11.8.13
ASN Morning Read: The Winter of Clint Dempsey
The Seattle Sounders star's season ends a bit earlier than he'd like; so does Landon Donovan and Omar Gonzalez's, but not hero Chris Schuler; Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a big jerkface bully.
BY
Jesse Yomtov
Posted
November 08, 2013
9:32 AM
In last night’s MLS playoff action, the Los Angeles Galaxy’s dream of a three-peat came to an end, losing 2-0, 2-1 on aggregate to Real Salt Lake. It took extra time, but in the 102nd minute Chris Schuler scored his first career goal to put RSL through to the Western Conference finals. See you in Scotland, Donovan and Gonzalez?
In the other Western Conference semifinalthe Portland Timbers beat the Seattle Sounders 3-2, 5-3 on aggregate. Portland had a 3-0 lead just minutes after halftime, but DeAndre Yedlin and Eddie Johnson pulled a couple back for the visitors. The Winter of Dempsey Discontent begins.
A few years after a well-documented scuffle with Oguchi Onyewu, Zlatan Ibrahimovic got into it with another American player. During PSG’s 1-1 draw with Anderlecht on Tuesday in the Champions League, he took issue with Sacha Kljestan’s moustache. "After a perfectly normal challenge, Ibra turned to me and provoked me, making a joke about my moustache, saying: 'That really is terrible,'" Kljestan said. "I responded by saying that he should think about his nose."
Perfect response.
In the Europa League, Terrence Boyd scored two headed goals for Rapid Vienna in a 2-2 draw with Genk. Of course he did. Elsewhere, Aron Johansson went the full 90 for AZ in a 1-0 win over Shakhter Karagandy, all put guaranteeing the team a spot in the knockout stage. Brad Friedel started for Tottenham in a 2-1 win over Sheriff Tiraspol of Moldova, becoming the oldest player to ever start in the Europa League oldest player to ever start in the Europa League.
The New York Times has a great piece by Sam Borden on 13-year-old Ben Lederman, who has spent the last two years training at La Masia, Barcelona’s famed academy. Ben wasn’t made available, but it’s amazing hearing what his parents have to say about uprooting the family from California two years ago to move to a foreign land. The language barrier proved very difficult, as Ben had to learn Spanish and Catalan, while also taking a second language (French) in school. Apparently you don’t get the same kind of shouting soccer dads as you do here. “There’s some cheering, but not as much,” Ben’s mom said. “It’s more serious. It’s like everyone knows what is at stake.”
Tony Quinn/isiphotos.com
