Wednesday 21 September 2011

I want to reach out today to a friend and his family and offer my deepest condolences for their loss. Tony & Kim know that we are thinking of you in this difficult time.

The Seattle Sounders experienced their first loss on Tuesday night in the CONCACAF Champions League group stage. Here are some post game tidbits.

Maybe the rest of MLS should have anticipated Mauro Rosales' potential impact on the league. The former Ajax and River Plate schemer certainly possessed the ability to succeed in MLS before he landed in the States. By showing up on trial with Seattle in February and ultimately accepting a $42,000/year (per MLS Players Union documents) contract well below his market value, he exhibited the type of drive and selflessness that usually bodes well in a league that has seen players with inflated senses of self-worth struggle against typically blue-collar opposition

Here is a look at the "Top 5 American Players"

Their is a lyric to a "Kool and the Gang" song that goes "Oh yes it's ladies night and the feelings right" in Turkey they made it ladies night at the Soccer Stadium!!


Leeds 0 – Manchester United 3 (Carling Cup, September 20, 2011)



MLS is growing and for that matter so is Soccer in America. The question is "how to keep the growth going"? But, The online soccer community is abuzz with recent statements from Commissioner Garber (courtesy of Steve Davis), that MLS has raised its expansion fee for a 20th team to $100 million for the New York market?


Seattle Sounders 0 – Herediano 1 (CONCACAF Champions League, September 20, 2011)



Tuesday night was cup night across Europe, and one of the many ignorable matches saw Belgium high-flyers Mons travel to lowly second division outfit Tubize.

The contest was a formality for Mons as they ran out comfortable 3-nil winners, but the visitors also received a helping hand courtesy of a wonder own goal from home defender Andrei.

The 23-year-old Brazil had all the right intentions as he busted a lung into the Tubize box in an attempt to defend a dangerous cross. However, when it came to the actual art of defending, Andrei got a little confused as he scored a fabulous diving header into his own net. (30 second mark of video)



As you will see in the next video newly promoted Novara put a whipping on Inter Milan yesterday. Well that was enough for the president of the club to wave goodbye to head coach Gasperini!


Novara 3 – Inter Milan 1 (Serie A, September 20, 2011)



Since leaving Chivas USA in 2007, SC Paderborn 07 attacker Matt Taylor has logged plenty of miles in western Germany trying to establish a career for himself in one of the world's most competitive soccer countries.


Feyenoord 4 – AGOVV Apeldorn 0 (KNVB Beker, September 20, 2011)



"He hurt his knee and will be out for the season.” The throwaway words often used in soccer to describe players with serious injuries are woefully inadequate in helping us, the fans and laymen, understand just how tough, lonely and dispiriting the road back can be.


Kremin 2 – Dynamo Kiev 3 (Ukrainian Cup, September 21, 2011)



Have to say this was a no brainer!! Question is will we see him for the October Friendlies?


Arsenal 3 – Shrewsbury 1 (Carling Cup, September 20, 2011)




With the number of German-American players in the Bundesliga increasing in recent years, FC Kaiserslautern forward Andrew Wooten could soon be the next to join this group as the club now has him training consistently with the first team.

Wooten, 21, received news earlier this month that he was invited by Kaiserslautern head coach Marco Kurz to join the first team for training. So far in his first few weeks, Wooten has found the increase in the level of play to be significant but he is motivated by the challenge.


Stoke 0 – Tottenham 0 (Pens. 7-6) (Carling Cup, September 20, 2011)



One US pro soccer player can definitely say he is a "Gleek"


Nottingham Forest 3 – Newcastle 4 (AET) (Carling Cup, September 20, 2011)



Homogenous, incestuous, and the “Good ol’ Boy Network”: American soccer has been called all these, and then some, not all fit for print. Yet recent events on Planet Soccer have been interwoven in a considerably less discouraging manner.



Wolves 5 – Millwall 0 (Carling Cup, September 20, 2011)



Some rumors refuse to die, and so it is with the rumblings that U.S. international defender Timothy Chandler is thinking of switching his allegiance to Germany, even as the player insists no change is in the offing.


Blackburn 3 – Leyton Orient 2 (Carling Cup, September 20, 2011)



For years Sunil Gulati has chased Jurgen Klinsmann to fill the USMNT position, but through endless negotiations Klinsmann resisted. His resistance always comes down to one thing: control and restructuring of the American youth soccer system. Now, Klinsmann has the reigns, so now the question must be asked: what is the state of youth soccer in America and what needs to be fixed?


Aston Villa 0 – Bolton 2 (Carling Cup, September 20, 2011)






Villarreal 2 – Mallorca 0 (La Liga, September 20, 2011)