Monday, May 22, 2017

Some Soccer News for May 22, 2017

It's Day 142 of 2017.


Juventus is champion of Serie A once again. Congrats to them. I guess. Hahahaha.

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Real Madrid have won another Spanish Primera (aka La Liga) championship. Congrats.

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LIGA MX Clausura Liguilla

Tigres thoroughly dominated Tijuana and won the Semis in a run away. They will be next to impossible to beat in the Final.

The opponent is Guadalajara, aching to achieve the success of old.

American's Joe Corona (90 minutes) and Paul Arriola (last 19 minutes) played in the losing effort of Leg 2 for Tijuana.

Semifinals Schedule/Results:
Leg 2
-Sun May 21
Guadalajara(3) 1-1 Toluca(4) - series ends tied 2-2 so Gua advances as higher seed.
Tijuana(1) 0-2 Tigres(7) - Tig advances 4-0 on aggregate.

Final Schedule/Results:
Leg 1
-Thu May 25
Tigres v Guadalajara
Leg 2
-Sun May 28
Guadalajara v Tigres

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MINNESOTA UNITED

A tough home loss to take.

Schedule/Results:
-Sun May 21
Minnesota 1-2 LA - MU goal by Christian Ramirez. LAG goals by Giovani Dos Santos + Christian Ramirez(OG).

My MNUFC Notes:
  • Game highlights [VIDEO]
  • MNUFC looked like they were going to be really strong out of the gate, controlling a good portion of the game for 20+ minutes.
  • Including 2 great chances, 1 from Ibarra and 1 from Kallman.
  • But then LA started finding their shooting range from long distance. Too many guys given too much space. Slack MN defending.
  • Which led to the 1st goal, where the very dangerous Romain Lettuce Allesandrini was not closed down and looped in a perfect ball for Gio Dos Santos to float in unmarked and beautifully side foot up and over Shuttleworth into the net.
  • Very cruel, but I must admit incredible, goal to give up. An insanely great move by 2 very talented LA players.
  • Both Burch and Calvo stood watching it unfold in front of them, not moving an inch. Hope they liked the show.
  • Early in the 2nd half Ibarra and Ramirez squandered another great chance, never seeing a wide open Ibson at the back post.
  • Soon after that Ramirez crashed a header off the post.
  • FINALLY the Loons got their goal as Cronin sacrificed his body to put a header down into the middle of the box with only Ramirez reacting and he jammed it home. Ashley Cole kept him onside.
  • Ramirez's anticipation was magical. Nearly everyone else on both teams was pushing out and he saw his hole to run in to.
  • But for a 2nd time in 2 weeks a ball caromed off Ramirez on a set piece and ended up in the back of the Minn net for an own goal. A deflection [drink] off him in Houston on a set piece lead to a goal for the opposition too. That is 3 goals off CR during the set pieces, something is going very wrong. Its happened too many times to be dumb luck.
  • The effort in the game from Minn was certainly there. No doubt about it.
  • But the quality of the players on the field is just not good enough for Minnesota to compete at this level. So far they have beaten the two teams clearly worse than them, Salt Lake and Colorado, and gotten a signature win against Kansas City. But beating many other teams is going to be tough with this roster.
  • The Loons have virtually no bench at all.
  • Danladi got injured early (groin?) and Jvenegas came on to replace him. Leaving no other credible player to take the field.
  • For some bizarre reason Heath subbed off Ibarra in the 78th min - he looked just fine to me. The player coming in was Jome who has no business being on a MLS field. None. Seriously. It was a wasted sub.
  • To make matters worse there was no one else on the bench that could add anything to the attack late in the game when the Loons were in dire need of a spark.
  • No Shuller in the gameday 18.
  • No Kadrii in the gameday 18.
  • What is going on?
  • At this point Davis is a much better outside attacking option than Jome.
  • Ibson was again great, except for one ugly back pass in the middle of the field that was nearly costly, but snuffed out.
  • Other than that the Ibson "pick-pocket defense" was a thing of beauty. So many times a teammate slowed down the opponent with the ball and Ibson sneaked in from behind and to snatch the ball away. It was breathtaking!
  • I bet Ibson made 10 defensive plays in total yesterday.
  • Shuttleworth also made 3 strong saves.
  • God dammit! How did they lose this game?!?!?



Post-game Media:

How have the 7 players Minnesota brought with them from the NASL team performed so far this season? By Andy Greder for the Pioneer Press.

Next Up:
-Sat May 27
Minnesota v Orlando - 7:00pm CT on My29
-Next weeks MNUFC opponent Orlando got smoked at home.

dN

MLS

My MLS Notes:
  • 2 big streaks ended: Dallas has lost for the 1st time this season. And it happened at home - AND - Toronto tied after winning 6 in a row.
  • Philly with 2 more wins and 6 more points! Are you kidding me.
  • Chicago also landed 2 wins etc.
  • Atlanta got back on track with a thrashing of Houston.
  • Orlando lost for the first time at their new stadium.
  • Three other "contenders" lost on the road" Portland, Seattle and Kansas City. Its a cold cruel world away from home.

Media:

Week 12:
(16 games)
-Wed May 17
Philadelphia 2-0 Houston
Chicago 3-0 Colorado
Kansas City 3-0 Seattle
Salt Lake 2-1 New York City
San Jose 1-1 Orlando
-Fri May 19
New York Red Bulls 1-1 Toronto
-Sat May 20
Montreal 4-1 Portland
DC 0-1 Chicago
Seattle 1-0 Salt Lake
Atlanta 4-1 Houston
Philadelphia 2-1 Colorado
Vancouver 2-0 Kansas City
Dallas 0-1 San Jose
-Sun May 21
New England 2-1 Columbus
Minnesota 1-2 LA
Orlando 0-3 New York City
  • 42 goals in 16 games = 2.6 GPG. Eh.

Coming up next in Week 13 of MLS:
(11 games)
-Thu May 25
Chicago v Dallas
-Fri May 26
Toronto v Columbus
-Sat May 27
Seattle v Portland - 1:30pm CT on FOX
Vancouver v DC
New York RB v New England
Colorado v KC
Minnesota v Orlando - 7:00pm CT on My29
Salt Lake v Philadelphia
San Jose v LA - 9:00pm CT on Univision
-Sun May 28
Atlanta v New York City - 4:00pm CT on ESPN
Dallas v Houston - 7:00pm CT on FS1
-Montreal are off this week.

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AMERICANS ABROAD

Bobby Wood and Hamburger got a very important win, 2-1 over Wolfsburg, to avoid a relegation playoff series. They finished in 14th.

John Brooks ended his season in horrible form, being subbed off at half time by a furious coach as they lost at home 2-6 to Leverkusen. Oof. His up and down season does not bode well for World Cup qualifying ahead.

Youngster Weston McKennie made his top flight debut, coming on in the 76th minute for Schalke as they tied Ingolstadt 1-1.

5 Americans did end their European season on high notes. By Steven Goff for the Washington Post.

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Men's U20 World Cup - South Korea

USA was shell-shocked and down 0-2 after just 7 minutes. But the team scrambled to stay in this one and twice came from behind to grab a desperate tie, scoring several minutes into 2nd half stoppage time.

Game highlights [VIDEO]

The front 3 attackers for the USA were remarkable:
  • 16 year old Josh Sargent who just lead the USA U-17 team in qualifying for that age groups World Cup grabbed 2 goals for the older team.
  • Luca De La Torre set up the 1st goal and scored the 3rd.
  • While Brooks Lennon set up the 2nd and 3rd goals.

The story of team captain Erik Palmer-Brown. By Brian Straus for Sports Illustrated.

USMNT - Group F - Schedule/Results:
-Mon May 22
USA 3-3 Ecuador - USA goals by Josh Sargent(2) + Luca De La Torre.
Incheon Stadium
-Thu May 25
USA v Senegal - 6:00AM CT on FS1
Incheon Stadium
-Sun May 28
USA v Saudi Arabia - 4:00AM CT on FS1
Daejeon Stadium

USA Roster
  • G: Jonathan Klinsmann - U California, JT Marcinkowski - Georgetown U, Brady Scott - De Anza Force
  • D: Danny Acosta - Real Salt Lake, Cameron Carter-Vickers - Tottenham, Justen Glad - Real Salt Lake, Aaron Herrera - U New Mexico, Erik Palmer-Brown - Sporting Kansas City, Tommy Redding - Orlando City, Auston Trusty - Philadelphia Union
  • M: Tyler Adams - New York Red Bulls, Luca De La Torre - Fulham, Derrick Jones - Philadelphia Union, Eryk Williamson - U Maryland, Gedion Zelalem - Arsenal
  • F: Jeremy Ebobisse - Portland Timbers, Lagos Kunga - Atlanta United, Brooks Lennon - Real Salt Lake, Emmanuel Sabbi - unaffiliated, Josh Sargent - St. Louis Scott Gallagher Missouri, Sebastian Saucedo - Real Salt Lake
  • C: Tab Ramos

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La Liga Title Race

Its all over and Real Madrid are champions once more.

Standings:
93 Real Madrid
90 Barcelona

-Wed May 17
Celta de Vigo 1-4 Real Madrid
-Sun May 21
Barcelona 4-2 Eibar
Malaga 0-2 Real Madrid

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Serie A Title Race

Juventus are champions once again. Congrats to them.

Standings:
(1 game left)
88 Juventus (+49)
84 Roma (+51)
83 Napoli (+53)

-Sat May 20
Chievo 3-5 Roma
Napoli 4-1 Fiorentina
-Sun May 21
Juventus 3-0 Crotone

dN

Starting next season the English FA will give out retroactive suspensions for simulation.



The Bird Is The Word

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