Some Soccer News for Thu Dec 8, 2011

STARTERS

You can now go buy your own copy of the movie Rise & Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story on DVD.

dN

The whole city of Manchester has been dark for over 24 hours now. Pitch black. Are they all dead. They probably want to be as both United and City were bounced from the Champions League yesterday. OK, who of you put a hefty wager down on that happening?

STORY OF THE DAY

Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated revives the story of possible match fixing during last summer's Gold Cup.
-We heard whispers of this at the time of the games being played, but the story had vanished until now. Seems like the investigation had never vanished though.
-There are questions being asked about 3 games each by Grenada & Cuba and one game by El Salvador.

TEAM USA - EL EQUIPO DE TODOS

US Soccer does a Q & A with Kyle Beckerman about his offseason so far.
-He says Klinsmann PLACED him at Kaiserslautern. Interesting.
-Now scroll down and read with former USA coach Bruce Arena thinks about MLS players going to Europe to train in their offseason.

dN

The USA U23/Olympic team will hold their second training camp as they prepare for qualifying next March.

This will be an 8 camp Dec 15-23 in Lakewood Ranch FL

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
Michael Stephens - LA Galaxy
F:
Will Bruin - Houston Dynamo
Teal Bunbury - Sporting Kansas City
Jann George - Nurnberg
Joe Gyau - Hoffenheim
Jack McInerney - Philadelphia Union
Andrew Wooten - Kaiserslautern

CLUB WORLD CUP

All matches played in Toyota and Yokohama, Japan

The Japanese champions Kashiwa Reysol won their first round game today.

dN

Play-In Game

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Dec 8
Kashiwa Reysol 2-0 Auckland City FC - KR goals by Junya Tanaka & Masato Kudo.

Quarterfinals

Matches & Scores:
-Sun Dec 11
Esperance v Al-Sadd
Monterrey v Winner of Kashiwa Reysol

Semifinals

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Dec 14
Santos v winner Mon/WP-I
-Thu Dec 15
Barcelona v Winner ETU/ALS

Final

Matches & Scores:
-Sun Dec 18
Semifinal Winners

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Amy Lawrence of the Guardian with five things we learned from the Champions League this week.

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune has reviews broken down by days of the week - Tuesday - and - Wednesday.

dN

ADV: AC Milan, APOEL, Arsenal, Barcelona, Basel, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Chelsea, CSKA Moscow, Inter Milan, Lyon, Marseille, Napoli, Real Madrid, Zenit St Petersburg

dN

The draw for the Round of 16 will be held Fri Dec 16.

Matches will be played on Feb 14, 15/21,22 & Mar 6,7/13,14.

BIG EUROPEAN CLUB MATCHES

The only match you really need to watch!

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Dec 10
Real Madrid v Barcelona - 3pm CT

dN

Here is a preview of the full weekend of matches in the Barclays English Premier League.

dN

A couple other biggies from the weekend & Monday:
-Sun Dec 11
Stuttgart v Bayern - the Sudderby
-Mon Dec 12
Chelsea v Manchester City - juicy game with two top teams
Roma v Juventus - oooooooo bitterness flows when these two play

2012 CONCACAF OLYMPIC QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT

8 teams enter, 2 teams leave.

Group Stage round robin with the top 2 from each group advancing to the Semifinals.

The winners of the two Semifinal games go to the Olympics.

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STANDINGS

Group A
Canada
Cuba
El Salvador
USA

Group B
Honduras
Mexico
Panama
Trinidad & Tobago

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GROUP STAGE

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Mar 22
El Salvador v Canada - 5:30pm
USA v Cuba - 8pm
Venue: LP Field - Nashville TN
-Fri Mar 23
Honduras v Panama - 8pm
Trinidad & Tobago v Mexico - 10:30pm
Venue: The Home Depot Center - Carson CA
-Sat Mar 24
Cuba v El Salvador - 3:30pm
USA v Canada - 6pm
Venue: LP Field - Nashville TN
-Sun Mar 25
Panama v Trinidad & Tobago - 2:30pm
Mexico v Honduras - 6pm
Venue: The Home Depot Center - Carson CA
-Mon Mar 26
Canada v Cuba - 5:30pm
USA v El Salvador - 8pm
Venue: LP Field - Nashville TN
-Tue Mar 27
Honduras v Trinidad & Tobago - 8pm
Mexico v Panama - 10:30pm
Venue: The Home Depot Center - Carson CA

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SEMIFINALS

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Mar 31
B1 v A2 - 5pm
A1 v B2 - 8pm
Venue: Livestrong Sporting Park - Kansas City KS

FINAL

Matches & Scores:
-Mon Apr 2
Semifinal winners - 7pm
Venue: Livestrong Sporting Park - Kansas City KS

HMMMMM, VERY INTERESTING

Luis Bueno of MLSsoccer.com talks to LA Galaxy head coach and former USA head coach Bruce Arena who calls out Jurgen Klinsmann's "novel idea" to have MLS players training with European teams during their offseason.

WELL WELL WELL

Brian Straus of Sporting News rips Brad Friedel a new one for what he sees as Friedel taking cheap shots at Landon Donovan.

THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

Gordon Monson of the Salt Lake Tribune with an article about the retirement of Andy Williams.

MLS SELECT TEAM - GENERATION ADIDAS EXHIBITION TOUR - NETHERLANDS

The MLS team lost Game 1 today.

Tour Itinerary
Thu Dec 8 - Game 1
Fri Dec 9/10 - train at Ajax Academy
Sat Dec 10 - attend Eredivisie match: AZ v De Graafschap
Sun Dec 11/12 - train at Ajax Academy
Mon Dec 12 - attend match: Ajax U23 v PSV U23
Tue Dec 13 - Game 2
Wed Dec 14 - Game 3
Thu Dec 15 - return

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Dec 8
Ajax Reserves 4-2 MLS-GA - MLS goals by Dilly Duka & Corey Herzog.
Match report from MLSsoccer.com.
-Tue Dec 13
FC Volendam v MLS-GA
-Wed Dec 14
Almere City FC v MLS-GA

dN

Roster
G:
David Bingham - San Jose Earthquakes
Zac MacMath - Philadelphia Union
D:
Kevin Alston - New England Revolution
Conor Shanosky - D.C. United
Kofi Sarkodie - Houston Dynamo
Michael Tetteh - Seattle Sounders FC
Zarek Valentin - Montreal Impact
M:
Dilly Duka - Columbus Crew
Sacir Hot - New York Red Bulls
Amobi Okugo - Philadelphia Union
Luis Gil - Real Salt Lake
Matt Kassel - New York Red Bulls
Jack McInerney - Philadelphia Union
Tony Tchani - Columbus Crew
F:
Will Bruin - Houston Dynamo
Corey Hertzog - New York Red Bulls
Danny Mwanga - Philadelphia Union
Omar Salgado - Vancouver Whitecaps FC

MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

General News

MLSsoccer.com has released the list of players that are being brought in for tryouts in front of all the teams ahead of next month's Superdraft.

COLUMBUS CREW

MLSsoccer.com has a post season review Q & A with head coach Robert Warzycha.

DC UNITED

Craing Stouffer of the Examiner on the early retirement of DCU veteran Santino Quaranta.

MLSsoccer.com talks to the player about his decision.

MONTREAL IMPACT

Chris Ransom of Rant Sports sees Darren Mattocks of Akron as the perfect choice for the #1 Superdraft pick by Montreal.

PHILADELPHIA UNION

Marc Narducci of the Inquirer tells us more about the signing of Josue Martinez from Saprissa.

SEATTLE SOUNDERS

Don Ruiz of the Olympian on the team's brand new senior goalkeeper Austrian Michael Gspurning (guh-SHPURN-ing).

Danny O'Neil of the Times also writes about Gspurning.

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC

Marc Weber of the Province on the Caps signing of Korean legend Lee Young Pyo.
-More on Lee.

Martin McMahon of City News sees the signing of Lee as a gamble.

MLS/USA RELATED RUMORS

Silly name of the day: G. Gordon Liddy

MLS EXHIBITION GAMES

Just announced today:

The Desert Diamond Cup - year 2 for the preseason tournament in Tuscon AZ.
-Featuring:
LA Galaxy
New England Revolution
New York Red Bulls
Real Salt Lake

-They will play
3 Double-headers on Feb 22, Feb 25 & Feb 29.
With a championship game and third-place game on Mar 3.

SOCCER IN MINNESOTA

Brain Quarstad of IMSoccer News introduces us to a brand new indoor Futsal facility opening in Minneapolis this week. Run by Marshall Moorhead.

Curt Brown of the Minneapolis Star Tribune also writes about Twin Cities Futsal.

COLLEGE SOCCER

Mechelle Voepel of ESPN writes about all the young players who leave best college teams early to turn pro.

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NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT

Final Four will is being held in Hoover AL.

Semifinals
Matches & Scores:
-Fri Dec 9
Charlotte v Creighton - 5pm CT
North Carolina v UCLA - 7:30pm CT

Final
Matches & Scores:
-Sun Dec 11
Semifinal Winners

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Greg Seltzer of MLSsoccer.com talks to Brad Friedel about his still strong English career.
-He does not speak of Landon Donovan in this interview.

AMERICANS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Brian Sciaretta of Yanks Abroad talks with Diego Restrepo about his new role as starting keeper for America de Cali.

MEXICO

LIGUILLA - Finals

Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Thu Dec 8
Santos Laguna v UANL Tigres
2nd Leg
-Sun Dec 11
UANL Tigres v Santos Laguna

ENGLAND

Man U captain Nemanja Vidic blew out his ACL to make their Champions League ouster that much more painful.

SPAIN

Copa del Rey - Round of 32

Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Thu Dec 8
Albacete 2-1 Atletico Madrid
Real Oviedo 0-1 Athletic Bilbao

ITALY

Coppa Italia - ROUND OF 16

Juve advances today.

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Dec 8
Juventus 2-1 Bologna
-Tue Dec 13
Palermo v Siena
-Tue Jan 10
Lazio v Hellas Verona
-Wed Jan 11
Udinese v Chievo
Roma v Fiorentina
-Thu Jan 12
Napoli v Cesena
-Wed Jan 18
Milan v Novara
-Thu Jan 19
Internazionale v Genoa

SOUTH AMERICA

Copa Sudamericana - Final
1st Leg
-Thu Dec 8
LDU Quito v Universidad Chile
2nd Leg
-Wed Dec 14
Universidad Chile v LDU Quito