Well, it's time to consider nominations for CONCACAF Player of the Year again. I was reminded of this courtesy of Nick Green's coverage of the FIFA Women's Player of the Year finalists. In a nutshell, FIFA blew it. Three of FIFA's nominees would technically be eligible for my award – Marta, Kelly Smith, and Cristiane….
Category: News
Draft Beer, Not Players
J.R. Eskilson can see the future. How can he possibly know this? We're talking about a draft so deep, so rich in talent, that Bruce Arena thought Clint Mathis is a better choice than at least fifty of them. MLS teams don't build around the draft anymore, if they ever did. It was five years…
War of Words
Not too long ago I had a hearty chuckle at Major League Soccer Players Union boss Bob Foose, whose dire warnings about how FIFA would throw the US out of the World Cup if MLS didn't cave in to the players was met with derision far and wide. As I said at the time, I'm…
Aldo de Nigris Could be the Difference in the Final
De Nigris has 3 of Monterrey's 5 liguilla goals If you ask any Monterrey fan who they would like to beat to win the Mexican Primera, the answer is not surprising: Tigres, their cross-town rivals. But a close second would be any team from the hated chilangolandia. And if Monterrey lifts the trophy this Sunday…
Mexico’s Big Four: Myth and Reality
Memo Ochoa hopes to lead Club America to a title Mexico’s Clausura (this season named Torneo Bicentenario, in celebration of Mexico’s Bicentennial) kicked off last weekend, and something strange happened. Something that hadn’t happened since matchday 6 of the 2007 Apertura. The Big four (America, Cruz Azul, Guadalajara and Pumas) all won. Just the fact…
Report: Jack Warner Kited World Cup Tix Through Black Market Dealer
According to a report from Dagbladet, a daily newspaper in Norway, CONCACAF and Caribbean Football Union President and FIFA Vice President Jack Warner SOLD LARGE QUANTITIES OF WORLD CUP 2010 MATCH TICKETS to what is being described as "one of the worlds' biggest black market companies". The report (for which I am indebted to BigSoccer…
And the World Cup winner is….
The 2010 FIFA World Cup winner is? Spain (or maybe the Netherlands). /www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]> At least that’s what Paul the Octopus, the World Cup’s unlikeliest star, has predicted today. For those of you who don’t know who Paul is, he’s an Octopus in Oberhausen’s Sea Life Aquarium in Germany, and has so far successfully ‘predicted’ the…
If You Have a Structured Settlement But You Need Cash Now
I wish someone would explain to me why David Beckham is so determined to go someplace on loan – at the moment it appears he's HEADED TO SPURS – for the next couple of months? (The Brits are calling this a "shock" move, as if there's one damned thing the man or his wife could…
Mexican Primera Poised for a Wild Finish
Over the past 8 matchdays, the teams in the Mexican Apertura have treated the spot atop the table like a papita caliente. Only one team, Jaguares, has managed to stay there for more than one week. The others haven’t even had time to enjoy their cafecitos at the top of the mountain before they are…
Finished Business
An old friend of mine who has spent a good deal of his life – not to mention a good deal of his money – on promoting soccer in the US (among other things he owned a USL/USISL Pro team about which the less said the better) has a theory about the real – as…