Monday Night Football: Anschutz Reportedly Bidding to Buy Newcastle United, College Tournament Match-Ups Set & More
No blogging today since I spent the day at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown L.A. for the 11th annual Hollywood Symposium (the precursor to Tuesday's Honda Player of the Year announcement).
A mostly tedious event was saved (in part - the muffins helped, too) by the presence of a rumpled and relaxed-looking Alexi Lalas who I chatted with for Tuesday's column about the shaky performance of the Mexican National Team (ever-politic Justino Compeán, president of the Mexican Football Federation, was one of the three speakers) so far in World Cup qualifying. (The FIFA guy droned on in Spanish for over an hour reading - I kid you not - from slides he was displaying. You could actually feel the audience tense up when a slide was particularly wordy).
Column done (check back for that Tuesday morning), let's catch-up on the news of the day:
*Galaxy owner Phil Anschutz is reportedly in the running to buy troubled Newcastle United of the EPL. That would fit Anschutz' bottom-feeder mentality, excuse me, shrewd strategy of buying undervalued properties, and might actually give the Galaxy its first partnership producing tangible results in terms of player loans and the like (no, we don't want Joey Barton). DuNord has a comprehensive round-up of which (mostly) English newspapers are saying what here (you have to scroll down to England news).
The NCAA announced its women's Division 1 and men's Division II post-season tournament match-ups late this afternnoon.
UCLA (18-0-2) hosts Fresno State (11-8-2) 5:30 p.m. Friday at Drake Stadium and Long Beach State (14-4-4) plays the University of San Diego (14-4-2) at the same site in its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance with the two victors meeting Sunday. USD beat Long Beach State in October so revenge is a factor here.
USC (15-4-1) plays Boston University (15-5-1) in Utah Thursday.
For the fourth consecutive year the No. 4 Cal State Domnguez Hills men will host the NCAA Far West Regional in Carson beginning Thursday. Action begins with CCAA Champion Sonoma State facing Cal State L.A. at 4:00 pm followed by CSUDH-Notre Dame de Namur in the Track and Field Stadium at Home Depot Center.
The Cal State Dominguez Hills women play San Francisco State Friday in Bellingham, Wash., in the NCAA Far West Regional.
The Galaxy's Tristan Bowen of Van Nuys and Chivas USA's Jorge Flores of Anaheim were named to the U.S. Under-20 Men's National Team Roster for a eight-day training camp in Spain that begins Saturday.
Finally, the Galaxy Under-16's beat their Chivas USA counterparts 1-0 last weekend, while the Galaxy Under-18's downed Chivas USA 3-0.
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About 100 Percent Soccer
Sportswriter Nick Green has written the 100 Percent Soccer column since 2005 for the Daily News, Daily Breeze and other Los Angeles area newspapers. The blog of the same name began in 2007. A native of England, he began writing about soccer in the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat in the stands for one in the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer and is married to a long-suffering soccer widow. Join Nick on FaceBook and follow him on Twitter.
Nick, don't forget that if Anschutz buys Newcastle United, he will be able to have influence in the most popular and profitable soccer league in the world. That's AEG's goal -- despite the fact that Tim Lie-weekly said at Beckham's introductory press conference last year that AEG has no interest in owning a Premier League club.
If Anschutz buys Newcastle United, the fans there will love him! If they rejected Ashley, they're eventually going to have a full-scale revolution against Onkel Phil. I can just see the pitchforks and torches now...