Courtesy of SportsCenter:
Reminds us of the tug of war over former Melbourne Victory player, Fred, with DC United.
In the end, Earthquakes get Jones, Kedah get an extremely small transfer fee and a bag of balls and everyone goes home happy.

Here's some random news out of Belgium (via Soccer Times) that is almost as random as yesterday's "player-turned-padre" piece. It's seems that our Gooch is now their Gooch as well: Oguchi Onyewu has been awarded Belgian citizenship, which should help him in his quest to land in a major European league.

US vs. Barbados
5p ET/2p PT
TV: ESPN2
Internet: ESPN360
Text call: Matchtracker
The US is less then an hour away from starting their long road to South Africa and Bob Bradley has released his lineup. Needless to say, there are a couple surprises. First of all, Guzan will start in goal instead of Tim Howard.

There was a bloodbath in Los Angeles today as Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas got the boot and coach Ruud Gullit packed up his balls and went home. The official story is that he resigned. There's a chance it may actually be true. LA fans aren't hugely surprised by the Lalas news. He [...]

Football star and prophesier Cristiano Ronaldo announced his future moves, today. During the 30-minute interview session, the famous number seven was candid and controversial about his future.

"I will perform many stepovers in the next few days – mostly over wine bottles and sleeping supermodels.

Thursday's news balls, inflated to the max Deuce Bigalow (aka Rob Schneider) snapped wearing West Ham shirt. Oh, and drunk [The Offside Rules] C-Ron says his move to Real Madrid is "non-negotiable". Fergie might have something to say about that...

Can you spot the Matildas in the photo and not just the Wannabee's
Wannabee's Matildas flocked to show their skills to World Cup hero Caitlin Munoz and Asian Cup star Amy Chapman on a cold Friday night at Dickson Oval.
The usual training session was taken by not one, but two, of Australia's star players.

Last night's 1-0 win Guatemala played out almost precisely as the archetypal result of the Bob Bradley era as US coach. The US comes with almost zero competent midfield play, relies on pounding balls downfield to relieve defensive pressure and eventually hangs on for either a goal of a set piece or the opposition doing [.

Something to read while you learn that honesty is always the best policy... Some brief love for Ji-Sung Park (Man Utd Offside) Raul really likes playing for Madrid (The Spoiler) Amr Zaki - unsurprisingly good (Kornheiser's Cartel) Balls through the ages (Football Filter Blog)* The future of Dutch football (Netherlands WCB) Man City - poorer than advertised (The Run of Play) Ten [.

Cockney Irishman, ex Millwall stalwart, and now a respected columnist in the times today wrote a rambling article about the importance of pace in, especially Theo's, game today. I think that this is rather sad. That the difference isn't about how good your ball skills, which you have worked on since when you were five, but about something that is innate to you; you were born with it.

The LB/Sideline View Readers vote for the 2008 Honda Player of the Year is in. I just sent my vote over, about 11 hours before the polls close.
If our readers' opinions are any indications, a certain English-based player will win in a landslide.
There were 26 first-place votes submitted - 18 of them were for Tim Howard.

FC Dallas has announced the acquisition of forward Jeff Rowland, who signed a senior developmental deal with the club prior to Monday's roster freeze deadline.Rowland, 24, was selected second overall in the 2006 MLS Supplemental Draft by Real Salt Lake, but never played a game for them after tearing his right ACL in preseason.

Friday's news balls Spanked by Yanks West Ham lost 3-2 to David Beckham's MLS All-Stars. [The Spoiler] Unsafe hands Spurs keeper Paul Robinson off to Blackburn in a £3.5m deal. Robbo will replace Brad Friedel, who is off to Aston...

Nick at We Want Rapid Man takes a look at Bouna's situation. The Denver Post also covers it here. It looks to be headed down the same path that lead Herculez Gomez to Kansas City. Will things turn around? Will we see Bouna in nets for the Rapids again? Or could we see him traded to a team looking for a goalkeeper?

Oh no.
Martin Samuel is at it again,
"When David Beckham was at his peak, England had a secret weapon, because he was the best deliverer of a dead ball in the world."
David Beckham can longer kick still balls. He tries but during the run up to kick the ball he gets tired and has to rest.

The Red Bulls visited the supposed "worst team in the league" today, but if you pulled a footie fan off the street and asked who was the expansion team in the match, they would have a pretty tough time finding the right answer. San Jose has new life with Huckerby up top, and it showed today. If not for an Eric Denton own goal, San Jose would have been celebrating their first win in .

I think if there was ever any doubt that Pia Sundhage is the ideal coach for the U.S. women's team, they've been erased. In gold.
This piece highlights some of the reasons why her approach works.
I can't help but wonder if the men's senior team had taken a similar chance, had been willing to go a different route and stretch their concept of the game by bringing in someone who looks at play in a fundamentally different way, if they might not be better off in the long run.

Last-gasp Lahm slams the door on bold Turkey
Paul Doyle:
Brave Turkey finally downed by luck and Lahm
Martin Rogers:
Germany more lucky than good
Low takes the plaudits for turning Germany around
A thunderstorm that cut power supplies interrupted coverage for millions of television viewers watching Germany's thrilling 3-2 semi-final win over Turkey at Euro 2008 on Wednesday.

Well, this is embarrassing. I did a quick rundown of Euro 2008 Player of the Tournament candidates last night, and there was one name I forgot: Xavi Hernández.

And guess who UEFA has named as player of the tournament this morning? That's right: Xavi Hernández.

I'm pretty sure UEFA did this just to make me look bad.

Tonight I've decided to try something new. I'm typing up this blog entry and will post it once I get home (I'd have posted it from here, but I can't get any WiFi signal here at Haws Field). Hopefully this goes pretty well.

After last weeks loss, BYU coach Chris Watkins talked about using the remainder of the season to get younger players some time as the Cougars build toward next season.

If we want a positive spin, it's this. Everything went wrong from United, and they only lost by a goal. Twice shots rattled off the woodwork. A Jaime Moreno penalty was saved. The first Chivas goal was a result of Clyde Simms and Bryan Namoff falling down one second and twenty yards apart. The second was some muddled attempt at breaking out.

From the SE's web site: He's the typical MLS winger, fast, industrious, goes in for 50/50 balls, etc... Where is crossing the ball on that list? I am not sure I've seen him put in one decent cross yet, not one. I know the league isn't great, but I would hope the "typical MLS winger" occasionally put [.

that was just plain bad tonight. The Wizards facing another undermanned team (as many as 8 starters missing) and lay a complete egg in DC losing 2-0. The first shut out of the season for Zach Wells and DC United. Yet again, the Wizards offense looked anemic, refusing to take shots until it was too late and then putting them wide or straight at the keeper.

Your team just got handed the largest defeat in international competition of an MLS team to a Caribbean side, ever..... in your home stadium.....But that doesn't mean you can't have your own corner of the 'net (the kind that you don't have to worry about putting balls in).
We came across this tidbit:
Hello internet world.

A knee-jerk reaction to the Premierships 1st casualty. After their best start in 9 years, my beloved West Ham have again made another balls-up by losing yet another manager. West Ham released this Statement an hour a ago: "West Ham United can confirm that Alan Curbishley has tendered his resignation as manager and that it has been accepted.

On paper a home game against Premiership newbies Hull City should an easy three points. But life isn't paper and the reality is that Hull will not come to the Emirates and lay down.
They have a manager in Phil Brown who is basically a Sam Allardyce clone. He will have seen the problems that Bolton caused us under Fat Sam and will try to replicate them.

This morning's top football stories... John Terry (pictured) thinks he's fully recovered from his foot injury. Avram Grant, he say 'No, no, no!' The Sun Global opposition to the Premier League's 'international round' is growing so fast that North America...

All those years of planning, and Switzerland's journey in the European Championships is over. None of this is to say that they have played badly. Indeed, they were better team against the Czech Republic and were desperately, desperately unlucky to be knocked out tonight by a late, deflected goal in a match that they had dominated for long spells.

1. The Fantastic Four : With David Villa's injury-time winner for Spain, we now have confirmed winners of all four groups, after only two rounds. Spain, Croatia, Portugal and the Netherlands will all win their groups regardless of the results in the final round. Good for them. Bad for their groupmates, who now have only four quarterfinal spots to choose from, all of them leading to an immediate matchup with one of the leaders.

Around the soccer blogosphere, Euro 2008 & more.

• HEGS Argentinian awards - vote now! (Hasta El Gol Siempre)
• Barbadas national team accepting applications (Deadspin)
• Which is better: football on TV or in person? (Soccerlens)
• Euro 2008: parade of passion (Don Rodriguez)
• Iran's President & their World Cup campaign (So Many Balls)
• Leigh Genesis?

Watching football, even at 4.30 am, is fun! Henke Larsson will be able to head balls on the cross bar when he is 73 years old. Frank Rijkaard is mentioned in the Portuguese Press as Scolari's successor... Russia still plays in all-red kits. Scolari's biggest strength by the way, is his communications with the

They're a little late, but here they are. They're also available at kcwizards.com.
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS HEAD COACH CURT ONALFO
On the game
"It was an extremely hard-fought game. All I care about is three points. In this league it's not always about how pretty it is, but at the end of the day it's about getting three points.

That Columbus Crew team that tore up MLS the first month of the season just might be back. Okay, so it was just one win against a shaky Colorado squad, but seeing Robbie Rogers work his magic and Emmanuel Ekpo run rampant sure made the Crew look pretty dangerous.

Unfortunately for Rapids fans, the under-achiving and points-dropping squad they have grown accustomed to in Colorado also appears to be back.

(I've been gone awhile. I may talk about it later. For now, we stick to the football.)

In week 4, this would have seemed a pretty solid result. Now, though - eeugh. That was some ugly sheet, mang.

Not ugly from a technique standpoint, really. The passing in MLS can surprise me sometimes now, and the quality of the balls Conde and Segares (from one end) and Conrad (from the other) were serving up made it look like these teams were actually, honestly playing long-ball, and not just hoofing the damned thing every chance they got.

For the upcoming Premier League season, I have one wish. If you're a neutral follower of the league, as I am, all I wish is that we can find a team that has the balls to play attractive, attacking football and that isn't afraid to go for the jugular against the Big Four. Simply put, I'm [...]

Soccer - Back to school sale is on at Soccer Nation. Calle hats, Calle shirts, Calle shorts, Umbro and Joma indoor shoes, are on the list of the back to school sale. Also don't forget check it our Calle balls and Futsal balls that are also on sale. Lastly we have recived a whole bounch of new [...]

NYRB 2 TFC 0
You could ponder tactics and strategies when you try to think about TFC's loss today, but it would lead you nowhere. It was not a game of match-ups and styles. It was more of a simple tale of talent and luck. New York had both. Talent does not have to show up for long. New York proved that today.

Football isn't helped by the fact that players are willing to endorse anything if the money is right.
New designer gear is just a load of balls

Match preview by du Nord Women's Soccer Major Tournament Correspondent Adam.
-Thu Aug 21
USA v Brazil
Kicks off at 8am central time.
See it live on USA Network.
US Takes on Brazil for Gold
The USA's semifinal win against Japan can teach them a few things about their clash with Brazil for the gold medal.

I am. I'm absolutely tired of him playing for Arsenal. After watching his terrible marking allowing a goal versus Fulham yet again today, I've decided I've had enough. I'm not the manager obviously, but if I was I'd sell him right now. I'd rather have Senderos than Gallas back there. He doesn't work well with Toure and he has no commitment to the club.