Soccer update

[o-man]

I was in PUERTO vALLARTA during the 1998 world cup. One of the most harrowing experiences of my life was riding in the front seat of a beat up taxi with a driver who was paying more attention to the small portable with the soccer game then the road ahead

jeez a loo. that same cabbie (if still alive after survivng WC '02 & '06) is liable to be texting / tweeting about in '10!

[Snaxx]

Time for me to cheer on the US National Team in their World Cup send-off matches (Friendlies), as I won't be taking the trip to SA.
Tuesday night vs Czech Republic at Rentschler Field, CT
Saturday afternoon vs Turkey in Philadelphia.

Then the team goes to South Africa and plays one more friendly there, vs Australia, before taking on England on June 12.

[andrewjackson]

Time for me to cheer on the US National Team in their World Cup send-off matches (Friendlies), as I won't be taking the trip to SA.
Tuesday night vs Czech Republic at Rentschler Field, CT
Saturday afternoon vs Turkey in Philadelphia.

Then the team goes to South Africa and plays one more friendly there, vs Australia, before taking on England on June 12.

Have fun at the games. We have a small contingent of American Outlaws (who are also mostly Texian Army) from Houston making the trip to Philly but no one I know of going to CT. I'll be watching the Czech game with the rest of the AO/TA here in Houston tonight. I'll be wearing my new Holden national team jersey.

Coincidentally enough, the Dynamo host Philly on Saturday night in league play. I'll be watching the US/Turkey game at a bar before heading to the tailgate for the Dynamo game.

[Snaxx]

USA lost 4-2 to Czechs. Hopefully I'll see a win in Philly on Saturday.

[andrewjackson]

USA lost 4-2 to Czechs. Hopefully I'll see a win in Philly on Saturday.

Defending was awful, awful, awful last night. But a lot of those guys won't be going to SA.

The final 23 man U.S. roster will be announced today at 1:00 pm EDT. It should be interesting.

[andrewjackson]

Other MLS news that I missed posting:

The Montreal Impact will join MLS in 2012. They will be the 19th team in the league after Vancouver and Portland join in 2011. Montreal currently has a team in the lower level USSF D2 league. It is not clear how many of the current players will "move up" with the team.

There are reports that the league may also be adding a 20th team at about that time. Some stories have this team being a 2nd NY team with this new team playing in a stadium in Queens near Citi Field. We shall see.

[earendel]

USA lost 4-2 to Czechs. Hopefully I'll see a win in Philly on Saturday.

Defending was awful, awful, awful last night. But a lot of those guys won't be going to SA.

The final 23 man U.S. roster will be announced today at 1:00 pm EDT. It should be interesting.

I heard the announcement and the commentary. Seems like defense will continue to be a problem, if the pundits are to be believed.

[Snaxx]

USA bounced back to defeat Turkey 2-1, also bouncing back within the game after trailing 1-0.

Tomorrow (Wed) night in MLS it is Snaxx's NY Red Bulls vs AJ's Houston Dynamo. Both coming off bad 3-2 defeats on Saturday and in need of a win to get back on track.

[andrewjackson]

USA bounced back to defeat Turkey 2-1, also bouncing back within the game after trailing 1-0.

Tomorrow (Wed) night in MLS it is Snaxx's NY Red Bulls vs AJ's Houston Dynamo. Both coming off bad 3-2 defeats on Saturday and in need of a win to get back on track.

Yes, we certainly do need a win. And history says we will get it. Our season so far:

T-W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L

So we can tell what happens next.

[andrewjackson]

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH


That is all.

[Snaxx]

As AJ hinted, it did not end well for Houston, as the Red Bulls ended a 4-match L streak via a dramatic last-second free kick from Colombian star Juan Pablo Angel. I was there and aimed my camera as Angel took the final shot:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacorbett70/4665638013/

[andrewjackson]

The Vancouver Whitecaps unveiled their new logo today:



The Whitecaps are currently a lower level team but will be entering MLS next year. The Portland Timbers will making the same move next year and unveiling their new logo this Saturday.

[andrewjackson]

The Major League Soccer season ended on Sunday. Here are the final standings for the 30 game regular season. MLS uses the international standard of 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie. The LA Galaxy win the Supporters' Shield for the best regular season record.

Code: Select all

1. LA Galaxy          59 pts
2. Real Salt Lake     56 pts 
3. NY Red Bulls       51 pts 
4. FC Dallas          50 pts 
5. Columbus Crew      50 pts 
6. Seattle Sounders   48 pts
7. Colorado Rapids    46 pts 
8. SJ Earthquakes     46 pts 
----------------------
9.  KC Wizards         40 pts 
10. Chicago Fire       36 pts 
11. Toronto FC         35 pts 
12. Houston Dynamo     33 pts 
13. NE Revolution      32 pts
14. Philadelphia Union 31 pts 
15. Chivas USA         28 pts 
16. DC United          22 pts 

The top 8 make the playoffs (It's a little more complicated than that but that's basically how it works). The playoffs start on Thursday. The first round is home-and-away with the higher seeded team hosting the 2nd leg next week. (Don't bother trying to figure out the seeding. It's a goofy system) Total goals over the 2 games determines who advances. Home team is listed first, times are EDT.

Thursday, October 28
(W5) Colorado Rapids v. (E2)Columbus Crew 9 pm ESPN2

Saturday, October 30
(W3) FC Dallas v. (W2) Real Salt Lake 5 pm Fox Soccer Channel
(W6) San Jose Earthquakes v. (E1) NY Red Bulls 10 pm TeleFutura

Sunday, October 31
(W4) Seattle Sounders FC v. (W1) LA Galaxy 8 pm ESPN2

[earendel]

Although the prime topic of this thread is MLS, I can't help but post that the alma mater of my two youngest sons, Louisville Collegiate, won its first-ever high school regional soccer championship and will move on to the state championship. This school, one of the smallest in the county (and a private school) beat one of the major soccer powers in the city (and state), a Catholic school almost 5 times its size. During the years that my son played, the team played well but couldn't manage to get over the sectional finals, where they would inevitably lose to another Catholic school. This year they beat both of them. Go Titans!!!!!

[andrewjackson]

Exhaustive detail or not, the rankings have some obvious mistakes. Obviously, Uruguay and Chile are ranked much too high at this time. (His ranking of Uruguay, which still needs to get past Costa Rica to qualify, especially is laughable.)

I'm glad I resurrected this thread. I might have forgotten about this.

Uruguay - wins group without losing a game, advances to semifinal losing to the Netherlands
Chile - advances from group, knocked out in Round of 16 by Brazil

FIFA ranking of teams based on performance in the World Cup:

1. Spain
2. Netherlands
3. Germany
4. Uruguay
5. Argentina
6. Brazil
7. Ghana
8. Paraguay
9. Japan
10. Chile
11. Portugal
12. United States
13. England
14. Mexico
15. Korea Republic
16. Slovakia
17. Côte d'Ivoire
18. Slovenia
19. Switzerland
20. South Africa
21. Australia
22. New Zealand
23. Serbia
24. Denmark
25. Greece
26. Italy
27. Nigeria
28. Algeria
29. France
30. Honduras
31. Cameroon
32. Korea DPR

Somebody was laughing but not at the ranking of Uruguay and Chile.

[andrewjackson]

The first round of the MLS playoffs is over.

Aggregate scores over the two game series:

San Jose 3-2 New York
Colorado 2-2 Columbus
Colorado advances on Penalty Kicks after a scoreless overtime in the 2nd game, 5-4.

FC Dallas 3-2 Real Salt Lake
LA Galaxy 3-1 Seattle

Those winners advance to the Conference Finals which are one game at the higher seed which is listed first.
All four of the remaining teams are from the Western Conference.

Eastern Conference final
Saturday, Nov 13
(W5)Colorado Rapids v. (W6)San Jose Earthquakes 9:30pm est Fox Soccer Channel

Western Conference final
Sunday, Nov 14
(W1)Los Angeles Galaxy v. (W3)FC Dallas 9:00pm est ESPN2

The winners advance to the MLS Cup final being held this year in Toronto on Sunday, November 21.

[andrewjackson]

Eastern Conference final
(W5)Colorado Rapids 1-0 (W6)San Jose Earthquakes

Western Conference final
(W1)Los Angeles Galaxy 0-3 (W3)FC Dallas

MLS CUP 2010
Sunday, November 21
Colorado Rapids v. FC Dallas @ BMO Field, Toronto; 8:30 pm et ESPN/Galavision

This is the first Cup final appearance for Dallas and the second appearance for Colorado. The Rapids lost the final back in 1997.

Also, the U.S. Women's national team moved one step closer to qualifying for the Women's World Cup next year in Germany. The U.S. women had to beat Costa Rica in a 3rd place game last week after being beaten by Mexico in the CONCACAF championship semifinals. The U.S. will now face Italy in a playoff round for a ticket to the World Cup. Those matches are November 20 (Padova, ITA) and November 27 (Bridgeview, IL). The U.S. has been in every prior Women's World Cup. Mexico and Canada also qualified from the North America region.


And the U.S. Men's National team is in Cape Town this week for a friendly match against South Africa. The game is at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and Galavision on Wednesday, November 17. The U.S. team is mainly young and MLS-based players. Not too many of the European players were called up.

[andrewjackson]

USA game today is over.

South Africa 0-1 USA

The US goal was scored by 17-year-old Juan Agudelo in his first appearance in a full US international. Agudelo turns 18 next week. He may be the youngest USA goal scorer in history replacing Jozy Altidore who scored when he was 18 years and 92 days old. Records from early in the 20th century are a little hazy so it is hard to say for sure.

[andrewjackson]

In other news, the Kansas City Wizards who have been in MLS since the inception of the league in 1996 have re-branded as Sporting Kansas City. Kansas City was originally the Wiz for one season before a trademark dispute led to them becoming the Wizards in 1997. The re-branding is timed to coincide with the team moving into a new soccer stadium in 2011. The SC in the logo is a reference to what will be the overall organization, the Sporting Club of Kansas City. That organization will field teams in soccer and other sports such as lacrosse and rugby. "Sporting" is a somewhat traditional soccer name used quite a few places but mostly notably by the Sporting Clube de Portugal better known as Sporting Lisbon. SCP also fields teams in many sports.

Anyway, here is the new logo. Pretty terrible if you ask me. The only good part to me is the graphic that represents the border of KS and MO. The writhing worms of the "SC" is the worst aspect to me.

The new logo




The new jerseys. They will probably get a shirt sponsor ad before the next season starts in March.

[andrewjackson]

The U.S. Women moved a step closer to the 2011 World Cup. They beat Italy today in Padova, 1-0, with a last minute goal from Alex Morgan.

The U.S. now just has to at least tie in the game next Saturday at Bridgeview, IL. If Italy wins the 2nd game by a 1-0 score then there would be overtime and potentially Penalty Kicks. They are using the "away goal" rule in this playoff so if Italy were to win while scoring 2 goals then they would win the series.

[andrewjackson]

The Colorado Rapids are the MLS Cup 2010 champions! They defeated FC Dallas, 2-1, in overtime last night. This is their first Cup win after 15 years in the league. Midfielder Brian Mullan picked up his 5th championship ring. He has played for Cup winners LA, San Jose, Houston (2), and Colorado.

All-time MLS Cups wins by teams with at least one appearance in the final:

4 - D.C. United
2 - Los Angeles Galaxy, San Jose Earthquakes, Houston Dynamo
1 - Chicago Fire, Kansas City Wizards, Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, Real Salt Lake
0 - New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, FC Dallas

Seattle, Toronto, Philadelphia, and Chivas USA have never made it to the final.

The 2011 regular season will get started in mid-March. There will be 18 teams in the league for 2011 with Portland and Vancouver coming in as expansion teams.

[SportsFan68]

The Colorado Rapids are the MLS Cup 2010 champions! They defeated FC Dallas, 2-1, in overtime last night. This is their first Cup win after 15 years in the league. Midfielder Brian Mullan picked up his 5th championship ring. He has played for Cup winners LA, San Jose, Houston (2), and Colorado.

All-time MLS Cups wins by teams with at least one appearance in the final:

4 - D.C. United
2 - Los Angeles Galaxy, San Jose Earthquakes, Houston Dynamo
1 - Chicago Fire, Kansas City Wizards, Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, Real Salt Lake
0 - New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, FC Dallas

Seattle, Toronto, Philadelphia, and Chivas USA have never made it to the final.

The 2011 regular season will get started in mid-March. There will be 18 teams in the league for 2011 with Portland and Vancouver coming in as expansion teams.

YAY, RAPIDS!!!!!!!!!!

Denver Mayor and Governor-Elect Hickenlooper put a congratulatory note on his Facebook page.

Governor Romer might have done the same thing, also Governor McNichols maybe, Governor Vanderhoof definitely. Lamm, Love, Owens, and Ritter, no way.

[andrewjackson]

The USA women beat Italy in the 2nd leg of their World Cup playoff, 1-0, on Saturday in Bridgeview, IL. The two game series ends USA 2, Italy 0. That puts the US into next year's Women's World Cup.

The finals tournament runs June 26 to July 17, 2011 in Germany.

The 16 qualified teams:

Germany Host
Australia AFC
North Korea AFC
Japan AFC
France UEFA
Norway UEFA
England UEFA
Sweden UEFA
New Zealand OFC
Canada CONCACAF
Mexico CONCACAF
Nigeria CAF
Equatorial Guinea CAF
Brazil CONMEBOL
Colombia CONMEBOL
United States CONCACAF/UEFA playoff

[silverscreenselect]

The USA women beat Italy in the 2nd leg of their World Cup playoff, 1-0, on Saturday in Bridgeview, IL. The two game series ends USA 2, Italy 0. That puts the US into next year's Women's World Cup.

The finals tournament runs June 26 to July 17, 2011 in Germany.

The 16 qualified teams:

Germany Host
Australia AFC
North Korea AFC
Japan AFC
France UEFA
Norway UEFA
England UEFA
Sweden UEFA
New Zealand OFC
Canada CONCACAF
Mexico CONCACAF
Nigeria CAF
Equatorial Guinea CAF
Brazil CONMEBOL
Colombia CONMEBOL
United States CONCACAF/UEFA playoff

As I understand, the Italians were very upset about the qualification process, in which the European teams played a series of qualifying matches over a lengthy period, similar to the men's qualifying, while CONCACAF had one single qualifying tournament. Since the US was upset in an early match in the tournament, they wound up finishing third and had to play Italy for the final qualifying spot.

[andrewjackson]

As I understand, the Italians were very upset about the qualification process, in which the European teams played a series of qualifying matches over a lengthy period, similar to the men's qualifying, while CONCACAF had one single qualifying tournament. Since the US was upset in an early match in the tournament, they wound up finishing third and had to play Italy for the final qualifying spot.

Yeah, that's pretty much correct. (Although I would quibble that the USA losing in the semifinals was not an "early match".) Italy was just sore that they didn't get to play Mexico or Costa Rica instead of the USA. If CONCACAF used a system more like UEFA then the USA would have surely qualified directly and Mexico probably would have had to go through the playoffs.

That is the real difference in the systems. In Europe they play more games but that usually means the better teams rise to the top. If you mess up you have a chance to redeem yourself. In the CONCACAF system, the USA lost one game out of 6 and almost missed the World Cup.

Most of the confederations around the world use systems more like CONCACAF than UEFA. That's why we have Equatorial Guinea, the 62nd ranked team in the world, in the World Cup. They drew Namibia in the first round who withdrew from the tournament. EQG then pulled a couple of upsets in the African final tournament and qualified for the Cup finals.