England and Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard , 28, will deny having assaulted a man during a nightclub brawl last month, a court heard Friday. The club captain will plead not guilty to affray and assaulting company director Marcus McGee, 34, in a Merseyside nightclub shortly after Christmas. He appeared before North Sefton Magistrates in Merseyside […]
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Kuwaitis Come Back To Liverpool With Lower Offer
Compared with a deal they had lined up last summer, Liverpool FC’s U.S. owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett will have to settle for a profit reduced by $150 million if they sell the team to Kuwaiti billionaire Nasser al Kharafi. The Kuwaiti approached the Americans last year with a view to sealing a $820 […]
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O’Brien Leaves Quakes After Reduced Offer
San Jose Earthquakes’ midfielder Ronnie O’Brien won’t return to the club, Quakes GM John Doyle said Thursday after the two sides failed to reach a contract deal. O’Brien, who lives in San Jose, wanted to stay, reports Elliott Almond, but the player said “the number they came back with was really low. It wouldn’t have […]
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Olsen Trains Through The Pain
D.C. United midfielder Ben Olsen has barely kicked a competitive ball in 15 months, but he was back at training Thursday to try and resurrect his playing career, writes Steven Goff. Despite rumors of retirement and persistent pain in his left ankle, Olsen is determined to try and play for at least one more season. […]
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Soccer on TV
he U.S. men’s national team plays its first game of 2009 against Sweden on Saturday.
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Nicaragua stifles El Salvador
[DIGICEL UNCAF CUP] El Salvador, one of the USA’s opponents in the Hexagonal, the final round of 2010 World Cup qualifying, opened the Central American Championship with a 1-1 tie to regional minnow Nicaragua. Another U.S. Hexagonal opponent, Honduras, opened the UNCAF Cup with a 2-1 over Belize in which former MLS star Amado Guevara scored Honduras’ first from the penalty spot and was ejected with a yellow-red in the 90th minute.
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DeRo gets a new deal
[MLS] In its first two seasons, Toronto FC has consistently packed its stadium and turned a profit, which are two accomplishments much more established MLS teams can only dream about. In year three, it is committed to getting things right on the field, and completed a vital step in that process by signing attacker Dwyane De Rosario, a native of nearby Scarborough, Ont., to a new contract.
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Young Colombian headed to Seattle
[MLS] The precise details won’t be known until all the paperwork and documentation is done, but Colombian attacker Fredy Montero has signed an MLS contract to play for Seattle Sounders FC.
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USA faces Sweden on Saturday
[HEXAGONAL COUNTDOWN] The revolving door has finally spun to a halt, so no longer will U.S. national team players wonder whom they might line up with Saturday when they face Sweden in the first match of a very busy 2009. Home Depot Center is the venue for the match (8:30 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel, Galavision) that kicks off perhaps the most grueling year in the team’s history.
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Parrot gets ‘red-carded’
[OFF THE POST] Referee Gary Bailey ejected Me-Tu, a parrot, from the Hertfordshire Senior Centenary Trophy quarterfinal because his whistling kept bringing players to a standstill.
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Mexico’s problems mount before U.S. clash
[HEXAGONAL] Less than three weeks before facing the USA in the first game of final-round World Cup qualifying, Mexico is plagued by suspensions, injuries problems and the fact that several key players aren’t seeing consistent action with their European club teams. Whether that’s good news for the USA is open to debate.
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Donovan scores two more for Bayern [VIDEO]
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Landon Donovan upped his scoring total to four goals in five friendly games for Bayern Munich as he struck twice after entering as a 60th minute sub in Bayern’s 5-0 win over second division Mainz. The 26-year-old, on loan from the Los Angeles Galaxy, is now Bayern’s leading scorer in midseason-break friendly games.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“There’s no date. If I go back to the Galaxy, we have our first game March 21, so I’d have to return at least one week earlier. But that would be sad. I want to make it here. It is my dream. I want stay here a few years.”
— Landon Donovan, asked by German newspaper Abendzeitung on when a decision would be made if his loan to Bayern Munich will turn into a transfer from the Los Angeles Galaxy.
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Struggling AIG to end Man. United sponsorship
[SIGN OF THE TIMES] AIG, the American insurance giant so closely identified with last September’s economic crisis, will not renew its sponsorship with English club Manchester United when it expires in May 2010 and is seeking to reduce expenditures related to its agreement between now and then.
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UK Bodies Aim To Keep Main Sports Events On Free TV
“Sports events bind us together as a nation and it’s vital, where possible, the public can watch them. It’s also crucial for the development of sport that broadcasting deals represent good value for money for governing sports. The voluntary code strikes the right balance between audience and revenue.” Senior barrister Charles Flint, one of a […]
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FA Cup A Low Priority For Redknapp
“We’ve got some tough games, we’ve a game at Man. United that really is so secondary to me now.” Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp says he will send a second string lineup to face Manchester United in the FA Cup fourth round this weekend, because Premier League survival has become a priority. Redknapp’s team reached […]
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Man. City Transfers Thwarted By Excessive Demands
“We’re not anybody’s fool. We’ve turned down negotiations for three different players because we felt the demands both from the [selling] club and, in essence, the players have been ludicrous. The perception that we are out there throwing money around is simply not true.” Manchester City Executive Chairman Garry Cook complains that the club’s attempts […]
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Glasgow Attack ‘Nothing To Do With Football’
“I won’t walk home on my own again, that’s for sure. It left a bitter taste in my mouth for a while, but I’m just glad justice has been done. It was a one-off incident. It upset me and disappointed me. It is not a fair reflection on Glasgow. It has got nothing to do […]
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Pickens Ready To Start Again In MLS
Former Chicago Fire goalkeeper Matt Pickens seemed top be on an upward path when he left the MLS team for England’s Queens Park Rangers last year on a short term deal. But he never made it farther than the second-tier club’s reserve team and was cut at the end of the 2007-08 English season. Where’s […]
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Galaxy Toughening Up For 2009
The general consensus on the L.A. Galaxy is that last season is best forgotten. But Coach Bruce Arena is still drawing lessons from the poor showing of a team he took over too late to rescue, pinpointing its brittle defense as the core of its problems. “We got pushed around a little bit too much […]
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Seattle Set For Profits And Playoffs In Debut Season
While some potential Major League Soccer expansion franchises are withdrawing their bids or receiving negative messages from league headquarters, the 2009 startup team Seattle Sounders FC is looking like one of the league’s strongest clubs without having yet kicked a competitive ball. Not only is it set to become one of the best supported clubs […]
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UEFA, Clubs Discuss Cutting Pay And Transfer Fees
Europe’s top clubs and its soccer governing body UEFA have started preliminary talks on measures to curb inflated transfer fees and players’ wages, reports Darren Ennis. The European Club Association, which represents clubs such as Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan, has proposed that teams should only be allowed to spend around 51 percent […]
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Kljestan moving to Scotland?
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Sacha Kljestan, the 23-year-old Chivas USA midfielder and U.S. international, is in the midst of a one-week trial with Scottish Premier League leader Celtic, which is contemplating making MLS a $2.7 million for the California product.
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Kaka to stay in Milan
[ITALY] Kaka will stay with AC Milan, which Manchester City claimed had agreed to sell him to the English club for $147 million. For his part, the Brazilian star said, “Not even for 30 seconds did I think about going to Manchester City. Milan is my home.”
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“I think that if they have quality and a Mexican passport, they have to be in the Mexican national team.”
— Mexico coach, the Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson, defends the inclusion of four players in his squad who are naturalized Mexican citizens: Argentine-born Matias Vuoso and Lucas Ayala, and Brazilian-born Leandro Augusto and Antonio Naelson. (Reuters)