US national youth team player Vincenzo Bernardo has just signed a 3-year professional deal with Serie A side Napoli which ties him to the club until 2011. Currently with the Napoli reserve team, the 18 year-old New Jersey native saw his fortunes rise this fall after a strong reserve friendly performance against the first team a few weeks ago. Click to continue reading...

ALBERT RIERA is convinced Fernando Torres is on the verge of recapturing his goalscoring form after his subdued start to the season.

Riera and fellow Spaniard Torres started a game together for the first time on Saturday as Liverpool disappointingly drew 0-0 with Stoke City at Anfield.

The point was good enough to take Liverpool briefly back to the top of the Premier League – but they were overtaken by Arsenal and Chelsea over the course of the weekend. Click to continue reading...

To answer Jack Bell's question in this article from the New York Times, YES YES YES!!! Absolutely MLS should sign Ronaldo, he is still a huge star, is still only 31 years old, and when healthy is still one of best forwards in the world and most exciting players to watch. Granted, there are a lot of unanswered questions that Jack Bell raises in the article, but MLS must take this gamble if he is even willing to consider coming to the league. Click to continue reading...

Joel Griffiths who else, tucked a scrappy goal away to earn the Newcastle Jets their first win of the season, and an away win in Fortress Suncorp:)

Uber Coach Gary Van Egmond is making the best of a bad bunch and quickly.

A side looking a shadow of their former Champion selves stuttered early in the season and got flogged 5-0 in Melbourne. Click to continue reading...

Sorry for getting this out a little later today, went to the Kevin Hartman book signing in Lee's Summit tonight. Had a good time there. Anyways, the Wizards are back home at Community America Ballpark to take on the Canadians, Toronto FC. The Wizards come in off the 2-0 win over LA, while Toronto comes in off of a home draw with top of the table Columbus. Click to continue reading...

Newcastle United Reserves were beaten 3-0 tonight, as Bolton Wanderers put three past Dutch goalkeeper Tim Krul on his return to competitive action for the Tyneside club. Tim Krul - beaten three times tonight Newcastle started well and throughout the game the front two forwards of Nile Ranger and Frank Wiafe Danquah both looked dangerous, but some [. Click to continue reading...

Who doesn't love a giant-killer game? Despite being at home, the Rapids were the dogs on Sunday and they knew it. They had to shut down Blanco and McBride, and they did it. That's going to (or at least should boost the confidence). It should also help that this was our first back-to-back win all year.

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Soccerword's Premiership Team of the Week - 04

We're going with a 3-4-3 formation for this week's team:

Goalkeeper: Manuel Almunia (Arsenal)

Defenders: Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Kolo Toure (Arsenal)

Midfielders: Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Mikel Arteta (Everton), Tim Cahill (Everton), Chris Brunt (West Brom)

Forwards: Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal), Marlon King (Hull City), Jermain Defoe (Portsmouth)

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It took alot to get the deal done, but the Atlanta Silverback goal scoring forward stand out Macoumba Kandji is now a Red Bull. The Silverhawks have agreed to a loan deal through the rest of this season, with an option to sign . And after passing his physical, you can expect him to be making his debut in short time.

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In Major League Soccer maybe?

Seattle maybe? (obligatory)

Doubtful, the Premiership is much more likely, but one can dream.

"I did consider leaving Juve on a couple of occasions but these temptations didn't last long. But this will be my final team, at least in Italy.

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Liverpool v Manchester United Preview, Kick-off: September 13th, 1245 BST

You can't help thinking that Fergie is relieved that the International break is over as he will be no doubt be dying to try out his brand spanking new signing, Dimitar Berbatov, who has been burning a hole in his pocket (in more ways than one) since the end of the transfer window.

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It may seem like a strange appointment, Michael Laudrup being named as the new manager for Spartak Moscow, but when you look a little bit deeper it actually makes perfect sense. First of all, the Russian League has grown immensely where teams are now not only holding onto the top Russian players, but are also in competition to buy top players from other leagues. Click to continue reading...

We played last season with a strange mix of people up front.   I've reviewed all of this before, so let's look forwards and assess what we have now. Bobby Zamora Andrew Johnson Erik Nevland Diomansy Kamara, who is injured Not much is it? This pruning was needed.  We had what seemed like dozens of quite good forwards, none really any better [. Click to continue reading...

I just wanted to include a link and comment on this article by Kartik Krishnaiyer on the Major League Soccer Talk blog about Sven Goran Eriksson's early success with the Mexican national team and how the U.S. National Team could learn from that. I essentially agree that Eriksson has done a good job with Mexico and that I too was somewhat skeptical about this appointment when it was made. Click to continue reading...

This is a great article from the London Times, that describes how Joe Cole has become England's attacking midfielder / forward without an assigned position. Personally, I think this strategy is long overdue as Cole has always shown so much more of his ability when he was allowed to roam around and wasn't confined to one of the wide midfield positions. Click to continue reading...

What is it about Carlos Tevez that he loses his cool when he puts on the Argentina jersey? He was sent off today in the match against Paraguay for the second time in 3 matches as the match ended in a 1-1 draw. This is a great result for Paraguay as they continue to lead the South American qualifying group and got a vital result in Buenos Aires. Click to continue reading...

Brazil are expected to start with three forwards against Chile in Sunday's crucial World Cup qualifying match in Santiago ... Click to continue reading...

With the trade today for former FCD striker Abe Thompson, we added our second attacking player in the last two days. Add the trade for Herculez Gomez into the mix, and we've acquired two 26-year-old forwards who are very different but exciting players. Combined, they have 36 goals and 19 assists in just over six total seasons. Click to continue reading...

Tottenham end the summer considerably richer from a financial point-of-view, yet poorer in the sense that no trace of last season's prolific strike-pairing exists at White Hart Lane. Losing one of their star forwards would have been hard for the fans to take, but both disappearing out of the exit ... Click to continue reading...

Arsenal forwards Nicklas Bendtner and Robin van Persie have sustained injuries whilst on International duty for their respective countries. Click to continue reading...

The New England Revolution fell 4-0 to Joe Public F.C. on Tuesday completing a 6-1 aggregate defeat at the hands of their Trinidadian opponents.

The loss marks the first time an MLS team has been eliminated from CONCACAF competition by a Caribbean opponent and it is also the first time an MLS team has give up three or more goals to Caribbean opposition. Click to continue reading...

Image via Wikipedia saturday night saw the new york red bulls take on dc united. to be honest, it was a pretty ugly game on our part. we were lucky to walk out of there with a 0-0 draw.

but then again, a road tie against dc united is never something to scoff at. i think the real tragedy comes when you look at our play compared to our three-game winning streak. Click to continue reading...

Soccerword's Premiership Team of the Week - 03

We're going with a 4-3-3 formation for this week's team:

Goalkeeper: David James (Portsmouth)

Defenders: Callum Davenport (West Ham), Glen Johnson (Portsmouth), Kolo Toure (Arsenal), Vedran Corluka (Man City)

Midfielders: Shaun Wright-Phillips (Man City), Antonio Valencia (Wigan), Stephen Ireland (Man City)

Forwards: Robin van Persie (Arsenal), Jermain Defoe (Portsmouth), Amr Zaki (Wigan)

Click to continue reading...

The repercussions of Robinho's absence on the pitch are just now beginning to be felt by MADRIDISTAS everywhere. Last year, whenever Madrid played this bad, Robinho bailed them out, which is what great players do, they create something out of nothing. No one else on this team has that ability to be the 'rompe esquemas'(spanish for gamebreaker). Click to continue reading...

Look out Manchester United and Chelsea, Aston Villa have signed James Milner! Doing exactly as I predicted in previous columns, Aston Villa aren't spending big money on a player that can really have a major impact, but are signing a collection of nice, complimentary players who will make their team better, but will not put them in the same league as the big clubs. Click to continue reading...

20 lucky folk were selected for World Cup qualifying beatdowns of Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago.

Enjoy:

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan, Tim Howard.

Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra, Danny Califf, Steve Cherundolo, Frankie Hejduk, Oguchi Onyewu, Michael Orozco, Heath Pearce, Marvell Wynne.

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GOALKEEPERS: Tim Howard, Brad Guzan. DEFENDERS: Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu, Heath Pearce, Frankie Hejduk, Danny Califf, Steve Cherundolo, Michael Orozco, Marvell Wynne. MIDFIELDERS: DaMarcus Beasley, Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark, Maurice Edu, Eddie Lewis, Sacha Kljestan. FORWARDS: Brian Ching, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Eddie Johnson. Click to continue reading...

The New York Red Bulls will have to look somewhere else in their search for a strike partner for Juan Pablo Angel, after Major League Soccer blocked a deal for Macoumba Kandji of the USL's Atlanta Silverbacks. The deal was quashed by MLS because of a $200,000 transfer fee that Atlanta had insisted upon, an unusually high amount for a USL player. Click to continue reading...

Soccerword's Premiership Team of the Week - 02

Goolkeeper: Shay Given (Newcastle)

Defenders: Brede Hangeland (Fulham), Patrice Evra (Man United), John Pantsil (Fulham), Jose Bosingwa (Chelsea)

Midfielders: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Deco (Chelsea), Elano (Man City), Liam Lawrence (Sunderland)

Forwards: Djibril Cisse (Sunderland), Yakubu (Everton)

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The departure of Phillipe Senderos will be announced today,a much maligned player who never really reached his full potential leaves Arsenal. After persisting with Senderos for several seasons, Arsene has realised that he will never be the new Tony Adams.  Too often the Swiss defender has been bullied by big centre forwards, too often he has [. Click to continue reading...

It's a big disappointment. But Fulham deserve full credit for this win. They had a plan and executed it perfectly: neutralize the Arsenal's weak central midfield and clamp down on the left flank.

Arsenal's team on the pitch were not fluid; their passes astray, their runs sluggish; they were often a step late to the ball. Click to continue reading...

Following the win against Cyprus, Hitzfeld has unveiled the list of gladiators who will hopefully secure the 6 points we want! Goalkeepers: BENAGLIO/Wolfsburg COLTORTI/Santander (The third keeper needs to be announced) Defenders: DJOUROU/Arsenal EGGIMANN/Hannovre GRICHTING/Auxerre LICHTSTEINER/Lazio MAGNIN/Stuttgart NEF/Udinese SENDEROS/Arsenal SPYCHER/Frankfurt VON BERGEN/Hertha Midfielders and Forwards: BARNETTA/Leverkusen BEHRAMI/West Ham GELSON/Man. Click to continue reading...

Who: New England Revolution at Toronto F.C.
What: MLS Regular Season
Where: BMO Field, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. (Fox Soccer Channel)

The New England Revolution ended their three game losing skid with a 2-1 victory against D. Click to continue reading...

With Argentines being crowned Olympic Champions it's always good to see who may have made some money based on their performances in Beijing.
Here are five that I think made them selves some serious cash during the Olympic soccer tournament. 1. Angel Di'Maria, Argentina (above): Everyone talks about Messi and Roman but the Benfica wingers performance was key. Click to continue reading...

You might be forgiven for thinking that the Blues have enough attacking options, especially when Didier Drogba recovers from injury. Along with Anelka, Shevchenko and Kalou, Chelsea have a formidable set of forwards, while the likes of Deco, Lampard, Ballack and Cole all 'know where the goal is'. However, the . Click to continue reading...