Some Soccer News for Oct 31, 2016

It's Day 305 of 2016.


The NASL era in Minnesota soccer is over. The team finished in 5th place and did not qualify for the playoffs for the first time in many seasons.

dN

After the game there was a lot of emotion flowing. Former player Brian Kallman shot this video and caught me looking like I was fighting back tears:

My favorite part of the night last night @MNDarkClouds the look on @dunord s face says it all! pic.twitter.com/naoQAVxT9X

— Brian Kallman (@futebolformNfit) October 30, 2016

-The St Paul Pioneer Press even wrote a lil sumthin-sumthin about the vid clip. By Andy Greder.

dN

Rayo OKC has pulled off a near miracle by qualifying for the NASL playoffs. There were left for dead and buried 2 months ago with poor management and virtually no staff to run the team. Our old Friend In Football Djorn Bucholz was pulled in to try to keep things running and much like he did with with Minnesota in 2011 got them to a place no one expected. If they do on and win this whole thing he will be qualified for Sainthood.

dN

NASL Week 28 Schedule:
-Fri Oct 28
Miami 1-0 Edmonton
-Sat Oct 29
Ottawa 0-1 Ft Lauderdale
Puerto Rico 2-1 Carolina
Minnesota 0-1 New York
-Sun Oct 30
Jacksonville 3-2 Tampa Bay
OKC 2-1 Indy

NASL Final Standings: (top 4 advance to playoffs)
65 New York Cosmos
55 Indy Eleven
53 Edmonton
47 Rayo OKC
-----
41 Minnesota United (+4)
41 Fort Lauderdale (-9)
40 Miami (-4)
40 Carolina RailHawks (-12)
39 Tampa Bay Rowdies
31 Ottawa Fury
30 Jacksonville Armada
24 Puerto Rico

dN

NASL Semifinals Schedule:
-Sat Nov 5
#2 Indy v #3 Edmonton - 2pm CT
#1 New York v #4 OKC - 6pm CT

dN

Zach Steinberger of Jacksonville Armada named NASL Player Of The Week

dN

University of Minnesota Gophers Women Soccer won their Quarterfinal game in the Big Ten Tournament:

• They are the #1 Seed

• Won 3-1 v Indiana on Sat

• NEXT: Fri Nov 4 v Michigan - 2pm CT

dN

Today I have met 2 students with great names: Lucy Pagan + Jen Barfo - neither is Halloween related. I am not making this up.

dN

MLS Playoffs - Quarterfinals Results + Schedule:

• As Sunday's games went along the fever ratcheted up!

• All 4 home teams (the lower seeds) won.

• And no road teams (the higher seeds) scored any goals that could have played big in tie breakers.

• Sets up for incredible scenes in Leg 2.

• An away goal for any team in Leg 2 will turn the seedings completely upside down.

• Montreal played some great defense against the Red Bulls.

• Both Toronto goals came from mad scrambles in the box. Doesn't matter if they are pretty or not. They count.

• NYC were too smart for their own good. Making some weird changes to the lineup and none of them helped. One was just very odd... they put in a goalkeeper for only his 2nd start of the whole season. Nothing was physically wrong with regular keeper Josh Saunders.

• NYC literally had 0 games of MLS playoff experience among its starting 11. I didn't know that was possible.

• Seattle took an electric can opener to Dallas in the 2nd half. Wow. Pried that lid clean off and poured the contents all over the floor!

• Dallas got beat because they never bothered to add more firepower in the January or August transfer windows and it finally caught up with them.

• LA was very dominant but could only get 1 goal.

• Montreal got the best goal of the weekend from Mancosu. Oh and by the way, its seems as though no TV announcers can say his name right. They all say man-COO-soh. Wrong em boyo. Its man-COH-soo.

• An analytic breakdown of all the Leg 1 games. By Matt Doyle of MLSsoccer.

1st Leg Scores
-Sun Oct 30
Montreal Impact 1-0 New York Red Bulls
-Game highlights [VIDEO]
LA Galaxy 1-0 Colorado Rapids
-Game highlights [VIDEO]
Toronto 2-0 New York City
-Game highlights [VIDEO]
Seattle Sounders 3-0 Dallas
-Game highlights [VIDEO]

2nd Leg Schedule
-Sun Nov 6
Colorado Rapids v LA Galaxy - 1:00pm CT on ESPN
New York Red Bulls v Montreal Impact - 3:00pm CT on ESPN
New York City v Toronto - 5:30pm CT on FS1
Dallas v Seattle Sounders - 8:00pm CT on FS1

dN

Matteo Mancosu and Bradley Wright Phillips are proof that you can take goal scorers from the 2nd Division of Europe's big leagues and turn them into power houses in MLS.

dN

The only MLS playoff format that truly rewards the higher seeds is to take out the home + away series and have the higher seeded team host every game. Just like the NFL does it.

• Right now the higher seeds are punished in the quarterfinals by having to make two plane trips before the two games where are the lower seeds stay at home for first game and only have to travel once, before the games.

dN

Portland Timbers are working on a plan to add 4000 seats to their stadium. By Jamie Goldberg of the Oregonian.

dN

The Bob Bradley + Swansea City Tracker:

• Standings - 19th Place, 2 Points into Relegation

• Up Next - Mon Oct 31 at Stoke City

dN

The Miguel Herrera + Tijuana Tracker:

• Results - Sun Oct 30 W 0-1 at Toluca

• Standings - 1st Place, 3 Point Lead

• Up Next - Fri Nov 4 v Tigres UANL

dN

Borussia Dortmund is attracting and developing high quality young talent at a different rate than most other clubs. American Christian Pulisic is but one of MANY. By Rory Smith of the New York Times.

dN

UEFA Champions League - Group Stage - Big Teams - Matchday 4:

• As many as 11 teams could advance to the knockout stage this in this round. Here are those scenarios. Via UEFA.

-Tue Nov 1
Manchester City v Barcelona
Atletico Madrid v Rostov
PSV v Bayern
Ludogorets v Arsenal
Basel v PSG
-Wed Nov 2
Dortmund v Sporting CP
Legia v Real Madrid
Juventus v Lyon

dN

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

dN

Its no surprise that Bayern Munich leads the Bundesliga. What is very surprising is who makes up the rest of the Top 5:
21 RB Leipzig
19 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim
18 1.FC Koln
17 Hertha Berlin



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