United States Kick Blog

Olympic Soccer Draw:

2008-04-21T10:01:00.002-05:00

Initial thoughts:

Groups A & B are noticeably tougher than Group C or D.
Not the worst draw in world for the United States, although if we make the quarterfinals, we will have to earn it.
Brazil's draw is sickeningly easy.
On the women's side... not much to say, we should roll through.

Men's Tournament:
Group A:
Ivory Coast
Argentina
Australia
Serbia

Group B:
United States
Nigeria
Japan
Netherlands

Group C:
China
New Zealand
Brazil
Belgium

Group D:
South Korea
Cameroon
Honduras
Italy

Women's Tournament:
Group E:
China
Sweden
Argentina
Canada

Group F:
North Korea
Germany
Nigeria
Brazil

Group G:
Norway
USA
Japan
New Zealand

World Cup Qualifier in Chicago at Toyota Park this fall?

2008-04-16T10:23:00.003-05:00

from Chicago Tribune

good idea, hopefully pack Toyota Park with US fans..

Weekly(ish) Wrap: Week 2-3 of 31.

2008-04-14T10:09:00.000-05:00

Why two weeks?
Well, for starters, I was out of town most of last week and all last weekend, so I didn't have time to type anything up.

What we learned from Week 2:

Major League Soccer tickets are a great value. After playing 13 games, the best the road team has been able to do so far is force 3 draws. Both of last years MLS cup participants and the reigning supporter's shield champions have been shut out and beaten by multiple goals on the road. On the other hand, if you are diehard fan of your team, take a nice long look at gas prices before you venture off on a road trip.
David Beckham is good. Not that any sane individual thought otherwise, but its good to see him play a solid game, and get 3 points in the process.
Toronto is awful. Sure, they have played 2 road games, and we know how the road team has done.... but they absolutely got demolished by DC on saturday, even with the garbage goal at the end.
You may not like all of ESPN's presentation, but they are putting some effort into MLS. Ok, people like to complain about the camera angles, weird graphics, and other crap ESPN throws into games... but they are clearly trying very hard to sell soccer, and its something we should be pretty happy about. Sure, the "All-Axis" thing is, well, kinda odd, but after almost 5 solid hours of soccer, little/no divergence to other sports, and some token pimping of their ownership of Champions League, Euro 2008, and World Cup rights, its pretty clear that they are taking MLS seriously. Fox Soccer is good for what they are... but watching Saturday Night MLS consists of listening to Max Bretos and the halftime show consists of us learning what Jozy Altidore has on his I-Pod. whoopee.

What We Learned from Week 3:

Its possibly time to calm down on MLS attendance soaring in 2008... the numbers last weekend were pathetic... 20,000 in LA with Golden Balls, and the worst attendance for the league in the last two years in Columbus. There was some pretty pathetic weather throughout the entire midwest and northeast, so that certainly factors in...
The Great Red North. Toronto is probably still pathetic, but not pathetic enough to lose to LA. The circus that is the Los Angeles Galaxy continues. As someone who is already sold on MLS, I find it kinda funny, yet, part of me weeps for the fact that probably one of the most marketable MLS teams ever can't freaking beat Danny Dichio and Co.
Chicago keeps clicking. San Jose probably deserved a win, and certainly deserved a draw, at home last Saturday against the Chicago Fire.. Shea Salinas's miss inside the 6 in stoppage time with a wide open goal summed up the day nicely for the Quakes. Chicago, on the other hand, has gotten 4 ugly points in two road games, and walloped the Revolution at home in Week 2. Its hard for me to say that Chicago is a great team this year, but its hard to argue that they are only 1 of 2 teams without a notch in the loss column.
4-0. Real Salt Lake pummeled DC United 4-0. Biggest win in the franchise's 3+ year history. Big win for Coach Jason Kreis, and hopefully one that will get more fans out... RSL had a respectable 13,193 fans out this weekend, which was good enough for the third best crowd of the week (behind Opening Day in San Oakland and Beckhamania (kinda) in LA)

Player of the Week- Week 2:

Jimmy Conrad - Kansas City Wizards
2 goals in 2 minutes against Colorado, Kansas City would go on to win 3-2

MLS Power Rankings (At the end of Week 3)
Not an easy task, there really isn't much seperating 3-11 in MLS except who got the benefit of winning more home games... Chicago and Dallas go 1-2 by virtue of not losing a game yet, and San Jose, Los Angeles, and the Reds go 12-14 because they can't beat anyone but each other.

Chicago Fire - only team with 2 wins and no losses. I'm still skeptical of how good this team is, but its hard to argue for any other team OVER them at this very early point in the season.
FC Dallas - only other team without a loss, including a good result in Houston and a win over New York last weekend
Colorado Rapids - Good start for Colorado, narrow loss in KC bookended by a drubbing of LA and a win in New England.
Real Salt Lake - Big Win last weekend, the draw against Chicago is looking better.
Kansas City Wizards - hard to get too excited with first 4 games at home and a 2-1-1 record, but it hard to get too excited about most MLS teams so far.
Columbus Crew - Big win versus the goats over the weekend in a high scoring game that nobody saw.
New England Revolution - the Revs bounced back from a throttling at Chicago with a big win in Kansas City and then lost at home to Colorado.
Chivas USA - they won their home game, and are 0-1-1 on the road... they are a decent team, but nothing eye popping so far this year from them.
New York Red Bulls - only 2 games played, the jury is still out on them.
Houston Dynamo - Done nothing this year to show that they are the champs.
DC United - so far a throttling of TFC is all they have to hang their hat on.
Toronto FC - possibly a breakthrough on Sunday, but they still have a ways to go.
San Jose Earthquakes - Still better than 2007 Toronto.
Los Angeles Galaxy - Toronto?!

The Goals:
From ScaryIce's blog, Climbing the Ladder

Week 2:

Week 3:

Tuesday, yea...

2008-04-08T09:29:00.002-05:00

- Blog from the Chicago Trib about MLS salaries... bit of a sob story for Developmental Players (whose salary I have no problem with when you compare what they are making to what minor leaguers in other sports in the US make)... but some interesting number crunching.

- I've updated some of the competition pages found to the right of the screen. Individual Statistics for MLS are now up... I'll have a post explaining what the hell the "player rating formula" is in a day or so... work is slowing me down at the moment.

- USL pages should be up in a couple days, the season starts this weekend.

- I'm pissed that I have to go to boring meetings today and tomorrow instead of taking a late lunch and watching the Champions League.

#15, Sound off!

2008-04-07T14:24:00.002-05:00

wow, public input actually matters.

Say hello to Seattle's newest/oldest soccer franchise

Good move by the local owners...

of course I don't see what's so special about "sounders"... but then again, I don't live in Seattle, which is exactly the point.

Weekly Soccer Viewing Guide (April 7-13)

2008-04-07T09:00:00.002-05:00

Wednesday, April 9
CONCACAF Champions Cup
Pachuca (2) @ DC United (0) - 6:30 PM CT on Fox Soccer Channel
Houston (0) @ Deportivo Saprissa (0) - 9:00 PM CT on Fox Soccer Channel

Major League Soccer
New England Revolution @ Kansas City Wizards - 7:30 PM CT on MLSlive.tv and DirectKick

CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifier
United States vs. Costa Rica
Canada vs. Mexico
* note: winners of these two games to the Olympics

Thursday, April 10
MLS Reserves
New England Revolution Reserves @ Kansas City Reserves - 10:00 AM CT

Saturday, April 12
Major League Soccer
Chicago Fire @ San Jose Earthquakes - 3:30 PM CT on Fox Soccer Channel
Chivas USA @ Columbus Crew - 6:30 PM CT on MLSlive.tv and DirectKick
Colorado Rapids @ New England Revolution - 6:30 PM CT on MLSlive.tv and DirectKick
Houston Dynamo @ Kansas City Wizards - 7:00 PM CT on HDNet
New York Red Bulls @ FC Dallas - 7:30 PM CT on MLSlive.tv and DirectKick
D.C. United @ Real Salt Lake - 8:00 PM CT on MLSlive.tv and DirectKick

United Soccer Leagues - First Division
Charleston Battery @ Miami FC Blues - 6:30 PM CT
Montreal Impact @ Vancouver Whitecaps - 9:00 PM CT

Sunday, April 13
Major League Soccer
Toronto FC @ Los Angeles Galaxy - 2:00 PM CT on Telefutura

Matchups for Second Round set in CONCACAF Qualifying

2008-04-01T10:36:00.005-05:00

Main CONCACAF Page HERE

The second round of games for CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying are set for this summer. The first round saw the 22 lowest ranked CONCACAF nations square off, dwindling the number of teams vying for 3.5 spots in World Cup 2010 from 35 to 24.

The second round features 12 two-legged matches between the top 12 ranked team in the federation vs. the survivors of round one. The winners the 12 matches are presorted into 3 four team groups for the next stage of qualifying.

As most American fans know, the US, baring upsets, is likely to be squared off against Cuba, Guatemala, and Trinidad & Tobago in the next stage. Group B should shake out to be Mexico, Jamaica, Honduras, and Canada. Group C is seeded to include Costa Rica, Guyana, Panama, and Haiti.

Upsets?
This is only the second time CONCACAF has used this format for WC qualifying. I'm sure I'm not the first to say it, but its freaking stupid. Prior to World Cup expansion to 32 teams starting in 1998, CONCACAF used a variety of methods to qualify its 1-2 bids (none of them were particularly great). Since the 1998 Qualifiers, CONCACAF has consistently used the 12 team, 3 group, semifinals, leading into a 6 team "league" format for the final qualifiers. This system is fine, and outside of the CONMEBOL 9 team super-league for qualifying, its probably one of the fairest and more exciting qualifiers in the world.

What I don't like about CONCACAF's qualifiers is how the first and second rounds are set up. For starter's I'm not generally a fan of any nation being able to be eliminated after just 2 games against the same opponent (and in the case of some first round matchups, 1 game, given that one nation didn't have a suitable ground). But what is absolutely absurd is that a nation that actually has a snowballs chance in hell of making it to South Africa could have their World Cup dreams squashed after just 180 minutes of soccer. That is absurd, yet, that is what could, at least in theory, happen to teams such as Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, Costa Rica, and yes, even the US and Mexico, this summer.

The odds of their being an epic upset (USA or Mexico going down) are somewhere between slim and none... but the chance still exists. Its not enough to cause any real concern, but its enough to get a slight bit queasy over the idea of the biggest upset in the history of world cup qualifying go against you.

In 2006 there were two second round upsets:
- St. Kitts and Nevis over Barbados
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines over Nicaragua

Matchups:
Here are the 12 matchups for the second round of CONCACAF Qualifying. FIFA World Rankings (as of March, 2008) are in parenthesis.

Unless otherwise indicated, the first leg will be on June 14th, with the second leg on June 21st.

The team listed first will host the first leg.

Winners to Semifinal Group A United States (28) vs. Barbados (137) (First Leg June 15th at the Home Depot Center)
Guatemala (95) vs. Saint Lucia (185)
Trinidad and Tobago (93) vs. Bermuda (146)
Antigua and Barbuda (140) vs. Cuba (112)

Winners to Semifinal Group B
Belize (176) vs. Mexico (16)
Jamaica (103) vs. Bahamas (178)
Honduras (43) vs. Puerto Rico (168)
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (142) vs. Canada (62) (first leg June 15th)

Winners to Semifinal Group C
Grenada (157) vs. Costa Rica (72)
Suriname (155) vs. Guyana (113)
Panama (69) vs. El Salvador (128)
Haiti (97) vs. Netherlands Antilles (163)

Some Numbers:

Second Round matches ranked by how big of a mismatch they are (using March 2008 FIFA rankings)

160 - Mexico (16) vs. Belize (176)
125 - Honduras (43) vs. Puerto Rico (168)
109 - United States (28) vs. Barbados (137)
90 - Guatemala (95) vs. St. Lucia (185)
85 - Costa Rica (72) vs. Grenada (157)
80 - Canada (62) vs. St. Vincent and the Grenadines (142)
75 - Jamaica (103) vs. Jamaica (178)
66 - Haiti (97) vs. Netherlands Antilles (163)
59 - Panama (69) vs. El Salvador (128)
53 - Trinidad and Tobago (93) vs. Bermuda (146)
42 - Guyana (113) vs. Suriname (155)
28 - Cuba (112) vs. Antigua and Barbuda (140)

While Mexico has, on paper, the easiest Second Round matchup, it won't be quite a cakewalk in the semifinals.

If you average the FIFA rankings of all of the top seed, you get the following:
Group A (USA, T &T, Guatemala, & Cuba) - 82 average
Group B (Mexico, Canada, Honduras, Jamaica) - 56 average
Group C (Costa Rica, Panama, Haiti, Guyana) - 87.75 average

now obviously FIFA rankings should be taken with a grain of salt, and Honduras at #43 in the world might be a bit generous, but Group B is clearly the toughest group in CONCACAF, and its not Mexico who should be pissed, they should be able to walk right through it. The nation that should be pissed is Canada. In the FIFA rankings, at #62 in the world, they are the 3rd ranked team in Group B, even though they are a higher ranked side than either of the 2nd place teams in Group A or C.

Based on their recent performances in the Gold Cup and in Olympic Qualifying, Canada could very well be a team that could challenge for the World Cup if they make it to the finals, but it won't be easy.

Predictions:
Not a whole lot to be said here... for the top teams this round SHOULD be a formality. There will probably be 1 upset somewhere, probably with the lower seeded teams. Cuba/Antigua and Barbuda might be an upset... I doubt these nations are THAT closely matched, but losing half of the U-23 team to defectors has to hurt the full senior squad... enough that US fans should probably wait a couple months before they start planing for back alley ways into Cuba to see the Yanks play.

I would use this space to type up my vast knowledge of Barbados and its soccer team, but since my Google image search of "Barbados Slim" (Hermes Conrad's arch-nemesis on Futurama) came up empty handed, I got nothing.

A moment of silence please

2008-03-31T19:57:00.004-05:00

Hugo Sanchez sacked as manager of the Mexican National Team

A sad, sad day indeed.

In his short tenure, Hugo managed to:
- Not advance to the quarterfinals of the World Cup (not as bad of a result as Mexican Fans think it is... but oh well)
- Fail to beat the US
- Lose the CONCACAF Championship game (and lose a group play game in the same tournament)
- Lose out to Canada for second place in Olympic Qualifying... knocking Mexico out of Beijing.
- Endear himself to Americans.
- Recent violence against Emo kids in Mexico can probably be blamed on him as well

its judgement day for Mexican soccer... soon enough they are going to find out if Hugo Sanchez really was the problem, or if they just aren't as powerful as they like to think they are.

the truth probably lies somewhere in between...

godspeed Hugo! A grateful nation thanks you.

2008 CONCACAF Champions Cup

2008-03-31T15:32:00.012-05:00

In an ongoing attempt to expand the content on this website, I give you:

The 2008 CONCACAF Champions Cup:

Competition Format:
8 teams, knockout format. Each round is two-legged, there is no away goal rule. Matches drawn after 180 minutes of play go to 30 minute overtime followed by PK's.

Teams qualify as follows:

2 teams from MLS (MLS Cup Champion and Supporter's Shield winner. If the same team wins both than the second team in the final MLS standings qualifies)
2 teams from the FMF (2007 Apertura and Clausura Champions)
3 teams from Central America (top 3 teams from the 2007 Copa Interclubes UNCAF)
1 team from the Caribbean (Champion of 2007 CFU Club Championships)

Teams from the North American Zone (USA and Mexico) are paired against one of the other 4 qualifying teams in the first round. the tournament is set up so that the two teams from Mexico in the US are on opposite sides of the bracket (trying to get USA vs. Mexico Semifinals).

Winner of the competition qualifies directly for the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup.

The Bracket is listed below: green indicates the home team, orange the away team.

Weekly Wrap: Week 1 of 31.

2008-03-31T10:33:00.001-05:00

Well, the first of 31 straight weeks of domestic US soccer (35 if you want to throw in the playoffs) is behind us. I personally was losing my mind waiting for last saturday, especially with college basketball being dead to me since December (damn Illini, although the Rose Bowl kept me occupied until New Year's Day).

That aside, soccer is back... my token annual "I'll try and watch a bit of baseball" foray should be over with by the time New England and Chicago square off this Thursday night. Let's face it... from whenever Illinois basketball is overwith until football (or is it throwball?) season kicks off, I'm in full fledged soccer mode.

That rant aside, opening day for me consisted of a 7.5 hour long soccer binge, at one point I rolled a second TV into the living room (putting my old 17" TV on a wheeled cart with an extra long cable was the best idea I ever had) and watched two games at once.

To me, the most surprising result was KC over DC. For some reason I thought losing Eddie Johnson would signal a downward spiral for KC. and I'm wondering to myself why I was thinking that (even though he's a headcase and shouldn't be wearing a USA uniform, Eddie Johnson had a hell of a season last year). I was pretty impressed with Ivan Trujillo and Claudio Lopez, and KC fans should be too. Sure, for the next two (at least) years Kansas City is relegated to playing in a tiny minor league ballpark with limited sideline seats, awkward sightlines, and in a couple weeks a baseball infield to deal with... but you know what, it kinda works. Sold out stadium, over 10,000 in attendance, good atmosphere, intimate environment... hopefully Wizards soccer becomes a somewhat hot ticket over the next two years, so when they do finally kick the door open on an ~18-20,000 seat stadium in a couple years, they will have some dedicated fans eager to eat up tickets.

The least surprising result was Columbus over TFC... Moreno and Schelotto are a great combination, and Columbus, while not an overly powerful team (if there are any in MLS), is a pretty decent ballclub, and will be in the mix for the playoffs. TFC, on the other hand, isn't. They lack a star player, although they do have guys in Edu and Wynne who I think will pan out to be solid players to build a team around, if they can keep them for a couple years... but they will be brutal again this year.

As for the other games:

Chicago/Salt Lake - I felt like I was watching Sarachan-ball for most of the game from Chicago... (damn you Juan Carlos Osorio!)... but I will, for now at least, chalk that up to the horrible surface in Salt Lake City. I don't really mind artificial turf and football lines (although I'll be glad to see both gone), what I do mind is short pavement like artificial turf that turns the playing surface into an ice rink and causes every through-ball to skid out to touch. *shudder*... good showing by salt lake fans, they deserve to watch better soccer... they will get it soon, but not *quite* soon enough.
Los Angeles/Colorado - LA might be the most entertaining team in the history of soccer. From that amazingly epic game at Giants Stadium last year, to the sideshow of Alexi Lalas, to the blowout/fisticufs on Friday... they are pure entertainment, and I'm soaking it up. It could be a rough year for them though, Carlos Ruiz was a good signing, but on Saturday someone ACTUALLY fouled him, and hard. Initial reports seem to say he could be gone for a while. Furthermore, Abel Xavier is going to be given a vacation of at least a week, possibly longer, after he went off on referee Abiodun Okulaja (which was probably justified, but the league front office probably doesn't like its incompetant refs being screamed at). All in all, entertaining game, I thought it was fairly close until the PK in the second half broke LA's back. The next chapter in the saga that is the LA Galaxy will be to see how they, as a team, react...
Goats/Dallas - I have no issue with Spanish language broadcasts (I don't speak spanish, and I barely understand it, but I'll still watch games), but does anyone in this f*$king country actually get Telefutura? The Telefutura deal, along with HDNet, piss me off to no end... especially since it appears the usual method of watching Telefutura games online has evaporated. I don't have anything to say about the game, because it was completely impossible for me to watch it. ugh. As a slight sidenote... if KC can broadcast spanish language audio with their telecasts, if there anyway telefutura could broadcast english play-by-play with their telecasts, or would that somehow be "offensive"... I guess if practically nobody can watch it, it doesn't really matter..

Those Magical Teenage years

MLS Turned 13 years old yesterday...

our little league has done a lot of growing up these past 13 laps around the sun.

On opening day, 6 games were played. 3 games were played in soccer-specific stadiums that didn't exist in 1996 (Colorado, Dallas, and Columbus), 1 game was played in an NFL stadium (New England), 1 game was played in a stadium in a city that didn't have a team 13 years ago (Salt Lake), and 1 game was played in a minor league ballpark by a team searching for a more permanent home.

Of the 14 teams contesting the MLS Cup and Supporter's Shield this year, 8 are original MLS franchises (I'll let you decide if Houston or the reincarnated San Jose counts as #8).

Four MLS teams more or less have their original nickname, logo, and colors

D.C. United
New England Revolution
Columbus Crew
Kansas City Wizards (depend if you think "Wiz" counts as a separate nickname or just a dumb idea that was sorta fixed)

Two MLS teams have their original nickname, but have rebranded their colors and logo recently:

Colorado Rapids
Los Angeles Galaxy

And three of the Original MLS franchises have changed their nickname

FC Dallas (nee Burn)
New York Red Bulls (nee NY/NJ Metrostars and then Metrostars)
San Jose Earthquakes (nee Clash)

Of the ten original MLS stadiums, only DC United and the Red Bulls are playing in the same location they started at in the spring of '96.... and the Red Bulls will be leaving the Meadowlands next year (we hope). Three of the original MLS stadiums don't even exist anymore (Houlihan Stadium in Tampa, Foxboro Stadium in New England, and Mile High Stadium in Denver). At the end of this season, over half the league will be playing in stadiums they own, with revenue they control (I'll be nice and lump the Goats into this category).

Home Sweet Home
In the first 6 games of the MLS season, the road team has scored a grand total of 2 goals... Cuauhtemoc Blanco's stoppage time rocket to force a draw in Salt Lake City, and Maykel Galindo's leveler in the 84 minute in Dallas yesterday.

The Numbers:

in the first weekend of MLS:

16 Yellow Cards (2.67 per game)
2 Red Cards (0.33 per game)... both in the Colorado/LA game
15 Goals Scored (2.5 per game)... 1 own goal, and 1 from a penalty kick
91,869 fans in the stands (average of 15,312 per game)
2 PK's awarded... both of them fairly tacky, 1 converted (Christian Gomez, which probably broke LA's back), 1 saved (Will Hesmer's sprawling save to deny Collin Samuel and TFC an equalizer before halftime)

Player of the Week:

Terry Cooke - Colorado Rapids
1 Goal (Game Winning Goal) and 2 Assists in opener vs. Los Angeles Galaxy.

The Goals:
created by the folks who run Climbing the Ladder (good blog, check it out)

Weekly Soccer Viewing Guide: (March 31 - April 6)

2008-03-31T08:24:00.002-05:00

Monday, March 31:
No games scheduled

Tuesday, April 1:
CONCACAF Champions Cup Semifinals, First Leg:
D.C. United at CF Pachuca - 9:00 PM CT on Fox Soccer Channel

Wednesday, April 2:
CONCACAF Champions Cup Semifinals, First Leg:
Deportivo Saprissa at Houston Dyanmo - 9:00 PM CT on Fox Soccer Channel

2008 Olympics - CONCACAF Women's Qualifying (at Ciudad Juarez, Mexico):
Canada vs. Trinidad and Tobago - 6:00 PM CT (no TV)
Jamaica vs. Mexico - 8:30 PM CT (no TV)

Thursday, April 3:
Major League Soccer:
New England Revolution @ Chicago Fire - 7:00 PM on ESPN2
San Jose Earthquakes @ Los Angeles Galaxy - 9:30 PM ESPN2

Friday, April 4:
MLS Reserve Division:
New England Revolution @ Chicago Fire - 10:00 AM CT
San Jose Earthquakes @ Los Angeles Galaxy - 12:00 PM CT

2008 Olympics - CONCACAF Women's Qualifying (at Ciudad Juarez, Mexico):
Costa Rico vs. Trinidad and Tobago - 6:00 PM CT (no TV)
Jamaica vs. United States - 8:30 PM CT (no TV)

Saturday, April 5:
Major League Soccer:
Columbus Crew @ New York Red Bulls - 6:30 PM CT on Fox Soccer Channel
Toronto FC @ D.C. United - 6:30 PM CT on Direct Kick/MLSlive.tv
Colorado Rapids @ Kansas City Wizards - 7:00 PM CT on Direct Kick/MLSlive.tv
Real Salt Lake @ Chivas USA - 8:00 PM CT on HDNet

Sunday, April 6:
Major League Soccer:
FC Dallas @ Houston Dynamo - 2:00 PM CT on Telefutura

MLS Reserve Division:
Real Salt Lake @ Chivas - 12:00 PM CT

2008 Olympics - CONCACAF Women's Qualifying (at Ciudad Juarez, Mexico):
Costa Rico vs. Canada - 12:00 PM CT (no TV)
Mexico vs. United States - 2:30 PM CT (no TV)

2008 Women's Olympic Tournament

2008-03-29T21:10:00.001-05:00

Competition Format:

Stage 1 - 12 teams, split into 3 groups of four play round robin within their pools. Top 2 teams in each pool plus the top 2 third place teams advance to the knockout stage.
Stage 2 - 8 teams, knockout format.

Qualified Teams:

3 Teams from Europe (Top 3 European teams from 2007 Women's World Cup excluding England)

Germany
Norway
Sweden

2 Teams from Asia (Top 2 from AFC Preliminary Competition)

North Korea
Japan

1 Team from Africa (Winner of CAF Preliminary Competition)

Nigeria

1 Team from South America (Winner of 2006 Sudamericano Femenino)

Argentina

2 Teams from North America (top 2 from CONCACAF Preliminary Competition)

United States
Canada

1 Team from Oceania (champion of the OFC Preliminary Competition)

New Zealand

Winner of a playoff between Ghana and Brazil

TBD April 19, 2008

The Host Nation (China)

The Draw:

The draw will be held on Sunday, April 20th, 2008.

Since there are 3 Asian and 3 European teams, its safe to say the United States will be in a group with one asian and one european team, and either Argentina, Nigeria, or the Ghana/Brazil winner.

CONCACAF Preliminary Competition:
Format:
Stage 1 - 6 teams in 2 groups of three. Teams play round robin within their group, top 2 in each group advance
Stage 2 - 4 teams, knockout format. Semifinal winners advance directly to the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Knockout Stage:

2008 Men's Olympic Soccer Tournament

2008-03-29T20:54:00.000-05:00

Competition Format:

Stage 1 - 16 teams, split into 4 groups of four play round robin within their pools. Top 2 teams in each pool advance to the knockout stage.
Stage 2 - 8 teams, knockout format.

Qualified Teams:

4 Teams from Europe (Top four teams in UEFA U-21 Championships)

Netherlands
Serbia
Belgium
Italy

3 Teams from Asia (Top 3 from AFC Preliminary Competition)

Australia
South Korea
Japan

3 Teams from Africa (Top 3 from CAF Preliminary Competition)

Cameroon
Ivory Coast
Nigeria

2 Teams from South America (top 2 from South American Youth Championship)

Brazil
Argentina

2 Teams from North America (top 2 from CONCACAF Preliminary Competition

United States
Honduras

1 Team from Oceania (champion of the OFC Preliminary Competition)

New Zealand

The Host Nation (China)

All 16 teams are set, the draw for the tournament will be held on April 20th.

How the draw will be conducted is not clear, but its fair to say that there will be an Asian team and a European team in each group, since there are 4 of each.

That means the United States will likely be in a pool of:
- United States
- China, Japan, South Korea OR Australia
- Netherlands, Serbia, Belgium OR Italy
- New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina, Cameroon, Ivory Coast OR Nigeria

Here's hoping for Belgium, China and New Zealand....

more will be posted here after the draw

2008 MLS Standings

2008-03-29T10:18:00.009-05:00

MLS Postseason Standings

Note 1: Teams ranked purely by points and goal differential, this table will be updated in the near future to reflect seedings for conference champions.
Note 2: Toronto FC is ineligible for the US Open Cup, and it is assumed cannot qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League via the MLS season.
Note 3: Postseason qualifications subject to change/clarification.

Don't forget about Poland.

2008-03-28T18:00:00.001-05:00

Considering the level of respect for American soccer given by the average European soccer fan...

losing 3-0 to the US at home has to go down as one of the more embarrassing moments for the Polish nation in the last century.

Was this the best 11 Poland could have put on the field? No. (same could be said about the US)
Does the US have issues scoring in the run of play? Yup.
Eddie Johnson? Yup. (nothing more needs to be said)

Unlike the Swiss and Swedish affairs of last fall, where the ball bounced around for most of the game and one team managed to manufacture a goal in the second half, the US clearly dominated on Wednesday. Three goals off of set pieces is certainly something to be thrilled about, its one thing to get goals off of headers against Central American teams.. where US players have a strength/height advantage... but out muscling Poland in the box on two goals was certainly refreshing.

Poland is the type of team that the US should be competitive with game in and game out... obviously the US has alot to learn about itself when they face Spain and Argentina, the "big boys", in the next couple months.

Next up, however, is a very TV friendly matchup in London against England, who, despite delusions of hardcore English fans, probably falls closer to Poland than Spain/Argentina on the worldwide respect scale. The English side should be a tough challenge for the US, there is no doubt about it, hopefully the US team sees this game as an opportunity to make a statement.

Extend the winning streak to 3 games (or even get a result), and people might start to take notice.

2008 MLS Season: March/April Preview

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MLS First Kick is now less than 24 hours away...

You are excited, don't lie.

I suppose the appropriate thing to do would be to start off the season with a detailed preview of every team... to be honest, I didn't follow the off season as closely as I would have liked, so I'm not going to go out and make wild predictions just for the heck of it. If you want a couple good previews, check out these from Big Soccer.
- Eastern Conference
- Western Conference

Below is a chart of the games for the first 4 weeks of the MLS season.
All Start times are Central, games are color coded based on TV broadcast clearances.

MLS Week 1:
Games: 6
Bye: San Jose and New York
Multiple Games: None
Game of the Week: Houston @ New England, 6:30 PM, Saturday March 29, on Fox Soccer Channel
Obviously a big game, repeat of the previous 2 MLS cup's...
It's not on National TV, but Toronto/Columbus might be an interesting game, given the invasion of fans from the Great Red North expected.

MLS Week 2:
Games: 7
Bye: None
Multiple Games: None
Game of the Week: San Jose @ Los Angeles, 9:30 PM, Thursday April 3, on ESPN2.
Another made for TV evening... the rebirth of the Earthquakes, the return of Frank Yallop and Joe Cannon, Beckhamania Part Deux... the only question is: Will it be a game? Failing that, the first game of a rare ESPN double-header, New England @ Chicago, should be a great game as well.

MLS Week 3:
Games: 8
Bye: None
Multiple Games: New England and Kansas City
Game of the Week: Chicago @ San Jose, 3:30 PM, Saturday April 12, on Fox Soccer Channel
San Jose's triumphant return to, eh, Oakland, will feature the reborn franchise hosting Blanco and the Fire. Perhaps not the best game ever on paper, but definetely an MLS "benchmark" game... hopefully a large crowd will be on hand to witness the league's second most known DP welcome top flight soccer back to the bay area.

MLS Week 4:
Games: 7
Bye: None
Multiple Games: None
Game of the Week: New England @ New York, 6:30 PM, Saturday April 19, on HDNet
Ok, so nobody is going to actually see this game, but this is one of closer things to a "derby" in MLS, and I'm interested to see (through pirated video, or failing that, through written accounts the next day) how these two teams matchup... I think these will be 2 of the 3 teams in a real tight battle for 2nd place in the east (along with Chicago)

Ok, what is this?

2008-03-28T17:30:00.001-05:00

Yea yea, here comes another soccer blog, right?

well, yea.. pretty much.

Last year I tried making a website dedicated towards MLS stats and analysis that largely consisted to uploading an HTML version of a microsoft excel spreadsheet onto an online file server. It sorta worked, but midsummer I moved, I switched computers, upgraded to Office 2007 (which it turns out actually lost most of its HTML functionality), had other things going on in my life, and eventually had my account at school that I uploaded files to closed down because I had graduated.... so that whole experiment was a mixed bag.

This year I decided to try it again, except this time, do it in blog format... once I started toying around with Google Documents, I found out I should be able to put up the same amount of information (tables, charts, etc) in a much smoother format... and thats what I hope to do here.

Information should be added to this site over the coming weeks and months as the MLS season progresses (and I have more data points) and as I have time to add it.

So what exactly do I hope to accomplish with this "blog"?

In essence, this blog is targeted heavily towards posting stats and analysis of Major League Soccer and the United States Men's Soccer program. Secondary purposes would be covering domestic American (and to some small amount Canadian) club soccer, and a detailed global breakdown of 2010 World Cup qualifying. In addition, I will post information on various other global and regional tournaments such as the 2008 Olympics, Euro 2008, CONCACAF Champions League, the US Open Cup, and so on.

Hopefully this will be a place to answer questions such as:
- What would the playoffs look like if the season ended today?
- How is MLS attendance progressing compared to 2007, or previous seasons?
- Who is leading MLS in scoring?
- What team is producing the most shots on goal? what team the least?
- Who has been scoring goals for the US National Team? What players are in the MNT player pool?
- What is the upcoming schedule for MLS, or the US National teams, or the USL
- What channel will the game on in the United States?
- and so on...

This isn't meant to be a competitor to MLSRumors... or a place for high quality soccer commentary and columns (although you might have to sift through some of my rantings). My main goal is to put out information that may not be easy to find or readily available online.

So anyways, feel free to leave any comments. IF you are wondering how often you can expect this page to be updated... there is no good answer. If I am at home watching games, MLS standings could be updated within minutes of the final whistle.... if I'm not (or I am at a game), it might be a day or two. USL standings and other competitions should be updated every week or so.

So feel free to leave comments or suggestions... and I hope you find this site useful.

if not, oh well... this is meant to be just as much for myself to keep information handy as it is to put it out there for others to access...

2008 MLS Schedule

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2008 MLS Reserve Division

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2008 Reserve Division Standings

2008 Reserve Division Schedule

2010 World Cup Qualifying: OFC

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2010 World Cup Qualifying: AFC

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2010 World Cup Qualifying: CAF

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2010 World Cup Qualifying: UEFA

2008-03-28T17:08:00.004-05:00

2010 World Cup Qualifying: CONMEBOL

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2010 World Cup Qualifying: CONCACAF

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World Cup 2010 Qualifying - CONCACAF Region
World Cup Bids: 3.5
Teams Entered: 35

For the latest posts relating to CONCACAF Qualifications, click here

Tournament Format Explained
Thirty five teams are entered in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament. In the first two stages, those thirty five teams are whittled down to 12. The first round features double-legged matches between the 22 lowest ranked CONCACAF teams, with the eleven losers being eliminated. The eleven teams that advanced, along with the 13 nations that received byes through the first round, pair off in 12 double-legged matches, with the 12 winners advancing into the first group stage.
The first group stage consists of the 12 remaining teams split into 3 groups of 4 teams each. The initial draw for the tournament determined what group each team would be in if they won their second round match. In this round, teams play a double round-robin tournament within their group (6 matches, home and away against each team). The top two teams in each group will advance to the second group stage.
The second group stage consists of the 6 remaining teams. These teams will square off in a double round-robin tournament (10 matches for each team), with the top 3 nations in the final standings advancing directly to World Cup 2010 in South Africa. The fourth place team in the group will square off with with the fifth place team from CONMEBOL (South America) for a place in the World Cup.

Tournament Draw
The tournament draw, conducted in November of 2007 in South Africa. Teams were drawn into brackets for the first and second rounds, and also into which of the three groups second round winners would be placed into.

Teams were split into 6 pots. The result of the draw is in parenthesis after each nation.

Pot A: Top seeds, receiving a bye through the first round. These teams cannot be placed in the same group.

United States (Group A)
Mexico (Group B)
Costa Rica (Group C)

Pot B: Seeds 4-6, also receiving first round bye, these teams also cannot be put into the same group.

Honduras (Group B)
Panama (Group C)
Trinidad and Tobago (Group A)

Pot C: Seeds 7-12, also receiving first round bye. These teams are the theoretical 3 and 4 seeds in the first group stage.

Jamaica (Group B)
Cuba (Group A)
Haiti (Group C)
Canada (Group B)
Guyana (Group C
Guatemala (Group A)

Pot D: 13th ranked team. Because there are an odd number of remaining teams, this team receives a de facto bye to the second round.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Group B, paired with Canada)

Pot E: Teams Ranked 14-24. Top seeds for first round matches

Barbados (vs. Dominca, paired with United States in Group A)
Suriname (vs. Montserrat, paired with Guyana in Group C)
Bermuda (vs. Cayman Islands, paired with Trinidad and Tobago in Group A)
Antigua and Barbuda (vs. Aruba, paired with Cuba in Group A)
Saint Kitts and Nevis (vs. Belize, paired with Mexico in Group B)
Dominican Republic (vs. Puerto Rico, paired with Honduras in Group B)
El Salvador (vs. Anguilla, paired with Panama in Group C)
Bahamas (vs. British Virgin Islands, paired with Jamaica in Group B)
Nicaragua (vs. Netherlands Antilles, paired with Haiti in Group C)
Grenada (vs. US Virgin Islands, paired with Costa Rica in Group C)
Saint Lucia (vs. Turks and Caicos Islands, paired with Guatemala in Group A)

Pot F: Teams ranked 25-35. these are the bottom seeded teams for the first round.

Turks and Caicos Islands (vs. Saint Lucia, paired with Guatemala in Group A)
Netherlands Antilles (vs. Nicaragua, paried with Haiti in Group C)
British Virgin Islands (vs. Bahamas, paired with Jamaica in Group B)
Dominica (vs. Barbados, paired with United States in Group A)
Cayman Islands (vs. Bermuda, paired with Trinidad and Tobago in Group A)
Puerto Rico (vs. Dominican Republic, paired with Honduras in Group B)
Anguilla (vs. El Salvador, paired with Panama in Group C)
Belize (vs. Saint Kitts and Nevis, paired with Mexico in Group B)
U.S. Virgin Islands
Montserrat (vs. Suriname, paired with Guyana in Group C)
Aruba (vs. Antigua and Barbuda, paired with Cuba in Group A)

Which produced the following bracket:
(teams are arranged in bracket order, with the heading denoting the appropriate group they will be participating in. FIFA World Rankings are provided to the left of each nation)

2008 MLS Individual Statistics

2008-03-28T15:04:00.002-05:00

Minutes Played

Goals Scored

Assists

Scoring (2 points for a goal, 1 point for an assist)

Player Rating Formula
CLICK HERE FOR AN EXPLANATION OF THIS FORMULA

2008 MLS Team Statistics

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This page will be updated continuously during the MLS Season and linked on the sidebar to the right.

please check back after the MLS season begins for updates.

2008 MLS Attendance:

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Below is the current attendance for the 2008 MLS season

2008 USL Standings

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2008 Canadian CONCACAF Qualifying

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TBA

2008-09 CONCACAF Champions League

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TBA

2008 SuperLiga

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Tournament format:
8 team tournament.

Stage 1 - 2 pools of 4 teams play round robin. Top 2 teams in each pool advance to stage 2
Stage 2 - Semifinals (Pool A1 vs. Pool B2, and Pool A2 vs. Pool B1), and Finals.
All games played in the United States

Qualified Teams:

United States (top 4 teams from 2007 Regular Season)

D.C. United
Houston Dynamo
Chivas USA
New England Revolution

Mexico

CD Guadalajara
Atlante FC
CF Pachuca
Santos Laguna

Draw:
Pool A:

CD Guadalajara
Atlante FC
D.C. United
Houston Dynamo

Pool B:

Chivas USA
New England Revolution
CF Pachuca
Santos Laguna

Schedule
Pool Play - July 12-20
Semifinals - July 29-30
Finals - August 5

Check back later for more coverage

2008 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup

2008-03-28T13:02:00.002-05:00

Tournament Format

40 Teams Entered

8 MLS Teams
8 USL-1 Teams
8 USL-2 Teams
8 PDL teams
8 USASA clubs

Knockout Tournament - single-legged fixtures
8 MLS teams get a bye to the third round.

MLS Qualifying:
Seven MLS teams will compete for 2 spots in the Round of 16. These are the bottom 6 US based teams from last year's MLS season, plus expansion franchise San Jose.

Main Draw
Listed below is the main draw for the US Open Cup. Since each quarterfinal participant will be the winner of a matchup between an MLS team and a team from the lower divisions, the bracket is essentially split into 8 groups of 5 teams.

The groups ARE NOT IN BRACKET ORDER, and they will be rearranged once the draw has occured.

It is assumed that each 5 team group will consist of:

1 USASA Club
1 PDL Club
1 USL-2nd Division Team
1 USL-1st Division Team

With the winner of the above 4 teams facing off with

1 MLS team

for a place in the quarterfinals.

Final Rounds:

2008 USL Schedule

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