Category: Section 2 Around the Net

"After the game is before the game," as the legendary German coach Sepp Herberger used to say. Hardly had Real Salt Lake been eliminated from the MLS playoffs than it had to start planning for next season, what with Monday's expansion draft for Seattle Sounders FC looming. Players will be called in Wednesday and Thursday […]

"I have great belief in my ideas and my coaching ability and I firmly believe I can achieve the objectives set by the management." Former Portugal national team assistant coach and Inter midfielder Paolo Sousa is the new manager of nouveau-riche Premier League wannabes Queens Park Rangers, presently 10th in the second-tier Championship.  

"It [the diet at Old Trafford] was outrageous. Everyone ate whatever they wanted to eat and when you think about the typical English diet, you can imagine what I am talking about. Every 15 days they would put us on what we dubbed the 'spare-tire machine' to measure our body fat. You would be amazed […]

“I am proof that the system doesn’t always work. I was born at the wrong time. I’m from the same generation as [Thierry] Henry and [Nicolas] Anelka and when they were coming through you had to be well over 6-foot to be picked for youth schemes.” Caen striker Steve Savidan, 30, who four years ago […]

"I could decide tomorrow [to retire] or in a month's time what to do, but I still don't know. It was beautiful to return to play because soccer is my life, but it was just an exhibition as I only played for 22 minutes. Professional soccer is a different issue." Ronaldo, 32, mulls quitting the […]

FIFA Vice President Jack Warner has not only accused English clubs of disrespecting the Caribbean game, but also claimed that Caribbean players are born with a “natural talent” for soccer. “African-Caribbean footballers will continue to do better and better because they have natural talent,” said Warner, who is also Concacaf President and “special advisor” to […]

The Uruguayan FA has suspended the national championship until further notice after fans fought a pitched battle following a game between the league’s top two sides. When Danubio beat Nacional 1-0 to overtake its opponent and go top of the Apertura (opening) Championship on Sunday, Nacional fans broke down the fencing at the Jardines del […]

“Honestly, I have a lot of respect for the team but not the coach. [Denis Hamlett] wasn’t honest with me. I wanted to know why I wasn’t playing but he wouldn’t talk to me about it. He’s a very closed off coach. He never talked to me face-to-face.” Chicago Fire forward Tomasz Frankowski is sour […]

The English FA has handed Chelsea striker Didier Drogba a three-game ban for throwing a coin back into the crowd during last week’s League Cup tie against Burnley. He will miss forthcoming league games against Arsenal, Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers.

“What could — and should — have been a feverishly anticipated clash between two of football’s grandest foes has become an albatross, a fixture that nobody — from the players, to their club managers, to their fans — wants, or worse, even cares about.” Dan Silver looks forward to Wednesday’s Germany-England game in Berlin.

Borussia Dortmund defender Neven Subotic, still undecided on whether to play for Serbia or the U.S. at international level, was nominated to Eurosport’s Bundesliga team of the week following his two-goal performance against Eintracht Frankfurt Saturday. Kicker magazine also awarded him one of its rare ‘world class’ 1.0 ratings, although he didn’t get MVP — […]

“I am the first-, second- and third-best player in the world. There are other good candidates, like Kaka, [Lionel] Messi and [Fernando] Torres. I think that I did everything that is necessary to win and I am going to continue doing more. My goal is to win everything in front of me.” Cristiano Ronaldo half-jokes […]

It’s not just the fact that he grew up in California that will make this weekend’s return to the state for MLS Cup so special for Columbus Crew Coach Sigi Schmid. There’s also the fact that the game will be played in Carson at the home stadium of the team — the L.A. Galaxy — […]

The regular season stats of the Columbus Crew and RB New York may not have had much in common, writes Jack Bell, with the Crew superior in every department. But one thing the two MLS Cup finalists shared these past seven months was a light schedule that left them both in good shape to tackle […]

The Seattle Sounders FC will hopefully get more than just another highly paid underwear model with tattoos when its designated player Freddie Ljungberg takes to the field next season. But as Ravi Ubha writes, if you put the player’s name in google “the first thing that pops up is four pictures of the 31-year-old clad […]

Salt Lake Coach Jason Kreis was a mixture of frustration and stoicism after his team’s 1-0 weekend defeat to New York in the Western Conference Final. On the one hand he’s been in the game long enough to know “that’s just how the game goes.” Referring to his team’s failure to convert pressure and chances […]

However you want to analyze the reasons why RB New York has made it to the MLS Cup final, there's no discounting a certain amount of good fortune. Even coach Juan Carlos Osorio acknowledged the role of divine intervention after its opponents, Real Salt Lake, hit the woodwork three times during Saturday's game. "We have […]

It all went sour when the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year bumped into the MLS Coach of the Year following Thursday’s Eastern Conference playoff final. But then Chicago Fire stopper Jon Busch and his former coach, the Columbus Crew’s Sigi Schmid, have been at odds ever since Busch complained about the way Schmid traded him […]

Al-Ahly of Egypt won the African Champions League Sunday, beating Coton Sport of Cameroon 4-2 on aggregate. It was a record-breaking sixth triumph for the club in the competition, and followed the Egyptian national team’s victory in the African Nations Cup at the start of the year. After winning the first leg 2-0 in Cairo […]

“Premier League managers will never respect referees,” writes Simon Barnes. “Respect is an impossible idea and the worthy campaign intended to inspire it is doomed to failure.” He cites the weekend red card shown to Emmerson Boyce of Wigan Athletic for his foul on Newcastle’s Shola Ameobi, which replays showed was clearly not a foul, […]

“This is my system. If you are fit and you are playing, it’s possible to be in the squad. He played his last game three weeks ago. If he had played in the [MLS] playoffs, it would have been OK.” England Manager Fabio Capello explains David Beckham’s omission from the England squad to play Germany […]

“We have always stated that one of the conditions for us was starting in March, 2010. We will not negotiate on that, and MLS understands our position. Therefore, because the timeframe is relatively short, we expect MLS will make a decision about our franchise in the very near future … say the next month or […]

“Ten wins in 30 games. A goal differential of minus 6. A team with only one road win in the regular season. Your 2008 MLS Cup winner? It might just be the New York Red Bulls.” Gareth Wheeler says don’t blame New York, blame the system.

“Having Maradona as our coach creates anticipation like your wedding night. It’s tremendously exciting, and you really hope that it will be wonderful, but you never actually know what’s going to happen.” Julio Grondona, the President of the Argentine FA, knows it won’t be easy going with Diego Maradona as national team coach.

“I told the players that they had until this Monday [November 17] to let me know if they were going or staying. If they decide to go they’ll have to leave for America in January and that doesn’t give me much time to bring in replacements.” Arsenal women’s team Manager Vic Akers has given his […]