Some Soccer News for Oct 7, 2016

It's Day 281 of 2016.


Minnesota's league leading goal scorer Christian Ramirez is out of the Puerto Rico game on Saturday due to an ankle sprain suffered in the game on Wednesday. He flew home from Tampa to begin treatment right away. No other word on severity.

• CR has 16 of the teams 38 goals.

• Ismaila Jome took his spot on the roster in PR.

Lets hope Minnesota United packed the Iron Skillets for training on the road this week, cuz they need it. Way too much trouble executing offense and providing defense on the set pieces.

PR is on a genuine roll right now, having won 3 in a row. They tied 3 in a row before that. Whereas before that it was 7 in a row without a win (alternating between 4 losses and 3 ties.)

• Hector Ramos is their leading goal scorer with 7 in 17 games. 2 other players have 2 each.

dN

NASL Week 25 Schedule:
-Sat Oct 8
Puerto Rico v Minnesota
Miami v OKC
-Sun Oct 9
Carolina v Ft Lauderdale
Ottawa v New York
Edmonton v Tampa Bay

NASL Playoff race: (top 4 advance)
#55 New York (4 games left)
47 Edmonton (5 games left)
*45 Indy (5 games left)
37 Minnesota (+4 GD) (4 games left)
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37 Tampa Bay (+2 GD) (5 games left)
36 Miami (+1 GD) (5 games left)
34 Carolina (-11 GD) (5 games left)
*Won Spring Season, automatically in playoffs
#Clinched a top 4 finish and a playoff spot

dN

Osvaldo Alonso of Seattle Sounders is a Cuban defector who has a unique view on today's USA v Cuba game. He is also having a great season for the Sounders after an off season of re-dedication. By Matt Pentz of the Seattle Times.

dN

USA Mens National Team upcoming friendlies:
-Fri Oct 7
Cuba v USA - Estadio Pedro Marrero, Havana - 3:00pm CT on ESPN2 + UniMas
-Tue Oct 11
USA v New Zealand - RFK Stadium, Washington DC - 7:00pm CT on on ESPN + UniMas

Here is the Roster for the Cuba game:

• G: David Bingham - San Jose Earthquakes, Ethan Horvath - Molde, William Yarbrough - Leon

• D: Steve Birnbaum - DC United, John Brooks - Hertha Berlin, Geoff Cameron - Stoke City, Timmy Chandler - Eintracht Frankfurt, Omar Gonzalez - Pachuca, Fabian Johnson - Moenchengladbach, DeAndre Yedlin - Newcastle

• M: Paul Arriola - Tijuana), Michael Bradley - Toronto, Lynden Gooch - Sunderland, Perry Kitchen - Heart Of Midlothian, Sacha Kljestan - New York Red Bulls, Christian Pulisic - Dortmund, Danny Williams - Reading

• F: Jozy Altidore - Toronto, Julian Green - Bayern Munich, Jordan Morris - Seattle Sounders, Chris Wondolowski - San Jose Earthquakes, Bobby Wood - Hamburger

dN

Watch Bob Bradley's initial press conference at Swansea City from this morning. [VIDEO] From the club.

dN

The Arab Spring uprising of 2011 in Egypt now appears to be massive failure, and the mysterious situation surrounding the death of an Italian grad student shows just how much suffering that failure is causing. By Alexander Stille of the Guardian.

dN

Have you ever seen an episode of the TV show Black Mirror? Always odd, always unnerving, almost always original. New season coming soon. Here is a trailer.

dN

One MLS game in Week 31:
-Sat Oct 8
Houston Dynamo v Colorado Rapids - 7:30pm on MLS Live

dN

NWSL Finals:
-Sun Oct 9
Washington Spirit v Western New York Flash - BBVA Compass Stadium, Houston - 4pm CT on FS1

dN

USL Playoffs - Quarterfinals schedule:
WEST
-Sat Oct 8
Vancouver Whitecaps 2 v Oklahoma City Energy
-Sun Oct 9
Swope Park Rangers v Orange County Blues
EAST
-Fri Oct 7
New York Red Bulls II v Rochester Rhinos
-Sat Oct 8
Louisville v Charleston Battery

dN

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola talks about the person that taught him the most about being a coach and seeing the game in a visionary way. That person is Johan Cryuff. By Donald McRae of the Guardian.

dN

World Cup Qualifying in South America always has some madness to it!

• Chile is the team that currently finds itself in a mess at the halfway point. Sitting in 7th place after a 3-0 loss last night at Ecuador.

• Argentina is slightly better but not so hot either. They are in 5th place, which is not an automatic qualifier but rather a playoff spot. They tied 2-2 at Peru last night.

CONMEBOL Standings After 9 of 18 Games:
19 Uruguay
18 Brazil
16 Ecuador
16 Colombia
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16 Argentina
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12 Paraguay
11 Chile
8 Peru
7 Bolivia
2 Venezuela


Round 10:
-Tue Oct 11
Bolivia v Ecuador
Colombia v Uruguay
Chile v Peru
Argentina v Paraguay
Venezuela v Brazil

dN

World Cup qualifiers in several regions this weekend and early next week. Schedules and results.



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