The Soccer thread (Part II)

Villarreal pays $10 million for Altidore

VILLARREAL, Spain (AP) — American teenage striker Jozy Altidore signed a six-year contract with Villarreal and said Wednesday he was excited about joining the Spanish club.
Villarreal agreed to pay a transfer fee reportedly close to $10 million for the former New York Red Bulls player, nearly twice as much as the previous record for an American and more than the previous high for anyone from Major League Soccer.
The previous highest fee for an American was when Sunderland bought Claudio Reyna for $5.7 million in 2001, and Fulham paid $4 million for Clint Demspey after the 2006 MLS season.
Villarreal has yet to decide whether to incorporate the 18-year-old into its first-team squad for next season or loan him to another club.
Villarreal has a surfeit of strikers, with Uruguayan forward Robert Flores and Valladolid's Joseba Llorente also recently being acquired. The club's offense already has Turkey's Nihat Kahveci, Mexico's Guille Franco, Denmark's Jon Dahl Tomasson and American-born Giuseppe Rossi, formerly of Manchester United.
Among the leading scorers at last year's under-20 World Cup as the United States reached the quarterfinals, Altidore was a key member of the American team that qualified for the Olympics in April and is expected to lead the attack in Beijing.
However, if he plays in the Olympics he will miss Villarreal's preseason preparations.
Altidore has made three appearances for the U.S. national team and scored his first goal against Mexico in February, the youngest player to score for the United States in the modern era.
Villarreal, which finished runner-up to champion Real Madrid this season, has been looking for reinforcements to play next season in the European Champions League, in which it reached the semifinals in 2006.
It also signed Brazilian defensive midfielder Edmilson from FC Barcelona, while Uruguayan midfielder Sebastian Eguren has signed a permanent deal after spending last season on loan from Sweden's Hammarby.

 

Good news ...

Better news ...

For the sake of the USMNT, I'd love to see what Altidore can do in a major league. And I think my blues got a whale of a coach capable of attracting top talent from Brazil and Portugal. Not bad at all, Roman ...

 

Well, my day has been given a kick in the balls...


Fuck Kenny Miller. I cannae believe Smith would actually pick this guy back up. Kenny Misser is not tae fucking answer.

 

God, I hope not.

I like watching an in-form Ronaldinho play. It's a treat. And speaking as Arsenal fanboi looser who is a member of the 1,000,000 Reasons to Hate Chelsea club on Facebook, it would be criminal for him to waste any time, skills and talent on scuzzbucket Chelski.

 

Pastor, relax.
A striker with 11 goals in his past 63 games ... what's not to love?

 

Been there before. Unloaded it then. Even they unloaded him...

 

The second round of CONCACAF qualifying is underway ... U.S. vs. Barbados from the HDC at 5 p.m. Eastern. Some teams went ahead and played Saturday:

Guatemala 6-0 St. Lucia
Grenada 2-2 Costa Rica (the Spice Boyz were up 2-0 after 27 minutes!)
Suriname 1-0 Guyana

Honduras is already through to the first group stage, beating Puerto Rico 4-0 at home and drawing 2-2 in Puerto Rico. One of the PR scorers was Petter Villegas (Metro flashback for Pastor). Today's games:

U.S.A. vs. Barbados
Trinidad & Tobago vs. Bermuda
Antigua & Barbuda vs. Cuba
Belize vs. Mexico
Jamaica vs. Bahamas
St. Vincent & the Grenadines vs. Canada
Panama vs. El Salvador
Haiti vs. Netherlands Antilles

 

Way to go Mexico. Winning 2-0 in a virtual home game in Houston against Belize. I heard the game was tied in the 59th minute.

Is Mexico in a decline? Is the USA on the brink of being the Australia in Oceania of CONCACAF?

 

Mexico is in a transitional phase right now just like France.

Their U-17 team won the 2005 World Cup, and now players like Vela and dos Santos are just starting to get CAPs with the senior national team.
And they are currently ushering out guys like Blanco, Borgetti, Oswaldo Sanchez, etc. who are getting up there in age.

They are building a solid core group of players who are currently 19-22 in age that will be their backbone for the next 10+ years. Give Mexico two or three years and they will be back to being as competitive if not more competitive than the U.S.

 

Barbados was so freaking bad.

 

Trinidad & Tobago lost at home to BERMUDA??????

Aren't those teams in the USA's semifinal group? Good grief, the group was already fairly easy, but this could be a cakewalk.

 

This from my fave London sports section, The Telegraph:

Reports have Manchester United's top scout Jim Lawlor set to travel to America to watch FC Dallas' 18-year-old defensive midfielder Brek Shea, who is being tipped as the next big thing in the U.S.

I'll admit: this is a name I do not know at all. Anybody know the deal on him?