Some Soccer News for Aug 3, 2017

It's Day 215 of 2017.


My new column at 1500ESPN: The Biggest Test Of The Year Lies Ahead for the USA Men's National Soccer Team. Plus Minnesota United's latest and MLS's use of the Video Assisted Referee.

dN

du Nord Futbol's MLS Coaches Hot Seat for Aug 3, 2017:

1. Mauro Biello - meltdown master artist for an owner
2. Jim Curtin - shuffle players, same results
3. Pablo Mastroeni - new management above him and last place in the West
4. Jay Heaps - winless on the road, 6 points out of playoffs
5. Ben Olsen - dreadful season, and owners looking to sell

dN

"Get ready for that spike to shoot up again."

• Rob Stone showing a graph of Chicago Fire misery over the past 7 years followed by this seasons triumphs. Oops.

dN

US Open Cup

Cincinnati continues their marvelous run into the Semifinals and will host that game. Should be a huge one in that town.

Quarterfinals schedule:
-Wed Aug 2
Miami 0-1 Cincinnati - Cin goal by Djiby Fall.

Semifinals Schedule:
-Wed Aug 9
Sporting Kansas City v San Jose Earthquakes
-Tue Aug 15
Cincinnati v New York Red Bulls

Priority order for hosting final:

1. Sporting Kansas City
2. New York Red Bulls
3. Cincinnati

Cincy has won all 4 games 1-0, with three of them being played at home, and Djiby Fall has scored all 4 goals (and leads the tournament):

• 3rd 1-0 v Louisville
• 4th 1-0 v Columbus Crew
• R16 1-0 v Chicago Fire
• Qua 1-0 at Miami

dN

Textual: du Nord Music Mix Vol 132 (download + extract)

dN

MINNESOTA UNITED

A new contract for Marc Burch:

BREAKING: #MNUFC has re-signed Marc Burch for 2018. The 33 y.o. LB was due to hit free agency. Expect a raise from his current $135k salary.

— Jeff Rueter (@jeffrueter) August 3, 2017

• I would have gone out and found a better fullback who is 10 years younger for the same price. But that's just me.

Schedule:
-Sat Aug 5
Minnesota v Seattle - 7pm CT on My29

dN

MLS

MLS All Stars played Real Madrid on Wed night. The game ended tied 1-1 on goals by Borja Mayoral and Dom Dwyer. RM won the game 4-2 in a Penalty Kick Shootout. Dwyer had his saved (where have we heard that before?) by RM head coach Zinedine Zidane's son Luca, and Giovanni Dos Santos clanked his off the cross bar.

Week 22 Schedule:
(11 games) -Sat Aug 5
DC v v Toronto
Philadelphia v Dallas
Montreal v Orlando
Minnesota v Seattle
Chicago v New England
Colorado v Vancouver
Salt Lake v Houston
San Jose v Columbus
-Sun Aug 6
Portland v LA - 3:00pm CT on ESPN
NYC v NYRB - 5:00pm CT on FS1
KC v Atlanta - 7:00pm CT on FS1

dN

GUARDIAN 2017-18 PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM PREVIEWS:

• Huddersfield
• Everton
• Crystal Palace
• Chelsea.
• Brighton + Hove Albion
• Burnley
• Bournemouth
• Arsenal

dN

All of my columns for 1500ESPN.




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