Socceragain

Talked to my excellent DCU sales rep yesterday to payoff in full my 08 season tickets (parking went up) and order tickets for A WEEK FROM THIS THURSDAY vs Olimpia, and here are some tidbits I can pass along without fear of betraying any confidences:

• DCU is expecting a good walk up crowd for Olimpia as long as it's not a totally shitty night. But.... don't be surprised if a good number of walk-ups will be rooting for Olimpia, as any game vs a Central American team draws lots of Latinos. Cool.
• The old DCU hands are very happy and encouraged by what they're hearing and seeing from the new management group. Sales rep says everything points to an ownership group dedicated to DCU's continuing success.
• The new stadium - the good news is that it will be a world class facility, the best soccer stadium in America. The bad news - he's just guessing, but early word is that supporters' groups will go to an endzone. I hasten to add that I was pushing the issue and he hastened to add that nothing has been decided whatsoever, and things are so preliminary that the issue may not have been more than loosely discussed.

But....  Don't. Fuck. With. Loud. Side.

• No signings imminent. No rumors, even.

* * * * *

A friend emailed me and asked what's happened to Wednesday soccer aggregators, and a recent post over at DCenters and the upcoming shutdown of Matchnight prompt me to urge you all to bookmark Galarcep and Goff and du Nord and to make use of other links in the blogroll.

I'll certainly be yapping about United, especially once the games start again this Wednesday in Honduras (on tape-delay at 11pm on FSC) and especially A WEEK FROM THIS THURSDAY @ RFK, and whenever it strikes me, but there's no need to cut and paste Galarcep and Goff and there is no better soccer aggregating blog than du Nord.

Having said that, here are the groups for Copa America:

Group A: Venezuela, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru
Group B: Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico
Group C: Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, United States

Here are the teams in the Gold Cup (draw next week):

• USA
• Mexico
• Trinidad & Tobago
• Costa Rica
• Honduras
• Panama
• Guatemala
• Canada
• El Salvador
• Cuba
• Haiti
• Guadeloupe

And....  let's see Zidane try to headbutt Dema. More here.

And speaking of du Nord, here's its leader, Brucio du Nord: