BigSoccer - Featured Soccer Blogs

Italy’s Roster; Chelsea Could Learn from MLS? Donovan Needs Mom’s Okay?

dwreck1971 — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 06:20:51 +0000

In a series of shorter topics, the guys discuss: + Italy’s Roster for the US v Italy Friendly + Robbie Keane Loyal to LA Galaxy? + Michael Ballack Becomes an Analyst? + Golden Corral Chocolate Fountain Unsanitary? + Bobby Convey is a Grumpy Guy + Mike Fucito Impresses + Finding Big Foot, My Ass + What Chelsea Can Learn from MLS, So Says Jonah Freedman + Landon Donovan Needs to Ask His Mom Before Moving to Everton + MLS UK–New MLS Website for Cultish British MLS Fanbase

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Houses in Motion

Dan Loney — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:55:23 +0000

I’m fine with Kevin Payne saying Dwayne De Rosario is the most accomplished athlete in Washington right now. I can’t name a single player on the Senators, Bullets or Racist Nicknames. Even if Slingin’ Sammy Baugh, Walter Johnson or Elvin Hayes were still around, it’s Payne’s job to talk up his players. You would think “buy tickets to see the reigning MLS MVP” would also have worked, but at least these days they’re talking up a player who has accomplished something in the pros. No, what concerns me is that Kevin, when asked to back away from “no one comes close,” conceded that De Rosario might have an equal in…Baltimore. Dwayne has credentials that nobody else in this market has. The one guy I can maybe think of – in the greater market – that perhaps you could make an argument about is Ray Lewis. Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post reacted, even more frighteningly, with: Kevin Payne is a very wise and astute sports executive, who has dealt with the Washington media for years and years and doesn’t say things by accident. Let’s definitely allow for the possibility that I’m reading way too much into this, but yikes. And yes, in some sports the Potomac and Chesapeake metropolitan areas are seen as one market. However, Payne chose an NFL example, the one sport where oh my God Washington and Baltimore are separate markets now and forever. Did Payne mean to try to break down the Washington-Baltimore divide at its strongest point? Or was it a coincidence that the state of that region’s half-dozen or so teams is so tepid that the Ravens were literally the nearest example? In fairness, the distance from Washington to...

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Liverpool win the Carling Cup!

David Bolt — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:59:09 +0000

Liverpool have won the Carling Cup for the eighth time after a narrow penalty-shootout win over Cardiff City. This is Liverpool’s first trophy since winning the FA Cup in 2006. Liverpool were once again below-par all game and struggled to overcome a Cardiff side who more than matched them for effort, and it has to be said, ability, for long stages of the game, and Cardiff can consider themselves extremely unlucky not to be bringing the cup back to Wales with them. Both teams showed that far from being the ‘mickey mouse’ trophy that it is often derided to be, the Carling Cup was a trophy they both desperately wanted to win and both teams fought hard to try and make that a reality. Liverpool certainly didn’t have an easy ride to the final, playing only one home game en route to the final. After a win at Exeter, Liverpool survived a potential banana skin away at Brighton, who were in great form at the time. Liverpool then won two tough away ties at Stoke and Chelsea, before beating Manchester City over two legs in the semi-final. While I’m delighted that Liverpool have won a trophy, the question now is what happens next? The Carling Cup is definitely regarded as the poor relation of the three major trophies in English football. Some teams participate in name only, sending out weakened sides and not really caring how they fare. The FA Cup is the more prestigious of the cup competitions and the one taken more seriously by most of the top teams, despite the ultimate prize of entry into the following season’s Europa League being the same for both cup competitions. There were eyebrows raised a few weeks ago when Steven Gerrard was asked given the choice, would he rather win the Carling Cup of finish in the top 4 of the...

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Europe is Revolting and Other Stuff Which is Fun to Say

Bill Archer — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:20:04 +0000

Please note: This post covers a couple of different topics but one of them is most definitely not Alex Morgan’s bare ass. Or any other unclothed portion of her body. Really. In fact, the phrase “Alex Morgan’s bare ass” will not be found anywhere below. So if you did a search for “Alex Morgan’s bare ass” and landed here, please accept my apologies. Thanks. THE BIG STICK: The European Club Association, which consists of the 200 biggest football clubs on that continent, has decided to ignore an invitation from FIFA to meet in Switzerland next week to finalize an international calendar. FIFA had hoped to come to some agreements so that they could claim their dates through 2022. ECA President Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has grown increasingly outspoken in his disdain for the leadership of FIFA President Sepp Blatter, going so far as to call the current administration “hopelessly corrupt”, and his organization issued a statement explaining that the decision not to meet “is a response to the discussions we held with FIFA over the last couple of weeks. The board decided that, until further notice, no ECA executive will participate in FIFA meetings.” Since the current FIFA calendar runs until 2015 there’s obviously plenty of time for getting something done, but this decision could spell big trouble for Blatter at a time when he can least afford it. Put simply, the ECA wants fewer international dates, and they want FIFA to pay for insurance to cover the loss of injured stars. And since those 200 clubs employ most of the players people pay to see, their absence would cost FIFA a ton of money. As would, of course, cutting the number of games and/or...

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Our Projected USA Starting XI vs Italy—What’s Yours?

TotalSoccerShow — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:05:54 +0000

We discussed a lot of things on this week’s Total Soccer Show. Like Arsenal’s 5-2 win over Spurs, Liverpool’s Carling Cup triumph (question mark?) and the dynamic singing duo that was Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle. But by far the most dangerous thing we did was try and predict the USMNT starting XI vs Italy on Wednesday. >>> PLAY/DOWNLOAD MP3 Landon Donovan is out with bronchitis, and is joined by Jermaine Jones, Timmy Chandler and Jose Torres on the “not playing this time” list. As we were recording Sunday evening, US Soccer announced the addition of Brek Shea and Sacha Kljestan to the roster. So in the second segment of today’s show (beginning around the 14 minute mark) the four of us sat down and tried to pick Jurgen’s starting XI. Not the XI that we wanted to see, because that would look much more attacking, and would probably not include Jonathon Spector. Honestly, we’d probably go Fabian Johnosn at left back, give Geoff Cameron a go alongside Carlos Bocanegra, and find a way to play two out and out forwards. But this is the USMNT away to Italy, so we think Jurgen will go pretty conservative, at least to begin with. And we think it will look like this: Hear the thinking behind this XI, from around the 14 minute mark in the latest Total Soccer Show: >>> PLAY/DOWNLOAD MP3 How do you think Klinsmann will send out the US on Wednesday?

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US Limps Into Friendly with Italy: Donovan, Jones, Chandler, Torres Out

dwreck1971 — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:13:30 +0000

The guys discuss the upcoming friendly with Italy on Feb 29th, 2012. It looks like Shea will be added to the squad. Who else, as the team seems to shrink with injuries? Time to give Josh Gatt a call? On The Straight Red Card.

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Can Terry Connor save Wolves?

David Bolt — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:20:15 +0000

Yesterday, Wolves ended their farcical search for a new manager by appointing Terry Connor to be their manager until the end of the season, following the sacking of Mick McCarthy. On the whole McCarthy did a good job at Wolves, he brought them back into the Premier League and kept them there for two seasons, but Wolves have been in a tailspin for months now, picking up just 14 points out of the last 66 available. It’s hard to see just how Connor, or anyone for that matter, will be able to keep Wolves in the Premier League for another season. But the Wolves board felt like they had to do something in order to preserve a Premier League place, and all of the money that comes with it. I imagine the mentality of the Wolves hierarchy would have been that they would rather go down having at least tried to rectify the situation by making a managerial change rather than wondering ‘what if?’ if they had kept faith with McCarthy. It’s fair to say that Wolves’ search for a new manager has ended up being somewhat of a disaster. Wolves Chairman Steve Morgan stands accused of leaping before he looked. There seemed to be no particular plan in place, or replacement in mind when McCarthy was sacked; and Wolves’ search for a manager descended into chaos. Reports have it that Wolves were not offering a great deal of money, not enough to even tempt out-of-work managers to take the job. Wolves were rejected by Alan Curbishley, who hasn’t had a job for three-and-a-half years, and the possibility of Steve Bruce becoming manager was met with an underwhelming response by fans. The search became increasingly desperate when, despite Chief Executive Jez Moxey’s proclamation that the Wolves job is not for a novice, Wolves made attempts to poach...

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Seven Ways to Improve the MLS All-Star Game

TotalSoccerShow — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:53:52 +0000

On this week’s Total Soccer Show: Richmond Kickers Head Coach Leigh Cowlishaw tells us why the team’s development academy is now cost-free. We propose a few ideas to improve the MLS All-Star Game. Carlos Tevez apologizes and Eddie Johnson sets the record straight. >>> PLAY/DOWNLOAD MP3 On the latest episode of the Total Soccer Show: Thursady’s Total Soccer Show, in three segments: #1 Free Youth Academies! The Major League Soccer academy system is growing, and the majority are provided free of charge (we think.) But outside of MLS, that’s not the case. In most of America, if you want to play on an academy team then you better hope that a) your parents earn good money, and b) they are willing to spend it on you playing soccer. For this reason a lot of kids with a lot of talent don’t make it to the academy level, soccer continues to be seen as a sport for spoiled rich kids and the United States continues to not win the World Cup. But here in Richmond, Virginia (which is Total Soccer Show HQ) our local USL PRO team, the Richmond Kickers, have proudly unveiled their plans for a cost-free academy. The Kickers U16 and U18 players will not pay a penny, and will received coaching from USSF A-licensed coaches for 10 months of the year. So we called up Kickers Head Coach and Director of Soccer Leigh Cowlishaw to ask how the Kickers (an extremely well-organized team by the way, about to kick off its 20th season) managed to put this all together. Not to push it too hard, but this might be the future of American soccer. So listen in. #2 Seven Ideas to Improve the MLS All-Star Game With the NBA All-Star Weekend about to get underway, we propose a few changes Major League Soccer...

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Paint Your Bandwagon – a fake interview with Alex Morgan

Dan Loney — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 02:01:28 +0000

Well, it’s a real privilege to be able to not sit down with Alex Morgan and not interview her. Thank you, Dan. And it’s an honor for me to be able to remind everyone that no, this is not Alex Morgan. This is a parody interview not to be taken seriously. Thanks, Alex. I’ll call you Alex, but really, you’re not Alex at all. Absolutely not. It’s just you talking to yourself, like a crazy person. Thanks. Hopefully we’ve made that clear. So, you’ve certainly gotten a lot of positive publicity over your Sports Illustrated photo shoot! I certainly have, Dan. The reactions have been very positive, life-affirming, and not creepy in the slightest. You lucky thing. You told Sports Illustrated that this was a big opportunity for you. Not just for me, but for women’s soccer, and for women athletes. Women everywhere, really. Finally, an attractive woman is able to pose nude for money. I think that’s a very positive message, a very progressive message, and one that I’m just really proud to be a part of. I’m really grateful to Sports Illustrated for helping me tell other women that if you’re good-looking enough, someone will ask you to take off your clothes. I don’t think enough women realize that. Can you tell us a little bit about why you chose that particular outfit? Well, it’s the annual swimsuit issue, so it would only make sense that I’d choose not to wear a swimsuit. What you have to remember is, our primary goal is to promote the US national team and promote women’s soccer. So I wanted something that said, “I am an athlete, I am a competitor, I am a champion.” And I can’t think of a better...

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Part II: Bill Archer Weighs In

Paul Calixte — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:58:04 +0000

No discussion of football in our region is complete without the input of my colleague Bill Archer. For longer than I have been a member of BigSoccer, he has diligently and thoroughly uncovered the political entrails of CONCACAF, exposing far more about how Jack Warner and co. ran things than the ex-President would have ever liked. So when I found the interviews with current interim President Alfredo Hawit, I knew I had to pass them on to him. Many thanks to Bill for the following commentary, which I faithfully reprint here without alteration. —— It’s not likely that soccer officials from the Central and North American regions spent much time planning for life after Jack Warner. Maybe once in a great while, after a few days of bowing, stooping and sucking up to His Royal Kleptomaniacness at a conclave someplace, a few of them would get together very late at night in a ridiculously overpriced luxury hotel suite and with dead soldiers and room service trays littering every available horizontal surface and after triple checking to make sure the door was locked, they’d grumble some things about what they’d do if “that old bastard” died in a fiery plane crash. Mostly though, since it appeared that Warner fully intended to live forever and could count on 30 Caribbean votes every four years until hell froze over – after which he’d figure out a way to hand it all off to Uday and Qusay Daryan and Daryll, they likely figured there wasn’t much point in wasting time planning for a day which simply wasn’t ever coming. Then one day Warner’s arrogance and sense of entitlement caught up with him, he mistake of his life and it all came crashing down....

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