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Morning Ticker: Newcastle hires Pardew, USL PRO continues expansion and more

PardewGetty

By AVI CREDITOR

Alan Pardew has been hired to take the reins at Newcastle United, after Chris Hughton was let go as the club's manager on Monday.

Pardew, who has previously managed Reading, West Ham and Charlton and most recently led Southampton, signed a five-and-a-half year deal with the club and is owner Mike Ashley's fifth coaching hire in his three years with the club.

Hughton had guided Newcastle to promotion, lifting the Magpies back to the top flight of English soccer after a rough spell for the perennial Premier League competitor. After a hot start to the 2010-2011 season, Newcastle has fallen to 12th in the Premier League table, just four points clear of the drop zone.

Pardew's first match at manager will be this weekend as Newcastle welcomes Liverpool to St. James Park.

Here are a few more stories to get your morning going:

PUERTO RICO ADDS ANOTHER USL PRO TEAM

Puerto Rico United Sporting Club has become the 15th team to join the new USL PRO league, joining two other teams from Puerto Rico in the new lower division of U.S. soccer.

Four teams from the Caribbean will now compete in the new league, with Puerto Rico United joining Sevilla FC Puerto Rico, Club Atletico River Plate Puerto Rico and Barracuda FC (Antigua and Barbuda).

A yet-to-be-announced team will be joining the league to complete the 16-club organization.

AL WAHDA ADVANCES AT CLUB WORLD CUP

Goals from Hugo, Fernando Baiano and Abdulraheem Jumaa paced Al Wahda Sports Club to a 3-0 victory over Papua New Guinea-based Hekari United in the first match at the FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday.

Al Wahda will take on Korean champion Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma FC on Saturday for the right to face Inter Milan in the tournament semifinals.

Herculez Gomez, Jose Francisco Torres, Marco Vidal and the rest of Pachuca face African champion TP Mazembe Englebert on Friday in the tournament's other quarterfinal (11 a.m., FSC).

INDEPENDIENTE WINS COPA SUDAMERICANA

Despite facing a 2-0 deficit after the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana, Argentinian side Independiente defeated Brazilian club Goias, 3-1, to force extra time and eventually penalties. Independiente took the shootout, 5-3, to win the South American club competition.

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Do you like the hiring at Newcastle? Think Hughton got a raw deal? Will you follow USL PRO? Think Pachuca can make some noise at the FIFA Club World Cup? Surprised to see a struggling team such as Independiente capture Copa Sudamericana?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Your comment was incredibly high handed, so it gives me great pleasure to point out that it is in fact you who is incorrect. Lalas was the GM of the Earthquakes, the Red Bulls, and the Galaxy.

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  2. I’m not even excited about the rest of the season right now. I read on soccernet that there’s no reward for failure at Newcastle. Except for The owner, apparently, who mismanaged the team into relegation only to be saved by a manager who put up with all the crap and didn’t just get promoted on his first try, but smashed the Championship. The fans and the town and the media would’ve gone crazy if Newcastle looked like slipping, and outside of one result in the middle of last year there was no slipping at all.

    As far as Pardew, he probably has a very low to nonexistant buyout clause, so I’d imagine the five year deal means nothing.

    If Mike Ashley wasn’t as stupid as he is, I’d almost wonder if he was trying to mastermind a demotion in order to cut costs and justify the sale of assets so when he takes a hit on a sale he pockets parachute payments and transfer fees and still comes out okay.

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  3. Los Angeles Blues LOL

    Honestly they just Just call themselves OC Blues or Socal Blues Because they are in the heart of Orange County nowhere near LA nor the county border for that matter.

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  4. He’s actually probably a Sunderland fan in disguise, trying to destroy the club from within. He’s done a pretty good job of that so far.

    I hope he shows up in person at St. James Saturday. Sadly, I don’t think he will. It would be fun to see what the fans would do. If I was Pardew, I would be scared too.

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  5. Mike Ashley is a complete idiot. As a fellow Toon fan, it sickens me what he is doing to the club. I can only hope the rumored possible takeover bids come true.

    I swear, if he sells Andy Carroll (which he says he is not for sale at any price, but he can’t be trusted), I will travel to Newcastle myself and pay him a little visit…

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  6. These Puerto Rican clubs already exist. For one reason or another they were enticed to join a US based league. Good luck to all of those teams that joined because of the supposed reduced travel cost!

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  7. Mike Ashley and Dan Snyder should get together and have a dumb-off.

    In other news, FC Sporting Real United City Puerto Rico SC have just become the fifth Puerto Rican club to join USL PRO.

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  8. A post on the 15th team but no post on the 14th team. Los Angeles Blues was just added to the USL Pro. Hopefully the 16th team will be out west as well.

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  9. 2 things:

    1. Houghton will find another job soon. Newcastle will fire another manager soon. The Newcastle supporters continue to be let down by Ashley. Too bad he didn’t sell the club last year.

    2. You thought Real Salt Lake or Sporting KC were shockingly pretentious poser names? I think Club Atletico River Plate Puerto Rico sounds by far worse, although it at least appears that their backstory provides some non-poser reasons for the name. Still, that is a mouthful.

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  10. Well, officially the NASL will be the second division, but the league is looking really shaky right now. Baltimore is taking the year off, with a hope they can rebrand and wrangle a downtown stadium from the city of Baltimore (which isn’t going to happen if DC United gets there first). Montreal is only in NASL for one more year.

    The NASL owners thought they had a better model for their future, but events are calling this into question. Right now the league is at 8 teams only, three of which are new teams or new versions of old teams. Baltimore and San Antonio may join next year, but all this seems highly speculative.

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  11. From reading about his record and the Clubs he’s managed I would say Pardew is fire by the end of next season. Seems to leave almost every club except for Reading in a worse position than he started. Newcastle will be back to the Championship in no time and probably less the talent to jump back up again.

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  12. If you’re going to trash someone you’re not even qualified to trash, at least get your facts right. Lalas has been GM of TWO teams, not three. Your lack of credibility is surpassed only by your lack of knowledge.

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  13. Well that’s it, we’re definitely going down now. West Ham fans, do not fear, the Toon will soon pass you for the bottom spot.

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  14. Yes! That’s exactly who he is!

    Why does anyone take Lalas’s opinions on soccer seriously? He ruined 3 different MLS clubs when he was their GM.

    Ashley is completely mental. Things were going too smoothly at Newcastle so you just can’t be surprised he’s gone off the deep end and done something stupid like this.

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  15. I can’t imagine the business case for travel costs of these Caribbean teams. Bet at least one or two fail in the first year, hopefully not DURING the season.

    On the other hand, soccer is so popular that a Caribbean league might make sense for these islands with populations of 500,000. They might be able to support one team rather than their village squad. Of course, many of these islands are impoverished and couldn’t afford a ticket at prices necessary to support a squad of players making $25K US a year. Though, I believe Antigue, Barbados and Aruba are fairly affluent (by Caribbean standards).

    Not sure if Puerto Rico can support three teams.

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  16. Good call, I can’t imagine a better comparison to Ashley than the clueless Lalas.

    Maybe Ashley fired his perfectly good manager to “make a splash”!

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  17. Newcastle fired their boss for being 4 points from relegation? They are also 4 points from the Champion’s league! Come on, this was stupid. I imagine Chris will receive an offer soon enough.

    Typical Newcastle.

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  18. I completely agree, but I suppose it’s standard and is a vote of confidence. Pardew must be happy about the termination payout clause…

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  19. Ives or some other knowledgable individual, what is the structure of US soccer with MLS, USL and NASL? Will this USL PRO league be recognized as the 2nd division or is it the 3rd behind NASL? Is NASL still going to be around? I guess this question is kind of redundant since there is no promotion/relegation, but doesn’t US soccer have to offically rank them?

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  20. The guys in the USL Pro team are already underpaid and now you want to take away free trips to the Caribbean for them? Do you have no soul ?)

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  21. Mike Ashley is a moron. He is the Alexi Lalas of the Premier League.

    USL Pro is looking solid thus far. It’s great to see 15 teams for the first season.

    Congrats to Independiente. Well deserved victory for them.

    C’mon Pachuca! We need a Concacaf team in the finals for once.

    Reply

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