Toddsimmons

The Kicking and Screening Film Festival opened in New York last night with a look at the issue of identity. Each night beginning Tuesday, the festival will explore an aspect of soccer culture through films that focus on a central theme. Today, the theme is Coaches, Thursday, Inspiration — and Friday, Brazil. The first film […]

For many years soccer, Brazil and Pele have been linked in the mind of many around the world. You could say that for certain generations, they were the three hearts of the sport. When Pele was born in the Brazilian town of Tres Coracoes (Three Hearts) in 1940, his parents named him Edson Arantes Do […]

New York Red Bulls Head Coach Mike Petke summed up the opposition on Friday when he said Chivas USA is a “young hard working team, organized, run hard and fast. Anticipate them coming in organized.” The rain that had been falling on the way over from the parking lot had stopped, so before the game […]

The New York Red Bulls are practicing on a rainy Friday at their arena in Harrison, New Jersey. There is still a little yellow grass behind the goal down in front of the supporters end, and a yellow blur of turf on the penalty spot. The reporters and staff waiting at the side of the […]

With so much attention focused on European soccer teams coming to the United States this summer, it's important to note that the International Champions Cup returns to the five boroughs of New York in July when Olympiakos takes the field against AC Milan, where Citi Field turns its baseball diamond into a pitch for what […]

There was supposed to be a drum-roll. Instead there was an old fashioned New Year's Eve style countdown as the doors were opened to unveil the identity that will carry Major League Soccer's latest expansion team into the future. There is a new badge in town. It represents New York City FC, and designer Rafael […]

There are three books about Manchester United that are worth reading, and that combined may bring this season into a little better perspective. Two of them were published within the last year, but it's best to begin chronologically with the third, and perhaps best, of the three. A Will to Win – Alex Ferguson […]

There were fireworks at Red Bull Arena Saturday but they were, for the most part, limited to the pre-game celebration of the Supporters Shield and the five minutes of added time at the very end of the game. The New York Red Bulls began the game attacking toward their supporters' end and gave the appearance […]

“Knowledge of positions is a good thing.” Attaquant polyvalent. It is the french description of the position on the pitch that Peguy Luyindula occupies. In English, it translates as versatile forward. He is a player who feels like the off-season lasts too long, that the end of the season just means waiting for the next […]

"You have to be pragmatic and ask the Chelsea supporters if they are happy with the Cup or if they would prefer to play a Brazilian Samba game and go home without the Cup" – Jose Mourinho on winning the League Cup, 2007 Last year, Chelsea made two trips to the United States. On their […]

“The fears, the tensions, the dramas, the personality clashes, the tedium of training, the problems of motivation, injuries, loss of form, the highs and lows, new people coming through, old stars beginning to fade, that sort of stuff goes on, and will go on forever.” More than anything else, this quote by Hunter Davies in […]

Football does not ask for faith: it compels examination. So writes Arthur Hopcraft in the introduction to The Football Man, reissued late in 2013 as part of the Aurum Press Sports Classics series. When I started reading the book, I kept a blank piece of paper as a bookmark to take notes, a simple page […]

This morning as the Staten Island ferry docked at its slip in Manhattan, it left behind it a wake of open water through the ice floe that has been building up in the harbor. It is an apt metaphor for looking at Guillem Balague's book Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning. What could have come […]

The 2013/14 season is a period of intense transition for Manchester United, as former Everton manager David Moyes has become the first new manager of the team in more than 25 years. Despite the recent adversity the team has suffered after defeats to Tottenham, Swansea and Sunderland, this is not the first time that the […]