The week goes on, and what a week it is! The New England Revolution are still shedding dead
weight ahead of the September 15th roster freeze, and there's been a development in the allocation
order department as Luis Robles has agreed to sign with MLS and enter the process. Apart from that,
there's the massive controversy over the thrilling USA vs.
The MLS wrap-up is back this week and what a weekend it was. There was a little bit of
everything this past weekend; a handful of 0-0 draws, a few close games and a couple of blowouts.
After losing two straight, the LA Galaxy took a step in the right direction with a 2-0 win over the
Chicago Fire.
Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of
the 19 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Sean Donahue and Ryan Lanigan contributed
rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.
Kirk Urso, of the Columbus Crew, was pronounced dead at 1:50 a.m. Sunday at Grant Medical Center
after collapsing at a downtown Columbus bar and restaurant. The MLS rookie was just 22-years-old
and his untimely passing stunned only the Crew community, but the U.S. footy community as a whole.
"It's a shocker," Crew president [.
For those of you who theorized that many of the high profile offloads this summer without any
notable additions may have been motivated by money (or a lack thereof), here's more wood for your
fire.
Under the deal that brought Major League Soccer to Chester, the Philadelphia Union agreed to pay
the impoverished city $500,000 a year in lieu of property taxes.
Mario Balotelli did all he could to get sent off in Man City's doomed visit to the Emirates on
Sunday. In the 19th minute, he was lucky not to snap Alex Song's leg with a boot to the knee
(moving pictures here) that went unpunished because the referee's view was obscured.
In the 32nd minute, Balotelli missed Bacary Sagna with another high challenge, but finally got
his first yellow of the day five minutes later for catching Sagna on the ankle with the tamest of
his high kicks.
A mere two minutes after Barcelona's barrage of shots resulted in the first goal of their
Champions League second leg against Chelsea, John Terry decided to give Alexis Sanchez a knee up
the backside and was promptly shown a red card.
You can debate whether Terry deserved to be sent off instead of just shown a yellow for his act,
but one way to help ensure you don't get sent off for something stupid is by, you know, not doing
something stupid.
It's been that kind of week for United. Starting with the win over QPR, deemed unfair thanks to
Young's gravity-tripping right till the otherwise comprehensive win over Villa still deemed unfair,
thanks to... oh. Well, that aside, it's also been generally unsatisfying for this time of the
season as a United fan.
It's been that kind of week for United. Starting with the win over QPR, deemed unfair thanks to
Young's gravity-tripping right till the otherwise comprehensive win over Villa still deemed unfair,
thanks to... oh. Well, that aside, it's also been generally unsatisfying for this time of the
season as a United fan.
1. Regardless of his winning goal, Branislav Ivanovic had a shocker from a
defensive standpoint. Positionally AWOL for long periods and repeatedly lapse and worryingly
uninterested when closing down crosses.
Chelsea host Napoli on Wednesday night in need of a couple of goals probably more to ensure this
season's bizarre Champions League journey continues. Walter Mazzarri isn't the least bit
interested in allowing this to happen. Neither is Ezequiel Lavezzi or that striker, from Uruguay
what's his name again?
Following the Misery in Milan and the Shocker in Sunderland there have been calls either for the
managers head, the boards collective head or for the team to be ruthlessly pruned and expensively
strengthened. It has to be said that these last two events are perhaps only the latest in a
succession of poor results that have seen the club knocked out of the Carling Cup, the FA Cup and
almost certainly the Champions League, although we have got into fourth position in the
Premiership, a position we hold over Chelsea who are on the same number of games, points and goal
difference.
Following the Misery in Milan and the Shocker in Sunderland there have been calls either for the
managers head, the boards collective head or for the team to be ruthlessly pruned and expensively
strengthened. It has to be said that these last two events are perhaps only the latest in a
succession of poor results that have seen the club knocked out of the Carling Cup, the FA Cup and
almost certainly the Champions League, although we have got into fourth position in the
Premiership, a position we hold over Chelsea who are on the same number of games, points and goal
difference.
Equalizer Soccer – New Seattle women's pro team owner talks league ambitions, Sounders Women
Not necessarily a shocker, but the Seattle Sounders Women are not involved with a brand new
attempt at pro women's soccer in the USA. At least, not yet?
Before I get all nasty with this ... just a touch of background.
I went to watch the final of a U.S. Adult Soccer Association regional (huh?) between a team
called PSA Elite and a team that Eric Wynalda formed, Cal FC. (That was May 6th)
These are two teams that were just slapped together this past month in hopes of qualifying for
the US Open Cup.
Taking into account both pre-tournament expectations and performances therein, here's our XI of
the biggest flops, bumberclarts and turgid let-downs from the group stages of Euro 2012...
The strongest group in the European Championships will produce two survivors today in a pair of
highly-anticipated matches in Group B.
The surprising Danes will look to knock off Germany today and take first place in the group,
which would be a stunning accomplishment for a team most considered the weakest in this group.
It may not make up for the weekend's FA Cup final disappointment, but a fine 4-1 mauling of Cup
winners Chelsea did give the Anfield faithful something to cheer about on Tuesday night.
Kenneth Dalglish, the great press conference raconteur, has yet again turned an innocuous question
from a journalist into a talking point. The Liverpool manager responded to a straightforward
question about the role of one of the club's hottest prospects in his now customary passive
aggressive style.
Arsenal will have to channel the spirit of Spartacus at the Emirates today
Arsenal vs AC Milan at the Emirates, CL 2nd leg @ 2:45 PM EST
This month Arsenal are being celebrated as the comeback kings. In January they couldn't crumble
quickly enough. Arsene Wenger sees the victories against Spurs and Liverpool as evidence his side
that can pull rabbits out of a hat which is why he's so gung ho about the AC Milan second leg
despite being four goals down.
Despite Newcastle performing well at the moment and the turmoil we've been through this week, the
Newcastle fans aren't overly confident about getting a result down at the Lane. We're difficult to
beat at home and they worry about their defence up against an inform Bale. Then again there are
some fans that reckon they can get at least a draw or cheeky win out of us given that our strike
force is misfiring and our current main threat in Bale had a shocker against Liverpool.
Frequenters of this blog will know that I get nervous before big matches. Actually, frequenters
of this blog will know that I get nervous before all matches; there are no gung-ho,
intrepid chest beating, let me at ‘em kind of previews in the Nicks anteroom at BigFourZa. But
because of the wide range of faces Arsenal have shown against the big boys, I especially balk
whenever these fixtures come along.
Frequenters of this blog will know that I get nervous before big matches. Actually, frequenters
of this blog will know that I get nervous before all matches; there are no gung-ho,
intrepid chest beating, let me at ‘em kind of previews in the Nicks anteroom at BigFourZa. But
because of the wide range of faces Arsenal have shown against the big boys, I especially balk
whenever these fixtures come along.
English football in 'shambles' shocker. With a major tournament around the corner, the FA intervene
and strip John Terry of the England captain without consulting the manager. The manager resigns.
England have no captain, no manager and naff all chance of winning Euro 2012.
In many ways, I don't blame Fabio Capello for leaving.
Since I started this here blog just over six years ago I've seen almost 200 games across the
region. I've been to a lot more but for some reason I never quite get to the stadium.
Persipura hosted East Bengal last year in the AFC Cup at Bung Karno so I headed off nice and early
to catch the game.
"It just got off from a shaky footing when there are many in
reality is trying so hard to look good..."
Clementi Stadium in rainJust less than a week from the kickoff of the 2012 S.League season, the
league authority dropped another shocker that totally caught everyone in the fraternity off guard
when it was announced defending champions Tampines Rovers will be relocated to Clementi Stadium,
while its previous tenants Tanjong Pagar United will be "heading home" to Queenstown Stadium.
While we have already gone over the Fulham game in quite some exhausting detail, there were some
finer points that I felt got missed in the general excitement of the 'Ohmigood RvP, ohmigoood
Kagawa, ohmigoood, Rooneeey, not funnyyy, blood-uh' moments that the match is primarily remembered
for. So here is your dose of the more nuanced, previously-unnoticed points from the game on
Saturday:
For the first time in their brief MLS History Portland has scored 2 away goals and not only have
did they score two but one of them was a late equalizer. With all that said there were not that
many players to choose from for Man of the Match honors as quite a few players had pretty poor
performances, so let's see who the writers thought was their MOTM.
Becks has worked hard and run more with the Olympic torch than at the LA Galaxy
Stuart Pearce drops David Beckham from the English Olympic squad instead picking Micah Richards
in quite a shocker. After seeing his old AC Milan team mate, Andrea Pirlo having quite a Euro, this
is hard to take.
We saw Barcelona's 2012/13 fuzzy striped home kit before it was officially released, so the
real shocker of Tuesday's unveiling was the orange and yellow away kit. Sort of like staring at the
sun after squirting alcohol into your eyes, the club's official website describes it as "a
veritable array of vibrant colors to celebrate the team's dazzling football.
Ron Gourlay has been speaking to the media today. Yeah, I was just as enthralled as you probably
were to read what the man had to say. It really wasn't much, either (shocker).
Phone's ringing oh my god
Gourlay, talking it up at Chelsea's official announcement of the club's Sauber F1 Team
Partnership at Cobham on Wednesday, discussed a few choice topics.
Photo Credit: Alfonso Jimenez via Wikimedia Commons
Ever since Amado Guevara was shown the door, I've been clamoring for an actual #10 Creative
Midfielder for our team - to absolutely no avail. That genius Bruce Arena (besides destroying our
pretty good backline in 2007) saddled us with the perenially injured Claudio Reyna, who (as a
defensive midfielder) was absolutely not the creative player we needed.
