Category: What They’re Saying

“The key to the decision made by the boys and their families is that Hoffenheim constructed an outstanding path for their development as players. During their first year, they will be permitted to split time between Germany and Vancouver, where they will attend school and be trained to prepare for a full-time adjustment to Germany the following year.”

— Dan Segal, the agent to U.S. U-17 players Joseph-Claude Gyau and midfielder Charles Renken, describes their deal with German first division club Hoffenheim. (SoccerNet)

“We recently evaluated the opportunity to purchase the USL, but elected to not submit a bid for the league.”

— Dan Courtemanche, a senior vice president for marketing and communications at MLS. (New York Times)

“It was great, you can’t imagine. It’s been a very painful year for us and a lot of things have happened in the last two days and a half or so, but today was important to win.”

— Red Bulls captain Juan Pablo Angel, who scored twice in a 3-2 win over FC Dallas two days after the resignation of head coach Juan Carlos Osorio. The win was the Red Bulls’ first victory in 106 days. (MLSnet.com)

“I enjoy the role very much. Before the match I sit down in my room and work out a playlist. I have to change it every time. You don’t know these guys – they’re like dogs! They’re hungry for new songs and get angry if it’s the same stuff as the last game. So I mix it up and make sure everybody’s happy. I put some English music, some Brazilian, some R ‘n B, some dance. Now it’s part of the ritual before games.”

— Manchester United defender Patrice Evra, who serves as the team’s locker room DJ. (Telegraph)

“The locker room can get heated and we bring a lot of passion to our game days. Even when this happens, a line cannot be crossed. The team has moved past this incident regarding Denis and Bakary and our focus remains on bringing the MLS Cup back to Chicago this season.”

— Frank Klopas, technical director of the Chicago Fire, which fined its coach Denis Hamlett and defender Bakary Soumare an undisclosed sum for an altercation at halftime of Chicago’s Aug. 9 loss at Houston that the Southtown Star reported was “physical” and that the pair needed to be separated by team personnel.

“It is the first time I read a national team coach, a person of great institutional responsibility, said the next championship will be won by a certain team, that is Juventus. Even if in his mind he wants this, I think just saying it is a lack of respect.”

— Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho gets hot under the collar because Italian national team coach Marcello Lippi predicted his former club Juventus would win Serie A this season. Said Lippi, “I’m sorry if Mourinho has given this interpretation. It was simply a prediction, one of a thousand hypothesis that are made before the start of the [season].” (Reuters)

“It’s easy to translate his passion. It’s his sayings that get complicated. His vocabulary is very rich, and sometimes he uses words that I have a hard time finding in English. I have to use simpler words when he wants to use more eloquent words.”

— Gabriel Andrade, the translator for Jorge Barcellos, the Brazilian coach of WPS’s St. Louis Athletica who says things such as “A bird who goes along with bats sleeps upside down” and “[I] didn’t take this job to bring grass for the donkeys to eat.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

“When you throw yourself into that kind of tackle, there’s a chance you’re going to get sent off. He’s been in enough rodeos [to know that].”

— Galaxy coach Bruce Arena on the David Beckham‘s red card in a 2-0 loss to Seattle. (Los Angeles Times)

“Judging by how I felt during other flus and colds [in the past], this doesn’t seem as bad, so maybe I got a mild strain of it. The [doctors] don’t know a ton, so I’m just trying to keep myself away from people and just go by how I feel each day.”

— U.S. midfielder Landon Donovan, who said he found out on Thursday, the day after he played 90 minutes in the USA’s 2-1 loss to Mexico, that he has been diagnosed with Swine Flu (H1N1 virus). He was tested on Sunday at the U.S. training camp in Miami because he “felt real bad.” Donovan assisted on the USA’s goal but lost the ball before Mexico’s first goal and was beaten by Efrain Juarez when he assisted on the gamewinner. (SI.com)

“I think it was a tight game and a fair score. It’s a tough loss, to have so many guys work so hard and then we give up a late goal.”

— U.S. coach Bob Bradley on his team’s 2-1 loss to Mexico.

“You’re not playing on a level field. At sea level, I’d favor the U.S. But it’s hard, an awesome challenge. The elevation, the sightlines are difficult. It’s 20 yards from the touchlines to the dugouts. The massive field looks like it’s out in the country. You have the heat. It all gets to your head. We tried oxygen at halftime. We tried a lot of things.”

— Former U.S. national team coach Bruce Arena on the Mexico-USA World Cup qualifier. Arena teams lost to Mexico three times at Azteca — 1-0 in overtime in the semifinals of the 1999 Confederations Cup, 1-0 in World Cup qualifying in 2001 and 2-1 in qualifying four years later.
(New York Daily News)

“We have worked for a long time with different people, different experts, on altitude training, including many from the U.S. Olympic Committee. The research we have stuck with is one that says if you don’t have enough time to acclimatize, which can take 10 days or so, then going in late is your best bet.”

— U.S. coach Bob Bradley explains why his team isn’t arriving in Mexico City, which lies more than 7,000 feet above sea level, until Tuesday for Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier against El Tri at Azteca Stadium. (USSoccer.com)

“Of course we will win, 3-0.”

— Mexico midfielder Andres Guardado makes a prediction for Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier against the USA at Azteca Stadium. (ESTO)

“Jozy is unproven at this level but we feel he has great potential and hopefully he can fill the void with goals from the front line. He is only 19 and we want to help him fulfill his potential here.”

— Phil Brown, coach of English Premier League club Hull City, on acquiring U.S. national team forward Jozy Altidore, who arrives on a one-year loan from Spanish La Liga club Villarreal. Altidore made six appearances and scored once for Villarreal, which he joined from the MLS’s New York Red Bulls in the summer of 2008. (hullcityafc.net)

“At the time I thought, ‘This is the way it must feel when your legs start to go.’ So I was delighted when it just turned out to be swine flu!”

— Graham Kavanagh, the 35-year-old player-coach of English club Carlisle United, who has made full recovery from the H1N1 flu. (The Times & Star)

“Mohammad was a prophet who didn’t understand soccer. … But from all the beautiful colors he came up with blue and white.”

— Verse from the fan anthem of German club Schalke 04, whose colors are blue and white, that has prompted protests from the area’s Muslim community. The club has announced it has asked an Islamic expert to analyze the text of the song that its fans have been singing since 1924. (Reuters)

“I’d be embarrassed if I were the host of this event after that game.”

— Australia coach Alen Stajcic after Monday’s final of the Asian U-19 women’s championship won by host China, 2-1, in Wuhan ended in a mass brawl with fans pelting the Matildas with water bottles as they left the field. (Reuters)

“Back in 1998, it was 100 times worse and it affected me 100 times worse. This is nothing.”

— Los Angeles Galaxy star David Beckham, saying the hostile reception he has received from some Galaxy fans since his return in mid-July has been nothing compared to the criticism he received after being red carded in England’s loss to Argentina at the 1998 World Cup in France. Beckham received boos from the record Rose Bowl crowd throughout much of Saturday’s Galaxy-Barcelona game, in which he scored a brilliant goal on a free kick.

“Just ignoring it as much as I can. I think that’s the way you have to deal with these things, because when it happens sometimes it can become a distraction not for myself but the team.”

— David Beckham, who’s confronted heckling fans twice since his return to MLS this season and was fined $1,000 by the league. Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy host Barcelona in a friendly on Saturday (Fox Soccer Channel, 11 pm ET.) (Goal.com)

“Dear david beckham, I kno u heard about my shaq vs show, anyway u will never score a goal on me, I challenge you lil man. … dnt make me tweet to 2 million people that yur scared of shaq, u betta respnd, if u scared get a dog.”

— Basketball star Shaquille O’Neal uses his Twitter account and shows off his command of the language to court David Beckham onto his reality TV show. (Goal.com)

“We’ve connected already. He has a great spirit — the American spirit, if you can put it like that — but he also has the African passion within him. … He’s not going to have a difficult time integrating himself into the team and into [Italian league].”

— AC Milan’s Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf on his new teammate, American defender Oguchi Onyewu, whose parents immigrated to the USA from Nigeria. (SI.com)

“He shouldn’t actually be wearing that shirt because what he was saying about my wife was a disgrace.”

— David Beckham, who had another confrontation with a fan, this time during the Galaxy’s game at Kansas City. While preparing for a throw-in, Beckham turned around and spoke to a heckling fan wearing an England replica jersey, and then shook his hand. (CNN)

“We support our players interacting with fans, whether it is at clinics, charity events or by high-fiving their supporters in the stands while celebrating a goal. However, our players should never engage in conduct that can be interpreted as encouraging fans to come out of the stands and onto the field, regardless of the reason.”

— MLS Comissioner Don Garber on the league fining the Los Angeles Galaxy’s David Beckham $1,000 for confronting a fan at halftime of his team’s 2-2 tie against AC Milan in an exhibition game at the Home Depot Center on July 19.

“It is not about whether I can move on, I wasn’t the one booing, at the end of the day I play my game, whether I get booed or not doesn’t matter to me. … To be honest all I’m going to do is play my football, if it’s not good enough for some people, as long as it’s good enough for myself and the team nothing else matters.”

— David Beckham continues endearing himself to Los Angeles Galaxy fans. (ESPNSoccerNet)

“You can Notts be serious!”

— Headline in British tabloid The Sun on former England coach Sven Goran Eriksson taking a job with English fourth division team Notts County.