In 1997, FIFA confirmed the Confederations Cup as the second biggest event on the organizations calendar. But the Confederations Cup has had an identity crisis thanks to shifting from every two years to every four years and the lack of interest in the English language media because England has never qualified. England's non participation and […]

Despite being also-rans for a large part of the season, one cannot help but thinking that the Premier League is beginning to open up for Chelsea for the 2009-10 season. While Guus Hiddink may now have left the club, the Blues will certainly fancy their chances under new man Carlo Ancelotti of regaining their title which […]

It's become fashionable to assume Mexico is in jeopardy of missing the World Cup. But are they really? The United States also still runs the risk of slipping to the 4th position in qualifying. The truth is when you objectively analyze qualifying very little separates the top four sides. Each of the top four nations […]

The headline of this article is very much misleading. Real Madrid's £80m bid for Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo is certainly very real. Just as with their recent £56 million signing of AC Milan's Brazilian playmaker Kaka, the Madrid giants are very much prepared to the huge sum of money for the Portuguese winger. However, […]

The US and Irish assets of Setanta Sports could be sold to raise financing to bail out Setanta UK, according to The Guardian newspaper. Setanta UK is desperately trying to raise money between now and Monday to make a £30m payment it owes to the Premier League. As a result, Setanta is looking at all […]

Photos of Fulham's new home football kit for the 2009-10 season has been leaked. Fulham's home kit will feature the traditional white and black colours. Designed and manufactured by Nike, Fulham's new home jersey feature a white shirt with black sleeves. To me, the design of the home shirt reminds me of Adidas's Classic series […]

So its official, Manchester United's board have accepted a world record shattering bid of £80 million this morning from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo. I don't know about you, but I couldn't face another summer of every news outlet boring us to tears speculating on Ronaldo's future as we had last season. Day after day, […]

Now regular listeners to the Italian Football FanCast and the Manchester United Football FanCast will be very aware of my liking for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, some of my colleagues would even call it a blind obsession. After weeks of mockery, I have decided to take it upon myself to explain why I think […]

On Episode 87 of the Major League Soccer Talk podcast we will have Bruce McGuire from DuNord and Beau Dure from the USA Today discussing all things US National Team and Confederations Cup. Leave your questions for either gentleman in the comments threat on this post.

It is a common perception that America's football loving populace is divided three ways- European football lovers, fans of the American game and Latin futbol fans. But the truth is the subdivisions within these groups are enormous. Let's take the fan of the American game for example. MLS has sold itself as the all encompassing […]

I was so tempted to ape the feel of the misleading headline that first brought this story to my attention: "John Barnes set for Rovers Role". He's taking over Blackburn? I thought. Ah... (after clicking on the link) ...Tranmere Rovers. So when it came time for my own sensationalist slant on things, how about: John […]

Throughout the years, American soccer fans have had to endure the snide remarks and abuse from the English football press and public towards America. We've all heard the cheap jokes at the expense of our "Mickey Mouse" league, the tiresome jibes about the term soccer and how Americans mispronounce it. As well as the jabs […]

One of the Bundesliga's funner 4-4-2's. GOALKEEPER Rene Adler Near Elder (if word about his back is true) DEFENDERS Paul Stalteri Ultra Pilates (perhaps, but what about Ultra defending?) Michael Gravgaard Alarm! Vice! Haggard! (Jol! Agrees! Some!) Daniel Van Buyten Banal, Even, Untidy (it's almost kind, even) Dino Drpic Drip In Cod (and on the […]

Episode 86 of the Major League Soccer Talk podcast features a review of Honduras-USA with Chris Riordan as well as a preview of the first round of US Open Cup matches. Here why host Kartik Krishnaiyer believes the US has a batter shot of getting a result versus Italy in the Confederations Cup than versus […]

When Fox Soccer Channel became Nielsen rated last October the hope at least on my end was that it provides evidence that more people were interested in Major League Soccer as spectator sport than the English Premier League. I even floated my theories two years ago in a running debate with Christopher Harris of EPL […]