Daily news roundups / Featured

More on Khalfan, Arena on foreign training stints, Chandler goal, more

Philadelphia Union

This Vancouver blog attributes Nizar Khalfan’s inability to become a regular starter with the Whitecaps to being away on international duty and being on the outs with then head coach Tommy Soehn. “Frankly, I think the Whitecaps should have kept him, and my feeling is the loss of the Vancouver Whitecaps is the Philadelphia Union’s gain.”

Writes another Vancouver blogger of Khalfan, his “inconsistency is maddening” and that “he could alternately be Vancouver’s worst player and its most brilliant” before concluding, “I’m sorry to lose Khalfan, who could be electrifying and had a lot to offer as an impact substitute. I’d certainly rather have Khalfan, with all his warts, on the wing than the consistently underwhelming Shea Salinas. I won’t pretend he was a core player or that his absence will send this team into a death spiral…but he was helpful and he’ll be missed.”

Ah, the silly season. Fresh on the heels of reports “linking” Nicolas Anelka to the Union, the 35-year-old striker Michael Thurk, currently suspended by Bundesliga side FC Augsburg, is once again popping up in Google searches. A report from the Augsburger Allegemeine says the 35-year-old striker continues to hope to finish his career in the US. The report says his manager has been in contact with LA Galaxy, Vancouver Whitecaps and the Union. You can read a crappy translation here.

MLS

Goal.com says looks at Montreal’s picks in the Expansion Draft and says they are laying a solid foundation with wise moves.

A Houston Dynamo blog has dug up a quote from Montreal Impact Jesse Marsch from 2007 in which he lists Brian Ching the second worst diver in MLS. Who did he list first? You guessed it, Carlos Ruiz.

The close of the MLS season has been filled with announcements of MLS players going on training stints with European clubs, the most recent being Andy Najar to train with Tottenham and Tim Ream with West Brom and Bolton. LA coach Bruce Arena thinks this isn’t necessarily a good idea.

“You know, this thing, ‘training with a foreign club,’ they don’t really care about that player. He shows up, it’s an American, they got a schedule, the big clubs are in three competitions a week, your training with a reserve team or an academy team. All of this, its not what its built up to be, believe me. Most of the time; you know we’ve been doing that (sending players abroad for training) for 15 years, just to let you people know, this is not a revelation that someone has discovered that you could do that; you know so for the most part it’s ok but it doesn’t move anyone further along to be honest with you.”

Houston’s Adam Moffat says MLS’ representation for being overly physical is overblown. “It’s part of the game. People can say it’s physical, but you’ve got be willing to put your foot in at times, but hardly anyone’s going to hurt anyone. It’s all going for the ball and all that.”

Soccer America’s Paul Gardner says of the Galaxy with David Beckham: More boring than scoring.

More notice from across the pond that, you know, this soccer in America thing, well, it’s kind of taking off.

WPS

While the future of WPS remains an open question, Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) joins the USL’s W-League on the list of leagues with plans to go professional.

Philly Soccer News says it is time for US Soccer to step up for the women’s pro game and sanction the league for another year.

NCAA Tournament

UCLA sliced through Rutgers on Sunday 3–0 while University of Maryland fell 2–4 to Louisville. Charlotte topped defending champions Akron 1–0. For the complete tournament bracket, click here.

US

Timothy Chandler scored over the weekend for Nuremberg:

Elsewhere

American Samoa’s magical one game winning streak ended on Saturday when they lost 1–0 to Samoa when they conceded in the 90th minute.

Fans around the world of the British game mourn the loss of Gary Speed.

11 Comments

  1. his “inconsistency is maddening” and that “he could alternately be Vancouver’s worst player and its most brilliant” before concluding,

    Good god … we get rid of a Mapp only to bring another one in 🙁

  2. “… than the consistently underwhelming Shea Salinas.” Who’s that?! 😉

  3. Uh oh ! Don’t tell Walsh! Someone made fun of his man Shea!!!

  4. SOB Capo’s take note of the Nuremberg YouTube clip: check out the elevated platforms and how the speakers are set up. That’s how it should be in our RE.

Leave a Reply to Eli Cancel

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*