Gervinho Will Have a Great 2nd Season Even before the mini-tournament in Southampton where Gervinho
scored, I was preparing an article especially for him. It's going to be his 2nd season since
signing for us and I predict it will be his "break-out" season, just like Koscielny. Gervinho's
first season was a little nervy, one [.
It's been a long road back for Charlie Davies, but the FC Sochaux striker took another step
towards a full return on Wednesday.
Davies saw his first competitive minutes since last October's World Cup qualifier in Honduras,
starting in the first game of a mini-tournament against Swiss side Neuchâtel Xamax this
afternoon.
In December, I posted an article (taken from Siam Sport) about a 4 team tournament at PAT Stadium
involving Thai Port, TTM Phichit, Osotspa Saraburi and Home United supposedly starting on January
5th. Since then, there has been no confirmation from Thai Port, and my contacts in Bangkok don't
seem to know anything about it either.
The concept of the "close season" is becoming a rapidly fading memory. This summer has seen the
European Championships pass seamlessly into the first round of friendly matches which will fill the
schedules now until the middle of next month, when the league season finally begins. These matches
serve an obvious function for clubs.
It looks like plenty of air miles will be racked up by Aston Villa players and staff next year
as it's just been confirmed that we'll be competing in the Barclays Asia Trophy in Hong Kong around
the end of July 2011, presumably on top of some of the youngsters taking part in the Hong Kong
Sevens during mid-May as usual.
It looks like plenty of air miles will be racked up by Aston Villa players and staff next year
as it's just been confirmed that we'll be competing in the Barclays Asia Trophy in Hong Kong around
the end of July 2011, presumably on top of some of the youngsters taking part in the Hong Kong
Sevens during mid-May as usual.
A bunch of months back the Premier League floated the idea of adding
an extra fixture and then playing the game outside of England. That idea was met with anger from
many throughout England. Fast forward a couple of months and another idea has come out, this time
the Premier League would have a playoff for its final Champions League spot.
This mini tournament takes place late October and sees the Thai national team taking on Muang Thong
United from the Thai Premier League, HAGL from the V League in Vietnam and Yadanarbon from
Myanmar.
This will probably be Bryan Robson's first chance to see his new players kick a ball in anger and
he must be thinking he's died and gone to heaven.
The PDL and W-League seasons enter the home stretch in July and the Sounders are racing for
playoff position in both. In the Academy, one of the teams already made the playoffs and completed
their group games last week. Read on for details.
Sounders Women
soundermom has the details in the game recaps, but the summary is that the Sounders Women
bid adieu for the season to their national team contingent with a big home win over Santa Clara,
then split two games on a road trip to Colorado.
Chelsea v Internazionale (Inter Milan) - World Football Challenge - Tuesday July 21,
2009 - 23:00 EST
Chelsea takes on Internazionale (Inter Milan) in the World Football Challenge on Tuesday July
21, 2009. Inter has already played one match in the mini tournament, losing on penalty kicks to
Club America.
The U.S. WNT players were home resting on their couches when Sweden and Japan finished up the Volvo
Winners Cup in Gothenburg on June 20 with the Japanese coming out on top 1-0 through a 27th minute
goal from Yuki Nagasato, who also scored her country's lone goal against the USA.
The USA had already won the three-team mini-tournament with a 3-1 victory over Sweden and 4-1 win
over Japan, which made the final standings look like this:
After a light morning -- just a pool workout for the field players -- (ok, not so light for the
GKs, who did train, of course) -- the U.S. team board a bus after lunch for the short drive (less
than two hours) south to Halmstad, a scenic area on the southwest coast of Sweden known as the
"Swedish Riviera.
New York Red Bull manager Hans Backe stated over the weekend to the New York Post that his main
goal for the season is a Supporter's Shield trophy, not a MLS Cup.
"My target is to win the Shield. I think we're good enough to compete with the best teams.
Columbus travels to Seattle for the USOC Final tonight. (Getty Images)
Just go ahead and add this to the dozen or so other posts out there today about the US Open Cup.
I'll spare you the preview between the Seattle Sounders FC and the Columbus Crew. Honestly I see
Seattle repeating here tonight since the game is on their home turf.
It took overtime, but DC United advanced through the MLS Qualification mini-tournament with a 2-1
win over Real Salt Lake. Coming off their second MLS win on Saturday, United took a 74th minute
lead through a Luciano Emilio penalty. RSL answered back from the penalty spot when Ryan Johnson
scored in the 81st.
From the outside, the football world looks upon Major League Soccer with a degree of suspicion
and mistrust. Traditional American sporting models, we claim, don't apply to football. Central
ownership and the draft system are entirely foreign concepts. Pundits criticise salary capping in
MLS one minute and bemoan the overpaid prima-donnas of Europe the next.
-"(back row, l-r) Frank Sibley, Bobby Keetch, Ron Hunt, Mark Lazarus; (middle row,
l-r) Tony Hazell, Jim Langley, Peter Springett, Mick Kelly, Mick Leach, Alan
Wilks; (front row, l-r) Ian Morgan, Les Allen, Mike Keen, Rodney Marsh,
Roger Morgan" - From Club Shop
-
-For QPR and Football Updates throughout the day, visit the ever-growing (and hopefully
always-improving!
-"(back row, l-r) Frank Sibley, Bobby Keetch, Ron Hunt, Mark Lazarus; (middle row,
l-r) Tony Hazell, Jim Langley, Peter Springett, Mick Kelly, Mick Leach, Alan
Wilks; (front row, l-r) Ian Morgan, Les Allen, Mike Keen, Rodney Marsh,
Roger Morgan" - From Club Shop
-
-For QPR and Football Updates throughout the day, visit the ever-growing (and hopefully
always-improving!
I knew it was too much to ask for for our players to get through an international break without
getting injured, and I was right. Andrei Arshavin, who had to come off injured with a groin injury
against Manchester United, rushed back too early to play in yesterday's game against Wales. Guus
Hiddink, being the loyal Chelsea man he is, made sure Arshavin played all 90 minutes, and of course
he re-injured his groin, and will now miss our next two matches the league fixture against
Manchester City and the Champions League match-up with Standard Liege.
How accurate are the FIFA rankings? With the recent update of the rankings and England, to the
surprise of many, moving up to seventh and Uruguay slotting in ten places up to sixth, are they an
accurate measure?
When first introduced in 1992, the rankings were not taken seriously.
For me I think it was about a year ago. The Confederations Cup 2009 got underway in South
Africa, the negative press about safety, organisation and such subsided for a brief minute, and as
the mini-tournament began in Johannesburg with a game between South Africa and Iraq, and it was all
about the football again, it hit me.
Liverpool and Celtic have been in talks to play in a high-profile friendly at Croke Park this
summer, the Sunday Independent has learned.
They would possibly have been part of a four-team mini-tournament held at the ground and
negotiations were at an advanced stage when Liverpool withdrew because Croke Park had not been
confirmed as the venue.
The matches have now been confirmed:-Sunday July 25:
Game 1 at 12:45pm – Sydney FC vs AEK Athens FC
Game 2 at 3pm – Blackburn Rovers vs Glasgow Rangers
Wednesday July 28:
Game 3 at 6pm – AEK Athens FC vs Blackburn Rovers
Game 4 at 8:15pm – Sydney FC vs Glasgow Rangers
Saturday July 31:
Game 5 at 5pm – AEK Athens FC vs Glasgow Rangers
Game 6 at 7:15pm – Sydney FC vs Blackburn Rovers
All matches are at the Sydney Football Stadium.
It's official,Our beloved Aek will be taking a trip to Australia,to partake in a mini
tournament.The team will be arriving on the 24th of July.Most likely,they will play Sydney FC and
either Blackburn or Everton,who both will also be in Australia at the same time.Match
opponents,times and where our players will be landing(either Sydney or Melbourne) still to be
confirmed,but the tour as a whole has been confirmed on AEK'S website.
As you may or may not be aware, Barcelona got their pre-season underway with some low-level
silverware last night beating hosts Bayern Munich in the final of the Audi Cup after squeezing past
Brazilian outfit Internacional on penalties the day before.
Anybody know anything about a mini tournament to be held in Aceh next month? Possibly featuring
teams from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia?
The Baltic Champions' Cup, the first of many a pre-season indoor tournament in Eastern Europe in
the next two months, takes place in the Olympic Sports Centre in the Latvian capital of Riga this
weekend in a mini-tournament exclusive to the national champions of the three domestic leagues in
the Baltic States.
After tearing it up in the US Soccer Academy League with 6 goals in 12 games, Sounders U-18
Academy forward Sean Okoli spent the last few weeks with the US U-18 national team for a
mini-tournament in Tel Aviv, Israel. I couldn't find any reporting out of there, but the match
reports on USSoccer.com tell the story of a frustrating tournament for the US and limited action
for Okoli.
Soccer in the United States, a growing majority. I am still fascinated with the number of people
drinking the USSF kool aid, and handing over their money.
SUM is doing the Super Liga again, a mini tournament between Mexico and MLS. The lesser rans of
last years league tournament, Some of the games are good, as long as you don't think the tournament
is awesome, then you should be good.
