(Just in case the thousands of others weren't doing it for you).
Thierry Henry's despicable handball in today's deciding World Cup qualifier against the Republic of Ireland was probably the biggest soccer fraud since Diego Maradona's infamous "hand of God" act in 1986. The stakes, then as now, are massive: a quarterfinals berth at the World Cup then, a spot in next year's South Africa tourney now. Click to continue reading...

To read Part I in this series, please click here.
To read Part II.
Yes, this again. Soccer hooliganism is coming to the USA. Check that: it's already here.
In fairness, the "analysis" is a bit different this time. Whereas in the past hooliganism was all about things that were (supposedly) going on in Major League Soccer, it is now all about stateside supporters groups of English teams. Click to continue reading...

Fellow soccer bloggers Caught Offside yesterday offered up seven reasons why football (soccer) will never be a major success in the U.S. It got lost in all of the hullabaloo over Charlie Davies' accident but I wanted to take the time to address it now.
First things first: Caught Offside are wrong on all but one count, namely that the sport is not stat-intensive enough to become a major deal in the U. Click to continue reading...

Arsene Wenger today made his case for abolishing UEFA's away goal rule that serves as the primary tie-breaker in European competition. The illustrious coach of Arsenal FC told the Guardian he felt "the weight of the away goal is too heavy now tactically - it was created 42 years ago at a stage when the teams that went abroad just defended. Click to continue reading...

Arsene Wenger today made his case for abolishing UEFA's away goal rule that serves as the primary tie-breaker in European competition. The illustrious coach of Arsenal FC told the Guardian he felt "the weight of the away goal is too heavy now tactically - it was created 42 years ago at a stage when the teams that went abroad just defended. Click to continue reading...

Arsene Wenger today made his case for abolishing UEFA's away goal rule that serves as the primary tie-breaker in European competition. The illustrious coach of Arsenal FC told the Guardian he felt "the weight of the away goal is too heavy now tactically - it was created 42 years ago at a stage when the teams that went abroad just defended. Click to continue reading...

To read Part I, please click here.
The soccer blogosphere was alive this week with the sound of hooligans. Not literally, of course. It's not like I was sitting in front of my computer listening to "up to our knees in [fill in the blank] blood" or anything like that. Just that there was lots and lots (and lots) of talk about hooliganism, fan violence, security violence, etc. Click to continue reading...

Earlier this week we had some points of contention with Du Nord, so let's pick right up where we left off, shall we? Except, this isn't so much a point of contention but more a point of confusion. The site introduced something today called "The Designated Players," which appears to be some kind of blogging quintet featuring Ives, This is American Soccer, The Original Winger and The Offside Rules. Click to continue reading...

How bad of an idea was the Pan-Pacific Championship? Not even the locals care about it, according to the New York Times' soccer blog. I seriously don't get the point, not even (especially?) from a business perspective. It's a tiny market in the middle of nowhere. Not so fast, though. One blogger in favor is An American's View on Futbol/Football/Soccer and he refuses to pan the Pan-Pacific Championship. Click to continue reading...

I don't know who or what The Future Laboratory is, nor do I know why a company like Orange would hire them to put together a report on the Future of Football. Because whoever these guys are, they don't seem to have a solid grip on reality, much less a legitimate grasp of the changes affecting professional sports in general and soccer/football in particular. Click to continue reading...

One of this week's most blogged-about items was the English Premier League's plan to play regular season games overseas. Not surprisingly, most bloggers hated the idea: All Quiet in the East Stand titled its rant "The Day Football Started To Kill Itself." Football Corner wrote Premier League games abroad is not the answer" (they didn't say what the question was, but I get it; they hate the plan. Click to continue reading...

...or any other international friendlies. And neither should you. They're boring. We're talking about exhibition games here, okay folks? Nothing's at stake other than "bragging rights," which in this case comes down to nationalism. I don't like nationalism. It's caused too much trouble, including all of last century's most bloody conflicts. Click to continue reading...

The 2008 MLS season is fast approaching. Preseason rankings and expectations will arrive soon enough but Who Ate All The Cupcakes (the Yank version of Who Ate All The Pies, I presume) brings us their 2008 MLS Superlatives, styled after those really annoying yearbook contests they had in high school. Readers get to vote on a dozen categories (everything from "most popular" to "best dancer" and "best hair") and even suggest their own. Click to continue reading...

One massive tournament I have not paid any attention to so far is the African Cup of Nations (I wish I could, but professional commitments and rooting interests in others leagues and sports have left me with very little room to maneuver). Luckily for me (and you), there is excellent coverage out there. Click to continue reading...

When Saturday Comes, which modestly bills itself as "the half decent football magazine" (that would obviously never fly in the U.S. and not just because of the term "football") did a small piece on Soccer Source in its January issue. Very small. We're talking three lines. The blurb was nothing but a perfectly justified ridicule of one of my "fearless forecasts," but for a fledgling blog like this one, any publicity is good publicity. Click to continue reading...

Is this really my first post of the year? Indeed it is, but there is good reason for this, which fortunately has nothing to do with the evil day job--at least not this time. I have been busy with no fewer than three (3) separate soccer-related projects (in addition to this one of course). In no particular order, these are AmericanSoccerNews. Click to continue reading...

As much as I enjoy fantasy soccer, it feels incomplete somehow. The addictive rush that other fantasy sports (American football and baseball, notably) supply just isn't there. Don't get me wrong, it's good fun and all. But something is missing.
Part of this is, of course, the very nature of the game itself. Click to continue reading...

This is it: the final link list of the year! Feeling nostalgic? Yeah, me neither. Anyway, let's get this party started, right: The Offside (not to be confused with CaughtOffside.com or The Offside Rules) has a hilarious quiz that attempts to root out soccer addiction. Eighteen questions in all. I got as far as "you've skipped a date to watch soccer" and realized this was something for mere novices. Click to continue reading...

If there's one thing there is too much of in today's world it's awards and awards ceremonies. I'm not just talking soccer, either. The damn things are everywhere. At my day job, it seems I spend half the year preparing for one awards "gala" or another, just so the publishing monkeys can get their jollies and pad their bottom lines. Click to continue reading...

My workmate Smoods (an actual Brit!) had such a good time with his first article, he wrote me another. Actually, two more! But the second will have to wait until tomorrow. Here is the first:
So for the first time in about, oh, 18 months, the English national team has a tactically astute foreign coach with a string of club successes on his C. Click to continue reading...

The best MLS article I read this week was probably Glenn Davis' Houston Chronicle piece on what the league needs to do to connect with fans. Davis' point, that MLS suits should play to the strengths and diversity of the sport to market to media and grassroots constituents alike, is on the surface completely obvious. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool's Castilian striker Fernando Torres, a.k.a. El Niño ("the kid"), is apparently desperate to draw Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16. According to Fox Sports ("Torres praying for Real clash"), the Spanish international told the Reds' official website: "I hope that we draw Real Madrid, that would be a great tie. Click to continue reading...

This weekend's edition of the Financial Times has an article that should be required reading for soccer execs (and indeed anybody who runs a sports club) anywhere. In the Sporting Life column, Simon Cuper lays out the very simple yet logical formula Olympique Lyonnais has used for nearly a generation, with impressive results: l'OL has dominated competition in France, winning the last six domestic league titles, and has also made inroads in Europe against teams from "big three" leagues with several times its budget. Click to continue reading...

Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse has laid out plans for a combined soccer/ice hockey stadium in Zurich that would host the city's three biggest professional sports teams (that would be Grasshoppers, F.C. Zurich and ZSC Lions, for those of you not in the know). I don't think I've ever heard of anything like this before. Click to continue reading...

Worldclubrankings.com is by its own definition "no-frills," focusing on rankings it culls from a proprietary algorithm. I imagine this will continue to be the site's bread and butter (it's part of their URL, lest we forget) but they are expanding their "service offerings" (to delve into marketing-ese for a second. Click to continue reading...

The Soccer Source verdict: yes it is, but only from the semifinals onward. The seven team tournament kicks off Friday in Tokyo and concludes nine days later in Yokohama. In the U.S., all games will be telecast live on Fox Soccer World. The participants:

• Pachuca, Mexico (CONCACAF Champions' Cup winner)
• Boca Juniors, Argentina (CONMEBOL Copa Toyota Libertadores champions)
• Waitakere United, New Zealand (OFC Champions League winners)
• AC Milan, Italy (UEFA Champions League winners)
• Étoile Sportive du Sahel, Tunisia (CAF Champions League)
• Urawa Red Diamonds, Japan (AFC Champions League winners)
• Sepahan, Iran (AFC Champs league runner-up, made it in because Urawa would have qualified automatically as hosts)
  

So why do we care about this? Click to continue reading...

From the Nothing You Didn't Know Already department: UEFA's seeding scheme for the Euro 2008 finals was a complete joke that ended up creating the exact imbalances it was created to resolve. It would have been fairer--not to mention far more efficient--to just pull the groups out of a hat at random.
In case you missed it, here are the groups:
Group A: Switzerland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Turkey. Click to continue reading...

Soooo much action on the field this week, how is anybody supposed to keep up with the blogosphere? Luckily, there are many footy blogs that enhance--rather than detract from--what has been taking place on the pitch, making reading them a joy rather than a burden. Onward, non-denominational soldiers:
My favorite blog for Latin American soccer is hands-down Hasta El Gol Siempre. Click to continue reading...

What is this man doing at MLS Cup? I haven't the foggiest idea. I cannot fathom him being interested in a coaching gig in this country. He's probably just on vacation. Credit to Soccer Insider (fast becoming my favorite soccer blog) for breaking the story.
Speaking of favorite soccer blogs, vote for yours at ussoccer.com's 2007 Best of U. Click to continue reading...

If you thought U.S. soccer was bad, you may not necessarily be wrong, but there is a place with even more squandered soccer resources--1.3 billion of them, to be exact. Check out India's soccer accomplishments (or severe lack thereof) since independence in 1947: In 1956, an Indian scored the first hat trick in Olympic soccer. And that's it--we're done already. Click to continue reading...

A few years ago, Fox Soccer Channel offered a cornucopia of live action from the top leagues in Europe and Latin America. My how times change. This morning, when I went to turn on the TV, I got...nothing? Yet at this very moment, Premiership and Bundesliga teams were in action on GolTV, which, as a New York City-based hostage subscriber to Jim Dolan's Time Warner Cable I can't get even if I were to pay extra for it (trust me, I've tried). Click to continue reading...

With Ruud Gullit-to-L.A. Galaxy talk swirling, Soccer Insider's Steven Goff takes a look at how foreign coaches have fared in MLS and finds they haven't done very well. The comparison is fraught with issues, however, as Goff excludes the likes of Steve Nicol, Frank Yallop, Thomas Rongen, Steve Morrow and others who might appear to qualify as foreign. Click to continue reading...

Bruce Arena's team (that would be the New York Red Bulls) faces a must-win situation at Foxboro, Mass. this weekend. With no UEFA-style away goal rule to fall back on, the team needs a victory against the New England Revolution if it is to advance past the first round of the MLS playoffs. But Arena himself may have the most to lose if Red Bull fails--again--to advance Saturday. Click to continue reading...

Yes, this again. Culture of Soccer had to go there. I don't know why, especially seeing as they base their arguments on a book that came out 12 years ago. Actually, check that: they don't really take a stand on this issue, choosing instead to just introduce these decade-old views and leave it to us to decide. Fair enough. So let's decide then. Ready? Click to continue reading...

...but he didn't listen. If you'll recall, a few short days ago Soccer Source completed a poll, where only 6% favored starting Robinson. Sure enough, Robbo cost England a goal and the match and a crucial point that may end up proving fatal to England's qualification efforts. "It bears repeating, Robinson was at fault for the second [goal]," the Guardian's log of the game said. Click to continue reading...