Yes, so there's only like three of us here that really enjoy the sport, but i've been spending so much time really trying to learn the game recently, that you'll have to excuse me from time to time from posting something in here.
First and foremost, the U.S. National Team (the men, mind you) won their third Gold Cup this summer, beating Panama on Penalty Kicks. For those of you who don't know, the Gold Cup is competition for national teams in CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football). The win bumped the U.S. National team up to 6th in the FIFA World Rankings, which is, of course, ludicrous, but FIFA's insane to begin with so there's no surprise there.
More than anything, the win helps underline the good crop of talent we've got this generation. Oguchi Oneywu has turned out to be a good defender, and Santino Quaranta seems to be thinking about maybe living up to his potential, which would be good. However, it's a bit surprising that the Landon Donovan in Europe experiment has failed the way it has. The man only seems to be competent in the MLS, or internationally. Which is sad.
Speaking of the MLS, if you haven't watched because you didn't like the soccer they played (not because you didn't like the sport whatsoever), give it a try now. In the 10 years they've been going, the play has seen a marked improvement. It's not Serie A yet, but they're not half bad.
NOTE: If you check out the US Soccer Federation webpage, they've got some interesting Podcast interviews with Eddie Lewis, Bobbey Convey (Currently playing for Reading in England) and more.
As for Europe itself, my focus has generally been on England (easiest to follow) and the ongoing saga there has hit real levels of silliness.
First off, there's the continuing turmoil over the whole Glazer-situation. While I think it's undoubtable that a significant amount of good old America-hate plays into this, the debts that Glazer has incurred taking on this team (apparently to the tune of $1.1 Billion, with another $157M in interest) are shocking, at best. European Soccer hasn't been a money-making venture for a lot of teams (see the sordid sad stories of Borussia Dortmund or Parma) so one really does begin to wonder if Glazer is really into Manchester United only for the advertising brand, and whether he'll kill the club. Given that the man's never even been to Old Trafford, i'm left a bit perplexed.
Chelsea, as they have been in the Abramovic Era, are rich. They were easily the best in England last year, and are shaping up to be the elite again this year, bringing back estranged stiker Hernan Crespo, who shined for Italian outfit AC Milan last year, and snatching Asier Del Horno from Bilbao in Spain. They also grabbed Shaun-Wright Phillips from Manchester City, adding to their glut of midfield riches.
But all the tabloids are going agog over the on-off-on-off saga of Chelsea trying to buy Michael Essien. The Ghanan was a star for Lyon last year, driving them to a surrpising Quarter-Finals finish in the Champions League last year. They already lost their star coach (Paul Le Guen) and losing their star player would kill the team. Of course, signing Gerard Houllier as your coach will do that too.
"What about Italy?", some of you are surely saying. Well fret not, the unique brand of silliness and corruption that is the Serie A is still there. This year's scandal? The country's oldest club, Genoa, has been demoted to Serie C for Match-Fixing. Really, really dumb match-fixing. ESPN Soccernet has a good article detailing the whole idiotic situation.
I think I can better show the situation in Spain recently by using a bit of Baseball. The biggest team there (or anywhere, for that matter), Real Madrid, has spent the past few years with a "Zidanes y Pavons" policy that does not border on idiocy, but breaks right through the wall and charges into f*cktarded. The Yankees have taken this same policy, although without the "Pavons" part, suffice to say, both teams love buying big-name players for way too much money, and then wondering why they're not winning. Both teams also have a chairman who blusters and huff-bluffs whenever the team loses, although, I assure you, it's much funnier in Spain.
Long story short, Madrid bought English striker Michael Owen last year from Liverpool. They then rarely used Owen, although whenever he popped up off the bench, he generally scored. But, he isn't one of the favored few in Madrid, so the team went out and grabbed Robinho, a young Brazilian striker labled the "next Pele", like every single Brazilian striker with a lick of skill. This has placed Michael Owen on the outs at Madrid, probably headed back to England, rumor is, to Manchester or Newcastle.
Michael Owen's leaving Liverpool is probably a grand example of Bill Simmons' Ewing Theory in effect. Before leaving, Owen was the team talisman, the man the team revolved around. He leaves, all of a sudden they win the Champions Cup. Perhaps if Steven Gerrard had opted to leave for Chelsea, Liverpool might've won everything they competed in this year.
As the season goes on i'll keep this updated with links to good articles and stories, and my own opinions.
MLS has been fun this season. I know that Chivas was going to suck, but I could not have predicted how much they would suck. Kansas City should have been better too.
I wish I could afford Fox Sports World, Pred, so that I could more intelligently discuss the Premiership with you. All I know is what I get from the blurbs on the Beeb website. Drop the science though, I'll read it.
As an MLS season ticket holder since 1996 (Go Galaxy), I love this thread topic. MLS is improving. The MLS refereeing is improving (which is necessary for the preceding sentence). But much still remains to be done. We need to (a) stop/suspend the MLS season during major national team commitments (e.g., Gold Cup, WC qualifying, WC, etc.), (b) we need to stop -- absolutely curtail -- the dissent after almost every whistle, and (c) we need to educate each team's broadcast teams (every time one of them criticizes a referee's call -- and they do this often, in stern language, and usually erroneously -- they damage the prestige of the league).
I am not as familiar with the european leagues (despite having a subscription to Fox Soccer Channel (formerly, Fox Sports World)).
The FIFA Poll in which the United States were recently ranked as high as 6th are sponsored by Coca-Cola and is less than a reliable indicator of where our national team should be ranked. I prefer this poll, which currently has us as #13 in the world.
Wow. Lots of great advice there, thanks guys.
MLS is getting better; it's a better level of competition than the Mexican leagues at this point, I think.
Did anyone see that heartbreaker of a game between Wigan and Chelsea? Wigan was so completely robbed...
If you get a chance to watch the game, do. They really dominated the first half, it was amazing and pretty embarrassing to watch (if you're a Chelsea fan, anyway). You could practically see the Chelsea players with their thought bubbles over their heads: "WTF?!"
My poor Magpies. On a positive note, Norby Solano is back in the squad and he's one of the reasons I started rooting for Newcastle in the first place. If they could get Robert back on the other side, I'd be content to watch them lose.
Quick bit of Copa Sudamericana news. The second leg of DC United vs.Universidad Catolica (Chile) quarterfinal, is being shown on Fox Soccer Channel tonight at 8PM EST. The first leg was played in DC and ended in a 1-1 draw.
Hate to say it, but United is going to have their work cut out for them tonight. I was at the stadium, for the first leg, and they were lucky to get a draw. Catolica simply outplayed United for 3/4 of the game. They were intercepting United's passes all over the field. Outhustling them to the ball, and except for the lone goal, Catolica completely shut United down in the box. Of course that last part isn't too hard, if youre putting 8 men behind the 18' and United keeps trying to dribble the ball into the goal. If United could learn to take shots from outside the 18' they might be able to score a few more goals or at least create some space in the box. This style of play might be fine for MLS play, but it will never work at the international level. Still gonna be cheering my boys on though, and hope they can pull out a win, or a 2-2 draw to move on.
Also, I spotted this article on Yahoo! News and figured the fellow soccer fans would get a laugh out of it.
It's a sad time for Belgian football. Anderlecht losing their 10th CL match in a row, our national squad not making the World Cup for the first time since 1982, more than half of the players in our national league are foreigners, ...
It's hard to love the game right now *sob*
Moreover, there is no way Vincent Kompany's hanging around for more than another two years, tops.
There's been talk of his departure ever since he first showed his talent on the Belgian and European scene. Right now, at age 18, he earns the biggest paychecque of the club - and Anderlecht already is the wealthiest club in Belgium. Still, he's probably gonners after this season.
What's more, other talent Anthony Vandenborre is being approached by Inter Milan - and as rumours go, Newcastle and some other big club too. He would be stationed at another Serie A club for a year, and than get a shot at the Inter a-squad.
Looking at those facts, it's really painful to see how Anderlecht suffers on the international scene this season. Right now, we have a great mix of world class talent (Kompany, Vandenborre, Sehrat Akin, Proto) and experience (Goor, Zetterberg, Tihinen, Jestrovic) and still we get no results at all. Next year, the talent will be gone. And we'll be back at square one.
We're getting a stadium here in Vancouver for our team (The Whitecaps). Glad we're finally getting one, although I don't care about soccer.
It's even worse, this weekend Anderlecht got kicked out of the cup due to the last team in SECOND division. Insane!
How many times did Inter draw last season? It was fenomenal, and really depressing for their supporters no doubt
great links btw, good read.
I need more but i'm still a little fuzzy on places to read good non-partisan (or as close as you can get) Soccer commentary online.
Well, round here it's very hard not to get smacked in the face with football commentary, news, live coverage and whatnot so the need for online soccer commentary is rather low.
Also, take a guess how much Brazil beat the UAE by. No really, guess. You're probably wrong.
You know, I was actually right
Long shot from the record the Aussies still uphold though:
AUSTRALIA 31 AMERICAN SAMOA 0 (all scorers Australia)
- Archie Thompson 12m, 23, 28m, 30m, 32m, 37m, 43m, 45m, 56m, 64m, 66m, 88m, 90m
- David Zrdilic 13m, 21m, 26m, 34m, 59mm, 67m, 78m, 91m
- Tony Popovic 18m, 20m
- Con Boutsianis 10m, 51m, 86m
- Aurelio Vidmar 15m, 82m
- Simon Colosimo 53m, 84m
- Fausto De Amicis 55m
Archie Thompson scored thirteen times in one international game, a record too. Belgian club Lierse (champions of 1997, cup winners 1999) decided to buy him based on that match. Thompson failed miserably
Belgium u21 failed to qualify for the EC yesterday against the Ukrain, after winning 2-3 in Kiev we lost 1-3 at home. The last Ukranian goal was scored in the very last seconds. Bummer.
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