MLS has an odd salary structure. Nobody who is objective can claim otherwise. While some players are fairly compensated most quite frankly are not. The following list provides us with a player per team that is likely to contribute more to the league this season than their salary would indicate. This list is a hodgepodge […]

74th Rhein Derby this Saturday in the Bundesliga: 1. FC Köln against Borussia Mönchengladbach. A Derby with great history and even better stories, most of the time Borussia came out ahead. 19 times Mönchengladbach has been able to win in Köln, more than against any other Club they have visited in the Bundesliga. Bundesliga.de conducted […]

On Tuesday, EPL Talk will be hitting the road to Miami to attend the SportelAmerica Conference. It's the event of the year where the major sports leagues and TV networks meet to negotiate the rights to TV and new media. The Premier League will be there. So too will the Bundesliga and Major League Soccer. […]

Both Manchester United and Liverpool managed to exorcise some demons this midweek, which leads up to a mouth-watering clash at Old Trafford on Saturday (8:45am ET, Setanta Sports USA). For Sir Alex, he took on the greatest nemesis of his 35-year managerial career and sent him home empty handed. It was a controversial win against […]

If you have previous writing experience — whether it's for a blog or newspaper — and you're interested in writing for EPL Talk, please let us know. Even if you don't have any professional writing experience, you may be a good fit. If you are interested, please send an e-mail to thegaffer[at]epltalk.com with a couple […]

Chelsea will play a friendly against Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan this summer in San Francisco, according to The New York Times Goal Blog. The friendly is scheduled for July 21. Three days earlier, on July 18, Chelsea will play Seattle Sounders in a friendly (kick off time Noon PT). So far, Chelsea is the only […]

Gavin & Stacey TV star James Corden has taped a hilarious sketch with the England football team to raise money for the British version of Comic Relief. Featured in the video are David Beckham, Peter Crouch, David James, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Michael Carrick, Shawn Wright-Philips, Ashley Cole and Rio Ferdinand. The story line is […]

The European Champion Clubs' Cup or, more commonly, European Cup, was inaugurated in 1955 for winners of European domestic leagues. The format was straightforward knockout over two legs, home and away, with the team with the highest aggregate score qualifying for the next round. For the 1992-93 season, the tournament was renamed the UEFA Champions […]

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 […]