Samir Nasri has talked up Manuel Pellgrini's prospects of success at Manchester City while suggesting former boss Roberto Mancini was unable to get to grips with different personalities in the City dressing room. The France international was full of praise for the man widely expected to become his new manager.
Real Madrid beat Levante 4-2, capitalizing on Barcelona's 3-2 loss to Osasuna on Saturday and
putting themselves a comfy 10 points clear at the top of the table. Cristiano Ronaldo scored Real's
first three goals -- all within 12 minutes of each other -- but his third was the perfectly arched
effort from outside the box you see above.
The Sounders put a big dent in Chivas USA's playoff chances last week and have a chance to
finish them off with a knockout punch next week. Sandwiched between is the first of a one-two punch
against the other team vying for the playoff spot the Vancouver Whitecaps seem so desperate to
vacate.
FC Dallas won three matches in the first four months of their season - from March to the middle
of July.
I have two more years on my contract in Seattle. Everything else is rumors, but I guess it means
you are a good player and doing good things for people from Europe to be looking for someone to
help their teams. Being one of them, for me, means there are good professional opportunities.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. New England Revolution forward Saer Sene became the first player for the Revs
to score double-digit goals in one season on Wednesday evening in a 3-3 draw with Chivas USA. Sene
scored two goals in the game and looked a threat before pulling up in the second half grabbing his
knee.
MLS to become "smart" league: Will better stat tracking affect our view of game? - originally
posted on Soccerlens.com
Soccer has always been a sport predicated on somewhat subjective measurables; many coaches,
scouts and trainers finding the majority of what they need to know from a player's actual play on
the field, rather than his respective averages and scores in a spreadsheet.
The New England Revolution have announced the signing of Honduran forward Jerry Bengtson on a
transfer from Honduras' CD Motagua.
Bengtson, who recently led La Liga Nacional de Honduras in scoring for three straight seasons,
will be formally added to the team's roster upon receipt of his U.
All we are is dust in the wind " Unholy Union – The fan blog for Phi. Union
Unholy Union takes a look at the stats thus far into the 2012 Major League Soccer season.
They've decided to tag the Philadelphia Union as "Chivas East."
The Union Dues - Seattle Sounders 1-0 Philadelphia Union
"The Union's performance, however, was just not good enough.
There really hasn't been much "news" news in MLS over the past few weeks: clubs haven't been
rumored to be in talks with international stars, managers have kept things with the status quo, and
not a single player was found to me making anything of a ruckus. The season opened smoothly, and
attendance looked stronger than ever.
There are a lot of quotes from Sebastien Le Toux in this article. Many of them come from
Chris Vito's (of the Delco Daily Times and The Times Herald) fantastic interview with Seba. Check
it out. Many quotes from Peter Nowak are from his January 31 press conference.
The BBC have announced that along with dug-in regulars Mark Lawrenson, Alan Hansen and Alan
Shearer, the Match of the Day studio will be graced by none other than Harry Redknapp and Mick
McCarty as of this Saturday evening with the pair tasked with bringing 'their considerable
managerial expertise and experience to the country's most popular football programme.
The BBC have announced that along with dug-in regulars Mark Lawrenson, Alan Hansen and Alan
Shearer, the Match of the Day studio will be graced by none other than Harry Redknapp and Mick
McCarty as of this Saturday evening with the pair tasked with bringing 'their considerable
managerial expertise and experience to the country's most popular football programme.
The BBC crew begin to kit out the studio ahead of 'Arry's arrival
Saints be praised! After failing to reach Euro 2012 through the official channels earlier in the
week, it was been announced today that Harry Redknapp shall go to the ball after all after
accepting a position on the BBC's punditry panel for the tournament.
After a long trip to opposite parts of the world, the team will rejoin again this week at London
Colney to prepare in earnest for the upcoming season. I'm not sure when the players are scheduled
to restart their training. Maybe they get an extra day to recover from their travelling
exertions.
Despite Manchester City's disappointment in Europe last season, Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech
Szczesny has described them as one of the best teams in the continent.
City clinched the Premier League title in dramatic fashion two months ago on the last day of the
2011-12 campaign to put an early Champions League elimination well behind them.
Liverpool Need to Act Swiftly in the Transfer Market - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
With the announcement of Premier League fixtures, it seems that no other team faces a tougher
start to the campaign than Liverpool Football Club. The reds will have to play Top 3 teams in the
league i.
Undeniably the scorer of the greatest goal against Newcastle
What gap? A win tonight will take us to within a point of them and it won't be a gap in between.
It would just be an ant hill or maybe 2 pile of rubbish. Well within our (Arsenal's) civic duty to
clear out the thrash in between and not forgetting the thrash that are currently sitting in
third.
There I was having a beer with my dad this afternoon when news broke that AVB had been sacked and I
will be honest, I knew it was going to happen and thought to myself it's about time.
Before I get slated on here by Chelsea fans who want to look to the future and things like that I
want to make my point.
It was reminiscent of our last win at Anfield. We played poorly and we still come out on top.
It's the kind of performance that pundits drool over when Manchester United wins this type of
matches. The ability to beat the odds and find that winner despite not being on top of their
game.
On getting players ready after loss to Colorado:
"I think it's easy to get up for games here. The passion and energy that's in the stadium is just
tremendous.
Ask Philadelphia Fever head coach Stuart Gore what it's been like since he was named head coach
of the Philadelphia Fever and his answer is quick and honest.
"It's been a bit of a whirlwind."
Which is understandable when you realize that since being named coach of the new WPSL Elite team
in early February, Gore and assistant coach Jamie Scott have been combining their regular work as
coaches for Atlantic Soccer Factory with trying to build a competitive team from scratch, all of
which means a lot of 18 hour days .
We all know that every single player has his price these days at Newcastle. Demba Ba - can reject
any offers made to him And if any club comes along and meets that asking price, then
Newcastle will sell their players, and there's not much the player himself can do about it.
That's because the Newcastle Board have decided the money they get for the player is worth
more to Newcastle, than the [.
Balotelli is City's best chance of overtaking United for the title - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
Alan Hanson recently described Mario Balotelli as "a damaging distraction at the Etihad
Stadium", highlighting the growing perception that the Italian has become more hassle than he is
worth to Roberto Mancini.
Surely, if you are Roberto Di Matteo last night after everything has died down and you are left
alone with your thoughts before you went to bed last night / this morning, you must have thought to
yourself "I have just beaten Barcelona!"?.
He may be saying the right things to the press and the media, but deep down he must feel as though
he is doing and has done more than enough to be a serious contender for the job on a full time
basis now?
After posting my scouting report of the Barcelona weaknesses I have uncovered
here, it was also good to hear RDM speak of weakness in their game that he has also seen
after watching hours of Barca footage in recent weeks.
He said:
"You look at the way you can hurt Barcelona and create them difficulties.
Joe Allen claims to be 'loving every second' of his time at Liverpool, with the Anfield new boy
living the dream after securing a summer switch to the Reds.
Brendan Rodgers raided his former employers Swansea during the summer transfer window for Wales
international Allen, with a £15million deal taking him to Merseyside.
With "reports" going around that Chelsea are "willing to sell" Michael Essien, I just wondered what
the general opinion amongst Chelsea fans reading this all over the world is nowadays?
It's no secret Essien has had his injury problems and with persistent knee problems and those same
problems have affected his Chelsea career of late.
Wednesday night will be a bittersweet send off for Roger Levesque. The Sounder's own version of
a SeaFair Pirate is retiring after the Chelsea match. Roger epitomizes the heart of this team and
he will be missed. But as we reflect on his departure, it is also true that his retirement is an
adjustment to the Sounders roster.
As they have traditionally done over the span of the last four years, La
Seleccion held a big welcome party in Cibeles square upon arrival from Kiev yesterday
after visiting the royal palace (Zarzuela). The 'fiesta' was held at the traditional gathering
point of Madrid a mash of song, dance, drunkedness and overall sentiments of "Madridismo"
intertwined with faint, nationalistic sentiments of what it means to be 'Spanish'.
[T]his time four years ago Carlisle United stood on the brink of glory. A single win from their
last three games against Leeds United, Southend or Millwall would have been enough for the
Cumbrians to claim the final automatic promotion spot from League One and reach the heady heights
of English football's second tier for the first time in 20 years.
Isn't this a case of two plus two equals six here?? Surely the press have something better to do
than to carry on with the ridiculous articles about Roman turning up the heat on AVB by
attending training every day this week!
The next ridiculous rumour is that AVB is to be replaced by Fabio Capello "sooner rather than
later"!
