Some News for Tue Feb 22, 2011

STORY OF THE DAY

"They didn’t give them food. They couldn’t sleep and they were guarded by armed guards."

The Miami Herald tells us about the horrible treatment of the Haiti U17 team that got sick while at the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying tournament in Jamaica last week, and what happened to them after they withdrew from the tournament.

And again like in so many other situations - Where was CONCACAF?? This was there tournament. What did they do to help understand the situation?

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE

The first leg of the Quarterfinals get going this week.

Quarterfinals:
1st Leg
-Tue Feb 22p
Columbus Crew v Real Salt Lake - 7pm Central on FSC
Venue: Crew Stadium - Columbus OH
Cruz Azul v Santos Laguna
Venue: Estadio Azul - Mexico City DF
-Wed Feb 23
Toluca v Monterrey
Venue: Estadio Nemesio Diez - Toluca, Edomex
-Thu Feb 24
Saprissa v Olimpia
Venue: Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Ayma - San Jose

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Gabrielle Marcotti of the Wall Street Journal on the one and only Jose Mourinho, manager of Real Madrid.

Sid Lowe of the Guardian on Mourinho's attempt to return Real Madrid to the elite of Europe.
-Real Madrid has won the European Championship 9 times, but none since 2001, and they have not been past the last 16 since 2004. With the amount of money they spend on players they figure that they should be in a much better place then that.

dN

All games shown in the USA on Fox Soccer Channel.

dN

Round Of 16
Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-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

CONCACAF U17 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

The 2011 CONCACAF U17 Championship/World Cup Qualifying is now under way in Jamaica.
-Mexico has already qualified as the hosts of the tournament. 4 more CONCACAF teams will advance.

dN

The USA won 3-2 over El Salvador in the Quarterfinals and have advanced not only to the Semifinals but also the U17 World Cup.
-They are the only team to have qualified for EVERY U17 World Cup.
-The USA had two players sent off in the final minutes and El Sal 1. Kellyn Acosta got 2 yellow cards, while goalkeeper Fernando Pina got a straight red for an ugly kick at one of the El Sal players. It was way out of line. El Sal's Jose Pena was red carded for retaliating on Pina.
-There looked to be about 75 people in the stands.

Costa Rica were upset in today's first Quarterfina by Panama who are headed to the U17 World Cup.

dN

Quarterfinals
-Tue Feb 22
Costa Rica 0-1 Panama - Pan goal by Alfredo Stevens.
USA 3-2 El Salvador - USA goals by Alejandro Guido, Mario Rodriguez & Marc Pelosi. Sal goals by Jose Pena & Gerardo Iraheta(PK).
-Wed Feb 23
Canada v Trinidad & Tobago - 11am Central
Jamaica v Honduras - 2pm Central

dN

Semifinals
-Fri Feb 25
Panama v Canada/Trinidad & Tobago winner - 3pm Central
USA v Jamaica/Honduras winner - 6pm Central

Final
-Sun Feb 27
CONCACAF Championship - 6pm Central

dN

USA Roster
G:
Kendall McIntosh - Mustang Academy
Fernando Pina - Houston Dynamo Academy
D:
Kellyn Acosta - FC Dallas Academy
Joe Amon - South Carolina United
Zach Carroll - Vardar
Mobi Fehr - Tokyo Verdy
Nathan Smith - Cal Odyssey
Andrew Souders - Crew Soccer Academy
M:
Jordan Allen - Empire United
Matt Dunn - Koln
Alejandro Guido - Aztecs Premier
Marc Pelosi - De Anza Force
Esteban Rodriguez - Cosmos Academy West
Tarik Salkicic - Strictly Soccer
Dillon Serna - Colorado Rapids Academy
F:
Paul Arriola - Arsenal FC
Alfred Koroma - Solar Chelsea
Jack McBean - LA Galaxy
Andrew Oliver - Westside United
Mario Rodriguez - Central Aztecs

dN

The official blog of the USA youth national teams has some great stuff on the players in their squad.

WHY?

The Associated Press with a horrible story from Guatemala about an executive from FC Xinabajul being shot dead after receiving death threats connected to a poor run of games by the team. Via Boston Globe.

MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

General News

The Casa Grande Dispatch with another story on MLS teams making Arizona a preseason home. (thanks to Bart for this one)
-AZ Central has an article about the growing number of soccer complexes in the state. (thanks to OD for the link)

COLUMBUS CREW

CC has signed outside midfielder Josh Gardner from the Carolina RailHawks.

HOUSTON DYNAMO

Houston drew 2-2 with Seattle today on goals by Cam Weaver & Brian Ching.

LA GALAXY

For the second straight day the Galaxy beat up on Vancouver 2-0, this time with goals by Adam Cristman & Chad Barrett.

NEW YORK RED BULLS

Brian Lewis of the NY Post gets a few minutes with Thierry Henry to see how preseason is going.

PHILADELPHIA UNION

Philly.com on the Union signing Carlos Ruiz.
-I am not sure how he solves much of their goal scoring issues, but hopefully he is being brought in to be part of the second string of attackers not the first.

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

The team is doing some preseason at the Tottenham facility in England this week, and got off to a winning start today.

Games while in England:
-Tue Feb 22
Birmingham City reserves 0-4 SJE - SJE goals by Steven Lenhart(2), Chris Wondolowski & Joey Gjertsen.
-Wed Feb 23
Tottenham reserves v SJE
-Thu Feb 24
Leiscester City v SJE

SEATTLE SOUNDERS

The Sounders and Houston tied 2-2 today. SSFC goals by Fredy Montero(PK) & Michael Tetteh.

Joshua Mayers of the Times with an article on Uruguayan midfielder Alvaro Fernandez who should be a key element in Sounders success this season.

TORONTO FC

TFC has promoted academy head coach Jason Bent to the role of senior team assistant coach.

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC

Dropped a game to Los Angeles 2-0 on Tuesday.

Bruce Constantineau of the Sun with a couple of Caps team notes.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

7 Americans were in the game day 18 in the lower leagues of England today but only earned 1 win, to got along with 2 losses and 4 draws.

dN

Game Action:

ENGLAND - Championship League
Conor Doyle - Derby County - Tue Feb 22 - on the bench as they lost 0-1 v Hull.
Brad Guzan - Hull City - Tue Feb 22 - in goal for a clean sheet and and 0-1 win at Derby.
Eddie Johnson - Preston North End - Tue Feb 22 - started and went 58 min of a 2-2 tie at Nottingham Forest.
Eric Lichaj - Leeds - Tue Feb 22 - played the entire game as they drew 3-3 v Barnsley.
Zak Whitbread - Norwich - Tue Feb 22 - played the full match as they drew 1-1 v Doncaster.

ENGLAND - League One
Anton Peterlin - Plymouth Argyle - Tue Feb 22 - on the bench as they lost 4-0 at Brighton & Hove.
Frank Simek - Carlisle United - Tue Feb 22 - went the distance as they drew 2-2 v Exeter.

ENGLAND

Manchester United has signed star left fullback Patrice Evra to a new long term contract.

dN

Recap du Nord: #4 Tottenham went to Blackpool today (Tuesday) and lost badly. 2nd place Arsenal plays on Wednesday.

Top of the Premier League Table: (26 GP)
57 Man United
53 Arsenal - Wed Feb 23 v Stoke
49 Man City (27 GP)
47 Tottenham - Tue Feb 22 L 3-1 at Blackpool (27 GP)
45 Chelsea

SCOTLAND

Rangers has announced that manager Walter Smith will retire from the team at the end of this current season, and be replaced by assistant coach Ally McCoist.

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

2nd leg matches in the Round of 32 are this week.

dN

On Tuesday CSKA Moscow drew 1-1 at home against PAOK (of Thessaloniki, Greece), and has advanced 2-1 on aggregate.

Here are the rest of the Matches & Scores.

COPA LIBERTADORES

Group Stage
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Feb 22
Cruzeiro v Guarani
San Martin v San Luis
Emelec v Jorge Wilstermann
Once Caldas v Libertad
-Wed Feb 23
Leon Huanuco v Oriente Petrolero
Internacional v Jaguares
Estudiantes v Deportes Tolima
Fluminense v Nacional
-Thu Feb 24
Independiente v Penarol
Argentinos Juniors v America
Junior v Gremio

GRATUITOUS DIEGO FORLAN PHOTO




















MY THOUGHTS

I have been getting a lot of emails over the past few days wondering why I have not been running with the GRANT WAHL FOR FIFA PRESIDENT story.

Ok, here we go.....

First off, he is one of the elite soccer writers in our country, hell any country, and has consistently done top notch work for over a decade now. Secondly, he and I have a personal soccer fan history dating back 10 years now, and I am proud to know him. Third, and probably most relevant to du Nord is that he was the first national media person to publicly recognize this blog and help give it some early readership.

All that being said, I can't take this real seriously. And I don't think Grant is taking his campaign with strict seriousness either. I think he wants to make a point, while at the same time having a little sense of humor about it all.

From reading his column about running for office I admit that I was a little surprised at how naive it came off at times. And I made a promise to myself that I was not going to be the guy to write a rebuttal, mainly because I can be just as naive and run by my emotions as the next guy. Hell look at how many times I have derided Jack Warner, and yet I know nothing about what it would really take to do his job with honor, dignity and success.

Bill Archer at Big Soccer on the other hand is a much smarter guy than me who sees things through a lot bigger window, and has the writing skills to lay it out with clarity.

Luckily for us Archer has written an article that puts Wahl's idea in such great terms that all of us need to read it and come to grips with it.

Simply put, Sepp Blatter and his type are not going away under almost any challenge, and a journalist from the USA is definitely not the guy to unseat him. Or barely even make a flutter around him.

As Archer says, a real investigation from genuinely powerful media is what is truly needed if anything at FIFA or CONCACAF or US Soccer is ever going to change in a significant way.

And that should be Grant Wahl's call to arms.

It should also be the rallying cry of John Skipper, Brian Glanville, Jonathan Wilson, Michelle Kaufman, Frank Dell'Apa, Gabrielle Marcotti, Phil Ball, Sid Lowe, Alex Bellos, Alexi Lalas, Simon Kuper, Paul Gardner, Ridge Mahoney, Mark Zeigler, Jen Chang, Robbie Savage, Kelly Whiteside, Michael Lewis, Jeff Bradley, Glenn Davis, James Lawton, Dave Zirin, Martin Samuel, Patrick Barclay, Simon Evans, Bobby McMahon, Paul Attfield, Ron Blum, Uli Hesse, John Molinaro, Martin Rogers, Ives Galarcep, Jack Bell, Tim Vickery, David Conn, Jeff Carlisle, Nancy Armour, Henry Winter, Guillem Balague, Grahame Jones, Oliver Kay, George Vecsey, Brian Straus, Rapahel Honigstein, Taylor Twellman, Paul James, Leanders Scherlackens, Dominic Fifield, Gavin Hamilton, Jere Longman, James Horncastle... And that is just a partial list of people, off the top of my bald head, that I think have a real platform to voice the opinion of needed change in the world of soccer.

Imagine what could get done if they all got together and took on Blatter etc.