Missed this announcement back in late May but it's worth posting now. From the St Louis Post-Dispatch:

In 1980, St. Mary's High senior Keith Meyer was honored by Parade magazine as its high school boys player of the year. This year's All-America team, which will be featured in the Parade Magazine in the Sunday Post-Dispatch, will include two area standouts ?

We've already looked at Wigan defenders as likely cheap value this season, and today we look at a Wigan midfielder. Anyone would think I was a Wigan fan (I am not). However they are a solid squad that even the bookies think will not be relegated; most betting outlets putting them a comfortable 3 teams above the drop come the end of the season.

Colorado Rapids U23 - 3
Springfield Demize - 2
The game opened quickly Saturday night, when the Rapids Jacob Schmoker snuck a quick one past the Demize inside 5 minutes. The Rapids struck again in the 27th minute when Jeremy "JT" Howlan responded to being dispossessed in the offensive end by pursuing the defender and winning the ball back.

I'm sleepy, so let's not dillydally... #1 - The weekend Americans Abroad goal roundup won't take long this time around, but at least somebody broke the drought. For the second straight Danish Cup match, Randers FC attacker Lee Nguyen lit the lamp. Check out his opportunistic marker here. A pair of homies in Norway's second fight picked up assists: Nybergsund's Joe Lapira and Haugesund's Cameron

The Revolution today announced that Wellesley, Massachusetts native Chris Tierney has been signed to a developmental contract. The 22-year-old University of Virginia product was drafted by the Revolution in the first round of this year's Supplemental Draft and has played for the Revolution reserves three times this year as a guest player.

This week Villa players look like they might be a Good Thing. They are in fine form after thumping Man City, and this week they have a trip to Stoke - a promising fixture indeed. So who are the better options of Villa offensive players?
Agbonlahor got off to a flyer, scoring a second half hat-trick in the space of 7 minutes.

Xavi is the most consistent passer of the ball in Spain, with 2,351 passes complete, or 1.31 passes per minute. Spain's midfielder is followed by Alves, Sevilla's rightback, with a distant 1,786 p.c., and by Senna of Villareal with 1,735.
As in the C.L. Barcelona is a predominantly passing team, and the stats speak of 18,310 passes, or 16.

The Revs' Brandon Manzonelli tallied two assists off two corner kicks in the first half, as the US U-20s beat Mexico 3-0 yesterday. The match was Manzonelli's debut for the U-20s.
Read the full report at USSoccer.com.

Missed this announcement back in late May but it's worth posting now. From the St Louis Post-Dispatch:

In 1980, St. Mary's High senior Keith Meyer was honored by Parade magazine as its high school boys player of the year. This year's All-America team, which will be featured in the Parade Magazine in the Sunday Post-Dispatch, will include two area standouts — SLUH's Tommy Meyer and DeSmet's Will Bruin.

Say hello to the newest members of D.C. United - Ibrahim "Marcel" Koroma, Thabiso "Boyzzz" Khumalo and Greg "working on nickname" Janicki. We'll shortly announce that all three players have been signed to represent the Black-and-Red.

Marcel comes to the team from Sierra Leone Premier League, where he spent the last three seasons playing with Kallon FC.

The best of the worst Bundesliga "hair cuts". (BILD.de) Six goals and two assists in five Bundesliga matches = Hoffenheim's Vedad Ibisevic. (SoccerBlog.com) Olli Kahn: where has all the testosterone gone? (DW Ballspiel) Want to know more about how Stefan Effenberg mate poached Thomas Strunz's wife?

Here in bella Napoli there is much excitement over new signing German Denis, acquired from Independiente in a five year deal for €8 million. The 26-year-old came on the recommendation of last year's Neapolitan Argentine sensation, Ezequiel Lavezzi and will complete an all-Argentine attack for the Ciucciarelli.

Another exciting game tonite at Giants Stadium in front of a boistorous crowd of nearly 47 thousand tonight, as Landon Donovan manages to find the back of the net near extra time to steal a point away from the Bulls.

Down 1-0 early, the Bulls desperately fought back. Dave Van Den Bergh buried a back heal pass from Jorge Rojas.

Toronto FC have dropped French midfielder Robert Laurent and added Carlos Ruiz to their roster. The French midfielder joined TFC at the beginning of April this year and started 16 of 17 games since then. In those games he has 1 goal and 3 assists.

Carlos Ruiz joins after another short time spent with the LA Galaxy.

I'm not sure which was worse, the USL Live commentary team from Puerto Rico, or the performance of the RailHawks against the last place Islanders...
Carolina was manhandled by a Puerto Rico side that had only managed 1 previous win and 7 points in 7 games. Led by former RailHawk Jonny Steele who had two assists on the night, the Islanders managed to put half as many goals past Chris McClellan as he had given up in the 8 previous league matches.

Kelsey Finders, who will join the Missouri State Bears this Fall, was featured recently in the St Charles Journal, Finding the right position - West graduate among state's best

By Dave Benson
Thursday, June 26, 2008

A four-year starter, Finders immediately became a valued commodity in the Warriors midfield.

For those of you who haven't checked the website in the last hour and aren't on our press release list, forward Josh Wolff is back. Wolff returns to KC after spending the last couple seasons at 1860 Munich in the 2.Bundesliga. Wolff, 31, played 80 games with the Wizards from 2003-2006, scoring 27 goals (T-5th in Wizards history) and tallying 20 assists (7th in Wizards history).

A few quick items to finish the day:

*Red Bull New York has sold more than 40,000 tickets for its July 19th game against the Galaxy. Last year you'll recall New York prevailed 5-4 on a Juan Pablo Angel goal two minutes from the end of regulation despite a dominating performance by David Beckham that included two assists before a crowd of more than 66,000.

It's official according to this press release from the team, Vide is now a member of the Black N Red. Could this be the latest Red Bull New York reject to becomee a good player with United? We shall see.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 16, 2008) - D.C. United announced today the club has acquired the rights to midfielder Joe Vide.

FC Dallas has traded some allocation money and a draft pick to Colorado for Brazilian midfielder Bruno Guarda. The former Southern Methodist University player was sought after by former SMU and current FC Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman.
Here is the Press Release:

FC Dallas today acquired former SMU midfielder Bruno Guarda from the Colorado Rapids in exchange for the team's natural 2nd and 3rd Round selections in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft and a partial allocation.

Our friend Bob Rusert, regular Wizards contributor at MLSnet.com and kcwizards.com posted a nice story after Saturday's match about the debut of midfielder/forward/defender Nelson Pizarro. I list all those positions because, well, I've seen him play in all of them. Pizarro has three goals and two assists this year for the reserve team, scored one goal against Atlas AC and helped create the winner with a long run and low, hard shot that the goalkeeper couldn't save.

Nicolas Anelka has something of a bad rep for a fantasy football striker. I've never been keen on having him in my squad - perhaps I bought into all those "sulking" rumours. Or the hype that he was going to be a hat-trick-per-game striker, and then felt let down when he wasn't. Or maybe its just cos he's French.

Columbus crew have signed the midfielder from the USL's Richmond Kickers according to the Richmond club's website. Nyazamba was the USL-2 Rookie of the Year award following his 2008 season in Richmond.
Press Release:
RICHMOND, VA – (Tuesday, September 16, 2008) – The Richmond Kickers are pleased to announce that midfielder Stanley Nyazamba has signed a developmental contract with the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer, marking the 22nd Kickers player to advance to MLS.

McEvilly...thankful for the slimming effect of stripes
Salisbury head the nascent Conference table on goal difference over Cambridge. Only two sides are unbeaten through five games and every team has at least one point.
Salisbury's success, as can be seen from the tables below, has been based on making the most of their attempts and the good goalkeeping of James Bittner.

-
MLS/Craig Merz - Padula a quiet leader for Crew
Columbus has 8-0-1 record with Argentinean defender in lineup
Gino Padula has missed nearly two-thirds of the season with an injury, but has still had an impact for the Crew.
COLUMBUS -- Good luck charm or just plain good?

You only get one guess at who is leading the fans portion of voting for MLS All-Stars.  I'll give you some clues.

It isn't any of the league leading New England Revolution.

It isn't Landon Donovan - who has 9 goals and 6 assists in 9 games right now.

It is not a goalkeeper with a 0.

I want to respond to Cameron.
My original article was mainly a criticism of the love given one game samples. Such samples do show that a player is skilfull but they do not show that the player will always bring offensive production to his team. As I ellaborated on before, I think Arshavin's long-term stats do indicate he is a very good player, one who will be perhaps a top 5 player in his position in any league he joins.

Not too long ago a prominent Arsenal blogger said about Hleb's move to Barcelona:

As for Barcelona there has hardly been a word about him in the Spanish press for ages and given the money Barcelona have already spent this summer I'd say there's no chance of him going there now.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Nate Jaqua is in advanced discussions with Major League Soccer about a new contract, with a team source confirming the negotiations and another source saying the two sides are "close" to a deal that would return Jaqua to the Houston Dynamo, which he helped win MLS Cup last season.

The Cary News' Tim Candon is at it again this week, churning out another three articles on soccer and the RailHawks for this week edition. At CaryNews.com you'll find:

• Pipeline Dreams - RailHawks host Burnley as a part of exploring a mutually beneficial relationship between the U.S. and English clubs
  
• Striker swap pays dividends - Diallo assists in each of first two matches
  
• A passion for Burnley burns in Dave - England native hasn't missed a Clarets' match since 1974

If you read nothing else about soccer this week, you've got to read the last article on Dave Burnley.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The New York Red Bulls quest to find a replacement for Jozy Altidore has led them to a player who just happens to be in town this weekend.

The Red Bulls are considering acquiring Guatamalan forward Carlos Ruiz from the Los Angeles Galaxy, sources within MLS have told SBI.

I'm not sure what language this video is in. Arabic, maybe? Whatever it is, they seem to be saying that what our Nicolas Anelka did for Chelsea yesterday against AC Milan is called a "Super-Hat-Trick."

Is that what you call it when one person scores four goals in one game?

Martin Samuel reckons Man Utd can retain the Champions League this season. Fair enough. But then he said this,
"United could not take a chance on going another season without a 20-goal striker and Berbatov seems perfect for them. Even the best teams cannot stand still."
Number of EPL seasons in which Berbatov has scored 20 goals: 0
Is Berbatov a proven 20-goal striker?

Sounds to me like Toronto FC is in the Carlos Ruiz sweepstakes after all here. Today they announced the release of midfielder Laurent Robert. Robert started in 16 of 17 games scoring one goal and adding three assists. Kinda of a surprise release to me. I'm not sure if it was a personal kind of decision on [.

Djibril Cisse (daft barber not pictured)
2007/8 Review
In their first season back in the top flight, Sunderland did just enough to survive. Although he did perhaps make a miscue or two, much credit can be attributed Roy Keane's transfer policy for maintaining Sunderland's Premiership status.

Chelsea forward Salomon Kalou is not often considered one of the elite players plying his trade in the Premier League. He is not a full-time starter for his club team, has been called an inconsistent performer and has yet to bless any big games with sensational performances.
Kalou first arrived in England during the tenure of Jose Mourinho.

The Galaxy has always had a history of former players doing damage in the league. Before, I couldn't figure out if it was bad scouting that led to the release of so many players that did well elsewhere or perhaps just the natural consequence of trades, or maybe just roster limitations that did not allow the Galaxy to keep all of their players.

Fryatt...gratuitous Leicester picture #1
Shot Differential
Team Shots For Shots Against Shot_Diff League Position Leeds Utd 87 45 +42 6 Peterborough 82 47 +35 12 Leicester City 55 27 +28 3 Oldham 56 39 +17 1 Walsall 67 52 +15 10 Huddersfield 52 47 +5 17 Tranmere 48 43 +5 13 Brighton 45 40 +5 8 Millwall 35 31 +4 7 Northampton 38 35 +3 20 Bristol Rovers 56 55 +1 15 Hereford 61 65 -4 21 MK Dons 52 56 -4 5 Swindon 47 52 -5 11 Hartlepool 42 47 -5 14 Colchester 24 30 -6 16 Southend 52 60 -8 22 Leyton Orient 57 66 -9 9 Yeovil 39 50 -11 19 Carlisle 52 66 -14 2 Stockport 32 51 -19 18 Crewe 63 84 -21 23 Scunthorpe 49 75 -26 4 Cheltenham 52 80 -28 24
Shot Efficiency

Real Salt Lake announced Wednesday that the club has reached an agreement on a contract extension with Javier Morales, a deal that will keep the Argentinean midfielder in Utah through 2012. As part of the deal, RSL has purchased Morales' contract rights from UD Vecindario, a team in the Spanish Segunda Division B.

Der Bomber. He came from Veendam. He wasn't a team player. Didn't defend or trail back. Didn't take on opponents. Didn't have a lot of assists. Didn't even look like an athlete. But he scored. And he hit them hard. Volleys, half-volleys, whatever. Hard, high. Spectacular. Except for this one... :-)