Monthly Archives: July 2008

Tough luck for free-spending Chelsea — rumored transfer target David Villa says he hopes to stay at Valencia “for many years.”

Boca Juniors midfielder Sebastian Nayar’s decision to leave after playing just one game to join Spain’s Recreativo Huelva leaves the Argentine side furious.

The Colorado Rapids’ billionaire owner Stan Kroenke has assured Arsenal’s hierarchy that he has no intention of buying control of the London Premier League club as he prepares to take a seat on the board, according to Arsenal’s current chairman, Peter Hill-Wood.   Kroenke’s place on the board “has certainly been talked about and it […]

Not wanting to feel left out as its MLS counterparts were beaten by lower-level opposition, Toronto FC fell, 1-0, at home to the USL’s Vancouver Whitecaps in the Canadian Championship, the country’s round-robin qualifying tournament (also including the Montreal Impact) for the CONCACAF Champions League. And it was no second-string eleven fielded by Coach John […]

Tuesday’s third Open Cup upset came when MLS Cup holder Houston Dynamo lost on penalty kicks to the short-handed Charleston Battery following a 1-1 tie. Houston is another team with three other competitions to balance in a busy schedule, but its defeat to a USL side using a number of second-string players further reflects a […]

The Seattle Sounders are warming up for MLS play in a year’s time by continuing to dump the league’s teams out of the Open Cup. They beat Chivas USA for the second successive year Tuesday on goals by Taylor Graham and Sebastien Le Toux, proving that last season’s two victories over MLS opposition were “no […]

The New York Red Bulls, a 13-year-old Major League Soccer franchise, has yet to win a title. On Tuesday, they lost to a second-year United Soccer Leagues Division II team, Crystal Palace Baltimore, in round three of the U.S. Open Cup. It wasn’t even close, with the senior side losing by two goals, despite having […]

As if that’s not excitement enough, it’s Shakhtyor Karagandy against Debreceni VCS in the CL’s sister competition, the UEFA Cup.

Wondering who Buducnost Podgorica will play in the first round of qualifying for the UEFA Champions league? The draw took place Tuesday.

Former assistant coach takes over the Ticos from Hernan Medford, sacked last week.

In Monday’s newsletter we wrote about FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s back-up plan should South Africa be unable to host the 2010 World Cup. This week UEFA boss Michel Platini heads to Poland and Ukraine to see how they are shaping up to co-host the next European Championships in four years time, amid continued speculation that […]

With the Euros over, the UK sports media can now indulge in its favorite summer pastime of inventing, stoking or speculating upon the transfer market, an activity that’s no longer the exclusive domain of the country’s notoriously truth-shy tabloid press. In Tuesday’s “quality” papers, writes Josh Widdicombe, “you will find news of 20-plus transfers, only […]

The Scottish Premier League has signed a new four-year deal with Setanta Sports worth $250 million, over twice the amount of the current deal, due to expire in 2010. The extent of the game’s coverage will remain the same, with 60 games per season screened live across the UK and Ireland.   It marks “the […]

One of Major League Soccer’s selling points is its unpredictability, but the L.A. Galaxy are taking that point to new extremes, writes Nick Green. Not only does it feature the league’s most potent attack and its most porous defense, but it’s impossible to tell if a player performing well one minute will even bother showing […]

During and after every major international soccer tournament, the same facile clichés are peddled about the sport being a great unifier of people. And with ethnically fractured Spain taking the Euro 2008 title on Sunday, there has been plenty of talk about soccer having brought the divided country together under one flag. But as the […]