Dirty Old Tire News

The Guardian asks new Premiership winning Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson: "And where does it rank compared with your other titles?" To which SAF replies: "It has to be the club's greatest achievement."


du Nord MLS Player Of The Week - Clint Mathis of the New York Red Bulls.
-I was not as convinced this week as in weeks past about who should get his award. Its not that players weren't good, but no one was truly great. Mathis I think in the end stood above the rest for his 2 goals and 1 assist, on the road. That second goal was a tough header that he made look almost casual! Plus the fact that we have all been waiting nearly 4 years for him to do this again makes it seem more special, doesn't it! By "do this" I mean play hard week-in week-out like he wants to accomplish something meaningful. Sure he had the red card two weeks ago, but other than that he has been a serious driving force in Bruce Arena's NYRB machine. Who saw this coming? Certainly not me. Congrats to Clint, and let's hope he took Cleetus out and threw him off a cliff somewhere a long way from New Jersey (cuz we all know that like Gollum, Cleetus is tough to kill off.)
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Bob Luder of the KC Star is reporting that Kansas City Wizards star center back Jimmy Conrad had his jaw re-fractured last Saturday by a Ricardo Virtuoso forearm smash. It's not as bad as when it happened to him last season, but he will probably miss at least 2 weeks.
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Buzz Carrick of the always excellent 3rd Degree site, posted a note on Big Soccer that Carlos Ruiz did not show up at FC Dallas training on Monday and was not excused. It has been a while since El Pescadito pulled this stunt, so I guess we were due.
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Grahame Jones at the LA Times talks to MLS deputy dawg Ivan Gazidis about criticism coming from people a lot bigger than me (in quality, not quantity) of the leagues salary structure, and particularly the low wages paid to guys in the "developmental" roster spots. Gazidis compares those players to guys getting paid A & AA wages in minor league baseball. What kind of an argument is that? The spots he is referring too are not for minor league soccer players. They are for guys on MAJOR League Soccer rosters, who many times suit up in the first 11. Each team only has 28 guys! Someone on a baseball teams A-ball roster is about the 100th man on a franchises totem pole. (Hell, even that's not fair though, cuz baseball has about 100,000 times the revenue of soccer in America.) Too bad Jones didn't make this argument back to Gazidis and get a real response. Gazidis also tries to make a big deal out of the fact that "24 or 25" players over the past 2 years have been moved up from those wages to "senior squad" pay. That is 1 guy per team per year! Big deal! Get back to us when you have a real answer buddy.
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Toronto has booked international friendly's with Benfica on May 23rd and Aston Villa on July 25th.
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A Newswire report says sales of Toronto FC official gear is 3 times bigger than any other MLS team, and that Adidas is struggling to meet demand. Awesome!
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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer talks to New York midfielder Clint Mathis about his terrific start to the 07 season.
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Andrea Canales at LA Soccer News talks to Mathis as well. (This is also a bit of a preview for tonight's Open Cup match v LA.) Oh, and Mathis loves NY.
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Sulaiman Folarin at Soccernet does a Q & A with new Red Bull Juan Pablo Angel.
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Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle examines the attitude of the Dynamo that got them past a rough start, and onto the ass kicking they laid on Colorado in the second 45 mintues on Saturday. And other notes.
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Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram with a story on Dallas midfielder and potential star Ramon Nunez.
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I have to laugh, every time a player from Salt Lake is nominated for MLS Goal Of The Week it usually is the winner cuz those fans stuff the ballot box. I guess I am happy for their passion, but it still makes me laugh at the junior high attitude. This week they are voting overtime for Chris Brown's goal, which I didn't even think was the best RSL goal of the game, the Chris Klein goal was. And Dwayne DeRosario hit the goal of the week, with Christian Gomez in second place.
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Soccer America's MLS Confidential asks, why can't ref decisions be overturned post game like suspensions are handed out?
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US Open Cup qualifier tonight for MLS teams:
-Tue May 8
Los Angeles v New York
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Luis Bueno on his Sideline Views blog has some notes and thoughts about this Open Cup match.
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A sprained ankle will keep NYRB keeper Ronald Waterreus out of tonight's game for sure, and possibly longer.
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Phil Collin at the Daily Breeze talks to new LA keeper Joe Cannon about how things are going with the team and him so far.
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Midfielder Freddy Juarez has been voted Blue Sky Soccer's Minnesota Thunder Man Of The Match v Vancouver. The team lost 1-2 on Sunday. (Voting for this award is conducted by a secret cabal.) Juarez hit a spectacular goal to tie the game. Hopefully we will get a link to Juarez's monster goal soon. Juarez was named to the USL First Division Team Of The Week as well.
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More American soccer is coming to a radio (maybe) near you. "Radio station group Lotus Communication Corp. purchased English- and Spanish-language radio and Internet radio rights for U.S. Soccer, Major League Soccer and InterLiga matches. Lotus' first broadcast of the U.S. National Teams is expected to be the U.S. MNT vs. China match at 5 p.m. PT on June 2 in San Jose, Calif. The company will begin MLS broadcasts in 2008. Broadcasts of national team games will continue through 2014." Lotus owns 23 stations in Arizona, California & Nevada, plus one in Texas. Most of them are Spanish language, so I am not so sure how much this will really mean to us gringos.
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Thanks to Scott A who sent us this link of Clint Dempsey's 30 Million Pound goal!
-Frank Dell'apa at the Boston Globe writes about The Deuce's big goal.
-More Deuce praise from the Fulham website.
-The Insider from Soccernet was on hand for the match. Read the report.
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Paul Gardner of the New York Sun wants US Soccer and president Sunil Gulati to stop jerking around and hire Bob Bradley as the permanent head coach of the Team USA. Garder does not have any inside scoop on the answer, so don't expect to read it here. (I have my own thoughts on what is going to happen, and will probably post them tomorrow.)
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The good part of the Bob Bradley interim status story is that we are not nearly as bad off as Canada when it comes to the head coach vacancy.
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The Manchester Evening News says USA & Man City midfielder DaMarcus Beasley will most likely NOT return to the team for next season. Which means that he will again be the property of PSV Eindhoven.
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Shaun Fuentes at Soccer 365 has the great story of the Trinidad & Tobago U17 team that just qualified for the Youth World Cup.
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Joel Aceves at LA Soccer News previews the Mexican playoff match ups, that start tomorrow.
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Copa Libertadores - Round of 16 second leg matches (with 1st leg scores included):
-Tue May 8
Colo Colo v America (0-3)
Toluca v Cucuta Deportivo (1-5)
-Wed May 9
Velez Sarsfield v Boca Juniors (0-3)
Flamengo v Defensor Sporting (0-3)
Gremio v Sao Paulo (0-1)
-Thu May 10
Santos v Caracas (2-2)
Libertad v Parana (2-1)
Necaxa v Nacional (2-3)
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The Italian Cup Final first leg is this week - this is the 3rd straight year these two clubs have met for the TIM Cup with Inter winning the previous 2:
Wed May 9
Roma v Inter
-Second leg is May 17.
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FIFA.com has a Q & A with new Celta de Vigo manager Hpsycho Stoichkov.
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In England yesterday Charlton lost to Tottenham and have officially been relegated. That leaves Wigan, West Ham & Sheffield United to battle over the one remaining relegation place.
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The Guardian has a Q & A with title winning Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
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Rob Hughes at the International Herald Tribune reports that the Asian Football Confederation wants to cancel Man Utd's scheduled tour of Asian countries this summer because the dates conflict with the regions championship tournament! Take a stand!
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Norman Hubbard at Soccernet gives us the Ten Worst Buys by Premiership teams this season. I think there is only really one stiff on that list, and its not cuz he's bad, it's cuz they overpaid by so much. You guess which one it is.
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Steven Goff of the Washington Post on his Soccer Insider blog writes that the son of England semi-legend Teddy Sheringham, Charlie, can be found training these days at the Crystal Palace USA youth academy in Maryland.