Some Soccer News for Fri Jun 1, 2012

STARTERS

Bob Bradley's Egypt got off to a great start as they won their first World Cup qualifier today, 2-0 over Mozambique in an empty stadium in Alexandria.

dN

Here is video from the USA National Soccer Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony that took place this week - featuring Tony Meola, Desmond Armstrong and Tony DiCicco.
-Claudio Reyna and Grahame L Jones were also inducted.

dN

Yes there is 1 MLS game being played this weekend. Details in MLS section below.

dN

One time Portuguese international Luis Boa Morte is getting a try out with Toronto, but he was just cut from Orlando Pirates in South Africa who told the press that he was just not good enough.

STORY OF THE DAY

Alexander Wolff and Laurent Dubois of Sports Illustrated talk to long time France star Lilian Thuram about the level of racism still surrounding the world of soccer.

MINNESOTA STARS FC

Here are some video highlights of the Stars big win in Utah this week, via Telemundo. Still hoping RSL provides a better package with all the goals.

dN

NASL
Match and Score:
-Sat Jun 2
San Antonio Scorpions v Minnesota Stars FC - 7:45pm CT
Venue: Heroes Stadium

dN

And Episode Four of the ongoing documentary of the Minnesota Stars: Shine On Episode Four - It's Not Going To Be Easy - and I am very proud to make an appearance.

TEAM USA - EL EQUIPO DE TODOS

Brian Sciaretta of the New York Times with an article on Michael Parkhurst and a fantastic season winning the Danish championship with Nordsjaelland.

Franco Panizo of Soccer by Ives with words from coach and players yesterday.

US Soccer talks to Geoff Cameron.

John Chidley-Hill of the The Canadian Press looks at Canada's prep for qualifying.

SportsNet has audio of Dwayne DeRosario talking about qualifying and playing the USA.

Two new videos from US Soccer:
-MNT vs. Brazil: Field Level Highlights
-RG3 and the MNT

dN

Matches & Scores:
-Sat May 26
USA 5-1 Scotland - Friendly - USA goals by Landon Donovan(3), Michael Bradley & Jermaine Jones. Sco goal by Geoff Cameron(OG).
Venue: EverBank Field, Jacksonville FL
Atten: 44, 438
-Wed May 30
4 USA 1-4 Brazil - Friendly - USA goal by Herculez Gomez. Bra goals by Neymar(PK), Thiago Silva, Marcelo & Pato.
Venue: FedEx Field, Landover MD
Atten: 67,619
-Sun Jun 3
Canada v USA - Friendly - 6:00pm CT on NBC Sports Network
Venue: BMO Field, Toronto ON
-Fri Jun 8
USA v Antigua & Barbuda - World Cup Qualifying - 6:00pm CT v Antigua & Barbuda on ESPN
Venue: Raymond James Stadium, Tampa FL
-Tue Jun 12
Guatemala v USA - World Cup Qualifying - 9:00pm CT on PPV
Venue: Estadio Mateo Flores - Guatemala City

dN

USA Roster (So Far)
G:
Brad Guzan - Aston Villa
Tim Howard - Everton
Nick Rimando - Real Salt Lake
D:
Carlos Bocanegra - Rangers
Geoff Cameron - Houston Dynamo
Edgar Castillo - Tijuana
Steve Cherundolo - Hannover
Clarence Goodson - Brondy
Oguchi Onyewu - Sporting CP
Michael Parkhurst - Nordsjaelland
M:
Kyle Beckerman - Real Salt Lake
Michael Bradley - Chievo
Joe Corona - Tijuana
Maurice Edu - Rangers
Fabian Johnson - Hoffenheim
Jermaine Jones - Schalke
Jose Torres - Pachuca
F:
Jozy Altidore - AZ
Terrence Boyd - Dortmund
Clint Dempsey - Fulham
Landon Donovan - LA Galaxy
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna
Chris Wondolowski - San Jose Earthquakes

dN

Canada roster
G:
Milan Borjan - Vaslui
Lars Hirschfeld - Valerenga
Kenny Stamatopoulos - AIK
D:
David Edgar - Burnley
Andre Hainault - Houston Dynamo
Ante Jazic - Chivas USA
Mike Klukowski - Manisaspor
Nik Ledgerwood - Wehen Wiesbaden
Kevin McKenna - Koln
Ashtone Morgan - Toronto
M:
Julian de Guzman - Toronto
Atiba Hutchinson - PSV Eindhoven
Will Johnson - Real Salt Lake
Issey Nakajima-Farran - Brisbane Roar
Pedro Pacheco - Santa Clara
Samuel Piette - Metz
Josh Simpson - Young Boys
F:
Dwayne De Rosario - DC United
Iain Hume - Preston North End
Simeon Jackson - Norwich
Olivier Occean - Gruether Furth
Tosaint Ricketts - Politehnica Timisoara

THE LAMAR HUNT US OPEN CUP

FOURTH ROUND - Round of 16

Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com, a guy who gets it, looks at the midweek mayhem for MLS teams in the Open Cup.

Fox Soccer has announced that they will show the game between Seattle and Cal. So the question has to be asked, if Cal manager Eric Wynalda was not one of Fox's key on air personalities would they be showing this game? I think that's a pretty obvious no. So shouldn't Fox be a little more up front and refer to the team as Eric Wynalda's Cal FC?

Matches and Scores:
Harrisburg City Islanders v New York Red Bulls
DC United v Philadelphia Union
Michigan Bucks v Dayton Dutch Lions
Sporting Kansas City v Colorado Rapids
San Antonio Scorpions v Charlotte Eagles
San Jose Earthquakes v Minnesota Stars
Carolina RailHawks v Chivas USA
Seattle Sounders v Cal

DO YOU REALIZE

Kent Babb of the Kansas City Star talks to the family of Ify Okafor who committed suicide 16 months ago, and the conflict they are still feeling very deeply.

OOF

The Spain national team has told their players that they cannot post on Twitter during the upcoming Euro championship tournament.

PRICELESS

Vancouver forward Eric Hassli is getting married in Vegas this weekend and teammate Davide Chiumiento is the best man!

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Hahahahaha - - Great video! Chelsea gets ready for their preseason in the USA with some baseball and American football!

MLS MATCHES AND SCORES

Week 13 and 14

Matches And Scores:
-Sat Jun 2
New England Revolution v Chicago Fire SC - 6:30PM CT
Venue: Gillette Stadium

MLS STANDINGS

EAST
27 DC United (+9)
26 New York Red Bulls (+8)
25 Sporting Kansas City (+7)
18 Chicago Fire SC (0)
18 Columbus Crew (0)
-----
16 Houston Dynamo (0)
13 New England Revolution (-2)
12 Montreal Impact (-6)
8 Philadelphia Union (-6)
3 Toronto FC (-13)
WEST
29 Real Salt Lake (+8)
27 San Jose Earthquakes (+10)
24 Seattle Sounders FC (+7)
19 Colorado Rapids (+2)
19 Vancouver Whitecaps FC (-1)
-----
15 CD Chivas USA (-5)
13 Portland Timbers (-3)
13 FC Dallas (-9)
11 LA Galaxy (-6)

MLS TEAM AND PLAYER NEWS

Punishment

Mike Magee of the LA Galaxy was given a one game suspension for an outburst toward a referee where the picked up and wildly threw the ball out of bounds, not at the referee but with clear intention of intimidation.

Michael Stephens of the Galaxy was also suspended for one game for a horrible studs up over the ball tackle that was punish with a yellow card at the time.

LA also lost Hector Jimenez for an additional game after he got a red card against San Jose, but was suspended for a second game due to the severity of the foul.

Lionard Pajoy of Philadelphia gets a one game suspension for a nasty stomp against Toronto.

CHICAGO FIRE

They say that Chris Rolfe is ready to play this weekend. His return to Chicago is needed. The more attacking options the better for a team that is kind of stuck in the middle of the pack.

HOUSTON DYNAMO

International Friendly

Jose Ortiz of the Chronicle reviews the nights exhibition action in front of a sold out stadium.

Match and Score:
-Thu May 31
Houston Dynamo 1-2 Valencia(Spain) - HD goal by Calen Carr. Val goals both by Aritz Aduriz.
Venue: BBVA Compass Stadium - Houston TX

MONTREAL IMPACT

Randy Phillips of the Gazette introduces us to the Impacts new veteran Italian striker Marco Di Vaio.

PHILADELPHIA UNION

Kerith Gabriel of the Daily News sees Union fullback Michael Farfan as a highly skilled and underused young professional.

TORONTO FC

Daniel Girard of the Star with details on TFC's new training facility that looks to be state of the art.
-They just sold the naming rights to Kia Motors.

Ryan Wolstat of the Sun with an article on the new facility.

MLS RESERVE LEAGUE

Matches and Scores:
-Sat May 26
Toronto 3-2 Philadelphia Union - Tor goals by Efrain Burgos(2) & Oscar Cordon. PU goals both by Jack McInerney.
-Sun May 27
Portland Timbers 1-2 Vancouver Whitecaps - PT goal by Andrew Jean Baptiste. VW goals by Floyd Franks & Darren Mattocks.
-Fri Jun 1
Seattle Sounders v Vancouver Whitecaps
-Sat Jun 2
Portland Timbers v LA Galaxy
Montreal Impact v Toronto

Standings
-This league is often changing schedules with no warning.

NASL SCOREBOARD

Matches and Scores:
-Sat Jun 2
Carolina RailHawks v Puerto Rico Islanders
Fort Lauderdale Strikers v Tampa Bay Rowdies
San Antonio Scorpions v Minnesota Stars
-Sun Jun 3
FC Edmonton v Atlanta Silverbacks

Watch online

Standings
17 Puerto Rico (+11)
16 Minnesota (+6)
15 San Antonio (+2)
12 Tampa Bay (0)
10 Fort Lauderdale (-4)
8 Edmonton (0)
5 Carolina (-7)
5 Atlanta (-8)

USL PRO NEWS

Standings

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Greg Seltzer of MLSsoccer.com looks at the rumors about American players around Europe for the summer transfer window that open in less than a month.

ASIA 2014 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

Two Groups of five begin play this Sunday.
Group A
Iran
Lebanon
S Korea
Qatar
Uzbekistan
Group B
Australia
Iraq
Japan
Jordan
Oman

dN

Matches and Scores:
Matchday 1
-Sun Jun 3
Jordan v Iraq
JAPAN v Oman
UZBEKISTAN v Iran
LEBANON v Qatar
Matchday 2
-Fri Jun 8
QATAR v S Korea
LEBANON v Uzbekistan
OMAN v Australia
JAPAN v Jordan
Matchday 3
-Tue Jun 12
S KOREA v Lebanon
Iran v Qatar
Australia v Japan
Iraq v Oman

AFRICA 2014 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

The first games for African countries began today.

Standings:
Group A
Botswana
Central African Republic
Ethiopia
South Africa
Group B
Cape Verde
Equatorial Guinea
Sierra Leone
Tunisia
Group C
Cote d'Ivoire
Gambia
Morocco
Tanzania
Group D
Ghana
Lseotho
Sudan
Zambia
Group E
Burkina Faso
Congo
Gabon
Niger
Group F
Kenya
Malawi
Namibia
Nigeria
Group G
3 Egypt
Guinea
Zimbabwe
0 Mozambique
Group H
Algeria
Benin
Mali
Rwanda
Group I
Cameroon
Congo DR
Libya
Togo
Group J
Angola
Liberia
Senegal
Uganda

dN

Matches and Scores:
-Fri Jun 1
GAME SUSPENDED: Ghana v Lesotho - Power went out in the stadium with Ghana up 4-0.
Egypt 2-0 Mozambique
-Sat Jun 2
Central African Republic v Botswana
Cameroon v Congo DR
Kenya v Malawi
Sierra Leone v Cape Verde Islands
Gambia v Morocco
Cote d'Ivoire v Tanzania
Tunisia v Equatorial Guinea
Burkina Faso v Congo
Senegal v Liberia
Sudan v Zambia
Algeria v Rwanda
-Sun Jun 3
Zimbabwe v Guinea
South Africa v Ethiopia
Togo v Libya
Niger v Gabon
Benin v Mali
Angola v Uganda
Nigeria v Namibia

CONMEBOL 2014 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

STANDINGS:
7 Uruguay (3 GP)
7 Argentina (4 GP)
7 Venezuela (4 GP)
6 Ecuador (3 GP)
----- 6 Chile (4 GP)
----- 4 Colombia (3 GP)
4 Paraguay (4 GP)
3 Peru (3 GP)
1 Bolivia (4 GP)

dN

Matches and Scores:

Matchday 5
-Sat Jun 2
Uruguay v Venezuela
Bolivia v Chile
Argentina v Ecuador
Peru v Colombia

Matchday 6 -Sat Jun 9 Bolivia v Paraguay
Venezuela v Chile
Uruguay v Peru
Ecuador v Colombia

ENDERS

My soccer life is insane right now, check this out:

There are almost too many soccer games of importance right now fopr the two teams that I love - Minnesota Stars and USA - 12 games in 25 days.

Sat May 19 - Stars at Ft Lauderdale
Tue May 22 - Stars at Des Moines
Fri May 25 - Stars at Tampa Bay
Sat May 26 - USA v Scotland
Tue May 29 - Stars at Salt Lake
Wed May 30 - USA v Brazil
Sat Jun 2 - Stars at San Antonio
Sun Jun 3 - USA at Canada
Tue Jun 5 - Stars at San Jose
Fri Jun 9 - USA v Antigua & Barbuda
Sat Jun 10 - Stars at Carolina
Tue Jun 12 - USA at Guatemala