Some Soccer News for Oct 2, 2017

It's Day 275 of 2017.


All our sympathy and best hopes for the victims of the shooting in Las Vegas last night.
This shit is almost incomprehensible. I barely know what to do or say. I am both sad and mad. Its staggering what people do to others with guns.

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Toronto FC has claimed the 2017 MLS Supporters Shield. Huge congrats to them.

• Also means they have home field advantage through the entire playoffs.
• In the clinching game fullback Justin Morrow got a hat trick. Yup a defender with 3 goals.

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USMNT WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

Are you nervous? I am. Actually the word Jared used on Twitter was dread. Good word dread. I feel in this case it must be spelled with all caps: DREAD.

The USA roster was announced on Sunday morning. See below. Quick analysis:

• Gyasi Zardes was pulled off almost immediately. He suffered a groin injury on Saturday night playing for the Galaxy.
• Fabian Johnson a huge surprise being left off the roster
• Michael Orozco was named to the team
• Juan Agudelo was named to the team
• Benny Feilhaber was a surprise named to the team

MEDIA:

• Do or die time for Arena and the USMNT. By Brian Straus for Sports Illustrated.
• Bruce Arena offers no excuses for Friday and Tuesday. By Jeff Carlisle for ESPNFC.
• The team is in Orlando and has begun training for 2 very big games. by Alicia DelGallo for the Orlando Sentinel.

Schedule:
-Fri Oct 6
USA v Panama - 6pm CT on ESPN2
Orlando City Stadium, Orlando
-Tue Oct 10
Trinidad + Tobago v USA - 7pm CT on beIN
Ato Boldon Stadium - Couva

USA roster

• G: Brad Guzan - Atlanta United, Tim Howard - Colorado Rapids, Nick Rimando - Real Salt Lake
• D: DaMarcus Beasley - Houston Dynamo, Matt Besler - Sporting Kansas City, Geoff Cameron - Stoke City, Omar Gonzalez - Pachuca, Michael Orozco - Tijuana, Tim Ream - Fulham, Jorge Villafana - Santos Laguna, DeAndre Yedlin - Newcastle, Graham Zusi - Sporting Kansas City
• M: Kellyn Acosta - Dallas, Juan Agudelo - New England Revolution, Paul Arriola - DC United, Alejandro Bedoya - Philadelphia Union, Michael Bradley - Toronto, Benny Feilhaber - Sporting Kansas City, Dax McCarty - Chicago Fire, Darlington Nagbe - Portland Timbers, Christian Pulisic - Dortmund, Gyasi Zardes - LA Galaxy
• F: Jozy Altidore - Toronto, Clint Dempsey - Seattle Sounders, Chris Wondolowski - San Jose Earthquakes, Bobby Wood - Hamburger
• C: Bruce Arena

T+T Roster

• G: Adrian Foncette - Police, Greg Ranjitsingh - Louisville City, Glenroy Samuel - Morvant Caledonia United
• D: Daneil Cyrus - Juticalpa, Kevan George - Jacksonville Armada, Curtis Gonzales - Defence Force, Triston Hodge - DirecTV W Connection, Alvin Jones - DirecTV W Connection, Josiah Trimmingham - Club Sando, Kevon Villaroel - North East Stars, Mekeil Williams - Colorado Rapids
• M: Neil Benjamin Jr. - DirecTV W Connection), Levi Garcia - Alkmaar Zaanstreek, Khaleem Hyland - Al-Faisaly Harmah, Joevin Jones - Seattle Sounders, Jared London - Club Sando, Kevin Molino - Minnesota United, Nathan Lewis - San Juan Jabloteh, Leston Paul - Pasaquina, Kathon St. Hillaire - St. Ann's Rangers
• F: Trevin Caesar - Sacramento Republic, Akeem Roach - Vida, Shahdon Winchester - Murcielagos
• C: Dennis Lawrence

Panama Roster

• G: Jose Calderon - Marathon, Jaime Penedo - Dynamo Bucharest
• D: Felipe Baloy - Municipal, Erick Davis - Dunajska Streda, Fidel Escobar - New York Red Bulls, Adolfo Machado - Houston Dynamo, Michael Murillo - New York Red Bulls, Luis Ovalle - Deportes Tolima, Roman Torres - Seattle Sounders, Jan Carlos Vargas - Tauro
• M: Edgar Barcenas - Tapachula, Ricardo Buitrago - Juan Aurich, Armando Cooper - Toronto, Anibal Godoy - San Jose Earthquakes, Gabriel Gomez - Atletico Bucaramanga, Jose Gonzalez - Arabe Unido, Alberto Quintero - Universitario
• F: Abdiel Arroyo - Danubio, Roberto Nurse - Zacatecas, Blas Perez - Municipal, Luis Tejada - Universitario, Gabriel Torres - Lausanna-Sport
• C: Hernan Dario Gomez

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Christian Pulisic feature on 60 Minutes. [VIDEO] From CBS.

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MINNESOTA UNITED

Results:
-Sat Sep 30
Houston Dynamo 2-1 Minnesota United - MU goal by Nicholson.

My MNUFC Notes:

• Game highlights [VIDEO]
• Somehow the Loons are not officially eliminated from the playoffs - still. They are 10 points out but have 4 games (or 12 points) left.
• After the first 10 minutes when MN were decent and probably the better team it was all Houston. It was not close.
• Despite the fact that MU was getting overrun by the end of the first half, and very lucky not to be trailing, they made no adjustments at all during halftime allowing Houston to pick up right where they left off.
• Dynamo finally got their deserved goal in tht 69th min.
• THEN Minnesota made changes to the way they play and brought on subs.
• AFTER they were trailing. WTF?
• Too little too late - game was already over.
• Houston got a 2nd goal in the 85th to kill it.
• Boxall had his best game for Minnesota. He was strong in the air, kept things simple on the ground and was always making good reads and distributing correctly. Good to see.
• Nicholson came on as the final sub in the 83rd and scored in stoppage time, but it was just a consolation goal.
• Good goal by Nicholson too, cutting in from the left wing and firing a shot to the back post that couldn't be stopped.
• The timing was nice for Nicholson cuz he was turning into the summer version of Schuller - enough minutes with no contributions to show for it.
• Calvo had a particularly bad game. Missing marks left and right on set pieces and on the 2nd just standing still and pointing to the open man who he left to run free. Ugh.
• He also didn't do one of things he is supposedly great at - leaping to get his head on the ball - its like he wasn't leaping on purpose.
• Calvo also did a lot of yelling at teammates.
• On the good side Calvo made a lunging tackle to prevent a shot on goal.
• Thiesson still getting whooped at the back post.
• Ramirez, Ibarra and Finlay were mostly invisible.
• Good game: Boxall, Ibson, Nicholson
• OK game: Martin, Finlay, Ibarra, Ramirez, JVenegas, Danladi
• Bad game: Calvo, Thiesson, Burch, Molino
• After Albert Elis scored the 1st goal for Houston he donned a Black Panter superhero mask. He looked awesome. He got booked.
• Vicente Sanchez came on as a 2nd half sub for the Dynamo and torched the Loons. He tore them apart and made them pay by setting up both goals.

Schedule:
-Tue Oct 3
Atlanta United v Minnesota - 6:00pm CT on Ch29

Many have spent the last 7 months trying to forget Minnesota's horrible loss to Atlanta in their first home game of the season. Lets hope we don't get a similar result on Tuesday night.

Interesting that JVenegas has left for the Costa Rica World Cup camp, but Calvo has stayed in Atlanta for the Tuesday game.

• Molino still with Loons for Tuesday too.
• Boxall has left for New Zeland as well.

All 4 of those players will be one Saturday and Peter Vermes brings his SKC to Minneapolis with the goal undoubtedly to beat Minn senseless.

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MLS

My MLS Notes:

• The goal scoring streak for Diego Valeri ended at 8 games. And Portland lost.
• A lot of low scoring games - low scoring tie games at that.
• Vancouver with the biggest win of the weekend, on the road at Kansas City, and earning a shutout too. Big.
• Toronto with the most important game of the weekend, as they secured the Supporters Shield.
• Justin Morrow of Toronto got 3 goals will no doubt be named Player Of The Week.

MEDIA:

• Some things you may have missed in Week 30. By Charles Boehm for MLS.
• MLS XI for Week 30. By Avi Creditor for Sports Illustrated.
• Armchair Analyst for Week 30. By Matt Doyle for MLS.

The league has hired a former Coca-Cola exec named Diego Moratorio as their new Canadian director.

Week 30 Results:
(19 games)
-Wed Sep 27
Atlanta 3-0 Philadelphia
Montreal 0-1 New York City
New York RB 3-3 DC
Orlando 6-1 New England
Dallas 2-0 Colorado
Houston 3-3 LA
San Jose 1-4 Chicago
Seattle 3-0 Vancouver
-Sat Sep 30
Orlando 0-0 Dallas
Toronto 4-2 New York RB
Columbus 2-0 DC
New England 0-0 Atlanta
Chicago 1-1 New York City
Houston 2-1 Minnesota
Colorado 2-1 Montreal
Kansas City 0-1 Vancouver
LA 1-1 Salt Lake
San Jose 2-1 Portland
-Sun Oct 1
Philadelphia 2-0 Seattle

57 goals in 19 games = 3.0 gpg.

Week 31 Schedule:
-Tue Oct 3
Atlanta v Minnesota
-Sat Oct 7
New York RB v Vancouver
Minnesota v KC
Colorado v Dallas

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MLS PLAYOFF CERTAINTIES

• EAST IN (5 of 6) - Columbus joins Toronto, New York City, Atlanta, Chicago
• EAST OUT (1 of 5) - DC
• WEST IN (1 of 6) - Vancouver is first
• WEST OUT (2 of 5) - Colorado, LA

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NWSL PLAYOFFS

Seeding:
49 North Carolina (#1 seed)
47 Portland (#2 seed)
40 Orlando (#3 seed)
39 Chicago (#4 seed)

Final Round of Regular Season Schedule:
-Sat Sep 30
Portland 3-1 Chicago
North Carolina 2-3 Orlando

Semifinal Schedule:
-Sat Oct 7
Portland v Orlando
-Sun Oct 8
North Carolina v Chicago

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Samantha Kerr of Sky Blue won the NWSL Golden Boot with 17 goals in 22 games.

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US SOCCER

Another smaller American soccer league, NPSL, has sent a letter outlining grievances it has to US Soccer over what it sees as preferential treatment for other leagues. By Nipun Chopra for Soc Takes.

• NPSL is an amateur league that approximates a 4th division and is of the same caliber as PDL (which is owned and operated by USL.)
• Several Twin Cities area teams are in the NPSL: Minneapolis City, VSLT and Twin Stars, plus teams from Duluth, Rochester, Fargo, Sioux Falls and LaCrosse.

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BIG TEAMS + GAMES IN EUROPES TOP LEAGUES:

My game of the week was a rout - oof: Huddersfield 0-4 Tottenham


Napoli at 7-0-0 is the new leader in the Serie A. Someone other than Juventus has rarely claimed the position in the last 4 years.

• Barcelona is the only other team in the big Euro leagues with a perfect record, also at 7-0-0.

Significant losses or ties:

• Chelsea (loss v Man City)
• Juventus (tied at Atalanta)
• Bayern (tied at Hertha)
• Atleti (tied at Leganes)

Weekend Schedule:
-Fri Sep 29
Monaco 1-1 Montpellier
Schalke 1-1 Leverkusen
-Sat Sep 30
Chelsea 0-1 Manchester City
Leganes 0-0 Atletico Madrid
Augsburg 1-2 Dortmund
Manchester United 4-0 Crystal Palace
PSG 6-2 Bordeaux
Huddersfield 0-4 Tottenham
-Sun Oct 1
Barcelona 3-0 Las Palmas
Real Madrid 2-0 Espanyol
Atalanta 2-2 Juventus
Hertha 2-2 Bayern
Milan 0-2 Roma
Arsenal 2-0 Brighton & Hove Albion
Newcastle 1-1 Liverpool
Benevento 1-2 Inter
Nice 2-4 Marseille
Napoli 3-0 Cagliari

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RIP Tom Petty
Sadness for your family, friends and fans
And you had a loooooooooooooot of fans
They loved your music
Some people I know liked your records very much
I liked a couple of of your records
My favorites were American Girl, Free Fallin' and Mary Jane's Last Dance
I saw you play live in 1981
You were just ok, but my date was hot



The Bird Is The Word