For the past several seasons, Real Madrid treated the Copa del Rey as a nuisance and a burden rather than a competition worth winning.  José Mourinho has changed that mentality.  One Taça de Portgual with FC Porto, two Carling Cups and an FA Cup with Chelsea, and a Coppa Italia with Inter Milan signals Mourinho's […]

Yesterday, the goalkeeping and the defense were discussed, and while the three goalkeepers contending for the final goalkeeping spot will state their cases to Vicente del Bosque on and off the pitch, they will have little to no chance of participating in the World Cup.  The players who will compete for the final midfield spots, […]

Continuing the La Liga preview, part two will discuss the next seven teams in alphabetical order: Málaga, Mallorca, Osasuna, Racing Santander, Real Madrid, Sevilla, and Sporting Gijón. Málaga Will Málaga stave off the second season syndrome?  After a couple of seasons in La Liga Adelante, Málaga rose from the lower division with a vengeance as […]

Part one of the 2009-2010 La Liga season preview will be out in the next couple of days, but today is devoted to Daniel Jarque González, who tragically passed away at the age of twenty-six while his RCD Espanyol team and he were on their preseason tour of Italy.  According to the RCD Espanyol website, […]

UEFA held the draw for the UEFA Cup group stage today and some fascinating pairings emerged. Both Martin Jol and Steve McClaren will take their new clubs back to England as FC Twente will face Manchester City and Jol's Hamburg will take on Aston Villa. This year's groups are looking really tough and the field […]

Big Loser:   Chile and Colombia.  If there is a tiebreaker it would hav to be based on the result.  So La Roja woud have to earn that honor.  These were the only two that lost at home.   But it was not their loss on the scoreboard, it was their offensive ineptitude that raised questions- again.  […]

After a long wait FC Barcelona have finally made official the signing of right-back Dani Alves from Sevilla. Alves, who can play on the right of defence or midfield, joined Sevilla from Bahia for less than one million euros in 2003 and was an outstanding player as they won back-to-back UEFA Cups in 2006 and […]

Seydou Keita's signed his contract with Barcelona on Monday. He might as well just signed Deco's walking papers in order to give people the same message. The Mali international, one of the players requested by new blaugrana coach Josep Guardiola, signed a four-year and the club had to pay Sevilla 14 million euros which were […]