Premiership Promotions

Posted by: J Drama

Euro Cup has been in the headlines everyday for the past 10 days, so I thought it’d be a nice change if we talked EPL for just a bit. With the season only 2 months away we look at the newly promoted sides looking to make an impression in the Premiership as well as survive it.

West Bromwich Albion
Winners of the Coca Cola Championship by a mere 2 points, West Brom are not strangers to the Premiership. They have been in and out of the first division, but their last stint was in the 05/06 campaign when they got relegated after finishing 19th. If any team were to stay in the Premiership next season, I would pip them as the ones to do it. They were the best overall team in the Championship and were led by Kevin Phillips who bagged 22 goals last season. The loss of Zoltan Gera to Fulham could play a major role as he was a solid midfielder for the Baggies in their top flight promotion. On the other hand, Luke Moore joins the club and could make a formidable striking partnership with Phillips. West Brom needs to make a couple more additions during the transfer window in the defensive area to ensure that they play another season in the Premiership.

Stoke City
The last time Stoke smelled the fresh air of the first division was 23 years ago. Now they are back and have a new view of how things are done in the Premiership. Seeing Derby get manhandled almost every game last season might deter some teams from thinking they can stay in the top flight, but I think that Stoke will be out to prove that they can steal valuable points where they shouldn’t. For Stoke it will be a battle of injuries throughout the season and games where they can sneak wins away late. Stoke boss Tony Pulis is putting pen to paper and signing a new contract with the team. He helped mastermind an excellent campaign which saw Stoke return to the Premiership. The Potters will look to make some key additions to the team and hopefully bolster their squad come mid-August.

Hull City
Hull City won the Championship playoffs beating Bristol City 1-0 in the final at Wembley. Dean Windass’s 38th minute strike ended a 104-year drought of top flight football for the Tigers. Now the team will look for more of Windass’s wisdom as they try to beat the odds and stay in the Premiership next season. The 39-year-old is among other experienced players that will try and keep the Tigers afloat. One player who made a major impact this season was on-loan striker Fraizer Campbell from Man Utd. He is at the top of their shopping list this coming season and they look to make his move a permanent one. Hull is the “Derby” of last year as playoff winners, but who knows if they will follow in their footsteps.

These teams will be making the appropriate adjustments, they will be watching film, training hard, and giving every last drop of effort they have to ensure that they will be raking in the millions of extra pounds from playing Premiership football the next 2 years. Hopefully we’ll see at least 1 newly promoted team stay in the Premiership. And who knows maybe we’ll get a team to copy what Reading did in the 06/07 season when they were only a point away from earning a UEFA Cup spot after being promoted just that year.

Who will stay up? Will all 3 teams get relegated? What are your thoughts?

What A Week!

Posted By: J Drama
What a week it is was indeed. Excitement, drama, upsets, goals, cards, surprises, and unbelievable soccer. We are into the second week and 3rd Matchdays of Euro Cup 2008. There has been some great footballing and I’m sure there is still more to come.

Portugal, Turkey, Croatia, Netherlands, and Spain are all through. Defending champs Greece are out along with Czech Republic, who disappoint yet again, as well as co-host Switzerland.

What a game it was between the Czechs and Turks! There were 5 goals in total and 3 in the last 15 minutes of the game. The Czechs completely stopped playing after almost going up 3-0 and Petr Cech made the biggest blunder of his international career to ensure at least extra time for the Turks. 2 minutes later, however, the Turks slotted one home and were through just like that.

How about Croatia? Beating the Germans 2-1 and solidifying a place in the final 8. If everything plays out how it is now, Germany will have a haunting quarterfinals match against Portugal. How exciting will that game be? All they need is a draw. On the other hand though, Germany are not necessarily through. If they lose, they are out and Austria, their opponent, is through. If Poland beat Croatia and Austria wins, they would need a better goal differential to go on. Exciting times during Matchday 3 in this group.

The Netherlands have been quite a surprise in their “group of death”. Or maybe it’s that Italy and France are in poor form right now. If Romania beats Netherlands they are through. If they draw and Italy and France draw, Romania is through. Italy and France face off and whoever wins needs Netherlands to beat Romania if they want a chance at the quarterfinals.

David Villa is on a tear for the Spanish. 4 goals in 2 games including a hat-trick against Russia. Sweden and Russia will battle it out on Wednesday for the final spot in their group. My vote is Sweden. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has a pair of goals in the tournament and I do not think the Russians will be able to handle him.

What are your thoughts so far about the tournament? Who will win it all? Who is going to get the Golden Boot? Have your say.

Well that’s a wrap. Stay tuned for more and try not to let your eyes get glued to the tele.

Victory!...or Another Blunder?

Posted by: Tex

The US Mens team has so far lost two of the three friendly matches for this summer. A complete fizzle against England last week made the US look just like it did in the World Cup two summers ago, with no talent and no wins. The 2-0 loss to England was contributed to a lack of power in the midfield with Landon Donovan not making the trip due to a groin strain and Freddy Adu coming in late in the game.

Wednesday's match with Spain was almost a complete turnaround, at least in the first half that is. Still no Donovan, however, with Freddy Adu getting the start next to Maurice Edu and having Eddie Johnson up front, the US was able to scare the Spanish defense several times before the whistle blew for halftime. After numerous substitutions at halftime, the team sat back on its heals and took attack after attack until Xavi Hernandez walked through our defensive line and put it past Brad Guzan. The entire team seemed to be out of gas by the 65 min. What is going on? Are these players not able to make it a full 90 min? Even with 5 substitutions, the US cannot play a full match. Maybe it is because the MLS players are used to playing on a smaller field.
So, the match this Sunday against ARG may go either way. I was impressed by the play in the first half against Spain; however, at this point it all comes down to who Bob Bradley wants to start. With World Cup Qualifying only a week away with Barbados at Giants Stadium on the 15th. Getting a starting 11, that can hopefully play a full 90min match should be Mr. Bradley's top priority.

Who do you think will get the start against ARG and Barbados?

What are your predictions agains ARG?

Here's Mine: US 1 ARG1

Euro Predictions

No one can confidently predict what will happen when the tournament starts on Saturday. We can only hope and pray that our own analysis and gut instincts can accurately predict who will win and who will lose. Copious amounts of research have been done throughout the Euro qualifiers and a sharp eye has been following the tournament extensively. I will now attempt to predict what will happen. Please be gentle.

Group A
Switzerland are the co-hosts of the tournament. They will not want to disappoint their home fans. Tranquillo Barnetta had a fantastic World Cup and should be the Swiss’s go-to guy. The Czech Republic look to avenge a substandard 2006 World Cup where they failed to reach the round of 16. With Petr Cech between the sticks and giant Jan Koller leading the attack, the Czechs will want to prove they can win even without Tomas Rosicky, who is out due to injury and Pavel Nedved who has retired from the international stage. Portugal clearly stand out in this group. Runners-up from Euro 2004 they will be looking for nothing but lifting the trophy come the end of June. Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the world right now. Many will be watching him as he leads his team through the tournament. Turkey are the underdogs in this group and will have their work cut out for them if they want to make the next round. Tuncay Sanli needs to work off a back problem if Turkey want to survive.
Winner: Portugal
Runner-up: Czech Republic
Player to Watch: Cristiano Ronaldo


Group B
Austria are the other co-hosts of the tournament. They will have to get their nerves under control as they wait to play in front of their home fans. Croatia were the surprise winners of their qualifying group. They beat England on the last qualifying matchday to eliminate them from the tournament. Luka Modric will be the man to watch for Croatia. The young midfielder recently joined Tottenham Hotspurs for £21 million. He will want to prove that they got a solid player as he has already been compared to the great Johan Cruyff. Germany are the giants in this group. With many stars in the squad, this team will be hard pressed not to win this group. Ballack, Klose, Pudolski, Schweinsteiger, and Lahm are the big guns leading this team. Poland won their qualifying group ahead of Portugal. Euzebuisz Smolarek had 9 goals in qualifying and will need to continue to contribute if Poland wishes to reach the next round.
Winner: Germany
Runner-up: Croatia
Player to Watch: Miroslav Klose


Group C
Romania are being overlooked in this group which is safe to say the “Group of Death”. Led by Adrian Mutu and Cristian Chivu, Romania will need to give bit of energy if they want to survive this group and be a surprise in the tournament. France have a bitter taste in their mouths as they got placed in the same group as Italy. We all remember the whole Zidane fiasco in the last World Cup. New up-and-coming star Karim Benzema looks to feature for Les Blues as the usual suspects, Henry and Ribery, should provide the scoring. The Netherlands boast an impressive squad but have not produced in big tournaments as of late. Ruud van Nistlerooy, van Persie, Robben, and Sneijder will be the scoring providers. They will look to Edwin van der Sar to continue the brilliance he displayed in the Champions League Final. What can we say about Italy? It seems that they always bring great teams to tournaments. Cannavaro will be watched closely as he tries to comeback from an ankle injury. So many weapons and so much skill, teams will have to extract every bit of energy to beat the Italians.
Winners: France
Runner-up: Italy
Player to Watch: Franck Ribery


Group D
The Spanish highlight the last group. Fernando Torres is coming off an outstanding season for Liverpool and will want to continue his scoring onslaught, 33 goals in all competitions. Like the Italians, they have a plethora of amazing talent but can they play as a team? Cesc Fabregas, Xavi, Iniesta will dominate the middle of the pitch. They struggled a bit during qualifiers, but they hope to work all the kinks out by game time. Russia squeaked past England in their qualifying group. They want to prove that it was not just a fluke and that they deserve to be there. Manager Guus Hiddink has done well at the club level with PSV Eindhoven and will rely on young talent to turn a few heads at the international stage. Greece attempt to hold on to the trophy they won in 2004. Winning their group in qualifiers ahead of Turkey, they did not have to break too big a sweat to stay at the top. They should have to work quite a big harder to make the next round. Sweden are always a danger when Zlatan Ibrahimovic is in form. Also, veteran striker Henrik Larsson and defender Olof Mellberg will lead by example. A balanced team, Sweden do not want to go home early.
Winner: Spain
Runner-up: Sweden
Player to Watch: Sergio Ramos

Overall Prediction
Champion: Germany
Runner-up: Italy
Golden Boot: Thierry Henry
MVP: Michael Ballack

New MLS Stadiums

Several new teams in the MLS are getting new SSS (Soccer Specific Stadiums) within the coming years. The first to be completed will be Real Salt lake's, which will be ready for the 2009 season. It is designed by Rossetti Architecture who also designed Chicago Fire's Toyota park as well as The home Depot Center in Los Angeles the the LA Galaxy/Chivas USA.



Rossetti also designed the new home to the New York Red Bulls simply called Red Bull Park which will be located south of the Meadowlands in the city of Harrison, NJ. With room for 25,000 fans and at a cost of over $100 million, it will definitely be a world class soccer stadium.



DC United will also be receiving a SSS with a completion date of 2010, Poplar Point will seat 27,000 fans and will be set on a large multi use site costing $150 million for the stadium alone.