PRE GAME (4-4-1-1) Guzan Wynne – Edu – Parkhurst – Orozco Rogers – Bradley – Kljestan – Holden Adu McBride Rogers and Holden swap flanks to play on owing itself to the bad linkup play between Orozco and Rogers. Otherwise Nowak keeps his starting XI intact. Join us to discuss at CSRN's Third Half Chat. […]

Many Glasgow Rangers fans may not be too pleased with the new design of the club's away shirt. Manufactured by Umbro, the shirt looks very similar to the classic England shirt that the national team wore in the 1982 World Cup in Spain. It makes you wonder if some Rangers fans will refuse to buy […]

As our readers and listeners to the American Soccer Show are aware, I have advocated the use of a 4-5-1 formation for the US Olympic side. I see no reason to change the setup now, but perhaps a change or two should be made to the lineup. The change I'd make is to place Benny […]

The new Newcastle United third shirt for the 2008/2009 season has been unveiled, and it's silver with a white trim. Designed by Adidas and sponsored by Northern Rock, the shirt will be worn today (August 9th) for the first time in a friendly against Valencia. Silver shirts are quite rare in football. So, what's your […]

The 2008-2009 season starts end of month but several big names will be missing come opening day. AC Milan especially are showing their weakened status with several poor performances in pre-season, including a 0 – 5 loss to London's Chelsea last week in Russia. Who do you think will be the most obvious missing link come match […]

WARNING: We have received several complaints from readers in the past few weeks where they have not received the merchandise they have ordered. Plus they have not received replies from the owner of the site. Based on recent interactions with several of our readers, we would encourage you not to order merchandise from The Onion […]

The Netherlands entered the Olympic Men's Football Tournament as the favorite in Group B. However, following a scoreless draw against Nigeria, the other highly touted side in this draw, Holland needs at worst a draw and ideally a victory against the US to realistically stay alive in Group play. Ryan Babel the Liverpool attacker is […]

Aston Villa surprised many neutrals last season, and probably even some of their own supporters, with their 6th-place finish. In 2006-2007, the Villans checked in at a respectable 11th, a nice improvement from 16th the season before. Villa's emergence, led by manager Martin O'Neill, came with one of the smallest, if not THE smallest, first […]

The 2007-2008 season was a roller coaster for Tottenham Hotspur. Martin Jol was removed from the manager's post in late October, but only found out through a text message sent to his nephew, who then forwarded the news to the Dutchman's phone. A team that was a trendy pick to break into the top four […]

Peter Nowak's decision to adjust his tactics (ironically enough in line with what most American Soccer Spot readers suggested the other day) shows a tactical savvy and willingness to take chances that many American coaches have quite frankly lacked in big competitions. Since the debacle of Steve Sampson 3-6-1 in the 1998 World Cup, American […]

Imagine how many hundreds of thousands of words were wasted discussing the possibility of Cristiano Ronaldo moving from Man United to Real Madrid this summer. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the word count went into the millions as the story was the biggest tease from June through August. While the episode appears to […]

This Sunday marks the traditional beginning of the top flight of English football when Portsmouth battles Manchester United in the Community Shield Final at Wembley Stadium in London. If you're like me, you're excited about seeing the return of English football after being without it since the end of May. But the biggest story in […]

Just like Manchester City and Everton, Portsmouth is coming off their best season in England's top division in years, and I'm not sure there'd be much argument from the South Coast side's supporters by saying it was the best season in club history. Portsmouth wound up in 8th place, their highest-ever finish in the Premiership […]

Solomon Kalou of Chelsea celebrates the Ivory Coast's goal with a teammate / AP PhotoMatchday one is in the books for 2008 Men's Olympic Football tournament with Argentina, Brazil, the United States and Italy all recording victories. However some performances were more impressive than others: Brazil for example were outplayed badly by Belgium for much […]

A look at Bayer Leverkusen's Bruno Labbadia concludes our The New Gaffer: Introducing... series this week. So far we've examined, in order: the journeyman, the company man, the stranger and, er, Martin Jol. Labbadia is a mix between a poor man's Jürgen Klinsmann and a poor man's Christian Bale (take a look!). In other words, […]