Yesterday we learned the rules for this year's expansion draft, where the Philadelphia Union will select 10 players from the 15 current MLS teams to help to begin their process for building their roster. The Wizards are allowed to protect 11 players and 3 of the team's 4 international players will have to be protected. Click to continue reading...

Angel Martinez/Getty Images

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was Barcelona's big money signing in the summer with Samuel Eto'o and a reported £40 million going in the opposite direction to Inter Milan. Few can doubt that Ibrahimovic has ability and on his day is one of the best forwards in the world, however many have criticized him for his work rate and not everyone was convinced he would cut it in Spain.

Click to continue reading...

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was Barcelona's big money signing in the summer with Samuel Eto'o and a reported £40 million going in the opposite direction to Inter Milan. Few can doubt that Ibrahimovic has ability and on his day is one of the best forwards in the world, however many have criticised him for his work rate and not everyone was convinced he would cut it in Spain.

Click to continue reading...

Carrying on from our look at the goalkeepers and defenders in Part II, it's now time to address the midfield and forwards. Once again, note that I'm including the loanees and injured reserve guys in this roundup. Midfielders John DiRaimondo: With... Click to continue reading...

First the list, then the thought.

Goalkeeper: Zach Thornton, Chivas USA.
Defenders: Geoff Cameron, Houston; Wilman Conde, Chicago; Chad Marshall, Columbus.
Midfielders: Dwayne De Rosario, Toronto FC; Landon Donovan, Los Angeles; Stuart Holden, Houston; Shalrie Joseph, New England; Freddie Ljungberg, Seattle.

Click to continue reading...

photo by ISIphotos.com

Kenny Cooper has been struggling for playing time with TSV 1860 Munich lately, and now it appears he will have to wait even longer to get on the field.

Click to continue reading...

photo by ISIphotos.com

Kenny Cooper has been struggling for playing time with TSV 1860 Munich lately, and now it appears he will have to wait even longer to get on the field.

Click to continue reading...

A couple of forwards that have been rumored at various times to be coming to FC Dallas Click to continue reading...

Garber gave an earlier and less formal state of the league address than he has in years past in a teleconference with reporters today.

Garber announced the MLS Best XI during the call, which includes one player apiece from the Galaxy and Chivas USA:

goalkeeper - Zach Thornton
defenders - Chad Marshall, William Conde, Geoff Cameron
midfielders - Dwayne DeRosario, Landon Donovan, Stuart Holden, Shalrie Joseph, Freddie Ljungberg
forwards - Conor Casey, Jeff Cunningham

Other major talking points included:
*A reiteration MLS is looking to become a 20-team league.

Click to continue reading...

Major League Soccer announced its Best XI on Monday, with no real surprises among the selections.

MVP finalists Landon Donovan, Shalrie Joseph and Jeff Cunningham headed the group, while MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Zach Thornton also got the nod.

Here is the MLS Best XI

GOALKEEPER- Zach Thornton

DEFENDERS- Chad Marshall, Wilman Conde, Geoff Cameron

MIDFIELDERS- Landon Donovan, Shalrie Joseph, Stuart Holden, Freddie Ljungberg, Dwayne DeRosario

FORWARDS- Jeff Cunningham, Conor Casey

What's our take?

Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Major League Soccer announced its Best XI on Monday, with no real surprises among the selections.

MVP finalists Landon Donovan, Shalrie Joseph and Jeff Cunningham headed the group, while MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Zach Thornton also got the nod.

Click to continue reading...

MLS announced it's 2009 Best XI today and one Fire player, defender Wilman Conde, made the list. It's the first time on the Best XI for the 27-year-old Conde, who made the list despite missing 11 regular season games due to injury.

The honor caps a solid season for Conde, who was a rock in the back for the Fire and even contributed two goals and two assists on the year.

Click to continue reading...

An injury-riddled, star-lacking USMNT team lost 1-0 to Slovakia over the weekend. I didn't watch, so I don't have much to add.
Seems like a fair result on the road. Here's the tweaked lineup for the upcoming Denmark friendly:

GOALKEEPERS: Brad Guzan, Marcus Hahnemann, Troy Perkins.

Click to continue reading...

The USA played the first of its pre-World Cup friendlies against Slovakia on Saturday. With nothing to play for, Bob Bradley utilized the opportunity to test his team's depth. The results? Despite the 0-1 defeat, there were more positives than negatives.

Most promising of the group were the performances of our center backs and central midfield.

Click to continue reading...

In the famous words of Alan Partridge the French spend all their time chomping on onions going he hor, he hor, he hor! This of course, is not true, as a European footballing nation only the Italians and the Germans have a better record. Jealous? We sure are.

For those of you who were to young to remember, the French had a sensational side in the 80's winning the European Championship in 1984 and reaching the World Cup Semi's in 1982, before the Germans cheated their way to the final.

Click to continue reading...

The Wizards season is over and it's time to take a look at how the Wizards players stacked up this season grade wise. It wasn't a good season and many of the players grades reflect that. Some fan favorites suffered for the way the team had played this season as well. You can check out the midseason grades here. Click to continue reading...

A Slovakian team that was (apparently)Â good in European qualifying, but not well ranked by FIFA, Â played a defensive, counter-attacking game against the USA in a partially filled stadium, on a pretty ugly field and won 1-0 on a weak penalty call. Â Â Not what you call must-see-TV, so it is probably good that not many people saw it.

Click to continue reading...

The U.S. national team returns to action for the first time since qualifying for the 2010 World Cup today when it takes on Slovakia in a friendly in Bratislava (10am, FSC).

The Americans are without Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, as well as the injured Oguchi Onyewu and Jay DeMerit, but there are still plenty of starters who will have chances to show they can play without the team's top players.

Click to continue reading...

It doesn't take a genius to work out that Man Utd are not the team they were last year with the only loss to the team being Cristiano Ronaldo. Wayne Rooney has been given much more of free role and is playing better than he ever has but he can't do it alone. Just like Ronaldo needed Rooney in the team Rooney, needs a Ronaldo and Antonio Valencia just isn't it. Click to continue reading...

In an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, Mauro Zarate's brother & agent said that if Zarate is not called up by Maradona, he will consider an offer made by the Italian football federation to play for their national team.

Zarate has an Italian passport which would clear the way for him to play for Italy.

Click to continue reading...

Russian ace wants to quit White Hart Lane.

Portsmouth Vs Tottenham Tickets Still Available!

Join Our Facebook Fan Page for the Latest News/Rumours/Forums/Videos/WAGS/Funny Stuff/Features!

Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko is planning showdown talks with manager Harry Redknapp after the international break during which he will "insist" on being allowed to leave the club in January.

Click to continue reading...

Goalkeepers:
Sintaweechai Hathairattanakul (Persib Bandung - Indonesia), Kittisak Rawangpa (Osotspa-150 Saraburi FC)
Defenders:
Suree Sukha (Chonburi FC), Sutthinun Phuk-Hom (Chonburi FC), Nattaporn Panrit MuangThong United), Panupong Wongsa (Provincial Electricity Authority FC) ,
Nattapong Samana (Chonburi FC) , Kiatprawut Saiwaew (Chonburi FC) Peter Lang (FC Schaffhausen - Switzerland)
Midfielders:

Suchao Nuchnum (Persib Bangdung - Indonesia) , Surat Sukha (Melbourne Victory - Australia)
Sutee Suksomkit (Melbourne Victory - Australia), Rangsan Viwatchaichok (Provincial Electricity Authority FC) Nirut Surasiang (Hong Anh Gia Lai - Vietnam) Dasakorn Thonglao (Hong Anh Gia Lai - Vietnam) Therdsak Chaiman (Chonburi FC)
Forwards:
Teeratep Winothai (Muangthong United) Teerasil Dangda (Muangthong United) Pipat Thonkanya (Persisam Samarinda - Indonesia) Anon Sangsanoi (Bec Tero Sasana FC) Click to continue reading...

Anybody else read Loney's description of Preki... "But he can't run an offense, can't start the right forwards, can't put in the right forwards, can't find the right forwards, can't keep a roster consistent, can't keep his players healthy, and only... Click to continue reading...

The Football Is Fixed blog is three years old tomorrow.
We intend for this next year to be our final one for the blog.
We originally established a strategy allowing for an exit route after either four or five years (either 11/11/10 or 11/11/11 for the numerologicals among you).
Following recent events, we are plumping for 4. Click to continue reading...

Jonathan Greening was on our radar for some time over the summer, and when he eventually arrived, on a poorly disguised loan agreement (he's ours after the season), some were concerned that we had paid too much for an ageing player with no re-sale value.

For one thing, re-sale value is nice, but how often do we actually find players we can sell on for big money these days?

Click to continue reading...

Saturday
Sporting the new uniforms for fall the lady warriors broke open the 2009 OPL Tournament with a scoring barrage against PCU Impact.
Following a rain-out [vs. OSA Inferno] at PCC Rock Creek the game originally slated for 7:30pm, against PCU, was moved up to 4:30pm and move to the REC Center. Click to continue reading...

With the Gunners virtually playing every team of the park it got us all talking, how good is their current squad and were they right to get rid of some of those has beens? Here's our Ultimate 11 of players that have at one stage of their career either played for the Gunners or been on trial. Our conclusion is Wenger was right with the exception of Palios and Upson, what are your thoughts?

Click to continue reading...

We've covered the forwards, and we've covered the front office. Heck, our front office results actually have been 100% correct so far, with Tom Soehn leaving the team and Kasper and Payne set to return. We'll have to wait a while to find out if our forward results are correct, but in the meantime, let's see what everyone has to say about our attacking midfielders. Click to continue reading...

This was brought to my attention in the play-by-play thread on Bigsoccer: Did you notice that MLS has changed its rules for playoff yellow card suspensions? I'm not sure if this was put into place this year or last year, but it definitely was not the case as of 2007. Two yellow cards in consecutive games mean a suspension. Click to continue reading...

Copa Sudamericana reached the semifinals, two Brazilian clubs had the chance to be in the final 4. However, only Fluminense did so. Flu visited Universidad de Chile and one more time relied on Fred. The ex-Lyon seems to be playing for all the matches he did nothing since the beginning of the year.

Click to continue reading...

The US Under-17s are out of the Fifa U-17 World Cup after a tough loss to Italy.  I saw less of their World Cup play than I wanted, but a few thoughts remain hard to shake.

Maturity is over-rated at least in soccer.  The game against the UAE reminded me most why watching the occasional youth game is so refreshing: even in a pressure situation the 'kids' tend to play with an offense-first mindset and a penchant for flair that will very likely (and sadly) be taught out of them in the pro ranks.

Click to continue reading...

Via the official Web site...

Tell us your background as a player in Scotland.
My footballing background goes back many years. I was a player in my younger days and I had a number of trials around some of the local teams, but never really made it onto the big stage. I was a big fan of football as well.

Click to continue reading...

I've been a little bit surprised by some of the fan reactions we've seen over the past few days since the announced departure of Tom Soehn as head coach of DC United. The most common sentiment has been "Thanks for your service", which is nice, but maybe not entirely genuine coming from the same people who were writing (and probably chanting at games) "FIRE SOEHN" so frequently in the past.

Click to continue reading...

If the Chicago Fire were hoping for reinforcements to bolster their chances against New England in Saturday's second leg playoff match, they'll have to look beyond Gonzalo Segares. The defender is currently listed as out for the upcoming do-or-die encounter set for Saturday at Toyota Park.

Click to continue reading...

If the Chicago Fire were hoping for reinforcements to bolster their chances against New England in Saturday's second leg playoff match, they'll have to look beyond Gonzalo Segares. The defender is currently listed as out for the upcoming do-or-die encounter set for Saturday at Toyota Park.

Click to continue reading...