While Michel Platini's plans for reform in European soccer may, at first glance, appear a serious threat to English soccer club Liverpool's future in European competition, the club's long-term future may be significantly brighter once the new measures are put in place.
Liverpool were one of the clubs namechecked by Platini when discussing his reforms in an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper, saying: "If Liverpool pay €60 million (interest) every year to the banks, it's a lot of money. Click to continue reading...

This blog post takes a brief look at how Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) and its teams have used Twitter. We'll look at the early days of Twitter integration and how it's evolved as a sports marketing tool. Then, we'll discuss a couple ideas for utilizing Twitter's new List feature.

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This blog post takes a brief look at how Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) and its teams have used Twitter. We'll look at the early days of Twitter integration and how it's evolved as a sports marketing tool. Then, we'll discuss a couple ideas for utilizing Twitter's new List feature. Keep in mind this is a very short post on a topic I could describe for days.

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Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots NFL franchise, has once again spoken out about the possibility of buying into a Premier League soccer club, with Liverpool his favoured destination.
Kraft, who watched Liverpool's 2-0 win over Premier League Manchester United on television before seeing the Patriots beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, owned by the Glazer family, again expressed his interest in a Premier League move, but confirmed he would not enter a league where success is so dependent on finance. Click to continue reading...

First things first, the US MNT has added another friendly to the November schedule by announcing their stop in Slovakia four days before playing Denmark, which will make for a good pair of measuring stick matches against a couple of fellow World Cup qualifiers on European soil. Both Slavakia and Denmark finished atop their UEFA qualifying groups, so these matches should provide a good show of where we stand against quality competition several months removed from the Confederations Cup.

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STARTERS
YES! YES! YES! We are going to South Africa! It's now official, the USA have qualified for the World Cup for the 6th time in a row! Wow! We have come a long way since I was a kid learning about the game in the mid-70's.
dN
The Associated Press has quotes from MLS commissioner Don Garber talking about the league figuring out a way to match the international calendar. Click to continue reading...

Some random thoughts on the US win and the upcoming game against Costa Rica

The Greatest US Win I Have Never Seen.  A lot has already been said about how absurd it was that this game was not broadcast to the average US fan, so there is no reason to continue to beat this dead horse.

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America! F$#& yeah!

With all the scoring coming in the second half, we have clinched World Cup Qualifying with a decisive 3-2 victory over Honduras.

See the highlights on ussoccer.com.

Guess who played one of the best games of his life? Ohhhhhhhh Landon Donovan!

I was up late last night (Virginia time) following the match on Twitter, I've only had one ounce of my 30 ounces a day coffee habit, and I'm watching my girls float Pop Tart and Band Aid wrappers over the banister as "parachutes," but I couldn't wait to come here and share my excitement.

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Check out this week's Physical Culture in the New York Times Style section; Jack Bell has co-opted it for the soccer agenda and has put together a piece (with a slideshow) featuring RBNY rookie Nick Zimmerman. The kid road tests a few boots from Under Armour, Concave, Joma, Lotto and Nomis. Click to continue reading...

Apparently New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi also feels that chess has helped him develop his tactics and decision-making...
The below video clip from the New York Times sheds some insight into how learning chess at an early age helped the Yankees skipper develop decision-making skills and foresight. Click to continue reading...

I haven't picked a side in the Honduras crisis, probably because I sleep at night knowing that no one in Honduras is waiting for my opinion. Jeré Longman of the New York Times had a good article on the political background, as it relates to the game. If I had to guess, the political crisis won't affect the game - if only because I assume Micheletti will take whatever steps necessary to guarantee the safety of the US and its fans. Click to continue reading...

The U.S. men's national team's World Cup qualifier next month in Honduras is could be moved amid growing turmoil surrounding the current shaky politial climate in Honduras.

The New York Times is reporting that FIFA and CONCACAF will make a decision soon about whether to move the match, scheduled for Oct.

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It's shaping up to be a light news day in the world of the Chicago Fire so without anything too new to report on, I thought I would share a few links with you guys to keep your Wednesday rolling along... Here's a little write-up from ESPNChicago.com's Scott Powers detailing Chris Rolfe's upcoming transfer.

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- The QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - and even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, mixed with QPR nostalgia and items of general football interest.
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
Watford Observer/Frank Smith -QPR's Heidar Helguson will have scan to see if he can make Reading
- Heidar Helguson will have an MRI scan tomorrow to see if there is a chance he can make this weekend's clash with Reading. Click to continue reading...

Major League Soccer displayed an uncharacteristic sense of levelheadedness with its announcement to break for the 2010 World Cup and move next season's schedule to a balanced, home-and-home structure. With any other professional soccer league in the world, these moves would not have even registered.

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STARTERS
After yesterdays results things look like this for the USA to get in the World Cup: - Beat Honduras (Oct 10) or Beat or Tie Costa Rica (Oct 14). There are several other ways to get in too, but they are all slightly more complex. These 3 choices are straight up and doable. Click to continue reading...

UM02 May want to get ready to welcome Becks...
Could David Beckham teaming up with the ever vocal, Joey Saputo? Strange as that may sound according to at least one insider the two have spoken of the possibility.
Courtesy of Jack Bell's Goal Blog at the New York Times:

And according to a person with knowledge of Beckham's planning who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about jeopardizing any potential deal, Beckham and his management team at 19 Entertainment (led by Simon Fuller) and Creative Artists Agency (led by Jeff Frasco) are interested in partnering with Joey Saputo, the owner of the Montreal Impact (the club now plays in United Soccer Leagues' First Division, one tier down from M.

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Now that would be a tragedy. And yet, it seems quite likely.

The New York Times' Rob Hughes writes about the tremendous pressure on both Messi and Ronaldo to win their next two games. Messi's Argentina play Brazil (as Shourin has so carefully noted here) followed by Paraguay.

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Take a good look at that crest ladies and gentleman. We all remember it fondly as this was the most famous name in all of football during the era of the North American Soccer League (NASL). We remember the movie about the history of the New York Cosmos and how popular they were once famed Brazilian International Striker Pele came to these shores and created a major buzz over in Downing Stadium at Randalls Island (Which was torn down and rebuilt as Icahn Stadium), Hofstra University, the first Yankee Stadium and finally calling Giants Stadium home at the Meadowlands in the late 70's thru the mid 80's.

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After the news that MLS has withdrew it's name from the hat of possible new owners of USL, another name has been thrown in: Miami FC itself. The only thing stranger than the owners of the team with the worst attendance in USL 1 trying to buy the league itself is the fact that it's actually a possibility:
http://blogs. Click to continue reading...

Nike has put up for sale its 100 percent ownership of United Soccer Leagues (U.S.L). The most logical buyer for the U.S.L is the better known Major League Soccer, but it looks like no deal will happen. In fact, according to today's New York Times, M.L.S. officials said the league was no longer interested. Click to continue reading...

We all know that the sister league to Major League Soccer is for sale. Nike who owns a majority in the United Soccer Leagues has put up their stake in the league up for sale. One group that won't be buying however is MLS.

"We recently evaluated the opportunity to purchase the U.

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STARTERS
Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer reports that Red Bull New York coach Juan Carlos Osorio has resigned. His assistant Richie Williams will once again be at the wheel of the company truck.
MLS
Do you think Houston got a talented player in Luis Landin? Click to continue reading...

During AC Milan's preseason tour of America, newly signed defender Oguchi Onyewu sat down with the New York Times' Jeffrey Marcus for an interview. Onyewu speaks candidly about handling the pressure of the big stage, his new team, and his identity as a person and player. He emphasizes his hunger to learn from this new experience, to take advantage of the opportunity and rely on his adaptability to succeed. Click to continue reading...

Here's an odd and utterly shocking (to me) bit of media trivia: according to media blogs the highest ever fee paid for movie rights to the New York Times is for a story about youth soccer in suburban Atlanta. After a fierce bidding war between Hollywood studios spurred by Warren St. John's Times cover article on "Outcasts United" – a team of refugee youth in the small town of Clarkston, Georgia called the Fugees – Universal ultimately paid $3 million to the Times, to St.

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It was supposed to refocus UEFA away from Western Europe the awarding of hosting rights to Ukraine alongside Poland for Euro 2012 seemed like a giant leap forward for Eastern European football when it was announced two years ago.

But now, it looks like all the decision has done is given UEFA its hardest decision for some time: whether to remove the hosting rights from Ukraine, as stalled preparations for Euro 2012 are shedding an unpleasant light on all of the problems the game and the nation's infrastructure has there.

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All the stuff being covered outside the unfriendly confines of the award winning Dirty Tackle...

Maradona was so happy about yesterday's win over Russia that pretty much had sex with one of his players. [New York Times]

Google's Premier League XI the most searched for players.

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Alex Yannis was the New York Cosmos beat writer for the New York Times during a great time in American soccer, chronicling the exploits of Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Giorgio Chinaglia in the 1970's.
Despite being a child of the 70's and growing up a devout Cosmos fan, I was also a neighbor of Yannis. Click to continue reading...

Happy Thursday to you. Mr. Fish here, of The Kin Of Fish fame, coming to you from the town so nice they named it twice, and I'm unbelievably honored that Brucio asked me to step in and do Du Nord while he trudges back from the Azteca. Obviously, the topic at hand is yesterday's Mexico victory over the US, the Yanks' 24th straight winless match South of the border. Click to continue reading...

The Beckham Experiment media blitz rolls on and if you live in Brooklyn it's rolling your way tomorrow night. Author Grant "Watch how I ball" Wahl will be in D.U.M.B.O at the Varsity Letters event alongside ESPN writer Wright Thompson and New York Times writer Bruce Weber, author of As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires, at Gelf Magazine's free event at Jan Larsen Art Studios. Click to continue reading...

Midweek seems an apt time to touch on a few things I've overlooked:

*The Sounders play Barcelona at 7:30 tonight in Seattle on ESPN2. It will be interesting to see who that usually delirious crowd will predominantly be rooting for - the home team or the European champions. More here.

Here's Barcelona's Lionel Messi doing a little ball juggling atop the 605-foot-high Space needle ahead of the game.

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Soccer hall of famer Joy Fawcett

The ultimate soccer mom reached the pinnacle of her sport Sunday.

"In my life, I've had two dreams: To play soccer at the highest level and to be a mother," former United States Women's National Team standout defender Joy Fawcett said midway through her induction speech at the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

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I saw this over at Goal!, the New York Times soccer blog, who say the auction ended Thursday thanks to an irate club owner.
Peter Johnson had hired some outside help to assist him in selling the Tranmere Rovers. Instead he found the club available for bidding on the online auction site.

"This is not a second-hand bike we're selling," Johnson told The Daily Mail on Friday.

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A number of Bundesliga games for the 2009-2010 season will be shown on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN360, according to The New York Times.

Under a similar deal that ESPN negotiated with GolTV, where GolTV sublicensed some of its La Liga games for the 2009-2010 season, GolTV will sublicense a number of Bundesliga games to ESPN.

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The on-again off-again transfer story about Samuel Eto'o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic hit the front cover of the online edition of The New York Times today. Unfortunately, it was only the global edition. When you switch to today's U.S. edition, the story isn't even mentioned on the homepage.

Related posts:

1. January Transfer Headlines for Serie A Last Friday's Gazzetta dello Sport frontpage reads, Tevez, Aguero and Drogba:.

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