This year’s Memorial Day weekend would certainly be well remembered by most Chicagoans and especially sports fans. With the Stanley Cup finals starting in Chicago and the MLB St. Louis Cardinals visiting Wrigley Field, and a Presidential visit thrown in, the visit of AC Milan to Toyota Park took somewhat of a back seat. Yet […]

So that's the phoney war over. We've all had our say about England; who should be in and who should be out. We've discussed which formation they should play and which personnel should play it. Injuries haven’t been as bad as feared, Barry excluding. Results are largely irrelevant in the run-in and we can all […]

The Week 10 numbers look like this... 5 year comparison Week 10 79 GP YTD Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP 2006 12,000 8 15,139 15,615 60 2007 16,317 35.97% 6 15,212 0.48% 15,248 -2.35% 65 2008 13,498 -17.28% 7 15,990 5.12% 16,893 10.79% 70 2009 13,779 […]

La Gazzetta dello Sport has confirmed that the coach that will follow in Marcello Lippi's footsteps will be Cesare Prandelli. The ex-Fiorentina coach seems to have reached an agreement with the FIGC chief Giancarlo Abete and will take over as soon as Lippi's contract expires on July 30th. Prandelli's contract is four years long until […]

Heiko Westermann suffered a broken bone in his foot during Germany's recent friendly with Hungary. The injury will rule the versatile defender out for weeks. Westermann's injury comes on the back of injuries to key players in the Nationalelf team, like Simon Rolfes, Christian Traesch, Michael Ballack, and Rene Adler. Westermann's presence will be missed […]

In the first of eight group previews, I am joined by Laurence McKenna and Kartik Krishnaiyer to – with a little help of Andy Brassel, Simon Hill, and Simon Kuper – look at Group E. The Netherlands are the seeded nation in a group with no easy points. Denmark won its UEFA qualifying group. Cameroon […]

In the first of eight group previews, I am joined by Laurence McKenna and Kartik Krishnaiyer to – with a little help of Andy Brassel, Simon Hill, and Simon Kuper – look at Group E. The Netherlands are the seeded nation in a group with no easy points. Denmark won its UEFA qualifying group. Cameroon […]

Well the 30 players named in Fabio Capello's England squad have had multiple trainng sessions and two games to earn their place on the plane to South Africa. Now is the time that this squad must be trimmed to 23 players, meaning that 7 players will soon receive the dreaded phone call ending their World […]

In the United States, it's one of those long holiday weekends, which are a rarity. It's time to remember the fallen heroes who have died while in military service for the United States. It's also an opportunity to spend time with the family, have BBQ's, visit the beach and more — which is why I […]

The new Rangers home jersey for the 2010-11 season has been unveiled by Umbro. The design of the shirt is almost identical to the England home jersey except for the obvious color differences. I must say that the shirt, just like the England jersey, is sleek, very clean and aesthetically pleasing. Hats off to Umbro […]

Germany's warm-up match against Hungary on Saturday proved to be a successful run-out for the Nationalelf, and a good assessment tool for head coach Joachim Low, just before this summer's World Cup. As I predicted yesterday, Germany finished with three goals in the bag and did it with relative ease. A penalty from Podolski, a […]

Yes ladies and gentleman that picture is worth a thousand words. It was something that you could see in a movie or if you got an e-mail and it was trick photography that showed a limb bent in a position that's not natural. But unfortunately for Preston Burpo this terrible accident did happen and to […]

England and Chelsea star Frank Lampard recently stated he'd consider pulling an Eddie Murphy in the 1988 John Landis vehicle Coming to America, and, well, head stateside and over to the prestigious MLS in the future. The only problem with super Frank's comments were that they were followed by the numbers 35 and 36. Like […]

"MLS icon," "EPL veteran," "USMNT standout," the "best soccer player from the State of Illinois" are just a few of the ways to describe Chicago area native Brian McBride. With his team needing a spark, the ageless wonder took matters into his own hands and head. He started a play that lead to an open […]

My memories of how I learned about the news regarding the Hillsborough Disaster and the Bradford Fire Disaster are a lot more vivid than what happened 25 years ago today in the Heysel Stadium Disaster. Part of the reason was because both the Hillsborough and Valley Parade games were played on a Saturday, while the […]