SoccerBlogs

The excellent weekly radio football show Cafe Calcio returns to the air next Friday, and for this series one of its regular features will be the Street Pharmacists Guide To Football. Here's co-host Chris Roberts on the more-ish effects of the Premier League for the supporter of a newly-promoted club.

It's all back. The League, the buzz, the anticipation, even typing that blasé headline has me tingling, everything's back.

Arsenal start at home. Martin O'Neill's Sunderland provide the first hurdle. Big games are just around the corner and the transfer scene is very much alive, but once again we're at the time where the next game means more than anything else.

Arsenal have continued to make impressive signings this summer with the capture of Malaga midfielder Santi Cazorla. Aside from the Robin Van Persie saga, Arsene Wenger will consider this a successful summer in the transfer market so far.

Cazorla joins after being mentioned with regards to an Arsenal move for a few weeks now.

Robin van Persie may have picked up all the accolades but Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny is fully aware that the impact of Thierry Henry's loan spell midway through the season played an instrumental role in reviving the Gunners' Premier League season.

In particular, Szczesny recalls Henry's last-gasp match winner in the 2-1 win over Sunderland on February 11.

Ibrahim Affelay who never really jelled at Barcelona having been injured for long spells in his two seasons departs for FC Schalke on loan with an option to buy. He will reunite with his old PSV Eindhoven coach, Huub Stevens. The German club sent Juan Manuel Jurado to Spartak Moscow which means Affelay is expected to fulfill the attacking midfielder role.

On the road tonight...so here is a post from the vault featuring Timbers' VP of Marketing Cory Dolich. We completed this chat just weeks before thei Timbers kicked off their inaugural campaign in MLS.

Over the last couple of years, we have conducted interviews with a number of marketing professionals throughout MLS.

Just last month, the Montreal Impact signed their first ever Designated Player, coming to an agreement with the Italian ace Marco Di Vaio. Di Vaio was one of the greatest scorers in Serie A history, scoring 142 goals in 342 matches.

Before the Italian has even stepped onto the pitch with his teammates (transfer window does not open until June 27th), reports have the Impact in talks with another Serie A veteran.

There's been some recent buzz around the Houston Dynamo, and it's not all centered around the brand spankin' shiny new toy, BBVA Compass Stadium. As we continue to count down the final week until the first Houston Dynamo home match on their pretty new pitch inside their absolutely gorgeous new stadium, an announcement was made which has polarized certain entities and united others.

The Americans start group play against France at historic Hampden Park, the only Scottish venue for the Summer Games. One can barely move around in London without noticing something that has to do with the Olympics, but the buzz in Glasgow just isn't the same. Some 37,000 fans are expected for the U.

The buzz is all about James Milner missing what should have been an easy as pie goal. Add Joe Hart's bumbling attempt to stop Samir Nasri's shot which had pace but could have been easily saved near post. England could have pulled it off despite the soft centre where France won the possession game and looked extremely threatening especially just before half time.

Some teams still haven't played their first games but Euro 2012 is well under way now, and the fans filling up public places around the cities of Poland and Ukraine have been getting into the spirit, enjoying fine weather and local hospitality across the eight venues staging games.

Recently Soccer Speak USA, a humble blog of ideas that was created to help act as discussion tool and more optimistically, a catalyst for change at the grassroots of U.S. soccer – surpassed 5000 hits.

Not a number that screams ‘listen to my me because my ideas are great' but rather an indicator that there are indeed people out there that believe soccer can reach its potential in this country through innovative approaches to help foster a cultural shift in the big four ‘Americanized' sports of NFL, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey.