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I'm on travel through Florida for the next two weeks, so posting is going to be very light until after New Year's Day. There's not much going on anyway (except for the conclusion of the playoffs in various Central American leagues), but I did have some posts that had been sitting on the hopper for a while.
In the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Well it looks like the draw for the Champions' Cup will be tomorrow afternoon (14:00 EST) after all. Not quite "late December" as the federation said in a previous release.
Anyway, I'll update this post with the draw results.
UPDATE: The draw's been made for the 47th (and supposedly last) Champions' Cup, and it took CONCACAF over two hours to place the results on their site. Here are the pairings (first leg home team listed first):
Quarterfinals (11-13 March, 18-20 March 2008):
Q1: Motagua vs. Pachuca (11 Mar, 19 Mar)
Q2: Harbour View vs. DC United (12 Mar, 18 Mar)
Q3: Atlante vs. Saprissa (13 Mar, 20 Mar)
Q4: Municipal vs. Houston Dynamo (12 Mar, 19 Mar)
Semifinals (1-3 April, 8-10 April):
SF1: Q1 vs. Q2
SF2: Q4 vs. Q3
Final (22-24 April, 29 April-1 May):
SF2 vs. SF1
So after years of drawing Costa Rican sides in the first round, MLS participants can feel that the draw has finally done them a favor this time. They will play the third-placed team in Central America and the lone Caribbean representative, and they also have the advantage of hosting the return leg in both series. It will get much more difficult in the semifinal rounds if Atlante and Pachuca get past their quarterfinal opponents. Pachuca may have struggled during the latter part of this year but they still have tons of experience in international competitions, and Atlante had a strong season thanks to the free-scoring Giancarlo Maldonado.
We'll find out the truth about the draw and these teams in March.
AC Milan won the Club World Cup this morning after defeating Boca Juniors 4-2 in Yokohama. They now have 18 international trophies, one more than Boca.
I'll have more to say about the match when I watch the replay. I heard that Kaká was brilliant, but that's not really a surprise.
And in the 3rd/4th place match, Urawa Reds defeated Etoile du Sahel 4-2 on penalties after the match ended 2-2.
AC Milan defeated Urawa Reds 1-0 in the second semifinal of the FIFA Club World Cup last night. Urawa really had no answer to the speed and vision of Kaká, and Clarence Seedorf could have had a hat-trick if he had finished any better. Such as it was, midway through the second half he made no mistake at the end of another penetrating run by Kaká, and that goal was enough.
So now we have the final that everyone expected and everyone wanted. But before Boca and Milan play on Sunday, the undercard will feature Urawa and ESS in the 3rd place match.
The group stage of the UEFA Champions League concluded this week, with a number of spots in the final 16 still unclaimed.
On Tuesday in Group B, Rosenborg went down 1-3 to an inspired onslaught by Schalke and in the process were demoted to the UEFA Cup Round of 32. Needing just a point on the road to advance to the Champions League knockout stage, Rosenborg gave a performance that could only be described as naive, pushing forward in attack while leaving the defense terribly exposed. Lars Hirschfeld (Rosenborg) started and played the full 90, but he could do little about Schalke's three goals.
The remainder of the matches involving CONCACAF players were played on Wednesday. In a showdown match in Group E, Rangers were overhauled by Lyon 0-3 and lost out on a Round of 16 place in the Champions League. DaMarcus Beasley (Rangers) is out for the season recovering from the knee injury that he suffered in Rangers' previous Champions League match. The other match in Group E saw Barcelona defeat Stuttgart 3-0. Giovani dos Santos played the entire match and scored what I believe is his first goal as a Barcelona player, although it seemed that Ronaldinho's cross took the slightest of deflections from dos Santos. Rafael Márquez also played the entire match for Barça and received a yellow card in second-half stoppage time. For Stuttgart, Ricardo Osorio played the entire match but Pável Pardo remained on the substitutes' bench.
In Group F, PSV lost 0-1 at home to Inter Milan and finished third place in the final group standings. Carlos Salcido (PSV) and David Suazo (Inter) played the entire match, but Suazo was much more influential with his runs and dynamic play. Suazo assisted on Cruz's goal in the 64th minute.
So of the seven teams in the group stage of the Champions League with CONCACAF players on the roster, only two -- Barcelona and Inter Milan -- will go on to the knockout stage. Four -- Benfica, PSV, Rangers, and Rosenborg -- will continue their European season in the UEFA Cup, and only Shakhtar's European adventure has come to an end.
One half of the Club World Cup final is complete as Boca Juniors defeated Etoile du Sahel 1-0 last night. Boca didn't play a lot of attractive football (it wasn't going to happen with Riquelme ineligible for the tournament), but they did enough to win the game through Neri Cardozo eight minutes before halftime. Etoile had a man advantage in the second half thanks to yet another red card shown to Boca's Fabián Vargas, but they couldn't convert the few chances that the Argentine side allowed. The missed header by Silva right at the end was Etoile's best chance.
So, Boca will play in the match that they wanted above anything else, preferably against Milan but they wouldn't mind Urawa Reds, either. Etoile will conclude their participation in the tournament with the 3rd/4th place match on
Last night Urawa Reds defeated Sepahan 3-1 and advanced to the semifinal of the FIFA Club World Cup. It was really no trouble at all for the Japanese club, who were spurred on by their typically rabid support. Now the tournament can really begin with the semifinal games: Boca Juniors against Etoile du Sahel, and AC Milan versus the Reds.
This is the third and final part of my analysis of the first-round matches in CONCACAF WC qualifying. Previous posts in this series can be found here (Group 1) and here (Group 2).
US Virgin Islands vs. Grenada
Grenada will have some faces familiar to American soccer fans, as well as observers of the English leagues. The face of Grenadian football, at least to those in the USA, is midfielder Shalrie Joseph of the New England Revolution. To those in England, it's Blackburn Rovers striker Jason Roberts. And of course there are the British players of Grenadian descent such as the Bubb brothers in midfield (Byron and Alvin) and Tony Bedeau up front. The question - which is a common one of the Caribbean micro-countries - is how are Grenada going to put together in sufficient time an organized and prepared national squad.
A similar question could be asked of the US Virgin Islands, where football lags behind baseball and basketball in popularity (it is the birthplace of Tim Duncan, after all). Other than the NBA star, USVI are perhaps known for defender MacDonald Taylor, who at 46 years 180 days became the oldest player to appear in a World Cup qualifier. Alas, Old MacDonald has retired, but the team still might need him to keep the final margin under five goals (their last three official matches were lost by ten, six, and five goals, respectively).
I think Grenada will go through -- by at least five goals on aggregate.
Suriname vs. Montserrat
Suriname have some very talented players -- native-born or of heritage -- who have made their name on the world stage. Unfortunately, none of them have actually played for the Surinamese national team. Of those who decided to play for the Suriboys, Clifton Sandvliet is their best-known player; he is their most-capped player and all-time leading goalscorer. The majority of the national team plays for SV Robinhood, the Surinamese side that advanced to the final of the CFU Clubs Championship in 2005 (albeit without having to face a team from Jamaica or Trinidad & Tobago until the final).
Montserrat's resources are non-existent even for a small Caribbean country. Because of the continuous volcanic eruption on the southern half of the island, almost two-thirds of the population have had to evacuate. As a result the national team has played only 11 matches since 1995, two of which were at home. The team is a collection of players from the tiny local league and a few English-based players of Montserratian descent, Junior Mendes of Notts County being the highest profile player.
Suriname should advance to the second round, but just being able to put together a national team should give people in Montserrat some pride.
El Salvador vs. Anguilla
Football in El Salvador has taken a nosedive since the 1990s, when Raúl Díaz Arce, Ronald Cerritos, and Mauricio Cienfuegos were making their mark in MLS and taking El Salvador on the brink of World Cup qualification. In the 2006 qualifying cycle El Salvador were poor, and recent results relegated them to the first round of the 2010 cycle. There will be some familiar faces to MLS observers, such as Cerritos and Eliseo Quintanilla, but this squad is drawn entirely from local clubs.
The good news for Anguilla is that they are no longer at the bottom of the FIFA rankings. Their last victory was 4-1 against Montserrat, which should give you an idea of how bad Montserrat are. They were routed by Barbados and St. Kitts and Nevis last year in Gold Cup qualifying, and I don't see how the series with El Salvador would have a different outcome.
Nicaragua vs. Netherlands Antilles
Finally we come to Nicaragua and the Netherlands Antilles. In Nicaragua and Belize football has a lower profile compared to other sports such as baseball and basketball, and it's no surprise that these two national teams are the weakest in Central America. Most of the Nicaraguan squad plays locally, and the few players who do play outside the country do so in El Salvador or Honduras. One player, Lester Meléndez, is a goalkeeping coach for the women's soccer team at the University of Miami! The most important field players for Nicaragua are Wilber Sánchez and Emilio Palacios (the first Nicaraguan to score a hat-trick in an official match).
This could be the last time that the Netherlands Antilles participates in the World Cup as an island confederation. A majority of the national team players play for the local teams that have participated in the CFU Club Championship, such as CSD Barber and Jong Colombia, but several of the Antillian players (Rocky Siberie, Chaly Jones, Angelo Cijntje) are plying their trade in European leagues -- the Netherlands, of course, but also Greece and Malta, among others.
Nicaragua have never beaten the Netherlands Antilles in an official match, but the most recent match was in 1982. The scoreline probably won't be a rout like previous games, but I expect the Antilles to advance.
Atlante, playing their first season in Cancún, won the 2007 Mexican Apertura tournament by defeating UNAM 2-1 on aggregate (0-0 in Mexico City, 2-1 in Cancún). I only saw the highlights of the match, but it seemed quite dramatic, with the winning goal scored with five minutes remaining.
Atlante is the final entrant into the 2008 CONCACAF Champions Cup, and the next thing to anticipate will be the draw for the competition. CONCACAF gave the usual non-specific timeframe of "late December."
Jeff Rusnak of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has a story of the USA U-20s trip to Argentina and Uruguay, where they played some matches against club and national teams and took in a couple of club matches in Buenos Aires. It was quite an experience, to say the least.
Like I said before, football in Argentina is like nowhere else in the world, for better or for worse.
