Monday, July 11, 2016

Some Soccer News for Jul 11, 2016

It's Day 193 of 2016.


Huge praise to Wales and Iceland for their terrific runs at Euro 2016. They made an otherwise dull tournament worthwhile.

dN

du Nord Futbol's MLS Coaches Hot Seat Power Rankings:
  • 5 Jay Heaps - won't actually lose his job cuz the Kraft's are the ultimate cheapskate owners, but this team is slowing backing down the hill.
  • 4 Carl Robinson - there is just no progress being made in Van BC, even though the club keeps bringing in players.
  • 3 Mauro Biello - with an like owner Joey Saputo you have to sleep with 1 eye open, even if you are "One of his guys."
  • 2 Greg Vanney - all Toronto coaches are on this list permanently, and the team is currently not much better than some of the other pretty mediocre teams.
  • 1 Sigi Schmid - it looks worse week after week. A loss in the Open Cup next week could be the last straw.

dN

Copa Libertadores Semifinals:
-Wed Jul 13
Atletico Nacional (COL) v Sao Paulo (BRA) (2-0) - 7:45pm CT on FS2 + FOX Deportes
-Thu Jul 14
Boca Juniors (ARG) v Independiente del Valle (ECU) (1-2) - 7:45pm CT on FS2 + FOX Deportes

dN

Minnesota United laid an egg in Indy. They came with a very conservative approach that held out until a lazy pass from Lance Laing (Lazy Pass might be his new nickname) gave an opening to Indy and they got their goal. Yes MU had several chances to score and should have, but that counts the same in the standings as a red hot cup of jack squat.
  • Watching Christian Ramirez hit that soft PK and seeing Jon Busch save it so easily really summed up the whole game for Minnesota. Don't get cute, just blast the fucker!
  • Tiago Calvano (MU) and Lovell Palmer (IE) got into a kerfuffle as the game ended and were both ejected, meaning they are out for next weeks rematch.
  • Indy comes to Minnesota next Saturday where we hope to see the return of the high powered Loons attack.

dN

On Jul 20 Minnesota United hosts English club Bournemouth in a friendly. You should go.

dN

Today is the first day-off for this years Tour de France. The race has never been this tight. Chris Froome is in the lead.
  • Here is a look at the top 10:

  • American Tejay Van Garderen is in 11th place, also 1 minute and 1 second behind the leader.

dN

The spending on soccer players in China is accelerating at an insane rate. Huuuuuuge money. By Tariq Panja, Rachel Chang and Jonathan Browning of Bloomberg.

dN

Construction has begun on the new US Soccer National Training and Coaching Development Center in suburban Kansas City. By Sam McDowell of the KC Star.

dN

For anyone still tracking USA forward Terrence Boyd... He tweeted that he finished his first training session today with his team RB Leipzig after being out a year and a half due to a knee injury that required surgery twice (thrice?)

dN

Kei Kamara enacted revenge on Columbus Crew this weekend. Earlier this season the Crew scapegoated him for the teams troubles and sent the leagues top scorer to New England for virtually nothing. In Saturday's game Kamara got a goal and assisted on another as New England beat Columbus 3-1. He was involved in all 3 NER goals: drew multiple defenders away from teammates for first goal, had a cross punched in for an own goal, and scored while the CC defense took a nap. Also had a shot go off the crossbar, and should have drawn an obvious PK too but the ref said "Noooooo."

dN

Do you remember back in May when Frank Lampard was the worst signing in MLS history? Yeah. He has scored 4 goals in the last 5 games.

dN

27 goals were scored in 14 games of MLS action last week = 1.9 goals per game which is kinda painful.

dN

We are nearing the 2/3 mark of the MLS season, and if it ended today the 2 teams who played in last years Final would miss the playoffs!

dN

Vancouver has pulled off a good signing with centerback David Edgar who has played his whole career in England and has 37 caps for Canada. They are in desperate need of defensive help. (And the Whitecaps were my preseason pick to win MLS Cup. So this is very important news.)
  • They also signed Canadian fullback Marcel de Jong from Ottawa Fury, where he toasted Minnesota United this Spring with 2 goals after coming on as a sub. I am pretty sure that is the highlight of his career. No offense.

dN

A very good break down of last weeks games in MLS. By Matthew Doyle of MLSsoccer.com.

dN

MLS Leaders:
  • Dallas is 1st in the West.
  • NYC, yes NYC, is 1st in the East.
  • Colorado leads the whole league in Points Per Game Played at 1.89.
  • David Villa has 12 goals. 2 more than Ignacio Piatti, and 3 more than Fanendo Adi and Bradley Wright-Phillips.
  • Philadelphia has scored 32 goals.
  • Colorado has allowed 13 goals.

dN

I missed three things this morning in my roundup of the past month:
  • LA Galaxy stopped hitting the snooze alarm. (from Marc)
  • NYFC figured out that everyone else in the East is pretty bad too. (from Marc)
  • Sigi Schmid gave birth. (from Demko)



The Bird Is The Word

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Newer Posts Older Posts