Phew! Theo Walcott was five minutes away from starting for England in their next match. If Sweden hadn't scored in the 85th minute to beat Paraguay 1-0, the result of Tuesday's England v Sweden match would have been meaningless for England, and Walcott would have been certain to play. Now both England and Sweden can […]

England made it through to the second round of the World Cup by their skin of their teeth, after a tense win against Trinidad and Tobago. The addition of Aaron Lennon and Wayne Rooney was the difference for England, after they entered the game around the 56th minute. Instantaneously, the England team as a whole […]

By The Scout Spain – Carles Puyol The 28 year-old defender is the captain and inspirational leader for his club team FC Barcelona. For the Spanish national team, Puyol also plays a big leadership role. Having come up through the ranks at the Catalan club, Puyol achieved a dream this season by winning both La […]

By The Scout Brazil – Lucio As the focus is always on the ultra-skilled attacking players of the Brazilian side, their defense rarely gets talked about. Lucio (his full name is Lucimar Ferreira da Silva) is Brazil's best defender and one of the world's greatest stoppers. He plays his club football for Bayern Munich and […]

By The Scout Czech Republic – Tomas Rosicky My pick from Group E will seem opportunistic but I had selected him prior to the 3-0 victory over the US. Tomas made headlines prior to the World Cup with a big money transfer to Arsenal from German club Borussia Dortmund. Just 25, Rosicky already has […]

Eric Wynalda is a breath of fresh air on ESPN and ABC American soccer is still in its growth stages and throughout the evolution of our national team, ESPN and ABC have essentially employed yes men and rally around the flag jingoistic type analysts to cover the World Cup and Major League Soccer. Ty Keough […]

Today ABC's Brent Musberger had an excellent feature on the World Cup telecast about Stand up and Speak Out an effort started by Arsenal and France Striker Theirry Henry and Nike to counter the racism that is prevalent in many European Football stadiums particularly in Italy, and Spain. Recently the English national team which has […]

By this time tomorrow, we'll have seen all 32 teams play their opening match. Right now, the only teams we haven't seen play yet are tomorrow's Spain versus Ukraine, and Tunisia versus Saudi Arabia. What's interesting is that there hasn't been any team that has looked like a definite champion. Brazil weren't firing on all […]

Today France's Vikash Dharasoo became the first player of Indian descent to ever play in a World Cup match. He entered the match in 84th minute and almost scored the game winner in the 89th minute. France and Switzerland drew 0-0 and now the 1998 World Champions have gone four consecutive World Cup games without […]

ABC/ESPN's coverage was better today, probably because Dave O'Brien and Marcelo Balboa took the day off. JP Dellacamera did a fine job, as did the team of Adrian Healey and Tommy Smyth. Some points regarding today's coverage: ESPN's World Cup Live was better today partly because Landon Donovan fan club president Alexi Lalas was absent. […]

By The Scout France – Franck Ribéry In the 23 year-old, we are featuring another attacking midfielder player. My next profile will be a defender, I havent forgotten about that side of the game, I promise! 🙂 Ribery currently plays for Olympique Marseille but is being pursued by some of the top European clubs including […]

This World Cup is exposing two different camps in the US. On one side, you have the those broadcasters and media who are "in bed" with US Soccer, such as ABC, ESPN and Soccer America. On the other side, you have those who are willing to say it like it is such as GolTV, EPL […]

There was one aspect of yesterdays game versus the Czech Republic that I didn't see, and that was passion. The players didn't seem to have a passion to play today. As Americans, we are a very proud country. Remember Lake Placid...1980, U.S. v. Soviet Union. The Miracle. Of course. American teams (expect basketball) seem to […]

I consider myself an avid follower of the US Men's National Team. No, I don't follow the team around like Sams Army, but I have watched just about every meaningful game for our national team since we qualified for the 1990 World Cup, the first of five consecutive qualifications. In 1990 we were rightly considered […]

If you've caught the World Cup fever and want to take up a few more notches, be sure to download issue two of the EPL Talk Magazine, the free soccer magazine that's available for you. Read interesting articles about experiencing the World Cup in the United States, collecting Panini football stickers, saying farewell to Highbury, […]