Saturday, December 15, 2007

Galaxy Looking For Some Maciej

The Los Angeles Galaxy are in talks with Polish international Maciej Zurawski. Zurawski hasn't been featuring in Strachan's plans at Celtic lately and has publicly expressed his desire to find a club that will use him as a starter. Surely this is the nail in the coffin for Carlos Pavon's short career at the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Capello For England

It looks like it's just a matter of dotting some I's and crossing some T's and Fabio Capello will be the next coach for he English national team. It's hard to see any problems with this appointment at this time.

Nevertheless it leaves me wondering if any of the members of the FA board have taken responsibility for things coming to this. After Sven's tenure was done, they got their panties in a bunch over appointing an English coach. And at that they decided upon a coach, Steve McClaren whose performance at Middlesbrough was at best average. That should have been evident before the board decided to hire him.

Worse there were moments like this one [link] where McClaren may have been making excuses for his inability to take a very talented group of players and get them to qualify. Not necessarily win every game or even place first in the group but surely there was enough talent, experience and know-how in the squad to get England to qualify for Euro08.

What's the point? Why haven't any heads on the board rolled? Or at least why haven't they shown that they've learned from their mistake of approving McClaren and are better for it? I don't question that Capello is a good choice. Fabio is a wonderful choice for the job. But at this point you have to wonder if they're doing it because of the quality he brings to the job or simply that they're going for a big name to distract from their inability to judge quality.

Foreign Invasion Continues

It seems a bit of a lop sided war going on between the Non-Americans and America in the soccer world. The Yanks invade England with the Glazers buying Manchester United. So the non-Americans retaliate by adding a team in the MLS, Chivas USA. Cleveland Browns owner, hungry to buy another mediocre team in a stagnant city buys Aston Villa. The non-Americans think they fight back by having Ajax add a PDL team in Florida. (BTW, Platini was heard mumbling in French We'll show them by fielding a team of players that don't get paid!). Then George Gillet and Tom Hicks decide to risk their wallets, quite literally, and buy the fabled English club Liverpool. So the non-Americans countered by putting a USL-2 team in Baltimore. Why Baltimore? Well, it was Crystal Palace making the location decision. Just be happy they didn't go with either of their other top choices, Toledo and Chattanooga.

It seems the Non-Americans are waking up to that they're getting their asses handed to the in this tit for tat stand-off. They need to step things up a notch and get ahead in the game. So they've turned to West Ham to establish a USL-1 team in Tampa, Florida. They say they're in it to improve their football (better players). Or are they just looking for a nice place for Curbishley to retire to next year?

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Soccer 10

I got home tonight and I had my order for 3 new jerseys waiting for me inside my door. They're from a store in Argetina, soccer10shop.com. I got a Lanus jersey (champs and it's maroon... I mean, off-burgandy). I also got Rosario Central. And I got a Banfield away jersey. They didn't have the ol' 05 one I ordered so they replaced it at no extra cost with the new Banfield away jersey. Very nice of them to do. Oh, and they did email me about not having the 05 and gave me options first. I'm impressed.

I think the Banfield away jersey, below, will come in handy when I go biking. :)

Just a warming for you guys out there like me who aren't small. The sizes tend to run a bit smaller than what we're used to in America. If you normally wear an XL, I would advise getting an XXL (size 5).

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Let's Talk About Football!

Gordon Strachan after Celtic beat AC Milan in the CL (the Dida incident game). Can you blame him for just wanting to talk about the game?

Mooch Myernick Memorial Fund

I just want to take a minute this Sunday to remind you of the Mooch Myernick Memorial Fund. Please take a moment to give a $1, $10, $100 or whatever you see fit. Sometimes we don't give because we don't feel we can give enough to make a difference. But the difference isn't just in the large sexy donations, it's in the little ones that every one of us can give. Those little donations add up fast.

The Foundation has established the Mooch Myernick Fund per a request from the Myernick family, to honor the life, career and years of distinguished service Glenn “Mooch” Myernick dedicated to the sport of soccer. Proceeds from the Mooch Myernick Fund will be distributed through grants by the Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Soccer Federation, to soccer clubs and organizations in urban areas to help create and sustain soccer opportunities for local underserved children.