Spanish League games to now be shown on ESPN in the United States

As you can gather by reading this article from the New York Times, ESPN has purchased the broadcasting rights to Spain's La Liga starting with the next season. This appears to be an effort on ESPN's behalf to compensate for the loss of the broadcasting rights for the Champions League (I can here that song in my head now) to Fox Sports. It should be interesting to see if they will provide the same level of coverage that Gol TV has provided in recent years and also what Gol TV will do to compensate for the programming loss.

South American All Stars vs Rest of the World All Stars

For those who are on the west coast or are willing to travel to the west coast, there is an interesting exhibition coming up on July 4th at the Los Angeles Coliseum as a team of South American All Stars will be taking on a team of All Stars from the Rest of the World. You can click on this link for more information, but judging by the list of players that are scheduled to attend it should be a really fun match to go and see.

Real Madrid are coming to the U.S. to play D.C. United

For those of you who haven't already found out the news, Real Madrid are in fact coming to the United States this summer to play D.C. United and the game will be held at FedEx Field in Washington D.C. on Sunday, August 9th. Its finally an opportunity for American soccer fans to see the new galaticos Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo along with whomever else Real decide to buy between now and then. You can click on this link for ticket information.

U.S. 3 - 0 Egypt

What a great game and great result. There is no doubt that the U.S. team showed exactly what its capable of. They came through and got the goals that they needed against a talented Egypt team that was playing for real. They weren't there to make up the numbers or treat this tournament as another end of season friendly match. Egypt came to this tournament to win and the U.S. took all of the momentum that had been built up by the Egyptian team and threw it right back in their faces.

Now comes the hard part, which is for the U.S. team to continue on in this tournament and demonstrate that they are for real. Nobody is expecting that they will beat Spain, but they must play a really good game against them and justify their position in the semi-finals in order for the game against Egypt to count for something. We obviously can't get too carried away, the game against Egypt wouldn't have counted for anything, except that Brazil took apart Italy during a short spell in the first half.

The U.S demonstrated that they can play at a higher level, a level by which they can not only qualify for next year's World Cup, but actually accomplish something when they get there. So we're at the point now of not questioning can they do it, but will they do it?

Adriano scores 3 for Flamengo vs Internacional

So who exactly had written Adriano off and said that he was finished? Judging by the hat trick that he scored recently for Flamengo against Internacional he still looks like he can score goals with the best strikers in the world. Take a look for yourself.

Who the hell is Ashley Young?

So now Ashley Young is demanding that Aston Villa add to the team? Just who the hell is Ashley Young anyway? He wins a few caps for the English national team and now is in the position to demand that Villa have to sign players to satisfy him or else he wants to be sold to another club? This is not a team-oriented player and if I were Martin O'Neill I would seriously consider selling him if I could get a good offer. There are plenty of talented players around and he can be replaced.

I just can't believe the nerve that some players have and what they think they can get away with. Maybe Ashley Young should wait until he actually accomplishes something of significance before he starts making demands like that. I actually feel that he is a very talented player and showed a lot of promise. I can also understand how he would be disappointed that Gareth Barry has left, but don't act like a spoiled child. Stand up and support your club, manager, the fans, your teammates. Make Aston Villa a club where players want to go to.

Jose Bosingwa to Bayern Munich

Well according to the article on World Soccer's website Bayern Munich look to continue adding players and not selling anyone, including Franck Ribery. It appears that the next player Bayern are after is Jose Boswinga, which would be a surprise considering that he did have a relatively successful first season with Chelsea. As the article describes, Bayern are looking for a right back and feel that Boswinga is their man. If they can add him and keep Ribery along with their other additions such as Mario Gomez formerly of Stuttgart, then Bayern are going to be a real force to reckon with in the Champions League. They could very well go deep in the tournament and challenge the big clubs from England, Spain, and Italy.

U.S. team has major problems

Phew, I just finished watching the U.S. lose to Brazil 3-0 and I feel like I am at a loss. I can only imagine how the team feels. It seems like they are about as lost as a tourist in New York city too because this team has no clue about what they are doing or where they are going. It just seems to be more of the same mediocre soccer that we have been seeing for too many years. That game today could have been 5-0, 8-0, or worse. Brazil looked like they were in a training session with the ease that they were dominating the game and cutting through the U.S. defense. Tim Howard looked like he was in a shooting gallery. And the sad thing is that Brazil didn't even look like the world beaters from the past despite the presence of players like Kaka and Robinho. I still think they have better players then Luis Fabiano at forward and also throughout their midfield and defense.

The problems for the U.S. were demonstrated in the first game at the last World Cup and despite all of the changes since then, they still seem to be there. There are moments and even entire games when the team is able to pull themselves together and play really well. Unfortunately, these rarely occur in circumstances when they are playing a really good opponent or even a key opponent in a crucial situation. More often then not the U.S. team resembles the team that lost to Costa Rica 3-0 and again by the same score today. Shellshocked, unprepared, and overwhelmed by the situation.

Things should have changed by now and the team despite changes in personnel should have moved forward by now. They should be at the point of taking the game to Brazil and Italy and making it a really tough game for them, just like Egypt have been doing. Hopefully and probably, the U.S. will qualify for the World Cup, but the question still remains - what are they going to do when they get there?

I like Bob Bradley and think he is a good coach, but I just don't think he is the right coach for this team right now. If they were more experienced and had more talent perhaps he could do the job. The team needs a foreign coach with more experience. Jurgen Klinsmann was the right choice and this was the right job for him, but we are probably past that stage. Giovanni Trappatoni has done a terrific job with the Republic of Ireland team and perhaps would have done the same with the U.S. Right now, there are other names out there that could be considered, but something should be done and soon if the U.S. are to definitely qualify and accomplish something at the World Cup.

The loss of Giuseppe Rossi and Neven Subotić to Italy and Serbia has hurt the national team, and the addition of Jermaine Jones (which I view as a positive one) won't make up for it, but everyone has to get over this and move on. There is talent there for a good coach to work with. Ultimately, the U.S. won't be able to really be a world power until they have players like Rossi and Subotić to call on. Jozy Altidore is a player with immense potential, Freddy Adu still has a lot of ability, Landon Donovan can play at a high level. There is talent there and if the U.S. is truly bold and makes a coaching change they can accomplish something over the next 12 months, but I fear that they will be too reluctant to do something that is risky and daring. Time will only tell if the conservative option was the right one, but when you continue to see games like today's match is doesn't appear to be the case.

Tony Mowbray - new Celtic Manager

According to the London Times, Tony Mowbray will be installed as the new manager of Glasgow Celtic. He leaves behind a relegated West Bromwich Albion, but this is a good move for both Celtic and Mowbray. Tony did a great job getting WBA promoted in the first place. He also didn't receive a lot of financial support to buy new players once the team were promoted. Yet he was able to keep the team going throughout the season without seeing them pull a Derby County and fold by the middle of the season.

Mowbray has experience in the SPL having managed Hibernian previously while he was there he had a very good run that included memorable victories over both Celtic and Rangers. If he is given the money to spend, Tony should be able to get Celtic back on the right path, which for them is a good run in Europe. Hopefully, he can get the club to look beyond their rivalry with Rangers and focus on the bigger accomplishments such as challenging some of the European heavyweights and claiming some scalps along the way. Gordon Strachan led Celtic to a lot of domestic success, and had some memorable victories in Europe during his run as manager, but he wasn't able to get the team beyond the Old Firm rivalry and to really focus on Europe. Their away record in the Champions League was appalling.

Celtic have a handful of players (Scott Brown, Aidan McGeady, Artur Boruc, Andreas Hinkel, Stephen McManus) that can play for any team in Britain. Who do Rangers have that can make the same claim? Rangers used to have those types of players, but they haven't been able to attract them in some years. Celtic seemed to have surpassed Rangers and should be looking to bigger goals. Losing the Scottish League like they did this season was just unacceptable. It was time for Strachan to go and for Celtic to move onto a new era.

Bayern Munich to sign Pranjic

There has been a lot of talk about Bayern Munich losing Franck Ribery, but it appears that they are going to be adding to their squad as they look to sign Croatian left back Danijel Pranjic according to this article from ESPN.