Lost in Stoke’s controversial win on Sunday, in which referee Chris Foy failed to award Spurs two clear penalties and a legitimate goal, was Harry Redknapp’s magnificent tactical switch to a 3-5-2 at halftime. Redknapp is frequently described in the UK as an old school football manager that doesn’t really do tactics. He is credited [...]
Filed under: Premier League, Spurs | 4 Comments »
When Jermaine Defoe is on he scores goals and right now he is on. He has five premier league goals this season, despite getting limited minutes off the bench. Against West Brom on Saturday, Defoe scored a fantastic goal that gave Spurs a late lead. This seems to create a real managerial problem for Harry [...]
Filed under: Premier League, Spurs | Leave a Comment »
Playoffs matter in American sports and the MLS playoffs are showing why. In a country with a packed sports marketplace it is difficult for regular season play to really captivate the country. All the other major professional sports, except for the NFL, similarly rely on the playoffs to serve as their premier national platform. This [...]
Filed under: MLS | 2 Comments »
The Washington City Paper has a good overall rundown on the state of DC United’s stadium search. As we all know it’s not pretty. In the campaign for Mayor both Mayor Fenty and challenger Vince Gray have adopted essentially the same line on the stadium – we want United in DC, but economic times are [...]
Filed under: MLS | 6 Comments »
There has been a lot of outraged reaction to Martin Rogers reporting that Landon Donovan’s price tag by MLS was $16 million. In my mind that seems pretty much right on the money. The point made by many is that $16 million for a 28 year old, who therefore has little resale value, makes little [...]
Filed under: MLS, Transfers, Yanks Abroad | 3 Comments »
Change can be difficult. But sometimes change is needed. In the decision to keep Bob Bradley I was one in favor of change. This is not because of some ingrained Bob Bradley hate. I have defended him throughout the last World Cup cycle and think he would have done a good job at Aston Villa. [...]
Filed under: USMNT, World Cup 2010, World Cup 2014 | Tagged: Bob Bradley | Leave a Comment »
Lyle Yorks, Benny Feilhaber’s agent, needs to get cracking. Feilhaber is on the cusp of having to stay with his Danish club, who got relegated to the Danish second division. The inability thus far for Feilhaber to secure a move is evidence of an incredibly slow transfer market, in which cash-strapped clubs are unable to [...]
Filed under: USMNT, Yanks Abroad | 1 Comment »
Frankly, people need to chill. The mantra coming from bloggers, fans, and the press to “just get it figured out already” or “to do something” is wrong. US soccer and Sunil Gulati is right to be methodical about this. We are not in some race against the clock here. This isn’t 2006 where the US [...]
Filed under: USMNT, World Cup 2014 | 1 Comment »
The great blog Footiebusiness has an interview with the Director of Marketing for the Colorado Rapids. I have noted before that soccer specific stadiums were no panacea for MLS teams, especially when placed in far out suburbs. The argument goes that playing so far outside of town prevents that young 20 something urbanite – the [...]
Filed under: MLS | Leave a Comment »
While I think MLS teams are doing a relatively good job in their own local markets, especially with attendance, I think they are missing big opportunities to grow their brands and potentially the leagues TV revenues. TV numbers for MLS on ESPN are not great and the notion of the World Cup tv bounce appears [...]
Filed under: Future of American soccer, MLS | 2 Comments »
Max Bergmann
Ken Gude
Pat Garofalo
Jay Heidbrink