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MLS 4th of July 2007-07-04 00:37:29 First, to all my fellow Americans, happy 4th of July! Enjoy your day off, eat loads of food, enjoy your favorite beverage, and to steal a line from the Simpsons, celebrate the birth of your country by blowing up a small part of it.
And I would also like to offer a belated happy Canada Day to our neighbors to the north. I hope you all can forgive me for what I wrote a few weeks back before the US/Canada match; after seeing Sicko, I might be really tempted to move there.
Anyway, if any of you have the MLS Direct Kick package, MLSlive.tv, or if you happen to live in an MLS market, you can spend part of your Independence Day watching soccer. So let’s take a look at today’s games.
DC United at Kansas City Wizards
DC bounced back last week from a loss to Salt Lake with a 4-1 win over slumping Colorado. Kansas City is looking to snap a 4 game winless streak after a 1-1 draw at home to Toronto on Sunday when their finishing abandoned them. The winner of this game would at le
Paraguay 3 - USA 1 2007-07-03 12:35:21 Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, Paraguay
.
There are no two ways about it; the United States gift-wrapped this game to Paraguay. The Americans looked much better than they did against Argentina as they often carried the play against Paraguay, but when Sacha Kljestan’s missed an open header in the first ten minutes of the game, it was a sign that this was going to be a frustrating one.
It only got worse in the second half. Benny Feilhaber played a great through ball to substitute Justin Mapp, but Mapp decided to unsuccessfully chip the ‘keeper rather than pass it to a wide open Eddie Johnson who had a wide open goal in front of him. Taylor Twellman weakly hit a volley on a great chance, and then in the most maddening moment of all, Drew Moor, standing all alone less than 10 yards away from goal, headed the ball straight to the goalkeeper.
To be fair, Paraguay got some solid goalkeeping last night. Justo Villar made a good save on Jonathan Bornstein after a great build
MLS Roundup 2007-07-02 10:49:37 A rough week both for my predictions and the overall entertainment value of this past week’s play.
Houston 0, Dallas 0 (My prediction, 2-1 Houston)
What could have been a great game turned into tactical hack-fest. This is a decent result for Houston as they remain three points behind Dallas for first place in the West with two games in hand.
Columbus 1, New York 0 (My prediction 2-2)
After starting the season on fire, New York has now lost three of their last five. This also gives Columbus their third straight win. The strange thing for the Red Bulls is that unlike their recent games which featured a potent offense and a leaky defense, they could not put together any threatening moves.
Chivas USA 2, New England 0 (My prediction 1-0 Chivas)
Chivas continues to roll at the Home Depot Center. Not too much to this game, but a couple of pretty nice goals from Jesse Marsch (believe it or not), and the definite goal of the week from Maykel Galindo.
Colorado 0, Chicago 0 (My predic
MLS Week 14 2007-07-06 10:45:10 Chivas USA @ New England Revolution
Does anyone find it strange that the New England Revolution was the only team not to play on the 4th of July? Irony aside, the Revolution will be well rested for this one. Also, Chivas hasn’t proven that they can get results on the road so I think the Revs will at least temporarily jump back into first in the East. REVS 3 CUSA 1
Real Salt Lake @ Columbus Crew
The Crew are coming off a 0-0 draw in Colorado, but Salt Lake earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first team to lose at home to Toronto. Columbus is just the better team right now, and I don’t think they will drop points at home to Salt Lake. CREW 2, RSL 0
Toronto FC @ Chicago Fire
Toronto are coming off their first road win, and they have a chance to make it two against a struggling Fire side. To be fair, both goals against the Fire in the 2-0 loss to LA were from questionable penalties, but the Fire need some sort of jolt. Perhaps hiring Juan Carlos Osorio
Premiership Striker Signings 2007-07-05 11:14:41 There has been some big transfer news in the English Premiership
this week involving the league’s top teams.
The week started with Croatian Eduardo Da Silva (he was born in Brazil, but moved to Croatia at age 15) signing with Arsenal on a £7.5million transfer from Dinamo Zagreb. While nobody can truly call him Henry’s replacement, he could be the type of forward Arsenal need: a true goal poacher. Da Silva has showed that he can score in European club competitions as well as at the international level, but the question is how quickly can he adapt to the English game.
There have been questions surrounding Arsenal’s reaction to Henry’s transfer, namely what it could hold for the future of Arsene Wenger. Certainly, the move for Da Silva isn’t a huge splash, but it seems like the type of signing that Wenger has always made at his time at Arsenal, a relatively cheap player that is ready to make the move to a major club. The Wenger saga is not over for Arsen
USA 2, Uruguay 1 2007-07-12 11:37:33 In U-20 World Cup action, the United States defeated Uruguay
2-1 in extra time to advance to the quarterfinals on Saturday where they will meet Austria. Uruguay, who had the better of the play during many stretches of the match, broke through in the 73rd minute when Luis Suarez pounced on the rebound of goalkeeper Brian Perk.
The score looked like it would stand until the 87th minute when Danny Szetela knocked down a clearance from a corner kick and sent a low cross across the face of goal that deflected in off a Uruguayan defender. Uruguay nearly won the game in regualtion, but Manuel Diaz’s header hit the goalpost. The US made Diaz pay for his mistake in the second extra time period off another corner when Michael Bradley redirected Jose Valentin’s shot from a corner kick.
This game wasn’t pretty for the United States by any means. They could not open up the game the way they did against Brazil and Poland. Freddy Adu, in particular, never had much of an opportu
Copa America 2007-07-12 10:57:50 Argentina defeated Mexico 3-0 last night to advance to the final where they will face Brazil.
Argentina broke through in the dying moments of the first half when Gabriel Heinze touched in Juan Roman Riquelme’s perfect free kick. Then Lionel Messi delivered a beauty of a goal when he somehow chipped Oswaldo Sanchez, who really didn’t seem all that far off his line.
Mexico shouldn’t hang their heads over this game. They played well throughout the tournament, and they were unlucky not to score against Argentina as Andres Guardado and Nery Castillo both hit the woodwork. This should take some of the sting out of their loss to the US in the Gold Cup final.
Finally, this Argentine team is an absolute buzz saw. They have both the immense talent, and they desperately want to win their first international title since 1993. Argentina lost to Brazil in the 2005 Copa America
final, but this time, I don’t see the Albicelestes losing this one.
Copa America
, Argenti
MLS Thursday 2007-07-12 10:44:15 A quick preview of this evening’s game…
Houston Dynamo @ Chicago Fire
This will be Juan Carlos Osorio’s first game as head coach of the Fire. I think this was a good hire for Chicago, but it will take much more to turn things around for Chicago. Chris Rolfe is still injured, and he seems to be the only Fire capable of creating something special offensively. Yes, Cuahtemoc Blanco should be available soon for Chicago with Mexico bowing out of Copa America, but Blanco is just as capable of destroying the team than saving it.
Meanwhile, Houston continues to steamroll the competition. Houston hasn’t allowed a goal in over 500 minutes, and facing an anemic Fire attack, I can’t see this trend changing. HOU 2, FIRE 0.
Read more:Thursday
Copa America/U-20 World Cup 2007-07-11 11:26:25 Brazil defeated Uruguay on penalties last night to advance to the Copa America
final. The heat and humidity may have kept the game from being the most beautifully played game, but it did not lack in excitement and tension. Brazil twice took the lead against Uruguay, but Uruguay was able to conjure up a response on both occasions.
And as unjust as penalties may be, the also delivered fantastic drama. It took seven rounds to determine the victor, including Sebastian Abreu of Uruguay deciding to chip in a must make penalty. If you haven’t seen this game, I’d recommend finding a way to watch it.
With Uruguay’s loss in Copa America
, the nation’s hopes for international glory now rests with its U-20 team, who will face the United States this evening. After an opening draw against South Korea in which the team looked slow, passive and unprepared, the United States has been outstanding in defeating Poland 6-1 and Brazil 2-1. Freddy Adu has reminded us why he was h Read more:World
, World Cup
He’s coming… 2007-07-10 11:08:57 To those of you in the United States, be prepared for the marketing blitz and media hype.
To those of you not in the United States, you may start hearing much more about MLS than you ever have.
David Beckham will be introduced to the media as a member of the Los Angeles Galaxy on Friday, but we have already started seeing plenty of Becks on our televisions. Adidas began running the Beckham Impossible Is Nothing ad chronicling Beckham’s journey from pariah in 1998 after his red card against Argentina to national hero after his free kick winner against Greece in 2001.
Adidas is also launching a “Football vs. Futbol” campaign featuring Beckham teaching the NFL’s Reggie Bush how to take free kicks and penalties, while Becks has to suit up in all of the American football gear.
Beckham’s first game for the Galaxy won’t be until July 21 (which is actually only a friendly against Chelsea), but ESPN has already switched on their hype machine by airing this a
MLS Week 14 Roundup 2007-07-09 10:51:37 July 4
DC United 1, Kansas City Wizards 0 (My prediction 1-1)
The Wizards scoring problems continued while United was able to convert one of its few chances through Luciano Emilio. Troy Perkins made some good saves for DC, but it is hard to believe that KC could continue to blow quality chances.
FC Dallas 2, Chivas USA 0 (My prediction 2-0 FCD)
Hey, I finally nailed the exact score of the game! Dallas controlled most of this game as Chivas continues to struggle on the road.
Columbus Crew 0, Colorado Rapids 0 (My prediction 2-1 Rapids)
The 4th of July game was not enough to give the slumping Rapids. After this week’s games, Colorado has scored 1 goal in its last 6.
Toronto FC 2, Real Salt Lake 1 (My prediction 3-2 RSL)
Congrats to Toronto for picking up its first road win. Salt Lake was unlucky in this game with two shots hitting woodwork, but they continue to occupy the bottom spot in the league.
Los Angeles Galaxy 2, Chicago Fire 0 (My prediction 3-0 LA)
A good result for L
MLS Week 15 2007-07-14 10:43:50 Okay, I’ll get in my weekend MLS previews.
FC Dallas @ DC United
DC is coming off a loss to Houston which dropped them out of first place in the East. Dallas hasn’t played since July 4, a 2-0 win over Chivas. I know I should pick DC to win since they have home field advantage, and Dallas has injury problems. But for some reason, I have a hunch that Dallas can get a point from this one. DC 1, FCD 1
New England Revolution @ New York Red Bulls
These are the top two teams in the Eastern Conference, but neither have been playing particularly well as of late. New York’s 1-0 victory over Colorado last week snapped a 4 game losing streak, but beating Colorado nowadays isn’t exactly a reason to pop open the bubbly. New England could only manage a 1-1 home draw against Chivas last week. I think Juan Pablo Angel gets back on track for New York, but the Red Bulls’ defense isn’t strong enough to take advantage. NE 2, NY 2
Real Salt Lake @ Kansas
Becks’ Press Conference 2007-07-13 17:03:21
The LA Galaxy claimed they wanted to have a low key event to introduce David Beckham to the media and the public because they want Beckham to blend into the team. Well, if that was low-key, I wonder what they would have done had it been a flashy, grandiose mega-event. Confetti, cheesy rock anthems, politicians - I suppose President Bush, Bun Ki-Moon and the Pope had prior engagements.
In all seriousness, it’s tough to blame them for making a semi-big deal out of this. It is David Beckham after all. His image made Real Madrid number one in terms of marketing popularity in the world, taking over for his previous club Manchester United. Before he even moved to the United States, over a half million of his Galaxy shirts were ordered even though the new design had not yet been unveiled.
I could have done without some of Alexi Lalas’ grandstanding, and did Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaragosa get an icy reception or what? (I guess it doesn’t help that he’s ru Read more:Becks
, Press
, Press Conference
He’s Here… 2007-07-13 10:13:39
David Beckham has arrived in Los Angeles, and he will be introduced to the media at 12 PM central today. The press conference will be shown on ESPN News in the US, and I’ve seen that Sky Sports in the UK will be showing it as well. MLSnet.com will also be streaming the PC.
Here’s some reading material before the press conference:
Grant Wahl: The Americanization of David Beckham - Sports Illustrated (Cover story for this coming Monday).
Gary Andrew Poole: The Beckham Circus Comes To Town - Time Magazine
Luis Bueno: Beckhamania Hits LA - Press Enterprise
Billy Witz: In a Galaxy Far, Far Away - Daily Breeze
Eddie Johnson Transfer News 2007-07-17 11:43:03 Last week, there were several stories about newly promoted Premiership side Derby County looking to buy American striker EddieJohnson
from the Kansas City Wizards. However, Derby announced that the deal fell through, and that they would be looking elsewhere for a forward. Some thought these stories were unfounded rumors, and many believed that the league’s transfer fee demands were too high.
I’ve learned from reliable sources that the deal was actually set as the league and the Wizards’ owners agreed to sell him for around £2.5-£3 million. However, Johnson himself nixed the deal.
It bears repeating to critics of the league that feel that the players are constantly held hostage by clubs and the league office; Eddie Johnson put the kibosh on this one, not the league.
Why would Johnson not approve a move abroad? First, he was not going to receive the standard cut from the transfer fee that players normally receive. The player normally gets 10% of the transfer fee
Copa America Final/US U-20s 2007-07-16 10:37:46 I’ll get to Beckham, MLS, and European transfer news later this week, but today, I’ll look at international competition.
The United States was upset in the U-20 World Cup 2-1 by Austria in the quarterfinals on Saturday. The America
ns looked set to dominate in the early going, but they relinquished control, which Austria was more than happy to seize upon. Austria finally broke through in the extra time after Anthony Wallace was sent off for a second yellow card.
I thought the United States was suffering from their extra time win over Uruguay only 3 days prior, which could explain why Austria controlled the last 75 minutes of the game. Still, I thought they could have shown better than they did. Their tactics seem a bit static, especially with Danny Szetela not playing his best game. They seemed to miss his marauding runs forward to support Freddy Adu and Jozy Altidore.
I’m disappointed in the result, but there is plenty of talent on that team that can have a solid Read more:Final
, Copa America
Welcome Back, Earthquakes 2007-07-19 11:57:50 The MLS All-Stars will play Celtic tonight at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (pictured) in Denver (okay, actually Commerce City, Colorado). It should be an entertaining game if you believe the claims from the Celtic camp that they intend to take this game seriously, especially after Chelsea lost 1-0 last year in the All-Star Game. Unfortunately for Celtic, they will be playing in a heat they aren’t accustomed to as well as an altitude that perhaps none of the players have experienced.
The big news out of Denver yesterday, however, is the announcement that the San Jose Earthquakes will return to MLS next season as an expansion club. However, for you NFL fans, the expansion will be similar to the Cleveland Browns brief absence from the league; the Earthquakes name, uniforms, and history (including the team’s MLS Cups in 2001 and 2003) remain in San Jose.
For the most part, I’m happy about this. It shows the strength of the league to be able to return to an area th Read more:Welcome
, Welcome Back
Belated MLS Recap 2007-07-18 12:39:08 Thanks for all of the comments about the Eddie Johnson story, both here and on Big Soccer.
Now, I suppose I should review the previous week’s action before the All-Star Game tomorrow. Don Garber will actually be addressing the media shortly, and as always, MLSnet.com should have it up for streaming.
EDIT: To quote Kent Brockman, “Once again, I’ve been had.” They didn’t stream the address.
Houston Dynamo 4, Chicago Fire 0 (My prediction 2-0 HOU)
Not the start that new Fire coach Juan Carlos Osorio was hoping for. Houston even decided to rest Brian Ching and Dwayne De Rosario, and they still had enough to clobber the struggling Fire. Stuart Holden continues to impress for Houston, and even worse for Fire fans, former Chicago forward Nate Jaqua scored his first goal for the Dynamo. Finally, what a great goal from Joseph Ngwenya, who is born anew since being traded to Houston.
New England Revolution 1, New York Red Bulls 0 (My prediction 2-2)
A solid gam Read more:Recap
Vermes/Johnson Speak About Transfer Stories 2007-07-25 09:56:40 Last week, I reported that Eddie Johnson
personally rejected a move to Derby County, and I wondered why we had heard nothing about this. Some people thought that it wasn’t in the best interest for the Wizards to say anything, and others simply thought that I got the story all wrong in the first place.
Well, now Johnson and Wizards Technical Director Peter Vermes have both confirmed that the player, not the team/league, killed the move. Props to Bob Luder, the Wizards beat writer for the Kansas City Star for investigating this even further, especially after Sky Sports ran an article late last week that noted Derby’s interest in buying Johnson.
I suppose there is always a chance another team could come in with a huge deal for Johnson, but I think it is even safer to assume that Johnson is happy in KC and wants to finish this season with the Wizards.
Read more:Stories
Superliga 2007-07-25 09:42:18 I admit that when MLS and FMF announced the formation of Superliga, I was skeptical about the tournament. I wondered if American teams would be upset about possible fixture congestion, and I wondered if Mexican teams would take games in their preseason seriously despite the prize money involved. Well, last night’s games showed that this tournament has real potential.
Dallas drew 1-1 with Chivas de Guadalajara last night, and the Galaxy (the club The Sun referred to as a “pub team”) defeated Pachuca 2-1. Dallas was unfortunate to only get one point from the match as the Chivas goal from Antonio Olvera could have been disallowed for a handball. The Galaxy were able to defeat this year’s Concacaf Champion’s Cup winner on a late Dino Ciccarelli-like goal from Landon Donovan (yes, I made a hockey reference).
Every team was willing to play entertaining soccer, and both games definitely featured intensity with numerous scuffles breaking out. I was really tak
And We’re Back! 2007-07-24 11:37:20 Okay, an overly busy weekend combined with little to no Internet access kind of threw me off. Well, let’s look at what’s been happening.
A nice 2-0 win for the MLS All-Stars over Celtic in the All-Star Game Thursday night. Yes, I know it was a friendly, but I enjoyed it anyway.
Beckham made his “debut” for the LA Galaxy in a 1-0 defeat to Chelsea, coming on as a substitute in the 78th minute. There were questions as to if he would play at all, but I suppose the ankle was good enough to play for twelve minutes. However, I think we all got our fix of Becks with the Beckham cam following his every move on the bench as well as warming up for his cameo appearance. If this type of coverage annoys you, I suppose we will just need to get used to it because I doubt it will change for the rest of this season regardless of his fitness.
Cuauhtemoc Blanco made his debut for the Chicago Fire in a 1-1 draw against Celtic, scoring a goal and helping Chicago actua
Superliga/MLS Week 18 2007-07-27 17:42:54 Superliga continues this weekend with four games. I’m interested to see if the energy from games earlier this week will continue tomorrow and Sunday. I’m still somewhat skeptical about this competition, but I did enjoy the four opening round games.
Because of Superliga, MLS has a light schedule this weekend. The week kicked off with what I thought was a shocking result - Chivas USA defeating New York 2-0 last night at the Meadowlands. The Red Bulls had most of the possession, but Chivas really took advantage of what few scoring chances they had. If anyone is still keeping track, that’s an 0-1 start for me on this week’s predictions.
New England Revolution @ Real Salt Lake
Freddy Adu returns to Salt Lake for his first game since the U-20 World Cup, but I doubt he’s totally focused on Real right now with transfer stories flying around. Plus, it isn’t like he’s been a house of fire for Salt Lake this season anyway. New England is jus
MLS Odds and Ends 2007-07-26 16:32:24
After being linked with several MLS teams during the past year, the Fire have signed Paulo Wanchope to a one year deal. Don’t look now, but with Chris Rolfe and Wanchope playing up top, Cuauhtemoc Blanco playing behind them, and Justin Mapp on the wing, Chicago might just have discovered a dangerous attack.
Eddie Johnson wasn’t the only American to reject a move abroad the past couple of weeks. Freddy Adu turned down a move to Benfica in Portugal earlier this week. I know it is somewhat old news, but I wanted to point out once again that the league is willing to sell young, high-profile players for the right price.
Tonight, New York hosts Chivas USA. Chivas hasn’t played well on the road all season, and with the Red Bulls attack now at truly full strength, it is hard for me to imagine Chivas getting anything from this game. NY 3, Chivas 0
Freddy Adu Flying to Portugal… 2007-07-28 15:12:28 I mentioned Freddy
Adu playing tonight for Salt Lake. Well, scratch that.
Steven Goff of the Washington Post is reporting that Adu will not be at the game tonight as he will be flying to meet with his family this evening and then heading to Lisbon to finalize a deal with Benfica.
Salt Lake has been linked with several players that ostensibly would be Adu’s replacement, most notably Jay Jay Okocha.
Read more:Flying
, Portugal
Superliga Madness: LA 6, Dallas 5 2007-07-31 21:59:24 I saw this game tonight, and I’m still trying to figure out how it happened. In fact, I’m trying to decide if it actually did happen. Yes, MLSnet has posted the box score as well, but I’m still not 100% sure that I believe it.
LA looked horrible against Chivas de Guadalajara this past weekend, but then, once again without Beckham, score 4 goals in the opening 18 minutes against Dallas
tonight. Dallas pulls within one in the 82nd minute, but Landon Donovan scores goal number 5 for LA 2 minutes later, seemingly putting the game away. But then, Carlos Ruiz scores one minute into stoppage time for Dallas, Carlos Pavon scores 4 minutes later for LA, but Dallas once again scores only a minute later through Abe Thompson. However, referee Kevin Stott blew for full time shortly thereafter.
I know a lot of fans were there hoping to get a glimpse of Beckham, but I don’t think they have much room to complain after seeing eleven goals!
But just to make sure, can anybody Read more:Madness
Ballouchy Suspended Two Games 2007-07-31 15:35:33 Okay, I have to make at least a quick mention of this. Mehdi Ballouchy has been suspended for two games for an elbow to the Wizards Sasha Victorine on July 22. Victorine had to be removed from the match because of the incident, but Ballouchy was only given a yellow card.
Yesterday, the league’s disciplinary committee announced that they were suspending Ballouchy for 2 games and fined him $1,000. (video of the play) In addition, Kansas City head coach Curt Onalfo was fined $1,000 and defender Nick Garcia fined $250 for public criticism of the game’s officials.
Personally, this deserved more than two games. This appeared to be premeditated, and Victorine was fortunate that he did not have to miss any more games because of the incident. Daniele De Rossi received 4 games for his elbow against Brian McBride last year in the World Cup, and just because Ballouchy didn’t catch Victorine in the face doesn’t mean that the elbow was any less vicious or danger Read more:Games
MLS Week 17 Review/Superliga 2007-07-30 17:03:05 The second round of Superliga games has come and gone. MLS clubs have held their own with the LA Galaxy the only team to fall to a Mexican side, but too be fair, their 2-1 loss to Chivas de Guadalajara was nowhere near as close as the scoreline indicates. Every MLS team still has a good chance to advance (well, maybe not the Galaxy) on Tuesday and Wednesday, and perhaps this showing could in some small way convince soccer fans in this country that MLS teams aren’t total pushovers (well, maybe the Galaxy are).
One more Superliga note - it is now confirmed that Beckham will not be playing on Tuesday against FC Dallas, although to be fair, this isn’t a total shock. Becks is now hoping to start training with the club again later this week and shooting for the August 5th match at Toronto. Sorry, Dallas fans.
Freddy Adu has finalized a deal with Benfica in Portugal. I’ll probably talk more about this tomorrow.
In MLS, despite the light schedule this weekend, we saw som
Reading Material 2007-08-03 17:22:27 I never could get to the computer yesterday so I apologize. I thought I’d share some interesting items with you
Grant Wahl Interviews Freddy Adu About Making the Move to Benfica
The $2 million transfer may not sound like much, but there is a sell-on clause that would give the league a portion of a potential Adu transfer from Benfica.
Freddy never did dominate the league, but I’m not going to call his MLS career a personal failure. He was very impressive at times with DC United, especially in 2006, and I can’t find fault with him struggling in Salt Lake since that club has way too many issues for one player to overcome.
As he says in the article, he was often forced to play out of position in MLS. At DC, Christian Gomez was one of the best playmakers in the league, but coach Peter Nowak wanted to get Adu on the field anyway so Adu needed to learn how to play out wide in a 3-5-2, a position with immense defensive responsibility as well. Still, Freddy was able to pro Read more:Reading
Becks Makes Debut 2007-08-09 23:44:22 DC United defeated the LA Galaxy 1-0 Thursday night at RFK Stadium, but I have a feeling many people aren’t going to remember the result of this game. David Beckham made his MLS debut, appearing as a substitute in the 72nd minute.
It wasn’t the ideal situation for Beckham to make his debut. He had hardly had practiced with his teammates since he arrived about a month ago. Plus, the soggy pitch had to create more doubts about the condition of his left ankle. Finally, Kyle Martino didn’t make things easier when he was sent off for a horrid tackle on DC United midfielder Fred. It appeared Beckham was ready to check in just before the red card, and perhaps his introduction to the match was delayed so Galaxy boss Frank Yallop could alter his tactics.
Still, there were encouraging signs from Beckham. Despite his relative unfamiliarity with his teammates, he was comfortable showing for the ball and trying to pull the strings in midfield. He delivered a fantastic thro Read more:Becks
The Premiership Begins 2007-08-10 23:41:56 It’s that time of the year again. Here are a few things I will look forward to for the 2007/2008 season.
Obviously, can Manchester United repeat? Carlos Tevez gives them a real consistent attacking threat outside of Wayne Rooney and Christiano Ronaldo, but of course what happens should Rooney or Ronaldo succumb to injury? Also, how much longer can Sir Alex rely on Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes? Anderson and Nani are talened young players, but I don’t know if we’ll see too much from them in their first season in England.
I really wonder what will happen at Chelsea this year. There’s no question that the Roman Abramovich/Jose Mourinho is strained to say the least, and it is difficult to imagine this relationship lasting too much longer without at least another Premiership
title. Unfortunately for Chelsea, they face injury problems, most notably captain John Terry. I don’t think Chelsea can afford an early season slump and expect to reclaim t
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