International soccer, despite the global popularity of the World Cup, is at its best, a head-scratcher. Important games, like this weekend's latest batch of Euro 2008 qualifiers, almost always come out inopportune times. Clubs hate that their expensive investments are subject to further wear and tear, or worse, without being compensated in return. Click to continue reading...

Oh dear. Things haven't been going well at Ajax for the last few years, but losing your head coach to become the top assistant at Chelsea is just another painful reminder that Ajax is no longer one of the top 50 clubs in Europe, let alone amongst the elite.
The writing has been on the wall for about 10 years now. Back when Ajax was sexy, ESPN2 showed a weekly Dutch soccer game every Sunday morning in the early- to mid-90s. Click to continue reading...

From the otherwise pointless "Beckham returns to practice" story on ESPN.com.

Los Angeles is 7-13-6 with four games remaining in the regular season and have an outside chance of making the playoffs.

So you're saying that the Galaxy could still make the playoffs, but can't possibly finish better than 11-13-6? Click to continue reading...

I've taken some shots at this uniform, so after the team never wore it at the World Cup and finished 3rd, I felt this was appropos.
Rest of post.
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So, Hope Solo is pissed, and "The Greatest Team You've Never Heard Of" is playing in the consolation game after, for lack of a better or more accurate phrase, getting its ass handed to them by Brazil Thursday.
In a week where Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy has received quite a bit of attention for absolutely melting down in anger at a post-game press conference, it's only fair that ESPN would enjoy Solo's post-game rant on head coach Greg Ryan's decision to pull her for the semifinals in favor of the more experienced Brianna Scurry. Click to continue reading...

Juventus is the most loathed side in Italian soccer for a good reason. Like baseball's Yankees, La Vecchia Signora is a team comprised of bloodless, oft-inhuman assassins who are hell-bent on destroying the weekends of opposition fans. Juve's 4-1 curb-stomping of Roma in the Eternal City two seasons ago — before the team was delightfully demoted for fixing matches — is still perhaps the signature loss of the last three campaigns for the Giallorossi, along with the historic 7-1 thrashing delivered by Manchester United in last year's Champions League. Click to continue reading...

There's crazy, and then there's the absolute lunacy of Chealsea boss Jose Mourinho quitting the Blues less than two months into the season, and in the midst of a Champions League campaign.
Leave it to Mourinho, the sports most insatiable attention whore, to steal the headlines on a day his team isn't even playing. According to early reports, Mourinho added a touch of class to his abandoning the team by informing Chelsea skipper John Terry via text message. Click to continue reading...

Today's 3-0 Champions League wins for Barcelona and Arsenal over their top group rivals, Lyon and Sevilla, respectively, demonstrate the collective power of these two teams. In fact, it's not a stretch to say that these two could be the last two standings next May when the championship game is contested in Moscow.
What you might not be expecting me to say is that I think Arsenal has a better chance of winning, and will win, the Champions League, than their Spanish rivals. Click to continue reading...

Tuesday's Champions League openers offered much in the way of uninspired English play, as both Liverpool and Chelsea came away with 1-1 draws and singe marks from the bullets dodged.
It's to be expected that upsets will happen in group play. What wasn't to be expected was the all-around shoddy performance of the Reds, who — with the exception of striker Dirk Kuyt — appeared almost ambivalent at the prospect of getting an early leg up on their group, despite coach Rafa Benitez's stated goal of earning a road win off the top, as to allow his side to concentrate on the goal of a Premier League title. Click to continue reading...

This week, in a word, is going to be absolutely bananas. Group play hath begun in earnest, though this week's slate offers up only two CL games that are a lock to be captivating. Nonetheless, for those of us without Setanta, it's our first opportunity to see the superteam that is Barça against the best side France has to offer, which alone is worth the cost of upgrading your cable package to include ESPN Deportes (which is stupidly available, at least in my area, only as a part of the Spanish package, and not the sports . Click to continue reading...

The only Euro 2008 qualifier I got to see was the second half of Albania-Netherlands. The Dutchies scored a late goal from Ruud Van Nistelrooy, your typical Ruud Van Nistelrooy goal at that, sealing a valuable three points on the road. The game was called with two minutes of injury time remaining because a firework exploded just meters from Mario Melchiot's head! Click to continue reading...

Preamble
Due to an unexpected interruption, I didn't get a chance to finish my running diary of Chivas-Galaxy....however, I felt it would have been a total waste of time if I didn't post what I had. Enjoy:
Few people have the gift of comedy; even fewer can see a golden comedic moment coming before it happens. With that in mind, I bring you a running diary of Galaxy-Chivas, live on ESPN2, sans David Beckham. Click to continue reading...

For all its unquantifiable factors such as useful statistics to compare players, one thing is clear when it comes to success in the soccer — the more you spend, generally the better you do.
The Gazzetta della Sport, the daily bible for sport in the country, recently published a list of all player salaries in Serie A. AC Milan's Kaka is the highest-paid player, pulling in 6 million Euros (roughly US$8. Click to continue reading...

After a week off from league play for Euro Cup qualifiers, we're back in action. Let's get to the games!
WEDNESDAY
Euro 2008 Qualifying
France v. Scotland
2:55 p.m., Setanta
In what's already proven to be the most compelling qualifying group in the competition, this could be the best game yet. Les Bleus are all hot and bothered over the booing of their anthem prior to Saturday's scoreless draws against Italy, which was classless and rightfully condemned by the Italian players. Click to continue reading...

I am all riled up about how the Galaxy are killing David Beckham, but this is just too good to pass up: former Ohio State president Karen Holbrook denounced the culture of rioting at the university, then later back-tracked to everybody's favorite fallback line — ...in Europe, they literally kill people at soccer matches. Oh, of course! Click to continue reading...