VACATION BREAK

Gone fishin'

Some Soccer News for Jun 3, 2016

It's Day 155 of 2016.


The Reckoning begins now! Copa America Centenario starts tonight in Santa Clara CA with USA v Colombia.

Here is the weekend match schedule:
-Fri Jun 3
USA v Colombia
-Sat Jun 4
Costa Rica v Paraguay
Haiti v Peru
Brazil v Ecuador
-Sun Jun 5
Jamaica v Venezuela
Mexico v Uruguay
-Mon Jun 5
Panama v Bolivia
Argentina v Chile

dN

Argentina have to be the CAC favorites, and with good reason. By Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian.

• Wilson sees Uruguay and Mexico as the next two best threats to win it.

dN

James Rodriguez of Colombia has a chance to re-light his World Cup star power that has faded at the club level over the past 2 years. By Andrew Key of the New York Times.

dN

USMNT's Copa America Centenario Group Stage games:
-Fri Jun 3
USA v Colombia - Santa Clara - 8:30pm CT on FS1
-Tue Jun 7
USA v Costa Rica - Chicago - 7pm CT on FS1
-Sat Jun 11
USA v Paraguay - Philadelphia - 6pm CT on FS1

dN

I will be at the USA game in Chicago next Tuesday. I hope to see you there. Come say "Hi" if you see me.

dN

USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann is really up for this tournament and sees success in the cards for his team. By Jeff Carlisle of ESPNFC.

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Q + A session with coach Klinsmann on the eve of the tournament. And as always he puts the blame for any any USA short comings on a lot of other people - but not himself. By Matthew Futterman of the Wall Street Journal.

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US Soccer president Sunil Gulati talks about Copa America from a federation/business point of view and the potential of a future Men's World Cup on US soil. By Brian Straus of Sports Illustrated.

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USA Copa America roster:
G: Guzan, Horvath, Howard
D: Besler, Birnbaum, Brooks, Cameron, Castillo, Johnson, Orozco, Yedlin
M: Beckerman, Bedoya, Bradley, Jones, Kitchen, Nagbe, Pulisic, Zusi
F: Dempsey, Wondolowski, Wood, Zardes

Group D
0 Colombia
0 Costa Rica
0 Paraguay
0 USA

If the USA can get out of their group then the most likely scenario to win the tournament would be to beat Brazil in the Quarterfinal, Mexico in the Semifinal, and Argentina in the Final.

dN

Minnesota United travels to Oklahoma City for the first time ever on Saturday night.

It was good to see random internet notes pertaining to Minnesota United showing Ben Speas and Brent Kallman both back from injury and making the trip to OKC. We had already seen another injured player Danny Cruz on the field in St Louis on Wednesday so we knew he is healthy too. That leaves just the long term injury of Greg Jordan and shorter term injury of Jeb! Brovsky to deal with.

dN

BTW, yesterday I asked Minn United for a GIF of Jack Blake's first ever goal, scored in St L on Wed, and they reciprocated:

Jack The Ripper...

▶️ @jackjblake #MNUFC #USOC2016 pic.twitter.com/zXEzl3BrH0

— Minnesota United FC (@MNUnitedFC) June 3, 2016

(thank you thank you thank you)

dN

NY Cosmos can seal the Spring Championship on Saturday with a win at Fort Lauderdale. So for the first time in my life I say, "Come on Fort Lauderdale!!!"

dN

NASL Week 10 - coming up:
-Sat Jun 4
Fort Lauderdale v New York
Carolina v Jacksonville
Tampa Bay v Ottawa
Miami v Indy
OKC v Minnesota
-Bye: Edmonton

dN

MLS Week 14:
-Thu Jun 2
New York City 2-3 Salt Lake
Dallas 1-1 Houston
LA 0-0 Kansas City
-The league is now off until Jun 18.

My MLS Notes:

• Salt Lake, (Go get em!), got the only win last night, but no big surprise since NYC has only 1 home win in 9 games.

• LA + SKC are two teams with big questions in the goalkeeping category but neither made a change after gaffable prior games and both got a shutout. I am sure each team is happy with that.

• LA was incredibly inept offensively at home, with not 1 single shot on goal. Pathetic might be a better word than inept actually. Where as KC had 15 shots on goal and couldn't score, now that is inept. (In truth the vast majority of the SKC shot were from the 15-25 yard range.)

• Ricardo Clark of Houston is the best player in the league at long range shooting, and he scored another beautiful goal!

• People are telling me that continuous heavy rains in the Dallas area has caused the condition of the FCD field to suffer badly. Apparently its been getting worse during the past week or two of excess moisture. Damn. Flooding is one of those disasters that is hard to overcome. Also found out, after much cajoling, that a concert took place at the stadium last weekend. That plays a bigger role then rain ever will.

Bradley Wright-Phillips of New York Red Bulls named MLS Player Of The Month for May. Deserved.



The Bird Is The Word

Some Soccer News for Jun 2, 2016

It's Day 154 of 2016.


US Open Cup - 3rd Round:
Saint Louis 0-2 Minnesota United

My Minnesota United Notes:

• Unfortunately there is no video highlight package from the game.

• MU goals by Kevin Venegas and Jack Blake.

• Minn got revenge for last year's USOC loss at the same St Louis team.

• Venegas continued his team MVP season with the game winner in the 69th minute.

• Blake made his Minn debut and got the insurance goal in the 90th min.

• The first half was very poor from Minnesota, and even after they took the lead they looked shaky and ready to give up the tying goal at any second, right up until the point when Blake snagged the death blow.

• In most respects it looked like a carbon copy of the 2015 version of this same game. Except the happy ending.

• The 2 subs did a great job helping to win this game. Which has not been something you could say very often for Minnesota this season. Both Ibson (replaced an injured JC Banks) and Danny Cruz (came on for Stefano) had great minutes with no mistakes and lots of positives. Including an assist by Cruz on goal #2. Great to see.

• The other good aspect for Minn was at times they really pressed the ball high up the field and then filled the passing lanes behind them, a good tactic, but not used nearly enough.

• Minnesota's 4th Round opponent will be none other than Sporting Kansas City at home on Wed Jun 15.

• This will be the 4th time these two have met in the Open Cup, with KC winning twice (1 at home and 1 away) prior and MU once (away.)

Here is a clip of the Venegas goal. His defense led to a turnover, followed by a great chipped pass from Ramirez back to Venegas who put his shot between the StL keepers legs!

@__Viva placing his shot perfectly. No highlights tonight but catch the full match: https://t.co/Od0pKMnTTmhttps://t.co/itPKVQHNmR

— Minnesota United FC (@MNUnitedFC) June 2, 2016

dN

Here are the other results from the 3rd Round of the US Open Cup.

• A few upsets happened, and all were road victories:

Miami FC 1-2 Wilmington Hammerheads
Rayo OKC 1-2 OKC Energy
Sacramento Republic 1-3 Kitsap Pumas

• And how did the 3 derby matches turn out:

Rayo OKC 1-2 OKC Energy - the lower division team won in Added Extra Time.
Carolina RailHawks 5-0 Charlotte Independence - weirdly close despite the score. The 90 minutes of regulation ended 0-0, but once the first goal was scored by the RailHawks the dam burst and the precious water flowed.
La Maquina 2-0 LA Wolves - two amateur teams battled it out and the winners reward is a game at the Stub Hub Center against the Galaxy - another derby!

dN

MLS teams join in the next (4th) round of the Open Cup on Tue Jun 14 and Wed Jun 15. Here are those matches.

• Including 8 derbys:

Chicago Fire v Indy Eleven - The Peter Wilt's Ex's derby
Colorado Rapids v Colorado Springs Switchbacks
Houston Dynamo v San Antonio
Jacksonville Armada v Orlando City
LA Galaxy v La Maquina
New York City v New York Cosmos
Rochester Rhinos v New York Red Bulls
Seattle Sounders v Kitsap Pumas

dN

The USL (in conjunction with MLS) has been named as one of 6 leagues (Australia, Brazil, German, Netherlands, Portugal) that will test video replay. No date has been set for the testing to begin, but these are the 4 areas that will be affected by the review process:

1. Goals scored
2. Penalty calls
3. Red Card calls
4. Mistaken Identity in Card calls

They are calling this project: Video Assistant Referee (VAR)

dN

Domenico Scala resigned from FIFA last month, he was head of the Compliance Committee, after the new leadership of the organization took away all the independence of his job. Its now coming to light that new president Gianni Infantino played a big role in the departure, and US Soccer president Sunil Gulati's name is included in the mess but not explained. By Paul Nicholson and Andrew Warshaw of Inside World Football.

• The gist of the story is that Infantino and Scala clashed and when Scala would not back down Infantino orchestrated the removal of Scala's power to investigate other FIFA members as was his mandate. So Scala walked.

• Keep this in mind - NOTHING has changed at FIFA.

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An in-depth look at CONCACAF crook Jeffrey Webb, a very powerful FIFA player who we knew almost nothing about. By Steve Brenner of the Guardian.

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Its always a good day when you find out that Werner Herzog has a new film coming out. Trailer for Lo And Behold.

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Bubble: du Nord Music Mix Vol 86 (download + extract)

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It's 2 months old and I'm still laughing hard! Space Pants.

dN

MLS Week 14:
-Wed Jun 1
Philadelphia 3-2 Columbus
DC 0-2 Seattle
Portland 1-0 San Jose
-Thu Jun 2
New York City v Salt Lake
Dallas v Houston
LA v Kansas City
-The league is then off until Jun 18.
My MLS Notes:

• Philadelphia is becoming a legit contender. No longer just the best team in a lousy Eastern Conference.

• Still plenty of time for Philly to throw it all away though.

• Everything that went right for Columbus last season is going wrong this year: Odd bounces, out-working the opponent, timely referee decisions (like Red Cards,) inner-peace/inner-turmoil, beautiful goals. Its all gone bizarro.

• DC created a lot of chances and took 15 shots but Seattle keeper Stef Frei only had to save 1. Not good enough for DC.

• Seattle got 2 goals by pressuring high up the field on the road late in the game. Very effective and surprising tactic. Most teams only do this early in the game, and even less on the road.

• The return of Liam Ridgewell for Portland paid off with a game winning goal. Despite helping them to the 2015 title, he is an underrated part of this team.

dN

Houston Dynamo castoff Owen Coyle already has a new coaching job: manager of Blackburn. Sweet lordy.

dN

Things just continue to go wrong for David Beckham and MLS in Miami. By Steve Brenner of Heat Street.

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2016 Canadian Championship Semifinals:
1st Leg
-Wed Jun 1
Ottawa 2-0 Vancouver
Toronto 4-2 Montreal

• A big upset win for Ottawa of NASL beating Vancouver of MLS by 2 goals. Nice.

• Of course Captain-Of-All-Captain Jonny Steele scored. He should be credited with all Ottawa goals.

• Vancouver only started 2 regulars and subbed on 2 more. Where as Ottawa played all their regulars.

• 9,057 attendance for Ottawa. Great.

• And Toronto lit up Montreal in the other first leg game. Toronto did make a big mistake though in letting the Impact get 2 late road goals which could prove to be very costly.

2nd Leg
-Wed Jun 8
Vancouver v Ottawa (0-2)
Montreal v Toronto (2-4)

dN

Alyssa Naeher of Chicago Red Stars named NWSL Player Of The Month for May

Yesterday I voted for Marcel De Jong of Ottawa as the NASL Player Of The Month For May. Results will be released sometime next week.

dN

Copa America Centenario Group Stage games:
-Fri Jun 3
USA v Colombia - Santa Clara - 8:30pm CT on FS1
-Tue Jun 7
USA v Costa Rica - Chicago - 7pm CT on FS1
-Sat Jun 11
USA v Paraguay - Philadelphia - 6pm CT on FS1

dN

Optimism for the USA at the Copa from one of Jurgen Klinsmann's biggest detractors. By Matthew Doyle of MLSsoccer.

• This article starts out as more of an overall look at the tournament, but becomes an all-out USA primer.

dN

I am choosing Mexico to win it all.

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Current FIFA rankings of CAC teams by group:
(While Groups B, C + D are pretty even, the USA is in the toughest group by far.)
Group A
3 Colombia
23 Costa Rica
31 USA
44 Paraguay
(25.25 average ranking)
Group B
7 Brazil
13 Ecuador
48 Peru
74 Haiti
(35.50 average ranking)

Group C
9 Uruguay
16 Mexico
46 Jamaica
77 Venezuela
(37.00 average ranking)
Group D
1 Argentina
5 Chile
56 Panama
82 Bolivia
(36.00 average ranking)

dN

Frnech forward Andre-Pierre Gignac is breaking the unwritten rules of Europe's top players, by leaving the continent to star in Mexico (at Tigres) yet still be a part of the France's Euro 2016 team. By Philippe Auclair of the Guardian.

• Sebastian Giovinco has been even more successful for Toronto in MLS than Gignac in Liga MX, but Italian coach Antonio Conte is too belligerent to admit it, and did not choose the red hot player for his squad.

• I think in the end Didier Deschamps of France will look smart and Conte will look stupid with their roster choices.

dN

Finally, photographic proof that Peter Dinklage was in the original lineup of U2:

@dunord It's true. pic.twitter.com/DfiWZGjETF

— Setting the Table (@settingthetable) June 2, 2016

Special thanks to Setting The Table.



The Bird Is The Word

Some Soccer News for Jun 1, 2016

It's Day 153 of 2016.


We are hearing that the reason the Minnesota governor has not signed the legislation connected to the Minnesota United stadium bills is because deep inside this political clusterfuck is something related to the Minnesota Vikings Jawa Sandcrawler stadium that needs to get fixed. It really does figure that once again the Vikings are wreaking havoc with Minnesota United. Bullshit.

• Follow the Twitter feed of Brian Quarstad for all the details. (You don't have to have twitter to follow someone's feed in a web browser)

• The governor is asking for a "special session" to sort out this and several other details, or he will VETO the whole thing!

dN

US Open Cup returns on Wed Jun 1 with Round 3. Several very interesting looking matches.

• 3 Derby matches:

Rayo OKC v OKC Energy
Carolina RailHawks v Charlotte Independnce
LA Maquina v LA Wolves

But more importantly:
Saint Louis v Minnesota United - 7:00pm CT, stream it right here via YouTube

dN

The NFL is still king in the USA, by many many many miles, but for Americans age 12-24 soccer is now #2 over basketball. From the Economist.

dN

USA v Colombia is coming up on Friday night. Here are a couple things to keep in mind:

• Colombia will not make the mental mistakes that Ecuador and Bolivia did.

• John Brooks will not be able to make errors against those fearsome strikers.

• The three forwards up top will need to keep out of each others way as much as work together - Dempsey, Wood and Zardes made this mistake more than once against Bolivia, and they will get very few chances against this better opponent.

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Michael Bradley tell us where he thinks his team is at right now. By Jeff Carlisle of ESPNFC.

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A breakdown of team USA using some vital stats. By Doug McIntyre of ESPNFC.

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After five underwhelming years for the USMNT where is this optimism coming from for Copa America? By Paul Kennedy of Soccer America.

• Honestly, I don't get it. I do like the little buzz the young kids bring, but nothing else about this team makes me sit up and take notice. Has everyone forgotten last year at this time the team got wins over Germany and Netherlands that in the end meant nothing as the horror of the Gold Cup followed. This blathering about this tournament being played in the USA did NOTHING last summer.

dN

Copa America Centenario predictions by Grant Wahl, Brian Straus, Avi Creditor, and Alex Abnos of Sports Illustrated.

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Here are all the details of American broadcasts and peripheral TV programming for Copa and Euro. Will be one helluva busy 5 weeks of soccer on TV. By Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated.

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Oh he of the magnificent ponytail and black fingernails, Paco Palencia, has been named the new Pumas UNAM head coach. Goth is back baby! Crank up the Bauhuas!

dN

Ricardo Velazco of Real Monarchs named USL Player Of The Week

Lynn Williams of Western New York Flash named NWSL Player Of The Week

Joe Cole of Tampa Bay Rowdies named NASL Player Of The Week

Ola Kamara of Columbus Crew named MLS Player Of The Week

dN

Who needs Kei when you have Ola!?!? This dude and Bradley Wright Phillips both had hat-tricks last weekend.

dN

I love a great team goal, and I stupidly forgot to link to this one yesterday - My man DaMarcus Beasley with a nice finish after a perfect through ball from Alex gave Houston an important road goal and a much needed point.

dN

MLS Week 14:
-Wed Jun 1
Philadelphia v Columbus
DC v Seattle
Portland v San Jose
-Thu Jun 2
New York City v Salt Lake
Dallas v Houston
LA v Kansas City

• The league is then off until Jun 18.

dN

2016 Canadian Championship Semifinals:
1st Leg
-Wed Jun 1
Ottawa v Vancouver
Toronto v Montreal

dN

Euro 2016: The complete guide to every team and player. From the Guardian.

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If you don't read Simon Kuper you are missing out - he always has the good stuff:

Costliest mistake in Atletico Madrid's history: they won toss for shootout + chose to kick 2nd, although team going 2nd has just 40% chance

— Simon Kuper (@KuperSimon) May 31, 2016

The Bird Is The Word