All-Purpose, Never-Ending Soccer Thread

English football returns tomorrow!!

The Football League (all non-Premiership) begins tomorrow with a full slate of games.
For those of you lucky to have Setanta Sports USA, there are three or four Championship games on tomorrow.

Anyone here follow any non-Premiership teams?

I'm a diehard Scunthorpe United fan and also follow QPR (been to the sardine can known as Loftus Road).

 

DeMerit really is an amazing story. This is a guy who is playing basically for free a year ago and now he's in the EPL.

Having said that, it is good to see that The Guardian keeps up its streaking of bashing Americans appreciation of soccer at every opportunity.

 

Well, it's about fucking time! Last year, I was talking with someone in the Rangers organization about this. The guy holds the record for most goals scored in an SPL season and he did it with Rangers.

I'm glad that new initiatives are being taken. Bigotry is just ugly.

 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
http://sport.scotsman.com/football.cfm?id=1129082006
http://www.wldcup.com/Asia/news/060730.html#celtic

About 800K to 1mil GBP worth. Nothing like flying around the world and playing a bunch of J-League reserves in front of a one-third full stadium to beef up the ol' pocketbook, eh Gordo?

 

Well, that's that. The MLS mercs beat Chelsea 1-0, in what was an awful, awful game to watch.

 

Only thing awful was Chelsea. MLS dominated that game.

It sickens me that we now have to read the opinion that it's preseason for them, the game means nothing, blah blah blah. The fact that one of the top five clubs in the world can be completely outclassed by a makeshift all-star squad (no Donovan, no Twellman) is a positive thing for American soccer.

De Rosario was fantastic. It was also cool to see John Terry busting his ass near the end.

 

DeRo has made quite a name for himself in MLS.
That free-kick goal he scored last year was absolutely sick - no way a soccer ball should be able to curve like that.

Sucks for Houston fans knowing that he's off to the new Toronto franchise next season.

 

it will be an interesting day for Las Chivas of Mexico and las chivas of MLS

the real chivas begins apertura play today against Toluca. later today, the real chivas will face european king Barcelona in a doubleheader, featuring fake chivas and the revolution.

word is, real chivas will use its youth system against toluca and its regulars against barcelona. meanwhile, the coach is scheduled to coach both games, saying he will take a jet to L.A. in time for the Barcelona match.

 

The biggest news of the weekend was not even the All-Star surprise.

MLS signed a new TV deal with ESPN that's not at all like its past deals. MLS/US Soccer used to have to buy blocks of time on ABC/ESPN/The Ocho and resell the ad time to make up for it. Under the new deal, ESPN/ABC is paying a rights fee to MLS and weekly game broadcasts move from Saturday afternoon to Thursday evening.

Congratulations to MLS on making it over a big hurdle.

 

Good for them, but is anyone going to watch?

 

Well somebody must be if ESPN/ABC figures it can make more money selling the ad time itself.

 

Flipping between Mythbusters and the Toluca-Chivas JV match ... not hard to tell there's scrubs on the field, if only because there's a few guys with numbers in the 40s.

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Not a bad weekend for YAs. Eddie Lewis (Leeds) and Zak Whitbread (Millwall) each go 90 for their respective teams, while Jeremiah White scores a hat trick -- just the second ever for an American in Europe -- for Gueugnon.