Category: Section 2 Around the Net

Fabio Capello’s new-look Real Madrid side gave fans that sinking feeling they’ve become so accustomed to as the Spanish giants were easily brushed aside by French champion Lyon in the Champions League on ednesday. John Carlin of The Independent says David Beckham and company look no closer to a winning formula despite wholesale changes in […]

English Premier League clubs have become investment targets for wealthy financiers across the globe: Chelsea, the English champion, Manchester United, Aston Villa, and Portsmouth have all been acquired by foreign investors. Now, London-based clubs West Ham United and Arsenal are currently the subject of buyout bids from foreign investors. The latter just rejected a $657 […]

It’s been two months since the World Cup ended, and U.S. Soccer is still looking for a replacement for Bruce Arena. According to the New York Times, U.S. Soccer officials have spoken with former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson, who drove his team to three quarterfinal finishes in his six years in charge, at the […]

The Guardian has uncovered a report that Media Sport International, the company that orchestrated the shock deal bringing Argentine pair Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to West Ham United from Sao Paolo club Corinthians, has been investigated in Brazil. MSI is a subsidiary of a secretive offshore investment company with unnamed backers. It was investigated […]

Argentine playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme announced his international retirement yesterday at the age of 28, citing his mother’s poor health as the main reason. Riquelme, who had an up-and-down World Cup in center midfield for the Albiceleste, said criticism of his performances for Argentina may have worsened her condition; she has been taken to the […]

Manchester United and Arsenal each recorded important Champions League victories ahead of their headlining clash at Old Trafford this weekend. As United staved off a spirited fight from fellow British team Celtic, Arsenal continued to show it can’t put a foot wrong in Europe by comfortably winning, 2-1, away to Hamburg, after a spectacular 28-yard […]

For neutrals, there are only two matches in the Premiership this weekend: on Sunday, Chelsea faces Liverpool while Manchester United hosts Arsenal. Oh, and in between, West Ham, with its pair of brand new Argentines, also has an intriguing battle against Newcastle at St. James’ Park. The first two fixtures involve England’s four biggest clubs, […]

Groups A-D opened yesterday in the Champions League, and with the exception of Inter Milan, the favorites all received favorable results in their first outing of the competition. Defending champ Barcelona handed Bulgarian minnow Levski Sofia yesterday’s most comprehensive defeat, a 5-0 thumping at home. AS Roma and Bayern Munich each recorded resounding 4-0 wins […]

AS Roma has begun both domestic and European competitions brightly, beating Livorno, 2-0, in Serie A on Saturday and Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk, 4-0, in the Champions League yesterday. We are aiming to be the revelation of 2007,” stated Daniele De Rossi, Roma’s talented midfielder. “What you saw last night is the real Roma and […]

The English Football Association has handed Manchester City midfielder Ben Thatcher an eight-match suspension for his horrific high elbow to the face of Portsmouth’s Pedro Mendes last month. In addition to the suspension, Thatcher faces a 15-match ban if he commits a similar offense in the next two years. Interestingly enough, the 30-year-old defender was […]

After the wave of international fixtures last week, FIFA published the latest version of its revised international rankings, which in the past have been much-maligned for rewarding those teams with weaker schedules. For those who care to see just how FIFA compiles its rankings, the Guardian provides an in-depth walkthrough. Despite a particularly lackluster performance […]

Red Bull New York coach Bruce Arena sat down with the New York Times to discuss his new job and the state of Major League Soccer. The former U.S. national team coach expressed certain frustrations with the team he inherited as well as hope for the future. Asked whether the last 10 years have been […]

FIFA’s disgraced vice-president Jack Warner faces a fight to avoid expulsion from soccer’s world governing body after a report from accounting firm Ernst & Young identified the Trinidad and Tobago official as having sold World Cup tickets at three times their face value. The E&Y report can be viewed at www.transparencyinsport.org. In a report to […]

You could have called yesterday’s English Premier League clash between Reading and Manchester City the first of several “American” derbies this season. Sort of. Reading and Man City are two of three EPL clubs with at least two Americans on its roster. Winger Bobby Convey and goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann play for Reading, midfielders Claudio Reyna […]

It’s been a new year for the Los Angeles Galaxy since Frank Yallop took the helm on June 7. At that time the Galaxy was the worst team in MLS, but under Yallop they’ve evolved into something else, says LA Daily News columnist Scott French. LA still has the worst record in the Western Conference, […]

Either something has transformed Jose Mourinho in the last 12 months, or the Chelsea manager is purposefully trying to take some of the pressure off his squad ahead of today’s Champions League opener. The draw might have something to do with that, as the English champion has once again landed in the competition’s “Group of […]

It’s all about the Champions League today, which today begins its 14th year as Europe’s most important tournament. Defending champion Barcelona is among the teams that open the competition today, along with 2005 winner Liverpool, English Champion Chelsea and Serie A Champion Inter Milan. The Independent points out that no team in the competition’s short […]

After 60 minutes and three glorious away goals against Fiorentina, one of the would-be favorites for this season’s Scudetto but for a 19-point match-fixing deduction, you might have been tempted to say that Inter Milan has started the season in a class of its own. But seven minutes later Luca Toni brought his team roaring […]

Excerpts from Ashley Cole’s autobiography are just starting to leak into Britain’s tabloid press. Tabloids themselves, player autobiographies are often chock-full of petty hatreds and wild accusations to ensure that they too, sell. In the first published extracts from the player’s book, Cole accuses Arsenal of favoring Thierry Henry, the Gunner’s all-time leading scorer at […]

It seems that FIFA President Sepp Blatter wants the fairy tale-turned-nightmare that was Zinedine Zidane’s World Cup to continue towards some kind of satisfactory conclusion of his own making. According to Reuters, FIFA is considering Cape Town’s Robben Island, the Alcatraz-like prison island in Cape Town where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years, to […]

With a great deal of authority, you’ll often hear soccer pundits tell you after a string of good late summer performances that you can’t win the Premier League in August or September. That may be true, but the title can be lost that early, Alan Hansen of the BBC says, and Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool […]

After Juventus’ summer of torment, which was overshadowed by the national team’s triumph at the World Cup, Serie A’s Old Lady found herself in unfamiliar territory as the club opened its Serie B season at Rimini in front of a capacity crowd of just 10,000. That Juventus failed to beat the tiny Serie B club […]

Ashley Cole, whose set to earn $150,000 a week at new club Chelsea, wants you to know he’s not greedy. The England left back fears his image may have been damaged by the protracted transfer saga which saw the player endure more than a year at a club he clearly wanted to leave. Money had […]

Jose Antonio Reyes is determined to make his loan move from Arsenal to Real Madrid permanent, the Spanish winger said on Friday. “I’ve got a year to prove to the club, the president and the boss that I’m worth a place here,” the 23-year-old told a news conference. “Obviously, I don’t know if I’ll have […]

One of the main talking points regarding Inter Milan concerns its frontline. Who do pick to start up top when you’ve got Adriano, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Hernan Crespo and Julio Cruz to choose from? Well, the rumors are that Adriano, Inter’s top scorer in 2004 and 2005, is set to be dropped in favor of new […]