Author Archives: Soccer America

Every year bar one so far, the Major League Soccer MVP award has gone to a player prolific in tallying goals and assists. Only goalkeeper Tony Meola in 2000 bucked the trend when he helped the Kansas City Wizards win MLS Cup. Pat Walsh reckons it’s time to show a little more imagination in our […]

Europe’s soccer governing body UEFA has warned Poland that it risks losing the 2012 European Championship if it does not reinstate the country’s suspended Football Association. The Polish FA was suspended Sunday by the government, which said the organization had failed to tackle corruption. It appointed an administrator to run the body instead. Both UEFA […]

Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber has admitted that the league will be hit hard by FIFA international dates next season, but said there’s not much that can be done about it, Luis Arroyave reports. “There are 13 weekends affected by international play and we have a 30-week season,” Garber said in Chicago. “To not […]

“Relationships suffer, parents, your family, birthdays, weddings, vacations … that’s what makes what I do so special, because I sacrifice a lot to do it, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Eight more years. That’s my goal, to get to 2016 — if my body allows me to.” Abby Wambach sets out her […]

“In those moments of tension, when your pulse is going 180 a minute, we were happy because we had scored a goal and we only intended to celebrate it with the fans, because in this section we also had friends and family.” Barcelona defender Carles Puyol defends his team’s rejoicing after a late penalty-kick winner […]

“I gave you access in South Africa and I shouldn’t have given you access. It won’t happen again. From now on, no matter how many miles you travel to get an interview, you won’t get one.” Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson claims he’s never speaking to the press again, ever. So there.

Multi-chinned Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has reportedly reduced the asking price for his club from $810 million to between $504-540 million. In case you’re interested.

If you’re going to fix a game, then you should try and aim for one that no one cares about. At least that might have been the philosophy behind a reported attempt to fix a UEFA Cup game last month between Marsaxlokk of Malta and visiting Croatian team Slaven Belupo. The Malta Football Association has […]

Not that Sven Goran Eriksson was desperate for fresh talent or anything, but a forthcoming book from former English Football Association Executive Director David Davies claims that the ex-England coach wanted to naturalize four EPL foreign players so that they could play for the national team. In ‘FA Confidential,’ Davies writes that after Euro 2004, […]

Both of Major League Soccer’s L.A. teams have had their struggles this season. But with just a handful of games left in the fight for a Western Conference playoff spot, there is a markedly different mentality between the L.A. Galaxy and Chivas USA. At Chivas, coach Preki said after the weekend’s hard-fought 2-1 in over […]

When it comes to putting money into soccer, business is business, while environmental causes and workers' rights are the domains of naïve idealists. This must be the case given the reaction of Utah's local media to the announcement Monday that mining company Rio Tinto has bought the naming rights to Real Salt Lake's new stadium […]

The story that broke Monday in the Sports Business Journal about the Las Vegas Sports and Entertainment Group buying an undisclosed stake in the Columbus Crew was an exaggeration, according to both the team and Paul Caligiuri, the former U.S. national team player who is spokesman for the investor group. Shawn Mitchell reports both sides […]