Oh Christmas Tree News

Now this is a scoreline even a hardass cynic like me can be satisfied with: USA 8-0 Barbados. Before the game kicked off, I loudly pronounced at the Sweetwater that our boys must win by at least 8-0 or I would be upset with them. Mission accomplished. Now they go to the island for leg 2 knowing only a 9-0 loss (or some equivalent there of) will knock them out. So let's see Coach Bradley give some other guys a chance to shine this time. How about an entirely different starting 11. There are a lot of guys us fans would love to see in a USA shirt, and this is the time to do it.

~and~

Turkey! Gobble! Turkey! Gobble! Turkey! Gobble! Turkey! Gobble! Turkey! Gobble! Holy smokes! What a come back. Wow. I am still stunned 18 hours later. Down 0-2 in the 72nd minute to a team with quality like the Czechs! And then to win it before were even get to stoppage time? Simply incredible.

~and~

MLSnet is still crashing Firefox [CORRECTED]. I had heard from someone at MLS that they had fixed it. I guess not. I made a move that I hate to do, but I then opened the league site in the wretched Internet Explorer, and after a few minutes I got a warning pop up saying that IE was having a conflict with a plug in on the website, and would need to close to fix it. So I guess IE is not the leagues browser of choice either. Maybe I have to be using Safari?

~and~

Two wild scores to report from South America: Paraguay stunned Brazil 2-0 at home in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying, playing the last 43 minutes with 10 men. And Argentina were held 1-1 at home by Ecuador.


Team USA

-Sun Jun 15
USA 8-0 Barbados - USA goals by Clint Dempsey(2), Michael Bradley, Brian Ching(2), Landon Donovan, Eddie Johnson & Daryl Ferguson(OG).
Match report from US Soccer.
Match report by Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise.
Match report by Ivan Orozco of the San Diego Union Tribune.
Match report by Grahame Jones of the Los Angeles Times.
Match report by Scott Wolf of the LA Daily News.
Match report - and - USA player ratings by Mike Woitalla of Soccer America.
Match report and USA player ratings by Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet.
Match report from The Nation in Barbados - headline: "Bajans Mauled"
Post game quotes by USA coach & players from US Soccer.
Game photos from US Soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My notes from the game:
-I find it very frustrating that the USA plays at home against a very weak opponent and they still line up with 2 defensive midfielders. We should be in an all out attack formation for a game like this.
-I also hate it when Landon Donovan is played out on the wing. Half of his game is taken away when he does not a have a free role to move around in the attack and become unpredictable. I really hate this about Bradley’s coaching.
-Pablo Mastroeni fired in a long distance shot that Brian Ching deflected in for the 3rd goal, but a few minutes later Mastro pulled up with a gluteus maximus injury and had to be subbed out. Freddy Adu replaced him in the 26th minute.
-The referee was none other than His Royal Highness El Vampiro - Marco Antonio Rodriguez of Mexico. He is a fairly lousy ref, but he sure looks cool!
-Tim Howard did not play after hurting his back in training on Friday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The official team blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Next Up:
2nd leg
-Sun Jun 22
Barbados v USA (0-8)
Kensington Oval in Bridgetown Barbados
2pm central on ESPN Classic
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Scoreboard

Week 12
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 12
Houston 0-2 New England - NER goals by Steve Ralston & Kheli Dube.
attendance: 14,655
-Sat Jun 13
Toronto 3-1 Colorado - TFC goals by Danny Dichio & Rohan Ricketts(2). CR goal by Christian Gomez.
attendance: 20,135
DC 4-1 New York - DCU goals by Luciano Emilio(3) & Clyde Simms. RBNY goal by Dave Van Den Bergh.
attendance: 18,622
Kansas City 0-3 Columbus - CC goal by Chad Marshall & Alejandro Moreno(2).
attendance: 10,385
San Jose 0-3 Los Angeles - LAG goals all by Edson Buddle.
attendance: 39,872
Chivas USA 0-1 Salt Lake - RSL goal by Robbie Findley.
attendance: 10,573
-Sun Jun 15
Dallas 1-0 Chicago - FCD goal by Kenny Cooper.
attendance: 14,738
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After 7, yes 7, Red Cards last week, we had 0, yes 0, this week. Amazing. It must have been a full moon, or Friday the 13th brought everyone good luck.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Standings

Eastern Conference
26 New England (13)
22 Columbus (12)
20 Toronto (12)
19 Chicago (11)
16 DC (13)
15 New York (11)
12 Kansas City (11)
Western Conference
20 Los Angeles (12)
17 Houston (13)
16 Dallas (13)
15 Colorado (12)
15 Salt Lake (12)
14 Chivas (12)
10 San Jose (11)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Golden Boot

9 Landon Donovan - Los Angeles
8 Edson Buddle - Los Angeles
7 Kenny Cooper - Dallas
7 Luciano Emilio - DC
6 Alejandro Moreno - Columbus
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Stadium Talk

We all know that in the long run Chivas USA is going to have to find their own home outside the Home Depot Center. Both the LA Times and the Orange County Register have new stories on the team looking at building a new youth facility in Santa Ana. Could this also be a future sight for their own stadium? (thanks to JJ for this)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Fri Jun 13
Montreal 1-0 Charleston
Rochester 3-0 Vancouver
-Sat Jun 14
Miami 2-0 Carolina
Minnesota 1-1 Atlanta
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Standings

22 Vancouver (11)
20 Charleston (11)
18 Portland (14)
17 Seattle (11)
15 Minnesota (11)
14 Atlanta (11)
14 Miami (14)
13 Carolina (10)
11 Montreal (11)
10 Rochester (10)
9 Puerto Rico (8)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF News

Honduras became the first team to advance to the first group stage with a 2-2 draw in Puerto Rico giving them a 6-2 aggregate win. In the first leg games the USA, Jamaica & Guatemala dismantled their opponents by 8, 7 and 6 to nothing scores, while Mexico got a PK in the 90+ minute mark to seal a 0-2 win over little Belize. But the big news is Bermuda beating Trinidad & Tobago 2-1 in Port Au Prince, and Grenada holding Costa Rica 2-2. All other games went according to plan.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Carlos Ruiz scored 4 goals for Guatemala. The rest of MLS will be terrified if he can find that kind of form to go with Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Edson Buddle and the LA Galaxy's offense bulldozer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying News

2nd Round 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jun 4
Honduras 4-0 Puerto Rico - Hon goals by Julio Cesar De Leon, Wilson Palacios & David Suazo(2).
-Sat Jun 14
Suriname 1-0 Guyana
Grenada 2-2 Costa Rica
Guatemala 6-0 St Lucia
-Sun Jun 15
USA 8-0 Barbados
St Vincent & Grenadines 0-3 Canada
Haiti 0-0 Netherlands Antilles
Belize 0-2 Mexico
Panama 1-0 El Salvador
Trinidad & Tobago 1-2 Bermuda
Jamaica 7-0 Bahamas
-Tue Jun 17
Antigua & Barbuda v Cuba
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with 1st leg scores included):
-Sat Jun 14
Puerto Rico 2-2 Honduras - Hond advance 6-2 on aggregate.
-Wed Jun 18
Bahamas v Jamaica (0-7)
-Fri Jun 20
Canada v St Vincent & Grenadines (3-0)
-Sat Jun 21
St Lucia v Guatemala (0-6)
Costa Rica v Grenada (2-2)
Mexico v Belize (2-0)
-Sun Jun 22
Barbados v USA (0-8)
Guyana v Suriname (0-1)
Cuba v Antigua & Barbuda (-)
El Salvador v Panama (0-1)
Netherlands Antilles v Haiti (0-0)
Bermuda v Trinidad & Tobago (2-1)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Canada & CSA News

The second of six games between Toronto, Vancouver & Montreal to determine their countries entrant in the CONCACAF Champions League takes place this week:
-Jun 17
Montreal V Vancouver
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Standings (games played):
3 Toronto (1)
0 Vancouver (0)
0 Montreal (1)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mexico & FMF News

Kartik Krishnaiyer of the American Soccer Spot looks at what the hiring of Sven Goren Erickson really means to Mexican soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

World News

Jen Chang at Soccernet with his Monday morning notes on soccer around the world.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

FIFA.com has a Q & A with long time Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2008 UEFA European Championship Schedule

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
(all times are central)
-Sat Jun 7
Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic - CR goal by Vaclav Sverkos.
Portugal 2-0 Turkey - 1:30pm - Port goals by Pepe & Raul Meireles.
-Sun Jun 8
Austria 0-1 Croatia - Croa goal by Luka Modric(PK).
Germany 2-0 Poland - Germ goals both by Lukas Podolski.
-Mon Jun 9
Romania 0-0 France
Netherlands v Italy - Neth goals by Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder & Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
-Tue Jun 10
Spain 4-1 Russia - Spa goals by David Villa(3) & Cesc Fabregas. Russ goal by Roman Pavlyuchenko.
Greece 0-2 Sweden - Swe goals by Zlatan Imbrahimovic & Petter Hansson.
-Wed Jun 11
Czech Republic 1-3 Portugal - CR goal by Libor Sionko. Port goals by Deco, Cristiano Ronaldo & Ricardo Quaresma.
Switzerland 1-2 Turkey - Swis goal by Hakan Yakin. Turk goals by Semih Senturk & Ardan Turan.
-Thu Jun 12
Croatia 2-1 Germany - Cro goals by Dario Srna & Ivica Olic. Germ goal by Lukas Podolski.
Austria 1-1 Poland - Aust goal by Ivica Vastic(PK). Pol goal by Roger Guerreiro.
-Fri Jun 13
Italy 1-1 Romania - Ita goal by Christian Panucci. Rom goal by Adrian Mutu.
Netherlands 4-1 France - Neth goals by Dirk Kuyt, Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben & Wesley Sneijder. Fra goal by Thierry Henry.
-Sat Jun 14
Sweden 1-2 Spain - Swed goal by Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Spai goals Fernando Torres & David Villa.
Greece 0-1 Russia - Rus goal by Konstantin Zyryanov.
-Sun Jun 15
Switzerland 2-0 Portugal - Swis goals both by Hakan Yakin.
Turkey 3-2 Czech Republic - Turk goals by Arda Turan & Nihat Kahveci(2). Cze goals by Jan Koller & Jaroslav Plasil.
-Mon Jun 16
Poland v Croatia - 1:30pm - ESPN Classic
Austria v Germany - 1:30pm - ESPN
-Tue Jun 17
Netherlands v Romania - 1:30pm - ESPN Classic
France v Italy - 1:30pm - ESPN
-Wed Jun 18
Greece v Spain - 1:30pm - ESPN
Russia v Sweden - 1:30pm - ESPN2
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Quarterfinals begin on Thursday.

No One Kicks Ass Like We Kick Ass

When Vertigo Goes Vertical News

My newest musical gift to you - du Nord Muxtape #5: The Colour Green Is Gorgeous - is now online for your listening pleasure.


Team USA

-Sun Jun 15
USA v Barbados
Home Depot Center in Carson California
4pm central time on ESPN2 & Galavision from Home Depot Center in Carson California.
Match preview by Ridge Mahoney at Soccer America.
Match preview by Beau Dure at USA Today.
Match preview by Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet.
Match preview and Barbados roster from The Nation, a Barbados newspaper.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The PA Sports Ticker with articles on DaMarcus Beasley - and - Brian Ching.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer has an audio interview with coach Bob Bradley talking about the start of World Cup qualifying.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USS with more audio, this time an interview with goalkeeper Brad Guzan.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer also has photos of the team training on Wednesday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Maybe this is one of the big reasons why so few tickets have been sold for Sunday's game in LA......
A reader posted this note in yesterdays comments section, and I think it says a lot about the jaded nature of American sports fans. In my mind you either support your team, or you don't, there is no middle ground. This person is all about middle ground, and probably jumps off the bandwagon when the team loses too. That’s cool. Your prerogative. Read on:
I like watching the national team as much as the next guy, but Barbados? How is that going to get anyone excited? I understand you can only qualify against those countries in your region, but I'll gladly watch the highlights in 90 seconds as opposed to 90 minutes of live action. When the bigger fish roll around, I'm in.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The official team blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2nd leg
-Sun Jun 22
Barbados v USA
Kensington Oval in Bridgetown Barbados
2pm central on ESPN Classic
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Scoreboard

Week 12
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 12
Houston 0-2 New England - NER goals by Steve Ralston & Kheli Dube.
-Sat Jun 13
Toronto v Colorado - 6pm central on Direct Kick
DC v New York - 6:30pm central on HDNet
Kansas City v Columbus - 7pm central on Direct Kick
San Jose v Los Angeles - 9pm central on FSC
Chivas USA v Salt Lake - 9:30pm central on Direct Kick
-Sun Jun 15
Dallas v Chicago - 2pm central on TeleFutura
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Serving Suspensions:
Brad Evans - Columbus
James Riley - San Jose
Marcelo Gallardo - DC
Brandon Prideaux - Chicago
Bryan Namoff - DC
Alan Gordon - Los Angeles
Facundo Erpen - Colorado
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My notes from the game:
-After last nights game I don't think there is any doubt left as to who is the best team in the league right now. New England is very impressive!
-Is there any doubt that Kheli Dube has vaulted to the top of the Rookie of the Year race? Nope.
-I like it when a referee gives an erroneous Penalty and the keeper saves it. Justice served. Houston forward Franco Caraccio was clearly fouled outside the box, but the ref gave a PK, and Matt Reis stuffed Stuart Holden.
-It was good to see Houston backup keeper Tony Caig has continued with his early season reputation and given up another horrible goal. We here at du Nord coined the term "Caiged" for just such blunders. See video of the 2nd New Eng goal for a perfect example.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Standings

Eastern Conference
26 New England (13)
19 Chicago (10)
19 Columbus (11)
17 Toronto (11)
15 New York (10)
13 DC (12)
12 Kansas City (10)
Western Conference
17 Los Angeles (11)
17 Houston (13)
15 Colorado (11)
14 Chivas (11)
13 Dallas (12)
12 Salt Lake (11)
10 San Jose (10)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

CD CHIVAS USA

Andrea Canales at Soccernet with a story on huge du Nord fave, and TV contest winner Jorge Flores. This kids story is even better than Jay DeMerit.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FC DALLAS

Goalkeeper Dario Sala is the guest blogger today on Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune's blog The Red Card. What a great guy Sala is.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram says that the coaching job has still not been handed out, but there are 3 up for it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

RED BULL NEW YORK

Forward Jozy Altidore says goodbye to NYRB & MLS in his newest post on the New York Times blog Goal.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

TORONTO FC

Brian Forbes of the Denver Post talks to their home town boy TFC defender Todd Dunivant about life north of the border.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GENERAL

US Soccer gives us audio of the Week 11 MLS Referee Review.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 12
Puerto Rico 3-0 Carolina
Portland 2-2 Atlanta
-Fri Jun 13
Montreal v Charleston
Rochester v Vancouver
-Sat Jun 14
Miami v Carolina
Minnesota v Atlanta
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Standings

22 Vancouver (10)
20 Charleston (10)
18 Portland (14)
17 Seattle (11)
14 Minnesota (10)
13 Carolina (8)
12 Atlanta (9)
11 Miami (13)
9 Puerto Rico (8)
8 Montreal (10)
7 Rochester (9)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer In America

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader with a story on soccer camp and a local appearance by Eric Wynalda! Sioux Falls sits right at the intersection of South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa & Nebraska.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer has a Q & A with USA Today soccer writer Beau Dure.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF News

So now I guess Colorado Rapids defender Ugo Ihemelu is now CANADIAN! He is training with the Canucks for qualifying. I thought he was Nigerian.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying News

2nd Round 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jun 4
Honduras 4-0 Puerto Rico - Hon goals by Julio Cesar De Leon, Wilson Palacios & David Suazo(2).
-Sat Jun 14
Suriname v Guyana
Grenada v Costa Rica
Guatemala v St Lucia
-Sun Jun 15
USA v Barbados
St Vincent & Grenadines v Canada
Haiti v Netherlands Antilles
Belize v Mexico
Panama v El Salvador
Trinidad & Tobago v Bermuda
Jamaica v Bahamas
-Tue Jun 17
Antigua & Barbuda v Cuba
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

England News

Man U star Wayne Rooney got married to his long time sweetheart. Congrats. The gift is in the mail.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

ITALY

Bologna has been bought by a faceless American ownership group. They paid $28 Million for the team. That is less than you can get an MLS team for. How bad is business in Italy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Still no word on what will happen to ownership at Roma. But you figure with the size debt that they have a sale is imminent.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Milan has signed Italian defender Gianluca Zambrotta after two years out of the country at Barcelona.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2008 UEFA European Championship News

My friend Janefact pointed out that Croatia connected on 17 consecutive passes over 50 seconds before scoring their first goal. That is impressive. Not quite in the league with Argentina's 26 in a row at the last World Cup. Just still impressive.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2008 UEFA European Championship Schedule

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
(all times are central)
-Sat Jun 7
Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic - CR goal by Vaclav Sverkos.
Portugal 2-0 Turkey - 1:30pm - Port goals by Pepe & Raul Meireles.
-Sun Jun 8
Austria 0-1 Croatia - Croa goal by Luka Modric(PK).
Germany 2-0 Poland - Germ goals both by Lukas Podolski.
-Mon Jun 9
Romania 0-0 France
Netherlands v Italy - Neth goals by Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder & Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
-Tue Jun 10
Spain 4-1 Russia - Spa goals by David Villa(3) & Cesc Fabregas. Russ goal by Roman Pavlyuchenko.
Greece 0-2 Sweden - Swe goals by Zlatan Imbrahimovic & Petter Hansson.
-Wed Jun 11
Czech Republic 1-3 Portugal - CR goal by Libor Sionko. Port goals by Deco, Cristiano Ronaldo & Ricardo Quaresma.
Switzerland 1-2 Turkey - Swis goal by Hakan Yakin. Turk goals by Semih Senturk & Ardan Turan.
-Thu Jun 12
Croatia 2-1 Germany - Cro goals by Dario Srna & Ivica Olic. Germ goal by Lukas Podolski.
Austria 1-1 Poland - Aust goal by Ivica Vastic(PK). Pol goal by Roger Guerreiro.
-Fri Jun 13
Italy v Romania - 10:50am - ESPN2
Netherlands v France - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Sat Jun 14
Sweden v Spain - 10:50am - ESPN2
Greece v Russia - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Sun Jun 15
Switzerland v Portugal - 1:30pm - ESPN2
Turkey v Czech Republic - 1:30pm - ESPN Classic
-Mon Jun 16
Poland v Croatia - 1:30pm - ESPN Classic
Austria v Germany - 1:30pm - ESPN
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Road To World Cup 2010 - South Africa News

FIFA.com has a list of ALL the qualifiers going on around the world this weekend. Insanity.

Confused About Anything News

Sure, all the usual stars are out in LA for the NBA finals, but check out the guys in the last paragraph of this article. Very cool. And for them the best part is that no one hassles them, cuz no one knows who they are, yet they get the full VIP treatment! KG gets it! Thanks to LA Joe for this one.


Team USA

-Sun Jun 15
USA v Barbados - 4pm central time on ESPN2 & Galavision
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The official team blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The TV schedule for the 2nd leg is now available:
-Sun Jun 22
Barbados v USA
The Kensington Oval in Bridgetown
2pm central on ESPN Classic & Galavision
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Scoreboard

Week 12
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 12
Houston v New England - 8pm central on ESPN2
-Sat Jun 13
Toronto v Colorado - 6pm central on Direct Kick
DC v New York - 6:30pm central on HDNet
Kansas City v Columbus - 7pm central on Direct Kick
San Jose v Los Angeles - 9pm central on FSC
Chivas USA v Salt Lake - 9:30pm central on Direct Kick
-Sun Jun 15
Dallas v Chicago - 2pm central on TeleFutura
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Boston Globe previews tonight’s game.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle with pregame notes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Standings

Eastern Conference
23 New England (12)
19 Chicago (10)
19 Columbus (11)
17 Toronto (11)
15 New York (10)
13 DC (12)
12 Kansas City (10)
Western Conference
17 Los Angeles (11)
17 Houston (12)
15 Colorado (11)
14 Chivas (11)
13 Dallas (12)
12 Salt Lake (11)
10 San Jose (10)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

CD CHIVAS USA

Forward Maykel Gallindo has had surgery to fix a hernia muscle problem and will be out almost 2 months. I guess he didn't want to go to Germany and have that quickie surgery.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FC DALLAS

Diego Aparicio of the Dallas Morning News with the latest public information on the FCD manager search.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

HOUSTON DYNAMO

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle with a story on defender Bobby Boswell who is beginning to really fit in with his new team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS

Bob Luder of the Star on the teams lack of goals.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

A note from my friend Joe L about the guy who ran onto the field last weekend to high five DB: During the Galaxy v. Colorado game on Sat night a guy ran on to the field to hug Beckman and Chris Klein took him down like a secret service agent. Fox cut away while this was going on the field but I had a friend at the game who told me about it. Here are some pictures:
One
Two
Three
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

REAL SALT LAKE

Great pictures from the new stadium. The seats are going in, and its looking like a genuine ballpark.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I realize after looking at these pictures how much this new stadium looks like Toyota Park in Bridgeview.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GENERAL

Shaka Hislop at the Guardian says MLS should embrace their role of player development, and then selling to the highest bidder.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger with his latest league and world news round up.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division News

The Minnesota Thunder have joined forces with the 2 best youth clubs in the Twin Cities to form the Thunder Academy. They will have both U16 & U18 in the USSF Development Academy as well. This is a huge move and the first for a USL First Division team. It will put them ahead of some MLS teams from day 1. Read all the details here by Brian Quarstad at Blue Sky Soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 12
Puerto Rico v Carolina
Portland v Atlanta
-Fri Jun 13
Montreal v Charleston
Rochester v Vancouver
-Sat Jun 14
Miami v Carolina
Minnesota v Atlanta
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Standings

22 Vancouver (10)
20 Charleston (10)
17 Portland (13)
17 Seattle (11)
14 Minnesota (10)
13 Carolina (8)
12 Atlanta (9)
11 Miami (13)
8 Montreal (10)
7 Rochester (9)
6 Puerto Rico (7)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

Villarreal unveil Jozy Altidore. With pictures!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News on the maturation process of Freddy Adu.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF News

Shalrie Joseph lead his country Grenada to a big 2-1 come from behind upset over Jamaica in a friendly on Tuesday. The Antigua Sun with the story.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Canadian Press previews their national teams series against St Vincent & Grenadines.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Reuters with a preview of USA, Mexico and CONCACAF qualifiers.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FIFA.com previews the regions qualifiers.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying News

2nd Round 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jun 4
Honduras 4-0 Puerto Rico - Hon goals by Julio Cesar De Leon, Wilson Palacios & David Suazo(2).
-Sat Jun 14
Suriname v Guyana
Grenada v Costa Rica
Guatemala v St Lucia
-Sun Jun 15
USA v Barbados
St Vincent & Grenadines v Canada
Haiti v Netherlands Antilles
Belize v Mexico
Panama v El Salvador
Trinidad & Tobago v Bermuda
Jamaica v Bahamas
-Tue Jun 17
Antigua & Barbuda v Cuba
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with 1st leg scores included):
-Sat Jun 14
Puerto Rico v Honduras (0-4)
-Wed Jun 18
Bahamas v Jamaica (-)
-Fri Jun 20
Canada v St Vincent & Grenadines (-)
-Sat Jun 21
St Lucia v Guatemala (-)
Costa Rica v Grenada (-)
Mexico v Belize (-)
-Sun Jun 22
Barbados v USA (-)
Guyana v Suriname (-)
Cuba v Antigua & Barbuda (-)
El Salvador v Panama
Netherlands Antilles v Haiti
Bermuda v Trinidad & Tobago (-)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

England News

Fernando Duarte - and - Kevin McCarra of the Guardian on Chelsea's hiring of Big Phil.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2008 UEFA European Championship News

By virtue of results yesterday Portugal has advanced to the knockout rounds, while host Switzerland has been eliminated.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Cristiano Ronaldo continued his crusade to be the worlds best player yesterday by scoring one and setting up his teams other two goals! Wow.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Duncan Castles of the Guardian tells us about the giant market value of the players on this Portuguese team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2008 UEFA European Championship Schedule

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
(all times are central)
-Sat Jun 7
Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic - CR goal by Vaclav Sverkos.
Portugal 2-0 Turkey - 1:30pm - Port goals by Pepe & Raul Meireles.
-Sun Jun 8
Austria 0-1 Croatia - Croa goal by Luka Modric(PK).
Germany 2-0 Poland - Germ goals both by Lukas Podolski.
-Mon Jun 9
Romania 0-0 France
Netherlands v Italy - Neth goals by Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder & Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
-Tue Jun 10
Spain 4-1 Russia - Spa goals by David Villa(3) & Cesc Fabregas. Russ goal by Roman Pavlyuchenko.
Greece 0-2 Sweden - Swe goals by Zlatan Imbrahimovic & Petter Hansson.
-Wed Jun 11
Czech Republic 1-3 Portugal - CR goal by Libor Sionko. Port goals by Deco, Cristiano Ronaldo & Ricardo Quaresma.
Switzerland 1-2 Turkey - Swis goal by Hakan Yakin. Turk goals by Semih Senturk & Ardan Turan.
-Thu Jun 12
Croatia v Germany - 10:50am - ESPN2
Austria v Poland - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Fri Jun 13
Italy v Romania - 10:50am - ESPN2
Netherlands v France - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Sat Jun 14
Sweden v Spain - 10:50am - ESPN2
Greece v Russia - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Sun Jun 15
Switzerland v Portugal - 1:30pm - ESPN2
Turkey v Czech Republic - 1:30pm - ESPN Classic
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Standings

Doing The Limbo Rock News

Big big big upset in the Open Cup last night as Hollywood United went to Portland and knocked out the Timbers 2-3. Yes that is the team started by the LA pretty boys, but the team is much more serious these days and only bring out the glamor for the charity games.

~and~

Chicago & Columbus fans joined together last night at their teams Open Cup qualifier to unveil a new campaign and banner "Fans Against Racism"! Have a look and a read. Excellent. The banner now heads to Crew Stadium. Thanks to Ben for the info.

~and~

I am really happy that MLS is finally outlawing fans throwing streamers are players during the run of play, especially during corner kicks. I hate it, and feel 100% that can only lead to idiots throwing more things at players, as if that already doesn't happen.


US Open Cup

First Round Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jun 10
Carolina Railhawks 1-0 Brooklyn Knights
Real Maryland Monarchs v NY Pancyprian Freedoms - postponed
Richmond Kickers 3-0 Fredricksburg Gunners
Western Mass Pioneers 2-0 Boston Olympiakos
Minnesota Thunder 4-1 St Louis Lions
Michigan Bucks 1-2 Cleveland City Stars
AAC Eagles 0-4 Pittsburgh Riverhounds
Rochester Rhinos 2-1 RWB Adria
Austin Aztex 2-2 Atlanta Silverbacks - Atlanta adv 5-4 on PK's
Miami FC Blues 4-2 Bradenton Academics
Charlotte Eagles 5-2 Clearwater Galactics
Charleston Battery 3-0 ASC New Stars
Crystal Palace Baltimore 2-1 Los Angeles Legends
Harrisburg City Islanders 5-1 Yakima Reds
Arizona Sahuaros 0-1 Seattle Sounders
Portland Timbers 2-3 Hollywood United
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS had an Open Cup qualifier last night too (the winner enters the tournament proper in the next round):
Chicago 3-2 Columbus
-The game was played at Bradley U in Peoria IL before a record crowd of nearly 4000. What a great move by the Fire.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Team USA

USA v Barbados - 4pm central time on ESPN2 & Galavision from Home Depot Center in Carson California.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer has press people from MLS teams trying to help them spread the word today about this game. Ticket sales are terrible and they are calling in all barkers. It would have helped if they had pushed this game along with their recent big 3. But, nope. As far as I could tell it was a forgotten game. With so many places chomping at the bit to host a game like this it’s sad that it gets stuck in overbooked LA.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There will be television coverage of the 2nd leg in Barbados, but the exact time is still being worked out. Huh? The time of the game still isn't set?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here is the USA roster for the match:
G:
Dominic Cervi
Brad Guzan
Tim Howard
D:
Carlos Bocanegra
Dan Califf
Steve Cherundolo
Jay DeMerit
Frankie Hejduk
Oguchi Onyewu
Heath Pearce
M:
Freddy Adu
DaMarcus Beasley
Michael Bradley
Maurice Edu
Sacha Kljestan
Eddie Lewis
Pablo Mastroeni
F:
Brian Ching
Landon Donovan
Clint Dempsey
Eddie Johnson
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer USA with a review of the roster.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Both Barbados daily papers, the Advocate and the Nation, with articles on their teams friendly with Bermuda this past weekend. It did not go well.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The official team blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Scoreboard

Week 12
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 12
Houston v New England - 8pm central on ESPN2
-Sat Jun 13
Toronto v Colorado - 6pm central on Direct Kick
DC v New York - 6:30pm central on HDNet
Kansas City v Columbus - 7pm central on Direct Kick
San Jose v Los Angeles - 9pm central on FSC
Chivas USA v Salt Lake - 9:30pm central on Direct Kick
-Sun Jun 15
Dallas v Chicago - 2pm central on TeleFutura
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet previews the Thurs night Houston v New England match up.
-Several players from both teams will not be available as they are on national team duty:
New England
-Kenny Mansally - Gambia
-Khano Smith - Bermuda
-Shalrie Joseph - Grenada
Houston
-Pat Onstad - Canada
-Dwayne De Rosario - Canada
-Brian Ching - USA
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

COLORADO RAPIDS

Got word today that the reason the Raps wore the odd Burgundy-Navy combo was "... their bags were lost in transportation ...LA loaned them some shorts." Thanks to KR for the info. Much appreciated!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FC DALLAS

Ives Galarcep of Soccer by Ives reports that Dallas will name SMU coach Schellas Hyndman as their new head man any moment now.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GENERAL

Brian Ching has been named MLS Player of the Week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Andrea Canales at Soccer365 comments on the leagues new anti-streamer rule.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division News

After getting off to a very poor start, Montreal booted head coach Nick De Santis off the bench and named John Limniatis as his replacement. De Santis will remain with the team as Technical Director.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Week 8 Team of the Week
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 12
Puerto Rico v Carolina
Portland v Atlanta
-Fri Jun 13
Montreal v Charleston
Rochester v Vancouver
-Sat Jun 14
Miami v Carolina
Minnesota v Atlanta
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Standings

22 Vancouver (10)
20 Charleston (10)
17 Portland (13)
17 Seattle (11)
14 Minnesota (10)
13 Carolina (8)
12 Atlanta (9)
11 Miami (13)
8 Montreal (10)
7 Rochester (9)
6 Puerto Rico (7)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer News

The USA Futsal team qualified for the next World Cup by finishing 3rd in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament that ended on Sunday in Guatemala. The host team and Cuba are the other 2 to advance.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe

Jozy Altidore will be introduced by Villarreal today.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Yanks Abroad with an article on Andrew Jacobson who is preparing for season 2 at Lorient in France.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying News

Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune talks to the coach of Belize who will get the pleasure of being pummeled by Mexico in the first round.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF Champions League News

2 MLS teams, 1 Canadian team (still tbd) and 1 USL 1st Division team now know their CCL preliminary round opponents. 16 teams have been paired and those 8 winners will join 8 more in the group stage.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here are the Matches:
-1st Leg to be played Aug 26-28
Municipal/Jalapa loser (Guatemala) v San Francisco (Panama)
Joe Public (T&T) v New England Revolution
Alajuelense (Costa Rico) v Puerto Rico Islanders
Cruz Azul v Hankook Verdes (Belize)
Harbour View (Jamaica) v UNAM Pumas
Tauro (Panama) v Chivas USA
Canada winner v Nicaragua 2nd place
Isidro Metapan (El Salvador) v Olimpia/Marathon loser (Honduras)

-2nd Leg to be played Sep 2-4
San Francisco v Municipal/Jalapa loser
New England Revolution v Joe Public
Puerto Rico Islanders v Alajuelense
Hankook Verdes v Cruz Azul
UNAM Pumas v Harbour View
Chivas USA v Tauro
Nicaragua 2nd place v Canada winner
Olimpia/Marathon loser v Isidro Metapan
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Canadian qualifying:
-May 27
Montreal 0–1 Toronto
-Jun 17
Montreal v Vancouver
-Jun 26
Vancouver v Montreal
-Jul 1
Toronto v Vancouver
-Jul 9
Vancouver v Toronto
-Jul 22
Toronto v Montreal
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2008 UEFA European Championship News

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune on Spain's beatdown of the Ruskies.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Got this note from a reader called Lübbert: The Germany - Croatia game will be televised live at the Glockenspiel Restaurant in St. Paul, MN at 11 am CST on Thursday. OK then.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2008 UEFA European Championship Schedule

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
(all times are central)
-Sat Jun 7
Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic - CR goal by Vaclav Sverkos.
Portugal 2-0 Turkey - 1:30pm - Port goals by Pepe & Raul Meireles.
-Sun Jun 8
Austria 0-1 Croatia - Croa goal by Luka Modric(PK).
Germany 2-0 Poland - Germ goals both by Lukas Podolski.
-Mon Jun 9
Romania 0-0 France
Netherlands v Italy - Neth goals by Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder & Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
-Tue Jun 10
Spain 4-1 Russia - Spa goals by David Villa(3) & Cesc Fabregas. Russ goal by Roman Pavlyuchenko.
Greece 0-2 Sweden - Swe goals by Zlatan Imbrahimovic & Petter Hansson.
-Wed Jun 11
Czech Republic v Portugal - 10:50am - ESPN2
Switzerland v Turkey - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Thu Jun 12
Croatia v Germany - 10:50am - ESPN2
Austria v Poland - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Fri Jun 13
Italy v Romania - 10:50am - ESPN2
Netherlands v France - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Sat Jun 14
Sweden v Spain - 10:50am - ESPN2
Greece v Russia - 1:30pm - ESPN2
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

African News

Dave Zirin of the Edge Of Sports with an article on the new wave of South African violence and the roles that soccer and World Cup can play to end this.

Wait For So Long News

The draw for the first CONCACAF Champions League will be tomorrow, Wednesday.

~and~

New multi-millionaire Jozy Altidore gives Rhapsody his current playlist for us to listen to. You too can now groove like a young hipster. This mix will fulfill your entire daily nourishment requirements of hip hop. Thanks for SF for this.

US Open Cup

First Round Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jun 10
Carolina Railhawks v Brooklyn Knights
Real Maryland Monarchs v NY Pancyprian Freedoms
Richmond Kickers v Fredricksburg Gunners
Western Mass Pioneers v Boston Olympiakos
Minnesota Thunder v St Louis Lions
Michigan Bucks v Cleveland City Stars
AAC Eagles v Pittsburgh Riverhounds
Rochester Rhinos v RWB Adria
Austin Aztex v Atlanta Silverbacks
Miami FC Blues v Bradenton Academics
Charlotte Eagles v Clearwater Galactics
Charleston Battery v ASC New Stars
Crystal Palace Baltimore v Los Angeles Legends
Harrisburg City Islanders v Yakima Reds
Arizona Sahuaros v Seattle Sounders
Portland Timbers v Hollywood United
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Team USA

World Cup qualifying is finally here!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It all starts this Sunday June 15. With the first game of a home and away series, before the first of two group stages.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USA v Barbados - 4pm central time on ESPN2 & Galavision from Home Depot Center in Carson California.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This game is NOT sold out. It would be embarrassing to have empty seats.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I will see all you Twin Citians at the Sweetwater for viewing.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nick Green of the Daily Breeze with the first of many previews we will see this week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Associated Press with an article on the lack of goal scoring chances much less goals in the three friendlies just ended.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The return leg is the following Sunday, but we still have no TV details on that game. Could it even be remotely possible in the year 2008 that we will not get to see a qualifier on TV? I really hope not.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The official team blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer's Studio 90 video show with an episode on preparations for the qualifiers ahead.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Give a special listen to Dave's Soccer Podcast this week (really, you should be listening every week) as host Dave Denholm explodes on USA coach Bob Bradley, his tactics and the handling of Freddy Adu. A little later Dave goes off on youth development in America. It's always great stuff from double D.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I will have the game schedule for all the other CONCACAF qualifiers posted in a day or two.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Scoreboard

Week 12
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 12
Houston v New England - 8pm central on ESPN2
-Sat Jun 13
Toronto v Colorado - 6pm central on Direct Kick
DC v New York - 6:30pm central on HDNet
Kansas City v Columbus - 7pm central on Direct Kick
San Jose v Los Angeles - 9pm central on FSC
Chivas USA v Salt Lake - 9:30pm central on Direct Kick
-Sun Jun 15
Dallas v Chicago - 2pm central on TeleFutura
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Standings

Eastern Conference
23 New England (12)
19 Chicago (10)
19 Columbus (11)
17 Toronto (11)
15 New York (10)
13 DC (12)
12 Kansas City (10)
Western Conference
17 Los Angeles (11)
17 Houston (12)
15 Colorado (11)
14 Chivas (11)
13 Dallas (12)
12 Salt Lake (11)
10 San Jose (10)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

CD CHIVAS USA

Steve Davis at MLSnet tells us that Preki is doing an even better job coaching this season than he did last. And hear I was, saying he is on the hot seat a couple weeks back.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

COLORADO RAPIDS

What were they doing last weekend wearing those burgundy/brown shirts with navy shorts - really frickin ugly.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FC DALLAS

3rd Degree is reporting that FCD will play a friendly against the mighty Chivas of Guadalajara at home on Sun Jun 29.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

HOUSTON DYNAMO

After a really slow start to the season, suddenly Brian Ching has 5 goals and Dwayne De Rosario has 4 and Houston are tied at the top of the West. Not too surprising
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Yahoo has an article from the PA Sports Ticker about what it's like to be Landon Donovan today.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

You wanna know why teams keep giving Edson Buddle a chance? Cuz he has scored 58 times in the league. Not many can say that.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They have to be excited to get defender Ante Jazic back healthy. This is not saying a whole lot, but he instantly becomes the teams best defender.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GENERAL

Steve Davis at Soccernet gives us a round up of Week 11 games. He does it better than anyone else.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This has nothing to do with soccer, but the Wall Street Journal has an article on AEG (LA Galaxy) owner Phillip Anschutz and a battle he is in with the IRS. They say he owes them $143 Million from a style of deal he likes to make. I linked to this to show you just how wealthy this guy is.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Scoreboard

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jun 12
Puerto Rico v Carolina
Portland v Atlanta
-Fri Jun 13
Montreal v Charleston
Rochester v Vancouver
-Sat Jun 14
Miami v Carolina
Minnesota v Atlanta
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Standings

22 Vancouver (10)
20 Charleston (10)
17 Portland (13)
17 Seattle (11)
14 Minnesota (10)
13 Carolina (8)
12 Atlanta (9)
11 Miami (13)
8 Montreal (10)
7 Rochester (9)
6 Puerto Rico (7)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer In America

Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer has a great interview with the one and only Ray Hudson. The former player and coach is now a near maniacal announcer on GolTV.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mexico & FMF News

One minute Mexican keeper Oswaldo Sanchez is mocking our main man Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune, and the next thing we know Oswaldo ends up in jail - Unrelated? Maybe LA has that kinda power. Do not mess with him. From the Red Card blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After you read that, imagine the uproar if an American player mocked the accent of a Mexican journalist in Mexico. He would be branded a racist and more. Again Sanchez bitch-assed punk attitude goes unpunished. (Remember when he tried to take out Eddie Johnson after LD had scored sealing yet another USA win over Mexico.)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

More tidbits of info are coming out about Oswaldo's arrest. The cops used pepper spray on him when he wouldn't cooperate. That shit hurts, bad. So, you know, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

SPAIN

Some reports are saying that Barcelona has signed Brazilian right back Daniel Alves from Sevilla. But there has been no official word from either team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

OTHERS

After leading Fenerbahce to a great season coach Zico has not been able to agree on the terms of a new contract with the club so he will leave. Damn, he must have been asking for the world.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2008 UEFA European Championship News

Did you all enjoy Wesley Sneijder's goal for Holland against Italy as much as I did? What a brilliant team effort. And an end to end burner too. One minute Gio is clearing a ball of his own goal line, and the next Sneijder is smashing home a shot 120 yards away!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Leading Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta with the story on yesterday's game. And words from head coach Donadoni.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Turkish captain Emre will miss at least the next game and possibly the rest of the tournament after suffering a torn thigh muscle.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2008 UEFA European Championship Schedule

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
(all times are central)
-Sat Jun 7
Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic - CR goal by Vaclav Sverkos.
Portugal 2-0 Turkey - 1:30pm - Port goals by Pepe & Raul Meireles.
-Sun Jun 8
Austria 0-1 Croatia - Croa goal by Luka Modric(PK).
Germany 2-0 Poland - Germ goals both by Lukas Podolski.
-Mon Jun 9
Romania 0-0 France
Netherlands v Italy - Neth goals by Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder & Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
-Tue Jun 10
Spain v Russia - 10:50am - ESPN2
Greece v Sweden - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Wed Jun 11
Czech Republic v Portugal - 10:50am - ESPN2
Switzerland v Turkey - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Thu Jun 12
Croatia v Germany - 10:50am - ESPN2
Austria v Poland - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Fri Jun 13
Italy v Romania - 10:50am - ESPN2
Netherlands v France - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Sat Jun 14
Sweden v Spain - 10:50am - ESPN2
Greece v Russia - 1:30pm - ESPN2
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jack Warner/FIFA Scandal News

Legendary soccer journalist Brian Glanville of World Soccer joins the growing voice asking a lot of questions about the antics of Jack Warner.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

World News

The Analouge blog with an article on the recent evolution in design of the ball. Very cool. Thanks to Gary for this one.

The Greatest Of All Imporant Vital News

First of all A massive thanks goes out to the following individuals who made du Nord possbile while I took a couple of weeks away from the action. They are very talented people, and I am humbled by them.

Thank You:
Luis Arroyave - The Red Card
Luis Bueno - Sideline Views
Ben Burton - Section 8 Chicago
Andrea Canales - Sideline Views
Zach Dundas - Eleven Devils
Graham Fox - Unaffiliated
Adam Spangler - This Is American Soccer
Matt Olson - rolu | dsgn
Shawn Francis - The Offside Rules
Dave Brett Wasser - Historic Soccer Videotapes

~and~

Tim Howard single handedly stymied Argentina on Sunday. Without his 4 or 5 great saves, the USA has no chance for a point. Let's all give him a big old South Park inspired "Tim-May" that next time we see him.

~and~

The US Open Cup moves into the First Round proper on Tuesday night, now that all the qualifying games have been completed. There are 16 games on the schedule. See US Open Cup section below for details.


Team USA

Match & Score:
-Sun Jun 8
USA 0-0 Argentina
Match report from US Soccer.
Post game quotes by USA coach & players from US Soccer
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Video highlights of the match from US Soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The official team blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My notes from the game:
-Despite a decent performance against Argentina, our team has still not shown where any goals are going to come from against Barbados. That makes it three scoreless games in a row. While the players found themselves in decent, but not great goal scoring positions in all three games, there was rarely a shot taken that truly tested any of the keepers they faced. That bothers me. The good part is that Landon Donovan found himself in some OK spots last night, but his 3 weeks of rust caught up with him. Hopefully next weekend he can be more deadly, especially playing in his home stadium in LA.
-Pablo Mastroeni was shown his second yellow card, and ejected in the 71st minute after throwing away a ball after a free kick was awarded to Argentina.
-In the 84th minute Argentina's Javier Mascherano was shown his 2nd Yellow Card and ejected as well. He was on the verge of having 4 or 5 Yellows given to him throughout the game, but you could tell from his expression that he felt genuinely bad about the foul on Landon Donovan that got him tossed. It was a bad one. Luckily Donovan was uninjured.
-How about Eddie Johnson pulling a Vinny Jones on Mascherano!!!
-The down pour looked awesome! I love rain games!
-How did Kun Aguero not got a Penalty Kick when Tim Howard brought him down in the box in the second half. Howard would have even been Red Carded by some ref's.
-Gago and Gabriel Heinze both lef the elbows fly for most of the game and could consider themselves lucky not to suffer a worse fate than one Yellow apiece.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Scoreboard

Week 11
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jun 4
DC v Houston - game canceled due to heavy rain and lightning - no make up date set yet.
-Thu Jun 5
New York 1-0 Chivas USA - NYRB goal by Juan Pablo Angel.
-Fri Jun 6
New England 2-1 Dallas - NER goals by Adam Cristman & Steve Ralston(PK). FCD goal by Arturo Alvarez.
-Sat Jun 7
Columbus 0-2 San Jose - SJE goals by Ryan Johnson & Ramiro Corrales.
Chicago 1-2 DC - CF goal by Chad Barrett. DCU goals by Jaime Moreno & Luciano Emilio.
Salt Lake 0-0 Kansas City
Los Angeles 3-2 Colorado - LAG goals by Alvaro Pires, Edson Buddle & Ely Allen. CR goals by Colin Clark & Herculez Gomez.
-Sun Jun 8
Houston 3-1 Toronto - HD goals by Dwayne De Rosario & Brian Ching(2). TFC goal by Jeff Cunningham.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lots of Ejections:
Brad Evans - Columbus - Red Card for Serious Foul Play
James Riley - San Jose - 2 Yellow Cards
Marcelo Gallardo - DC - Red Card for Violent Conduct
Brandon Prideaux - Chicago - Red Card for Violent Conduct
Bryan Namoff - DC - 2 Yellow Cards
Alan Gordon - Los Angeles - Red Card for violent conduct
Facundo Erpen - Colorado - Red Card for violent conduct
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Standings

Eastern Conference
23 New England (12)
19 Chicago (10)
19 Columbus (11)
17 Toronto (11)
15 New York (10)
13 DC (12)
12 Kansas City (10)
Western Conference
17 Los Angeles (11)
17 Houston (12)
15 Colorado (11)
14 Chivas (11)
13 Dallas (12)
12 Salt Lake (11)
10 San Jose (10)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS News

Bob Hunter at the Columbus Dispatch gives hardcore Crew fans the finger - the big thumbs up! (thanks to Dale for sending this to me)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Golden Boot

9 Landon Donovan
6 Kenny Cooper
5 Jaime Moreno
5 Chad Barrett
5 Brian Ching
5 Edson Buddle
5 Robbie Rogers
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Open Cup

First Round Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jun 10
Carolina Railhawks v Brooklyn Knights
Real Maryland Monarchs v NY Pancyprian Freedoms
Richmond Kickers v Fredricksburg Gunners
Western Mass Pioneers v Boston Olympiakos
Minnesota Thunder v St Louis Lions
Michigan Bucks v Cleveland City Stars
AAC Eagles v Pittsburgh Riverhounds
Rochester Rhinos v RWB Adria
Austin Aztex v Atlanta Silverbacks
Miami FC Blues v Bradenton Academics
Charlottle Eagles v Clearwater Galactics
Charleston Battery v ASC New Stars
Crystal Palace Baltimore v Los Angeles Legends
Harrisburg City Islanders v Yakima Reds
Arizona Sahuaros v Seattle Sounders
Portland Timbers v Hollywood United
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division News

The Burnley Express in England has a story on Burnley FC who are looking for a partner club in the United States. And USL is looking to create some sort of crazy summer tournament with our 1st Division and teams from lower leagues in England and Portugal. Wild stuff. (Thanks to TJ for this one.)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division Standings

22 Vancouver (10)
20 Charleston (10)
17 Portland (13)
17 Seattle (11)
14 Minnesota (10)
13 Carolina (8)
12 Atlanta (9)
11 Miami (13)
8 Montreal (10)
7 Rochester (9)
6 Puerto Rico (7)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mexico & FMF News

Congrats to Santos Laguna for capturing the Clausura title!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

South American News

Everton (aka Corporacion Deportiva Everton de Vina del Mar) ended Colo Colo's run of 4 consecutive Chilean championships!

River Plate won the Argentine Clausura on Saturday with a 2-1 win over Olimpio.

Penarol came back from a 1-3 hole to win 5-3 and claim the Uruguayan championship!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores

Final 1st Leg Match & Score:
-Wed May 28
Boca Juniors 2-2 Fluminense
America 1-1 LDU Quito
Final 2nd Leg Match & Score:
-Wed Jun 4
Fluminense 3-1 Boca Juniors - Flum advance 5-3 on aggregate.
LDU Quito 0-0 America - series ends tied 1-1 but Quito advance on the away goals rule tiebreaker!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

So we get a couple weeks off, then they play the final series for the 2008 crown.
-Wed Jun 25
Liga Deportivo Universitaria de Quito Ecuador v Fluminese Football Club of Rio de Janeiro Brasil
-Wed Jul 2
Fluminese v LDU Quito
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

European News

FIFA.com has a Q & A with former Portugal star Rui Costa.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2008 UEFA European Championship News

Switzerland forward Alexander Frei partially ruptured knee ligaments in the game against the Czechs on Saturday and will be out for the rest of the tournament.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2008 UEFA European Championship Schedule

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
(all times are central)
-Sat Jun 7
Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic - CR goal by Vaclav Sverkos.
Portugal 2-0 Turkey - 1:30pm - Port goals by Pepe & Raul Meireles.
-Sun Jun 8
Austria 0-1 Croatia - Croa goal by Luka Modric(PK).
Germany 2-0 Poland - Germ goals both by Lukas Podolski.
-Mon Jun 9
Romania v France - 10:50am - ESPN2
Netherlands v Italy - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Tue Jun 10
Spain v Russia - 10:50am - ESPN2
Greece v Sweden - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Wed Jun 11
Czech Republic v Portugal - 10:50am - ESPN2
Switzerland v Turkey - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Thu Jun 12
Croatia v Germany - 10:50am - ESPN2
Austria v Poland - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Fri Jun 13
Italy v Romania - 10:50am - ESPN2
Netherlands v France - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Sat Jun 14
Sweden v Spain - 10:50am - ESPN2
Greece v Russia - 1:30pm - ESPN2
-Sun Jun 15
Switzerland v Portugal - 1:30pm - ESPN2
Turkey v Czech Republic - 1:30pm - ESPN Classic
-Mon Jun 16
Poland v Croatia - 1:30pm - ESPN Classic
Austria v Germany - 1:30pm - ESPN
-Tue Jun 17
Netherlands v Romania - 1:30pm - ESPN Classic
France v Italy - 1:30pm - ESPN
-Wed Jun 18
Greece v Spain - 1:30pm - ESPN
Russia v Sweden - 1:30pm - ESPN2
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Group Standings
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

African World Cup Qualifying

The Round 1 group stage is underway in Africa and most teams have played 2 of the six matches. Here are the standings.

This is how I roll...on the internet

Bruce first took a shot at me because he thought the name of my blog (The Red Card) was unoriginal. Then he knocked me for not writing about the Fire enough before the 2006 MLS season was about to start. Last summer, he ragged on me about my Jay DeMerit article because DeMerit's story had already been told a hundred times (I don't think Bruce realized my article was about how DeMerit’s story had already been told a hundred times). And yet, I’ve accepted his invitation to guest blog for him. Why?

Because you really can’t take too much personal in this business. And because Bruce could easily beat me up.

For those of you that don’t know me, I’m Luis Arroyave—the Chicago Tribune’s soccer writer and Boy Meets World expert. Bruce normally gives you tons of links to the latest soccer news. I don’t have that sort of time, so here are the soccer websites I check out on a daily basis:

Soccer By Ives: If you’re procrastinating (which I do a lot), what’s better than a blog that gets updated almost every other hour. No soccer writer puts more time into their blog than Ives. What I like most about the guy is that he created his own success. He didn’t have a big time newspaper behind him, which meant that he had to work harder for what he has. Respect.

Soccer Insider: This is the only other soccer blog by a journalist that I read on a daily basis. It’s not that I don’t like the other ones out there (I do read them from time to time), it’s just that Ives and Goff are the only ones who have national news.

With Leather: OK, it’s not exactly a soccer website, but they mention soccer a lot on there. The writing is inappropriate, offensive and perverted—which is why it’s probably the funniest site on the internet. Hands down.

The Offside Rules: This one is kind of like soccer’s version of With Leather. In a perfect world, someone would be paying me to write content for a website like this. It’s soccer + pop culture + humor. Oh how I envy you, S.F.

Section8chicago.com: I like to know what's going on with the Fire's supporters group. That way if any of them are ever going to jump me in the parking lot after a game, I'll be ready.

U.S. Men’s National Team blog: Even though my blog wasn’t one of the 10 nominated on this site for best blog (not that I remembered that...), I still find myself checking this site out whenever a U.S. game is coming up. Where else can you get behind-the-scenes videos of U.S. soccer players?

The Red Card: Once you get past Luis’ constant whining and his pointless hip-hop references, this Chicago soccer blog isn’t so bad. I just wish he didn’t always have to tell us about his weekends. We get it dude -- you're young, you're single and you go to bars. Now can we please have some Fire updates? Sheesh.

Du Nord: Rather than search for all of the day's best soccer articles and blogs, Bruce puts them on one list for me. And on that note, thanks for linking to my stuff so often, Bruce. Now hurry up and get back to work. These websites aren't going to link themselves.

I'm Not Bruce But I Play One on TV Update

What's up y'all? Your man SF from The Offside Rules again. I'm here pinch hitting for Il Brucio whilst he is away attempting to bring joy to the English.



See what I mean? I'm sure that cat on the left is a nice bloke and all but he looks like he could use an injection of smile-juice. Our Bruce, on the right, has no such problem so he just going let the whole of Blighty take in through osmosis. They'll be fine after that, so long as they don't watch anymore Lars Von Treer films.

EDITORIAL NOTE FROM BRUCE: That guy on the left was not dour. He just sat through 90 minutes of Team USA at Wembley. I was posing for the camera like a trained monkey. So please, if you have to blame someone, don't blame the man, blame the inducer.

Now what would make Bruce even happier is that if in his stead I put up something mentioning this weeks MLS games. Week 11 is almost like a Lifetime mini-series with games on every night from today until Sunday. Between the league matches, 2 US national team games, and the start of Euro 08 I don't know if my marriage will hold up until Monday.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008 A.D.
Houston Dynamo vs. DC United 7.30pm EST (RAINED OUT...what is this baseball?)

Thursday, June 05, 2008 A.D.
Chivas USA vs. Red Bull New York (aka Goats vs. Bulls aka "the Barnyard Cup") 7.30pm EST

Friday, June 06, 2008 A.D.
FC Dallas vs. New England Revolution 6.30pm EST

Saturday, June 07, 2008 A.D.
San Jose Earthquakes vs. Columbus Crew 7.30pm EST
DC United vs. Chicago Fire 8.30pm EST
Kansas City Wizards vs. Real Salt Lake 9.00pm EST
Colorado Rapids vs. LA Galaxy 10.30pm EST

Sunday, June 08, 2008 A.D.
Toronto FC vs. Houston Dynamo 8.30pm EST

BLOGGER INTERVIEW! :: The Run of Play

Brian Phillips, proprietor of the blog Run of Play, writes about football in a fashion no one else quite matches. His style is, to sum up Valley Girl-style, super-weird. At the moment of this writing, for example, his second-to-lead item concerns "thoughts on the 6+5 rule expressed in terms of Handel's Water Music." Phillips puts football, culture, history, art and style and his own sensibility into some kind of bloggish particle accelerator; results often beguile—see his take on Arsenal's email autoreply system, linked below—even if you can't quite make out what the fella is on about. Shall we learn more? I bloody well think so.


Q: Tell us how and why you started this blog.

At some point last fall I started thinking about how strange it is that we want sports to be played with style and flair, but we're content to read sports coverage that's overwhelmingly predictable and dull. This is especially true, at both extremes, of soccer: we like teams to play with originality and joy and show us amazing things, and then we follow them through sports pages that are full of cliches, demagoguery, and lies. I started wondering what sportswriting would look like if it were carried out in the spirit that we want players to bring to the game: what would a soccer article in the style of Garrincha look like? And I thought of a blog that would cover the game in a way that was more sharp and playful than what I was used to reading, that would be free to be as absurd, dramatic, or critical as I wanted, that would toy with material, that would try new things.

In the end, though, I didn't actually start the blog—I just talked about it, and then one day my wife surprised me by opening a Blogger account on my behalf. So basically, I decided it was time to take a stand, and then took it the second my wife had set everything up for me and told me what to do.

Q: How has the blog evolved, and what do you find most rewarding about its continued existence?

I've spent a lot of time trying to work out how much I need to cover the news and how to set the balance between more abstract or conceptual posts and posts that rely on more conventional argument and opinion. I go through phases when I feel like I need to cover every transfer story and phases when it seems okay to spend a week ignoring the rest of the soccer world and writing strange fantasias about the email autoreply system at Arsenal. I've probably felt more free to do the latter as the audience has grown, but the blog is still only a few months old, so everything is still an experiment at this point.

Easily the most rewarding thing about The Run of Play is hearing from the people who read it. Many, many more readers have adopted the blog than I ever expected, and their comments are consistently funny and surprising and smart. I've been surprised by how ready people have been to follow to whatever weird place I want to go. That especially has really been gratifying.

Q: To my mind, what distinguishes Run of Play and your other football writing is your sensibility, which seems attuned to the strange undercurrents that run through the sport. You wrote an article about Bristol Rovers' link to the American folk giant Leadbelly, for instance, and you sometimes veer into an almost Surrealist style. So what do you look out for? What goes into that stew?

One thing is just to try to stay in touch with the ways in which the contexts of the game are changing. I'm an American writing largely about the European game for an audience that's divided between the US and the rest of the world, with regular commenters in India, Australia, Italy and Texas, many of whom follow local teams, many of whom follow teams that are hundreds or thousands of miles from where they live. Globalization has thrown everything up in the air in ways that are both exhilarating and frightening, and I find it helpful to see echoes of the game's strange new patterns in strange old patterns like the Leadbelly/Bristol Rovers link, or the story of the connections between Jack the Ripper, a pre-WWI soccer team in an English mental hospital, and the martyrdom of the first English saint that came to light after Manuel Almunia revealed that his house was haunted.

Q: Your "Portraits" are...unique. Please describe how you assemble them.

With the weekly Portrait feature I try to evoke something I see in the character of a player or manager in a way that's unexpected and striking. The idea is to show the reader these familiar figures in a sudden new light. Practically, that can mean just about anything, from putting a picture together with a song to writing about Peter Crouch in the voice of Cormac McCarthy. There's not really a pattern, except that they're usually preceded by panic, and, if they're any good, followed by much more panic.

Q: You have written about this a bit on Run of Play, but how would you say your writing is influenced by your American environs?

I'm planning to offer more MLS coverage in the future, but up till now I've been in America writing about a non-American game of which I have relatively little actual experience. I think that's been more helpful than harmful, honestly, because while there are certainly people who will dismiss anything I say on the grounds that I "can't possibly understand," it's actually useful for the sort of writing that I'm doing to have some distance from the fan and media cultures around the game—it makes it easier to keep an individual perspective. Background noise from 606 is that much less likely to infiltrate the way you think about, say, Eriksson getting fired at Man City.

The flip side is that there will always be aspects of foreign leagues that seem bizarre to me but totally natural to the people who are closer to them, and I have to keep in mind that my first reaction isn't always the best one to bring to a post. But then, sometimes it is. Sensitivity isn't everything.

Q: How do you think the, if you will forgive the term, "soccer blogosphere" has affected your experience as a fan of the game?

I don't follow many soccer blogs, but the ones I do follow have offered me the analytic and stylistic edge that I miss most of the time in the sports pages. For whatever reason—probably because sports is in many ways an exercise in making and telling stories—my experience as a fan seems to be incomplete if I can't supplement games with prose that gives me new ways to see what I'm seeing, if that makes sense. That's never been an easy thing to come by, but I find I can get it from sites like Pitch Invasion (where I've also been lucky enough to do some writing), and SpanglyPrincess, and Treasons, Stratagems & Spoils, just to name a few. I don't mean to suggest that there are no journalists who are writing well about the game, because there obviously are. But there's no doubt that in the last couple of years my experience as a soccer fan (and as a reader!) has been more enriched by the amateur blogs I follow than by what I've read in the papers.

Q: If the Internet did not exist, would you be writing about football?

If the Internet did not exist, I would be slowly turning a paper map right-side-up and upside-down in the middle of a crowded street in a city I did not recognize, wondering desperately if I would ever find my way back home. Writing about football would be the last thing on my mind.