Noel S. Williams

As both an Arsenal fan and a longtime Los Angeles Galaxy season ticket holder, I have been asked how I reconcile my support for two different teams. I always reply that supporting Arsenal and the Galaxy is like having two friends who are destined never to meet. This Saturday at the Emirates, that quip will […]

At the end of a productive week you shuffle off to your living room for some deserved rest. You plonk yourself down on the comfy couch, arrange a smorgasbord of snacks on the table and tune in to the game of the week. Everything is aligned for an ideal Sunday afternoon fiesta when suddenly it […]

Saturday morning Landon Donovan will arrive in Goodison Park to begin his loan spell with Everton. As he settles into his seat and watches his new team take on Carlisle United in the FA Cup, he will be working on his checklist of what he wants to accomplish over the next 75 days. This loan […]

Arsene Wenger is nothing if not strategic. To those who follow the professor closely, today’s announcement that Nicklas Bendtner is still three weeks away was no surprise. In the next day or two, I would expect an announcement that Cesc Fabregas will need another couple of weeks to fully recover. Also, if Wenger is going […]

In a long and completely boring interview with London’s Daily Mail, Marky Mark Wahlberg had this to say about his neighbor David Beckham: Man, the Beckhams. It used to be so quiet on my road. Then David moves in with his family. Suddenly we've got paparazzi hanging out day and night. Now they'll follow any […]

As we head into the festive season, English fans are wrapping the present they give themselves before every World Cup – the gift of unbridled confidence in their national football team. And yet, as they have for the past 40+ years, those English fans are likely to stick their thumb in the Christmas pudding […]

Landon Donovan and the LA Galaxy announced an agreement today where Donovan has signed an extended contract with the Galaxy taking him through the 2013 MLS season. It seems an agreement is also in the works to allow Donovan to spend from January 1 to mid-March on loan with Everton. In a statement put out […]

There is probably no team in the EPL whose economics are more dependent on success on the pitch, and whose success on the pitch is more dependent on economics, than Liverpool. Compared to Arsenal, ManU and Chelsea, Liverpool are pikers. Their owners are the least wealthy. Their gate revenues are the smallest. Their shirt sponsorship […]

Thomas Dooley, former USMNT captain, joins us to talk about the US team and other topics. After retiring as a player who spent most of his career in the Bundesliga, Dooley now lives in California and works with youth soccer and also for Match Analysis, a company that complies soccer statistics and sells the information […]

The Galaxy issued an odd statement today that leaves room for a lot of reading-between-the-lines: We are aware of Everton’s interest in Landon Donovan, as they are one of a number of clubs who have contacted the Galaxy about the possibility of a short term loan agreement for Landon. The Galaxy, MLS and Landon’s representative […]

Simon Kuper and Stefan Syzmanski titled the American version of their new book Soccernomics (review is here), but their title for the release in the UK is Why England Lose. In the book, Kuper and Syzmanski identified the US as a rising power in soccer and England as a permanent disappointment to their rabid fans. With […]

FIFA announced the seeds and pots for Friday’s World Cup draw, and the main talking point for the US is that CONCACAF was put in the pot with Asia and Oceania as opposed to Africa. Of course, the main talking point all over the world is that while the Hand of Henry may have […]

Over the past decade or so, there has been an odd trend of political and financial analysts, economists and behaviorists writing books analyzing sports. Some of these books have shifted the paradigm in those sports like Michael Lewis’ baseball analysis Moneyball. Some of these books found very creative ways to portray obvious truisms (the more […]

I wanted to follow up Kartik’s excellent post on the nature of the MLS contract with a look at this situation from the MLS owner’s perspective. If there is one thing the owners fear and will try to avoid at all costs, it is having a situation like what exists in Europe where a player […]

Hello. My name is Fabio Capello. Over the past 18 months, I have been hailed as the savior of English football. Under my stewardship, England easily qualified for the World Cup Finals next year in South Africa. Granted, our qualifying group was fantastically weak, and in our friendlies against other big nations like Spain and […]