One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Clint Dempsey = Mangled Knee

US’s chances of beating England = As Good as My Chances of Playing For The US

Me Jumping in front of a bus = Imminent

Torres Tumbles

Liverpool striker Fernando Torres will be out six weeks after tearing cartilage in his left knee.  Liverpool has had an extremely disappointing season, being eliminated from Champions League play early on and now falling short of the FA Cup as well, after Reading defeated them in the third round on Wednesday night.

Torres is not the only injury to have caused the Reds pains, Steven Gerrard and Yossi Benayoun are both out for a good chunk of time.

This year just was not the year for Liverpool or Liverpool fans.  I had to listen to my roommate last year scream and cheer as they beat down Real Madrid in Champions League play, this year a bit different.  I don’t hear any trash talk now…

Kickem When Their Down

Just Because He's Awesome

Once again, Chicago gets snubbed by a selection committee.  The windy city was not accepted as a possible location for the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 by the US Soccer Federation (USSF).  Among the 18 cities selected where: Atlanta; Baltimore; Dallas; Denver; East Rutherford (N.J); Foxboro (Mass); Glendale (Ariz); Houston; Indianapolis; Kansas City; Landover (MD); Los Angeles-Pasadena; Miami; Nashville; Philadelphia; San Diego; Seattle; and Tampa.

According to reports, The US is favored to win the Cup in 2022.  According to ESPN “England, Netherlands-Belgium, Russia, Spain-Portugal, Australia and Japan also are bidding to host both World Cups.  Indonesia, Qatar and South Korea are bidding for 2022 only.”

Being that I am in the DC metro area, having two venues to potentially watch the matches is amazing!  FedEx in Landover is not the nicest facility, but truthfully, there are very few bad seats.  I also am waiting for DC to do something with RFK, when are they going to renovate that field, it has some amazing history and real potential.  If DC United can perform a bit better next season and bring back the 12th man award in MLS, then maybe RFK could become a hotspot for international matches once more.  I remember watching the Olympic soccer games there when I was a child, those were amazing games, and an amazing experience.

UPDATE

I was mulling around different sites today looking at news and info and was reminded that TODAY the US Bid Committee will announce the 18 cities in plans to potentially host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup!  The announcement will be made at 3:30 today.  It will be aired on ESPN News for those of you that want to watch.

Africa as the Host Country

 

After the Togo National Team bus was sprayed with bullets from machine gun fire in Angola last friday, there has been worry that South Africa may not be ready or even safe to host the World Cup.  Just last year, there was talk that the cup should be moved to another country because of fears that South Africa did not have the structural integrity and logistics to host such a large event.  FIFA President Blatter said today there was no concern over the countries ability to entertain the large crowds of people and companies that will descend upon them as well as the safety for those parties.  Blatter stated “I have confidence in Africa and it’s on the strength of this confidence that we will together organise the flagship competition of world football in 2010,”

This is not the first time a large sporting event was held in an area that was unstable.  The Olympics have had to deal with these issues in the past as well.  To call South Africa unstable may be a stretch but it is easy to say the area has had its share of unrest and change in the past couple decades.  It should be interesting to see how the country will hold together and change to make way for the entire world to arrive at its doorstep.

Super Charged

The MLS superdraft is quickly approaching, Jan 14th at 2pm actually.  With Chicago and New England still without coaches, this should be an interesting week and a half as teams make final decisions and players.  According to espn recruiters, this years draft should be full of powerful midfielders, most notably Tony Tchani, out of the University of Virginia.  As an additional note on MLS, FIFA has decided that MLS has not stepped outside its boundaries in regards to the labor disputes.  MLS’s labor contract expire on January 31st of this year.  But back to the draft, his year’s positions are as follows:

Round One

1 Philadelphia Union 2 New York Red Bulls 3 San Jose Earthquakes 4 Kansas City Wizards 5 FC Dallas (from TOR) 6 FC Dallas 7 DC United 8 Columbus Crew (from COL) 9 New England Revolution 10 CD Chivas USA 11 Seattle Sounders FC 12 Columbus Crew 13 Chicago Fire 14 New York Red Bulls (from HOU) 15 Los Angeles Galaxy 16 Real Salt Lake

Injury and Transfere Updates

David Trezeguet is expected to miss up to 40 matches with his recent ankle injury.  The club’s official website reports: “David Trezeguet underwent further exams this morning at the clinic following the injury sustained against Parma.  He has a second grade right ankle injury and the prognosis for a complete return is around 40 days.”

Inter defender Cristian Chivu was cashin checks and crackin necks, unfortunately it was his own.  He is expected to miss a number of matches with a fractured skull.  Coach Jose Mourinho stated “He has fractured his skull and we hope he will be able to recover very quickly, even though I fear he will be on the sidelines for a while.”

Bobby Zamora of Fulham suffered a dislocated shoulder earlier this week and is expected to miss a number of games.  This has led to speculation that the star may miss out on his chances to join the English National Team as well.  Could be a good thing for the US fans.

Patrick Vieira seems to be on the way to Manchester City, after speculation of the move it now seems finalized as Vieira is awaiting a medical exam by the team. 

Cesc Fabregas may be joining the ever-growing superstars of Real Madrid, reports are emerging that there may be a swam between clubs for Real’s striker Higuain.   A Spanish newspaper reported Real wanted to offer up Van der Vaart, and the only way they were going to part with Higuain was for 35 million euros.

In other Real news, 33-year-old Guti is most likely going to be rejoining the Spanish club.

Champions

The Next Stage has been set and these are the players that will bring us our next CHAMPION:

Group A

Bordeaux and Bayern Munich

Group B

Manchester United and CSKA Moscow

Group C

Real Madrid and AC Milan

Group D

Chelsea and FC Porto

Group E

Fiorentina and Lyon

Group F

Barcelona and Inter Milan

Group G

Sevilla FC and VfB Stuttgart

Group H

Arsenal and Olympiakos

Bring on the World

Watching The Cup

Every four years the wold comes together to celebrate the most loved sport on Earth.  Hordes of people will flock to the host country and display their football pride.  Others who are not as fortunate to make the trip to the matches must rely on media to watch their country take on the world.  Everyone is different in the way they watch the games.  A few select can pony up the money to travel around the globe to see live action.  The diehards that don’t have the green to make the trip will stock up on beer, pretzels and assorted snacks and will not emerge from their man-caves until the end of June.  You then have the avid soccer fan who wants to watch the games but has to record the events.  This is an interesting breed as they must make certain to avoid all sports interactions throughout the day.  Not an easy task.  If even one conversation is overheard, it could ruin the enjoyment of the days later events.  A risky gamble.  Then you have the casual viewer.  They may have been to a game earlier or seen one on tv.  If it’s on and they have nothing else to do, they will watch.  Another is the coworker whose fanhood you constantly question, the person that always seems to be talking about sports, but never seems to have any facts or insight.  They will tell you all about the game, and then forget to watch it, but tell you all about what happened the next day once they read about it on Sports Center.   Similar to the Faker, but far more respectful is the 4 year fan.  These people only watch the World Cup and would never touch a soccer match.  These fans tend to be more patriotic fans as opposed to specific sports fans.  Either way they are valued viewers and I welcome their commitment.  Cheer on Patriotic Fan.  The last are the haters, the people who want to see soccer fail, honestly because they don’t understand the game or were never any good at it. 

This wide spectrum of fans has created some curiosity for me, as a diehard, I am starting to save up my Paid Time Off for each US match and building out the bar in the Man-cave.  What kind of fan are you? 

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Updated World Cup Match Ups

Check the Game Face Section for all the Times and Dates for upcoming Wold Cup matches…

We Are Back, Seriously This Time

After requests for more news, The Soccer Gambit is back and running.

We all got jobs so we took some time off to make some money, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t paying attention to all the soccer news and excitement.

It’s 2010, that means the World Cup had arrived!  The US pulls an amazing draw, Ronaldo brings in monstrous amounts of money, Manchester City reports losses of £92.6 million after owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan’s first year, Messi is player of the year and Liverpool drops out of Champions League in the first stages.

Should be a great year in football people.  With the new year here, let us know what you want from us as we are going to try to make sure we feed you the type of information you really want.  But there will be lots of discussion on World Cup, so stay tuned!

Final Countdown

The stage has been set for Sunday’s Confederation Cup final.  The United States will take on South American powerhouse Brazil.  Brazil secured their spot in the final with a late goal from Daniel Alves in the 87th minute of the match.  Alves came into the game as a sub only 6 minutes before that.  After a foul right outside the 18, Alves stepped up and rifled a shot to the far post that went right by South African goalkeeper, Itumeleng Khune.  Brazil held their ground for the remaining minutes and took away a 1-0 victory.

The US has already seen Brazil in the Cup and suffered a 3-0 defeat.  At least they know what to expect and can prepare appropriately.

Heart Breaker