Some Soccer News for Nov 20, 2015

I can hardly believe it myself, but somehow I came in 2nd in the voting to David Beckham for People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive! Damn you Beckman. Even my own Mom voted for him.

dN

Corinthians are the new Brazilian Champions. Huge congrats to them.

dN

du Nord Futbol 2015 MLS Best XI
G: Bill Hamid
FB: Tony Beltran + Kemar Lawrence
CB: Damien Perrinelle + Laurent Ciman
M: Ethan Finlay, Dax McCarty, Matias Laba + Fabian Castillo
F: Kei Kamara + Sebastian Giovinco

And my 2nd Team
G: David Oustad
FB: Harrison Afful + Robby Rogers
CB: Nat Borchers + Kendall Waston
M: Benny Feilhaber, Wil Trapp, Diego Charra + Mauro Diaz
F: Obafemi Martins + Robbie Keane

dN

MLS Cup Playoffs
-The Semifinals on Sunday.

1st Leg Schedule
Sun Nov 22
Columbus Crew v New York Red Bulls - 4:00pm CT on ESPN
Portland Timbers v Dallas - 6:30pm CT on FS1
-2nd Leg matches on Sun Nov 29
-Final on Sun Dec 6
-Of the 4 teams left Portland is the only one who CANNOT host the final - they are the lowest seed of the 4 teams being tied on points with Columbus but behind +5 to +2 in the tie breaking goal differential.

dN

The new management team of the Chicago Fire has cleared out their entire technical staff. By Jeff Engelhardt of Hot Time In Old Town.

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MLS Player re-signings:
-Kendall Waston has signed a new deal with Vancouver. Great move by the Whitecaps.
-On the flipside RSL has re-signed their 35 year old star Javier Morales to a contract extension. I love this player, but I am not sure this was such a good idea. They need to get some fresh blood in the key roles for this team, and by signing him they take up a nice chunk of payroll that could be spent on a much younger player or two to build for the future. At some point you have to cut ties and rebuild. No matter how painful.
-And finally DC has signed forward Alvaro Saborio to a new deal too. Will be a good move as long as he took a pay cut.

dN

More on the rise of the FC Dallas academy. By Les Carpenter of the Guardian. Thanks to Paul for the link.

dN

Marc Dos Santos, former head coach of Ottawa Fury, has been named the first head coach of Sporting Kansas City's new reserve team Swope Park Rangers who will play in USL starting next season.

Ottawa has replaced Dos Santos with new head coach Paul Dalglish. The Englishman has been the head coach of both FC Tampa Bay and Austin Aztex prior.

dN

Sat Nov 12 at 11:15am CT
Real Madrid v Barcelona

With Messi sidelined for several months now and Xavi gone Neymar has become the new leader at Barcelona. By Sid Lowe of the Guardian.



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