Some Soccer News for Dec 1, 2016

It's Day 336 of 2016.

Chapecoense was supposed to play Atletico Nacional now. Fox Sports in Brazil airing a black screen with a hashtag "90 minutes of silence" ?? pic.twitter.com/QbBw5XWp8v

— Guilherme Cruz (@guicruzzz) December 1, 2016

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MLS Playoffs - Semifinals:

• The 2016 Final will be played in Toronto!

• What do you want me to say? Epic. Nuts. Nerve wracking. Bonkers. Brilliance.

• Benoit Cheyrou and Tosaint Ricketts, both subs, scored for Toronto in Added Extra Time to break the 5-5 aggregate tie.

• And Jozy Altidore was a monster! He has now scored in 6 consecutive playoff games for Toronto.

• Montreal had the lead when the game started. Pushed it further with the first goal. And again with a goal to start the 2nd half. But the pressure seemed to have caught up to them and they folded down the stretch.

• When Sebastian Giovinco went out injured early in AET how many of you thought TFC was done?

• Where did Ignacio Piatti go to after about the 80th minute? He vanished.

• You know who didn't vanish for Montreal? Marco Donadel! Holy smokes did he leave it all on the field or what? I love that guys tenacity.

• The fans support in Montreal, Seattle and Toronto was just fantastic. I am not going to dump on Colorado but it just wasn't even close to the same level of passion.

• Attendance for the two legs in the East was 98,000!

• Toronto pure joy. By Ryan Wolstat of Toronto Sun.

• Toronto finally wins a big one. By Cathal Kelly of the Globe And Mail.

• Montreal Heartbreak. By Stu Cowan of Montreal Gazette.

• Toronto and Montreal produced a classic. By Brian Straus of Sports Illustrated.

• The analytics of the game tell all. By Matt Doyle of MLSsoccer.

2nd Leg-Sun Nov 27
Colorado Rapids 0-1 Seattle Sounders - SS advances 3-1 on aggregate - SS goal by Jordan Morris.
-Wed Nov 30
Toronto 5-2 Montreal - Tor advances 7-5 on aggregate - Tor goals by Armando Cooper, Jozy Altidore, Nick Hagglund, Benoit Cheyrou + Tosaint Ricketts. MI goals by Dominic Oduro + Ignacio Piatti.

Final
-Sat Dec 10
Toronto FC v Seattle Sounders FC - 7:00pm CT on FOX

• Sadly I will not be there this year. I'm bummed. I love going to this game.

• Toronto is the favorite to win it all.

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Finally, after 9 years of futility, TFC gets it right this season. By Dough McIntyre of ESPNFC.

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Oscar Pareja of Dallas named MLS Coach Of The Year

• Other finalists: Pablo Mastroeni of Colorado Rapids and Patrick Vieira of New York City.

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Kevin Venegas + Justin Davis are officially the first players announced for the MNUFC MLS roster.

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Minnesota United will again take part in the Portland preseason invitational tournament:
-Thu Feb 9
Minnesota United v Vancouver Whitecaps – 5:00pm PT
Portland Timbers v Real Salt Lake – 7:30pm PT
-Sun Feb 12
Vancouver Whitecaps v Real Salt Lake – 2:30pm PT
Minnesota United v Portland Timbers – 5:00pm PT
-Wed Feb 15
Minnesota United v Real Salt Lake – 5:00pm PT
Portland Timbers v Vancouver Whitecaps – 7:30pm PT

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Comparing new Minnesota head coach Adrian Heath to Atlanta's Gerardo Martinez. By Haris Kruskic of Dirty South Soccer.

• They rate Martinez a mile ahead of Heath. Natch.

• But like the Golden Ball or the Group Of Death, you can only analyze this one after the fact. Not before.

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Five of the hottest topics around MLS, and more, reviewed. By Steve Davis at FC Dallas.

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Refreshments: du Nord Music Mix Vol 106 (download + extract)

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Liga MX Apertura Liguilla Semifinals:

• Tigres got the road win and the road goal. Will be hard to keep them out of the Final.

Semifinals Schedule:
1st Leg
-Wed Nov 30
Leon(8) 0-1 Tigres(3) - Tig goal by Andre Gignac.
-Thu Dec 1
Necaxa(7) v America(5) - 9pm CT on Univision Deportes
2nd Leg
-Sat Dec 3
Tigres(3) v Leon(8)
-Sun Dec 4
America(5) v Necaxa(7)

Performance of the Americans in Liga MX Liguilla:

• William Yarborough - Leon - played the full 90 as they lost at home. He did his best on the 1 goal that was scored against him.

• Jose Torres - Tigres - on the bench but did not play in the winning effort.

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Coming up this weekend in Europe:
-Sat Dec 3
Manchester City v Chelsea - 6:30am CT on NBCSN
Barcelona v Real Madrid - 9:00am CT on beIN Sports
-Sun Dec 4
Lazio v Roma - 8:00am CT on beIN Sports

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Today I saw someone refer to Tinfoil Ted as Fred Phelps. Perfect.



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