A week after making his impressive debut in La Liga, Josmer Altidore and Villarreal travel north for a possibly tricky encounter against recently-promoted Numancia on Sunday. Click to continue reading...

Josmer Altidore made his debut for an injury-depleted Villarreal as a halftime substitute as they recorded their first victory of the season against a clearly outmatched Deportivo on the back of a first-half Santi Cazoria goal. Click to continue reading...

On this 4th of July we as fans of MLS and the US National team all have something to celebrate. The fact that Jozy Altidore has just been introduced as the best player in the USA and looks likely to remain with Villarreal rather than be loaned out as had been rumored.


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Soccer Insider's Steve Goff and ESPN's Ives Galrcep are reporting that it is a done deal between MLS, Altidore and Villarreal. Goff reports that:
"Terms of the transfer were not disclosed, but one source familiar with the negotiations tells me MLS will receive at least $12 million. It's just one source, but he/she is a good one. Click to continue reading...

CANADA No. - Name - Pos. - D.O.B. - Club 1 - Asmir Begovic - GK - 20.06.1987 - Portsmouth FC/ENG 2 - Graham Ramalho - DF - 12.01.1986 - FC Groningen/NED 3 - Jacob Lensky - MD - 16.12.1988 - Feyenoord Rotterdam/NED 4 - Dejan Jakovic - MD - 16.07.1985 - U. Alabama-Birmingham/USA 5 - Andrew Hainault - DF - [. Click to continue reading...

CANADA No. - Name - Pos. - D.O.B. - Club 1 - Asmir Begovic - GK - 20.06.1987 - Portsmouth FC/ENG 2 - Graham Ramalho - DF - 12.01.1986 - FC Groningen/NED 3 - Jacob Lensky - MD - 16.12.1988 - Feyenoord Rotterdam/NED 4 - Dejan Jakovic - MD - 16.07.1985 - U. Alabama-Birmingham/USA 5 - Andrew Hainault - DF - [. Click to continue reading...

I'm going to stop calling these 'recaps' because honestly, I don't recap what happened in the game. I'm just posting what I think about it. And here's what I think about this one:

A clean sheet is just what Seitz and the US defense deserve. The Panamanian offense isn't the strongest of the group (by the numbers it's the weakest, actually) but it's to the US' credit that there were a scant few chances on goal. Click to continue reading...

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 U.S.A. vs. Cuba Thursday, March 13, 2008 U.S.A. vs. Panama Saturday, March 15th, 2008 U.S.A. vs. Honduras Roster was released - as I am sure you have seen - over the weekend and some notable omissions include Gold Cup hero turned Derby County wantaway Benny Feilhaber, last summer's U-20 standout Robbie Rogers, and FC Dallas' creative midfielder [. Click to continue reading...

A couple people are posting the U.S. roster that was called in to play Mexico this Wednesday - and at least one person is playing "the roster game" (and having a couple bites at as he does it). On the other side of the affair, Sideline Views' Luis Bueno listed Mexico's traveling party and [...] Click to continue reading...

There was a lot to like about this game. Seriously. Fox Soccer Channel commentator Christopher Sullivan griped at the end about a certain lack of artistry, but anyone who tuned in saw a good, fairly even, pretty up-tempo game. And, better still, the U.S. Men's National Team (Yanquis) flat won; they gave [. Click to continue reading...

Beat to the punch on this one...the only reason to read this post is the subtly different take. A bit of U.S. Men's National Team (Yanquis) news comes out of The Boston Globe's report on Preston North End's pursuit of New England Revolution striker Taylor Twellman (and I'll get back to this*).� Here's that: "In yesterday's training [. Click to continue reading...

Red Bull New York Record (W-L-T): 12-11-7; 47 GF, 45 GA Source Material: Schedule/match reports; roster Overview All in all, and perhaps a little sadly, this was a pretty typical year for Major League Soccer's (MLS) New York franchise: uneven, unsettled, and, as always, unrewarded.� But a couple oddities put a fresh twist or two on the familiar: a [. Click to continue reading...

If you care at all, you know that LA and Red Bull tied 1-1 last night - even if, at time of writing, MLSnet.com's headline reads "Galaxy win again, keep hopes alive." But, I ask that you bear with me through a digression - which relates to that game - to get at something [...] Click to continue reading...

There's so much good stuff out there today...let's just say I had to cut more than I wanted up to and including those Seattle announcement rumors (crap...there it is; for the record, I don't buy them). Moving on... - A half-mysterious injury to Maykel Galindo makes for one of the less-reported items coming out [...] Click to continue reading...

Welcome to my first crack at posting team news from all-'round Major League Soccer (MLS). What comes below will be by no means exhaustive; really, it's only a compilation of what I bumped into during my travels. And, of course, anyone feeling I made a grave omission is welcome to correct that in [...] Click to continue reading...

OK...running behind...quickly, quickly. - The Red Bull Offside was en fuego today...or it made me laugh out loud twice at the very least. How? By talking about Amado Guevara's recently stated desire to return to Major League Soccer (MLS), specifically to New York (Dave Martinez's post on RBNY's hope of signing Francesco Coco made [...] Click to continue reading...

Not dressed, not playing in RBNY vs. Chicago. A shame because last time out Altidore and Angel destroyed the Fire combining for all three goals in a 3-0 rout. According to RBNY officials, the injury is 'lower leg', most likely the calf injury that he received late in the U-20 World Cup. Click to continue reading...

There are ugly wins. Then there's the win the New England Revolution picked up against Red Bull New York. The Revs will take this home - albeit like a dog covered with a mystery rash requiring a long, long course of lubing with topical ointments, I doubt they'll be showing it off. As the [...] Click to continue reading...

I have a good many things to discuss about this game, more than I expected considering how unenthused I am about the result and how tired I am today.

First, Gooch had one of his best MNT performances in a long time. Gooch really contained Zlatan to the best of his ability. This means Zlatan still had two or three quality chances early on which could have resulted in just as many goals, but considering that Gooch is still plying his trade in Belgium with Standard Liege, I'll give him an A for effort/C+ for achievement. Click to continue reading...

* With the low, low premium I put on being timely, I'm in the process of readjusting how I work the daily dump I used to call MLS Newswire. I figure it's what you know, not when you know it, right? (This isn't the freakin' stock market, after all.) So, look for [...] Click to continue reading...

OK, let's just say that drinking games work far better when there are people around to keep one honest.� By way of final tally, the second half (apparently) featured 42 utterances of "Beckham," which translated into 2 and, oh, 1/3 12-oz. beers consumed.� So, all in all, a liver crushing hour-and-a-half (to the tune of [...] Click to continue reading...

To my considerable regret, I have to confess that circumstances have tainted the Beckham Challenge.� The sad reality is, I'm the responsible party, at this point, for a three-year-old - one that happened to wet the bed during a nap around, oh, the 32nd minute. Given that difficulty (not to mention the need to wrap up [...] Click to continue reading...

No, I didn't watch the full 90+ minutes in the true, linear sense, so here's to hoping I saw enough for what appears below to hold up.� I'll be filling in match reports from other outlets as I read them in the space below (and any volunteers should feel free to drop their views in [...] Click to continue reading...

From his most recent blog post:

"3. Josmer Altidore: He's not 18 yet, but once he turns 18, expect a host of European clubs to come hard after Altidore. Given his youth, finishing ability and impressive physical tools, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of European teams rated Altidore as a better pro prospect than Adu. Click to continue reading...

... but I'm realizing that in this fickle game we call blogging, one day missed is all it takes to fall greivously behind.

So, without further ado, here's a summary of today's news:

- No Open Cup glory this year, either: the Harrisburg City Islanders defeated DC United reserves 1-0. (Anyone else find the phrase "City Islanders" funny? Click to continue reading...

What a thrilling match. Fantastic. As a soccer fan, I am thoroughly enjoying myself. With this win, the US is one of the strongest contenders for U-20 World Cup glory. I predict an amazing run towards the final.

Let's get right into it. In no particular order:

Outstanding players in the first half
(US)

-Sal Zizzo did a great job at right wing and his drives toward goal were one of the US' most consistently dangerous threats throughout the match. Click to continue reading...

What a real disappointment. I was watching glimpses of the Poland-Brazil upset and I was really encouraged by what I saw: Poland showed real talent and tenacity in keeping Brazil at bay. I wanted the same kind of character to apply to the US game: I wanted to see the US play to their strengths and really possess the game. They didn't, but I'm not laying the fault entirely at the squad. Click to continue reading...