Some Soccer News for Mon Jun 25, 2012

STARTERS

Watching those two MLS derby games on Sunday showed exactly how far the league has come, with two packed stadiums and 4 teams going all out. What a great end to a huge Round 16 for MLS.

That may have been the single best week of play in league history.

But unfortunately most of the media is so enamored with Europe that they have all but missed this amazing round of soccer.

The 2 biggest American sports media moguls, ESPN and Sports Illustrated, have NOTHING on the league except their regular Monday power rankings. NOTHING else!

STORY OF THE DAY

Alex Labidou of Goal.com looks at one of the big things holding MLS back in the American sports landscape - low salaries. Thierry Henry is one of a couple of insiders who chime in on the subject.

But this is putting the cart before the horse. Salaries are not going up before revenue does.

MINNESOTA STARS FC

NASL

Matches + Scores:
-Sat Jun 23
Minnesota Stars 2-1 Fort Lauderdale Strikers - MS goals by Neil Hlavaty(PK) + Simone Bracalello. FLS goal by Mike Anderson.
Venue: NSC Stadium - Blaine

Here is video of Stars goal #2 - A perfect cross by right fullback Brian Kallman to the near post where forward Simone Bracalello dives around his marker to smash home a header!

-Sat Jun 30
Tampa Bay Rowdies v Minnesota Stars
Venue: Al Lang Stadium - St Petersburg

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

There are 142 teams in our league!

The league leader is LateNight504FC managed by Alan Kansas.

2012-13 CONCACACHAMPIONS

The last three spots in the tournament were filled at the final four of the Caribbean Club Championship.

Matches and Scores:
-Tue Jun 19
Antigua Barracuda 0-2 Caledonia
Puerto Rico Islanders 1-4 W Connection

-Thu Jun 21
Third Place Game
Anigua Barracuda 0-2 Puerto Rico Islanders
Final
Caledonia 1-1 W Connection - Cal wins 4-2 in Penalty Kick Shootout

So, Caledonia, W Connection and Puerto Rico go to the big regional tournament.

THE LAMAR HUNT US OPEN CUP

Quarterfinals

5 teams from MLS and 3 teams from USL Pro face off.
-And gee wilikers, look at that, wouldn't you know but all 4 games will be hosted by MLS teams. Seattle head coach Sigi Schmid should demand that a Grand Jury be convened to look into this oddity.

Matches and Scores:
-Tue Jun 26
Philadelphia Union v Harrisburg City Islanders - 6:30pm CT
Sporting Kansas City v Dayton Dutch Lions FC - 7:30pm CT
CD Chivas USA v Charlotte Eagles SC - 9:30pm CT
San Jose Earthquakes v Seattle Sounders FC - 9:30pm CT

PRICELESS

The Portland tifo display on Sunday was a MONSTER! And at the same time it was humble. An almost impossible task executed to perfection.


















Jeremiah Oshan of SB Nation gives the full explanation, including dimensions.

The the Timbers give us a great dramatic video recap of their huge derby Sunday success.

Business Insider has some great images, including excellent gifs, from the Portland-Seattle game.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Its 6 years and counting on this quote:

"TFC’s head coach Paul Mariner admitted that the defensive line likely needs to be addressed before the team’s next match."

UEFA EURO 2012

Both Semifinals have the matchups to be classic games. Fingers crossed. Where are you watching?

We all know that Italy beat England 3-2 in Penalty Kick Shootout to advance, but we quickly forget how that shootout went down:
-Mario Baloteli - Goal
-Steven Gerrard - Goal
-Riccardo Montolivo - Missed wide left
-Wayne Rooney - Goal
-Andrea Pirlo - Goal
-Ashley Young - Missed off crossbar
-Antonio Nocerino - Goal
-Ashley Cole - Saved
-Alessandro Diamanti - Goal

dN
Top news sources:

UEFA
Guardian
Marca
As
France Football
Gazzetta Dello Sport
Kicker
World Soccer
ESPN

dN
Matches & Scores:

-Thu Jun 21
Czech Republic 0-1 Portugal
-Fri Jun 22
Germany 4-2 Greece
-Sat Jun 23
Spain 2-0 France
-Sun Jun 24
England 0-0 Italy

Semifinals:
-Wed Jun 27
Portugal v Spain - 1:45pm CT
-Thu Jun 28
Germany v Italy - 1:45pm CT

Final
-Sun Jul 1
Semifinal Winners - 1:45pm CT
Venue: Olympic Stadium - Kyiv, Ukraine.

dN
Lets check in and see how we are doing in the du Nord & Friends ESPN Euro Bracket Predictor!

FACT OF THE DAY

Seattle has not won in seven games in a row. Its worst streak ever in MLS.

But that's nothing to Dallas which sits on 11 without a win now.

Joshua Mayer of the Seattle Times on the Sounders skid.

3rd Degree in Dallas shows the FCD frustration boil over in Twitter posting by team captain Daniel Hernandez. (A known Twitter ranter.)

STAT OF THE DAY

31 goals were scored in 9 games on Saturday and Sunday! Fantastic.
-And that comes on the heals of 21 in 6 games on Wednesday.
-That's 3.47 per game average in Round 16.
-And its not lot like there were some huge scores to boost that average - the most scored by any one team was 4, and there were only 2 of those.

PICTURE OF THE DAY

After Robbie Keane scored a goal for LA on Saturday he did a pretty amazing thing when he held up a jersey the name on the back of the Irish supporters who went missing in Poland and was later found dead.















PODCAST OF THE DAY

People ask me all the time, "Brucio, what podcasts do you listen to?"
Here is the list of what I have on itunes:
-ESPN Dallas - Soccer Today
-ESPN - Big Head Red Head
-Glenn Davis Podcasts
-Grantland Network - Men In Blazers
-The Guardian - Football Weekly
-Jimmy Conrad's American Soccer Spectacular
-The Jurgen Klinsmann Show
-KCRW's The Treatment
-The Mexican Soccer Show with Tom Marshall
-MLS Soccer - Extra Time Radio
-MLS Soccer - March To the Match
-The MMA Hour
-The Pitch Invasion Podcast
-Pitch Pass
-Seeing Red! The New York Soccer Roundup
-The Shot with Alexi Lalas
-Smodcast
-Tell Em Steve Dave
-The United Mania Podcast
-What the Flock
-WTF with Marc Maron

Do you have any recommendations for me?

MLS MATCHES AND SCORES

WEEK 16

Matches + Scores:
-Wed Jun 20
Real Salt Lake 2-3 LA Galaxy - RSL goals by Kyle Beckerman + Alvaro Saborio. LAG goals by Landon Donovan(2) + Mike Magee.
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium
Atten: 20,382
Houston Dynamo 3-3 Toronto FC - HD goals by Bobby Boswell + Will Bruin(2). TFC goals by Jeremy Hall + Danny Koevermans(2).
Venue: BBVA Compass Stadium
Atten: 21,423
Colorado Rapids 1-2 San Jose Earthquakes - CR goal by Brian Mullan. SJE goals by Hunter Freeman(OG) + Chris Wondolowski(PK).
Venue: Dick's Sporting Goods Park
Atten: 13,080
Seattle Sounders FC 1-1 Sporting Kansas City - SS goal by Patrick Ianni. SKC goal by Jacob Peterson.
Venue: CenturyLink Field
Atten: 46,932
CD Chivas USA 2-1 Montreal Impact - CUSA goals by Alejandro Moreno + Juan Pablo Angel. MI goal by Felipe Martins.
Venue: The Home Depot Center
Atten: 10,376
Vancouver Whitecaps FC 1-1 New York Red Bulls - VW goal by Martin Bonjour. NYRB goal by Heath Pearce.
Venue: BC Place
Atten: 20,060
-Sat Jun 23
Toronto FC 2-2 New England Revolution - TFC goals by Danny Koevermans + Ryan Johnson. NER goals by Blake Brettschneider & Benny Feilhaber.
Venue: BMO Field
Atten: 18,877
Philadelphia Union 4-0 Sporting Kansas City - PU goals by Jack McInerney(2), Lionard Pajoy(PK) + Antoine Hoppenot.
Venue: PPL Park
Atten: 18,207
Montreal Impact 4-2 Houston Dynamo - MI goals by Sanna Nyassi, Davy Arnaud, Hassoun Camara + Patrice Bernier. HD goals by Brad Davis + Will Bruin.
Venue: Saputo Stadium
Atten: 12,357
Chicago Fire SC 2-1 Columbus Crew - CF goals by Marco Pappa + Dominic Oduro. CC goal by Tony Tchani.
Venue: Toyota Park
Atten: 17,144
Real Salt Lake 1-2 San Jose Earthquakes - RSL goal by Javier Morales. SJE goals by Alan Gordon + Chris Wondolowski.
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium
Atten: 18,050
FC Dallas 0-0 CD Chivas USA
Venue: FC Dallas Stadium
Atten: 13,846
LA Galaxy 3-0 Vancouver Whitecaps FC - LAG goals by Mike Magee, Robbie Keane + Landon Donovan(PK).
Venue: The Home Depot Center
Atten: 21,529
-Sun Jun 24
Portland Timbers 2-1 Seattle Sounders FC - PT goals by Kris Boyd + David Horst. SS goal by Eddie Johnson.
Venue: JELD-WEN Field
Atten: 20,438
New York Red Bulls 3-2 DC United - NYRB goals by Brandon Barklage(2) + Jan Gunnar Solli. DCU goals both by Chris Pontius.
Venue: Red Bull Arena
Atten: 25,187

MLS MATCH NOTES

EJECTIONS:
Gonzalo Segares - Chicago - red card
Adam Moffat - Houston - red card
Fredy Montero - Seattle - red card
Lovell Palmer - Portland - red card

dN

The LA Galaxy should be embarrassed that they are constantly running their stadium at 70% of capacity. They have a massive market, and a star studded team who won the championship and yet they are constantly selling about 20K tix per game. What gives? I thought they were a super club?

dN

And after game 1 at Saputo Stadium fell an embarrassing 3000 short of sold out, game 2 a week later only drew 12,357. So when they drew about 60k for the Galaxy game was that everyone who ever wanted to go to a Montreal game and they all went on the same day? Or is everyone smoking the Gouda?

dN

The Red Bulls set a new record for attendance at the Arena.

dN

On the field LA is another matter where they just won their 3rd in 8 days to grab 9 points and take the last playoff spot in the West away from Colorado.

dN

Brandon Barklage of New York enacted the ULTIMATE revenge on DC united who told him after last season that he was not in their future plans and cut him loose. He scored two HUGE goals against them on Sunday.
-Goal 1 -Goal 2 -And then this priceless gem gets posted on the MLS website right under the vid clip: (Grandma opens a can of whoop-ass!)














dN

Darren Mattocks of Vancouver has now accumulated 4 yellow cards in just 7 games this season. He appears to be going for Danny Dichio/Jermaine Jones goon numbers.

dN

TFC barfs up another 2 goal lead, this time giving up the tying goal 4 minutes into second half stoppage time.

dN

Wow, did Philly drill KC or what!?!?

dN

Two teams as mediocre as Dallas and Chivas don't deserve anything more then a really boring scoreless game.

dN

Don't look now but Toronto is up to 5 points on the season.

dN

The color of Seattle's third shirt is toothpaste blue.

dN

It was a 25th straight sellout game in Portland! Every home game since they joined the league has been a packed house.

MLS STANDINGS

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

MLS TEAM AND PLAYER NEWS

General News

LA Galaxy forward Landon Donovan was named MLS Player of the Week.

dN

Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com does a great job every week of breaking down the previous round of action.

dN

Ives Galarcep of Fox Soccer rounds up the week by featuring red hot San Jose, new look Philly and his players of the week.

dN

Graham Parker and Joe Prince-Wright of the Guardian with five things we learned in week 15.
-It was actually Week 16, but the Guardian probably uses the metric system.

Punishment

Last Friday the league handed down a 3 game suspension for Portland centerback Hanyer Mosquera for "striking" LA Galaxy forward Jack McBean the weekend before.

Player Transactions

Ives Galarcep of Fox Soccer reports that Philadelphia has made an unknown roster move with Vancouver in order to acquire the rights to sign centerback Bakary Soumare who had a great 2008 with the Chicago Fire before being sold to Bolougne in France.

PHILADELPHIA UNION

Kerith Gabriel of the Daily News sees a heavy blanket of darkness has been lifted off the Union since the firing of head coach Peter Nowak.

dN

Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com chats with the Union's two Spanish speaking forward Lionard Pajoy and newly acquired Jorge Perlaza.

REAL SALT LAKE

James Edward of the Deseret wonders what happened to that Rio Tinto home field superiority.

TORONTO FC

Kurtis Larson of the Sun with a full TFC roundup: What is the future of the 3 arrested players; Torsten Frings ineffectiveness; goalkeeper Milos Kocic is very frustrated.

dN

While TFC may be showing slight improvement under head coach Paul Mariner they have blown 2 goal leads in consecutive games. Oof.

MLS/USA RELATED RUMORS

All the rumors that are red hot right now feature Houston centerback Geoff Cameron. He needs a move fast if he is going to get a shot in Europe because he is already 27.

MLS RESERVE LEAGUE

Matches + Scores:
-Mon Jun 25
Chivas USA v Vancouver Whitecaps

Standings
MLS SUMMER FRIENDLIES

Here is the complete schedule of all the big club matches going on this summer pitting MLS teams against European teams.

NASL SCOREBOARD

Matches + Scores:
-Sat Jun 23
Carolina RailHawks 2-0 FC Edmonton
Atlanta Silverbacks 1-2 Puerto Rico Islanders
Tampa Bay Rowdies 3-2 San Antonio Scorpions
Minnesota Stars FC 2-1 Fort Lauderdale Strikers

Watch online

Standings
23 Puerto Rico (+11)
22 San Antonio (+6)
20 Minnesota (+2)
18 Tampa Bay (-2)
17 Carolina (+2)
16 Fort Lauderdale (-3)
11 Edmonton (-3)
8 Atlanta (-13)

USL PRO NEWS

Standings

USA U17 TEAM

They are playing in the Copa Saprissa Internacional tournament in San Jose, Costa Rica.

The USA has opened strong with 2 wins and a tie. With the big game against Mexico coming still on Wednesday.

dN

Matches + Scores:
-Sat Jun 23
USA 3-0 Linafa(Costa Rica) - USA goals by Elijan Martin, Chris Lema + Rolando Munoz.
-Sun Jun 24
USA 1-1 Honduras - USA goal by Corey Baird.
-Mon Jun 25
USA 3-2 Costa Rica - USA goals by Rubio Rubin, John Requejo Jr. + Rolando Munoz.
-Tue Jun 26
USA v Chorrillo FC(Panama)
-Wed Jun 27
USA v Mexico

There is also a chance for 2 playoff games on Jun 29 and Jul 1, or they will play 2 friendlies before heading home.

dN

Roster
G:
Paul Christensen - Seattle Sounders Academy
Evan Louro - New York Red Bulls Academy
D:
Adonis Amaya - Chivas USA Academy
Jordan Cano - FC Dallas Academy
Conor Donovan - NC Alliance
Elijah Martin - Cal Odyssey
Jorge Miranda - Real So Cal
Shaquell Moore - Cobb FC
Kevin Politz - New York Red Bulls Academy
John Requejo Jr - Real So Cal
Gonzalo Rolon - Central California Blues
Tyler Turner - South Central Premier
M:
Junior Flores - McLean Youth Soccer
Angel Heredia - San Jose Earthquakes Academy
Christopher Lema - New York Red Bulls Academy
Cameron Lindley - Indiana United Academy
Aaron Meyer - FC Dallas Academy
Rolando Munoz - LA Galaxy Academy
Rubio Rubin - Westside Metros
Alan Winn - Solar Chelsea SC
F:
Corey Baird - San Diego Surf
Bradford Jamieson - Chivas USA Academy
Ahinga Selemani - CSA Wolves
Wesley Wade - New York Red Bulls Academy

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Sacha Kljestan and his team Anderlecht have lost their head coach Ariel Jacobs to the biggest team in the country Kobenhavn.

COPA LIBERTADORES

Final

Matches + Scores:
1st Leg
-Tue Jun 26
Boca Juniors v Corinthians
2nd Leg
-Tue Jul 3
Corinthians v Boca Juniors

ASIA

Asian Champions League - Quarterfinals

Matches + Scores:
1st Leg
-Wed Sep 19
Adelaide United v Bunodkor
Ulsan v Al Hilal
Sepahan v Al Ahli
Al Ittihad v Guangahou Evergrande
2nd Leg
-Wed Oct 2
Bunodkor v Adelaide United
Al Hilal v Ulsan
Al Ahli v Sepahan
Guangahou Evergrande v Al Ittihad