“In a bid to clinch their first national title since 2008 – and, more importantly in financial terms, qualify for the Champions League after four consecutive years away – PSV have brought Dick Advocaat and Mark Van Bommel back to Eindhoven.” World Soccer
“Some games are never quite over. Bayern Munich’s defeat in the Champions League final at the hands of Chelsea took two-and-a-half hours to play out but nearly three months later, its effects still linger at Säbenerstrasse. Even by the standards of Germany’s most restless club, the offseason has been nothing short of tumultuous, marred by a wave of injuries, transfer market frustrations and staff changes. All it will take now is a sixth consecutive defeat against double winners Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup on Sunday night to plunge the Reds into full-blown crisis mode — two weeks before the new season kicks off in earnest.” SI
“Mikel Arteta might be well placed to comment on Arsenal’s unfulfilled potential. He was in the Everton team that was thrashed 7-0 inMay 2005 by an Arsenal side that gave the most compelling argument for football as an art form. More relevantly, though, it was an Arsenal side which featured an amalgamation of the “Invincibles”, and a sprinkling of potentially world-beating youngsters who supposed to carry the club through the move to the Emirates. On that day they were devastating and even though the title was already relinquished to Chelsea, there was a feeling that there was enough talent on show to ensure they deliver more trophies in the future.” Arsenal Column
“The first two installments dabbled in absolutes. In Part 1, the questions was who U.S. Coach Jurgen Klinsmann might call in for Wednesday’s friendly against Mexico at Estadio Azteca if players’ club questions were not a factor. Part 2 imposed artificial restrictions on the coach and explored what the roster might look like if Klinsmann was limited to a pool of North America-based players.” NYT
“Earlier in the summer, TTT, as part of a new era of open communications between the club and its fans, was invited to ask Liverpool’s principal owner, John Henry, some questions. Recently I felt the time was right to submit a series of questions, which were devised by contributors to this site.” Tomkins Times
“Since the rise of the ‘flat back four’, the sweeper and more specifically, the libero role had all but disappeared from the footballing world for a number of reasons. In part, this was because the position itself was such a specialist one, which demands various abilities from those playing it: on a basic level, they needed both attacking and defensive prowess, while therein they require excellent reading of the game, strong passing both short and long range and vision that will allow the player to anticipate the movement of oncoming attackers as well as acting as their platform to trigger attacks and counterattacks alike for their own team.” Sabotage Times
“Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Sepp Maier. These are just some of the most successful and celebrated German footballers of all time, winning just about everything there was to win with club and country. Horst Blankenburg on the other hand is not a name that immediately springs to mind when discussing Germany’s most successful footballers but certainly merits a mention, at least at club level. Yet, few remember or know much about the man that never quite fit in in Germany and had to leave his home country to truly make a name for himself.” In Bed With Maradona
“One year ago this week, in his first game as United States national team coach, Jurgen Klinsmann’s squad eked out a 1-1 draw against Mexico at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. On that night the team started poorly but seemed to draw strength from its optimistic, charismatic leader. Trailing at the half, it clawed back and got a result. All things considered, it was a good showing for both coach and team.” NYT: U.S.-Mexico Preview, Part 1: The A Team, U.S.-Mexico Preview, Part 2: The North American Solution
“Despite their offensive intentions, Feyenoord fell just short of their target. In a match that proved quite open, both teams had their chances, but Feyenoord could just as well have pulled this one off. Returning to the 4-3-3 formation brought Feyenoord a handful of chances that just didn’t fell their way. Overall, Kiev sealed a bleak performance with an injury time goal.” 11 tegen 11
“The Scottish Premier League kicks off its fifteenth – and conceivably its last – season this weekend, after a summer when off-field issues have dominated, and the repercussions of which may yet have major consequences on the season ahead. It makes it similtaneously the most predictable, and in other respects the most unpredictable, season in the SPL’s history.” twohundredpercent
“If you take a look at the official FIFA records, you will find that the Ukrainian national team, as a separate and recognized entity, has existed for only twenty years. Over these two decades their record has been rather unimpressive: one World Cup appearance in 2006, where they advanced to the quarterfinals and automatic qualification for Euro 2012 as co-hosts. But this unremarkable performance belies a glorious footballing legacy that Ukraine left behind as part of the Soviet Union.” World Soccer
“It wasn’t meant to be this way. From the moment he became part of Roma’s youth system Alberto Aquilani was identified as one of the brightest prospects to emerge in years and yet now, just over a decade later, he moves to Fiorentina looking to rediscover that early promise. Having finally ended a Liverpool career that was always ill-fitting and never truly began in earnest, the 28-year-old moves to a club now synonymous with rebuilding the reputation of fallen stars. He will be hoping the famous Viola shirt can do the same for him.” ESPN
“Before Tiki Taka and Total Football, there was ‘Champagne Football’. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Stade de Reims dazzled France and the rest of Europe with their exhilarating brand of effective attacking football which, as described by the great Just Fontaine, was ‘based on one-twos and a constant search for space’. Beauty went hand in hand with efficacy as, in just over a decade, the club won six leagues titles, two French cups, one Latin Cup and made two European Cup finals. And even if their successes have been scarce since (a third division championship being their sole achievement since the sixties), that great Stade de Reims side will always remain in football legend.” World Soccer
“It was just as Kenneth Branagh was finishing his Isambard Kingdom Brunel as Caliban piece and the chimneys were replacing the bucolic ideal in the Olympic opening ceremony that the news began to come through: Andriy Shevchenko was retiring from football to take up a career in politics. In a sense, of course, it’s no great surprise.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson
“… Any football fan naive enough to believe in the fairytale of the foreign-investor-as-knight-in-shining-armour need only look at the parlous state of Blackburn Rovers to be brought to their senses. John Williams, Tom Finn and Martin Goodman felt compelled to express their extreme concern just two months after Venky’s takeover, and events since – culminating in relegation to the Championship in May – have only gone to prove that if there’s an inverse of a panacea, then Venky’s are it.” thetwounfortunates
“After days of indecision and u-turns, the Argentinian football season is due to kick-off on Friday. In spite of the chaos, however, the title race is always exciting and Jonathan Wilson has the tough task of choosing where to put his money.” Betting.Betfair – Jonathan Wilson
“With more possession, more passes completed, fewer shots conceded, and more shots per game than any other team in the Premier League, you may think Manchester City don’t need to change a thing as they look to defend their Premier League crown. But City will want to improve on last season’s disastrous Champions League campaign, as well as firmly cement themselves as the best team in England.” FourFourTwo
“Wily, diminutive, tricky, graceful; feel free to add your own adjectives. Ossie Ardiles arrived at Tottenham Hotspur from Huracán in 1978 alongside fellow World Cup winner Ricky Villa and became a firm favourite with the White Hart Lane faithful. While younger Spurs fans will marvel at the silky skills of Luka Modric, older ones will recall the guile of creator in chief Ardiles. Like Modric, not the most prolific goalscorer, but the key creative component of a number of Spurs sides in the late 1970’s and early 80’s. Sixty today, Ossie is back in management with second tier J League outfit Machida Zelvia. Here’s a nice tribute from 1985…” In Bed With Maradona (Video)
“A game, a season, a career – at whatever scale it’s observed, history turns on the smallest of details. Give Didier Drogba weaker neck muscles and Fabio Capello slacker principles and the scenario at White Hart Lane is probably Harry Redknapp leading Spurs into a Champions League campaign with Luka Modric pulling the strings. Instead, the King is dead (well, retired), ’Arry’s gone, and the Croatian playmaker is all but doing his bienvenidos ball-juggle at the Bernabéu.” Lifes A Pitch
“The city of Gomel can be traced back to the time of the first millennium where the medieval western Slavic tribe widely known as the Radimichs developed, upon the naturally fortificated banks of the Sozh River, a homestead that would gradually develop into one of eastern Belarus’ most prominent cities. Gomel’s tumultuous history has seen it captured and recaptured, over the past few hundred years, by various Slavic princes who viewed the area as a potentially important location for trade and commerce before eventually becoming the city that it is today, within one of the most controversial nations in Europe.” Slavic Football Union
“There may not be a Miss World sitting on a duvet of dollars won at a Casino, there may not be a Northern Ireland waiter and he may not be George Best but the question is just the same. A player who Arsene Wenger once described as having ‘too much quality’ is suddenly looking at a very uncertain future. So the question is: Fran Mérida, where did it all go wrong? A new star was born and the entire world was watching. The Spanish invasion had started and all eyes were on a former Barcelona youth product called Cesc Fabregas.” Sabotage Times
Scissors Kick 