Soccer (General)

[Avery86]

Figured I'd start a new thread since the World Cup is long gone, haha.

--

Jozy Altidore and Omar Gonzalez have been added to the US roster for the upcoming match against Brazil, replacing Jermaine Jones and Chad Marshall, respectively.

Jones decided to stay with Schalke and prepare for the upcoming season after being injured for most of last. Marshall declined, not sure why.

[ChaseSpace]

Sounders won against San Jose(1-0) and tied Isidro Metapan(1-1) in CONCACAF play

[Hoek]

Awww.. Disappointing about Jones.

I guess Marshall thinks the Crew need him around, which they do.

[Avery86]

Sounders won against San Jose(1-0) and tied Isidro Metapan(1-1) in CONCACAF play

Both Seattle and Toronto have advanced into the group stage of the tournament, with LA losing out to the Puerto Rico Islanders.

That leaves four MLS clubs still in the tournament heading into the group stages: Columbus, Real Salt Lake, Toronto FC and Seattle.

Real Salt Lake and Toronto FC have been drawn into the same group, unfortunately, as Toronto (for this tournament) is a qualifier from Canada (winner of the Canadian Championship tournament against Vancouver and Montreal), as opposed to MLS.

Seattle is in a really tough group. They're matched up with Monterrey (Mexico), Saprissa (Costa Rica) and Marathon (Honduras).

I hope MLS teams continue to take this tournament seriously. It's great experience and can only give more attention to the league if they do well.

[Hoek]

You've gotta be kidding me calling that penalty on Frankie Hejduk. Ugh. Barely grazed him. Nice dive by Le Toux.

Oh and on CCL.. I can't believe the Galaxy lost 4-1 to the freakin Islanders, at HOME to boot. Don't know why MLS teams suffer these freak results. Reminds me when New England lost to Joe Public. Jeez..

Winning the CONCACAF Champions League punches a ticket to the FIFA Club World Cup too, which means competitive matches with the European and South American champions.

[Hoek]

Media Microscope: Why The MLS On Versus Needs To Happen

In a recent interview with SI.com, MLS commissioner Don Garber admitted his admiration for the job Versus has done with the NHL since its move in 2005. He also confirmed the league has been in discussion with Versus about purchasing MLS television rights, and will continue to do so. (Just to clarify, Versus would replace FSC. ESPN would still broadcast MLS games.)

Many have speculated the Versus talks are just a ploy by MLS to drive up the price FSC has to pay to renew their contract, but, to be honest, FSC doesn’t really deserve MLS anymore. Nor do they need it.

Fox Soccer Channel brings top European soccer to an American audience. That is what they do, and they do it pretty well. FSC's stable includes the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, and the UEFA Champions league.

As any regular watcher of FSC can tell you, MLS is something of the red-headed stepchild of the network. Even now, before any European leagues have started, there is no MLS programming on-air outside of the matches themselves. In the meantime, the schedule is littered with EPL-centric shows like Sky Sports News, Premier League World, and the inexplicable FA Community Shield Preview Show.

In that context (moving from FSC), I think that's a good move. Unlike with the NHL, ESPN has been rather fair to MLS, even though international soccer brings more viewers. And like the NHL, Versus would give MLS special attention as it'll be the only other major league they have on the network. Not to mention, a LOT more people have VS. than FSC.

[Avery86]

In that context (moving from FSC), I think that's a good move. Unlike with the NHL, ESPN has been rather fair to MLS, even though international soccer brings more viewers. And like the NHL, Versus would give MLS special attention as it'll be the only other major league they have on the network. Not to mention, a LOT more people have VS. than FSC.

They should do it in a heartbeat. I don't get FSC because for some inexplicable reason it's located on the highest cable package tier. Makes no sense. I imagine it's similar for a lot of other folks across the country.

[Hoek]

Versus also has HD in more locations. For some stupid reason Bright House has been too lazy to carry FSC HD, but they have Fox Soccer Plus in HD.. WTF..

[Hoek]

Mourinho to USA? ... Eventually that is..

The man loves a challenge. That would be up there..

Freddy Adu to LA?

Was just checking GOUSABID.com and among the city petitions, only NYC, LA, Miami, and Houston have more signatures than Tampa! They have 50-60,000, while Tampa has 49,191.. Most of the other cities are around 20-30,000.. They're only 70,000 shy of 1,000,000 signatures total.

[Avery86]

Adu needs to come back to MLS. He'll never develop sitting on the bench in Europe. Look what happened to Donovan once he came back from Germany.

Side note: Where did you find the vote totals for each individual city? I can only find the total amount of votes overall. I'd like to see where Kansas City stands .. I know we're pretty high up there.

[Hoek]

You have to click each city and it'll have it next to the spot where you can sign it.

[Hoek]

Galaxy put up a good show leading 2-0 at the end of the half, but Real Madrid puts on Gonzalo Higuain and it's all over with his two goals.. 3-2 now.

[Hoek]

U.S. friendlies coming together: Poland, Colombia?

I'm hearing that Chicago is a candidate for the Poland game on Oct. 9 -- the Bears are on the road if the USSF wants to utilize Soldier Field instead of Toyota Park -- but the location of the possible Colombia game Oct. 12 is still unclear. (The New York area, perhaps?) Details are sketchy about the potential Nov. 17 fixture, aside from the idea of playing abroad against a team that participated in the World Cup.

Meantime, ticket sales for the USA-Brazil match at the new Meadowlands stadium have surpassed 61,000.

[Avery86]

Oct. 12 needs a venue, huh?

Kansas City! 52,000 showed up to see the Wizards play United. Thousands showed up in downtown to watch the US play Ghana.

Make it so.

[Hoek]

Tampa would make sense for a game against Colombia..

Villa upheaval clears path for Bradley

Bradley, whose contract with the U.S. national team expires at the end of the year, was installed as the bookies’ favorite to take over at Villa on Monday after previous manager Martin O’Neill walked away from the job just five days before the start of the new season.

An Aston Villa source confirmed to Yahoo! Sports that Bradley would be “in contention” when the club’s hierarchy draws up what is likely to be a short list of candidates as they urgently scramble to put a new man in charge. Also in the frame will be former Tottenham boss Martin Jol, currently head coach at Dutch club Ajax.