This week's slate of MLS games includes everything from cripple fights to top-of-the-table clashes. The weekend starts off with two doses of the former, as the Philadelphia Union host Toronto FC and the New England Revolution travel west to take on the Seattle Sounders. I've deliberately overlooked the other 4:00 game today: Vancouver Whitecaps vs.
17-year-old Diego Fagundez made his second start of the season on Saturday. (Photo: Walter
Silva)
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. The New England Revolution set the club record winless streak on Saturday
night, failing to win their tenth straight match in playing to a dire scoreless draw with the
Philadelphia Union at Gillette Stadium in front of 11,841.
Clint Dempsey has completed a move to Tottenham. (Photo: TottenhamHotspur.com)
The Clint Dempsey transfer saga is finally over. The former New England Revolution star
midfielder/striker is on his way to Tottenham Hotspur after Fulham FC agreed to a reported $9.6
million transfer fee on Friday.
Colombian striker Jose Moreno waived by the Revolution on Monday. (Photo: Kari
Heistad/CapturedImages.biz)
Advertised as the New England Revolution's new number 9 back in February, Jose Moreno came to
the club on loan from Colombian side Once Caldas with high expectations. From the beginning,
nothing seemed to go as planned and now Moreno's time with the club is over after being waived on
Aug.
In game they could have won, the Revolution fell into their usual routines of poor finishing and
tentative defending to hand over a 2-1 win to the Union on Sunday.
To their credit, they didn't back down. Not after the penalty, not after the Union threw numbers
forward, and not even after Jack McInerney beat Matt Reis in the 90th.
The Revolution midfield has shown so far this season that it is one of the most dynamic and
dangerous in all of Major League Soccer. With a seemingly endless number of combinations, the Revs
have a real dominance in the center of the pitch that can rarely be matched. But their own worst
enemy can sometimes be themselves, with the occasional uncertainty as to which midfield will show
up on game day.
In a series of big roster moves for the New England Revolution, the front office announced that
they will be waiving John Lozano, declining the options on Bjorn Runstrom and Jeremiah White and
activating Sainey Nyassi.
"We want to thank John, Bjorn and Jeremiah for their service and efforts representing the
Revolution," New England General Manager Michael Burns said.
Saer Sène and A.J. Soares scored two minutes apart early in the second half to briefly put the
New England Revolution on level terms, but substitute Maicon Santos responded for D.C. United with
the game-winning goal in the 61st minute as the Revs suffered a 3-2 loss on Saturday night at RFK
Stadium.
New England was due a draw. Still, there is nothing more dissapointing than a last minute draw.
A game where the New England Revolution seemed to have it won only to let it slip away.
A rough and tumble game between the Revolution and the Houston Dynamo that contained many up and
downs.
What is there to say? The win over Vancouver was the first time where the New England Revolution
utterly overwhelmed and dismantled an opponent. More so than even the LA Galaxy game, the
Revolution dominated the game - outside of the first 10 or so minutes. And reading through twitter,
it is easy to see that the supporters had been waiting, salivating, wanting this to happen.
Remember when I said this week was gonna be hectic? Well here's your proof. It's a few hours from
game day and I'm just not putting up my preview interview form earlier this week. This also means
that tonight we'll use an abbreviated match thread.
In any case, I was lucky enough to interview Robert Jonas of fellow SB Nation blog: Quake,
Rattle and Goal to help us figure out exactly who this San Jose side is, and why they're so damn
good right now.
CARSON, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Galaxy have welcomed Clarence Seedorf in for a training
stint, but don't look for the former AC Milan and Real Madrid midfielder to sign with the Galaxy,
at least according to Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena.
Another game day, another chance for the Portland Timbers to begin their redemption and earn
three points at home. For those of you who paid attention to the rest of MLS instead of that other
soccer game that was going on, you'd have seen some favorable outcomes for the Timbers. First, our
two main rivals drew with each other.
Game day! It's been quite a while since our last and, as such, the Portland Timbers are
currently behind the rest of the Western Conference in games played. This gives the Timbers a
slight advantage as well as the opportunity to leap frog both Los Angeles based teams, the LA
Galaxy and Chivas USA, should the results pan out how we like.
The don't call it "the Beautiful Game" for nothing. Soccer is art. A great Lionel Messi goal
or a stunning David Beckham free kick is a thing of beauty.
These small moments in soccer can create life-long fans of the sport (with the help of a
beer or two, perhaps?) and the memories of such sporting excellence can hang in our memories like
fine art in a gallery.
The United States pulled off a historic win tonight in Mexico City, winning the first game by the
men's national team at the Azteca Stadium. A goal by Michael Orozco Fiscal in the 79th minute, set
up by a great run from Brek Shea and a back heal from Terrance Boyd gave the US a 1-0 win. As a
whole it wasn't really a game the US deserved as they showed very little going forward for much of
the game.
Major League Soccer and the Philadelphia Union announced today that Michael Farfan was added to
the All-Star team game day roster, bringing the total number of players to 20 to face Chelsea.
All-Star team head coach Ben Olsen selected Farfan, along with San Jose left back Justin Morrow
- added as a replacement for New York Red Bulls defender Heath Pearce, to extend the squad's roster
to 20 players.
Just a little bit ago, Sporting KC and the Seattle Sounders announced the start time of the US Open
Cup final on August 8th. The game will kick off at 8pm Central Time on that Wednesday, 6pm on the
West coast. There's still no announcement of any TV for the final, but the assumption on the start
time is that it hopefully was done 30 minutes later than usual Sporting home games to help
facilitate a potential TV deal.
Andy Gruenebaum has had a banner season so far for Columbus. (Getty Images)
Yesterday afternoon the rest of the 2012 MLS All Star roster was announced. Quality players like
Eddie Johnson, Kyle Beckerman and Dan Kennedy were added to the game day roster. Ben Olsen has
plenty of quality players to pick from and did so but there of course were a few names left out
that immediately spark the usual snub talk from everyone.
The sun should be shining, and the crowd should be a sellout for the Seattle Sounders Women on
this Friday evening. This will be the final home match of the 2012 season. Game time is 7:00pm at
the Starfire complex. The FO says there should be an Olympian or two available for autographs, but
they will not suit up for the game.
Drianne Raff, Glendale Falcons, in front of the Rock Bridge defense, 2011 Quarterfinal. Photo
courtesy of GlendaleSoccer.com
The Class 3 Quarterfinal, and the opportunity to play in the Final 4 in Blue Springs next week,
falls to Glendale and Rock Bridge for the second year in a row.
(Editor's Note: Our series of posts from Reading United and Villanova defender Kyle
McCarthy continues as he gives an inside look at training in the lead-up to gameday on one of the
top Premier Development League teams in the country.)
Last week I covered the events of a typical gameday experience, so it's only fair that I mention
the hard work and effort that we go through building up to that moment.
(Editor's Note: Our series of posts from Reading United and Villanova defender Kyle
McCarthy continues as he gives an inside look at what game day is like on one of the top Premier
Development League teams in the country.)
As a player, nothing is more exciting than the day of a big game.
Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki will kick off game day festivities Saturday against Chivas USA
as the honorary scarfer of the Lamar Hunt Statue on the North Concourse of FC Dallas Stadium.
U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann"We discussed prior to the game that it would be
difficult to break them down. Antigua did a very good job defending and made it very tight. They
made it very difficult for us to create more chances. I think we created quite a few chances and we
could have scored a few more goals.
Good afternoon. Apologies for the lateness of this post but after a long week I needed a good sleep in. Anyway's, it's game day, and a big challenge awaits Melbourne Victory in Brisbane tonight. I don't know how to feel about this game to be honest. On one hand we could easily get demolished but
Andy's Fanshot concerning the 66,000 tickets sold for Sunday''s game got me thinking about the game. It also got me thinking about the away travel and what I can do to cover the game on Sunday in a different way. So I have some questions for you, the community, to answer:
The NSCAA will offer the High School Diploma in the St Louis area over
the weekend of November 16, 2012 through November 18, 2012. This course is meaningful and impactful
to all who have attended. Rob Herringer will be directing the course with support from other great
coaches from around the country.
With all of the games in the Olympic soccer tournament spread throughout the U.K., the WNT is
getting a pretty extensive tour of England and Scotland. After spending some time in Darlington,
Middlesbrough, Glasgow and Manchester the WNT is now in another new city -- Newcastle -- for their
quarterfinal match-up with New Zealand.
MLS to become "smart" league: Will better stat tracking affect our view of game? - originally
posted on Soccerlens.com
Soccer has always been a sport predicated on somewhat subjective measurables; many coaches,
scouts and trainers finding the majority of what they need to know from a player's actual play on
the field, rather than his respective averages and scores in a spreadsheet.
The Azzurri are marching with their heads held high after defying the pre-tournament critics and
escaping group C. Coach Cesare Prandelli's tactical masterstroke against Spain demonstrated his
vision. The Catenaccio styled Italy has been absent this tournament, and a new more adventurous
side has emerged.
As it's already been pointed out, we've been a little quite over here at HTIOT. I'm feeling a
little rusty as attempt to put together this game preview, and it got me to thinking about the
players on both squads. They've got to be a little rusty, too, right? Putting in reps on the
practice is not the same as game day.
The best way to spin a miserable scoreless friendly is like this: "HEY! CLEAN SHEET!"
dN
Steve Zakuani returned to the field for Seattle for the first time in approx 1 year since he suffer
a horrendous broken leg. He played the first 45 min of a reserve game on Friday.
Welcome to tonight's In-Game Blog for the match between the U.S. Men's National Team and Scotland.
We'll have all the information on this international friendly for the USA, including lineups,
pre-game facts and in-game notes from Jacksonville.
Lineup:
Another game day. Well, maybe not just another game day. After all this is a Cascadia Cup match
and that, in itself, is something that makes tonight's match just a little more noteworthy than
traditional games. There's a bit more adrenaline. Perhaps even a little more brazen raucousness
from the fans.
Quick Recap: Portland started a mix of the first XI and the game day 18 players but it wasn't
enough to keep Valencia from getting the first goal. At the half the subs all came in and the young
guns got their chance to show what they can do but they could not find the back of the net despite
having some good opportunities.
