First and foremost…ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS MUST GET OUT AND VOTE TODAY!!!!!
Funny article on footie in the LA Times today. Takes a few digs at Roman Abramovich.
REALLY GOOD ARTICLE from Soccer Lens on spending in the Premiership (love this site). Again, Platani’s talking about Premier League teams debt. Michel, MYOB!!!!!!!
I’m a big fan of goalkeepers so I have to hype up the Keeper Skool site that I just found.
From the twohundredpercent blog...I pretty much agree with all of it.
I want one!!! Only available at the Chelsea Megastore this coming season.
FYI, this story comes from Shiny Shiny, who’s parent is Shiny Media, whom I view as the UK equivalent of Gawker Media . Shiny Media has a network of sites covering all topics so Shiny Shiny is to Shiny Media what Gizmodo is to Gawker. SS also has their network of footie-related Pie sites that I check out sometimes.
Hot with the bloggers yesterday was the news that Rafael van der Vaart left Hamburg for Real Madrid. This makes three Dutch Internationals to sign with the Spanish powerhouse (he joins Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wesley Sneijder). I expect a smooth transition into the team for Rafeal and am really to see how the team performs once Wesley recovers from his injury.
Past that, lots of cool stuff that I read on the blogs this morning:
As I stated yesterday, Inter Milan brought in Jose Mourinho to win the Champions League cup. Soccer Lens poses the question as to whether or not it’s possible. (Courtesy Soccer Lens)
Khalid Shakran over at Bleacher Report picked his Best 11 based on African players currently playing in Europe. I agree with it for the most part although I would reconsider switching the striker setup and put Dider Droba on the bench and Emmauel Adebayor start. Yes, I am a Chelsea fan and truthfully, it was Drogba that made me a Chelsea supporter after his performance in the ‘07 FA Cup, but the truth is that Adebayor had the better 07/08 season in the EPL.
Soccer by Ives pointed me to a GREAT story on SI.com covering the current drama happening with the LA Galaxy. Between losing their last six consecutive games, Landon Donavan wanting to play in England (See you at Fulham, buddy) and going all-in on David Beckham and not winning as much as expected, things are pretty rotten in the state of California.
I get a lot of inspiration from Soccer Lens. They’re more of a thinking man’s site and provoke debate from their readership. Also like Bleacher Report, they take reader submissions, which I may partake of someday.
Two of their articles from today are really good…I learned a TON from them:
The first one, Is Football A Simple Game?, breaks down the characteristics of past winning clubs. Is you’re a footie neophyte like me, this is a must-read.
Then there’s Today’s Superstars and the Age of Maturity which directly challenges the consitency of todays football stars. Yeah, they’re good now, but how the article poses the question, how good will they be in a few years?
I’m hoping that their Cristiano Ronaldo assessment is incorrect, especially if he goes to Los Blancos, whom I strongly support. And past the personal reasons, the story that I want to submit to them is based around CR7, but I’ll only submit it after I see how he does at this season’s halway mark.
I’m really starting to dig Afrique en ligne (English translated site is here, French-translated site is here). I get an African BBC vibe from their writing team…well-written, to-the-point articles…no real bias towards one opinion or the other.
Also, these guys are providing some good footie coverage on all things football in Africa. Found a good story about what South Africa’s doing to beef up security in time for the 2010 World Cup, a major concern with many of the football pundits. The other concern is, whether or not pitches will be constructed in time for the 2010 African Cup of Nations competition in Angola. Inspectors are starting to review pitch construction.