David Beckham took time out from being criticised by journalists on both sides of the Atlantic to overhit a pass to a Chinese Olympic organiser. Becks took part in the handover section of the closing ceremony as part of the London 2012 team. He appeared with Leona Lewis and Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. Click to continue reading...

Isn't commandment No. 1 for journalists 'Never use any info found in Wikipedia'...?

Well some dude at the Daily Mail (not going to name names David Anderson) didn't follow said commandment and embarrassed himself thoroughly when citing a false "fact" about a Cypiot soccer teams fan base. Click to continue reading...

News of a Chelsea player being unsettled has led many journalists to put one and one together to get three, or maybe there is some validity to this spiralling rumour. What do you think? Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager! Cote D'Ivoire international Salomon Kalou has declared himself ready to . Click to continue reading...

This is a big game tonight. I hope to see all of you at the stadium, it seems like the team could use some positive energy from the best fans in MLS. Here's something to chew on until kickoff.

Coaches get a lot of criticism when they use what journalists have termed "Coach Speak.

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Yeap, it happened again. But reading some articles after each of the Galaxy´s defeats I realize why soccer is never going to be a popular sport in the States. Soccer is a sport about teams not about players. Pele, Cruyff or Di Stefano didn´t win any games playing alone.
It´s a sport where the coach can´t stop the game and change players or the way the players are playing. Click to continue reading...

Okay, editing the previous post is not really going to work so well, so I will endeavour to produce one of those posts journalist-writing-about-journalists pieces that do so much to advance the sum of human knowledge. As mentioned before, William Moore's report is the best place to start. I did something for soccernet, but it [. Click to continue reading...

EAI's Victims Need Our Help

We know a lot about football you and me. We know that Brazil isn't what it used to be, that the MLS is woefully overrated at the moment (which is saying a lot), that Middlesborough are this season's Aston Villa, that Manchester City will still never win anything, and we know that England will never play attractive football again. Click to continue reading...

Rafael Benitez has attempted to put into perspective the intensifying competition at the top of the Premier League - and the pressures on him and his team to deliver the title.

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is aware that expectations are building again for the Reds to mount a sustained challenge to win the title that has eluded them since 1990. Click to continue reading...

While most of the world is in qualification mode for the 2010 World Cup, the host country South Africa is also in 'qualification mode.'

FIFA president Sepp Blatter visits South Africa next week and organizers of the 2010 World Cup are confident the head of football's organizing body will like what he sees. Click to continue reading...

I can almost imagine Arsene being asked out by his wife for dinner:

Arsene's wife: Arsene, do you want to go for dinner tonight?

Arsene: There is interest, always, in dinner.

Wife: So where do you want to go?

Arsene: You know the place I want to go, but I cannot tell you much more than that. Click to continue reading...

WOW!!! WHAT A GREAT VICTORY FOR THE USA! The Globe Pub in Chicago was packed with supporters for the Red Stars viewing party which started at 5 am for Germany's 1-0 bronze medal win over Japan. . Everyone was excited to see future WPS players battle on both sides of the gold medal match. At halftime, raffle prizes were awarded and Red Stars GM Marcia McDermott, fresh from her scouting trip to China, welcomed the group. Click to continue reading...

I think, more than anything else, I started blogging about football because I wanted to post player ratings. I think it's because I like reading other people's player ratings so much myself. At the start of this new season, I offer a few words about the Wicked Deflection Player Ratings.

To resolve my concern that the player ratings, on a scale of 1 to 10, commonly used by journalists, bloggers, and fans have no footing, I wrote a player-rating guide. Click to continue reading...

Be sure to visit the whole network of our sites. Some of the interesting topics include: Kartik Krishnaiyer over at Major League Soccer Talk takes on a controversial topic that very few journalists are brave enough to write about and that's the cozy relationship between the Mexican Federation and Major League Soccer. Click to continue reading...

Be sure to visit the whole network of our sites. Some of the interesting topics include: Kartik Krishnaiyer over at Major League Soccer Talk takes on a controversial topic that very few journalists are brave enough to write about and that's the cozy relationship between the Mexican Federation and Major League Soccer. Click to continue reading...

The fact that United have played the best part of two seasons without an out-and-out striker, after the sale of Ruud van Nistelrooy and the injuries to Louis Saha, seems to have passed most people by. I have to wonder if the journalists writing about United's title chances have been paying much attention over the [. Click to continue reading...

This summer (much like every summer before it) football sees a mad dash for the good and not-so-good footballers around the world which is reported on/fueled by the can-do-no-wrong-with-free-speech press and their always-telling-the-truth journalists. It can turn ugly, especially with players' heads being turned by the thoughts of more money, greater glory and managers doing their [. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez decided to wind journalists up last night after the Reds beat Lazio 1-0 in a friendly, by announcing the club were on the verge of signing a major target. Of course, everyone knew he meant Gareth Barry, but he refused to name the Aston Villa midfielder. Although Villa boss Martin O'Neill [. Click to continue reading...

Luka Modric aiming for Champions League place

Luka Modric wants to lead Tottenham to the Champions League.

After arriving at the club in a £16.5 million transfer, the Croatia international is aiming to justify the fee by leading Spurs to a top-four finish this season.

Although losing the club's vice-Captain Robbie Keane to Liverpool this summer and the future of forward Dimitar Berbatov still unclear leaves the make-up of the team's forward line uncertain, Modric is certain Tottenham can go on to have a successful season. Click to continue reading...

Two very similar paragraphs in a boring story. See how I've highlighted the similar parts in similar colors. Oh man, silly journalists!

Good stuff. 101 Great Goals did the legwork. Click to continue reading...

Media reports claim that Spurs have put in a new bid for Russian star Andrei Arshavin. Sport Express claims that the Zenit St Petersburg player's agent, Dennis Lachter, admitted to local journalists that an offer from Spurs had arrived for the Russian international, but it was being put on-hold while they wait for Barcelona to firm [. Click to continue reading...

Well, well, Don Garber refers to more journalists turning out for the All-Star events this year than ever before (over 300 credentialed). I, of course, am at home. Most of all, I'm sad I missed out on so much free food. (Last year's ESPN-hosted party had a chocolate fountain and three kinds of free beer). Click to continue reading...

I got a bit of stick for bringing up the dossier last night but it doesn't look like it will carry as much weight now thanks to Manchester United's Scandinavian supporters' branch!!

It's been widely reported today that they are taking the heat for the quotes attributed to Fergie in the British press regarding Berbatov last week. Click to continue reading...

I got a bit of stick for bringing up the dossier last night but it doesn't look like it will carry as much weight now thanks to Manchester United's Scandinavian supporters' branch!!

It's been widely reported today that they are taking the heat for the quotes attributed to Fergie in the British press regarding Berbatov last week. Click to continue reading...

Today's Przeglad Sportowy published an interesting list of players who are to be watched in the first rounds of the Polish league by Leo and his assistants. They are to be called up for a special training camp in Wronki in the beginning of August. I don't know if it's only a result of journalists' imagination or if the list really comes from our national team staff.

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When Canada qualified for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, many journalists, football administrators, players, coaches, and fans wondered aloud how a country without a competitive domestic professional league could produce players capable of beating the world's best. Hence, in an effort to give homegrown players a chance to play at home rather than toddle off overseas to ply their wares (I'm Click to continue reading...

With torrents of cash flying back-and-forth through the now completely shattered and bent-framed European transfer window, it's nice to remember a time when print journalists could secure the services of knighted football players for travel, room and board, and about $125 a week. In Toronto in 1961, soccer was the sport of immigrants. Click to continue reading...

Not since the days of the young Francesco Totti has a player been earning such rave reviews for his performances with the Italy Under-21 national team. Sebastian Giovinco has been dazzling journalists and fans all around the continent, and it seems; the player could be destined for greatness. Click to continue reading...

Journalists have a few options on a slow news day. They can rehash old stories, they can wildly speculate about a transfer involving huge sums of money, or, as seems the norm these days, they can try to engineer an illusion of crisis around a club. Take Hleb's quotes that you may have seen in all [.. Click to continue reading...

Liberal-minded journalists have been puffing out their chests this week at the thought of a black manager in charge of a Premiership club. The real story in the appointment of Paul Ince was that a guy from the lower leagues had success and was rightfully promoted. This was no irrational grasp for the nearest England [. Click to continue reading...

Rafa Benitez has spoken of his pride after Fernando Torres confounded his critics to fire Spain to their first major honour since 1964.

The Liverpool boss admits certain sections of the Spanish press were critical of the striker's performances in Euro 2008.

However, El Nino's winning goal against Germany on Sunday night has made him a national hero – and Benitez believes the strike will be talked about for decades to come. Click to continue reading...

At last we learn the truth about not including Kuba Blaszczykowski in our Euro selection. First we were told that Kuba got injured in a training session. Later, when we knew that there was no fresh injury, journalists speculated about his conflict with Leo Beenhakker. Kuba finally decided to break the silence and explained that he just wasn't fit enough to give his best.

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The LA Times takes a look at the future of sportsblogging.

Luis and I are in a bit of a different position here. We're journalists, but as freelancers, we don't get paid to write our blog. If anything, the blog costs us money, because time spent on it could be spent writing an article that would pay. Click to continue reading...

Sunday 15th June Sunday is traditionally a day of rest, however when the BACF boys are in town rest is the last thing on the agenda. The other journalists might be taking things easy, however for us it's another day of blogging, report writing, analysing and sniffing out the next big story. Or that's what we SHOULD be doing; the reality however is stranger and much less professional. Click to continue reading...

Thursday 12th May As I board the bus with the other journalists to Klagenfurt the feeling is that tonight's game will provide a real indication of how far Croatia can go in Euro2008, Although no one thinks Bilic will sit back and try to get a draw its likely that he'll be satisfied with a point, however if they could somehow grab a win it could set them up for a run to the semi-finals and possibly beyond. Click to continue reading...

Who said journalists were smart? (Not us) A German journalist covering Euro 2008 tried to delay his flight from Verona to Vienna by making a fake bomb threat, according to reports in the Italian media. The 27-year-old hack showed up... Click to continue reading...