At 11:11 Pacific Time This Evening, I Arrive At The News

-Tonight DC United becomes the first MLS team to try its hand at the Copa Sudamericana. I have no idea how serious they are taking this, or how tough the competition will be, but it is pretty cool that they are even participating. Success in this tournament could be a door into Copa Libertadores. They play Universidad Catolica of Chile home and then away on Sep. 22. You can catch the match on Fox Soccer Channel at 7pm central. Steven Goff, the great Washington Post writer gives a preview: United Still Getting International Feel
-I will be in LA on Wednesday night for the US Open Cup. My Minnesota team will try to beat their 4th MLS team in a row (6-4 over Salt Lake, 4-1 over Colorado, 3-1 over Kansas City - the cup holders). USA Today has a story on our heroes: USL's Thunder roaring past MLS foes in Open Cup
-At the Open Cup game, my seats are right behind the Thunder bench at HDC, so if you happen to be at the game please stop by and say hello. I will be wearing my blue Thunder jersey, with the number 3 and my name BRUCE on the back. The giant red beard is hard to miss too.
-Luis Bueno from The Press-Enterprise in So Cal writes about how the Galaxy are taking the Open Cup match against the Thunder seriously. I am not bragging here (cuz I thought our team would lose the last two Cup matches), but all three previous MLS victims have said this exact same thing to the press.
-I guess South Korea thinks they need a Dutchman to lead their team to more World Cup glory. They named Dick Advocaat (Claudio Reyna's all-time favorite coach) as their new coach.
-Some honest words from a very slippery fellow: "One thing I would have changed (in my tenure) was I would not have brought in David Regis." Steve Sampson, to the Newark Star-Ledger, talking about the failure of France '98. He does not regret the Harkes decision though.
-Last weekends Serie A results:
Saturday
Palermo 3-2 Inter Milan
AC Milan 3-1 Siena
Sunday
Chievo Verona 1-0 Parma
Empoli 0-4 Juventus
Lecce 0-0 Ascoli
Messina 2-2 Fiorentina
AS Roma 0-1 Udinese
Sampdoria 3-2 Reggina
Treviso 0-1 Livorno
-Yesterday someone (anonymously) left this comment: "How about Claudio Reyna and his performance with Man City who now sit third in the Premiership." You are right on the money. Claudio was named Man Of The Match in the big 1-1 derby draw with Man U on Saturday. I watched that game with quite a few Man U fans, and I must admit to snickering when City tied it up.
-Cuddly Don Cuddy engages in some Q & A with Daniel Hernandez of the Rev.
-Michael Lewis (a guy with a great ear for the early story) says Sigi Schmid is the front runner for the head coaching job in Columbus, and has already interviewed for that job. When I was in Columbus last week for USA v Mex I talk with some Crew fans who didn't even have Sigi on their short list of desirable coaches. I had him as #1 on the list in my mind for that job.
-There is a good chance that Jason Kries is done for the year after injuring his knee. He had blown out the other one a couple years ago, had major surgery, and is back in form. Looks like he may have done the same thing to his other knee now.
-The Houston Chronicle has been doing a nice little weekly review of MLS, MFL & EPL, with highlights, player of the week, game of the week etc. Smart people are doing it right in Houston with newsprint.
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune on Diego Forlan: Forlán reborn in Spanish soccer
-The Phil Ball column: Galicia on the up?

Stop In Whenever You Need Help And We Will Get You All The News That You Could Ever Need

-I have discovered the problem with Chivas USA. All it took was looking to Guadalajara Chivas for the answers, seeing as they are the mothership and all that crap. And I got an answer quickly. For starters, they can't send anyone very good north, cuz they aint got much down south. And second, actually worst of all, the south team has seriously insulted the soccer gods. I don't mean some minor namby pamby insult either. A death blow should be in order from the gods for this one. Here is the offense: Guade employs a clown to play for them. Yes a literal clown. The circus type. Have you seen their midfielder named Bofo? What a name for a clown. Brilliant. He is bald, so he paints his head. I'm not kidding. He flops around a lot, and has that sad clown face most of the time. And wearing the red and white stripes with the blue shorts has clown uniform written all over it. Best of all, he wears the number 100! Here is pic of Bofo The Clown (it's not very good, but its the best I could find, and you can kinda see the paint on his head). Wouldn't it be cool if he wore oversized bright red shoes?! So having pissed off the soccer gods completely, we now know why Chivas USA is so bad, and why they will surely set the low points record and be named the new "worst" MLS team of all-time once this year ends.
-U17 World Championship begins this week in Peru. Here are the Team USA details (games and roster).
-Our man McBride scored again for Fulham as they tied Newcastle 1-1. Michael Owen did not score, but Carlos Bocanegra tackled him really hard and earned a yellow for his efforts.
-Brian Ching story/history update thingy.
-MLS Weekend Burners (scores, table, goal leader):
Week 24 winners & losers:
New E 3-1 Columbus
KC 0-1 Metro
Dallas 1-2 DC
San Jose 3-0 Chivas
LA 4-1 Colorado
Single table:
51 New England
50 San Jose
44 DC United
42 Kansas City
42 Chicago
38 Los Angeles
37 Metrostars
36 FC Dallas
31 Colorado
30 Columbus
19 Real Salt Lake
14 Chivas USA
Golden Foot:
14 Taylor Twellman
12 Jaime Moreno
11 Landon Donovan
11 Jeff Cunningham
11 Carlos Ruiz
-Glenn Davis lays down the boogie in the Houston Chronicle on how Coach Arena finalizes a team for the World Cup next summer.
-Chelsea is 5-0-0. Damn!
-Looks like Thierry Henry has a pretty bad groin injury and could be out a month to six weeks. Damn again! Les Arse & Les Bleu could be in trouble.
-My Mighty Minnesota Thunder have just finished their worst ever season in professional football. Sad. The coach called it quits after 16 years at the helm too. They finished 10th in a 12 team league. Rough. Here are the 6 teams in the USL First Division who are going to now vie for the league crown. (Montreal are the reigning champs, and they are very good):
Montreal - first round playoff buy
Rochester - first round playoff buy
Vancouver
Seattle
Portland
Richmond
-Tony Meola still gets his haircut by his dad. No wonder he looks like that.
-Dema Kovalenko and Dallas don't like each other. Shocker! Here is what Dema had to say about Dallas after playing them last Saturday: "I hate this team, man." And what does Dallas coach Colin Clarke think of Kovalenko?: "We've got a history. Mostly because of one player...." Excellent.
-MFL scores & table:
Cruz Azul 5-3 Atlante
Monterrey 1-1 Pumas
Morelia 3-1 Toluca
Veracruz 0-5 Tigres
Necaxa 4-3 Santos
Atlas 2-1 Tecos
San Luis 4-1 Dorados
Pachuca 5-1 Chiapas
America 0-0 Guadalajara
Single Table:
18 Cruz Azul
17 America
13 Tigres
12 Necaxa
11 Pachuca
11 Toluca
11 Monterrey
10 Morelia
9 San Luis
9 Guadalajara
9 Veracruz
9 Pumas
7 Tecos
7 Santos
6 Atlas
5 Atlante
4 Dorados
4 Chiapas
-Rob Hughes on Real Madrids supposed woes & technology: Beep of the future, too late for Real
-The UEFA Champions League group stage kicks off tomorrow. Should be some great matches taking places. Here is this weeks line up and tv viewing in the US (thanks to the legendary soccertv.com):
Champions League Match Day 1
Tuesday:
PSV v Schalke
Milan v Fenerbahçe
Lyon v Real Madrid
Olympiacos v Rosenborg
Betis v Liverpool
Chelsea v Anderlecht
Artmedia v Inter
Rangers v Porto
Wednesday:
Brugge v Juventus
Rapid v Bayern
Arsenal v Thun
Sparta v Ajax
Bremen v Barcelona
Udinese v Panathinaikos
Benfica v Lille
Villarreal v Man United
On TV:
Real Betis v Liverpool - Tue Sep 13 01:30PM Central ESPN2
Villarreal vs Manchester United - Wed Sep 14 01:30PM Central ESPN2
-ADDITION: Taylor Twellman of New England scored 3 in the win over Columbus on Saturday and was named MLS Player Of The Week.

UEFA Fantasy Champions League

I attempt to keep my total geekness to a minimum, and had never been involved in any fantasy sports league ever, until last year. Someone I go to Minnesota Thunder games with got me into the Champions League fantasy stuff, and I am hooked. By the end of the season I was a super-pro. #1 in our league, #3 in USA, top 50 in the world. That will all come to a crashing end this season, cuz I am a dude with massive amounts of beginners luck. Once I start to "think" about something, I am sunk. Sunk. Sunk. Sunk. Still, I am gonna give it another shot. My sophomore effort. And I think you should join us. Its really pretty easy, and you can pick any old stupid name you want for your team. Just follow this link, go to Fantasy Football, use this league name: Blue Sky Soccer, and this pass code: 7894-1770. See you at the starting gate, which begins next Tuesday with Matchday 1 of group play.

Wig Wam Bam News

-More and more people are making a big deal out of this new statistical quality compilation that is going on in England. Did that make sense? Let me try this again. Some company in England is compiling stats on all players in the EPL and then ranking them individually. The shocker is, that after 4 weeks, Claudio Reyna is ranked as the number 1 player. Interesting. I have always felt he does a lot more than the few stats that people dwell on, and this sorta verifies that. On the other hand, its just frickin statistics, and his whole team is playing really well which makes him look great too.
-30 US players will vy for the Honda Player Of The Year. Here is that list:
Goalkeepers: Kasey Keller
Defenders: Chris Albright, Gregg Berhalter, Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo, Jimmy Conrad, Cory Gibbs, Frankie Hejduk, Chad Marshall, Oguchi Onyewu, Eddie Pope, Greg Vanney
Midfielders: Chris Armas, DaMarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey, Clint Dempsey, Eddie Lewis, Pablo Mastroeni, John O'Brien, Ben Olsen, Santino Quaranta, Steve Ralston, Claudio Reyna, Kerry Zavagnin
Forwards: Brian Ching, Landon Donovan, Ed Johnson, Brian McBride, Pat Noonan, Taylor Twellman, Josh Wolff
-Do you dig Bayern Munchen? Or German fussball in general? Then you need to be reading this Big Soccer thread where they talk about seeing some classic matches on dvd.
-Alexi Lalas interview at FIFA.com
-I am going to watch the Man U v Man City match on Saturday morning. Its the pay per view game. Several of us tend to meet downtown Minneapolis for breakfast and EPL (cover is $5). See you at The Local. Of Course. ADDITION: I will be staying for Palermo v Inter starting at 11.
-Kuper on Weah in London Financial Times. (I was gonna go with "Kuper weighs in on Weah" and pretend I was a bad newspaper editor, but then I realized its not even much fun to take shots at newspapers cuz soooo many are soooo lame.)
-MLS this weekend (Chicago and Salt Lake have the weekend off):
New England v Columbus Crew
Kansas City v Metrostars
Dallas v DC 730pm central Saturday on FSC
San Jose v Chivas
Los Angeles v Colorado
-MFL this weekend:
Cruz Azul v Atlante
Monterrey v Pumas
Necaxa v Santos Laguna
Veracruz v Tigres
Morelia v Toluca
Atlas v Tecos
Pachuca v Jaguares
San Luis v Dorados 12noon central Sunday on Univision
America v Chivas 5pm central Sunday on Univision
-Mr Morbo himself, Phil Ball, on Spain, via ESPNSoccernet: A defective collective

Peace & News My Little Lovelies

-A rather dull game from Guatemala City last night ended Guate 0-0 USA. A couple bright spots and blight spots. Bright: Marcus Hahnemann - some very nice saves; Jimmy Conrad & Chad Marshall center back combo - Conrad works his ass off, and Marshall is the future. Blight: Marcus Hahneman - what in the name of Sam Hell was up with those punts and goal kicks?? I counted at least 7 that went the full length of the field and directly to the other teams keeper; Chris Albright & Greg Vanney, the outside backs - Albright was too erratic ala Hejduk (simple, man, simple) and Vanney has lost it as an outside back cuz he is waaaaay toooooo sloooooow; Clint Dempsey still can't find a position to be effective from, with New Eng he does great in the 3-5-2 where he can stay in the middle and roam freely but in a 4-4-2 he needs to be much more creative and not just a great garbage man, then he totally got lost out on the right wing.
-Nice article by Michael Rand in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune about the Mighty Minnesota Thunder coach Mighty Buzz Lagos who coaches his last ever regular season home game on Saturday against Atlanta (after 16 years at the helm): Heading out
-Mexico wins 5-0 over Panama (in front of only 35,000 in Azteca) and are now in the World Cup along with 9 others: Germany, Argentina, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, South Korea, Ukraine, United States, Brazil
-And Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune writes about it: Without bombast, Mexico qualifies for World Cup
-And and and and our man Glenn Davis asks a lot of questions about the Mexi-melts: Mexico's effort, tactics in question after defeat
-England lost to Northern Ireland. Hahahahahahahahahaha. Oh my god this is funny! Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Coach Svenie (a Rico Suave of sorts) says he is not going to resign. Of course he is not, what fool would walk away from all that money. If they fire him, they have to pay him.
-Here is another vid clip of the Beasley goal for USA v Mexico, taken from the stands on the far side of the net, and pretty close to the pitch. Its equally as insane as the one I posted yesterday.
-Yesterday I was bitching about Chivas USA stupidly benching Brad Guzan. Today Fred Robledo of the Long Beach Press Telegram asks why: Keeper Guzan benched, at least for now
-SI's Grant Wahl gives his view of what the USA World Cup team might look like: Up next, the world
-And then Wahl gets to spend a few minutes of precious "quality time" with Landycakes: First Person
-Soccer America's regular column MLS Confidential is always packed with goodies: Reis remains unrepentant
-According to Soccer 365: Fox Soccer Channel and 12 Division I men's soccer programs have reached an agreement to broadcast a "College Soccer Game of the Week" on Friday nights this fall. So? I like this less than watching USL on FSC. Could the production values be any lower?
-I don't know if any of you guys ever read columns written by Richard Snowden over at Soccer365, but he IS Neil from the Young Ones.

The Cinnamon News

-According to various British tabloid news outlets.... "Brian McBride will quit international football with the USA to concentrate on playing Premiership football with Fulham." Yeah right! AFTER the World Cup! Although I doubt he will play for the USA anymore this year. They don't need him right now. (PS. He was amazing in the air against Mexico. Every single long ball, goal kick, and set piece etc were directed at him.)
-Here's a link to a little video ditty posted by a BigSoccer.com Member who goes by "jameseyla". A huge thumbs up to him for posting it. This will give you the feeling of exactly what it felt like to be in the Sams Army section during the USA v Mex match!!! You will see a clip of DMB scoring that classic second goal! (Quicktime needed for viewing.)
-The DC United faithful are all weeping hard this morning with the news that David Stokes is going to miss the rest of the season to have ankle surgery. The rest of us are still wondering how he is even on the team.
-Down Mexico way: Ricardo LaVolpe & Hugo Sanchez are both firing nasty shots at each other over the Mexican loss to USA.
-Put a big red circle around December 9 on your calendar. That's the day the World Cup Draw takes place.
-Why is Chivas USA giving El Guzano the bench again. Sure they are giving up a ton of goals. But it's not his fault. They have the Three Stooges and Herman Munster playing in front of him. So now a second keeper from Guadalajara gets a chance in the net (and gives up 3 in his first game, at home!)
-Justin Mapp is the MLS Player Of The Week.
-You can vote for the MLS All-Time Best XI.
-The USL First Division regular season ends on Sunday. Here is the league standings and playoff scenario (courtesy of ESPNSoccernet), followed by the remaining game schedule:
USL First Division standings
x-Montreal 58
x-Rochester 48
x-Vancouver 45
x-Seattle 41
x-Richmond 39
Portland 33
Charleston 32
Minnesota 31
Atlanta 30
Puerto Rico 29
Virginia Beach 28
Toronto 17
x-Clinched playoff berth (top six qualify, top two receive first round bye)
Playoff Picture Update: The defending champion Montreal Impact have clinched the regular season title and a first round bye along with the second-place Rochester Rhinos. Positions three through six are still to be settled with four teams fighting for the last remaining playoff spot. Vancouver, Seattle and Richmond have clinched while Portland, with two games left, is in the driver's seat for sixth. Chasing Portland is Minnesota, Atlanta and Puerto Rico. Minnesota is two back with one game left. Atlanta is three points back with two games left, including one a showdown with the Timbers. Puerto Rico is four points back with three games remaining.
Games Ahead:
Thu Sep 8
Portland v Atlanta
Fri Sep 9
Puerto Rico v Toronto
Seattle v Montreal
Sat Sep 10
Rochester v Virginia Beach
Minnesota v Atlanta
Portland v Richmond
Sun Sep 11
Puerto Rico v Toronto
Vancouver v Montreal
-Walter Samuel of Inter got a 3 match suspension for spitting on Pavel Nedved of Juve. His appeal is tomorrow in Rome. And here is an interview with him about the situation.
-I would guess that with Carlos Ruiz being a Hooters pitchman and all, we could presumably go to our local Hooters to see him play tonight?
-Every once in a while US Soccer comes up with a very interesting stat. Here is today's: During Bruce Arena's tenure, the USA holds a 44-0-2 record when leading at halftime. The draws came against Korea during the 2002 World Cup and Guatemala in a qualifier on July 16, 2000. Conversely, the team is 2-14-4 overall when trailing at the half.

The News Is Going To Germany Baby

-As you damn well know, the USA is going to the big dance! Can it start next week, or do we have to wait?
-USA Roster for the Guatemala match on Wed Sep 7 - shown live on ESPN2 at 9pm central time. (For those of you in the Twin Cities, we will be watching the match at THE LOCAL in downtown Minneapolis - 10th & Nicollet)
G: Marcus Hahnemann, Matt Reis
D: Chris Albright, Jimmy Conrad, Nick Garcia, Frankie Hejduk, Chad Marshall, Greg Vanney
M: Chris Armas, Bobby Convey, Clint Dempsey, Pablo Mastroeni, Santino Quaranta, Steve Ralston
F: Jeff Cunningham, Landon Donovan, Eddie Johnson, Taylor Twellman
-Oguchi Onyewu was named Man Of The Match vs Mexico. I can't disagree with that at all, but I have to say, I think DaMarcus was pretty damn great too.
-Steve Cherundolo is hoping to be back in action sooner than expected (MCL sprain during Gold Cup). He could play this coming weekend when his Hanover take on Frankfurt.
-The Australians are getting all excited cuz new coach Guus Hiddink led the team to a 7-0 home win & a 2-1 road win over the Soloman Islands. To that I say: So What! The Aussies will now play the 5th place South American team on Nov 12 & 16 for a spot in the World Cup.
-Ukraine & Brazil are going to Germany too.
-MLS scoreboard:
Metrostars 2-2 Kansas City
Salt Lake 0-1 New England
Dallas 0-2 San Jose
Chivas 0-3 Columbus
Colorado 1-0 DC
Los Angeles 1-2 Chicago
Single Table:
48 New England 25 games played
47 San Jose 25gp
42 Kansas City 26gp
42 Chicago 26gp
41 DC United 26gp
36 FC Dallas 24gp
35 Los Angeles 26gp
34 Metrostars* 25gp
31 Colorado 24gp
30 Columbus* 24gp
19 Real Salt Lake* 25gp
14 Chivas USA* 26gp
(* would be OUT if playoffs started today)
-Dallas just played their 4th game at the new Pizza Hut Park and drew 8,023 - man that is sooooooooo lame! Come on people of Dallas! Get off your ass and jam!
-Scott Sealy is officially your August MLS Player Of The Month. (And he has been on MY fantasy team since day 1!! I AM A GENIUS!)
-More Spike Lee news! He bought Inter Milan season tickets for the second year in a row! Yowza. (To continue my own bragging...... Spike Lee and I both have brilliant taste in football clubs. Forza Nerazzurri!)
-Ives Galarcep takes Mexico's LaVolpe to task (and tells Landycakes that maybe HE ought to be the one shutting up): Donovan fuels the fire
-A hilarious comment left on a message board at Goal.com. I lifted it in its entirety just so you could get a good laugh along with me (the writer is from Venezuela - what is going on down there?):
"So very US Soccer, to thrive on the work of foreigners, like Oguchi Onyewu, Claudio Reyna and Adu were so American to begin with. If you only relied on US born players then you would get thrashed."
-From last Friday: Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated talks to Claudio Reyna: Captain America - Reyna talks about the U.S.' World Cup prospects
-Germany lost to Slovakia 2-0 and some tabloids are reporting that a few players are panicking. I don't believe that for one minute. They play South Africa on Wednesday. We shall see then. Bad news for South Africa though, as they were eliminated from the WC-06 on Saturday when they lost 3-1 at Burkina Faso.
-Simon Kuper on Les Bleus: A comeback too far for ‘les anciens’
-Andrea Canales of Soccer 365 gives us some insight into the Mexican chaos following the USA loss on Saturday: U.S. Win Creates Mexico Aftershock
-Rob Hughes of International Herald Tribune gives us more, more more (with his Rebel Yell): Ukraine and U.S. head to Germany & FIFA discards Rule No. 1

Last night I went to see Neil Diamond at the Targer Center and he told me this news

El Brucio is en route to Columbus. i will attempt to enlighten you, but please don't expect much.

MLS and U.S. Soccer and others are combining forces to raise money for hurricane relief efforts. Details here.

The big news is, of course, U.S.-Mexico on Saturday. The suddenly indispensable U.S. Soccer site has all kinds of goodies. There's a delicious video montage of U.S. goals against Mexico to get you juiced up for Saturday. (Roy Wegerle!) Frank Dell'Apa sizes up the rivalry at ESPN. Kasey Keller took questions at the USA Today site yesterday afternoon. Leeds on Lewis. Good news: Cherundolo could be back in action next weekend. (Damian Stewart is a thug!) Twin Citians will be gathering at The Local to watch.

Huge day of World Cup qualifying with scads of game. Here's a complete list. The most intriguing scrums are in Africa. All kinds of teams that nobody expected to do a damn thing are in the mix. (Go Togo!) Paul Doyle has an excellent breakdown in The Guardian. Wish I could see some of these games.
Israel may be without key defender Tal Ben-Haim for their big bust up with Switzerland

MLS is the only league silly enough to be playing this weekend. Here's what's on tap:
Metros-Wizards
Dallas-San Jose
Colorado-D.C.
Salt Lake-New England
Goats-Columbus

Other MLS news:
Drunk driver Edson Buddle has been cleared to play.
Beloved former Thunder defender Mark Schulte has nailed down a starting spot for Columbus.
Love for Andy Dorman.

Middlesbrough wunderkind Stewart Downing is out for at least three months.
Cruz Azul and Morelia drew a paltry 14,000 for their friendly at The Coliseum last evening. Cruz Azul won, 2-1.
Simon Barnes: good f***ing god!
Lyon has signed another Brazilian striker--Barney.

That is all the news I can find.

Off To Beat The Mexicans

Hey all!
I am heading to Columbus for USA v Mexico.
You may or may not see some updates here from me.
My pal Demko has offered to possibly post as well.
Cheer loud.

ps. I have nothing against Mexicans. I like them quite a bit. It's just a rivalry thing you know.

ADDITION: pps. Word on the street has it that Landycakes got a lil dinged up at practice today. And. 5 MLS'ers were released from Team USA on Thurs to go play for their clubs this weekend: Clintario Dempsey, Justinho Mapp, Chadistuta Marshall, Mattisto Reis & Grzegorz Vanney.

A Sailors Life Is The Life Of Wine, Women, And News

-Melvin Tarley leaves my Minnesota Thunder and signs with Salt Lake on Sunday. Last night he scored his first goal for them. But they got killed by DC 5-1. Tarley's goal made it 2-1. In a crazy twist, he was sold to RSL with the provision that he could still play for the Thunder in US Open Cup matches. Which means "We'll win the Cup with Melvin Tarley, Melvin Tarley, Melvin Tarley." See you in LA. Back to the game last night, after watching the game highlights you can see that RSL played decent for about 60 minutes, then just melted down. Aaaaahhhhh, Expansion Soccer.
-Its about time the Salt Lake & Colorado fans got used to the fact that Minnesota won the inaugural Rocky Mountain Cup too! Drop me an email and I will give you the address to mail it to.
-The all new Jimmy Conrad Blab: Missing passports and bed sores
-Another MLS thingy: because RSL lost, San Jose has clinched a spot in the playoffs. They are the first team this year to do so.
-Turns out that John O'Brien sustained an abdominal strain in his last USA match, not a hip injury, and is still out for an undetermined amount of time. He really is made of twigs and straw isn't he.
-Boca Juniors won the South American "Supercup" last night over Once Caldas. The first leg saw Boca win 3-1, and lose last night 2-1, but winning the Cup 4-3 on aggregate.
-Bruce Arena had a conference call yesterday. You can read a transcript here. There are also a couple more new video clips about the upcoming clash with Mexico.
-Don't forget that next Wednesday the USA plays down in Guatemala.
-Ernst Bouwes covers Netherlands voetbal for ESPN Soccernet, and writes today about Marco Van Basten: The mystery of Marco
-Ronaldinho signed a new contract with Barcelona which says if another team wants to buy him, it will cost them $154 million. Insanity to Infinity.
-There will be World Cup Qualifiers all over the planet this weekend. FIFA does a great job (they better) of organizing all the matches, results and standings on their web site.
-Spike Lee has offered Thierry Henry a part in his next film.
-Lots of Dallas news via 3rd Degree: If you saw the FC Dallas v Chivas USA match last Saturday night you know that FCD keeper Jeff Cassar got injured. Its been diagnosed as a seperated shoulder and he will be out about 2 months. The team also cut defender Phillip Salyer, and gained a work visa for English midfielder Mark Wilson who has been training with the team all summer. They are really hoping Wilson can take up some of the midfield slack they lost when Richard Mulrooney blew his knee out.
-Great little insight into the mind of Sigi Schmid (this kinda stuff has to tweak LA GM Douggie Hamilton, and give Stevie Sampson more midnight flopsweat): Former Galaxy coach becomes Chivas fan