The Donovan talk, the Donovan debate, the Donovan backlash (in the direction Garber and the league, not Landon himself) is a swirling pool of putrid projection and condescension. You want Donovan to go back to England. Bill Simmons wants Donovan to go back to England. Your mom probably wants Donovan to go back to England.

Channel your best Jim Mora voice ... playoffs?!!?We don't need no stinkin' playoffs. Even though purported Tottenham fan Bill Simmons* had no idea that, gasp, playoffs aren't an aspect of the Premier League, Wednesday afternoon's Manchester City/Tottenham match was for all intents and purposes a playoff, albeit a playoff to finish fourth place and simply give the winner a chance to qualify for

In November, ESPN.com's Bill Simmons - affectionately known as the "Sports Guy" - published The Book of Basketball with one goal in mind: to answer every question that could ever be posed about the NBA. One of those questions deals with what Simmons calls "The Secret." Simmons learns of the "secret" on the deck of a Vegas topless pool, where he and Isaiah Thomas (the Hall of Fame point guard and former GM who was a longtime object of barbs in Simmons's columns) are hashing out their differences.

From Friday's chat with Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy:Dan (NJ)Landon Donovan playing great for Everton. Ready to jinx it for him?Bill Simmons (12:19 PM)It's very tough to root for anyone but Everton right now in EPL when they have Donovan and Tim Howard. I am an EPL sports bigamist - like Everton and Spurs.

Just sign it, "COYS! The Sports Guy" Bill Simmons: Phoenix Suns trying to erase 40 years of stomach punches It started with the Manchester City-Tottenham Hotspur game, which I watched with long-suffering City fan Marc Stein in a Phoenix hotel room. I wanted to post this yesterday as it was Simmons' big intro to his latest column.

If you're a US sports fan then you're probably familiar with Bill Simmons. The Sports Guy. He covers US sports from a non-journalistic fan perspective for ESPN, and fellow sports fans (mostly) love him for it. The man's Twitter followership is at near Ashton Kutcher levels. Though Simmons isn't exactly a soccer fan, he does seem [.

There's no point beating around the bush. The following rambling, lengthy, couple thousand word opus combines two of my all-time favorite things:1. The World Cup2. The WireAnd we're going to wrap them in the old pre-Los Angeles Bill Simmons trope of using quotations from a popular television show/movie to at least give a preview or at least overview of the Cup that isn't a cookie cutter version

There's no point beating around the bush. The following rambling, lengthy, couple thousand word opus combines two of my all-time favorite things:1. The World Cup2. The WireAnd we're going to wrap them in the old pre-Los Angeles Bill Simmons trope of using quotations from a popular television show/movie to at least give a preview or at least overview of the Cup that isn't a cookie cutter version

Wrapping up World Cup 2010 preview-cum-"The Wire."Here's Part I and Part II.* * *"I love the first day, man. Everybody all friendly and shit." -- NamonAt least for the first week or so, or until another star players is taken out by injury, South Africa will be the story of the tournament.The reporting should be all over the place.

Love him or hate him, it's hard to deny that Bill Simmons has a particular ability to tap the very soul of modern-day American sports. Sure, he spends too much time on the NBA for my liking, and he can sometimes loiter too long in the shallow end of the pop culture pool, but the man knows how to speak to sports fans.

Love him or hate him, it's hard to deny that Bill Simmons has a particular ability to tap the very soul of modern-day American sports. Sure, he spends too much time on the NBA for my liking, and he can sometimes loiter too long in the shallow end of the pop culture pool, but the man knows how to speak to sports fans.

I want to begin by stating that I am a fan of the current MLS playoffs and in general I enjoy the way Major League Soccer organizes them. Like all MLS fans, I have things I love and things I hate about the current format, style of play, and presentation. Overall, the matches this year have been enjoyable and it has been a pleasure watching them on television.

photo credit: Crystian Cruz

On the field is where it's at.

John Terry has asked that he be judged by happens on the field of play instead of by what happens in his personal life. On the one hand I want to say, "Amen, brother! Tell it all!", and on the other hand I want to say, "Can you really expect that?

We pick up "The Wire" meets the 2010 World Cup, with perhaps the biggest storyline pre-tournament. If you missed Part I, here's the link.* * *"Where is Wallace? Where the boy, String? -- D'AngeloAs we tick off the seconds until kickoff, the dominant story has been pre-Cup injuries. At the rate we've had, they're dropping off quicker than humans in a zombie flick.

Keeping sporting events like yesterday's U.S.-Algeria match in perspective is always difficult in the immediate aftermath. Reaching the Round of 16 isn't virgin territory for the U.S. and advancing past the group stages was expected, so the historical implications of this match aren't as great as qualifying for the '90 World Cup or advancing to the quarters in 2002.

ESPN's Bill Simmons is one of the great sports writers, and writes of how soccer has officially arrived in the US-
When Donovan scored that Cup-saving goal against those spineless playing-for-a-tie-when-they-needed-to-win-by-two-goals Algerians, the moment resonated like no other goal in American soccer history.

Well, other than STO and its sister sites, of course! In all seriousness, the media coverage of the 2010 World Cup has exceeded the exposure of perhaps any other sporting event in world history. Every player, manager and match has been analyzed ad nauseum by journalists and bloggers all over the world.

The purchase of Liverpool Football Club today by New England Sports Venture (NESV) brings to an end a sorry chapter in the club's storied history- the ownership reign of Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Fortunately for Reds fans such as myself, the team will soon be in the hands of an ownership group lead by John Henry that has proven to be far more competent than their predecessors.

The purchase of Liverpool Football Club today by New England Sports Venture (NESV) brings to an end a sorry chapter in the club's storied history- the ownership reign of Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Fortunately for Reds fans such as myself, the team will soon be in the hands of an ownership group lead by John Henry that has proven to be far more competent than their predecessors.