For whatever the reason, the term "friendly" can be lumped together with diving (i.e. David Ngog) and the quantum physics intricacies of the offside rule as primary reasons why mainstream media types prefer to mock soccer, as opposed to caring about it. What exactly is a "friendly" anyway? Why not call it an exhibition? Click to continue reading...

Please chime in on this, as I'm sure there will be much debate. Ken Gude of the Huffington Post says that 2009 is the year that soccer arrived in America. Not because of Pele or Beckham, but because of mainstream media (read ESPN) upping the ante on soccer coverage. He also cites the continued success of the sport at the youth level and, consequently, improved play on the field by our Men's National Team. Click to continue reading...

Quote: His season with the Result (highlight to reveal): Galaxy has been similar to Alex Rodriguez's with the Yankees — short on drama and long on performance. Here's a fun game for you. Who is Jere Longman referring to in this sentence? I'd provide a link to Longman's New York Times article, but the answer is given in the link. Click to continue reading...

It's not what you own, it's what you're owed this is how the balance of power currently lies at the Rangers Football Club. Lloyds Banking Group is owed far more than they own, and they are prepared to take drastic measures to get what they are owed up to and including administration, if reports of Rangers' mid-October board meeting are to be relied upon.

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If ever two rounds of FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 Qualifiers demonstrated the utter and complete fake of the whole charade, these last two rounds were it.
The icing on an incredibly corrupt cake inevitably occurred at the Mall.
David Beckham performs no more than adequately for 32 minutes as a substitute, publicly displaying his new self-adhesive Dostoyevskian facial hair, and Steve Bruce, the man who still seems to think that Rio Ferdinand has his nose on the job, gives Our National Treasure the Man of the Match award. Click to continue reading...

The moment that England's chances of winning the 2010 World Cup ended came in the fifteenth minute in Dnepropetrovsk yesterday.
At that time, for the second occasion this season in England internationals, Rio Ferdinand, already well versed in defensive shenanigans at Old Trafford, did huge favours for David "Calamity" James, Key Sports agents and bookmakers throughout the land. Click to continue reading...

25% of blog posts in Britain are fake.
These bloggers are paid by the inevitable middle people to include content that is linked to a particular website.
We are inundated with such proposals, as they are seeking blogs that are trusted by their readership.
Some of these operations are less shady than others but, with the worst examples, the blogger is paid markedly extra for including positive content about the website with an embedded link in the post. Click to continue reading...

I have no idea what Ongisnade means but it is the name of what I guess is an independent Arema supporters' website and bloody well designed it is to (all in Indonesian).
The guys there produce an excellent looking on-line fanzine called, obviously, Ongisnade, but for some reason after I download it I can never open it! Click to continue reading...

Sources have been informing our trading team that Tottenham Hotspur manager, Harry Redknapp, is leaving the club after the match against Bolton Wanderers this afternoon.
Contrary to the rampant rumours circulating yesterday, Redknapp will not be returning to former club Portsmouth as there would likely be a lynching for the Fake Freeperson of the City. Click to continue reading...

So, who shall we point the finger of scorn at today?
[Strokes chin in mock consideration]
I know.
Southerners and people from t'other side of the Pennines.
It should possibly be noted as a meagre aside here that, in that we have only a scribbled-in-crayon agenda as to who we target, we tend to piss off everybody in the end. Click to continue reading...

In the past few weeks much criticism has been levied at those, including myself who made an effort to critique the 5-0 loss in the Gold Cup Final by the United States to Mexico.

After all what difference does a 5-0 loss make to your biggest rivals when you are playing a "C" team and they are playing an "A minus" team?

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Sulaiman Al-Fahim is, of course, the new owner of Portsmouth Football Club, but his accession there hasn't been without a degree of controversy. Mark Murphy wonders this emperor's new clothes are already starting to look a bit ragged.

According to the Premier League, Sulaiman Al-Fahim is a fit and proper person to be running one of its clubs.

Click to continue reading...

Nick Thomas of WeWantRapidman and yours truly were guests on a podcast by Robert Jonas of Center Line Soccer as the Bay Area Web site previewed the two upcoming games between the San Jose Earthquakes and the Colorado Rapids.

Nick focused very precisely about the Rapids' current manpower situation, we both talked a bit about Coach Gary Smith's influence on the team since taking over a year ago.

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Pardon the overly extreme headline and this will be a short one, I promise but it's things like these that rub bloggers or independent reporters the wrong way. You would expect the mainstream media to follow basic journalistic etiquette; if it's a quote you attribute the source, or give credit where it's due.

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Pomposity, sharp suits, a clipped accent courtesy of your private or finishing school, the English view of intelligence is a chromatic aberration.
The individuals put forward as innovative, ground-breaking, free-thinking creative types share one common theme - these people are repeatedly incorrect in their assertions. Click to continue reading...

So what's going on? Well predictably, Arsenal have appealed against the Eduardo ban. And they haven't minced their words with their response to Uefa:

The Club is in receipt of Uefa's reasoned decision in relation to the charge against Eduardo. We strongly believe that the decision taken is deeply flawed and not based on any forensic review of the video evidence available.

Click to continue reading...

Morning everyone.

The fallout has begun. For years and years Wenger has been subjected to the vilest of chants, as serious as any racial abuse, whenever we have made the trip to Old Trafford (and certain other grounds, too). The mainstream media occasionally give it a casual reference, but until yesterday it had never been properly addressed.

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Morning.

I don't know how long Man United fans have been singing that song about Arsene Wenger, years and years. I know I've mentioned many times on this blog. It's always audible when the games are on TV it's been a huge credit to the manager that he's never reacted to them. And how difficult must that be when you consider what they're singing.

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In this new series, I'll be highlighting blatant cheating in football, whether it's diving, feigning injury or any other dubious method of gaining an unfair advantage. The naming and shaming of cheats does happen enough in the sycophantic mainstream media, which is more concerned with putting players on pedestals than telling the truth. Click to continue reading...

You have to feel for Peter Storrie.
His second face was ecstatic as Pompey sunk to their latest defeat at the Emirates last Saturday. For, despite the defeat, our sneaky CEO had only gone and done the dirty on the man who was sitting next to him, US college kid lookalike, Sulaiman al-Fahim. Click to continue reading...

A tempest in a 6 foot 3 teapot? It seems as if a mini firestorm has been swirling around BMO Field this pass week with a lot "he said - no one said" coming from the traditional media circles. By now, most TFC supporters have heard the story - team legend and voted "most likely to walk on water" Danny Dichio had been left off the roster for recent league matches and was apparently told he wouldn't be travelling with the team to Seattle for this week's match against Sounders FC. Click to continue reading...

Regular readers of the blog will have noticed the introduction of our new format which I believe will appeal to many Gooners. The site will have a minimum of two blogs daily with match reports and breaking news items making 3 posts daily. Look for our content also on Twitter and Facebook.

Intended format

In the early morning (0700-0900)

There will be a round up of the daily british newspapers with any relevant Arsenal content.

Click to continue reading...

Or that should read magnificent Tony Tannous from the Half-Time Heroes.
Was he the only football writer in the country to have any real analysis of the opening game?
He picked the Jedinak factor as being important, no surprise their but unlike any other football analyser in the mainstream media he solved the problem, or least found out the solution from the man who knew, Laurie McKinna. Click to continue reading...

The internet is dominated by teenagers. If you doubt it, go to Yahoo, look at any sports story, and take a look at the comments. Those that are decipherable (why do people use text speak when space isn't limited?) are almost exclusively the extreme views of the fickle, the black and white majority that see either unprecedented success, or unmitigated disaster on the horizon.

Click to continue reading...

By Brooke Tunstall - CHARLOTTE, NC (Jul 25, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- For obvious reasons, the United States National Team's run to the finals of last month's Confederations Cup made headlines around the world. It even captured the attention of the mainstream media that usually has very little time for the sport. Click to continue reading...

Lots of big things are going on in our little corner of the soccer world, and that is mostly a good thing. People are talking about the game, taking sides on issues and generally getting a little more glide in their soccer stride. Yea, us! Grant Wahl's book has infiltrated the MSM (mainstream media) as the excellent [. Click to continue reading...

I am talking tomorrow with Gustavo Arellano (KPFK 90.7/4:00pm) about David Beckham, one of my favorite subjects. Becks, of course, is much in the news for his reappearance on the LA Galaxy roster in an exhibition match against the other team in his life - AC Milan. (See Nick Green's match report.)
While watching the game on television this afternoon, I couldn't help noticing that the man seems happier. Click to continue reading...

While David Moyes did not mention him by name, seems the mainstream media believes Moyes statements two nights ago at the Everton shareholder's forum made it clear that Joleon Lescott will not be leaving Goodison.

"I have already said there will be no players sold at Everton and I do not feel I need to say any more"
"The board have never sold a player from me, it will only be at my discretion.

Click to continue reading...

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                                                      Photo by ISIphotos.com

David Beckham took part in his first practice with the Los Angeles Galaxy on Monday, and while one might have expected him to be taking questions about his time in AC Milan and his return to LA, all anybody wants to talk about his Landon Donovan.

Click to continue reading...

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                                                      Photo by ISIphotos.com

David Beckham took part in his first practice with the Los Angeles Galaxy on Monday, and while one might have expected him to be taking questions about his time in AC Milan and his return to LA, all anybody wants to talk about his Landon Donovan.

Click to continue reading...

Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl's soon to be released book, "The Beckham Experiment", reveals that ESPN paid 19 Entertainment, Mr. Davey Becks' management company, to produce the hour-long documentary which was broadcast before his first match with the LA Galaxy back in 2007.

In what Wahl describes as an "example of checkbook journalism", the program entitled "David Beckham: New Beginnings" (part one above, the rest is on YouTube) was positioned as an insidery look at the lead up to Davey's move to Los Angeles something ESPN The Magazine failed to get when 19 Entertainment denied them interview access to Beckham.

Click to continue reading...

Regular readers of The Yorkies' site know that one of our aims is to shed light on the fairly poor coverage of Toronto FC in the local mainstream media. In order to illustrate this, and positive coverage as well, we are set to unveil The Yorkies' "TFC Media League".
The league will be a year-long tally featuring local media outlets vying to win the prestigious Graham Leggat Trophy named for the Scottish pioneer of Canadian football broadcasting. Click to continue reading...

Okay, I don't know the machinations of international confederation soccer so maybe this type of thing happens all the time and I have never really noticed. But Tuesday's CONCACAF ruling that allows the US to call 7 more players to their already established Gold Cup squad feels dodgy.

In a nutshell, CONCACAF changed the rules on Tuesday to allow a country that participates in both the Confederations Cup and the Gold Cup to call a roster of 30 players, as opposed to 23.

Click to continue reading...

Michael Bradley showed his passion at the end of the Egypt game when he told us all off. That for me wasn't a rebuke but a proud moment. The United States National Team which for years lived in a bubble with nothing but a few media who followed them and passionate, sometimes uncritical fan support had become big time.

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OK, so we've had 24 hours to reflect and rejoice on the United States' 2-0 win over Spain in the Confederations Cup semifinals yesterday. And while the win is getting somewhat its just due from the mainstream media (ESPN actually led SportsCenter last night with it), some in the U.S. soccer community are trying to put the victory in some sort of historical context. Click to continue reading...