Some Soccer News for Oct 17, 2016

It's Day 291 of 2016.


USA Women have a friendly on Sunday in Minneapolis.
-Sun Oct 23 - 12:45pm CT on FS1 - US Bank Stadium

• The big names on the roster:

Kelley O'Hara
Becky Sauerbrunn
Morgan Brian
Tobin Heath
Lindsey Horan
Carli Lloyd
Allie Long
Crystal Dunn
Christen Press

dN

My Minnesota United Notes:

• Game highlights [VIDEO] Loons played one of their most complete games of the season.

• Went down a goal early after a big mistake in the wall lead to a shot which Sammy Ndjock bobbled and the Eddies buried.

• Christian Ramirez grabbed 2 goals and Stefano Pinho 1 goal.

• Ramirez now has 50 goals for MNUFC in 93 games.

• Good games also from Ibson, JC Banks, Kevin Venegas, Justin Davis, Brent Kallman and Damien Lowe.

• First time the Montons had given up 3 goals in a game this season.

• Goalkeeper Matt VanOekel did not play for EDM cuz of a hamstring injury.

The assists on all 3 Minnesota goals (top notch finishing too) were great:

1. Ibson passed to Banks to set up Ramirez
2. Venegas passed to Ibson to set up Ramirez
3. Ramirez passed to Speas to set up Pinho

Almost everything went exactly right for Minnesota United this weekend in the battle for the final playoff position:

• Minnesota won

• Miami + Tampa tied

• Carolina lost

• The only imperfect thing was OKC + Ft Lauderdale both also won

• Minnesota and OKC are tied on points but Minnesota has a +3 in goal differential.

• There are 2 weeks left in the season.

• Miami + Tampa play 3 times, everyone else in the race just twice.

dN

NASL Week 26 Results:
-Fri Oct 14
Miami 2-2 Tampa Bay
-Sat Oct 15
Ft Lauderdale 2-0 Puerto Rico
Jacksonville 2-4 New York
Indy 3-0 Carolina
Minnesota 3-1 Edmonton
-Sun Oct 16
OKC 3-1 Ottawa

NASL Playoff race: (top 4 advance)
$59 New York (2 games left)
#50 Edmonton (2 games left)
*49 Indy (3 games left)
-----
41 Minnesota (+6 GD) (2 games left)
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41 OKC (+3 GD) (2 games left)
38 Tampa Bay (+1 GD) (3 games left)
38 Fort Lauderdale (-8 GD) (2 games left)
37 Miami (0 GD) (3 games left)
37 Carolina (-12 GD) (2 games left)
*Won Spring Season, automatically in playoffs
$Won Fall Season, automatically in playoffs
#Clinched a top 4 finish and a playoff spot

dN

NASL Week 27 Schedule:
-Wed Oct 19
Jacksonville v Miami
Tampa Bay v Indy
-Sat Oct 22
Ft Lauderdale v OKC
New York v Miami
Carolina v Minnesota
Indy v Puerto Rico
Tampa Bay v Ottawa
-Sun Oct 23
Edmonton v Jacksonville

NASL Week 28 Schedule - final round:
-Fri Oct 28
Miami v Edmonton
-Sat Oct 29
Ottawa v Ft Lauderdale
Puerto Rico v Carolina
Minnesota v New York
-Sun Oct 30
Jacksonville v Tampa Bay
OKC v Indy

dN

‭Minn supporters Dark Clouds have their year end awards coming up and here is the ballot. Please vote.

dN

Its not often we get 3 stories on 1 weekend that fit so perfect...

• The Good:

El Pescadito with a game winning classic! [VIDEO]

Chills...

?????? pic.twitter.com/M07drlCJP1

— X - FC Dallas (@FCDallas) October 17, 2016

• The Bad:

You gotta be kidding me! Mauro Diaz is out! Torn Achilles. He will most likely miss 6-8 months. Devastating injury for him and Dallas. He is was my pre-season and post-season pick for MLS MVP.

• The Ugly:

Oh, Drogba! When Montreal head coach Mauro Biello told Didier Drogba that he would not be in the starting lineup for Sunday's game Didier responded by saying he didn't not want to be on the game day 18 man roster at all if he wasn't starting. Booooooooooooooo. That is the opposite of a team player.

dN

MLS Week 33 Results:

• Supporters Shield down to two - Dallas can tie and be champs.

• The East is pretty much set, only seedling left to sort out.

• DC and Montreal both clinched their playoff spots in the East.

• Technically New England is still in the hunt a playoff spot, but they are 3 Points and a -12 Goal Differential behind Philadelphia. It would take a miracle.

• In the West KC and Portland are tied on Points and Wins but KC is 1 better in Goal Differential.

• Bradley Wright Phillips got 2 goals on Sunday bring his season total to 23. (To go along with 17 last season and 27 the season before that.)

• BWP has 68 regular season and 6 post season goals.

• By comparison Landon Donovan is the all time league leader with 145 regular season and 25 post season goals.

• By the way, Landon Donovan started his first game for LA, and played 63 minutes.

• Analysis of Week 33. by Matt Doyle of MLSsoccer.

-Sun Oct 16
Chicago Fire 2-1 New England Revolution
DC United 3-1 New York City
Montreal Impact 2-2 Toronto
New York Red Bulls 3-2 Columbus Crew
Philadelphia Union 0-2 Orlando City
Dallas 2-1 Seattle Sounders
Houston Dynamo 0-1 LA Galaxy
Portland Timbers 1-0 Colorado Rapids
Real Salt Lake 0-0 Sporting Kansas City
Sans Jose Earthquakes 0-0 Vancouver Whitecaps

dN

MLS Supporters Shield:
-Tie Breakers: Wins, Goal Differential, Goals Scored
59 Dallas (17 W) (+10 GD)
57 Colorado (15 W) (+7 GD)

dN

Race for 6th Place in MLS: [Wins is the first tie breaker]
-Tie Breakers: Wins, Goal Differential, Goals Scored
EAST
46 DC (10 wins)
45 Montreal (11 wins)
42 Philadelphia (11 wins) (-1 GD)
-----
39 New England (10 wins) (-13 GD)

WEST
46 Salt Lake (12 wins) (-1 GD)
45 Seattle (13 wins) (0 GD)
44 Kansas City (12 wins) (-1 GD)
-----
44 Portland (12 wins) (-2 GD)

dN

MLS Week 34 Schedule:

• Its the last round of MLS and every single games has consequences for the playoffs.

• All 10 games kick off at the same time - 3pm CT

-Sun Oct 23
Colorado Rapids v Houston Dynamo
LA Galaxy v Dallas
Sporting Kansas City v San Jose Earthquakes
Vancouver Whitecaps v Portland Timbers
Philadelphia Union v New York Red Bulls
New England Revolution v Montreal Impact
Seattle Sounders v Real Salt Lake
New York City v Columbus Crew
Toronto v Chicago Fire
Orlando City v DC United

dN

Atlanta won the Expansion priority selection coin toss over Minnesota. Which means:

• Atlanta gets the pick in the Expansion Draft, Allocation order, Waiver + Reentry Draft

• Minnesota gets the pick in SuperDraft, USL/NASL Priority, Discovery Player

• Watch the coin toss and picks here. [VIDEO]

dN

Some details have emerged on the Minnesota United rental of the U of M's TCF Bank Stadium for 2017 and however long it takes to build their own stadium beyond that. By Josh Verges of the St Paul Pioneer Press.

• I was told the seating capacity next season will be 22,000 per game with the possibility to expand.

dN

USL Playoffs - Semifinals Results:
WEST
-Sat Oct 15
Swope Park Rangers 3-0 Vancouver Whitecaps 2
EAST
-Sun Oct 16
New York Red Bulls II 1-1 Louisville - NYRBII advance 4-3 in Penalty Kick Shootout.

USL Playoffs - Final Schedule:
-Sun Oct 23
New York Red Bulls II v Swope Park Rangers - 7pm CT on ESPNU

dN

The Bob Bradley + Swansea City Tracker:

• Results - Sat Oct 15 L 3-2 at Arsenal

• Standings - 19th Place, 0 Points and -4 Goal Differential into Relegation

• Up Next - Sat Oct 22 v Watford

dN

3 Americans in Europe made an impact for their club this weekend:

• Matt Miazga got his first start at Vitesse where he is on loan from Chelsea. They tied 2-2 at AZ.

• Eric Lichaj scored for Nottingham Forest on Friday in a 3-1 win v Birmingham.

• And Danny Williams scored again for Reading. They tied at Queens Park Rangers 1-1.

dN

The Miguel Herrera + Tijuana Tracker:

• Results - Sat Oct 15 L 1-0 at America

• Standings - 1st Place, 3 Point Lead

• Up Next - Fri Oct 21 v Chiapas

dN

Liga MX News:

• 4 rounds left in the Apertura season.

• Tijuana leads by 3 over Pachuca.

• Tigres, Guadalajara, America, Pumas, Toluca and Necaxa hold the other 6 playoff spots.

• Leon were left for dead in 17th place at one point in the season, fired their coach and now sit in 9th just 1 point out of the playoffs.

• Monterrey is 2 points out

• Cruz Azul is 3 points out

dN

CONCACAF Champions League - Big Games on Matchday 6:

• This is it. Final round of the Group Stage.

• Advanced: Arabe Unido, New York Red Bulls, Vancouver Whitecaps

• Eliminated: Sporting Kansas City, Monterrey

-Tue Oct 18
Tigres UANL v Herediano - For Advancement
-Wed Oct 19
Portland Timbers v Saprissa - For Advancement
Olimpia v Pachuca - For Advancement
-Thu Oct 20
Suchitepequez v Dallas - For Advancement
Pumas UNAM v W Connection - For Advancement

dN

UEFA Champions League - Big Teams on Matchday 3:
-Tue Oct 18
Sporting v Dortmund
Real Madrid v Legia Warszawa
Lyon v Juventus
-Wed Oct 19
Arsenal v Ludogorets
PSG v Basel
Barca v Manchester City
Rostov v Atletico Madrid
Bayern v PSV

Americans in the UCL action:

• Christian Pulisic - Dortmund at Sporting on TUE

• Fabian Johnson - Gladbach at Celtic on WED

dN

Three Big Club Games Around Europe This Weekend:
-Fri Oct 14
Dortmund 1-1 Hertha - drops Dor to 5th and Her to 4th.
-Sat Oct 15
Napoli 1-3 Roma - moves Rom up to 2nd and drops Nap to 4th.
-Mon Oct 17
Liverpool 0-0 Manchester United - remain in 4th v 7th

dN

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



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