Labor Day has come and gone, the sun is setting earlier, and, even here in Houston, the air contains a slight fall crispness. Yes, the Summer of Soccer is over, and what an interesting summer it has been. Back on Father's Day, like a Phoenix, the US National Team rose from the ashes of its first two group stage matches in the Confederations Cup to advance to the semifinals where it shocked the football world by easily beating Spain, which was ranked by FIFA as the top national team at the time.

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Kartik of Major League Soccer Talk took some time to interview our own Technical Director/Interim Head Coach Peter Vermes about his playing days, the Claudio Lopez signing, the 2000 Kansas City Wizards team and more. Click over to MLS Talk for the podcast. If you haven't yet bookmarked the site, it's also a good one to browse on a regular basis. Click to continue reading...

This week's eight matches averaged just over 13,100. Last year's week 12 included a visit by Beckham to San Jose. The game was at Oakland Alameda and drew over 39,800.
After 92 matches, the league is drawing 1,479 fewer per game than the first 92 games last year, a 9.1% decrease. On the up side, the average was 2,000 better than the corresponding week in 2005 which also had World Cup Qualifiers.

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Well we all know the lockdown date of David Beckham's soccer career was Friday the 13th, 2009, but here we sit and it's February 17th 2009 and everything is up in the air. I wrote here last week applauding Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber about instituting a deadline on the this fiasco and [. Click to continue reading...

On the final day of 2008, I want to send out a huge thank you to you, the readers, for supporting EPL Talk in what has been our best and most successful year ever. Your support and your comments are much appreciated (EPL Talk has now amassed more than 13,000 comments). There's no way to [...] Click to continue reading...

This early week edition of The Third Half starts with Johnathan Starling speaking with Shakira Graham of Championship Talk discussing the weekend that was the Championship, news on the Derby County/Norwich City alleged match fixing, and attempt to predict the future as the midweek fixtures hadn't been played, but we tried to predict. Click to continue reading...

This early week edition of The Third Half starts with Johnathan Starling speaking with Shakira Graham of Championship Talk discussing the weekend that was the Championship, news on the Derby County/Norwich City alleged match fixing, and attempt to predict the future as the midweek fixtures hadn't been played, but we tried to predict. Click to continue reading...

This edition of The Third Half with Johnathan Starling starts with Christopher Murphy as we discuss the upcoming weekend in the Bundesliga. Shakira Graham from Championship Talk discusses the upcoming weekend of the Championship along with some news tidbits. Kartik from Major League Soccer Talk talks about the week that was CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers and [. Click to continue reading...

England's away match today against Croatia is massive for several reasons. First, a loss against Croatia will be a huge blow to England's hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. Second, a loss would put immense pressure under Fabio Capello. Third, if England can secure a draw or a win, it'll be a huge [. Click to continue reading...

If your head is spinning like mine is from all of the Premier League news from the past 48 hours, maybe it's time to get back to reality and read some interesting posts about other football leagues other than the Premiership. Here are just a few of the excellent articles penned by the other bloggers [. Click to continue reading...

While you're enjoying EPL Talk, don't forget to check out the sister sites in our network for a taste of German, Italian, Spanish, European and American soccer. Bundesliga Talk has the statistics comparing Schalke to Atletico Madrid for the most enticing Champions League third round qualifying match. Click to continue reading...

If you're not reading the other sites in our network, you're missing some great articles. Soccer On Dish writes about how the curse of ITVN has returned to Setanta Sports. La Liga Talk interviews Guillem Balague. Jeff Hash at Major League Soccer Talk writes about the latest results in the U.S. Open Cup (the tournament that's [. Click to continue reading...

If your obsession about football isn't limited to just the Premier League and Euro 2008, be sure to visit the other sites in our network. At Champions League Talk, Lonnie Smetana has been writing about the top stories among continental European teams such as Porto being allowed to participate in the Champions League and Perrin leaving [. Click to continue reading...

except he's not. Well, hello there! I'd like to thank The Gaffer for letting me out of the cage and onto the Interwebs as a new helper with this little venture. I'll try not to make a fool out of him or myself (if I can make sure to tag things correctly). As for other people, well, [...] Click to continue reading...

The 2007/2008 season has been the most successful one in EPL Talk's history (since our launch in 2005). In April, the web site had more traffic than World Soccer Daily and CSRN combined, has grown a whopping 5457% since April 2007 and is currently the number four soccer blog according to BallHype. But before any of [. Click to continue reading...

In a recent reply to an article on EPL Talk, a reader commented that "the market for the Premier League is limited in the US, and quite frankly is at its ceiling." That comment was posted by Kartik Krishnaiyer, a regular contributor, expert on U.S. soccer and friend of mine. If you've been reading the EPL [. Click to continue reading...

Since this site focuses exclusively on the Premier League, it's pretty rare that we discuss other leagues unless it's in comparison to the Premiership. However, I want to take this opportunity to plug three things you should definitely read and listen to, which I thoroughly recommend. The first is the latest episode of the Major League [. Click to continue reading...

My interview with Christopher Sullivan of Fox Soccer Channel is now available at http://majorleaguesoccertalk.libsyn.com Click to continue reading...

The latest episodes of the podcasts from the EPL Talk sister sites are now live:

• Major League Soccer Talk, episode 12. Visit the web site, podcast page or subscribe via iTunes.
  
  
• La Liga Talk, episode 2. Visit the web site, podcast page or subscribe via iTunes.
  
  
• Serie A Talk, episode 2. Visit the web site, podcast page or subscribe via iTunes.

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I'm on vacation this week in North Carolina, so the quantity of blog postings will dwindle, but I'll try and write when I get the opportunity. It's actually a great week to visit the EPL Talk Community where you can read blogs from six EPL Talk readers and participate in the message boards.
While in Durham (North Carolina) last night, I got the opportunity to watch the second half of the Copa America final. Click to continue reading...

• If you missed the Brazil against Uruguay semi-final of Copa America last night, you could have seen a classic. The entertainment value was extremely high as both teams came so close to winning the match within regulation. Uruguay continually threatened Brazil and were unfortunate not to win the match. After ending 2-2 in regulation, the match proceeded to penalties where Brazil squeezed by with a win.

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Episode Six of the Major League Soccer Talk Podcast is now online. Unfortunately we had technical problems while attempting to tape our weekly conversation with BC John, but still have a good give and take with Michael Haley regarding the U-20 World Cup, Copa America and everything else going on in the world of US Soccer. Check out the podcast at http://majorleaguesoccertalk. Click to continue reading...

Columbus is officially red hot. The Crew on their third straight match Saturday night and are now undefeated in the last four. As we discussed on the Major League Soccer Talk podcast a few weeks back, the remarkable comeback at Gillette Stadium to draw east leading New England 3-3 seemed to have changed the entire psychology of the Columbus team. Sigi Schmidt, who is renowned for working with young players has brought in veteran Argentine maestro Guilermo Baros Schelleto to help groom the younger players and it seems to be working. Click to continue reading...