Will Ferrell channels his inner vuvuzela.

Ronaldinho staying at AC Milan.

MLS has no intention of selling Landon Donovan.

Barcelona takes out $200 million loan to pay players? Looks like the World’s superclub isn’t quite so super.

MLS teams and their Designated Players, from Steve Davis at Sports Illustrated.

The Nigel de Jong kung fu kick on Xabi Alonso is fantastic! Enjoy.

Catch up with what’s been happening in Major League Soccer, courtesy of ESPN.

Can the USA ever become a world powerhouse? Martin Rogers and Dan Wetzel discuss.

Looks like Bradley may be going to Fulham after all…or at least get an offer. Two stories out of England. The Sun and The Independent.

In the biggest news that’s not really news, Thierry Henry, former Barcelona and Arsenal star and French international, has joined Major League Soccer team New York Red Bulls.

It has been rumored for over 2 years that Henry would find his way stateside and play for New York, and reports dating back for months have said the deal was already done, but now it has been official. Team sources announced this morning that Henry did indeed sign a contract with Major League Soccer and the New York Red Bulls.

This signing certainly lifts the team as Henry is still a world-class level player. It was shocking that he didn’t see much playing time in the World Cup – but then again, everything about the French team was shocking this year.  But the bottom line is this – in terms of ability on the field New York just got a lot stronger.

The problem is that Henry’s stock has been declining rapidly in the past year, starting with the hand ball against Ireland that enabled France to qualify for the World Cup, to Henry struggling for playing time with Barcelona, to the French team’s total meltdown in South Africa. A lot of the blame has been thrown at Henry, and although he was once one of the most respected players in the world, he now brings a bit of stigma with him.

For the league, this is a positive and negative. The league is getting a world-class player, one who is well known and will certainly fill seats and generate interest. However, this signing does nothing for the league’s image of being a place where aging stars can come to retire – get one last large paycheck and still save face as being one of the top players in the league.

I tend to lean towards the feeling that this signing will be good for both New York and for MLS, but only time will tell.

Enjoy.

Sports Illustrated’s team of soccer writers have been hard at work this Cup and two of them offer their post World Cup assessment. The first comes from Ben Reiter with Fifty post-World Cup observations. Then Georgina Turner provides the Highlights and Lowlights of World Cup 2010.

World Cup viewership in America is up. Way Up.

And Lastly, Jamie Trecker at Fox Sports offers his take on whether the USA’s 2010 performance will impact the bid to host in 2018 or 2022.

Any list would contain the biases of the person who writes it. So I have tried to put together a list that is objective as possible. Here is what I have done.

I kept the FIFA scoring format of the group stage intact through the entire tournament. (3 points for a win, 1 for a tie, 0 for a loss). After the group stage, there are no more ties so teams either get a full 3 points or 0 points. Tie breakers that existed int he group stage still exist: Goal Differential followed by Total Goals Scored, however I have added an additional tie breaker that supersedes those two: Total games played, so that a team that advances to the quarterfinals is put ahead of a team with the same number of points but failed to make it to past the round of 16.

Click on the chart to see a larger version.

As you can see, Spain and the Netherlands are tied for points and goal differential, but based on this system, Netherlands would come out ahead on goals scored.  The United States comes in at number 12, edging out England at number 13. North Korea takes the bottom spot.

But wait, there’s more!

Here’s another chart. One that tried to take into account ties in the knock-out round. Yes, I know there aren’t any ties in the knock-out round. But what if the game went to overtime, the winner would still get all three points, but the loser? They made it to overtime, don’t they deserve some love too? Well in this chart, yes they do. The loser of a game that goes into overtime will get 1 point (as if they tied). Goals for and against are still counted.

But what if the match goes into penalty kicks? Well, in that case, both teams will get 1 point, but the winning team gets another game and as above, games played is the strongest tiebreaker. (Penalty kick goals are not counted in the goals for and goals against columns)

Click the chart to see a larger version

The Netherlands still take top spot in this scenario. Beating out Spain by 1 point. Team USA jumps a couple of spots to 10 while England stays firm at 13.

The bottom remains unchanged.

Thoughts?

Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated gives 3 thoughts on the World Cup Final.

Martin Rogers at Yahoo lists his World Cup Winners and Losers.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of World Soccer’s governing body.

And one more final note: Congratulations to Spain, champions of the 2010 FIFA World Cup!