The last time FC Barcelona and Real Madrid met in the Copa del Rey, Cristiano Ronaldo and company took the trophy in the Final. Unfortunately for “Los Blancos,” the dropping and destroying that trophy from their victory parade bus is what people remember more than actually winning. For Ronaldo, Barca is that thorn preventing aspirations for soccer supremacy Read the rest of this entry »

Take a look at this unbelievable goal by Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard scoring from his own box (insert joke here) during Wednesday night’s EPL action. Credit this play on shoddy defending or just a lucky bounce but this is one of the craziest goals you will ever see. Read the rest of this entry »

FC Barcelona’s goalkeeper flubbed a clearance resulting in a Real Madrid goal in the first minute of the game but with a little luck and resiliency, Barcelona won 3-1 to tie their rivals as league leaders in Spain. Read the rest of this entry »

The FIFA series has provided more than triumph and heartbreak on the virtual pitch for almost two decades. EA’s golden line of footie games has long featured an eclectic mix of records featuring artists from all over the globe. Besides, it only makes sense for the world’s game to headline acts from the US to New Zealand. The series’s tunes has long served as a great way to expand your listening boundaries. FIFA 12, however, features one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a sports game in a while. Read the rest of this entry »

In the “Subway Series of Soccer,” Manchester City trampled Manchester United 6-1 on Sunday to prove they weren’t pretenders but contenders for the Premier League Crown. For Americans, the Manchester derby can easily compare to baseball’s famous local rivalry. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a threat to tradition that’s being floated in the world’s most popular sports league, England’s Premier League, that would end its adherence to the relegation/promotion system. According to a story by Yahoo! Sports’ Martin Rodgers, an increase in American ownership has made the move a serious consideration.

“‘There are a number of overseas-owned clubs already talking about the avoidance of promotion and relegation in the Premier League,’ said Richard Bevan, chief executive of the powerful League Managers Association, which represents the interests of head coaches in English soccer. ‘If we have four or five more owners, this could happen.’”

Scary. The English Premier League and the rest of the world’s major soccer leagues utilize the unique system that relegates a league’s bottom-feeding teams (sends them to a lower professional division) and promotes a lower league’s winners to the next-level league. It’s a system that allows world soccer to stand alone in comparison to American sports leagues. In the case of England its practice dates back over a century and creates an ultimate importance within the regular season’s framework. Smaller clubs battle for the right to play against the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, while mid-level clubs joust to avoid falling into oblivion.

The relegation/promotion system (especially in the EPL) makes every result do-or-die and the atmosphere that comes with such a structure ensures that teams don’t flounder along just to take from the league’s year-end bounty. It also ensures the English equivalents of a Tampa Bay Rays or Cleveland Cavaliers don’t bomb entire seasons just to proclaim “there’s always next year” and lay in wait for a potential draft pick.

Although the richest clubs always vie for the title, destitute clubs’ mad-dash scramble at the end of every EPL season to avoid relegation fosters the greatest final weeks in any professional sports league. It’s an energetic situation that American leagues can only dream about and it avoids the hokey, pre-manufactured attention generators that eight-team, postseason American playoffs create.

English legislators and Football Association officials should fight tooth and nail to keep this Americanization of a completely non-American sport from occurring. It would be a shame to see foreign, money-hungry influence dictate a system that has worked for over a hundred years.

[Yahoo]

Banning entire crowds from attending European soccer matches isn’t a new phenomena. Scores of hyper-passionate fans (known as “ultras” and “hooligans”) demonize venues from England to the Balkan states, often inciting violence, xenophobic chants and, some times, death. Recently, Turkish club Fenerbahçe S.K. – long known for its hooliganism – was ordered by the Turkish Football Association to play a match against Manisaspor in an empty stadium. Read the rest of this entry »

In a move that brings new meaning to the word preemptive, Spanish soccer super-club Real Madrid signed a seven-year-old by the name of Leonel Angel Coira to a one-year contract that will put the little guy in Madrid’s development system for the foreseeable future. Read the rest of this entry »

Over in the soccer world, championships were decisively won and lost this past weekend.

Beginning in Spain, only five points separated Barcelona and Madrid in their annual two-horse race at the start of Saturday morning. By day’s end, Madrid’s title challenge was effectively over. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve attended only one soccer match prior to last night’s viewing of USA Vs. Paraguay and the game I did see was composed of 6-8 year-olds in a youth soccer league. Obviously not a very strong comparison point. Still, saying no to comp tickets to check out the second of the two game series seemed dumb and I’m always open to suggestions for things to do. My daughter and her friend in tow, I set off to Nashville’s LP Field, the usual playing field of the Titans taken over on Tuesday night by futbol and its fans. Read the rest of this entry »

Ronaldo was the closest thing to MJ soccer has ever seen. The Brazilian, the original, “O Fenomeno” that is. Upon his arrival onto the world soccer stage in the mid-‘90s, the Nike-endorsed wunderkind was the most exciting and, most importantly, the undisputed best. Read the rest of this entry »

If this post can’t liven up your day, the Internet signal in your coffin is pretty good. Thanks to this ever-so-home-wrecking pic-list of 168 Brazilian behinds comprised by those philandering folk over at COED Magazine, we can all now relieve our manliness without having to clear the cache. Read the rest of this entry »

Only a week into the World Cup, I’m pretty certain I’ll soon need a recovery period break. You see, this is my first as a conditionally legal alcoholic. It also marks the first time in my short life that drinking at 7am daily has been considered normal, even admirable behavior (in the sense of physical endurance and accomplishment). Read the rest of this entry »

Historical rivals dating back to the days of World War II, neighbors Holland and Germany have had frosty relationship on the futbol field as well, culminating in the ’74 World Cup final when a favored Dutch squad boasting the likes of Johan Cruyff lost to Franz Beckenbauer and company. Read the rest of this entry »

With global viewership hovering around a billion, the looming World Cup – like the Super Bowl – presents an opportune time for companies to roll out pricey, well thought out ad campaigns to get folks spending. As the dominant (and competing) on-pitch kit and boot sponsors, Nike and adidas have traditionally tapped into their roster of footballing talent for star-studded TV spots that often times rival the matches themselves in their ability to inspire, amaze and get folks off their lazy butts to have a kick-around.

Unfortunately, a lack of big names in the Brazil team (no fat Ronaldo, past-his-prime Jar-Jar Ronaldinho, or alchy Adriano this time around) has limited Nike’s ability to showcase some of its most captivating talent, instead relying on the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney for the clever, yet less spectacular current campaign, “Write The Future.” So, here’s a reflection on the Swoosh’s memorable campaigns of years past. Read the rest of this entry »