Some Soccer News for May 2, 2016

It's Day 123 of 2016.


UPDATE: One of the most remarkable stories in the history of club football came to a pinnacle today when 5000-1 odds Leicester City won the English Premier League. (By Tottenham dropping points with a 2-2 tie at Chelsea.) Wow. Never seen anything like it before, and it will be hard to see something like it again.

Huge congrats to Leicester and its fans.

dN

My NASL Notes:

• BIG GAME - Carolina's perfect record to start the season was broken by the New York Cosmos, 1-0 winners on Sunday afternoon. Jimmy Maurer kept the RailHawks from scoring with save after save late in the game.

• Sneaking up on many of us is the fact that Indy is still without a loss. 2 wins and 2 ties to start the season. Impressive.

• Ottawa played their first home game of the season and showed just how important that is by getting their first win of the season.

• Why Ottawa played 4 in a row to start the season is a mystery to me, and a detriment to them.

• The 2 teams from South Florida, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, remain winless.

• Abysmal attendance for both Cosmos (2419) and Ft Laud (1086.)

• No Red Cards in the whole league this week!

• A review of all the week's games. By Ryan Tolmich of SBI.

• Yohandry Orozco of New York Cosmos named NASL Player Of The Week.

NASL Week 5 Scoreboard:
-Sat Apr 30
Ottawa 2-0 Miami
Fort Lauderdale 0-1 Tampa Bay
OKC 1-2 Indy
-Sun May 1
Cosmos 1-0 Carolina
-Bye: Minnesota, Jacksonville + Edmonton
-7 goals in 4 games = 1.8 GPG

NASL Standings:
12 Carolina (+4) (5 GP)
9 Minnesota (+5) (4 GP)
9 Cosmos (+4) (5 GP)
8 Indy (+2) (4 GP)
8 Tampa (0) (5 GP)
4 Jacksonville (-1) (3 GP)
4 OKC (-1) (4 GP)
4 Edmonton (-1) (4 GP)
4 Ottawa (-4) (5 GP)
2 Ft Lauderdale (-4) (4 GP)
2 Miami (-4) (5 GP)

dN

Bob Bradley - the race for promotion: (3 points out of promotion with 2 games left to play)
-Fri Apr 29
Le Havre 3-1 Nimes


Ligue 2 Standings: (3 teams left fighting to 3rd place)
62 Metz (+15) v Tours AND at Lens
59 Le Havre (+8) at Auxerre AND v Bourg en Bresse
58 Red Star (+2) v Dijon AND at Creteil

dN

Big weekend for Tim Howard - a tribute to him at Everton as they gave him the start for the final time at home and they won 2-1 v Bournemouth.

dN

DeAndre Yedlin has been in England for 16 months now, and its been a real leap forward for him. By Greg Seltzer of MLS.

• After tying 1-1 at Stoke Sunderland are still 2 points away from avoiding relegation, behind Newcastle who won 1-0 v Crystal Palace.

dN

Its interesting to note that Perry Kitchen was an immediate starter when he arrived at Hearts and has not left the line up since.

dN

40 players have been named to the USMNT preliminary roster for the Copa America Centenario. (Final 23 player roster must be named by May 20)
G: David Bingham, Brad Guzan, Tim Howard, Ethan Horvath, Nick Rimando
D: Kellyn Acosta, Ventura Alvarado, Matt Besler, Steve Birnbaum, John Brooks, Geoff Cameron, Edgar Castillo, Timmy Chandler, Brad Evans, Omar Gonzalez, Eric Lichaj, Matt Miazga, Michael Orozco, Tim Ream, DeAndre Yedlin
M: Kyle Beckerman, Alejandro Bedoya, Michael Bradley, Mix Diskerud, Fabian Johnson (Borussia , Jermaine Jones, Perry Kitchen, Alfredo Morales, Darlington Nagbe, Lee Nguyen, Danny Williams, Graham Zusi
F: Jozy Altidore, Clint Dempsey, Ethan Finlay, Jordan Morris, Christian Pulisic, Chris Wondolowski, Bobby Wood, Gyasi Zardes

• Players I thought should have been included: William Yarborough, Jonathan Bornstein, Sacha Kljestan and Brek Shea.

• So, if they should be included, then who gets dropped: David Bingham, Timmy Chandler, Edgar Castillo and Alfredo Morales.

dN

UEFA Champions League Semifinals:
Both games air at 1:30pm CT on FS1.-Tue May 3
Bayern Munchen v Atletico Madrid (0-1)

• Match preview from UEFA.

-Wed May 4
Real Madrid v Manchester City (0-0)

dN

My MLS Notes:

• The last 3 goals of the weekend were fantastic!

• Brad Davis back post curler.

• Giovanni Dos Santos chip.

• Diego Valeri free kick.

• But the best was by David Villa!

• Watch the Villa goal a few times and you see a "pick" by Frederic Brillant straight outta basketball that frees Villa. The problem is that its as illegal in basketball as it is in soccer, and the refs blew it badly. That great goal never should have counted.

• Any doubts about Jordan Morris in Seattle are now gone as he scored in the 3rd consecutive game - singlehandedly keeping their early season alive. He needs teammates to join in on the fun.

• Red Bulls have come to life finally and put a 4 goals pasting on the most wildly fluctuating team in the league Dallas.

• Why is Dallas flopping around like a fish on the deck of a ship, out of control? Good-Bad-Good-Bad. By Alex Abnos of Sports Illustrated.

• The difference between Gershon Koffie and Jermaine Jones is massive for New England.

• For all the praise being given Toronto for their improved defense they are only 2 points ahead of where they were last year at this time. (Both seasons started with 8 consecutive games on the road due to stadium construction.)

• Portland can thanks back up keeper Jake Gleeson for the win over Toronto. He made great save after great save down the stretch to hold on to 3 points.

Centerback Aurelien Collin has been traded to New York Red Bulls (desperately in need of defense) from Orlando in exchange for spare change.

MLS notes wise - this is an even better read - Week 9 analysis by Matthew Doyle of MLS.

MLS Week 9 Scoreboard:
-Wed Apr 27
New York City 1-1 Montreal
New England 1-1 Portland
Vancouver 1-1 KC
-Fri Apr 29
Red Bulls 4-0 Dallas
-Sat Apr 30
Montreal 2-2 Colorado
New York City 3-2 Vancouver
Philadelphia 1-1 San Jose
Seattle 1-0 Columbus
Chicago 1-1 DC
New England 2-2 Orlando
Salt Lake 2-1 Houston
-Sun May 1
Portland 2-1 Toronto
KC 1-1 LA
-36 goals in 13 games = 2.8 GPG

dN

The Detroit expansion story has already hit a big snag - the land where the prospective owners want to build a stadium is already earmarked by the city and officials say its a no-go for a stadium on that site. From the Detroit Free Press.

dN

Both Leicester and Bayern could have won their league titles over the week, but they could only get ties and drag the procession out a little longer.

dN

Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend. From the Guardian.

dN

La Liga's championship will likely go down to the wire and be decided by goal differential. 2 weeks left to play:
85 Barca (+75) v Espanyol AND at Granada
85 Atleti (+44) at Levante AND v Celta
84 Real (+73) v Valencia AND at Deportivo



The Bird Is The Word