Seriously Melting Mind News

MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his blog The Red Card gives us the latest news from the Fire.
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Something I really loved about Blanco's goal from last Thursday night was that one of his teammates was warming up behind the goal and can be seen already celebrating before the ball is in the net, he knew it was going in. I love that stuff.
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CD CHIVAS USA

Nick Green at the Daily Breeze looks into the rough start to the season by Chivas USA and their defensive woes/injuries.
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COLUMBUS CREW

After being down 1-0 in the first half at San Jose on Saturday the Crew did all their damage in just 9 second half minutes. Between the 73rd and 82nd minute they scored all 3 of their goals. Impressive.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO

Is it really any surprise that on the day when the teams two leaders Brian Ching & Dwayne De Rosario both get their first goals of the season that the defending champs also get their first win of the season? I think not.
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NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe on Taylor Twellman who made a 2nd half return to action from a knee injury, scored a goal, then hurt his ankle. How bad is it?
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer looks at the stiff defense coach Juan Carlos Osorio has the Red Bulls playing, even without much talent.
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TORONTO FC

Nigel Reed at the CBC looks back at the first 12 months of TFC on the field.
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GENERAL

Robbie Rogers, forward for the Columbus Crew, has been named MLS Player Of The Week.
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Steve Davis at MLSnet gives us his list of early season breakout players of 08.
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And Davis writing for Soccernet give us his notes from Week 7.
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MLS Friendlies

-Tue May 13
Vancouver (USL1D) v Los Angeles in Edmonton
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Landon Dovovan did not make the trip to the Great White North due to a calf muscle strain. Organizers hope to draw 45,000.
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I want to say that the 2 Edmonton newspapers have a combined 12 stories today on this game. That is quite amazing. When the Galaxy played in my city last fall the 2 newspapers each ran 1 pregame and 1 post game article. It was pathetic. Great job Edmonton.
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MLS Coaching Hot Seat

In the first installment of the hot seat this season, we have 2 coaches who are in trouble early. Much of it is due to the fact that both had great teams during last years regular season, but disappointed during the playoffs so the eyeball was slightly on them already. One has already stumbled this season in CONCACAF. While the other is with a team that already had 3 head coaches before him and this is just there 4th year of existence, so they will make a change quickly if they feel it needs to happen.
Here they are:
-Tom Soehn - DC United
-Preki - Chivas USA
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What do you think?
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USL First Division News

The USL First & Second Division Teams of the Week. Including Melvin Tarley from my team, who scored the game winner against Montreal last Saturday.
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MINNESOTA THUNDER

I certainly didn't see this coming, but after 4 years of building a new stronghold playing their home games in St Paul, the team suddenly announced that effective immediately they are moving all their home games back to the norther suburbs and their old stomping grounds The National Sports Center in Blaine. While I support the team, and have always felt that the playing surface in Blaine was far superior to the one in St Paul's James Griffin Stadium, all the other factors were far worse in the suburbs. The team has already begun extensive reconstruction at the NSC that will make the place much more fan friendly (it could not have been much worse), the real surprise to me is doing this in the middle of the season. That I don't get. If they said they would do this from Day 1 next season then OK, but now? Curious. The teams plan is still to build a long term home in St Paul however. Here is the teams official press release.
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The Minneapolis Star Tribune has an article on the move.
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The St Paul Pioneer Press with their version of the story.
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But the final word goes to our good friend BQ at Blue Sky Soccer (our sister site about soccer in Minnesota).
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USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 14
Charleston v Montreal
Seattle v Rochester
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Team USA

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune gives us an updates on the probable host stadiums for USA home World Cup qualifiers later this summer and fall. Chicago, DC & Denver anyone?
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England has released their initial roster for the game v the USA. This will be paired down to 18 for game day.
G:
Joe Hart - Manchester City
David James - Portsmouth
Chris Kirkland - Wigan
D:
Wayne Bridge - Chelsea
Ashley Cole - Chelsea
David Wheater - Middlesbrough
Rio Ferdinand - Manchester United
Glen Johnson - Portsmouth
John Terry - Chelsea
Wes Brown - Manchester United
Jonathan Woodgate - Tottenham
Phil Jagielka - Everton
Stephen Warnock - Blackburn
M:
Gareth Barry - Aston Villa
Frank Lampard - Chelsea
Steven Gerrard - Liverpool
David Beckham - Los Angeles
Jermaine Jenas - Tottenham
Owen Hargreaves - Manchester United
Joe Cole - Chelsea
David Bentley - Blackburn
Tom Huddlestone - Tottenham
Stewart Downing - Middlesbrough
F:
Theo Walcott - Arsenal
Ashley Young - Aston Villa
Gabriel Agbonlahor - Aston Villa
Michael Owen - Newcastle
Wayne Rooney - Manchester United
Peter Crouch - Liverpool
Jermain Defoe - Portsmouth
Dean Ashton - West Ham
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Mexico & FMF News

Quarterfinals 1st leg Matches & Scores
-Wed May 14
Chiapas v Cruz Azul
Monterrey v Guadalajara
-Thu May 15
Necaxa v Santos
Toluca v San Luis
Quarterfinals 2nd leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Sat May 17
Cruz Azul v Chiapas (-)
Guadalajara v Monterrey (-)
-Sun May 18
Santos v Necaxa (-)
San Luis v Toluca (-)
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Copa Libertadores

Quarterfinal 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 14
Sao Paulo v Fluminense
Boca Juniors v Atlas
-Thu May 15
America v Santos
San Lorenzo v LDU Quito
Quarterfinal 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Wed May 21
Fluminense v Sao Paulo (-)
Atlas v Boca Juniors (-)
-Thu May 22
Santos v America (-)
LDU Quito v San Lorenzo (-)
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The knockout rounds bracket.
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England News

The Guardian with their Premiership 07-08 season awards.
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Fulham defender Moritz Volz gives us his feelings on his team surviving relegation on the last day of the season.
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The Guardian with an article on Fulham's survival and another article on their manager Roy Hodgson.
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Richard Williams of the Guardian loves lower division football in England, and says the Championship Division will draw better attendance than Serie A for the 3rd consecutive year. Plus other news.
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The Daily Mail lists their top 5 new signings of the just ended Premiership season.
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English Championship Division Promotion Playoffs

Playoff 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with 1st Leg results included):
-Tue May 13
Bristol City v Crystal Palace (1-2)
-Wed May 14
Hull v Watford (2-0)
Playoff Final Match & Score:
-Sat May 24
3rd-6th Winner v 4th-5th Winner
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European News

SPAIN

Sid Lowe of the Guardian looks at Atletico Madrid who sold top striker Fernando Torres to Liverpool last summer, and then saw their strikers get better! Kun Aguero & Diego Forlan ripped it up, and the team is in the Champions League for next season, for the first time since the late 90's.
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Phil Ball at Soccernet paints a very gloomy picture of the carcass previously known as Barcelona, and other La Liga thoughts.
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In Spain, Levante players are set to walk out on the last game of the season, against Real Madrid, because they say they have not had full paychecks in 2 years. What a mess.
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FRANCE

Karim Benzema of Lyon has been named France's Player Of The Year.
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ITALY

Roma fans will not be allowed to attend their teams final game of the season at Catania because of their tendency to turn good or bad situations into an excuse for violence.
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Paolo Bandini of the Guardian looks at Roma who are 1 game and 1 point out of stealing the title from Inter.
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Just in time for their last game of the season Parma have fired head coach Hector Kuper and hope to avoid relegation by beating Inter who are trying desperately to hold on to their top spot and the scudetto.
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GERMANY

Raphael Honigstein of the Guardin looks at Nurnberg who must win next weekend or be relegated a record 7th time.
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UEFA Cup

Final in Manchester at the City of Manchester Stadium.
Match & Score:
-Wed May 14
Zenit v Rangers
-It's St Petersburg v Glasgow, two very overlooked cities.
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Zenit will be without their top forward Pavel Pogrebnyak due to yellow card accumulation. He had scored 10 goals in the UEFA Cup, top for this season.
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The Russian team is getting a lot of bad press about it's fans, but Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian says Rangers fans can be quite bad.
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All the latest news from the official UEFA Cup site.
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England, Germany & Denmark were all given an extra spot in next seasons UEFA Cup, and those 3 teams will be picked using something called the Fair Play rules. I think it has something to do with fouls and cards against.
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2008 UEFA European Championship

Twohundredpercent gives us a rundown of all the teams shirts: 1st shirt - and - 2nd shirt. Great collection. (thanks for Rich for pointing me in this direction)
-My favorites are Croatia's 1st shirt, and Germany's 2nd shirt. My runner up goes to Greece's 2nd shirt.
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World News

Simon Kuper at Channel 4 continues his Political Football XI series with a feature on Colombian goalkeeper Rene Higuita! He was infamous for his connection to his countries awful drug wars of the 80's & 90's, and famous for his kick The Scorpion (video included, and must be seen to be believed - it's phenomenal!).
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Jack Bell of the New York Times on Rangers preparation for the UEFA Cup grand finale. And other world soccer news.
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African News

Frenchman Roger Lemerre is the new coach of Morocco.

A Little Less Action News

Note to Donald D Garber, Commissioner of MLS: Your team in Los Angeles called the Galaxy has 3 guys making millions, and they also have a guy named Brandon McDonald who is a regular starter making $12,900! This is insulting to him and embarrassing to your league. You need to fix this NOW. The folks running your LA franchise are too dumb to fix this. Besides, you are the Big Boss Man!


MLS Scoreboard

Week 7
Matches & Scores:
-Thu May 8
DC 0-2 Chicago - Chic goals by Justin Mapp & Cuauhtemoc Blanco.
Attendance: 18,605
-Sat May 10
Houston 2-1 Colorado - Hou goals by Brian Ching & Dwayne De Rosario(PK). Colo goal by Omar Cummings.
Attendance: 15,024
Match report by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.
Match report from the Denver Post.
Post game notes from Fallas.
More post game notes & Dynamo team & player ratings by Fallas on his blog Soccer y Futbol.
Salt Lake 2-1 Dallas - RSL goals by Javier Morales & Kyle Beckerman. Dal goals by Kenny Cooper.
Attendance: 12,173
Match report by James Edward of the Deseret News.
Match report from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Match report from the Dallas Morning News.
Post game notes from Edward.
Player ratings for RSL by Edwards on the Deseret RSL blog.
San Jose 2-3 Columbus - SJ goals by Ramiro Corrales & Ryan Johnson. Colu goals by Robbie Rogers(2) & Brad Evans.
Attendance: 9,318
Match report from the San Jose Mercury News.
Post games notes Pt 1 from Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch.
Post games notes Pt 2 from Mitchell.
Los Angeles 1-2 New York - LA goal by Alan Gordon. NY goals by Danleigh Borman & Juan Pablo Angel.
Attendance: 27,000
Match report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
Match report by Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise.
Match report by Scott Wolf of the LA Daily News.
Match report by Stefan Bondy of the Herald News.
Post game notes by Nick Green of the Daily Breeze on his 100 Percent Soccer blog. Very good stuff.
Post game notes and NY player ratings by Jack Bell of the New York Times blog Goal.
-Sun May 10
Chivas USA 1-2 New England - Chiv goal by Justin Braun. NE goals by Kenny Mansally & Taylor Twellman.
Attendance: 10,927
Match report by Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe.
Match report from the LA Times.
Match report by Phil Collin of the Daily Breeze.
Post game notes by Nick Green of the Daily Breeze on his 100 Percent Soccer blog. Very good stuff.
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Red Cards:
Tom McManus - Colorado (was on the bench at the time he was sent off)
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MLS Standings

Eastern Conference
18 Columbus (7)
16 Chicago (7)
13 New England (8)
11 New York (6)
10 Kansas City (7)
10 Toronto (6)
6 DC (7)
Western Conference
9 Colorado (7)
9 Dallas (7)
8 Salt Lake (7)
8 Los Angeles (7)
7 Houston (7)
5 Chivas USA (7)
4 San Jose (6)
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MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his blog The Red Card says the conflicts with defender Wilman Conde who demanded to be traded earlier this year, and then made up with the team, are back again. Not good.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports on "the seven sins of Cuauhtemoc Blanco." (from last week - sorry)
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CD CHIVAS USA

Defender Jonathan Bornstein suffered a sprained lateral collateral ligament in his left knee in practice at the end of last week. He is to be out of action almost 2 months. Not good for club or country.
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The team made several roster moves at the end of the week as well:
1. Acquire midfielder Carey Talley from RSL for future draft pick (TBA)
2. Defender Dan Gargan retires - he had a bad knee injury
3. Defender Chris Pozniak is released
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And on Sunday they started 2 players and subbed in another that I had never even heard of. Where are they getting these guys?:
-Erik Ebert - rightback
-Bobby Burling - leftback
-Daniel Paladini - defensive midfield
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Phil Collin of the Daily Breeze talks to midfielder Sacha Kljestan about defensive responsibilities.
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A note from Nick Green's 100 Percent Soccer blog: After the Chivas USA v Galaxy game last week a member of Legion 1908 committed an "act of violence" against a Galaxy fan and was suspended for two games.
In solidarity, members of Legion 1908 decided to boycott today's game.
The team has adoped a no violence policy in the wake of several reported instances of fan problems, including a stabbing of a Chivas USA fan in Houston, club officials said.
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COLUMBUS CREW

Forward Robbie Rogers has told reporters that he is very motivated right now after his Olympic team snub.
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Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated with an article on the surprising Columbus Crew - tops in the league after 7 weeks.
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FC DALLAS

Forward Kenny Cooper has been called for Offside more than any other player in the league so far this season.
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DC UNITED

Mike Wise of the Washington Post with a feature article on Ben Olsen.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO

Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle on the story one very sick kid and his friendship with players Stuart Holden & Craig Waibel.
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KANSAS CITY WIZARDS

Bob Luder of the KC Star looks at the Wizards who had the weekend off.
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LOS ANGELES GALAXY

David Beckham was named to the initial roster for England's 2 upcoming matches - May 28 in London v USA & Jun 1 in Port of Spain v Trinidad & Tobago.
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And what happens to LA in few weeks when Becks, Landy & Pescadito all go away to play for their national teams? At that point any First Division team could hand them their head on a platter. Brutal.
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NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe on Taylor Twellman injuring his ankle in the game.
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It only took Twellman 14 minutes to score his first goal of the season. He had yet to play due to a knee injury and came on at half time Sunday. The bad news is that he had 3 other fantastic chances that he did not finish. Was that the bum ankle?
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Midfielder Sainey Nyassi got a new contract last week that puts him on the Rev's senior roster. Good for him, he earned it.
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Don Cuddy at Soccer365 looks at the Rev's up and down season so far.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Stefan Bondy of the Herald News ponders the smallish NYRB home crowds and how the team will lure people to the new stadium when it opens next season.
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REAL SALT LAKE

The Deseret News with a post game article on seldom used midfielder Kenny Cutler. I believe Cutler still gets his haircut by his Mom out in the backyard.
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The Salt Lake Tribune gives us more pretty lame journalism - "I don't like games that end in a tie....." whine whine whine.
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The Seattle Post Intelligencer with an article on their native son Nick Besagno. Besagno has struggled with injuries and over hype and has barely seen the field in his 3 plus years in MLS.
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SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

George Tanner of the Rocky Mountain News blog FC Rocky tells that we have had San Jose forward Jean Phillipe Pegruero's name all wrong - it's really Peguero Jean Phillipe. I am not kidding.
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Elliot Almond of the Mercury News with a nice big story on Jean Phillipe.
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GENERAL

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune asks 10 players about Mothers Day. Nice.
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With Barcelona now officially wedged into 3rd place in La Liga, they will have to play in the opening qualifying rounds of the Champions League next season, making their trip to the USA all but impossible. So, I would not count on those previously rumored exhibition games happening.
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Steven Goff of the Washington Post on his Soccer Insider blog gives us his weekly round up - The Good, The Bad and The Coyote Ugly.
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MLS Friendlies

-Tue May 13
Vancouver (USL1D) v Los Angeles in Edmonton
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MLS Expansion News

The Seattle Post Intelligencer says current Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer is being considered for the head coaches job next season when the teams moves up a division. An interesting fact about Schmetzer is that he is related to Brain Setzer of the Stray Cats, and was the inspiration for the hit song "Stray Cat Strut".
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USL First Division News

Minnesota Thunder

My team won their 3rd game of the season on Saturday night pulling off a 1-0 win over Montreal. The game was incredibly even and hard fought for the full 90 aka not pretty. But from some great effort by subs and huge pile of late pressure Melvin Tarley headed home a cross from former Montreal player Frederico Moojen for the games only glorious goal. Minnesota now has 3 wins and 2 draws in the last 5 meetings with mighty Montreal.
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USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Thu May 8
Portland 0-0 Rochester
-Fri May 9
Charleston 3-1 Miami - Char goals by Randi Patterson(2) & Osvaldo Alonso. Mia goal by Alex Afonso
-Sat May 10
Carolina 2-2 Atlanta - Caro goals by Dan Antoniuk & Jamil Walker. Atl goals by Jason McLaughlin & David Hayes
Minnesota 1-0 Montreal - Minn goal by Melvin Tarley
Match report from the Minnesota Thunder.
Match report from the Montreal Impact.
Seattle 0-0 Portland
Vancouver 1-0 Rochester - Van goal by Eduardo Sebrango
-Wed May 14
Charleston v Montreal
Seattle v Rochester
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USL First Division Standings

Points - Team - (games played)
11 Portland (5)
9 Minnesota (4)
8 Carolina (4)
8 Charleston (5)
6 Vancouver (3)
6 Montreal (5)
5 Seattle (4)
5 Atlanta (4)
4 Miami (6)
3 Puerto Rico (4)
1 Rochester (4)
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Team USA

Chivas USA defender Jonathan Bornstein injured his left knee in practice at the end of last week, and will be out of action almost 2 months. So no USA call ups coming soon for him. Leaving the team again very thin at leftback.
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USA U20 News

The USA U20 team is heading to England to play a trio of games against the reserves teams of some big English clubs.
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Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 7
Bolton Reserves 0-2 USA - USA goals by Jorge Flores & Chris Agorsor. USA played 56 minutes with 10 men.
-Thu May 8
Manchester United Reserves v USA - USA goals both by Peri Marosevic.
-Fri May 9
Liverpool Reserves v USA
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USA Olympic Team

The teams heads to France this week for the Toulon Tournament.
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Here is the roster:
G:
Dominic Cervi - no team
Chris Seitz - Real Salt Lake
Quentin Westburg - Troyes
D:
Anthony Beltran - Real Salt Lake
Eric Brunner - no team
Kyle Davies - Southampton
Michael Gavin - Los Angeles Galaxy
Kamani Hill - Wolfsburg
Jonathan Leathers - Kansas City Wizards
Brek Shea - Dallas
Julian Valentin - Los Angeles Galaxy
Rob Valentino - New England Revolution
Blake Wagner - Dallas
M:
Bryan Arguez - Hertha Berlin
Corey Ashe - Houston Dynamo
Greg Dalby - Charleroi
Benny Feilhaber - Derby County
Lee Nguyen - Randers
F:
Gabe Ferrari - Sampdoria
Bryan Jordan - Los Angeles Galaxy
Ellis McLoughlin - Hertha Berlin
Sammy Ochoa - UAG Tecos
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Here is the game schedule.
Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 21
USA v Turkey
-Fri May 23
USA v Ivory Coast
-Sun May 25
USA v Italy
-Tue May 27
Semifinals
-Thu May 29
Final
All games will be shown live on Fox Soccer Channel.
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Americans In Europe

In the end, 4 Americans were relegated from the Premiership - Eddie Lewis & Benny Feilhaber with Derby County, and Marcus Hahnemann & Bobby Convey with Reading. Sad.
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The good news is the that 5 Americans at Fulham survived the drop by pulling off a near miracle.
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Another American avoided the drop in England too. American Soccer Daily talks to Frank Simek about this team Sheffield United staying in the Championship Division for next year. Simek has been injured for a long time now with an ankle problem.
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Greg Seltzer of ASD also covers Michael Bradley & Heerenveen as they beat NAC Breda 4-2 on aggregate to qualify for the UEFA Cup again next season. Congrats.
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Mexico & FMF News

First round 1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 7
Pachuca 0-1 San Luis - SL goal by Eduardo Coudet.
-Thu May 8
Atlas 1-1 Necaxa - Atl goal by Juan Carlos Medina. Nec goal by Angel Reyna.
First round 2nd leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Sat May 10
San Luis 1-2 Pachua - series ends tied 2-2 but Pachuca advance on some odd Mexican rule.
-Sun May 11
Necaxa 0-0 Atlas - series also ends tied, 1-1, and Necaxa advance on the strange rule.
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Quarterfinals 1st leg Matches & Scores
-Wed May 14
Chiapas v Cruz Azul
Monterrey v Guadalajara
-Thu May 15
Necaxa v Santos
Toluca v San Luis
Quarterfinals 2nd leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Sat May 17
Cruz Azul v Chiapas (-)
Guadalajara v Monterrey (-)
-Sun May 18
Santos v Necaxa (-)
San Luis v Toluca (-)
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South American News

Embele Awipi of the Salinas Californian writes about Brazilians leaving their native country to become citizens somewhere else so they can play national team soccer.
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Copa Libertadores

Quarterfinal 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 14
Sao Paulo v Fluminense
Boca Juniors v Atlas
-Thu May 15
America v Santos
San Lorenzo v LDU Quito
Quarterfinal 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Wed May 21
Fluminense v Sao Paulo (-)
Atlas v Boca Juniors (-)
-Thu May 22
Santos v America (-)
LDU Quito v San Lorenzo (-)
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The knockout rounds bracket.
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England News

Not only did Ryan Giggs come on and score the championship winning insurance goal for Manchester United on Sunday, but he also tied the teams all-time appearance record at 758. That is quite staggering.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo sports names his Premiership best 11.
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According to some calculations a team being demoted from the Premiership will lose out on $42 Million Pounds next season. That is insane.
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English Championship Division Promotion Playoffs

In case you missed it, West Bromich Albion & Stoke have been promoted to the Premiership for next season. Hull, Bristol City, Crystal Palace & Watford will play off for the third and final spot.
Playoff 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Sat May 10
Crystal Palace (5th) 1-2 Bristol City (4th)
-Sun May 11
Watford (6th) 0-2 Hull (1st)
Playoff 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with 1st Leg results included):
-Tue May 13
Bristol City v Crystal Palace (1-2)
-Wed May 14
Hull v Watford (2-0)
Playoff Final Match & Score:
-Sat May 24
3rd-6th Winner v 4th-5th Winner
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Big Euro Club Matches This Weekend

Premiership Championship:
-Manchester United are the winners for the 10th time in the 16th season of the Premiership.
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Matches & Scores
-Sun May 11
87 Wigan 0-2 Manchester United
85 Chelsea 1-1 Bolton

Premiership Relegation:
(goal differential is the first tie breaker)
Stay Up Matches & Scores
-Sun May 11
37 Chelsea 1-1 Bolton
36 Portsmouth 1-0 Fulham (-22)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Go down Matches & Scores
-Sun May 11
36 Derby 0-4 Reading (-25)
35 Birmingham 4-1 Blackburn
11 Derby 0-4 Reading
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Serie A Championship - Inter & Roma at the top with 1 game now left to play.
(Head to Head is the first tie breaker which Inter hold 5-2)
Matches & Scores:
-Sun May 11
81 Inter 2-2 Siena - the idiot Marco Materazzi insisted on taking a Penalty Kick and fluffed it!
78 Roma 2-1 Atalanta
-Sun May 18
82 Parma v Inter - Parma are in the last relegation spot and must win
81 Catania v Roma - Catania are in the spot above relegation and must win
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Ligue 1 Championship - Lyon & Bordeaux at the top with 1 game now left to play.
(Goal Difference is the first tie breaker)
Matches & Scores:
-Sat May 10
73 Lyon 1-0 Nancy Lorraine
71 Bordeaux 2-0 Sochaux
-Sat May 17
76 Lens v Bordeaux (+35)
73 Auxerre v Lyon (+27)
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Turkish Super Lig Championship
-Galatasaray win the title on the final day of the season!
Matches & Scores:
-Sun May 11
79 Galatasaray 2-0 Genclerbirligi
73 Trabzonspor 2-0 Fenerbahce

Slippin' On A Peel News

Derby du Nord is Saturday - Lille v Lens at Stade Lille Metropole


MLS Scoreboard

Week 7
Matches & Scores:
-Thu May 8
DC 0-2 Chicago - Chic goals by Chris Rolfe & Cauahtemoc Blanco.
Match report by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
Post game notes by David Mosse on the Soccernet blog.
Post game notes and DC player ratings by Goff on his Soccer Insider blog.
Post game analysis by Goff on the blog.
Post game notes by Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his blog The Red Card.
-Sat May 10
Houston v Colorado - 7:30pm central on FSC
Salt Lake v Dallas - 8pm central on Direct TV
San Jose v Columbus - 9pm central on Direct TV
Los Angeles v New York - 9:30pm central on HDNet
-Sun May 10
Chivas USA v New England - 2pm central on TeleFutura
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Serving suspensions this week:
Roger Espinoza - Kansas City - 1 game
Claudio Suarez - Chivas USA - 1 game
Jason Kries - Salt Lake coach - 1 game
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MLS Standings

Eastern Conference
16 Chicago (7)
15 Columbus (6)
10 Kansas City (7)
10 Toronto (6)
10 New England (7)
8 New York (5)
6 DC (7)
Western Conference
9 Colorado (6)
9 Dallas (6)
8 Los Angeles (6)
5 Chivas USA (6)
5 Salt Lake (6)
4 San Jose (5)
4 Houston (6)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

CD CHIVAS USA

Luis Bueno at the Chivas USA website with an article on the injury woes of forward Alecko Eskandarian.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

COLORADO RAPIDS

Soccer 365 has an interview with forward Omar Cummings about his new life in the starting lineup.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Brian Forbes of the Denver Post on the Rapids next opponent, Houston. And other team notes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

COLUMBUS CREW

Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch writes that for the first time we are seeing the real Chad Marshall. The center back has suffered several injuries, including several concussions. When he was a teen I thought that he was going to become the first truly great American defender. Who knows, maybe he still can.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DC UNITED

An absolutely fantastic video interview and home tour with Ben Olsen, by Mike Wise of the Washington Post. Linked from Steve Goffs brilliant blog Soccer Insider.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

HOUSTON DYNAMO

Beau Dure of USA Today on the winless Dynamo. And other soccer notes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe reports that forward Taylor Twellman has traveled with the team to Los Angeles to take on Chivas USA. He will not start, but is available as a sub. Huge news.
-Twellman also talks about another English team making an offer for him this summer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

RED BULL NEW YORK

Soccer by Ives reports that initial stories about defender Eric Brunner were the true ones. He is being "asked" (aka told) to take a developmental contract after he had originally agreed to a senior team contract, and is now in limbo with the team. Maybe he is not AWOL as some reported, but he is certainly pissed off about the situation. Can you blame him?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

REAL SALT LAKE

James Edward of the Deseret News looks at the RSL strikers. Who is gonna step up?
-Edward with a couple other notes on the newpapers soccer blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

Forward Gavin Glinton has joined the MLS Express flight to Germany for hernia surgery. Dax McCarty of Dallas and Alecko Eskandarian of Chivas USA have also just done the same thing. (thanks to Dean L for this one)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jay Hipps at Center Line Soccer takes in Equakes practice and gives us the teams vibe. Plus other notes and stories.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

TORONTO FC

TFC midfielder Carl Robinson's regular column for his native newspaper the County Times.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GENERAL

Steve Davis of MLSnet with 5 important topics this week. Good stuff.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer has posted the podcast of the Week 6 MLS Referee Review.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kartik Krishnaiyer at Major League Soccer Talk with a good essay on the current state of MLS. He is not encouraged by certain important aspects of our league. (thanks to BQ for this)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Coaching Hot Seat

Is it too early yet to open up the can of worms where we look at which coaches heads are on the chopping block? (I was going for maximum cliches there.) I have 2 in mind, and one of them will shock most people. But I am gonna wait till after the week 8 to start this list. In the meantime give me your suggestions.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division News

The Oregonian with a story on one of the sparks for first place Portland - Miguel Guante. He got bounced from a few other teams before he got his chance. (thanks to Brian for this link)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Tacoma New Tribune reports on the heated Seattle-Portland rivalry.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Thu May 8
Portland 0-0 Rochester
-Fri May 9
Charleston v Miami
-Sat May 10
Carolina v Atlanta
Minnesota v Montreal
Seattle v Portland
Vancouver v Rochester
-Wed May 14
Charleston v Montreal
Seattle v Rochester
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Standings

Points - Team - (games played)
10 Portland (4)
7 Carolina (3)
6 Minnesota (3)
6 Montreal (4)
5 Charleston (4)
5 Seattle (4)
4 Atlanta (3)
4 Miami (5)
3 Vancouver (2)
3 Puerto Rico (4)
0 Rochester (2)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Team USA

The first World Cup qualifier is only a little over a month away - June 15 v Barbados in Los Angeles! (Ticket Info) And US Soccer has put some teaser videos online for a series called It Starts Here. Check It Out.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USA U20 News

The USA U20 team is heading to England to play a trio of games against the reserves teams of some big English clubs.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 7
Bolton Reserves 0-2 USA - USA goals by Jorge Flores & Chris Agorsor. USA played 56 minutes with 10 men.
-Thu May 8
Manchester United Reserves v USA - USA goals both by Peri Marosevic.
Match report from US Soccer.
-Sat May 10
Liverpool Reserves v USA
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer In America

Billy Witz writing for the New York Times brings us up to date with the young Cuban players who defected during the Olympic qualifying tournament in Florida a couple months back.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

The Times with an article on Fulham manager Roy Hodgson, whose team stands at the relegation precipice, but have ahold of the rope and simple have to pull themselves up.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mexico & FMF News

First round 1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 7
Pachuca 0-1 San Luis - SL goal by Eduardo Coudet.
-Thu May 8
Atlas 1-1 Necaxa - Atl goal by Juan Carlos Medina. Nec goal by Angel Reyna.
First round 2nd leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Sat May 10
San Luis v Pachua (1-0)
-Sun May 11
Necaxa v Atlas (1-1)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

These 2 winners will advance to be paired off with the top 6 who got a buy in this round: Toluca, Santos Laguna, Guadalajara, Chiapas, Monterrey & Cruz Azul.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores

Round of 16, 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Tue May 6
Fluminense 1-0 Atletico Nacional - Flum adv 3-1 on agg. Flum goal by Roger.
Atlas 2-2 Lanus (1-0) - Atl adv 3-2 on agg. Atl goals by Bruno Marioni & Ulises Mendivil. Lan goals by Jose Sand & Lautaro Acosta.
Estudiantes 2-1 LDU Quito - LDU adv 3-2 on agg. Est goals by Agustin Alayes & Ezequiel Maggiolo. LDU goal by Luis Bolanos.
-Wed May 7
Sao Paulo 2-0 Nacional - SP adv 2-0 on agg. SP goals by Adriano & Dagoberto.
Cruzeiro 1-2 Boca Juniors - Boca adv 4-2 on agg. Cruz goal by Wagner. Boca goals by Rodrigo Palacio & Martin Palermo.
Flamengo 0-3 America - Amer adv 5-4 on agg. Amer goals by Salvador Cabanas(2) & Enrique Esqueda.
-Thu May 8
River Plate 2-2 San Lorenzo - SL adv 4-3 on agg. RP goals by Matias Abelairas & Sebastian Abreu. SL goals both by Gonzalo Bergessio.
Cucuta Deportivo 0-2 Santos - Sant adv 4-0 on agg. Sant goals by Kleber Pereira & Lima.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Next Week-
Quarterfinal 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-wed May 14
Sao Paulo v Fluminense
Boca Juniors v Atlas
-Thu May 15
America v Santos
San Lorenzo v LDU Quito
Quarterfinal 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Wed May 21
Fluminense v Sao Paulo (-)
Atlas v Boca Juniors (-)
-Thu May 22
Santos v America (-)
LDU Quito v San Lorenzo (-)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Where are the last 8 teams from?
Arg: 2
Braz: 3
Mex: 2
Ecua: 1
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The knockout rounds bracket.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

England News

Sport Magazine has a Q & A with former England player & manager Terry Venables, who is still a very popular guy in England.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

English Championship Division Promotion Playoffs

In case you missed it, West Bromich Albion & Stoke have been promoted to the Premiership for next season. Hull, Bristol City, Crystal Palace & Watford will play off for the third and final spot.
Playoff 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Sat May 10
Crystal Palace (5th) v Bristol City (4th)
-Sun May 11
Watford (6th) v Hull (1st)
Playoff 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with 1st Leg results included):
-Tue May 13
Bristol City v Crystal Palace (-)
-Wed May 14
Hull v Watford (-)
Playoff Final Match & Score:
-Sat May 24
3rd-6th Winner v 4th-5th Winner
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated goes to Spain to find out what it took for Real Madrid to regain their masterful ways and huge margin of victory in winning the Spanish title again.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Big Euro Club Matches This Weekend

- Premiership Championship - Final game of the season!
(Goal Difference is the first tie breaker)
All games kick off at the same time
Matches & Scores:
-Sun May 11
84 Wigan v Manchester United (+56)
84 Chelsea v Bolton (+39)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

- Premiership Relegation Battle - Final game of the season!
(Goal Difference is the first tie breaker)
All games kick off at the same time
Matches & Scores:
-Sun May 11
36 Bolton (-18) at Chelsea
33 Fulham (-23) at Portsmouth
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
33 Reading (-29) at Derby
32 Birmingham (-19) v Blackburn
11 Derby (already relegated)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

- Serie A Championship - 2 games left to play, but Inter will claim it with a win.
(Head to Head is the first tie breaker which Inter hold 5-2)
Matches & Scores:
-Sun May 11
81 Inter v Siena
78 Roma v Atalanta
-Sun May 18
Parma v Inter
Catania v Roma
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

- Ligue 1 Championship - - 2 games left to play, but Lyon will claim it with a win and Bordeaux loss or tie.
(Goal Difference is the first tie breaker)
Matches & Scores:
-Sat May 10
73 Lyon v Nancy Lorraine (+34)
71 Bordeaux v Sochaux (+25)
-Sat May 17
Lens v Bordeaux
Auxerre v Lyon
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

- Turkish Super Lig Championship - Final game of the season!
(Goal Difference is the first tie breaker)
Matches & Scores:
-Sun May 11
76 Galatasaray v Genclerbirligi (+39)
73 Trabzonspor v Fenerbahce (+37)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

World News

This one is a bit old, but..... The Rocky Mountain News reports on Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich buying a $37 million home in Colorado! This is actually is second house in an area called Snowmass Village. (thanks to G for the heads up)

The Score For Forbidden Planet Is Great News

Club America pulled off a stunning upset in the Copa Libertadores last night. After losing 2-4 at home to Flamengo, they roared back to win 0-3 at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro! Even bigger when you consider that they are having their worst season EVER in the Mexican Clausura! I am blown away by this win!

~and~

Barcelona team president Joan Laporta has made it official and announced youth team coach Pep Guardiola as the new manager of Barcelona, replacing Frank Rijkaard!!

~and~

I got several emails from people saying that they too have problems with the MLS website crashing their browser. It appears as though we all use FireFox. One of the people had a connection to MLS HQ and let them know about the problem, which they acknowledged and had heard about from others. Let's hope they fix it asap.

~and~

New England coach Steve Nicol after his teams 0-3 loss to Chicago last Saturday: "I thought we were consistent, consistently bad."

~and~

Sven to coach Mexico??? It's a hot rumor!


MLS Scoreboard

Week 7
Matches & Scores:
-Thu May 8
DC v Chicago - 6:30pm central on ESPN2
Match preview by John Haydon of the Washington Times.
Match preview by Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner.
Match preview by Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet.
-Sat May 10
Houston v Colorado - 7:30pm central on FSC
Salt Lake v Dallas - 8pm central on Direct TV
San Jose v Columbus - 9pm central on Direct TV
Los Angeles v New York - 9:30pm central on HDNet
-Sun May 10
Chivas USA v New England - 2pm central on TeleFutura
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Serving suspensions this week:
Roger Espinoza - Kansas City - 1 game
Claudio Suarez - Chivas USA - 1 game
Jason Kries - Salt Lake coach - 1 game
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Standings

Eastern Conference
15 Columbus (6)
13 Chicago (6)
10 Kansas City (7)
10 Toronto (6)
10 New England (7)
8 New York (5)
6 DC (6)
Western Conference
9 Colorado (6)
9 Dallas (6)
8 Los Angeles (6)
5 Chivas USA (6)
5 Salt Lake (6)
4 San Jose (5)
4 Houston (6)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Steven Goff of the Washington Post with an article on coach Denis Hamlett.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Len Zeihm of the Sun Times with an article on the rise from the ashes by John Thorrington.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Speaking of Thorrington, he was the guest writer on Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune's blog the Red Card.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Arroyave also on the blog gives us health updates on defender Wilman Conde and forward Tomas Frankowski.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nick Firchau of the Southtown Star with an article on Chris Rolfe who gives the team a huge lift, when he isn't injured. He just won MLS Goal of the Week too.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

COLORADO RAPIDS

Class VI has a Q & A with coach Fernando Clavijo.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FC DALLAS

Buzz Carrick at 3rd Degree with this weeks Practice Observations.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DC UNITED

Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner talks to Ben Olsen who says there is not way he is going to retire now without doing everything he can to get his ankles working properly.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

HOUSTON DYNAMO

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle with some Dynamo notes, including the signing of former DC forward Guy Roland Kpene, and Brad Davis is still injured.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Pete Grathoff of the Kansas City Star talks to former Wizzer Chris Klein about his famous teammate Douglas Braverman.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

RED BULL NEW YORK

MetroFanatic with an article on young defender Eric Brunner who is one of those players caught between the brutally low paying developmental roster and finding an open spot on the senior roster.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Claudio Reyna suffered a calf injury in last weeks game up in Toronto and will not travel to LA with the team this week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stefan Bondy of the Herald News with an article on a player very few thought would catch on, but has succeeded nicely, Jeff Parke.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

REAL SALT LAKE

Coach Jason Kreis has found himself on the wrong end of an argument with the league over referees. He has been complaining long and loud about the quality and today the league suspended him for one game, and fined him. Ouch.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

Elliot Almond of the Mercury News says the EQuakes are not done searching for ways to improve the offense, and have 2 Brazilians trying out right now.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GENERAL

Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports gives it another shot ranking the Top 20 MLS Players - his previous list caused a lot of arguing all over the US soccer nation. No doubt this list will do the same.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ridge Mahoney at Soccer America looks at all the players who have gone to Germany to undergo Dr Ulrike Muschaweck's revolutionary hernia surgery. It used to take months to recover, but now just weeks or days.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Business Wire reports that AEG has bought part of Oscar de la Hoya's boxing company Golden Boy Promotions. So did they pay anything, or was the shares of Houston Dynamo the price?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Rookie Of The Year

Here is our first look at the early season candidates (alphabetically):
-Tony Beltran - Real Salt Lake
-Danleigh Borman - New York Red Bulls
-Sean Franklin - Los Angeles Galaxy
-Stephen King - Chicago Fire
-Brandon MacDonald - Los Angeles Galaxy
-Chance Myers [FIXED] - Kansas City Wizards
-Shea Salinas - San Jose Earthquakes
-Luke Sassano - New York Red Bulls
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Did we miss anyone?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Stadium Talk

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle with two articles on a new twist for a Dynamo Stadium. Texas Southern University wants to get in on the action, and they have $$ to spend. One - and - Two.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division News

Ann Ramzy of Soccernet with the week in review, and she gives my Thunder no love at all.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Seattle Post Intelligencer on the Sounders of today and tomorrow.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Thu May 8
Portland v Rochester
-Fri May 9
Charleston v Miami
-Sat May 10
Carolina v Atlanta
Minnesota v Montreal
Seattle v Portland
Vancouver v Rochester
-Wed May 14
Charleston v Montreal
Seattle v Rochester
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer News

An audio interview with US Soccer's Technical Director John Hackworth.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USA U20 News

The USA U20 team is heading to England to play a trio of games against the reserves teams of some big English clubs.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 7
Bolton Reserves 0-2 USA - USA goals by Jorge Flores & Chris Agorsor. USA played 56 minutes with 10 men.
Match report from US Soccer.
-Thu May 8
Manchester United Reserves v USA
-Sat May 10
Liverpool Reserves v USA
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

US Soccer has an audio interview with Clint Dempsey, looking at the big Fulham match ahead.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Fulham website has an interview with Kasey Keller about the All-Or-Nothing match on Sunday at Portsmouth.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sean O'Connor of American Soccer Daily with an article on Frank Simek at Sheffield Wednesday who is recovering from ankle surgery, and watched his team narrowly avoid relegation.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Charlie Davies scored a goal as his Hammarby won the Stockholm derby 0-2 at Djurgardens. Davies also got a yellow card late in the game for taking off his shirt after his goal.
-American Soccer Daily has a match report.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF News

New national team rankings are out. Here are the regions top 6 teams via FIFA and ELO:
Mexico - 17 - 10
USA - 21 - 18
Honduras - 36 - 41
Canada - 62 - 56
Panama - 67 - 67
Costa Rica - 77 - 52
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Canadian National Team News

Ben Knight of the Toronto Globe & Mail blog On Soccer gives us the good & bad from the Canadian Soccer Assoc - nothing.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mexico & FMF News

Torneo Clausura 2008 Liguilla is all set:
Top 2 from each of the 3 groups go through, then the next 4 best records regardless of group will playoff in the first round for 2 spots in the final 8. All games are home & away throughout the championship run.
-The 3 leaders are: Toluca, Santos Laguna & Guadalajara.
-2nd places belong to : Chiapas, Monterrey & Cruz Azul.
-And the next 4 are: San Luis, Necaxa, Pachuca & Atlas.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

First round 1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 7
Pachuca 0-1 San Luis
-Thu May 8
Atlas v Necaxa
First round 2nd leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Sat May 10
San Luis v Pachua (1-0)
-Sun May 11
Necaxa v Atlas (-)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

These 2 winners will advance to be paired off with the top 6 who got a buy in this round.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

South American News

Gregory Sica at Sports Illustrated looks at why Argentine teams no longer totally dominate the Libertadores.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores

Round of 16, 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Tue May 6
Fluminense 1-0 Atletico Nacional - Flum adv 3-1 on agg. Flum goal by Roger.
Atlas 2-2 Lanus (1-0) - Atl adv 3-2 on agg. Atl goals by Bruno Marioni & Ulises Mendivil. Lan goals by Jose Sand & Lautaro Acosta.
Estudiantes 2-1 LDU Quito - LDU adv 3-2 on agg. Est goals by Agustin Alayes & Ezequiel Maggiolo. LDU goal by Luis Bolanos.
-Wed May 7
Sao Paulo 2-0 Nacional - SP adv 2-0 on agg. SP goals by Adriano & Dagoberto.
Cruzeiro 1-2 Boca Juniors - Boca adv 4-2 on agg. Cruz goal by Wagner. Boca goals by Rodrigo Palacio & Martin Palermo.
Flamengo 0-3 America - Amer adv 5-4 on agg. Amer goals by Salvador Cabanas(2) & Enrique Esqueda.
-Thu May 8
River Plate v San Lorenzo (1-2)
Cucuta Deportivo v Santos (0-2)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Quarterfinal matchups (games to be played week of May 14 & 21):
Fluminense v Sao Paulo
Atlas v Boca Juniors
America v Cucuta/Santos winner
River Plate/San Lorenzo winner v LDU Quito
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here is the full bracket for the rest of the tournament.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

England News

The Telegraph gives us 5 things we won't miss about Reading, Fulham or Birmingham should they get relegated from the Premiership.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

English Championship Division Promotion Playoffs

In case you missed it, West Bromich Albion & Stoke have been promoted to the Premiership for next season. Hull, Bristol City, Crystal Palace & Watford will play off for the third and final spot.
Playoff 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Sat May 10
Crystal Palace (5th) v Bristol City (4th)
-Sun May 11
Watford (6th) v Hull (1st)
Playoff 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with 1st Leg results included):
-Tue May 13
Bristol City v Crystal Palace (-)
-Wed May 14
Hull v Watford (-)
Playoff Final Match & Score:
-Sat May 24
3rd-6th Winner v 4th-5th Winner
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

Reuters on the end of days for coach Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona. A youth coach from within their system, Josep "Pep Guardiola" Sala will be promoted to the top mans job.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Euro League Cup Competitions

-Coupe de France- Semifinals
Matches & Scores:
-Tue May 6
Amiens 0-1 Paris St Germain
-Wed May 7
Lyon 1-0 Sedan Ardennes
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

So it will be old foes Lyon and PSG squaring off for the Cup title.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

-Coppa Italia- Semifinals
2nd leg Matches & Scores (with first leg scores included):
-Wed May 7
Lazio 0-2 Inter - Inter advance 2-0 on aggregate.
-Thu May 8
Catania 1-1 Roma -Roma adv 2-1 on agg.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For the 57th year in a row Inter & Roma will face off for the Coppa.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Big Euro Club Matches This Week

Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 7
Real Madrid 4-1 Barcelona - the newly crowned league champions embarrassed their rivals! You can expect massive changes at Barca.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sid Lowe of the Guardian says Real Madrid handed Barca "the mother of all embarrassments."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2008 UEFA European Championship

FIFA.com has a Q & A with Poland coach Leo Beenhakker.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

World News

Ravi Ubha at the Seattle Post Intelligencer with a world news round up.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

African News

The Reuters Soccer Blog with an article on the dearth of qualified coaches in Africa.

Blazing Hot Sun News

Is it me or is the MLS website crashing your web browser too?


MLS Scoreboard

Week 7
Matches & Scores:
-Thu May 8
DC v Chicago - 6:30pm central on ESPN2
-Sat May 10
Houston v Colorado - 7:30pm central on FSC
Salt Lake v Dallas - 8pm central on Direct TV
San Jose v Columbus - 9pm central on Direct TV
Los Angeles v New York - 9:30pm central on HDNet
-Sun May 10
Chivas USA v New England - 2pm central on TeleFutura
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Serving suspensions this week:
Roger Espinoza - Kansas City - 1 game
Claudio Suarez - Chivas USA - 1 game
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

The team cut loose young Brazilian defender Bruno Menezes. He played in a few games last season.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

COLORADO RAPIDS

On his radio show Monday night, Glenn Davis had Colorado Top Dog Jeff Plush as a guest. Listen as Glenn asks the real questions, and Plush tap dances with cliches & nearly non-answers on several, but makes good points on a few others. Download or listen here.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FC DALLAS

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America takes a look at Arturo Alvarez who is exploding right before our eyes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DC UNITED

Steven Goff of the Washington Post with a big story on the teams newest attacking midfielder Marcelo Gallardo of Argentina.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Goff also reports on the teams new sponsorship deal with Volkswagen, valued at nearly $3million per season.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Goff on his Soccer Insider blog with a few more interesting details of the VW deal.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dan Steinberg of the infamous Washington Post blog the DC Sports Bog has not 1 but 5 posts on the DC-VW connection. Good stuff as always too.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

RED BULL NEW YORK

Ives Galarcep of Soccer by Ives checks in on Red Bulls practice and fills us in on the teams hurts and news.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ives also writes about forward Jozy Altidore who the team feels may be worn out from all of his non-stop playing and marketing.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

REAL SALT LAKE

Yesterday I linked to RSL coach Jason Kreis's whining jag about poor treatment from referees. I told him to shut up and play. Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America did the mature thing and broke down the factors Kreis is looking at.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

TORONTO FC

The Star with an article on former Canadian U23 coach Nick Dasovic who has joined the TFC coaching staff.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ben Knight of the Globe & Mail blog On Soccer takes in a Blue Jays baseball game and draws the comparisons to seeing TFC at BMO Field. Like Knight I too pretty much gave up on baseball after that 94 strike.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GENERAL

Steven Goff of the Washington Post on his blog Soccer Insider does a Q & A with MLS Commish Donald B Garber quickly covering several topics.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Thu May 8
Portland v Rochester
-Fri May 9
Charleston v Miami
-Sat May 10
Carolina v Atlanta
Minnesota v Montreal
Seattle v Portland
Vancouver v Rochester
-Wed May 14
Charleston v Montreal
Seattle v Rochester
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USA U20 News

The USA U20 team is heading to England to play a trio of games against the reserves teams of some big English clubs.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 7
Bolton Reserves v USA
-Thu May 8
Manchester United Reserves v USA
-Sat May 10
Liverpool Reserves v USA
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here is the roster:
G:
Bill Hamid - DC United
Brian Perk - UCLA
D:
Kyle Davies - Southampton
Greg Eckhardt - Clemson U
Taylor Kemp - Real Colorado
Ike Opara - Wake Forest U
Zarek Valentin - IMG Academy
Sheanon Williams - U North Carolina
M:
Jose Altamirano - Del Mar Sharks
Richard Balchan - Indiana U
Jorge Flores - Chivas USA
Matt Kassel - New York Red Bulls
Derek Markheim - Ameins
Alfredo Morales - Hertha Berlin
F:
Steven Cabas - Florida International U
Felix Garcia - Laredo Heat
Peri Marosevic - U Michigan
Billy Schuler - U North Carolina
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer In America

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times looks at the new sponsor on the front of DC United's shirt, and wonders what other American sports league think of this idea.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

I erred yesterday when I said Michael Bradley & Heerenveen were done with their season. They were eliminated from the Champions League playoff race, but they are still going for a UEFA Cup spot.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

American Soccer Daily talks to former DC United and now Norwegian [FIXED] club Valerenga's keeper Troy Perkins. Among many topics Perkins takes MLS to task for eliminating the middle class players. He feels it is becoming a Under 23-Over 30 league. Harsh, but true.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mexican Primera Clausura Playoffs

Torneo Clausura 2008 Liguilla is all set:
Top 2 from each of the 3 groups go through, then the next 4 best records regardless of group will playoff in the first round for 2 spots in the final 8. All games are home & away throughout the championship run.
-The 3 leaders are: Toluca, Santos Laguna & Guadalajara.
-2nd places belong to : Chiapas, Monterrey & Cruz Azul.
-And the next 4 are: San Luis, Necaxa, Pachuca & Atlas.
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First round 1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 7
Atlas v Necaxa
Pachuca v San Luis
First round 2nd leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Sat May 10
San Luis v Pachua (-)
Necaxa v Atlas (-)
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These 2 winners will advance to be paired off with the top 6 who got a buy in this round.
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Copa Libertadores

Round of 16, 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (1st leg scores included):
-Tue May 6
Fluminense 1-0 Atletico Nacional - Flum adv 3-1 on agg. Flum goal by Roger.
Atlas 2-2 Lanus (1-0) - Atl adv 3-2 on agg. Atl goals by Bruno Marioni & Ulises Mendivil. Lan goals by Jose Sand & Lautaro Acosta.
Estudiantes 2-1 LDU Quito - LDU adv 3-2 on agg. Est goals by Agustin Alayes & Ezequiel Maggiolo. LDU goal by Luis Bolanos.
-Wed May 7
Sao Paulo v Nacional (0-0)
Cruzeiro v Boca Juniors (1-2)
Flamengo v America (4-2)
-Thu May 8
River Plate v San Lorenzo (1-2)
Cucuta Deportivo v Santos (0-2)
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Here is the bracket for the rest of the tournament.
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England News

Manchester City have offered their managers position to former Brazil and current Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari aka Big Phil. Uh, real nice ... offer the job to someone while you still have another guy in charge, classy.
-Later Big Phil's comes out and says that he has heard nothing from no one.
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Bryan Glanville at World soccer looks at the power of the big managers in England.
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European News

Time Magazine names the Top 100 people in the world today. Rikki Kaka somehow makes that list. Amazing. And guess what - the article on him is written by USA & Fulham goalkeeper Kasey Keller.
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Euro League Cup Competitions

-Coupe de France- Semifinals
Matches & Scores:
-Tue May 6
Amiens 0-1 Paris St Germain
-Wed May 7
Lyon 10 Sedan Ardennes
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So it will be old foes Lyon and PSG squaring off for the Cup title.
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-Coppa Italia- Semifinals
2nd leg Matches & Scores (with first leg scores included):
-Wed May 7
Lazio 0-2 Inter - Inter advance 2-0 on aggregate.
-Thu May 8
Catania v Roma (0-1)
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Big Euro Club Matches This Week

Matches & Scores:
-Wed May 7
Real Madrid v Barcelona - only playing for pride now that Real has claimed the title.