Monday, February 06, 2017

Some Soccer News for Feb 6, 2017

It's Day 37 of 2017.


Huge congrats to Cameroon for winning the Africa Cup of Nations!

dN

Last seasons surprise of all surprises Leicester City are now just 1 point above the relegation zone in England - losers of 4 in a row.

dN

Bob Bradley is out there looking for a job. Does he come to MLS? And if he does, where does he coach? These are the top choices in my book (not in any order):
  • LA FC
  • Toronto
  • LA Galaxy
  • RSL
  • Chicago
  • Vancouver

dN

Word from Sacramento is that a group bidding for a MLS team and owners of Sacramento Republic have joined forces on the bid.

dN

MINNESOTA UNITED PRESEASON

Goalkeeper Sammy Ndjock announced on social media that he has been released by MNUFC. Nothing from the team.

Matches:
-Fri Feb 3
MNUFC 1-1 Nogometni Klub Istra 1961 (Croatia) - goal by Eugene Starikov

The team now heads to Portland for 3 games in the Invitational:
-Thu Feb 9
MNUFC v Vancouver Whitecaps
-Sun Feb 12
MNUFC v Portland Timbers
-Wed Feb 15
MNUFC v Real Salt Lake

Training camp roster:
  • G: John Alvbage, Alec Ferrell, Marco Carducci (trialist), Charlie Lyon (trialist)
  • D: Francisco Calvo, Tiago Calvano (preseason invitee), Justin Davis, Vadim Demidov, Thomas de Villardi, Joe Greenspan, Ismaila Jome, Brent Kallman, Lance Laing (preseason invitee), Jermaine Taylor, Kevin Venegas, Andrew Tinari (trialist)
  • M: Bernardo Anor, Raul Gonzalez (trialist), Ibson, Miguel Ibarra, Duke LaCroix (trialist), Collin Martin, Mohammed Saeid, Rasmus Schuller, Eugene Starikov (trialist), Tanner Thompson, Johan Venegas, Collen Warner
  • F: Abu Danladi, David Goldsmith (trialist), Femi Hollinger-Janzen, Christian Ramirez

Minnesota has announced the details on the launch of their development academy.
  • They will begin with 2 teams - U13 and U14 playing in the Development Academy League in Sep of this year.

dN

NOTEWORTHY AMERICANS ABROAD:
  • Paul Arriola - Tijuana - played the whole game, scoring the last goal in a 2-4 win at Leon.
  • Michael Orozco - Tijuana - started against Leon but came off in the 20th minute with an injured left ankle.
  • Andrew Wooten - Sandhausen - played 90 minutes and scored the 2nd goal as they won 2-0 v Erzgebirge Aue.
  • Julian Green - Stuttgart - on Monday he got his first goal for his new team:
Not all that different from his World Cup goal against Belgium - cutting in from the left and shooting to the right past the frozen keeper. Here.

dN

USMNT JANUARY CAMP

Friendly Match:
-Fri Feb 3
USA 1-0 Jamaica - USA goal by Jordan Morris.
Chattanooga, Finley Stadium

My Notes:
  • Good: Zimmerman + Birnbaum in the center of defense were solid. Zimmerman was very confident for a debutant. Villafana did very good getting into the attack (See Bad.) Good combination on goal from Jordan with Feilhaber.
  • Bad: Still suffered badly in final third. Zusi struggled at fullback with the Jamaican speed and strength. Villafana did nothing very several good chances to open up the attack. Poor defense from Agudelo - really unnecessary fouls. Pontius way too slow and didn't contribute on offense.
  • Up next are World Cup qualifiers on Mar 24 and 28.

Did anyone else made their case for the future? By Doug McIntyre of ESPNFC.

USMNT:
  • G: David Bingham, Nick Rimando, Luis Robles
  • D: DaMarcus Beasley, Steve Birnbaum, Brad Evans, Greg Garza, Chad Marshall, Jorge Villafana, Walker Zimmerman, Graham Zusi
  • M: Alejandro Bedoya, Michael Bradley, Benny Feilhaber, Sebastian Lletget, Dax McCarty, Darlington Nagbe, Chris Pontius
  • F: Juan Agudelo, Jozy Altidore, Jordan Morris

Is MLS still not helping to improve the pool of USMNT players? By Kevin Baxter of the LA Times.
  • The premise is pretty dead on.
  • Baxter says more players still need to go to Europe to improve. He forgets one key ingredient - they need a European passport much of the time, and that is not easy to come by.
  • There is also constant note of things Klinsmann did here and in Germany as suggestions for vast improvement, another thing not noted though is that Klinsmann's "German revolution" added about 10% quality to the very top of the pile, where in the USA our very best is behind German average. In other words, the two countries are incomparable.

dN

The 2017 NASL season begins on Mar 25. Here is the full schedule.

dN

Band Dead Territory covers John Cage's song 4'33". [VIDEO] MUST SEE.
  • Note: guitarist on right wearing white Birkenstocks - Deathklok would not approve.

dN

We are 8 days away from the return of the UEFA Champions League - Round of 16.

dN

AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS

Final:
-Sun Feb 5
Egypt 1-2 Cameroon
  • Egypt took the lead early, but Cameroon tied it and then won the game in the 89th minute!
  • And then there is this:


dN

Chaos is Spain as a huge storm ripped through part of the country leaving several stadiums damaged and many games canceled this weekend. Plus results from games that went forward. By Sid Lowe of the Guardian.

dN

Biggest European matches last weekend:
-Sat Feb 4
Chelsea 3-1 Arsenal - losers Arsenal fall from 2nd place to 4th place. Oof!
Bayern 1-1 Schalke - very old rivals in a stalemate
Dortmund 1-0 Leipzig - #4 beat #2 and the supposedly coolest of the cool Dortmund fans started a fight with the "lowly" Leipzig fans.
Monaco 3-0 Nice - #1 v #2 - the loser drops to 3rd.
-Sun Feb 5
Juventus 1-0 Internazionale - Derby d'Italia - Juve's lead goes back to 6 points with a game in hand.

Coming up:
-Sat Feb 11
Liverpool v Tottenham - #5 v #2

dN

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

dN

Finally, New England Revs beat Atlanta United in Superb Owl 51.



The Bird Is The Word

posted by brucio at 15:27

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