Monthly Archives: August 2009

Jozy Altidore, the 19-year-old U.S. striker, was granted a UK work permit and has officially joined English Premier League club Hull on a one-year loan deal from Spain's Villarreal. Altidore joined Villarreal a year ago from the New York Red Bulls. His deal includes an option for Hull to make the move permanent next summer. […]

In an effort to stem its recent run of poor form, the Seattle Sounders FC veterans took the first hour of Monday’s training to refocus the team. They took turns sharing anecdotes about past struggles and the tactics they used to overcome them. The Sounders were routed 4-0 by San Jose and 1-0 by Real […]

If the USA manages to get a result in Mexico City it will likely be thanks to Landon Donovan. The USA is 7-1-2 against Mexico in the 10 games that Donovan has played and 4-0-0 in games in which he has scored against Mexico. Donovan, the USA's all-time scoring leader with 41 goals in 115 […]

Freddy Adu may be on the verge of joining Odense BK in Denmark on a one-year loan from his Portuguese club Benfica, which last season loaned him out to French Ligue 1 club Monaco, where he sat on the bench. Adu, 20, recently denied a reported move back to FC Dallas in MLS and said […]

The 23-year-old Longview, Texas, native Jose Francisco Torres has the tools to revolutionize the U.S. national team, says Sports Illustrated’s Jonah Freedman. But that doesn’t mean Coach Bob Bradley will take him off the bench on Wednesday against Mexico, where Torres plays for Pachuca, the club he joined while in high school. “The young midfielder […]

Mexico's higher seeding than the USA at the 2006 World Cup resulted in the USA's placement in more difficult group (Italy, Czech Republic, Ghana), from which it exited in the first round while Mexico advanced from a group with Iran, Angola and Portugal. U.S. coach Bob Bradley addressed whether he believed the result of Wednesday's […]

In an attempt to discover whether refs favor the home team, researchers showed one group of refs videotapes of tackles in the English Premier League with the sound off while another group of refs viewed the tackles with the sound on. The group that watched with the sound off called 15.5 percent fewer fouls against […]

Part cocky declaration and part call-to-action, an open letter from team president and CEO Kevin Payne that was placed in the pages of Monday's Washington Post attempts to serve the dual purpose of reminding the city that, simply put, "we win trophies," as well as imploring fans to come out as they "try to add […]

Just in case we the American soccer fans were getting comfortable seeing David Beckham standing over free kicks and lifting his club back to the top tier in MLS, England manager Fabio Capello offered up a matter-of-fact threat to the 34-year-old. "Beckham knows well that if he doesn't return to a big European league in […]

Despite being familiar with signature styles of almost all of Real Madrid's other-worldly individuals, turns out they're a lot easier to defend when you're watching them on the tube. "You see them on TV all the time and you know their moves, but when they do it, they do it so well that it's almost […]

In part one of a rare but extensive and forthright FIFA.com interview with the Argentine living legend, Diego Maradona opens up about a host of topics, from the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to coach La Albiceleste ("I've been through some difficult times but I managed to pull myself together, and here I am in charge of the […]

"Like Tony Meola, Brad Friedel and Kasey Keller before him, (Tim) Howard is preparing to accept one of the toughest assignments in all of world soccer: Mexico at their Estadio Azteca," reads the introduction to an exclusive interview on FIFA.com, but the Top Goalkeeper recipient from the Confederations Cup is confident and cautiously optimistic about […]