“You are out of order. Absolutely f****** out of order. If you do it again, I am telling you you can f*** off and go to another ground. I will not come and stand for that f****** crap. No f****** way, lies.”
— A short excerpt from Newcastle interim coach Joe Kinnear‘s press conference in which he swore 50 times. The English FA is considering charging Kinnear with bringing the game into disrepute. (ESPN SoccerNet)
[OFF THE POST] In a Peruvian league game, as Universitario tried to get the late game-winning goal, ball boys for home team Deportivo San Martin were accused of deflating spare balls to delay play. The San Martin bench responded to the allegations and prompted a brawl in which officials and players exchanged blows.
[MLS] As the Galaxy and Red Bulls have learned, tying up a huge salary and grand expectations in one (Designated) player can be risky. Marcelo Gallardo is this year’s case in point.
[FUTSAL WORLD CUP] The USA lost, 8-1, to Portugal to exit the competition in Brazil with four straight losses and a last-place finish in its group.
[SPAIN] Barcelona looked majestic again, dismantling Atletico Madrid, 6-1, at the Camp Nou. There were big wins too for Sevilla and Malaga, while Real Madrid was held at home by Espanyol.
[ENGLAND] Liverpool is threatening to do something it hasn’t done in two decades — look like a title-winner. The Reds came from 2-0 down at Manchester City to take all three points and stay level with Chelsea at the top.
[GERMANY] Another high-scoring weekend in the Bundesliga, as Bayern Munich failed to win for its third successive game, and Hamburg became the latest leader in a league no team wants to dominate.
[ITALY] Juventus and Roma continued the trend in Serie A this season of big teams losing to lesser names, with Palermo and Siena the beneficiaries. Lazio and AC Milan were also unable to beat lower-placed teams.
Puerto Rico and Vancouver advanced to the USL First Division championship game with comeback wins in their semifinal series. The Islanders beat Rochester, the last U.S. entrant alive in the USL-1 playoffs, 3-2 on aggregate, winning thanks to Cristian Arrieta’s overtime goal in the second leg. Vancouver erased Montreal’s 1-0 advantage with two first-half goals in the second leg and held on for a 2-1 win. Vancouver will host the final at Swangard Stadium on Thanksgiving Sunday, Oct. 12.
“In the Olympic Games, it was a hard decision. I was born in the U.S., and I have lived in Mexico for five years now. My career, I made it in Mexico, but I talked it over with my family, and they told me whatever decision I make, they have my back.”
— Jose Francisco Torres, a 20-year-old Texas native whose father is a Mexican immigrant, on accepting a call-up from the U.S. national team after declining an invitation from the U.S. U-23 team while being courted by Mexico, where he plays for Pachuca. (Dallas Morning News)
[WORLD CUP 2010] U.S. coach Bob Bradley has included 20-year-old Texan Jose Francisco Torres, who has also been courted by the Mexican national team, into his 23-man roster for the Oct. 11 qualifier against Cuba in Washington, D.C. Other young players called in by Bradley who weren’t part of the last squad are Freddy Adu, Danny Szetela and Jozy Altidore
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Matt Taylor, a former UCLA star who scored six goals in four MLS seasons (2004-2007), scored a hat trick for German Second Division TuS Koblenz in a 5-0 win over Kaiserslautern on Sunday. In England, Clint Dempsey got his first EPL start of the season on a weekend in which few Americans saw action but Carlos Bocanegra helped Rennes to an impressive win in France.
[FUTSAL WORLD CUP] The USA fell, 5-3, to Thailand for its third straight loss at the championship in Brazil and has been eliminated from second-round contention.
[MLS NAMES & NUMBERS] Two-time defending champ Houston became the second team after the Columbus Crew to clinch a playoff by downing Colorado. For the weekend’s MLS high- and low-lights. …
For all the weekend results, standings, leading goalscorers and schedules. …
“The one thing I may have going for me that is hard to quantify is that I’ve been a Seattle Sounder since I was 17 years old. The pride that I have in that fact gives them another guarantee that it’s not just a job for me. It’s who I am.”
— Brian Schmetzer, who played on the NASL’s Seattle Sounders, coached the USL-1’s Sounders and is among the candidates for the MLS Sounders FC head coaching job. other candidates are reported to be Columbus Crew coach Sigi Schmid, New England Revolution assistant Paul Mariner and Kansas City technical director Peter Vermes. (Seattle Press-Intelligencer)
An unfair decision but perhaps a fair result left both FC Dallas and San Jose wishing they’d done more in their 1-1 tie Thursday night at Pizza Hut Park.
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Oguchi Onyewu won his team’s battle with Tim Howard‘s Everton when Standard Liege beat the Toffees, 2-1, and advanced to the group stage of the UEFA Cup with a 4-3 victory on aggregate.
[OFF THE POST] Players and staff of French club Marseille had to pass the hat and pool their money to pay for the fuel their charter plane needed to get them home from Madrid after their 2-1 loss to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday.
AC Milan, Sevilla and Tottenham were among the winners as the first round of the UEFA Cup concluded Thursday. For all the results and goal scorers …
[FUTSAL WORLD CUP] The USA fell to 0-2 at the Futsal World Cup in Brazil when it gave up six unanswered goals and lost to Italy, 6-1.
[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Romanian champion Cluj held Chelsea to a draw in Wednesday’s Champions League action, while two late Lionel Messi goals earned Barcelona a win over Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk.
[WOMEN’S WORLD CUP] The 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany will be played June 26-July 17 — which represents a switch from the last two women’s world championships, which were played in the fall.
“Soccer players are simple fools. They only learn by being dropped or fined. They all eat crap — so now they lose the weight or they lose their money. End of story.”
— Renato Portaluppi, coach of Brazilian club Vasco da Gama, who has threatened six players he deems overweight with $150 fines if their don’t shed some pounds.
