Some Soccer News for Feb 13, 2017

It's Day 44 of 2017.


Message from Kansas City today:
From: Mike Kuhn ‏@downthebyline
Bruce,
For anyone coming to KC for MN game on Sat Jun 3.
"Rockfest" will be same day at the KS Speedway (right next to the soccer stadium)
The show is called largest 1 day music festival in USA (concert draws 50K+)
If you are looking to book hotel near stadium you should do that ASAP

dN

Univision Deportes is going to start broadcasting some Liga MX games in the English language on its Facebook page.

• First game will be Sat Feb 18 America v Chivas - 9:00pm CT.

dN

MINNESOTA UNITED PRESEASON

The fourth tie of the preseason, 2-2 last night against Portland.

• Minnesota got a 0-2 lead on 2 goals by Johan Venegas. The first a scrapper, but the 2nd was beautifully set up by Baskhim Kadrii and finished off perfectly.

• Portland put in their First 11 in the 59th minute and came away with a tie against pretty much all Minnesota subs.

• Good to see the Loons hang on, but too bad they couldn't grab all 3 points.

In case you missed it on Friday, Minnesota is looking to sign American winger Josh Gatt from Molde in Sweden. Not official yet, but is already with the team in Portland. Blazing speed, but missed 3 full years Summer 2013 to Summer 2016 due to knee injuries and surgeries. He played all 6 games last Fall for Molde. If he is healthy he can be a big signing.

Matches + Results:
Portland Invitational
-Thu Feb 9
MNUFC 1-1 Vancouver Whitecaps - MU goal by VW Own Goal.
-Sun Feb 12
MNUFC 2-2 Portland Timbers - 7:00pm CT - MU goals both by Johan Venegas.
-Wed Feb 15
MNUFC v Real Salt Lake - 7:00pm CT - Webstream at mnufc.com

Game highlights. [VIDEO]

My Notes:

• MU starters - Alvbage, KVenegas, Greenspan, Kallman, De Villardi, Martin, Molino, Ibson, Kadrii, Jome, JVenegas

• MU Subs - Halftime: Ramirez for JVenegas, Starikov for Molino. 64th: Thompson for Kadrii.

• Neither back up keeper played again.

• Did Not Play - Anor, Calvano, Calvo, Danladi, Davis, Demidov, Gonzalez, Hollinger-Janzen, Ibarra, Saeid, Schuller, Taylor, Warner.

• Portland also started a 2nd team, then brought in their first 11 in the 59th minute.

• Looking good - Ibson (until a horrible 2nd half pass lead directly to the 1st Portland goal), Martin was cool and calm, JVenegas-Molino-Kadrii all had great moments in the attack, Jome was very solid and worked extremely hard, Alvin Jones got forward really well, Starikov again worked his ass off.

• Rough spots - Ibson on the 1st Port goal, Kallman was in the middle of both Portland goals (oof), De Villardi-KVenegas-Jones had a tough night on fullback defense, Alvbage is not filling me with confidence (more of that punching, ick), Greenspan had 2 clean looks at goal on set pieces and didn't put his headers anywhere near the frame.

• The lack of fullback depth is either going to keep me awake at night or give me nightmares if I manage to fall asleep.

Game reports:

• Pioneer Press - Andy Greder

• Fifty Five One - Wes Burdine

• Star Tribune - Megan Ryan

Training camp roster (30):

• G: John Alvbage, Marco Carducci (trialist), Patrick McLain

• D: Francisco Calvo, Tiago Calvano (trialist), Justin Davis, Vadim Demidov, Joe Greenspan, Alvin Jones (trialist), Brent Kallman, Jermaine Taylor, Kevin Venegas, Thomas de Villardi (unsigned draft pick)

• M: Bernardo Anor, Joshua Gatt, Raul Gonzalez (trialist), Ibson, Miguel Ibarra, Ismaila Jome, Bashkim Kadrii, Collin Martin, Kevin Molino, Mohammed Saeid, Rasmus Schuller, Eugene Starikov (trialist), Tanner Thompson (unsigned draft pick), Collen Warner

• F: Abu Danladi, Femi Hollinger-Janzen, Christian Ramirez, Johan Venegas

dN

Here it comes! UEFA Champions League is back, baby!

Has the Champions League turned into the Same-Old, Same-Old, Same-Old? by Rory Smith of the New York Times.

Round of 16 Matches:
1st Leg
-Tue Feb 14
PSG v Barcelona - 1:45pm CT on FS1
Benfica v Dortmund - 1:45pm CT on FS2
-Wed Feb 15
Bayern v Arsenal - 1:45pm CT on FS1
Real Madrid v Napoli - 1:45pm CT on FS2
-Tue Feb 21
Leverkusen v Atletico
Man City v Monaco
-Wed Feb 22
Porto v Juventus
Sevilla v Leicester

dN

Eric Wynalda is back in the coaching game - taking over LA Wolves who play in United Premier Soccer League. All the teams in this league are amateur and located in the Southwestern USA. I am sure he was brought in to give them some of his US Open Cup magic.

dN

American Fabian Johnson is finally back to full strength after dealing with an achilles injury - he played the full 90 as Gladbach went to Bremen and won 0-1.

dN

American fullback Eric Lichaj got 2 yellow cards and was ejected for Nottingham Forest as they lost 5-1 at Norwich.

dN

The Terrence Boyd + Darmstadt Tracker:

• Results - Win Sat Feb 11 2-1 v Dortmund

• Note - huge shocking win over Dortmund! Boyd got the 1st goal too! Boyd started and went 58 min. (Pulisic played the full 90 for Dort.)

• Standings - Last place, 7 points below relegation + 4 points below playoff

• Up Next - Sat Feb 18 at Hoffenheim

dN

The Miguel Herrera + Tijuana Tracker:

• Results - Lost Fri Feb 10 1-2 v Necaxa

• Note - a bad home loss dropped them into 2nd place

• Standings - 2nd Place, 1 point behind Toluca

• Up Next - Sun Feb 19 at Pumas UNAM

dN

Results from the big games in Mexico this weekend:
-Sat Feb 11
Atlas 1-2 Guadalajara - Chivas wins the fiercest derby in Mexico
Monterrey 2-0 Pumas UNAM - Mon jumps from #9 to #5, while Pum falls from #3 to #7
Pachuca 1-0 Tigres UANL - Pachuca moves up to #3
-Sun Feb 12
Toluca 1-0 Veracruz - Tol moves from 2nd to 1st Place

• The biggest stories in Liga MX after those weekend results. By Tom Marshall of ESPNFC.

dN

Biggest European matches:
-Sat Feb 11
Liverpool 2-0 Tottenham - moved Liv from #5 to #4, but left Tot at #2 (barely.)

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

Leaders of Top 5 Euro Leagues:

• Prem - Chelsea by 10 points with 25 of 38 played

• Bund - Bayern by 7 points with 20 of 34 played

• Seri - Juventus by 7 points with 24 of 38 played

• Liga - Real Madrid by 1 point with 20 of 38 played

• Ligu - Monaco by 3 points with 25 of 38 played

The Bird Is The Word