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.

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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.

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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
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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.
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Team USA

USA v Barbados - 4pm central time on ESPN2 & Galavision from Home Depot Center in Carson California.
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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.
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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?
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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
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Ridge Mahoney of Soccer USA with a review of the roster.
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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.
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The official team blog.
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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
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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
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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!
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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.
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GENERAL

Brian Ching has been named MLS Player of the Week.
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Andrea Canales at Soccer365 comments on the leagues new anti-streamer rule.
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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.
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Week 8 Team of the Week
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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
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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)
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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.
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Americans In Europe

Jozy Altidore will be introduced by Villarreal today.
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Yanks Abroad with an article on Andrew Jacobson who is preparing for season 2 at Lorient in France.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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2008 UEFA European Championship News

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