Category: What They’re Saying

“I don’t know the kind of superlatives I can lay on him. He’s an ideal player to have. He brings a work ethic that’s second to none to our club. He produces on game days and knows how to deal with coaches, players teammates and press. He’s been the perfect package, to date. He hasn’t been 100 percent [ribs], yet he plays and you don’t hear him complain. He’s been superb.”

— New York Red Bulls coach Bruce Arena on his Colombia forward Juan Pablo Angel, whose 14th goal of the season gave the Bulls a 1-0 win over Chicago. (New York Post)

“Investigations confirmed he suffered a complete rupture of his quadriceps muscle in the areas where the quadriceps inserts into the patella. His recovery will be a steady process in the early stages, and we are hoping for a return some time around Christmas.”

— Fulham physiotherapist Jason Palmer on American forward Brian McBride, who suffered a separated kneecap on Aug. 18 while scoring. (AP)

“We got a goal. That’s big progress for us.”

— American Samoa coach David Brand, whose team is ranked last (199th) in the world by FIFA, after a 12-1 loss to the Solomon Islands in their 2010 World Cup qualifying opener. America Samoa made history in 2002 World Cup qualifying with a 31-0 loss to Australia. (Reuters)

“I want to excuse myself with everyone – Parma fans included – but not to him. He provoked me.”

— Silvio Baldini, coach of Italian club Catania, after being suspended for one month for literally kicking Parma coach Domenico Di Carlo‘s butt. The two coaches squabbled during a 2-2 tie and Baldini struck once Di Carlo turned his back to walk away. Click HERE for video.

“You try to imagine the hysteria surrounding his arrival but when he’s here it’s so different. It’s not been easy. It’s been kind of testing, to be honest. At the start of the year there was so much anticipation that we would win every game and David wasn’t even here then. He wasn’t here for the start of the season either. Then we had injuries and it was: ‘Why aren’t you winning?’ Obviously we need to.”

— Los Angeles coach Frank Yallop in a Times of London article headlined “Klinsmann tipped for leading role in LA.” Southern California resident Juergen Klinsmann served as L.A. Galaxy technical adviser in 2004 before taking over as coach of Germany’s 2006 World Cup team. On Friday, the Galaxy named assistant coach Paul Bravo Director of Soccer. (Times)

“If Chelsea is naive and pure then I’m Little Red Riding Hood.”

— Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez on Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho‘s comments that Chelsea players are “pure and they are clean. We don’t have divers, we don’t have violent people.” (BBC)

“I have dual citizenship. I am a Mexican-American. And I decided to play for Mexico because the other side never called me.”

— Edgar Castillo, who debuted for the Mexican national team on Wednesday in a 1-0 loss to Colombia. The 20-year-old, who was born and raised in the USA, starts in the Mexican First Division for Santos Laguna, which he joined after finishing high school in New Mexico. (Notimex)

“When they insult you, you put up with it, but when they spit at a linesman, they’ve gone over the limits and that cannot be tolerated.”

— Referee Olivier Viera, who abandoned the Uruguayan league game between Progreso and Miramar Misiones in the 83rd minute after Progreso’s visiting fans spat on the linesman. In the first half, Viera stopped the game for five minutes after Progreso fans spat at a Miramar player. (Reuters)

“I know it seems almost silly to keep talking about him because he’s only one player but he makes a big difference in there and it’s not just the goal. It’s his leadership, his ability to get us out of pressure situations. If the ball comes to him and he can’t make the right pass or the right play, he puts the ball in a spot where it gets us out of pressure and puts them under pressure.”

— The Galaxy’s Landon Donovan on David Beckham, who scored and set up Donovan for a goal in Los Angeles’ SuperLiga win Wednesday over D.C. United. (Reuters)

“As soon as the free kick was given, I don’t want to sound too confident, but I felt that I was going to score as soon as I had the ball in my hands. It felt good. Sometimes you feel like that, sometimes you don’t get any feeling. But tonight, I had the feeling that I was going to score.”

— David Beckham after scoring his first goal for the Los Angeles Galaxy in his first start to lead his new team to a 2-0 win over D.C. United in the semifinals of the SuperLiga. (SI.com)

“The other day I came in and I’d caught quite a bit of sun. They said, ‘Did you go to the beach?’ I said, ‘No, I’ve been in the garden.’ They all went quiet and they said, ‘With the roses and the bushes?’ I was like, ‘No, by the swimming pool. OK, the backyard.'”

— David Beckham, who says his Galaxy teammates are teasing him for his use of English expressions. (AP)

“Adu has only had seven days of training, but he has enormous potential and he is available. But we have to be careful with him under these conditions.”

— Benfica coach Fernando Santos on 18-year-old American Freddy Adu, who could make his debut for the legendary Portuguese club on Tuesday against FC Copenhagen. (AP)

“I struggled in the first few days with breakfast. Instead of a croissant and cappuccino, I was faced with eggs. Things are better now, though, and Sven Goran Eriksson is imposing a dietary regime which is very Italian.”

— Italian striker Rolando Bianchi on one of the many changes Manchester City’s new manager, Sven Goran Eriksson, has made for top accommodate his many new signings from abroad. Eriksson replaced the traditional breakfast of eggs, bangers, bacon and beans with a continental breakfast of coffee and croissants at City’s training camp. The moves may have had an effect. City opened with a 2-0 win at West Ham on Saturday. (Sunday People)

“I told her I had a match that day, but she wasn’t having any of that. She said it was only a friendly and that I had to help her.”

— Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson on having been ruled out of attending Manchester United’s two pre-season friendlies on Wednesday — one against Glentoran in Belfast and another against Dunfermline in his native Scotland — by his wife Cathy. Ferguson is needed at home to organize their house move. He added that on the bright side she saved him from making a difficult choice. His father played for Glentoran, but he has close ties with Dunfermline.

“I don’t see any evidence that they have ripped up the old traditions or that they are riding roughshod over the rule book.”

— English Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore on the influx of foreign owners — notably Americans at Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool — who he says has brought a new professionalism to the Premier League. (AP)

“He made one gesture, so I made another  — I took him off.”

— Mick McCarthy, manager of English club Wolves, on substituting Jay Bothroyd when the striker, frustrated at his lack of playing time in preseason, ran over to the Wolves’ bench and flicked a V-sign (the British equivalent of the middle finger) at McCarthy after scoring in a 3-2 loss to Reading in a friendly game on Sunday. McCarthy took no further action other than to say Bothroyd would see a lot of time on the bench if he kept up his antics. (Daily Mail)

“The chances are probably slim. It’d be tough to put him into the lineup with what he’s been doing. He may have some part in the game, but we’ll see.”

— Los Angeles Galaxy coach Frank Yallop on David Beckham, who hasn’t trained with the Galaxy since he arrived July 13 and missed all three games in the SuperLiga. Los Angeles will be on the road for 10 consecutive days, beginning with a game at Toronto FC and playing at D.C. United on Aug. 9 and at New England three days later. The games at Toronto FC and D.C. United are sellouts in anticipation of Beckham’s first MLS appearances.

“It leaves Major League Soccer extremely vulnerable, and it leaves the individual franchises really scrambling. Even though it’s not their fault, they really can’t afford the appearance of this being a bait and switch.”

— David Carter, principal of the Sports Business Group, a consulting firm in Los Angeles, on the injured David Beckham‘s absence from Tuesday’s FC Dallas-Galaxy game that was sold out in anticipation of the first appearance of the English star at Pizza Hut Park. Beckham is scheduled to fly with the Galaxy to Toronto for their MLS game on Sunday but there is no guarantee he will play. (FC Dallas has announced that fans who purchased tickets through the FC Dallas front office or through Ticketmaster to Tuesday’s SuperLiga game in Frisco will receive a special ticket offer for the next game between FC Dallas and the Los Angeles Galaxy at Pizza Hut Park before tickets are on sale to the general public.) (Dallas Morning News)

“Freddy’s been very devoted to working hard, being a contributor. He became a better and more mature player. He’s still only 18. When we step outside world of MLS, a good league with veteran players and put him with his peers on a world stage – and peers that are older than him – Freddy clearly has progressed.”

— MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis on 18-year-old Freddy Adu, who joined Portugal’s Benfica after four years in MLS. (AP)

“For however frustrated we all are, we’ve got to wait until the moment when he can step on the field and play. It’s soon, it’s coming.”

— L.A. Galaxy coach Frank Yallop on injured David Beckham, who won’t play at FC Dallas on Tuesday although the Galaxy needs a win or a draw to reach the SuperLiga semifinals. Beckham twisted his ankle playing for England in a Euro 2008 qualifying match in early June and aggravated it in his final appearance for Real Madrid 11 days later.