LA coach Bruce Arena: "In the last five years of this league the L.A. Galaxy have the least amount of points of any team." See Nick Green's article in the Los Angeles Galaxy section.

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Contributing more fuel to my theory that soccer is the Sport Of The Internet in America, Jack Bell of the New York Times sites this stat in his Extra Time column today: "According to an analysis of more than 100 million blogs, message boards, and postings on social Web sites performed with Zeta Interactive's RelevantNoise software technology, MLS was third worldwide in the total volume of soccer posts, at 16 percent. 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...

Here is a link to an article written in the New York Times about how the New England Revolution and Chivas USA were knocked out of the CONCACAF Champions League at the preliminary round stage and they won't make the final 16 of the competition. At the end of the article the writer Jack Bell asks questions about whether the MLS teams are playing too many games, or whether the other clubs were better then they were originally given credit for. Click to continue reading...

The USA Women got revenge on Brazil, and their own former head coach Greg Ryan for that matter, by returning to China one year after their World Cup semifinal meltdown and winning the Olympic Gold medal 1-0 in Extra Time. Fantastic win! See Olympic Soccer Scoreboard section for more.

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Bruce Arena on why he hired Dave Sarachan as his assistant coach in LA: "I realized that if I was going to take on this challenge I'd need to have a second-in-command who, when I get assassinated, could take over right away. Click to continue reading...

Here is Jack Bell's article from the New York Times that reviews each player's performance in the game with a rating scale of 1-10, which is commonly done in soccer. To begin, I believe that Jack's ratings vary a bit too much. Its usually pretty rare that players on the same team get a score of 3 and also 8. Click to continue reading...

A few week's ago at an RBNY match I had a convo in the stands with the guy next to me about some hypothetical trades related to some of the current transfer rumors. The question was raised as to who would be a bigger loss for the team if they were to move on: Jeff Parke or Seth Stammler.

Without going into details of the seemingly endless beer-fueled debate, it was decided that while Jeff Parke is the heart of the clubs flawed defense and an all-around bad-ass it's Stammler and his versatility that would hurt the most. Click to continue reading...

I thought I'd share a few interesting links, one is the latest column from Brian Glanville, the famous English journalist who has been covering the game it seems like since the first time England played an international match.

Another is a recent interview published in the New York Times that contains an interview that Jack Bell did with Samuel Eto'o where he is pretty candid on some recent issues. Click to continue reading...

Jack Bell at The New York Times has written a short story on Josh Wolff's return to MLS.

Here is the key quote: "There was nothing for me in Germany. At the end of the run, they [1860 Munich] weren't going to re-sign me. My wife is pregnant, and we weighed the options. Coming back made a little more sense . Click to continue reading...

I just wanted to include a direct link to a recent interview in the New York Times that goes in depth into the reasons why Josh decided to return to MLS and play for the Kansas City Wizards. Its a really well done piece by Jack Bell and its nice to see this type of an article in the mass media. Bravo and please keep it coming! Click to continue reading...

A quick update before the Wizards take on the Sounders tonight. Josh Wolff took the time to answer questions from the Goal Blog's Jack Bell. Take a look, as it gives some insight as to why Wolff decided to come back to the MLS as opposed to trying to stay in Germany, something he could have done.

Click to continue reading...

Jack Bell from the New York Times just wrote a great article about why the Red Bulls should try and sign Ronaldinho and I couldn't agree more. This is exactly the type of move that I have been writing about and that MLS needs to pursue. I'm not saying that MLS should revert to the NASL days, but if they can figure out a way financially to do it, then they must look into it. Click to continue reading...

I'm not one to leap to the defense of ESPN on too many occasions, but Jack Bell's excoriation of the network, occasioned by its use of British announcers during its Euro '08 telecasts, seems a little off-base too me, if I may use a baseball metaphor. This position strikes me as a logical outgrowth of Bell's larger objections to Anglophilia in the American game—the veneration of British coaches, teams and playing styles at the expense of other (specifically, Latin) influences. Click to continue reading...

Jack Bell rails at the preference of some for all things English.

My gripe about American announcers, however, is that too many of them are tied up in the insular soccer structure of the U.S. to have any independent opinions. It was painful to hear John Harkes try to be objective about DC United when commenting on their match versus the LA Galaxy. Click to continue reading...

In front of over 35,000 fans at RFK Stadium an ABC national broadcast audience, Luciano Emilio and DC United crushed the LA Galaxy 4-1. The scoreline was if anything flattering to the Galaxy who benefited from the individual brilliance of the sometimes maligned Steve Cronin to keep United from pilling in goals. Click to continue reading...

It's pretty sad when two soccer columnists who represent what is supposedly one of the nation's top newspapers are so incompetent and out-of-touch with reality. Last November, I called New York Times soccer columnist Jack Bell a wanker for writing an idiotic article criticizing Fox Soccer Channel for broadcasting the Premier League, the world's most popular [. Click to continue reading...

Because of this, which is possibly the worst football post I have read in a really, really, really long time, I have removed the New York Times Goal Blog from the links section of AEK Archives.  This is an unacceptably extreme example of hack sports analysis.  How the New York Times, the supposed U. Click to continue reading...