Some Soccer News for Oct 29, 2015

MLS Cup Playoffs

Both of last years finalists are OUT. LA and New England both went on the road and down to defeat.

Seattle and DC used great 2nd half performances to win their home games and advance.
-And they get to stay at home and host the 1st leg of the Quarterfinals on Sunday.

Jermaine Jones is the first big individual story of the playoffs. After a non-call on a possible handball in the box against DC late in the game Jones went Berzerker on the referee, screaming, pushing and grabbing at him, earning a red card and without a doubt a nice hefty suspension to start next season.
-NOTE: Jones' contract expires at the end of this season, so will he even step on a MLS field ever again? Damn. What an idiot. But somehow I will miss him if he goes.

The second big individual story was the total ineptitude of LA goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts. He played like Grandpa Simpson, bumbling his way to huge errors on all 3 Seattle goals. Ooooooof! Ricketts had help with the 3 blunders from Omar Gonzalez, Steven Gerrard and AJ DeLaGarza respectively.

We got to see brilliant goals from Juan Agudelo, Chris Rolfe and Erik Friberg. Watch em.

This song goes out to the game winning goal scorer Erik Friberg!
-Three blistering guitars and a lot of sunburn! Thank you Oakland.
-Sadly just 3 months after this recording several of these fuckin' rednecks would die in a plane crash.

The best keeper in MLS Bill Hamid saved DC from getting drowned early. It could have gotten ugly if not for some big saves. His coach Ben Olsen said it best: "Some teams have Giovincos. We’ve got a Bill."

Games - Knockout Round:
Wed Oct 28
DC United 2-1 New England Revolution
-Match report by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
-Match report by Kyle McCarthy of the Boston Herald.
Seattle Sounders 3-2 LA Galaxy
-Match report by Matt Pentz of the Seattle Times.
-Match report by Kevin Baxter of the LA Times.

Tonight is Knockout Rd part 2:
-Droga v Giovinco -or- Monster v Mite (might?)
-Dirty Stinky Hippy Army v Brisket Brigade

Thu Oct 29
Montreal Impact v Toronto 6:00pm CT on UniMas, TSN1 and RDS
-Stu Cowan of the Gazette with a Montreal preview.
-Kurt Larson of the Sun with a Toronto preview.
Portland Timbers v Sporting Kansas City - 9pm CT on UniMas and TSN1
-Jamie Goldberg of the Oregonian with a Portland preview.
-Sam McDowell of the Star with a Kansas City preview.

Quarterfinals
Sun Nov 1 & Sun Nov 8
-Opponents and times TBD after Knockout Rd
New York Red Bulls v Lowest East Seed
Columbus Crew v Other East Seed
Dallas v Lowest West Seed
Vancouver Whitecaps v Other West Seed

dN

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, owner of Toronto FC, will replace CEO Tim Leiweke with an exec from Air Canada, Michael Friisdahl. Leiweke is leaving to run David Beckham's Miami operation.

dN

Aron Johannsson will most likely miss the upcoming World Cup qualifiers after having surgery to try and repair nerve damage in his groin. That sounds brutal.

dN

USA's first home World Cup qualifier is Fri Nov 13 v Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It will be played in St Louis at Busch Stadium. Its almost sold out too. Are you going?

dN

The new droney, trippy, meditative album from Warren Defever is out and its fantastic. Its called Sunship, it was released by Northern Ashram and you can listen to the 2 track album (Side A and Side B) right now on Soundcloud.

dN

The pure pork barbecue of North Carolina. Both Eastern and Western North Carolina style. Do not confuse the two. From the New Yorker by the always excellent Calvin Trillin.

dN

NASL

Cast your vote for the Dark Clouds post season awards for Minnesota United 2015.
Its 3 games in a row that former Minnesota United star Miguel Ibarra has not been in uniform for Leon. What the hell is going on down there?
New club Miami FC announced that they will play home games at Florida International University's stadium. -It seats 20,000
-Playing surface is fake.
-Its mostly made of steel and aluminum. Cost $54M to build.
-I hope FIU aren't didn't sign a long term lease and already designated where that money is going cuz I don't expect it to last long. 2-3 years tops.
-Cut the size in half and get rid of the fake grass and would be a great NASL stadium.

dN

FIFA Shitstorm

The British Parliment is having a field day questioning FA members and FIFA sponsors about the mess that is FIFA. All kinds of crazy shit coming to light.
-Follow the Twitter timeline of Press Association Chief Sports Reporter Martyn Ziegler for the insane details.

Sepp Blatter told reporters that Russia was already chosen to host 2018 before the vote took place.
-Blatter also told Russian journalists that the USA was chosen to host 2022 ahead of time until some countries broke ranks (cough) and voted for Qatar instead. From Al Jazeera.
-Blatter keeps insisting that the only reason the US Justice Dept is investigating FIFA is because they did not get the 2022 WC. Hahahahahaha. He forgets that it all started with an American Chuck Blazer not paying taxes.

And then there is this nightmare feature from Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet on the working conditions in Qatar for those building World Cup structures.
-Three Deaths. Two Ruined Lives. And One Dream Of A FIFA World Cup In The Desert

dN

The biggest reason Italian football is falling behind is because almost all of their stadiums are very out of date. By Chloe Beresford of the Guardian.



The Bird Is The Word