Obviously the United States has hosted the Gold Cup regularly but never have more than six venues in the nation hosted Gold Cup matches in the same tournament. For 2009 however, the US will have 13 different venues hosting matches in the championship of the CONCACAF region. Jack Warner, the ethically challenged President of CONCACAF […]

Admit it. It's something that's happened to you, too. You get psyched about a specific game, maybe it's a Champions League match. You set the DVR or VCR to record it. You get home and it didn't record. Or if it did tape, it gets cut off when the match goes to penalties. We've all […]

Barca Put On Scoring Clinic Barcelona 5-2 Lyon BAR: Henry’ (24’, 26’), Messi (39´), Eto´o (42´), Keita (90´+5') OL: Makoun (43'), Juninho (48') BAR adv. on 6-3 agg. Defending Champs Make Inter Look Not-So Special Manchester United 2-0 Inter MAN: Vidic (3´), Ronaldo (49´) MAN adv. on 2-0 agg. Impotent Atleti Say Adeus Atlético […]

As I was watching the Portland City Council discuss with members of the Merritt Paulson group on building a brand new baseball stadium and refurbishing PGE Park into a soccer stadium, out of no where and recently seen on MLS-Rumors thru USA Today, the St. Louis group has just added a big name to their […]

Forgiving the Gaffer’s scheduling criticisms, ESPN mostly has been wonderful for soccer promotion in the U.S.. Top goals are making the top-ten plays. Sportscenter features highlight reels. Yesterday’s Real Madrid-Liverpool match, though it was not the greatest testament, featured on the flagship network. Much has been done, and the burgeoning community of soccer fans is, […]

(Brek Shea photo from MLSNET.com) The United States U-20 National Team secured passage to its twelfth U-20 World Cup by winning its group at the CONCACAF U-20 Championships. The US has advanced out of the group stage of the last six U-20 World Cups, but has not reached the semifinals even once in that stretch […]

Pepe mentioned last week that ¨things would be different at Anfield¨. He couldn´t have been more right. No one expected Liverpool to come out so actively offensively and Madrid to be left impotent. Liverpool dominated the Champions League return leg from whistle to whistle and Real Madrid were a meek shell of what they looked […]

If the Man United against Inter Milan match can even be half as good as the Liverpool versus Real Madrid match, this will be one of the most entertaining Champions League weeks in such a long time. But in the battle between Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho, who do you think will win the […]

FIFA President Sepp Blatter will present Manchester United with a special Champions badge before tonight's Champions League match at Old Trafford between United and Inter Milan. The special Champions badge (pictured above) is in recognition of United's triumph in the FIFA Club World Cup tournament. The white emblem features an image of the Club World […]

With ESPN on Tuesday, I didn't know whether to kiss them on the cheek or kick them in the balls. The Disney owned network only had since December 19, when the knockout round draw was originally announced, to figure out which second leg matches would be shown on which ESPN channels. However, the mass confusion […]

New rule. All Liverpool games at Anfield have to be played on weeknights. I'm kidding, of course, but why can't Liverpool play like they did against Real Madrid in the Premier League? They would wipe the opposition clean. Such tenacity. Such passion. Such skill. Incredible stuff. If it wasn't for Iker Casillas, Liverpool could have […]

GOOD BUY SHALRIE JOSEPH New England $450,000 Joseph along with the underpaid and under appreciated Steve Ralston has been the heart and soul of the Revs for many years. A skillful and yet hard nosed footballer, Joseph has shown not all […]

Liverpool – Real Madrid LIV: Reina, Arbeloa, Fabio Aurélio, Carragher, Skrtel, Mascherano, Xabi Alonso, Gerrard, Babel,Kuyt, Torres MAD: Casillas, Heinze, Pepe, Cannavaro, Sergio Ramos, Gago, Diarrá, Robben, Sneijder, Raúl, Higuaín Panatinaikos-Villarreal PAN:Galinovic, Sarriegi, Salpingidis,Gilberto, Gabriel, Karagounis, Simão, Vintra, Wawrzyniak, Mantzios, Nilsson VIL: Diego López, Capdevila, Ángel, Eguren, Fabricio Fuentes, Senna, Ibagaza, Diego Godín, Nihat, Rossi

The winner played matches and/or made headlines during the calendar week of Mar. 2 – 8 and the winner is:

Jonathan Wilson, the inimitable scholar of tactical mechanics with his recent Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics (a book I included in a piece on tactical reductionism for this website) has made a very convincing argument why English Premier League clubs have come to dominate the Champions League in the last four seasons. […]