STO Soccer Film Review: Victory

Posted on August 29, 2008 - Filed Under MLS | Leave a Comment

In 1981, John Huston, honored Hollywood director and ten-time Oscar nominee, decided he wanted to make a soccer movie. Huston had been a film titan for five decades and helmed some of early American cinema’s classic pictures like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, and The Maltese Falcon.

Huston’s movies were provacative and compelling because he, more than any other modern director, knew how to inspire his actors to give their best performance. He directed fifteen different actors who would receive Oscar nominations for their performances in his films, including Humphrey Bogart, Albert Finney, Jack Nicholson and his daughter, Anjelica Huston.

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Best Players in the World: Who’s #5

Posted on August 29, 2008 - Filed Under Arsenal, Europe | Leave a Comment

While Ronaldo, Kaka and Torres are undeniably three of the best goal scorer’s in the world, if I were starting a squad from scratch and could have any player in the world, I would likely select my choice for the #5 best player in the world:

Cesc Fabregas.

Why would I want Fabregas, who has only scored 14 goals in 138 caps for Arsenal, over his more prolific contemporaries?

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Best Players in the World: Who’s #4?

Posted on August 29, 2008 - Filed Under Euro 2008 | Leave a Comment

While Ronaldo and Kaka almost always dominate the conversation as to who is the greatest player in the world, and there is no doubt Marta is the finest player in the women’s game (maybe ever), it gets more difficult to rank the players after them due to their sheer dominance in their respective leagues. However, one player has recently emerged from a pack of galacticos to establish himself as the fourth best player in the world.

Fernando Torres.

Torres is still a relatively young talent at age 24 (his nickname is “The Kid”), but he has already assembled a historic career despite his tender years.

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MLS Playoff Push Features Pushovers

Posted on August 29, 2008 - Filed Under MLS | Leave a Comment

With only nine games left in the season, the MLS playoff race is heating up. Despite the fact the race for a spot is still pretty wide open, there are clearly now three tiers of teams as we approach the big dance:

A League of Their Own:

New England, Columbus, Chicago and Houston.

These four are almost certainly going to make the playoffs. Nicol continues to work magic in New England, while Schelotto and the Crew continue to play solid soccer. Chicago is actually the most dominant team in the league, but lack their Eastern foes point total because they either seem to lose by one or blow their opponent out. Houston has always been the class of the West and the addition of Jaqua makes them the clear number one seed in that division.

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Never Too Early To Start Second-Guessing Skeletor

Posted on August 29, 2008 - Filed Under World Cup | Leave a Comment

Sure, the U.S. MNT doesn’t play Cuba until September 6, but like a kid a week from Christmas, I just can’t help speculating as to what Santa (er, Skeletor, er, I mean Skipper Bob Bradley) will deliver to me in the starting lineup. He’s checking his list (some say, twice) and soon we’ll find out who has been naughty (Dolo) and nice (Edu).

Hopefully, we’ll get no coal. Or Heath Pearce, the soccer equivalent of coal.

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Bob Bradley Is Not From California

Posted on August 29, 2008 - Filed Under World Cup | Leave a Comment

As far as I know, he’s never lived there either. Why is this important?

Well, Bradley seems to be quite fond of Californians. Or at least their soccer skills anyways. Of the 20 U.S. men he called in for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Cuba and Trinidad & Tobago, more than 1/2 are from the Golden State. This is one of the strange things I noticed while perusing Bradley’s latest selections.

Here’s Bradley’s team:

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Champions League Schedule

Posted on August 28, 2008 - Filed Under Champions League | Leave a Comment

We covered the Champions League draw earlier and UEFA just released the schedule of games. Here are the matchups for match day one on September 16th and 17th (home team listed first): Buy Champions League Tickets

Matchday 1 - 16 September 2008
Chelsea 20:45 Bordeaux - Buy Chelsea - Bordeaux Tickets
Roma 20:45 CFR
Panathinaikos 20:45 Inter Milan - Buy Panathinaikos - Inter Milan Tickets
Bremen 20:45 Anorthosis - Buy Werder Bremen - Anorthosis Famagusta Tickets
Basel 20:45 Shakhtar - Buy FC Basel - Shakhtar Donetsk Tickets
Barcelona 20:45 Sporting - Buy FC Barcelona - Sporting Portugal Tickets
PSV 20:45 Atlético
Marseille 20:45 Liverpool - Buy Olympique Marseille - Liverpool Tickets

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Champions League Tickets

Posted on August 28, 2008 - Filed Under Champions League | Leave a Comment

We have tickets to all the big Champions League group stages games across Europe this year. Buy Champions League Tickets

Matchday 1 - 16 September 2008
Chelsea  Bordeaux - Buy Chelsea - Bordeaux Tickets
Roma  CFR - Buy AS Roma - CFR Cluj Tickets
Panathinaikos  Inter Milan - Buy Panathinaikos - Inter Milan Tickets
Bremen  Anorthosis - Buy Werder Bremen - Anorthosis Famagusta Tickets
Basel  Shakhtar - Buy FC Basel - Shakhtar Donetsk Tickets
Barcelona  Sporting - Buy FC Barcelona - Sporting Portugal Tickets
PSV  Atlético
Marseille  Liverpool - Buy Olympique Marseille - Liverpool Tickets

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Champions League Draw Is Made

Posted on August 28, 2008 - Filed Under Champions League | Leave a Comment

The odds were pretty good that Celtic would get drawn against an English team in the Champions League group stages and they ended up with Manchester United. They last met in the group stages in 2006/07, with Celtic winning 1-0 at home but Manchester United edging the return fixture 3-2 at Old Trafford.

“It was a great event the last time we played,” said Manchester United chief executive David Gill. “Both clubs have passionate fans and we’re looking forward to it. “Last time they won (at Celtic) to qualify and we went down to the last game to ensure we went through.

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Champions League Draw Preview

Posted on August 28, 2008 - Filed Under Champions League | Leave a Comment

The Champions League draw takes place at noon today EST. The English clubs are all in pot one, featuring the competition’s top seeds, and cannot play each other in this round. The posts are:

POT ONE
Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Lyon, Inter Milan, Real Madrid

POT TWO
Bayern Munich, PSV Eindhoven, Villarreal, Roma, FC Porto, Werder Bremen, Sporting Lisbon, Juventus

POT THREE
Marseille, Zenit St Petersburg, Steaua Bucharest, Panathinaikos, Bordeaux, Celtic, Basel, Fenerbahce

POT FOUR
Shakhtar Donetsk, Fiorentina, Atletico Madrid, Dynamo Kiev, CFR Cluj, Aalborg, Anorthosis Famagusta, Bate Borisov

Champions League Match Days:

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