Some Soccer News for Mar 21, 2016

It's Day 81 of 2016.


Sporting Kansas City is the only team left standing in MLS with a perfect record (3-0-0) after just 3 weeks.

• And SKC has beaten three Cup favorites - Seattle, Vancouver and Toronto!

• A lot of Kansas City fans hate Brad Davis due to their rivalry with his old team Houston, but scoring game winners will make him a local hero soon enough.

• Orlando and Salt Lake are the only other teams without a loss. (1 win and 2 ties each.)

• Two favorites are at the bottom of the pile: Seattle with 3 losses, and Columbus with 2 losses and a tie.

• NYRB went down 1-2 and 2-3 before coming back to win 4-3 over Houston! A wild game.

• Dallas and Philly had the most emphatic wins of the weekend - 2-0 v Montreal and 3-0 v New England respectively.

• I did not pick San Jose to make the playoffs this season, but I think I might be wrong. They have a very good coach and quite a few good players. Do not underestimate them.

• Jameson Olave of RSL set a new MLS record by receiving his 10th Red Card.

• Bobby Shuttleworth of New Eng save TWO penalty kicks by the Union. Fantastic!

• CJ Sapong of Philadelphia will most likely be named the Player Of The Week.

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Four fantastic Free Kick goals in MLS on Saturday night! Enjoy watching them:

• Felipe for Red Bull

• Ivanschitz for Seattle

• Plata for Salt Lake

• Diaz for Dallas

• (Lee Nguyen for New England should have joined that group, but his great shot hit off both goal posts without actually going into the goal!)

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The very best breakdown of Week 3 in MLS. By Matt Doyle of MLSsoccer.

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Why these 6 MLS teams are playing games during the international break this week is beyond me:
-Sat Mar 26
New York City v New England Revolution
DC United v Dallas
Vancouver Whitecaps v Houston Dynamo

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Tim Howard has officially signed with Colorado Rapids. He will join the team when the Summer transfer window opens in July.

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In 12 days the NASL season begins.

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Minnesota United is still very very short on defenders. Very bad situation to be in when defense was biggest weakness from last season and its not been address yet.

• They have 2 fullbacks (Davis & Venegas) and 3 centerbacks (Calvano, Kallman and Lowe) on the roster. 4 centerbacks if you count Pitchkolan. Laing could also be listed as a backup for left fullback.

All Minn United NASL games (home and away) will be shown live locally on TV on WFTC My29 this season.

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WOW! Bobby Wood got his 14th goal of the season this weekend as Union be Braunschweig 3-1!

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Bob Bradley and Le Havre won 2-0 v Tours, moving them up to 3rd place but still 7 points from promotion with 7 games left.
-I have been set straight: Three teams are promoted to Ligue 1, not two like I thought. Thanks to everyone who corrected that.

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USMNT World Cup Qualifying:
-Fri Mar 25 at Gautemala in Guatemala City - 9pm CT on beIN Sport
-Tue Mar 29 v Gautemala in Columbus OH - 6pm CT on ESPN2
Roster
G: Bingham, Guzan, Howard, Yarbrough
D: Alvarado, Besler, Birnbaum, Brooks, Cameron, Castillo, Gonzalez, Orozco, Yedlin
M: Beckerman, Bedoya, Bradley, Diskerud, Finlay, Johnson, Nagbe, Nguyen
F: Altidore, Dempsey, Wondolowski, Wood, Zardes

NOTES:

• The paucity of fullbacks and outside midfielders is alarming.

• Johnson, Altidore and Nagbe all come into camp injured.

• Tim Ream is really the only defender who has seen regular minutes with the national team that was not called in.

• Three other defenders who have played for the Nats recently: Kellyn Acosta, Matt Miazga, and Brandon Vincent are on the U23 roster.

• Orozco and Alvarado are not playing at all for their club teams. Form means nothing.

• Aron Johannsson remains out with an injured ankle. He has not played since Fall.

• Germ Jerm is out due to suspension. (He has served 3 of 6 games in MLS so far.)

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The rest of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying matches during this window:
-Fri Mar 25
(Group A)
Canada v Mexico
El Salvador v Honduras
(Group B)
Jamaica v Costa Rica
Haiti v Panama
(Group C)
St Vincent and the Grenadines v Trinidad and Tobago
-Tue Mar 29
(Group A)
Mex v Can
Hond v Salv
(Group B)
CR v Jama
Hai v Pan
(Group C)
T+T v St V+G

Last 2 games of this stage will be played Sep 2 + 6.

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USNMT U23 team tries to qualify for Rio 2016 Olympics this week too:
-Fri Mar 25 at Colombia in Barranquilla - 5pm CT on FS1
-Tue Mar 29 v Colombia in Frisco TX - 8:30pm CT on ESPN2
Roster
G: Cody Cropper, Ethan Horvath, Tyler Miller
D: Kellyn Acosta, Matt Miazga, Eric Miller, Tim Parker, Desevio Payne, Shane O’Neill, Brandon Vincent, Walker Zimmerman
M: Fatai Alashe, Paul Arriola, Luis Gil, Julian Green, Emerson Hyndman, Jerome Kiesewetter, Matt Polster, Dillon Serna, Wil Trapp
F: Jordan Morris, Mario Rodriguez, Khiry Shelton
-Cameron Carter-Vickers is out injured.

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Yesterday's Galatasaray v Fenerbache game (the Bosporus derby) was postponed due to terror threats that the state took seriously. Deadly insurgent attacks from Kurdish rebels have been happening more and more frequently across Turkey. From Daily Sabah.

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English Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action. From the Guardian.



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