Some Soccer News for Fri Dec 23, 2011
STARTERS
Jamie Trecker of Fox Soccer traveled to London and sat down for a video interview with Clint Dempsey.
-There really isn't anything new here for us diehards, but its great to see the words come out of Clint's mouth. What a talent!
-More great stuff with Clint and members of his family.
dN
Liverpool staff, players and fans giving Luis Suarez their full support against his being found guilty of using racist slurs against an opponent are missing the whole point. OK so you think the 8 game suspension was too much. But to my way of thinking at some point someone with authority has to put their foot down and say Enough is enough. This stops here and now and if it doesn't this is the penalty. I could care less that Suarez has black friends. That doesn't excuse anything. He said what he said and its wrong. Shut up and pay the price and lets move on.
dN
ITS ALIVE! Eddie Johnson, the Grown Ass Man, has come back to life and signed with Puebla in Mexico.
-Last we heard from Eddie he was dodging his Missus, hanging out in a Florida hotel room with a floozy, and getting his car wrecked by the wife when she found him.
dN
Former Milan and Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti is going to be named the new head coach of Paris St Germain.
AFRICA
Yaya Toure of Cote d'Ivoire & Manchester City has been named the African Player of the Year.
The other 9 finalists were:
-Andre Ayew - Ghana & Marseille
-Kevin-Prince Boateng - Ghana & AC Milan
-Didier Drogba - Cote d'Ivoire & Chelsea
-Samuel Eto'o - Cameroon & Anzhi Makhachkala
-Gervinho - Cote d'Ivoire & Arsenal
-Asamoah Gyan - Ghana & Al Ain
-Seydou Keita - Mali & Barcelona
-Moussa Sow - Senegal & Lille
-Adel Taarabt - Morocco & Queens Park Rangers
DU NORD AT THE CONTROLS
du Nord at the Controls - Tue Dec 20, 2011 - new music mix at Spotify
STORY OF THE DAY
Here is something you definitely don't see every day, especially from former soccer stars!
The Guardian has an article on a new museum exhibition opening in Paris that shows how throughout recent history humans have used other humans as "displays" and "freak shows". The exhibit is curated by France 98 World Cup star Lillian Thuram! (thanks to Wes for the link)
TEAM USA - EL EQUIPO DE TODOS
The USA will hold its annual January training camp for players who are currently in their off-season.
The camp will run Jan 3-26 and training will take place in Phoenix, Carson CA and Panama.
They will finish with 2 games:
-Jan 21 v Venezuela
-Jan 25 at Panama
dN
US Soccer has quotes from Klinsmann on this roster.
dN
USA Roster
G:
Bill Hamid - DC United
Sean Johnson - Chicago Fire SC
Nick Rimando - Real Salt Lake
D:
Geoff Cameron - Houston Dynamo
AJ DeLaGarza - LA Galaxy
Omar Gonzalez - LA Galaxy
George John - FC Dallas
Zach Loyd - FC Dallas
Michael Parkhurst - FC Nordsjaelland
Heath Pearce - CD Chivas USA
M:
Kyle Beckerman - Real Salt Lake
Ricardo Clark - Eintracht Frankfurt
Benny Feilhaber - New England Revolution
Jeff Larentowicz - Colorado Rapids
Brek Shea - FC Dallas
Graham Zusi - Sporting Kansas City
F:
Juan Agudelo - New York Red Bulls
Teal Bunbury - Sporting Kansas City
CJ Sapong - Sporting Kansas City
Chris Wondolowski - San Jose Earthquakes
Who surprises you the most on this roster?
-Ricardo Clark sticks out for me.
Who is not on this list that should be?
-Tim Ream is getting married in January, so that is why he is not on this roster.
Here is my list of "Other possibles":
-Nat Borchers
-Eric Brunner
-Sean Franklin
-Eddie Gaven
-Clarence Goodson
-Ugo Ihemelu
-Dan Kennedy
-Nick LaBrocca
-Mike Magee
-Chad Marshall
-Ryan Miller
-Drew Moor
-Chance Myers
-Chris Rolfe
-Brad Rusin
-AJ Soares
-Yevgeni Starikov
-Etchu Tabe
USA U23/OLYMPIC TEAM
The USA U23/Olympic team is in Lakewood Ranch Florida until Dec 23 for a training camp.
dN
US Soccer fills us in on a second inter-squad scrimmage.
dN
There will be another camp in January.
dN
Here is the roster.
G:
David Bingham - San Jose Earthquakes
Bill Hamid - DC United
Sean Johnson - Chicago Fire
Zac MacMath - Philadelphia Union
D:
Gale Agbossoumonde - Eintracht Frankfurt
Royal-Dominique Fennell - Stuttgarter Kickers
Sebastien Ibeagha - Duke
Kofi Sarkodie - Houston Dynamo
Zarek Valentin - Montreal Impact
Jorge Villafana - Chivas USA
Andrew Wenger - Duke
Sheanon Williams - Philadelphia Union
M:
Freddy Adu - Philadelphia Union
Bryan Arguez - Montreal Impact
Joe Corona - Tijuana
Danny Cruz - Houston Dynamo
Mikkel Diskerud - Stabaek
Dilly Duka - Columbus Crew
Jared Jeffrey - Mainz
Sebastian Lletget - West Ham
Amobi Okugo - Philadelphia Union
Kelyn Rowe - UCLA
Michael Stephens - LA Galaxy
F:
Terrance Boyd - Dortmund
Will Bruin - Houston Dynamo
Teal Bunbury - Sporting Kansas City
Jann George - Nurnberg
Joe Gyau - Hoffenheim
Jack McInerney - Philadelphia Union
Andrew Wooten - Kaiserslautern
FIFASCANDALIZATIONINGS
Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated sums it all up with a look back at the year in FIFA scandals.
BEST NEWS I'VE HEARD ALL DAY
Wisconsin Soccer Central reports on Landon Donovan stopping off for a family visit in Madison this week and doing some training at a local soccer complex as he prepares to head for Everton next week. With photos. Great stuff. Thanks to Keith for sending this our way.
HMMMMM, VERY INTERESTING
Jere Longman of the New York Times on England getting tough on racism in soccer.
WELL WELL WELL
Kristan Heneage of the Guardian does an interview with DC United star Dwayne DeRosario.
OOF
Paul Kennedy of Soccer America reports that the German media are going after Jermaine Jones with a vengeance.
-The video of him stomping on the foot of an opposition player that he knew was dealing with a broken toe is just despicable.
VIDEO OF THE DAY
Brad Friedel goes out of his way to clear the air on Landon Donovan. He never meant any ill will toward LD. He says it was all blown out of proportion. And he said he wished that people had listened to his whole interview, which was not about Donovan, but Clint Dempsey, before they took Friedel to task.
Jamie Trecker of Fox Soccer does a video interview with Brad Friedel in three parts: PART 1 - and - PART 2 - PART 3.
dN
Following up from Wednesday we get video from The Guardian of the fan running on to the field at Ajax and going after the AZ goalkeeper, who retaliates and was given a red card. The AZ players then walked off the field and abandon the game. No decision has been announced yet on what will happen. Usually a game like this would result in a forfeiture by the team that left.
MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS
Player Transactions
Chivas has signed 28 year old Ecuadorian midfielder Oswaldo Minda from Deportivo Quito.
dN
LA has signed American goalkeeper Nick Noble from Ljungskile in Sweden, and forward Pat Noonan from Seattle.
dN
New England has signed defensive midfielder Clyde Simms from DC United.
dN
Signed to a Generation Adidas contract:
-Chandler Hoffman - UCLA
-Sam Garza - UC Santa Barbara
-Darren Mattocks - Akron
-Andrew Wenger - Duke
FC DALLAS
FCD posted a Q & A with their team president Doug Quinn. This is Part 2.
-Here is Part 1 again in case you missed it last week.
SPORTING KANSAS CITY SC
Charles Gooch of the Star retells the story of his becoming a Kansas City Wizards fanatico.
LA GALAXY
Its official - Juninho is gone. He will be back with Sao Paulo next season, the team he was only on loan to the Galaxy from. He will be a big time player for them next season no doubt.
dN
LA has signed 18 year old attacking midfielder Jose Villarreal from their academy team. The year before he joined the Galaxy Academy he lead Pateadores to the US Soccer Development Academy U18 championship and looked fantastic doing so. He is also in the pool for the USA U20 team.
dN
The Galaxy also announced that 3 players, Sean Franklin, Bryan Jordan and Adam Cristman have all signed new deals with the team.
PHILADELPHIA UNION
CSNPhilly looks at the Union going after several Latino players this offseason.
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC
Yvonne Zacharias of the Sun tells us what Joe Canon and John Thorrington are up to for Christmas.
MLS/USA RELATED RUMORS
Silly name of the day: Bofo Bautista. He will always be Bozo to me.
AMERICANS IN EUROPE
Game Action:
ENGLAND - Premier League
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - Wed Dec 21 - started and played 85 min as they got hammered 0-5 v Man United.
Brad Guzan - Aston Villa - Wed Dec 21 - went the full 90 but lost 1-2 v Arsenal.
Tim Howard - Everton - Wed Dec 21 - played the whole game as they won 1-0 v Swansea.
PORTUGAL - Taca de Portugal -
Oguchi Onyewu - Sporting CP - Thu Dec 22 - went the full 90 as they won 3-0 v Maritimo.
AMERICANS IN MEXICO
Franco Panizo of Soccer By Ives talks to Eddie Johnson about signing with Puebla.
ENGLAND
Amy Lawrence of the Guardian with five things we have learned from the mid-week Premiership games.
SPAIN
La Liga is on break until Jan 7.
dN
Diego Simeone is the new Atletico Madrid head coach.
dN
Copa del Rey - Round of 32
Barcelona, Valencia, Albacete, Mirandes, Osasuna, Alcorcon, Cordoba, Levante, Racing, Malaga, Sociedad, Bilbao, Real Madrid, Espanyol, Mallorca and Sevilla have all advanced.
Matches & Scores:
2nd Leg
-Thu Dec 22
Barcelona 9-0 L'Hospitalet - Bar advances 10-0 on agg.
Valencia 4-0 Cadiz - Val adv 4-0 on agg.
FRANCE
Ligue 1 is on break until Jan 14.
GERMANY
The Bundesliga is on break until Jan 20.
ITALY
Serie A is on break until Jan 7.
dN
Paolo Bandini of the Guardian on Juventus who finished 2011 very strong, and the rest of the midweek action in Serie A.
EUROPE
Taca de Portugal - Quarterfinals
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Dec 21
Academica 3-2 Desportivo Aves
-Thu Dec 22
Sporting CP 3-0 Maritimo
UD Oliveirense 2-1 Olhanense
-Fri Dec 23
Moreirense v Nacional
Jamie Trecker of Fox Soccer traveled to London and sat down for a video interview with Clint Dempsey.
-There really isn't anything new here for us diehards, but its great to see the words come out of Clint's mouth. What a talent!
-More great stuff with Clint and members of his family.
dN
Liverpool staff, players and fans giving Luis Suarez their full support against his being found guilty of using racist slurs against an opponent are missing the whole point. OK so you think the 8 game suspension was too much. But to my way of thinking at some point someone with authority has to put their foot down and say Enough is enough. This stops here and now and if it doesn't this is the penalty. I could care less that Suarez has black friends. That doesn't excuse anything. He said what he said and its wrong. Shut up and pay the price and lets move on.
dN
ITS ALIVE! Eddie Johnson, the Grown Ass Man, has come back to life and signed with Puebla in Mexico.
-Last we heard from Eddie he was dodging his Missus, hanging out in a Florida hotel room with a floozy, and getting his car wrecked by the wife when she found him.
dN
Former Milan and Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti is going to be named the new head coach of Paris St Germain.
AFRICA
Yaya Toure of Cote d'Ivoire & Manchester City has been named the African Player of the Year.
The other 9 finalists were:
-Andre Ayew - Ghana & Marseille
-Kevin-Prince Boateng - Ghana & AC Milan
-Didier Drogba - Cote d'Ivoire & Chelsea
-Samuel Eto'o - Cameroon & Anzhi Makhachkala
-Gervinho - Cote d'Ivoire & Arsenal
-Asamoah Gyan - Ghana & Al Ain
-Seydou Keita - Mali & Barcelona
-Moussa Sow - Senegal & Lille
-Adel Taarabt - Morocco & Queens Park Rangers
DU NORD AT THE CONTROLS
du Nord at the Controls - Tue Dec 20, 2011 - new music mix at Spotify
STORY OF THE DAY
Here is something you definitely don't see every day, especially from former soccer stars!
The Guardian has an article on a new museum exhibition opening in Paris that shows how throughout recent history humans have used other humans as "displays" and "freak shows". The exhibit is curated by France 98 World Cup star Lillian Thuram! (thanks to Wes for the link)
TEAM USA - EL EQUIPO DE TODOS
The USA will hold its annual January training camp for players who are currently in their off-season.
The camp will run Jan 3-26 and training will take place in Phoenix, Carson CA and Panama.
They will finish with 2 games:
-Jan 21 v Venezuela
-Jan 25 at Panama
dN
US Soccer has quotes from Klinsmann on this roster.
dN
USA Roster
G:
Bill Hamid - DC United
Sean Johnson - Chicago Fire SC
Nick Rimando - Real Salt Lake
D:
Geoff Cameron - Houston Dynamo
AJ DeLaGarza - LA Galaxy
Omar Gonzalez - LA Galaxy
George John - FC Dallas
Zach Loyd - FC Dallas
Michael Parkhurst - FC Nordsjaelland
Heath Pearce - CD Chivas USA
M:
Kyle Beckerman - Real Salt Lake
Ricardo Clark - Eintracht Frankfurt
Benny Feilhaber - New England Revolution
Jeff Larentowicz - Colorado Rapids
Brek Shea - FC Dallas
Graham Zusi - Sporting Kansas City
F:
Juan Agudelo - New York Red Bulls
Teal Bunbury - Sporting Kansas City
CJ Sapong - Sporting Kansas City
Chris Wondolowski - San Jose Earthquakes
Who surprises you the most on this roster?
-Ricardo Clark sticks out for me.
Who is not on this list that should be?
-Tim Ream is getting married in January, so that is why he is not on this roster.
Here is my list of "Other possibles":
-Nat Borchers
-Eric Brunner
-Sean Franklin
-Eddie Gaven
-Clarence Goodson
-Ugo Ihemelu
-Dan Kennedy
-Nick LaBrocca
-Mike Magee
-Chad Marshall
-Ryan Miller
-Drew Moor
-Chance Myers
-Chris Rolfe
-Brad Rusin
-AJ Soares
-Yevgeni Starikov
-Etchu Tabe
USA U23/OLYMPIC TEAM
The USA U23/Olympic team is in Lakewood Ranch Florida until Dec 23 for a training camp.
dN
US Soccer fills us in on a second inter-squad scrimmage.
dN
There will be another camp in January.
dN
Here is the roster.
G:
David Bingham - San Jose Earthquakes
Bill Hamid - DC United
Sean Johnson - Chicago Fire
Zac MacMath - Philadelphia Union
D:
Gale Agbossoumonde - Eintracht Frankfurt
Royal-Dominique Fennell - Stuttgarter Kickers
Sebastien Ibeagha - Duke
Kofi Sarkodie - Houston Dynamo
Zarek Valentin - Montreal Impact
Jorge Villafana - Chivas USA
Andrew Wenger - Duke
Sheanon Williams - Philadelphia Union
M:
Freddy Adu - Philadelphia Union
Bryan Arguez - Montreal Impact
Joe Corona - Tijuana
Danny Cruz - Houston Dynamo
Mikkel Diskerud - Stabaek
Dilly Duka - Columbus Crew
Jared Jeffrey - Mainz
Sebastian Lletget - West Ham
Amobi Okugo - Philadelphia Union
Kelyn Rowe - UCLA
Michael Stephens - LA Galaxy
F:
Terrance Boyd - Dortmund
Will Bruin - Houston Dynamo
Teal Bunbury - Sporting Kansas City
Jann George - Nurnberg
Joe Gyau - Hoffenheim
Jack McInerney - Philadelphia Union
Andrew Wooten - Kaiserslautern
FIFASCANDALIZATIONINGS
Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated sums it all up with a look back at the year in FIFA scandals.
BEST NEWS I'VE HEARD ALL DAY
Wisconsin Soccer Central reports on Landon Donovan stopping off for a family visit in Madison this week and doing some training at a local soccer complex as he prepares to head for Everton next week. With photos. Great stuff. Thanks to Keith for sending this our way.
HMMMMM, VERY INTERESTING
Jere Longman of the New York Times on England getting tough on racism in soccer.
WELL WELL WELL
Kristan Heneage of the Guardian does an interview with DC United star Dwayne DeRosario.
OOF
Paul Kennedy of Soccer America reports that the German media are going after Jermaine Jones with a vengeance.
-The video of him stomping on the foot of an opposition player that he knew was dealing with a broken toe is just despicable.
VIDEO OF THE DAY
Brad Friedel goes out of his way to clear the air on Landon Donovan. He never meant any ill will toward LD. He says it was all blown out of proportion. And he said he wished that people had listened to his whole interview, which was not about Donovan, but Clint Dempsey, before they took Friedel to task.
Jamie Trecker of Fox Soccer does a video interview with Brad Friedel in three parts: PART 1 - and - PART 2 - PART 3.
dN
Following up from Wednesday we get video from The Guardian of the fan running on to the field at Ajax and going after the AZ goalkeeper, who retaliates and was given a red card. The AZ players then walked off the field and abandon the game. No decision has been announced yet on what will happen. Usually a game like this would result in a forfeiture by the team that left.
MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS
Player Transactions
Chivas has signed 28 year old Ecuadorian midfielder Oswaldo Minda from Deportivo Quito.
dN
LA has signed American goalkeeper Nick Noble from Ljungskile in Sweden, and forward Pat Noonan from Seattle.
dN
New England has signed defensive midfielder Clyde Simms from DC United.
dN
Signed to a Generation Adidas contract:
-Chandler Hoffman - UCLA
-Sam Garza - UC Santa Barbara
-Darren Mattocks - Akron
-Andrew Wenger - Duke
FC DALLAS
FCD posted a Q & A with their team president Doug Quinn. This is Part 2.
-Here is Part 1 again in case you missed it last week.
SPORTING KANSAS CITY SC
Charles Gooch of the Star retells the story of his becoming a Kansas City Wizards fanatico.
LA GALAXY
Its official - Juninho is gone. He will be back with Sao Paulo next season, the team he was only on loan to the Galaxy from. He will be a big time player for them next season no doubt.
dN
LA has signed 18 year old attacking midfielder Jose Villarreal from their academy team. The year before he joined the Galaxy Academy he lead Pateadores to the US Soccer Development Academy U18 championship and looked fantastic doing so. He is also in the pool for the USA U20 team.
dN
The Galaxy also announced that 3 players, Sean Franklin, Bryan Jordan and Adam Cristman have all signed new deals with the team.
PHILADELPHIA UNION
CSNPhilly looks at the Union going after several Latino players this offseason.
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC
Yvonne Zacharias of the Sun tells us what Joe Canon and John Thorrington are up to for Christmas.
MLS/USA RELATED RUMORS
Silly name of the day: Bofo Bautista. He will always be Bozo to me.
AMERICANS IN EUROPE
Game Action:
ENGLAND - Premier League
Clint Dempsey - Fulham - Wed Dec 21 - started and played 85 min as they got hammered 0-5 v Man United.
Brad Guzan - Aston Villa - Wed Dec 21 - went the full 90 but lost 1-2 v Arsenal.
Tim Howard - Everton - Wed Dec 21 - played the whole game as they won 1-0 v Swansea.
PORTUGAL - Taca de Portugal -
Oguchi Onyewu - Sporting CP - Thu Dec 22 - went the full 90 as they won 3-0 v Maritimo.
AMERICANS IN MEXICO
Franco Panizo of Soccer By Ives talks to Eddie Johnson about signing with Puebla.
ENGLAND
Amy Lawrence of the Guardian with five things we have learned from the mid-week Premiership games.
SPAIN
La Liga is on break until Jan 7.
dN
Diego Simeone is the new Atletico Madrid head coach.
dN
Copa del Rey - Round of 32
Barcelona, Valencia, Albacete, Mirandes, Osasuna, Alcorcon, Cordoba, Levante, Racing, Malaga, Sociedad, Bilbao, Real Madrid, Espanyol, Mallorca and Sevilla have all advanced.
Matches & Scores:
2nd Leg
-Thu Dec 22
Barcelona 9-0 L'Hospitalet - Bar advances 10-0 on agg.
Valencia 4-0 Cadiz - Val adv 4-0 on agg.
FRANCE
Ligue 1 is on break until Jan 14.
GERMANY
The Bundesliga is on break until Jan 20.
ITALY
Serie A is on break until Jan 7.
dN
Paolo Bandini of the Guardian on Juventus who finished 2011 very strong, and the rest of the midweek action in Serie A.
EUROPE
Taca de Portugal - Quarterfinals
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Dec 21
Academica 3-2 Desportivo Aves
-Thu Dec 22
Sporting CP 3-0 Maritimo
UD Oliveirense 2-1 Olhanense
-Fri Dec 23
Moreirense v Nacional
3 Comments:
Clint Dempsey's and his family's story is an inspiration.
Regarding the whole Luis Suarez saga, they are standing behind him because 1) there is no actual evidence of him ever saying anything, 2) Patrice Evra has made racism claims before to only have them found to be exaggerated/false, 3) 8 games is extremely harsh in a his word vs his word situation; Patrice Evra even stated that he didn't think Suarez is a racist.
Also, even if he did call him negrito, in Latin American culture, this is not racist (not saying he shouldn't have been punished - he should be, but not so severely). Apparently (again, there's no proof of anything), Patrice Evra said "Don't touch me you South American!" to which Suarez replied "Porque, negrito?"
Again, racism has NO place in the game, and Suarez should be punished, but 8 games is WAY too harsh, especially considering legbreaking vicious tackles get 2 games or 3 games.
I want to clarify that 8 games is way too harsh because Luis Suarez is not a racist, and I don't think the situation was vicious. John Terry's words, which were certainly vicious, are a whole other story, especially coupled with his history.
I again want to reiterate that racism has no place in the game and is terrible.
If the EPL or any other league is really going to get some where with eliminating racism from the game, they will also need to work with the fans.
It is actually ridiculously funny to hear Tottenham fans booing Terry when he touches the ball during a match at White Hart Lane. Spurs fans booing Terry because he is racist is like the pot calling the kettle black. Spurs fans for a long time have been known as some of the most vocally racist in the EPL.
Let's all just get along and help make the game the most beautiful it can be.
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