Some Soccer News for Tue Sep 18, 2012

STARTERS

Positive results for all 3 Americans in the UEFA Champions League today - Kljestan, Jones and Onyewu. See details below in the Americans In Europe section.
-And all Champions League results can be found below in the UEFA Champions League section.

STORY OF THE DAY

Brian Quarstad of IMSoccer News does an interview with NASL Commissioner David Downs. They talk about the future of the Minnesota Stars, and the direction of the NASL, ie the new schedule for 2013, and possible news teams etc, among other things. Part 1 - and - Part 2.

In choosing a new format for next years schedule the league wanted to cut out the high cost of the playoffs, but having a single table champion over one long season would eliminate some teams very early and lose fan interest quickly. By essentially having 2 seasons (with the two winners playing for a trophy at the end of the 2nd season) they keep fan interest for a little longer twice a year. And cut out all those unknown costs. The new split schedule was initially vaguely explained as a competition decision, when it is really a business deal. They should just have been more open about that from the start, it would have helped them a lot in the PR department. Fans get it when you talk dollars. But fans don't like being treated like children who don't need to know what the adults are up to. I am not saying the league was hiding anything, but they should just be clear what their intentions are from the start.

TASTIEST MLS GAME OF THE WEEK

Hooo Hoooo - On Wednesday night its #3 v #1 in the East with New York hosting Kansas City!
-Michael Lewis of Big Apple previews.

TEAM USA - EL EQUIPO DE TODOS

US Soccer gives us video highlights from field level of all the action from USA 1-0 Jamaica in Columbus.

CONCACHAMPIONS 2012-13

Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune previews RSL's hugely important game in Panama tonight.

James Edward of the Deseret News calls tonight's RSL game a "must-win" at Tauro.

dN

Matches + Scores:
-Tue Sep 18
Tauro v Real Salt Lake - 7pm CT on Fox Soccer
Xelaju v W Connection
Real Esteli v Tigres UANL
-Wed Sep 19
Puerto Rico Islanders v LA Galaxy - 7pm CT on Fox Soccer
Aguila v Santos Laguna
Marathon v Seattle Sounders - 9pm CT on Fox Soccer
-Thu Sep 20
Houston Dynamo v FAS - 7pm CT on Fox Soccer
Municipal v Chorrillo

All games are shown on the internet at CONCACAF TV.

dN

Standings:
Group 1
6 Santos Laguna(+7)
3 Toronto(+2)
0 Aguila(-9)
Group 2
4 Herediano(+2)
3 Real Salt Lake(+1)
0 Tauro(-4)
Group 3
4 Olimpia(+3)
4 Houston Dynamo(+2)
0 FAS(-5)
Group 4
6 Seattle Sounders(+4)
1 Marathon(0)
OUT-1 Caledonia AIA(-4)
Group 5
6 LA Galaxy(+7)
3 Metapan(-1)
0 Puerto Rico Islanders(-6)
Group 6
4 Tigres UANL(+4)
4 Alajuelense(+1)
0 Real Esteli(-5)
Group 7
6 Monterrey(+6)
3 Municipal(0)
0 Chorrillo(-6)
Group 8
4 Xelaju(+1)
3 Guadalajara(+3)
1 W Connection(-4)

HMMMMM, VERY INTERESTING

Christian Levaux of Reuters talks to Barcelona president Sandro Rosell about the horrible imbalance of the top two teams (Barca + Real Madrid) concerning all the other teams in La Liga.

MORE GREAT SOCCER BLOGS FOR YOU TO CHECK OUT

Relegation Zone - by Roger Bennett

On The Fire

The Scoring Third

Star and Stripes FC

Andy's Pitch

The Paraguay Football Blog

THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

"It's awesome. It's unbelievable."
Steve Kelly of the Seattle Times with an article on goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann who has come home to play for the Sounders at the end of his long career, mainly played in England.
-Joshua Mayers of the Times got lots of words from Hahnemann after his first official training session with the Sounders.

MLS MATCHES AND SCORES

WEEK 29

Matches + Scores:
-Wed Sep 19
New York Red Bulls v Sporting Kansas City - 6:00PM CT
Venue: Red Bull Arena
Columbus Crew v CD Chivas USA - 6:30PM CT
Venue: Crew Stadium
San Jose Earthquakes v Portland Timbers - 9:30PM CT
Venue: Buck Shaw Stadium
-Thu Sep 20
Philadelphia Union v DC United - 7:00PM CT on ESPN2
Venue: PPL Park
-Sat Sep 22
Montreal Impact v Sporting Kansas City - 12:00PM CT
Venue: Saputo Stadium
New England Revolution v New York Red Bulls - 6:30PM CT
Venue: Gillette Stadium
Real Salt Lake v Portland Timbers - 7:00PM CT on NBCSN
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium
Chicago Fire FC v Columbus Crew - 7:30PM CT
Venue: Toyota Park
Seattle Sounders FC v San Jose Earthquakes - 9:30PM CT
Venue: CenturyLink Field
LA Galaxy v Toronto FC - 9:30PM CT
Venue: The Home Depot Center
-Sun Sep 23
Philadelphia Union v Houston Dynamo - 3:00PM CT
Venue: PPL Park
DC United v CD Chivas USA - 6:00PM CT on Galavision
Venue: RFK Stadium
Vancouver Whitecaps FC v Colorado Rapids - 6:30PM CT
Venue: BC Place

Dallas has a buy this week.

MLS MATCH NOTES

Leading Goal Scorers:
(As of Tue Sep 18)
19 Chris Wondolowski
14 Kenny Cooper
14 Alvaro Saborio
13 Thierry Henry
13 Eddie Johnson
12 Alan Gordon
12 Robbie Keane
12 Fredy Montero

Leading Assist Makers:
(As of Tue Sep 18)
13 Mauro Rosales
13 Graham Zusi
12 Dwayne DeRosario
12 Landon Donovan
11 Brad Davis
10 Felipe Martins

MLS STANDINGS

EAST
51 Sporting Kansas City (35GF/28GP)
69 50 Chicago Fire SC (40GF/28GP)
68 49 New York Red Bulls (49GF/28GP)
67 46 Houston Dynamo (41GF/29GP)
61 44 DC United (45GF/28GP)
62 -----
42 Columbus Crew (34GF/28GP)
60 39 Montreal Impact (44GF/30GP)
51 @28 New England Revolution (36GF/29P)
43 27 Philadelphia Union (26GF/26GP)
51 @22 Toronto FC (32GF/29GP)
37 WEST
*56 San Jose Earthquakes (58GF/28GP)
74 48 Seattle Sounders FC (44GF/28GP)
66 46 LA Galaxy (50GF/29GP)
61 46 Real Salt Lake (38GF/29GP)
61 37 Vancouver Whitecaps FC (29GF/29GP)
52 -----
36 FC Dallas (35GF/30GP)
48 29 Colorado Rapids (36GF/29GP)
44 28 Portland Timbers (28GF/28GP)
46 28 CD Chivas USA (21GF/27GP)
49 -(Goals For/Games Played)

* clinched a playoff berth.
@ eliminated from the playoff race

The first tie breaker is goals scored.

MLS TEAM AND PLAYER NEWS

Player Transactions

RSL announced the signing of 20 year old Portuguese attacking midfielder David Viana from the Atletico Madrid reserve system.

COLUMBUS CREW

Adam Jardy of the Dispatch reports that Andy Gruenebaum and Federico Higuain are expected to be fully recovered from injuries for Wednesday nights game at home against Chivas.

DC UNITED

Steven Goff of the Post reports that midfielder Branko Baskovic is unhappy about this lack of playing time. -Head coach Ben Olsen responds as a head coach should: "I am very happy Branko is pissed off about it. I want guys pissed off if they are coming out of the game and they want to be in the game. This is a normal reaction. I was the same way.”

dN

DCU also signed forward Chris Pontius to a new contract of unknown dimensions.

MONTREAL IMPACT

Jon Spratt of Sports Net writes about the positives the Impact can take from their first MLS season even if they fail to make the playoffs.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

New England has lost striker Saer Sene for up to 8 months due to his knee injury.

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC

Martin MacMahon of Sports Net writes that despite losing 5 in a row the Caps still have the advantage over quickly closing Dallas in the playoff race.

NASL SCOREBOARD

Matches + Scores:
-Wed Sep 19
Atlanta Silverbacks v San Antonio Scorpions
Tampa Bay Rowdies v Carolina RailHawks
-Sat Sep 22
Carolina RailHawks v Tampa Bay Rowdies
Puerto Rico Islanders v Atlanta Silverbacks
-Sun Sep 23
FC Edmonton v Fort Lauderdale Strikers
San Antonio Scorpions v Minnesota Stars
END OF REGULAR SEASON

Watch online

Standings
**46 San Antonio (+21)
*43 Tampa Bay (+7)
*40 Puerto Rico (+2)
*38 Carolina (-2)
*35 Fort Lauderdale (-6)
*34 Minnesota (+1)
-----
24 Edmonton (-10)
26 Atlanta (-13)
*Clinched Playoff Berth
**Clinched 1st Round Buy

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

After struggling to start the season at Bolton Tim Ream was again left out of the game day 18 today as Bolton lost again.

dN

Over a week ago Brian Sciaretta wrote about a player in Denmark with USA heritage named Aron Johnansson who is tearing up with goals this season.
-He scored 2 more again yesterday for his club Aarhus, giving him 9 goals in 9 games this season.

dN

Yanks Abroad with articles on two youngsters - Brian Sciaretta on Cody Cropper at Southampton - and - Ryan Bacic on Max Morice of Rennes.

dN

Game Action:

ENGLAND - Championship League
Conor Doyle - Derby County - Tue Sep 18 - on the bench as they won 3-2 v Charlton.
Seb Hines - Middlesbrough - Tue Sep 18 - on the bench as they lost 4-1 at Blackpool.
Jonathan Spector - Birmingham - Tue Sep 18 - went the distance as they won 2-1 v Bolton.

UEFA - Champions League Group Stage
Sacha Kljestan - Anderlecht - Tue Sep 18 - started and went the distance getting a yellow card as they tied 0-0 at Milan.
Jermaine Jones - Schalke - Tue Sep 18 - started and was subbed out in the 90th min getting a yellow card as they won 1-2 at Olympiakos.
Oguchi Onyewu - Malaga - Tue Sep 18 - did not suit up as they won 3-0 v Zenit.

dN

Coming Up:

ENGLAND - Championship League
Zak Whitbread - Leicester - Wed Sep 19 v Burnley

UEFA - Champions League Group Stage
Michael Parkhurst - Nordsjaellan - Wed Sep 19 at Shakhtar Donetsk

COPA MEXICO

Back for the final schedule of games in the group stage.

Matchday 6
Matches + Scores:
-Tue Sep 18
Toros Neza v Altamira
Pumas Morelos v Necaxa
Est Tecos v Dorados
Univ Guadalajara v La Piedad
Merida v Celaya
Toluca v Puebla
Morelia v Leon
Cruz Azul v Atlas
Correcaminos v Veracruz
Irapuato v Lobos BUAP
-Wed Sep 19
Jaguares v San Luis
Queretaro v America
Pachuca v Atlante
Tijuana v Pumas UNAM

dN

Group Stage

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

ITALY

Gabriel Marcotti of the Wall Street Journal writes that AC Milan is pretending to be a big club, but doing it on a shoestring budget.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Group Stage - Matchday 1
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Sep 18
Montpellier 1-2 Arsenal - Mon goal by Younes Belhanda(PK). Ars goals by Lukas Podolski + Gervinho.
Dinamo Zagreb 0-2 Porto - Por goals by Luis Gonzalez + Steven Defour.
PSG 4-1 Dynamo Kyiv - PSG goals by Zlatan Irbrahimovic(PK), Thiago Silva, Alex + Javier Pastore. DK goal by Miguel Veloso.
Olympiakos 1-2 Schalke - Oly goal by Djamel Abdoun. Sch goals by Benedikt Howedes + Klaas Jan Huntelaar.
Malaga 3-0 Zenit - Mal goals by Isco(2) + Javier Saviola.
Milan 0-0 Anderlecht
Dortmund 1-0 Ajax - Dor goal by Robert Lewandowski.
Real Madrid 3-2 Man City - RM goals by Marcelo, Karim Benzema + Cristiano Ronaldo. MC goals by Edin Dzeko + Aleksandar Kolarov.
-Wed Sep 19
Barcelona v Spartak Moskva
Chelsea v Juventus
Man United v Galatasaray
Shakhtar Donetsk v Nordsjaelland
Lille v BATE
Bayern v Valencia
Celtic v Benfica
Sporting Braga v Cluj