Monthly Archives: February 2009

“I am having fun, but I believe that it is time to make room for youngsters. They deserve to play. Perhaps you think I am still young, but I am 37 and I feel it’s truly the right time to quit. I just want to give my all in these remaining three months and hopefully […]

"You haven’t lost your Drogba, he was just not playing. Being judged when you are playing is much easier, and to the contrary, when you are not playing you can be criticized. At the moment I feel good when I’m on the field and I make the most of those priceless moments. The truth is […]

Defending champions Zenit St. Petersburg, current Bundesliga leaders Hamburger SV and Italian enforcers AC Milan are among the teams that will compete in the second leg of the Round of 32 of the 2009 UEFA Cup on Thursday. In the first leg of the series last week, six of the 16 games ended in draws, […]

According to ESPN Soccernet, the European Commission has “dismissed the findings” of a new FIFA-commissioned report that supported the world governing body’s proposed 6+5 rule that would limit the number of foreign players in domestic leagues and “warned that pursuing the law would result in a spate of court cases.” While the controversial 6+5 rule […]

Jeff Bradley takes the liberty of playing the numbers game for MLS teams with regard to the upcoming season, exploring a statistical approach to what key figures they need to focus on in order to find success and/or a ticket to the postseason. Among other things, Bradley zeroes in on the surprisingly low number of […]

It’s now only 10 days until David Beckham‘s loan to Italian AC Milan was supposed to come to an end, and yet here American soccer fans sit, counting down the final hours until the “Beckham Era” is put out of its misery. As the New York Times’ Jeffrey Marcus writes, according to an A.C. Milan […]

Despite a failing economy in which the average Joe has less and less (if any) disposable income to throw around on sports and entertainment, the city of Seattle has galvanized around the new Sounders FC franchise, to the tune of some 20,000 season-ticket holders. Addressing a host of long odds, Seattle Times columnist Steve Kelley […]

“This is a new beginning for Canada.” New head coach and Italian legend Carolina Morace on taking the helm of the “under-achieving” Canadians, where she’s employing an all-female staff, phased out veteran Charmaine Hooper, is “eager to refine” their physical and aggressive reputation, and put the team in the hands of leading scorer and captain […]

"We're not going to announce to the world the sort of feedback we've had from FIFA. But what I'm going to say is that in our travels within Asia and the [soccer] world more broadly, we believe there's a lot of support for Australia to host the World Cup. We are as confident today as […]

Twenty-three-year-old Marta Vieira da Silva might’ve grown up in playing soccer in the “sandy river bottoms” of remote Brazilian town Dois Riachos, writes LA Times’ Grahame Jones, but her superior skills have since taken her all over the world. Her latest stop is in sunny Los Angeles, where she is set to lead the Sol, […]

Saying that the Chinese federation puts its coaching candidates through the paces could be the understatement of the day, as Reuters reports that four top candidates for its national team coach position “have been sent to a closed training base where each will have give a 15-minute presentation and undergo a three-hour written test on […]

As part of an effort to help bring one of the two available MLS expansion teams to Portland in 2010, Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson was in Salem on Tuesday to speak to the Oregon Legislature about a bill that would “divert state income taxes generated by players’ salaries toward the proposed renovation of PGE […]

While the Galaxy continue to hog the L.A. soccer spotlight, much like the Lakers cast their long Staples Center shadow on the Clippers, with speculation of who will be in uniform this season and who won’t, down the hall Chivas USA is quietly prepping its core players to build on three consecutive postseason appearances. The […]

Speaking to the AP yesterday, Spanish striker Raul stated that he’s considering, retiring, at least momentarily, in 2011 after two more seasons with Real Madrid, where he recently surpassed legend Alfredo di Stefano as the team’s all-time goalscorer. "It is a difficult situation because you always want to go out when you are at the […]