FRISCO, Texas-- On a night when three different Colombians scored goals, no Colombian player
stood out more in Saturday's FC Dallas-Colorado Rapids tilt than Fabian Castillo, who helped Dallas
beat the very man who helped bring him to Major League Soccer.
Mexico has had its fair share of success against Brazil through the years, and 'El Tri' stifled
the South Americans yet again, shutting down the high-powered 'Selecao' attack on their way to a
2-0 victory on Sunday at Cowboys Stadium.
Giovani Dos Santos played the role of hero, scoring a goal and setting up another by drawing a
penalty, to give the Mexican squad a big boost heading into World Cup qualifying.
Not every U.S. women's national team game is going to feature both an Alex Morgan AND Abby
Wambach goal, but you're usually good for at least one of them finding the back of the net. It took
Megan Rapinoe's first goal of the 2012 London Olympic tournament to kickstart an eventual 3-0 win,
but for long stretches of the match it looked at though the Colombians, with their heavy (and
sometimes too aggressive) pressure would make this a much tougher battle than the Lady Nats
expected.
You're no lady, Lady Andrade. The Colombian forward threw a nasty right hook at Abby Wambach as
the US striker fell onto the pitch clutching her face. Play continued on with the referee unaware
of what had just happened and the Colombians continued their unsportswoman like conduct by keeping
the ball in play.
Two games into the Summer Olympics and the USWNT have already reached the quarter-finals.
Earlier today, the United States took on Colombia, defeating the country 3-0. Don't let the score
fool you though, the Colombians gave the US a run for their money all match long. Despite a lack of
shots from Colombia, their squad played strong defensively, making tackles and blocking a barrage
of shots from the USWNT.
The U.S. Women's national team punched their ticket to the Olympic quarterfinals after winning
their second consecutive preliminary match, with a 3-0 win over Colombia on Saturday.
Unlike like their first preliminary match against France on Wednesday, which saw the United States
women have to overcome a slow start, there was no such struggle against Colombia.
This time, the U.S. women's national team will hope for 90 minutes of domination, not just
76.
After falling behind to France 2-0 in the opening 14 minutes of their Olympic run, the U.S.
women straightened things out behind the explosive front line of Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan, the
flank play of Megan Rapinoe and a rocket of a shot by Carli Lloyd.
The Philadelphia Union have traded Danny Mwanga for Jorge Perlaza of the Portland Timbers.
Mwanga moved to the United States in 2006 and attended high school in Portland before playing at
Oregon State for a year. The 20-year-old was drafted first overall in the 2010 MLS SuperDraft,
becoming the Union's first ever draft selection.
When Jorge Perlaza first joined the Portland Timbers, he was very much alone. Being the only
member of the team who did not have a basic understanding of English, it was an intimidating
experience. If you take language out of the equation, he says, you can adapt to just about anything
anywhere. But not being able to understand what people are saying makes every aspect of life more
difficult.
Benny Feilhaber and Kelyn Rowe each scored one goal and assisted on the other as the New England
Revolution claimed a 2-0 win over the Chicago Fire on Saturday night at rain-soaked Gillette
Stadium.
Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis made three saves to guide New England to its second shutout of
the season.
Some mornings after a Revs game I just don't want to move, but not this morning. This morning I
woke up with a renewed sense of purpose. I guess there's nothing like a win to reinvigorate a
person. For those like me, who need something to do to pass the nine-to-five hours quicker, here
you go.
Revolution Links
Revolution's Reis finally joins century club with 2-1 win
Over at MLS's website, Kyle McCarthy gives us the rundown of how Matt Reis's 100th win went.
No one likes trying to follow a loss like the one suffered on Saturday. Unfortunately, the show
must go on, and the world of soccer has not stopped to let us be alone with our grief. MLS's
opening weekend has, by and large, been exciting and successful. LA was beaten handily by RSL,
Colorado topped Columbus, SKC squeaked a win over DC, Vancouver took down Montreal in the latter's
MLS debut, and Houston left it late but managed a victory over Chivas.
Can you feel it? CAN YOU FEEL IT?! The New England Revolution are kicking off the season
tomorrow night at the SAn Jose Earthquakes! The match is at 10 PM EST, because it's West Coast and
apparently the MLS schedule people want to make sure we're all good and drunk by the time the match
starts (The Bent Musket does not in any way condone drinking underage or to excess - designate a
driver and drink responsibly).
To kickoff 2012, my first (and only) blog entry centered on a plea for the New England
Revolution to be "blog worthy" in 2012. A hope that it would "show the fanbase how big the
Revolution dream is, and steps you are taking to achieve it."
Given a week of activity, I'm concerned the team still cannot explain the vision of the team's
future the way I'd like, but its actions actually give me hope.
Mere hours after Mike Burns indicated that the New England Revolution would be finalizing the
transfer of two South American players today, the team announced this morning that they have signed
Colombians John Lozano and Fernando Cardenas. Both will count as international players and will be
added to the roster when their P-1 Visas and International Transfer Certificates have been
processed.
America de Cali's loss has turned out to be the New England Revolution's gain.
The Revolution announced the signings of centerback John Lozano and attacking midfielder
Fernando Cardenas from the traditional Colombian giant, which was relegated to the country's second
division last month.
YSA Report – August – Episode 4 " ysareport
The August Edition of the YSA Report features panelists: Jon Marks, Nick Youngstein – Unholy
Union blog, Earl "Kemosabe" Gardner – Evil Genius Producer, and as always Murph.
The Philly Soccer Page " PSP talks to Joanna Lohman
As the Independence prepare for Saturday's WPS Final versus Western New York in Rochester, the
PSP had the opportunity to catch up with midfielder Joanna Lohman.
The fifth round of Conmebol World Cup qualifying is set to take place this weekend, and Leo
Messi and Argentina are hoping this is the round where they claim first place in the standings.
Argentina will look to overtake Uruguay in the table this weekend, but the albiceleste will need
a result at home against Ecuador in arguably the biggest match of the fifth round of Conmebol World
Cup qualifying.
These days it's rare for Lionel Messi to accomplish something he has yet to already do, but he
was able to cross another item off his career bucket list on Wednesday.
The Barcelona catalyst and reigning Ballon d'Or winner scored his first career hat trick for
his country, tallying all of Argentina's goals -- including two late ones -- in a 3-1 victory over
Switzerland in Bern.
They may be playing meaningless friendlies, but the defending World and European champions are
stuck in a run of form unbecoming of the top-ranked team in the world.
After trailing 2-0, Spain scored twice in the final 10 minutes to salvage a 2-2 away draw with
Costa Rica in a match in which much of the first-team saw action.
The Timbers finally landed the long rumoured young forward from Colombia, Jose Adolfo Valencia, as
the club officially signed him to a Designated Player contract last week. The Timbers now have an
impressive group of Colombians on their roster which could pay dividends and goals in their run for
the playoffs in 2012.
Two weeks after it was reported, the Portland Timbers have officially signed Colombian Jose
Adolfo Valencia as a Designated Player.
The 19-year-old Valencia joins Portland from Colombian club Sante Fe pending the succesful
completion of a physical, the Timbers announced on Thursday.
Lauren Sesselmann (Green Bay Notre Dame) set up Robyn Gayle's 88th-minute winner
as the Canadian women's national team slipped past Colombia 2-1 on Tuesday night in Guadalajara,
Mexico, to advance to the championship game of the Pan American Games.
Sesselmann served a free kick into the box that Gayle chested down and finished to send the
Canadians to a rematch with Brazil in Thursday's final at Omnilife Stadium.
I was recently in the most wonderful country in the world, Colombia, where the U-20 World Cup is
currently taking place. The atmosphere is great as Colombians greet the world with their usual
smiles, hospitality and friendliness.Except if you are Argentine... I had made nothing of an
incident between the Argentinean team during a match against Egypt and the fans in MedellĂn until,
last Saturday,
The U.S. WNT enjoyed its second day of perfect training weather in Glasgow, and had an awesome
practice that was on the short side (less than 90 minutes), as the team starts to taper into its
first match of the Olympics on July 25 against France.
You can watch on the NBC Sports Network at Noon ET.
A couple weeks ago we looked at six Eastern teams' off-season transactions. This week, I
continue the off-season review with six teams from the Central and Mountain timezones. I have
omitted the Fire from this preview as there will likely be a comprehensive roundup of the Fire's
off-season when the regular season approaches.
With the excitement and craziness of the 2012 SuperDraft in the rearview, it's time for teams
around MLS to get down to business. Camp opens tomorrow and the Revolution still have plenty of
work to do. I figured that this frigid, lazy Sunday would be a good time to take a look at the
Revs' off-season thus far and outline some of the storylines moving forward.
This is a Special Edition soccer news blast during this holiday week. I have been off enjoying
regular life, cut had to at least lay all of this good stuff on you once this week. We will be back
to regular service next week. But for now here is some news, in pretty much random order - no
headlines or sections:
dN
du Nord at the Controls - Tue Dec 27, 2011 - My Dad's birthday - new music mix at Spotify.
Welcome to "The Gents" with Stan Bentley - The Yorkies' regular advice column for our
valued readers. Bring your modern day problems and have them answered by the most valued voice - a
1950's journeyman footballer. "Back of the net!"
　 Dear Stan, I'm very attracted to a woman who I work with and get the feeling she feels the same.
The Philly Soccer Page " MacMath: "They wanted to tell me I was ready."
At a conference call Monday afternoon, Zac MacMath talked to reporters about his first half in
MLS, how he found out he was going in, and what he needs to do to help the team reach the
playoffs.
