Category: Section 2 Around the Net

AC Milan striker Kaka, FIFA’s reigning World Player of the Year, believes his team will be extra motivated for Wednesday’s first-leg, second round game against Arsenal in the Champions League, because the prestigious European trophy is the last competition Milan has a chance of winning this season. “We are too far behind in Serie A, […]

Rafael Benitez was forced to defend his record to reporters amid suggestions that his team’s Champions League round of 16 series with Inter Milan could represent his last stand as Liverpool manager. “I am surprised I am being asked a question about winning the Champions League to save my job,” said Benitez, who guided Liverpool […]

ESPN’s Phil Ball looks back on a weekend in Spain where neither of the league’s two best teams played very well. In the end, Real Madrid ended up ceding ground to second-place Barcelona for the second time in three weeks, losing 2-1 at Real Betis despite scoring in the first six minutes and having more […]

The Daily Mail says Rafael Benitez’s job is on the line after Liverpool crashed out of the FA Cup on Saturday, losing 2-1 at home to second-tier club Barnsley. With a third of the season still to go, the Champions League is now the only competition the Reds could still win. Tomorrow night Liverpool hosts […]

Women’s Professional Soccer, set to kick off in a year, will be a far more modest operation than the Women’s United Soccer Association, which collapsed in 2003, says Yahoo Sports Martin Rogers. WUSA tried to piggyback on the success of the 1999 Women’s World Cup, promising packed stadiums and big TV deals, but it all […]

If Honolulu loses the NFL Pro Bowl (which it may once the state’s contract with the league expires next year), then soccer’s Pan-Pacific Championship might come to fill the economic void — or at least part of it, says the Honolulu Advertiser’s Michael Tsai. Why? For one thing, an international field featuring the L.A. Galaxy, […]

The English Premier League’s proposal to add a 39th round of international games to its schedule received a massive body blow on Friday when FIFA President Sepp Blatter told BBC Sport that the plan would “never happen.” Blatter added that if the league decided to pursue the idea anyway, it would harm England’s chances of […]

Camp Gullit has begun, and it’s considerably different to what the L.A. Galaxy players were used to under Frank Yallop, says Yahoo Sports’ Martin Rogers. Dutch coach Ruud Gullit has implemented strict guidelines on the players’ eating habits in addition to a new twice-a-day training regimen. David Beckham, for one, approves of the new measures, […]

The Los Angeles Galaxy looks set to bolster its defense by adding D.C. United veteran Greg Vanney, blogger Ives Galarcep reports. Washington Post writer Steven Goff confirms the rumor, adding that Quavas Kirk will be involved in the trade. Vanney would become the second former Galaxy player to return to the team this off-season, striker […]

Associated Press reporter Brian Trusdell asks U.S. soccer players and officials to weigh in on U.S. phenom Josmer Altidore, who recently collected his first international goal for the U.S. senior national team in a 2-2 draw with Mexico. Everyone agrees that the 6-foot-2, 190 pound 18-year-old has loads of potential, but many feel Altidore has […]

CONCACAF teams need to play against tougher opposition if the region is ever going to effectively compete in a World Cup, says the Houston Chronicle’s Bernardo Fallas. The USA, at least, has the idea, having lined up friendlies against 20th-ranked Poland, 4th-ranked Spain, 11th-ranked England (perhaps), and looking to set up one more against other […]

The United States’ World Cup plans received a slap in the face Thursday as Concacaf President Jack Warner put his support behind England to host the 2018 tournament. ‘It is England’s time,” Warner told Sky Sports News. “The fact is they invented this sport. There are guys in England who have never seen a World […]

British tabloid The Daily Mirror claims that Liverpool’s American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are poised to hand over the club they bought just one year ago. Despite denials from both Hicks and Gillett, “sources in New York” tell the Mirror that the pair will sell Liverpool to Dubai International Capital in mid-March for […]

Doctors are optimistic Ronaldo’s career will not be over after the former three-time World Player of the Year severed a tendon in his left knee during a Serie A match against Livorno on Wednesday. Pietro Volpi, Inter Milan’s club doctor between 1995 and 2000, believes Ronaldo can recover from knee surgery just as he did […]

English Premier League clubs are making an assault on soccer’s global rich list, accounting for six of the 20 richest clubs in the world, according to the latest annual report from The Deloitte Football Money League. With the exception of Newcastle, which fell from 13th to 14th in the list, Manchester United (2), Chelsea (4), […]

Major League Soccer is nearing a deal with representatives to bring professional soccer to the Philadelphia region, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Several sources” tell the paper the talks have progressed past the “if” stage on to “how” and “when.” The team would play at a $115 million stadium built beside the Commodore Barry Bridge […]

Steve Davis praises MLS clubs for their decision to incorporate technical directors into their managerial structure. As of right now, six of 14 MLS teams — Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, D.C., Kansas City and Columbus — have them, along with Seattle, which doesn’t even begin play until the 2009 MLS season. The Crew’s Brian […]

The Evening Chronicle has a story on the experienced John Carver, who assumes the role as Toronto FC coach after several assistant coaching stints with various clubs in England, including Newcastle United of the English Premiership, where he was assistant to Sir Bobby Robson, and Leeds United of the English League Championship (England’s second division). […]

The debate over an international 39th round of English Premier League matches rages on. The New York Times’ Jeffrey Marcus points out that the measure, introduced and unanimously approved of (in principle) by the league’s 20 teams last week, has thus far received what can only be described as a “cool” reception from Europe, Asia […]

“Being a football manager is no fun at all,” L.A. Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit told ESPN in 2001. It’s such a stressful job, he said, that, “it’s not surprising that so many turn gray or have heart attacks.” The then out of work, Gullit said he enjoyed working with the players and implementing a style […]

For all the talk about the brilliant individual stars of the Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Ghana, it was Egypt, a team whose players play mostly at home, that once again emerged victorious in Africa’s continental championship. En route to their second consecutive ACN triumph, the hard-working, tactically superior Egyptians brushed aside tournament favorite Ivory Coast, […]

A resurgent AC Milan could climb into the fourth Champions League qualifying spot in Italy’s Serie A on Wednesday with a win at home to Livorno. The Rossoneri have won six of seven games in Serie A since the beginning of the year, and are now fifth in the table with a game in hand […]

FIFA President Sepp Blatter on Tuesday issued a shocking proposal that the 2010 World Cup could be played on artificial turf. After witnessing the awful condition of the grass fields at the African Nations’ Cup in Ghana, Blatter said, “I think it’s now time in this region to think about artificial turf,” as many African […]

Philadelphia, St. Louis, Portland, Vancouver and Miami are all vying to secure the rights to a 15th MLS expansion club, and the Columbus Dispatch’s Bob Hunter points out that many citizens of Columbus are probably wondering what the big deal is. “This is unfortunate and understandable,” Hunter says, because the Crew has been terrible for […]

After a two-year absence, the Earthquakes have returned to Major League Soccer, but Ann Killion of the San Jose Mercury News points out that the team never really left: the former Quakes just moved to Houston, where they won back-to-back MLS titles in their first two seasons. Which means it will be an odd affair […]