US Soccer Players

Jakovic Joins DC

Former Red Star Belgrade defender Dejan Jakovic is now a member of DC United after agreeing to a deal with Major League Soccer.

What I Was Thinking

By Andrew Dixon - MIAMI, FL (Feb 27, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- I've been sick recently, so the celebrity mailbag has been filling up.  Let's take a gander, shall we?

The first letter comes from a David B. in Milan, Italy.  He writes: Eh, I'm desperate to stay where I am because I love my club football again.  But if I have to go back to Los Angeles, what kind of reaction will I get?

Just One Grown Man's Opinion of course, but if anyone is going to boo you, they're likely going to be wearing a Galaxy shirt. With all of this talk about how much you enjoy playing club football again, if I'm a Galaxy fan- or one of your Galaxy teammates - I'm not feeling too good about what you're saying.

Friday's Daily: 6+5

With J Hutcherson -- Here's what FIFA president Sepp Blatter's 6+5 rule will mean for an American player looking for work in Europe. It will get that much harder. The concept is simple enough. Beef up National Teams courtesy of a rule requiring club sides to field six players - and here's the important part - who could theoretically play for that club's country.

Just having a passport means competing with all the other players with the legal right to work in Europe but are tied to other nations for a grand total of five starting jobs. To put it another way, the available jobs will get squeezed for anybody not playing in their own country's domestic league.

American Abroad Update: UEFA Cup

No luck for the Americans, though in fairness the teams involved knew that going in. 

Brad Guzan got the start in goal against Aston Villa, with a roster that would look out of place in a Premier League game.  As expected, CSKA Moscow added to their 1-0 win in the first leg, beating Villa 2-0 at the Luzhniki Stadium in Russia.  Yuri Zhrikov and Silva Vagner Love scored for CSKA in the 61st and 90th minutes to take the series 3-1 on aggregate. 

"I thought we were always in the game," Villa manager Martin O'Neill said. "We always felt we were capable of scoring a goal and we had one or two opportunities to do so.  We tried our utmost but it wasn't to be. The last goal was dispiriting because I don't think it gave a true reflection on how we did."

US youth international Eric Lichaj made the bench for Aston Villa. The two-time Parade All-American signed with Villa from the University of North Carolina.  He has been with the club since the summer of 2007.  Brad Friedel, normally Guzan's backup in the UEFA Cup, was one of eight Villa regulars rested. 

After a rough first leg that had them trying to overcome a three-goal deficit, Standard Liege could only manage a score draw against Portuguese club Braga.  Oguchi Onyewu took his regular spot in the Liege defense and played the full ninety.  Liege threw seven shots at the Braga goal, but only got on the scoreline in the 79th minute through Deiudonne Mbokani.  Braga equalized nine minutes later from Luis Bernardo Burgos Aguiar, making it 1-1 on the night and 4-1 on aggregate.

Thursday's Daily: Away From The Numbers

With J Hutcherson -- There are few things more uncomfortable when watching pro sports than the game nobody knows what to do with. Chelsea - Juventus, as a for instance. It was clear early in yesterday's ESPN2 broadcast that this one wasn't playing to any kind of entertaining form.

Juventus seemed like they were waiting on an opportunity that was never going to present itself. Chelsea seemed like they were waiting on Juventus while their own usual suspects played their usual game.

CONCACAF Champions League: Five Minutes

Montreal 2 - Atlante 0

With the surprisingly large crowd behind them, the Montreal Impact turned Olympic Stadium into their home field on Wednesday night.  Eduardo Sebrango got both goals for Montreal, scoring in the 5th minute and again in the 77th.  “I was excited and confident coming into this match,” said Sebrango. "Brown and I really clicked together," Sebrango told the club's official site. "This was a very important game for the team. For the upcoming game, we need to be organized defensively and go along as a team."  Matt Jordan got the shutout for the Impact.  The announced crowd was 55,571. 

Cruz Azul 1 - UNAM Pumas 0

At Estadio Azul, Cruz Azul's Jaime Lozano converted a 5th minute free kick that would end up being the difference against UNAM Pumas. Cruz Azul has had Pumas' number in recent games, taking advantage of Pumas' flailing league form. 

The Standard Response

By Graig Carbino - ALBANY, NY (Feb 25, 2008) USSoccerPlayers -- Legendary Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz once said “coaching is nothing more than eliminating mistakes before you get fired.” A bit harsh? Maybe, but in today’s world of high stakes, high priced college and professional sports it is probably just about right.

With the amount of money that is put into - and then extracted out of - sports around the World, it’s hardly surprising that owners would have a quick trigger finger. Whether or not hastily firing a coach actually works to improve a team probably has more to do with the actual players involved and available than it does the coach.

Wednesday's Daily: Pushing Leagues

With J Hutcherson -- Big night in Montreal, with a better than good chance Olympic Stadium will be close to its old baseball capacity for the CONCACAF Champions League. Using our words, let's repeat that slowly. A competition that's been looking for love across North and Central America has found it in Montreal.

That would be the potential for over 50,000 people to not only get that the CONCACAF Champions League should be a very big deal, but are willing to put their money towards that point. No David Beckham, no MLS involvement, and not even one of the bigger CONCACAF clubs as competition.

CONCACAF Champions League: Houston 1 - Atlante 1

The Houston Dynamo set themselves up for an interesting second leg in Cancun, drawing with Atlante 1-1 on Tuesday night at Robertson Stadium.  Bobby Boswell scored for Houston the 34th minute and Gabriel Pereyra equalized for Atlante in the 82nd. The result is more of a win for Atlante, who can close out the series at Quintana Roo. 

"The 1-1 score makes it a little more difficult as we make our way down to Cancun," Houston coach Dominic Kinnear said. "It is a good result for them and it is not a terrible result for us. It is not impossible. We just need to win a game away from home and that is something that we have done before."

Four players on each team were shown yellow cards, as the game got especially physical in the second half. 

American Abroad: Dempsey Scores

Fulham's Clint Dempsey got a late goal on Tuesday to bring Fulham level against Swansea in the FA Cup.  His 77th minute goal canceled out Jason Scotland's 47th minute opener for Swansea.  It would be Fulham advancing, with Bobby Zamora hitting the winner in the 81st.  Fulham will play Manchester United in the sixth round.

"We created a lot of chances for ourselves and we showed we can come back from being down," Dempsey told the club's official site. "You just have to keep working hard when things are not going right for you all you can do is give your best and that’s what we did on Tuesday night."

N'Silu Joins United

Mawate Ange N’Silu is the newest member of DC United.  The 22-year-old forward last played for Swiss club FC Le Mont.

Toronto Signs Serioux

Canadian international Adrian Serioux is now a member of FC Toronto, after the club completed a trade with FC Dallas for a 2020 first round SuperDraft pick and allocation money. Serioux was an MLS Cup winner with Houston.

Tuesday's Daily: More Champions

With J Hutcherson -- Want a quick lesson in soccer punditry when it comes to the relative wonder of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 home and away series? Posit that the away team might not want to press the attack while looking for that one golden opportunity on the counter. In other words, the blatantly obvious.

Last year's round of 16 brought us exactly one away team getting the win in the first leg, and that was Barcelona beating Celtic. Three draws, and the rest of the games playing to script. The home team wins, hopefully by enough to make the second leg less of an issue. Four first-leg winners last time around, and all advanced to the quarterfinals.

Dallas Adds Ferreira

Continuing their relationship with Brazil club Atletico Paranaense, FC Dallas have signed midfielder/forward David Ferreira on loan from Paranaense.  Dallas will be using Paranaense's training facility in Curitaba, Brazil for part of their preseason.

Rongen Names Roster

Under-20 National Team coach Thomas Rongen released a list of the 20 players he will be using for FIFA Under-20 World Cup qualifying.

The following is courtesy of US Soccer Communications --

American Abroad: In Defense

By Graig Carbino - ALBANY, NY (Feb 23, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- If we are to believe the old cliché, then defense does, in fact, win championships. The defensive unit for the US National Team has probably been debated and bandied about more than any other part of the lineup. Rightfully so I suppose, when you break things down into the simplest terms and realize that you can't win without keeping the other team out.

Oguchi Onyewu and Carlos Bocanegra have separated themselves from the pack when it comes to the center of defense. They're both playing regularly for their club sides, although Bocanegra is mostly featuring on the left side of the Rennes defense. That should have most US fans wildly gesturing towards Bob Bradley in the hopes that he's got an answer for a problem that dates back years.

Monday's Daily: Taking It In

With J Hutcherson -- For those of you who never even knew it existed, the Sports Museum of America closed last week. For those of you wondering how a museum in lower Manhattan that charged more for admission than those nice big buildings in Central Park got this far, fair enough.

There's a simple point about an economic downturn. It makes what never should have worked even more obvious. That includes the big picture concepts and the little things.

Keep It Simple

Former Columbus Crew midfielder Brian Maisonneuve has some very simple advice for players trying to improve their skills when he spoke to us in 2004.

“Work on the fundamentals of the game and have that down pat before you try anything else. The dribbling, passing and trapping – have that down before you start doing the rainbows and practicing the bicycle kicks. You can’t do much else until you get those down.”

Friday's Daily: Still About Potential

With J Hutcherson -- Resorting to the sports business equivalent of smack talk is just so appropriately American. Here we have the head of Anschutz Entertainment letting anyone who still cares know that "With that figure, Galaxy don't even cover the damages deriving from the shortfalls of not selling his shirts." We're going to assume our friends in England paraphrased.

The basic statement is something that is pretty much irrelevant. There's plenty of Beckham 23 Galaxy home tops to go around at a big box sporting goods retailer near you. Short of the Galaxy launching yet another uniform, that's not going to be the difference.

However, it was very much worth saying.

American Abroad: UEFA Cup

Brad Guzan was in goal for Aston Villa, who drew 1-1 with CSKA Moscow at Villa Park.  CSKA got the opening goal in the 14th minute from Vagner Love. Villa equalized in the 69th.  "People talk about effort and endeavour but I take exception about that being mentioned every week," said Villa manager Martin O'Neill.  "We have some really, really quality players performing for this football club. They are tremendously gifted."

Oguchi Onyewu started in defense for Standard Liege, but the club had few answers away to Portugal's Braga. 3-0 to Braga heading into the home leg.  Wason Renteria got Braga's opener in the 17th minute.  Augusto Andre Leone scored ten minutes later, and Luis Bernardo Burgos Aguiar got the third in the 84th minute.

Marcus Tracy was an unused substitute for Aalborg, 3-0 home winners over Deportivo La Coruna.  Anders Due scored twice for AaB in the 53rd and 71st minutes, with Michael Jakobsen coverting a 90th minute penalty.

Premier League: Clint Dempsey's Fulham got shutout 3-0 away to Manchester United.  Dempsey got the start on the wing.  Paul Scholes opened the scoring for United in the 12th, followed by Dimitar Berbatov in the 30th, and Wayne Rooney in the 63rd.  "What happened was no disgrace," Fulham manager Roy Hodgson said. "Manchester United are a very good team with a great chance of winning the Premier League. We have to accept we've got some big games ahead of us and hope we'll be able to learn lessons from today and play better in the games ahead."

Scottish Cup (5th Round): Maurice Edu and DaMarcus Beasley got the start in Rangers 4-0 win over Forfar Athletic.  Aleady two goals down from Sasa Papac in the 8th and Kenny Miller in the 54th, Forfar's Elliot Smith was red carded in the 70th minute for a horrible tackle on Beasley that forced a Rangers substitution.  Beasley will not be availalbe for Saturday's Premier League game, but isn't expected to need a lengthy recovery.