by Sean O'Conor - Most popular for 2009
Viewing all posts which authors have tagged ‘by Sean O'Conor’.
You can also subscribe to this tag's feed.
London- Watching the Miracle of Bloemfontein from England was doubly delightful as the BBC were
forced to eat their words on the US for the first time since World Cup 2002.Korea was a flash in
the pan, as the 2006 edition and the US defeat to England at Wembley last year confirmed, you
see.3-0 and 4-0 to the Spanish, confidently predicted the punditry duo of former Arsenal and
England defenders
"However, we have been evaluating the situation...We are going to do in the end whatever is
best for the Galaxy...There is always a contingency plan for everything...We are going to take it
one step at a time." If Sven-Goran Eriksson is the dullest speaker on soccer, has there ever
been a more frustrating communicator than Bruce Arena, here reacting languidly to David Beckham's
inflammatory
AC Milan have reported Oguchi Onyewu took his first steps as a rossonero today:* He landed at
8.50am local time at Malpensa airport* He took an initial medical at 10.15am at 'The Birches'
clinic* After lunch, at 3.30pm he went for fitness assessments at Milanello, the club's training
ground* Tuesday training sessions are scheduled for 9.
On the concluding day of the English regular season, Americans should be involved in two of the
three games to decide relegation from the Premier League, one to decide European qualification, and
the League One play-off final.Clint Dempsey's Fulham are gunning for Europa League qualification. A
win at home to Tim Howard's Everton will be enough to send the West Londoners into Europe for only
the
The race to win the right to host World Cup 2018 is as hot as a jalapeño.A host of good candidates
- The US of course, England, Spain & Portugal, Holland & Belgium, Russia and Australia are all
pressing their cases for hosting the big show nine years from now.But Andrew Jennings, the
investigative sports hack who has made a career of pursuing sporting, and especially soccer,
corruption, insists
'Coming up roses in Bloemfontein, it's death in the afternoon for Spain'I always love the way
nobody can agree on what they just watched together.The US played amazingly, or Spain played
dismally. This was bigger than beating Portugal and Mexico in 2002, or not as big as the World Cup,
where Spain will not make the same mistake.
Scour the website of the game's world governing body and you'd be hard-pushed to find any mention
of the biggest issue in soccer last week. Gotta love them blazers in Zurich, like the three wise
monkeys or Arsene 'I deed not see eet' Wenger when the elephant enters the room.Ah, here we are
"FIFA Media Statement: FIFA Opens Investigation" - that's better!
Barnet, of England's League Two, have a playing field which is notoriously not level. Games at
Underhill, where Arsenal's reserves also play, can make for entertaining goal-fests but the slope
means it sometimes 'just isn't cricket', let alone soccer. There is also something clearly surreal
about the Kaka saga, whose intricacies have dominated soccer news this week like a high-profile
trial.
Zak Whitbread's Millwall will take a slender lead into their League One play-off semi-final second
leg after beating Leeds 1-0 at the Den today.Lions veteran Neil Harris rifled home the only goal in
the 72nd minute with the Leeds defense in shreds following a lightning raid by Millwall's Nadjim
Abdou and Gary Alexander.
A ton of tension but not an iota of incident -the dullest final day of the EPL I can remember only
goes to prove the league does not lie.Middlesbrough and Newcastle both ran out of steam long ago
and Man U's B-team's victory at Hull leaves them with no-one to blame but themselves, apart from
Mike Ashley, whom Toon fans also hold responsible for Darfur, the global recession and the weather.
"When I think of the current generation, Lionel Messi is top-level. And although he has never taken
my breath away, Kaka has impressed. Zinedine Zidane was brilliant but without a doubt, Paolo
Maldini has been my favorite." - Alex FergusonAs most European leagues wind up, it is time to raise
a glass to Paolo Maldini, who finally hung up his AC Milan cleats today at the age of 40, after a
stunning
Carlo Ancelotti has been Chelsea messiah for one day, but has already been crucified.England's
press have passed a guilty verdict on the new man at Stamford Bridge before he has set down a
single cone in a training session. Former Blues & Marseille striker Tony Cascarino even said he
would be "amazed" if Ancelotti lasted a full season.
Fulham fans won't forget the day a music legend came to the Cottage for the day.In April 1999,
Michael Jackson showed up at Craven Cottage unannounced as a guest of owner Mohamed Al-Fayed for a
League One clash against Wigan.Jacko walked around the field beneath a Fulham umbrella before
donning a Cottagers scarf to sit in the Riverside Stand and watch them win 2-0.
# Landon Donovan has slated David Beckham for his flexi-time at the Galaxy - I wish more players
would speak their mind like this; they are in the entertainment business after all.Comments are
extracts from Grant Wahl's 'The Beckham Experiment' -Excerpts here on SI. Read the full story to
understand where Cakes was coming from.
*("there's only one Goochy") Milan have released the first pictures of our man in the red and
black, yay! Thanks to www.acmilan.com ...Gooch debuted for the rossoneri at the start of the second
half of their 2-1 reverse to Club America in Atlanta tonight, in front of 53,600 fans.*US
Confederations Cup tormentor Luis Fabiano is probably not hooking up with Gooch at San Siro after
all*Spanish
No shock after all as Argentina made it to the Finals after downing Uruguay 1-0 in Montivideo
thanks to an 84th minute goal from Mario Balotti. Emotional scenes followed the final whistle as
Diego Maradona and old Carlos Bilardo hugged each other in ecstatic relief. The albiceleste's task
had been made easier by Chile eliminating Ecuador, ensuring at least a play-off spot, Uruguay's
consolation.
London's Metropolian Police ushered Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo from his hotel to Heathrow
Airport last night, fearing for his safety after he turned down four penalty appeals for Chelsea
against Barcelona.The English FA staff who have been pushing their 'Respect' for referees campaign
all season must have buried their heads in their hands.
Reading 0-2 Burnley (0-3 on aggregate; Burnley in play-off final against Sheffield United)Marcus
Hahnemann could have played his last game for Reading after his team lost 2-0 to Burnley in their
Championship play-off second leg at the Madejski tonight.The Seattle native, out of contract at the
club he first joined in 2002, failed to help his team overcome a 1-0 deficit from the first leg,
despite
UEFA Champions League Final: Barcelona v Manchester UnitedForget Dan Brown. The real intrigue in
Rome is across town from the Vatican, and I'm licking my UEFA lips.It's the Catalans v the Red
Devils for dinner with a large helping of pre-match relish. Never mind a scandalous Norwegian
robbed Chelsea of a chance of revenge for Moscow, just sit back and enjoy the football feast.
So in the end everyone has their price and in Man U's case it was $131m to send Cristiano Ronaldo
to the Bernabeu.Real Madrid don't take no for an answer and like a besotted lover, waited forever
outside the Glazers' door at Old Trafford despite an official complaint to FIFA, regular rebuffs
and ardent denials, Sir Alex Ferguson's "I wouldn't sell them a virus" being the most memorable of
them.
1 - No complaints about the result. Brazil were too hot to handle in the second half. They had a
decent goal disallowed and created several goalscoring chances, 59% of possession and 31 shots to
our nine. We did well to hold out for so long and get so close.2 - I've always been a Bob Bradley
supporter but he has surely earned the right to carry on through 2010, barring more Costa
Rica-esque
The UEFA U21 Championship finished last night as Germany trounced pre-tournament favorite England
with a clinical 4-0 victory in Malmö, Sweden. England coach Stuart Pearce had packed an arsenal of
EPL hardware including Gabriel Agbonlahor, James Milner and Theo Walcott, and the Three Lions
looked all set to bag the trophy until an attritional semi-final with Sweden left them without
their two
Oguchi Onyewu signing for AC Milan is a great thing, isn't it? Never mind Alexi Lalas' stint at
makeweights Padova; Gooch is the first Yank at a Serie A giant and one of the world's elite. A
three-year deal expiring at the end of June 2012 is good news all round. I've seen a salary of
$1.1million a year reported but don't quote me on that.
"They didn't respect each other, they didn't like each other, they didn't talk to each other and
they merely tolerated each other on the field" - Alexi Lalas on David Beckham's LA love-in with
Landon Donovan."David doesn't say too much, but if he does you know he means it and that it is well
aimed" -Donovan speaking to the New York Times, May 2008.
"Becks faces baying mob" screamed the cover of one of London's free toilet tissues yesterday. It is
the silly season with not enough Swine Flu deaths, suicidal bankers or killer sharks in UK waters
to make a good lead story out of.Much ado about not much I want to say: The booing was nothing on
the scale of Mo Johnston's defection to Rangers 20 years ago, or an average EPL outing for
Cristiano
Oguchi Onyewu took part in his first AC Milan training session this morning in Atlanta and met the
press as a Milan player this evening at the Georgia Dome.Milan's website described him at the
presentation lovingly as "a colossus, but beneath that mountain of muscle lies a gentle soul, so
much so he calls himself emotional.
* Steven Gerrard's acquittal for affray is hard to believe given the six other accused weren't so
lucky and he had confessed to throwing "two or three punches" and being "7/10" drunk according to
the police's scale, where ten is paralytic. I'm a big Gerrard fan but not here. During the trial,
Gerrard bamboozled the London media with a northern dialect word "mither" - meaning 'bother'.
Waiting for Grant Wahl's magnum opus, I have been devouring Outcasts United by Warren St. John.The
format is familiar - an embedded reporter follows a team for a season, inviting the reader into the
family with engaging off-field human stories.The club in question are The Fugees, a team of
asylum-seekers from warzones worldwide planted by the UN into a conservative Georgia town unused to
foreign
"The best thing about him is his personality, his character - which is brilliant...and he has the
ability to put a smile on your face. He was like a father to me." Ronaldo, speaking in 2003"He is
immortal because he leaves in everybody who knows him a mark of his personality. A great coach but,
more than that, a great person,"- Jose Mourinho, todayFunny things, obituaries -they bring out the
best
London - Coming home late tonight I rubbed my eyes in semi-disbelief at the news from Upton Park.
Having worried swine flu would claim me after three colleagues had succumbed, I thought I was
hallucinating when I saw the English disease had broken out again in the year 16*.Last night the
BBC showed First Blood, in which Sly Stallone plays a veteran plagued by flashbacks.
A colorful week in Colombia's capital for me, spiced up by snacking on the Beautiful Game. Like a
medieval pilgrim seeking a shrine, the first thing I seek in a foreign capital is its stadium, and
like my ancestors, I come home with tales and tacky trinkets. My family heirlooms will include a
South Korea World Cup CD case, a Sparta Prague ashtray and an Atletico Madrid singing alarm clock
with
Recognise these happy chaps, wallowing in the champagne lifestyle as they take a stretch limo to
Stamford Bridge to watch Chelsea play Liverpool earlier this month..?They're none other than Daryll
(r) and Daryan Warner, sons of CONCACAF Chief Jack.Daryan administered father Jack's elaborate
ticket-scalping operation at the last World Cup, for which the FIFA Vice-President was found guilty
of
Robert Enke's untimely death touched us all.It's almost hard to credit given that he achieved the
sort of dreams millions of us fail to realize - representing your country, signing for Barcelona
and being in line to play at the World Cup, but his personal reasons for dying were valid for him.
Ultimately individuals make their own choices.
Ireland's exit was the stuff of nightmares if, like me, you have green blood coursing through your
veins, or just cheer the underdog.Thierry Henry of all people...I've met him twice away from
football and he is unfailingly charming off-field as he is scintillating on. But cross the white
line when the stakes are as high as a place in the World Cup finals and private pleasantries
evaporate in the
Here in London, epicenter of the soccer world (sorry), USA v Mexico has not made the news pages.
Brazil v Italy, playing here tonight, made few waves and nor has any World Cup qualifier for that
matter, as the Premier League is shedding coaches like Autumn leaves. World Cup Winner Big 'Fail'
Scolari, despite keeping Chelsea in the Champions League qualifying places, this season's Champions
David Beckham will not be coming back to Los Angeles. That is my guess anyway, based on all that I
have read over the past few days.The will of the player and of the Rossoneri should trump that of
MLS & AEG. Last Friday's ultimatum from AEG's Tim Leiweke was fighting talk, before being brushed
off contemptuously by the Italian giants: The clubs are back negotiating this week, as Beckham
himself
At Wembley this week with 85,000 others I watched David Beckham slip further off the MLS radar as
England, mirabile dictu, recorded their fifth straight win to maintain a 100% record in their 2010
World Cup qualifiers, downing Ukraine 2-1.The LA exile looked sharp, slicing the Ukrainian backline
open a number of times with the spinning crosses which have become his speciality in his twilight
After a cracking pair of semifinal deciders, the UEFA Cup Final card is complete with Shakhtar
Donetsk and Werder Bremen set to duke it out on May 20th in Istanbul. Each will be a first time
finalist in the last edition of the tourney, though Bremen did win a Cup Winners Cup back in
1992.Shakhtar Donetsk 2 Dinamo Kyiv 1 (Shakhtar advances 3-2)Hamburg 2 Werder Bremen 3 (3-3
aggregate, Bremen
Tonight (Fri): SCUNTHORPE v MK DONS, League One play-off Semi-Final 1st LegJemal Johnson is hoping
his MK Dons side can maintain their end-of-season vigor as they travel to Scunthorpe for the first
leg of the League One play-off semifinals.Roberto Di Matteo's MK team should make light work of The
Iron over the two legs, having won six of their last seven games and fallen just one win short of
*The English sack race bagged after just ONE game??? League One Norwich have fired their coach
Bryan Gunn after 90 minutes of the new league season, a 7-1 home hammering by Colchester. Here are
the Canaries in better days beating Bayern Munich at the Olimpiastadion in the 1993 UEFA Cup with
an all-British eleven.
