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Jay Sugarman, Daniel Day Lewis lookalike

Don Garber announced a new MLS franchise in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. The ownership group is headed by iStar's CEO, Jay Sugarman,one of the best compensated CEO's in the US. One of his partners is Nick Sakiewicz, a two-time winner of the MLS Executive of the Year award, and former GM of the Tampa Bay Mutiny and Metrostars (now NY Red Bulls). Its new home will be a 20,000 seater stadium in Chester, minutes away from Phila. The stadium is also part of a $500m downtown revitalization project.

The new name, logo, and colours are to be unveiled. Any ideas as to what its name could be?

Lets hope it is not the Philadelphia iStars or Quakers or Liberty or something as trite as that. Maybe Jay Sugarman can take some inspiration from Daniel Day Lewis and call it Philadelphia Ripe Foot.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

THe NYT has an article highlighting the flood of kids with ACL injuries requiring surgery or bracing to restore knee stability. Conventional wisdom is that children break bones more easily than incur ligament damage. At stake is the mythic strength of children's ligaments. The article opens up many more questions.

An obvious question is how far have imaging studies contributed to a correct diagnosis? What used to be called a 'trick' knee is now correctly an ACL injury, which means that this increase in incidence could potentially be a false positive.

Is the popularity of soccer taking its toll on children's health? In other words, the rise of soccer could have a less salubrious effect too. The article does not breakdown the sports which cause these injuries. It would be helpful to establish a comprehensive database.

Interestingly, the majority of these injuries is non-contact, i.e., they occur off the field and involve twisting of the knees. Have potholes become more numerous or attention spans decreased?

Actually, one could argue that these ligament tears are possibly an accumulation of a series of microtears incurred on the field which compromise ligament integrity. Twisting your knee falling into a pothole is the last straw. One should try and correlate these non-contact injuries with the frequency and intensity of sports played to get a clearer understanding of whether and if ligament injuries are really on the rise.

This much is clear, ligament transplant surgery involving children's growth plates can potentially throw the leg out of alignment leading to shortening. Alternative methods are more cumbersome and the long term efficacy of these procedures are not known. Bracing runs into compliance issues and children are notoriously brace aversive. So methods of restoring knee stability in children have systemic problems.

However, this highlights the prevention is better approach. Most children are sent to the field without proper muscle conditioning. Muscles serve a protective function when it comes to prevention of injuries in unguarded moments. A half hour of plyometrics, e.g., jumping on a trampoline, on and off wooden blocks of different heights, with and without weights, with different knee and body angles, in a fun and festive atmosphere would be better than just lifting weights. Lower muscle tone might be one of the reasons girls seem to be more prone to knee injuries than boys.

And parents. Living life out vicariously or padding a child's resume becomes a bit less palatable when confronted with these injuries and their long term damage. So stop pushing them onto the field when the child complains of knee pain or swelling. It might be serious.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The aftermath of the bitter and divisive 2000 US presidential elections spawned a myriad of political blogs disillusioned with the bias of the mainstream media (MSM) narrative. On either side of the divide, blogs became agents of change challenging the MSM and supporting candidates who hew more closely to their vision. Blogs have become a potent counterpoint to the Washington echo chamber, a tight knit cabal of talking heads who push narratives like McCain is a maverick and tensions between Hispanic and African Americans voters will determine Barack Obama's candidacy. An establishment that now appears to be on the defensive as millions turn to blogs who espouse a more unfiltered point of view, frequently are quicker on their feet, and do the legwork to expose fallacies and inconsistencies. Blogs have become so influential that candidates solicit their financial support, post up their opinions, and participate in their yearly conventions. The 2006 mid term elections that saw Democrats capture the House and Senate was engineered by the election of many candidates supported by progressive blogs. Many MSM outlets now have their own talking heads who write blogs or invite prominent bloggers to guest column. Blogs are now an accepted part of the political environment with a proven track record of influencing election outcomes.

By the same token, we do not have a similar seminal point in sports blogging. Deadspin, an anti-corporatist website that rails against ESPN, Fox Sports, and other mainstream sports media (MSSM) outlets has been chiefly set up to knock down sports as nothing more than providing entertainment. It is thus irreverent and tongue in cheek, mocking self important talking heads. Deadspin would be required reading for those sickened by Bob Costas and his saccharine sweet jingoism which grates every Olympics, ane event coming up soon. However for all its popularity, Deadspin has not forced a change in the narrative of the MSSM which is driven by above said Bob Costas and Bryant Gumbel who eulogize athletes with crushed ribs and bad parenting.

Deadspin is a US based blog and as such it is targeted primarily towards American sports. Fortunately, the winds are changing, more specifically towards a soccer based activism. Blogs that follow EPL clubs lead the way which makes sense as it is the most widely followed league in the world with more than 200m followers. The enormous bile towards the Premiership proposal of expanding its matches to overseas markets is forcing Richard Scudamore to rethink his proposal. Managers, sports pundits, and administrators have come out against the proposal. The FA hardly an activist organization is dead against the soccer expansion. But it is blogs who have coalesced fan anger, accusing the EPL of being anti-player in its mercenary pursuit of exploiting new markets for merchandising.

The process of forcing change has long been hampered by the fact that fans rarely have a say in the economic matters of the club or its club ownership. But last summer proved to be a milestone as blogs exposed the shady past of Alisher Usmanov as he tried engineering an Arsenal takeover. These Arsenal friendly blogs helped disseminate an unflattering article written by a Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan even as Usmanov's lawyers sought to muzzle them in a cease and desist motion. The club's governing board was forced to action and installed a lock down agreement that would prevent a hostile takeover. In contrast, Liverpool's takeover proceeded with little opposition. However, later on, the US co-owners dubious solvency and irresolute behavior gave anxious Liverpool fans enough reason to believe that their club would once again be on the market. Blogs channeled this widespread discontent which led to a proposal by a group of committed Liverpool fans to buy out the club and run it as a co-operative. The proposal was passed onto blogs and their readers who crashed the group's website.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Arsenal polished off Blackburn with goals from Senderos and Adebayor.

It increases the gap between Man U and Chelsea as the season heads to its fatiguing climax of FA, CL, and league fixtures. Great win!

Posted by Shourin Roy at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

The match has started and it promises to be a fitting finale to one of the freest flowing and attacking expositions of soccer of all times. Egypt met Cameroun in its Group C encounter and won, 4-2. Samuel Eto'o scored both goals but he was overshadowed by the sensational Mohamad Zidan and Hosni Abd Rabou.

Egypt and Cameroun have defied all odds and expectations to reach the finals as Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Nigeria have fallen. Two coaches with very different trajectories, Hassan Shehata, the long time Zamalek player, for the last three years coaching the only national team in his career goes head to head with the most itinerant coach on the planet, Germany's Otto Pfister, last seen as Togo's national coach in he 2006 World Cup. Cameroun is Pfister's 17th coaching job. He was also Zamalek's coach from 1999- 2002 and led them to the CAF title as well as a league championship. So there is a bit of history interconnecting the two teams.

Arsenal's Alexander Song who has had a fantastic competition will hold the back four as Cameroun look to absorb Egypt's potent attack led by in form Mohammad Aboutreika, Ahmed Fatih, Amr Zaky, and Hosni Abd Rabou. Their best chance lie in counterattacks with Samuel Eto'o, their talismanic sharpshooter providing the exclamation point.

Cameroun: 1-Idriss Carlos Kameni; 3-Bill Tchato, 8-Geremi, 4-Rigobert Song, 5-Timothee Atouba; 10-Achille Emana, 15-Alexandre Song, 19-Stephane Mbia, 14-Joel Epalle; 12-Alain Nkong, 9-Samuel Eto'o

Egypt: 1-Essam Al Hadari; 5-Shady Mohamed, 6-Hani Said, 20-Wael Gomaa, 14-Sayed Moawad; 8-Hosni Abd Rabou, 7-Ahmed Fathi, 17-Ahmed Hassan, 22-Mohamed Aboutrika; 10-Emad Moteab, 19-Amr Zaki

Posted by Shourin Roy at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It is often said that you can never count out Man U till the final whistle is blown. As if on cue, last Saturday, Carlos Tevez stuck a dagger into the heart of Spurs in the final seconds of the match as Man U walked away with a face saving draw after their opponents put on a magnificent display.

The indestructibility of Man Utd soccer has its genesis in the horrific events of the Munich air crash that took the lives of 23 players, staff, reporters, and crew on February 6th, 1958.

Yesterday, on the 50th anniversary of that great tragedy, a sombre audience observed a minute's silence in their honour before the Switzerland game. At Old Trafford, Sir Bobby Charlton, a crash survivor and record goal scorer for his club and country, attended services of his fallen team mates. Alongside him were fellow survivors and mates Albert Scanlon, Bill Foulkes, Kenny Morgans, and Harry Gregg.

Eight players, the Busby Babes, representing the future of the club were killed. Players like Duncan Edwards, barely 18, in his short lived career already touted as England's best player. We laud Arsene Wenger with his eye for youthful and cheap talent but it is useful to remember that fifty years before Matt Busby was doing the same with English players from gritty working class neighborhoods. Only days before Man Utd's teen squad had played Arsenal and won their league game, 5-4.

John F Burns quoting the Telegraph reports of the match:

“The Babes played like infants in paradise. The ball, it seemed, had been placed in the arena for their own amusement. With the utmost abandon and cherubic cheerfulness, the Manchester United marvels kicked, headed and dribbled among themselves. When, on rare occasions, an Arsenal player knocked them sliding into the mud, or momentarily took the ball away, it was all part of the fun.”

In addition to Edwards; Man Utd lost Liam Whelan, David Pegg, Roger Byrne, Tommy Taylor, Geoff Bent, Eddie Colman, and Mark Jones. Two other players Jackie Blanchflower and Johnny Berry had their careers cut short because of the severity of their injuries. Their manager, Matt Busby lay in the hospital near death with multiple injuries. In one shattering moment, the club had lost its core.

Out of that great tragedy, great tenacity of purpose was born.

Man Utd soldiered on. The team was able to complete their season and in its first match after the disaster beat Sheffield Wednesday, 3-0 playing with their reserves and youth squad. They lost their league matches but were still able to reach the FA Cup final against Bolton, losing 0-2.

It took a generation but the second version of Busby's Babes which included Denis Law and George Best took them to the 1968 European title, the first English club to do so. From the smoldering embers of Flight 609, the team rose to its pinnacle. Fittingly under a manager who had been administered his last rites, not once but twice. Charlton was the captain of that team, scoring two goals as Man Utd beat Benfica, 4-1. As the first survivor to walk out of the hospital and his reputation as a talented striker, there was an immediate expectation that he help re-build Man Utd. There was no time to grieve for his fellow team mates, for David Pegg who he had exchanged seats with before takeoff.

But the price that the surviving players paid was enormous. Kenny Morgans, 68, recalls the almost brutal dressing-room mood in the months afterward.

The victims, he said, became nonpersons: “It was as if they had never played for United. There was nothing like grief counselors or anything like that. We didn’t talk about it among ourselves. Nobody did. We wanted to blank it out. You always wondered why you were alive and others were dead.”

At the risk of sounding Tolkien-ish, it was a simpler time. The tragedy took place a decade after the end of World War II amidst a generation limping to normalcy from the Battle of Britain and its fear inducing air raid sirens heralding death and destruction. Grief counselors for working class players when an already stretched country needed collective therapy? It was a time to hide grief behind closed doors. Stoicism was a celebrated value. A far cry from the locker rooms of now, the richest and most widely watched league where every sulk and tantrum is seemingly encouraged and deconstructed by an avid media. Publishing houses have become proxy grief counselors and PTSD is a fashionable byword which Wayne Rooney suffers from endlessly at the hands of Mark Clattenberg and Rob Styles.

I am not sure given these present times, a club undergoing Man Utd's magnitude of tragedy suffered fifty years ago would survive, let alone go on to nirvana like accomplishments. The system of checks and balances has long gone. We live in an age of Bosman transfers and financial fluidity. Player fealty is harder and a team is measured by its titles. Clubs have collapsed living beyond their means.

It is a good time to remember even in the moment of this great tragedy, that the game was carried on the backs of players like the eight who died and those who survived. On February 6th, for a day, we became Man Utd fans.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 6:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Sick and tired of how clubs give themselves away to ownerships who look on them as mere cash cows, caring little for the fans or club history?

Amidst fears that the Tom Hicks and George Gillett re-financing deal is being loaded onto LFC's books comes an ambitious new plan by LFC supporters who want to take matters into their hands. They want to takeover the club, pooling in their money.

Rogan Taylor, a football academic and prime mover of the Share Liverpool plan, said: “The time is right to offer a different solution to the rising concerns that football fans have about the patterns of ownership developing at our major football clubs.

The Share Liverpool FC plan involves a £500m buyout through the contributions of 100,000 fans who sign up. The plan mirrors Barcelona's ownership by fans. This is the first ever co-operative takeover proposed in English soccer history and it could change the future of club ownership structures.

"It’s one member, one vote. It’s democratic, it’s fair, and it protects Liverpool FC from becoming the target of corporate buyers ever again."

The idea is supported by Supporters Direct, a trust set up Andy Burnham, the culture, media and sport secretary in the Gordon Brown government. The trust encourages fans to become share holders in their respective clubs. Burnham is watching the developments at Anfield very closely.

“The Barcelona model, to me, is how a football club should be run. They are one of the most pre-eminent names in world football, yet the club is owned by its supporters on a one-member, one-vote basis and they control it. That strengthens it because it’s never subject to the whim of one person; it’s a collective endeavour. English football should see that as a big strength. I’d love to see if we could grow the Barcelona model here.”

Kevin Jaquiss of Cobbetts law firm, a lawyer intimately involved in the formation of Supporters Direct, and a specialist in co-operative law is advising Share Liverpool FC in the formation of a constitution.

If this works, it would mean that long suffering Man Utd fans priced out of watching matches could also potentially buy out their club from the Glazers who have also saddled the club with millions of pounds in debt.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The big story doing the rounds was Wenger's admission that Arsenal was inches close to signing Cristiano Ronaldo before the Portugese midfielder decided to move to Old Trafford as his club Sporting Lisbon broke off Arsenal's offer for a bigger bag of donuts from Sir Alex.

Wenger mentions that there is no better person than Ronaldo himself to give us the lowdown on what actually transpired. These tidbits are the stuff of biographical revelations. But there is a suggestion that Ronaldo would shockingly reveal himself a closet admirer of Arsenal soccer but stopped short from coming out with the threatened loss of his private parts at the hands of Sir Alex.

Anyways, the timing is really interesting. Ronaldo, the player instrumental for leading Man Utd's charge this time as well as winning last season, is revealed to have considered Arsenal as his first choice before the Carlos Queiroz cabal moved in. Many know the story but Wenger makes it a point of highlighting it at a sensitive time. In a tight race that is as much played on the sidelines as it is on the pitch, these sort of stories feed the trope that Man Utd might attract the big players but it is Arsenal that plays the better soccer. Score one for a moral victory.

Man City lost its first EPL home game continuing its downward trajectory as it took on a re-configured Arsenal which still had enough in its tank to put one over Sven and his men. Arsenal was missing Almunia in goal with Lehmann getting a rare look in. Apart from missing Toure and Eboue at the ACN, Arsenal were without Rosicky and RVP. But Adebayor is almost automatic now and his two goals with a little beauty from Eduardo ensured the Gunners victory.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Pim Verbeek assumes the mantle of the Socceroos coach in the wake of the disastrous Graham Arnold tenure which led them to crash out of the Asian Cup with reasons ranging from the dreadful heat to defensive meltdowns. Unlike the Australian cricket team, Harbhajan Singh thankfully, was not involved in this debacle and no team had to threaten to charter a flight out of Thailand.

Verbeek does the Socceroos no favours. He is not an improvement over the Arnold system. There are two very important reasons why a Verbeek management would be wrong as presently laid out.

Any manager who owes blind allegiance to a system without looking at what the players do in it should be hanged, drawn, and quartered. Yes, it might be an accurate characterization that the European leagues have a standard of training that the A-League can only dream of but it is equally fallacious to say that the players become better by simple association. So Josh Kennedy and Michael Beauchamp answer Verbeek's call even as they struggle to play any significant minutes for their German club teams because in Verbeek's eyes they are part of a superior system.

Second, Verbeek's boldface assumption is the A- League is an inferior recruiting ground. This is a major slap across the face because it assumes that domestic leagues other than European ones have very little part to play in player development. The A League saw the exploits of Nick Carle and David Carney attracting the attention of the European leagues before moving on. They are presently the hottest prospects for the Socceroos.

Verbeek implicitly suggests that the A- League is less worthy than the J-League which became the primary driver for the Japanese national team under Ivica Osim. His template for success was to draw down the European based veterans and highlight the J- League through its youthful contribution. It worked well for the 2007 Asian Cup before the Iraqis stole it through a combination of pre-ordination and good soccer. But Japan was a recharged team relying less on Celtics Nakamura and Eintracht's Inamoto, and more on Yuki Abe, who led the Urawa Reds to the FIFA CWC, and is widely seen as Japan's future point man.

In fact, his success with the Korean national team in the 2007 Asian Cup relying on a group of domestic players further underscores his contempt for the A- League.

Verbeek's willingness to gamble fatigue and jet lag in his European imports even with A-League players at his disposal to play Qatar is yet another indicator of his singular rejection of the A-League. It would make Hiddink blush to find that players like John Aloisi, Craig Moore, Ante Covic, and Archie Thompson who found a place in the World Cup team are being declared persona non grata simply because they returned to the A-League. This comes when David Moyes makes the usual noise releasing Tim Cahill to play for his national team.

Verbeek is little more than a band aid in the changing face of Asian soccer and his brand of soccer is very short sighted. It has gotten a lot more competitive than the time of the 2006 qualifications and the first aim of a good manager should be to get through Asia. To do that one has to understand the failures of the Asian Cup. It was the European veterans with over inflated expectations and their aging legs that failed the Socceroos. I am not sure if Verbeek understands this but as a veteran journeyman with apparently little time to turn things around, he apparently believes this is the best way to go about it. Deja vu all over again.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 8:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Seems like the cross over of US based owners into buying out English soccer clubs continues even as their experience of the game remains limited.

The interesting thing about General Sports and Entertainment (GSE), the Michigan based company, the new owners of Derby is the NBA affiliations of its top executives. Andrew Appleby, the CEO is a former VP of the Detroit Pistons and its sports and entertainment division. The management team put into place at Pride Park includes Tom Glick, a former marketing chief for the New Jersey Nets, who is leaving for Derby as the CEO and president. His exec- VP is Tom Hinchey a former VP of the Charlotte Bobcats, another NBA franchise.

The point man who orchestrated the deal is Roger Faulkner, the VP of soccer operations, a new recruit for GSE, and a lifelong Derby supporter before he moved to the USA. He has been instrumental in popularizing soccer in the Detroit area. His activities have included founding and serving as a general partner in the Detroit Express of the North American Soccer League in 1977, serving as president of the 1994 World Cup Detroit Host Committee, and serving as a council member of the United States Soccer Federation and president of the Michigan Soccer Association. Faulkner will assist GSE with the Derby County operation.

This should be welcome news for Steve Nash, the Phoenix Suns point guard and former MVP, in his future plan to buy out Spurs. He has to first find a consortium to foot the £300m bill but given his love for the game and as a lifelong Spurs supporter, he should be a refreshing change from the Abramovichs, Glazers, and Hicks and Co. presently taking over the EPL, saddling their clubs with debt and furthering their images as soulless investors, more interested in making a buck than any genuine passion for the game.

The welcome part of the Derby takeover is that the new owners have followed Randy Lerner as their role model and bought out the club through their own cash. No speculative loan and putting the debt onto the clubs books a la Hicks and Gillett, the source of much heartache for LFC fans.

The future looks a bit grim though. Derby is relegation bound unless the Red Sea parts waters again. Their advent to the EPL and its mammoth pool of TV money enriches its coffers by at least £20m or more even if they finish at the bottom. The parachute money will give them some cash to buy new players but the following seasons sees its share of TV money plummeting south. Derby's advance to the EPL came after many years in Division 2 and the Championship. So their immediate return to top flight is not guaranteed unlike the Addicks or Mackems, who seem to make as many entries as exits.

The future of Benny Feilhaber and Eddy Lewis is uncertain and its a bit difficult at this point, seeing them stay on. Feilhaber has been a bit out of depth in Paul Jewell's team and Eddie Lewis is used sparingly.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

" I have always wanted to play football, but I didn't know where or how I wanted to play. I had no idea. I started out as a defender. I always was and I am still seduced by playing as a libero, even now that I'm hardly allowed to touch a ball for fear of my heart exploding. As a libero you see everything from the back, the whole pitch is in front of you, you get hold of the ball and you say pim let's go that way, pim, let's look from another perspective. You're the owner of the team. But back in the beginning, libero schmibero. All I wanted was to run after the ball, to get hold of it, to play. Playing football gave me a unique peace. And that same sensation has been with me always, even today: give me a ball and I'll have fun. I'll stand my ground, I'll tussle. I'll want to win and I'll want to play well. Give me a ball and let me do what I know best, anywhere. True, people are important and people motivate you but people are not on the pitch. And that's where the fun is; on the pitch with the ball. That's what I have always done, whether at Wembley or the Maracana, with a hundred thousand watching. And that's what we did in Fiorito."

Thus, Maradona's autobiography begins. It is an extraordinary account of the best soccer player the world has known and may possibly know. The language he speaks is so unguarded and brutally frank that there appears to be a megaphone between his heart and his lips. Maradona seems to relive every minute of it and he takes us on that compelling journey. And just like the way he played soccer, it is entertaining, it is infectious, it is mesmerizing.

Marcela Mora Y Araujo, whose exemplary translation preserves the cadence of Maradona's unique tongue and ear for language, explains this gift comes from the use of lunfardo, a patois which fuses the language of Italian immigrants with words of peasant origin and native terminology.

She refers to Bronca, a word that Maradona uses frequently in the book, is at the core of his emotions.

"It is an Argentinian word that denotes anger, fury, hatred, resentment, bitter discontent..... For Maradona it is his most familiar emotion, and he constantly refers to it as his motivator, his fuel, his driving force."

Maradona's comments on fellow soccer players (a hundred of them) gives an insight into how he valued passion, a rebellious spirit, a commitment to beautiful soccer, and to the game beyond the pitch. He detests prevarication and politesse. His best friends are the players who reminded him of him and forged a deep and long lasting friendship on and off the pitch through his darkest days. He reserves his respect for players who fought for the rights of players to be treated as humans, not commodities. Of course, in this day and age of ridiculously inflated wages it is hard to fathom a time when soccer players had to scrape by.

The rebels:

On Kevin Keegan: He was my idol for a long time. I loved to watch him play. He was short and stocky like me. He orchestrated matches on his own.

On Eric Cantona: A partner, a friend. Also, more importantly, crazy and a rebel just like me. They suspended him for being honest. And his game wreaked havoc. Ask the Manchester fans: they always chose him as number one.

On Bernd Schuster: They tried to pass the German off as mad to kick him out of football. He was crazy, just like me: he was my partner in the struggle against Nunez and an extraordinary player all over the pitch.

His nemesis:

On Daniel Passarella: The best defender I ever saw in my life, too. The best at heading the ball, and at both ends, something that Argentine soccer is missing these days. What goes on between us off the pitch has nothing to do with what I think of him as a footballer.

His rival for the greatest title:

On Pele: As a player he was the best, but he didn't use his talent to glorify football. He thought politically. He thought he could be the president of Brazil. And I don't believe that a footballer, or an ex-footballer, should think about being president of a country. I would have liked him to propose that he preside over an organization which defended players' rights like I did. I would have liked him to look after Garrincha instead of letting him die broke. I would have liked him to fight against the powers that be which were damaging for us players. I've never compared myself to him, I've always maintained that, and I'll say it again here. And when I say that I don't compare myself to him, I'm not just talking about footballing matters. I've had the opportunity to meet him many times. The first, in 1979, was when El Grafico took me to meet him. Later, we met in testimonial matches, that kind of thing. The last time we saw each other was in '95, when we had the opportunity to go into business together. We just never clicked, we always rubbed each other up the wrong way; we would see each other and sparks would fly.

The French strike out:

On Michel Platini: Great skill, a phenomenon. In Italy, he won everything, but it always seemed to be that he didn't have fun playing football. He was cold, too cold.

On Zinedine Zidane: I want to defend him, because he has such extraordinary vision, but he looks to me as if he feels less like playing every day that goes by. He's just like Platini; he doesn't have fun. They both lack joy when they play.

Platini's testimonial to Maradona was anything but cold:

"People talk about how great Zidane is, but Maradona could do what Zidane does with an orange. That's how great Maradona was."

On David Beckham:

Another one too pretty to go out on the pitch. Although he worries too much about his Spice Girl, now and again he finds the time to play and he can play well, really well - he's got a great touch. He won everything with Manchester United. And he had eat the hen hat El Cholo Simeone sold him in France '98. But he paid us back.

Beckham however fared better than Milan's legend, Paolo Maldini:

Another great player who chose the wrong profession. He should have been an actor; he's too pretty to play football.

On Peter Shilton who was on the receiving end of that unforgettable match:

The thermos head got cross because of my hand goal. What about the other one, Shilton, didn't you see that one? He didn't invite me to his testimonial..... oh, my heart bleeds! How many people go to a goalkeeper's testimonial anyway? A goalkeeper's!

You might disagree with Maradona on a lot of his opinions but they are disarming in their candour. He bears grudges. He carries his scars, his warts and all, wearing them proudly like a badge. The emperor wears no clothes in El Diego's court. This is the player that got under the skin of Sepp Blatter with his demands for labour rights for players. Blatter, a suit, dismissed Maradona by saying "The last star from Argentina was Di Stefano."

The Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, a keen and passionate purveyor of the game said it best.

"When Maradona was finally thrown out of the '94 World Cup, soccer lost its most strident rebel. And also a fantastic player. Maradona is uncontrollable when he speaks but much more so when he plays; no one can predict the devilish tricks this inventor of surprises will dream up for the simple joy of throwing the computers off track, tricks he never repeats. He's not quick, more like a short legged bull, but he carries the ball sown to his feet and he's got eyes all over his body. His acrobatics light up the field. He can win a match with a thundering blast when his back is to the goal, or with an impossible pass from far off when he's corralled by thousands of enemy legs. And no one can stop him when he decides to dribble upfield."

Maradona: The Autobiography of Soccer's Greatest and Most Controversial Star is an amazing book and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Barca drubs Valencia 3-0 with Eto'o scoring two goals and Eidur Gudjohnsen getting the third. Watch out for here comes Eto'o sidelined for so long with injury looking determined in making up for lost time. Excellent for Barca, very bad for the rest of the league. The first goal was a beauty. Valencia goalie Sebastian Canizares looked like he had swallowed a bitter pill.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 6:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just as Peter Hill-Wood was talking about running Arsenal as a business, here comes a report that should peel the scales off every Man U fan's eyes.

The Independent United Supporters Trust report will show that about 100m pounds is going annually into debt servicing the Glazers total debt of 660m pounds. The increased revenue from AIG sponsorship and TV rights is going into underwriting this debt.

At 6.69% variable interest rates and with a shaky global market ahead, there is a good chance that the interest rates could go up increasing the debt servicing costs. The added costs will most likely be passed onto the fans whose ticket prices have already shot up by 50% since the Glazers takeover. At this point Man Utd is still making a profit on the backs of the ticketholders. But many fans see this as a tipping point.

Some angry ticketholders are contemplating legal action against the club over the new Automatic Cup Scheme (which requires all season-ticket holders to pay for all cup games — whether they want to go or not) and the unfair way it was introduced.

I really don't see how this is all going to work out unless the debt is restructured to lower interest payments but the market is quite volatile and the Glazers recent attempt to restructure through a consortium of banks failed. The clear solution is to find a richer and more solvent buyer to assume the debt.

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It was refreshing to hear Peter Hill-Wood on the possibility of holding talks issuing this smackdown of David Dein. Mihir Bose, BBC's sports editor reports.

"I see no major point in that, I've had 25 years of listening to him," the Arsenal chairman told me.

Hill- Wood also believes that there will be a correction in the present over valuation of players as owners who have plowed hundreds of millions of pounds into their new clubs want a return on their investment. And when that happens Arsenal will be at the right place and at the right time.

"We have always run Arsenal as a business and kept within reasonable bounds.

"All this nonsense about needing a billionaire to put a whole lot of money in to help shore up the annual deficit is not going to happen - it's lunacy."

Its like the overheated art market that will soon cool as buyers realize that there are only a few genuine artists that truly command record prices. Everything else is jump on the bandwagon stuff.

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China's huge soccer fan base continues to attract the soccer business world. However Jorge Vergara seems to have stepped it up a notch.

Jorge Vergara, Omnilife's founder who has built his fortune on nutrients and vitamin supplements is looking to extend his business in China and also to start a soccer club as part of the Chivas brand. He already owns Chivas Gualdajara, Deportivo Saprissa, and Chivas USA. In the USA, Vergara is known as a rabble rouser with his slogan for Chivas USA "Adios Soccer, Hello Futbol" seemingly used to exploit the differences between the LA Galaxy and Chivas USA fanbase.

He is presently negotiating to buy a first division club to be named Chivas Hefei. Chivas will soon announce the formation of the new club. Gualdajara and Saprissa have been entirely built around local talent from youth divisions with no expensive transfers and in keeping with the same philosophy, Chivas will train 100 Chinese players at their facilities at Gualdajara.

This is all part of Jorge Vergara's vision of introducing the Chivas brand of soccer to rest of the world. His primary target is to purchase a first division Spanish side like Malaga and allow for transfers between his clubs to get a wide exposure. Thus, you could get to see Spanish players playing in China. It is akin to a baseball farm system on a global level. Vergara is not the first foreign owner to buy a Chinese club and in fact, Sheffield Utd earned that distinction when they purchased second division club Chengdu Bull Five in 2006.

So why would Vergara succeed where other clubs have largely given up any long term goal? The most salient point is that Vergara does not own a club that is widely known outside of their country. Thus, his purpose is not merchandising a product, it is the propagation of a long term soccer idiom.

Vergara's purchase of a soccer club is very different from giants Manchester United whose presence in China is driven by a concerted effort to tap the earning potential of its estimated 10m fans which has been limited to merchandising and name branding rather than actual long term investment in infrastructure and training. There maybe truth to this as the signing of Dalian Shide's Dong Fangzhou has often been cited as an example of the club's cynical opportunism rather than actual belief in the player's ability.

Nick Harris reports that Europe's richest clubs are viewed by many fans in China as having a short-term, opportunist interest in their support. Manchester United and Real Madrid both faced indifference and attracted less than capacity crowds on short tours last summer. The Football League with its less overt pecuniary interests and long standing education programs are trusted more and have been approached by Chinese athletic officials to explore long term relationships.

So far, Man Utd has not even explored the possibility of a Chinese version of its famed youth academy which would prove to be a magnet for thousands of aspiring soccer players in a country that languishes behind neighbors Japan and S.Korea in soccer achievements and is desperate for international recognition.

If Vergara's record at Deportivo Saprissa is anything to go on then Chinese fans and officials have something to cheer about. Vergara took over Saprissa in 2003, including only players with Costa Rican nationality. It has become Costa Rica's most successful club to date.

They were the 2005 CONCACAF club champions in 2005 and came third in the Toyota CWC that year. Saprissa also contributed 8 players in the national squad to the 2006 World Cup, the most of any club in the world, and it's presence is directly linked to the success that Los Ticos have enjoyed in the world stage. They presently rank 52nd as compared to China's 85th position in the FIFA rankings.

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Watch out. This match is another in a long series of grudge matches between these two countries. The storyline is the Italian defence. Yes, the defence that is become Italy's Achilles heel.

Italy is in a bit of a pickle here with a fast improving Scotland nipping their heels and a Ukraine that is not too far behind. They are looking for a win against France but they do not have history on their side as they have never beaten France without the aid of penalties since 1978. In these 29 years, France has proved to be Italy's bogey team having beaten them in the 1986 World Cup in the Platini led years and then again in 1998 on their way to their World Cup title.

Two years later it was deja vu again as Italy's emotional scars deepened further as France completed a remarkable comeback against Dino Zoff's side, who were seconds from winning Euro 2000 before Sylvain Wiltord's last-gasp equaliser forced extra time and David Trezeguet poached the Golden Goal.

Roberto Donadoni's side is going to be under tremendous pressure to deliver the goods. They lost to Hungary, 1-3 in last month's friendly that could hardly have inspired much confidence. Their much vaunted defense is suddenly proving to be porous and Fabio Cannavarro their heart and soul is proving to be mightily fallible. He had a terrible match against Hungary. Marco Materazzi is out with a thigh injury and Alessandro Nesta has retired from international matches.

So will this banged up and out of form Italian defence stop the likes of Patrick Vieira, Samir Nasri, Thierry Henry, Franck Ribery, and an in form Nicholas Anelka. I think it will be hard to do so.

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Ok. So Landon Donovan and David Beckham are out of the Super Liga final along with half the LA Galaxy team. You really can't do much about injured players. But does this make sense?

"The title match is a sellout. Attendance was capped at 12,500 in the 27,000-seat stadium to limit traffic and ease parking problems for students in their first week of fall classes at Cal State Dominguez Hills. The school shares its campus with Home Depot Center.

And MLS wants to promote soccer.

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The greatest contribution of the US to soccer aka football is the bowdlerization of 'association football' to soccer. The US being the prime arbiter of popular culture soccer is now universally recognized as an interchangeable term for football. To sticklers across the pond, it signifies ignorance of the global game. But soccer serves a practical purpose of nomenclature distinguishing it from American football.

However, there is an even more insidious word creep taking place in soccer and this is assist. It got thrust into the international stage when David Beckham provided three assists in the LA Galaxy vs NY Red Bulls game. There it was flashing on FSC as Becks was being interviewed.

As far as I can see assist is purely a statistical term that is bandied about in the US but seems to be picking up steam through newswire agencies that keep match reports brief. It cuts short descriptions such as "Beckham's lovely swerving freekick curled up and across the human wall, that moved nary a muscle, as the ball moved from right to left, and settled gently on the forehead of Pavon who flicked it in effortlessly. Vintage Beckham " Or some such thing that the Guardian columnists can do better.

The word was highlighted in the LA Galaxy vs Red Bulls match but it has been in existence for a while in this country. Do you know that Landon Donovan is the all time assist leader in the national team with 23 breaking Cobi Jones record in April 2006? I have my doubts whether Beckham's statistics were recorded that closely when playing in England or Spain. But that is all about to change.

Is the term assist a measure of a meritocratic society or a national obsession with individual statistics? After all, it does make a difference as to who set up the goal and why their contributions shouldn't be recognized more fully. Or is it an effort to make a game more palatable to a larger audience?

A trip to the statistics zone at www.ussoccer.com is a revealing one. Compare that to the FA website, the world's oldest archive of player records, which is downright threadbare. The same set is used to describe greats like Stanley Matthews and contemporaries like Ashley Cole. It pretty much amounts to caps and goals scored. The entry on Landon Donovan is a veritable excel spreadsheet of numbers with categories on assists. There is a interestingly enough, a category on points scored which is an aggregate of goals and assists made.

Donovan leads with 21 (9 goals, 3 assists). Statistics like assists and points scored highlight how invaluable a player is to the national squad but it also suggests the ethos of an underlying individuality in US team sports, even one as soccer, with its unparalleled global connections. These categories are not anomalies. I think they are part of the US rubric. I can almost hear myself saying "Donovan is a good player" in a conversation and another person shooting back with " Do you have the numbers to back you up?"

The downside to descriptives like assists and points scored is that they make for convenient record keeping and newswire reports but they do not necessarily make for good soccer journalism. Which is why I think a Yank's commentary on a match is received with much more skepticism. After all what exactly is an assist in soccer? Its jargon.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

Horrible refereeing decisions have marked the beginning of the Premiership and it does not seem as if mere suspensions will rectify this situation. The game has quickened beyond the human eye to make timely adjustments and the stakes have gotten much higher.

A decision that can cost a club threading a fine line between relegation and staying afloat in the Premiership or a CL position or the ultimate goal of a Premiership. A retina retains an image for 1/16th of a second before a new image can be imposed on it. In that time a foul leading to a penalty could have taken place and the referee would have no inkling save for a linesman who would have to see the same visual. You are talking of constant human error and not the skills of an English referee which is second to none.

Lets look at this fledgling Premiership season.

Already Fulham has been at the receiving end of some truly horrible refereeing decisions including a sure shot goal by David Healy that crossed the line before Schwarzer scooped the ball. It should have been a draw, instead Boro eked out an ill deserved win.

Liverpool was robbed of a victory as Malouda faked a foul and Lampard converted the penalty kick. Replays showed that Malouda was untouched by Carragher.

Fulham was again at the receiving end of a poor refereeing decision as Chris Baird gets sent off on a red card which replays showed as a legitimate challenge. Fulham are reduced to ten men as they lose to Aston Villa.

Spurs were denied two penalty kicks as Berbatov was bumped by Vidic in a goal scoring situation and then Wes Brown handled the ball again as Berbatov tried shooting home. The glaring errors resulted in a Spurs team that grew frustrated and distracted enough for Nani to shoot home the Man Utd winner.

At stake is Fulham's aspirations to remain in the Premiership and in Spurs case, Martin Jol's job that unfairly is on the line. All resting on the case that the referee gets it right which of course is increasingly limited by our physiological constraints as the game gets faster.

The Premiership is unmatched in its global reach. It is the most watched league and the amount it generates in viewership and merchandising is close to 2.5 billion pounds every year which easily dwarfs second place La Liga that receives about half. If there is any technology that will going to impact the global game in a meaningful then the best vehicle for its introduction and acceptance is the Premiership.

I think the time has come to think about refereeing as bound by human physiological limitations just as running a 100 meters in 5 seconds is an impossibility given the human musculo-sekeletal plant. It is too much of a task. For those naysayers who think it will slow down the game. How much time do players waste arguing a call or a non-call? In that time having the luxury of a TV replay means that players secure in the knowledge that a refereeing decision can be second guessed leads to less time wasted. You can limit the number of TV replays and impose a penalty for over eager managers hoping to force a call.

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Robinson's poor goalkeeping lets Germany back into the game through Kuranyi. Before that Lampard puts England up after a nifty run by Micah Richards. However, Pander seals the deal for Germany with his cracking left footer.

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Juande Ramos, the Sevilla coach is claiming that he turned down a very lucrative deal to coach at White Hart Lane. The Spurs are denying any contact with Ramos or any other coach. I think they protesteth too much.

This is fast developing into a farce and the losers are the Spurs administration who have got their knickers in a twist after losing to Sunderland and Everton. They have egg on their face.

Basically, even if they get Ramos for Jol, the new coach will face the same problem of inflated expectations after Spurs doled out huge amounts of money in the transfer market. It is now written as an edict that the Spurs will finish no less than fourth and book a CL spot. There appears to be little possibility from deviating from that script. But just three games into the Premiership the Spurs want to throw Jol under the bus.

A really classy move. I think Jol dereves better than that. I can see managers lining up to take the Spurs job knowing full well that this board will boot them out at the slightest hint of trouble. But this board is still looking to making a splashy transfer.

So now we have the rumours that Spurs are looking to Juan Roman Riquelme to steady their midfield. This is ridiculous. How much money are the Spurs willing to throw away? At 17m pounds Bent was easily overvalued by about 5m. Look, the Spurs have horrendous injury problems. They don't have Berbatov and Lennon who are their catalysts. Look at Man Utd, three games into the season and they can't buy a goal. Who would have thought that was possible? You do the best with the players you have, not who you want to have. (heh!)

The problem is possibly one of image too. Jol is not a cuddly bear. He is a dour and unsmiling man whose emotional register is one of perpetual glumness. He rarely reacts as if the world is on fire. In an environment of such charged expectations, Daniel Levy might feel like Jol does not have the fire in his belly. This is entirely untrue. Jol is as competitive as the next coach. In fact, as a coach he has done more for the Spurs to bring them to the level where they can even think of cracking the big four. The honourable thing to do would be to give him this season to prove himself without getting into an unseemly row which would bring morale down.

But the people who count are the players. It is upto Robbie Keane to assume a leadership role and come out with an unambiguous statement that supports the manager. This will force the hand of the board because fans come to see the players and not suited poofs who sit in their box with their mineral water and latest squeeze.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 7:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

So Marco Materazzi decided to reveal in his yet to be released autobiography what he actually said to Zidane. He after all has to sell his book which probably is a pop up book with graphic pictures of him mowing down players. After all this is Materazzi!

And I have heard worse. Its a schoolyard taunt. PG-13.

Materazzi's book is out on August 30th.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

A shocker as Al Hilal takes apart Ahly in a CAF Champions group match leaving the champions aspirations for a third successive title in jeopardy. Ahly looked lethargic and overwhelmed by a hustling Al Hilal. They did not have play makers Mohd Shawki and Flavio Amado. Check out the second goal by Hassan Eshag, a long piledriver that was squeezed between the goalie and the post.

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Nearly 67,000 fans came out to see this match and they were not disappointed. David Beckham came out to play and put on a tantalizing display of dead ball precision. The man that all the fans had come out to watch seemed fired up and feisty. It helped because this match was much anticipated nationally. Three Beckham guided lasers zeroed onto their man and the LA Galaxy matched the NY Red Bulls in a pulsating ding dong battle. It was heading towards a draw till Angel pulled the winner out for NY in stoppage time. It was great theater.

To put it in context, the defence was shoddy and the goalkeeping at times was terrible, although Joe Cannon pulled off some spectacular saves. A few of Beckham's passes were errant and one led to a Jozy Altidore goal.

He was also guilty of very poor defending standing in the box with Van den Bergh moving the ball around the LA defence that led to the Mathis volley. On another occasion he lost the ball to Mathis almost leading to a goal. My player of the match was Jozy Altidore. He is powerful, quick, uses both feet, although more comfortable with the left, has a cannon shot, and is technically a very sound player. His second goal was a beauty.

What does this match augur for the future? We see this as an event because in its star power, intensity, number of fans and goals scored, it was unparalleled. There have been very few games like this. I think it does one immediate thing and that is take off pressure instantly from Alexi Lalas and Frank Yallop for the hitherto no show Beckham, providing some vindication. Does it save the LA Galaxy from the cellar? No. The Galaxy has a porous defence and that is something Beckham can do very little about. The match also does not solve the problem of his chronically injured ankle that will limit Beckham to a match time decision and impact his future.

The bigger question. Does this mean it is going to become sexy for people to come out and watch MLS? An additional 45,000 came to see the match because of Beckham. A number of them were what the English would dismiss as the prawn sandwich brigade opportunistically following a fashionable phenomenon. They will not show up for the next match. But that would be entirely missing the point out here.

From the standpoint of MLS viability, Beckham is akin to a conduit. It is in players like Jozy Altidore wherein lies the saliency of the MLS. In a big match like this drawing national attention because of Beckham, Altidore’s performance spotlighted what the future MLS brings to the fans. For a number of those who had come to stargaze Beckham, Altidore’s performance would have been an eye opener, a display of Deion Sanders like athletic grandeur. The type of display that make fair-weather fans want to come back for more because of the type of player he is. A gradual uptick in the attendance would be a great achievement.

Posted by Shourin Roy at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A brain eating zombie entity called Net Results is removing the You Tube video clips of the matches we are posting for alleged copy right violations. I guess not too many people are buying Setanta and FSC for their soccer fix.

And I thought the "internets" was free. Apologies, readers.

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Martin Jol called his teams display match against Sunderland "boring." The critique does not augur well for the potentially explosive Spurs attack that managed just three shots on goal. But then again this is a Sunderland team whose most famous personality happens to be their manager.

It is said that soccer is the one sport that a coach exerts the least influence. Once the game begins it is all up to the players. No time outs. No hand holding. But maybe, just maybe the force or the cult of personality is so strong that it permeates the team. Which is true for Roy Keane. It almost seemed like Keane pushed Chopra's leg forward when the striker got the match winner in stoppage time. A draw against a Spurs team would have been creditable enough. But Keane was never known for just rubbing your nose in the mud.

Sunderland did not make too many big signings apart from Michael Chopra and Kieran Richardson in the off season. Sunderland clawed its way back from Championship relegation to Premiership contention under Keane. Most of the players reflect Keane's low key hard nosed blue collar ethos, a combination of journeymen and Sunderland stalwarts, typified by Dean Whitehead, Nyron Nosworthy, Graham Kavanaugh, and Carlos Edwards.

I certainly think that he would not have much in common with present day Man Utd, nor would he have much tolerance. And today's display against Reading would have affirmed his belief that costly talent in itself is no substitute for the hard work necessary to win. This well maybe the reason why Kieran Richardson and Liam Miller who were reported to be in Keane's doghouse when at Man Utd joined Sunderland.

Sunderland will win a few, draw a lot more, and not lose too many, but it will do enough to be a thorn in the big clubs sides as it supplants Bolton in the fear factor as a spoiler. Sunderland has the most optimistic fans and their winning start against a club that is favoured to break into the top four will have done little to dampen the optimism. But the reason for optimism is entirely because of the present manager's cult of personality. Slackers beware.

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Arsenal 2 Fulham 1.

To watch Arsenal start this season against Fulham was to watch another piece of theater as the ridiculous, the sublime, and the strange all played out in 90+ minutes. It left you with a myriad of emotions ranging from despair to delight. Jens Lehmann's bone headed fumbling which led to a disastrous goal within a minute of the start of play when all that was needed was a simple clearance brought back memories of other ways Arsenal have managed to shoot themselves in the foot. This time it was David Healy, another one of Laurie Sanchez's NI signings that gratefully accepted Lehmann's ghastly little flub.

And then it was deja vu all over again as wave after wave of beautiful Arsenal build ups broke down with one pass too many, the errant final pass, too few options up front, a physical Fulham defense led by Zat Knight and Carlos Bocanegra winning the aerial challenges, and underscoring Arsenal's lack of inches in attack. I became tired of hearing how good Tony Warner was at goal. It was not Warner's good goalkeeping as much as Arsenal shooting the ball straight to him after that extra pass ensured Warner was in the right position to stop the ball. He is a journeyman goalie, not Petr Cech, fer cryin' out loud!

Wenger's introduction of Nicklas Bendtner very late in the game was the key to Arsenal's pulling this game out. Wenger must have seen how the Arsenal attack was being shunted aside by the taller Fulham defense. The Danish lad has height, strength, quick feet, and was physically assertive. He went up against Zak Knight and Carlos Bocanegra winning the aerial challenges and showed (gasp!) good goal poaching instincts. You could see the Fulham defense becoming less sure of themselves with Bendtner around. I think it was this bit of doubt that paved the way for Toure's sizzling little run, being brought down by Bocanegra desperation tackle, and Van Persie's penalty kick equalizer.

The ball was then hogged by Jack Warner who would not let it go. Flamini stripped him off it and a strange rugby like scrum ensued with both teams milling around trying to tear the ball away. Papa Dioup came up with it and Fabregas chased him down swiping the ball from his hands. All part of the age of Aquarius. It resulted in three yellow cards.

Lehmann must have heaved a sigh of relief that was bottled up for almost 83 minutes. But he had to deal with Toure, the hero of a few minutes earlier almost scored an own goal in a typical casual mix up that seemed to plague Arsenal's defense in this match.

But the best little piece of play came from "long overdue for a big game Alexander Hleb", as he chested down a nice lofted pass from Cesc, stayed on his feet after being challenged by Zat Knight, and angled his shot across the goal mouth, finding the left corner of the net. Nice bit of work and the best part was the undersized Hleb managed to stay on his feet.

Eboue still has some ways to go before he can rove effectively on the right and transition into an attacking midfielder. Walcott again showed great pace and some nice skills but I have always found his cross and shot making decisions suspect. He really needs to work on those to become threatening. Gallas needs to provide defense and his involvement in the game should be more than arguing with the referee and poking his nose in an altercation. Bakary Sagna performed very well and the Auxerre lad showed why he is so highly rated by Les Bleus. But the performer today was Nicklas Bendnter who in his 10 minute appearance showed that he could provide an exclamation point to all those dazzling Arsenal build ups.

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Reports are that Man U and You Tube have merged to create a soccer video jockey behemoth, Tube Man U, that has largely eliminated the use of talent scouts on the ground. Instead, fathers who are proud of their sons soccer prowess will now post their videos on Tube Man U which will be viewed by experts like SAF and Man Utd's estimated fan base of 75 million. Labeling them as the next Rooney or Owen will be an essential feature. Videos will be considered by Man U with rights to a first offer before being turned to other clubs. Man Utd hopes to corner 90% of the world talent this way. Rhain Davis is just the first of many.

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16 minutes. That is the sum total of Becks appearance. You know if Alexi Lalas was at all concerned about Beckham's ankle healing properly he would have asked him to wait out this season. It might be a bit too late for the LA Galaxy to make it to the playoffs and having Beckham might have not made much of a difference. However, it would have given the ankle time to heal and would have stopped all the second guessing and finger pointing going on.

So get used to these headlines. This weekend Beckham flies in with the Galaxy but he probably will not play. To protect themselves from the wrath of many who thought that this might be his debut, Toronto issued this statement " As with any other player under contract with either club participating in the game, should Mr. Beckham be unable to play in the game, no refunds will be issued.''

For skeptics not sold on soccer, this may well be the biggest reason. I guess no one considered that Beckham's no shows could actually cause soccer more harm than good.

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