Some Soccer News for Tue Mar 6, 2012

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COUNTDOWN TO MLS 2012 - SEASON 17







STARTERS

Many readers who are also NHL fans have been sending me notes to say that NBC's plan to post a game commentator between the benches is great, and they love it during the hockey games. I guess my question is, how is this different from what ESPN has had guys like Allen Hopkins doing, or Fox Soccer has had people like Brian Dunseth doing? I am gonna have to take their word on it cuz they all seem to love the idea.

DU NORD AT THE CONTROLS

du Nord at the Controls - Tue Mar 6, 2012 - new music mix at Spotify.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Round of 16 - 2nd Leg

Milan advanced after Arsenal made a valiant yet fruitless comeback winning 3-0 in this 2nd leg but needing 4-0 just to tie.

Benfica benefited from knowing they had 2 roads goals in their back pocket and won 2-0 at home over Zenit.

dN

Matches & Scores:
2nd Leg (with 1st Leg scores included)
-Tue Mar 6
Arsenal 3-0 AC Milan - ACM advances 4-3 on aggregate - Ars goals by Laurent Koscielny, Tomas Rosicky & Robin Van Persie(PK).
Benfica 2-0 Zenit St Petersburg - Ben advances 4-3 on aggregate - Ben goals by Maximiliano Pereira & Nelson Oliveira.
-Wed Mar 7
Barcelona v Bayer Leverkusen (3-1) - 1:30pm on Fox Soccer
APOEL v Lyon (0-1) - 4:00pm delayed on Fox Soccer

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The other 4 games will be played next Tue & Wed.

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Adv: Benfica, Milan
OUT: Arsenal, Zenit

2011-12 CONCACACHAMPIONS

Quarterfinals

Matthew Scianitti of the National Post looks at Toronto's prep for facing the Galaxy.

Daniel Girard of the Toronto Star on the Galaxy's big star lineup.

Lori Ewing of the Toronto Globe & Mail talks about the huge crowd that will be on hand in Toronto on Wednesday night.

Joshua Mayers of the Seattle Times previews the Sounders - Santos Laguna battle.

dN

Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Tue Mar 6
Morelia v Monterrey - 9pm CT on Galavision
-Wed Mar 7
Toronto v LA Galaxy - 7pm CT on Fox Soccer
Seattle Sounders v Santos Laguna - 9pm CT on Fox Soccer
-Thu Mar 8
Isidro Metapan v UNAM Pumas - 9pm CT on Galavision

dN

The 2nd Leg matches will be played next week.

WELL WELL WELL

Sam Stejskal of Sports Illustrated gives us 10 players looking for breakout seasons in MLS.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

A feature story on Landon Donovan looking at his whole career - PART 1 - and - PART 2.
-Thanks to @courtemancheMLS for the link.

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Oh yeah. The Richmond Kickers looking fresh and clean with the new logo!

-Thanks to Potomac Soccer Wire and @brianstraus for the link

MLS MATCHES, SCORES & STANDINGS

FIRST KICK 2012

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Mar 10
Colorado Rapids v Columbus Crew - 5pm CT
Venue: Dick's Sporting Good Park
Vancouver Whitecaps FC v Montreal Impact - 5pm CT on TSN
Venue: BC Place
DC United v Sporting Kansas City - 6:30pm CT
Venue: RFK Stadium
San Jose Earthquakes v New England Revolution - 9:30pm CT
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium
LA Galaxy v Real Salt Lake - 9:30pm CT
Venue: Home Depot Center
-Sun Mar 11
FC Dallas v New York Red Bulls - 2pm CT on NBC Sports Network
Venue: Pizza Hut Park
CD Chivas USA v Houston Dynamo - 6pm CT on Galavision
Venue: The Home Depot Center
-Mon Mar 12
Portland Timbers v Philadelphia Union - 8:30pm CT on ESPN2
Venue: JELD-WEN Field

MLS TEAM & PLAYER NEWS

General News

Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com with his Eastern Conference preview.

dN

NOTE: Steve Davis gives us two Eastern Conference previews. Reader David S tells us that the NBC piece is more of a summary, while the SI article is much more detailed. Choose one to suit your taste or read them both, cuz they're Steve Davis and thats a great thing.

Steve Davis with his new gig at NBC writing Pro Soccer Talk previews the Eastern Conf.

Steve Davis writing for Sports Illustrated does an Eastern Conf preview for them too.

dN

Nick Green of the Daily Breeze sees the MLS taking another step forward as year 17 begins.
-And a few more words on his blog.

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NPR with audio of a story on MLS preseason in Tucson. Listen and download here.

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The Guardian with more season previews this time the Western Conference from the view of supporters group leaders and bloggers.

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Player Transactions

New York signs 4 free agent players to contracts: Jose Angulo from Harrisburg City Islanders, Jhonny Arteaga from FC New York, Brandon Barklage from DC United and Tyler Ruthven from the Atlanta Silverbacks.

dN

Chicago has signed rookie defender Hunter Jumper. Great name.

dN

New England has signed 3 players: forward Blake Brettschneider who was recently released by DC, Supplemental Draft picks midfielder Alec Purdie and midfielder Michael Roach.

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MLSSoccer.com Season Previews

Montreal Impact

LA Galaxy

Seattle Sounders Football Club
Real Salt Lake
Football Club Dallas
Sporting Kansas City
Houston Dynamo
Colorado Rapids
Philadelphia Union
Columbus Crew
New York Red Bulls
Portland Timbers
Chicago Fire Soccer Club
San Jose Earthquakes
District of Columbia United
Club Deportivo Chivas USA
Toronto Football Club
Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club
New England Revolution

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COLORADO RAPIDS

Eric Gorski of the Post does a Q & A with Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated, picking his brain on all things Rapids.

COLUMBUS CREW

Adam Jardy of the Dispatch on the Crew in talks with Frankie Hejduk (in what role?), Costa Rican Jairo Arrieta and the search for a DP.

FC DALLAS

Todd Date of 3rd Degree on the odds that David Ferreira will be ready to go on Sunday.

dN

Date looks at the 5 questions they asked of FCD before preseason began and where they sit now.

DC UNITED

Steve Goff of the Post with the latest DCU team notes.

dN

DCU has decided not to offer a contract to Jose Burciaga Jr who was attempting a comeback after 3 years away from the game.

HOUSTON DYNAMO

Jose Ortiz of the Chronicle writes about year 2 for forward Will Bruin, which kind of needs to be a big one.

dN

Ortiz looks at fullback Kofi Sarkodie's rise through the ranks of US Soccer, and what that will do for his Dynamo season.

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Ortiz also looks at the bottom end of the Dynamo roster.

MONTREAL IMPACT

The Impact names Davy Arnaud as their first MLS captain.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Kyle McCarthy of MLSsoccer.com talks to Lee Nguyen who was picked up off the scrap heap by the Revs late last week.

NEW YORK RED BULLS

Jack Bell of the Times on new Bull Kenny Cooper.
-And some other team notes.

dN

Brian Lewis of the Post looks at the Bulls depth.

PHILADELPHIA UNION

Philly's newest signing Cristhian Hernandez was the 2011 U-17/18 Development Academy Player of the Year.

REAL SALT LAKE

Michael C Lewis of the Trib looks at the Lakers long list of injuries.

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

Midfielder Simon Dawkins has finally arrived in SJ for his second loan spell from Tottenham.

SEATTLE SOUNDERS

Joshua Mayers of the Times writes about a radio interview head coach Sigi Schmid did talking about return from injury for Steve Zakuani.

dN

The Big Lead does a Q & A with Sounders Senior Vice President of Business Operations Gary Wright.

TORONTO FC

Gareth Wheeler of TSN previews TFC's season ahead.

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC

Bruce Constantineau of the Sun with an article on 2nd year pro Michael Nanchoff who is hoping to make his mark.

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Marc Weber of the Province talks to Jay DeMerit about how the Caps defense will look this season.

SOCCER IN AMERICA

US Soccer officially announces the Professional Referee Organization to oversee the management of pro refs in North America.

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Charlie Davies team Sochaux fired their head coach today.

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Game Action:

ENGLAND - FA Cup - Round of 16 - Replay
Will Packwood - Birmingham - Tue Mar 6 - on the bench as they lost 0-2 v Chelsea.
Jonathan Spector - Birmingham - Tue Mar 6 - went the full 90 but lost 0-2 v Chelsea.

ENGLAND - Championship League
Conor Doyle - Derby County - Tue Mar 6 - on the bench as they won 2-1 v Blackpool.
Robbie Findley - Nottingham Forest - Tue Mar 6 - started and went 74 min but they lost 1-2 v Doncaster.

ENGLAND - League One
Mike Grella - Bury - Tue Mar 6 - came on as a sub at half time but lost 4-1 at Sheffield Wednesday.
Anton Peterlin - Wallsall - Tue Mar 6 v - on the bench as they won 3-2 Sheffield United.
Frank Simek - Carlisle United - Tue Mar 6 - went the distance as they won 2-1 v Rochdale.

NETHERLANDS - Eerste Divisie
Charles Kazlauskas - Helmond Sport - Mon Mar 5 - played the entire match as they won 2-0 v Almere City.

ENGLAND

Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian looks at Harry Redknapp and examines his credentials for consideration as the next England manager.

FRANCE

Last place Sochaux has fired head coach Mehmed Bazdarevic today and named assistant coach Eric Hely as the interim.
-They are currently in 6 points from relegation safety.

ITALY

WOW! Novara fired head coach Emiliano Mondonico after just 1 month in charge and replaced him with the guy he replaced Attilio Tesse.
-Clowns to the left me, jokers to the right.

TOP EURO CLUB GOAL SCORERS

As of Tue Mar 6

Premier League
25 Robin Van Persie
18 Wayne Rooney
16 Kun Aguero
16 Demba Ba

Bundesliga
18 Mario Gomez
18 Klaas Jan Huntelaar
16 Robert Lewandowski
16 Lukas Podolski

Serie A
18 Antonio Di Natale
18 Zlatan Ibrahimovic
16 Edison Cavani
15 German Denis

Primera Division
30 Cristiano Ronaldo
28 Lionel Messi
16 Gonzalo Higuain
15 Radamael Falcao

Ligue 1
16 Oliver Giroud
13 Nene
11 Eden Hazard

COPA LIBERTADORES

Group Stage

Matches & Scores:
-Tue Mar 6
Penarol v Universidad Chile
Vasco da Gama v Alianza Lima
Union Espanola v Universidad Catolica
-Wed Mar 7
Deportivo Quito v Velez Sarsfield
Santos v Internacional
Corinthians v Nacional Asunción
Boca Juniors v Fluminense
-Thu Mar 8
Flamengo v Emelec
Godoy Cruz v Atletico Nacional
Junior v Bolivar

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Standings

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

ASIA

Asian Champions League - Group Stage

Matches & Scores:
-Tue Mar 6
Gamba Osaka(Japan) 0-3 Pohang Steelers(S Kor)
Brisbane Roar(Aust) 0-2 FC Tokyo(Japan)
Al Rayyan(Qatar) 0-1 Esteghlal(Iran)
Baniyas(UAE) 2-0 Al Arabi(Qatar)
Al Ittihad(Saudi) 4-0 Pakhtakor(Uzbek)
Bunyodkor(Uzbek) 1-2 Adelaide United(Aust)
Ulsan Hyundai(S Kor) 2-1 Beijing Guoan(China)
-Wed Mar 7
Nasaf(Uzbek) v Al Jazira(UAE)
Lekhwiya(Qatar) v Al Ahli(Saudi)
Foolad Sepahan(Iran) v Al Nasr(UAE)
Al Shabab Al Arabi(UAE) v Al Gharafa(Qatar)
Al Hilal(Saudi) v Piroozi Athloetic(Iran)
Nagoya Grampus(Japan) v Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma(S Kor)
Tianjin Teda(China) v Central Coast Mariners(Aust)
Buriram United (Thai) v Kashiwa Reysol(Japan)
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors(S Kor) v Guangzhou Evergrande(China)

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Here are the all the groups, standings and matches.