Some Soccer News for Oct 24, 2017

It's Day 297 of 2017.


My Minnesota United off-season directive: focus on Defense

dN

14th Annual Dark Clouds End of Year Awards and Auction

• Tue Oct 24
• 6:30pm (Auction runs 7:00 - 9:00 pm)
• Lake Monster Brewing - St Paul

dN

My 25 personal highlights of the Loons 2017 season in MLS:

• The first game of the season (at Portland).
• The snow game - the home opener (v Atlanta).
• Getting to do the coin toss at that home opener.
• The enthusiasm of the home crowd that built game by game throughout season.
• The first point (2-2 at Colorado on Mar 18).
• The first win (4-2 v RSL on Apr 1).
• The first road win (1-2 at Chicago on Aug 26).
• The comeback/revenge win (2-3 at Atlanta on Oct 3).
• 1.06 points per game was respectable.
• The Ibson to JVenegas to Ibarra diving header goal (v Colorado on Apr 23).
• The regular occurrence of the Ibson pickpocket defense - brilliant.
• Shuttleworth's facial damage didn't slow him down - Twice.
• Shuttleworth PK saves - Two.
• Ramirez scores 14 goals.
• Both of Thiesson's goals.
• Finlay's fast start with the club - 3 goals + 2 assists in six games.
• Danladi has 4 game winners.
• Molino with 9 assists - some of which were magical.
• The NASL players stepped up early in the season when things were desperate - Ramirez, Ibson, Ibarra, Kallman. Great job.
• 10 wins is about what I thought they would get.
• In preseason I predicted the Loons would finish 8th in the West. They finished 9th.
• My friends in football, in section 138 at TCF Bank stadium, and my travel partners.
• I traveled to 5 away games plus the Open Cup game - what a great enhancement to the season! I am a very lucky guy. Thanks a ton to everyone who helped make this happen.
• And finally, spending every game next to my brother Bill who means the world to me.

dN

LA Galaxy are the winner of the 2017 MLS Wooden Spoon. Huge congrats to them.

dN

This kinda seemed inevitable:

NEWS: Assistant coach Dave Sarachan will guide #USMNT vs. Portugal.

Details » https://t.co/WNfStUV3t9 pic.twitter.com/faCmgd2K4g

— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) October 24, 2017

-Arena's other assistants will stay on for this game as well.

dN

du Nord Futbol's MLS Coaches Hot Seat for Seasons End (Oct 24)

• 4 Sigi Schmid - a total disaster in LA this year, and I would expect the entire management team to get flushed.
• 3 Ben Olsen - at this point new owners would spell doom for Benny.
• 2 Jason Kreis - the owner showed no patience with the previous head coach, so why should it be any different now? And they are worse off.
• 1 Jim Curtin - its just not working, and you can't really blame Curtin, but enough chances have been given.

ADDENDUM: And just like that Sigi Schmid comes off the board as LA move GM Pete Vagenas out of his job and give it Schmid in addition to his head coach position.

• This is the same arrangement Bruce Arena had in LA.

dN

"It’s a broken-down dirty old dump, but it’s our broken-down dirty old dump."

• The final day at RFK Stadium in Washington DC with the DC United faithful. By Dan Steinberg for the Washington Post.

dN

MLS PLAYOFFS

Knock Out Round Schedule:
-Wed Oct 25
Chicago v Red Bulls - 7:30pm CT on FS1
Vancouver v San Jose - 9:30pm CT on UniMas
-Thu Oct 26
Atlanta v Columbus - 6:00pm CT on ESPN2
Houston v Kansas City - 8:30pm CT on UniMas

AJ DeLaGarza, right fullback for Houston, is out of the playoffs due to a torn ACL.

SKC will be without goalkeeper Tim Melia who suffered a hamstring strain against MNUFC 3 weeks ago.

Ready or not, here comes the playoffs. Immediately. By Steve Davis for Four Four Two.

If there was a MLS award for general manager of the year it would be Nelson Rodriguez of Chicago. By Sam Stejskal for Four Four Two.

dN

MLS

Montreal owner Joey Saputo explains why its time for a new head coach. Again. By Herb Zurkowsky for the Montreal Gazette.

Son of Montreal, Patrice Bernier, bids a fond adieu. In his own words for the Players Tribune.

MLS Golden Boot:

• 24 Nemanja Nikolic
• 22 David Villa
• 21 Diego Valeria
• 19 Josef Martinez
• 18 Ola Kamara

MLS Top American Goal Scorers:

• 16 CJ Sapong
• 15 Jozy Altidore
• 14 Christian Ramirez
• 13 Chris Wondolowski
• 12 Clint Dempsey

dN

Chris Wondolowski of San Jose Earthquakes named MLS Player Of The Week

dN

U17 World Cup

Semifinals Schedule:
-Wed Oct 25
England v Brazil
Mali v Spain
-----------------
Final Schedule:
-Sun Oct 28
England/Brazil v Mali/Spain

dN

COPA LIBERTADORES

Semifinal Schedule:
(no TV in America)
1st Leg
-Tue Oct 24
River Plate v Lanus
-Wed Oct 25
Barcelona v Gremio

dN

FIFA

With no surprise this was named the FIFA Goal Of The Year:


dN

EUROPEAN NEWS

The Netherlands leaders post-Cruyff are not getting the job done. By Jonathan Wilson for the Guardian.

• People rarely ever ponder that the glorious bygone era was the anomaly, not the current trend. Maybe now is the norm.

dN

BIG TEAMS + GAMES IN EUROPES TOP LEAGUES

Schedule:
-Tue Oct 24
Inter 3-2 Sampdoria
-Wed Oct 25
Chievo v Milan
Genoa v Napoli
Juventus v SPAL
Roma v Crotone



The Bird Is The Word