Some Soccer News for Dec 14, 2015

Today Justin Mapp became the first-ever 100% Free Agent signing in MLS history. No player had ever changed teams within the league with no strings attached until today. He has signed with Sporting Kansas City.

dN

Liga MX Liguilla Apertura Finals
-Huge congrats to Tigres UANL on their championship.
-Complete and utter madness in the end. Tigres had a chance to finish this thing in the 1st Leg in which they dominated winning 3-0, but it could have been 4, 5 or 6 and they didn't do it.
-I had a feeling Pumas was still alive when the 2nd Leg started, and sure enough, Pumas got the 3 goals back and then both teams scored in Added Extra Time to force a Penalty Kick Shootout.
-The American they call Gringo, Jose Torres, plays for Tigres and came on as a 61st min sub. He didn't have a very smooth game though, giving away possession cheaply and finding himself in the middle of mistakes that lead to the Pumas comeback. He tightened it up some in the extra periods and helped relieve pressure from the back line. Its his 1st Mexican championship.
-How often does a team win a game 4-1 and still lose. Wow.
-You can read all the details of the match right here. By Tom Marshall of ESPNFC.
2nd Leg

Pumas 4-1 Tigres (0-3) - series ends tied 4-4 and Tigres win 4-2 in Penalty Kick Shootout.

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The Top 10 moments of 2015 for American soccer. Number1 is an easy call. by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.

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Jermaine Jones got a 6 game suspension to start next season (if he is in MLS) for flipping out, screaming at and pushing a referee in the New England playoff loss to DC United?
-If he stays in MLS he will be suspended from US Soccer matches during that period too.

dN

Young American college star Jordan Morris lead his Stanford team to the NCAA title on Sunday with 2 goals, an assist and a drawn penalty. A 4-0 win over Clemson.

dN

Bobby Wood scored 2 more goals for Union as they beat Fortuna 0-3.
-Wood has 7 goals in 18 games this season.

dN

Speaking of Germany - Jon Brooks and Hertha are somehow in 3rd place in the Bundesliga! However they are 14 points behind leaders Bayern Munich. But still....

dN

Fabian Johnson sat out this weekend with a toe injury. Deutsche Welle interviewed him last week (video) after Monchengladbach's big win over Bayern.

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American goalkeeper Ethan Horvath and his club Molde finished first in their group in Europa League and await the announcement of their knockout round opponent.

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On a bad note, 8 Americans played in the top two divisions in England this weekend and not a single one of them got a victory. Oof.

dN

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (trailer) - Coming Jan 1 on PBS.

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My favorite Instagram account.
-Operated by Emmanuel Lubezki, cinematographer
-Here is a sampling of his great film work:
The Revenant - dir by Alejandro Inarritu
Knight of Cups - dir by Terrence Malick
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) - dir by Alejandro Inarritu
Gravity - dir by Alfonso Cuaron
The Tree of Life - dir by Terrence Malick
Burn After Reading - dir by The Coen Brothers
Children of Men - dir by Alfonso Cuaron
The New World - dir by Terrence Malick
Ali - dir by Michael Mann
Y Tu Mama Tambien - dir by Alfonso Cuaron

dN

Players are finally taking a real stand against playing on bullshit artificial surfaces, and with leverage on their side its the USA Women leading the charge. By Juliet Macur of the New York Times.

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2015 US Soccer Male Player Of The Year Nominees:
Michael Bradley
Clint Dempsey
Brad Guzan
Fabian Johnson
DeAndre Yedlin

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2015 US Soccer Young Male Player Of The Year Nominees:
Cameron Carter-Vickers
Emerson Hyndman
Matt Miazga
Christian Pulisic
Gedion Zelalem

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A conversation with the guy who is in charge of all soccer on ESPN. Hows it going for MLS? By Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com.

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UEFA Champions League Round of 16 matchups:
Atletico Madrid v PSV Eindhoven
Barcelona v Arsenal
Bayern Munich v Juventus
Chelsea v Paris St Germain
Manchester City v Dynamo Kiev
Real Madrid v Roma
Wolfsburg v Gent
Zenit St Petersburg v Benfinca
-Games begin Tue Feb 16.

dN

And the Groups for the Euro 2016 Championship were also draw. Here they are.

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Headline in English news paper: "Where Did It All Go Wrong for Man Utd?"
-Um, when the greatest sports manager of all time retired!?!? Pretty simple really. They are just like every other team in the Premier League now, struggling for leadership.

dN

Tim Kennedy had the best reaction I saw on Twitter to Conor McGregor knocking out champion Jose Aldo on Saturday night for the UFC featherweight belt in a record time of 13 seconds. Kennedy is a long time contender in the middleweight division of the UFC.

Dana just shit himself and came at the same time. #UFC194

— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) December 13, 2015

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