Category: Section 2 Around the Net

"We know that [Juan Pablo] Angel is amazing, but I want to create my own history." 21-year-old Colombian midfielder Fredy Montero, who was involved in all three of Seattle's scores in their season opener, on how his admiration for Red Bulls' MVP candidate and fellow countryman Juan Pablo Angel doesn't stop him from wanting to […]

Concluding an exhilarating week for the Northwest soccer world that included the announcement of Vancouver as the next MLS expansion team on Wednesday and the soldout season opener of the new Seattle Sounders franchise on Thursday, a report from The Oregonian has Portland being named as the league’s 18th team on Friday. Citing sources within […]

Using history to remind us that the buzz around the Sounders’ MLS debut isn’t the first time that the city of Seattle has been soccer-crazy, Tacoma News Tribune writer John McGrath tells of the times “before Qwest Field replaced the Kingdome, before an indoor soccer attendance record was set in the Tacoma Dome.” Delving back […]

With the 2009 MLS season set to kick off Thursday in Seattle (TV: ESPN2, 9 pm ET), MLSnet.com’s Jeff Bradley looks back at the past 13 years of MLS season openers, starting with the inaugural season when “there was Eric Wynalda, blonde bowl-cut whipping in the wind, faking Jeff Agoos right out of his scrunchy […]

Ian Plenderleith points out that unlike most of the top Euro leagues where the title seems to always go to one of the three or four biggest clubs, at the start of the MLS season, all teams can believe in a championship. “No manager mutters the equivalent of: ‘A UEFA Cup place would be nice, […]

"For a league that non-believers will tell you really doesn't matter, Major League Soccer has certainly generated a whole lot of press these past few months," observes The Globe and Mail's Stephen Brunt of the months of offseason talk surrounding David Beckham and MLS expansion talk. While even the biggest companies and most solid sports […]

"He definitely wants to get called back. He has said if the coach calls him up, he'll go. He's itching to go back to the national team. (Mexico) should use a player with that kind of experience. At this time, they're struggling. They have so many young guys. A guy with [Blanco's] experience could help […]

"One: Being on the pitch after the game – he had no right to be there. Two: Being dressed in the manner in which he was dressed. Three: The pictures verify the aggression he was showing towards our players and staff after the game." Hull City coach Phil Brown, listing his complaints with the postgame […]

“I think it would be opportune to have a salary cap, like they do in the United States. There are discussions at UEFA to introduce this system in the Champions League sooner or later. A weak, pale summer market awaits us, with player swaps but very little money movement. This is more than certain.” AC […]

“I think we were all curious to see how he looked when he came in.  I’ve been very impressed with him. Tony has as much experience in U.S. soccer as anybody and he’s been around a long time. He’s played on big teams around the world and he really understands the league.”  L.A. Galaxy forward […]

“I believe it is over. Ronaldo, for his skills, can still play at a good level, but it will never be like before.  The national team is a different thing. We can’t be paternalistic or we would also call up Pele, Zagalo and Zico.”  Carlos Alberto Torres, who captained the Selecao to the World Cup […]

“I knew beforehand what the answer would be, but I called him anyway.” Dutch national team coach Bert Van Marwijk, who was expectedly unsuccessful in his attempt to lure 38-year-old keeper Edwin Van der Sar out of international retirement to help the Netherlands qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

Since moving to Spanish Second Division Xerex from La Liga-living Villarreal in January, it’s been a case of “different team, same story” for 19-year-old U.S. striker Jozy Altidore. Which is to say, lots of talk of potential, but not a lot of minutes on the field. None, to be exact.   Which is why he […]

Still stung from their surprising loss to the New York Red Bulls in last year’s semifinals, the Houston Dynamo is determined to get back into position to win their third MLS title in four years, and happy to open the 2009 season against the 2008 champ Columbus Crew on Saturday. But without key contributors like […]

Flamboyant Mexican forward Adolfo Bautista is entertaining thoughts of following in the footsteps of fellow famed star Cuauhtemoc Blanco by joining MLS this Summer, according to a report on mediotiempo.com.   While the colorful “Bofo” currently plays for Jaguares in the Mexican First Division, the team has yet to renew his contract for the 2009-10 […]

Not satisfied with recent Champions League results, Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho has successfully lobbied team owner Massimo Moratti for more spending cash and “has got the green light for a ($125 million) summer transfer assault on the Premier League,” according to The Daily Mirror. Mourinho is said to have his eye on six specific […]

In an effort to shed a recent past of being critical of the current national team coach and using verbal tirades to get his point across both on the field and in the locker room, midfielder Michael Ballack is slowly building back relationships with Joachim Loew and teammates alike as Germany attempts to qualify for […]

MLS and its Commissioner Don Garber have come a long way in 10 years, writes Sport Business Journal’s Tripp Mickle, who reminds us that when Garber was named to the league’s top post in 1999, “the soccer press didn’t think he would last 10 months. He had no soccer background, attendance was in decline, two […]

Despite the fact they have yet to play an official game as part of Major League Soccer, Seattle co-owner Drew Carey will not let you refer to his Sounders as an expansion team. And when you think about it, they really aren’t, what with their multiple championship-winning coach, league-high season ticket-holding fan base, state-of-the-art stadium […]

The Puerto Rican Islanders’ success in the CONCACAF Champions League is almost as unexpected as the difficulty in finding a soccer field in the baseball and basketball-crazed, Spanish-speaking U.S. territory.  The five-year-old USL-1 team’s unlikely path to Tuesday’s semifinal against ancient Mexican club Cruz Azul is just another story in the sports history of “the […]

There is talk of yet another European club competition crowding an already full calendar of fixtures, as France Football magazine revealed in its most recent issue that the continent’s top pro teams “are ready to break away and form an elite, three-tiered “Super-Championship”, which would usurp the Champions League in importance,” writes Goal.com. Replacing an […]

There will be no “mid-season makeover” like last season, promises Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio, referring to South American additions Gabriel Cichero, Juan Pietravallo and Jorge Rojas, among others, that arrived in time to help the N.Y.  upstarts make a run all the way to the MLS Cup final. This time around, Osorio went […]

“Some players looked a bit mentally tired. It opens up the race for the title, even though I still believe that Manchester United are in a strong position with the game in hand that they still have. ?They have played many matches since Christmas and it looked to have caught up with them on Saturday.” […]

“If Florentino comes and says ‘Roberto, come back’, I will have to think about it and talk about it…If I said now that I didn’t want to go back, I would be lying…I would return to Madrid to play, to be part of a group of champions. I would not return to play a bit-part […]

“The way I sold it to [co-owner] Joe Roth is that the fans will do your dirty work for you. You always know when a general manager is doing bad in any sport and you always know when they need to go, but nobody ever does anything about it … I think you should do […]