Some News for Fri Jul 1, 2011

STARTERS

Happy Canada Day!

TEAM USA AT THE 2011 WOMEN'S WORLD CUP

Germany 2011 is under way.

Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jun 28
USA 2-0 N Korea - USA goals by Lauren Cheney & Rachel Buehler.
-Sat Jul 2
USA v Colombia
-Wed Jul 6
USA v Sweden

Group C
Colombia
North Korea
Sweden
USA

Read coverage by Jerrod Roh (U of M Women's asst coach) at IMSoccer News.

COPA AMERICA

2011 Copa America kicks off tonight! Oh Yeah Oh Yeah!

Chris Ryan of Grantland with a tournament preview.

All games live on You Tube.

Costa Rica and Mexico were given a mandate by CONCACAF to bring U23 teams to this tournament.

dN

Group Stage

Matches & Scores:
-Fri Jul 1
Argentina v Bolivia - 7:45pm CT on TeleFutura and YouTube
-Sat Jul 2
Colombia v Costa Rica - 1:30pm CT on Univision and YouTube
-Sun Jul 3
Brazil v Venezuela - 2:00pm CT on Univision and YouTube
Paraguay v Ecuador - 4:30pm CT on TeleFutura and YouTube
-Mon Jul 4
Uruguay v Peru - 5:15pm CT on TeleFutura and YouTube
Chile v Mexico - 7:45pm CT on Univision and YouTube
-Wed Jul 6
Argentina v Colombia - 7:45pm CT on TeleFutura and YouTube
-Thu Jul 7
Bolivia v Costa Rica - 5:15pm CT on TeleFutura and YouTube
-Fri Jul 8
Chile v Uruguay - 5:15pm CT on TeleFutura and YouTube
Mexico v Peru - 7:45pm CT on Univision and YouTube
-Sat Jul 9
Brazil v Paraguay - 2:00pm CT on Univision and YouTube
Venezuela v Ecuador - 4:30 pm CT on TeleFutura and YouTube
-Sun Jul 10
Colombia v Bolivia - 2:00pm CT on TeleFutura and YouTube
-Mon Jul 11
Argentina v Costa Rica - 7:45pm CT on TeleFutura and YouTube
-Tue Jul 12
Chile v Peru - 5:15pm CT on TeleFutura and YouTube
Uruguay v Mexico - 7:45pm CT on Univision and YouTube
-Wed Jul 13
Paraguay v Venezuela - 5:15pm CT on TeleFutura and YouTube
Brazil v Ecuador - 7:45pm CT on TeleFutura

dN

Standings:
GROUP A
- Argentina
- Bolivia
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
GROUP B
- Brazil
- Ecuador
- Paraguay
- Venezuela
GROUP C
- Chile
- Mexico
- Peru
- Uruguay

The top 2 from each group and the next best 2 advance to the Quarterfinals.

WHY NOT!

Marc Narcucci of the Philadelphia Inquirer challenges Union fans to lose the moronic chant of You Suck Asshole that the opposition goalkeeper takes a free kick. Its the same issue that is part of a large battle going down with New England right now. This article is about a lot more than that, and Narducci has some of it wrong, but on that issue he is 100% dead on.

MLS MATCHES, SCORES & STANDINGS

Week 16

Matches & Scores
-Wed Jun 29
Toronto FC 1-0 Vancouver Whitecaps FC - TFC goal by Nick Soolsma(PK).
Venue: BMO Field
Attendance: 19,816
-Sat Jul 2
DC United v Philadelphia Union - 6:00PM CT on FOX Soccer
Venue: RFK Stadium
FC Dallas v Columbus Crew - 8:00PM CT on Direct Kick
Venue: Pizza Hut Park
CD Chivas USA v Chicago Fire SC - 9:00PM CT on Galavision
Venue: The Home Depot Center
San Jose Earthquakes v New York Red Bulls - 9:30PM CT on ESPN2/ESPN Deportes
Venue: Stanford Stadium
Portland Timbers v Sporting Kansas City - 10:00PM CT on Direct Kick
Venue: JELD-WEN Field
-Sun Jul 3
Colorado Rapids v Houston Dynamo - 8:00PM CT on ESPN2/ESPN Deportes
Venue: Dick's Sporting Goods Park
-Mon Jul 4
Real Salt Lake v New England Revolution - 7:30PM CT on ESPN2/ESPN Deportes
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium
LA Galaxy v Seattle Sounders FC - 9:30PM CT on ESPN2/ESPN Deportes
Venue: The Home Depot Center

dN

Standings:
EASTERN CONFERENCE
26 Philadelphia Union (+5 GD) (16 GP)
24 Columbus Crew (+3 GD) (16 GP)
24 New York Red Bulls (+6 GD) (17 GP)
19 Houston Dynamo (-1 GD) (17 GP)
18 DC United (-6 GD) (15 GP)
18 Toronto FC (-12 GD) (19 GP)
17 Sporting Kansas City (-2 GD) (15 GP)
17 Chicago Fire SC (-3 GD) (17 GP)
15 New England Revolution (-8 GD) (17 GP)

WESTERN CONFERENCE
35 LA Galaxy (+10 GD) (19 GP)
31 FC Dallas (+7 GD) (17 GP)
31 Seattle Sounders FC (+7 GD) (19 GP)
26 Real Salt Lake (+9 GD) (15 GP)
22 Colorado Rapids (-2 GD) (17 GP)
20 San Jose Earthquakes (+3 GD) (15 GP)
18 Portland Timbers (-8 GD) (15 GP)
17 CD Chivas USA (-1 GD) (16 GP)
14 Vancouver Whitecaps FC (-7 GD) (18 GP)

MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

General News

Graham Zusi of Sporting Kansas City was named MLS June Player of the Month.
-Here he is with my friend Sarah. At the time the photo was taken there was some confusion over who he was, and for a short while he was mistaken as Roger Federer! Fantastic. And he is wearing the awesome Ilie Nastase t-shirt.



















NOTE: That photo was also taken a few days after he hit that 50+ yard bomb of a free kick goal. See it here.

CHICAGO FIRE

Charlie Corr of ESPN on the Fire's desperate need to turn ties into wins.

HOUSTON DYNAMO

Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Chronicle on the Dynamo's seemingly never ending search for a great striker.

PORTLAND TIMBERS

Geoffrey Arnold of the Oregonian looks at the return of Jack Jewsbury to take on his former team Kansas City. Think he isn't motivated for this game?

Arnold also reports on a possible line up reorganization for this weekend.

And Arnold takes a closer look at the strong midfield duo of Jewsbury and Diego Chara.

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC

Marc Weber of the Province says the Caps need the win in the Canadian Championship badly on Saturday.

MLS RESERVE LEAGUE

Matches & Scores:
-Sun Jul 3
DC United v Philadelphia Union
-Mon Jul 5
Chicago Fire SC v FC Dallas
LA Galaxy v Seattle Sounders FC
-Tue Jul 6
New York Red Bulls v Toronto FC

Standings Etc.

IF MLS STANDINGS WERE BASED ON DRAWS

(As of Fri Jul 1)

11 Chicago
9 New York
9 Toronto
8 Los Angeles
8 Vancouver
7 Colorado
7 Houston
7 Seattle
6 DC
6 Columbus
6 New England
5 Chivas
5 Kansas City
5 Philadelphia
5 Salt Lake
5 San Jose
4 Dallas
3 Portland

NSC MINNESOTA STARS

The annual Blaine fireworks will follow the Star game on Monday night.

NASL SCOREBOARD

Matches & Scores:
-Sun Jul 3
Carolina RailHawks v Montreal Impact
-Mon Jul 4
Atlanta Silverbacks v Puerto Rico Islanders
FC Tampa Bay v Fort Lauderdale Strikers
NSC Minnesota Stars v FC Edmonton

dN

Standings (as of Wed Jun 29):
34 Carolina RailHawks (+20 GD) (13 GP) 2.62 PPG
23 FC Edmonton (+3 GD) (13 GP) 1.77 PPG
19 Puerto Rico Islanders (-1 GD) (13 GP) 1.46 PPG
18 NSC Minnesota Stars (+2 GD) (13 GP) 1.38 PPG
17 Fort Lauderdale Strikers (+2 GD) (13 GP) 1.31 PPG
14 FC Tampa Bay (-6 GD) (13 GP) 1.08 PPG
10 Montreal Impact (-2 GD) (13 GP) 0.78 PPG
5 Atlanta Silverbacks (-18 GD) (13 GP) 0.38 PPG

MEXICO 2011 - USA U17 WORLD CUP

June 18 to July 10.

Official website

All games are shown on ESPN3.com, and some are shown on TV channel ESPNU.

France & Mexico are the final two teams into the Quarterfinals, where they will face each other.

US Soccer gives us a match report from the USA loss to Germany on Thursday.

dN

Round of 16

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jun 29
1 Congo 1-2 Uruguay - Con goal by Hardy Binguila. Uru goals by Maximiliano Moreira & Gaston Silva.
2 Uzbekistan 4-0 Australia - Uzb goals by Abbosbek Makhstaliev, Timur Khakimov, Conor Chapman(OG) & Davlatbek Yarbekov.
3 Japan 6-0 New Zealand - Jap goals by Hideki Ishige(2), Fumiha Hayakawa(2), Kip Colvey(OG) & Takumi Minamino.
4 Brazil 2-0 Ecuador - Bra goals by Ademilson & Leo.
-Thu Jun 30
5 Germany 4-0 USA - Ger goals by Koray Guenter, Mitchell Weiser, Samed Yesil & Marvin Ducksch.
6 England 1-1 Argentina - Eng advances 4-2 in Penalty Kick Shootout - Eng goal by Raheem Sterling. Arg goal by Maximiliano Padilla.
7 France 3-2 Cote d'Ivoire - Fra goals by Yassine Benzia(2) & Lenny Nangis. CDI goals by Souleyman Coulibaly & Drissa Diarra Souba.
8 Mexico 2-0 Panama - Mex goals by Carlos Fierro & Marco Bueno.

dN

Quarterfinals

Matches & Scores:
-Sun Jul 3
Uruguay v Uzbekistan
Japan v Brazil
-Mon Jul 4
Germany v England
France v Mexico

dN

Semifinals

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jul 7
Winner 1/2 v Winner 3/4
Winner 5/6 v Winner 7/8

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Eddie Johnson joins the list of American players looking for a new team as Fulham released him from his contract.

Greg Seltzer of MLSsoccer.com tells us about Quentin Westberg's options for 2011/12.

Brian Sciaretta of Yanks Abroad talks to Tyrone McCargo who has just signed with Nurnberg and will be part of their U19 team.
-He is also eligible to play for Italy, Greece or Germany.

Sciaretta also reports that Greg Garza is no longer under the control of Traffic Management and has left their Estoril Praia team in Portugal. He is searching for a new team.

dN

Coming Up:

NORWAY - Eliteserien
Joe Bendik - Sogndal - Sun Jul 3 at Start
Erik Benjaminsen - Stabaek - Sun Jul 3 at Brann
Sean Cunningham - Molde - Sun Jul 3 v Aalesund
Mikkel Diskerud - Stabaek - Sun Jul 3 at Brann
Josh Gatt - Molde - Sun Jul 3 v Aalesund

NORWAY - 1 Divisjon
Rhett Bernstein - Mjondalen - Sun Jul 3 v Bryne
Colin Burns - Sandefjord - Sun Jul 3 v Lov-Kam
Steve Clark - Honefoss - Sun Jul 3 at Sandnes Ulf
Kyle Helton - Mjondalen - Sun Jul 3 v Bryne
Kenneth Di Vita Jensen - Honefoss - Sun Jul 3 at Sandnes Ulf

SWEDEN - Allsvenskan Liga
Gale Agbossoumonde - Djurgarden - Mon Jul 4 v Helsingborg
Alejandro Bedoya - Orebro - Sun Jul 3 v Elfsborg
Ryan Miller - Halmstad - Sun Jul 3 v AIK
Samuel Petrone - Mjallby - Sun Jul 3 at Hacken

SWEDEN - Superettan
Nick Noble - Ljungskile - Sat Jul 2 at Angelholm
Michael Thomas - Ljungskile - Sat Jul 2 at Angelholm

CANADA

Canadian Championship

Final
2nd Leg (1st Leg scored included)
-Sat Jul 2
Toronto FC v Vancover Whitecaps (1-1)

The winner advances to the preliminary round of the CONCACAF Champions League.

CONCACAF 2014 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

Preliminary Round

Here are 5 matchups between the 10 lowest rated teams in the region. The 5 winners will advance to join the next 19 highest rated teams in a six, four team group stage.

Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Sat Jul 2
Turks & Caicos Islands v Bahamas
-Sun Jul 3
US Virgin Islands v British Virgin Islands

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

The very first round of qualifying began yesterday. Really?? Yup.
-Here are the results from the 1st Leg matches.
-2nd Leg matches will be played Thu Jul 7.

ASIA

dN

AFC 2014 World Cup Qualifying

The 16 lowest rated teams paired up to face off in a home and away series.

Matches & Scores:
2nd Leg
-Sun Jul 3
Chinese Taipei v Malaysia (1-2)
Pakistan v Bangladesh (0-3)
Laos v Cambodia (2-4)
Philippines v Sri Lanka (1-1)
Palestine v Afghanistan (2-0)
Macau v Vietnam (0-6)
Timor Leste v Nepal (1-2)
Myanmar v Mongolia (0-1)

The 8 winners advance to be paired off with the next 22 lowest ranked teams for another home and away series

Then those 15 winners will meet up with the 5 highest seeds and formed into a group stage competition.