Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is rumoured to be leaving on his jet plane again as he looks to
go back in for Portuguese midfielder Joao Moutinho. The deadline day deal for the Porto player
ultimately failed for conflicting reasons but it may seem as if the 25 year old remains the
priority target.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A57rFm8L04 With his heart stopping for more than an hour as
paramedics fought for his life last March, it seemed an impossibility that Fabrice Muamba would
rise again to walk, let alone kick a football. Fantastically, that very development has taken place
the Bolton defender has played the game for the first time since [.
The Sounders put a big dent in Chivas USA's playoff chances last week and have a chance to
finish them off with a knockout punch next week. Sandwiched between is the first of a one-two punch
against the other team vying for the playoff spot the Vancouver Whitecaps seem so desperate to
vacate.
FC Dallas won three matches in the first four months of their season - from March to the middle
of July.
I'm going to start these a little sooner this season, in part because nothing else is going on
this week (kidding!) and in part because the playoff race - at least the question of who is and who
isn't in the playoffs - is resolving remarkably early this year. If we define a team as being in
contention for a playoff spot if it has between a 20 and 80% chance of making it in, then our first
State of the Run In last season in late August had 4 teams in contention - DC United, Houston, New
York, and Chivas USA.
Last time the LA Galaxy came to town they were far from full strength. Thanks to a combination
of David Beckham's porcelain reticence to play on turf and Bruce Arena's attempt at canny lineup
shuffling with another match three days later, the Galaxy's brace of Eurostars stayed home. And
they were without Omar Gonzalez, who missed the entire first half of the season with an injury.
By Tony Edwards - San Jose, CA (Aug 30, 2012) US Soccer Players -- In Thursday's column, Tony asks
what the Revolution needs to do after Wednesday's collapse, questions the ethics of consulting with
a coach under contract to another entity, and wonders if Montreal will raise attendance by lowering
ticket prices.
Fabrice Muamba who was last seen carrying the Olympic torch from Greenwich to Waltham Forest on
July 21st announced his retirement after his doctors advised him against returning to the
sport.
As everyone in the sporting world knows, Muamba collapsed this year in March while playing Spurs
as his heart stopped beating for the next 78 minutes.
Fabrice Muamba who was last seen carrying the Olympic torch from Greenwich to Waltham Forest on
July 21st announced his retirement after his doctors advised him against returning to the
sport.
As everyone in the sporting world knows, Muamba collapsed this year in March while playing Spurs
as his heart stopped beating for the next 78 minutes.
By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (May 14, 2012) US Soccer Players -- Maybe I'm alone in this, but
my response to the final day of the 2011-12 Premier League was that playoffs are still the way to
go. Part of that was probably because I spent the better part of the afternoon watching playoff
games in the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League's version the day
before.
The Dynamo play the third game of their late August/early September six match in 19 day
gauntlet. There is plenty of good news though as we hit the half way point. The Dynamo are 1-0-1,
fresh off their first ever in Central America over C.D. FAS on Wednesday. More importantly, the
team's depth (a word rarely associated with MLS sides) stood up well in the mid week, allowing
Kinnear to hold back most of his starters ahead of this weekend's TFC match and this coming
Thursday's trip to Honduras for their second CCL match.
The aircraft carrying the defending skills for the second half arriving two hours late
Today was the first TFC home game with the new manager in charge. Paul Mariner was probably hoping,
as most of us were hoping, that he could bring to the home field all the energy of the first half
the other night in Houston without the collapse at the end of the second half.
Arsenal attacker Gervinho has identified club legend
Robert Pires as his role model and said that he wants to surpass the Frenchman's
achievements with the Gunners.
After a quiet debut season in English football, Gervinho wants to up his game significantly and
is looking at Pires' trophy-laden Arsenal career for inspiration.
In the last few days we have been discussing the collapse of the transfer market and would you
believe it, just as I get ready for the final part in the series of articles on Vapour Transfers we
find that Santi Cazorla [.
I wrote an article yesterday on The transfer market at the edge of collapse. I want to continue
the theme with an example from a completely different world the IT industry. But please stay with
me even if IT bores you stupid there's a footballing point to this.
Just when we all started to think that things were going to settle down after the Euros, there
is some good news for us all. We have another new writer for the Arsenal Offside! Some of you may
know me from the comments section over the past few seasons, but for those of you who don't, I will
try and fill in the gaps.
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rafael Van der Vaart believes that despite finishing fourth, the
Spurs were not unjustly excluded from next season's UEFA Champions League. Instead, the Dutchman
feels that his side's poor form down the stretch warranted such an outcome.
Van Der Vaart was instrumental in powering the Spurs to title contention as recently as the
opening weeks of 2012.
Arsenal v Tottenham v Newcastle: The Race for Third Place - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
It seems the competition for third place in the Premier League is now going to be decided on the
final day of the season. Here I take a look at each team's final fixture and their chances of
finishing ahead of their rivals.
If we retain the precious third spot after next weekend, will we, as fans, really be
celebrating?
I don't mean celebrating as if we won a cup, or the league. But will we really feel satisfaction
or accomplishment? I know, that with about eight weeks left, looking at the run in for ourselves,
Spurs, Newcastle and Chelsea, it was exciting.
If we retain the precious third spot after next weekend, will we, as fans, really be
celebrating?
I don't mean celebrating as if we won a cup, or the league. But will we really feel satisfaction
or accomplishment? I know, that with about eight weeks left, looking at the run in for ourselves,
Spurs, Newcastle and Chelsea, it was exciting.
With five games to go, 3rd place was in Arsenal's hands. It wasn't the season we'd hoped for,
but considering how badly we started, we looked like saving some dignity. Four games later, we are
looking at another typical end-of-season collapse.
Of course, it's nothing like last season, where the prize we'd lost was far greater.
What is it with Arsenal and their uual end-of-season collapse? What is it with Ramsey and Gibbs
being preferred to Santos and Oxlade-Chamberlain. What happened to Szczesny's safe hands? Arsenal
take the lead after a minute but by half-time they had managed to turn it around to a 2-1 reversal
by half-time, but when Robin [.
Arsenal's focus since their elimination from the Champions League by Milan back in March (or
February if you accept the tie was over after the first leg) has been on securing a top four place
in the Premier League. Tottenham's remarkable collapse has even made third place a likelihood now,
which is just as well given Chelsea might take the fourth English club place in the competition if
they win in Munich on May 19th.
La Liga 2012-13: An alternative look at the new season in Spain is a post from: Just
Football
by Ashley Escobar
It's back! Like an action movie villain with a bad attitude, La Liga sneaks
back into our psyche. Spain's victory at the European Championships is still fresh in our minds but
fresher still is their epic collapse at the Olympics (see, I told you Wales would win!
Radio Cuju is back with plenty to discuss. Sir Alex Ferguson sounds off on Luis Saurez,
Portsmouth is on the verge of collapse and there were flag issues on the opening day of the
Olympics. We also have an e-mail from a real listener, headlines and a question of the week.
Here we go again, then. This has been a summer of discontent at Old Trafford, with any
activities in the transfer market comfortably overshadowed by the issuance of and reaction to a
highly controversial IPO which has further divided supporters of a club which has seldom seemed
'United' in any sense other than in the continuing and relentless pursuit of success.
This article titled "BSkyB shares hit by cost of football TV rights 'blowout'" was written by
Rupert Neate, for The Guardian on Thursday 14th June 2012 20.47 UTC
More than £400m has beenwiped off the value of BSkyB after analysts warned that the company had
spent too much on "blowout" TV rights for next year's Premier League.
Fabrice Muamba made an emotional return to the Reebok Stadium tonight as Bolton hosted Tottenham
in the EPL, the same fixture which saw the Bolton collapse with a heart-attack in an FA Cup tie a
few short months ago.
And both sets of fans gave the midfielder a deserving hero's welcome, to the tearful and
emotional Muamba.
Seattle Sounders FC failed to generate many chances in the run of play in their loss to Sporting
Kansas City. This wasn't because of poor form, or a lack of confidence. It was because of how
Sporting defended.
There were three basic elements to what KC did that are most notable. First, was the high
pressure from the three forwards (yes, Graham Zusi was a forward on the night).
The New England Revolution and Houston Dynamo have a long history with each other. The two
rivals met back-to-back years in the MLS Cup final (2006 & 2007), with the Dynamo edging the Revs
in both contests.
The rivals are once again in competition against each other, this time for the services of
Glasgow Rangers winger Sone Aluko.
This 3 questions exchange will be a bit more abbreviated than it normally is (at least for right
now). Due to time constraints, I was able to get our questions answered by Matt Bernhardt over at
Massive Report. However, Matt has not been able to get questions to me yet, but if he does I will
post them on the end of this article once I get them answered.
After publicising the serialisation of a book telling the inside story of the collapse of
Rangers FC, the Scottish Sun has now done a major about-turn and decided to drop the feature after
their switchboard was inundated with complaints from angry Rangers fans.
Hot Cast In Old Town makes its triumphant return after a week off to review the Fire's night off
in a 4-2 loss at D.C. United, preview Sunday night's huge game against Houston, looks at the ever
tightening Eastern Conference playoff race, reviews the Klopas era thus far, discuss the Carlos
Bocanegra rumors in this week's Player Insanity, and previews the CONCACAF Champions League games
that have almost certainly already happened.
The time has finally come for Scottish football to greet the future.
What should happen when the Scottish Football League clubs meet at Hampden today?
Problems and issues should be fully discussed. Threats made by other bodies should be retracted.
Fears over the sustainability of the current incarnation of the newco Rangers should be allayed.
It was, as you will no doubt be aware by now, the twentieth anniversary of the start of the
Premier League next month, but what will likely be forgotten in the slew of retrospectives is the
fact that just three days after the behemoth which has come to eat English football in that
intervening two decades the Football League saw its last to date resignation during the season.
Toronto FC is getting the hang of scoring goals and starting games strongly, but the whole
keeping a lead thing is still a work in progress.
For the second straight match, TFC opened up a multiple-goal lead on an opponent, and for the
second straight time they watched that lead disappear late.
On Wednesday, 54-year-old Manuel "Manolo" Preciado was announced as relegated Villarreal's new
manager and the man tasked with getting the club back in La Liga as quickly as possible. A press
conference unveiling Preciado was scheduled for Friday, but early Thursday morning Preciado
suffered a heart attack and passed away.
