New Colorado Rapids Badge

If you haven't already seen it, here's the new badge the Colorado Rapids will have for the 2007 season.

No Davids For FC Dallas, Big MLS Signings

On the heels of Beckham's signing, it seemed that the MLS just may have a chance at making some big signings. Singing players like Davids or Ronaldo again seemed rumors worth giving credence. After all, they signed David Beckham. It's hard to see too many of these players signed. DC United wasn't able to lure Martin Palermo away from Boca Juniors. Luis Figo is leaving inter for a retirement check at Al Ittihad. Bruno Marioni was linked with Houston but joined Palermo at Boca. The Colorado Rapids made just as good of an offer as Cruz Azul for Jared Borgetti. But Borgetti chose Cruz Azul over the Centennial state's team. And now it appears that Edgar Davids has chosen Ajax over FC Dallas and Ronaldo will be joining AC Milan instead of New York Red Bulls. Maybe the new rumor that NYRB is pursuing Olympiacos' Rivaldo will come true. Maybe Ariel Ortega will see a move to the MLS as a chance to bring his alcoholism under control. Or it could be that 2 out of 3 DP signings will be Yanks with Beasely joining Real Salt Lake. And there just may be another surprise signing or two. But until the league raises it's overall quality of play it's hard to see many of these moves happening.

La Liga Jerseys

Looking for a jersey from a club in Spain? Outside of a few of the bigger clubs, they're not easy to find. One option you have if you want to order one from a club like Recreativo Huelva (oldest club in Spain), is Soccer Spain Shop.

A Penis Tattoo

Yes, that's right. An Argentine teenager got one when he went to a tattoo artist for a Boca tattoo. Only the tattoo artist hated Boca and took it upon himself to give his own artistic interpretation. Can you imagine having a penis tattooed on your back? Oi! The article also mentions Glen Johnson's run in with the police over shoplifting. He and a Milwall pal decided to switch around price tags on items to get them for less than what they are worth. It's funny that it involved a toilet seat. It's not funny that someone making a few million dollars a year feels compelled to steal.

Older Players On The Move

Maybe I was too caught up with finding new ways to combine drinking beer and cycling but somehow I missed FIFA's new rule on player contracts. Luckily A Kick In The Grass didn't overlook things. They take a look at how the first player to make use of it may the Argentine Gabriel Heinze. The rule is that players who signed their contract before the age of 28 and that have it's been 3 years since that contract was signed can leave their club if they buy out the remainder of their own contract. What players beside Heinze are affected by this new rule? Will we start to see clubs making a point to sign a player when they're 29 instead of 28?

Bale's Transfer Saga

Contrary to many other reports out there, The Guardian is reporting that Southampton have not received a formal bid of £10 million from any of the clubs linked with being interested in the young Welsh Fullback. Of course this doesn't mean that Saints are interested in selling. Then again when Mike Wilde, Southampton's chairman, comes out and states live on SSN:

Gareth Bale, Not for Sale.

You have to wonder how these rumors can persist? Is the media really that desperate to make a quick buck? It's not that they can't address these things. The problem is that so often when they print a rumored sale, they present the one side that wish to present. They will mentioned that Southampton's board doesn't want to loose Bale on a free. But they'll leave out that he has 18 months left on his contract. Why? It's not that Bale won't leave but that's not really the point. One can not prove a negative. No one can legitimately sale that Bale will not leave Southampton this January. But what can be said is that there are a lot of reason to take the rumors with a big ass grain of salt, one about the size of Alaska in this situation.

La Liga Blogs

One of the blogs that was suggested to me for La Liga was Spanish Football and Sports. I appreciate the head's up. This one was one of the few that I had already found and it wasn't what I was looking for. To me, I can get the pretty pictures, results, and scoring leaders information from Sky Sports, the BBC, ESPN's Soccernet, and Soccerway. It's not that I want to avoid those same things from a blog. What I want is the blog to build off of them. Offer me a view I hadn't heard of before. Sum up some events to give me perspective that is rarely offered by traditional media. Sure, there are wonderful pundits out there. But how often do you see them summing up the events at Chelsea during the last 3 months let alone the last year? You may get a column doing that once or thrice a year. And that's for a relatively big club. It's not that I mean to put down what Spanish Football and Sports is doing. They have a different approach to blogging than what I'm looking for. Maybe in the end I'll just need to bone up on La Liga myself and get out there the sort of stuff I'm hoping to find.

Conor Casey Update

There's nothing new out of the Rapids camp on Casey. It's still the same (as previously mentioned). They want him and think they can come to a contract agreement with him (he's available on a free). But with the MLS rules there are others that get to feed at the player trough before them, so to speak. To add to it, Yank's Abroad is reporting that Casey's agent Steve Kelley is talking about Casey have a couple German teams interested in signing him. It's hard to gauge Casey at this point. He has a talent but he's also had some knee injuries that may have affected his ability to perform, especially in game situations.

Man Utd : Adding Another Midfielder

The Soccer Blog is reporting that Manchester United is being linked with a move for Aldo Duscher. This isn't the first time Duscher has been linked with a move to Old Trafford. It remains to be seen if this is just another rumor or if Sir Alex is serious about adding him to Manchester United's squad. In fact, there are already reports that would indicate it won't occur this January with Duscher stating that he wishes to remain at Deportivo.

Fowler to the MLS???

The media's self-serving rumor mill is now linking Robbie Fowler with a move to the MLS. Is there a better way to sum that up than "Sweet lord, save us!"?