Some Soccer News for Mon Aug 13, 2012

STARTERS

Jozy Altidore scored 2 monster goals for AZ this weekend as they opened their new season with a 2-2 draw at champions Ajax.
-See them both right here.

dN

Huge amounts of praise has to go out to the Chivas USA fans for their mature attitude last night. Twice LA scored and a player celebrated in front of the Chivas Union Ultras section and not one thing was thrown at the LA players. Can you tell me about one other place in MLS where that would have happened? I doubt it. More power to them. They cheer their team very loudly but stand humble in defeat.

dN

Landon Donovan with a career high 4 assists in one game.

dN

What an awesome finish in San Jose as Seattle tied the game one minute into second half stoppage time and then the Earthquakes did it again - 2:51 seconds into the 3 minutes of stoppage time Steven Lenhart skies above the pack to head home a corner kick. Unbelievable!

dN

And Rangers fall face first out of the starting gate in Scotland's Third Division with a 2-2 tie on the road at mighty Peterhead - stadium capacity 1000. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!

STORY OF THE DAY

Bobby McMahon of Fobes on the rise to world soccer power of Mexico.

MINNESOTA STARS FC

Another painful loss for my Stars. And for the 4th time this season an incorrect offside call has hurt them badly. Twice they have had good goals called back, and twice they have had bad goals by the other team allowed. Its tough to take.

Matches + Scores:
-Sat Aug 11
Minnesota Stars 1-0 San Antonio Scorpions
Venue: National Sports Center Stadium - Blaine MN
-Sat Aug 18
Atlanta Silverbacks v Minnesota Stars
Venue: Atlanta Silverbacks Park - Atlanta GA

TEAM USA - EL EQUIPO DE TODOS

Friendly

The USA roster was announced on Sunday and 7 regulars were not called in: Carlos Bocanegra, Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Clarence Goodson, Steve Cherundolo, Jozy Altidore and Oguchi Onyewu.
-4 Defenders and the best defensive midfielder will not be with the team on Wednesday leaving them INCREDIBLY exposed at the back.
-On paper this is a very naive roster and a disaster waiting to happen.
-I suspect that the Mexican attackers are licking their chops.
-The roster that is posted on line includes Alan Gordon of San Jose, but the email I got from US Soccer does not have him on the list.
-There were whispers that Chris Pontius could replace Terrence Boyd due to injury. Stay tuned.

US Soccer gives us quotes from head coach Jurgen Klinsmann talking about his roster.

dN

Match + Scores:
-Wed Aug 15
Mexico v USA - 7:00pm CT on ESPN2.
Venue: Estadio Azteca

dN

USA Roster.
G:
Tim Howard - Everton
Sean Johnson - Chicago Fire
Nick Rimando - Real Salt Lake
D:
Matt Besler - Sporting Kansas City
Steven Beithasour - San Jose Earthquakes
Geoff Cameron - Stoke City
Edgar Castillo - Tijuana
Michael Orozco - San Luis
Fabian Johnson - Hoffenheim
M:
DaMarcus Beasley - Puebla
Kyle Beckerman - Real Salt Lake
Joe Corona - Tijuana
Maurice Edu - Rangers
Jermaine Jones - Schalke
Jose Torres - Pachuca
Brek Shea - Dallas
Danny Williams - Hoffenheim
Graham Zusi - Sporting Kansas City
F:
Terrence Boyd - Rapid Vienna
Landon Donovan - LA Galaxy
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna
Alan Gordon - San Jose Earthquakes
Chris Wondolowski - San Jose Earthquakes

dN

Mexico has named their roster for this game. The USA will do the same on Sun Aug 12.
G:
Memo Ochoa - Ajaccio
Alredo Talavera - Toluca
D:
Adrian Aldrete - America
Hugo Ayala - Tigres
Severo Meza - Monterrey
Hector Moreno - Espanyol
Jorge Nilo - Tigres
Enrique Perez - Morelia
Francisco Rodriguez - Stuttgart
M:
Pablo Barrera - Cruz Azul
Andres Guardado - Valencia
Edgar Lugo - Santos Laguna
Angel Reyna - Monterrey
Manuel Viniegrea - Tigres
Jesus Zavala - Monterrey
F:
Elias Hernandez - Tigres
Javier Hernandez - Manchester United
Aldo de Nigris - Monterrey

MENS OLYMPIC TOURNAMENT

All Hail! Mexico are the gold medal winners. Huge congrats to them.

Knockout Stage

FINAL
-Sat Aug 11
Mexico 2-1 Brazil - Mex goals both by Oribe Peralta. Bra goal by Hulk.

WHAT A JOKE

Shame on the 6 MLS teams playing league games on Wednesday night, an official FIFA international date: Columbus, LA, Toronto, Portland, Vancouver + Dallas.

Y'ALL READY FOR THIS?

Manchester City beat Chelsea 3-2 on Sunday to win the Community Shield exhibition game that is always played 1 week before the start of the Premier League season and features the winner of last seasons Premier League race against the winner of last seasons FA Cup.

GUARDIAN 2012-13 ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE SEASON PREVIEWS

Arsenal
Aston Villa
Chelsea
Everton
Fulham
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle
Norwich
Queens Park Rangers
Reading

WELL WELL WELL

Jed Hughes of Newsroom arranges more numbers that say MLS is building and doing great things in the arena of public awareness.

STAT OF THE DAY

Least amount of points needed to get into the MLS playoffs the past 6 seasons (prorated to 34 games):
2011 - 46
2010 - 52
2009 - 52
2008 - 44
2007 - 50
2006 - 42
Average: 48

San Jose currently leads MLS with 47 points.

THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

Kristian Dyer of Big Apple Soccer writes about how unbeatable the Red Bulls are at home this season. 8 wins, 3 draws, 0 losses.

MLS MATCHES AND SCORES

WEEK 23

Matches + Scores:
-Fri Aug 10
New York Red Bulls 2-0 Houston Dynamo - NYRB goals by Marcus Holgerson + Jan Gunnar Solli.
Venue: Red Bull Arena
Atten: 15,730
-Sat Aug 11
Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2-1 Real Salt Lake - VW goals by Camilo + Dane Richards. RSL goal by Nat Borchers.
Venue: BC Place
Atten: 20,083
POSTPONED - Columbus Crew V Toronto FC
Venue: Crew Stadium
Sporting Kansas City 2-1 DC United - SKC goals by Teal Bunbury + Graham Zusi. DCU goal by Nick DeLeon.
Venue: Livestrong Sporting Park
Atten: 20,439
FC Dallas 3-2 Colorado Rapids - FCD goals by Fabian Castillo, Jair Benitez + David Ferreira. CR goals by Jaime Castrillon + Jeff Larentowicz.
Venue: FC Dallas Stadium
Atten: 10,222
San Jose Earthquakes 2-1 Seattle Sounders FC - SJE goals by Simon Dawkins + Steven Lenhart. SS goal by Fredy Montero.
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium
Atten: 10,744
-Sun Aug 12
Philadelphia Union 1-3 Chicago Fire SC - PU goal by Jalil Anibaba(OG). CF goals by Chris Rolfe(2) + Arne Friedrich.
Venue: PPL Park
Atten: 18,412
New England Revolution 0-1 Montreal Impact - MI goal by Sanna Nyassi.
Venue: Gillette Stadium
Atten: 12,857
CD Chivas USA 0-4 LA Galaxy - LAG goals by Robbie Keane, Juninho(2) + Omar Gonzalez.
Venue: The Home Depot Center
Atten: 17,601

Portland was off this week.

MLS MATCH NOTES

EJECTIONS:
Jaime Castrillon - Colorado - red card

Jay DeMerit left the Vancouver game after a clash of heads. Reports today say he has suffered a concussion.

A spectacular goal by Sanna Nyassi of Montreal is the highlight of the weekend as he picks up the ball 30 yards from his own goal, races 65 yards with the ball and unleashes a great shot from 25 yards out to score a game winner! Video here.

New York is the 5th team this season to hit the 40 point mark.

How freakin good is Omar Gonzalez on set pieces for LA? He makes it look easy.

KC used a lot of reserve players this weekend and still got the win. That is huge.

Montreal has played 26 games, and Salt Lake, LA and Dallas have played 25.
-Columbus has only played 20, with Philly and Chivas at 21.

MLS STANDINGS

In the East:
KC and NY both jump over Houston into the #1 and #2 places. Houston falls from #1 to #3.
Chicago moves up to #4. Pushing DC down to #5.
New England and Philadelphia swap spots again at #8 and #9.
In the West:
Only 1 move with Dallas going from #8 up to #6. Meaning Chivas and Colorado drop to #7 and #8.

EAST
43 Sporting Kansas City (30)
41 New York Red Bulls (40)
40 Houston Dynamo (35)
38 Chicago Fire SC (28)
36 DC United (36)
-----
33 Montreal Impact (36)
28 Columbus Crew (20)
23 New England Revolution (26)
23 Philadelphia Union (23)
19 Toronto FC (25)
WEST
47 San Jose Earthquakes (47)
42 Real Salt Lake (36)
37 Seattle Sounders FC (32)
37 Vancouver Whitecaps FC (28)
36 LA Galaxy (43)
-----
26 FC Dallas (29)
26 CD Chivas USA (14)
25 Colorado Rapids (31)
20 Portland Timbers (20)

MLS TEAM AND PLAYER NEWS

General News

Landon Donovan of the LA Galaxy has been named Player Of The Week.

dN

Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com with his Monday Morning Breakdown on Houston + New York, Vancouver adjusting on the fly, a KC strength is a DC weakness, Comeback Quakes, and Nyassi's huge goal.

Player Transactions

Marco Pappa of Chicago has signed a deal with Heerenveen and will move to the Netherlands in the January transfer period.

COLUMBUS CREW

Adam Jardy of the Dispatch reports that the team is still awaiting the arrival of new forward signing Federico Higuain.

SPORTING KANSAS CITY SC

Charles Gooch of the Star with a good SKC round up after another solid win the takes them back to the top in the East.
-Sporting KC is 13-1-4 in MLS competition when Teal Bunbury scores.

NEW YORK RED BULLS

Kristian Dyer of Big Apple Soccer writes that the Bulls trained extra hard to beat Houston on Friday.

dN

Brian Lewis of the Post writes about the big glaring weakness of Red Bulls championship dreaming team - road games.

dN

Lewis also writes about rookie outside midfielder/fullback Connor Lade who the coach is raving about.

TORONTO FC

Duncan Fletcher of Sportsnet writes that TFC will be without 4 players on Wednesday night who are off on international duty.

MLS STADIUMS

Fredric Dicker of the New York Post with the latest (breathless) update on a potential new stadium (and then a new team) in the Queens borough of New York City.
-Neil deMause at Field of Schemes urges supporters to slow down a little, and check the facts.

NASL SCOREBOARD

Matches + Scores:
-Sat Aug 11
Fort Lauderdale Strikers 1-0 Carolina RailHawks
Tampa Bay Rowdies 0-0 Atlanta Silverbacks
Minnesota Stars 0-1 San Antonio Scorpions
-Sun Aug 12
Edmonton 1-0 Puerto Rico Islanders

-Sat Aug 18
Carolina RailHawks v FC Edmonton
Atlanta Silverbacks v Minnesota Stars
Puerto Rico Islanders v Fort Lauderdale Strikers
-Sun Aug 19
San Antonio Scorpions v Tampa Bay Rowdies

Watch online

Tampa moved up to 2nd place and Ft Lauderdale up to 4th.

Standings
39 San Antonio (+18)
35 Tampa Bay (+5)
34 Puerto Rico (+6)
30 Fort Lauderdale (-3)
27 Minnesota (-1)
25 Carolina (-6)
21 Edmonton (-4)
18 Atlanta (-15)

USL PRO NEWS

Standings

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

It was a great opening weekend in the Netherlands for the two Americans who play there Jozy Altidore and Charles Kazlauskas as they both scored goals!

dN

Michael Parkhurst scored a goal in the Denmark as this team rolled!

dN

Game Action:

AUSTRIA -
Terrence Boyd - Rapid Vienna - started and went 51 min getting a yellow card as they won 0-2 at Salzburg Red Bull.

BELGIUM - Pro League
Sacha Kljestan - Anderlecht - came on as a sub in the 66th min as they won 0-3 at Cercle Brugge.

DENMARK - Superliga
Charlie Davies - Randers - came on as a sub in the 70th min and won 1-0 v Esbjerg.
Conor O'Brien - SonderjyskE - played the entire game getting a yellow card but they won 0-1 at Brondby.
Michael Parkhurst - Nordsjaelland - went the distance and scored a goal as they won 6-1 v Silkeborg.

FINLAND - Veikkausliiga
Daniel Antunez - Inter Turku - played the entire match but lost 4-1 at TPS.
Mike Banner - Jaro - played the whole game but lost 2-0 at Mariehamn.
Etchu Tabe - KuPS - went the distance and won 0-1 at VPS.

FINLAND - Ykkonen
Justin Moose - SJK - on the bench and lost 2-0 at JIPPO.
Pat Phelan - SJK - went the full 90 but lost 2-0 at JIPPO.

GERMANY - 2 Bundesliga
John Anthony Brooks - Hertha Berlin - went the full 90 but lost 3-1 at FSV Frankfurt.

NETHERLANDS - Eredivisie
Jozy Altidore - AZ - started and went 84 min scoring 2 goals as they tied 2-2 at Ajax.

NETHERLANDS - Eerste Divisie
Charles Kazlauskas - Helmond Sport - played the whole game scoring a goal as they won 1-2 at Telstar.

NORWAY - Eliteserien
Chad Barrett - Valerenga - started and went 78 min as they won 3-1 v Odd Grenland.
Steve Clark - Honefoss - played the whole game and tied 2-2 at Lillestrom.
Mikkael Diskerud - Rosenborg - came on as a sub in the 62nd min as they won 0-3 at Sogndal.

NORWAY - 1 Divisjon
Rhett Bernstein - Mjondalen - came on as a sub in the 90th min as they tied 1-1 at Sandefjord.
Kyle Helton - Mjondalen - went the full 90 and tied 1-1 at Sandefjord.

SCOTLAND - Third Division
Carlos Bocanegra - Rangers - went the full 90 as they tied 2-2 at Peterhead.

SWEDEN - Allsvenskan Liga
Brian Span - Djurgarden - on the bench as they won 0-1 at Gefle.

SWEDEN - Superettan
Brian Edwards - Degerfors - went the distance getting yellow card as they won 2-3 at Varnamo.
Patrick Hopkins - Ljungskile - played the entire match but lost 3-1 at Varberg.
Ryan Miller - Halmstad - played the whole game as they won 0-2 at Anelholms.
AMERICANS IN MEXICO

Game Action:

LIGA MX
Ventura Alvarado - America - on the bench as they tied 1-1 v Atlas.
DaMarcus Beasley - Puebla - went the full 90 getting a yellow card but lost 0-1 v Cruz Azul.
Edgar Castillo - Tijuana - played the entire game and tied 2-2 at Pachuca.
Joe Corona - Tijuana - went the full 90 as they tied 2-2 at Pachua.
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna - started and went 56 min as they lost 3-0 at Leon.
Michael Orozco Fiscal - San Luis - started and went 83 min as they tied 1-1 v Monterrey.
Jesus Padilla - Guadalajara - started and came out at half time as they tied 1-1 v Morelia.
Jose Torres - Pachuca - started but was subbed off at half time as they tied 2-2 v Tijuana.

LIGA ASCENSO
Isaac Acuna - Merida - came on as a sub in the 71st min as they tied 0-0 at Pumas Morelos.
Sonny Guadarrama - Merida - started and went 71 min of a scoreless game at Pumas Morelos.
Marco Vidal - Lobos BUAP - played the whole match as they won 3-0 v Celaya.

CONCACAF

CONCACAF International Friendlies
Matches + Scores:
-Wed Aug 15
Mexico v USA
Puerto Rico v Spain
Costa Rica v Peru
El Salvador v Jamaica
Portugal v Panama
Paraguay v Guatemala

MEXICO

Toluca are the shocking early league leaders with 4 straight wins. But probably an even bigger surprise is newly promoted Leon having 3 wins, and this weekend they stuffed champions Santos Laguna.

5 of the other 9 games this weekend were ties.

And nothing is changing for Guadalajara no matter how many changes they make - new general manager, new coaches, new playing surface, and still 2 points from 4 games. They really are lousy.

LIGA MX - Apertura Round 4
Matches + Scores:
-Fri Aug 10
Jaguares 1-2 Atlante
Leon 3-0 Santos Laguna
-Sat Aug 11
America 1-1 Atlas
Pachuca 2-2 Tijuana
Tigres UANL 2-2 Queretaro
San Luis 1-1 Monterrey
-Sun Aug 12
Pumas UNAM 1-2 Toluca
Puebla 0-1 Cruz Azul
Guadalajara 1-1 Morelia

COPA MEXICO

Matchday 3 finishes with two straggler games this week.

dN

Group Stage

Group 1
6 Dorados
4 Morelia
4 Leon
2 Est Tecos
Group 2
6 Cruz Azul
4 Altamira
4 Toros Nexa
2 Atlas
Group 3
6 Pachuca
5 Atlante
3 Univ Guadalajara
2 La Piedad
Group 4
7 San Luis
4 Necaxa
3 Chiapas Jaguares
3 Pumas Morelos
Group 5
4 Correcaminos UAT
4 Queretaro
3 Veracruz
3 America
Group 6
5 Pumas UNAM
4 Tijuana
2 Celaya
1 Merida
Group 7
6 Irapuato
4 Lobos BUAP
4 Toluca
3 Puebla

dN

Matchday 3
Matches + Scores:
-Tue Aug 14
Celaya v Tijuana
Correcaminos v America

Matchday 4 will be played on Aug 21 + 22.

INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLIES

International Friendlies
Matches + Scores:
-Wed Aug 15
Germany v Argentina
Sweden v Brazil
England v Italy
Belgium v Netherlands
France v Uruguay
China v Ghana
S Korea v Zambia
Denmark v Slovakia
Hungary v Israel
Norway v Greece
Scotland v Australia
Russia v Côte d'Ivoire
Japan v Venezuela
Austria v Turkey
Oman v Egypt
Serbia v Ireland