Category: Soccer America Daily

[MLS] The SuperDraft takes place on Thursday, but piecing together its squad for 2009 means the Houston Dynamo is monitoring developments in Turkey, of all places, where former forward Joseph Ngwenya and defender Bobby Boswell are sorting through their situations.

[MLS] Apparently, goalkeeper Joe Cannon isn’t the only player feeling management’s salary pinch in San Jose.

[MLS] South Korean 2002 World Cup star Ahn Jung Hwan may be itching to play in MLS but interest from the league has been tepid at best.

ESPN is planning to bid for some of the rights to broadcast English Premier League games live, writes Simon Thiel. The league sent out invitations last month to tender for the rights for the three seasons from mid-2010 to 2013. He quoted one unidentified source as saying the broadcaster is considering bids for one or […]

[OFF THE POST] Alarico Endres, the trainer of Brazilian club Gremio, hypothesizes that Viagra can improve players’ performance at altitude and recommends Gremio’s players pop the blue pills when they play Libertadores Cup games at 8,200 feet above sea level in Bolivia.

“I am a good man but I am not a fool. Sometimes I’m a fool but not every time. And if Chelsea loses a game it’s not just me – it’s the whole of the team. We are in the same boat.”

— Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari explains things in the wake of the Blues’ 3-0 loss to Manchester United last weekend. (The Sun)

[U.S. SOCCER] Move over, college basketball. The USA-Mexico qualifier Feb. 11 in Columbus, Ohio, is to be televised live on ESPN2 during its annual “Rivalry Week.”

[MLS] They look for size, they look for skill, and they look for speed, yet what most MLS coaches also want to see at the annual Player Combine – or any other scouting trip — are the two P’s: polish and poise. After a rest day Monday, the players will play one more set of games Tuesday, after which a lot of them and the MLS coaches and officials will head to St. Louis for the SuperDraft Thursday at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

“I thought that the difference between Bayern and AC Milan was that at one club there was soccer and the other club was producing a movie, like in Hollywood. My job is to run a soccer club and not to make sure that Victoria Beckham has the best suite in the hotel. I don’t know why Milan accepted all these demands.”

— Uli Hoeness, the general manager of Bayern Munich, which shared a hotel with AC Milan in Dubai, offers his two pfennigs on David Beckham‘s loan deal to AC Milan from the Los Angeles Galaxy.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Landon Donovan, MLS’s leading scorer last season, scored for Bayern Munich in a 3-1 friendly win over Saudi Arabia’s Al-Wehda on Monday.

Manchester United forward and World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo has agreed a deal with Real Madrid President Ramon Calderon to join the Spanish champion in the summer, according to a “respected Spanish journalist.”   Both Guillem Balague, writing on his website, and Spanish newspaper AS claim Ronaldo has agreed in principle to go […]

David Beckham‘s Milan debut at the weekend reminded veteran Italian-based soccer writer Paddy Agnew of the days of Diego Maradona at Napoli. Not because of any similarity in playing style, but because when Maradona emerged form the locker room “he tended to be surrounded by a posse of security men, physios, agents, friends, relatives and […]

Names great and small are swirling about as MLS coaches and executives finish their duties at annual Player Combine in Ft. Lauderdale prepare for the 2009 SuperDraft next Thursday in St. Louis. Some prominent players are out of contract or have had their options declined, and of course, there’s no shortage of foreign players being linked to the American league.

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has been involved in word wars down the years with all of the Premier League’s top managers. Kevin Keegan was soundly trounced in the 1990s during his first spell at Newcastle. There seems to be a truce with Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger after several seasons of back and forth. Jose Mourinho […]

“The FIFA World Player of the Year gala in Zurich today will look like a Jay Gatsby house party in overdrive,” writes Sam Wallace. He says that the award is unnecessary given that we already have the “perfectly adequate” European Footballer of the Year award. The only disadvantage of that award, “in FIFA’s eyes, is […]

One might be skeptical of any story that goes under the label of “exclusive”‘ and appears in London-based tabloid The Sun, but this one is irresistible. After all, a story doesn’t have to be true to be a good story. And so we pass on the paper’s report that the fire alarm that woke Chelsea’s […]

David Beckham‘s AC Milan debut in its 2-2 draw at Roma Sunday drew both praise and scathing comment from the Italian media. Gazzetta dello Sport gave Beckham a six out of 10 rating and said that there was “nothing to show as a replay for a Pepsi ad. However, he sacrifices, he crosses, he strikes, […]

France’s Ligue 1 race tightened as seven-time champion Lyon tied Lorient, 1-1, and saw its lead over Bordeaux reduced to one point. Carlos Bocanegra‘s Rennes is third only two points behind Lyon. In Portugal, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon leapfrogged over Porto and are tied for first place. For all the weekend results and current standings …

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Defender Carlos Bocanegra, who has started every French Ligue 1 game since joining Rennes last summer, celebrated a win as Rennes moved within two points of first place. For a wrapup of U.S. players in Europe last weekend. …

[INTERLIGA] After a frantic Friday night of eight goals concluded group play, Interliga 2009 served up another incredible doubleheader Sunday at Home Depot Center. Both of Sunday’s games were decided by penalty kicks, one of which required 13 rounds. In the other, Guadalajara defeated Morelia, 4-2, after a 1-1 tie to claim the automatic Interliga spot in the 2009 Libertadores Cup.

“Before the start of the game and when we were on the field home fans behind the goal defended by Bilbao threw numerous snowballs towards the goal, some of them hitting the goalkeeper.”
— Referee Cesar Muniz Fernandez‘s match report explains that the snow in Spain fell mainly on Athletic Bilbao keeper Gorka Iraizoz, forcing Muniz Fernandez to briefly suspend the Atletico Madrid-hosted Spanish La Liga game. The snow-ball launchers heeded a warning from the PA system and the and Bilbao enjoyed a 3-2 win. (Reuters)