“I feel very good here. I arrived in a team that wanted me for years and I play for exceptional fans. I’ll stay here until March and then we’ll see. Right now I’m focused only on my football.”
— David Beckham, who scored for AC Milan on Sunday, hedges on his allegiance to the Los Angeles Galaxy, which loaned him to the Italian Serie A club while expecting him back for his third MLS season. (AFP)
[HEXAGONAL COUNTDOWN] Be it a competitive match or a friendly, be it played in January or June or any other month, breaking down a bunkered defense is a difficult task. Several elements are essential for success in such situations and against Sweden on Saturday the U.S. men displayed enough of them to win their first match of 2009. In wowing a crowd of 9,918 at Home Depot Center by scoring all three goals in a 3-2 victory, Man of the Match Sacha Kljestan displayed one of those elements, a clinical finishing touch. He curled a free kick from 35 yards into the top corner, he confidently tucked away a penalty kick, and he polished off his hat trick with a crisp first-time strike.
[USA-SWEDEN REPORT CARD] Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the U.S. players’ performance in their 3-2 victory over Sweden on Saturday …
Oguchi Onyewu‘s Standard Liege, the defending champion in Belgium’s Juliper League, moved into first place, while Porto regained the lead in Portugal ahead of Benfica and Sporting, which both had to settle for ties. In Turkey, Sivas is the surprise leader. In the French Cup, seventh-division Schirrhein’s Cinderella story ended when it fell at home to Toulouse, 8-0, in the round of 32.
[DIGICEL UNCAP CUP] Three-time defending champion Costa Rica moved into the semifinals of the UNCAF Cup with a 3-1 win over Guatemala on Sunday. Honduras also advanced with a 4-1 victory over Nicaragua on Saturday.
[SPAIN] Real Madrid made it five straight wins under new coach Juande Ramos with a 1-0 home win over Deportivo Coruna on Sunday that left it as the only team with any hope of catching leader Barcelona. And that’s a stretch: Barcelona thumped Numancia, 4-1, at the Nou Camp on Saturday and remains in the lead by 12 points.
[ITALY] Forget for a moment that David Beckham‘s loan deal between the Galaxy and AC Milan ends March 8 and the European transfer window expires Saturday, making it impossible that he complete the Serie A season unless a deal is reached by Saturday. It took only one goal — one more than he scored in his first season with the Los Angeles Galaxy — for talk to speculation in the European to begin that David Beckham could be staying at AC Milan.
[ENGLAND] The top five teams in the Premier League are still alive in the FA Cup, though co-leader Liverpool, fourth-place Aston Villa and Arsenal all drew and need replays to advance to the fifth round. The so-called “big four” — Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool — were kept apart in the fifth-round draw held on Sunday.
I have been nurturing a theory for a number of years now. Actually, it’s more of a fear than a theory. A fear that Argentina and Brazil will run out of great players.
“I’ve kept an eye on Emile’s career and when he’s confident he’s a top player. Something leveled at Emile is that he doesn’t score enough goals and I am sure he probably thinks exactly the same. But it doesn’t mean he hasn’t made a massive difference in other areas.” Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill on […]
“It’s disappointing to lose Jimmy. We said all along that we’d like to keep all of our players but the possibility of Jimmy leaving has been there all the time. He’s been seeking the type of contract we couldn’t give him.” Fulham manager Roy Hodgson on the departure of midfielder Jimmy Bullard to Hull City. […]
“I think he certainly has benefited from one year of playing somewhere else. He looks as athletic as before, probably more comfortable on the ball. I think with any player you get experience by playing and by making mistakes. I think he has gained some experience that is quite good for him.” RB New York coach Juan Carlos Osorio on returning defender Eric Brunner, 22, who left a year ago to play for Miami in the USL rather than downgrade his salary to a developmental contract.
AC Milan vice president Adriano Galliani has said that Brazilian playmaker Kaka will not leave for Real Madrid or any other club at the end of the season. The player turned down a $150 million move to Manchester City this week, but Spanish media reports have linked him with a move to La Liga’s reigning […]
England and Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard , 28, will deny having assaulted a man during a nightclub brawl last month, a court heard Friday. The club captain will plead not guilty to affray and assaulting company director Marcus McGee, 34, in a Merseyside nightclub shortly after Christmas. He appeared before North Sefton Magistrates in Merseyside […]
Compared with a deal they had lined up last summer, Liverpool FC’s U.S. owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett will have to settle for a profit reduced by $150 million if they sell the team to Kuwaiti billionaire Nasser al Kharafi. The Kuwaiti approached the Americans last year with a view to sealing a $820 […]
San Jose Earthquakes’ midfielder Ronnie O’Brien won’t return to the club, Quakes GM John Doyle said Thursday after the two sides failed to reach a contract deal. O’Brien, who lives in San Jose, wanted to stay, reports Elliott Almond, but the player said “the number they came back with was really low. It wouldn’t have […]
D.C. United midfielder Ben Olsen has barely kicked a competitive ball in 15 months, but he was back at training Thursday to try and resurrect his playing career, writes Steven Goff. Despite rumors of retirement and persistent pain in his left ankle, Olsen is determined to try and play for at least one more season. […]
he U.S. men’s national team plays its first game of 2009 against Sweden on Saturday.
[DIGICEL UNCAF CUP] El Salvador, one of the USA’s opponents in the Hexagonal, the final round of 2010 World Cup qualifying, opened the Central American Championship with a 1-1 tie to regional minnow Nicaragua. Another U.S. Hexagonal opponent, Honduras, opened the UNCAF Cup with a 2-1 over Belize in which former MLS star Amado Guevara scored Honduras’ first from the penalty spot and was ejected with a yellow-red in the 90th minute.
[MLS] In its first two seasons, Toronto FC has consistently packed its stadium and turned a profit, which are two accomplishments much more established MLS teams can only dream about. In year three, it is committed to getting things right on the field, and completed a vital step in that process by signing attacker Dwyane De Rosario, a native of nearby Scarborough, Ont., to a new contract.
[MLS] The precise details won’t be known until all the paperwork and documentation is done, but Colombian attacker Fredy Montero has signed an MLS contract to play for Seattle Sounders FC.
[HEXAGONAL COUNTDOWN] The revolving door has finally spun to a halt, so no longer will U.S. national team players wonder whom they might line up with Saturday when they face Sweden in the first match of a very busy 2009. Home Depot Center is the venue for the match (8:30 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel, Galavision) that kicks off perhaps the most grueling year in the team’s history.
[OFF THE POST] Referee Gary Bailey ejected Me-Tu, a parrot, from the Hertfordshire Senior Centenary Trophy quarterfinal because his whistling kept bringing players to a standstill.
[HEXAGONAL] Less than three weeks before facing the USA in the first game of final-round World Cup qualifying, Mexico is plagued by suspensions, injuries problems and the fact that several key players aren’t seeing consistent action with their European club teams. Whether that’s good news for the USA is open to debate.
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Landon Donovan upped his scoring total to four goals in five friendly games for Bayern Munich as he struck twice after entering as a 60th minute sub in Bayern’s 5-0 win over second division Mainz. The 26-year-old, on loan from the Los Angeles Galaxy, is now Bayern’s leading scorer in midseason-break friendly games.
