Category: Section 2 Around the Net

UEFA President Michel Platini has mooted the idea of playing the European Championships in August, so that players taking part are less exhausted after a 10-month season.   “I’ve already proposed the idea of playing in August when the players have had a holiday,” he told the French daily. “But it would need the agreement […]

He no longer attracts a fraction of the media attention of four years ago, but that’s fine with Freddy Adu as he continues to slowly establish himself as a regular on the U.S. national team roster. Looking back on his early days in MLS, he concedes it was “hard” to be young and creative in […]

Let’s be honest, it’s not every weekend that you look at Major League Soccer’s schedule and are struck by the prospect of a can’t-miss game. But this Sunday’s clash between the league’s top two scorers, the L.A. Galaxy and D.C. United, promises to be something more than your average MLS fare. With over 32,000 tickets […]

Russia were outplayed, 4-1, by Spain in the opening game of the European Championships, but no one will be expecting a similar result in Thursday’s semifinal rematch. In contrast to Spain, who looked tired and lacking in ideas against Italy in their quarterfinal, Russia appears to be hitting its stride just at the right time, […]

The other main Russian name in European transfer talk this week has been midfielder Andrei Arshavin. But why, asks Luke Harding, has it taken the rest of Europe so long to notice the qualities of the midfielder behind both Russian progress at Euro 2008, and the UEFA Cup and Russian title wins for his club […]

Kansas City Wizards coach Curt Onalfo is regarded by many as a possible future national team coach. After surviving a battle with Hodgkin’s disease in his 20s, writes Kristian Dyer, Onalfo certainly has the tenacity needed for the job.   “My initial reaction was that I was scared,” said Onalfo of the time when he […]

Soccer’s world governing body FIFA has rejected a request by Iraq to expel Qatar from World Cup qualifying after it fielded an ineligible player. Although the player in question, Brazilian-born Emerson, has since been banned by FIFA, the Zurich bureaucrats say that Iraq’s complaint was filed too late to allow it to replace Qatar in […]

The long-running saga of the goalkeeping spot on the U.S. women’s national team took its latest turn Tuesday when Briana Scurry was only named as back-up to the Olympic roster, behind Hope Solo and Nicole Barnhart. But Scurry says she’ll be going to China anyway, the only one of four alternates doing so, in order […]

Nicknames have been a part of sports for as long as balls have been thrown, hit or kicked. In Philip Roth’s Great American Novel, about a traveling baseball team, one novice player begs to have a nickname so that he can feel truly accepted among the senior players. Much to his fury, they oblige by […]

With England having failed to qualify for Euro 2008, its press has been eager to pick up on any stories with an English connection. One has been Big Phil’s move from Portugal to Chelsea, announced mid-tournament. Another has been the progress of Turkey’s adopted Englishman, Colin Kazim-Richards, whose roster selection was aided by a Turkish-Cypriot […]

Did anyone pay too much heed to last week’s story that Ronaldinho may, at some point, have been negotiating a multi-million dollar deal with the LA Galaxy? As Greg Lalas writes, “the whole episode smacked of agent-team gamesmanship.”   The reported possible $50 million a year deal for the 28-year-old Brazilian was “simply too symmetrical” […]

Trinidad & Tobago’s Colombian coach, Francisco Maturana, might have been advised to head straight back to South America if he hadn’t steered the Caribbean nation past Bermuda in Sunday’s second leg of their World Cup qualifying second-round series. As it turned out, his team overturned the shock first-leg 2-1 deficit with a comfortable 2-0 road […]

North played South Korea in Seoul in a World Cup qualifier at the weekend, but with both teams already qualified for the next round, there was nothing at stake and the game ended 0-0. Perhaps more importantly, there were no diplomatic incidents.   North Korea’s striker Jong Tae-Se, christened the ‘North Korean Wayne Rooney’ by […]

There were few voices in the media lamenting Italy’s departure from the European Championships after its quarterfinal exit to Spain on penalties Sunday. The blame for its defeat was placed not just on the team’s dour, defensive tactics, but the failure of striker Luca Toni to score in any of Italy’s four games.   Defender […]

Russia’s Dutch coach Guus Hiddink engineered the demise of his native country in Saturday’s quarterfinal, illustrated by the willingness of his team to learn new methods, writes Martin Samuel. Russia’s improving performances and its 3-1 defeat of the much-fancied Netherlands destroys the myth that it is impossible for a national team coach to impose a […]

The financial turnover of the European Championships is almost $2 billion, a 50 per cent increase over the previous tournament. And because the finals have become a “cash cow” for UEFA, European soccer’s governing body maintains strict control over all off-field aspects of the tournament by dictating events, rules and information, writes Peter Birrer in […]

There were mainly low-scoring games in Major League Soccer this past week (only three out of nine games produced more than two goals), but the L.A. Galaxy, the league’s top scorers with 31 goals, continued to buck the trend by putting three past the Columbus Crew. It also conceded three to share the points, with […]

Euro 2008 co-hosts Switzerland and Austria were ill-equipped to compete with Europe’s best teams and were deservedly dumped out in the first round. It’s continuing to look as though 2010 World Cup host South Africa will suffer the same fate.   South Africa will not participate in the next African Nations’ Cup, due to take […]