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.