Four At The Back tries and fails to come to terms with the Confederations Cup this week. Well, I shouldn't speak for Kenn in that case. Kenn interviews Tom Wynn of the Milwaukee Wave, and Roger Allaway, author of - it's Plutarch's "Parallel Lives," except with the Cosmos and Bethlehem Steel.

Also, I belittle the USL's achievement in the Open Cup. Because I live in an ivory MLS tower of snobbishness.

In other news...I'm pretty much trawling for the sardines in Bill's last couple of posts here. So, in the words of the late Timothy Treadwell, bear with me.

First, Steven Cohen....click here to read more...

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Seattle FC striker Nate Jaqua's attorney, David Angeli, issued a statement late Friday afternoon in which he called allegations against his client "baseless" and said Jaqua was "shocked" to hear of them.

(I'm just hoping, for everyone's sake, that it's A DIFFERENT DAVID ANGELI but who knows?)

(What a relief: THIS IS THE GUY. I'm certainly no expert, but that looks like one hell of a strong pedigree.)

The statement continued: "The complaint -- which has not even been served on Nate -- is baseless. It alleges events that purportedly took place two years ago. In the past two years, Nate has never been contacted by the police, the District Attorney's Office, the plaintiff, her lawyer, or anyone else regarding these allegations. Nate has confidence in the legal system and is certain that these allegations will be proven to be false."

The Seattle PI is also reporting that []...click here to read more...

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Hi, my name's Michael Owen. I am aspirational, professional, charismatic and global. Most of all though, I am fit and healthy – I can't stress that highly enough. If you don't believe me, ask my mum…

As I write this, Michael Owen is at the Carrington – Man Utd's training facility – undergoing a medical: "It's OK, you don't need to see my hamstrings… do you? Didn't you read my brochure? What do you mean my agents didn't send it to you? Here you go, I've got a spare copy in my man-bag…"


"You see, told you so! – 'fit and healthy'. It's right next to 'clean and fresh'."

Most non-United fans are having a jolly good laugh at this news, which has quickly developed from rumour into full-on FACT.

As I wrote earlier on Who Ate All the Pies:

[I]"I know []...click here to read more...

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I've been working overtime trying to come up with another piece on "T-Shirt Steve" Cohen to post today since watching some of you - most likely the same ones who dial in to his show just for the chance to call him "mate" - come unglued has been more fun than the law should allow but alas, I've come up dry.

I do promise to keep trying, but in the meantime I'm going to have to just do some Friday file dumping and hope Cohen gets caught in bed with a farm animal or something.

And the way things are going, it's only a matter of time.


The always entertaining CLIMBING THE LADDER has a highly revealing chart showing why the now-traditional howling about MLS teams losing to USL sides in the US Open Cup is so far off the mark:

[B]Number of normal starters in the first XI::

5-Chivas USA
4/5/6-New England (hard to tell with all the injuries)
3-Columbus
3-DC United
1-Chicago
1-Kansas City

So that's three per team. That's actually a bit generous,...click here to read more...

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I have never really understood why CONCACAF has to play the Gold Cup every two years. But then I take a look at Mexico’s possible itinerary, and it become$ abundantly clear. I hope Mexico’s players have frequent flier accounts. If they somehow make it the Gold Cup final later this month at the Meadowlands, they will have played in 6 venues, made 5 flights, crossed over three time zones, and traveled a total of 5036 miles (as the golden goose flies). Someone's gonna make some bank.

The USA is getting ready to host Gold Cup, again. There have been Gold Cup games in the US in every tournament since its inception in 1991. There have also been games in Mexico, in some of those tournaments. This year CONCACAF plans to spread the wealth, or at least expand their reach, to 13 markets for the 2009 tournament. I have nothing against making money, but does CONCACAF have to make it so obvious? Is it really a surprise that the US and Mexico have a chokehold on the trophy, save for one Canadian...click here to read more...

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I've carried him long enough – get this freaking Limey off my back NOW!

Over in England, the reaction to preview quotes from Grant Wahl's uber-hyped book/hatchet job on Becks, 'The Beckham Experiment', has naturally centred around the following outburst from Landon Donovan, the man Beckham replaced as captain of the Los Angeles Galaxy. Get a load of this shizzle:

"All that we care about at a minimum is that he [Beckham] committed himself to us. As time has gone on, that has not proven to be the case in many ways - on the field, off the field.

"Does the fact that he earns that much money come into it? Yeah. If someone's paying you more than anybody in the league, more than double anybody in the league, the least we expect is that you show up to every game, whether you're suspended or not.

[I]"Show up and train hard. Show up and play hard....click here to read more...

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It seems the ole' Premier League is losing its looks, and fast. The big Prem clubs have winked at a long line of hunky galacticos – Kaka, Ribery, Benzema, Villa, Silva, Eto'o, Pato, Pirlo, Maicon – but how many of them have chosen to come to England? Not one.

Not only that, but Cristiano Ronaldo has left for Madrid, finally, so England's top league can't even claim to have the best player in the world anymore. By contrast, La Liga in Spain can boast the holy trinity: C-Ron, Lionel Messi and Kaka. Spain 3-0 England.

Of course, there is still a lot of transfer business to be done before the start of the new season, but which marquee names are likely to come to England now? Er… I'm struggling to think of anyone. Yuri Zhirkov doesn't cut it.

And it's not just Ronaldo who is set to pack his man bag for Spain. Emmanuel Adebayor could be headed to Milan, while it seems that the agents of several big-name Prem players are playing the "By...click here to read more...

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I hope all of you are sitting down because, well, here's something that will come as a shock:

It appears that Steven Cohen may have been the moving force behind the online "Supporter's Petition" as well as the website set up to collect donations for his show.

I'll give you a minute to recover from the shock.


Thanks to an alert correspondent, I've been watching a site called GINGE TALKS THE FOOTY, a gentleman named Zach Woolsley who is an Everton supporter - not a Liverpudlian as one might expect - and a DC United supporter as well.

Ginge has been looking into the whole Cohen/Liverpool kerfuffle and has found some extremely interesting stuff.

Early on Tuesday he posted THIS INTERESTING ARTICLE tracing the genesis and evolution of...click here to read more...

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The more it stays the same, the less it changes.
- Spinal Tap

Stephen Colbert did a segment on American soccer. And it didn't end up like my old nightmare, where the Craig Kilborn-era "Daily Show" sends a comedian/reporter into a supporters section in order to mock us mercilessly.

I hate to keep beating this drum, but I want to write it down again, for the benefit of future archaeologists in case my monitor gets fossilized. In 2009, the United States gave a crap about the Confederations Cup.

Well...okay, they gave a crap about the US Men's National Team performing very well against quality opponents. But this confirms what we saw in the wee morning hours of 2002 - this country is ready to embrace the national team.

Just to compare an apple to an iMac for a second - almost exactly ten years ago, the United States played in a tournament where they played Brazil tough, beat Germany, and lost to Mexico in one...click here to read more...

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Yesterday, everybody and their cousin from every corner of the soccersphere linked to the exerpt from Grant Wahl's new book.

On the off chance that you missed it, HERE'S DAN'S TAKE, complete with exerpts that more or less prove what we all more or less were saying, ie. that a) Beckham's people were calling the shots in LA and b) Beckham wasn't exactly busting his hump out there.

Perhaps coinicidentally, USSF's Overhead-in-Chief, Sunil Gulati, was quoted yesterday advising Stupid Spice that he ISN'T LIKELY TO BE WELCOMED BACK TO MLS WITH WILD ENTHUSIASM, about which I can only add that if Beckham needed someone to tell him that then the much-vaunted collection of flacks, PR gurus and ad men collectively referred to as "Team Beckham" isn't worth the money Posh pays them.


Anyway, the reason for the SI tease is of course to generate pre-publication buzz for...click here to read more...

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Edgar Castillo, the New Mexico born Mexican-American left back, announced today that he would consider a move to play for the US National team. After a few good seasons with Santos Laguna, Castillo spent last year with Mexico City’s Club America-- a forgettable campaign as part of one of the worst defense in the league. His year was punctuated by the fact that he misplaced his passport and could not join Mexico for their qualifier at Honduras. After it was clear that Castillo would not be part of America’s future plans, Castillo moved to Tigres to play for his former Santos coach, Daniel Guzman. Poised to play in this year’s Superliga, Castillo misplaced his passport again, and didn’t make the trip to the States.

The young New Mexican is a dymamic left back when he presses forward. He has plenty of pace, a decent shot, and technical skill. His defense, though, is not his best suit. The reality is that if Mexico has depth anywhere on the field, it’s on the left side. Castillo...click here to read more...

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As always, Josh has the previews here.

You're not excited? These are the matchups:

New England v. Harrisburg
DC United v. Ocean City Barons (Josh will be broadcasting this game, too - 7:30 ET, 4:30 my time, USLLive.com)
Wilmington Hammerheads v. Chicago
Charleston v. Chivas USA
Rochester v. Columbus
Minnesota v. Kansas City
Austin v. Houston

and, last but not least,

Portland v. Seattle.

STILL not interested?

Any of these can end up in upsets, especially considering the vagaries of MLS motivational fortitude in this round. Six out of the eight USL teams in this round have had a great deal of success in the Cup over the years - and the other two are facing their neighbors.

The Thunder over KC would be your longest shot, because our beloved Minnesota Thunder have been freaking godawful this year. Home field advantage might help Cloud City, but then again, it hasn't helped them so far in league play, has it?

I'm...click here to read more...

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Welp.

In the interests of fairness, the Galaxy weren't a good team when Beckham found them. But...you know, how does one process this?

[quote]Most of the players were confused. Who was this British guy who looked like the comedian Ricky Gervais? When Donovan asked whether the players would need to change their Thanksgiving plans, it was this guy, not Lalas or Gullit, who answered him. "That was weird for me," said Klein. "Alexi Lalas is the general manager of this team, and then here's this other guy presenting our new coach. I was like, What is going on here?"

The mysterious figure was [Terry] Byrne, who was not only Beckham's best friend and personal manager but also a business associate of Beckham's manager, 19 Entertainment chief Simon Fuller, the Brit who created American Idol. Even though Beckham was in the room, he remained oddly silent. Nobody would ever bother explaining...click here to read more...

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Exclusive BigSoccer content from Yellow Card Journalism.

Photos by Andy Mead/YCJ



more after the jump...click here to read more...

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The United States came oh so close to bagging their first FIFA trophy yesterday at Ellis Park. Mexico, meanwhile was busy continuing its neverending saga of who wants to score.

Some thoughts about both.

The US (to use a football term) punched Brazil in the mouth and had them down on the ground with foot firmly on throat after Donovan’s ruthless finish. And when a cross just missed two wide open yanks not too much later, I was reminded of that cliché that Andres Cantor employs from time to time (okay, all the time): goles que no vuelven…. Then the foot came off the throat, and Brazil had a chance to catch their breath

Dunga did not sport his NPR look last night, but Julio Cesar looked like he was playing at the South Pole, not South Africa. The climate will be advantageous to the euros next summer (winter) in the fact that it won’t be 90+ degrees at gametime.

Once Brazil got one back, I thought the US might be in trouble, and once they neutralized the counter, it was...click here to read more...

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Well, as the great philosopher said, broken hearts are for assholes. Although if you had told me that Clint Monkeyfighting Dempsey would be crying after the US was eliminated from the Confederations Cup, I'd have looked at you and said, "Really? What an odd thing to say."

We're not deep enough to win major tournaments. Roughly half the time, we're going to have trouble holding onto leads against the top two or three teams in the world.

And right there the mental lug nuts slide off, the mental wheels come off, and the mental 1968 Volkswagen bus spins out into the mental Mississippi River, mentally killing all aboard. We're going to have trouble holding onto a lead against Brazil. I think a lot of teams would settle for that problem. No one else in the damn tournament even TOOK a lead against Brazil.

Should we have held onto it? Gee, I guess, probably. "Most dangerous lead in soccer" aside, though, how do you do that? We all realize bunkering would have delayed the...click here to read more...

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There is no joy in Mudville...


As I sat there watching Sunil Gulati and Jack Warner shaking hands with some bunch of guys before heading off to the VVIP room Gala Reception Dinner Dance, the only image I had in my mind was Clint Dempsey, holding the Bronze Ball trophy like it was infected with the Black Plague and trying manfully - and ultimately unsuccessfully - to hold back the tears.

Like the man says, it's not the fact that they lost but rather how they did it.

But I'd just like to say that coughing up three second half goals - and the Championship - to Brazil, while painful as hell, isn't what the US takes from this game.


This tournament has finally, at long last, made us fall in love with this team.


[FONT=Verdana][SIZE=2]It was a long, hard struggle. They called and wrote, they knocked on our door, they sent flowers and candy, they got down on their knees and begged.

And we...click here to read more...

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If you find yourself weeping, post here....click here to read more...

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I have to make a confession: I didn't watch the US - Spain match.

By "watch" I mean "sit someplace screaming at a TV set while the game is actually being played".

I set the DVR so that I could watch it later, but then of course ESPN deemed it an "Instant Classic" and so it was just starting again when I got home. As a result, and even though I already knew the final score, I sat through the whole thing, something which I readily admit I don't normally do. If I already know the ending I'll usually skip a few chapters.



The reason why I wasn't on my sofa or a bar stool at kickoff time was because I had to take a trip over to Sag Harbor, out at the tippy end of Long Island.

Plus, I figured that as badly as I wanted to watch the game live, this was a good demonstration of how I'm not really addicted to soccer, as people keep telling me. I can say no any time I want.

I figured we'd drive over, do our thing, and...click here to read more...

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I'm in a great mood today. The local child molestor died, that's always a good thing.

Plus, we have - well, mostly Kenn has - the FATBack special edition: the complete Shep interview. Guy's an icon.

And...okay, I guess I should address this. My blog entry yesterday was really, really misunderstood. I have to take a lot of responsibility for that. I can't assume that everyone has read every previous blog post, for one thing. I also need to own that I might have misdirected some of the comedy. The concept of "stupid-right," for example, is something I believe works. And I still think if you really looked at the rosters, the form, the previous results, and still predicted a US victory? Stupid-right. (Same with Brazil, to be honest. Although Brazil looked vulnerable against South Africa in a way that Spain frankly hadn't at any point since, what, before Euro 2008? - you shouldn't really be predicting a US win without admitting...click here to read more...

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