Daily Sweeper, 08.28: Plenderleith Rains on Parade; Alexi Speaks, Doesn’t Make Sense

Some days I understand why Brucio from du Nord just goes wacky with the links.  There’s a hell of a lot out there.
- Ian Plenderleith closed his FC Dallas celebration for USSoccerplayers.com by (merrily?) grumbling about last week’s Wunder Rumor about Frank Yallop stepping down and Jurgen Klinsmann stepping in to save the LA Galaxy.  [...]

Antonio Puerta has passed away

Antonio Jose Puerta Perez
November 26, 1984-August 28, 2007
Sevilla’s Antonio Puerta has passed away at 2:30 local Spanish time on Tuesday in Sevilla’s Virgin del Rocio hospital.A statement from the hospital reads as follows.
‘We regret to report that the patient Antonio Puerta died at 1430 (1230 GMT) today. The death was caused by postanoxic encephalopathy [...]

MLS Week 21 Power Rankings: Tiers of Clowns

Dang me, but those troubling philosophical questions won’t stop coming. Why do I continue ranking these teams by number knowing that, in my head, Major League Soccer’s (MLS) 13 teams actually cluster into “quality tiers” – i.e. groups of one, two, even four teams? The reality is the teams don’t line up in [...]

CHI’s NCAA DI 2007 Men’s Soccer Season Preview

CHI’s NCAA Men’s Preseason Division I Top 25

(in all honesty it’s an aggregate of Top Drawer Soccer’s and the NSCAA’s)
Updated Aug. 14, 2007
CHI Rank) Average-NSCAA Rank-TDS Rank School [2006 Record]
1) 2.5-1-4 UCSB [17-7-0]
The Gauchos – as returning NCAA champions – take the honor of pre-season #1 knowing full well that a hard season lies ahead. [...]