Association Football

Holden to Blackburn rumors heat up. This I think would be a great move for Holden. He would be a perfect replacement for Mortem Gamst Pedersen, who is rumored to be headed to Celtic, and Holden would be joining a club where he should get playing time and that will likely not be the nitty gritty of the relegation struggle.

Ricardo Clarke not going to Livorno, come on Greg tell us where! Greg Seltzer at No Short Corners, in another great piece of reporting, tells us that “Impending Dynamo free agent Ricardo Clark is not about to join Livorno… in fact, the club CEO told me they are off him completely now, “with main focus on finding a striker. I can tell you that Clark currently has at least two offers on the table and that I’m fairly certain I know one of the suitors. I’m on it.” Impatient Nats fans are waiting anxiously.

Damarcus Beasley is back. And so is Edu. Both returns are absolutely huge for the Yanks. An inform Beasley gives us something we are sorely missing with Davies out: speed. More on this latter and expect to see an AF six month out USMNT World Cup squad.

What do Henry Kissinger, Donna Shalala and Drew Carey have in common…

Kansas City stadium construction begins. So it’s finally happening – WV Hooligan has photographic evidence! I had always thought this wasn’t going to happen and they would relocate in the dead of night to St. Louis, good for KC – but a stadium out in the middle of nowhere isn’t going to exactly set the region ablaze.

Becoming Soccer’s MSG: Steve Davis at Daily Soccer Fix remarks on the importance of Red Bull Stadium becoming the home of the Big East championships. It puts them in the center of the regions soccer universe.

Premier League Recap. Manchester United got throttled by Fulham – thus proving us at AF right that they aren’t all that great. Chelsea settled for a draw against a lively West Ham club – How the hell are they in the bottom? Arsenal, Spurs, Villa, and City all win to keep the top four race a muddled confusing mess. Yet Liverpool fell further of the pace with a lackluster display against Portsmouth. Torres is not in form and the whole team just looks snake-bit right now. But the question has to be asked: no Aquilani against Pompey? Come on Benitez.

Mark Hughes goes out a winner, but what about City? This move obviously isn’t surprising. If I dumped like a billion dollars into a team I would expect immediate results too and seven draws in a row is a lot. Yet it is asinine to think Rome could be built in a day. Despite the fact that City were still trying to figure out their identity and how to mesh the pieces, they are in a cup semifinal and are a serious challenger for champions league football. Mancini maybe a good coach, but this seems an awful like Martin Jol’s firing at Spurs. Juande Ramos came in had a few good games (Carling Cup final), but the team really stunk the rest of the season. I would be really shocked to see City in top four at the end, in fact I think 5th may be a little bit of a stretch no matter who they buy.

WSJ suggests English don’t care about Donovan. I don’t really think this is true. The Donovan story got plenty of headlines and attracted a lot of attention in the lead up to the deal becoming official. Hence when it was official it was sort of old news.

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