BRENT LATHAM – Who is Hassan Nazari, and why the cool photo, you might be asking. Nazari, bottom right in the photo above, next to Alecko Eskandarian’s dad, played for the Iranian national team in the 70s. After playing in the World Cup and Olympics, like so many other Iranians he ended up in the U.S. after the Revolution.
It was America’s gain. Nazari went on to set up the Dallas Texans soccer club, which has turned out a number of fantastic players, (more…)
Brian McBride, the hardnosed American legend, announced today that he will retire at the end of the season. McBride has been a successful striker during his 17-year career featuring in the MLS, EPL, and three World Cups. He was the first player selected in the inaugural MLS draft in 1996 by the Columbus Crew scoring 62 goals for them. In 2004 McBride was bought by Fulham where he went on to score 40 goals in over 4 seasons. His achievements at Fulham include leading the team in scoring and being named player of the year in 2006-2007. Fulham returned the favor for McBride’s services to the club by naming a bar in Craven Cottage after him. McBride then came back to the US to play for Chicago where he will now end his career. American soccer fans will remember McBride for being the first American to score in two different World Cups. He will forever be in US fans hearts for his heroics in the 2002 World Cup when he scored the winning goal against Portugal and the opening goal in the round of 16 win against Mexico. McBride has earned the right to be called an American soccer legend and he will be missed by all of us. (more…)
NOAH DAVIS – The new CONCACAF qualifying plan calls for two four-team groups in the final stage instead of a single six-squad one. The top team from each group qualifies, while the second-place finishers battle each other for the third automatic slot.
The new format gives more teams an opportunity to reach the World Cup, but it punishes the United States and Mexico, region’s two best sides. But how much more difficult does it make their road? To answer that question, I asked 10 Kit stat guru Steve Davis (my father, not SI.com’s excellent scribe) for some help. (more…)
The US may not be in action, but a host of International matches begin today as qualification for Euro 2012 gets under way. Among the 22 fixtures scheduled for Friday, France faces an issue of leadership as they prepare to host Belarus (3 PM ET) following their nightmarish World Cup, and Ireland steps back on the field to play Armenia (11 AM ET) after missing out on South Africa. Spain, the defending European champions, is after its third major title in four years when they take on Liechtenstein (2:45 PM ET).
CONCACAF action returns – albeit in a friendly manner – as El Salvador and Honduras meet in the Estadio Cuscatlan (5 PM ET).
Differing reports have ex-Liverpool coach Gerard Houllier interviewing for the Aston Villa opening and confirmed as the next manager at Villa.
The dates and location for the 2011 regional qualifying tournament that will send four teams from the region to Colombia later in the year have been announced.
The tournament will be played April 3-17 in Guatemala. Thomas Rongen will try to qualify his squad once again for the biannual tournament.
The championship will presumably take place at Estadio Cementos Progreso, which features a newly installed field turf pitch. It’s the same stadium where the women’s U-20 tournament was played earlier this year.
The Los Angeles Galaxy are in freefall, but they got some good news when David Beckham said he hopes to return on September 11 against the Columbus Crew.
“The doctors’ original date was Oct. 1, but I always kind of said I want to be ready before then,” the Golden Man told LAGalaxy.com. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hopefully will play in part of the game here against Columbus. I’ll be on the bench, and hopefully I’ll get on the field for 15-20 minutes. That’s what I’m looking at.”
The question, of course, is how will he fit in once he comes back. Will he hurt chemistry on a team that can’t seem to get anything right?
Assorted highlights from FIFA’s 2010 World Cup Technical Study Report.
The United States put themselves in a category with Spain, the Netherlands, and others.
It was this flexibility, together with the teams’ healthy aggression and the players’ excellent technique, that paved the way to success. Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Uruguay, Brazil, Ghana, Argentina, Chile and the USA all provided the best examples of this.
But whoa, they needed a playmaker. (more…)
FIFA released the 2010 World Cup Technical Report and it contains some gems. I’ll get to some team-related highlights in another post, but I thought these observations on the state of the referees were interesting. You know, because they weren’t that good. Lesson: FIFA can spin anything. Someone get Sepp Blatter a job in Washington.
It should also be mentioned that despite the tremendous difficulty experienced, the vast majority of the decisions taken in the 64 matches were correct. Of the 145 goals awarded, 142 were correctly given. Furthermore, 13 goals were correctly disallowed for offside (100 percent accuracy) and two more goals should have been allowed, meaning that 96.88 percent of the decisions were correct overall.
Of the 663 shots at goal, only five were goal-line incidents. Of these, four were correctly judged and one incorrectly. There were 65 incidents inside the penalty area in the 64 matches. In 45 of them, it was correctly decided not to award a penalty and in five of them a penalty would have been the correct decision. 15 penalties were given, all of them correct decisions (100 percent accuracy).
But there were errors, yes? So how should we deal with them? (more…)
ANTHONY MANNINO - After scoring four goals in their opener against Lecce Milan now looks scary good with the additions of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho. A year after selling AC Milan’s best player Kaka for £59 million Silvio Berusconi, AC Milian’s owner, has brought in Robinho for £15 million and Ibrahimovic on loan for this year with an option to buy him for €24 million next year. With these two world class talents added to Milan’s squad, which already has Ronaldinho and Pato at their disposal, Milan’s front attack will be the best in Serie A. (more…)
D.C. United’s president is blaming the team’s U.S. Open Cup loss on the referee, Chris Penso, who issued a straight red to Pablo Hernandez early in the second half. To be fair to United, Penso’s a fourth-official kind of ref right now (where he’s spent 9 of his past 11 professional matches) and he issued three yellows (including one YAC Red) in his only other match as a referee (also in the U.S. Open Cup). No photo of Mr. Penso is available.
Midfielder Zach Pfeffer (US U-17) became the first 15-year old since Freddy Adu to play for an MLS club, making a late appearance in the Philadelphia Union’s victory over Chivas. He’s not expected to see time in any MLS matches this season.
Whitecaps to announce their first MLS head coach today (expected to be their current coach Teitur Thordarson). Not to be outdone, the Timbers will announce their shirt sponsor today.
It’s all not English to me, but from what I can make out another European player, John Arne Riise, is looking to end his career in MLS.
USA10Kit
