Category: Section 2 Around the Net

You can’t imagine that Andriy Shevchenko shed too many tears when Jose Mourinho departed Stamford Bridge, but if the last two matches are any indication, new manager Avram Grant rates the Ukrainian striker even lower than Mourinho. Sheva didn’t feature at all in the Champions League match against Valencia in midweek and was fourth-choice striker […]

In Spain, a few themes seem to be emerging: Real Madrid will continue to grind out results, Sevilla is not the team it was last season, and both Valencia and Villarreal still flatter to deceive. Barcelona, meanwhile, is very much the team to beat as the unstoppable Leo Messi continues to orchestrate win after win […]

A bad week at Anfield was almost made worse on Sunday but for a last-minute equalizer from Fernando Torres against Tottenham. Earlier in the week, Liverpool fell 1-0 at home to Marseille in the Champions League; the Reds were on their way to another Anfield loss before $54 million man Torres headed home in the […]

UEFA President Michel Platini stands at odds with his FIFA counterpart, Sepp Blatter, on the issue of private foreign investment in soccer clubs, according to comments the latter made in a conference call with reporters. Whereas Platini described foreign owners as “a serious threat to European soccer,” Blatter on Thursday said, “No, I think they are […]

At a press conference in L.A., national team coach Bob Bradley announced that the U.S. would play Sweden again in an international friendly at the beginning of next year. The match will take place on Jan. 19 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., home of the L.A. Galaxy and Chivas USA. Bradley said […]

MLS handed Houston’s Ricardo Clark a nine-game suspension for his outrageous outburst against Carlos Ruiz of FC Dallas, in which the Dynamo midfielder firmly kicked Ruiz following a mid-air challenge. The nine-game suspension will keep him sidelined for the rest of the season. Good thing the Dynamo has a deep central midfield, says Glenn Davis […]

Some 45,000 professional soccer players across the globe anointed AC Milan forward Ricardo Kaka as the game’s best player in 2007. Members of the global players’ union, FIFPro, voted on the award, dubbed the FIFPro World Player of the Year, which had gone to Kaka’s Brazil teammate, Ronaldinho, in 2005 and 2006. “I am humbled […]

The L.A. Galaxy breathed a collective sigh of relief on Friday as England coach Steve McClaren announced his squad for next week’s Euro 2008 qualifiers and David Beckham’s name was not on the list. Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas on Thursday said he was hopeful that the former England captain would be available for the team’s […]

Following his team’s remarkable 3-0 Champions League win against Olympique Lyon, American winger DaMarcus Beasley declared, “Bring on Barcelona!” Beasley has every right to be in bullish mood following Glasgow Rangers brilliant away win, as he played an instrumental part in dismantling the French champion, assisting the first goal and scoring the third. With two […]

Colorado Rapids owner Stan Kroenke visited Arsenal Football Club on Wednesday, touring its facilities and meeting the club’s board for the first time as he sought a deal that would strengthen ties between the two sides. Late last season, Kroenke and the Rapids agreed to a marketing alliance with the London club, but no deal […]

David Beckham returned to training with his L.A. Galaxy teammates on Wednesday for the first time since injuring his knee in August, but Coach Frank Yallop warned against the possibility of his returning to the England squad for its upcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers against Estonia and Russia. “He’s not even played any competitive games,” Yallop […]

The odds were very much against Chelsea going into Wednesday night’s Champions League clash with Spanish giant Valencia: the Blues’ first team had scored just one goal in its last four matches and the team still looked to be in disarray following the abrupt departure of former manager Jose Mourinho. Moreover, the club had to […]

A Celtic fan was banned from attending the club’s matches for life on Thursday for running on the field during a Champions League match against AC Milan and clotheslining its goalkeeper, Dida. The life ban was imposed on the 27-year-old fan by the club itself; UEFA, the organizing body of the Champions League, has yet […]

“Overused … over-traveled, wearied, injured and sidelined,” thus sums up the first season of David Beckham in Major League Soccer, says the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Barbara. Unlucky, might also be an appropriate adjective: Becks seems to have used up his luck for the year in helping Real Madrid win last season’s La Liga title. […]

Don’t look now, but the Los Angeles Galaxy is once again building up fans’ hopes that it could slip into the MLS playoffs through the back door. The team has now won three games in a row, having tied one before that, and sits six points behind the Chicago Fire, current holder of the eighth […]

FC Dallas has been in miserable form since signing Denilson, the team’s designated player and so-called biggest signing in franchise history, posting a 1-4-1 record in its last six games. Denilson, 31, has done little aside from converting a single penalty kick, and his circus trickery, while abundant, has proven ineffective thus far. Most recently, […]

In a little less 15 years, the UEFA Champions league has become the most important competition in the world, often to the detriment of the league form of many of Europe’s biggest clubs, says Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune. AC Milan, the 2003 and 2007 European champion and a runner-up in 2005, is […]

Twenty-year-old Leo Messi led red-hot Barcelona to another victory Tuesday night, scoring once in a 2-0 Champions League victory over FC Stuttgart in Germany. Barcelona controlled the play and could have easily scored more, with Messi the chief tormentor, combining well once again with Thierry Henry to score his second goal of the Champions League […]

Two-time FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldinho has been the franchise player at Barcelona for four years now, but thanks to the emergence of young Leo Messi, the Brazilian’s undisputed standing has lost its air of infallibility. In fact, it’s no secret that Barcelona has looked better so far this season without Ronaldinho, who’s […]

The 2007 MLS season has been the year of the newcomer, and ESPN’s Ives Galarcep expects newcomer players and coaches to dominate this year’s player and coach of the year awards. The MLS Player of the Year should be D.C. United’s Luciano Emilio, who hasn’t stopped scoring goals since he arrived last spring. Emilio’s deadly […]

Hope Solo’s negative comments about U.S. coach Greg Ryan’s decision to drop her in favor of veteran Briana Scurry for the World Cup semifinal against Brazil have been referred to as “Keeper-Gate” by some in the U.S. press, yet Clemente Lisi of USSoccerPlayers feels that the young goalkeeper’s ousting was “the main reason” why the […]

So much of the European off-season is focused on big money transfers. Anything over $10 million gets a headline followed by an analysis of how the player will affect his new team. Many of the highest-profile signings came from England this year, thanks to a massive cash infusion from foreign owners like Liverpool’s George Gillett […]

Brazilian fans are a notoriously fickle bunch: not only are their teams expected to win but they’re supposed to do it with style, and in the same week that the Brazilian women’s national team won new fans with beautiful flowing samba-style futebol, Botafogo, one of the country’s biggest clubs, saw its stock sink to a […]

The last month of the MLS regular season begins on the back of an outstanding week for crowds. According to Ian Plenderleith of USSoccerPlayers, there was an average of 23,100 for last week’s seven games, including two Beckham-less “Beckham” games and Cuauhtemoc Blanco’s Los Angeles debut against Chivas USA. Aside from these expected average boosters, […]

Germany may have shut out the Brazilian women in successfully defending its second successive Women’s World Cup final, but the Brazilian team’s remarkable campaign — highlighted by the 4-0 shalacking it gave the U.S. women in the semifinal — could prove to be a watershed moment in the history of women’s soccer. It certainly went […]