Category: Section 2 Around the Net

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

The success of the British Olympic team in Beijing serves up a simple lesson for English soccer, writes Sam Wallace. If you want to create a sporting elite, you have to root out the underperformers and let the country’s best athletes train together.   Chelsea and Manchester United both boast impressive youth academies, but because […]

The New York Red Bulls played reigning MLS champion Houston on Sunday “like a team on a mission,” writes Angela Daidone, and the Dynamo “could do nothing to stop them” as they powered to a 3-0 win. A new confidence on the team was evident from the players she spoke to after its third successive […]

Toronto FC is not the first MLS team to have been kept waiting for Guatemalan striker Carlos Ruiz’s return from international duty. Its new signing from L.A., rumored to be less than happy at being placed with a team that plays its home games on artificial turf, is taking care of some business in Los […]

After just two game days in the English Premier League, it’s already clear to Paul Doyle which clubs need to do some hasty recruitment before the transfer window closes. “Without significant movement over the next seven days,” he writes, “the transfer window will come down like a guillotine on the ambitions of sides such as […]

Following last week’s disappointing 1-1 home tie with Jamaica, Canada coach Dale Mitchell is pleased his side will not be playing on the artificial surface at Toronto’s BMO Field again this year.

Steve Davis previews the CONCACAF Champions League, kicking off this week.

Leander Schaerlaeckens looks forward to the Dutch season and rounds up the multitude of off-season coaching changes.

Two busloads of Philadelphia soccer fans made the trip to RFK Stadium Saturday to taste the MLS atmosphere ahead of the 2010 season, when its own team will start play. John Smallwood was impressed by the D.C. United fans and the noise they made, but not by the old stadium, looking forward instead to the […]

Former Grimsby Town striker John Thorrington scored the game winner for Chicago in L.A. Thursday, stretching the Galaxy’s winless streak to nine. New L.A. coach Bruce Arena credited Thorrington with “a very good finish,” and said he was pleased with the effort he saw his players put in. “We were a little bit thin tonight […]

Clint Mathis has returned to Salt Lake for his second spell, telling Brad Rock that he no longer has enough hair for a Mohawk. He’s also discarding a reputation for the flamboyant that he had first time around in Utah. Most importantly, he’s hoping to score more than the three goals he tallied in his […]

The whole of Wembley Stadium felt England striker Wayne Rooney’s black mood when he was substituted out of the exhibition game against the Czech Republic on 69 minutes Wednesday, writes Sam Wallace. The player was “tired and frustrated,” perhaps realizing that he “will never be a prolific international goalscorer.” In fact, Wallace says, the game […]

Sunderland manager Roy Keane has criticized some of his players for eschewing loan moves that would guarantee them first-team playing time at other clubs. He says they’d prefer to stay at the club, sit in the stands, and bank their wages. “I’m talking about players who are different animals to when I was a player,” […]

New York coach Juan Carlos Osorio is looking to sign Colorado’s Omar Cummings, Dallas’ Dominic Oduro and Atlanta’s Macoumba Kandji, reports Brian Lewis.

Some national teams have been going all retro, wearing jerseys numbered one to 11 with no names on the back, apparently misinterpreting a FIFA rule.

Some grumbling British hack wonders what tactical use England still has for David Beckham.

Think you know the laws of soccer? Test yourself here at the tricky comic strip which poses weird but plausible on-field conundrums for game officials.

The word ‘redemption’ has been used so often in the wake of the U.S. women team’s Olympic gold medal that it can only be a matter of time before Hollywood makes it into a movie. Expect the word ‘hope’ to appear in the title. Lindsey Dolich is no exception in calling the 1-0 win over […]

There was a spring in the step of the Colorado Rapids’ players at training Wednesday following the “mutually amicable agreement” that lead to the departure of coach Fernando Clavijo, reports Brian Forbes. With interim coach Gary Smith in charge, the players “were physical, competitive and vocal.” “I’ve been in the situation three or four times, […]

The USA’s World Cup semifinal qualifying round victory Wednesday will take no awards for beauty, but the result and the three points will more than compensate for the beautiful game’s absence in Guatemala City. All the talk post-game was about hard work and cohesiveness. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy one way or […]

While Jamaicans were celebrating Usain Bolt’s sprint gold medals at the Olympics, its soccer players embarked upon the semifinal stage of the country’s World Cup qualifying campaign with a 1-1 tie in Canada. “We proved that [Jamaicans] are not only good at the 100 and 200 meters but at [soccer] as well,” joked Jamaican coach […]

New England Revolution goalkeeper Doug Warren has been waiting a long time. Not just to get some Major League Soccer playing time ahead of first choice keeper Matt Reis, but to record an MLS win too. Keeping sticks for the Revs Wednesday in a 2-1 win over D.C. United, he finally managed both. Former United […]

“They are hot. They are healthy. They are rolling. They’re all that and then some,” writes Bernardo Fallas after watching the Houston Dynamo crush injury-hit Chivas USA with four first-half goals. Recent signing Kei Kamara scored twice “in what turned out to be a 4-0 rout of a Chivas USA team so depleted it could […]

Benched Fulham striker Eddie Johnson is to go on loan to Championship side Cardiff City for a year.

Georgia may be embroiled in a violent geo-political conflict with Russia, but at least its soccer side managed a win, albeit against a struggling Wales team in an exhibition game.