Category: Section 2 Around the Net

He really can do no wrong: following his famous head-butt (you can’t really say “infamous” anymore) in the World Cup final, Zinedine Zidane’s popularity is as high as ever. And no one is more acutely aware of (or concerned with) these things than advertisers. Says the Wall Street Journal, “the worldwide attention [the head-butt] received […]

Manchester United has hit back at suggestions in the British press that Wayne Rooney has lost his appetite for the game. Assistant coach Carlos Queiroz said the club shouldn’t be expected to work miracles with a player who has only played five or six games in the last six months. He’s referring of course to […]

Tuesday night’s Panorama report certainly had its intended effect: everyone from FIFA to UEFA to the English Football Association to the individual clubs whose officials were implicated in the investigative report about “bung” or bribery culture in English soccer seems to have taken a keen interest in the outcome of what could be England’s greatest […]

Brazilian legend Romario, who just finished a successful season with Miami FC in USL-1, told reporters on Thursday he’s just 16 goals shy of reaching the 1,000 mark for his professional career. The 40-year-old striker, who won the World Cup with Brazil at USA ’94, said he had received an offer to continue his career […]

Anglo-Iranian businessman Kia Joorabchian, who helped orchestrate the transfer of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano from Corinthians in Brazil to West Ham United in England, has found the backer he needs to help finance a full takeover of the English club. Israeli businessman Eli Papoushado confirmed yesterday that he wanted to join the consortium led […]

Bruce Arena and the New York Red Bulls did their playoff hopes no favors last night as they lost out to the New England Revolution 2-0 at Giants Stadium last night. The Revolution will now clinch a playoff berth with a win over Kansas City and a New York loss to D.C. United on Saturday. […]

Seldom at a loss for words, Alexi Lalas, general manager of the Los Angeles Galaxy for six months now, spoke out about the club’s bleak playoff prospects, after failing to beat the Colorado Rapids at home this past weekend. Lalas said he shoulders some of the blame for his team’s failure this season and he […]

Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso scored a wonder-goal against Newcastle United last night, firing from some 65 yards out after tackling Charles N’Zogbia well inside his own half. Had he not tripped as he backpedaled toward goal, Newcastle goalkeeper Steve Harper, a stand-in for injured regular No. 1 Shay Given, would surely have saved the shot that […]

Hernan Crespo believes Inter Milan’s convincing performance in its 1-0 win at Roma Wednesday night at the Stadio Olimpico will be enough to ease the tension hanging over the club after a poor performance in a 1-0 loss to Sporting in the Champions League and a dour 1-1 draw at home to lowly Sampdoria. “Victories […]

FC Barcelona hosts Valencia Sunday at the Nou Camp in what is surely the standout fixture across Europe this weekend. It’s a massive test for Valencia in particular, as a convincing away performance against the Spanish and European champion will be a good appraisal of Valencia’s title credentials. After three games, Valencia, Barcelona, and Sevilla […]

Will big European clubs like Chelsea, AC Milan and Real Madrid soon be faced with a spending cap? UEFA, Europe’s governing soccer body, is meeting this week to discuss imposing a new licensing system that would limit how much a club could spend on players and salaries. Sports ministers across Europe have expressed growing outrage […]

Tonight (9 pm ET), ESPN2 will air the documentary “Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos,” which chronicles the spectacular rise and fall of U.S. soccer’s most famous team. For Major League Soccer, there’s an interesting lesson in the film, writes Mark Ziegler of the Union-Tribune: it warns against the […]

Sam Allardyce today shot back at the BBC investigation that quoted three agents as saying the Bolton boss had accepted illegal bribes over the transfer of players to his club. “As a result of their greed, my good name has been tarnished by deceit and innuendo.” Allardyce insisted that neither he nor his son Craig, […]

With a great deal of hype, a new episode of Panorama, a BBC investigative series, aired in Britain last night with the intent of exposing the seedy world of “bung culture” in British soccer, which is slang for bribery. Several big name managers were implicated in the report, including Bolton manager Sam Allardyce and Portsmouth’s […]

U.S. Soccer asks national team legend and Blackburn Rovers keeper Brad Friedel 12 questions, starting with the Americans’ performance in Germany, which he insists isn’t as bad as it was perceived in the press. Friedel says the team’s early exit had everything to do with the bizarrely poor opening performance against the Czech Republic, followed […]

Major League Soccer’s MetroStars, now Red Bull New York, began talking about building a soccer-specific stadium way back in their first year of operation. Ten years on, after several wholesale changes in management and personnel and many more “talks” about building that all-important soccer-specific stadium, Red Bull New York breaks ground on its new stadium […]

Oh, yes, it’s crises all around today in the English-speaking press. Next on the list is high-spending Inter Milan, which sits an alarming fourth place in the Serie A table after two games. How in the world can we be talking about a crisis here? The team has played three games in two competitions and […]

Sometimes the British tabloid press is a bit too predictable: after sub-par performances against Celtic in the Champions League last week and Arsenal over the weekend, the Independent’s James Lawton asks the ridiculous question whether England and Manchester United sensation Wayne Rooney, who will be just 21 next month, has lost his appetite for the […]

Tonight, on the BBC investigative show “Panorama,” a leading Premier League agent is expected to reveal that he knows of “six to eight” managers in the league willing to receive illegal payments or “bungs.” The agent, Charles Collymore, a member of the Sports Management firm that represents the likes of Salif Diao, Khalilou Fadiga and […]

The reign of the Los Angeles Galaxy as Major League Soccer champ is just about over, writes Grahame L. Jones of the Los Angeles Times. Now, all that remains is the confirmation. LA failed to beat the Colorado Rapids at home on Saturday night in a match it knew it had to win. As referee […]

David Beckham says it’s more likely he’ll play for England again than with another club in the Premiership, which is the same thing as saying he will almost certainly never play professionally in England again. “United are the club I support and, hand on heart — I couldn’t see myself playing in any other shirt,” […]

After pining all summer for a move to Real Madrid from Arsenal, Jose Antonio Reyes repaid management’s faith with a fantastic individual performance for an otherwise flat Real Madrid team against Real Sociedad yesterday. “I couldn’t have asked for more,” the 23-year old winger said Monday. “I made my debut at the Bernabeu, I scored […]

Manchester United failed its first big test of the season when it fell 1-0 at home to old rival Arsenal. The Red Devils were outhustled and outplayed in front of a record crowd at Old Trafford. The manner of defeat will be the most worrying takeaway for Sir Alex Ferguson and co. United looked casual […]

After one point from three games, pundits across Europe were ready to write off Arsenal’s title chances, but after yesterday’s pulsating win over league leader Manchester United, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger reiterated what he has felt all along: “We want to win the championship, and I believe we can.” The win moved Arsenal up to […]

Last night marked the full debut of Argentine pair Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano for West Ham United in a 1-0 loss to Palermo of Italy in the UEFA Cup. The English club heads to Sicily in two week’s time and must win by at least one goal to have any hope of progressing to […]