Admittedly, I am still learning a lot about soccer … I was in a tizzy today because ESPN 2 seemed to be showing reruns of the WSOP instead of USA/Salvador, only to have someone tell me that the game wasn’t til Saturday — phew! — and when I rechecked that out on the internet, indeed, he was right!

Anyhow, do we know yet who will be goalie in that game? Will Brad Guzan be making the trip — and would that have been different had Brad Friedel’s red card not been rescinded?

Sorry for asking more than telling here … but hey, we’re new, with only like a few hundred thousand readers a day so far … so I’m figuring it’s not too late to still get help finding links to the best soccer info out there.

Tags: Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan, ESPN, WSOP

OK, the Liverpool/Villa game didn’t turn out quite as I had hoped. And my “boy” Brad Friedel … well it’s hard to make the argument any more that he’s the best goalkeeper in the EPL after a 5-0 drubbing. But I did find it interesting to see, after he got sent off with red, that Aston Villa’s back-up goalie is also an American … Brad Guzan, who made his EPL debut today with an unsuccessful attempt to block the penalty kick he inherited from Friedel. Hopefully Villa’s understudy has learned a bunch of stuff from Friedel before he started sucking.

Guzan is also a Chicago Polack … so that makes me like him even more.

UPDATE: Of course, he’s a Chivas USA guy! The 24-year-old, in fact, was the 2007 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year … and super-beloved by the fans.

Here’s an official tribute to him from Chivas, celebrating his export to Villa.

And here’s a highlight reel of his saving ability from The Offside:

Tags: Aston Villa, Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan, Chivas USA, English Premier League, MLS

For some reason this gives me the chills … and confirms why Chivas USA is my favorite non-FC Dallas team in the MLS (and 5th favorite non-International team in the world):

From ChivaGirls.tv

Chiva Girls dancing and pimping their calendar (en Espanol) below:

(more…)

Tags: Chiva Girls, Chivas USA, MLS, Soccer on TV

Big game tomorrow … Liverpool really needs to win, and can move within a point of Man U … Villa has been struggling of late, and with an Arsenal victory today, needs to pull of the whole 3 points to say, hey, we still belong in the top 4.

If they can do it, I might change my name to OMGBradFriedel.

Tags: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Brad Friedel, Liverpool, Manchester United

Good, lengthy story in the New York Times about Inter Milan skipper Jose Mourinho:

A Coach Cloaked in Armani and Confidence

Tags: Inter Milan, Jose Mourinho

That’s what it looked like … they got a PK against Guarani … and two players fought over who got to take it. Forget the names … but the guy who got to take the kick … missed it. Looked like a forced miss to me.

Reminds me of Dennis Lundy fumbling twice in a row at the goal line at Northwestern (before it was discovered he was shaving points).

UPDATE: Marquinhos. That’s who missed the shot.

Tags: cheating, Dennis Lundy, gambling, Guarani, Marquinhos, Palmeiras

At least that’s the point I take away from this Fox Soccer Channel promo:

Tags: Fox Soccer Channel, Soccer on TV

Sang knows I have kind of a hate-love relationship with Italian soccer (Serie A). I’m not sure which way this tips the scales for me:

A number of Lazio fans have invaded the club’s training ground, shouting abuse and threatening players, causing them to run for cover.

Tags: Lazio, Serie A

Arguably the equivalent of bowling a 300-game or shooting a double-eagle in golf, wouldn’t ya say?

Tags: soccer videos

They plead guilty to taking about $1 billion in wagers since the 2006 World Cup … not sure what sentence they face. The criminal-in-China enterprise though, was running its bets offshore to Macau. Interesting … though I’m not totally sure why yet. But clearly a major international issue moving forward.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200901/20090119/article_388542.htm

Tags: 2006 World Cup, China, Macau, soccer betting

Can you imagine the heartbreak for Sang … first Lady Di, and now Christiano Ronaldo? Sure, his utter repulsion for all things Manchester (Utd.) left Christiano relegated to only second-tier heartthrob in Sang’s world … but still, you could tell, whenever he’d play, there was a certain glint in his eye acknowledging that it was Ronaldo’s oh-so-attractive legsmanship that showed him the meaning of true love for the Beautiful Game.

Would have totally sucked if he died, alone in a Ferrari, in a tunnel, not even drunk before practice:

The Sun via Tyler Durden (RawVegas assist)

Tags: Christiano Ronaldo, Ferrari, Lady Di, Manchester United

I wonder what the prime minister of Thailand has to say about the thrashing.

… Just made an amazing save to deny a West Ham equalizer. He’s been knocking them out all day. Am considering changing the format of this blog into an all-Brad Friedl superfan site. (The other Brad Friedel, here.)

Sad that he’s not available for international play. (Anyone know why that is?)

Think I gotta credit him for the P$100 Villa is gonna win me in this week’s pretend betting … and, dude, an outsider cracking into the “Top 4″? Go American goalies!

Tags: American internationals, Aston Villa, Brad Friedl, soccer betting

I’m in an American Football “pick’em” league and doing quite well — top 1 percent. Currently ranked 24th out of nearly 10,000 in Las Vegas, and 244th out of more than 140,000 nationwide. (Tied for 1st out of 13 in the Danieldinho family group.)

Of course I’d love to be able to claim such success making these picks on the Premier League … but I just don’t know the teams well enough. And though, as strange as this may seem, I’ve never made a bet in a casino sports book … I’ve been having a hankering to bet me some soccer. So I’ve started making some practice picks, to see how I would do as I get up the nerve to lay down some real money on the games.

Frankly, I’m not 100 percent sure I’ve even got a complete understanding of how the wagers work. But in my little soccer betting world, I made a pretend $100 wager on each game — either the amount it would take to win $100, or $100 to win more.

My results this weekend, with my pick in bold:

---

-150 Middlesbrough 1:1 Arsenal
+100 Aston Villa 4:2 Bolton
-400 Hull City 2:2 Liverpool
-100 Everton 1:0 Manchester City
+190 Fulham 0:0 Stoke City
+100 W Bromwich 0:4 Sunderland
+100 Blackburn 0:3 Wigan
+210 Manchester Utd 0:0 Tottenham
+220 Newcastle 3:0 Portsmouth
-650 West Ham 1:1 Chelsea

---

Total: -$380

Hmm, without Liverpool and Chelsea, I’d be +$670. So I guess what I’m learning here is that the big-disparity favorites simply don’t make sense to bet on?

My pretend full betting card woulda required putting up $2,010 in an attempt to win $1,315.

My pretend no-bigboy betting card woulda cost me $960 in an attempt to win $1,115.

Tags: American football, Chelsea FC, English Premier League, Liverpool, soccer betting, sports betting

Honestly, I had never heard of them before. But apparently they are called The Donkeys … and I just saw AC Chievo come back from a 2-0 deficit against Inter Milan (they were taking them for granted) to draw level in the 60somethingth minute. Apparently they are gentlemen from Verona.

UPDATE: They are actually called the Flying Donkeys (emph. added) … even cooler.

CRAP: Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored. I suppose it was inevitable.

NEVER MIND: Another one for Ibrahimovic. It was just a brief scare, apparently, and Inter has stepped back up to put Chievo back in their dominated place. Bummer. Back to rooting for Roma, I guess.

Tags: Chievo Verona, Inter Milan, Roma, Serie A, Zlatan Ibrahimovic

The best gaming review show on the latest incarnation of the best-selling sports game of all time*:

Says a lot about where soccer is headed — but maybe I’m biased, because I credit the video game more than the live sport for setting my innards atingle for non-American football.

*Right?

Tags: EA Sports Fifa, G4, video games

Funny … the picture in this post about Soccer Bloggers Ruling the World (from TheOffside.com) makes me realize why Sangy F has a future in soccer blogging — he’s gotta love the uniform.

Good stuff on how the game could be greatly improved — I love the idea of changing the name of American football to “throwball” — and what a wonderful future life our nascent little site here holds.

Tags: soccer bloggers

Not really, but … Merritt Paulson wants an MLS team in Portland. Where’s he getting the money? From his dad — US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (architect of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout).

Tags: Henry Paulson, Merritt Paulson, MLS, soccer politics

I was doing some Googling in search of an article about how Spain apparently cut off the broadcast of “two important football matches” for news about Barack Obama election returns. (CNN made mention of it, and I was curious what teams constituted “important” in Spain.)

Never did find what I was looking for … but I did stumble across this interesting blog entry from the LA Times (written pre-election) suggesting that an Obama win might coincide with a soccer boom in the USA — at least such is the vision of filmmaker Joe Roth, owner of the MLS-expansion Seattle Sounders FC:

Roth sees soccer as appealing to the same fast-growing demographic groups that have been at the center of Obama’s campaign.

“If you took a map of America where Obama is strongest and laid it over a map of where soccer has its biggest appeal, you’d see an incredible overlap,” he told me. “The blue states on both coasts are very soccer-friendly as well as huge areas of support for Obama, where as the center of the country is full of people who are the enemies of soccer and Obama — white, 50-and-over guys who listen to talk radio and only care about football or basketball.”

UPDATE: Sang, you will probably also like the Sounders because the one player they signed above their salary cap is Swedish star/underwear model Freddie Ljungberg:

Tags: Barack Obama, Freddie Ljunberg, Joe Roth, Seattle Sounders FC

MLS Playoffs are underway … watching a little Real Salt Lake vs. Chivas USA. (Go Chivas!)

So supposedly RSL has gone with a “skinny” field since Chivas does better when they can spread the game wide. I had no idea you could adjust your field width based on your opponent. Is this unusual?

Tags: Chivas USA, MLS, pitches, Real Salt Lake