Category: Section 2 Around the Net

It’s looking more and more likely that Oguchi Onyewu, the U.S. national team defender, will leave Belgian club Standard Liege during the January transfer window, possibly for England or Spain, according to the 24-year old, who spoke with the Soccer Times. Onyewu nearly joined Middlesbrough over the summer; in fact, the central defender actually left […]

The CBF, Brazil’s soccer federation, officially lodged in a bid for the 2014 World Cup, as was widely expected. Under FIFA’s new rotation system, which begins with South Africa in 2010, each continent will receive the opportunity to host world’s biggest sporting event. Brazil’s 2014 bid is undisputed by its South American neighbors, who agreed […]

West Ham United officially named Alan Curbishley as the club’s manager on Wednesday. After Alan Pardew was sacked on Monday, Curbishley, a former West Ham player in the late ’70s, immediately became the favorite to replace to him. Curbishley was manager of Charlton Athletic for an amazing 15 years before deciding to step down at […]

Pato Alexandre, the highly-touted Brazilian teenager, scored the first goal for Internacional yesterday during its 2-1 victory over Al Ahly of Egypt in the Club World Cup semifinals Wednesday in Yokohama. Seventeen-year old Pato, which means “duck” in both Portuguese and Spanish, headed the ball in the back of the net after just eight minutes, […]

Real Salt Lake has presented its case to Salt Lake County officials in the hope that it will help the club construct a $110-million soccer stadium. To churn a profit from the endeavor, RSL is betting on high attendance, concerts, investors and sponsorships, predicting a bright future for the barely solvent club. It’s now up […]

Foreign investors are swarming all over English Premier League clubs, leaving Arsene Wenger to fear that Arsenal would be left “dead” as a competitive force if the trend continues. Next month, investors backed by a Dubai-based billionaire are expected to complete a takeover of Liverpool, which would make Chelsea-like funds immediately available to the Reds. […]

As expected, West Ham United has opened talks with Alan Curbishley over the vacant head coach position at Upton Park, following the dismissal of Alan Pardew after a woeful 4-0 trouncing at the hands of Bolton Wanderers over the weekend. Curbishley, the former Charlton manager, would have his hands full: West Ham is in 18th […]

It’s one of the sporting world’s worst tragedies of all time: the crash in 1958 of a plane carrying Manchester Untied players just outside of Munich. The crash claimed the lives of 23 people, some of the country’s biggest soccer stars at the time. Man United great Sir Bobby Charlton is one of the few […]

Before the World Cup, when Bruce Arena and Landon Donovan graced the cover of several magazines and newspapers, being coach of the U.S. national team seemed like one of the most exciting jobs in the world. “Every coach in the business would want to coach the U.S. because we have money, we’re top 10 in […]

Don’t believe Bob Bradley if he says that he doesn’t feel he has anything to prove. The guy’s track record is great-in fact, it might be the best among U.S.-based candidates for the national team post-but he has absolutely everything to prove. He even has a predecessor: Steve Sampson took over on an interim basis […]

Gordon Monson of the Salt Lake City Tribune makes a long-winded answer to the question “What does Freddy Adu mean to you?” You see, it depends: on the one hand, Freddy Adu at Real Salt Lake means people in seats. If he plays well, it could mean people stay in their seats. Everyone in the […]

Looks like we have a title race on our hands, a rare and special occurrence in the EPL these days. After Chelsea coasted to victory in the last two seasons and Arsenal went undefeated in 2003-04, it’s been four years since the neutrals have had a Premiership dogfight to look forward to, but this year, […]

High-flying Roma was brought crashing back down to earth last weekend by bitter cross-town rival Lazio, which easily won the Roma derby, 3-0. The loss, the Gialorossi’s first in eight games, leaves Roma seven points behind undefeated league leader Inter Milan, and a point ahead of third-place Palermo. Coach Luciano Spalletti was defiant in defeat, […]

Baghdad may be a war zone, and one of the most dangerous places on earth, but the city still gets up for its national team. ABC News reports on the celebrations from Baghdad following Iraq’s quarterfinal win over Uzbekistan in the Asian Games. “This is a great victory for a wounded Iraq,” the game’s announcer […]

Jeff Carlisle couldn’t disagree more: “This is a terrible development for both American soccer in general and U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati in particular,” the Soccernet columnist says of Gulati’s failure to hire Klinsmann. He likens the arrival of Bob Bradley as head coach instead of Klinsmann to Clay Aiken filling in for Luciano […]

While most pundits criticize Sunil Gulati for failing to produce Juergen Klinsmann, Ives Galarcep of ESPN Soccrnet says, “The reality is Gulati has hired a man who just might make him look like a genius.” Why? Precisely because he’s the antithesis of everything we thought U.S. Soccer was looking for in a Bruce Arena replacement. […]

After Sepp Blatter backed up his own proposal to move European club soccer to a summer schedule with the support of “Europe’s big clubs,” G14, the organization that represents them has come forward saying they would be open to discuss the possibility. This doesn’t mean they necessarily like the idea. “If it is for the […]

D.C. United has offered Christian Gomez, MLS’ Most Valuable Player in 2006, a contract extension worth $325,000 for two years, along with several incentives and two additional option years, according to the Washington Post. His current contract runs at a below-par rate of $182,500-far less than the league’s other star players. Gomez, who joined United […]

Is Andriy Shevchenko in the doghouse at Chelsea? Well, one thing is for certain, Manager Jose Mourinho has been frank in his assessment of the Ukrainian international as “not untouchable,” in Chelsea’s first team squd. He added that if Roman Abramovich, the club’s owner and close friend of Shevchenko, doesn’t like it, “he has enough […]

While many in the American press are focusing on the shocking and disappointing revelation that Juergen Klinsmann will not be the next head coach of the U.S. national team, Andrea Canales of Soccer 365 points out that Bob Bradley, perhaps more so than other coaches involved in discussions with U.S. Soccer, desperately wanted this job. […]

English Premier League fans should get used to the idea of foreign club ownership, writes Nick Harris of the Independent, as the global trend of foreign investment makes is almost certain to increase in the EPL over the next 12 months. Sources tell Harris that no less than seven clubs are in advanced discussions with […]

Both Manchester United and Arsenal moved on to the second round of the Champions League Wednesday after fellow EPL clubs Chelsea and Liverpool secured passage the day before. The English were followed into the round of 16 by three Spanish clubs (Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Valencia), three Italian clubs (Inter Milan, AS Roma and AC […]

Just ahead of the impending takeover of Liverpool by one of the world’s richest companies, UEFA has turned up the volume on complaints about clubs who spend more money than they make, asking for restrictions on the amount of funds available for transfer fees and player wages. UEFA officials worry that if no action is […]

It will not have escaped Freddy Adu’s mind that Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo and England wunderkind Wayne Rooney both joined Manchester United when they were 18, the age he turns next year, writes Richard Jolly of ESPN Soccernet. Old Trafford boss Sir Alex Ferguson has long been a champion of youth: after all, it was […]

Surprise, surprise, there’s a new Pele in town in Brazil. At least this one’s got a name that’s about as memorable. Pato, which means “duck” in Portuguese, scored 94 seconds into his debut the other day, adding two more assists in a fine performance that has the whole of Brazil swearing for sure that this […]