May 29, 2011

Football World has rendered itself to the feet of FC BARCELONA Argentine forward LIONEL MESSI. Spanish Football press & media have dedicated covers & pages to the player as he once again put in a brilliant performance & goal to help FC Barcelona win 3 - 1 Manchester United in the Champions League Final.

The “magician” yesterday placed himself in the Olympus of the Football Gods: Di Stefano, Pele, Cruyff & Maradona, leaving his stamp without any doubt that he is the “Best Player in World Football” & heading towards the “ALL-TIME” status. The man is only 23 years of age & none of the above mentioned “Football Gods” had so many titles as Messi has at his age. The only title missing that would put LIONEL MESSI in the solitary position of the “Greatest ever Football Player in History” would be a World Cup Championship title with Argentina, & that is a real possiblity  in the next coming 12 years.

LIONEL MESSI with the Champions League 2011 Trophy

Here is the impressive list of Club, Team & Individual Titles that LIONEL MESSI has already with only 23 years of age:

FC Barcelona
Spanish Football League - La Liga: 5 2004–05, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11
Copa del Rey - Spanish Cup: 1 2008–09
Supercopa Spain : 4 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010
UEFA Champions League: 3 2005–06, 2008–09, 2010–11
UEFA Super Cup: 1 2009
FIFA Club World Cup: 1 2009


Argentina
FIFA U-20 World Cup: 1 2005
Olympic Gold Medal: 1 2008


Individual
FIFA Ballon d’Or: 1 2010
Ballon d’Or: 1 2009
FIFA World Player of the Year: 1 2009
FIFA Team of the Year: 3 2008, 2009, 2010
U-21 European Footballer of the Year: 1 2007
Spanish Football League - La Liga Player of the Year: 2 2009, 2010
Spanish Football League - La Liga top goalscorer: 1 2010
Copa del Rey - Spanish Cup top goalscorer: 1 2011
Spanish Football League - La Liga Foreign Player of the Year: 3 2007, 2009, 2010
Spanish Football League - La Liga Ibero-American Player of the Year: 3 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011
European Golden Shoe: 1 2010
UEFA Champions League top goalscorer: 3 2009, 2010, 2011
UEFA Champions League Player of the Year: 1 2009
UEFA Champions League Forward of the Year: 1 2009
UEFA Champions League Final Man of the Match: 1 2011
UEFA Champions League Final Fans’ Man of the Match: 1 2009
UEFA Team of the Year: 3 2008, 2009, 2010
Footballer of the Year of Argentina: 5   2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

But there is more:

FIFPro World Player of the Year: 2 2009, 2010
FIFPro World Young Player of the Year: 3 2006, 2007, 2008
FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year: 2 2007, 2008
FIFPro World XI: 4 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
FIFA U-20 World Cup Player of the Tournament: 1 2005
FIFA U-20 World Cup top goalscorer: 1 2005
Copa América Young Player of the Tournament: 1 2007
World Soccer Player of the Year: 1 2009
World Soccer Young Player of the Year: 3 2006, 2007, 2008
FIFA Club World Cup Golden Ball: 1 2009
ESM Team of the Year: 4 2005–06, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10
Marca Leyenda: 1 2009
Tuttosport Golden Boy: 1 2005
UEFA best goal of the year: 1 2007

Lionel Messi : courtesy of Reuters

The above list will without any doubt get longer & longer in the coming years.

May 9, 2011      USA - Major League Soccer Update

New York, Los Angeles and Real Salt Lake came into the season considered the best teams in MLS and have done the work to prove those prognostications true, but with playmaker Javier Morales set to miss four months or more with a broken leg, RSL suddenly finds itself facing a stiff test to keep up with the big spenders from opposite coasts (after starting the season looking like a team ready to run away with the league).

The Galaxy and Red Bulls treated MLS fans to an entertaining and high-quality game on Saturday, arguably the best 90 minutes of soccer contested in MLS this season. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise considering the talent on display and the veteran coaches steering both clubs. Each team showed the technical quality and star power that makes them the current leaders in each conference (though LA’s lead atop the West has as much to do with RSL only playing six games to the Galaxy’s 10).

Morales’ injury changes things considerably for RSL, a team that looked like a good bet to win a Supporters’ Shield. Real Salt Lake still boasts talent all over the field and still has good depth, but there is no denying that losing Morales will cost RSL points in the standings and gives a slight edge to the Red Bulls and Galaxy as the season progresses.

Neither New York nor Los Angeles will complain, not with the looming CONCACAF Gold Cup set to cost each of team multiple key players. The Red Bulls are especially vulnerable, with as many as five starters (and Juan Agudelo) potentially getting Gold Cup call-ups. The Galaxy stands to lose Landon Donovan and Donovan Ricketts and could potentially lose Omar Gonzalez as well.

That’s what made the coming weeks so vital to RSL. While the CONCACAF Champions League finalists are also set to lose Gold Cup players (Alvaro Saborio and Will Johnson), Real Salt Lake was poised to really take advantage of its depth and the presence of Morales’s playmaking to pull away from New York and Los Angeles in the race for the Supporters’ Shield.

Now, RSL must regroup and turn to veteran Andy Williams to lead the way. The problem with relying on Williams too much is that he’s 33 and can’t handle the same workload that Morales could handle. With Morales in place, Jason Kreis could pick his spots to rest Williams and use a mix of Williams and Ned Grabavoy. Now, Kreis will turn to young midfielder Collen Warner or veteran Arturo Alvarez to pick up the slack. Alvarez is the more well-known commodity, but Warner has the talent to emerge as an impact player and potentially a regular starter.

RSL will be hoping to fair better without Morales than it did against Chivas USA, when a second-half goal from Will Johnson was all Real Salt Lake could muster despite having a two-man advantage for more than 45 minutes. While Chivas USA deserves some credit for holding off the home team, Real Salt Lake really should have done better with such an advantage.

The Red Bulls and Galaxy can both come away from their match with confidence despite settling for a tie. The Galaxy responded well to an early goal allowed and took the game to New York in the second half, while the Red Bulls did very well to leave Home Depot Center with a point despite the absence of standout midfielder Teemu Tainio. Overall, both teams looked sharp and more than capable of taking advantage of RSL’s loss of Morales.

Real Salt Lake isn’t going to budge from being a Top Three team, not with its stingy defense, standout goalkeeper Nick Rimando, and a host of other attacking pieces in place, but losing Morales very well could keep RSL from running away with the league the way it could have.

If Saturday’s Galaxy-Red Bulls match was any indication, the race for the Supporters Shield and the battle between the three top teams in MLS is going to be fun to watch and tightly contested, all season long.

Mondaini facing stiff penalty

Chivas USA striker Marcos Mondaini’s leg-breaking tackle on Javier Morales was different than Brian Mullan’s bone-breaking tackle on Steve Zakuani. For one, he wasn’t responding to a bad call and clearly responding emotionally. He didn’t seem to be going in with malice or a hot head. No, Mondaini’s tackle looked more like a clumsy and poorly-executed attempt at a tackle, the kind you would expect a forward to fail at delivering.

While all this may be so, Mondaini still faces the prospects of a lengthy suspension. When MLS slapped Mullan with a 10-game suspension, the message was clear and new precedent set. If you deliver an ugly tackle, and injure someone badly, you will pay. Mondaini apparently missed that message when he lunged at Morales from behind and collapsed Morales’ ankle from behind.

Now what? Mondaini can’t possibly escape with fewer than 6 games or so, but the fact that the Mullan precedent happened so recently makes you wonder if the MLS Disciplinary Committee won’t punish Mondaini even further to try and remind players to cut out the bad tackles. Another 10-game suspension wouldn’t be out of line, and a 12-game ban wouldn’t be all that surprising.

What should MLS do? A year ago the tackle might have merited a three-to-five game ban. In this new era of trying to protect players and eliminate ugly soccer, MLS needs to hit Mondaini with a 10-12 game suspension, or the message it tried to send with Mullan’s suspension will be completely wasted.

MLS Player of the Week

After a surprising and rather inexplicable stint on the bench for D.C. United, reigning MLS Rookie of the Year Andy Najar was finally unleashed by head coach Ben Olsen and responded with a pair of outstanding performances.

Najar helped set up both goals in D.C. United’s 2-1 victory against Seattle last Wednesday and was D.C.’s best player in a 0-0 tie vs. FC Dallas (that would have been a D.C. victory if not for an outstanding performance from Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman).

Najar’s quickness and sharp passing helped get United’s attack going against Seattle and his efforts helped him edge out Toronto FC’s Joao Plata and D.C. striker Charlie Davies for this week’s honor.

MLS Rookie of the Week

Toronto FC midfielder Joao Plata isn’t a rookie by MLS definition (because he played professionally for a season in Ecuador), but we’ll give the 2011 fourth-round draft pick the nod anyway for a stellar performance in helping Toronto FC beat Houston, 2-1.

Plata blasted home a penalty kick and delivered a killer assist in TFC’s victory and is looking more and more like a real threat capable of playing consistent minutes. He slipped far in the MLS Draft because of concerns about his size (he’s 5-foot-5), but Plata is putting those fears to rest.

As far as players actually eligible for MLS Rookie of the Year, rookie defenders A.J. Soares (New England) and Jalil Anibaba (Chicago Fire) performed well in helping their teams post shutouts in scoreless ties on Saturday.

MLS Team of the Week

While no team ran away with the week, D.C. United gets the nod here for its mid-week victory against Seattle and a draw against FC Dallas where D.C. controlled the match. The inclusion of Andy Najar made all the difference, but more importantly the struggling D.C. defense managed to allow just one goal over 180 minutes to recover from a recent awful run.

Ives Galarcep is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering Major League Soccer and the U.S. national team.

With just two days to go, the anticipation for the world’s biggest game, El Clasico, couldn’t be higher. After both sides, FC Barcelona & Real Madrid have defeated their respective opponents (Shakhtar Donetsk & Tottenham Hotspurs) in the knock-out stages of the UEFA Champions League, Saturday’s match will be the first of four Clasico’s within the span of 18 days.

The exit of Shakhtar Donetsk and Tottenham Hotspurs means that not only will the UEFA Champions League semi-final be an all-Spanish affair, but two mouth-watering Clasico encounters over two legs in their battle for European supremacy.

One Clasico creates a media-frenzy; now imagine four within a couple of weeks. Furthermore, these Clasico’s have a direct impact on all three competitions (La Liga, the Copa del Rey & the Champions League).

The Merengue head into Saturday’s La Liga clash with an eight-point deficit against their eternal rivals, FC Barcelona. Neither a draw nor defeat is an acceptable result if Real Madrid is to end the Blaugrana’s stranglehold on the Primera Division.

Having witnessed FC Barcelona accumulating the treble just two years ago, the Spanish capital club is just as motivated as any side to match this achievement.

Nevertheless, FC Barcelona own treble hopes are still very much alive. And although the Blaugrana have to travel to the most hostile of environments, the Santiago Bernabeu, they presumably hold the psychological advantage over their archrivals, having won all their encounters since Pep Guardiola’s appointment.

In Jose Mourinho, however, Pep Guardiola & FC Barcelona will have to face one the finest managers, some even go as far and champion the self-proclaimed “Special One” the greatest manager of them all.

Since this year is almost devoid of major football tournaments bar the Copa America, the Clasico’s and the UEFA Champions League final can be considered THE highlights of 2011.

Let’s find out what the Barca Blaugranes team (Arron Duckling, Bostjan Cernensek, Gabriel Roberts, Paul Udani, Shehryar Khan & I) think of the upcoming Clash of the Titans.

With just two days to go, the anticipation for the world’s biggest game, El Clasico, couldn’t be higher. After both sides, FC Barcelona & Real Madrid have defeated their respective opponents (Shakhtar Donetsk & Tottenham Hotspurs) in the knock-out stages of the UEFA Champions League, Saturday’s match will be the first of four Clasico’s within the span of 18 days.

The exit of Shakhtar Donetsk and Tottenham Hotspurs means that not only will the UEFA Champions League semi-final be an all-Spanish affair, but two mouth-watering Clasico encounters over two legs in their battle for European supremacy.

One Clasico creates a media-frenzy; now imagine four within a couple of weeks. Furthermore, these Clasico’s have a direct impact on all three competitions (La Liga, the Copa del Rey & the Champions League).

The Merengue head into Saturday’s La Liga clash with an eight-point deficit against their eternal rivals, FC Barcelona. Neither a draw nor defeat is an acceptable result if Real Madrid is to end the Blaugrana’s stranglehold on the Primera Division.

Having witnessed FC Barcelona accumulating the treble just two years ago, the Spanish capital club is just as motivated as any side to match this achievement.

Nevertheless, FC Barcelona own treble hopes are still very much alive. And although the Blaugrana have to travel to the most hostile of environments, the Santiago Bernabeu, they presumably hold the psychological advantage over their archrivals, having won all their encounters since Pep Guardiola’s appointment.

In Jose Mourinho, however, Pep Guardiola & FC Barcelona will have to face one the finest managers, some even go as far and champion the self-proclaimed “Special One” the greatest manager of them all.

Since this year is almost devoid of major football tournaments bar the Copa America, the Clasico’s and the UEFA Champions League final can be considered THE highlights of 2011.

Let’s find out what the Barca Blaugranes team (Arron Duckling, Bostjan Cernensek, Gabriel Roberts, Paul Udani, Shehryar Khan & I) think of the upcoming Clash of the Titans.

August 12, 2010

Theirry Henry will not say American soccer fans sing better than English fans. But they do sing well.

And maybe that is the missing link, the natural order of soccer progression. First the fans learn to sing together in a cappella support of their lads, then a great homegrown striker emerges from the mists.

Henry, once a great star in the Premier League with Arsenal, says he has heard home fans in Houston, Chicago and now the New York metropolitan area keep their teams in the game with musical accompaniment for the entire 90 minutes.

Without blaring vuvuzelas marring the sound, Henry made his home debut Wednesday evening, playing the first half and assisting on the goal as the Red Bulls defeated Toronto, 1-0.

But this musical talent breaking out all over Major League Soccer does not mean the sport is in for a golden age. In fact, this part of the continent might have had its golden age in the 1970s, when the late, lamented Cosmos were filling the late and perhaps soon-to-be-lamented Giants Stadium and other places.

Something is stirring in the United States in the wake of the recent World Cup in South Africa. Apparently a few stirring rallies as the Yanks were eliminated in the Round of 16 went over better with fans back home than they did with the hard-to-please American players, officials and even reporters who witnessed the sluggish starts and lapses up close.

“I never say we are turning the corner because it seems to me that if you turn the corner four times, you are back where you started,” Sunil Gulati, the president of the United States Soccer Federation, said the other night, when 77,223 fans nearly filled New Meadowlands Stadium for a rather unimpressive 2-0 loss to Brazil by the national team.

Something is definitely happening, Gulati added, “when you can’t get into a pub to watch a World Cup match at 10 o’clock in the morning.”

Landon Donovan’s stirring goal in the 91st minute against Algeria, to allow the Yanks to advance to the next round, seems to have been a magic moment back home — so much so that Donovan was on David Letterman shortly after the Yanks were knocked out by Ghana.

All 25,000 seats in the lovely if modest-sized Red Bull Arena are sold out for Donovan’s appearance with the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday night. Perhaps some of those tickets were sold before what’s-his-name blew out his Achilles’ tendon last spring, but Donovan, not any of the elderly stars from the top leagues in Europe, is now the glamour boy of M.L.S.

“You guys should be proud of Landon Donovan, he’s a great player,” Henry told reporters Wednesday after his first league home game enticed only 19,035 fans on a weekday night. Henry is working through a tight groin muscle and cannot guarantee he will be up for 90 minutes Saturday, but he made a few silky moves and alert passes, enough to give promise of more.

This franchise has been down this road. The MetroStars, now in witness-protection identity as the Red Bulls, have trotted out one Donadoni after another Djorkaeff, without much impact. They were cool guys, but they were essentially taking a pay cut to live in New York in their athletic old age.

So is Henry, for that matter, taking the PATH train out to the stadium on occasion. He came by car for Wednesday’s match, he said, because his mother is visiting from France. C’est un bon fils.

This influx of so-called designated players is a departure for the league, which has tried to avoid lavishing huge sums of money on aged glamour. But maybe in the 15th season, it is time to spend.

“Our goals are different,” said Erik Stover, the managing director of the Red Bulls, who are owned by the Austria-based highly caffeinated energy-drink maker, which advances its brand with soccer.

“We need to be the flagship club of the M.L.S.,” Stover said. “Our owners are not going to accept anything less.”

Stover does not think the World Cup has any “magic bullet” on the gate; otherwise there might have been a sellout Wednesday. But the crowd raised the season average for nine matches to 16,583, which would be the best season average for the club since 2004. In this economy, that’s not bad.

Still, the crowds — and the salaries — are nothing like the giddy blitz of the ’70s, when Pelé and Beckenbauer walked the land.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see them replicate the Cosmos, but I would say it’s nearly impossible,” said Shep Messing, the goalkeeper for part of the ’70s and now a broadcaster with the Red Bulls, who said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the progress.

Investors recently bought the name Cosmos, which had been languishing under legal lock and key for a few decades, and are talking about building a New York rival to the Red Bulls. Stover is all for it, but says it will not be easy.

Anybody who saw the Yanks stumble around against Brazil the other night may worry if this country is ever going to have a golden age in the World Cup. But Thierry Henry says American fans sing well. Maybe there will be Welsh-style choral competitions in 2014 to go along with the World Cup in Brazil. Maybe M.L.S. fans can advance further than the Round of 16.

On Tuesday, August 10, 2010  the USMNT will host five time World Cup Champion Brazil at the brand new Meadowlands Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 8PM, and will be broadcast live on ESPN2. The teams last met in the final of the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, and could provide an important opportunity for the USSF to take stock of their current situation and begin to plan for World Cup 2014 in Brazil.

Obviously, there will be a lot more discussion of the USA’s performance over the coming weeks and the USA World Cup Blog will continue to cover all the major and minor news as it comes down the pike. For now, I’m just hoping that the USA have some semblance of an identity come August. Who knows if that will be the case?

The list for the U.S. national team’s friendly against Brazil next Tuesday night at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Fourteen of the 18 players were on the World Cup squad. The exceptions are noted with an asterisk.

GOALKEEPERS: Tim Howard (Everton), Brad Guzan (Aston Villa).

DEFENDERS: Carlos Bocanegra (Saint-Etienne), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hanover), Clarence Goodson (Start), Jonathan Spector (West Ham), Chad Marshall (Columbus)*.

MIDFIELDERS: Landon Donovan (Los Angeles), Michael Bradley (Moenchengladbach), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus), Jermaine Jones (Schalke)*, Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht)*, Alejandro Bedoya (Orebro)*.

FORWARDS: Edson Buddle (Los Angeles), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Herculez Gomez (Pachuca).

The United States is headed to the 2010 World Cup next year after clinching qualification with a 3-2 win over Honduras on Saturday October 11th.

Conor Casey scored his first two international goals in the second half, Landon Donovan added another and the United States clinched its sixth straight World Cup berth with a game to spare.

In one of the most thrilling end-to-end matches the U.S. has played in many years, the Americans needed a late penalty miss by the hosts to get the win.

Following a handball in the penalty area by U.S. defender Jonathan Spector, Carlos Pavon blazed his penalty over the crossbar in the 87th minute, then the striker again fired high with an open header from in the 89th.

The United States is top of the CONCACAF qualifying group and assured of one of the three automatic berths.

Mexico also clinched a World Cup berth on Saturday with a 4-1 victory over visiting El Salvador. Costa Rica moved into third after winning at home against Trinidad and Tobago.

Honduras, seeking its second World Cup appearance and first since 1982, and dropped into fourth. If the Catrachos are still in that spot after the final match at El Salvador on Wednesday, they would meet the No. 5 nation from South America in a playoff.

“You don’t want to go into the last game leaving anything to chance,” Donovan said.

“We’re very proud,” U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. “We understand the responsibility we have every time we step on the field for our fans, for our country.”

Honduras has been in turmoil since a June military coup, but the crowd was united behind its team.

“This isn’t an easy place to play,” Donovan said. “No one else has won here in qualifying and we just did.”

Torino midfielder Julio Cesar De Leon put Honduras ahead in the 47th minute when he curved a free kick over the wall and to the right of leaping U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard from just outside the penalty area.

That set off sustained boisterous cheering and jumping that made Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano shake, but the sellout crowd of about 40,000 was silenced when Casey equalized in the 55th.

Onyewu sent a long pass downfield, and Charlie Davies nodded it across the area to Casey, who outjumped a defender and outmuscled goalkeeper Noel Valladares for his first goal in 15 international appearances.

David Suazo nearly put Honduras ahead in the 65th, one minute after entering, but Howard made a leaping fingertip save. Casey then gave the U.S. the lead a minute later when he split two defenders, took a pass from Donovan and scored from 16 yards.

Donovan, who set an American record with his 10th assist of the year, extended his U.S. scoring record on a 21-yard free kick in the 71st minute.

De Leon added his second goal in the 78th minute and Maurcio Sabillion nearly tied it in the 82nd, putting a bicycle kick over the bar.

Honduras: Noel Valladares, Osman Chavez, Maynor Figueroa, Hendry Thomas (Ramon Nunez 74), Wilson Palacios, Carlos Pavon, Julio De Leon (Walter Martinez 79), Emilio Izaguirre, Carlos Costly, Mauricio Sabillon, Edgar Alvarez (David Suazo 63).

United States: Tim Howard, Jonathan Spector, Carlos Bocanegra, Michael Bradley, Jonathan Bornstein, Ricardo Clark, Oguchi Onyewu, Stuart Holden (Steve Cherundolo 90), Conor Casey (Benny Feilhaber 84), Charlie Davies, Landon Donovan.

Over the years, the passion for soccer has grown tremendously, in terms of popularity and target audience. It has evolved as an addiction. But at times, the frantic soccer supporters suffer paroxysms of disappointment, as the sports channel is not included in their channel lists or they reside in a country where that particular channel is not aired. Well, rather than cribbing on this issue, time demands serious looking for other existing alternatives.
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There are a number of soccer championships which take place all the year around. One such coming up championship, which is being eagerly awaited by millions of soccer fans worldwide, is the European championship which is better known as UEFA Euro 2008. This championship, which is slated to begin on 7th of June, will supposedly see the participation from fifteen national European teams, while all of them will compete with each other in order to grab the championship title.
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