North America
+ The collective-bargaining negotiation deadline set by Major League Soccer and its players union will expire today. Barring a change of heart by either side, no agreement will be reached, nor will the deadline be extended a third time.
+ Duane Rollins: How the players can win.
+ The Canadian Soccer League’s newest club is Milltown FC, playing out of Milton, Ontario.
+ Red Nation speaks with former Canada captain Jason de Vos about the 2000 Gold Cup win.
+ Looked a bit wet in Portugal for the Impact’s 5-1 win over Freamunde. (Photo courtesy of Pepe).
+ Colombian attacker Miguel Montano, 18, is quoted in El Sol Quilmes as saying he is on his way to Seattle.
+ Injured forward Luis Angel Landin is not with the Dynamo in Orlando, Fla., because he suffered whiplash in Houston on Monday when he was being driven to the airport, according to the team.
+ Brian Ching scored on a diving header in the 75th minute and Sacha Kljestan got the go-ahead goal in the second minute of stoppage time Wednesday night in a 2-1 exhibition victory for the U.S. over against 71st-ranked El Salvador.
+ In a coming out party for striker Javier Hernandez, Mexico demolished Bolivia 5-0 Wednesday night at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
Champions League
+ Inter Milan defeated Chelsea 2-1 at the San Siro in the first leg of their Champions League encounter.
+ Petr Cech gave Chelsea a major injury scare last night when he was forced out of the first leg of their Champions League tie with a torn calf muscle.
+ Mark Gonzalez struck a magnificent equaliser in the 66th minute to salvage a draw for CSKA Moscow against Sevilla.
England
+ Wayne Bridge stunned Fabio Capello this morning by turning his back on his England career, saying that his position had been rendered “untenable and potentially divisive” by the John Terry affair.
+ The Telegraph: England’s options at left-back.
+ Anderson has been ruled out for the rest of the season after rupturing his cruciate ligament during Tuesday’s win over West Ham.
+ Sir Alex Ferguson believes Rio Ferdinand may have to re-evaluate his international career and limit his appearances amid growing concerns about the recurring back problems that have ruled him out of next week’s friendly against Egypt.
+ Portsmouth are hoping for a quick sale if, as expected, the club enters administration tomorrow, with the prospective administrator, Andrew Andronikou, yesterday spending his first day at the club preparing for the move.
+ Portsmouth’s Serbian defender Dusko Tosic is ready to leave the south coast club now on a free transfer as a bizarre consequence of their financial plight.
+ Pressure is mounting on Roberto Mancini as Stoke City defeated Manchester City in extra time to reach FA Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 1972.
+ Two goals from a resurgent Roman Pavlyuchenko lifted Tottenham to a 4-0 FA Cup win over Bolton.
+ Two late penalties by John Carew secured Aston Villa’s passage into the FA Cup quarter-finals at Crystal Palace’s expense.
+ Gylfi Sigurdsson’s exquisite 95th-minute winner moved Reading into the FA Cup quarter-finals for the first time in 83 years with a victory over West Brom.
+ Rafa Benitez was quizzed about his weight in a bizarre press conference in Bucharest, prior to Liverpool’s Europa League last 32 return leg with Unirea Urziceni.
+ Arsenal striker Robin van Persie could return to action by early April, according to Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk.
+ Arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp has urged his former club to sign emerging Ajax prodigy Christian Eriksen. Manchester United and Chelsea are also interested.
+ Blackburn defender Ryan Nelsen is out for six weeks with a knee injury – but will be fit for the World Cup with New Zealand.
+ Kamil Zayatte has declared his intention to quit Hull during the summer.
+ Wigan manager Roberto Martínez claims the Premier League is being made to look a laughing stock by poor refereeing decisions.
Spain
+ Sid Lowe: Marca’s campaign against Manuel Pellegrini.
+ Former Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster has said many players in his team did not want David Villa to come to the Bernabeu.
+ Barcelona midfielder Yaya Toure has insisted he has no plans to leave the Nou Camp for the Premier League, but he revealed he has heard of interest from both Arsenal and Manchester City.
+ Real Zaragoza winger Jermaine Pennant is facing a heavy fine after being sent home from training by coach Jose Gay for arriving late for the third time in two weeks.
Italy
+ Alexandre Pato struck deep in stoppage time as AC Milan came from behind to snatch victory at Fiorentina on Wednesday.
+ Fiorentina have called a Press silence in protest at the recent refereeing decisions against the club.
+ Fiorentina’s swashbuckling full-back Juan Manuel Vargas says he doesn’t want to leave the club amid interest from Real Madrid.
+ Adrian Mutu’s lawyers are “optimistic” the Fiorentina forward will be cleared of knowingly taking a banned substance.
+ Pasquale Marino celebrated his return to the bench with a crucial victory as Udinese came from behind to secure all three points against high-flying Cagliari on Wednesday.
+ There are reports that Gianluigi Buffon will be out for several weeks after a suspected thigh strain.
Germany
+ Stuttgart coach Christian Gross will have to make do without the services of Ivorian full-back Arthur Boka for several weeks after the defender underwent an operation on his shoulder.
+ Werder Bremen midfielder Aaron Hunt has signed a contract extension, which will keep him at the club until June 2014.
France
+ Paris St-Germain captain Claude Makelele has announced he plans to retire at the end of the season.
+ Lille striker Gervinho will miss 4-6 weeks with a knee injury.
+ Nancy have been rocked by the news top scorer Youssouf Hadji will be sidelined for three weeks with a groin injury.
Scotland
+ George Peat, the president of the Scottish Football Association, has admitted talks have taken place with Celtic regarding the club’s concerns with refereeing decisions during the current Scottish Premier League season.
+ Christian Nade is facing a Hearts inquiry after allegations that he punched Ian Black.
Togo
+ Togo goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale has issued an emotional appeal for help returning home, after revealing that Angola are unwilling to pay for his repatriation costs.
Copa Libertadores
+ Brazil striker Adriano was on target as Flamengo beat Chilean outfit Universidad Catolica 2-0 in a stormy Group Eight encounter, while their were also wins for fellow Brazilian sides Corinthians and Cruzeiro.
Pato is incredible. If you don’t watch Serie A he is by far the biggest thing you’re missing. I guess it’s no biggie since everyone will see him rip up SA. Since his first appearance as a sub I have been blown away. He never disappoints.
Way to go Stoke and Reading. Stoke should put all their efforts into this since the are pretty well safe from relegation in the EPL. Reading on the other hand have a tough choice. Do they continue to try give all their supporters the ride of their life or try to stay in the Championship?
Roberto Martinez – Refs the laughing stock? What about the bottom 7 in the standings?
Just going to through this out there regarding the Brazil squad at the WC. Would Dunga ever consider playing either Maicon or Alves at LB? I mean these are probably the 2 best RB’s in the world. Brazil has Marcelo (Real Madrid), Fabio Aurellio, Michel Bastos (Lyon), and they recently called upon Gilberto Silva (formally of Arsenal). Just wondering if the right side is so strong and the left could definately use improving.
Just when you thought we could ut the John Terry affair to bed… Yeah, I went there.
Rio really should retire form international duty after the WC. I’t's no coincidence that the two elder statesmen of Manchester United did the same and picked up extra silverware for their efforts.
Cech’s calf is a much better problem to have than the ripped up knee first feared, but could still put him out for a good chunk of the run-in. Things just got a little more interesting, especially since his play against Wolves last weekend was as good as I’ve seen from him in a long time.
John Carew should be a much more influential player for Villa than he is. What’s the story there?
SB
what’s up with Seattle getting high quality prospects all the time while everyone else struggles? something is fishy there. But regardless it makes a good arguement to raise the cap as having guys like Montero has clearly helped their growth.
As a City fan I’ve got three things to say, first Ade check your couch, I’m sure its got enough money to send your keeper back home, sure you put some money out already, but you’ve now got 3 games off to look after this so step up, you’re the captain. Second if you’ve watched Bridge this year you’ll know that other players can comfortably ‘ball watch’ just as well as him, so not a major loss. Finally, Stevie Ireland’s play has dropped off the map, and with Petrov /Johnson injured and Weiss loaned out our mid has no creativity at all, which let Stoke dictate the tempo. Feh.
I didn’t get to see the Champs League matches yesterday, so thanks again, Joe; those highlights are very comprehensive. Regarding Serie_AHH’s comment about Brazil, I might play Alves as a winger because he’s so good at going forward. During the Confed Cup, they had a guy called Ramires play there (I think he plays for Benfica, but I’m not sure); Alves is probably a better option than him. Bastos is dynamite on the right for Lyon; I would stick with him. But definitely these are problems that any coach would love to have. Pato should definitely replace Robinho as a support for Fabiano.
Pato is one of my favourite players to watch right now. I just hope Dunga wises up and picks him for Brazil’s World Cup team.
On the MLS contract issue… I think that if the players are going to get a new deal, they’re going to have to strike for it. There’s no motivation for the owners to make any concessions at this point beyond what we know they’ve already offered, like the slight bump in the cap.
And since they’re not crazy enough to do so in a World Cup year, I think that everything will just be pushed back to next winter.
They players should be pushing for a revenue-linked salary cap, but I don’t know if MLS would ever agree to that due to the vast disparity in revenue between some clubs (Toronto, LA, Chicago and NYRB in the new building, and presumably Philly and Vancouver) and the minnows like KC, RSL and the Texas teams. I don’t think it would be possible to profitably run a small-market MLS team with a salary cap dragged upwards by the bigger teams.
So the choice is eventually going to come down to the players either accepting a meagre increase in salary cap, striking and potentially causing permanent damage to a fledgling league (see – Arena Football) and getting a better salary structure, but watching as teams either fold or relocate.
What exactly is “going into administration”.
Maybe I’m naïve but I’ve heard it so many times in the past few months and have
no idea what it means.
Roberto Martinez is spot on. almost every game i watch know their is some for of contraversy that has an input on the game. just terrible
haha i love how the picture actually takes u to the youtube vid of the rabbit from alice
phenomenal skill by the fiorentina player at 2:10 of the video. could have been a penalty also.
schuster is a moron saying ronaldo is the only player worth watching at real madird. he only does the same stuff over and over again. it’s effective because he’s so strong and quick. kaka is the best player to watch on that team just like he was in his 1st game with them in toronto.
What exactly is “going into administration”.
Maybe I’m naïve but I’ve heard it so many times in the past few months and have
no idea what it means.
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Just another word for bankrupsy protection. At that point the current owners cease to have any power and have lost the company. The creditors run the show. Company is turned over to trustees. They try to do what’s best for debt holders by either selling the company as a whole or actioning it off piece by piece (or some combo of the two).
thank you alex.