Friday, August 24, 2012

Some Soccer News for Fri Aug 24, 2012

STARTERS

Episode 8 of the du Nord Futbol Show podcast is now ready for blasting! As in, blasting from your speakers dude!

dN

The Sun reports on the rehab of Stuart Holden, and in the 2nd to the last sentence its revealed that he had another minor surgery for "knee clean up" just 3 weeks ago.

dN

Thierry Henry and his lady friend have had a child. Huge congrats to themon the new baby boy!

STORY OF THE DAY

Reuters reports on the brutal racist atmosphere at a soccer game in Moscow. And the World Cup is being played there because......? The people at this game are despicable.

MINNESOTA STARS FC

Crucial game this weekend against a team chasing them for a playoff spot.

Matches + Scores:
-Sat Aug 25
Minnesota Stars v Edmonton
Venue: NSC Stadium - Blaine MN
-Sat Sep 1 Minnesota Stars v San Antonio Scorpions Venue: NSC Stadium - Blaine MN

TASTIEST MLS GAME OF THE WEEK

Two on Saturday: -Another leg of the Cascadia Cup: Portland v Vancouver.
-And Montreal v DC with implications for the last playoff spot in the East.

And then on Sunday its the biggest game of the week, on national television too, is Kansas City v New York at 8:00pm CT on ESPN2

DU NORD AT THE CONTROLS

du Nord at the Controls - Tue Aug 21, 2012 - new music mix at Spotify.

CONCACHAMPIONS 2012-13

LA got an big win but they honestly should have double the amount of goals they scored.
-Robbie Keane also got a red card for taking a dive(1 yellow) and then showing up the referee with his antics(2nd yellow.) But it was pretty clear he never took a dive to begin with.

dN

Matches + Scores:
-Tue Aug 21
Santos Laguna 5-0 Aguila - SL goals by Carlos Quintero(3), Edgar Lugo + Daniel Luduena.
Real Salt Lake 2-0 Tauro - RSL goals by Alvaro Saborio + Kyle Beckerman.
Xelaju 1-0 Guadalajara - Xel goal by Edgar Chinchilla.
-Wed Aug 22
Caledonia AIA 0-0 Marathon
Alajuelense 2-2 Tigres UANL - Ala goals by Diego Calvo + Luis Valle. Tig goals by Alonso Zamora + Manuel Viniegra.
FAS 1-3 Houston Dynamo - FAS goal by Jonathan Aguila. HD goals by Brian Ching, Cam Weaver + Je-Vaughn Watson.
-Thu Aug 23
Chorrillo 1-2 Municipal - Cho goal by Johnny Ruiz. Mun goals by Luis Rodriguez + Yosimar Arias.
LA Galaxy 5-2 Isidro Metapan - LAG goals by J Alvarado(OG), Robbie Keane, David Beckham + Juninho(2). Met goals both by Nicolas Munoz(1 via PK).

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Making a transition into this circus sometimes is unbelievable. It's very difficult on MLS teams. I sometimes wonder why we spend all the resources and time we do in this competition when sometimes it looks really bizarre."
-LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena on the CONCACAF Champions League game last night against Metapan.

The team gives us all of his post game comments from last night.

Y'ALL READY FOR THIS?

Tod Palmer of the Kansas City Star writes that despite all of Lance Armstrong's troubles with anti-doping agencies, Sporting Kansas City will not change the name of their stadium from Livestrong Sporting Park.

SKC sent out this statement earlier today:
STATEMENT FROM SPORTING CLUB CEO ROBB HEINEMAN
"The naming rights partnership between our stadium and LIVESTRONG provides an opportunity to spread health and wellness messages that emphasizes the spirit of cancer survivorship. LIVESTRONG’s focus is the fight against cancer and the support of 28 million people around the world affected by this disease, and we believe strongly in this mission. The statements made last night by the Lance Armstrong Foundation speak for themselves: moving forward and continuing the fight against this horrible disease."

DO YOU REALIZE

Marc Weber of the Vancouver Province sees last year's two MLS expansion teams the Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers in 180 degree role reversal's from last season.

DID YOU KNOW?

Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com writes that the Philadelphia Union has asked a judge to dismiss the wrongful termination lawsuit filed against them by former head coach Peter Nowak.
-The team's legal reps say the contract with Nowak has a provision for settling any disagreement by using arbitration, not the courts.
-The original article has now been amended to add comments from Nowak attorney.

HMMMMM, VERY INTERESTING

The Canadian Press shows us a report that says Canada can handle 3 more MLS teams in the future. Via the Edmonton Journal.
-Ottawa will have a team in the NASL in 2014.

WELL WELL WELL

Brian Sciaretta at the New York Times writes about Jozy Altidore really starting to find his place at AZ and making his mark on the field.
-He is off to a fantastic start this season with 2 goals in each of the first 2 games.

OPENING WEEKEND IN THE WORLD'S BIGGEST LEAGUES

Opening weekend begins tomorrow in Germany and Saturday in Italy!

Bundesliga
Matches + Scores:
-Fri Aug 24
Borussia Dortmund v Werder Bremen - 1:30pm CT on GolTV
Sat Aug 25
Borussia Monchengladbach v Hoffenheim
Freiburg v Mainz
Augsburg v Fortuna Dusseldorf
Hamburger v Nurnberg
Greuther Furth v Bayern Munich - 8:30am CT on GolTV
Eintracht Frankfurt v Bayer Leverkusen - 11:30am CT on GolTV
Stuttgart v Wolfsburg - 1:45pm CT on GolTV
-Sun Aug 26
Hannover v Schalke - 10:30am CT on GolTV

Raphael Honigstein of the Guardian with a Bundesliga season preview.

And for the best, by far, day to day coverage of the German game just read Bundesliga Fanatic.

dN

Serie A Matches + Scores:
-Sat Aug 25
Fiorentina v Udinese - 10:55am CT on beIN
Juventus v Parma - 1:40pm CT on beIN
-Sun Aug 26
Milan v Sampdoria - 6:00pm CT (DELAYED) on beIN
Atalanta v Lazio
Chievo v Bologna
Genoa v Cagliari
Palermo v Napoli - 8:00pm CT (DELAYED) on beIN
Pescara v Internazionale
Roma v Catania
Siena v Torino

FACT OF THE DAY

Paul Mariner took over as head coach of Toronto FC on June 7 and began with 4 wins, 3 losses and 4 ties, but has now fallen back to 0 wins 3 losses and 1 tie in past 4 games.

Over all under Mariner the team has 4 wins, 6 losses and 5 ties for 17 points. That is 1.13 ppg, which if they had that number for the whole season would only move them from 10th place to 8th place in the East. (FYI - would be in 8th position in the West too.)

OOF

The Press Association reports that Fulham has filed a complaint with the English Football Association against Liverpool for illegally talking to Clint Dempsey while he is under contract to Fulham. Via the Guardian.

Chris Bascombe of the Telegraph goes into more detail.

THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

Kerith Gabriel of the Philadelphia Daily News writes that what the Union need desperately these days is veteran leadership on the field.

Didn't they have a bunch of that and former head coach Peter Nowak sent them all packing?

MLS MATCHES AND SCORES

WEEK 25

Matches + Scores:
-Wed Aug 22
Columbus Crew 2-1 Toronto FC - CC goals by Eddie Gavin + Federico Higuain. TFC goal by Luis Silva.
Venue: Crew Stadium
Atten: 10,049
DC United 4-2 Chicago Fire SC - DCU goals by Dwayne DeRosario, Lionard Pajoy, Brandon McDonald + Long Tan. CF goals by Daniel Paladini + Gonzalo Segares.
Venue: RFK Stadium
Atten: 10,291
-Fri Aug 24
Philadelphia Union v Real Salt Lake - 6:30pm CT on NBCSN
Venue: PPL Park
-Sat Aug 25
Montreal Impact v DC United - 3:30pm CT
Venue: Saputo Stadium
Columbus Crew v New England Revolution - 6:30pm CT
Venue: Crew Stadium
Houston Dynamo v Toronto FC - 7:30pm CT
Venue: BBVA Compass Stadium
Portland Timbers v Vancouver Whitecaps FC - 9:30pm CT
Venue: Jeld Wen Field
CD Chivas USA v Seattle Sounders FC - 9:30pm CT
The Home Depot Center
San Jose Earthquakes v Colorado Rapids - 9:30pm CT
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium
-Sun Aug 26
LA Galaxy v FC Dallas - 6:00pm CT on NBCSN
Venue: The Home Depot Center
Sporting Kansas City v New York Red Bulls - 8:00pm CT on ESPN2
Venue: Livestrong Sporting Park

Everyone plays this round!

MLS MATCH NOTES

Montreal is planning on a rare sellout at their new stadium. Great news.

MLS STANDINGS

EAST
46 Sporting Kansas City (31)
44 New York Red Bulls (43)
41 Houston Dynamo (37)
41 Chicago Fire SC (32)
40 DC United (41)
-----
36 Montreal Impact (39)
33 Columbus Crew (25)
24 Philadelphia Union (24)
23 New England Revolution (27)
20 Toronto FC (28)
WEST
47 San Jose Earthquakes (48)
42 Real Salt Lake (37)
40 Seattle Sounders FC (34)
37 LA Galaxy (44)
37 Vancouver Whitecaps FC (28)
-----
32 FC Dallas (33)
27 CD Chivas USA (15)
26 Colorado Rapids (32)
21 Portland Timbers (24)

MLS TEAM AND PLAYER NEWS

COLUMBUS CREW

Adam Jardy of the Dispatch has 5 lighthearted question for Justin Meram.

FC DALLAS

Steve Hunt of the Morning News on the return of David Ferreira - and - just how out of shape is new signing Matias Jara?

DC UNITED

Steven Goff of the Post with an article on veteran Marcelo Saragosa who has had to spend a lot of time this season waiting for his chance to contribute on the field.

MONTREAL IMPACT

Montreal expects to have centerback Alessandro Nesta back from injury this weekend

dN

Noel Butler of TSN sees Impact owner Joey Saputo as an impassioned fellow fan.

NEW YORK RED BULLS

New signing Lloyd Sam has received his work visa and is not eligible to play.

PHILADELPHIA UNION

Marc Narducci of the Inquirer says head coach John Hackworth has been spending a lot of time motivating Freddy Adu.

TORONTO FC

John Molinaro and Gerry Dobson of Sports Net with 5 questions about TFC.

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC

Cam Tucker of the Sun says Jay DeMerit is recovered from a concussion and should play this weekend at Portland where he will be needed.

dN

Marc Weber of the Province writes that the Whitecaps are struggling with defending set pieces.

NASL SCOREBOARD

Matches + Scores:
-Sat Aug 25
Atlanta Silverbacks v Carolina RailHawks
Fort Lauderdale v San Antonio Scorpions
Tampa Bay Rowdies v Puerto Rico Islanders
Minnesota Stars v Edmonton

Watch online

Standings
*42 San Antonio (+22)
35 Puerto Rico (+6)
35 Tampa Bay (+1)
31 Fort Lauderdale (-3)
28 Minnesota (-1)
28 Carolina (-5)
21 Edmonton (-5)
19 Atlanta (-15)
*Clinched Playoff Berth

USL PRO NEWS

Playoffs - Quarterfinals

Matches + Scores:
-Sat Aug 25
Richmond Kickers(4) v Wilmington Hammerheads(5)
Charleston Battery(3) v Harrisburg City Islanders(6)

Semifinals
Matches + Scores:
-Fri Aug 31
Orlando City(1) v Lowest Remaining Seed
Rochester Rhinos(2) v Highest Remaining Seed

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Brian Sciaretta of Yanks Abroad reports that Villyan Bijev has been loaned by Liverpool to Start in the Norwegian 2nd division.
-He spent the end of last season on loan at Fortuna Dusseldorf in the German 2nd division.

dN

Game Action:

DENMARK - Superliga
Conor O'Brien - SonderjyskE - Fri Aug 24 - went the distance but lost 4-1 at Nordsjaelland.
Michael Parkhurst - Nordsjaelland - Fri Aug 24 - played the whole game as they won 4-1 v SonderjyskE.

ENGLAND - Championship League
Tim Ream - Bolton - Fri Aug 24 - on the bench as they tied 2-2 v Nottingham Forest.

MEXICO

LIGA MX - Apertura - Round 6
Matches + Scores:
-Fri Aug 24
Jaguares v Queretaro
Leon v Morelia
-Sat Aug 25
America v Tijuana
Pachuca v Santos Laguna
Tigres UANL v Toluca
-Sun Aug 26
Puebla v San Luis
Pumas UNAM v Cruz Azul
Guadalajara v Monterrey
Atlante v Atlas

ENDERS

Freddie Ljungberg has retired. After a big career in London at Arsenal he played a role in helping legitimize the Seattle Sounders when the team debuted in MLS.

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