Category: Section 2 Around the Net

Cristiano Ronaldo still insists he wants to move to Real Madrid, but Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, says it would be wrong for the 23-year-old Ronaldo to go to Real Madrid so young. Fergie went so far as to say that Madrid is the last place he should be attempting to move to. […]

Britain does not take part in the Olympic soccer competition because here is no such thing as the British FA. England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland — the four nations — all have their own national teams, but Lord Coe — Sebastian Coe to all you track & field fans — would like Sir Alex […]

With his team mired in an eight-game winless streak (in all competitions) and facing a crucial game against the USL First Division Montreal Impact Tuesday in the Canadian championship competition, Toronto FC coach John Carver is a tad sensitive. He went off the Toronto press for what he perceived to be its negative tone. “Some […]

Real Madrid has asked Brazil to release Robinho from its Olympic team after medical tests revealed that the forward is suffering from a groin injury. The player says he’ll request the club’s decision. “On the advice of the medical staff,” Real said in a statement, “the club has decided that the best thing for the […]

Columnist Greg Lalas with 10 things an American soccer fan must do, beginning with support of his or her home team.

There were 340 teams entered in this year’s Swamp Soccer World Championships, held in northern Finland for the 10th time in a row.

Abby Wambach’s broken leg is a “huge blow” to the chances of the U.S. women’s Olympic team winning gold in Beijing, writes Andrea Canales, especially for a roster already robbed of experienced players such as defender Cat Whitehill and midfielder Leslie Osborne. But while many of the players that Coach Pia Sundhage takes to the […]

There was an announced crowd for Thursday’s MLS game between the Columbus Crew and the Kansas City Wizards of 16,117. But how many people were actually there? Shawn Mitchell examines the discrepancy between the Crew’s announced crowds, the number of people actually showing up for the games (that is, tickets scanned on the night), and […]

As D.C. United and other MLS teams seek public money to help finance new stadium ventures, Mark Yost looks at the real figures behind a sports venue financed largely by the taxpayer’s cash. While there’s no denying that the neighborhood around the Washington Nationals’ new baseball stadium in southeast D.C. has undergone a renaissance in […]

With little or no action on European soccer fields right now, and with transfer talk at unprecedented levels of exhaustion, a short piece in the London-based Daily Telegraph illustrates another favored method of British journalists for filling space on a slow news day. Take any given incident from the previous 24-hour news cycle, and second-guess […]

Nike has spotted a new market — Brazil’s Olympic team will play Vietnam on its way to Beijing.

James Walker-Roberts takes a look at the four groups of 16 teams and tips the first round winners. Perfidiously, he doesn’t back the U.S. to advance.

All the scores from Thursday’s UEFA Cup first-round qualifying action. You will want to know, for example, that it was a bad night for Marsaxlokk of Malta as they crashed 4-0 to Croatian side Slaven Koprinica.

The U.S. women’s team is No. 1 in the FIFA world rankings and has gone 21-0-1 this year, but those facts and stats will mean little or nothing when it comes to next month’s Olympic tournament in Beijing, writes Mark Zeigler. As U.S. captain Kate Markgraf puts it: “Sometimes it’s not the best team over […]

Many of D.C. United’s players declared themselves “disappointed” after Tuesday’s SuperLiga defeat at home to Atlante. However, writes Pat Walsh, “it was the kind of disappointment one feels walking up to a bus stop, seeing the bus pull away, and thinking, Oh, well, there will be another along in a few minutes.” That other bus […]

Emerson, a Brazil-born Qatar international, has just been banned by FIFA after it turned out that he represented Brazil at the 1999 South American U-20 tournament. Despite all the confusion surrounding the player’s passport and his real identity, Gavin Hamilton writes that “the Qatar FA made a huge mistake, punishable in FIFA statutes by a […]

The prestigious Premier League opponents of our Major League Soccer superstars are traveling to the United States for the All-Star game in appropriate style — by economy class. Or, as Britain’s favorite tabloid phrases it: “West Ham stars are fuming at their tour from hell after a travel firm went bust.” According to the (notoriously […]

Results and reports from the remaining first leg games of the UEFA Champions League opening qualifying round. Look away if you’re a fan of the Faeroe Islands’ champion, NSI Runavik.

D.C.’s injury worries increase as its Argentines face possible hernia operations.

Hamburg striker Preston Zimmerman, who was promoted to Hamburg’s first-team roster at Christmas but didn’t appear in the Bundesliga in the second half of the season, is on a week’s tryout with Belgian first division club Westerlo.

Brent Latham catches up with Carlsbad, Calif., native Ryan Guy at St. Patrick’s Athletic in Ireland.

The Champions League is under way. All your qualifying first round, first leg results and game reports here, from Tirana to Llanelli.

The statement by the Major League Soccer Players’ Association that its players are unhappy about their share of any potential SuperLiga prize money comes under the scrutiny of Frank Dell’Apa. He points out that MLS is under no legal obligation to give the players a share of the much-touted $1 million prize money, because Superliga […]

Superliga prize money will likely be a moot theme for D.C. United this year after it lost its second successive home game to Mexican opposition in four days. Coach Tom Soehn was frank about his team’s achievement after falling 3-2 to Cancun-based Atlante. “There is no sugarcoating anything,” Soehn said. “The performance, especially in the […]

The news that New York Red Bulls captain Claudio Reyna is to announce his retirement Wednesday prompted Jonah Freedman to accuse the club of having missed the boat on signing a potentially huge player. If the clearly incapacitated Reyna had stepped down at the start of the season, the team could have set its sights […]