Category: Section 2 Around the Net

Midfielder Benny Feilhaber has joined the U.S. team for Wednesday night’s first round Gold Cup match against Honduras in Washington, D.C.. Feilhaber, who played in all five U.S. games during the Confederations Cup, will fill one of seven additional roster spots that CONCACAF allotted the team. Feilhaber joins Brad Guzan, Jonathan Bornstein, Sacha Kljestan, Ricardo […]

Pia Sundhage, the U.S. women’s national team coach, has recalled Cat Whitehill and Leslie Osborne to the U.S. women’s squad for two internationals against Canada on July 19 and 22. Both Whitehill and Osborne have been sidelined from national team duties by knee injuries since before the 2008 Olympics, which the United States won without […]

Oguchi Onyewu‘s outstanding performances for the U.S. national team in the Confederations Cup boosted his profile – a lot. The center back has joined AC Milan on a three-year contract the club said Tuesday, becoming the first U.S. player to join Serie A in more than 10 years. Onyewu joins Milan from Standard Liege in […]

It’s been a tough year for DaMarcus Beasley. The fleet-footed winger has found himself frozen out at the club level, with Rangers in Scotland, and a series of dismal showings for the United States national team have seen his stock plummet. The former Chicago Fire player is back home in Indiana for the next three […]

Alecko Eskandarian, who didn’t plan to start, scored a game-winning volley in his debut game to lift the Los Angeles Galaxy to a 1-0 win over the New England Revolution on Saturday. “When I was younger in my career, I probably wouldn’t have adapted well to this,” said Eskandarian, a former No. 1 overall draft […]

Smaller clubs rose to the fore in the Argentinian Clausura 2009 season. Low-spending Velez Sarsfield won the title, while humble Huracan came agonizingly close. Lanus and Colon stayed in the hunt until the very end. Velez Sarsfield clinched the crown after a late Maximiliano Moralez goal over Huracan on the final day of competition. Velez […]

Oguchi Onyewu is hot property. The latest club to express interest in the defender’s services is Ajax. The 27-year-old’s agent, Lyle Yorks, confirmed to Goal.com that the free agent is in discussions with the Dutch giants. “[We’re] in discussions. That is it at this point,” Yorks confirmed. “We are in serious discussions with a few […]

Chelsea has completed the signing of Russian international Yuri Zhirkov from CSKA Moscow for a for year deal worth $29 million. The 25-year-old, who was impressive at Euro 2008, can play on the left wing or at left back and was given a ringing endorsement by temporary Blues boss Guus Hiddink, who has since returned […]

Brazilian soccer club Cruzeiro wants to postpone this week’s Copa Libertadores match against Estudiantes because of the swine flu outbreak in Argentina. A spokesman for the club said on Monday that it made the request through Brazil’s soccer federation. The official said Cruzeiro wants the match postponed or moved to another location-in Argentina or another […]

Midfielder Jermaine Jones and defender Edgar Castillo could join the U.S. national team later this year. The 27-year-old Jones, who has appeared in the European Champions League for Schalke of the Bundesliga, has played three times for Germany’s national team in exhibitions. Castillo, a 22-year-old from New Mexico, made his debut for Mexico’s national team […]

Mexico’s Giovani dos Santos and the USA’s Freddy Adu were both tagged as the next superstars for their respective countries. And both have so far failed to live up the hype, now fringe players for their national teams. This year’s Gold Cup will provide an ideal venue for the startlets to prove they’re deserving of […]

The lack of recent postseason meetings has diminished the intensity of Columbus-D.C. rivalry. But it should be renewed Saturday at Crew Stadium when the two teams face off on Saturday with first place in the Eastern Conference at stake. “I don’t count the points,” Crew coach Robert Warzycha said. “It’s importance for us to beat […]

Fifa.com provides a brief history of the evolution of the football, which many people would consider mankind’s most important invention. 3,000 years ago, the Chinese filled animal skins with hair or feathers for a game of Tsu chu, an early forerunner of the football we know today. The very oldest balls still in existence today […]

UEFA approved new guidelines for match officials to deal with racist chants or other behavior during games. The rules allow the referee to first issue a warning over the public address system requesting that the behavior cease. If this doesn’t work, the referee can suspend the game for five to 10 minutes. “As a third […]

Michael Owen is on the verge of joining English champion Manchester United, a striking reversal of fortunes for an injury-plagued striker that many lower tier clubs had dismissed as past his best. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, however, is willing to take a “calculated gamble,” as United’s web site says. The former Real Madrid and […]

Arsenal’s chief executive Ivan Gazidis, the former deputy commissioner of the MLS, has said the Premier League should consider introducing a salary cap for its clubs as a way of encouraging financial stability and more even competition throughout the league. In an interview with the Guardian, Gazidis repeatedly emphasized the virtues of Arsenal’s “self-sustaining finances” […]

Clint Dempsey‘s performance in the Confederations Cup has apparently stirred interest from many European clubs. As Dempsey has not yet renewed his contract with Fulham, he is a prime summer target. Though earlier reports linked him with a move to Everton, Dempsey’s agent Lyle Yorks told Goal.com that there is interest from multiple clubs. “We […]

Four months into his remarkable return to soccer, veteran striker Ronaldo helped Corinthians clinch the Brazilian Cup. Ronaldo also won the Sao Paulo state title with Corinthians in May. Wednesday’s win caps off the striker’s successful comeback to competitive soccer. “I have to be thankful,” said the 2002 World Cup champion who was out of […]

Anton Peterlin's dream officially became a reality on Wednesday. The former Cal Poly defensive midfielder signed a contract with Everton of the English Premier League on the day that transfer windows opened for the league. "I've worked hard to get to this point, but there's still a lot more to do," Peterlin said in a […]

This past year Jose Francisco Torres earned more playing time with his Mexican club Pachuca. Although he has struggled to do the same with the U.S. national team, he still maintains hope that he can secure a starting position. "I hope to win a spot on the national team and from there go to the […]

Gheorghe "Gica" Popescu, a former captain of Romania's national team, has admitted that he served as an informer for the country's secret police during the regime of the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. After initially denying accusations about his involvement with the government, Popescu told the newspaper Evenimentul Zilei that he wrote four informing notes about […]

Arriving at the Home Depot Center on Wednesday, Alecko Eskandarian caught himself heading toward the wrong locker room. The striker, who turns 26 next week, was traded to the Los Angeles Galaxy from Chivas USA for a conditional 2010 MLS SuperDraft pick and allocation money. The Galaxy also terminated the contract of third-year midfielder Josh […]

Germany's national teams are on the rise at all levels of European youth soccer. On Monday, when Germany trounced England, 4-0, in the final of the European Under-21 Championship, it completed a unique triple. Germany holds the European titles at the U-17, U-19 and U-21 age groups. This success, in part, stems from multiculturalism and […]

When he came to Los Angeles, David Beckham was supposed to push the MLS to new heights. “In his two years with the Galaxy he has successfully sold jerseys and served as celebrity eye candy, but the soccer story has been an epic disaster, from the his injury-plagued season in ’07 through a loss-filled campaign […]

In some ways, the New England Revolution entered its Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup third-round match against the Harrisburg City Islanders in a no-win situation. A win would have put the Revs through to the next round but added yet another midweek game to an already crowded July calendar. A loss would leave the depleted […]