“Not speaking English is a problem. You’ve always got his interpreter running around the training ground. Sometimes you pass the ball through the middle and he chases it. And the interpreter is running alongside him and he gets in there and heads into the net!”
— Tottenham Hotsput coach Harry Redknapp on his Russian striker Roman Pavlyuchenko‘s communication issues. (BBC)
The UEFA Cup is down to four teams — two Ukrainian and two German. Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk will meet in one semifinal, while Hamburg will faces Werder Bremen in the other. For all of Thursday’s results and goalscorers …
Former China national team striker Gao Hongbo was named as the new national team coach on Thursday. At 43, he is the youngest coach in 30 years. The popular Gao was sent to a closed camp for a three-day grilling by federation officials in February with three other candidates. China failed to qualify for the […]
Italian Christian Vieri, recently linked to a move to MLS’s Los Angeles Galaxy, says he’ll try his luck at poker while continuing his search for a new club. The 35-year-old forward quit Serie A side Atalanta after fans jeered him during a training session. “I enjoy cards a lot,” Vieri told Sportweek magazine, “but my […]
Pedro Faife and Reinier Alcantara, Cuban national team players who defected before last October’s World Cup 2010 qualifying match against the USA in Washington, have signed contracts with the USL First Division’s Miami FC. ”Being in South Florida,” Miami FC general manager Luiz Muzzi said, “it’s nice to have signed two Cuban players, but more […]
AC Milan vice president Adriano Galliani doesn’t like the way his prize talent is being treated. He has demanded that Serie A referees keep an eye Brazilian teenager Pato Alexandre. “He is being scientifically targeted the moment he steps on the field with the hope that, given that he is young, he will become a […]
Barcelona midfielder Yaya Toure says he’ll get advice from his brother, Arsenal defender Kolo Toure, on Chelsea, Barcelona’s opponent in the Champions League semifinals. “I must speak with my brother about Chelsea,” he told the Daily Mirror. “Kolo will know all about them, especially after playing in a big game against Chelsea this weekend.” Yaya […]
Unbeaten in 18 English Premier League games, Arsenal has advanced to the semifinals of the English FA Cup and UEFA Champions League with a remarkable run impossible to have imagined just four months ago. Manager Arsene Wenger, for one, never seemed to doubt that his young team would find its form. “I feel that confidence […]
FIFA released the results of the first-phase lottery for World Cup 2010 tickets, and more tickets were issued to residents of the United States than any other country besides host South Africa. A total of 1,862,319 tickets were requested from 205 countries, and 555,871 tickets were drawn. Americans were issued 69,208 tickets. British fans received […]
[MAKING A LIST] Maine became the 19th Division I school to drop its men’s soccer program in the last 19 years.
[MLS] Less than six months after MLS rejected its bid for an expansion team in 2011, the Montreal Impact is seeking to strengthen its case by getting $20 million in government funding to expand 13,000-seat Stade Saputo.
[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] By this point last season, Arsenal was running out of gas. Now, the Gunners may be the hottest team in Europe. Their performance in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League series was certainly the most impressive. Arsenal cruised to a 3-0 win over Villarreal that extended it record in 2009 to 13 wins, seven ties and only one loss in 21 games and gave it a 4-1 win on aggregate, setting up a date with Manchester United in the semifinals.
“I just decided that was the way I wanted to experience the stadium, just walk in and see what I feel. I think it’s impressive. I think it’s going to be beautiful and it’s indeed the type of stadium the club has promised.”
— New York Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio, getting his first glimpse of Red Bull Arena at the “topping off” ceremony that saw the final piece of 7,100 tons of steel placed on the state-of-the-art structure.
“I compare Sunday to Christmas, and we’re the parents, working behind the scenes to get everything ready.” President Peter Wilt gets ready for the Chicago Red Stars’ first home game. They’re the last Women’s Professional Soccer team to open at home.
Thomas Veit, who has had front-office stints in MLS with Tampa Bay and the MetroStars, has been named president of Keystone Sports & Entertainment, the ownership group of MLS Philadelphia 2010. He will oversee all business matters relating to the new MLS team and the construction of its stadium in Chester and will report directly […]
Washington fans were hoping that the return of Christian Gomez would reignite D.C. United, which won one MLS Cup and two Supporters’ Shields during the Argentine’s first stint with the club but failed to make the playoffs without him in 2008. But the Argentine has yet to rediscover the form that made him at MLS […]
When a goalkeeper gives up seven goals in his last two home games, it’s probably time to make a change, but Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink backs goalkeeper Petr Cech. “He is a very intelligent and self-critical goalkeeper,” said Hiddink. After giving up three goals in the 4-3 win over Bolton on Saturday, Cech conceded four […]
Merritt Paulson‘s father, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, pushed for quick passage of last fall’s financial bailout dubbed the Paulson Plan. Now Merritt Paulson is asking the City of Portland to move quickly on a redevelopment plan that includes the renovation of PGE Park, the home of the future MLS Portland team. Some are […]
Twenty years after 96 men, women and children, all Liverpool fans, were crushed to death at the start of the English FA Cup semifinal at Sheffield’s Hillsborough Stadium, Rob Hughes reports that a lot has changed in English soccer. The death traps that were English stadiums with standing sections and movable metal fences are gone. […]
Fox’s acquisition of the UEFA Champions League’s U.S. TV rights, beginning next season, means that American fans may not have to put up with Tommy Smyth much longer. As Steven Wells notes in the Sport Blog, “fans will be hearing a lot less of quite possibly the world’s most hated sports commentator …” Smyth acknowledged […]
Welcome to Soccer America Classifieds, Soccer America’s email newsletter connecting soccer companies and organizations to Soccer America members each week. Soccer America Classifieds feature soccer classified advertisements on the latest soccer job openings, soccer products and soccer opportunities. Read Soccer America Classifieds each Wednesday.
[CONCACAF] Clive Toye, one of the pioneers in American pro soccer, Nicaraguan soccer federation president Julio Rocha and former Jamaican Football Federation head Anthony James have been selected for induction into Concacaf’s Hall of Fame at ceremonies to take place on June 1 during the XXVI Concacaf Ordinary Congress in the Bahamas.
[MLS] Seattle Sounders FC star Fredy Montero won’t face criminal charges in connection with a complaint filed by a Seattle area woman, who claimed that Montero raped her and then stalked her. A local prosecutor declined to pursue the matter, citing insufficient evidence to support the woman’s claim.
“I was still a baby at the time, nine years of age. I couldn’t go to the game, but my cousin did. I remember going to bed that night, praying that a member of our family hadn’t been involved. We got the dreaded knock on the door the next day to say he had died.”
— Steven Gerrard, the current captain of Liverpool, on the death of cousin Jon-Paul Gilhooley, at 10 the youngest of 96 Liverpool fans killed on April 15, 1989, at Sheffield’s at Hillsborough Stadium. On the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy, Gerrard will lead Liverpool players at a memorial service at Anfield on Wednesday. (New York Times)
[OFF THE POST] In non-league English soccer, a Chorlton Villa player was shown a yellow card for passing gas as an International Manchester FC took a penalty kick, and missed. The referee said, “The player who made the noise was booked for ungentlemanly conduct – trying to put the other player off.” The penalty kick was retaken and converted.
