Author Archives: Soccer America

Wouldn’t it be your dream job to work at the soccer club you’ve always supported? Terry Daley’s family and friends presumed that he was delighted to be working on the official game day magazine at Chelsea FC (British teams produce a unique “match programne” for every home game), but he ended up feeling less like […]

Los Angeles Galaxy wide midfielder David Beckham has changed his mind about the England captaincy. Life, it turns out, would be too short for him to turn down the long-term opportunity to lead his national team again.   Beckham was made captain for the day when England beat Trinidad & Tobago earlier this month, and […]

The inquiries continue into Trinidad & Tobago’s astonishing 2-1 home defeat to Bermuda Sunday in the second round of Concacaf World Cup qualifying. T&T’s Colombian coach, Francisco Maturana, took the full blame at the post-game press conference, saying via a translator that his team “abused long passes,” and that this was no way to play […]

U.S. midfielder Jared Jeffrey has signed a three-year contract with Club Bruges of the Belgian Jupiter League. The U.S.U-17 residency product signed after turning 18 over the weekend, the age at which non-European Union players can legally join European clubs as professionals. “Yes, he signed for Club Bruges for three years,” said a spokeswoman for […]

One of Austria’s main newspapers was realistic in its assessment of the co-host nation’s performance at Euro 2008. “In three appearances on its own soil, Austria could not manage a single goal from open play,” writes Michael Robausch. “A lack of imagination in front of the opponent’s goal was the cardinal deficit in all of […]

Few neutral fans will hold it against the Czech Republic goalkeeper Petr Cech for making such a mess of a simple cross in his team’s thrilling “winner takes all” Group A game with Turkey Sunday, which the Czechs lost, 3-2, after being 2-0 up. After all, without his fumbling, we would have been denied another […]

MLS may have let Santino Quaranta’s cocaine test pass, but they weren’t so lenient with LA striker Edson Buddle, who was suspended by the league in 2005 for refusing to take a breathalyzer test when stopped by police. Now it seems another young forward who promised so much when he came into the league is […]

In one of the most revealing interviews ever with a Major League Soccer player, D.C. United midfielder Santino Quaranta told Steven Goff the story of his five-year addiction to pain-killers and alcohol, and how it threatened both his career and his life.   Quaranta was the youngest player ever in MLS when he made his […]

It wasn’t just the Caribbean that provided weekend shocks in World Cup qualifying. In South America, Brazil slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Paraguay, and a loss or a tie against Argentina Wednesday could leave them outside of the qualifying spots in the regional table.   “In all their glorious history,” writes Tim Vickery, “Brazil […]

In Friday’s Around The Net we summarized the potential upsets in the second round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers, but neglected to mention Bermuda’s visit to Trinidad & Tobago. No doubt piqued by our omission, the Bermudans pulled off “a stunning upset” by beating T&T, 2-1, in the first leg thanks to two goals from […]