SEE YOU IN SEATTLE
MLS Cup Weekend - Party with your friends on Friday night!
The Designated Players - du Nord, Soccer by Ives, The Original Winger, This Is American Soccer and The Offside Rules - will be hosting a get together on Friday night in Seattle at Kells Pub. Click to continue reading...

QUICK PROGRAMMING NOTES: TIAS, Du Nord, The Original Winger, Soccer By Ives, and The Offside Rules will be hosting a party Friday night 9pm in downtown Seattle at Kell's Irish Pub (FYI - bar charges $5 cover, which is not going to us). It's a true soccer bar I'm told, should be a good time. Click to continue reading...

On Thursday, November 5, I was a panelist at Football Partnership's Tweet Blowing the Whistle on Social Media, a discussion about soccer and social media. The panelists also included Greg Lalas (Goal.com), Chris Schlosser (MLSnet.com) and Chris Toy (Studs-Up.com). For more about the panelists, check out the blog I posted the day after the event.

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Last night I attended Alex Kotler's Football Partnerships panel, "Tweet: Blowing the Whistle on Social Media." Greg Lalas, Chris Schlosser, Chris Toy and myself were the panelists, and there were some seriously smart people in the room, all with incredible perspectives. It was humbling and insightful to be included among this group to discuss and share information on how we are each using social media to achieve our business objectives.

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Event though Conor Casey only one goal behind Jeff "The Jet" Cunningham and scored a brace at Honduras he's still gets no love. It's kind of a shame but since, according the vaunted Reagan-era pop artist & relationship expert Patricia Benatar, "love is a battlefield" I guess that's not all bad. Click to continue reading...

Dilly Duka may be a guy we need to start getting use to seeing with the national team. (Getty Images)

Every once in a while people I usually disagree with get something right. I'm sure it happens with some of you where you hardly ever agree with me but I write something that is absolute truth for once.

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In November, Alex Kotler of Football Partnerships is putting on a rockin' panel to discuss how social media is affecting the sport of football, and yours truly has been invited as a panelist. (I'm super honored/excited to be a part of this! Details below.)

So I'm calling on all my Social Media gurus out there to help me prep!

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An interview that can't happen is Greg Lalas talking with Gavin Rossdale over a scotch about the mixed blessing of having a close relation who is a bit more famous than you. Perhaps at the end of said conversation they would have boded over their shared place in life, become BFF's and agree to start a Slade-influenced metal band called Lesser Icons with Greg on drums, Gavino on guitar/vox and Jamar Beasley on bass. Click to continue reading...

Goal.com's Greg Lalas has an exclusive with the Chicago Fire's Chris Rolfe. Rolfe will be joining Aalborg Boldspilklub of the Danish Superliga in January.
So far in 2009, Rolfe has played in all 24 Fire matches, but early on he was coming off the bench for Denis Hamlett's squad. He also has been used in the midfield more so than his customary role up front. Click to continue reading...

This man is saying "Hallelujah" all the way out the MLS door to the Danish league.
According to Greg Lalas at Goal.com (click here for the original article and all the details), Chris Rolfe has signed a pre-deal to head to Aalborg in the January transfer window with a three year deal. Click to continue reading...

Featuring Greg Lalas reporting live via satellite from Mexico. Click to continue reading...

Mexico needed three points. All 100,000 fans at Azteca Stadium knew that. And in the end they got what they needed, winning 2-1 over the United States in a crucial World Cup qualifier.
Greg Lalas's Report
Ives: Same old story for U.S.
Stars of the Match
USA: Winners and Losers
Rogers: South of the Border inhospitality Click to continue reading...

It's late on a Friday, but this just popped up and couldn't wait. According the Greg Lalas, Jozy Altidore will go on loan to Greek side Olympiakos. According to Goal.com's Greek edition, the Super...

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STARTERS
Simply put, it's a 3 game tournament, not 1 or 2. With that crazy win and Italy loss we get to see our USA team live another day in South Africa. 2 more days actually. The Semifinal round, and then a Final or 3rd place game! How cool is this. Who bet big money on this happening? Click to continue reading...

Recently, the Football Partnerships Podcast interviewed me about EPL Talk and the business of football blogging. It's quite different than the typical EPL Talk interview. Listen to the Football Partnerships interview today.

Some of the topics discussed include:

• How the idea of EPL Talk was created,
• How EPL Talk's initial target audience has changed over the years,
• The business of football blogging and how advertising and partnerships help keep the lights on,
• My personal favorite EPL Talk Podcast interview of all time,
• And much more.

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Bob Bradley, its been great coasting along in the CONCACAF on decaf but for the big leagues you need something stronger.

Unfortunately, this is what happens when you play in a region that creates a set of inflated expectations akin to playing the grandiosely named World Series. The US baseball team always gets found out in the World Baseball Classic just like the US team today against Italy.

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Check back often as we update the global coverage on the match:

• Head over heart for Champs final - Greg Lalas via SI.com
• Champions League - Sky Sports Coverage Center
• Xavi Confident Ahead Of Barcelona's Manchester United Date - Goal.com
• Eto'o Unconcerned By Poor Form Ahead Of Barcelona's CL Final - Goal.

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This week Greg Lalas is absent so Shep and his mustache are joined by special guest-host "Jason". Usually people that go by one name are so famous that a last name is superfluous. People like Pele, Ronaldinho and Eminem for instance. But if no one knows who the hell you are it's a ballsy move. Click to continue reading...

Now, I love Extra Time. Well, maybe love is too strong a word. I'll stick with, "It's just about the only MLS deal around, so I'll watch it."
However, I have to say that I think Shep Messing and Greg Lalas just turned in the wussiest preview rundown I have ever seen. Going over a whole weekend slate, the only game they're going to predict is Colorado/RSL? Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
Hook up the Twitter: dunord
dN
Bill King of Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal with an in-depth look at the marketing of Team Mexico here in the United States. It is big big big money! And MLS subdivision SUM is steering the ship. There is no doubt who the most popular soccer team in the United States is. Click to continue reading...

By the way if any of you perverts are subscribers to Penthouse Magazine, keep an eye out for the 2009 MLS round table article with Juan Pablo Angel, Taylor Twellman, Greg Lalas and myself. I can't speak for the other guys but I am kind of impressed with myself for getting into Penthouse without having to shave my crotch or write a letter (and don't even front that you don't know what kind of letter I'm talking about). Click to continue reading...

I'll be working on my Press-Enterprise column this morning, and right now I'm leaning towards writing on the early trends in MLS this season. I'll probably also write about the local teams as well since they've got trends of their own to discuss.
One of the two major early trends this season is the high number of red cards. Click to continue reading...

We love the single table format. That said, we also love rumors that MLS may be headed in that direction. With everyone from Sean Wheelock to Greg Lalas, to Shep Messing commenting on it as of late there must be something to the rumors. So we decided to look for any fact based evidence rather than seek out a New York bartender who keeps Don Garber's tab. Click to continue reading...

Here's an interesting article by Greg Lalas about soccer salaries in the U.S.: "MLS getting what it pays for". Rather than wanting more millions to import marquee players from around the world, he's advocating that MLS teams pay more for "mid-tier players". And according to Lalas, that means MLS would become a better career choice for some of the players currently in the USL. Click to continue reading...

Admit it. It may not have been Revs commentators Greg Lalas or Brade Feldman, but you've wanted to do this at least 213 times to some announcer at one time or other. For me it was always Marv Albert; the perv is the reason I never got into basketball. Click to continue reading...

Here is a link to a great article by Greg Lalas from Sports Illustrated about Oguchi Onyewu's success with Standard Liege in the Belgian League, and also the rumors that have surfaced about a move to a bigger club. I have always been very impressed with "Gooch" and felt that he would turn into a top class defender. Click to continue reading...

SuperLiga
FINAL TONIGHT!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Official website
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Final
-Tue Aug 5
New England v Houston - 7pm central on TeleFutura
Match preview by Steve Davis at Soccernet.
Match preview by Monique Walker of the Boston Globe. Click to continue reading...

North America Things are very bad in LaLaLand GM Alexi Lalas and the struggling LA Galaxy (winless in seven games) may well be parting ways, according to Greg Lalas: "A source close to Major League Soccer's glamour franchise tells me that Tim Leiweke, president and CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns the Galaxy, made [. Click to continue reading...

The Manchester coach is being quoted as saying these words: If Ronaldo leaves, I'm going too.
Now Sir Ferguson has been misquoted a bunch recently.
And even if this was an actual coach, it's obviously tongue-in-cheek.
Right...?

• A cool interview with Greg Lalas.

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Usually I have trouble agreeing to anything Greg Lalas says or writes. A lot of times I find him to be pretty full of it but there are a few times out there that he says something or writes something that I find him to be dead on about. Today is one of those days. He posted [...] Click to continue reading...

I'd like to give a massive, Brooklyn-sized shout out to Greg Lalas for his recent two-part piece on SI.com's Outside The Box. Part 1 is the American Soccer Fan's Bill of Rights; some people may find it a bit "presumptive", there is a bit of truth in what he's saying.
Part 2 is the American Soccer Fan's of Responsibilities; rarely do I agree nearly 100% with anything anyone writes but I think I may have reached that point with this bang-on bit of educated editorial. Click to continue reading...

We have been willing to let the whole Columbus racist Crew hooligan thing go. It seemed obvious that the Crew and their fans were powerless to find out who fans who yelled racist slurs and threw objects including smoke bombs and full water bottles at New England players in a video first posted here, were. Click to continue reading...

We were trolling CNN/SI, reading Greg Lalas' American Soccer Fans Bill of Rights (and agreeing with most of it - especially the part about American bars needing to have our games on as a matter of course...), when we came... Click to continue reading...

Jack Bell rails at the preference of some for all things English.
My gripe about American announcers, however, is that too many of them are tied up in the insular soccer structure of the U.S. to have any independent opinions. It was painful to hear John Harkes try to be objective about DC United when commenting on their match versus the LA Galaxy. Click to continue reading...

It's pretty sad when two soccer columnists who represent what is supposedly one of the nation's top newspapers are so incompetent and out-of-touch with reality. Last November, I called New York Times soccer columnist Jack Bell a wanker for writing an idiotic article criticizing Fox Soccer Channel for broadcasting the Premier League, the world's most popular [. Click to continue reading...