Some Soccer News for Jul 25, 2016

It's Day 207 of 2016.


MLS Week 20 results from the biggest games:

• Dallas came back late to get the tie in Colorado. (While Dallas is the top team in the league by 3 points over Colorado, the Rapids have played 3 fewer games. How is that possible in a league with 20 teams? Seriously?)

• Montreal, Red Bull and SKC all had very big wins with many goals scored!

• LA got a HUGE road win. They have never been good on the road under Bruce Arena. I wonder if this is changing?

• Toronto was the other team with a dominant performance, 4-1 over DC.

• Sebastian Giovinco with a hat trick. Was this the best goal of the week by Giovinco, or the worst goalkeeping? Either way, its a goal!

• Didier Drogba with a hat trick.

• Bradley Wright Phillips with a pair.

• Dom Dwyer with a pair.

• No shots on goal for Seattle. And just 1 shot period. Oof.

• I have asked the question many times this season: Is this the end for Sigi Schmid in Seattle? Every time my Twitter feed responds with a certain, "No." Will that change now?

-Sat Jul 23
Colorado 1-1 Dallas
Montreal 5-1 Philadelphia
Portland 1-2 LA
-Sun Jul 24
Red Bulls 4-1 NYC
KC 3-0 Seattle

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Go deep for a review of MLS Week 20. By Matthew Doyle of MLSsoccer.com.

• Dallas just finished a run of 8 games in 29 days. Their record? 6-1-1. Yeah. They are really good. But the potential sale of Fabian Castillo will really hurt. (If Dallas actually sells Fabian Castillo for just $4M as reported, its a crime.)

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If you watched Portland play this weekend you saw centerback Nat Borchers go down with an injury late in the first half. Many speculated that it looked like it might be an achilles tendon injury. It was. Fully ruptured. Surgical repair coming. Out for the season. Damn.

• And just like that the team announced the signing of 30 year old English centerback Steven Taylor from Newcastle.

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The RBNY-NYC derby is for real and getting nasty. By Brian Lewis of the New York Post.

Four NYC players earned suspensions from the next game (v Colorado) during the derby. Out: David Villa, Ethan White, RJ Allen and Federico Bravo. Very costly. By Christian Araos of Empire Of Soccer.

Tommy McNamara looks more like a college hacky sack guy than a MLS player, but he sure gets the job done for NYC. By Brian Sciaretta of American Soccer Now.

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The MLS All Star game is on Thursday night in San Jose against Arsenal. Kick off is at 5pm local time in San Jose. Brutal.

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Rough weekend for Greg Garza of Tijuana. He suffered a bad triple. Scored an own goal, got a Yellow Card and left the game with a concussion. Not good. They also lost 3-2 at Puebla.

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Omar Gonzalez and Pachuca off to a great start again. 2 wins from 2 games. 7 goals scored and 1 allowed. Omar has played all 180 minutes too. The champs are good!

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Did you know that there are 4 Americans starting at left fullback in Mexico? Jonathan Bornstein, Jorge Villafana, Edgar Castillo and Greg Garza.

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Trainspotting 2 is coming in January 2017. Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle all return. Teaser. [VIDEO]

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NASL Week 14 results:

• Solid win for Minnesota against a deflated Ft Lauderdale team.

• Highlights from MNUFC's win. [VIDEO]

• Christian Ramirez got his league leading 11th goal for Minnesota.

• And Ismaila Jome made his professional debut with Minnesota, coming on as a sub, and then scoring a goal!

• After the game word came out that Ft L had sent their best player PC to Tampa Bay. By Old What's His Name of Fifty Five One. It was confirmed later that PC was sold to TBR. By Pedro Heizer of the Sun Sentinel.

• Indy returned to the win column and the top of the table.

• Puerto Rico got its first ever expansion team win, coming in its 5th game. Add that to 2 draws and they have a respectable 5 points.

• Rayo OKC and Edmonton are the big surprises early in the Fall season sitting in 4th and 5th place respectively.

• A wild finish in Tampa saw the home team get a tie against the Cosmos in the 5th minute of stoppage time on a typical Tommy Heinemann penalty - he bulled his way into the box plowing into anyone he could and then with the slightest touch on his back went down like a ton of bricks. Why do referees fall for his garbage? Great job by Heinemann though - you gotta give him credit for helping his team.

• Omar Bravo made his debut for Carolina, playing the full 90 and scoring his team's final goal.

-Fri Jul 22
Carolina RailHawks 3-3 Miami
-Sat Jul 23
Jacksonville Armada 0-2 Ottawa Fury
Puerto Rico 1-0 Rayo OKC
Indy Eleven 1-0 Edmonton
Tampa Bay Rowdies 2-2 New York Cosmos
Minnesota United 3-1 Fort Lauderdale Strikers

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Minnesota must now go on the road to that nasty fake turf on fake turf stadium in rural OKC. They did not perform well last time they made the trip. Are they mentally in a better place now to get the desired results? I am not confident.

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Lionel Messi was pictured last week with a Joy Division t-shirt on, and now he's got blonde hair.

what is with football players and having blonde hair? now messi has too... pic.twitter.com/SW4qrkyDc6

— ㅤ (@RepShady) July 24, 2016

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Many outside England see the 1966 World Cup as a scam not a moment of national glory the way the English people still do. Great anecdotes. by Simon Burnton of the Guardian.

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FIFA says that the former president of the German FA Wolfgang Niersbach knew about shady deals that went down when Germany was awarded the 2006 World Cup and did nothing about it. For this he has been banned for 1 year. Really? That's all? For that big of an offense. Hmmmmmm. From Deutsche Welle.

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When do the 5 biggest European Leagues begin the new season?

• Ligue 1 - Aug 12 Matches

• Premier League - Aug 13 Matches

• La Liga - Aug 19 Matches

• Serie A - Aug 20 Matches

• Bundesliga - Aug 26 Matches

The Bird Is The Word