Category: Section 2 Around the Net

Hamburg’s U.S. striker Preston Zimmerman will move before the transfer deadline Sept. 1 to either another German team, or “one in another country,” according to his agent.

The Columbus Crew’s 11-6-4 record, tied for the best in MLS this year, is the result of coach Sigi Schmid’s “soccer mind and his eye for talent,” writes Michael Arace. That’s why he deserves a new contract. “He has completely overhauled the team in three years,” Arace says. “Of the 30 men on the Crew’s […]

There were many skeptics who thought that Cuauhtemoc Blanco would not cut it in MLS when he arrived to play for the Chicago Fire a year ago, and Bernardo Fallas admits that he was one of them. Now he’s happy to concede that he was wrong on all counts — about Blanco being too old, […]

FC Dallas midfielder Andre Rocha was not happy at being substituted out of Saturday’s game at the Kansas City Wizards, and refused to sit on the bench after coach Schellas Hyndman withdrew him in the game’s 66th minute for rookie Bruno Guarda. Rocha missed training Monday (it’s not clear if he was suspended or AWOL), […]

When Italian players such as Gianluca Vialli and Gianfranco Zola started moving to the English Premier League in the mid-1990s, their compatriots dismissed the EPL “as a retirement home for ageing footballers or a get-rich-quick scheme for those who lacked ambition,” writes Oliver Kay. With a change in the balance of power and money there […]

Celtic gets another shot at Man. United in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, whose draw took place Thursday in Monaco.

John Turnbull tells the extraordinary story of Claudio Tamburrini, a goalkeeper with Argentine second division side Almagro in the 1970s who was abducted by the military authorities, only to escape and become a philosophy professor in Sweden.

A summary of Wednesday’s action in round two of England’s League Cup, with wins for Fulham and West Ham United.

St. Louis’ bid to land a Major League Soccer team “looks to be entering the home stretch,” Tom Timmermann reports, but he qualifies the statement by adding “again.” The deadline is mid-October, and prime mover Jeff Cooper, who heads an investment group that has proposed a stadium, housing, office and retail space complex in Collinsville, […]

In the early days of Major League Soccer, assists were handed out to players like goody bags at a toddler’s birthday gig. Nowadays, a pass has to “unlock” the opposition defense to qualify as an assist, writes Shawn Mitchell, and this season it’s clear who is the chief locksmith — Columbus Crew’s Argentine playmaker, Guillermo […]

D.C. United’s new holding midfielder Joe Vide wasn’t supposed to be there. Not at D.C., who signed him up during an injury crisis after he was waived by San Jose, and not on the edge of the penalty area in a scoring position against the Colorado Rapids last weekend. But his left foot shot handed […]

The St. Louis women’s team due to start play in Women’s Professional Soccer next spring has hired Brazilian women’s team coach Jorge Barcellos to be its coach and general manager. “We’ll have a special look to the team with a lot of skill and creativity on the field,” promised Jeff Cooper, the team’s owner. “He […]

Ten years ago, Ralf Rangnick, at that time coach of German second division leaders SSV Ulm, was mocked by the German soccer establishment after he appeared on German TV to explain how his team had succeeded by using a flat back four and zonal marking. The Germans still believed in the sweeper system, despite no […]

Columnist Dan Oshinsky has been trying to work out the U.S. equivalent to China’s first Olympic track and field gold medalist, Liu Xiang. And then he came up with an answer — the men’s national soccer team. Liu shattered for the Chinese “the stereotype that they cannot compete in any sprint-type event. Chinese regard him […]

Former City Chairman John Wardle has loaned the team a total $12 million over the past year, reports David Conn, raising new doubts about the financial stability of the team’s owner, the Human Rights Watch-condemned former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

An unnamed Dutch team is interested in signing Chivas USA’s midfielder Sacha Kljestan after his displays for the U.S. Olympic team.

Manchester United central defender Nemanja Vidic has said that he would not want to stay in England long term because of the Manchester rain, and because all people do in the evening is watch TV. Well what do you expect when it’s raining outside?

Spain national team coach Vicente del Bosque has warned Serbia off attempting to lure teenage star Bojan Krkic to play for Serbia. Krkic’s father is Serbian, his mother Catalan, and he was born and raised in Spain.

It’s a telling sign of the state of the competition in the English Premier League that if Manchester United had lost at Portsmouth Monday in only its second game this season, many would have declared the title race already over. With United missing league action this coming weekend to play Zenit St Petersburg in the […]

Great Britain has not entered a soccer team into Olympic competition since the days when only amateur players were sent to compete. In modern times, the four separate associations (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) have barely discussed the idea of a unified team for fear of setting a precedent. That is, if they entered […]

Former Brazilian World Cup star Rivaldo, 36, has left Greek side AEK Athens after just one season to take up “an offer that is very good for my career,” he told a Greek radio station. Greek media reports said it was the Uzbekistan side Bunyodkor, the team that last month claimed to have signed Barcelona’s […]

Toronto FC coach John Carver is taking his team off golfing to a mountain resort for two days so that they can bond with each other and the team’s new signings, including striker Carlos Ruiz.

Both EPL side Middlesbrough and the Bundesliga’s SV Hamburg are “supposedly considering” a move for Heerenveen’s US national team midfielder Michael Bradley, but he’ll likely stay in Holland for now.

Steve Davis makes 10 observations following the weekend’s MLS action, including due appreciation of Columbus’ Guillermo Barros Schelotto, this week’s league MVP.

Glasgow Rangers’ new U.S. national team midfielder, Maurice Edu, already christened ‘Mo’ for short by the Scottish media, has said that he relishes the challenge of competing for a place in his new side. In the past fortnight Rangers also signed the Spaniard Aaron, Northern Ireland international Steven Davis and experienced Portuguese playmaker Pedro Mendes, […]