Some News for Wed Aug 10, 2011

STARTERS

MLS, US Soccer & NBC announce broadcasting partnership! Wow. Starting in 2012 and continuing through the 2014 season NBC properties will broadcast MLS and USA games. Breakdown for each of the 3 seasons:
-NBC will have 2 regular season MLS games, 2 playoff games and 2 USA games.
-NBC Sports Network (Versus new name) will have 38 regular season games, 3 playoff games and 2 USA games.
-All telecasts will feature pre & post game coverage.
Here is the full NBC press release.

(I wrote this before the above mentioned news broke.) ESPN has again shown their less than genuine effort to support AMERICAN soccer. Yesterday during their big afternoon talk show Pardon The Interruption there were glowing ads for the start of the new Premier League season, but nothing for the USA v Mexico match tonight. That tells me everything I need to know about where their real interests lie.

And where does that leave Fox Soccer on the American soccer landscape? USL, WPS and CONCACAF Champions League are still theirs. How about NASL?

dN

Sadly, getting blown out of the water by that announcement is this one - Jesse Marsch has indeed been named the head coach of the Montreal Impact as they head toward MLS next season. Here is the press release.














TEAM USA - EL EQUIPO DE TODOS

Another USA v Mexico Un-Friendly

For the game tonight the USA players will wear shirts numbered 1-11 for the starters and 12-18 for the reserves. No names on the back.

dN

Match & Score:
-Wed Aug 10
USA v Mexico - 8pm CT on ESPN2 - 30 min pregame show on ESPN News at 7:30pm CT.
Venue: Lincoln Financial Field - Philadelphia

dN

Ives Galarcep of Fox Soccer identifies the most important aspects of this game for the USA.

dN

Steve Goff of the Washington Post with press conference quotes from Jurgen Klinsmann and Landon Donovan yesterday.

dN

Goff also writes about Michael Bradley, and the new era without his father in charge of the team.

dN

US Soccer has a Q & A with Tim Howard.

dN

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America previews the game that is even slightly bigger than a normal USA v Mexico friendly.

dN

Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com with an article on the return of Thomas Dooley.

dN

Marc Narducci of the Philadelphia Inquirer with an article on former Union defender Michael Orozco Fiscal who is excited to be back in Philadelphia even for one game.

dN

Kerith Gabriel of the Philadelphia Daily News talks to DaMarcus Beasley and Michael Orozco Fiscal.

dN

Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer on the head coaching change for US Soccer.

dN

Brian Straus of Sporting News on Klinsmanns charisma. Plus a video interview with Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com.

dN

Christopher Vito of the Delaware County Daily Times with an article on Tim Howard and his desire to beat Mexico.

dN

Jeff Carlisle of ESPN on the new beginning for US Soccer.

dN

Soloman Crenshaw Jr of the Birmingham News knows what the US team needs most - players.

dN

Brian Sciaretta of Yanks Abroad talks to Michael Bradley about his role in the new team.

dN

Sciaretta also talks to Jose Torres.

dN

USA Roster
G:
Bill Hamid - DC United
Tim Howard - Everton
D:
Carlos Bocanegra - Saint-Etienne
Edgar Castillo - America
Zach Loyd - Dallas
Steve Cherundolo - Hannover
Michael Orozco Fiscal - San Luis
Heath Pearce - Chivas USA
Tim Ream - New York Red Bulls
M:
Kyle Beckerman - Real Salt Lake
Michael Bradley - Monchengladbach
Ricardo Clark - Eintracht Frankfurt
Jermaine Jones - Schalke
Robbie Rogers - Columbus
Brek Shea - Dallas
Jose Torres - Pachuca
F:
Freddy Adu - Benfica
Juan Agudelo - New York Red Bulls
DaMarcus Beasley - Puebla
Edson Buddle - Ingolstadt
Landon Donovan - LA Galaxy

dN

Mexico Roster
G:
Guillermo Ochoa - Ajaccio
Alfredo Talavera - Toluca
D:
Paul Aguilar - America
Efrain Juarez - Zaragoza
Rafael Marquez - New York Red Bulls
Hector Moreno - Espanyol
Jorge Torres Nilo - UANL Tigres
Francisco Rodriguez - Stuttgart
Carlos Salcido - Fulham
M:
Pablo Barrera - West Ham
Christian Bermudez - Atlante
Israel Castro - Cruz Azul
Andres Guardado - Deportivo la Coruna
Antonio Naelson - Toluca
Gerardo Torrado - Cruz Azul
Jesus Zavala - Monterrey
F:
Omar Arellano - Guadalajara
Javier Aquino - Cruz Azul
Oribe Peralta - Santos Laguna
Giovani Dos Santos - Tottenham

FIFA SCANDAL

FIFA has suspended Barbados official and former CONCACAF interim president Lisle Austin for one year for trying to use civil courts to push through his CONCACAF agenda.
-Austin took the position when Jack Warner resigned then, tried to fire secretary general Chuck Blazer who ratted out Warner. The CONCACAF executive board then suspended Austin for that action and he went to a civil court in Barbados to overturn them. FIFA put their foot down.

dN

So who is running CONCACAF? The federation has not had a single update on their website since Warner was originally suspended on May 30, and Austin tried to oust Blazer on May 31. That was approximately 10 weeks ago.

dN

FIFA has also banned 6 referees for life who were involved in match fixing. The referees were from Hungary & Bosnia, 3 from each, and the games were from early this year - Latvia v Bolivia & Estonia v Bulgaria.

STORY OF THE DAY

Louciano Castro of Florida Today feels exactly the same way I do about Jurgen Klinsmann.
-I know its not the positive tone that people are seeming to want right now, but we are not pro-Klinsi. I sincerely hope to be proved wrong.

THE GUARDIAN 2011-12 PREMIER LEAGUE SEASON PREVIEWS

Sunderland
Swansea
Tottenham
West Brom
Wigan
Wolverhampton
Arsenal
Aston Villa
Blackburn
Bolton
Chelsea
Everton
Fulham
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle
Norwich
Queens Park Rangers
Stoke

TWITTERVERSE/FACEBOOKING

"Inter to sell Eto'o to Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala. Sneijder staying and 'no chance for Tevez', Inter chief exec Ernesto Paolillo just told me."
-Tariq Panja of Bloomberg

Here Panja's full story.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

What are the ramifications of all the summer friendlies that MLS teams play again foreign clubs?

Brian Straus of Sporting News gives his reactions.

DO YOU REALIZE

According to Curt Johnson, president of the Carolina RailHawks speaking at a press conference yesterday, over 2 billion dollars has been spent on soccer stadium infrastructure in North America in the past decade.

THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

Rory McLean writing for the Shin Guardian tells us about the beginnings of the USA v Mexico on field rivalry.

PICTURE OF THE DAY

(In light of today's news:) This is pretty cool - What if NHL teams were MLS teams. What would their shirts look like?? (thanks to JD for the link)






















MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

CD CHIVAS USA

Scott French of ESPN with some notes from training on the teams two new players David Junior Lopes and Laurent Courtois.

NASL SCOREBOARD

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 10
Montreal Impact v FC Tampa Bay
Puerto Rico Islanders v Atlanta Silverbacks
NSC Minnesota Stars v Fort Lauderdale Strikers

dN

Standings (as of Sat Aug 6):
44 Carolina RailHawks (+24 GD) (19 GP)
32 Puerto Rico Islanders (+4 GD) (19 GP)
28 NSC Minnesota Stars (+5 GD) (18 GP)
27 FC Tampa Bay (+2 GD) (19 GP)
25 FC Edmonton (-7 GD) (20 GP)
24 Fort Lauderdale Strikers (+1 GD) (19 GP)
- - - OUT OF PLAYOFFS - - -
15 Montreal Impact (-6 GD) (19 GP)
12 Atlanta Silverbacks (-21 GD) (19 GP)

SOCCER IN AMERICA

James Clark of the Press of Atlantic City talks to former great Tony Meola about growing up, his career, his attitude toward soccer and what the game has meant to his life.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Andrew Vorce of Yanks Abroad reports that Frank Simek could be out up to 2 months with a torn hip muscle.

dN

Game Action:

ENGLAND - League Cup - First Round
Jon-Paul Pittman - Oxford United - Wed Aug 10 - lost 1-2 v Cardiff City.

UEFA EURO 2012

Qualifying

Match & Score:
-Wed Aug 10
N Ireland 4-0 Faroe Islands

BRAZIL

Fernando Duarte of the Guardian says that Brazil head coach Mano Menezes is under a lot of pressure as his team struggles.

dN

Brazil - Serie A Standings (15 of 38 games played):
33 Flamengo - NEXT: Sun Aug 14 at Figueirense
32 Corinthians (14 GP) - NEXT: Wed Aug 10 at Santos - AND THEN: Sun Aug 14 v Ceara
31 Sao Paulo - NEXT: Sat Aug 13 v Atletico PR
27 Vasco - NEXT: Sun Aug 14 v Palmeiras
27 Palmeiras - NEXT: Sun Aug 14 at Vasco

COLOMBIA 2011 U20 WORLD CUP

Official World Cup website - tournament runs Jul 29 - Aug 20.

Round of 16

The hosts Colombia were only 10 minutes from being eliminated, down 2-1. They got one goal back in regulation and a Penalty 3 minutes into stoppage time saved the day. In other matches Mexico and Cameroon tied with Mex winning in PKs. And speaking of PKs, both Portugal and Argentina advanced with all 4 goals in their games being scored from the penalty spot. Weird.

So one side of the Quarterfinal bracket is filled, with Portugal facing Argentina and Mexico taking on the hosts Colombia.

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Tue Aug 9
1 Portugal 1-0 Guatemala - Por goal by Nelson Oliveira(PK).
2 Argentina 2-1 Egypt - Arg goals both by Erik Lamela(both via PK). Egy goal by Mohamed Salah(PK).
3 Cameroon 1-1 Mexico - Mex advances 3-0 in Penalty Kick Shootout - Cam goal by Franck Ohandza. Mex goal by Carlos Orrantia.
4 Colombia 3-2 Costa Rica - Col goals by Luis Muriel, Pedro Franco & James Rodriguez(PK). CR goals by John Ruiz & Mynor Escoe.
-Wed Aug 10
5 Spain v S Korea
6 Brazil v Saudi Arabia
7 France v Ecuador
8 Nigeria v England

dN

Quaterfinals

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Aug 13
Portugal v Argentina
Mexico v Colombia
-Sun Aug 14
5 v 6
7 v 8

INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLIES

A couple of big scores today as Italy beat #1 Spain and Germany beat Brazil. Japan whipped South Korea. They only other upset was Montenegro losing to Albania.

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 10
Italy 2-1 Spain
Germany 3-2 Brazil
*Portugal v Luxembourg
Ireland 0-0 Croatia
France 1-1 Chile
Norway 3-0 Czech Republic
Bosnia-Herzegovina 0-0 Greece
Cote d'Ivoire 4-3 Israel
Japan 3-0 S Korea
Albania 3-2 Montenegro
Russia 1-0 Serbia
Ukraine 0-1 Sweden
*USA v Mexico
Scotland 2-1 Denmark
Slovenia 0-0 Belgium
Wales 1-2 Australia
Turkey 3-0 Estonia
Austria 1-2 Slovakia
Liechtenstein 1-2 Switzerland
Poland 1-0 Georgia
Belarus 1-0 Bulgaria
San Marino 0-1 Romania
Latvia 0-2 Finland
Hungary 4-0 Iceland
Cyprus 3-2 Moldova
Azerbaijan 0-1 Macedonia
Lithuania 3-0 Armenia
*Bolivia v Panama
*Honduras v Venezuela
*Haiti v Trinidad & Tobago
China 1-0 Jamaica
*Costa Rica v Ecuador
*El Salvador v Cameroon
Senegal 0-2 Morocco
Zimbabwe 2-0 Zambia
Gambia 3-0 Congo DR
*Tunisia v Mali
South Africa 3-0 Burkina Faso
Gabon 1-1 Guinea
*Liberia v Angola
Botswana 1-0 Kenya
*Equatorial Guinea v Guinea-Bissau
*Sudan v Burundi
Malta 2-1 Central African Republic
Kuwait 0-0 N Korea
Oman 1-1 Bahrain
Kazakhstan 1-1 Syria
Niger 3-3 Togo

*Being played later in the day.

VERY OFF TOPIC

"The youth aren't thinking about all of this. To be honest, this is the cause of the whole situation. Nobody is thinking. But we're not trained to use our minds in this society, we're trained to use our ego. And that is the root cause of all the problems."
-19 year old Omar Shahid of Live magazine in London

BIG PIMPIN

Landon Donovan, Rafael Marquez & Wayne Rooney on the cover of FIFA Soccer 12, out Mon Sep 12.
























ENDERS

Many readers have been checking out this amazing photo from the Oregonian taken at the Portland v LA game last week. The resolution of this picture is so high that you can click on any spot and it will zoom in, waaaaaay in. You can literaly close in on one person on the far side of the stadium. And may people have. One even sent me a note (thanks Superrookie) telling me that my long lost twin brother was in the photo. So we went to find him. And here he is!!! If you are or know this person please contact me!