Adu had some moments.The U.S. Men's National Team opened up 2012 with some very interesting talking points. Certain call ups, certain omissions, scrimmages and of course the obvious questions that accompany such things. First up would be the scrimmage between the full team and the Under 23's.
The senior squad paid a lesson to the U23 Olympic team with a 4-0 dismantling of their younger brothers.

It appears to be the same old story with Arsenal... and that's a good reason for supporters to celebrate and something for the other 19 English Premier League teams to be aware of. There are two familiar story lines with the Gunners. First, you can count on Robin van Persie to find the back of the net in just about every game he plays.

By FRANCO PANIZO

Days after his head coach cited a lack of progress as a reason for his benching, Jozy Altidore responded in a big way.

In his first start for AZ Alkmaar in 2012, Altidore bagged a brace in the club's 3-3 draw with Heerenveen. Altidore scored the game's opener when he received the ball with his back to goal, turned and fired a shot to the near post.

Valencia's stop in the United States is proving quite successful.

More than a week after defeating the Portland Timbers, the Spanish club beat the Houston Dynamo, 2-1, in a friendly on Thursday night. Valencia rode two early goals from forward Aritz Aduriz to victory against a mostly first-choice Dynamo team in front of a soldout crowd of 22,039 at BBVA Compass Stadium.

Suarez begins his 8 match ban...Manchester City put three goals past Liverpool on Tuesday night despite the away side retaining a lot of possession. A goalkeeping mishap and a dubious penalty helped City on their way but despite this, Liverpool still couldn't find a goal to put the pressure on Mancini's side.

It's not all that surprising that an American scored at Goodison Park on Wednesday. After all, Everton's match against Bolton marked Landon Donovan's return to the Toffees. Thing is, Donovan wasn't the one to find the back of the net.

In open play, goalkeeper Tim Howard unleashed a long kick from his own box that took a perfect bounce from about 25 yards out and got carried by a furious wind over Bolton goalkeeper Adam Bogdan into the goal.

Chelsea lost the chance to consolidate their fourth place position in the league yesterday after they were humbled 2-0 by Everton at Goodison Park. Goals from Steven Pienaar and Denis Stracqualursi condemned Villas-Boas to his 6 loss of the season and saw Arsenal overtake them into 4th place after a 2-1 away over Sunderland.

Joyous ending

What a night it was at the Emirates. Certainly a game when one is privileged to be attending. Luckily for me, I was one of those fighting chilly weather to witness yet another Arsenal come back to go within a point of that third spot in the Premier League. A come back that was richly deserved as once again the team showed courage and desire to come out on top.

Nearly 24 hours have passed since the LA Galaxy were bounced prematurely from the CONCACAF Champions League, and I've decided that it is indeed a debacle.
This was something the Galaxy had invested heavily in, this tournament. The Galaxy fancy themselves a global club, a brand, an identity that goes beyond your average MLS club.

Mar 26, 2012

Today, Arsenal won 3-0 against Aston Villa at the Emirates. It was our seventh Premier League win in a row and that gives us a three-point advantage over the Spuds, who could only draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge earlier in the day. It was also the first time since 1997 that the Gunners had two English goal scorers in the same game.

What does a week with six draws get you? Oddly enough a good deal of movement in my power rankings.

I shuffled a couple tiers around, as the top group got one team bigger and the third tier got a few clubs larger. Really that third tier is just a bunch of mess that could either go up or down at this point.

Liverpool Lose 3-0 At Etihad

Suarez begins his 8 match ban... Manchester City put three goals past Liverpool on Tuesday night despite the away side retaining a lot of possession. A goalkeeping mishap and a dubious penalty helped City on their way but despite this, Liverpool still couldn't find a goal to put the pressure on Mancini's side.

By FRANCO PANIZO

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The second day of the MLS Combine was the first day for Ethan Finlay, who had arrived to the Sunshine State on Saturday. He had missed the first day of the event on Friday to attend the Hermann Trophy Award ceremony in St.

Why United, City and Liverpool should get three points this weekend - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

With United traveling to Arsenal and Tottenham going north to Manchester City, there's a lot to look forward to this week.

Here's a look at the top betting tips and the best matches this weekend.

By FRANCO PANIZO

It took Clint Dempsey nine years to score the first hat-trick of his career, a feat he accomplished on January 7 in an FA Cup win over Charlton Athletic.

It did not take much longer for him to do it again.

Dempsey became the first American to net a hat-trick in the Premiership on Saturday.

By Chris Wright

If I was to tell you that FC Metalist full-back Cristian Villagra scored a direct free-kick from 70 yards against Dinamo Moscow yesterday, you'd probably be envisaging some kind of hit-and-hope effort that gets carried the length of the pitch by the wind, hits a divot, bounces twice over a stranded goalkeeper and nestles soundly in the back of the net.

photo by Andrew Katsampes/ISIphotos.com

Richard Eckersley will be calling Toronto FC home for the foreseeable future.

Eckersley was signed to a permanent move with the Reds after joining the club on loan from Burnley last April, the club announced on Thursday.

photo by ISIphotos.com

By FRANCO PANIZO

In a week that saw several young and inexperienced players make their cases for more playing time on the U.S. men's national team, it was the veterans of the United States who shined brightly.

Landon Donovan was one of those players, as he inspired Everton to victory by setting up both of its goals in a 2-1 win over Fulham in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Friday.

I posed some statements to the other writers of Stumptown Footy and asked them to buy or sell the statement with a brief explanation. Here are our answers:

Kris Boyd will score 10+ goals this season. Andrew:

Sell. I've held this opinion close to my chest. I want to believe that Boyd is going to be the goalscorer the Timbers organization has cast their lot in, but to me there are still just a few too many questions.

Welcome to the video blog by Jules for Arsenalinsider.com. Jules takes us through the weekend victory over Tottenham.

Tottenham came into this match with a 10-point lead over Arsenal and it is clearly their best start to a domestic season in 50 years. Arsenal on the other hands, are experiencing their worst domestic campaign of the past fifteen years but they were determined to prove that class is permanent and form is temporary.

The Portland Timbers could not have asked for a much better start to the MLS season.

Playing in the final Week 1 match of the new campaign, the Timbers defeated the Philadelphia Union, 3-1, on a rainy night inside a packed Jeld-Wen Field. The hosts fell behind early in the second half, but responded with three unanswered goals from newcomers Andrew Jean-Baptiste, Kris Boyd and Kalif Alhassan.

It might as well have been a scrimmage for the young Americans as they put on a clinic in their Olympic qualifying opener. The US U-23 roster is stacked with talent led by Caleb Porter and with all that talent comes high expectations. The young men met those expectations and then some by cruising to a 6-0 victory over Cuba in the Group A opener.

On Sunday afternoon, the New York Red Bulls scored early and often, defeating the Colorado Rapids 4-1 in their home opener at Red Bull Arena.

Thierry Henry found the back of the net twice, his first strike coming just three minutes into the match, and was the catalyst all game for an offense that produced eight shots on goal and just missed on several opportunities late to expand their lead.

It what may have been their most emotional match to date, the young American national team saw themselves fall victim to a stoppage time goal which ended hopes of moving through to the semi-finals. Effectively the 3-3 draw with El Salvador, while thrilling, ruined hopes of seeing the American youngsters take on the world's best.

Danny Mwanga has scored in 11 of his 56 regular season appearances for the Philadelphia Union, and the squad has only lost once when he's found the back of the net. Unfortunately, his last goal came 23 games ago on June 25th. In that same stretch, Danny posted two assists (home and away against the terrible 2011 edition of the New England Revolution).

Down one goes and out the other goes

Ok, that's a lame title. Well, they are Wolves and we didn't lose, you get my drift. In essence, that's what it was. Wolves were a side low on confidence and the slightest change completely offset them. The red card ended the game as a contest and Arsenal strolled to a 5 point lead over the 4th place team.

By FRANCO PANIZO

If there was an award for the best goal scored in a season by an American Abroad, Jozy Altidore's latest strike would surely be up for contention.

Altidore scored his 14th league goal and 18th across all competitions on Saturday when he rocketed a shot from distance in AZ Alkmaar's match against PSV Eindhoven.

photo by Robin Jerstad

By FRANCO PANIZO

More than 13,000 fans turned up to see the San Antonio Scorpions in their home opener, but that was one of the only positives the first-year team could take away this weekend.

The Scorpions failed make their first home match a memorable one for their fans, as they suffered a 4-0 defeat to the Puerto Rico Islanders in front of a sold-out crowd of 13,151 at Heroes Stadium in San Antonio, Texas on Sunday.

Didier Drogba, the King of Chelsea?

Chelsea 1 - 0 Barcelona - Although the hosts played defensively, a rapid counter-attack finished by their iconic leading man, Didier Drogba, has lit the path to the Allianz Arena for the Champions League final.

Barcelona traveled to Stamford Bridge, a ground which has entertained exhilarating Champions League football in recent years between the two teams.

Major League Soccer is truly the league of parity. Week 7 of MLS action held both goals and surprises. The Dynamo took a point on the road, LA won in dramatic fashion, RSL was reduced to nine men and DC United crushed the New York Red Bulls. Pedro Gomes has your recaps this week.
Toronto FC 2, Chicago Fire 3
Toronto FC hosted the Chicago Fire at BMO Field under some blistery conditions.

By Chris Wright

Exactly ten minutes after opening the scoring in Denmark, SonderjyskE striker Quincy Antipas was shown a straight red card against HB Koge as a result of the worst, most shamefully abysmally shameful dive you're likely to see today well, at least until it all kicks off at the Camp Nou tonight anyway.

By Chris Wright

We'll have more as and when, but what follows was easily the best bit about Chelsea's result against Barcelona in the Camp Nou last night; the sensuous noise emitted by Sky Sports co-com Gary Neville as Nando rolled it into the back of the net in the 91st minute.

Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of the 19 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Sean Donahue and Ryan Lanigan contributed rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.

T1.

There's little doubt that Alan Pardew has concerns about losing Demba Ba this summer. Papiss Cisse - in action yesterday What's that ball doing there it should be in the back of the net And in last Friday's BBC Radio Five call-in he said there was some truth to the rumors about Ba having a release clause in his contract, and that Newcastle were trying to fix that by offering the Senegal striker [.

CRANSTON, R.I. Paulo Mendes scored the first goal in Rhode Island Reds history in Friday's 1-1 draw to FC New York.

Mendes' 41st minute tally tied it after Cemil Turin put New York on the board in the 8th minute. The 1-1 draw also marked the first point collected by the Reds, who dropped a 1-0 in their inaugural game last week against the Brooklyn Italians.

Liverpool defender Fabio Aurelio has sealed his exit from Anfield after agreeing a one and a half year deal with Brazilian club Gremio. Aurelio had been at Anfield for six years, but this summer saw his time expire after Liverpool released him.

The writing was on the wall for the left back when Liverpool signed former Newcastle standout Jose Enrique, and with a new manager on the way in Aurelio will be looking forward to a new start in his home country.

With the Olympics quickly approaching, it would seem the USWNT are prepared to take on whoever will be thrown at them when they head to London. Pia Sundhage's squad played a great game of football in front of a sold out crowd at PPL Park on Sunday, coming up with a big win against China. This match also marked the debut of new matching kits for both the USMNT and the USWMNT, who put them to good use.

Half-Term Analysis

So, we've reached the halfway stage of the season. The Reds sit in sixth place in the league and have reached the semi-finals of the Carling Cup, but the story of the season so far is a case of what might have been. We've lost three times, but have only been outplayed away at Spurs.

By Alan Duffy

Sunderland 1-0 Manchester City Premier League 1st January 2012

After seeing Manchester United and Chelsea both lose, and Tottenham drop two points at the Liberty Stadium, the scene was set at the Stadium of Light for Manchester City's diamond-encrusted side to move ahead in the race for the title.

Changing coaches often means changing playing styles, and the decision to hire Oscar Pareja as head coach means the Colorado Rapids of 2012 may look quite different from the teams of 2010-11.

Giving Pareja the reins of his first MLS team is going to create a roster shakeup. The Colombian, a veteran of MLS campaigns from 1998 through 2005, has already talked about the need to find a Carlos Valderrama-type playmaker for the Rapids.