Some Soccer News for Dec 5, 2016

It's Day 340 of 2016.


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

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Official MLS 2016 Best XI:
G
Andre Blake
D
Matt Hedges Jelle Van Damme Axel Sjoberg
M
Sacha Kljestan
Maruo Diaz
Ignacio Piatti
F
Giovanni Dos Santos
Bradley Wright-Phillips
David Villa
Sebastian Giovinco

My Best XI Notes:

• Nothing against any of those players. All excellent.

• But apparently they are gonna line up in a 3-3-4

• No fullbacks

• No defensive midfielders

• Only 1 wide player

• Two attacking midfielders

• That is a clusterfuck of a line up

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Coming later this week: The 11th annual du Nord Futbol MLS Best 11.

• I promise I will name an 11 that is capable of taking the field as a full team. And we would whip the donkeys ass of the MLS Best list in FIFA.

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Cristian Roldan is one of the Sounders unsung heroes in 2016. Who is he, how has he done it and what is his future? by Jeff Carlisle of ESPNFC.

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Atlanta United has made a huge investment in a little known player from Paraguay, Miguel Almiron who played for Lanus. Shit is changing fast in MLS. By Paul Tenorio of Four Four Two.

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The US Soccer Federation has big meetings in New York today and tomorrow. Expect to hear some news about something.

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The future of the NASL seems to be changing by the day, and could blow up at any minute. A round up of what we know so far. By Brian Straus of Sports Illustrated.

• Details seem to come up constantly at this point, with this report saying NASL only has 4 confirmed teams for 2017 at this time. By Brian Quarstad of Fifty Five One.

• Cosmos players received notice today that their contracts have been terminated. Well, that certainly seems like that's it - its all over. By Dave Martinez of Empire of Soccer.

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Bruce Arena was in Germany over the weekend and he met with at least Christian Pulisic and Fabian Johnson. Probably more.

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The Bob Bradley + Swansea City Tracker:

• Note: Bad. Yeesh. Bad. Yeesh. Bad. Yeesh. Bad. Yeesh. Bad. Yeesh. Bad. Yeesh. Bad. Yeesh. Bad. Yeesh.

• Results - Sat Dec 3 L 5-0 at Tottenham

• Standings - 20th Place, 3 Points + -1 GD into Relegation

• Up Next - Sat Dec 12 v Sunderland

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Little known American (with duel Norwegian citizenship) Bjorn Johnsen scored his 5th goal of the Scottish Premier League season this weekend. (In 14 games.) The forward plays with fellow American and team captain Perry Kitchen. They are currently in 3rd place of the 12 team league.

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Another little known American forward, Andrew Wooten, plays in the German 2nd division at Sandhausen and has 8 goals in 14 games this season.

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Alejandro Camargo of Universidad de Concepcion in Chile scored the most stunning half field side volley goal I have ever seen. [VIDEO]

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Liga MX Apertura Liguilla Semifinals Schedule:

• It will be a repeat of the 2011 Apertura Final with Tigres v America.

2nd Leg
-Sat Dec 3
Tigres(3) 2-1 Leon(8) - Tig advances 3-1 on agg. Tig goals by Andre Gignac + Lucas Zelarrayan. Leo goal by Luis Montes.
-Sun Dec 4
America(5) 2-0 Necaxa(7) - Ame advances 3-1 on agg. Ame goals by Willian da Silva + Oribe Peralta.

Performance of the Americans in Liga MX Liguilla:

• William Yarborough - Leon - played the whole game in a losing effort.

• Jose Torres - Tigres - came on as a sub in the 3rd minute of stoppage time to kill off the game as they won and advanced to the Final.

• Ventura Alvarado - America - went the full 90 at right fullback as they advanced. Who saw this coming?

Due to a conflict with the FIFA Club World Cup the Final series has been pushed back 2 weeks to Dec 21 + 24.

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UEFA Champions League - Group Stage - Big Teams - Matchday 6:

• Advanced to the knock out rounds: Arsenal (A), Atletico Madrid (D), Barcelona (C), Bayern Munich (D), Dortmund (F), Juventus (H), Leicester (G), Monaco (E), PSG (A) and Real Madrid (F).

-Tue Dec 6
Bayern v Atletico
Man City v Celtic
Barca v Gladbach
Basel v Arsenal
PSG v Ludogorets
-Wed Dec 7
Juve v Dinamo Zagreb
Real Madrid v Dortmund

Americans in the UCL:

• Fabian Johnson - Monchengladbach - Tue Dec 6 at Barcelona

• Christian Pulisic - Dortmund - Wed Dec 7 at Real Madrid

Draw for the Round of 16 is on Mon Dec 12.

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Shock Bundesliga leaders RB Leipzig has won 8 games in a row, and not lost a single game this season.

• They will face Bayern Munich on Wed Dec 21 on the road.

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Paris Saint-Germain got smoked 3-0 at Montpelier and dropped to 3rd place. Yes, Zlatan is that good.

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Coming up this weekend in Europe:
-Sat Dec 3
Manchester City 1-3 Chelsea - Chelsea opens up a gap at the top!
Barcelona 1-1 Real Madrid - RM retains their 6 pt lead.
-Sun Dec 4
Lazio 0-2 Roma - Rom trying to keep pace with Juve but still 4 back of the leaders.

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



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