Some News for Thu Feb 10, 2011

STARTERS

12 days until the CONCACAF Champions League blasts into the Quarterfinals!

dN

The dates of the CONCACAF U20 World Cup qualifying tournament in Guatemala have been changed at late notice. The games will now be played Mar 28 - Apr 10. (The original start date was Apr 3.) Classic CONCACF ineptitude at its finest.
-The draw will be held Fri Feb 11, selecting 4 groups of 3.
Seed 1: Canada, Guatemala, Mexico, USA
Seed 2: Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago
Seed 3: Cuba, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Suriname

dN

Don't forget about the first ever du Nord poll. Vote now.

STORY OF THE DAY

The MLS regular season schedule was finally released today. You can see it here.

dN

12 of the 18 teams will host a game on ESPN.
-New York will hosts twice, and be the road team 6 more times. So if you can't stand the Red Bulls, then you might want to consider dropping the sports package from your cable/dish.
-LA will host 3 times and be the road team 3 more.
-Seattle will host twice, and be the road team 2 other times.
-Philly, Portland, Chicago and Colorado will all host 2 games.
-KC will have their new stadium opener broadcast.
-Toronto, Vancouver, Dallas and Columbus will not be on the network at all.

dN

A further 30 games will be shown on Galavision and TeleFutura.

dN

The Sporks will open the season with 10 straight road games. Then on Jun 9 they will open their brand new stadium.

dN

And here are all the big rivals:

Cascadia Cup
-Sat May 14
Seattle v Portland
-Sat Jun 11
Seattle v Vancouver
-Sun Jul 10
Portland v Seattle
-Sat Aug 20
Portland v Vancouver
-Sat Sep 24
Vancouver v Seattle
-Sun Oct 2
Vancouver v Portland

Rocky Moutain Cup
-Wed Apr 13
RSL v Colorado
-Fri Oct 14
Colorado v RSL

I-95 Rivals
-Sat Mar 26
New England v DC
-Sat Apr 9
Philadelphia v New York
-Thu Apr 21
DC v New York
-Sat Jun 11
New YOrk v New England
-Sat Jul 9
New York v DC
-Sat Jul 2
DC v Philadelphia
-Sat Jul 16
New England v Philadelphia
-Wed Jul 20
DC v New England
-Sat Aug 20
New England v New York
-Sun Aug 28
Philadelphia v New England
-Thu Sep 29
Philadelphia v DC
-Thu Oct 20
New York v Philadelphia

SuperClasico
-Sat May 21
Chivas v LA
-Sun Oct 16
LA v Chivas

Trillium Cup
-Sat Apr 23
Toronto v Columbus
-Sat Sep 10
Columbus v Toronto

Canadian Derby
-Sat Mar 19
Vancouver v Toronto
-Wed Jul 29
Toronto v Vancouver

California Classic
-Sat Jun 25
San Jose v LA
-Sat Aug 20
LA v San Jose

Texas Derby
-Sat May 28
Houston v Dallas
-Sat Sep 24
Dallas v Houston

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

The best tournament in the world resumes next week with the Round of 16!

All games on Fox Soccer Channel is the USA.
-They are showing all games with English teams live. Teams from other countries are relegated to a delayed broadcast. Unless of course you have the subscription based Fox Soccer Plus, or Direct TV, then you can see every game live.

dN

Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Tue Feb 15
Milan v Tottenham - Live at 1:30pm Central
Valencia v Schalke - Delayed at 4pm Central
-Wed Feb 16
Arsenal v Barcelona - Live at 1:30pm Central
Roma v Shakhtar - Delayed at 4pm Central
-Tue Feb 22
Kobenhavn v Chelsea - Live at 1:30pm Central
Lyon v Real Madrid - Delayed at 4pm Central
-Wed Feb 23
Marseille v Man United - Live at 1:30pm Central
Inter v Bayern - Delayed at 4pm Central

CHARLIE DAVIES

The Washington Post keeps us fully updated on the chances of CD going on loan to DC United.

BIG EUROPEAN CLUB MATCHES

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Feb 12
Manchester United v Manchester City - when is the last time that this derby meant so much? Never before?
-Sun Feb 13
Juventus v Inter - Juve's last gasp for life this season & Inter's chance to keep up the pressure for the lead.

DO YOU REALIZE

Art Sapphire of The Roar in Australia compares the currently struggles of their A-League in comparison to MLS.

HMMMMM, VERY INTERESTING

The Shin Guadrian grabbed a big one in a Q & A with US Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati.

THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

Check out this incredibly in-depth Barclays Premier League match previews for the weekend of Feb 12-13.

PODCASTS

Jared Montz's guest on the podcast this week is DC's highly touted rookie defender/midfielder Perry Kitchen. Download or listen here.

MLS/USA & RELATED RUMORS

Today's ridiculous name in the hopper: hair

dN

The BBC tells us about a Hull City player Caleb Folan who is getting a look by at least one MLS team.

MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

General News

Tim Stellar of the Tscon Arizona Daily Star begs his city to lure MLS teams in for preseason training. And he was a Minnesota Kicks fans growing up, so I have to link to his article.

CHICAGO FIRE

Charlie Corr of ESPN with an article on Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson who has the job all to himself this season.

Orrin Schwarz of the Daily Herald on a local player getting a long shot at making the Fire roster.

COLUMBUS CREW

The Crew beat Seattle 3-0 nothing today on goals by Andres Mendoza, Jeff Cunningham and a Sounders own goal.

DC UNITED

Steven Goff of the Washington Post with a few notes from DCU training camp.

HOUSTON DYNAMO

Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Chronicle tells us about a couple more Jamaican players getting at look from the Dynamo.

LA GALAXY

Paul Gardner of Soccer America in his cantankerous old ways takes apart AEG and David Beckham, but mostly Tim Liweike & AEG. Harsh. But not wrong.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Frank Dell'Apa of the Globe on Revs SuperDraft pick AJ Soares who will get a long look at centerback during the preseason.

NEW YORK RED BULLS

Jack Bell of NY Times has a follow up to his article on midfielder Joel Lindpere - here is the full Q & A session.

Match & Score:
NYRB 0-0 Atlante (Mexico) - NYRB wins 4-3 in Penalty Kick Shootout

PHILADELPHIA UNION

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America on the preseason for the Union - stripping away last years dead wood and searching for more strong trees.

Jeff Carlisle of ESPN on potential star Danny Mwanga, year two.

PORTLAND TIMBERS

The Timbers introduced FrankenCooper officially today.

Geoffrey Arnold of the Oregonian on the teams just completed first stint of preseason in California.

SEATTLE SOUNDERS

The Sounders were dropped like a bag of dirt 3-0 by the Columbus Crew today. Oof.

TORONTO FC

TFC lost 1-3 to Dinamo Zagreb today during their training camp in Antalya, Turkey. Gianluca Zavarise scored for Toronto.

SOCCER IN AMERICA

Another student newspaper, Indiana Daily Student, looks at the growing game in our country.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Arch Bell of Yanks Abroad talks to Mo Edu about the rest of the season at Rangers, and the near future at Team USA.

dN

Brian Sciaretta of Yanks Abroad talks to Alex Zahavi about going out on loan to Hapoel Acre.

CONCACAF

International Friendlies

Mexico and El Salvador won, and Costa Rica got a tie, while Canada, Honduras & Haiti lost.

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Feb 9
Greece 1-0 Canada
Mexico 2-0 Bosnia-Herzegovina - Mex goals by Miralem Pjanic(OG) & Edgar Pacheco.
Honduras 1-1 Ecuador - Ecu wins 5-4 in Penalty Kick Shootout - Hon goal by Jerry Bengtson.
El Salvador 1-0 Haiti - ES goal by Rafael Burgos.
Venezuela 2-2 Costa Rica - CR goals by Brian Oviedo & Marcos Urena.

ENGLAND

Team's in London have been fighting over who would get to stadium being built for the 2012 Olympics, and today the plot was awarded to West Ham United.
-Owen Gibson of the Guardian says Tottenham is pissed, and now have less options for building their own new home.

dN

West Bromich Albion has hired former Newcastle head coach Chris Houghton to run their team for the rest of the season.

ITALY

Serie A's 20th place team Bari fired their head coach Giampiero Ventura today, and hired Bortolo Mutti as his replacement.

EUROPE

Paolo Bandini of the Guardian says Lionel Messi outshined Cristiano Ronaldo yesterday when their two countries face off.

UEFA

International Friendlies
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Feb 9
Mexico 2-0 Bosnia-Herzegovina

CONMEBOL

International Friendlies
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Feb 9
Honduras 2-2 Ecuador - Ecu win 5-4 in Penalty Kick Shootout

COPA LIBERTADORES

The Group Stage.

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Feb 9
Fluminense 2-2 Argentinos Juniors - Flu goals both by Rafael Moura. AJ goals both by Franco Niell.
-Tue Feb 15
Tolima v Guarani
Velez Sarsfield v Caracas
San Luis v Libertad
Tachira v Santos
America v Nacional
-Wed Feb 16
Union Espanola v U Catolica
Emelec v Internacional
Cruzeiro v Estudiantes
Jaguares v Jorge Wilstermann
Once Caldas v U San Martin
-Thu Feb 17
Leon Huanuco v Junior
Gremio v Oriente Petrolero
Cerro Porteno v Colo Colo
Godoy Cruz v LDU Quito

dN

Standings:
Group 1
Universidad San Martin (Peru)
Libertad (Paraguay)
Once Caldas (Colombia)
San Luis (Mexico)
Group 2
Junior (Colombia)
Oriente Petrolo (Bolivia)
Leon Huanuco (Peru)
Gremio (Brazil)
Group 3
1 Argentinos Juniors (Argentina) (0 gd) (1 gp)
1 Fluminense (Brazil) (0 gd) (1 gp)
0 Nacional (Uruguay)
0 America (Mexico)
Group 4
Caracas (Venezuela)
Universidad Catolica (Chile)
Velez Sarsfield (Argentina)
Union Espanola (Chile)
Group 5
Santos (Brazil)
Colo-Colo (Chile)
Tachira (Venezuela)
Cerro Porteno (Paraguay)
Group 6
Internacional (Brazil)
Jorge Wilstermann (Bolivia)
Emelec (Ecuador)
Chiapas Jaguares
Group 7
Estudiantes (Argentina)
Guarani (Paraguay)
Cruzeiro (Brazil)
Tolima (Colombia)
Group 8
Liga Quito (Ecuador)
Penarol (Uruguay)
Gody Cruz (Argentina)
Independiente (Argentina)

ENDERS

Listen to Guided By Voices doing their lo-fi meets classic rock hit Hot Freaks.