Some Soccer News for Thu Mar 15, 2012

STARTERS

Last night was huge for Toronto in the CCL! Congrats to them and their long suffering fans.

dN

I will be in Kansas City on Saturday for their season opener. It will be my 10th home opener in a row down in KC!

dN

Now New England says that Jose Pepe Moreno will arrive next Monday. Wasn't it today (Thursday) just a couple of days ago?

dN

Dave Martinez of Soccer By Ives has some pretty great quotes from Thierry Henry, about the Red Bulls and other teams around the league. That Henry is a pretty sharp guy.

NOTICE

Sign up today for MLS Fantasy Soccer Manager, and then become a member of the du Nord Futbol league using this code: 3815-897

107 teams in our league so far. Lets go for 150! Come On!

REal Ultimate Power - managed by Robert Neddermeyer is in 1st Place!

TASTIEST MLS GAME OF THE WEEKEND

FC Dallas v Portland Timbers on Saturday

DU NORD AT THE CONTROLS

du Nord at the Controls - Tue Mar 13, 2012 - new music mix at Spotify.

STORY OF THE DAY

Charles Gooch of the Kansas City Star with a nice long story on what Sporting KC is building locally to impress internationally.

And a local Public Radio affiliate KCUR has a great 50+ minute audio interview with Sporting players Kei Kamara, Seth Sinovic and Jimmy Nielson.

USA U23/OLYMPIC TEAM

Training for Olympic qualifying is underway in Nashville.

dN

Phil Schoen of GolTv asks a simple question of the USA roster: Where are the defenders?

US Soccer has video from day 1 of camp.

US Soccer writes about fitness testing.

dN

USA Roster
G:
Bill Hamid - DC United
Sean Johnson - Chicago Fire
D:
Josh Gatt - Molde
Perry Kitchen - DC United
Ike Opara - San Jose Earthquakes
Kofi Sarkodie - Houston Dynamo
Zarek Valentin - Montreal Impact
Jorge Villafana - Chivas USA
M:
Freddy Adu - Philadelphia Union
Joe Corona - Tijuana
Mix Diskerud - Gent
Jared Jeffrey - Mainz
Amobi Okugo - Philadelphia Union
Michael Stephens - LA Galaxy
F:
Juan Agudelo - New York Red Bulls
Terrence Boyd - Dortmund
Teal Bunbury - Sporting Kansas City
Joe Gyau - Hoffenheim
Brek Shea - FC Dallas
Tony Taylor - Estoril

dN

The first Group Stage game is Thu Mar 22.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Round of 16 - 2nd Leg

Chelsea with a huge comeback to complete the lineup for the Quarterfinals!

Matches & Scores:
-Tue Mar 13
Inter Milan 2-1 Marseille series ends tied 2-2, Mar advances on away toal tie breaker - IM goals by Diego Milito & Giampaolo Pazzini(PK). Mar goal by Brandao.
Bayern Munich 7-0 Basel - BM advances 7-1 on aggregate - BM goals by Arjen Robben (2), Tomas Muller & Mario Gomez(4).
-Wed Mar 14
Chelsea 4-1 Napoli (1-3) - Che advances 5-4 on aggregate - Che goals by Didier Drogba, John Terry, Frank Lampard(PK) & Branislav Ivanovic. Nap goal by Gokhan Inler.
Real Madrid 4-1 CSKA Moscow - RM advances 5-2 on aggregate - RM goals by Gonzalo Higuain, Cristiano Ronaldo(2) & Karim Benzema. CM goal by Zoran Tosic.

dN

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

dN

The Quarterfinal draw will be held on Friday.

2011-12 CONCACACHAMPIONS

Quarterfinals

Santos Laguna and Toronto FC do the damage!

How do you even describe what we saw last night? I bet Don Garber did not want to get out of bed this morning.

Santos crushed and I mean annihilated Seattle in Torreon, and Toronto went to LA and did a number on the blessed one.

And Herculez Gomez continues his mastery with 2 more goals!
-He has scored 7 goals over 5 consecutive games in all competitions!!!

Herculez said after the game that he wants to get revenge on TFC for knocking out his beloved LA Galaxy!

Kurtis Larson of the Toronto Sun on a job very well done by TFC.

Daniel Girard of the Toronto Star on Toronto FC's historic victory.

John Molinaro of Sports Net also calls the TFC win historic.

Scott French of ESPN on the Galaxy's blunder.

Nick Green of the Daily Breeze sees the Galaxy scrambling for answers.

dN

Matches & Scores:
2nd Leg (including 1st Leg scores)
-Tue Mar 13
Monterrey 4-1 Morelia - Mon advances 7-2 on aggregate - Mon goals by Humberto Suazo(2, 1 via PK), Luis Perez(PK) & Walter Ayovi. Mor goal by Angel Sepulveda(PK).
-Wed Mar 14
Santos Laguna 6-1 Seattle Sounders SL advances 7-3 on aggregate - SL goals by Christian Suarez(2), Oribe Peralta, Herculez Gomez(2) & Carlos Ochoa. SS goal by Alvaro Fernandez.
LA Galaxy 1-2 Toronto - Tor advances 4-3 on aggregate - LAG goal by Ty Harden(OG). Tor goals by Ryan Johnson & Nick Soolsma.
-Thu Mar 15
UNAM Pumas v Isidro Metapan (1-2)

BIG EUROPEAN CLUB MATCHES

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Mar 17
Fenerbahce v Galatasaray - the always intense Istanbul derby
-Sun Mar 18
Udinese v Napoli - #5 v #4 doesn't mean much, but its big to minnows
-Wed Mar 21
Manchester City v Chelsea - neither team can afford a slip up of any kind

BUMMER OF THE DAY

FC Barcelona has announced that fullback Eric Abidal will have a liver transplant in the next few weeks.

HMMMMM, VERY INTERESTING

The Independent Supporters Council has sent a letter to MLS Commissioner Don Garber in which they insist that the punishment the league has handed down to Houston Dynamo supporters is extreme and unnecessary. Read the letter here and let us know what you think.

OOF

Seattle's Eddie Johnson came on as a sub in last nights game but left less than 20 minutes later with a strained hip flexor.

MLS MATCHES & SCORES

WEEK 2

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Mar 17
Montreal Impact v Chicago Fire SC - 1:00PM CT - TSN & RDS
Venue: Olympic Stadium
San Jose Earthquakes v Houston Dynamo - 4:00PM CT
Venue: AT&T Park
FC Dallas v Portland Timbers - 7:30PM CT
Venue: FC Dallas Stadium
Sporting Kansas City v New England Revolution - 7:30PM CT
Venue: Livestrong Sporting Park
Real Salt Lake v New York Red Bulls - 9:00PM CT
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium
Seattle Sounders FC v Toronto FC - 9:00PM CT
Venue: CenturyLink Field
CD Chivas USA v Vancouver Whitecaps FC - 9:30PM CT
Venue: The Home Depot Center
-Sun Mar 18
Philadelphia Union v Colorado Rapids - 3:00PM CT - NBC Sports
Venue: PPL Park
LA Galaxy v DC United - 6:00PM EDT - Galavision
Venue: The Home Depot Center

MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

Player Transactions

Montreal has signed 35 year old Italian forward Bernardo Corradi who played for Udinese last season.
-This will be his 15th team since 1994. He appeared 13 times for Italy, the last in 2004.

dN

Chivas has signed 23 year old free agent goalkeeper Patrick McLain from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

dN

Columbus has signed Super Draft pick Kevan George from U Central Florida.

dN

FC DALLAS

Todd Date of 3rd Degree does a team-update Q & A with head coach Schellas Hyndmann.

Date also talks to the coach about new signing Luis Perea.

DC UNITED

Steven Goff of the Washington Post with the latest news on the organization, and a few notes on the team.

dN

Joe Willis will start in goal this weekend ahead of Andrew Dykstra.

SPORTING KANSAS CITY SC

SKC has signed 2011 Rookie of the Year CJ Sapong to a contract extension. Good move.

MLS STADIUMS

Steven Goff of the Washington Post reports that DCU will limit seating at RFK Stadium this season to 19,647.
-The top level of the old stadium will be closed and tarped off.

dN

Later in the day it was announced that Chivas USA was also downsizing for their home games at the Home Depot Center and limiting capacity to 18,800 instead of 27,000 that the Galaxy uses.

MINNESOTA STARS FC

The Stars have a few friendlies in Nebraska this weekend. Yes I said Nebraska!

Do you live around there? Yes? Well, come and see them then.

Hastings on Friday and Omaha on Sunday

Me and some fellow Dark Clouds will be in Omaha on Sunday!

-Fri Mar 16
Hastings College v MN Stars FC - time unknown
Venue: Lloyd Wilson Field - Hastings NE
-Sun Mar 18
Univ Nebraska-Omaha v MN Stars FC - 12 noon
Venue: Caniglia Athletic Field - Univ Neb-Omaha
Creighton Univ v MN Stars FC - 2pm
Venue: Omaha South Magnet HS Athletic Park at 23rd & L - Omaha NE

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Brian Sciaretta of the New York Times introduces us to 23 year old centerback Seb Hines who plays in England for Middlesbrough and is available to file a "One Time Change" with FIFA to play for the USA if they chance came to him.

dN

Game Action:

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE - Round of 16 - 2nd Leg (1st Leg scores included)
Jozy Altidore - AZ Alkmaar - Thu Mar 15 - went the distance getting a yellow card as they lost 2-1 at Udinese, but advanced 3-2 on aggregate.
Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - Thu Mar 15 - went the full 90 as they won 4-0 v Standard Liege, and advanced 4-2 on aggregate.
Jermaine Jones - Schalke - Thu Mar 15 v Twente (leading 2-0)
Oguchi Onyewu - Sporting CP - OUT INJURED - Thu Mar 15 at Manchester City (leading 1-0)

AMERICANS IN MEXICO

Tom Marshall of MLSsoccer.com introduces us to 3 young Americans at Santos Laguna who are not named Herculez - Daniel Cuevas, Jesus Guzman & Benji Joya.

ENGLAND

FA Cup - Quarterfinals
Matches & Scores:
-Sat Mar 17
Everton v Sunderland
Tottenham v Bolton
-Sun Mar 18
Chelsea v Leicester
Liverpool v Stoke

SCOTLAND

League Cup - Final
Match & Score:
-Sun Mar 18
Celtic v Kilmarnock

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

Round of 16 - 2nd Leg

Man United is OUT of this tournament too.

Matches & Scores: (1st Leg scores included)
-Thu Mar 15
Olympiacos v Metalist (1-0)
Manchester City v Sporting CP (0-1)
Schalke v Twente (0-1)
Besiktas v Atletico Madrid (1-3)
Hannover 4-0 Standard Liege - Han advances 6-2 on aggregate.
PSV Eindhoven 1-1 Valencia - Val advances 5-3 on aggregate.
Udinese 2-1 AZ Alkmaar - AZ advances 3-2 on aggregate.
Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Manchester United AB advances 5-3 on aggregate.

COPA LIBERTADORES

For many teams this is the third of six games.

Boca Juniors got 3 big road points, and star studded Flu won as well. The others all tied.

dN

Group Stage

Matches & Scores:
-Tue Mar 13
Lanus 1-0 Emelec - Lan goal by Mariano Pavone.
Nacional Asuncion 3-2 Deportivo Tachira - NA goals by German Cano(2, 1 via PK) & Silvio Torales. DT goals by Pedro Fernandez & Angel Chourio.
Internacional 5-0 The Strongest - Int goals by Dagoberto, Leandro Damiao(3) & Jo.
Guadalajara 1-0 Defensor Sporting - Gua goal by Carlos Fierro.
Alianza Lima 1-0 Nacional - AL goal by Jose Fernandez.
-Wed Mar 14
Arsenal 1-2 Boca Juniors - Ars goal by Clemente Rodriguez(OG). BJ goals by Pablo Mouche & Pablo Ledesma.
Fluminense 1-0 Zamora - Flu goal by Anderson.
Cruz Azul 0-0 Corinthians
Libertad 1-1 Vasco da Gama - Lib goal by Jose Nunez. VDG goal by Diego Souza.
-Thu Mar 15
Juan Aurich v Santos
Flamengo v Olimpia

dN

Standings

Group 1
6 Internacional (+5)
6 The Strongest (-3)
3 Santos (+1)
0 Juan Aurich (-3)
Group 2
4 Flamengo (+1)
4 Lanus (0)
3 Olimpia (0)
3 Emelec (-1)
Group 3
7 Union Espanola (+5)
4 Bolivar (-1)
3 Universidad Catholica (0)
1 Junior (-2)
Group 4
9 Fluminense (+3)
4 Boca Juniors (0)
3 Arsenal (+1)
1 Zamora (-4)
Group 5
7 Libertad (+4)
4 Vasco Da Gama (0)
3 Nacional (-1)
3 Alianza Lima (-3)
Group 6
7 Cruz Azul (+5)
5 Corintians (+2)
3 Nacional Asuncion (-2)
1 Deportivo Tachira (-5)
Group 7
6 Velez Sarsfield (+3)
4 Deportivo Quito (+1)
4 Guadalajara (-2)
3 Defensor Sporting (-2)
Group 8
7 Atletico Nacional (+6)
4 Universidad Chile (+2)
4 Godoy Cruz (-3)
1 Penarol (-5)

MIDDLE EAST

James Montague of the New York Times looks at the life of a soccer team in Syria during civil war.