No matter how much Fabio Capello has tried to defend England’s performances in all five of the friendlies he has taken charge of, it remains blatantly clear that the team are not currently ready for the daunting trip to Croatia next month. After previous unconvincing Wembley wins against Switzerland and USA under Capello, and a […]

It took an own goal in the 67th minute by R. Özcan for the Azzurri to draw even after trailing 0-2 on Manager Lippi's return. Italy were expected to ease past Austria in Nice, but Austria hadn't read the script and Emanuel Pogatetz and Marc Janko fired goals past Azzurri keeper Buffon to make it 2-0 by the 38th […]

Andy Williams (Real Salt Lake) Scored a goal in Jamaica's 1-1 draw with Canada Omar Cummings (Colorado) Came on late and helped Jamaica secure a valuable road point. Dwayne DeRossario (Houston) Played the full 90 minutes for Canada and received a yellow card Pat Onstad (Houston) Played the full 90 minutes for Canada in goal […]

Puerto Rico Islander Osei Telesford has become a key part of the Soca Warriors Andy Williams (Real Salt Lake) Scored a goal in Jamaica's 1-1 draw with Canada Omar Cummings (Colorado) Came on late and helped Jamaica secure a valuable road point. Dwayne DeRossario (Houston) Played the full 90 minutes for Canada and received a […]

There are positions in the world that are very daunting to undertake and Argentine superstar Sergio Agüero can have the distinction of being the most daunting player both on and off the field. His gunslinging attitude on the field made him an idol fairly quickly at Atlético Madrid, but it is his relationship with his […]

It’s clear that England is really lacking in two positions – left wing and center forward. Steven Gerrard is a very good player and performed well on the left today, but that’s not his natural position and he doesn’t give England much width. He needs to play in the position Frank Lampard occupied today. Stewart […]

The Azzurri return to the field this evening trying to forget their early departure from Euro competition earlier this summer. Back with the team is World Cup winning manager Marcello Lippi who has warned his players this will not be an easy task facing Austria with many missing faces in team Italia's roster. It's half time in Nice France and […]

Hopefully this becomes great news for LLT´s Barça nut R.D. Baker as Zenit St. Petersburg officially stated that negotiations with Tottenham Hotspur over Euro2008 revelation Andrei Arshavin broke off earlier on Wednesday. This leaves the door wide open for Barcelona to come in and swipe the player, but there is very little time. Zenit mentioned […]

Madrid looked to for a Plan B or C, but now that Diego Milito and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar sem to be out of the mix, they emerged with a Plan D. Benfica´s Ángel Di Maria seems to be the name of the day coming out of Valdobobes. The Argentine-20´s agent was contacted to day to find […]

• Well, I had it wrong earlier when I said Gareth Barry would be on the left and Steven Gerrard in the middle. The two were reversed to start, though Gerrard ended up drifting inside anyway. Ashley Cole and Wes Brown, the left and right backs, respectively, both needed to get forward and provide some […]

If you're anything like me, you love reveling in statistics. While in isolation, especially at the beginning of the Bundesliga season, they don't reveal much. But as time goes on it should be possible to discern patterns between some of these statistics and how the table shakes out. Here are some of the basic stats, […]

Yes, you read correctly. We've seen this story before. Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard can't play together in the same midfield, but yet England boss Fabio Capello is going to give it another try in today's friendly against the Czech Republic. This should be interesting. The other surprise in the starting lineup is Gareth Barry, […]

What I'm hearing is Juventus midfielder Tiago Mendes has rejected a 12-month loan move to English side Everton. Sounds like the Turin club had tried to transfer the player to either Tottenham or Newcastle but those talks broke down and Everton pounced for the Portuguese national. Something tells me Tiago has his ruby slippers on and […]

England plays the Czech Republic in a friendly today at 3pm ET/8pm UK time. The game will be shown live on Fox Soccer Channel for U.S. viewers, while U.K. viewers can find the match on Setanta Sports. It should be interesting to see how Fabio Capello's side does at Wembley on a night when Emile […]

• I was disappointed to see how many empty seats there were at Hull City’s KC Stadium. I know this was only a friendly, but come on. These players are the future of England’s national team, and the already small stadium wasn't even half-full to watch them. • I liked the 4-3-3 employed by Pearce. […]