Manchester United manager wants to keep players fresh for Premier League campaign

Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted that he is considering leaving key players behind at Old Trafford when Manchester United jet out to Japan for the Fifa Club World Cup in December in a bid to avoid a domestic hangover from the prestigious two-game tournament. Click to continue reading...

I just wanted to bring everyone's attention to the fact that the CONCACAF Champions League has started play and you can learn more by checking out the official website. Fox Soccer Channel will be showing a lot of games here in the United States, and the MLS team that will be in it include D.C United, Houston Dynamo, and New England Revolution. Click to continue reading...

The inaugural CONCACAF Champions League begins this week, with eight Preliminary Round first-leg matchups taking place August 26-28. Twenty-four teams will battle it out between now and April 2009 to decide who will be crowned the first-ever CONCACAF Champions League champion and receive the honor of representing North America at next year's Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. Click to continue reading...

From RevolutionSoccer.net:

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Revolution announced today that the club has signed Costa Rican defender Gabriel Badilla (bah-DEE-uh) to a Major League Soccer contract to play for the Revs pending U.S. P-1 Visa approval. He will occupy one of the team's seven available international roster spots.

Click to continue reading...

I know that this post is off topic for this blog, and I know that what I'm going to say will never happen, but I was bored. Forget about the UEFA Champions League, CONCACAF Champions League, and any other such thing. There should be a true FIFA Club World Cup. The top 32 teams from around the world will meet in order to crown the true club champion. Click to continue reading...

Over three weeks of tournament action and only one country stood tall: Sweden. Ibrahimovich proved to be unstoppable in the virtual world, earning glory for his country where the real world left a bit to be desired. Standing in the finals against a tough Croatian squad, they dispatched their opponents 2-1 for [. Click to continue reading...

D.C. United's Under 17 Academy team is currently in Denver defending their 2007 MLS U17 Cup title. With three wins in the group phase, United moved on to the semifinals as the top seed and will face Chivas USA today for a spot in the final on Thursday.

D.

Click to continue reading...

In a two-game series that saw 10 goals scored you wouldn't expect a goalkeeper to be the hero, but Liga de Quito goalkeeper Jose Francisco Cevallos was just that for Liga. Cevallos made three penalty kick saves to help Liga de Quito beat Brazilian club Fluminense, 3-1, in penalty kicks to capture the Copa Libertadores title last night at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.

Click to continue reading...

ROME (AP)—Marcello Lippi gave up a life of leisure to return as Italy's national team coach, less than two years after guiding the Azzurri to their fourth World Cup title.

"Naturally, I'm very happy to pick up where I left off. But picking up where I left off also means that the Euros didn't go so great, or I would still be on the beach in Viareggio," the well-tanned Lippi said at a news conference Tuesday, referring to his hometown on the Tuscan seaside. Click to continue reading...

It's a good day for Uniteds. For the second time in their history, Waitakere United of New Zealand have won the Oceanic Football Confederation Champions League, the top club competition for the seven countries that remain in the post-Australia OFC. It's the smallest by far of the six FIFA confederations, but the win [. Click to continue reading...

With the elimination of D.C. United and the Houston Dynamo in the CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinals for the second straight year, the questions have been flowing all week on what is needed for an MLS club to not only win the regional championship for the first time since 2000, but perhaps more importantly, to represent [. Click to continue reading...

The end of the year is a time for looking back at where we've been. And where I've been is... Well, mostly here. Since its birth a little over a year ago, this site has been my favorite place to waste productively spend my time. Today I decided to take some [...] Click to continue reading...

Third-place playoffs are normally lackadaisical affairs where no one really cares who wins. But when you're Urawa Red Diamonds and Étoile du Sahel, and never really had a chance of winning the Club World Cup against the likes of Boca and AC Milan, then the third place playoff suddenly becomes a lot more important and [. Click to continue reading...

AC Milan thrashed Boca Juniors 4-2 in the Club World Cup final in Toyko on Sunday. This sets a new record of four intercontinental crowns for AC Milan. "We have obtained everything we should as a team," said Kaka after the Italians added the Club World Cup to the European Champions League and Super Cup [. Click to continue reading...

Some news to peruse as you give your child Roadkill Teddies for Christmas: The Club World Cup helps keep football afloat in New Zealand, and Sepp isn't happy (Ian Plenderleith) European vs. South American Starting XI (World Cup Blog) Posh says yes, those photos are anatomically correct. And the rest of us lose our lunches. Click to continue reading...

So when was the last time an entire team was arrested after a match for their behavior on the pitch? I'm not sure, but I think it may have been in 1969, after an Intercontinental Cup (precursor to the Club World Cup) game, with the Argentinian team Estudiantes de la Plata. "Following a very violent [. Click to continue reading...

South America's grip on the Club World Cup tournament was broken in the revamped competition's third edition on Sunday, with European champions A.C. Milan running out 4-2 winners over Boca in easily the most entertaining final since the tournament was re-launched in 2005. Click to continue reading...

At 7:30 in the morning on Sunday (Argentine time), Boca Juniors will take on A.C. Milan of Italy in Tokyo for the final of the Club World Cup 2007. The right to be crowned champions of the world will once again be played out between the champions of Europe and South America, in the third [...] Click to continue reading...

I've said this before and I'll say it again: FIFA have got in for Oceania. Sepp Blatter and buddies treat the confederation like the fat kid you went to school with, the one who was always picked last for sports. Not content with offering them just half a World Cup spot, they also force Oceanina's [. Click to continue reading...

It took more than an hour, but Milan eventually took advantage of their domination of Urawa Reds in Yokohama this morning, going ahead through Clarence Seedorf in the 68th minute and making the goal stand up to move into Sunday's final against Boca Juniors. Click to continue reading...

No matter how Etoile Sportive du Sahal perform in the third place game later this week, the tiny Tunisian club will leave the World Club Cup with the heads held high, having knocked off Mexico's Pachua and given the mighty Boca Juniors all they could handle in losing 1-0 today to the Argentine giants. Click to continue reading...

It's podcast time! Yaaaaay! This week's installment features your genial regular host Ian Rose and his frequent sidekick Ann Ramzy, along with guests Daryl, the king of the World Cup Blog and one of the contributors here on the main page, and Inara of the fantastic Lyon blog. Topics include improving the Club World Cup, the [. Click to continue reading...

I suppose the fact that hardly anyone has mentioned the presence of the Dreaded Smart Ball at the Club World Cup is a sign that things are going well with it, because nothing's more fun that bitching about "innovations," and how they're destroying football. The "smart ball" thing has been tried at a couple of other [. Click to continue reading...

At their press conference on Saturday, everyone from Boca Juniors talked as if Pachuca were already their semifinal opponents, so sure were they that the Mexican club would see off African champion Etoile Sahel in Sunday's match. Oops. In the first upset of the Club World Cup, Tunisia's Etoile beat Pachuca 1-0 on a late [. Click to continue reading...

I was all prepared to rant today about Steve McClaren's supposed decision to switch to a 4-3-3 formation against Russia tomorrow, for the sole purpose of shoehorning Frank Lampard back into the lineup, and what an absolutely boneheaded idea that was. But now it seems that he's decided to not be a complete moron and stick with the 4-4-2 that's been working for them up till now, so you've been spared. Click to continue reading...