Monday, May 16, 2016

Some Soccer News for May 16, 2016

It's Day 137 of 2016.


Two of the most iconic rock n roll albums of all time were released on this day 50 years ago. If you don't own them, you should.

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Bob Bradley and Le Havre finished the Ligue 2 season tied for 3rd place on points and goal differential with Metz, but the next tie breaker was total goals scored and Metz won that 54-52, achieving the final promotion place to Ligue 1 for next season.
  • Le Havre must start all over and play 38 games in Ligue 2 next season to attempt promotion. Tough way to end a season.

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Liga MX Clausura Laguilla Quarterfinals:
  • The 4 higher seeds all advanced to the Semifinals
  • Match ups: Monterrey v America and Pachuca v Leon. Awaiting dates and times.
  • 3 Americans played full games, while 4 didn't play, in the Quarterfinal 2nd Leg matches:
William Yarborough - went the full 90 (advanced)
Omar Gonzalez - played the full match (advanced)
Jorge Villafana - went the 90, getting a yellow card (eliminated)
Edgar Castillo - on the bench (advanced)
Jose Torres - not in the game day 18 (eliminated)
Miguel Ibarra - not in the game day 18 (advanced)
Ventura Alvarado - not in the game day 18 (advanced)

2nd Leg
-Sat May 14
Monterrey 1-2 Tigres - Mon advances 4-3 on aggregate.
Leon 4-1 Morelia - Leo advances 5-2 on aggregate.
-Sun May 15
Pachuca 3-2 Santos Laguna - Pac advances 4-3 on aggregate.
America 2-1 Guadalajara - Ame advances 2-1 on aggregate.

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Tim Howard played his last game for Everton and got a huge send off from the team and fans:


Some really nice photos too:


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Bobby Wood has been sold by Union Berlin to Hamburg. He will be in the Bundesliga next season. A big move. It will not be easy to break into that starting 11.

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Former Columbus back up forward Aaron Shoenfeld has been a sensation this season at Hapoel Tel Aviv. 8 goals in 11 games! By Greg Seltzer of No Short Corners.

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USA must name a 23 player roster for Copa America by Friday.
  • Jozy Altidore will NOT be on that roster. He has jacked up his hamstring yet again and will be out 2 months.

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USMNT released an interesting roster for May 22 game in Puerto Rico (11:00am CT on FS1.) No MLS or Liga MX-playoff players included:
  • G: Brad Guzan, Tim Howard, Zach Steffen
  • D: John Brooks, Geoff Cameron, Eric Lichaj, Matt Miazga, Michael Orozco, Tim Ream, DeAndre Yedlin
  • M: Alejandro Bedoya, Emerson Hyndman, Fabian Johnson, Perry Kitchen, Alfredo Morales, Caleb Stanko, Danny Williams
  • F: Paul Arriola, Julian Green, Fabrice Picault, Amando Moreno, Bobby Wood

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NASL Week 7 Scoreboard:
Sat May 14
Fort Lauderdale Strikers 0-0 Indy Eleven
Carolina RailHawks 0-0 Miami
Tampa Bay Rowdies 1-1 Rayo OKC
Minnesota United 2-0 Jacksonville Armada
-Sun May 15
Edmonton 2-1 New York Cosmos
-Bye: Ottawa Fury
-7 goals in 5 games =  1.4 gpg. Terrible.

My NASL Notes:
  • The wheels appear to have gone a little flat on the Carolina race car. After rumbling to 4 wins in the first 4 weeks they have now lost 2 and tied 1. What was 12 points in Week 4 is now 13 points in Week 7.
  • At least they had a big crowd at the game - 7,100 is a great number for them.
  • Where did this Monton team come from? Seriously. They were the opposite of Carolina early. Not only could they not win, they couldn't even score a goal. Turn that around to 10 points from the last 4 games. And they are now up to 4th place.
  • Cosmos are having their worst spell in modern NASL history. 3 losses already this season. They lost only 4 in all of 2015. They lost 7 in all of 2014.
  • Still Cosmos are only 1 point off the lead. So its all relative.
  • Minnesota leads the league, tied with Carolina on points and ahead on GD, and has 1 game in hand over 2nd (CRH) + 3rd (NYC) place teams.
  • Miami is first team officially eliminated from Spring Season championship contention. And still winless.
  • Old Jonny Busch was the superstar in goal for Indy. Making 6 big saves and keeping a clean sheet.

Week 7 league recap. By Jake Nutting of Empire of Soccer.

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My Minnesota United Notes:
  • First Place Baby!
  • Good first half, which head coach Carl Craig apparently said in a half time interview was poor. Hahaha.
  • Stale but competent 2nd half. I kept fearing that at any minute Jax would get a goal and turn the game into chaos. But no.
  • Brilliant game winning goal by Kevin Venegas. So calm and composed. Perfection. See below.
  • Minn defense was solid but gave away a golden chance that should have been buried by Fondy of Jax.
  • Bernardo Anor was my Man Of The Match. He was a major pest in the first half. He hounded the Jax players and forced several give-aways and bad passes. His play lead to both MU goals.
  • It appears as though Jax coach Tony Meola has a stipulation in his contract that at all times one of his players must have the same hairstyle he sported in his playing days: The New Jersey Pony Express! Meet Matt Fondy.
  • Good to see Stefano Pinho get his first start, first major minutes and more importantly first goal.
  • Ben Speas appeared to injure his leg, but I don't know what actually happened. I saw him go into a challenge and end up on the ground. Then they checked him out and took him off.
  • MU is tied for the highest scoring offense and stingiest defense. That is a very good combination to have. And they are doing this by having both ends of the field help each other out. The D is suppling goals and service, while the O is defending from the front.
  • It looks to me like Lance Laing was punished this week. He was replaced in the starting 11 and did not getting off the bench as a sub either. Tough week for the talented player.
  • Jax has never won a road game in NASL.

Watch the Venegas goal:


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Amobi Okugo has been a free agent since leaving Sporting KC last fall, and I was kinda hoping he might turn up here in Minnesota, cuz defensive depth is badly needed. But he signed with Portland Timbers today.

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Cincinnati set another USL attendance record of 23,375, breaking their own record from a few weeks ago. And they won 1-0 over Pittsburgh. Happy customers.

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MLS Week 11 Scoreboard (14 midweek games)
-Wed May 11
Philadelphia Union 2-2 LA Galaxy
Colorado Rapids 1-0 Sporting Kansas City
Dallas 2-1 Portland Timbers
Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 Chicago Fire
San Jose Earthquakes 3-1 Houston Dynamo
-Fri May 13
DC United 2-0 New York Red Bulls
-Sat May 14
Montreal Impact 1-1 Philadelphia Union
Toronto 3-4 Vancouver Whitecaps
Columbus Crew 1-1 Colorado Rapids
New England Revolution 2-0 Chicago Fire
Dallas 2-0 Seattle Sounders
-Sun May 15
Houston Dynamo 1-0 Real Salt Lake
Sporting Kansas City 2-1 Orlando City
Portland Timbers 1-2 New York City
-39 goals in 14 games = 2.8 gpg. Decent.

MY MLS Notes:
  • Jozy Altidore has another hamstring injury. And he will miss another tournament (Copa America) because of it. Out 2 months.
  • And Altidore got hurt taking a Penalty Kick that was saved. (Why Sebastian Giovinco didn't take the PK I have no idea. He usually does, and always makes them.)
  • In the same game Kekuta Manneh out Giovinco-ed Giovinco. 2 goals and an assist to beat Toronto on the road. And won it with this ridiculous goal. [VIDEO] He turned Steven Beitashour into a pretzel!
  • Two great goals for NYC gives them a very rare road win. Villa and McNamara both rocked it.
  • Thats 3 wins in a row for NYC. Can you believe that? Prior to this run they had not won since the first game of the season.
  • KC took 34 shots in their win over Orlando. Thirty four.
  • If the playoffs started today 5 preseason contenders would be out, including last year's 2 finalist: Red Bulls, Columbus, KC, Seattle and Portland.
  • Oh, and one other playoff note: the BEST teams in the Eastern Conference would be in 8th place in the Western Conference and not make the playoffs at all.
  • Fanendo Adi, Giovinco and Villa lead the league with 8 goals.
  • Houston v Salt Lake was delayed 24 hours after severe thunderstorms ripped through south Texas on Saturday.
  • This Week in Caleb Porter Whining: "There was an obvious hand ball on NYC's game winning goal." My retort: "There were several calls against both teams that either got called incorrectly or were missed, its part of the game." Most of us really enjoy watching your team play, and your stadium is unparalleled but the constant excuses is annoying. (How long before Portland fans start seeing my silly overwrought antics about their coach and come after me?).

The best MLS weekly round up. By Matt Doyle of MLS.

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Orlando has gotten very creative in their methods of paying for their stadium. By Ken Belson of the New York Times.

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Kei Kamara sat down for an interview just days after being sent packing by Columbus. [VIDEO] He is a cool customer. By Taylor Twellman of ESPN.

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This is awfully humbling (thanks to Guy for sending it to me):


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Twelve games coming in MLS Week 12 starting with two on Wednesday.

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Huge congrats to Barca!
  • Europe's last top league championship goes to Barcelona on the last week of the season.
  • Its their 24th league title.
Final La Liga standings for 2015/16:
91 Barca (+80) - Sat May 14 W 0-3 at Granada
90 Real (+74) - Sat May 14 W 0-2 at Deportivo La Coruna

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The Best and Worst of the English Premier League 2015/16 season. By the staff of the Guardian.

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For 66 years Gunnar Nordahl of AC Milan has held the Serie A scoring record of 35 goals in a season. Until now! Gonzalo Higuain of Napoli broke the run with a hat trick on the final day to give him 36 for the 2015/16 season. Wow.

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A look at security for the European Championship in June/July. By John Irish of Reuters.

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What in the name of Sam Hell happened in Manchester on Saturday at Old Trafford Stadium? Here is the man behind the entire debacle fully accepting all responsibility, saying the buck stops with him and he screwed up. (With no caveats.) By Neal Keeling of the Manchester Evening News.
  • This also clears up a lot of the rumors and misconceptions of what actually caused security to empty the stadium and postpone the game.



The Bird Is The Word

posted by brucio at 15:41

2 Comments:

Blogger Nordy said...

Porter is a tool. Keep on him.

9:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Roger that Nordy. Will continue!

hahahahahaha

Bruce

ps. I don't actually think he's a tool, just a whiner. (Yeah, big difference, right)

2:36 PM  

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