Category: Section 2 Around the Net

"We believe we can win every game and yeah, a lot of that does come from the manager. He's just brilliant. Having achieved all he has in the game, he knows what he wants from us and gets that across really well. With the players we've got playing in the Premier League, we should be […]

"I got slammed. I got bumped. I actually had the ball in my hands, then she hit me and that's when the ball went in. I got the wind knocked out of me a little bit." Washington Freedom goalkeeper Briana Scurry, lamenting a tough "no call" by referee Kari Seitz in which Sol defender Allison […]

In spite of, or perhaps because, his many accomplishments in a still fairly young career, across the last few years it's become abundantly clear that while Landon Donovan is "the most celebrated active player in American soccer," the 27-year-old U.S. Soccer poster boy who led MLS in scoring last season "is also the most scorned," […]

The U.S. World Cup bids for 2018 and 2022 got a big boost of political power today as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger joined the organizing committee's board, hopefully bringing with him the same "Kissinger Bump" that he did as committee chairman in 1988 to help the U.S. earn the right to host the […]

"Building for their future on a brown field of dreams in this downtrodden industrial city," the N.Y. Red Bulls and their new arena will finally have fulfilled "the long-delayed promise of a soccer palace on the Passaic River" after being in discussion for almost a decade, writes Jack Bell of the New York Times. Expected […]

With injured right back Steve Cherundolo unavailable for U.S. duty, a familiar face (and ratty mane) has stepped in to fill the void for the U.S. defense: one Frankie Hejduk, who even at 34 has outperformed other replacement options like Frank Simek, Jonathan Spector, John Thorrington and Marvell Wynne to earn starts in both U.S. […]

In yet another show of the best fan support within the MLS, more than 2,500 red scarf-wearing Toronto FC fans (an MLS record for away fans?) are expected to make the trip from southern Ontario to central Ohio and invade Crew Stadium for the first leg of the Trillium Cup series on Saturday. “Everyone in […]

Colombian newcomer Fredy Montero wasn’t the only player turning heads as an unknown but surprisingly good commodity when the Seattle Sounders ran all over the Red Bulls last week. Osvaldo Alonso also had fans and media alike asking, “Who’s No. 6?” writes MLSnet.com’s Andrew Winner. "Osvaldo is not that big of a guy,” says coach […]

With a 10-10-10 record in the regular season, a 1-1-1 record in the playoffs and an almost identical number of goal scored and goals against (40 and 39, if you must know), for better or worse, Real Salt Lake was the definition of “average” in 2008, writes the Deseret News’ James Edward. Acknowledging last season […]

With the inaugural weekend of the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer season upon us, Goal.com's Kathryn Knapp previews all seven teams set to compete for the first ever WPS title, highlighting both former WUSA stars while introducing the big international names coming to America. The L.A. Sol looks to lead the way at least on paper, […]

Having not won a Bundesliga title since all the way back in 1931, and with a history that includes unfortunate ties to the Nazi party, the timing couldn’t be better for Hertha Berlin to win the title in the same year that the capital city will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the […]

"Looking at this current squad, with the teams doing well in the Champions League and across Europe, [we've got] some world class players. Stevie [Gerrard], [Frank] Lampard, Rio [Ferdinand], these kind of players are on fire and bringing that into the England squad. We've got some great young players coming in full of confidence and […]

"We have a lot of desire to win this game. We want the three points firstly for Argentina, and also for Maradona, who deserves a win on his first official game as our coach. We hope it will be a fiesta. Diego is very calm but he is also excited. He has a lot of […]

"I do struggle where nationalism, jingoism and patriotism stops and where actually some sort of xenophobic rhetoric takes over. And there is a certain amount of that in the football world, when I keep getting told that, 'How can English football be English football when there are not enough English players in a particular team?' […]

"I consider England to be the strongest team in our group, but we also have very good players. We need not be afraid of the names on the back of the English team jerseys. The biggest mistake would be to play defensive soccer. We won't have any chances even for a draw should we make […]

It’s been 10 years since D.C. United solidified itself as the first (and still only?) true dynasty in MLS history, but MLSnet.com’s Jeff Bradley remembers it like it was yesterday, with Jaime Moreno and Marco Etcheverry still in full uniform more than two hours after their 2-0 win over L.A. in the 1999 MLS Cup, […]

After a ninth ankle operation left him only able to limp along rather than actually run, somehow D.C. United veteran Ben Olsen staved off retirement and is back wearing his black and white No. 14 jersey for his 12th MLS season. "I think we were all kind of waiting to see what I had to […]

What does one do when he inherits the head job at a team that won the league championship last year? For Crew coach Robert Warzycha, the answer appears to be “not much,” which so far seems to suit a team built on a returning cast of contributors that are coming off last November’s convincing 3-1 […]

Riding high after Monday's 2-1 win over Bolivia in Buenos Aires, the U.S. under-17 boys national team was brought back down to terra firma with a tough 5-1 loss to a supremely talented Argentina team in which the Americans "struggled to come up with answers to the Latin Americans' trickery and all too often landed […]

"My contract will be done, and I will leave happy because I have great teammates. It's a decision I made. I'm going to look for other options. I want to return to Mexico or see offers (in MLS) from another team, but this is my last year with the Fire. I think I've made an […]

"It really doesn't matter to me what any of you say because nobody who is here has ever played soccer. You are all happy when things aren't going well with the national team. You never support us when the team is doing well. But I'm not the only who says that. And when everyone says […]

Once considered one of the stronger Central American teams, El Salvador has earned a spot in the Concacaf World Cup Qualifying Hexagonal for the first time since 1997, but it wasn’t easy getting back among the region’s top tier of teams, as Mexican coach Carlos de los Cobos “has been faced with constant bickering from […]

Although not quite fit enough to go a full 90 minutes, Swedish international Freddie Ljungberg is set to make his MLS debut on Saturday when the Sounders host Real Salt Lake, meaning fans could be treated to the first episode of the exciting new “Fredy and Freddie Show” that has the potential to upstage “Grey’s […]

If people within the American soccer world were looking for older brother Kevin Payne and younger brother Tom Payne to be “going at each other’s throats or trying to get some kind of edge on each other” surrounding last week’s MLS opener between the teams each represents – D.C. United and L.A. Galaxy, respectively – […]

Although it admittedly took him a little while to settle in with the pace and physicality of the English game, especially after not playing in a league match since November with former team and 2008 UEFA Cup champs Zenit St. Petersburg, Arsenal's expensive transfer toy Andrei Arshavin is producing instant dividends upon earning a starting […]