Some Soccer News for Apr 25, 2016

It's Day 116 of 2016.


Juventus wins Serie A for the 34th time. Huge congrats to them. And if you greet a Juve fan today make sure you still have your wallet afterwards

#Hi5story!!!!! pic.twitter.com/dvdTvSPXvM

— JuventusFC (@juventusfc) April 25, 2016

dN

Every game in NASL Week 4 was a rivalry of sorts:
-Fri Apr 22
Miami 2-3 OKC
-Sat Apr 23
Ft Lauderdale 1-1 Jacksonville
Tampa Bay 1-3 Carolina
Minnesota 1-0 New York
-Sun Apr 24
Edmonton 2-0 Ottawa

14 goals in 5 games = 2.8 GPG.

dN

My NASL Notes:

• RailHawks are the toast of the league, and a big road win!

• 6000 fans had hoped to see their Rowdies stay in the elite level of the league, but they were very outgunned.

• All 4 TBR and CRH goals were scored in the 2nd half.

• Rayo Jr. gets its first ever win after a big contribution from du Nord favorite Billy Forbes.

• Turns out the big crowd at the Miami opener was an anomaly - this week just 2168.

• And up the road in Fort Lauderdale the crowd was even sadder with just 1097 in attendance.

• The Montons will not go goalless this season after all. They put two past their Canadian counterpart Ottawa who have gone from best team in the league last Fall to the worst team in the league this Spring.

dN

My Minnesota Notes:

• Finally broke the Cosmos stranglehold with a win. The best MU had ever done in the past was a tie.

• 3 wins in a row for the Loons after taking the lead in the first game but letting it slip away.

• The Minn goal was very very dramatic, coming just as the game entered stoppage time.

• The goal was a classic counter attack: Bernardo Anor gave up the ball near midfield but kept the pressure on with his defense, which saw the Cosmos just dump the ball toward the Minnesota box. But Brent Kallman was there to head the ball out directly to Lance Laing, who then flicked the ball wide to Justin Davis just inside his own half. No one was in front of Davis so he turned on the jets taking 1 touch and then crossing to the top of the Cosmos box on the opposite of the field for Christian Ramirez to run on to. CR took one touch to control the ball and with his 2nd put a ball on the ground toward the far post just past the lunging Carlos Mendes and under the stooping Jimmy Maurer and into the net.

• Loons have the best defensive record in the league. Bet you didn't call that one before the season started.

• MU played down a man since the 54th min when Damian Lowe cleated Michael Lahoud pretty bad and in an out-of-control way. Yes Lowe got the ball first, but he was just too reckless with the whole play. And even if you thought it was only a Yellow Card offense (which I don't think it was) he was already sitting on a Yellow and would have been sent off for that too.

• As soon as Lowe saw the referee reach for his back pocket he turned and started sprinting off the field applauding the crowd in the stands as he ran into the tunnel. Even slapped a few hands along the way. It was almost like he was telling his teammates, "Look, I blew it, and I got ejected, but I'm going to get the hell out of here quickly so we don't lose any momentum and you guys can just keep right on rolling like we are and you can win this game even though I made a big mistake and left you in a hole. Please don't hold it against me. Now go get the job done."

• One big worry I had going into the game was how the inexperienced centerbacks of Minnesota would handle the serious veterans up top for the Cosmos. The answer: Pretty damn well!

• Ibson started his first game of the year, but came off at half time. Injury?

• Coach Carl Craig said after the game that he made some tactical changes at half time. So was Ibson part of that. I know in the past Craig has shown frustration with Ibson not playing the "team game." But in the first half Ibson was one of the most dangerous players on the field for either team - setting up teammates and almost scoring himself.

• Jeb Brovsky was another guy who played a major roll in the win. Constantly stuffing the Cosmos attempts to work the ball into the scoring third through the middle of the field. And he was a good outlet for the centerbacks. Cool, calm and collected. With Vicentini out sick and Jordan still out injured the d-mid spot could have been a weakness, but there was no sign of that.

• Central midfielder Niko Kranjcar was a real handful for the Cosmos. He was physical and pro-active. They could have used more of that up top where the team was fairly inert.

• See full game highlights right here. [VIDEO]

Christian Ramirez of Minnesota United was named NASL Player Of The Week.

dN

Space Pants
Do you see my pants?
No way, you missed them!
My pants are a tour of the solar system.

dN

Christian Pulisic jumped all over a rebound and scored his 2nd goal for Dortmund.

Bobby Wood did NOT get a goal so his streak ended at 8 consecutive games. Damn.

Alfredo Morales went the distance for Ingolstadt and he got a goal too. A rare one for him. Well done.

DeAndre Yedlin and Sunderland got a very important tie against Arsenal and pulled themselves out of the relegation zone in the English Premier League. They are above Norwich by way of the Goal Differential tie breaker. They have 4 games left to play.

dN

MLS Week 8
-Sat Apr 23
Montreal 0-2 Toronto
Philadelphia 2-0 New York City
DC 3-0 New England
Columbus 1-0 Houston
Colorado 3-1 Seattle
Vancouver 3-0 Dallas
LA 5-2 Salt Lake
-Sun Apr 24
San Jose 1-0 Kansas City
Red Bull 3-2 Orlando

28 goals in 9 games = 3.1 gpg.

dN

My MLS Notes:

• Luciano Acosta of DC with the best goal of the weekend!!! His first in MLS.

• If the standings went strictly on Points Per Game Average, who would be the 2nd best team in the league right now? Of course you guessed correctly - Colorado. (LA #1)

• The best team in the East (Philly) would make the playoffs today as the last team in the West. Disparity.

• New England could really use a guy like Jermaine Jones couldn't they. Bad mistake to let him go.

• Yeah. About Germ Jerm... That guy is good. He showed up at stinky Colorado Rapids and has lead them to 2 wins in his 2 games. And he scored in both of them. So, there's that.

• And Colorado had 17,294 in the stands too. Good job. Now do it again.

• Are you surprised that Eric Miller is getting starts for Colorado and they are winning? I'm not. He's from the Twin Cities.

• Wondo scored his 7th goal of this season, giving him an amazing 109 goals in the last seven seasons.

• Sebastian Giovinco got two more goals. Toronto is for real, for the first time in their 10 years.

• Bradley Wright-Phillips got two goals also, ending his streak of 0-for-the-season. And the Red Bulls won a frickin game. A comeback to boot.

• RSL saw their unbeaten run to start the season go up in flames - losing 5-2 at LA. Joao Plata missed the game with a hip injury, and Buritto Martinez left the game early with a thigh injury. Their attack is very thin.

• LA may have given up the first goal to RSL at home but they answered back with 4 goals before half time. Are we sure they need Robbie Keane? Zardes, Magee, Boateng and Dos Santos scored.

• Nick Rimando saved another penalty kick! I have never seen a better goalkeeper for Penalties. Wow.

• KC did not get a Penalty call in their favor that sure looked legit. Is Dom Dwyer's reputation as a diver and whiner starting to catch up with him?

• KC has lost 3 in a row.

• ATTN: New York City FC upper management. It wasn't Jason Kreis's fault your team was bad last year. You have too many mediocre players. And you did nothing in the off season to fix that.

• Houston is really bad too.

dN

They are breaking ground on the DC United stadium today. Huge news for that struggling organization.

dN

This is kind of an amazing stat:

I could be wrong but I think this is most games in a row Khedira started for Juve- with him in lineup Juve has 18 wins & 1 draw in Serie A

— David Amoyal (@DavidAmoyal) April 24, 2016

dN

Juventus claimed another Serie A championship today. They won Sunday at Fiorentina and Napoli lost Monday at Roma. Game over.

dN

Slump buster! After getting their mighty ship hung up on a reef Barcelona have turned it around with 14 goals in two games, including 8 from Luis Suarez.

• But the Madrid cousins, Atleti + Real, continue to win too. So the race is still a dead heat for the crown with 3 rounds left to play.

dN

2 other top Euro Leagues:

• Leicester has a 7 point lead over Tottenham with 3 games left to play. They can win it all next Sunday with a win at Manchester United. Can you imagine the TV ratings for that one?

• Bayern has a 7 point lead over Dortmund with 3 games left to play. They can claim another championship with a win next Saturday v Monchengladbach.

dN

RIP Prince.

Lenny Waronker, our boss at Warner Bros, with his first memories of Prince. Some great stuff here.

Lets end our Prince tributes with a post from the most genuine Prince fan I know - someone I worked with in the mid-80s who taught me a lot about music, Esa Katajamaki.



The Bird Is The Word