Getting Back To Basic Plus News

In the first hour of Glenn Davis's Houston Dynamo Power Hour radio show last night, Glenn did an interview with new team financial partner Oscar De La Hoya. Listen here. Fantastic!

~and~

Did Toronto really send Ronnie O'Brien to San Jose in exchange for Chris Pozniak? See Rumor section below for more

~and~

After a great deal of fan disgruntlement and finally some bad publicity to push them to act, MLS has found a new online company to run their MLS Gear store. Let's all hope we have a 1000% increase in satisfaction. Here is info on the company that is taking over.

~and~

A conversation between former French national team stars Christophe Dugarry and some guy called ZiZou: "Apart from me, was Ronaldo the best player you ever played with?" asked Dugarry. "Apart from you, he was the best," dead-panned Zidane.


MLS News

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle gives us today's update on the sale of the Houston Dynamo to Oscar De La Hoya & Co.
-The Chronicle with a stadium update as well.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fallas also writes about any possible fallout from Houston's asskicking at the hands of Gamba over the weekend.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jack Bell of the New York Times talks to Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan about his failed transfer to Aston Villa in January. Plus other soccer news.
More from Bell on Guzan at the NY Times Goal blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nick Green of the Daily Breeze with an article on Chivas USA forward & Cuban defector Maykel Galindo.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Bueno at MLSnet talks to Chivas USA defender Jonathan Bornstein about his offseason "excursion" to Tel Aviv.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe gives us some info on New England's training sessions in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico that are going on right now. And a few other team notes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com checks in on the Kansas City preseason team upgrades.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pat Walsh also of Goal.com looks at 4 big changes in the league during the offseason.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Steven Goff of the Washington Post with an article on one of two new goalkeepers DC United acquired over the offseason - Jose Carvallo of Peru. How did the team find him? His mother contacted them!!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ives Galarcep at the Herald News with a look at what New York is still in need of on their roster.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I had a couple of observation on the LA Galaxy from the two games in Hawaii: 1. Goalkeeper Steve Cronin is not ready to be a full time starter. And 2. That big Brazilian midfielder could be something. What was his nickname? Was it El Buffalo?
-Check out this picture of Abel Xavier jogging with Israel Sesay. Just a slight difference in size. And Xavier's hair appears wilder than ever.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Most MLS teams have their 2008 shirts ready for pre-order. No giant drastic changes for anyone, but two are interestingly different: Columbus, and Dallas's 2nd shirt.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Preseason Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Mon Feb 25
Ventura County Fusion 0-1 Columbus at Buena High in Ventura
-Tue Feb 26
Dallas v SMU
-Wed Feb 27
Dorados (Mexico) v Chicago in Sinaloa
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Columbus lost to a PDL team last night, ugh.
-The Ventura County Star has a match report from the Ventura v Columbus game.
-The VCR with even more following the match.
-Columbus lined up three trialists on the opposition team, to get them some game action.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pan-Pacific Championship

Our main man Dave Brett Wassar was in Hawaii and filed blog posts for the New York Times Goal: Lessons From Hawaii
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise reviews the Pan Pacific Cup - Prognosis Negative.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle takes a critical look at the Pan Pacific tournament.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Honolulu Advertiser looks at the possible future of the Pan Pacific Championship. Has quotes from MLS goomba Donald Garber.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here is video of Houston & Sydney players doing some "paddle surfing" in Hawaii. funny thing is, I have never even heard of the 2 guys they have from Houston! Then Ching gets into the action. OK.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Rumors - Don't Tease Me Bro

I know Ronnie O'Brien has never been called the ultimate teammate, and he has had some bad knee injury problems, but the story going around is that Toronto has shipped him off to San Jose in exchange for Chris Pozniak. Huh? TFC got rid of Pozniak the expansion draft. Are you kidding me? When ROB played last year TFC were at their best, by a mile. Who are TFC taking roster-move lessons from? John Ellinger? Oh, right, it's Mo Johnston. Somehow worse than Ellinger. What is going on?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Big Apple Soccer reports that the Red Bulls have included 2 trialists in their trip to train in Austria: Mexican midfielder Jose De Jesus Mendoza and Rochester leftback Scott Palguta.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Arroyave on his Red Card blog gives us a little taste of Blanco-mania that is going down in Culiacan as Chicago begins training in Mexico. Let's hope we get to read a lot more about this stuff.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Goal.com says Real Salt Lake has extended the try out of Singapore striker Indra Sahdan for another 2 weeks.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer By Ives is reporting, not too surprisingly, that Diego Serna will not be offered a contract with the New York Red Bulls.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sporting Life is reporting that a Scottish forward from Gretna named Kenny Deuchar is transferring to Real Salt Lake. The man is also a doctor, just in case that makes a difference.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USA Olympic Team

The Olympic qualifying roster was supposed to be announced on Monday but has been pushed back.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jack Bell of the New York Times reports that forward Jozy Altidore did not go with his club New York Red Bulls to train in Austria meaning that he will instead join the Olympic team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

The Fulham team website has a Q & A with Eddie Johnson.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

How'd their Monday matches go:
-Joshua Grenier - Koblenz - came on as a last seconds sub as they won 2-3 at Kaiserslautern.
-Tim Howard - Everton - played all 90 as usual and won big, 2-0 at Manchester City.
-Luis Robles - Kaiserslautern - did not play, and they lost at home 2-3 to Koblenz.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After nabbing 2 goals in 2 games for his new team Rheindorf Altach, Nate Jaqua has been called "a penalty-area cobra with a lion's heart" by a local paper. Their league must be awful, cuz he just isn't that good. But it's fantastic for Jaqua!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FMF

Top teams after 7 Rounds of the 08 Clausura:
15 Guadalajara
14 Toluca
12 Santos Laguna
11 Cruz Azul
10 Puebla
10 Monterrey
10 Necaxa
10 San Luis
-Others of note: Previous league winner Atlante sits with 9 points as does the hot team of the past few seasons Pachuca and perennial champs America have 7.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Top FMF Goal Scorers:
6 Omar Bravo - Guadalajara
6 Humberto Suazo - Monterrey
5 Giancarlo Maldanado - Atlante
4 Alfredo Moreno - San Luis
4 Sergio Santana - Guadalajara
4 Nicolas Olivera - Puebla
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Feb 26
Dep Univ San Martin v Universidad Catolica
Estudiantes LP v Lanus
Caracas v Bamin Real Potosi
-Feb 27
Atletico Nacional v Sao Paulo
River Plate v America
Flamengo v Cienciano
-Feb 28
Cucuta Deportivo v San Jose
Maracaibo v Colo Colo
Cruzeiro v Caracas
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Stage Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

I missed this one a few weeks back - the Observer Sports Monthly does an interview (which in England seems to mean a long story with a couple of quotes) with Argentina & Barcelona star forward Lionel Messi. At just 20 years old I think he might be the best player in the world right now.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Real Madrid have now lost 3 league games in a row, 6 games in all competitions in 2008, and their 11 point La Liga lead over Barcelona is down to 2 points. Not to mention that Barca are now on a serious roll.
-The Reuters blog wonders, what is going on?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune writes about Real Madrid's mental melt down v Getafe last weekend. It was a doozy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Reuters Soccer Blog has an article on Lyon forward Kazim Benzema, and think he could become the most expensive player even sold.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Reuters also have a story of 2 really bad displays of racism at matches in France over the weekend. At one game players tossed Anti-Racism shirts into the crowd only to have one section tear them up, throw them back and then give the Nazi salute. Damn.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Phil Ball at Soccernet reports on this week in La Liga, and Valencia's court case with one of their own players.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Former Manchester United goal scoring machine Andy Cole has been arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Glasgow Daily Herald with a feature story on Rangers coach Walter Smith.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Guardian has a look at French club Le Mans who are making an attempt to get back into the top-of-the-table battle.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Inter's top goal scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been playing on an injured knee lately, and the team is finally going to shelve him to get him better. Is it too late for the Champions League?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Italian Serie A will play a full slate of games midweek, with the biggie of biggie being #1 Inter hosting #2 Roma.
-Another big Serie A game on tap TODAY is the Turin derby - Juventus v Torino.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Euro League Cup Competitions

French Coupe de la Ligue
Semifinal Matches & Scores:
-Tue Feb 26
Paris Saint Germain v Auxerre
-Wed Feb 27
Le Mans v Lens
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Top Goal Scorers In Europe’s Big Leagues

-La Liga-
19 Luis Fabiano - Sevilla
14 Diego Milito - Zaragoza
13 Raul Gonzalez - Real Madrid
13 Kahveci Nihat - Villarreal
12 Ruud van Nistelrooy - Real Madrid
12 Joseba Llorente - Valladolid

-Bundesliga-
13 Luca Toni - Bayern Munich
12 Mario Gomez - Stuttgart
11 Marko Pantelic - Hertha
11 Mladen Petric - Borussia Dortmund
10 Rafael Van der Vaart - Hamburg
10 Diego - Werder Bremen
10 Ivan Olic - Hamburg

-Serie A-
15 David Trezeguet - Juventus
15 Marco Borriello - Genoa
14 Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Inter Milan
14 Adrian Mutu - Fiorentina
11 Alessandro Del Pierro - Juventus
11 Francesco Tavano - Livorno
11 Antonio Di Natale - Udinese

-Eredivisie-
23 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar - Ajax
18 Blaise N'Kufo - Twente
13 Robin Nelisse - Utrecht
13 Roy Makaay - Feyenoord
13 Michael Bradley - Heerenveen
12 Danny Koevermans - PSV

-Premiership-
21 Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United
19 Emmanuel Adebayor - Arsenal
15 Fernando Torres - Liverpool
13 Benjani Mwaruwari - Manchester City
12 Robbie Keane - Tottenham

-Ligue Un-
16 Karim Benzema - Lyon
12 Mamadou Niang - Marseille
11 David Bellion - Bordeaux
11 Tulio De Melo - Le Mans
10 Johan Elmander - Toulouse
10 Bafetimbi Gomis - St Etienne
10 Daniel Niculae - Auxerre

-Portuguese Liga-
13 Lisandro Lopez - Porto
9 Roland Linz - Braga
8 Joao Paulo - Uniao Leiria
7 Ariza Makukula - Maritimo
7 Oscar Cardozo - Benfica

2008 UEFA European Championship

Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian wonders where Eduardo's broken leg leaves Croatia for the tournament.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

World News

FIFA .com talks to Jay Jay Okocha as Nigeria gets ready to find a successor to fired coach Berti Vogts.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Guardian takes a look at the current state of Brazilian club Santos.

Big Houston Breaking News

Business Journal is reporting that Brener International Group LLC (a real estate & investment company) and Golden Boy Promotions Inc. (champion boxer Oscar de la Hoya's company), have bought 50% of the Houston Dynamo.

No price was given, but the article says the Dynamo are valued at $40-50 million.

At this time, current owners AEG will continue to run the team, and will also push forward on building a stadium.

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle now has more. And says the sale is still being worked out.

It's Just So Gnarly Dude News

Oh Nelly, what an ass kicking Gamba laid on the Dynamo in the Pan Pacific Championship final!! Have you ever seen a Dominic Kinnear team get beat like that ??? (see MLS Preseason Section below)

~and~

Could things be any worse for Americans playing in England's top division right now? Not much. Of the twelve 9 are currently sitting in the relegation zone, 1 is having a great year, 1 is having a year we have come to expect, and the other 10 are not impressing anyone. There are no real signs that Derby, Fulham or Reading are going to turn it around either. I find it a little embarrassing as a fan, trying to defend our boys.


MLS News

Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe with an article on the fast preseason start for New England's 2nd year forward Kenny Mansally from Gambia.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram checks in on FC Dallas preseason.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob Luder of the Kansas City checks in with his local club, the Wizards concerning their preseason form.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

John Haydon of the Washington Times checks in with DC United and spring training.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune on RSL's acquisition of midfielder Dema Kovalenko from NYRB.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ben Knight of the Toronto Globe & Mail On Soccer blog gives his reasons why Joao Pinto was not the man for Toronto FC.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch talks to new Crew Technical Director Brian Bliss.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ives Galarcep at Soccernet gives us all the positives for MLS expansion in Philadelphia.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Delco Times of Philly looks ahead to MLS in their city with a Sunday paper feature: Recipe For Success
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A Philadelphia Inquirer columnist with his thoughts on a MLS team in his city.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Goal Seattle scanned and posted an article from a magazine called Washington CEO, about the new Seattle MLS team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff Rusnak of Southern Florida's Sun Sentinel has some details on a potential MLS team in Miami. Some very interesting stuff in here.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Preseason Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Fri Feb 22
San Jose 2-1 Columbus Crew at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
Colorado 2-2 Salt Lake in Fort Lauderdale FL
-Sat Feb 23
Columbus 2-1 Chivas USA in Valencia CA
Dallas 4-0 West Texas A & M at PHP
-Sun Feb 24
San Jose 0-0 DC at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
-Mon Feb 25
Ventura County Fusion v Columbus at Buena High in Ventura
-Tue Feb 26
Dallas v SMU
-Wed Feb 27
Dorados (Mexico) v Chicago in Sinaloa
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I think this picture shows San Jose's new uniform. And check out that DC United shirt, some sorta training gear I assume.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pan-Pacific Championship

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Feb 23 (actually early Sunday morning central time)
Championship: Osaka Gamba 6-1 Houston - Osa goals by Bare(4), Lucas & Masato Yamazaki. Hou goal by Ricardo Clark.
Third Place: Los Angeles 2-1 Sydney - LA goals by Ely Allen & Josh Tudela. Syd goal by Brendan Renaud.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet gives us the 411 on Houston's near historic beat down.
-The loss sure gives Houston a lot of questions to ask themselves.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

To make it even worse for Houston, they scored first in that title match! And they looked great for 15 minutes. Then they just stopped playing. Did they think it was going to be as easy as playing Sydney? Wrong em boyo! That big Brazilian forward Bare was amazing. Is he that good, or was Houston that bad? They made him look like an All-World First 11 player.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Carlisle also mentions that LA forward Carlos Ruiz took the field as part of a LA v Houston reserve match on Friday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Grahame Jones of the LA Times with a funny (intentional?) comment from Beckman after the consolation win, and some other soccer world news.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Two different places I found listed the attendance on Saturday night at 23,000. But I have not seen anything officially listed at all. It did look like more people than Wednesday night which was credited at 15,000 but reports said was really more like half that.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Rumors - Don't Tease Me Bro

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune reports on his Red Card blog that defender Wilman Conde did not travel with Chicago to their training camp in Mexico this week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

3rd Degree is reporting that Dallas midfielder Juan Toja left a preseason game v West Texas A&M with a bruised left knee. How bad is it?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Is that Santino Quaranta back training with his old club DC United? He was released by New York after last season.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Salt Lake has released defender Ritchie Kotschau.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

French striker Steve Marlett is still training with Chicago, so at least he must not be terrible.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shawn Mitchell on his Covering The Crew blog reports that Cuban defector Osvaldo Alonso is getting a try out with Columbus. He came to America last summer with his countries Gold Cup team and left in the middle to seek asylum.
-Mitchell also reported that the Crew were close to signing Sandro Jose da Silva, but apparently things have changed. They also have Sierra Leone forward Mamadu Bah on a try out.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There is still lot of talk about Costan Rican forward Argenis Fernandez joining New England from Santos in Brazil, but very few if any facts have arrived to supplement.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Offside hears a rumor about LA trying to get young goalkeeper Chris Seitz from Salt Lake. I bet RSL would swap him for Beckman or Landy, but nothing else.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Team USA

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America with a look at one of the USA's fastest rising stars, Maurice Edu. via Sports Illustrated.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USA Olympic Team

American Soccer Daily give us THEIR break down of the roster for qualifying that starts in 16 days. Coach Peter Nowak will start a training camp on or around Mar 1.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer In America

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune has an interview with actor Will Ferrell about, you know, funny stuff, and some soccer too.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

How'd their recent matches go:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - came on in the 83rd minute and the team tied 1-1 at home with Braga.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - was suspended after last weeks Red Card, and the team drew 0-0 at Koln.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - was on the bench for the teams 0-1 home loss to West Ham.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - went the full 90 but lost again this week, 2-3 at home to Nijmegen. 2 weeks ago they were in 2nd place, but now they are in 6th.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - went all 90 but lost 2-1 at Bochum and Cherundolo scored an Own Goal for Bochum's first.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - did not suit up for the teams 1-2 home loss to Aston Villa
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - started and played 76 minutes, replaced by Eddie Johnson, as the team lost 0-1 at home to West Ham.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - came off the bench in the 81st minute as the team got a 0-0 home tie with Preston.
-Joe Enochs - Osnabruck - warmed the bench in a 2-2 home tied with 1st place Monchengladbach.
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - did not dress for the teams 2-0 loss at Wigan.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - played all 90 and led his team to a 4-1 home derby win over Bolton.
-Cory Gibbs - Charlton - out injured, but finally training again.
-Joshua Grenier - Koblenz - at Kaiserslautern today.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - went the full 90 but lost again, this time 1-2 at home to Aston Villa.
-Tim Howard - Everton - at Manchester City today.
-Nate Jaqua - Rheindorf Altach - started and scored again, this time the game winner to beat Rapid Vienna 2-1 at home.
-Eddie Johnson - Fulham - made his debut in the 76th minute replacing Clint Dempsey, but the team lost 0-1 at home to west Ham.
-Kasey Keller - Fulham - was on the bench for the teams 0-1 home loss to West Ham.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - was on the bench but did not play in the teams 2-0 road loss at Wigan.
-Clint Mathis - Ergotolis - did not start, lost at Panionios 2-1.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - already back to full 90 minute performance level, but they lost 0-1 at home to West Ham.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - went all 90 as usual but the team could only get a 0-0 tie at home v Genk, and dropped back out of their 1st place tie.
-Matt Pickens - Queens Park Rangers - on the bench for his teams 1-1 home draw with Sheffield United.
-Luis Robles - Kaiserslautern - at home versus Koblenz today.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - still out with the ankle injury, but the team beat Cardiff 1-0 at home.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - came on in the 90th minute to help preserve a 0-1 road win at Fulham.
-Neven Subotic - Mainz - played all 90 minutes at centerback in a 2-2 home tie with Carl Zeiss Jena.
-Danny Szetela - Brescia - did not play as the team won at home 2-0 over Bologna.
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - came on as a sub in the 77th minute as they drew 0-0 at Koln.
-Sal Zizzo - Hannover - on the bench but did not play in the teams 2-1 loss at Bochum.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF News

Here is a slightly odd friendly that I just read about: Mexico v Ghana on Mar 26 in London.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Toronto Sun talks to another respected soccer person in Canada, Bob Iarusci, who is very upset with the way their national federation is being run. He better watch out or Jack Warner will be after him.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores

Group Stage Matches & Scores:-Feb 26
Dep Univ San Martin v Universidad Catolica
Estudiantes LP v Lanus
Caracas v Bamin Real Potosi
-Feb 27
Atletico Nacional v Sao Paulo
River Plate v America
Flamengo v Cienciano
-Feb 28
Cucuta Deportivo v San Jose
Maracaibo v Colo Colo
Cruzeiro v Caracas
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Stage Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tim Vickery of the BBC analizes the first 2 weeks of Libertdores action.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

If you really need to see the horrific photos of the broken leg of Arsenal's Eduardo da Silva then go ahead and search for them. But I am not gonna link to em. It's just way too nasty. He could be out a year, and will definitely miss Euro 08 for Croatia. Damn.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Martin Taylor of Birmingham who broke Eduardo's leg is reportedly getting death threats from Croatians. I don't know if I believe this. The English tabloid hysteria has made me cautious.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Simon Kuper of the Financial Times with a feature story on Arsenal midfield prodigy-turned-star Cesc Fabregas.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Football Italia with the Winners and Losers from Week 24.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fiorentina striker Adrian Mutu strained knee ligaments and will be out a month.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Several from The Times:
-The Game blog has Part 2 of their podcast interview with Frank Lampard and Gianluca Vialli.
-Guillem Balague with a great article on Tottenham coach Juande Ramos.
-Martin Samuel looks at the continued slide into the bottom of the cess-pit for former England star Paul Gascoigne.
-Fulham midfielder Moritz Volz continues with his excellent insights - this time its on the craziness of goalkeepers. He fails to mention his own teammate Kasey Kellers love of the heavy metal music.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Several more from The Guardian:
-Sid Lowe reports that Barcelona's yo-yo is headed back "up" in Spain, while Madrid's goes down.
-Paolo Bandini says Juventus are now bitching that EVERYONE has ganged up against them. Awwwwwwwwww.
-Raphael Honistein writes about big money beginning to make decisions for die Bundesliga, and weekend league buffoonery.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Werder Bremen star playmaker Diego was Red Carded and suspended for an additional 2 games for retaliating after rough foul by a Frankfurt player. The ref usually sees the first guy in an angry shoving match, but somehow he ALWAYS sees the second guy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

English League/Carling Cup - Final

-Sun Feb 24 at Wembley Stadium
Tottenham 2-1 Chelsea - Tot goals by Dimitar Berbatov & Jonathan Woodgate. Chel goal by Didier Drogba.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Great job by Spurs & their defender Jonathan Woodgate! How nice is it to see someone else win in England for a change. The football in that country is so predictable that I can barely watch anything more than highlights. And that bums me out. But Woodgate who scored the game winner deserves extra praise because after 3 or 4 seasons in a row out with injuries most of us wrote him off and openly mocked him. I know I did. Go huge thumbs up to him personally.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

But the Daily Mail with some really trashy pictures of Tottenham players later that night all messed up and getting tossed out of a nightclub for acting like idiots.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Key Euro League Club Matches This Weekend

Scores & Matches:
Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 Schalke - Bayer making their move at a good time.
Fulham 0-1 West Ham - a smaller London derby.
Sevilla 5-0 Zaragoza - one of the big underachievers makes their move.
Bayern Munchen 1-1 Hamburg - #1 v #3 stalemate.
Blackburn 4-1 Bolton - the "We are both just North of Manchester, and hate each other in a small town way" derby.
Roma 1-0 Fiorentina - the opposite momentum of these two teams continues.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

World News

FIFA.com does a Q & A with Jorge Fossati, the coach of the Qatar national team. They are currently recruiting players to come to their country, get expedited citizenship, and play for the national team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Adnan Hamad who coached Iraq to the Asian Cup title last year has been rehired.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets News

The Newcastle Jets beat the Central Coast Mariners 1-0 to win the Australian A-League championship!!! Congrats Newc's.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Central Coast's goalkeeper was suspended for 15 months after the matching for hitting the referee. The keeper thought the ref missed a hand ball call and flipped out. See ya in the 09 season buddy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This Is The End

Martin Rogers and Ian Edwards of Yahoo Sports have a soccer blog now. Good stuff. Check out this back and forth between Landon Donovan and David Beckham.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some awesome "roofball" video footage, from the folks who make FIFA Streetball. (thanks to Mr. CP for this great stuff)

Tri-lateral Commission On Three Wheeled Choppers News

Thinking back on it, I am still stunned that Salt Lake lost their match to Lynn University. I have never heard of Lynn. Have you? I know its preseason and it simply does not matter in the big picture. But I think it does. When a big game comes up and the chips are down will there be one player on the field who does not quite have 100% confidence in their mind that had planted at this game. It could happen. Lynn, damn, come on guys.

~and~

USL VP Tim Holt addresses First Division expansion: "Omaha (NE), Tulsa (OK), San Antonio (TX), Tampa (FL), Phoenix (AZ), Boise (ID), Oklahoma City (OK), Albuquerque (NM), Memphis (TN), and Birmingham (AL). We are currently in advanced discussions with interested parties in several of these markets."

~and~

Colorado & Salt Lake will stage a practice version of the Rocky Mountain Cup battle tonight when they meet in a preseason match in Florida. Is it wrong of me to hope a fight breaks out?


MLS News

The Delco Times of suburban Philly talks to MLS HQ who say that Feb 28 is certainly NOT set in stone, and several things still need to be settled before a new team can be announced.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Salt Lake acquired veteran midfielder Dema Kovalenko in exchange for a future draft pick to be determined. Hmmm. Always good to have veteran midfielders, but don't they have quite a few guys in the middle already?
-Here are their current 7: Kyle Beckerman, Mathias Cordoba, Kenny Cutler (does his mustache count as an extra player?), Javier Morales, Nathan Sturgis, Carey Talley & Andy Williams. This does not bode well for Kenny Cutler (or his cookie duster).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Martin Rogers at Yahoo Sports says LA is gonna play Beckman at his natural position this season - right midfield. Good move.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Chicago Fire has officially signed Polish forward Tomasz Frankowski from Wolverhampton in England. Press release.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

John Haydon of the Washington Times looks at the role defensive midfielder Clyde Simms will play for DC United this season.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Steve Pastorino at the US National Soccer Players Assoc talks to Chicago's new Technical Director Frank Klopas.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Big Apple Soccer figures that the New York Red Bulls have quite a bit of free space under the salary cap.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

BAS also reports that JP Dellacamera will NOT be calling Red Bulls games this year for local TV because his contract with ESPN will not allow it. Damn.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

New Kansas City midfielder Roger Espinoza broke his foot practice Wednesday. He will probably be out for a month.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

John Connolly of the Boston Herald previews the next segment of New England's preseason schedule - they head to Cancun.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America with a great breakdown of 3 potential new MLS stadiums - Philadelphia, Houston and DC.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Preseason Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Fri Feb 22
San Jose v Columbus Crew at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
Colorado v Salt Lake in Fort Lauderdale FL
-Sat Feb 23
Columbus v Chivas USA in Santa Clarita CA
Dallas v West Texas A & M at PHP
-Sun Feb 24
San Jose v DC at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
-Mon Feb 25
Ventura County Fusion v Columbus at Buena High in Ventura
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pan-Pacific Championship

From Honolulu Hawaii, with all games to be shown on ESPN Classic. Here's the official website.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Feb 23 (actually early Sunday morning central time)
Championship: Osaka Gamba v Houston - live at 12:30am central time on ESPN Classic
Third Place: Los Angeles v Sydney - delayed at 2:30am central time on ESPN Classic
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ives Galarcep of Soccernet previews the final.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle reports on his Soccer y Futbol blog that Dwayne De Rosario will most likely NOT play Saturday after straining a muscle on Wednesday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Our friend Dave Brett Wasser at the New York Times Goal blog writes about the NON-excitement in Honolulu over the Pan Pacific Championship.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jen Chang at Soccernet with his thoughts on the Pan-Pacific.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Rumors - Don't Tease Me Bro

Japanese forward Takayuki Suzuki has ended a tryout with Chivas USA, and is now getting one with San Jose. He even scored in a scrimmage v Cal Poly San Lius Obispo last night. (thanks to BP at the Soccer Spin for the heads up)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There has been a lot of talk about New York playing a friendly in early August v Barcelona. But it's not true.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Toronto is now saying that they have 1500 fans traveling to Columbus for the season opener. Wow.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Say "Goodnight" Grandpa - New York cut loose forward Francis Grandpa Doe today. Damn.
-The Red Bulls also ended the try out of former player Diego Serna.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division & PDL

USL Executive VP & COO Tim Holt held an online Q & A with fans this week. Here is Part 1 of the transcript.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

New team in 2009 from Austin TX has hired former longtime English player and coach Adrian Heath to be their first ever manager. Austin Aztex press release.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Portland Tribune with a story on new Timbers forward Chris Brown. He is a Portland native (Dirty Stinky Hippy) who has spent the last several years with several different MLS teams.
-Portland also re-signed key players Andrew Gregor (midfielder) & Cameron Knowles (defender).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Team USA

Ian Plenderleith at the US National Soccer Players Assoc continues his position by position run down of the most capable players in the USA pool. Today - centerbacks.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

Midweek Game Action:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - did not get off the bench but the team score twice in the dying moments to draw 2-2 at Nurnberg and advance on aggregate in the UEFA Cup.
-Tim Howard - Everton - also in the UEFA Cup Tim-may played all 90 and stomped Brann 6-1. They advance 8-1 on aggregate.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Tue Feb 19
Audax Italiano 1-2 Sportivo Luqueno - Aud goal by Miguel Angel Romero. Luq goals by Roberto Servin & Luis Nunez.
Chivas Guadalajara 2-0 San Jose - goal by Edgar Solis & Sergio Santana(PK).
Coronel Bolognesi 0-1 Nacional - goal by Bruno Fornaroli.
-Wed Feb 20
Liga Universitaria Quito 0-0 Fluminense
Arsenal 1-0 Libertad - goal by Luciano Leguizamon.
America 2-1 Universidad Catolica - Amer goals by Salvador Cabanas & Federico Higuain. UC goal by Dario Botinelli.
Maracaibo 1-1 Boca Juniors - Mar goal by Miguel Mea Vitali. Boca goal by Sebastian Battaglia.
-Thu Feb 21
Atlas 3-0 Colo Colo - goals by Bruno Marioni, Diego Colotto & Juan Carlos Medina.
Deportivo Cuenca 0-0 Danubio
San Lorenzo 0-0 Cruzeiro
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Stage Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

Johan Cryuff's first move as the new Technical Director at Ajax is to hire Marco Van Basten as the new manager for next season. Van Basten will be in charge of Holland for Euro 08, then start his new job in Amsterdam.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This weeks The Game podcast features a joint interview with Chelsea & England midfielder Frank Lampard together with former Italian great Gianluca Vialli.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Champions League

Did you see the Celtic fans EXPLODE when Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink scored that first goal v Barcelona. It was incredible!!! So intense. I loved it. That's what it's like when genuine fans, and not corporate partners, get all tickets.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The reaction by the 2 players in the background of this picture is very typical of what you see every time the guy in foreground of the picture does what he is doing. He is something that I like to refer to as "The Best In The World".
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Football Italia talks to Fabio Capello about how the 3 Italian teams did in the Champions League this week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Cup

Bolton fans got beat up by Spanish police in Madrid during and after their game last night. The fans claim innocence. The police say there were provoked. One thing we do know, one side was armed and had the law on their side. Does the other side even stand a chance? Not likely.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

English League/Carling Cup - Final

-Sun Feb 24 at Wembley Stadium
Tottenham v Chelsea
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I asked an Arsenal fan which of his arch rivals he was pulling for. He said, "Can they both lose?"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Key Euro League Club Matches This Weekend

Scores & Matches:
-Sat Feb 23
Bayer Leverkusen v Schalke - #4 v a surging #5
Fulham v West Ham - a London derby
Sevilla v Zaragoza - two big underachievers try to make their move upward
-Sun Feb 24
Bayern Munchen v Hamburg - #1 v #3 in Germany
Blackburn v Bolton - the "We are both just North of Manchester, and hate each other in a small town way" derby
Roma v Fiorentina - long time rivals sees them with opposite momentum right now. Roma up, Fiore down.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

World News

The French national team announced that they are switching their shirt making alliance from Adidas to Nike. But that won't happen until 2011.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Goal.com with their weekly column of soccer news bits and other seemingly random shit - Starting XI: Things We Wouldn't Bet Our Houses On.

Gilded In Bronze News

The hottest rumor of the day is that Philadelphia has sealed the deal to become the next MLS team, starting play in 2010.
-The Philadelphia Inquirer says the announcement date is set for Feb 28. That's still a week away though, and a lot can change between now and then.


MLS News

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle reports that the mystery South American the Dynamo are trying to sign is Franco Caraccio of Arsenal in Argentina. I think Houston is gonna need more help up top then this.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

James Edward of the Deseret Morning News with an article on new RSL centerback Nat Borchers.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune reports that Fire midfielder Cuauhtemoc Blanco really got into it with TFC youngster Maurice Edu during their friendly the other day. I love it, teams that hate each other even when it doesn't count.
-Arroyave with multiple Fire notes on his Red Card blog.
-Arroyave also chatted with actor Will Ferrell for an article that will run next week. Ferrell digs the futbol. He was at that USA-Italy game. Me too, broke my damn heart.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Buzz Carrick of 3rd Degree takes in a Dallas training session this week and gives us his analysis.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

SF at the Offside Rules has two Q & A's with MLS players for us : Anthony Wallace of FC Dallas and U-20's fame, And KC's Kurt Morsink aka EJ's old roommate at the US Residency Academy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gary Singh of Metro Active with his latest soccer column, and he must be pretty damn happy to have a San Jose team back.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

RevsNet looks at 10 (11 actually) preseason questions that New England needs to address.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff Bradley at MLSnet with a First XI salute to guys who have now been in the league 10 years.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MetroFanatic looks at Red Bulls youth team prodigy Matt Kassel and wonders if he will sign with the senior team (the first player in league history to do so) or go play college ball at Maryland?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here is a picture of Jack Jewsbury in the new Kansas City Wizards uniforms. And Jimmy Conrad sporting the second uniform.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The San Jose Mercury News with the latest on potential stadium building in their city.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Preseason Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Feb 20
Chicago 1-1 Toronto in Bradenton FL
Chivas USA v UC Riverside at HDC - Does anyone know the outcome of this game?
Bermuda National Team 0-2 New England in Bermuda
-Fri Feb 22
San Jose v Columbus Crew at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
Colorado v Salt Lake in Fort Lauderdale FL
-Sat Feb 23
Columbus v Chivas USA in Santa Clarita CA
Dallas v West Texas A & M at PHP
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Match report from the New England Revolution website. It was a much closer match up than the previous game last weekend that ended 6-1 to the Rev's.
-And some more details of the game from the official team blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Match report on Bermuda v New England from the Royal Gazette in Bermuda.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Rio Grande Plate - 1st leg:
UANL Tigres 2-1 Dallas - Tig goals by Jesus Palacios & Carlos Esquivel.
Dal goal by Ricardinho.
-I have not seen the date for the 2nd leg to be played at Pizza Hut Park. Is there a 2nd leg?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Video from FC Dallas Updates on the teams trip to Monterrey (pregame).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pan-Pacific Championship

From Honolulu Hawaii, with all games to be shown on ESPN Classic. Here's the official website.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Feb 20
Los Angeles v Osaka Gamba - goal by Bare.
Houston 3-0 Sydney - goals by Dwayen De Rosario, Stuart Holden & Chris Wondolowski.
-Sat Feb 23 (actually early Sunday morning central time)
Osaka Gamba v Houston - live at 12:30am central time on ESPN Classic
Los Angeles v Sydney - delayed at 2:30am central time on ESPN Classic
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Reported attendance last night was 15,128. Brutal. There were more than that at the Tigres v Dallas friendly in Monterrey last night!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Sydney Morning Herald had a lot of big talk about their local team coming into this tournament, but now that they have been blown out by a team that has not played a game in 3 full months all they have is a wire report.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Australian Four Four Two had the guts to admit defeat with mutiple articles:
-Minute-by-Minute game tracking
-Match report
-The Sydney coach blames his teams poor performance on the "end of long season". But dude, you got beat badly by a team who has not played in 3 months. I guess you could say they were fresh, but many would call it rusty.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet with a report on both games last night.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer watched the two matches on television and gives us his thoughts.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Honolulu Star Bulletin with a report on both matches.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Honolulu Advertiser reports on the atmosphere in the stands.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The LA Daily News with an AP match report on the LA Galaxy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Houston Chronicle with an AP match report of the Houston Dynamo.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

So, like Glenn Davis reported yesterday, the turf in Honolulu is old school Astro-turf. How can the people running this tournament - SUM? - subject players to that crap? Spend some money folks or continue to look half-assed.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Rumors - Don't Tease Me Bro

Quoting Bernardo Fallas on his Soccer y Futbol blog: "Dwayne De Rosario pulled something in his left leg. We will keep an eye on him." Not good.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Yesterday there was a rumor about New England dropping money on a designated player - today one name is Luis Figo. Hmmmm. I like him, but, as Soccer By Ives says, the man wants way too much money. So the question remains - who is it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

New England forward Kenny Mansally has a great nickname - Baby Scorpion!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Landon Donovan's tendonitis is in his right knee. There were pictures of him (right here is one) at the USA training camp 2 weeks ago with a band around his upper right calf that people use to help with tendonitis. I have had problems with this, but my sister taught me a simple strech and the pain has never come back - as long as I stretch every day.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated on his Throw-Ins blog has some very interesting news on Benny Feilhaber. I a huge fan of his skill but have talked to 2 fellow fans who encountered young Benny in the past few months and they told me that they were stunned by the size of his ego. Hmmmm.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America reports that yes Joao Pinto has flown to Florida to meet with Toronto, but he refuses to go on a try out. He says sign me or move on. Good luck buddy.
-Dean McNulty of the Toronto Sun says Pinto is shopping himself around to several MLS teams beyond TFC, AND will not be available until the summer transfer window anyway.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Disptach on his Cover The Crew blog says the CC are lining up a friendly v the El Salvador national team at Crew Stadium in late March.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune is reporting that the Fire are looking to set up "an exhibition against Blanco's old team, Club America, is in the works. That game will take place during the season at Toyota Park." Cool.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

An Avery John sighting? Dundee United in Scotland are reporting: "Also swelling the squad’s ranks was a trialist central defender. Although Alex wouldn’t reveal a name, he did confirm the man involved had been capped 60 times for his country and had been playing in America’s MLS as an import."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

W Connection (Trinidad & Tobago) defender Kern Cupid is getting a try out with an unnamed MLS team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division & PDL

The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle with an article on a potential new owner for the Rhinos.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Atlanta re-signed the leagues defender of the year David Hayes. Damn, I was really hoping that my Minnesota Thunder were gonna get a crack at him. The teams dangerous forward Machel Millwood is not going to sign with them again, and is looking for a new team. He is one big, fast dude.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer News

Big Apple Soccer has named USA Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati as their 2007 Person Of The Year. The site also hands out other awards.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

American Soccer Daily talks to Reading midfielder Bobby Convey about his still lingering knee injury and playing this weekend against Aston Villa. Convey plans on having more knee work done this summer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

ASD also reports that Frank Simek is back in training with Sheffield Wednesday after the ankle injury.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF News

ESPN Deportes got the rights to CONCACAF Olympic qualifying, which means that even less people will see the games than if they were on HDNet. Sad. More people watch Univision/TeleFutura/Galavision/Azteca infomercials than can even get ESPN D.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FIFA.com has an article on the growth of Puerto Rican football at the hands of Colin Clarke, the former Dallas manager.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Still no word on English language TV rights. Knowing CONCACAF we will find out about it 5 or 6 days before the games happen.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Tue Feb 19
Audax Italiano 1-2 Sportivo Luqueno - Aud goal by Miguel Angel Romero. Luq goals by Roberto Servin & Luis Nunez.
Chivas Guadalajara 2-0 San Jose - goal by Edgar Solis & Sergio Santana(PK).
Coronel Bolognesi 0-1 Nacional - goal by Bruno Fornaroli.
-Wed Feb 20
Liga Universitaria Quito 0-0 Fluminense
Arsenal 1-0 Libertad - goal by Luciano Leguizamon.
America 2-1 Universidad Catolica - Amer goals by Salvador Cabanas & Federico Higuain. UC goal by Dario Botinelli.
Maracaibo 1-1 Boca Juniors - Mar goal by Miguel Mea Vitali. Boca goal by Sebastian Battaglia.
-Thu Feb 21
Atlas v Colo Colo
Deportivo Cuenca v Estudiantes
San Lorenzo v Cruzeiro
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Stage Standings

European News

In all competitions, Real Madrid have lost 5 games already in 2008. That does not smell like a repeat champion to me.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Champions League

Round of 16 - 1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Tue Feb 19
Schalke 1-0 Porto - goal by Kevin Kuranyi
Liverpool 2-0 Inter - goals by Dirk Kuyt & Steven Gerrard.
Roma 2-1 Real Madrid - Rom goals by David Pizzaro & Mancini. RM goal by Raul Gonzalez.
Olympiacos 0-0 Chelsea
-Wed Feb 20
Arsenal 0-0 Milan
Celtic 2-3 Barcelona - Cel goals by Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink & Barry Robson. Bar goals by Lionel Messi(2) & Thierry Henry.
Lyon 1-1 Manchester United - Ly goal by Karim Benzema. ManU goal by Carlos Tevez.
Fenerbahce 3-2 Sevilla - Fen goals by Mateja Kezman, Lugano & Semih Senturk. Sev goals by Edu(OG) & Julien Escude.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2nd leg matches will be played Mar 4, 5 & 11.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Someone in the stands pointed a laser beam at Man U midfielder Christiano Ronaldo during warm ups and again during the game. It's being taken seriuosly.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Arsenal defender Kolo Tourse suffered a calf injury that will keep him out of action for two weeks to a month. His coach blamed the African Cup of Nations for the injury. Of course. That tournament is responsible for the world's poor literacy rates too.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune writes about Barcelona' talents and other Champions League action on Wednesday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Cup

Round of 32 - 2nd Leg Matches & Scores:
-Thu Feb 21
Villarreal 2-1 Zenit - series tied 2-2 and Zenit adv on away goals tie breaker.
Bayer Leverkusen 5-1 Galatasaray - Lev adv 5-1 on agg.
Getafe 3-0 AEK - Get adv 4-1 on agg.
Everton 6-1 Brann -Ev adv 8-1 on agg. Wow.
Braga 0-1 Werder Bremen - Brem adv 4-0 on agg.
Spartak Moskva 2-0 Olympique Marseille - Mars adv 3-2 on agg.
Helsingborg 1-2 PSV - PSV adv 4-1 on agg.
Bordeaux 1-1 Anderlecht - And adv 3-2 on agg.
Panathanikos 1-1 Glasgow Rangers (0-0) - series tied 1-1 and Rang adv on away goals tie breaker.
Basel 0-3 Sporting -Spor adv 5-0 on agg.
Bayern Munchen 5-1 Aberdeen - Bay adv 7-3 on agg.
Hamburger 0-0 Zurich - Ham adv 3-1 on agg.
Fiorentina 2-0 Rosenborg - Fior adv 3-1 on agg.
Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Slavia Praha - Tot adv 3-2 on agg.
Atletico Madrid 0-0 Bolton - Bol adv 1-0 on agg.
Nurnberg 2-2 Benfica - Ben adv 3-2 on agg.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Round of 16 - 1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Mar 6
Anderlecht v Bayern
Rangers v Werder
Bolton v Sporting
Leverkusen v Hamburg
Getafe v Benfica
Fiorentina v Everton
Tottenham v PSV
Marseille v Zenit
-2nd leg matches will be played Mar 12 & 13.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Top 5 Teams in Euro's Big 5 Leagues

-Premiership- 26 of 38 played
63 Arsenal
58 Manchester United
55 Chelsea
47 Everton
44 Liverpool
-La Liga- 24 of 38 played
56 Real Madrid
51 Barcelona
43 Villareal
41 Atletico Madrid
39 Espanyol
-Serie A- 23 of 38 played
59 Inter Milan
48 Roma
47 Juventus
41 Fiorentina
38 Milan
-Bundesliga- 20 of 34 played
43 Bayern Munich
40 Werder Bremen
37 Hamburg
35 Bayer Leverkusen
35 Schalke
-Ligue Un- 25 of 38 played
49 Lyon
48 Bordeaux
41 Nancy Lorraine
38 Marseille
38 Nice
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

World News

Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated with a new #1 in the World Club Power Rankings. But it's not the most confident #1 pick I have ever seen.

Never Enough Speed News

We will get our first chance of 2008 to see MLS teams in action on television tonight. It's the Pan-Pacific Championship and you can see both Los Angeles & Houston on ESPN Classic. See schedule below

~and~

From a LA Times story on high school age kids interest in soccer in that city: "In terms of bodies, there are probably more students playing soccer than any other sport in our section." (see full story below in Soccer In America section)

~and~

Inter forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic after the loss: “Why don’t you go ask Materazzi what happened?"


MLS News

Ian Plenderleith of the US Soccer Players Assoc gives us a round up of MLS news, rumors etc etc. He also unspins some of Mo Johnston's bull.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Electric New Paper of Singapore checks in again with Real Salt Lake trainee Indra Sahdan. Good stuff, very honest and open words from the player. This is the second day in a row we have heard from this player, and I hope the paper continues with it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Billy Witz of the LA Daily News says Chivas USA is ablaze with preseason injuries. But isn't this a hell of a lot better than postseason injuries like last year?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Witz also reports that Kyle Martino did not go with the Galaxy on their Asian trip, and this could very well mean that he is out of the team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Goal.com has an article written by LA Galaxy midfielder Kelly Gray on training camp so far.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Larry Millson of the Toronto Globe & Mail writes about Portuguese midfielder Joao Pinto who is with TFC for a try out.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

James Edward of the Deseret Morning News looks at the fairly long list of first year pro's who could make the Salt Lake 28 player roster.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune is in Florida gives us 3 chunks of Fire training camp news on this Red Card blog. One - Two - Three. Very good stuff.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLSnet has an article on a kid who came up through the Fulham youth system, ended up at an American college and is now in training camp with DC United trying to make their roster.
-I seem to remember that DC had another Fulham youth player last year in preseason, Yinka Casal, but he amounted to nothing special.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The maniacal Steven Wells of the Guardian gives us yet another shot of love for those supporters in Philly with no team - The Sons of Ben. Really funny. By the way, Wells lives in Philly, so its not like an Englishman picked up on the story from across the pond.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Edwardsville Intelligencer of suburban St Louis updates us by talking to potential MLS owner Jeff Cooper about their cities chances of landing a team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Preseason Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Tue Feb 19
Lynn U 2-1 Salt Lake in Lauderdale FL
-Wed Feb 20
UANL Tigres (Mexico) v Dallas in Monterrey
Chicago v Toronto in Bradenton FL
Chivas USA v UC Riverside at HDC
Bermuda National Team v New England in Bermuda
-Fri Feb 22
San Jose v Columbus Crew at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
Colorado v Salt Lake in Fort Lauderdale FL
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Royal Gazette of Bermuda previews tonight's rematch of Saturday when New England game Bermuda a 6-1 beating.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pan-Pacific Championship

From Honolulu Hawaii, with all games to be shown on ESPN Classic. The official website.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The 4 teams:
Los Angeles Galaxy
Houston Dynamo
Gamba Osaka
Sydney FC
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Matches & Scores:
-Wed Feb 20
Los Angeles v Gamba - live at 10pm central time on ESPN Classic
Houston v Sydney - live at 12:30am central time on ESPN Classic
-Sat Feb 23 (actually early Sunday morning central time)
Winner v Winner - live at 12:30am central time on ESPN Classic
Loser v Loser - delayed at 2:30am central time on ESPN Classic
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nick Green on his 100 Percent Soccer blog says it looks like Landon Donovan will be on the sideline due to a tendon problem.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Glenn Davis on his Soccer Hour blog made a reference to the poor quality of the turf in the stadium in Hawaii. I wonder how bad it is when the NFL just played their pro bowl in that stadium a week or so ago.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports is in Hawaii for this tournament and gives us a taste of Beckmania.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Honolulu Advertiser has an article on native son Brian Ching.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Honolulu Star Bulletin writes about the top players in the tournament.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America offers up pluses and minuses of MLS teams playing in the Pan Pacific tournament.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Rumors - Don't Tease Me Bro!

Glenn Davis on his Soccer Hour blog whispers to us a vague rumor of Houston signing an Argentine forward. No more info to be had.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

James Cardenas (no relation to Jaime) on the Sideline Views blog found an article in Argentina where Juan Sebastian Veron says he definitely wants to come play in MLS and he wants Juan Roman Riquelme to come with him.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer By Ives says that New York would probably include midfielder Dane Richards in a deal to acquire Wilman Conde from Chicago.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division & PDL

All First Division forwards cheered this week when Montreal announced that their excellent defender Mauricio Vincello has retired.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Former DC United defender John Wilson has re-signed with another ex club of his - the Charleston Battery.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vancouver re-signed forward Jason Jordan.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer News

Yanks Abroad talks to Oguchi Onyewu about the meaning of any USA v Mexico match.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dave Lifton of the US Soccer Players Assoc does a Q & A with former USA and MLS star defender Marcelo Balboa.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune says the USA is definitely preparing a bid for the 2018 World Cup, and they will have plenty of competition for it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer In America

This Is American Soccer has an interview of one of the very top American soccer writers Andrea Canales, as conducted by David Keyes of one of the very best American soccer blogs Culture of Soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The LA Times with yet another story on youth soccer in the city. High School soccer does not have enough spots/teams to handle all the kids.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FMF

Did Luis Bueno at Sports Illustrated uncover a Mexican soccer scandal? Does Guadalajara have a none-Mexican on their team? Was he born in America? It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel the same as I did before I read the story.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Tue Feb 19
Audax Italiano 1-2 Sportivo Luqueno - Aud goal by Miguel Angel Romero. Luq goals by Roberto Servin & Luis Nunez.
Chivas Guadalajara 2-0 San Jose - goal by Edgar Solis & Sergio Santana(PK).
Coronel Bolognesi 0-1 Nacional - goal by Bruno Fornaroli.
-Wed Feb 20
Liga Universitaria Quito v Fluminense
Arsenal v Libertad
America v Universidad Catolica
Maracaibo v Boca Juniors
-Thu Feb 21
Atlas v Colo Colo
Deportivo Cuenca v Estudiantes
San Lorenzo v Cruzeiro
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Stage Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

George Hasenecz at Goal.com wonders if Fulham, with their third coach in less than 12 months, has what it takes to stay in the Premiership this season. (thanks to Brian for this one)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tim Vickery of Sports Illustrated writes about Ronaldo's possible future.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Times with a story on the 2 talented Toure brothers - Kolo of Arsenal and Yaya of Barcelona.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Times also has a story on the return of Dutch legend Johan Cruyff to the club where he became famous, Ajax, as their new Technical Director.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Champions League

Round of 16 - 1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Tue Feb 19
Schalke 1-0 Porto - goal by Kevin Kuranyi
Liverpool 2-0 Inter - goals by Dirk Kuyt & Steven Gerrard.
Roma 2-1 Real Madrid - Rom goals by David Pizzaro & Mancini. RM goal by Raul Gonzalez.
Olympiacos 0-0 Chelsea
-Wed Feb 20
Arsenal v Milan -
Celtic v Barcelona -
Lyon v Manchester United -
Fenerbahce v Sevilla -
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

World News

Grahame Jones of the LA Times with a world soccer news roundup - Corner Kicks.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rave Ubha of the Seattle Post Intelligencer with his world soccer news round up too.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

African News

Berti Vogts has stepped down from his coaching position in Nigeria.