Before I moved to the United States in 1984, I had never heard of Thanksgiving Day. The U.S. holiday, while still seeming a bit surreal and bizarre to me after all of these years, is now one of my favorite holidays of the year partly because it's the one focused on the family more than […]

U.S. soccer is at a crossroads in this country. In what has been the most successful year in the history of the sport in the United States, based on the millions who got caught up in World Cup fever this past summer, it's sad that both the U.S. men's national team and Major League Soccer […]

With just one more set of group stage matches to go, many teams have mathematically qualified for the knockout stages, but few did it better than Barcelona. Although Valencia destroyed Bursaspor 6-1, Barcelona played their usual brand of spectacular football, and they crushed Panathinaikos 3-0.Right now the teams which have mathematically qualified for the knockout […]

Bayern Munich went into Rome knowing that their spot in the round of sixteen had already been booked. Still, they would have wanted to avoid what ended up happening at all costs. The visiting Germans held a two-goal lead at half-time thanks to Mario Gomez, who has been in stunning form this season. Louis van […]

Finally some positive news for Serie A and Italian football in general, this midweek, while some sides played in the Coppa Italia, Inter Milan, AC Milan, and Roma played and won in the Champions League. It was the penultimate matchday of the group stages, and although Roma haven't mathematically qualified yet, AC Milan have mathematically […]

Bayern Munich's loss in Rome yesterday meant little in terms of their actual European ambitions, because qualification to the round of sixteen had already been sealed. The situation for the Bundesliga's other two Champions League representatives is far different, though. Werder Bremen are very nearly out of European competition altogether this season, so a big […]

Current Leicester City chairman Milan Mandaric has today told BBC Sport that he was ’24 hours or less’ from rescuing cash strapped and administration bound Sheffield Wednesday. So would Milan Mandaric be good for Sheffield Wednesday?

MLS Talk has been buzzing all week about the proposed changes to the 2011 season and the reaction to the most recent playoffs. Some of this is spurred by Don Garber's press conference and MLS Cup halftime show; some by the abysmal TV ratings and odd playoff pairings; and some by simmering tension over format […]

Last week Blackburn Rovers became the latest Premier League club to be bought out by a foreign consortium. The purchase of Rovers was a key moment in Premier League history because it brought the number of clubs that are majority owned by foreign investors to 10, representing 50% of the league. An asterisk should be […]

In the first eight matches of this Champions League matchday, there was plenty of excitement to go around. Some sides like Chelsea have made sure that they're going through top of the group, while others like Arsenal have complicated their Champions League campaign terribly. In these eight games, there were 23 goals scored, making for […]

As part of his second state of the union at halftime of the MLS Cup, Don Garber revealed that MLS would be considering shifting the season from spring-to-fall to the FIFA-endorsed fall-to-spring schedule. While this is not the first time MLS has considered shifting its schedule, Garber said that the rethink was pushed by FIFA […]

The sporting director role, it just doesn’t work in English football does it? Except it does, well did; very recently in fact. Chelsea’s double winning side of 2009/10 had a sporting director and his name is Frank Arnesen, the only other man besides Roman Abramovic a Chelsea employee dare not cross. Arnesen has been at Chelsea since a […]

Now that 48 hours have passed since the 2010 MLS Cup, it's time to face reality and that is that the MLS Playoff system is broken and dead. It's a joke. Absolutely meaningless. And needs to be completely revamped so it isn't the way of crowning the MLS champion. Or the playoffs need to be […]

With Real Madrid already qualified for the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League, Barcelona and Valencia could also seal their berths into the knockout round with wins in their group match this midweek. Barcelona will travel to Athens to face a Panathinaikos club that did not win either of their two previous home matches […]

As Chelsea lost at home to Sunderland, the commentator, Martin Tyler was incredulous, saying how this proved how brilliant the Premier League was; it was the best in the world because any side could beat any other side This struck me at the time as being a case of having your cake and eating it […]