Category: Section 2 Around the Net

Qatar needed to win its final game to stay alive, but could only muster a 1-1 draw away at already-qualified Japan. Bahrain, which lost to Australia, needs only one point from its final home game against Uzbekistan to clinch third place in Group A, which would secure a playoff against the third-place Group B team. […]

Argentina, beaten 6-1 by Bolivia at 3,600 meters (11,811 feet) above sea level in April, faces another high-altitude World Cup qualifier in Ecuador on Wednesday. Coach Diego Maradona appeared to underestimate the effects of the altitude against Bolivia. The result marked the team’s heaviest defeat in 15 years and Lionel Messi was among players who […]

Former Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has been named coach of Bunyodkor, the Uzbek champion announced on Tuesday. The 60-year-old former Brazil World Cup-winning coach, who was sacked by the London club in February, has agreed an 18-month contract with the Uzbek side. "Uzbek soccer is on an upswing right now while Bunyodkor is a […]

Newcastle United has been inundated with joke offers after owner Mike Ashley invited anyone interested in buying the club to make contact via email. Supporters of Newcastle's local rivals, Sunderland, took particular delight in responding to a statement on the relegated club's website which said that potential purchasers could go through the unusual process of […]

Nestor de la Torre, president of the commission for Mexico's national teams, has asked the press not to encourage Tricolor fans to boycott Mexico's upcoming World Cup qualifying match against Trinidad and Tobago. "We are in the same boat to go together to the World Cup and to be encouraging situations that divide I do […]

“Seattle Sounders FC seems to be following Macaulay Culkin‘s career path, and that’s not a great thing,” writes Don Ruiz of The Olympian. “The former child star of ‘Home Alone’ quickly grew from cute little kid that everybody loved into a less-likable adolescent who just made everybody miss the cute little kid he used to […]

At 27 years of age, DaMarcus Beasley should be in his athletic prime. However, the Fort Wayne native, once a "golden child" of U.S. soccer, finds himself at a crossroads. Although he played every minute of the first four matches of World Cup qualifying, Beasley has failed to find a consistent position. Against Honduras, Beasley […]

Immediately after completing the $96 million capture of Kaka, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez warned Manchester United that Cristiano Ronaldo was next on his hit list. Perez said last week that he would not jeapordize his relationship with United to sign Ronaldo, but he appeared in a bullish mood after the success of the Kaka […]

Reports in the Spanish press indicate that Real Madrid will officially present Kaka as one of its own on June 30, after the Confederations Cup and if he passes a medical this week. Although reports in Italy state that a conclusive decision will not happen until Monday night, Spanish newspaper Marca state that the move […]

Guus Hiddink declared that he wants to manage a Premier League club again in the future but admitted that it won’t necessarily be Chelsea, here he had a run on an interim basis last season. “I will be back,” the former Australia, South Korea and Netherlands boss told English daily The Sunday Mirror . “Chelsea […]

Elvin-King Ibe flew 8,000 miles to pursue a dream. He and his family flew to Houston from Johannesburg, South Africa, so that Ibe could take part in this week's Dynamo Elite Camp along with 300 other campers. If he makes the cut at the end of the week, he'll begin training to be part of […]

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley is desperate to sell the club after it dropped out of the Premier League. The sports store millionaire has seemingly accepted he will suffer a huge loss on his investment in the northeast club after spending a reported $370 million. The Magpies issued an official statement setting a price as Keith […]

Bayern Munich should offer French playmaker Franck Ribery a contract extension or allow him to leave as speculation about a move to Real Madrid is rife, club president Franz Beckenbauer said on Monday. “I only see two solutions – Ribery extends his contract to end any talk of a transfer or we offer his release,” […]

Toronto FC announced its second friendly game of the season on Saturday, facing Argentine club River Plate on July 22. This game, following hot on the heels of the announcement of the visit of Real Madrid on Aug. 7, will be inclusive of Toronto FC season ticket packages, and will represent the annual Carlsberg Cup […]

West Ham has been taken over by an asset management company, CB Holdings, a subsidiary of its main creditor, the Icelandic bank Straumur. The club had been up for sale but unable to find a buyer. The move to Straumur, which former West Ham owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson reportedly owed $160 million, should safeguard the club's […]

"It's always special. Chicago is a special place for me. Chicago is where I learned to play soccer. Coming from Green Bay, I didn't necessarily grow up as a soccer player but I learned how to be a professional and the skills I needed to make it as a pro. I hold this place special […]

An England fan was shot in a bar in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, where he had stopped en route to neighboring Kazakhstan, where England plays a World Cup qualifier on Saturday. As he and friends sang England fan songs in the bar, a local told them to shut up. When they ignored him, […]

The New York Red Bulls defender Alfredo Pacheco, 26, is on national team duty for El Salvador and believes his team can beat Mexico on Saturday even though El Salvador has picked up only two points from its first three games in the final round of World Cup qualifying. "I'm not satisfied," Pacheco. "We've not […]

New York Times columnist George Vecsey calls the USA 3-1 loss to Costa Rica on Wednesday “a throwback to the bad old days of two decades ago, when the national team often looked pitiful on the road in the Americas, to say nothing of Europe.” Now the Americans need to bounce back against Honduras on […]

England aims for its sixth straight in Group 6 World Cup qualifying when it faces Kazakhstan in Almaty on Saturday. And England coach Fabio Capello has brushed off suggestions that fatigue could affect his players, who flew over 3,500 miles to the far eastern end of Europe for the game after a tough domestic season […]

South America's marathon qualifying tournament reaches game-day 13 (out of 18) this weekend and is highlighted by Brazil's trip to Uruguay on Saturday. The two nations have seven World Cup and 22 South American titles between them and their every meeting recalls the famous Uruguay upset of Brazil, the Maracanazo, in which the Uruguayans snatched […]

New England defender Jay Heaps, a 32-year-old, 11-year veteran, will play in his 300th MLS game when he takes the field against the New York Red Bulls on Sunday. Heaps will become the ninth player to reach that milestone. He recently became the first the first Revs player to log more than 20,000 minutes (20,349 […]

The Netherlands can become the first European team to clinch a place at the 2010 World Cup if it beats Iceland in Reykjavik in one of the 14 qualifiers in Europe on Saturday. The Netherlands has a near full-strength team for the game. Only midfielders Wesley Sneijder and Ibrahim Afellay are missing for the Group […]

England's Premier League clubs have run up a debt of 3.1 billion pounds ($5.01 billion), and the big four Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal — are responsible for about two thirds of it. The figures come from Deloitte's Annual Review of Football Finance, which suggested the big four, despite all having qualified for the […]

Steven Goff reports from San Jose, Costa Rica that, "A few hundred U.S. backers, mostly young and mostly dressed in colorful, patriotic garb, made their way into the steep upper deck and seemed to mix nicely with their hosts." But the U.S. fans weren't rewarded for the efforts to make the trip to Saprissa stadium. […]