Category: Section 2 Around the Net

“I think we tried to be a bit too gung-ho. We’ve got to try and have more of an English mentality. You wouldn’t have seven-eight-nine guys pushing up in the box trying to score a goal. You’d have six-seven-eight men back defending. Maybe we got to start doing that a bit more.” Two-goal Darren Huckerby […]

As part of an increasingly predictable trend, Everton is to appeal the straight red card shown to Tim Cahill for a late and clumsy tackle against Liverpool on Saturday.

“I would say the electric level in our heads was not high enough.” Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger offers a novel theory to explain why his team lost at home to Hull City at the weekend.

To counter its piece earlier in the week on the 11 big issues that Major League Soccer must face, the US national team players’ association site runs another editorial pointing up 11 things that the league is getting right. Once again, there’s plenty of room for debate. The spread of ownership and the increase in […]

Europe’s secondary club competition, the UEFA Cup, has long been languishing in the shadows of the Champions League. Europe’s governing body opted Friday to put lipstick on a pig by confirming that the UEFA Cup will be renamed the Europa League, at the same time as revamping its format. After qualifying rounds are done, the […]

Newcastle United has appointed former Wimbledon boss Joe Kinnear as interim manager until the end of October. His last post was an unsuccessful spell as manager of Nottingham Forest in 2004. Kinnear says he thinks he will be in charge of the team for six games until the club is sold by current owner Mike […]

“Vela has shown a tremendous awareness of what is around him and his seamless link play suggests he communicates with his teammates on an almost ethereal level.” Since Arsenal’s 19-year-old Mexican striker Carlos Vela scored a hat trick in midweek League Cup action, the UK press has been falling over itself to praise and profile […]

“It’s going to be very difficult to qualify for [South Africa] 2010. But a job only becomes available when someone loses his job, and someone only loses his job when the team is not doing well.” New Jamaica national team coach John Barnes faces the daunting task of turning around the country’s misfired World Cup […]

Brazil has recalled Kaka to its roster for next month’s World Cup qualifiers with Venezuela and Colombia, but his AC Milan teammate Ronaldinho has again been left out.

David Beckham once famously confessed that he had difficulty helping his 6-year-old son with his math homework. But the L.A. Galaxy midfielder has worked out that there are only four games left in the MLS regular season, and that L.A. is in danger of missing the playoffs again. "Our confidence may have been too high […]

Attack, attack, attack, former U.S. international Phillip Gyau always taught his son Joseph. After years of attending youth soccer camps in Brazil, the 16-year-old now looks set to more than follow in his father's footsteps, writes Justin Rodriguez. Gyau Senior still shows his son videos of Diego Maradona, Pelé and Ronaldo to illustrate his philosophy […]

The Web site for the U.S. national team players’ association sets out 11 issues that Major League Soccer needs to tackle in an editorial well worth reading in full. The list starts with player relations and pay, the league not having done “even the little things that a front office worker would expect” for its […]

New York’s Mike Magee is the team’s longest serving player at just 24 years old. After being tipped as a future U.S. national team star in his teens, he had also disappeared off the radar these past two years thanks to a series of injuries, writes Chris Celletti. Now he’s returned to the starting lineup […]

When Schellas Hyndman arrived as FC Dallas coach this summer from Southern Methodist University, it wasn’t long before he brought SMU’s Brazilian playmaker Bruno Guarda along too. With more than a suspicion of favoritism as Guarda became part of a starting line-up producing few positive results, Guarda’s weekend goal in the 4-1 win at the […]

Its teams may not be able to buy a win in Concacaf Champions League play, but at least Major League Soccer is earning higher grades for its gender diversity employment practices. v A report card issued Wednesday by the Miami-based University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport gave MLS a C+ […]

The daily online editorial at the U.K. soccer monthly ponders the wisdom of Newcastle United possibly taking on former England and Barcelona manager Terry Venables as its short-term manager. The troubled north-eastern wannabe giant, knocked out of the League Cup Wednesday by the Premier League’s bottom side Tottenham, has also been contemplating a sale to […]

U.S. goalkeeper Dominic Cervi, who turned down the Chicago Fire to try for a career in Europe instead, has completed a second trial at Scottish champions Celtic and is reportedly close to signing a three-year deal.

Qatar Petroleum has signed a four-year, $10 million deal with the Asian Football Confederation, giving the Qatar company main sponsorship rights to the 2011 Asian Cup and AFC Champions League competitions until 2012.

The Croatian Football Association has been fined a paltry $28,000 by FIFA for the racist abuse its fans aimed at England striker Emile Heskey during a World Cup qualifier in Zagreb earlier this month.

Toronto FC coach John Carver put his future on the line Tuesday, and challenged his players to do the same over the course of the regular season’s final five matches, writes Dean McNulty. Carver said he wouldn’t blame the club for sacking him if the team doesn’t make the playoffs. The English coach was still […]

After three wins in his opening three World Cup qualifiers, Mexico’s Swedish coach Sven-Goran Eriksson is settling in well at his new job. The former England and Manchester City manager is also learning Spanish to help effect a smooth transition to a job that reportedly earns him $5 million a year after taxes, writes Grahame […]

Red-card happy referee Dan Austin sent off six players in an English non-league game at the weekend, a new British record. Austin stayed in his locker room for an hour following the eighth-tier game between Worthing and Chipstead in Ryman League Division One (South), played in front of 174 fans. He also showed eight yellow […]

Manchester United’s teenage Brazilian midfielder Rodrigo Possebon fortunately suffered no fracture after a ‘horror tackle’ from Middlesbrough’s Austrian defender Emanuel Pogatetz in Tuesday’s League Cup game at Old Trafford. United manager Alex Ferguson, however, remains incensed by the challenge. Pogatetz was shown a straight red card for the foul.

It was just like the early 1980s. Sky Sports News showed footage late Tuesday of police wading into soccer fans with batons following the south Wales derby between Swansea and Cardiff in the English League Cup. Cardiff fans claim the police left them sandwiched between two sets of home fans and failed to evacuate the […]

“Some clubs… persist in the belief that you can fill an atmospheric void with muzak, giant foam hands, comedy hats and the infernal clack-clack of those damned rubber clappers. The self-proclaimed ‘best league in the world’, which prides itself on the authenticity of its unique matchday ‘event,’ is prepared to cheat, to give the level […]