According to recent reports, the most recent of which coming from BBC Sport, Simon Mignolet would appear to be edging closer to the Stadium of Light exit in favour of a move to Liverpool.
Last season was arguably the Belgian international's finest in the Premier League, and with the opportunity of joining the Anfield outfit now on the table, goalkeeper would appear to be the next spot in need of filling for the Black Cats.
This year's Confederations Cup in Brazil starts with one of the best matchups in the draw: Uruguay vs. Spain; the defending Copa America champions versus the World Cup and two-time defending European Cup champions. With star studded lineups on both ends of the pitch, this match is sure to be a fantastic spectacle of football and one that will hopefully get the world even more excited for next summer's World Cup.
Chelsea FC Have today confirmed the signing of Andre Schurrle from Bayer Leverkusen, ending what seemed to be a transfer that went on for months.
The Blues' official site announced the signing of the German star today. "Chelsea Football Club and Bayer 04 Leverkusen have reached an agreement for the transfer of André Schürrle, subject to the completion of legal documentation and related matters, including personal terms and passing a medical.
For heaven's sake David Moyes, keep ahold of Chicharito at all costs. Although Moyes may have a few other striking options in mind, and already has a few in his pocket with the likes of Robin van Persie, Danny Welbeck and Shinji Kagawa, it seems crucial for the newly appointed Manchester United manager to keep the Mexican international at Old Trafford.
After a very successful loan stint with West Bromwich Albion this past season, Romelu Lukaku looks primed and ready to return to Stamford Bridge to rejoin Chelsea. After tallying 17 goals and four assists this season in the Premier League, the 20-year-old has provided numerous insights into a bright future he has ahead.
Mario Gomez of Bayern Munich (Google Creative Commons)
Tottenham have been on a high note since Andre Villas-Boas took the reins last season. The Portuguese manager led the team to an inspired fifth place finish in the English Premier League and enjoyed the emergence and rise of one of the league's top young talents in Gareth Bale.
The 2013 UEFA Euro Under-21 Championships gives some of world football's next crop of superstars the chance to shine on the international stage. This year's installment is being held in Israel and will culminate on June 18th in Jerusalem, Israel's capital city.
The U-21 tournament is smaller than the senior version, featuring eight teams as opposed to sixteen.
Tottenham Hotspur are looking for a new striker to lead them into Champions League spots next season. The London-based club were close to making it into the big dance again this term, however, local rivals Arsenal bested them by one point to take fourth place and the final qualifying position.
Last season, Welsh winger Gareth Bale was the team's hero and leading scorer.
Arsene Wenger and his players left St James Park on May 19th with their heads held high. Arsenal had secured their 16th consecutive champions league qualification, managing to hold off their bitter rivals Spurs for another year with a 1-0 over Newcastle. Wenger returned to London with the reality that Arsenal achieved their minimum expectation for the season and have gone eight years without silverware.
Both Arsenal and Juventus have been strongly linked to Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain this summer. The Argentinian has seemingly deemed it time to move on from Madrid, though, with no manager at the helm currently, his future does seem up in the air.
Arsene Wenger has reportedly been given an incredibly large war chest to spend in this summer's transfer window.
"More Than A Club" is the well-known motto of one of the biggest clubs in the world, FC Barcelona, but outside of Spain there is not as much publicity and discussion of what that phrase really means, or how it relates to the club. Having followed the team for years before, living in Barcelona the last five months gave me a true appreciation and understanding of what exactly is meant by more than a club.
We'll make this weeks rumor mill surrounding Arsenal short and sweet. This week, Arsenal are rumored to be in line to sign Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuain according to Fox Sports. With plenty of money in their spending budget, the Gunners will look to sign the Argentine front man as he's fallen out of favor in recent seasons for Real Madrid with Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo taking the driver's seat.
The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup has kicked off and world football giants Spain and Uruguay will face off this Sunday in Recife, Brazil. The two sides are in Group B and will be expected to advance past the group stages in a rather weak group, including Nigeria and Tahiti.
Spain, the first place team in the FIFA World Rankings, have won Euro 2008, the 2010 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2012 and will be looking to add yet another international title to their impressive trophy case.
It's been almost two years since Brazil last played a competitive match. It was in a 0-0 penalty kick shootout loss to Paraguay in the quarterfinals of the 2011 Copa America. In less than 24 hours, the five-time world champions look to hit the ground running in their capital city of Brasilia against Japan.
It was Giovani Dos Santos' perfectly chipped ball into an upper right corner of a sprawling Tim Howard's net, just centimeters above the head of U.S. defender Eric Lichaj that sent El Tri to this year's edition of the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil.
But that Gold Cup Final was two years ago, and this Mexican National Team is much different.
Brazil have already qualified for the 2014 World Cup for the sheer fact of hosting the tournament, and will face a tough task of also qualified Japan, who will look to "shock" the world with a spirited performance. A load of pressure seems to have been lifted from Luis Felipe Scolari and Brazil after defeating France 3-0 in Porto Alegre in their last international friendly capping off a five game unbeaten run for the Selecao.
The group stage of the UEFA Euro Under-21 Championships has come to a close and the semifinal matchups that will begin Saturday, June 15th have been set. The matchups were decided based on how each team finished in their groups: the winner of Group A, Italy, will play the team that finished in second in Group B, Netherlands, while the Group B winners, Spain, will play Group A's second-placed side, Norway.
With less than a week to the start of the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil, many questions pertinent to the participants of the competition are being asked. Is Brazil going to be ready to host the FIFA World Cup next year, considering the persistent issues they've faced so far? Will Spain be the third country after Italy and Brazil to win back-to-back World Cup titles?
Mexico look to uphold their unbeaten run in their World Cup Qualifiers at the Estadio Azteca on Tuesday night as Costa Rica looks to further their chances of qualifying for Brazil in 2014. For Mexico who has two consecutive home draws in The Hex, Chepo will look to see a resurgent attacking threat and get back to their winning ways.
Landon Donovan of the LA Galaxy (Google Creative Commons)
At the end of July, the LA Galaxy will face seven of the world's best clubs on the U.S. mainland in a tournament called the International Champions Cup. While many of the teams participating will be in their pre-season, the Galaxy will be in the middle of their current MLS campaign.
Photo: Earl Gardner Author's note: This post takes a big picture look at John Hackworth's performance during his first year as Union manager. For an evaluation of his on-field tactical management, read Adam Cann's accompanying post tomorrow. To say that John Hackworth inherited a troubled Philadelphia Union club one year [.
The hexagonal CONCACAF qualification is heating up and as Tuesday's matches drew to a close, the United States have found themselves atop the table on ten points. In this region, the first three teams achieve direct qualification while the team that finishes in fourth advances to a playoff against the winner of the Oceania qualifiers, New Zealand.
The Cascadia Cup rivals once again did not disappoint Saturday evening as the Seattle Sounders ousted the Vancouver Whitecaps 3-2 courtesy of a late winner by Lamar Neagle. In front of a packed crowd at CenturyLink Field, Seattle jumped out to the early lead after a successful counter attack. Neagle played a perfectly timed ball to a streaking Andy Rose who then converted back post.
As a banner hanged from the box seats of the Aviva Stadium, the entire 19,000 fans packed into the Dublin Ireland venue prepared to witness history for their national team. The banner read, "Well Done Daddy on your record 126th cap."
Earlier tonight DC United played to an away draw against the New England Revolution. The Red and Black tie gives them another point for the season for a total of six points in 14 games played. Even though DCU is far away from the playoffs positions, there are still many games to be played.
There are three main things we can get out of DCU's tie:
Improvement:
Throughout this game we could see a much more offensive improvement of DCU's attacking duo.
As the summer approaches and the Confederations Cup inches closer, World Cup qualifying heats up and the CONCACAF hexagonal fourth round standings get tighter and tighter.
After the recent June matches, Costa Rica, The United States, and Mexico are tied at the top with seven points with Costa Rica leading the tiebreak with a plus two goal differential.
Lionel Messi of Argentina (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)
Almost from the first whistle in Buenos Aires, it seemed that Venezuelan referee Marlon Escalante and his officiating crew were not up for the monumental task of overseeing the World Cup qualifier between leaders Argentina and third-placed Colombia.
The United States needed a bit of last minute heroics in Kingston, Jamaica on Friday evening as the Reggae Boyz tied the match in the 89th minute courtesy of Jermaine Beckford's, only to see Brad Evans tally what proved to be the game winner in stoppage time.
On the evening, the United States held the clear advantage in terms of ball possession, but the physical nature of the Jamaican's style of play successfully disrupted the Americans play within their own midfield.
After a dramatic stoppage time win against Jamaica, the United States now find themselves in second place in the CONCACAF qualification table. This Tuesday, the US will host CONCACAF rivals Panama, who sit just one point behind the US in hexagonal qualifying, at Century Link Field in Seattle.
Both teams have a some injuries to contend with- the United States will be without holding midfielder Jermaine Jones, who has played very well of late, whilst FC Dallas forward Blas Perez will miss out for Panama.
The Seattle Sounders welcome the Vancouver Whitecaps to CenturyLink Field and expect a boisterous home support because as of Tuesday 50,000 tickets have already been sold for the match.
The Sounders will be with their designated player Obafemi Martins after he got his red card overturned that he received in their previous match, a 2-0 win over Chivas U.
On Friday, CONMEBOL qualifying leaders Argentina will host third-placed Colombia in Buenos Aires. Captained by four-time FIFA World Player of the Year Lionel Messi,theAlbicelestes are in need of only four points from the next two fixtures to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in neighboring Brazil.
Devoted soccer fans in the United States are all too familiar with poor video quality and shady feeds – even the legal ones. CONCACAF and U.S. Open Cup streaming video oftentimes makes high school sports productions look like Emmy award-winning [...]
Devoted soccer fans in the United States are all too familiar with poor video quality and shady feeds – even the legal ones. CONCACAF and U.S. Open Cup streaming video oftentimes makes high school sports productions look like Emmy award-winning [...]
SWOL correspondent Nico Cantor reports from Fortaleza, Brazil and the Confederations Cup.
Goals from Neymar, Andrea Pirlo, Luis Suarez, and Soldado marked a fantastic opening weekend in the Confederations Cup. Brazil, Italy and Spain all recorded wins with Japan, Mexico, and Uruguay all losing in the process.
Within the ergonomics and ever-changing systems of productivity in the tactical world of football, new formulas and principles are constantly fabricated by managers and players alike in pursuit of being one step ahead of the opposition.
The compendium of tactics and strategies has evolved over time from the initial, ridiculously lop-sided 1-2-7 formation of the late 1800's, to the miraculous invention of catenaccio alongside Rinus' total football and then the recent sagas of 4-4-2 variants and progressions – tactics will always and forever evolve as managers look to better their own ideas and formations, while bettering that of an opponents.
After the fiasco in South Africa 2010, Italy has been on a mission to redeem itself. The four time World champion did not get past the Group stage of a World Cup, in which they were supposed to be defending their title.
Italy has been going through a rebuilding process since then. With a dramatic change of their soccer mentality.
Revolution forward Chad Barrett and the rest of his teammates couldn't figure out the D.C. defense on Saturday. (Photo: Chris Aduama/aduama.com)
In a game both teams had chances to win, the Revs and D.C. United played to a scoreless draw. Statistics like ball possession, corner kicks, shots, shots on goal were all fairly even, as was the ebb and flow of the game overall.
Jesus Navas of Manchester City (Wikimedia Commons)
If they were slow to move in the transfer market last summer, Manchester City have certainly hit the ground running this time.
While talks with prospective new coach Manuel Pellegrini are still going on, two new signings are already in the bag, with the arrival of Sevilla winger Jesus Navas and Brazilian midfielder Fernandinho from Shakhtar Donetsk.
