In Ireland, there is lots of grass, lots of potatoes, lots of Guinness and lots of supporters of both Manchester United and Liverpool. It's the latter factor that has turned Knock Airport into an unlikely battle ground for some Manc-Scouse banter. The airport's first-choice rendez-vous point is signposted as RVP 1.
1. Get Thierry Henry on the phone Tel could give Van Persie an assessment on the results of leaving
Arsenal when you're the teams talisman. He could explain that the grass isn't always greener and he
may well be looking for a loan move back in a couple of years to give him a break [...]
Paolo Di Canio says he is tempted to slap Sunderland youngster Connor Wickham to ensure he fulfils his potential. The Black Cats boss is keen to see the 20-year-old live up to the expectations that came when he arrived on Wearside from Ipswich for £8.1 million two years ago. He said: "Maybe, with this guy, [.
The Moldovan pitch at the Zimbru stadium may be in an inadequate state at the moment, but that's
still no excuse for England when they play their World Cup qualifier against a country ranked 141th
in the world by FIFA tonight.
Sure, the 10,400-capacity venue isn't as polished as Wembley, but then again, not every football
team gets to play in a multimillion airline-sponsored stadium.
Holland striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar was transformed into a grass-eating miss after a sickening
clash of heads as his scored his side's second goal. He collided with England defender Chris
Smalling as he headed in from close range. Smalling left the pitch on a stretcher, although was
talking to medical staff beforehand.
Grant Wahl, the ever present soccer journalist, had an interesting tweet yesterday with some potential for Portland to host one of those upcoming USMNT World Cup Qualifying matches. According to him the US Soccer Federation has softened its stance on temporary grass laid over turf for the purposes of hosting World Cup Qualifiers.
The new turf at CenturyLink Field has passed FIFA's test, receiving a two-star,
professional-grad rating. This is hardly a surprise, as the turf was also two-star rated in 2009
and most, if not all, the artificial turfs in MLS are also two-star rated.
"The new turf field is a big plus for us from the standpoint that it's going to play much truer
to grass.
There seems to be little debate: A perfect grass pitch is almost always preferable to an
artificial one. There are plenty of studies that suggest that's ridiculous and some of the newer
surfaces may actually be superior to grass, but the perception is there. Here's the thing, though:
As long as the Seattle Sounders play at CenturyLink Field, we should expect them to play on some
sort of artificial turf.
Gary Lineker has caused outrage after using his broadcasting slot on Al Jazeera's Champions League coverage to compare a Muslim prayer goal celebration to eating grass. Way to play to the Al Jazeera crowd, Gary. Lineker was commentating on highlights of Karim Ait-Fana's goal for Montpellier against Schalke when he said: "A terrific effort from [.
1. Now Manchester City know what it's like to be on the receiving end of an epic 3-2 comeback. At least no trophies were on the line this time. 2. Roberto Mancini is presumably wishing that all parties had taken his advice about Cristiano Ronaldo taking a six-month sabbatical seriously. 3. Somebody at Channel 5 [.
Feels a little weird to start off talking about another club in a match which doesn't involve
us. Or does potentially involve us, seeing that if Chelsea do win the Champions League and doesn't
finish in third place. Combined that with us finishing lower than where we are now, there will be
no Champions League for us next season.
Prior to the first leg of Milan's Champions League quarterfinal against Barcelona, fans at the
San Siro assembled a Pac-Man mosaic that featured the classic video game character chasing down a
ghost in the colors of Barcelona's away kit. The text on the banner in the middle of the display
read "Let's eat them!
Sky Sports reporter Geoff Shreeves did his best to endear himself to Chelsea fans by going on TV to
announce that he had snitched on Raul Meireles to UEFA. The ex-Porto midfielder had received a warm
welcome from the Benfica supporters. Shreeves said there were suggestions that Meireles had
responded by making a gesture towards [.
We learned quite a bit from Canetti from the live chat, and this just furthers my appreciation.
He is very open and forthright about subjects, as he will tell you just as much as he can without
getting in trouble. Anyways on to the bits of news.
3rd Jersey will arrive June 16 against FC Dallas
Somewhere around 10,000 spots around the stadium
They have sold "north of 10,000" season tickets sold
There will be a "spacious" team store that will have exclusive items
All seats will be installed in "another month or so"
Dynamo have been close "on a number of occasions" to nabbing a DP and are still actively
searching for one
BBVA will host 2 Champions League games, 1 international Dynamo friendly, and hopefully
international games without Dynamo and national team games
Maura Gladys, as usual, with pinpoint accuracy on the state of the
USWNT
It's interesting what we talk about when we talk about the USWNT these days. The lineup is
stable, their form has been great, and there is little room to nitpick their play on the field.
The Seattle Sounders restart their MLS campaign with a quick trip to Quebec to face the Montreal
Impact. Seattle is a good team when they see an expansion team for the first time 2-0-2. With
Osvaldo Alonso out for his suspension there was some question about who would start in the
defensive mid, that's been answered with Andy Rose.
In Matt's previous house there was a photo on the wall. It was of himself, sat on the grass, legs
crossed, head bowed beneath his baseball cap. The picture was taken at Belle Vue as Doncaster
Rovers took on Hull City. The date, Saturday 4th April 1998. The time, just after ten past three.
The piece of grass on which Matt was sitting, the centre-spot.
This hilarious footage comes from the Russian second division clash between Yenisey Krasnoyarsk and
Shinnik Yaroslavl. The teams are about to start the pre-match rituals when the anthem starts
booming over the PA system. The cameraman, not yet in position for the traditional walk along the
line, starts to run, slips on the grass and [.
The U.S. U-17 WNT had two training sessions today in Guatemala as it continues preparations for the
2012 CONCACAF U-17 Women's Championships that will send three countries to the 2012 FIFA U-17
Women's World Cup. This was the USA's "hard day" and the team will start to taper into the matches
from here on.
As was reported at IMS back in late February, major renovations are under way at the Puerto Rico
Islanders stadium, Juan Ramón Loubriel. Recently it was announced that there were delays in the
first phase of the construction and the mayor of Bayamon had decided to place real grass in the
stadium instead of turf.
Last night we brought you the photo of Klaas Jan Huntelaar eating grass (the eyes follow you). Now
the gang at 101GG have tracked down the GIF version, complete with attempts to get the striker to
part with his mouthful of Wembley turf.
A nasty mashing of the heads occurred during the Dutch victory over England during the
international friendlies will surely have all clubs involved utterly thrilled to send everyone off
to the next midweek friendly. The two gentleman in question, Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Chris
Smalling, both landed in the hospital, with Smalling sounding the worse of the two despite the fact
that he wasn't semi-conscious at best, having a turf dinner and especially since Huntelaar scored
on the play.
Today's first practice at CenturyLink Field on the latest installation of FieldTurf saw Seattle
Sounders FC focused on primarily on short passes and dribbling to learn how it plays. While the
in-fill still sits rather high, there will be some noticeable rooster tails. This is the latest and
greatest of the technologies from FieldTurf and the vibe around the team was generally
positive.
With the regular grass-based football world powering down for a few months, we've had to go
a-searchin' a bit further afield for our fix a search which has seen us stumble upon beach
football.
As you may or may not be aware, the European qualifiers for the 2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
are rumbling on at the moment, and the lastest batch of games have produced a flurry of fantastic
overhead kicks, beginning with Amarel's (Spain) acrobatic effort against Ukraine.
Spain vs France: 2:45pm ET TV schedule Buy Spain and France shirts Many soccer fans will be
salivating over today's match between France and Spain. If you like your soccer served on a platter
of attractive football, with the ball skimming the grass...
With Greece down 1-0 in the Euro 2012 opening match after an early goal from Robert Lewandowski
for co-host nation Poland, getting the tournament's first red card just before halftime seemed more
than enough to finish them off, but it actually brought them and the match to life.
Already carrying a yellow card, Greek defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos was booked a second
time and sent off by Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo for a soft challenge on Rafal Murawski
that came after the Polish midfielder already slipped on the grass.
Fortuna Dusseldorf's Bundesliga promotion/relegation playoff against Hertha Berlin teetered on
the edge of mayhem before eventually succumbing to a premature pitch invasion that probably helped
them hold on for the victory.
Dusseldorf won the first leg 2-1 and took a quick lead in the second leg by scoring in the first
minute.
Your whistle-stop guide to the latest Premier League arrivals Name: Yoan Gouffran Age: 26 Position: Striker Signed from: Bordeaux Fee: Undisclosed Did you know? Gouffran is allergic to grass. His condition was described as "embarrassing" by former coach Jean Tigana. What's the deal? The Magpies were impressed by the pacy striker when they faced him [.
After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of
the New England Revolution players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5
average, 10 perfection). This week Sean Donahue and Julian Cardillo contributed ratings for theÂ
New England Revolution's 2-1 loss to the Montreal Impact.
The Great Britain football teams arrived at the Olympic Village in London
yesterday and immediately began to suss out the place to look for potential "hotspots". We're just
kidding of course, but after what USA goalkeeper Hope Solo told ESPN earlier this week, you'd be
terribly naive to think the Olympic village is a place for £8 curry rice and card games!
Well, well, well isn't this the tumble from grace.
From one of South America's most coveted young defenders to the glorious footballing landscapes
of a very specified patch of grass in Munich, Germany to the tortured structure of a jail cell for
torching his (rented) family home last year.
I really have no particular affinity for or hangups with any of the European Championship teams.
This is a little odd for me because in club soccer I'm known to arbitrarily pick a side and then
live or die with them as if I was born on their home stadium's hallowed grass. But international?
I'm a USMNT fan, of course.
In anticipation of Euro 12, Dutch supermarket chain C1000 produced a music video featuring stars
of the Netherlands team and hundreds of the little birdie toys they're offering fans/potential
shoppers.
During the video, you'll see Nigel De Jong's teammates sticking the orange toys to his head,
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar almost eating one (but it wasn't made of grass, so he didn't), someone putting
three on a kebab stick and grilling them, plus Arjen Robben sticking them to his backside and
bending over.
Posted today on the KC Star's music blog, Back to Rockville, is the comment that Journey, Pat
Benatar, and Loverboy will be coming to Livestrong Sporting Park on August 31st. That's not out of
the ordinary, LSP has hosted concerts in the past and will be hosting concerts this summer,
including another Buzz Beach Ball on Saturday June 2nd.
'The Twilight Zone Nightmare At 20,000 Feet' since you asked one of Dani's very first acting
roles, long before he went 'method' and started all that awful rolling around on the grass at the
Nou Camp......
Soccer fans all know the moments when even live the world moves in slow motion. In our memories
the crowd is muted, a ball hangs in space, a body dives, a sound half way between a swish and a rip
as the net stretches, strains, the ball drops to the grass. The sound comes back full, the roar
filling your ears, the players move at normal speed again, but something, always, is irrevocably
altered.
The new FieldTurf has been installed at CenturyLink Field and, while it may not be the grass
many are hoping for, it does look pretty awesome (via @FieldTurf). Let's hope this stuff holds up
better than the old version.
As far as continuation of difficult weeks go, this was very difficult. Milan were good, we were
bad; but Milan weren't as good as we were bad. Arsenal would have lost to most teams playing like
they did last night- lethargic, over-cautious and poor in their passing, diligently unwilling in
their shooting, casual in pressing the opposition and suicidal in defense.
