In part two of our season preview, Christopher Riordan and myself take a few minutes to focus on the play-in, wild-card, preliminary, extra, new, another tier of playoffs – why not? – round of Major League Soccer's postseason cup tournament. Which teams do we see playing those final matches to make it into the eight-team, […]

There were two English Premier League matches mid-week, but our main focus of attention was Champions League, where one North London club qualified for the quarterfinals while their rivals were sent home empty handed, jaw slacken. For the second year in a row, Arsenal's Champions League met its end in Barcelona, but whereas it was […]

Club: San Jose Earthquakes Head Coach: Frank Yallop Last Year's Finish: 12-8-10 6th Place in the West/8th Overall It was a rocky season with the Earthquakes last year but it did end in a positive way. After being down a goal on aggregate against the Red Bulls, they surprised many by scoring two to lead […]

There's something magical about a Cup Final. On any given day, any team can win even if it's a David against Goliath. The nerves are tensing, the butterflies are racing and the sweaty palms are in full bloom. Then you have the atmosphere at the stadium, the team colors flying and waving in the ground […]

Champions League matches often create fascinating moments in games, especially in the second leg when two teams are going down to the wire to determine who will be victors. In Tuesday night's match between Barcelona and Arsenal, with Barcelona in the ascendency with a 3-1 lead late in the game, it looked more likely that […]

New photos of what appears to be Liverpool's away shirt for the 2011-2012 season have been leaked. The photos of Liverpool's new away shirt reveal a return to the club's famous yellow shirt with red trim. Designed and manufactured by Adidas, Liverpool's new away shirt features red pinstripes on the front as well as the […]

Subbuteopia – trailer from L@SocietàSintetica on Vimeo. A documentary about Subbuteo, the legendary table soccer game, is in the works and scheduled for release this year. The film includes the story of the Parodi brothers, one of the main distributors of Subbuteo in Europe since 1971. When they could no longer obtain new Subbuteo items […]

The masterminds at EA have taken their FIFA 11 game simulation machine and predicted the result of tonight's Barcelona against Arsenal match. After Arsenal's historic 2-1 win against Barcelona at the Emirates, will the Gunners be able to overcome the best team in the world at Camp Nou? Or will Barcelona's away goal make the […]

The moment has finally come. After so many years of loyalty to ESPN, J.P. Dellacamera has been shown the door after the World Wide Leader in Sports refused to pick up his option and decided to go a different route. While J.P. was the voice of soccer for ESPN, he announced many matches in the […]

Of course over the next few days we will be wrapping up the team previews, with the San Jose 'Quakes on today's schedule. If you have not read your favorite team's preview yet, I highly recommend you take a look and share anything we overlooked or you think we got wrong. Of course the MLS […]

Team Name: Portland Timbers Stadium and Location: PGE Park, Portland Oregon Coach (with record as MLS coach): John Spencer (First season as Head Coach) 2010 LEAGUE RESULTS: 3rd in the USL Conference table . (4th Overall) 2010 REVIEW: A 3rd place finish in the USL Conference and 4th overall saw the Timbers round off their time in the USL with […]

Some clubs have reputations as being the dirtiest teams in the Premier League. Derby County, Stoke City and Hull are some of the most penalized in history. On an average weekend in the Premier League, we see a host of yellow cards being pulled out of the pockets of referees. And sometimes we see the […]

Was Thierry Henry lazy? Is Florent Malouda the most valuable player in the English Premier League? Are NBA analytical models being used in the EPL? All were questions and discussion points during the “Soccer Analytics” panel held Saturday at the 5th annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston. The conference, which has grown rapidly over […]

Allow me start with some nuts and bolts. When I first embarked on writing tactics-flavored match reports, I planned to focus on mid-to-lower table clubs, like my initial report on Wigan v. WBA. This was because Michael Cox of Zonal Marking (a participant in a tactics interview accessed with a subscription to EPL Talk Pro) already […]

Liverpool has snapped a three derby losing streak to Manchester United, with strong performances from Dirk Kuyt, Luis Suárez and Raúl Meireles leading the Reds to a 3-1 victory over their rivals. On this edition of the EPL Talk Podcast, myself, Kartik Krishnaiyer and Laurence McKenna talk about the Red Devils disappointing performance, what it […]