Some Soccer News for Dec 21, 2016

It's Day 356 of 2016.


There will be no easing into MLS for Minnesota United. They play the opening game of the 2017 season on Fri Mar 3 at Portland.

Week 1
-Fri Mar 3
Portland Timbers v Minnesota United - 8:30pm CT
Week 2
-Sun Mar 12
Minnesota United v Atlanta United - 4:00pm CT

And Minnesota will have Miguel Ibarra in uniform for those early games too! By Jeff Rueter of Fifty Five One.

One of my favorite Minnesota players Greg Jordan has signed with San Francisco Deltas of NASL. I will genuinely miss him, and thought he could have contributed to the MNUFC MLS roster.

dN

MLS 2017 Full Opening Weekend Schedule:
Week 1
-Fri Mar 3
Portland Timbers v Minnesota United
-Sat Mar 4
Columbus Crew v Chicago Fire
LA Galaxy v Dallas
Real Salt Lake v Toronto
Colorado Rapids v New England Revolution
DC United v Sporting Kansas City
Houston Dynamo v Seattle Sounders
San Jose Earthquakes v Montreal Impact
-Sun Mar 5
Orlando City v New York City
Atlanta United v New York Red Bulls
Vancouver Whitecaps v Philadelphia Union

dN

First images of the grass being laid in the new Orlando City stadium. From Total MLS.

dN

Of the 10 cities currently in the mix for 4 MLS expansion franchises these are the ones I think would be best for the league:
-Detroit
-Nashville
-Saint Louis
-San Diego
-And Tampa-St Petersburg as the 5th - a replacement for Miami if that bid ends.

dN

Chicago Fire has signed a 28 year old Hungarian striker Nemanja Nikolics who has scored 112 goals in 166 games over the past 6 club seasons in Hungary and Poland.

• That's an average of 19 goals in 28 games a year over that period. Those numbers suggest he could be very potent in MLS.

• By comparison: Krisztian Nemeth of Hungary had success in 1 season with SKC and has averaged 6 goals in 19 games per season over the past 6 years.

dN

Young American Julian Green has made a wise career choice today and left Bayern Munich to sign with Stuttgart. He will get a real chance to play, learn and grow. Stuttgart is currently in 3rd place in the 2.Bundesliga.

• Leaving a great team like Bayern cannot be easy for anyone though.

• Green joins American midfielder Joel Sonora at Stuttgart.

dN

American Fabian Johnson's coach at Monchengladbach, Andre Schubert, has been fired.

• At the Winter break Gladbach are in 14th place and just 3 points above the relegation zone.

dN

Former Minnesota United goalkeeper Matt VanOekel has signed with Real Salt Lake. Great for him.

dN

du Nord Music Mix Best of 2016 Vol. 2 (download + extract)

• Vol. 1 (download + extract)

dN

Liga MX Apertura Liguilla Final Schedule:
1st Leg
-Thu Dec 22
America v Tigres - 8:30pm CT on Univision + Univision Deportes
2nd Leg
-Sun Dec 25
Tigres v America - 6:00pm CT on Univision + Univision Deportes

dN

Big game results in Europe:
-Wed Dec 21
Bayern 3-0 Leipzig - #1 v #2 wasn't even close.

dN

Arsenal with their annual faceplant. By Rory Smith of the New York Times.



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