I Just Got My Degree From The Techniques In Alcohol Management Academy, But My First Priority Is The News

-One of the Twin Cities favorite sons, Manny Lagos, has retired from the beautiful game. We loved Manuel around these parts. Good luck amigo.
-Big Apple Soccer have the scoop today that Metrostars keeper Jonny Walker is on his way to Columbus, and the Mets will sign Tony Meola as their backup to Zach Wells, but Metro will have to work that out with Kansas City first.
-I was reading a little blurb about Chicago's new stadium in Bridgeview, and after months and months of Chicago team officials insisting that the stadium would open "next spring", the actual date is now set for July 1 2006. Liars.
-Paranese bombed Chivas of Guadalajara 3-0 last night in Copa Libertadores semifinal first leg showdown. I am still pissed that Chivas is missing 7 guys from their team due to the Confed Cup. The MFM should have seen this coming and sorted it out before it came to this. Now they look like fools. Leg two is next week in Guadalajara, but fat chance at a comeback.
-Remember at the end of the USA v Costa Rica match last month when Douglas Segeira cheap shotted Steve Cherundolo with that nasty slide tackle to the nether regions? Well yesterday FIFA gave Dougy boy a 3 match ban for it! Good to know. Anyone remember what Rafa Marquez got for the headbutt-punch-kick combo he laid on Cobi Jones? He deserved about a year for that one.
-USA roster for the Gold Cup.
-Colorado Rapids have released a list of their Ten Year team. You know, the best eleven players from the teams first ten years of existence. As I have stated before on this page, their first 11 is quite good, but that second team is a frickin joke.
-The draw for the initial rounds of next seasons Champions League have taken place. Have a look-see.

They Call It "Motion Video"

Special thanks to Anthony for pointing out these great video interviews via ESPN in the Motion Video department!
The latest are from: Alexi Lalas, Tommy Smyth, Tony Sanneh, etc etc.
I was trying to find a direct link to the Motion Video section, but its not happening right now, so just go to the USA section of ESPN Soccernet and look to the mid-lower far right hand section of the page. Its all right there. Go Nuts.

Hiccup.......Hiccup.......Hiccup.......News

-US Soccer UK has a big scoop this morning - Eddie Lewis has left Preston to sign with Leeds! The Leeds website has some words from the coach on Eddie.
-Sao Paolo executed perfectly last night in their home leg of the Copa Libertadores semifinal beating River Plate 2-0. Goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni scored on a PK for his 13th goal of the year!!! The keeper with 13! Huge! The second leg is next week in Buenos Aires.
-Paranaense plays Chivas de Guadalajara in their first leg of the other semifinal tonight in Brazil.
-The weekend of August 13th sees the kickoff of the next English Premier League season. Here are the games for that first week:
Arsenal v Newcastle
Aston Villa v Bolton
Everton v Man United
Fulham v Birmingham
Man City v West Brom
Middlesbrough v Liverpool
Portsmouth v Spurs
Sunderland v Charlton
West Ham v Blackburn
Wigan v Chelsea
-Mexico and Brazil both played their games to draws and advanced to the semi-finals of that bogus Confederations Cup. (By the way - Chivas is missing 7 players from their Libertadores squad who were forced to play at the Confed by Sepp Blatter under threat of suspension). Mexico 0-0 Greece & Brazil 2-2 Japan were the scores.
So the semifinals stack up line this:
Sat June 25 - Germany v Brazil - 11am central live on Fox Soccer Channel
Sun June 26 - Mexico v Argentina - 11am central live on Fox Soccer Channel
-In Wednesday night MLS games: New England stuffed Columbus 3-1 at Crew Stadium. The Rev looked like a whole team again last night. Noonan bagged two, both from Clint Dempsey assisteses, and then Nacogdoches himself scored on another trademark flying diving header. Dallas 2-1 Chivas USA, & RSL 1-1 LA. Jamie Watson scored for RSL just like I said he would.
-The Boston Globe has an excellent feature story on ESPN Champions League announcer Derek Rae. I wish he could do more games for USA and MLS. Great Scot: Rae on top of world
-One of the great looking USA prospects at the World Youth Championship was Marvell Wynne. The Associated Press has a feature on him. Baseball in his blood, but soccer is the love for Marvell Wynne
-Canada have announced their Gold Cup roster
-In addition to playing LA at the HDC, it looks like Real Madrid will also play Chivas of Guadalajara in Chicago at Soldier Field on July 16, as part of a double header with Chicago taking on Columbus.

Roberto Duran Was Supposed To Make An Appearance At The Minnesota Thunder Match Last Saturday Night, But He Was A No Show. That's Not News, This Is.

-Jimmy Conrad stops by to show once again that not all athletes are thick as a brick. More important: Defender or Keeper? Jimmy is also known to be funny and sexy, but I wouldn't know about that.
-Did swollen heads play a roll in the USA's 3-1 loss to Italy yesterday in the round of 16 at the U20 World Youth Championship? We will never know, but give the credit to Italy for making a halftime adjustment and then making it count. That kid Pelle sure can dribble the ball, and after several old duffer style shots he really connected with a beauty. At least some MLS teams get their players back earlier than expected. Have a nice flight home today.
-Young master soccerer Freddy Adu sums up his thoughts on his performance at the WYC: "I was terrible in this tournament." Well said dude. AP rips him a new one as well.
-Other WYC scores yesterday: Japan 0-1 Morocco, Brazil 1-0 Syria, & China 2-3 Germany
-Today's games: Nigeria v Ukraine, Netherlands v Chile, Colombia v Argentina, & Spain v Turkey
-Cory Gibbs had surgery to clean up some minor meniscus damage to his left knee and will start rehabing right away in an attempt to be ready for the start of Feyenoord's pre-season training in mid-July.
-Details are beginning to emerge on who is going to be the new owners of DC United. The always quality Steven Goff of the Washington Post has the story: United To Name Buyers
-Minnesota Thunder midfielder Jeff Matteo was again named to the First Division team of the week.
-Tonite tonite tonite! Copa Libertadores Semifinal #1: Sao Paulo v River Plate (first leg).
-Germany and Argentina tied 2-2 at the Confed Cup. Kevin Kuranyi & Gerald Asamoah scored for Germany. Juan Riquelme & Esteban Cambiasso for Argentina.
-The other Confed game yesterday had Tunisia beating Australia 2-0. Today its Mexico v Greece & Brazil v Japan.
-Manchester United has officially signed Park Ji-sung from PSV. He's a pretty good player.
-Top MLS Goal Scorers:
8 Jeff Cunningham - Colorado
7 Carlos Ruiz - FC Dallas
6 Landon Donovan - Los Angeles
6 Nate Jaqua - Chicago
6 Jamie Moreno - DC United
6 Taylor Twellman - New England
6 Clint Dempsey - New England
6 Christian Gomez - DC United
6 Amado Guevara - Metrostars
6 Eddie Johnson - FC Dallas
6 Pat Noonan - New England
6 Ronnie O'’Brien - FC Dallas
-Athletic Bilbao's left sided defender Asier Del Horno has signed with Chelsea.
-A former phenom returns to his African roots by Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune
-Rumors are swirling that Jonny Walker is on the outs at Metrostars and is about to be released. Opening the door for a return of Tony Meola. Tony shaves his legs.
-It is looking like the Real Madrid v LA Galaxy match will be played July 18 at HDC. But its not set in stone yet.

I Bet It's Great Fishing Weather, But I Am Gonna Do The News Instead

-Over in little Dutch Boy land at the U20 World Championship, while the USA was winning the group of death, how did the rest of the CONCACAF teams do? Canada, Honduras & Panama combined record was 0-8-1. Not good.
-Make sure you watch those USA boys against Italy today
-Other U20 WYC games today:
Morocco v Japan
Brazil v Syria
China v Germany
-Not surprisingly, Jeff Cunningham was the MLS Player of the Week. He got 3 against the stinky Goats, and 1 earlier in the week against Galaxy. His team won 'em both. I am not a big fan of his playing, but I am a strong proponent of having him on the field if he is on your squad, cuz this is what he does.
-MLS midweek matches tomorrow:
Columbus v New England
FC Dallas v Chivas USA
Real Salt Lake v Los Angeles
-A two great looking MLS TV games coming up this weekend:
New England v Metrostars at 630pm central time on FSC from Gillette Stadium - Are the Rev slipping? Are the Metro firing up?
San Jose v Los Angeles at 9pm central time on ESPN2 from Spartan Stadium - the return of Landycakes to the city he abandon! They are already booing him and the game isn't for 4 more days. Ya gotta love fans who hold a grudge.
-Soccernet has been posting a weekly USL wrap up from the previous weekends games. I like it. Here is the latest.

CONCACAF Gold Cup

A totally meaningless tournament which takes place in the USA
Starts July 6 & finishes July 17

Group A
Columbia
Honduras
Panama
Trinidad & Tobago

Group B
Canada
Costa Rica
Cuba
United States

Group C
Guatemala
Jamaica
Mexico
South Africa

See the full American TV viewing schedule

USA group stage matches:
(All first round matches shown live central time on Telefutura)
Thu Jul 7 945pm v Cuba from Qwest Field in Seattle
Sat Jul 9 345pm v Canada from Qwest Field in Seattle
Tue Jul 12 605pm v Costa Rica from Gillette Stadium in Boston

News For Straight Women, Gay Men, And All Others Too

-U20 World Youth Championship - the group stage is over! Let the real games begin.
FIFA names the 14 best players from the 1st stage: Fourteen nuggets in Netherlands
Its pretty damn cool that our boys won the toughest group, over Argentina and Germany. They also did not concede a goal.
The best players for the USA so far have been: Marvell Wynne, Benny Feilhaber, Freddy Adu, Chad Barrett, and Nathan Sturgis.
So here are the next two rounds of matches:
Tue June 21
USA v Italy
Morocco v Japan
Brazil v Syria
China v Germany
Wed June 22
Nigeria v Ukraine
Netherlands v China
Columbia v Argentina
Spain v Turkey
Fri June 24
USA-Ita v Mor-Jap
Bra-Syr v Chn-Ger
Sat June 25
Nig-Ukr v Net-Chl
Col-Arg v Spa-Tur
-Confederations Cup - Mexico took the legs out from under Brazil 1-0 yesterday once they stopped diving and cheap shotting (their specialty sometimes). Jared Borgetti scored with another of his trademark flying headers. Borgetti, keeper Oswaldo Sanchez, and winger Ramone Morales all played fantastic.
After the match, Brazil's coach announced that Ronaldo will return to the team in the coming months. They sure could have used his amazing talent yesterday. But that still won't help with the Roque Jr. problem. Wow, is that guy terrible or what?!?!?! He couldn't get a start in MLS even with a semi-famous name!
Other matches: Germany 3-0 Tunisia & Argentina 4-2 Australia. The final Sunday match was Greece 0-1 Japan.
-African World Cup Qualifying scores:
Sat June 18
Senegal 2-2 Togo
Zambia 2-1 Mali
Burkina Faso 2-0 Congo
South Africa 0-2 Ghana
Uganda 1-0 Cape Verde Islands
Gabon 3-0 Rwanda
Nigeria 1-1 Angola
Kenya 0-0 Morocco
Malawi 1-3 Botswana
Sun June 19
Liberia 0-2 Republic of Congo
Cameroon 1-0 Libya
Ivory Coast 2-0 Egypt
Algeria 2-2 Zimbabwe
-MLS Week 12 Scores:
Chicago 1-1 Kansas City
Metrostars 3-2 Columbus
DC United 2-0 New England
FC Dallas 1-0 Los Angeles
San Jose 3-0 Real Salt Lake
Chivas USA 1-3 Colorado
-I kept screaming for Colorado to get Jeff Cunningham onto the field more. He made a lot of substitution and scored almost every time. He got the start yesterday against the worst team in the history of MLS, Chivas USA, and only scored 3.
-David Stokes continues to be terrible.
-Preki!! - what else can I say!
-Who woulda guessed: DC's Josh Gros was a Marine! (I suppose the hair cut was a bit of a giveaway)
-Some great MLS goals this past weekend: Buddle, Cornell Glen, two from Razov, Preki, Jaime Moreno!, Kelly Gray, Mark Chung, & Cunninghams 3! Hit this page to see em all
-Real Salt Lake as finally made it official and joined their fellow newcomers Chivas in the "We Are An Awful Team" category.
-You should listen to the full game highlights (or better yet the full game) for San Jose cuz they have the mighty Ray Hudson on the microphone giving us some fantastic stuff. He calls Kelly Gray an Intimidating Torpedo, and Wade Barrett The Elastic Man. I love Ray.
-Jamie Watson needs to get more playing time for Real Salt Lake. The Old Trio of Washington, Kries, and Mathis is not the answer.
-Brian Ching played and scored for the San Jose reserves this weekend. Looks like he is almost ready to return.
-Our old boy Jonesy drinks more of the Purple Kool-Aid and again climbs aboard the good ship MLS. MLS Owners Face Thinking Cap Time. "They want ways to pump up product, maybe even bending salary rules to get marquee players." By Grahame L. Jones, Los Angeles Times Saturday June 18
-And lastly, Totti got married - straight women and gay men commence weeping.

Mostly Scores But Some News Too

-West Bromwich Albion will play both LA Galaxy & Chivas USA in preseason exhibitions. The match against LA is at HDC on July 20 & Chivas in Santa Barbara on the 26th.
-In yesterdays Confederations Cup matches, Brazil gut punched Greece, 3-0 (so much for Greece being a defensive machine!), and Mexico came from behind to beat Japan 2-1. Adriano, Robinho & Juninho scored for Brazil. Atsushi Yanagisawa scored the lone goal for Japan, while Zinha & Jose Fonseca scored for Mexico.
This weekends games: Germany v Tunisia & Australia v Argentina on Saturday, Brazil v Mexico & Greece v Japan on Sunday.
You can see that Mexico v Brazil match on Sunday at 1:30pm central on Univision.
-Q & A with USA U20 defender Marvell Wynne via US Soccer. This kid has some serious potential.
-Last nights concluding Copa Libertadores quarterfinal match saw River Plate beat Banfield 3-2, winning the series 4-3 on aggregate. River Plate will now face Sao Paulo in the two-leg semifinal. Chivas of Guadalajara plays Atletico Paranaense in the other semifinal. The matches will be played June 22 y 29.
Boca had a terrible time the previous night, not only did they get knocked out cold by Chivas, but a fight broke out on the field, fans threw all kinds of stuff from the stands, and their coach spit in a Chivas players face, then resigned in disgrace! Bummer dudes.
-English Premier League kicks off the 05-06 season on August 13.
-Defender Mauricio Pellegrino has been released by Liverpool.
-U20 World Youth Championship. No matches were played on Thursday, but Friday and Saturday bring the end Group play. Here's what's instore: (Columbia, Spain, China & home team Holland have already qualified for the second round.)
Friday 17th
Turkey v Ukraine
China v Panama
Spain v Honduras
Morocco v Chile
Saturday 18th
Japan v Australia
Netherlands v Benin
Argentina v Germany
USA v Egypt
Italy v Canada
Columbia v Syria
Brazil v S Korea
Nigeria v Switzerland
By the way, the Benin team nickname is Baby Squirrels!
-MLS Matches on Saturday:
Chicago v Kansas City 3pm central on ESPN2 (come join me at the Nomad to watch it)
Metrostars v Columbus
DC United v New England 6:30pm on FSC
FC Dallas v Los Angeles
San Jose v Real Salt Lake 9pm on HDNet
Chivas v Colorado

Attention College Students - You Must Consolidate Your Student Loans By July 1. But Read This News First.

-Ooooooooooh Mama Mia!!!! Inter Forza! Neruzurri Forza! Glory Glory Glory. Inter 1 - Roma 0 last night for the Coppa Italia (3-0 aggregate). I am happy! So are they!
-Crabby old Grahame Jones of the LA Times seems to have come around a little on American soccer and MLS. Today he has a nice scoop, announcing that not just Chelsea, but also AC Milan and Real Madrid will play matches in the USA next month against MLS teams!
Addition: Sum United Marketing, the promoters, have now sent out a press release, with game dates included.
-Confederations Cup:
Argentina 2-1 Tunisia
Germany 4-3 Australia
Today it's the Brazilian offense (not on display two weeks ago vs Argentina) vs the Greek Defense. A possible classic. And also Japan vs Mexico. I hope the Mexi's blast em!
-Scores from the World Youth Championship:
Japan 1-1 Benin
Australia 0-3 Netherlands
Canada 0-2 Colombia
Italy 1-2 Syria
Switzerland 0-1 Brazil
Nigeria 1-2 South Korea
-Copa Libertadoes: Paranaense beat Santos 2-0 and advance to the semifinals with 5-2 aggregate win. Chivas of Guadalajara will be their opponent next Wednesday.
In the 3rd quarterfinal matchup. Tigres beat Sao Paulo 2-1, but lost 5-2 on aggregate. Sao Paulo will face the winner of River Plate and Banfield who face off tonite tied at 1-1. River is the home team tonite, so bet heavily on them to advance.
-Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak! Hoooooooooooooohck! Choooooooooooooke! Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarf! Galaxy lose again on the road! What a bunch of head cases! This time its mighty Joe Cannon, the best keeper in MLS by a mile, and his Colorodeons who do it 1-0 while finishing the game with only 9 men. YES! 9 MEN beat LA! Mastroeni red carded in the 18th minute, and then Melamed in the 60th.
-DC finally got some goals and outlasted Chicago 4-3 in what must have been a very fun match to see in person. I love watching Christian Gomez play and he did it again. But why on earth does DC pay Stokes! He is the worst. Almost every defender in the First Division is better than this guy!
-Laurent Robert has left Newcastle for Portsmouth.
-The Dallas Morning News has a very cool panoramic view of the new stadium in Frisco. I still cannot believe they named it Pizza Hut Park! That is awful, and I am not sure why, but it sounds kinda low rent. The one question that remains with me in this whole deal, is why no roof? Its Dallas. It gets real hot! The roof would be great, and it sure works in LA for noise.

Buzz Carrick and The 3rd Degrees - New Wave Savants? No. A Great Fan Site, With A Great Don Garber Story.

3rd Degree is a top notch FC Dallas fan site always ripe with insider stuff. Yesterday the man behind the site, Buzz Carrick, was present at a press conference in Dallas with MLS Commish Donny "I love the Clash" Garber! Buzz provides us with a little of his insight and a "full" transcript of the event. It's pretty damn good reading (as the site always is, even if Buzz never did that interview for me with Dallas asst coach Marco Feruzzi like he twice promised me he would).