Celtic Cup 2011 replaces old Home Championship

1. Scotland



2. Northern Ireland



3. Wales



4. Republic of Ireland

The 'Celtic Cup' style tournament will be held in Dublin at the new Aviva Stadium and the first two games are to take place on 8th and 9th February 2011. The remaining four games will take place from 24th-28th May.
The tournament is to be held in one country on a rotational tournament-by-tournament basis with two games being played on match days.

The old Home Championship, which included England but not the Republic of Ireland, was staged every year until 1984. It is believed England did not want to participate siting fixture congestion. England indicated they waned to play a variety of "other" teams. Recently they traveled to Trinidad and Tobago and played the Soca Warriors.

Following a meeting in Copenhagen, the Football Associations of Northern Ireland (IFA), Republic of Ireland (FAI), Scotland (SFA) and Wales (FAW) agreed on provisional dates for the six matches of the 4 Associations’ Tournament which will take place in Dublin in 2011.
The tournament will be operated on a league basis with six matches to be played between the four neighbouring teams. Provisional agreement was reached that the first two games of the tournament involving all four teams will take place on February 8 and February 9, 2011 while it was agreed that the remaining four games would take place three months later on May 24, 25, 27 and 28.
The Tournament is expected to attract many thousands of supporters from all over Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland along with the UEFA Europa League final which will take place at Aviva Stadium on May 18, 2011.
Welcoming confirmation of the dates, David Collins, Secretary General Football Association of Wales said:
"The FAW is delighted that we have finally reached agreement on the tournament taking place in Dublin in 2011. After many months of work we are delighted that this has now come about. We look forward to a great tournament especially in the new stadium in Dublin and we trust it will be a huge success which will enable us to extending in future years '.

They are hoping England will join this tournament to give it more exposure and clout in the future.

MLS 3 Divisions in 2011

Well the league just expanded to Portland Oregon and Vancouver BC. these 2 teams are clearly in the West. The Seattle FC however is the 8th team in the West conference and there will only be 7 Eastern teams. What do you think will happen?

• MLs could move both Dallas FC and Houston to the east to keep the conferences somewhat balanced with 9 east and 8 West teams.
• MLS could create 3 Conferences or divisions what ever they call them.

East

1. New England
2. New York
3. DC United
4. Philly
5. Toronto TC
6. Columbus

Central

1. Chicago
2. Kansas City
3. Real Salt Lake
4. Colorado Rapids
5. Dallas FC
6. Houston Dyna

West

1. Vancouver
2. Portland
3. Seattle
4. San Jose
5. LA Galaxy
6. Chivas

Each Division gets to place 2 teams into playoffs and the 2 best remaining teams for 2 other conferences. This would keeps fans interested all year.

MLS Expansion to Portland and Vancouver

The Vancouver will play at BC place (60,000) that is presently getting millions in renovations. The White Caps will play there for 5 years. They hope to have their own stadium called whitecap stadium.

Here is the link at proposed ideas.

http://www.whitecapsfc.com/stadium/waterfront/renderings/

This is a pic of BC Place

On 16 May 2008, over $150 million in major renovations to the stadium were announced, including seat replacement, renovations to washrooms and concessions, and the replacement of the Teflon covering with a new retractable roof.[15] These major renovations will be done in two phases. The first phase which includes upgrades to seating, washrooms and concessions and luxury suites is scheduled to be completed prior to the 2010 Olympic Games. The proposed retractable roof is being planned for after the games in 2011; however, upgrades are planned for the existing roof prior to the Olympics opening. [16]
On 9 January 2009, the British Columbia government approved the business case for a $365-million upgrade of BC Place, which will include a retractable roof estimated at about $200 million. The $365 million cost includes $65 million in interior improvements already underway, a $43-million seismic upgrade, the roof project, plumbing, electrical and infrastructure improvements and a contingency fund. BC Pavilion Corporation chair David Podmore said the retractable roof probably won't be finished until the summer of 2011[17].
Vancouver Whitecaps FC have signed a letter of intent to use BC Place for five years, beginning in 2011 when they expand into Major League Soccer. They consider BC Place to be a temporary home prior to moving into the proposed Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium.[18]

$10 Million to Concacaf from FIfa

• NEW YORK – CONCACAF will receive $10 million from FIFA for development initiatives in Central America and the Caribbean, with the aim to strengthen and enhance the infrastructure of 11 fledgling leagues in the region.“Win in CONCACAF with CONCACAF” was approved by FIFA and CONCACAF President Jack Warner on Thursday. It will be administered by Keith Look Loy of Trinidad & Tobago and will get its full launch at the May 11 CONCACAF Executive Committee meeting in New York and the confederation Congress June 1 in the Bahamas. The money will be targeted at helping the leagues in Barbados, Belize, El Salvador, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname and Trinidad, seeking to bolster areas from youth and referee programs to coaching education. Leagues will be required to establish long-term marketing and sponsorship programs, including television and new media rights distribution. Similarly, participating clubs will be mandated to establish a constitution, submit annual reports and sustainable youth programs. "This is a dream come true for 11 of our member countries,” Warner said. “It will surely help to lift the bar of football in these countries. My sincere hope is that the governments and business organisations join with us in this FIFA initiative that will take the sport to even greater heights".

IT Vancouver and Portland for expansion

This is a pic of the renovated PGE Park that will be renovated for their season opener.

"In 2011, thanks to all of you, Soccer City USA will enjoy soccer played at its highest level in North America and Portland and Oregon will finally have another major league team to call its own," said Portland owner Merritt Paulson, a former basketball marketing executive who also owns the city's triple-A minor league baseball team. "

Seattle FC

Seattle really surprised me with their attacking style. They proved right away they will be competative in the league. The sell out of over 30,000 was the impressive statistic. I will post asap about this developement

Costa Rica beats USA 3-0 to claim first CONCACAF U-20 Championship title since 1988

Congratulations to the Mighty Costa Rican u-20 national team. They won the last u-20 title in 1988. Their only other Championship. Mexico has also dominated this tournament. There were 11 other Championship for u-20 for Concacaf that crowned a champion. The record now stands with

Mexico 6

Costa Rica 2

Canada 2

Honduras 1

USA 1

CFU introduces "Vision Caribe" to spark development in region

What a crock of crap this is. One frikin 10 page document that took 2 year to research. For cripes sake, in school they give you 30 day at the most to research and write a paper that is 10 pages long." The 10-page document, presented by project committee chairman Lionel Haven, was the culmination of nearly two years of research." If you ask me Lionel Haven is on Jack Warners payroll. This all sounds great for CONCACAF but it smell like good pr for Warner.

It did not state CONCACAF would fund any of this improvments. Warner put all the onis on the countries themselves. How can Haiti invest in soccer and follow any plan when it's people are starving. Why didn't Warner promise some money from the upcoming Gold Cup.

U-20 Concacaf Championship : USA vs Costa Rica

Warner and Co did something right by making the u-20 Concacaf back to a VSchampionship format. The traveling is hard however this just make for a more interesting qualifing World Cup u-20 tournament.
The USA beat Jamaica and El Salvador and tied Honduras in group play. They had to win in penalty kicks against the host Trinidad & Tobago even with Warners presence.
Costa Rica beat mighty Mexico and the Canucks and tied Trinidad and Tobago. They also won in a penalty shoot out abainst regional rival Honduras.

These are 2 strong youth programs. Costa Rica fans feel there is a huge advantage the US has in the Gold Cup since it is played in the states. I happen to agree with them. This is a great chance for the Tico's to build thei case that they to have a Championship national team.

The game is tomorrow night ...a

Brian Perk saves 2 in penalty shoot out

I was looking for the game last night to watch but it was not on TV. It was not even on espn360.com. I think this is a big mistake not to televise these games. The u-20 and u-23 are the rising stars for US soccer. These games and players should be promoted.
The update is that the US won in penalty kicks against the host Trinidad and Tobago 4-3. However if you check Concacaf.com the score reflect that T&T won the game. Concacaf.com web site is improving but only slightly.

CONCACAF soccer fans

This is "the office" do you see any pot smokers???

A Crazy El Salvador fan

An American fan with a Brazilian fan I think

T &T fan cheering her team on

Post your best Fans pictures here. Only CONCACAF

Costa Rican Federation Balks At Choice Of Referee

The article states the Costa Rican federation thinks Terry Vaugn was unfair in the 2007 Gold Cup. Ejecting 3 Costa Rican players and other yellow to them in the match. I had to watch the match again to see it they were "wronged". Here is the link to the Costa Rican loss to Mexico in the Gold Cup.

My opinion is the Costa Rican team were a bunch of hacks right from the start of the game. They were slamming the Mexican players right and left. It was very ugly and most difficult for any ref to handel such a "hack" game. I was on Vaugh's side uptil 13:52 of this clip. Aloman comes charging in from the right side (#13) Aloman came charging in to argue the call with his hand up signaling a card. It did not appear Aloman spit, brushed or bumped Vaugh but just agrued the call. At that point Vaugh immediatly stedded back and sideways, pointed enphatically to Aloman and book him. costa rican players try to hide Alomon but it was to late.

This had a dramatic effect on the game. Costa Rican players displayed very poor play that game leading up to the red card but "that" incident did not seem to be a red card.
What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOGeoEE7nA0

Sepp Blatter wants MLs to play in Winter time

MANCHESTER, England (AP)—FIFA president Sepp Blatter wants Major League Soccer to switch to a traditional soccer schedule that starts in late summer and ends in the late spring.
Currently, several MLS teams share stadiums with NFL franchises and don’t have access to arenas on many weekends in the fall. The schedule creates difficulty when players transfer from MLS to Europe and back and causes MLS matches to be played on days set aside by FIFA for national teams.
“American football plays in winter, so they can only play from March to October, which means you are not in the right season,” Blatter said Wednesday before watching Manchester United beat Inter Milan 2-0 in the European Champions League. “The best American players are playing here, and this is the basic problem with the MLS.”
MLS has said it hopes to eventually make the switch but it can’t for now because it shares several stadiums with NFL teams. Eight MLS teams are in soccer stadiums built for the league, two share with NFL teams that are controlled by the same owners as the soccer club sand New York shares with NFL teams through 2009 before moving into its own stadium.
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DC United plays in a city-owned ground where it is the primary tenant, Houston is at the University of Houston’s college football stadium and San Jose and Kansas City are at temporary homes.
“This league was founded after the 1994 World Cup, but is still struggling to get the position they should have according to the number of football players there are in the United States,” Blatter said. “It has the highest number of young players in any sport,” he said. “But the league has not found yet its position. It can only find its position if the league has its own stadiums.”

USA eases restriction on Cuba

http://gmy.news.yahoo.com/v/12441435

I wondered who Cuba dropped from the Gold Cup. After playing the grueling Caribbean Cup and finally makeing it. The goal of all Caribbean teams is to make the Gold Cup. Your team could represent your country in the regional tournament. Your team would be treated at all the ammenaties that it has to offer. So why did Cuba drop out after they qualified. Was the government very upset that players defected? Was the Cuban soccer federation leary of the team falling apart after defections? Was it both?

Were the poor soccer players used as pawns in a political despute between the US and Cuba.

Cuba had scored the most goals in the Caribbean Cup. They seem to have good offensive flow. IT is to bad they had to drop for what ever reason.

The Groups dates are set...!

CONCACAF has just announced the dates and venues. By looking at the dates we have a good idea as to the dates for each group. Every team will have 3 days of rest and travel between venues. Warner and Co want to maximize the dollar so each venue will only have one chance to promote their double header. So here are the Groups and dates.

Group A will start in California’s Home Depot Center for the opening match July 3rd.
Each team will get 3 days break for travel and rest and then play on the 4th day. Group A’s dates will be Home Depot Center July 3rd then fly to Columbus Ohio’s Columbus Crew Stadium (20,000) and play on the 7th Then fly again to Miami to play 4 days later at Florida International University (FUI) July 10th . These are the 3 smallest venues so everyone knows the neither USA nor Mexico will be in this Group. Costa Rica or Honduras will be the top seed here. I also see Jamaica and/or Haiti in this group because both have great fans support in Miami.

Group B Will play July 4th then have 3 days of travel and rest and play on the 4th day July 8th. Travel again and rest and play on the 11th. Group B Venues will be Qwest Field, RFK Stadium and then Gillette. It is easy to see this will be the USA group. The USA will play on its Birthday July 4th. They will play in Seattle where soccer in a very high profile with the Seattle Sounders FC starting their inaugural season in MLS in 2009. Washington D.C will also host the USA team on the 8th. What better to play the national team than in it’s countries Capitol. Robert Kraft always has an influential say in NFL and MLS financial matters. The Kraft group also can promote a game and has a very strong soccer foundation with the Revolution.

Group C is Mexico’s group. This group will play July 5th in Oakland, California. Travel and rest and then on 4th day play in Houston Reliant Stadium on the 9th. From there they will travel and rest and play on the 12th in Arizona. Mexico has great fan support in LA and Houston. CONCACAF is taking a chance in Phoenix however if any national can fill up U of Phoenix stadium it Mexico.

The quarter finals go to Philly and Dallas. So I see the winner of group B going to Philly and the winner of Group C going to Dallas. There was a tremendous turnout for the Final in Chicago. I believe there were over 60,000 fans but most (over 80%) were rooting for Mexico. Chicago still will have a double header and the hope is Mexico is still alive.

This is a good idea to play only one game at each venue to maximize profits. Fans in each region will only have one chance to see their team play. Double headers will ensure a large crown at each venue. CONCACAF should increase average attendance record and total attendance as long as the USA and or Mexico reaches the semi-finals.

On the other hand this will be very hard on the teams that do not have dept on their roster. Each team will be flying all over the country. Each team will be on at least 3 planes for each match. 8 of the 12 teams will have to fly 4 times. The final 2 team will be on 6 flights before they fly home. that is some frequent flyer miles.

I will post on who I think will be in each group later…that is it for now.

Cuba is out of the Gold Cup

Wow....there has been no announcement that Cuba withdrew until now.

anyway there is a great interactive Gold Cup 2009 on concacaf.com

Haiti will take Cuba place.

Concacaf venue and dates

NEW YORK -– CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) will announce the venues and dates for the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup™ via a teleconference call on Monday (9 March) at 12:00 pm EST.
CONCACAF General Secretary Chuck Blazer will unveil the cities and stadiums that will host games for the biennial Gold Cup, the confederation’s showpiece event for men’s national teams that crowns the regional champion.
The 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup™ will include the top 12 teams from the region: Canada, Mexico and the USA from the North Zone; Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama from Central America; and Cuba, Grenada, Guadeloupe and Jamaica from the Caribbean.

Gold Cup 2007 all goals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvlxVVFIO3Q&feature=PlayList&p=8B75B685977FC9AD&index=5

Patiently waiting for the announcement for gold Cup 2009 ...Maybe you will like this vid

Impact crush CONCACAF Champions League record

I usually do not comment of club teams but this is a significant event for CONCACAF. Canada is the 3rd most populated nation (by far) in CONCACAF. I believe nations, leagues and a national team will get better if there is interest in the sport. Interest is sure building in Montreal. Montreal is part of Quebec. I note this because a few years ago Qeubec tried to seperate from Canada. I use to play puck in Montreal and the culture is very European in some parts. While viewing the impact game the colors of the impact reminded me of the French national team. MLS is looking for expansion and the Impact fans put on a tremendous show of support. Soccer is steadly increasing in the USA, Puerto Rico but the biggest increase of interest could be from Canada.