General Soccer News

[Brent Burns]

Just found out about this website maintained by Bert Kassies in the Netherlands:

UEFA Country Ranking 2007

UEFA Team Ranking 2007

[Brent Burns]

It will be about 3 weeks before the 2007-2008 English Premier League will start; it is the same way with the Scottish Premier League.

A few days ago, the British police conducted raids on two EPL clubs and the Glasgow Rangers club for some kind of fidicuary mismanagement in terms of paying the players. Will have to hunt for that link.
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2127646,00.html

Anyone thinking as to who would win the 07-08 EPL title.

Also had a quick read of the headline that FIFA is inquiring Man U about Tevez.
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/7035096

[jessexy]

Arsenal for the Title this year. well maybe in my dreams....

[Timbalaned]

Arsenal for the Title this year. well maybe in my dreams....

we can only dream, cause I don't think it is going to happen. Just read an article yesterday on ESPN about Drogba being quoted that now that Henry is gone, it is only a two horse race in the EPL.

[jessexy]

So Beckham played tonight and scored an amazing goal on a freekick tonight. The goalkeeper was completely fooled. These are the kind of goals and moments that MLS and LA Galaxy are counting on and that fans are expecting to see. a goal and an assist in a win and now they advance to the final of the SuperLiga. If they win, they surely dont deserbe the trophy cuz they are the worst team in MLS and wont even make the playoffs. Its sad that everyone is paying attention to the Galaxy cuz they suck.

[bste_lax]

jessexy, your Gunners stole one away (not surprisingly) from Fulham on Sunday. Luckily the Cottagers bounced back today with a win over Bolton.

[Sonny]

So Beckham played tonight and scored an amazing goal on a freekick tonight. The goalkeeper was completely fooled. These are the kind of goals and moments that MLS and LA Galaxy are counting on and that fans are expecting to see. a goal and an assist in a win and now they advance to the final of the SuperLiga. If they win, they surely dont deserbe the trophy cuz they are the worst team in MLS and wont even make the playoffs. Its sad that everyone is paying attention to the Galaxy cuz they suck.

Was the game on TV? I couldn't find on DirecTV.

Seeing him play last week at DC United for a short while, you could definitely tell that Becks has that "mojo."

[Brent Burns]

So Beckham played tonight and scored an amazing goal on a freekick tonight. The goalkeeper was completely fooled. These are the kind of goals and moments that MLS and LA Galaxy are counting on and that fans are expecting to see. a goal and an assist in a win and now they advance to the final of the SuperLiga. If they win, they surely dont deserbe the trophy cuz they are the worst team in MLS and wont even make the playoffs. Its sad that everyone is paying attention to the Galaxy cuz they suck.

Was the game on TV? I couldn't find on DirecTV.

Seeing him play last week at DC United for a short while, you could definitely tell that Becks has that "mojo."

I may be wrong, but I read somewhere that the game was on Telefutura.

Found this one:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/769180/ml ... _kick_goal

[bste_lax]

Yeah, the game was on Telefutura.

[jessexy]

The final of the SuperLiga will be on August 29th on Telefutura. Beckham will surely play in that, even if he gets called up to England for the Euro 2008 qualifiers that next week.

Arsenal got the points and I'm excited about this season. They look to be the same Arsenal team minus Henry. I'll have to watch Barcelona much more closely this season also since he's there.

[Zeuslax]

I got a chance to see Beckham's free kick on ESPN this morning. It was a great kick and the pass to Donovan was nice too. With the position of the wall it looked like the goalie was way out of position though......not that he would have gotten it anyway.

[FLAK]

Jose Mourinho, the manager of Chelsea has offcially quit...

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=464779&cc=5739

Chelsea have confirmed that manager Jose Mourinho has left the Stamford Bridge club by 'mutual consent' after three trophy-laden years at the helm.

He is understood to have contacted five senior players yesterday afternoon to inform them of his departure and by midnight the entire first team squad had learned he was going.

Peter Kenyon, the club's chief executive, Bruce Buck, the chairman, and Abramovich's key aide, Eugene Tenenbaum, were called to an emergency meeting at Stamford Bridge last night to discuss the emerging crisis.

Any insight into the potential impact on the EPL and ECL?
I think that with both Lampard and Drogba out for a few more games, Shevchenko still trying to find his legs in the EPL, and now this, it's going to take a while for the London Club to get its feet back underneath it and we might even see them slip down the tables further than ever anticipated. If there were ever a year for a new team to break into the big four, this would be it, as ManUtd haven't had the best start either and this is coming from a United fan...

[jessexy]

Chelsea will surely suffer. This new guy is worthless and Roman Rusky will have to move quickly and find the right guy to compete. They are lucky its early in the season.

the EPL will suffer cuz Jose' was a breathe of fresh air throughout the league bringing new ideas (read:non-British) and a sense of panache/style/arrogance that people loved or hated but always talked about. he was the talk of the league and Europe at points during his tenure there.

Anyone else watching the Women's World Cup? USA and Germany have been pretty good and Brazil is pounding people. but its girls and its in China causing the games to be way too early in the morning, so i understand if nobody is watching

One more thing, my Gunners are 2 points up on the top of the table without Thierry Henry, so I'm ecstatic. Henry hasnt scored a goal yet for Barca and my boy Fabregas is playing like a wildman after he wasn't given the captain's armband.

[bste_lax]

I tried watching a US Women's game the other night when I was up real late but couldn't get into the game.

The Gunners have looked impressive so far.

Fulham is much improved compared to last year but their back line is so weak they can't hold leads. At least they score a bunch which make the games that much more enjoyable. Dempsey has picked up his play in the past month.

[FLAK]

Well Jessexy, the time has come for my Red Devils to face off against your Gunners, and it's definitely shaping up to be one of the games of the season so far with both teams hitting top form.

Arsenal has demolished opponents of late winning 7-0 of Slavia Prague and scored a late goal this weekend to draw with Liverpool, though they had many missed opportunities.

Meanwhile, United are looking quite sharp by scoring 4 goals a game in their last four games. Their strike force of Rooney and Tevez is shaping up nicely and their other young signings of Nani and Anderson have both had suprisingly good starts what with Nani's two rocket goals and Anderson's surgical passing that has been destroying defenses of late.

I think it's gonna come down to the midfield and both sides ability to break up the other's attacks because they play such a similar style of free flowing soccer.

I hope that its an open game and both sides play to win as opposed to "play not to lose"

I'm gonna say that Hargreaves has a solid game and is able to get at Fabregas and shut down the midfield maestro.

Your central defenders are also gonna have their hands full with Rooney and Tevez running all over the place.

my guess is 3-1 in favor of Man Utd, but it really is anyone's guess as to how this game turns out.

If Arsenal wins then the Premier League is theirs to lose, if they lose it will be a question of how they handle that defeat.

Either way I can't wait to get up at 7:30 am (central) and hit the pub on Saturday