World Cup Lists: MLS Players

There are a number of futbolers in the World Cup who play in Major League Soccer, a pro soccer league consisting of mostly American teams along with three Canadian squads. Not all of these soccer players are Americans.

Here is the list:

1) Julio Cesar. 34. Brazil. FC Toronto (yes, I guess we all know he had a bad day at the office on Tuesday; pict. top)

2) Tim Cahill. 34. Australia. New York Red Bulls. (pict. center)

3) Kyle Beckerman. 32. USA. Real Salt Lake (pict. bottom)

4) Oswaldo Minda. 30. Ecuador. Chivas USA (Los Angeles)

5) Omar Gonzels. 25. USA. L.A. Galaxy

6) Brad Davis. 32. USA. Houston Dynamo.

7) Steven Beitashour. 27. Iran. Vancouver Whitecaps (The player actually grew up in Calif., he is also an American citizen.)

8) Victor Bernardez. 32. Honduras. San Jose Earthquakes.

9) Waylon Francis. 23. Costa Rica. Columbus Crew.

10) Giancarlo Gonzalez. 26. Costa Rica. Columbus Crew.

11) Matt Besler. 27. USA. Sporting Kansas City.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/

Soccer Week (6 of 8): DC United Beats L.A. Galaxy 2-2

This image above is of Ghana international Dominic Oduro who kicked in the winner for the Columbus Crew as the Ohio-team beat the Montreal Imapct 2-1. Oduro's goal came in the 78th minute of the play. Earlier, Chad Marshall scored a Crew goal in the 66th minute.

But, our slightly misleading header (no pun intended, yeah no one will get that in Latvia) refers to D.C. United's 2-2 tie with the Los Angeles Galaxy, a mere two days prior to yesterday's tragic shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, near the U.S. Capitol Building.

The L.A. Galaxy were the highly favored team with a significantly better record, but thanks to a goal from DCU's Kyle Porter in the 84 minute, the home team 'upset' the star-studded visiting team, which features Irish national team captain Robbie Keane who scored in the 7th minute of play.

In weekend play, American Ricardo Clark scored the lone goal in the 52nd minute of play to help the Houston Dynamo beat the Philadelphia Union 1-0.

And, tonight, Sporting Kansas City had a come from behind tie with Repal Esteli, a visiting soccer team from Nicaragua, who was playing SKC in the CONACAF Cup. The final score of that game was 1-1.

Here are the scores from weekend MLS play:

Montreal 1 Columbus 2

DC United 2 L.A. Galaxy 2 (tie)

Philadelphia 0 Houston 1

Chicago 3 New England 2

Colorado 2 Dallas 1

Chivas (LA) 1 Portland 1, tie

San Jose 0 Vancouver 0, tie

http://www.mlssoccer.com

http://www.dcunited.com

http://www.screaming-eagles.com

http://www.thecrew.com

http://www.chicago-fire.com

Soccer Week (5 of 8) Games of the Week Scores

Stefan Klessing (pictured) a German national player who scored two goals this week for his team Bayer Leverkusen in the German Bundesliga is one of the items we will cover as we look at the results of the Games of the Week, which were mentioned in Friday's blog entry:


Germany:

Bayern Munich 2 Hannover 0

Bayer Leverkusen 3 Wolfsburg 1

Netherlands:

Ajax Amsterdam 2 Zwolle 1

Twente 2 PSV Eindhoven 2 (tie)

England:

Stoke City 0 Manchester City 0

Sunderland 1 Arsenal 3

USA/Major League Soccer:

Real Salt Lake 0 Seattle Sounders 2

Colorado Rapids 2 FC Dallas 1

Mexico:

Santos Laguna 1 Club America 0

Cruz Azul 0 UANL Tigres 1

Soccer Week (2 of 8): International Players in Major League Soccer

There are quite a few players from outside the United States and Canada, the two countries which share in the Major Soccer League, especially on the highly diverse roster of the Portland Timbers.

Today, we mention 11 of those players, the number of soccer players on a given team. The soccer player pictured is Jamaican international O'Brian Woodbine who plays for the New England Revolution in Boston:

1) Lalo Fernandez (goalkeeper, Mexico w/ Real Salt Lake)

2) Stefan Frei (goalkeeper, Switzerland w/FC Toronto)

3) Thierry Henry (captain, France w/ New York Red Bulls)

4) Robbie Keane (captain, Ireland w/ Los Angeles Galaxy)

5) Joel Lindpere (Estonia w/ Chicago Fire)

6) Philip Lund (Denmark w/Seattle Sounders)

7) Nelson Rivas (Colombia w/ Montreal Impact)

8) Carlos Ruiz (Guatemala w/ DC United)

9) Jamie Smith (Scotland w/ Colorado Rapids)

10) Rodney Wallace (Costa Rica w/ Portland Timbers)

11) O'Brian Woodbine (Jamaica w/New England Revolution)  

http://www.goal.com

http://www.mlssoccer.com

Soocer Week (1 of 8): A Look at Big Games in the USA, England, Mexico (and more)

This is the start of Soccer Week, which is also running on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com ..........In this edition, we look at ten important games in Europe and North America.

The above images are of: 1) David Ferrera, a Colombian international who is captain of FC Dallas in the United States, 2) Maurice Edu, an American international with Stoke City in England who also recently played for BursaSpor in Turkey and 3) Oswaldo Sanchez, the Mexican international who is the captain and goalkeeper for the popular Mexican team Santos Laguna.

Here are the games (we hope to post the results on Monday):

USA/Canada (Major League Soccer):

Fri: Real Salt Lake vs. Seattle Sounders (the two top teams in MLS)

Sat. Colorado Rapids vs. FC Dallas

England/Wales (English Premiere League):

Sat. Stoke City vs. Manchester City

Sat. Sunderland vs. Arsenal (this game will presumably be the first Arsenal match for Mesut Ozil)

Netherlands:

Sat. Ajax Amsterdam vs. Zwolle

Sat. Twente vs. PSV Eindhoven

Mexico:

Fri. Santos  Laguna vs. Club America

Sat. Cruz Azul vs. UANL Tigres

Germany:

Sat. Bayern Munich vs. Hannover

Sat. Bayern Leverkusen vs. Wolfsburg

http://www.fcdallas.com/

http://www.stokecityfc.com/

http://www.psv.nl/home-english.html (PSV Eindhoven web page)

Coming Soon (we hope): Futbol Week

On Friday, we are hoping to launch a seven-day series devoted totally to soccer both here in the United States with weekend MLS games as well as Mexico and Europe.

The top image is of Serbian national Branislav Ivanovic, a star player for London's Chelsea football club. Today, German national Mesut Ozil, who is of Turkish heritage, signed with one of Chelsea's main rivals, Arsenal.

The bottom image is of Drew Moor, an American defender who plays for the Colorado Rapids in the MLS. Alas, our personal favorite MLS team, DC United is having a disastrous year so far!

Soccer Night_ Big Week for Monterrey

Even though they are in ninth place in the Mexican Premiere League, Monterrey was able to fellow Mexican first league team Santos Laguna for the CONACAF championship; the tournament also involved three American teams from the MLS: The Los Angeles Galaxy, Seattle Sounders and Houston Dynamo.

Veteran Mexican international goalie Oswaldo Sanchez (pictured top) is the captain of Santos Laguna, a team which has four American players, including emerging star Benji Daniel. The middle image is the logo for the UANL Tigers which are in a three-way tie for first with America and Atlas.

The lower image is of Argentinian national Jose Maria Basanta, who is the captain of Monterrey.

Here are LAST week's scores:

1. Puebla 1 Atlas 1, tie

2. Club Leon 1 Atlante 0

3. Queretaro 2 Guadalajara 1

4. Pumas 3 Chiapas 0

5. San Luis Potosi 1 Tijuana 0

6. Morelia 2 Toluca 1

7. Cruz Azul 1 Santos Laguna 0

8. Monterrey 1 UANL 0

9. America 4 Pachua 2

http://www.futbol.univision.com (In Spanish)

Major League Soccer Scoreboard

Yes, perhaps some European soccer fans are unaware of this, but there is professional soccer league in the United States, which also has three Canadian clubs, called Major League Soccer.

This weekend, league play began in the MLS and it was a good weekend for traditionally strong teams, such as the Los Angeles Galaxy, the Houston Dynamo (pictured) and the Columbus Crew.

For the L.A. Galaxy, American soccer player Mike Magee had three goals (38th min., 68th min. and 74th min.) to lead this team to a 4-0 dismantling of the Chicago Fire.

The Houston Dynamo were helped by a late goal from American futboler Ricardo Clark in the 89th minute to a 2-0 win over our beloved D.C. United.

But, another of our favorite teams the Portland Timbers, which are featured in the cult tv show "Portlandia" on IFC, got a slightly surprising 3-3 tie with the New York Red Bulls. For the Timbers, there were goals from Liberian national Darlington Nagbe and Argentinian player Diego Valeri, which has been nominated for MLS Goal of the Week. Another Argentinian Fabian Espindola kicked in two goals for the Red Bulls in the nationally televised game.

Another Argentinian Frederico Higuain, a stand-out for the Columbus Crew, helped his team soundly defeat Chivas USA of Los Angeles.

Two Canadian teams the Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC also did battle on the field. Gershon Koffie, from Ghana, scored the lone goal for the Whitecaps in the 60th minute of play for their 1-0 triumph.

Here are the scores; the New England Revolution did not play this week:

Sporting Kansas City 3 Philadelphia Union 1

Houston Dynamo 2 D.C. United 0

Vancouver Whitecaps 1 Toronto FC 0

FC Dallas 1 Colorado Rapids 0

Real Salt Lake 2 San Jose Earthquakes 0

L.A. Galaxy 4 Chicago Fire 0

New York Red Bulls 3 Portland Timbers 3

Montreal Impact 1 Seattle Sounders 0

Columbus Crew 3 Chivas USA 0

http://www.mls.com


http://www.houstondynamo.com

http://www.portlandtimbers.com


http://www.lagalaxy.com

http://www.newyorkredbulls.com