Some Soccer News for Jul 24, 2017

It's Day 205 of 2017.


On Tuesday morning Minnesota United will announce that their new stadium in the St Paul Midway will be called Allianz Field.

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USMNT is on to the Final of the Gold Cup on Wednesday night where they will face Jamaica who knocked off Mexico.

• Jared Borgetti, former Mexican striker, blamed the loss on "too many foreign players in Liga MX."
• Jamaica keeper Andre Blake has been insanely good in this tournament.
• The USA will have to be nearly perfect to win the title.
• Clint Dempsey was the super sub for the USMNT, coming on in the 66th min against Costa Rica and adding the scoring punch the USA lacked.
• Minnesota United centerback Jermaine Taylor and former centerback Damion Lowe have been a powerful partnership in the Jamaica backline. Congrats to them. But I can't support you in the Final. Hope you understand.

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CONCACAF has handed down multi-game suspensions to 2 El Salvador players for biting and pinching USMNT players in the Gold Cup Quarterfinals:

• Henry Romero receives a six-match ban from participating in the next official matches with the El Salvador national team. (Bit and nipple twisted Jozy Altidore)
• Darwin Ceren receives a three-match ban from participating in the next official matches with the El Salvador national team. (Bit Omar Gonzalez)

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MINNESOTA UNITED

My MNUFC Notes:

• Game highlights. [VIDEO]
• The mental weakness of this team apparently knows no bounds.
• Yes the roster is thin, but the fight is barely there.
• On the 2nd NY goal the Minnesota players stood around complaining of a non-call while Bradley Wright Phillips slipped past Davis and easily finished his shot around Shuttleworth. So poor from the Loons.
• The whole team was sleep walking until New York scored, then they kicked it in to gear but still couldn't manage a shot on goal. Ramirez, Ibarra, Molino and Danladi all missed golden opportunities to score.
• Three games in a row without a goal, all at home.
• One point in the last 5 games.
• Kallman again exited the game with a knee injury. He can't keep going on like this. It will only make his long term recovery harder. He needs a rest. Hopefully with Calvo headed back and then Taylor, plus the addition of Boxall, he will get the needed down time.
• Plus Kallman got another yellow card and will be suspended for the next game anyway.
• Cronin has seen the wear and tear catch up to him too, and he sat out which opened up the whole field in front of the MN back line. It was ugly.
• No out could have expected new guy Boxall and fullback Davis to play centerback with no protection in front of them.
• The coach has few choices on this bench, but the way he sends his guys out on the field is weird. He did not instruct either Ibson or Martin to STAY HOME in the d-mid and guard the centerbacks? Or did they not listen? WTF?
• The team tried to disguise the fact that they only had 4 field players on the bench by listing JVenegas as available, but he never warmed up and was certainly not going to play under any circumstances. So they had 14 outfield and 2 goalkeepers.
• The other new guy Nicholson came off the field in the 60th with a completely dazed look on his face. He had never experienced heat like that in his whole life. He should have come off at half time. And Nicholson went straight to the locker room upon substitution presumably to avoid heat stroke. They may have destroyed the guy. I hope he recovers. Heat damage like that can set you back weeks.
• Until Burch returns Jome has to be the left fullback of choice. He has the pace to not get beat over and over again.
• Molino, what can I say? Earn you pay buddy.
• The whole team looks exhausted.
• And offensive set pieces. Holy shit its bad.
• And I don't want to hear about the god damn referees. They didn't effect the outcome of this game. Yes, they aren't perfect. No one is. So my fellow fans need to stop blaming refs.

Next Saturday they play the only team in the league worse then they are. It is a must win game. Their first of the season.

• There are only 5 home games left in the season, and they have yet to win on the road.

Toothless is the name of the game for MNUFC right now. By Alex Schieferdecker for Fifty Five One.

Stadium Cam

Results:
-Sat Jul 22
Minnesota 0-3 New York Red Bulls - NYRB goals by Daniel Royer, Bradley Wright Phillips + Alex Muyl.

Schedule:
-Sat Jul 29
Minnesota v DC - 7pm CT on My29

The Loons are still on pace to have the worst defensive stats in league history. 45 goals given up so far. Chivas USA had allowed 44 at this same point of the season (21 games.) Painful!

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LISTEN: The WTF podcast with Marc Maron has a great interview with Mark Mothersbaugh. You really should listen. He was at Kent State when the Vietnam protesters were killed by the National Guard. He founded the rock band DEVO. And has done amazing sound and music work for TV and films for years, like Pee-Wee's Playhouse and Wes Anderson movies. Plus he is just a really interesting guy with great stories. From WTF. [AUDIO]

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USMNT

MY USMNT Notes:

• Comprehensive 2-0 win against Costa Rica in the Gold Cup Semifinals.
• The USMNT controlled the whole game, but it took the super-sub Clint Dempsey to get the results. He set up with the first goal and scored the second after coming on in the 67th min.
• Dempsey is now tied with Landon Donovan for the All Time USMNT goal scoring record of 57.
• Who else was good? Altidore, Howard, OGonzalez, Bradley.
• Who was bad? Villafana + Morris were kind of invisible. Does that make them bad? Doubtful.
• Who was average? Zusi, Besler, Arriola, Acosta, Nagbe.
• Subs with no impression? McCarty + Zardes.

Semifinal Results:
-Sat Jul 22
USA 2-0 Costa Rica - USA goals by Jozy Altidore + Clint Dempsey

Final Schedule:
-Wed Jul 26
USA v Jamaica - 8:30pm CT on FS1.
Santa Clara CA - Levi's Stadium.

A Jamaica primer. From US Soccer.

On Sunday I posted this poll on Twitter:

Who is the starting goalkeeper for USMNT right now?

— Bruce McGuire (@dunord) July 23, 2017

• Who are those 16% who didn't vote for Howard?

Young Dallas goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez is now a part of the USMNT set up and this is his story. From the AP via USA Today.

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Gold Cup

A huge upset! Jamaica knocked off Mexico to advance to the Final against the United States.

Don't forget though, Jamaica did the same thing to the USA in the Semifinals 2 years ago.

The pressure is mounting on Mex head coach Juan Carlos Osorio after a bad loss. By Tom Marshall for ESPNFC.

• All of the blame cannot be laid at the feet of Osorio - the league owners refused to give him any reinforcements for the knock out stages of the tourney.

I was surprised at all the empty seats at the Rose Bowl for Mexico v Jamaica last night. At least 25% empty, maybe more.

Semifinals Schedule:
-Sat Jul 22
5 Costa Rica 0-2 USA
-Sun Jul 23
6 Mexico 0-1 Jamaica

Final Schedule:
-Wed Jul 26
USA v Jamaica

-Follow the entire Gold Cup here.

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MLS

Media:

• The MLS XI for Week 20 - craziness abounds! By Alexander Abnos for Sports Illustrated.
• The best analysis of Week 20. By Matt Doyle for MLS.

My MLS Notes:

• MUST SEE: Mike Petke, head coach of Salt Lake, had the performance of the week - easily. [VIDEO] "The freakin' printer didn't work!"
• Houston finally won a road game this season. Good for them.
• DC is worse than Minnesota and they play in Minneapolis next Saturday.
• Atlanta stunned Orlando on a great goal by Villalba. Wow.
• A man down for 78 minutes and behind on virtually every stat except the only one that counts, NYC beat Chicago at home in a battle of top teams. Play below par and still win against a great team - Impressive.
• LA has lost SIX IN A ROW!
• Montreal is s(t)inking too.
• Without their 2 top strikers Seattle still crushed a lifeless San Jose.

Week 20 results:
(18 Games)
-Wed Jul 19
Montreal 2-1 Philadelphia
New York Red Bulls 5-1 San Jose
New York City 2-2 Toronto
Minnesota 0-0 Houston
LA 0-1 Vancouver
Portland 1-4 Salt Lake
Seattle 4-3 DC
-Fri Jul 21
Orlando 0-1 Atlanta
-Sat Jul 22
New York City 2-1 Chicago
Minnesota 0-3 New York Red Bulls
DC 1-3 Houston
Toronto 1-1 Colorado
Columbus 1-0 Philadelphia
Montreal 1-2 Dallas
New England 4-3 LA
Salt Lake 1-1 Kansas City
-Sun Jul 23
Vancouver 1-2 Portland
Seattle 3-0 San Jose

58 goals in 18 games = 3.2 goals per game.

Week 21 schedule:
(12 games)
-Wed Jul 26
Philadelphia v Columbus
-Sat Jul 29
Atlanta v Orlando
New England v Philadelphia
New York Red Bulls v Montreal
Dallas v Vancouver
Houston v Portland
Kansas City v Chicago
Minnesota v DC
Salt Lake v Columbus
San Jose v Colorado
LA v Seattle
-Sun Jul 30
Toronto v New York City

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AMERICANS ABROAD (IN MEXICO)

Two young Americans started the first game of the season in Liga MX and several others played their part as well:

• Jonathan Gonzalez debuted at just 18 years old, starting and going 56 minutes for Monterrey as they tied 0-0 at Morelia.
• Edgar Castillo was on the bench for Monterrey.
• Alejandro Guido started and played 72 min for Tijuana but they lost 0-2 to Cruz Azul.
• Michael Orozco was on the bench for Tijuana.
• Jonathan Borntstein was a sub for just the last seconds for Queretaro as they upset America 0-1.
• William Yarbrough was in goal for Leon but they lost 0-3 to Atlas.
• 30 year old Rodrigo Lopez made his Liga MX debut for Toluca starting and going 75 minutes as they tied Champions Guadalajara 0-0 on the road.

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LIGA MX

Week 1 saw some big results with Tigres showing why they are the best, rolling 5-0 over Puebla. Atlas was the other big winner, 0-3 at Leon. Miguel Herrera had a poor first game in charge losing at home 0-1 to Queretaro.

• A Week 1 round up. By Thomas Harrison for Fut Mex Nation.

Week 1 Results:
-Fri Jul 21
Morelia 0-0 Monterrey
Tijuana 0-2 Cruz Azul
-Sat Jul 22
Lobos BUAP 2-2 Santos Laguna
Tigres UANL 5-0 Puebla
Leon 0-3 Atlas
America 0-1 Queretaro
Guadalajara 0-0 Toluca
-Sun Jul 23
Pumas UNAM 1-0 Pachuca
Veracruz 0-2 Necaxa

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All of my columns for 1500ESPN.



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