Some Soccer News for Nov 16, 2017

It's Day 318 of 2017.


Columbus Crew ownership, MLS, and Columbus city leaders met on Wednesday and could not find any common ground to keep the team in Columbus. By Andrew Erickson for the Columbus Dispatch.

• The city is very unhappy with how it went down. Team ownership says the city brought nothing to the table.
• Its just keeps getting uglier:

Were both of the parties involved at the same meeting??? If so, somebody must be lying!!! #SavetheCrew pic.twitter.com/H4RZ4g13Cz

— Alejandro Moreno (@AleMorenoESPN) November 16, 2017

• The home playoff game next week is supposedly sold out.

This is what I think is going on in Columbus:

• It seems like it comes down to corporate sponsorship and ticket sales.
• And owner Anthony Precourt seems to be convinced that sponsorship dollars & ticket sales are maxed out in Columbus, and have a big upside in Austin.

dN

CONCACAF

As if the CONCACAF Gold Cup wasn't hard enough to take serious, CONCACAF will announce another confederation tournament called the Nations League. By Simon Evans for Reuters.

• Great for the small and medium teams, not so hot for the big teams.

From Brian Straus: "None of the top 10 CONCACAF WCQ scorers are going to the World Cup."

dN

WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

Peru is the last team in!

• They join Australia, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sweden, Switzerland, and Tunisia in the World Cup next summer.

Final elimination rounds Results:

-Wed Nov 15
Peru 2-0 New Zealand

The World Cup Group Stage draw will be held on Fri Dec 1.

The 32 World Cup Teams:

• CAF (5): Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia
• AFC (5): Australia, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea
• CONCACAF (3): Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama
• CONMEBOL (5): Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay
• UEFA (14): Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden

dN

A friend from Puerto Rico (now a soccer coach) is trying to build a database of all current soccer players in the world with a Puerto Rican background. Please help spread this around.

dN

Lemon Scented: du Nord Music Mix Vol 147 (download + extract)

dN

MINNESOTA UNITED

Michael Boxall and New Zealand were eliminated from World Cup qualifying last night by Peru.

dN

MLS

Clint Dempsey has agreed to a new 1 year contract with Seattle Sounders.

dN

Tim Melia of Sporting Kansas City named MLS Goalkeeper Of The Year

dN

USL

Its official - North Carolina has left NASL to join USL for the 2018 season.

dN

NWSL

Real Salt Lake will launch a team for next season.

• Rumor has it that they bought FC Kansas City, but there has been no official word on that.

dN

US SOCCER

"The US Soccer Presidential Election will take place on Sat Feb 10, in the morning."

dN

AMERICANS ABROAD

Jonathan Gonzalez started for Monterrey last night in the Copa MX Semifinals, but he was taken off on a stretcher in the 58th minute with an unknown leg injury. Monterrey won on PKS. He will need to recover quickly as Liga MX playoffs begin next week.

dN

LIGA MX

1 Round Left in Apertura Liguilla Race:

• IN - Monterrey, Tigres, America
• OUT - Queretaro, Pumas, Veracruz, Guadalajara, Puebla, Santos Laguna, Pachuca, Lobos

Standings (1 round remaining):
IN-34 Monterrey (+15)
IN-32 Tigres (+14)
IN-27 America (+4)
26 Morelia (+7)
26 Leon (+6)
26 Toluca (+1)
24 Necaxa (+5)
24 Atlas (+4)
---
24 Cruz Azul (-1)
21 Tijuana (-4)
OUT-20 Lobos
OUT-18 Pachuca
OUT-18 Santos Laguna
OUT-16 Puebla
OUT-15 Guadalajara (-4)
OUT-15 Queretaro (-8)
OUT-14 Veracruz
OUT-12 Pumas

All Liga MX final round games on TV:
(only 2 games have NO playoff implications)
-Fri Nov 17
NO IMPL - Puebla v Lobos - 6:30 CT on UniDep
Atlas v Pachuca - 9:00 CT on UniDep
-Sat Nov 18
Cruz Azul v Veracruz - 5:00 CT on UniDep
NO IMPL - Quertaro v Pumas - 5:00 CT on Gala
Monterrey v Tigres - 7:00 CT on Univ
Leon v Guadalajara - 7:00 CT on Gala
Necaxa v Morelia - 8:00 CT on UniDep
-Sun Nov 19
Toluca v Tijuana - 11:30 CT on Univ
Santos Laguna v America - 6:00 CT on UniDep

Apertura top 5 goal scorers:

• 11 Mauro Boselli - Leon
• 10 Aviles Hurtado - Monterrey
• 9 Julio Furch - Santos Laguna
• 9 Julian Quinones - Lobos
• 9 Enner Valencia - Tigres

dN

MEXICO - COPA MX

Monterrey heads to the final after beating America on Penalty Kicks. America's PKs were a regular clown show.

Semifinals Schedule:
-Wed Nov 15
Monterrey 0-0 America - Mon adv 3-0 on Penalty Kicks
-Tue Nov 21
Atlante v Pachuca

Final
-Date TBA
Monterrey v Atlante/Pachuca winner

dN

BIG TEAMS + GAMES IN EUROPES TOP LEAGUES

Schedule:
-Fri Nov 17
Stuttgart v Dortmund
Amiens v Monaco
-Sat Nov 18
Arsenal v Tottenham
Atletico Madrid v Real Madrid
Bayern v Augsburg
Leganes v Barcelona
West Brom v Chelsea
Leverkusen v Leipzig
Liverpool v Southampton
Leicester v Man City
Man United v Newcastle
Napoli v Milan
PSG v Nantes
Roma v Lazio
-Sun Nov 19 Inter v Atalanta
Sampdoria v Juventus
Bordeaux v Marsielle
Schalke v Hamburger
Espanyol v Valencia



The Bird Is The Word