The Soccer Thread (Version 7.0)

Ugh, torn ACL for Stu:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20130729/united-states-stuart-holden-torn-acl-panama.ap/?sct=hp_t2_a2&eref=sihp

 

He'll be 28 in a few days. Those knees are probably closer to 35 now.

 

This is a goddamn Greek tragedy. Holden's the new John O'Brien, only more so. No way is he in playing shape by next July. Would it be too much to hope his knees hold out long enough to give him a chance in 2018?

What's more, that's one less player standing between Jermaine Jones and a starting spot in the US midfield. Maybe Roma missing out on the Champions League wasn't so bad after all....

 

Damn, damn, damn. That's awful news. This may be his last World Cup cycle.

 

And yet it should be said, without minimizing how shitty this injury is, if there's one position where we've got ample cover, it's DM. We can throw any two of Bradley, Cameron and Jones out there and feel decent about ourselves. Diskerud can slot in back there, and hell, even Beckerman showed something in the Gold Cup, although we'd be in dire straights if he's playing much in Brazil.

Basically, I'm just reassuring myself that Maurice Edu isn't going to get any run.

 

He's got one more comeback in him. Any setback and it's retirement (if he knows what's good for him). I would think his USMNT career is over.

 

Fresh off his Gold Cup heroics, Brek Shea injures his knee with Stoke City in a friendly at Philadelphia.

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2013/07/30/sports/doc51f86dea4fdf8452846982.txt

 

Garber says MLS will add four teams by end of decade.

ESPN announcers teeing off on Garber about Chivas USA. He wants no part of it.

 

The original investors want some of their money back.

 

didn't see first roma goal, but stats credit it to kevin strootman, so why does espn.com main headline keep insisting it was an own goal? did an editor see the name and assume it was an mls player?

 

It's still kind of hard to tell on the first goal, but I'm certain Strootman scored. Aurelien Collin got his foot in there, there were three touches, and it looked like it went Strootman, Collin, Strootman.

Landon Donovan's miss when it was 2-0 was the play of the game. Instead of 2-1, Roma made it 3-0 less than a minute later.