Gruffgoat's Soccer Blog

From PDL to EPL: Anton Peterlin signs with Everton Football Club

2009-07-07T10:34:00.000-04:00

Ok, so maybe this is one of those true rare Cinderalla stories. Anton Peterlin spent his last season playing in the top flight of – brace for it – US Amateur football!

Yes, I said amateur. Peterlin spent his pitch time for the Ventura County Fusion in southern California. Fusion play in the PDL’s Southwest division and for those still learning about the layers of football in America, the Premier Development League is the nation’s 4th tier of soccer, behind MLS, USL Div 1, and USL Div 2.

In other words, Peterlin was a college kid playing amateur ball a few weeks ago and now, he’ll be training alongside the likes of Arteta, Wolcott, Jagielka, Cahill, and our own Tim Howard.

The interesting thing to me about this move is that it proves that there is no pecking order you have to climb. If you’re showing the skill and have the right coaching (preferably connected coaching), then in football you can leap frog right in to potential stardom. Of course, just because you sign with Everton doesn’t mean you’ll be starting at Goodison Park come August, but nonetheless, you’ll be a helluva lot closer than the rest of us!

By the way, if any EPL sides are looking to sign a 37 year old midfielder, my men’s amateur team plays on Sunday nights in Kennesaw.

Here’s to keeping the dream alive!

Gooch Goes with AC Milan

2009-07-07T09:35:00.002-04:00

Who better to take Paolo Maldini's place in central defense at A.C. Milan than America's own Oguchi Onyewu!

Read the full article from Yank's Abroad here.

Goal.com's MLS Player Of Week 8 is former Silverback, Macoumba Kandji

2009-05-14T21:48:00.000-04:00

Reprinted From Goal.com:
Macoumba Kandji has won Goal.com's Major League Soccer player of the week for round eight.

The Senegalese striker dominated the New York Red Bulls' 4-1 drubbing of the San Jose Earthquakes. He won the free kick for the first goal, assisted the next two, and scored the last. All of this, of course, happened in the first half.

“It's Kandji. Really, it's not close,”

said MLS columnist Kyle McCarthy. New York signed Kandji on loan midway through last season, but the 6'4 striker hardly played a part in the Red Bulls' run to the MLS Cup. That didn't deter the club from purchasing the striker outright and partnering him with Juan Pablo Angel in the 2009 season.

“The 23-year-old's performance shows such incredible promise, it will be exciting to see how he develops with the Red Bulls,”

said Bay Area correspondent Jennifer Dawson.
That development might not be too far off. In seven starts he has two goals and three assists.

“His imposing play built on blistering pace and overwhelming power has started manifesting itself in goals for New York,”

said associate editor Zac Lee Rigg.

“Against San Jose he was nearly unplayable. More performances like that is just the tonic Juan Carlos Osorio needs for peaceful nights' rest.”

Teammate Jorge Rojas come in at second place in the voting. The Venezuelan playmaker was deployed on the left side of the midfield against San Jose, but didn't let that keep him from chances at goal. Rojas scored the first free kick and found himself in the right place to tap in a Kandji cross for the second.

“In search of a much needed victory, Rojas was the spark plug to New York's success on the night, contributing two goals, and causing San Jose trouble all through the night,”

said D.C. correspondent Steven Streff.

Man Utd. Is Through to the Champions League Final in Emphatic Fashion

2009-05-05T23:00:00.002-04:00

It was always going to be an uphill battle for Arsenal, coming in to the second leg – even at The Emirates - a goal down.

And as Arsen Wenger aptly pointed out in the post match interview, the game was over in 11 minutes really as Park and Ronaldo notched one a piece for the Red Devils.

But for my money, the moment of the match was goal three. Pay attention to this one kids, Manchester United’s counter attack goal against Arsenal was among the best you’ll ever see.

Speed, passing to the correct foot in stride, quick touches, and solid finish – Ronaldo, Park, and Rooney combined to cover at least 80 yards in under 10 seconds for a positively picture perfect counter attacking goal.

Observe and learn:

What the hell was Joey Barton thinking?

2009-05-05T08:14:00.003-04:00

My guess is, like many thinks related to Joey Barton, is that he wasn’t thinking.

His reckless lunging tackle which sent Xabi Alonso out of the match and earned him a straight red card was the epitome of unprofessional. No, wait. The tackle was the epitome of short sighted and dangerous football, his “what did I do wrong” reaction afterward was unprofessional.

To be sure, Alan Shearer was furious with the Magpies troublemaker, and the BBC reported that the two exchanged pleasantries in the locker room post match.

The net result? Joey Barton has been released from Newcastle indefinitely and the club has no further comment. In other words, Joey…You’re Fired!

Ohana FC Kekoas lose tough one to Express Masters

2009-04-20T11:43:00.001-04:00

The rain gods were pleased with soccer yesterday and let matches be played all over the metro Atlanta area. Among the matches allowed was our men’s over 35 match. Unfortunately for us however, the attendance gods were not pleased and we started the match with 8 men against a fully loaded plus subs Express.

Fortunately two of our guys were in route so by the 10 minute mark, we were up to a whopping 10 men. Slight consolation seeing that you have 70 more minutes to play with a man down.

Nonetheless, we made a strong showing and kept the score close, with a final of 3-2 going to Express. We had our chances throughout the match – including a botched PK by yours truly. Actually, I hit the ball to toward the roof of the net, but too close to the keeper. The goalie did a good job of stretching to get two fingers on the ball and redirected it in to the cross bar.

We had two good goals by Isaac and John, and kept possession for a lot of the match, but at the end it wasn’t enough to overcome our manpower deficit. The really excellent news is that I think all 10 of us emerged with no pulled muscles! Well done.

DC United scrap out the point against New England

2009-04-17T21:41:00.001-04:00

I caught the last 40 minutes of the Friday night match between DCU and New England and it did not disappoint.

New England went up in the first half on a Shalrie Joseph header and looked like they would hang on to the 1-0 margin until the end in spite of some heavy DC United pressure.

Ben Olsen mixed it up with Wells Thompson after Wells helped Ben out of the touchline by a generous shoulder.

In a touch of payback, Ben beat Thomson to a nicely placed Jamie Moreno far post free kick to slot the point saver home in stoppage time.

This is what you might call a BOMB!

2009-04-15T22:55:00.001-04:00

Three Types of Soccer Haters

2009-04-13T09:39:00.002-04:00

From far too many discussions on message boards, I have determined that there are three types of "anti soccer fans", if it's possible to be an anti fan of anything. Here they are:

1. The Soccer Hater: this is your sports fan who understands the basic rules of soccer, but was most likely humiliated playing it as a kid. They will isolate one negative component of the game (e.g., diving or fan violence) and then extrapolate that to the entire sport. They are most likely to call the sport, “gay” or “unmanly,” which any one who has taken psychology 101 will attest, they are simply manifesting a response to their own ambiguous sexuality. They may also believe soccer to be communist or socialist. They will use the term “Euro trash” to describe all soccer players, not really knowing what they are describing. These are your typical soccer trolls. Semi-mainstream American sports media has a few: Jim Rome, Chuck Klosterman, Frank Deford, basically shock jock types preaching to their own collective choirs with no real thinking or analysis behind anything. They have an irrational fear of the sport as being “un-American,” without realizing that it’s the most popular participatory sport in the US by a couple of orders of magnitude. They are scared of soccer and its popularity so they lash out at it.

2. The Perplexed Soccer Observer: unlike the soccer hater, these fans simply don’t understand the game. Through no fault of their own, they have not been exposed to the game either as a player or observer which means they are most likely American. They look at final scores as an indication of match quality and equate high scores with good games. They don’t understand positions, creating and exploiting space, nuance of movement, omni-directional options, passing skill, trapping skill, vision, strength on the ball, shooting, heading, multi-step thinking, point of attack, and so on; therefore, when they flip the TV channel to a match, all they see is a ball being moved from one person to another with no purpose, when in fact, the purpose is always to create an opportunity. They will eventually grow to love the game like the rest of us.

3. The Soccer Agnostic: sports fans without an opinion. These people are extremely rare. They are probably big fans of cycling or bull riding; meaning they could care less about soccer, football, baseball, basketball, or hockey. They represent .0001% of the sporting world.

Toffees to face Man Utd. in FA Cup Semis

2009-03-10T08:01:00.002-04:00

Will Everton play the role of Manchester United trophy hunt spoiler?

It took a halftime verbal lashing to get Everton going, but after coming back from a 1-0 deficit to defeat Middlesborough 2-1 over the weekend - Everton will now face hardware hungry Manchester United in the next round of the FA Cup.

According to the BBC, David Moyes is not happy about playing the match at Wembley however,

"It's great to be in the semis but I'd prefer the match was away from Wembley. I don't think anyone likes it. Wembley should only be used for the final."

The semi final match is scheduled for the weekend of 18 and 19 April, and accorind to the TheFA.com, further details will be available once confirmed.

Letter to Fans: Gruffgoat’s Soccer Blog is Transitioning

2009-02-28T21:43:00.000-05:00

Soccer with a Southern Accent has found a new voice. After 300 posts which meandered through all areas of football, we’re excited to announce the pre-launch of Peach State Soccer Magazine.

Peach State Soccer, currently only available online at http://georgiasoccer.blogspot.com, will be the new home for all of the Atlanta area soccer news that you found on Gruffgoat.

Our goal is to turn Peach State Soccer in to Georgia’s first monthly soccer magazine within the next 6 months.

Peach State Soccer’s mission is

“to be the magazine for soccer news and interest stories for Georgia’s soccer population; providing subscribers with features and articles on coaching tips, refereeing perspectives, high school soccer news, college soccer news, professional soccer news, Olympic development updates, academy and select soccer news, product reviews, tournament reporting, rising star players, Georgian’s playing professionally, and the business of soccer.”

The online magazine will feature blogs from our contributors, near real time news updates, and subsets of articles from the print magazine.

Subscribe to Peach State Soccer’s online feed here.

Follow Peach State Soccer on twitter here.

Gruffgoat’s Soccer Blog will remain alive and well; however it will be refocused as an Everton FC specific blog.

Everton Dominate Bolton in League Action

2009-02-09T10:03:00.002-05:00

In a match that didn’t move the needle on the table very much either way for Everton, but did introduce transfer window signer Jo to the team, the Toffees dominated Bolton at Goodison Park.

Everton looked very much on form against Bolton as attacks came from all sides but nothing fell until Jo was tripped up in the box to draw the Penalty Kick.

The PK was easily converted by Arteta to put Bolton ahead, but the 1-0 score line at the break did not do the Toffee’s justice as they dominated possession and had the lion’s share of attacking chances – including a rare close range miss by Tim Cahill early in the half.

Surely Bolton were hoping for some tired legs going in to the second half as Everton had played 120 minutes of gritty FA Cup football, knocking Liverpool out just a few days prior, but it would not be.

Jo showed a flash of the goal scoring prowess he had in Moscow shortly after play resumed, with a fantastic touch and turn strike to put Everton up by two.

The final goal came on yet another PK as Bolton was called for handling the ball in the box. Jo slotted this one home as well – making him a party to all three of Everton’s goals – a point sure to be high on Moyes’ mind and a major confidence boost for the Brazilian striker.

Everton finally advance!

2009-02-05T11:10:00.002-05:00

It took a little divine intervention and a lot of grit, but Everton finally pulled off the Merseyside derby victory against Liverpool to see themselves through to the FA Cup round of 16 for the first time in four years!

Liverpool playmaker and lynchpin Stephen Gerrard went out at 15 minutes with a hamstring pull – a very painful injury and usually a minimum of three weeks to recover, I know a lot about those mind you – and then Lucas Lieva went on to earn two foolish yellow cards which left the Reds down a man against the Toffees from about 65 minutes on. Clearly Liverpool were against the ropes and Everton could smell victory.

But Rafa’s strategy was obvious at that point. Play a four four one, hope for the quick counter, or otherwise play for a penalty shoot out. Liverpool was digging in and the strategy to keep level until penalties was working.

Everton would not have it. The lads continued to press for the victory during regular time, and then on in to the two 15 minutes of extra time….but it became increasingly apparent as the match wore on that it was Everton’s to lose!

Fortunately for the Toffees, a brilliant bit of ball movement in the box by Dan Gosling gave the teenager just enough space to curl a right footed inswinger to the far post – literally – as his strike ricocheted off and in to the back of the net 118 minutes in to playing time.

Final score: Everton 1 - Liverpool 0

Everton now look to take their cobbled together side to League number fours, Aston Villa, on 15 February.

Everton hobbles in to Liverpool FA cup rematch

2009-02-03T11:01:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow, an Everton very light on strikers will do its best at Goodison park against a relatively injury free Liverpool for yet another Merseyside FA Cup derby. Most likely the scoring duty will once again fall to Everton's Tim Cahill, while Liverpool have quite a few tried and true goal scorers at their disposal with Gerrard, Torres, and Kuyt all ready to send the Toffees packing.

Everton did pick up Joao Alves de Assis Silva (aka Jo) as the transfer window closed in hopes that the young Brazilian might find the CSKA Moscow form in royal blue that never materialized in light blue at Manchester City. However Jo is cup-tied for the FA Cup and will not see any action for the Blues in this tournament.

If Everton finally get past Liverpool, it will be the first time in four years they have reached the round of sixteen.

Tomorrow's match kicks off at 3:00PM Eastern in the US on Setanta Sports USA. The full sides are:

Everton (from): Howard, Hibbert, Jagielka, Lescott, Baines, Anichebe, Gosling, Castillo, Rodwell, Neville, Osman, Arteta, Fellaini, Pienaar, Cahill, Nash, Yobo, Van der Meyde, Jacobsen, Jutkiewicz.

Liverpool (from): Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Agger, Hyypia, Aurelio, Dossena, Benayoun, Babel, Gerrard, Mascherano, Lucas, Alonso, Kuyt, Torres, Ngog, Riera, Cavalieri.

A little humor for your Sunday afternoon pleasure

2009-02-01T16:12:00.004-05:00

On a day when American Football will take center stage in all of its commercialized glory, I found this little video of Coventry City's Robbie Simpson doing a goal celebration knee slide turned face plant. Enjoy...I hope you get a chuckle out of this like I did:

Are you ready for 8 months of football America? The MLS Schedule is here.

2009-01-29T08:57:00.003-05:00

Straight from the MLS, here is the March 2009 Schedule for your reading pleasure.

The remaining schedule is out at MLS.com or you can go to your team's page and pull the schedule specifically for that team.

Sadly, there remains no Atlanta team; so once again I'll be following the Houston Dynamo again this season. Find your side and start planning your road trips now!

MARCH 09:

Thursday, March 19
New York Red Bulls v. Seattle Sounders FC 9:00 p.m. ESPN2, Deportes

Saturday, March 21
Columbus Crew v. Houston Dynamo 8:00 p.m. FSC, FSE
Chicago Fire v. FC Dallas 8:30 p.m.
Toronto FC v. Kansas City Wizards 8:30 p.m.
Colorado Rapids v. Chivas USA 10:30 p.m. FSC, FSE
New England Revolution v. San Jose Earthquakes 10:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 22
D.C. United v. Los Angeles Galaxy 3:00 p.m. TeleFutura

Saturday, March 28
Toronto FC v. Columbus Crew 4:00 p.m.
Chicago Fire v. D.C. United 7:30 p.m.
New England Revolution v. New York Red Bulls 7:30 p.m. FSC, FSE
Kansas City Wizards v. Colorado Rapids 9:30 p.m.
Houston Dynamo v. San Jose Earthquakes 10:30 p.m.
Real Salt Lake v. Seattle Sounders FC 10:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 29
Chivas USA v. FC Dallas 3:00 p.m. TeleFutura

So this is what it feels like? Damn you van Persie!!

2009-01-28T21:48:00.005-05:00

Ok, so I don't mean to curse Robin's magnificent strike in the 99.99999th minute of this afternoon's match (my time here in the US), but COME ON Everton, you can't squander 3 points like that!

Had I known that choosing a side would cause me this much heartache so soon, I would have rethought my new found allegiance to the Toffees.

Tim Cahill was superb yet again and put the Blues up in the 61st against Arsenal with a now almost trade markable perfect form header; but alas, Arsene Wenger's boys would not be denied the point and who else would you expect to snatch three points away from any team but the sublime Robin van Persie.

The bitter taste of points lost may only be washed away by another small glass of Makers Mark. I'll let you know in the morning how that works out for me.

Meanwhile, we'll hope the boys heal up in time for Manchester United on Saturday.

Georgia High School AAAAA Girls Top 10 Pre-Season Rankings Announced

2009-01-28T10:58:00.001-05:00

The EUROSPORTSCOREBOARD has posted their pre-season top 10 rankings for GA High School Girls Soccer. Enjoy and debate:

"Top 10" Preseason Poll

1 Parkview
2 North Gwinnett
3 Brookwood
4 Walton
5 Kennesaw Mountain
6 Harrison
7 Milton
8 Peachtree Ridge
9 Grayson
10 South Forsyth

Georgia High School AAAAA Boys Top 10 Pre-Season Rankings Announced

2009-01-28T10:43:00.004-05:00

The EUROSPORTSCOREBOARD has posted their pre-season top 10 rankings for GA High School Boys Soccer. Enjoy and debate:

"Top 10" Preseason Poll

1 Collins Hill
2 Walton
3 Chattahoochee
4 Brookwood
5 Harrison
6 Parkview
7 Centennial
8 Peachtree Ridge
9 East Coweta
10 North Cobb

Marouane Fellaini returns for Everton against Arsenal Today

2009-01-28T08:39:00.004-05:00

Just cruising through one of my new favorite internet haunts, EvertonFC.com, ahead of today's number 5 v. number 6 match with Arsenal, and picked up some good news from evertonTV.

Fellaini returns from a 2 match suspension just in time for a tough battle against an Arsenal that is slowly regaining form.

According to the interview, Fellaini said,

"We're going to try and keep the run going. The main thing is to try to get those three points. We're at home, we've got the crowd supporting us and that will certainly help us.

"You have to remember Arsenal have a slightly more experienced squad than us, certainly a bigger squad than us and lots of internationals as well, but hopefully we'll match them."

Not exactly words ringing with confidence, but let's hope the Toffees remember they are still very close to Champions League contention.

Kick off is at 3:00PM Eastern!

Busy Wednesday of Premiership Football

2009-01-28T08:34:00.002-05:00

Make sure you take a late lunch at your favorite football pub today or duck out altogether folks; we have a lot of Premiership action today:

Barclays Premier League

Blackburn v Bolton, 3:00PM EST
Chelsea v Middlesbrough, 2:45PM EST
Everton v Arsenal, 3:00PM EST
Man City v Newcastle, 2:45PM EST
West Ham v Hull, 3:00PM EST
Wigan v Liverpool, 2:45PM EST

Enjoy!

Everton vs. Liverpool highlights

2009-01-26T17:16:00.001-05:00

Enjoy the goal scoring highlights from this weekend's FA Cup derby between Everton and Liverpool:

FA Cup 5th Round Draw

2009-01-26T16:21:00.003-05:00

The FA Cup field is narrowing down slowly but surely, with a few yet to be decided.

Here are yesterday's fifth round draws courtesy of the FA:

The full draw is as follows:

1 Sheffield United v. Hull City

2 Watford v. Chelsea

3 West Ham United v. Middlesbrough

4 Sunderland or Blackburn Rovers v. Coventry City

5 Derby County or Nottingham Forest v. Manchester United

6 Swansea City v. Fulham

7 Liverpool or Everton v. Doncaster Rovers or Aston Villa

8 Cardiff City or Arsenal v. West Bromwich Albion or Burnley

Matches will be played on the weekend of 14 February.

Something strange happened this last Sunday

2009-01-26T09:54:00.004-05:00

Something quite strange happened to me on Sunday.

I was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking my coffee and enjoying an intense FA Cup derby between Everton FC and Liverpool FC when all of sudden, quite inexplicably, my heart began to warm toward those royal blue shirts.

I don’t know what it was or when it happened exactly.

Maybe it was seeing American Tim Howard in the goal that warmed my connection with the team. But there are other Americans in the Premiership - last season Fulham was loaded with American talent, so I don't think that alone was it.

Perhaps it was seeing Australian aerial maestro Tim Cahill’s header and Joleon Lescott’s redirection of the header in to the net to send Everton up 1-0 at Anfield. Cahill contributes gritty performances and game winning goals time and again and as a former footballing ex-pat in Australia, I follow the careers of Sydneysiders like Cahill pretty closely...but still, not enough.

Or maybe it was just something in Everton’s defensive work ethic, led by Phil Jagielka and Phil Neville, weathering barrage after barrage until Liverpool's playmaker (and current troublemaker) Steven Gerrard slotted home the equalizer, but I don’t think that defensive performances are what tipped the scale.

For a bit of history, I’ve always liked Manchester United, but I’ve never really felt close to them. It's a bit of a cliché to say that you follow Manchester United - they are after all the world's most valuable sports franchise. But I don’t own any of their game kits, I don’t have posters of Wayne Rooney or Cristiano Ronaldo in my room (I’m married and in my late 30’s, so that would just be weird anyway), and I don’t obsess over their performances (although I am a pretty big Ryan Giggs fan).

As a connoisseur of fine football, I think I’ve enjoyed Man Utd. as much for their skill at winning as anything else. Much like I enjoy watching Barcelona or AC Milan play.

But being American, I’ve never really held an allegiance to an English club. And frankly, I’ve been a bit jealous.

I’ve read Fever Pitch and while I understand where Nick Hornby is coming from, I’ve never felt that sense of belonging to a cause. Sure it’s easy to saddle up to perennial powerhouse clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, or Chelsea; they are winners. They have deep pockets. They have global superstars. Pick any one of these four as “your” club and chances are you’ll have bragging rights for something – FA Cup, Champions League, Premiership...something...all of them maybe, and yet, I still felt no connection.

My grandmother was from England. She was born and raised in a small town I’ve never been to called St. Helens. So this past Sunday, while watching Liverpool and Everton battle it out and feeling suddenly a bit angry at the sight of all of that Liverpool Red (and Liverpool $green) out on the pitch against that other side of everymen in royal blue, I fired up Google maps.

To my surprise, my grandmother’s childhood home was a mere 9 miles drive from Goodison Park (Anfield is a couple miles further)! I wonder then, did her family follow Everton? Did my great great uncle Ron dream of playing for The People's Club? Is there something in my genetic code which made me lean toward Everton on Sunday?

However mysterious the reason, I have decided to dip my toe in the water of choosing sides in English Premiership football. I have finally shaken off the cliché. I will watch and enjoy fine football as always, but I will now call myself an Everton supporter and an unofficial member of the School of Science.

“it’s a grand old team”

USA vs. Sweden Highlights

2009-01-25T21:26:00.002-05:00

For my money, Brian Ching's over the shoulder trap and pass to set up Sacha's 3rd goal was absolute brilliance. Enjoy (while it lasts):