Category: Section 2 Around the Net

Soccer By Ives reports that New York Red Bulls product Matt Kassel will not be making the jump to the senior team this season. Which is to say that Kassel, considered to be the most promising youngster in the Bulls’ youth academy, will not become, as many expected, the first youth academy product to sign […]

It’s hard to believe that Santino Quaranta is just 23 years of age. The D.C. United striker has now been in the league for seven years, but as Quaranta tells Soccer365, it certainly hasn’t been a glorious seven years. Quaranta says he hit rock bottom when the New York Red Bulls waived him on Jan. […]

The Los Angeles Times’ Grahame L. Jones reveals Mexico’s “astonishingly unrealistic wish list” of new coaches, including Portugal’s Luiz Felipe Scolari, who coached Brazil to the 2002 World Cup title, Marcello Lippi, who coached Italy to the 2006 World Cup title, former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho, and former Mexico and current Atletico Madrid coach Javier […]

With their focus on the Serie A title race, both Inter Milan and AS Roma fielded largely reserve squads for last night’s Coppa Italia semifinals. At the Stadio Olimpico, a young Roma side relied on the experience of talisman Francesco Totti to lead it past Catania Calcio, 1-0. After a tepid first half, Totti took […]

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink’s stoppage-time winner rescued Celtic’s Scottish Premier League title hopes from certain oblivion Wednesday night just as it seemed that 10-man Rangers would hold on for a point that would all but guarantee the title’s return to Ibrox. Celtic’s 2-1 win reduced the gap at the top to one point, but Rangers […]

In an interview with Radio Catalunya, Dutch World Cup legend Johan Cruyff reveals more as to why he decided to boycott the 1978 World Cup, which the Dutch were favored to win. Cruyff has long said he refused to participate in the tournament because Argentina, the host, had suffered a military coup two years earlier, […]

Today’s Spanish Copa del Rey final pits Valencia, a club with one of Spain’s most glorious traditions, against Getafe, a club with almost no rich history to speak of. Valencia has won the Copa del Rey six times, while Getafe has only reached the final once (last season, where it lost to Sevilla). However, by […]

Barely two months ago, Real Madrid was running away with La Liga, and Robinho was running the show. Today, Real is still running away with La Liga, although this has more to do with the ineptitude of its rivals than any bright play from the Brazilian. Indeed, Robinho has been relegated to the bench, an […]

It looks like the San Jose Earthquakes will finally get their stadium. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Quakes owner Lew Wolff reached an agreement with the city to buy the land near the San Jose airport on which he would build an 18,000-seat stadium and accompanying retail, office and hotel space. Terms of […]

Toronto FC players and coaches endured a nervy flight home from their 3-2 triumph in Los Angeles on Sunday, the Globe and Mail reports. The airplane on which the team traveled had problems with its hydraulics system and was forced to make an emergency landing in Omaha, Neb. “We panicked a little bit,” TFC coach […]

What happened to MLS attendances this past week? For the eight matches played this past week, attendances were as follows: 8,096, 20,038, 8,309, 9,627, 11,564, 13,193 and 20,426 — an average of 12,248. Okay, so Toronto hasn’t played a home match yet, but still, 12,000 is well below last season’s average of 16,770. In a […]

A defensive-sounding Avram Grant insisted that Chelsea hadn’t yet ceded the title to Manchester United despite failing to collect three points at home against lowly Wigan Athletic on Monday. “We’re still in it and will keep on fighting,” said Grant, who was booed at the end of the 1-1 tie at Stamford Bridge. “We need […]

The feud between Liverpool American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett “is making a laughing stock of an English institution,” writes Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune. It’s gotten to the point where the pair can’t even be in the same stadium, let alone meet in the same boardroom together. When Gillett tried to […]

Chivas USA, as ever, is on the lookout for a high-profile Mexican player to add to its roster. The Los Angeles club so far has only two — defender Claudio Suarez and midfielder Francisco Mendoza — but CEO Shawn Hunter tells the Los Angeles Times that Chivas may be getting ready to bring in a […]

The Daily Southtown’s Nick Firchau reports that former Chicago Fire president and GM Peter Wilt will meet with team owner Andrew Hauptman in the coming weeks about possible replacements for the deposed John Guppy, who was fired as GM late last week. The question Wilt wouldn’t answer is whether he was meeting as a consultant […]

Los Angeles Galaxy fans endured a frustrating 3-2 loss to Toronto FC on Sunday. The L.A. Times Grahame L. Jones described it as a “strange” game because the Galaxy (read: Landon Donovan and David Beckham) looked brilliant at times, creating numerous chances in the first half, in particular. But when Donovan or Beckham couldn’t be […]

For the second week in a row, Serie A title pretender Roma played before league-leading Inter Milan and won, closing the gap at the top of the standings to a single point. But for the second week in a row, Inter responded with a comfortable 2-0 win against potentially troublesome opposition. The Italian press was […]

D.C. coach Tom Soehn’s decision to bench several of his regulars backfired badly on Saturday as Real Salt Lake blanked United, 4-0, at Rice-Eccles Stadium. In the wake of United’s 2-1 midweek win against Mexican power Pachuca, Soehn decided to rest Marcelo Gallardo, Zach Wells, Gonzalo Martinez and Santino Quaranta. It was United’s fifth game […]

The New England Revolution has played just four games of the 2008 Major League Soccer season, and yet only four players have played every minute of every game. The Boston Globe’s Frank Dell’Apa says this lack of continuity is to blame for the Revs’ lack of consistency on the field. Two great performances — 3-0 […]

Nine weeks is an incredibly short period of time to build a sports team from scratch, but nevertheless, San Jose Mercury News columnist Anne Killion says that San Jose’s “instant Earthquakes” have put together a “surprisingly palatable” on-field product. Indeed, the Quakes played well enough to beat Chicago in their home opener on Saturday, but […]

Goal.com’s Pat Walsh tries to look on the bright side of D.C. United and the Houston Dynamo’s failure to advance to the Champions Cup semifinals. He says that American teams are no longer the embarrassment they used to be in international competitions. “Gone are the days where American sides are dispatched in the way that […]

Reports all over the place are claiming that Ronaldinho’s transfer to AC Milan is an all but done deal. Spanish paper El Mundo Deportivo reported that the Barcelona playmaker would sign with Milan for about $47.4 million, after the two sides reached what Bloomberg News described as an “outline agreement” for the player’s transfer when […]

Three of the six Cuban players who defected to the U.S. last month have been given a tryout with the Los Angeles Galaxy, the L.A. Times Grahame L. Jones reports. Jose Manuel Miranda, Yenier Bermudez and Yordany Alvarez were members of the Cuba U-23 team that saw six players and one assistant coach defect while […]

Reading goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann is heavyhearted about this weekend’s match-up against Fulham FC. The Cottagers, Hahnemann’s former team and the current employer of five of his American compatriots, are teetering on the brink of relegation; defeat would almost certainly send them down. Reading is also hovering near the relegation zone, and will be looking to […]

SoccerTimes’ Robert Wagman hits out at comments made by MLS Commissioner Don Garber in a recent Soccer America report. After watching D.C. lose 2-0 to Pachuca in Mexico, Garber said, “Boy, we’ve got to do better. For this league to win over the core audience, we’ve got to be able to be among the best […]