“If you go to Pro Vercelli’s ‘records’ page in Football Manager 2009, you’ll see that the worst defeat in the club’s history came in a match against Inter on April 24, 1910, which Pro Vercelli lost 10-3. 10-3 is a catastrophic defeat by any standard, but the numbers don’t convey the magnitude of what happened that day. It wasn’t just the biggest defeat in the 124-year history of Pro Vercelli. It was one of the gravest injustices in the history of Italian soccer.” (The Run of Play)
Iran Asks Iranian-American to Salvage Cup Bid (NYT)
“On Wednesday, news reports out of Tehran said Ghotbi, 45, was named coach of Iran’s national soccer team, the third person to be named to the post in a month. Iran is a team in turmoil, struggling to advance from the Asian confederation to next summer’s World Cup in South Africa.” Q. & A. With New Iran Coach Afshin Ghotbi (NYT)
Brian Glanville witnesses some fallible goalkeeping at Wembley (World Soccer)
“With the deepest respect for certain confused colleagues, there were some strange analyses of Chelsea’s Wembley semi final win against the Gunners.”
Rash Tackles and Inconsistent Referees Challenge MLS (SoccerLens)
“There were seven sending offs this past weekend in relatively unimportant MLS match-ups. In the contest between the hapless Galaxy and Chivas USA, the referee red-carded LA’s US international star Gregg Berhalter in his MLS debut for hauling down a player with a clear goal-scoring opportunity, and ejected the Galaxy’s Alan Gordon (dissent) and Chivas’ Paulo Nagamura with two yellow cards apiece.”
The Rooney dummy (uefa)
“Score with a trick from the Manchester United ace…”
Campioni del mondo (ESPN)
“Triumph temporarily took Italian minds off scandal as the Azzurri returned home as World Cup champions on July 10.”
Scissors Kick 