bitter rivals over the past decade!

DO YOU REALIZE

Things are not looking good for Jermaine Jones at Schalke. After they lost 5-0 at Kaiserslautern on Nov 27 he was demoted to the reserve team due to "poor attitude" and since then the team has won all 3 games they have played. Not good.

STAT OF THE DAY

These numbers are simply staggering!

Here are Lionel Messi's goal totals at Barcelona for the past 3 seasons:
La Liga
08/09: 23 goals in 31 games
09/10: 34 goals in 35 games
10/11: 17 goals in 13 games
Champions League
08/09: 9 goals in 10 games
09/10: 8 goals in 11 games
10/11: 6 goals in 6 games

Grand Total
97 goals in 106 games

TWITTERVERSE/FACEBOOKING

Stuart Holden got the game winner for Bolton on Saturday! Here is what he Tweeted shortly after (see details and video below in Americans In Europe section):
-Just got home.. still on Cloud 9, what a win today in the Derby!!! Well done boys!!!!
-This picture says it all here!!! well done lads.. and Why is Robbo bellyflopping onto a dog pile!! hahahah!



















MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

COLORADO RAPIDS

Really good - Paul Forsyth of the Scotsman does an interview with midfielder Jamie Smith.

DC UNITED

The Washington Post is reporting that DCU is looking to hire Houston keeper Pat Onstad as their goalkeeper coach for next season. I guess that would mean that Onstad would retire.

HOUSTON DYNAMO

The Dynos acquired fullback Jordan Graye from Portland in exchange for a future draft pick. Graye played for DCU last season.

SPORTING KANSAS CITY SC

Forward Teal Bunbury is getting a chance to train with Stoke City in England.

dN

Charles Gooch of the Star looks ahead to the 2011 Superdraft for KC.

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Luis Bueno of MLSsoccer.com does a Q & A with head coach Bruce Arena.

PHILADELPHIA UNION

Kerith Gabriel of the Daily News reports that the Union has signed 39 year old Colombian goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon who is currently the starter at Koln in the Bundesliga.

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Noah Davis of MLSsoccer.com does a short Q & A with young defensive midfielder Amobi Okugo.

PORTLAND TIMBERS

The Timbs signed 23 year old fullback Kerrea "Nitro" Gilbert. He came up through the Arsenal system and most recently was loaned out to Peterborough United in English League One, the third division. He had been on loan at 3 other teams before that. He has been out of a job since the end of last season.

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

The more time goes by the more I think that Lew Wolff who owns the Quakes and baseball Oakland A's doesn't actually have any money of his own.
-The Mercury News on yet another renegotiation of the price of land on which to build a pretty small and cheap soccer stadium.

MLS/SUM BUSINESS

Sports Business Journal ranks Don Garber at #34 on their list of the 50 most influential people in American sports.
-Others on the list with a connection to soccer:
-#23 - Herbert Hainer - CEO/Chairman of Adidas
-#22 - Kohn Skipper - Executive VP of Content at ESPN - the networks #1 soccer guy
-#21 - Sepp Blatter - Weasel
-#14 - Charlie Denson & Mark Parker - President and CEO, respectively, of Nike
-#12 - Tim Leiweke - President & CEO of AEG - owners of the Los Angeles Galaxy and half of the Houston Dynamo
-#9 - Robert Kraft - Founder, Chairman & CEO of the Kraft Group - owners of the New England Revolution

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SUM has announced that Kathy Carter is the companies new President.

MLS YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

LE Eisenmenger of the Examiner links back to 20 interviews she has conducted in the past year or two with people involved in youth development all over the USA.
-A great review of some fantastic behind the scenes conversations.

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Randy Davis at MLSsoccer.com with an article on RSL's development program in Arizona, run by former MLS defensive great Greg Vanney.

MLS RUMORS

LD headed to Newcastle on a loan deal? Let's hope not.

SOCCER IN AMERICA

LE Eisenmenger of the Examiner does a Q & A with Amy Rosenfeld who has produced many big time men's and women's games for ESPN.

USA U18 TEAM

The team is in Israel for a tourney.

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Matches & Scores:
-Tue Dec 14
USA v France
-Thu Dec 16
USA v Israel
-Sat Dec 18
USA v Germany

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Roster:
G:
Jonathan Kempin - Sporting Kansas City
Andrew Wolverton - Concorde Fire
D:
Michael Ambrose - FC Dallas Academy
Jonathan Campbell - North Carolina Fusion
Bryan Gallego - NY Red Bulls Academy
Juan Pablo Ocegueda - UANL Tigres
Boyd Okwuonu - FC Dallas Academy
Walker Zimmerman - GSA Phoenix
M:
Connor Hallisey - California Development Academy
Jordan McCrary - Concorde Fire
Daniel Metzger - NY Red Bulls Academy
Victor Pineda - Chicago Fire
Marcus Salandy-Defour - DC United Academy
Will Trapp - Columbus Crew Academy
Cooper Vandermaas-Peeler - CASL Chelsea
F:
Villyan Bijev - Cal Odyssey
Sean Okoli - Seattle Sounders Academy
Luis Rendon - FC Richmond Magic
Khiry Shelton - Lonestar SC Academy
Jonathan Top - FC Dallas Academy

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Stuart Holden scored the game winning goal in dramatic fashion over Blackburn. Down 1 man Bolton scored and was hanging on for the win win Blackburn tied in the 86th minute, but from the kick off Bolton raced down the field and just seconds later Holden hammered it home for the win.
-Check it out on video now at Soccer TV Live.

dN

Steve Cherundolo suffered an unspecified knee injury and had to be subbed out in the 23rd minute for Hannover last Friday.
-DaMarcus Beasley did not make the subs bench this weekend in Hannover.
-Greg Seltzer at MLSsoccer.com brings us up to date on injury news for Cherundolo, and Beasley too (I had no idea he was hurting.)

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A 0-0 home draw saw Sacha Kljestan & Anderlecht fall back out of first place.

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Mo Edu is still out of the Rangers lineup with the knee injury.

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Jen Chang at Sports Illustrated with a look at weekend action, and the big games for Stuart Holden and Eric Lichaj (who got his Premier League start.)

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Michael Parkhurst & Nordsjaelland are on break in the Denmark Superliga until March 5.

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Game Action: (only those that played are listed)

BELGIUM - Pro League
Sacha Kljestan - Anderlecht - started and played 57 minutes but were held to a scoreless draw at home by Lokeren.

ENGLAND - Premier League
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - played the entire match but could only draw 0-0 at home against Sunderland.
Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - played the full 90 minutes as they won 2-1 at home over city riavls West Brom.
Stuart Holden - Bolton - went the full 90 scoring the game winner as they beat Blackburn 2-1 at home.
Tim Howard - Everton - in goal as usual and picking up a clean sheet but they were also held scoreless at home against Wigan.
Eddie Johnson - Fulham - came on as a sub in the 72nd minute of a scoreless home draw with Sunderland.
Eric Lichaj - Aston Villa - got his first ever start and went the distance as they won 2-1 at home over West Brom.
Jonathan Spector - West Ham - played the whole game but lost 1-3 at home to Manchester City.

ENGLAND - Championship League
Conor Doyle - Derby County - came on as a sub in the 86th minute but they lost 2-0 at Bristol City.

ENGLAND - League One
Mike Grella - Carlisle United - came on as a sub in the 69th minute but lost at home 0-2 to Dagenham & Redbridge.
Frank Simek - Carlisle United - went the full 90 but lost at home 0-2 to Dagenham & Redbridge.

FRANCE - Ligue 1
Carlos Bocanegra - Saint Etienne - played the full 90 and they won 0-2 at Monaco.

GERMANY - Bundesliga
Michael Bradley - Monchengladbach - played the whole game but lost 3-0 at Freiburg.
Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - started but was subbed out after he hurt his knee in the 23rd minute, but at least they won 2-1 at home over Stuttgart.

GERMANY - 2 Bundesliga
Luis Robles - Karlsruher - played the full 90 as they won 1-0 at home over Arminia Bielefeld.
David Yelldell - Duisburg - in goal for a scoreless road draw at Paderborn.

ENGLAND

du Nord recap: Man U & Arsenal play on Monday, so Man City won big on the road to move them into 2nd place for now, while Chelsea could only manage another tie game, this one against now genuine rivals Tottenham who are in 5th.

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Jacob Steinberg of the Guardian with Five things we learned from the Premier League this weekend.

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Blackburn fired head coach Sam Allardyce. At least that frees him up in case the Real Madrid job opens up.

SPAIN

du Nord recap: Barca & Real Madrid both won big again, while #3 Villarreal and #4 Espanyol both lost widening the gap between the packs that much more (currently 8 points.)

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Sid Lowe of the Guardian on Sevilla who has fallen and can't get up, plus the rest of the weekend in La Liga.

FRANCE

du Nord recap: the top teams all won to stay in place, 1 Lille, 2 PSG, 3 Lyon, while one time miracle team Brest is beginning to sag.

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Ben Lyttleton of Sports Illustrated on Lyon's charge up the Ligue 1 charts.

GERMANY

du Nord recap: Borussia Dortmund continues to roll on at the top, while Bayer Leverkusen, Hannover, Mainz and Freiburg continue to stay in the next group while switching spots in the standings week to week, but then need to look out because Bayern Munich has caught them and now sits in 6th place.

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Raphael Honigstein of the Guardian on Hannover's fantastic season, and the rest of round in the Bundesliga.

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Do you want to know what kind of mess Stuttgart is this season - the just hired their 3rd head coach already. First they fired Christian Gross, and hired Jens Keller, who has now been fired and replaced by Bruno Labbadia. We wish him all the luck in the world. He is going to need it.

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Bayern Munich & Germany star Sebastian Schweinsteiger has signed a new 4 year contract with his club.

ITALY

du Nord recap: Milan romped again upping their lead to 6 points over the new #2 Juventus who beat the former 2nd place team Lazio dropping them back to 4th behind Napoli. Palermo and Roma are 5th & 6th, with Inter away at the Club World Cup.

dN

Paolo Bandini of the Guardian on Juve's climb back to #2, and the other matches over the weekend in Serie A.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Joe the curmudgeon said...

Congrats to Akron! Their first National title in any sport. Nice goal, too.

7:01 PM  
Anonymous Dan M. said...

So i guess i must have missed something - Why are you against Landon going out on loan during the winter break?

10:45 PM  
Anonymous keeperken said...

I went to Akron and my father was a mathematics professor there for 23 years. My father passed away on November 20th and the bittersweet part of being home for 2 weeks for his passing and funeral was that I got to go see AU win their first 2 tournament games. I waited a year for this champiosnhip after AU lost on PK's in last years final. This year, for me, it was personal...

6:31 AM  
Blogger brucio said...

Dan M -

You didn't miss anything from me. I was trying to be kinda funny, but obviously whiffed.

I also think that Donovan needs a break from playing.

Bruce

1:20 PM  
Anonymous Brian said...

Sebastian Schweinsteiger? It's just Bastian

12:38 AM  

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