How far are you away from your nearest professional soccer club?(online surveys) Out of curiosity, I want to know how near or far the closest professional soccer club is to your home. Are you fortunate that one is nearby or, as in my case, are you far away from the closest professional club? The closest […]

Simon Kuper and Stefan Syzmanski titled the American version of their new book Soccernomics (review is here), but their title for the release in the UK is Why England Lose. In the book, Kuper and Syzmanski identified the US as a rising power in soccer and England as a permanent disappointment to their rabid fans. With […]

Tottenham Hotspur isn't one of the most fashionable clubs in the English Premier League, but judging by the amount of "jump out of your seat" incidents in the second half, maybe it's time to start paying more attention to the boys from White Hart Lane even though they failed to capitalize on a golden chance […]

England got the draw of dreams on Friday facing off with three weaker sides, and avoiding any Sub-Saharan Africa or South American competition at least at the Group Stage. The Three Lions who under the seeding criteria were close to being knocked off in favor of France, now is an overwhelming favorite to win the […]

For years, the tabloid newspapers in England have been renowned for overhyping the expectations of England's chances in the World Cup. Those wheels have already been set in motion and now The Sun newspaper, which has a daily readership of 7.9 million, have declared that England's group — which includes the United States — will […]

Claudio Marchisio showed great footwork to control the ball, avoid Inter's Walter Samuel then lift the ball over Julio Cesar in a stunning display of his skills. The significance of this goal transcends beyond Juve's 2-1 victory over Inter as the midfielder's goal reopened the title race with the Nerazzurri now four points ahead of Milan and […]

Barcelona's star Lionel Messi has capped his great week with two goals to lead the Catalan side to a 3-1 victory over Deportivo La Coruna. Several days ago he was named the Ballon d'Or winner after a stunning year during which he led Barca to three titles- Champions League, la Liga and Copa del Rey. […]

Most of the headlines focus around Group G, the consensus "Group of Death" with Brazil, Portugal, Côte d'Ivoire, and North Korea, and the pairing of England and the United States in Group C. For Spain and manager Vicente del Bosque, privately they will be happy with their draw in Group H, the match schedule in […]

It was quite a contentious match on an unordinary day at Eastlands Saturday as Manchester City held on for a morale-boosting 2-1 win against Chelsea. What was most obvious about this game is how much it mattered to most teams. I lost count of the number of times Chelsea and City players collided when trying […]

The United States drew a potentially positive group for next summer’s World Cup on Friday. The group as described by some European papers “is wide open” below the runaway favorite, England. This group creates more possibilities of going forward for the United States than any of the potential draws that naysayers, so blatantly shouted on […]

In our continued quest to make the EPL Talk Network, a one stop shop for all your football analysis, I am going to depart from the typical type of commentary you normally find on this site from me to share with our readers my reporter’s notebook from a private briefing with ESPN’s leading soccer programmer. […]

Combing through the news wires, here is the immediate reaction from the English press and pundits to being drawn in the same group as the United States: "We can't argue with that draw and that's as good as we could have expected," said Terry Venables, who enjoyed a two-year spell as England national coach in […]

England and the United States in the same World Cup group is a draw that is made of dreams for me. Not purely because I'm an American citizen and a British citizen, but because it'll shut a lot of people up. Whether that's the egotistical English journalists that feel that a game against the United […]

There you have it, Italy in Group F, drawn with New Zealand, Paraguay and Slovakia. A relatively simple group and one Marcelo Lippi should take the Azzurri through with comfort. Group F Italy New Zealand Paraguay Slovakia They begin the defence of their crown in Capetown at the Greenpoint soccer stadium on June 14th 2010 […]

Hurricane Clásico passed through the shores of Spain with a FC Barcelona win, and now normalcy can somewhat return to La Liga. The two most important matches in terms of the championship race are 5th place Deportivo La Coruña vs. league leaders FC Barcelona and 8th place Athletic Bilbao vs. 4th place Valencia. The most […]