It's just not right is it? Somehow you look at this situation in the MLS Eastern Conference Final that Real Salt Lake, a club from the West came to Chicago and defeated them in a penalty kick shootout to take the Eastern Conference crown and will face fellow western club Los Angeles Galaxy at Qwest Field in Seattle for the League crown.

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The mighty fall quickly when tournament time comes around. With the Big East tournament now heading into the semifinals, the University of Connecticut won't be around contending for the conference title. Continuing a strong upset run in the postseason, the Providence Friars took care of the Huskies in a 1-0 double-overtime contest.

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The mighty fall quickly when tournament time comes around. With the Big East tournament now heading into the semifinals, the University of Connecticut won't be around contending for the conference title. Continuing a strong upset run in the postseason, the Providence Friars took care of the Huskies in a 1-0 double-overtime contest.

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So Australia move through to the semis of the AFC under-16 women's championships as the only team not to drop a game after beating Japan 3-1 in Thailand tonight. The two Korean teams, DPR Korea and Korea Republic drew in their round game, so they both finished on seven points in Group A while Australia topped Group B with a perfect nine points, three wins from three games. Click to continue reading...

Copa Sudamericana reached the semifinals, two Brazilian clubs had the chance to be in the final 4. However, only Fluminense did so. Flu visited Universidad de Chile and one more time relied on Fred. The ex-Lyon seems to be playing for all the matches he did nothing since the beginning of the year.

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Blah blah blah.

Good

Copa Sudamericana Cerro Porteno and River Plate Uruguay, through to the semis

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=694236&sec=global&cc=3888

Bad

Warner and the handbags

http://www.sportsfeatures.com/index.php?section=olympic-article-view&title=Jack%20Warner%20handbags%20England%27s%20bid%20to%20host%202018%20World%20Cup&id=46178

Ugly Click to continue reading...

Listas las semifinales
Ya estamos en semifinales de la Libertadores Femenil, el próximo 16 de Octubre se jugarán las semfinales que definiran la justa final del 18 de Octubre.
Grupo 1
El Santos de Brasil se va limpia a las Semifinales ganando todos sus encuentros y cosechando 12 puntos en 4 juegos, en segundo lugar con 7 puntos el Everton de Chile tambien pasa a semis. Click to continue reading...

Brazil defeated Costa Rica 1-0 in the semis of the U-20 World Cup today. From reading the match reports, it sounded like a very choppy and cagey match, decided by a well-taken goal midway through the second half. It was a much better showing by Costa Rica than their group phase opener, but they were still far away from scoring a goal. Click to continue reading...

Just got back from rainy Sydney...home again in...eh....rainy Byron Bay :-). Carlos and myself at a certain point discussed which Oranje game we last watched live (not together of course)... Mine was in 2000 (the lost semis against Italy aarrrghhh....) and Carlos' last was in the 90s I believe.... It was Click to continue reading...

It was a welcome announcement that MLS will not schedule matches during the group phase, semifinals and finals of the 2010 World Cup. That means the league will not play from Friday, June 11 through Friday, June 25. The WC round of 16 will be played from Saturday June 26 through Tuesday June 29.

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Wouldn't you love the job of marketing the Brisbane Roar women? Talk about assets.
They cleaned up the W-League in its first season, winning both the Premiership and the Championship last year.
Actually last year they lost just one game, to Canberra at home. They drew just one game as well, to Canberra away. Click to continue reading...

Open top bus parade to celebrate our unbeaten league success. Image courtesy of Daily Mail

 After Chelsea's defeat yesterday, all the teams in the Premiership have now lost at least once this season. It means that Arsenal's achievement of a whole season unbeaten in 2004 is not equalled by another Premier League team.

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Remember how we never win a match at the San Siro? And how, not counting the Champions League final in 2020, which was against Manchester United and thus not exactly at the San Siro, we haven't done so in this decade, or at all since a highly random 4-3 win over Inter in the Champions League quarterfinals in 2019?

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What a difference three months makes.

Back in June, Costa Rica thrashed the U.S. men's national team, 3-1, in World Cup qualifying, leading to national celebrations and rock star status for Costa Rica head coach Rodrigo Kenton, who had his team in first place in CONCACAF qualifying.

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What a difference three months makes.

Back in June, Costa Rica thrashed the U.S. men's national team, 3-1, in World Cup qualifying, leading to national celebrations and rock star status for Costa Rica head coach Rodrigo Kenton, who had his team in first place in CONCACAF qualifying.

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Darren Fletcher cruelly missed out on Manchester United's Champions League final last season after being wrongly sent off against Arsenal in the semis.

After watching United get played off the park by Barcelona, with us being totally overrun in midfield, plenty of United fans have wondered whether it could have been different if Fletcher was playing.

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In the end, it was a damp squib of a transfer deadline day, hyped to the nines but delivering nothing of interest, and nothing at all for Arsenal.

The whole absurd day, which has become a newspaper-selling website-hitting phenomenon all of its own, with Sky Sports News the very worst culprit, is summed up for me by this one entry from the Guardian's live transfer deadline day page:

5.

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Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it. | World Cup Stars

Listen to this week's show here Transcript

Each era has its heroes and stars. Today's football world is dominated by players like David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, who are role models to many young players, but I wonder how long their influence will last.

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How would someone characterize US Soccer's Summer of 2009? The extreme optimist would say that the US made a non-CONCACAF tournament major final for the 1st time by ending Spain's world record streak, then with a "B" side made it to the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

The extreme pessimist would say that the United States squad blew a massive opportunity to establish themselves as a major world footballing nation with their collapse in the 2nd half Confederations Cup final.

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How would someone characterize US Soccer's Summer of 2009? The extreme optimist would say that the US made a non-CONCACAF tournament major final for the 1st time by ending Spain's world record streak, then with a "B" side made it to the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The extreme pessimist would say that the United States squad blew a massive opportunity to establish themselves as a major world footballing nation with their collapse in the 2nd half Confederations Cup final. Click to continue reading...

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                                                                        Photo by ISIphotos.com

The U.S. men's national team has reached the CONCACAF Gold Cup final yet again, and has done so with using basically the same lineup for the quarterfinals and semifinals.

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                                                                        Photo by ISIphotos.com

The U.S. men's national team has reached the CONCACAF Gold Cup final yet again, and has done so with using basically the same lineup for the quarterfinals and semifinals.

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Conventional wisdom surrounding the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is that Major League Soccer doesn't care. The tournament is simply small potatoes compared to league matches. However, conventional wisdom only seems to hold true if you didn't make it out of the semis. For some, this merely translates to sour grapes. Click to continue reading...

1. United States
Scraped and scrapped though with a 2-1 overtime win against Panama. Kyle Beckerman tied the game in the second half after a Panama goal just before the break. Kenny Cooper drew a foul -- absorbing a kung fu kick to the gut -- in the box and converted the spot kick for the win.
2. Click to continue reading...

Meetings between the Mexican national team and Panama are always heated, but Thursday night's clash in the CONCACAF Gold Cup took the rivalry to new, uglier levels.

Fan violence in the stands and clashes on the field turned the match into an ugly encounter as three red cards and one very unfortunate intervention by Mexican head coach Javier Aguirre (and his subsequent ejection) transformed the match into a farce.

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We all know that the Open Cup matchups are not a random draw like the FA Cup. Teams are matched together by region, and deciding who hosts is based on which teams bid for it. It's hard not to notice how some teams always seem to play at home or away. For example, DC United has hosted every Open Cup match they've played in 2008 and 2009 so far. Click to continue reading...

The 9th round of Campeonato Brasileiro was all about surviving a bad hang over. And most did it.

After being eliminated at home from the semis of Copa Libertadores, Gremio honored its nickname of "immortal". With 11 minutes, the two forwards from Argentina had scored 3 goals - Maxi Lopes (2) and Herrera (1).

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David Hershey, one of the best, and most-experienced of soccer observers in the US had this to say after the US loss to Brazil.
Quote: Still: I'm actually somewhat relieved that we didn't win. Had we beaten mighty Brazil, can you imagine how hysterical the media would have been, given that, according to the Times, we'd already pulled off The Miracle on Grass against Spain? Click to continue reading...

Next week is big for the Sounders. They have a chance to return Seb/Levesque/etal to the Semis of the US Open Cup for a third straight year. All it will take is beating the Wizards with Keller on the pitch for a Full 90. Also looming though is the Saturday match v THE dominant [...] Click to continue reading...

(Beeg trouble for moose and squirrel.)

So...anything happen while I was gone?

No, seriously. They just got word of V-J Day where I was for the past week.

So let's catch up:

• The US made an amazing run in the Confederations Cup. Yes, I know, they got into the semis on a technicality, but they beat Spain and had Brazil (BRAZIL) on the ropes.

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By mid-May, we'd played Milan three times in four weeks twice in the Coppa Italia semis and once in Serie A and were set to play them twice more in an epic Champions League semifinal. The first leg was slated for Naming Rights Park, and then we'd be heading to the San Siro with a place in the final on the line.

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Spanish fans have no reason to panic following the team's third-place finish at the Confederations Cup. The reigning European champs were knocked off in the semis by a scrappy US squad and were less than impressive against South Africa in the third-place game, but one loss in 37 matches shouldn't impact their standing as favorites heading into next year's World Cup. Click to continue reading...

U.S. star player Landon Donovan was disappointed to be on the losing side after Brazil came back from 2-0 down to beat the U.S.A 3-2 in the Confederations Cup final in South Africa, but is confident his team has learned some valuable lessons. Speaking after the game Donovan said "It's disappointing because we started the game really well and put them on their heels which most teams don't do against Brazil.

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At Major League Soccer Talk we pride ourselves on the having the most comprehensive coverage of the US Men's National Teams. For over two years we've covered the National Team more closely than just about any other website around. Below are the links to our extensive written and audio coverage of Wednesday's "Miracle on Grass," and Sunday's heartbreaking championship loss to Brazil.

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You can hear Landon Donovan recap the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup at 11:35 a.m. ET today on the Dan Patrick show.
LD appeared on the show just after the USA's 2-0 victory against No. 1-ranked Spain in the semis.
Listen to that interview here. Click to continue reading...