Three Lions Sputtering

Steve McClaren World Class? As a Yank watching things from this side of the pond it's funny to see how surprised so many English folks are over the performance of the national team. While Boro weren't a big club, they weren't stingy with their money either. McClaren had enough resources to build a good team. In the end he turned them into relegation contenders. No one should be surprised that England is struggling as much as they are. McClaren's a decent coach. But if England wanted just a decent coach, they should've opened up some all-you-can-eat buffets in London and got Bruce Arena on the cheap.

World Game Corruption

Where's FIFA? With all the talk about corruption in England and Italy these days, it's easy to overlook what is going on elsewhere. Like many countries, soccer is extremely popular in China. There is an article in the Economist that talks about the issue of corruption in China. There are allegations of widespread corruption including match-fixing and gambling. So So far the Chinese government has done little to address the problem. The real question should be what is FIFA going to do about this? Afterall they are the world's governing body and ultimately responsible.

Five US Mens National Team Coach Contenders

Andrea Canales is reporting the list of possible coaches for the US Mens National Team is down to these last 5 candidates. There is only one American. They are as follows :

1. Juergen Klinsmann
2. Jose Pekerman
3. Peter Nowak
4. Bob Bradley
5. Carlos Queiroz

Great Story About Mooch

George Tanner, half of the FC Rocky blog at the Rocky Mountain News, has an excellent blog writeup on Glenn "Mooch" Myernick. He does a nice job of telling us about his personal experiences with Mooch to show us what Mooch meant to the game of soccer. Rest in peace, Glenn Myernick.

Glenn "Mooch" Myernick

Rest In Peace It was announced that 51 year old Glenn "Mooch" Myernick passed away this morning. He worked as one of Burce Arena's assistants with US Mens National Team and is credited with scouting Portugal and being a key part of the tactics that lead to the US' famous 3-2 win over Portugal in the world cup. He also coach the US U-23s, US Olympic Team, the Colorado Rapids and other teams. He is survived by his wife and 2 children. May the perpetual light shine upon him. Another blog entry on Mooch's passing can be found at College To Pros : http://collegetopros.blogspot.com/

Mind Your Manners

Steve Davis takes a look at how playes in Major League Soccer interact with the referees. I'm glad to see some pundits giving the problem some press. Soccer could learn a lot from the game of rugby where players rarely talk back to the referees.