denime
08-20-2008, 06:31 AM
Toronto FC picks up Guatemalan striker as Edu leaves town
Johnston trades for L.A.'s Ruiz, waives Robert; Edu transfer to Scotland all but official
Morgan Campbell
Last week, word circulated that Toronto FC had sold midfielder Maurice Edu to Glasgow Rangers for $5 million (U.S.), but the team elected to stay silent on the deal, even as news reports multiplied.
Yesterday, TFC made plenty of noise.
Hours after finally speaking out on the Edu deal, TFC director of soccer Mo Johnston released underachieving midfielder Laurent Robert.
Not long after that, the team agreed to a deal with the L.A. Galaxy to bring high-scoring Guatemalan forward Carlos Ruiz to Toronto.
Ruiz, 28, has scored 82 goals in 150 career MLS games, but struggled to find a place in a Galaxy front line that already includes two of the league's three top scorers – Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle. He has scored just once in 10 games this season and has been the subject of trade speculation that intensified since the team jettisoned GM Alexi Lalas and coach Ruud Gullit resigned last week.
Read more (http://www.thestar.com/Sports/Soccer/article/481822)
BMO Field could go to grass thanks to Edu
NEIL DAVIDSON
Canadian Press
TORONTO — Maurice Edu is headed for greener pastures with Glasgow Rangers. But the U.S. international midfielder could leave a green legacy of his own in Toronto.
Mo Johnston, director of football for Toronto FC, said Tuesday he may try to use his club's share of Edu's US$5-million transfer fee to replace the FieldTurf at BMO Field with natural grass.
The sale, widely reported on both sides of the Atlantic, was finally confirmed by Toronto FC on Tuesday, pending the 22-year-old California native securing a work permit to play in Scotland. The delay in confirming the deal was due to MLS red tape.
One-third of the transfer fee goes to the league, which as a single entity owns the rights to all its players, and two-thirds to Toronto's coffers. Of that, $500,000 will go towards player allocation money — which can be spent over 18 months starting next year, used on salary or to buy a player — with the rest earmarked towards the club's soccer operations such as facilities and youth programs.
Read more (http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080819.wspt-bmo19/GSStory/GlobeSportsSoccer/home)
Canada home to Jamaica in World Cup qualifier
Home has not always been so sweet for the Canadian men's soccer team.
But coach Dale Mitchell will attempt to start a new chapter when Canada hosts Jamaica in a World Cup qualifying game Wednesday night at Toronto's BMO Field.
Although it’s the opening contest of the semifinal round of qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup, it is still, nonetheless, crucial for Canada to walk away with a positive result against the Jamaicans.
Canada earned a single point out of a possible nine from its home matches in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers.
Four years earlier, Canada earned just four points of a possible nine at home.
Little wonder, then, that Canada has only qualified for the World Cup once, in 1986.
Canada, ranked 79th in the world and fifth in CONCACAF (the soccer confederation that covers North and Central America and the Caribbean), is in a round-robin group with No. 32 Mexico, No. 61 Honduras and No. 108 Jamaica.
Each team in Canada's group plays the other at home and away with the top two advancing to the final round of qualifying for the region.
Of those final six teams, three go to South Africa with the fourth looking at a playoff against the fifth-best team in South America.
Read more (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2008/08/19/soccer-canada-jamaica-preview.html)
'I'm so proud of her'
Cousin's Beijing bronze lifts De Rosario ahead of qualifier
By MIKE ZEISBERGER (mike.zeisberger@sunmedia.ca), SUN MEDIA
The moment Canada's underdog hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep crossed the finish line to snatch Olympic bronze in Beijing yesterday, Dwayne De Rosario was overcome with pride.
Having accrued 49 caps with Canada's national soccer team, De Rosario knows how it feels to thrust your chest out whenever you glance down at that red-and-white maple leaf on your jersey.
The moment proved extra special for De Rosario as he sat halfway across the world watching on TV as Lopes-Schliep celebrated her performance by draping a huge Canadian flag over her back.
Lopes-Schliep, you see, is De Rosario's first cousin, the Canadian midfielder revealed yesterday after the team's mid-day workout.
"I'm so proud of her," De Rosario said. "It's already been a great week for the family. Hopefully, I can cap it off and make it a better one."
Read more (http://www.torontosun.com/Sports/OtherSports/2008/08/20/6510466-sun.html)
Canada has the right stuff for rocket ride to South Africa
Cathal Kelly (http://www.thestar.com/opinion/columnists/94561)
It's a little like a moon landing, this World Cup qualifying lark.
Stage One of the CONCACAF qualifying was just getting everybody on the rocket and going through the checklist.
Canada's checklist goes like this: "Did Dwayne De Rosario and Julian de Guzman get on board?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, close the door."
While the real tadpoles played through that first stage, Canada got to go through the checklist a few more times.
Stage Two was a little test flight with St. Vincent and the Grenadines, just to prove that the rocket can crack gravity. A 7-1 aggregate manhandling of the Caribbean minnows proved that the ship appears to be working. Most importantly, nothing broke.
Now, we're at Stage Three – actually in space. This is where things go to varying levels of tricky.
Canada has to navigate through three opponents – Jamaica (tricky), Honduras (very tricky) and Mexico (Kreskin tricky). Just as importantly, they need to get everything going in the right direction.
Ahead of tonight's first of six games in Stage Three (Canada vs. Jamaica, 7:30 p.m., BMO Field), one thing should be clear. This is doable. Canada is good enough to make South Africa 2010. But they need to figure out what kind of team they're going to be. Tonight we'll get our first indication from a short squad under head coach Dale Mitchell.
Read more (http://www.thestar.com/Sports/Soccer/article/481823)
SUNSHINE (http://www.torontosun.com/SUNshineGirl/home.html)
Johnston trades for L.A.'s Ruiz, waives Robert; Edu transfer to Scotland all but official
Morgan Campbell
Last week, word circulated that Toronto FC had sold midfielder Maurice Edu to Glasgow Rangers for $5 million (U.S.), but the team elected to stay silent on the deal, even as news reports multiplied.
Yesterday, TFC made plenty of noise.
Hours after finally speaking out on the Edu deal, TFC director of soccer Mo Johnston released underachieving midfielder Laurent Robert.
Not long after that, the team agreed to a deal with the L.A. Galaxy to bring high-scoring Guatemalan forward Carlos Ruiz to Toronto.
Ruiz, 28, has scored 82 goals in 150 career MLS games, but struggled to find a place in a Galaxy front line that already includes two of the league's three top scorers – Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle. He has scored just once in 10 games this season and has been the subject of trade speculation that intensified since the team jettisoned GM Alexi Lalas and coach Ruud Gullit resigned last week.
Read more (http://www.thestar.com/Sports/Soccer/article/481822)
BMO Field could go to grass thanks to Edu
NEIL DAVIDSON
Canadian Press
TORONTO — Maurice Edu is headed for greener pastures with Glasgow Rangers. But the U.S. international midfielder could leave a green legacy of his own in Toronto.
Mo Johnston, director of football for Toronto FC, said Tuesday he may try to use his club's share of Edu's US$5-million transfer fee to replace the FieldTurf at BMO Field with natural grass.
The sale, widely reported on both sides of the Atlantic, was finally confirmed by Toronto FC on Tuesday, pending the 22-year-old California native securing a work permit to play in Scotland. The delay in confirming the deal was due to MLS red tape.
One-third of the transfer fee goes to the league, which as a single entity owns the rights to all its players, and two-thirds to Toronto's coffers. Of that, $500,000 will go towards player allocation money — which can be spent over 18 months starting next year, used on salary or to buy a player — with the rest earmarked towards the club's soccer operations such as facilities and youth programs.
Read more (http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080819.wspt-bmo19/GSStory/GlobeSportsSoccer/home)
Canada home to Jamaica in World Cup qualifier
Home has not always been so sweet for the Canadian men's soccer team.
But coach Dale Mitchell will attempt to start a new chapter when Canada hosts Jamaica in a World Cup qualifying game Wednesday night at Toronto's BMO Field.
Although it’s the opening contest of the semifinal round of qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup, it is still, nonetheless, crucial for Canada to walk away with a positive result against the Jamaicans.
Canada earned a single point out of a possible nine from its home matches in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers.
Four years earlier, Canada earned just four points of a possible nine at home.
Little wonder, then, that Canada has only qualified for the World Cup once, in 1986.
Canada, ranked 79th in the world and fifth in CONCACAF (the soccer confederation that covers North and Central America and the Caribbean), is in a round-robin group with No. 32 Mexico, No. 61 Honduras and No. 108 Jamaica.
Each team in Canada's group plays the other at home and away with the top two advancing to the final round of qualifying for the region.
Of those final six teams, three go to South Africa with the fourth looking at a playoff against the fifth-best team in South America.
Read more (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2008/08/19/soccer-canada-jamaica-preview.html)
'I'm so proud of her'
Cousin's Beijing bronze lifts De Rosario ahead of qualifier
By MIKE ZEISBERGER (mike.zeisberger@sunmedia.ca), SUN MEDIA
The moment Canada's underdog hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep crossed the finish line to snatch Olympic bronze in Beijing yesterday, Dwayne De Rosario was overcome with pride.
Having accrued 49 caps with Canada's national soccer team, De Rosario knows how it feels to thrust your chest out whenever you glance down at that red-and-white maple leaf on your jersey.
The moment proved extra special for De Rosario as he sat halfway across the world watching on TV as Lopes-Schliep celebrated her performance by draping a huge Canadian flag over her back.
Lopes-Schliep, you see, is De Rosario's first cousin, the Canadian midfielder revealed yesterday after the team's mid-day workout.
"I'm so proud of her," De Rosario said. "It's already been a great week for the family. Hopefully, I can cap it off and make it a better one."
Read more (http://www.torontosun.com/Sports/OtherSports/2008/08/20/6510466-sun.html)
Canada has the right stuff for rocket ride to South Africa
Cathal Kelly (http://www.thestar.com/opinion/columnists/94561)
It's a little like a moon landing, this World Cup qualifying lark.
Stage One of the CONCACAF qualifying was just getting everybody on the rocket and going through the checklist.
Canada's checklist goes like this: "Did Dwayne De Rosario and Julian de Guzman get on board?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, close the door."
While the real tadpoles played through that first stage, Canada got to go through the checklist a few more times.
Stage Two was a little test flight with St. Vincent and the Grenadines, just to prove that the rocket can crack gravity. A 7-1 aggregate manhandling of the Caribbean minnows proved that the ship appears to be working. Most importantly, nothing broke.
Now, we're at Stage Three – actually in space. This is where things go to varying levels of tricky.
Canada has to navigate through three opponents – Jamaica (tricky), Honduras (very tricky) and Mexico (Kreskin tricky). Just as importantly, they need to get everything going in the right direction.
Ahead of tonight's first of six games in Stage Three (Canada vs. Jamaica, 7:30 p.m., BMO Field), one thing should be clear. This is doable. Canada is good enough to make South Africa 2010. But they need to figure out what kind of team they're going to be. Tonight we'll get our first indication from a short squad under head coach Dale Mitchell.
Read more (http://www.thestar.com/Sports/Soccer/article/481823)
SUNSHINE (http://www.torontosun.com/SUNshineGirl/home.html)