Some Soccer News for Oct 17, 2017

It's Day 290 of 2017.


Huge congrats to the Portland Thorns - NWSL Champions for 2017.

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du Nord MLS Hot Team Hot List Power Rankings

(Based solely on science using the 5 previous games, with no bias for prior standing or projections - just results. As of Tue Oct 17)

1 Columbus Crew
2 Toronto
3 Chicago Fire
4 Portland Timbers
5 Seattle Sounders
6 Colorado Rapids
7 New England Revolution
8 Houston Dynamo
9 San Jose Earthquakes
10 Vancouver Whitecaps
11 Atlanta United
12 Philadelphia Union
13 Real Salt Lake
14 Minnesota United
15 LA Galaxy
16 New York Red Bulls
17 Sporting Kansas City
18 New York City
19 Orlando City
20 Dallas
21 DC United
22 Montreal Impact

The irony of the #1 team is incredible.

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COLUMBUS CREW STADIUM ISSUE

A statement from Columbus Crew owner Anthony Precourt saying he will move the team to Austin TX unless he can get a new stadium built in Cow Town.

• A followup letter from Precourt to the team's fans.

Local Columbus government officials are baffled by the announcement. (To be fair, most politicians usually are baffled.) By Kimball Perry + Rick Rouan for the Columbus Dispatch.

An interview with Precourt. By Jeff Carlisle for ESPNFC.

• When Precourt bought the team from the Hunt family he had a clause written in that he could move the team to ONLY Austin TX.

I am sure the story will be closely covered the Columbus Dispatch newspaper.

• There are more articles already on the site.

And what is the view from the capital city of Texas. By Kevin Lyttle for the Austin Statesman.

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This kinda of data speaks loudly, and probably directly to owner investment:

Bottom four MLS teams in avg. attendance are all originals:
D.C. United 16,434
Columbus 15,439
Colorado 15,322
FC Dallas 15,106

— Paul Kennedy (@pkedit) October 17, 2017

• Minn United = 20,538 (10th in the league)

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USMNT STARS SPEAK LOUDLY AND WITH FRUSTATION

Jermaine Jones sits on his couch, turns on the video camera and stirs up some USMNT shit, and he is not always wrong. [VIDEO]

In his own way Claudio Reyna concurs. By Christian Araos for Empire of Soccer.

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Kickstarter: Documentary film on New Zealand rock band The Chills

• Hurry - 2 days left!

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MINNESOTA UNITED

My MNUFC Notes:

• I am not happy.
• I was in Los Angeles for the game on Sunday in which the Loons lost 3-0.
• With a few exceptions I would call the Minn players and coaches performance gutless.
• Yes it was 100 degrees at kickoff. Didn't seem to effect the Galaxy players one iota.
• And the Galaxy have been downright awful this season.
• You could say the same for Minn United in about half the games this year - they have been awful.
• I give the Loons full credit for being an expansion team, but at least an effort should be put forth even if you don't have the talent.
• They have up a goal in the early minutes again for the 14th time this season - that shows so much mental weakness. Not prepared to play at all in almost half the games.
• LA's best player was again Alessandrini. Everyone knows that. And everyone knows he goes left. How did Minn defend against him? They left him go left and he made them look like amateurs.
• Yeah, I am pissed off.
• Minn made two changes at half time and changed the formation and tactics - to me that means the coach completely whiffed on the starting lineup and got the formation and tactics wrong. Oof.
• Starting Molino was almost laughable. A week ago Friday he was suspended from the last T+T CONCACAF World Cup qualifying game so he could have been back in Minnesota on Saturday, Sunday at the latest. Instead he stayed in T+T enjoying the good life, just check his Instagram, and never even flew to Minn. Instead he met the team in LA on the following Friday. Then the coach started him.
• Again, there were no consequences for snubbing the team and teammates. Instead you get rewarded for it. Remember JVenegas walking out of training earlier this year? Its been selective punishment all season too. Which makes things doubly problematic. One guy gets punished, the next one doesn't. Favoritism at its worst. Destroys team chemistry.
• Good game: Ibson
• OK game: Boxall, Calvo, Martin, Finlay, Danladi, Warner, JVenegas, Ibarra
• Bad game: Shuttleworth, Thiesson, Burch, Molino, Ramirez
• Still angry.

Results:
-Sun Oct 15
LA Galaxy 3-0 Minnesota
Schedule:
-Sun Oct 22
San Jose Earthquakes v Minnesota

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USMNT - U17 World Cup

After faltering badly in their 3rd group stage game and falling all the way to 3rd place and a tough Round of 16 game against a group winner they came out on fire and proved that they are for real - winning 5-0 over Group B winning Paraguay. Onward and upward.

• Tim Weah smashed home a hat trick.

England is up next for the USA. England + Japan ended 0-0 and Eng won 5-3 in Penalty Kicks.

Round of 16 Results:
-Mon Oct 16
USA 5-0 Paraguay - USA goals by Tim Weah(3), Andrew Carleton + Josh Sargent.

Quarterfinal schedule:
-Sat Oct 21 USA v England - 9:30am CT on FS2

USA Roster

• G: Alex Budnik - Sockers, Carlos Joaquim Dos Santos - SL Benfica, Justin Garces - Atlanta United
• D: Sergino Dest - Ajax, Christopher Gloster - New York Red Bulls, Jaylin Lindsey - Sporting Kansas City, James Sands - New York City, Tyler Shaver - New York City, Akil Watts - Portland Timbers
• M: George Acosta - North Carolina, Taylor Booth - Real Salt Lake, Christopher Durkin - DC United, Blaine Ferri - Solar, Chris Goslin - Atlanta United, Indiana Vassilev - Unattached
• F: Ayo Akinola - Toronto, Andrew Carleton - Atlanta United, Jacobo Reyes - Monterrey, Bryan Reynolds - Dallas, Joshua Sargent - St Louis Scott Gallagher Missouri, Tim Weah - Paris Saint-Germain
• C: John Hackworth

Round of 16 Schedule/Results:

Colombia 0-4 Germany
Germany v ? (Oct 22)
Brazil v Honduras (Oct 18)
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Paraguay 0-5 USA
USA v England (Oct 21)
England 0-0 (5-3) Japan
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-----------------
Mali v Iraq (Oct 17)
? v ? (Oct 21)
Ghana v Niger (Oct 18)
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France 1-2 Spain
Spain v Iran (Oct 22)
Iran 2-1 Mexico
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Semis (Oct 25)
Final (Oct 28)

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WORLD CUP

UEFA Playoffs Schedule:
1st Leg
-Thu Nov 9
N Ireland v Switzerland - 1:45pm CT
Croatia v Greece - 1:45pm CT
-Fri Nov 10
Sweden v Italy - 1:45pm CT
-Sat Nov 11
Denmark v Ireland - 1:45pm CT
2nd Leg
-Sun Nov 12
Switzerland v N Ireland - 11:00am CT
Greece v Croatia - 1:45pm CT
-Mon Nov 13
Italy v Sweden - 1:45pm CT
-Tue Nov 14
Ireland v Denmark - 1:45pm CT

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MLS

You know it, you love it - Ale's Weekly MLS Awards. [VIDEO] By Alejandro Moreno for ESPNFC.

Sell baby, sell! One idea for fastest way for MLS to improve - start selling players more often. By Paul Tenorio for Four Four Two.

Week 33 Schedule:
-Sun Oct 22 (All games at 3:00pm CT)
PLAYOFFS + SEEDING Salt Lake v Kansas City
PLAYOFFS San Jose v Minnesota
PLAYOFFS Dallas v LA
SEEDING Atlanta v Toronto
SEEDING DC v New York Red Bulls
SEEDING New York City v Columbus
SEEDING Portland v Vancouver
SEEDING Seattle v Colorado
SEEDING Houston v Chicago
------
Games of no value:
Montreal v New England
Philadelphia v Orlando

Western Race - 3 teams for 1 spot:
43 San Jose (12W) (-22GD) (36 GF) (v MU)
43 Dallas (10W) (-4GD) (43 GF) (v LAG)
42 Salt Lake (12W) (-7GD) (47 GF) (v SKC)

• tiebreakers: W, GD, GF

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• Paul Riley of North Carolina Courage named NWSL Coach Of The Year
• Ashley Hatch of North Carolina Courage named NWSL Rookie Of The Year

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• Dane Kelly of Reno 1868 named USL Golden Boot winner (18 goals)
• Tomas Gomez of Rochester Rhinos named USL Golden Glove winner
• Chris Wehan of Reno 1868 named Assists Champion winner (12 assists)

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• Bryan Burke of San Francisco Deltas named NASL Player Of The Week
• Nemanja Nikolic of Chicago Fire named MLS Player Of The Week
• Ever Guzman of San Antonio named USL Player Of The Week

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USL PLAYOFFS

Eastern Conference Schedule:
-Fri Oct 20
Louisville City (#1) v Bethlehem Steel (#8)
-Sat Oct 21
Rochester Rhinos (#4) v Charlotte Independence (#5)
Charleston Battery (#2) v New York Red Bulls II (#7)
Tampa Bay Rowdies (#3) v Cincinnati (#6)

Western Conference Schedule:
-Fri Oct 20
Real Monarchs (#1) v Sacramento Republic (#8)
-Sat Oct 21
Swope Park Rangers (#4) v Phoenix Rising (#5)
San Antonio (#2) v Tulsa Roughnecks (#7)
Reno 1868 (#3) v OKC Energy (#6)

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US SOCCER

With no coach, and who knows what roster the USMNT have scheduled a game for next month:
-Tue Nov 14
Portugal v USA - 12:45pm CT - broadcast TBA
Estadio Algarve, Faro

Players that could be possible for this game. By Jeff Carlisle for ESPNFC.

One informed guy's short list for USMNT coaches. By Steve Davis for Four Four Two.

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AMERICANS ABROAD

Jonathan Gonzalez continues his incredible season at Monterrey. They beat Pachuca 2-0 and he was named Man Of The Match! He's 18.



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