Soccer By Ives

Morning Ticker: Olympic Qualifying Sked set, ManU in first, Fronaldo heads home and trouble for a former MLS player

 

Good morning everybody. Let me start by apologizing for the low number of posts recently. I can assure you that the action will pick up after New Year's Day. For now, I will try to keep you updates on the goings on in the American and international soccer world.

Before we get into the day's events, I must make another request for SBI readers to take part in the SBI reader roll call. If you haven't already taken part, please do so. Your input is going to go a long way toward helping me shape and set a direction for SBI as we head into 2008.

Secondly, I have not forgotten about the most recent Q&A session. I am working on it and am hoping to have it done for tomorrow. It will be done by Monday at the latest.

Now, onto the news. Here are some recent tidbits you may or may not have heard:

U.S. Olympic qualifying games set. The U.S. Under-23 national team learned the path it will take to Olympic qualifying yesterday as the match schedule for CONCACAF Olympic qualifying was announced. The Americans will face Cuba (March 11), Panama (March 13) and Honduras (March 15), with all matches being played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. There will be tripleheaders played each of these days, with the U.S. team's game serving as the nightcap on each occasion.

The top two teams in the group will join the top two teams in Group B (Mexico, Canada, Haiti, Guatemala) in the semifinals and final, which take place in Memphis Nashville on March 20 and 23.

I was going to point out that the Americans should have little trouble qualifying, but you know what happened the last time around. That said, this Olympic team should qualify and this qualifying tournament should give us a good glimpse at what Peter Nowak has planned for the Olympics.

This weekend's soccer on TV

 

The weekend is almost here and if you are starving for some high-profile matches, this is your weekend.

English Premier League fans will be downright giddy as the top four square off in a pair of Sunday blockbusters. Manchester United travels to Liverpool while Chelsea make the trip across London to face arch-rival Arsenal. It doesn't get much better than that.

There are quality games elsewhere as well. Red-hot Bayer Leverkusen meets a reeling Werder Bremen side in a Saturday morning tilt while Juventus faces Lazio in another quality encounter.

Before we get to the weekend though, there are matches this evening. The NCAA Final Four is tonight on ESPNU and if you have that channel you have no excuse for not at least TIVOing and watching them later.

Here are this weekend's matches on TV:

The 50 most exciting teenagers in soccer

If you missed the November issue of World Soccer magazine you missed a cover story on the 50 Most Exciting Teenagers on the Planet. It was a great piece with quality information, especially for those of you who relish knowing about the best up and coming talents in the game.

Some of the players you would expect were on the list, including Sergio Aguero, Alexandre Pato, Micah Richards, Giovani Dos Santos, Bojan Krkic and Anderson, but there were two players who were NOT on the list that left me scratching my head a bit.

Jozy Altidore and Freddy Adu were nowhere to be found.

Now I'm not saying it's a travesty that neither is on the list. I just found it interesting that neither made it, particularly after how both performed at the Under-20 World Cup. Altidore nets two goals against Brazil and Adu was on fire, but neither made the list.

If you are wondering what players WERE on the list, here they are:

Riquelme on his way back to Boca Juniors

Those of you praying that Argentine playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme would somehow make his way to Major League Soccer will have to find a new dream. Riquelme will return to Boca Juniors once the winter transfer period opens in January. The deal will be a full transfer, not a loan deal like the one Riquelme joined Boca Juniors on earlier in the year.

Riquelme hasn't played a minute for Villarreal this season because of a major falling out with Villarreal manager Manuel Pellegrini. Riquelme's absence hasn't hurt Villarreal much. The Yellow Submarine sits second in the La Liga standings, just a point behind Real Madrid.

Riquelme's club hiatus hasn't stopped him from dominating for Argentina. The free kick maestro has recorded four goals in World Cup qualifying for Argentina despite his lack of first-team club action.

There is no truth to the rumor that Ray Hudson is paying out of his own pocket to have GolTV air all Boca Juniors matches starting in January (okay, I just made that part up.)

What do you think of Riquelme's move? Disappointed that he won't be playing in Europe? Crushed that some MLS team didn't find a way to lure him here? Happy because Boca will now win the Argentine League title? Share your thoughts below.

Monday Morning Center Back (Altidore, Adu, Asia and Another coach fired)

Good morning all. The World Cup qualifying draw was this past weekend and it gave us plenty to look forward to in the next two years. from England's chance at revenge against Croatia to the USA drawing an easier path to the Hexagonal than Mexico.

We also had increasing talk about Jozy Altidore going to Europe. Real Madrid is ramping up its interest while Altidore has stated that he will only leave for the right situation. Is Real Madrid the right situation? Here is my column on Jozy's situation for ESPN.com. I'll try to make my point very clear. Altidore should spent one more season in MLS. That's it. A full year as a starter in MLS will help him far more than a year as a sub in Europe will. You can disagree, and some folks do, but that's my stance.

Here are some other tidbits from the weekend and today:

2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw: CONCACAF

The U.S. national team's path to the 2010 World Cup will begin with a match-up against the winner of the Dominica/Barbados play-in qualifier. As you may recall, the US team faced Barbados in the second round of the 2002 World Cup qualifying cycle (winning both matches by a combined score of 11-0).

If you are wondering about Mexico, 'El Tri' will face face the winner Belize/St. Kitts and Nevis. Easy as cake right? Well, things get a wee bit tougher for the Mexicans in the next round, where they just may be in the region's group of death.

Here is a closer look at the rest of the CONCACAF Draw:

World Cup Qualifying: Colombia knocks off Argentina

So much for Argentina rolling through World Cup qualifying unbeaten.

Carlos Tevez saw a first-half red card as Colombia scored a pair of second half goals to upset Argentina, 2-1, on Tuesday night. The victory moves Colombia, still unbeaten in four qualifying matches, to eight points, just a point behind Argentina.

Lionel Messi worked his usual magic with a nice first-half goal, but Colombia was at home and rallied in the second half as the Argentines tired from playing a man down. Coach Jorge Luis Pinto is working some magic with Colombia and his second-half substitute, Dayro Moreno, made Pinto look like a genius by scoring an 83rd minute game winner.

What do you think of Colombia's strong World Cup qualifying start? Share your thoughts on this result below.

Monday Morning Center Back: The day after

Good morning folks. It is the day after one busy weekend of soccer action. You had MLS Cup, the US national team playing its last game and European championship and South American World Cup qualifiers going on. It truly was a soccer fan's paradise.

Here is a look back at some of the weekend's highlights:

This weekend's soccer on TV

Admit it. When you heard Manchester United-Arsenal wasn't going to be on basic cable you almost cried? Now you will have to head over to an overcrowded soccer bar in the AM to see the can't-miss clash.

Want a consolation prize? How about Juve-Inter? Or Atletico Madrid-Villarreal? Is Real Madrid-Sevilla more your liking?

The point is there will be plenty of high-level clashes on TV this weekend for those of you who won't pay the pay-per-view cost or hit a soccer bar for Arsenal-Man U.

Here it is, this weekend's soccer TV schedule:

Guatemala upsets Mexico in ugly 'friendly'

When I said the best thing you could root for is carnage when Guatemala played Mexico, I didn't expect the CONCACAF rivals to grant my wish.

Guatemala upset Mexico, 3-2, in an exhibition match marred by six red cards at the LA Coliseum on Wednesday night.

And guess who got one of these red cards? The saint himself, Carlos Ruiz, who was sent off for the sneaky and vicious studs up challenge you see above. Talk about a picture that will leave U.S. fans conflicted.

What do you think of this result? Surprised? Happy? Upset that Ricardo Clark didn't jump out of the stands and do a reverse Cantona on Ruiz? Share your thoughts below.