If you're a Liverpool fan, you're probably pretty angry right now. You've won one game since September (albeit a pretty important one, against Manchester United), qualification to the knockout stage of the Champions League seems extremely improbable right now and you're sixth in the English Premier League, after finishing second last year.
If his incredible two-goal display against Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday was any indication, Atlético Madrid superstar Sergio Agüero could be on the path to recovery after a frustrating beginning to the 2009-10 season.
Where have all the wonder teams gone? There was a time -- perhaps there still is that time -- when the Serie A championship was totally dominated by the three superpowers: Inter Milan, AC Milan and Juventus. Not only has this trio won 26 of the last 33 league titles, it has also tended (at least one has) to utterly dominate the season, home and away.
Things are a little tight at the top of the English Premier League, and it's making people nervous. Only seven points separate the top seven teams, and the pack could further congest if Aston Villa, Manchester City and Arsenal win their games in hand.
Manchester United No. 1 Edwin van der Sar reflects on his career after receiving his award as ESM Goalkeeper of the Year.
We're halfway through the Champions League group stage, which means it's midterm report-card time for Europe's elite. In this evaluation, though, you don't get a straight grade -- you're on a curve based on how you've performed relative to expectations.
Team Limey was basking in an unfamiliar relaxed state leading up to this week's final round of World Cup qualifiers, as its beloved England team safely qualified at the beginning of September with two games to spare.
If no news is good news, then it's tempting to conclude that good news is no news at all. Not when it's this familiar, anyway, because when it's this familiar, the extraordinary becomes ordinary.
In this early stage of the English Premier League season, experience has played a major role in two contrasting ways. The club at the top of the league is reaping the benefits of it, with Ryan Giggs flourishing for Manchester United. At the other end of the standings, judging by its current plight, rock-bottom Portsmouth hasn't taken heed of history.
We knew it was coming sooner or later. Michel Platini, president of UEFA, had said as much. And now we're one step closer, after UEFA approved what it calls the "concept" of "financial fair play."
If you're a Liverpool fan, you're probably pretty angry right now. You've won one game since September (albeit a pretty important one, against Manchester United), qualification to the knockout stage of the Champions League seems extremely improbable right now and you're sixth in the English Premier League, after finishing second last year.
If his incredible two-goal display against Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday was any indication, Atlético Madrid superstar Sergio Agüero could be on the path to recovery after a frustrating beginning to the 2009-10 season.
Where have all the wonder teams gone? There was a time -- perhaps there still is that time -- when the Serie A championship was totally dominated by the three superpowers: Inter Milan, AC Milan and Juventus. Not only has this trio won 26 of the last 33 league titles, it has also tended (at least one has) to utterly dominate the season, home and away.
Things are a little tight at the top of the English Premier League, and it's making people nervous. Only seven points separate the top seven teams, and the pack could further congest if Aston Villa, Manchester City and Arsenal win their games in hand.
Manchester United No. 1 Edwin van der Sar reflects on his career after receiving his award as ESM Goalkeeper of the Year.
We're halfway through the Champions League group stage, which means it's midterm report-card time for Europe's elite. In this evaluation, though, you don't get a straight grade -- you're on a curve based on how you've performed relative to expectations.
Team Limey was basking in an unfamiliar relaxed state leading up to this week's final round of World Cup qualifiers, as its beloved England team safely qualified at the beginning of September with two games to spare.
If no news is good news, then it's tempting to conclude that good news is no news at all. Not when it's this familiar, anyway, because when it's this familiar, the extraordinary becomes ordinary.
In this early stage of the English Premier League season, experience has played a major role in two contrasting ways. The club at the top of the league is reaping the benefits of it, with Ryan Giggs flourishing for Manchester United. At the other end of the standings, judging by its current plight, rock-bottom Portsmouth hasn't taken heed of history.
We knew it was coming sooner or later. Michel Platini, president of UEFA, had said as much. And now we're one step closer, after UEFA approved what it calls the "concept" of "financial fair play."
Manchester City's headline-grabbing 4-2 home win over Arsenal last weekend delivered more talking points than a double-bill Oprah healthcare special. City struggled to contain a probing, possession-heavy Arsenal offense. But on the break, the speed of Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy and Shaun Wright-Phillips pierced a dispersed Gunners defense three times over a frenetic 10-minute second-half spell.
This week, the European continental competitions -- the Champions League and the newly re-christened Europa League -- kick off, and I keep thinking of Allen Iverson.
Jump on the England bandwagon too soon -- as often happens -- and you're bound to be disappointed. But the numbers are hard to argue with: eight games in World Cup qualifying, eight wins; 31 goals scored, five conceded.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- There are times, when you sit and talk for more than hour with U.S. coach Bob Bradley, that you wonder if he's a sort of soccer version of Rain Man.
Deadly, lethal, prolific -- just a few adjectives often used to describe Team Limey's nightclub performances on a Saturday night. Back in the real world, these are apt descriptions of the elite goal-scorers discussed in this week's column. More specifically, we're looking at who we think will be donning the Golden Boot as the English Premier League's top scorer this season.
Even the proudest of Spaniards had to accept defeat; even the most enthusiastic La Liga cheerleaders were forced to pack away their pompoms. The warm glow of the European Championship success still endured -- but the national team was one thing, the nation's teams quite another. The lineup for the 2008-09 Champions League semifinals brought Spain crashing back down to earth.
Finally, the 2009-10 UEFA Champions League draw is done and we know who's playing who and when.
It's decided: Zlatan Ibrahimovic's new nickname is "Elite Status."
There was a time, not that long ago, that Arsenal was the standard for club management. Devoid of a wealthy backer willing to lavish (and lose) millions, it worked very much as a real business, year after year, breaking even or turning a small profit. When it came time to make some serious capital investments -- moving out of historic, but cramped, Highbury in favor of a new 60,000-seater at Ashburton Grove -- it did so intelligently, securing financing and building a comfortable, state-of-the-art stadium capable of generating substantial match-day revenue.
What do the following have in common: keeper Vincenzo Fiorillo (Sampdoria), fullback Francesco Renzetti (Genoa), center-half Giuseppe Bellusci (Catania), midfielders Fabio Sciacca (Catania) and Andrea Poli (Sampdoria), and strikers Abel Hernández (Palermo), Guido Marilungo (Sampdoria) and Alberto Paloschi (Parma)?
After a summer of increasingly intensive thumb-twiddling and hours spent aimlessly wandering the corridors of Castle Limey, the excitement is at fever pitch as the English Premier League season returns this weekend. Last week we gave you our predictions for the season, and this week we're taking a detailed look at the first couple of fixtures following the big kick-off.
Awaking from our slumber after one of those tedious biennial summers without a showpiece international tournament, it slowly dawned on us: the Premier League is back at last! With only one week before the world's pre-eminent league kicks off, we headed for Castle Limey to dust down the dungeon-sized supercomputer responsible for our EPL predictions.
Is German soccer in trouble? A German club hasn't won the Champions League in eight years, and success in the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) has been few and far between as well. World Soccer chats with German national-team coach Joachim Löw, who explains the need for speed at the top level, not just in the legs, but in the mind, too.
Welcome to rock bottom. It couldn't possibly get worse, could it?
If this summer's transfer window is any indication, we can look forward to one of the most exciting European seasons in decades. With the three most expensive transfers in the history of the game recently made for amounts previously unimaginable, the stakes are higher than ever.
Spend some time in the inner sanctum of AC Milan's high-security hotel floor, and you'll see soccer royalty up close and personal. Up walks Ronaldinho, the two-time FIFA World Player of the Year, with a smile and a "Bom día." Here comes Clarence Seedorf, the four-time Champions League winner, with a handshake and tales of meeting Nelson Mandela.
Sven-Göran Eriksson must be kicking himself for not surviving the sack at Manchester City. After being given a top-10 target after he took the job in July 2007, the former England manager steered the club to ninth place in the Premier League that season, his first in charge. Notorious City fan and Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher told the BBC that Eriksson "gave us a bit of style and dignity and grace. He bought some great players." It was "the best season I can remember."
It has been a weird summer of transfers. Most of Europe's top leagues kick off next month and yet, with a few exceptions (Real Madrid and, to a lesser degree, Juventus and Bayern Munich), there hasn't been too much going on. The window won't close until Aug. 31. In the meantime, here's an attempt at making sense of it all, with 11 questions facing 11 big clubs:
It seemed the 2008-09 season was barely seconds over before AC Milan turned just about everything on its head. Bad enough Captain Courageous, Paolo Maldini, has finally (at the age of almost 41) opted to retire, but next season, the Rossoneri will also be without two key figures of recent seasons: coach Carlo Ancelotti and Brazilian ace Kaká, who have left for Chelsea and Real Madrid, respectively.
Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez is not a happy man. In the past few seasons, he's had his own way in the transfer market, happily signing 3-4 big-name players each summer, spending an average of $70 million across the last four.
Credit crunch and slow economy be damned, the soccer world is still spinning from the record-busting $131 million fee Real Madrid is on the verge of pumping into Manchester United's coffers for FIFA World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo. That's on top of the $92 million the mysteriously loaded Spaniards already paid for last year's World Player of the Year, Kaká. But there's far more to come in the transfer market. This week, we run through the English Premier League looking at possible transfer targets, and who might be heading for the exit door.
There are some people who, I guess, are just not meant to be liked. Maybe they don't fit with what we expect, or perhaps there's something about them that prompts us to judge them more harshly than others. Or maybe they just don't look right.
There's only one Carlos Tévez. With a move away from Old Trafford now almost a formality, several clubs continue to fight for the striker's much sought-after signature, making it one of the most long-running transfer sagas in recent history. The biggest loser is Manchester United, which hesitated in offering the Argentine star a permanent deal because his $37.5 million buyout fee seemed excessive.
There's cigar smoke and perfume in the evening air as the thronging masses head to Castle Limey for our annual awards ceremony. Only one man is headed the other way: a winking, temperamental, petulant, prima donna flagging down a lift to Madrid. Are you sitting comfortably now, the chilled Taittinger bubbling to perfection? Team Limey takes the stage.
Nine years ago, Florentino Pérez walked into the game and ushered in a new era. Call it "the Galáctico Age," call it "the Zidanes y Pavones experiment," call it the destruction of conventional wisdom, call it what you like.
One of Africa's most successful footballers, Nwankwo Kanu, has had a glittering career on the pitch.
The summer transfer market is a few weeks away from opening and already the signs are that the global financial crisis is forcing clubs to rethink their annual spending.
Everton goes into Saturday's FA Cup final as underdogs riding on a high. After claiming the scalps of two "Big Four" teams -- Manchester United and Liverpool -- en route to the final, it clinched fifth place in the Premier League for the second year running.
Barcelona vs. Manchester United: Chime with your thoughts on the Champions League final here
One is the kind of athlete you might design in a lab: tall, lean and muscular, with a seemingly inexhaustible arsenal of skills. The other is a throwback, a scrappy little player whose abilities are more difficult to pin down because they border on the metaphysical. At 6'1" and 172 pounds, Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo is soccer's Magic Johnson: a big man with skills usually associated with smaller players. At 5'7" and 148 pounds, Barcelona's Lionel Messi looks more like somebody's kid brother and plays like Pete Maravich, with an otherworldly touch that allows him to do the unthinkable with the ball.
SI.com's Gabriele Marcotti breaks down Wednesday's Champions League final matchup between Manchester United and FC Barcelona (ESPN, 2:30 p.m. ET).
It's safe to say Wednesday's Champions League final is the most anticipated title match since UEFA created the platinum edition of Europe's top tournament. From Rome to Rochester to Rangoon, everyone with even a modicum of soccer in his blood is planning on watching the game live, regardless if that requires skipping an important sales call at work or losing a few hours of sleep.
Shakhtar Donetsk became the third former Soviet club to win the UEFA Cup in the past five years, following CSKA Moscow in 2004-05 and Zenit St. Petersburg last season.
Before Chelsea had Roman Abramovich's rubles and Rafa Benítez built Liverpool into Champions League winners and English Premier League challengers, Manchester United and Arsenal dominated the EPL throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. On Saturday, the former "big two" face off after having taken contrasting paths in recent years.
Serie A's status suffered another blow with the failure of any Italian clubs to make the last eight of this season's Champions League. Is Italian soccer on the slippery slope of irreversible decline and fall? The question inevitably asks itself in the wake of Serie A interest in the Champions League being ended by teams from the English Premier League for a second successive season.
Three English teams clinched the semifinals of the European Champions League this week, representing the Premier League's finest hour since ... well, since last season, when three English teams achieved the same feat. As they did the season before that. Indeed, only a much-fancied Barcelona side can prevent a second all-England final. With Team Limey all cock-a-hoop with jingoistic cockiness, we look back at those quarterfinal second legs, starting with the thriller at Stamford Bridge.
For three consecutive summers, José Mourinho brought Chelsea to the U.S. for preseason training and friendlies against other touring European clubs and assorted Major League Soccer teams. Two years after his last trip, the Portuguese manager will bring a new team back to the States.
Halfway through the Champions League quarterfinals and the neutral fans can only be pleased. We've seen far better games than in the first legs of the Round of 16, we yet could have a major upset and, along the way, we've learned at least 10 things:
Ordinarily, Manchester United making a trip to Craven Cottage isn't much of a story. Fulham hasn't beaten United at home in league play since 1964. But an unusually high amount of attention is focused on this weekend's encounter.
It was Real Madrid's most humiliating European night in a long, long time. And in some ways, the 4-0 loss to Liverpool on Tuesday hurt more than the 5-0 defeat to Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan team 20 years ago.
Silverware, iPods, playground spats, free booze and nights in jail. Confused? You should be, but it's all in a day's work for Team Limey in the reporting of what's happening in English soccer.
At a family function over the weekend -- the xxth birthday of my mom's best friend (I am forbidden to supply specifics) -- I got a few questions to the effect of, "So, what are you writing about in the soccer world?"
To our knowledge, Roman Abramovich has never sung Oops!... I Did It Again at karaoke while wearing a Britney Spears wig. But it would be apt, since the Chelsea owner hastily and mistakenly sacked a manager for the third time in 17 months.
Like just about everything that has to do with AC Milan, the extenuated January saga relative to Manchester City's failure to buy the club's Brazilian ace Kaká for a reported $145 million started and ended with the Rossoneri's all-powerful owner: Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
A little more than a week ago, I was invited to a roundtable chat with UEFA president Michel Platini. One phrase stood out: "We need to reintroduce the concept of morality in football. We have to permit everybody to have a chance to win."
Michel Platini has been an eager advocate of the introduction of salary caps since his election as the president of UEFA. His idealism, as well as his power base among the smaller nations of Europe, makes him a natural supporter of a scheme that might reduce the power of the giant clubs of England, Italy and Spain, and allow many more teams a realistic chance of winning trophies.
Are we about to witness the fourth coming of David Beckham? Last week, the iconic midfielder said he wanted to extend his stay at AC Milan, possibly making it a permanent move. If he is able to stay, it could again, at age 33, mark another renaissance of a career often previously written off.
The banner headlines have left no doubt: "Arsenal trouble" "Arsenal crisis" "Arsenal horror."
As ascents to the footballing summit go, that of 1899 Hoffenheim takes some beating, more state-of-the-art cable car than rope and crampons. A year ago, the club based in a micro-conurbation in the southwest of Germany was mid-table in the Second Division, eight points off a promotion slot. Twelve months later, Hoffenheim topped the Bundesliga at the winter break, albeit only on goal difference from Bayern Munich.
Over the years, the Under-20 South American Championship has been used as a highly effective market platform for future prospects to showcase their skills in an attempt to attract lucrative contracts with top European clubs.
Thanks to Dimitar Berbatov's 90th-minute winner at Bolton last weekend, Manchester United is back on top of the Premier League for the first time this season. Yet it was the 17-time English champions' crosstown rival, Manchester City, who hogged the global spotlight last week.
Keith Harris, the prominent deal-maker for the many English clubs desperately seeking a takeover, spoke to the International Football Arena in Zurich, Switzerland, in November, warming to his theme that English soccer is in rude and cheery health.
It's the classic "offer you can't refuse" -- the tipping point at which anything becomes possible. Manchester City's $145 million bid for Kaká is a shot into unknown territory. It roughly doubles the previous world-record transfer of $65 million, set 7½ years ago when Zinedine Zidane left Juventus for Real Madrid.
After a couple of years with nothing to show, FC Barcelona has finally been transformed into the most feared club in Europe. The Catalan giants have been nothing short of extraordinary this season, and if their magnificent form continues, they could be on track for a rare triple.
The headline English Premier League game this weekend sees second-place Chelsea visiting Old Trafford to face third-place Manchester United on Sunday. Usually a close affair, their first EPL meeting of the season was a 1-1 draw, as was their nail-biting Champions League final matchup last May.
One of my New Year's resolutions was to shed some of my soccer geekiness. No more whole Saturdays spent watching the English Premier League in the morning, Spain's La Liga in the afternoon, MLS at night. No more work e-mails ignored in favor of reading the du Nord blog. No more surfing YouTube for videos of goals interred in my memory.
It's that time. So why not make a list of things I hope to see in 2009?
1. The U.S. will win in the Estadio Azteca for the first time. History is actually on Bob Bradley's side when the U.S. plays at Mexico in 2010 World Cup qualifying on Aug. 12. The last two times an American coach took a team down to its personal hell of a venue for the first time were the last two times the U.S. had a real shot at a result. Steve Sampson guided the team to its only point at the Azteca in 1997 with a 0-0 draw, and Bruce Arena's best and only real shot of a win there came two years later in his first trip to Mexico City, as Mexico won 1-0 in extra time of a Confederations Cup '99 semifinal. Bradley will prepare his team well, the Americans will extend their dominance over El Tri onto Mexican soil and Landon Donovan will become an even greater villain by scoring the game-winning goal.
It was six months ago that fans were treated to a scintillating European Championship. Here's a look at how the leading actors of Euro 2008 are now faring:
With the European seasons just about at the halfway mark, there seems to be one overriding theme. Every one of the big boys (except Barcelona) is generally stinking it up. Some more so, some less so, admittedly.
For what, exactly, is Roy Keane keen? Rest? Solitude? Perfection? Happiness? What emotion led the enigmatic Irishman last week to quit the Sunderland manager's job he had held since August 2006?
These are difficult days for the Calderóns -- Ramón, the Real Madrid president, and Vicente, the Atlético Madrid stadium -- as both are forced to defend their honor in the face of what they deem to be "conspiracies" against them.
So Cristiano Ronaldo has won the Ballon d'Or as European Footballer of the Year (though, in fact, it's a bit of a misnomer: Any professional in the world is now eligible). And, barring an Act of God, he'll win the FIFA World Player Award as well.
LAS VEGAS -- Coming at you with a bucket of hot wings and a, ahem, perfect view at Hooters, it's the Limey. Half of Team Limey is halfway through its American vacation, and this week we've got an exclusive interview with New York Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio, an English perspective on MLS Cup and all the latest English Premier League goings-on.
Twelve matches without a victory is a tough spell for any team. But for Argentine powerhouse River Plate, one of the world's most storied and successful clubs, it's nothing less than a catastrophe.
David Beckham vowed last week that he would return to the Los Angeles Galaxy from his two-month loan to AC Milan in time for the start of the 2009 MLS season next March. "My commitment is still to the Galaxy, and that's not changed," Beckham insisted when asked if L.A.'s 2-2 season-ending tie with FC Dallas on Oct. 26 would be his last game with the Galaxy.
It's a whisper that's slowly becoming a roar -- Liverpool for the title. Seasoned Reds fans in England's Northwest may be staying tight-lipped, but as grim economic recession stories multiply in the U.K. headlines, talk of a football renaissance in the European capital of culture is spreading through the back pages.
Preseason forecasts of the survival chances of newly promoted clubs tend to be of the dark, doom-laden and deeply condescending variety, the vast majority condemned even before a ball is kicked. So it made a refreshing change for Bundesliga rookies 1899 Hoffenheim to be welcomed aboard in August to the sound of optimism.
Team Limey comes crashing into Jonah Freedman's beloved Power Rankings control room this week, as our lovable Power Ranker is on vacation down under. No doubt he's checking up on the Perth Glory's and Queensland Roar's chances of breaking into a future top 10.
No one expected Robinho to sign for Manchester City, least of all Robinho himself. The Brazilian scored on his debut against Chelsea at Eastlands, kissing the badge on his shirt in delight as he dashed across the pitch, but if he had got his way he would have been playing for the other side that afternoon.
Geovanni, still Geovanni, Geovanni 25 yards out...GOAAAAAALLLLL!!!!! HULL ARE LEVEL AT THE EMIRATES!
Perhaps it was always going to take the meltdown of the financial markets to get the folks who run the game to take an interest in things like ownership and debt. Whatever the case may be, it's better late than never.
Ronaldinho swapped Camp Nou for San Siro, roared on by 30,000 delirious AC Milan fans as he performed tricks, flicks and that trademark thumb-and-little-finger waggle, dripping with bling.
World Soccer's Kevin Palmer catches up with new Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.
If you really want to know who's in for a dusting amid the global downturn, check out the jerseys on show in English football's Premier League
It exists in almost every organized sport in almost every country. You can call it whatever you like: Director of Football, Sporting Director, General Manager -- it really doesn't matter.
Holland gave everything to Euro 2008. The team played dazzling soccer against France and world champion Italy. Pundits swooned over an updated version of total football and praised the individual skills of Wesley Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart & Co.
Ladies and gentlemen, raise the curtain and welcome Manchester City Football Club onto the world stage.
The takeover of Manchester City by an Abu Dhabi group is further evidence that soccer clubs have become a hot buy
The warm glow of the 2008 European Championship continued to spread across Spain well into the summer. Even the transfer stories were set aside, for a while at least, in favor of the accolades. And when the screaming headlines and astronomical figures began once again to be splashed across the covers of the country's newspapers, there was something different about it.
If there's a new feeling of buzz around the Italian Serie A this season, much of it comes down to two men who are walking, talking hype machines: Ronaldinho and José Mourinho.
How close was David Beckham to joining AC Milan instead of the Los Angeles Galaxy? Extremely close, he says. But things worked out for the best: Becks has taken Major League Soccer by storm, even if the hype machine from last summer has died down. The media attention may be less, but Beckham has appeared in every game for the Galaxy and has contributed to their league-leading attack.
Team Limey, along with everyone else over in Blightly, has been riding the rare wave of British sporting success that the Olympics have brought. We were brought crashing back to reality watching the drab 2-2 draw between England and the Czech Republic, and contemplated turning your favorite net-based soccer column into a fortnightly update on the happenings of the U.K. cycling, swimming and rowing scenes.
With the English Premier League kicking off on Saturday, Team Limey took some time out to discuss the 2008-09 season with Arsenal and England legend Martin Keown.
The Olympic soccer tournament hardly seems viable in its current format. It's not hard to understand the howls of anguish from the European clubs over having to release their players.
Winning is the key to financial success for the pro teams of Europe, and spending has become the key to winning. Thus are bubble economies made
It's been a slow summer in the Premier League, with no England in Euro 2008 and a transfer market that has been moving slower than 92-year-old Great Uncle Limey after several hours at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Probably something to do with the tightening finances in the football world and the soccernomics issues we wrote about last time around.
Many years ago, I was taught about the invisible hand and free markets and how, by definition, something was worth whatever someone was willing to pay for it. Of course, I've since learned that it's all a crock of bull. Some markets may work that way, but in fact, most of them don't.
Soccernomics: the study of the relationship between human wants and the allocation of scarce resources in soccer, the world's most popular and globalized sport.
American soccer's $10 million man is about to begin his Great Spanish Adventure.
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