Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and Holland’s Maarten Stekelenburg head a three-man shortlist to replace Edwin van der Sar at Manchester United following the 40 year-old’s confirmation that he will retire from football this summer.
SSN is a digest of the day's soccer/football/futbol articles with a focus on the top European leagues and the United States National Team. Below, you’ll find links to articles and video, as well as additional features and commentary. We locate the top news of the day so you can stay updated with ease.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Edwin Van der Sar's retirement puts Manchester United's spotlight on Manuel Neuer and Maarten Stekelenburg
Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and Holland’s Maarten Stekelenburg head a three-man shortlist to replace Edwin van der Sar at Manchester United following the 40 year-old’s confirmation that he will retire from football this summer.
England: FA Cup Weekend Previews & Predictions
Brace yourselves, everybody, because it’s FA Cup fourth-round weekend in England (from here on out known as the tremendous thirty-two). The FA Cup is the most exciting tournament in the country, and there's always the chance for huge upsets in every round. We’ve got our share of big matches: Everton host Chelsea at Goodison Park in what looks to be the choicest fixture of the round. We've got David and Goliath games such as Nottingham County vs. Manchester City. We’ve also got some not-very-big-at-all-matches – apparently I have to preview Burnley vs. Burton Albion and yeah, that’s going to go well.Preview I
Preview II
Fulham vs. Tottenham: Preview
Phil McNulty: Can FA Cup cheer Moyes and Ancelotti?
Lawro's Predictions
Germany: Bundesliga Weekend Preview
Friday
Bayer Leverkusen - Hannover
Saturday
St Pauli – Koeln
Werder Bremen – Bayern Munich
Schalke – Hoffenheim
Wolfsburg – Borussia Dortmund
Nuernberg – Hamburg
Kaiserslautern – Mainz
Sunday
Stuttgart – Freiburg
Eintracht Frankfurt – Borussia Moenchengladbach
Preview
Italy: Serie A Weekend Preview
Inter Milan host Palermo on Sunday knowing that a defeat could see them drop from the top six. Palermo lie one point behind Inter, who are fifth - level on 35 points with Juventus - but have a game in hand. AC Milan visit strugglers Catania looking to maintain their four-point lead at the top of the standings. Lazio are in fourth place and go into Saturday's game against Fiorentina with just one win from their last four games. Valon Behrami will make his Viola debut against his former club having joined from West Ham this week. Juventus will be put to the test when they host red-hot Udinese, who beat Inter 3-1 having previously won 4-2 at Genoa.
Spain: La Liga Weekend Preview & Eduardo Alvarez's Quiniela + Guillem Balague
Hercules coach Esteban Vigo believes his side can upset all the odds and complete a double over table-topping Barcelona. The reigning champions were undone 2-0 at the Nou Camp on matchday two as a brace from Nelson Valdez gave the newly-promoted side a famous victory.Preview
Eduardo Alvarez's Quiniela
Guillem Balague's Column
Grant Wahl: Gerard Piqué Interview
SI.com: Lastly, you're known as a prankster on your teams. What's your best prank of all time?
Piqué: The best prank? I remember one we did against Cesc Fàbregas. Here in Spain we have these small bottles of milk. And I went with [Carles] Puyol in the national team, and we took all the milk out and put liquid potatoes, potato purée, inside the bottles. You couldn't see if it was milk or potato liquid inside because of the label. So Cesc opened the bottle and started to drink the potatoes. He went crazy against me and Puyol! We were laughing so hard for days and days.
Steve Davis: U.S. talent pool suits a 4-2-3-1
The secret is out on Bob Bradley: The U.S. coach has some tactical wanderlust in him, after all.
We all raised a curious brow at that dalliance with the 4-2-3-1 formation late last year, a walk on the wild side for a man previously tied to a 4-4-2. Fans wondered if it was just a brief fling. Now they may be nodding with approval at something that looks more like a steady thing.
The Joy of Six: Training-Ground Set-Piece Goals
From Ernie Hunt's classic to a magic Matt Le Tissier moment, here are half a dozen goals created on the training ground.
Richard Williams: Bid for Fernando Torres shows Chelsea's strengths and weaknesses
Abramovich has shown he is still prepared to spend big but Liverpool can demonstrate their strength by holding on to Torres.
Dominic Raynor: Off The Ball
Off The Ball never rests in its mission to scratch around the underbelly of professional football to find the most bizarre, humorous and inexplicable stories. This week, Lionel Messi is fined €2,500 for wishing mum happy birthday, German club St Pauli ban strippers from their executive boxes, Real Madrid show their support for Jose Mourinho with fake banners and Mohamed Diame slaughters "crappy" Wigan.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
U.S. national team needs to handle youngster Agudelo with caution
From Freddy to Jozy to Juan they have passed the label of "The Future." Deserved or not. Ready or not.
Guillem Balague: Ade's Real Deal
Sky Sports' Spanish football expert revealed the deal for the Togolese striker to join Real on loan from Manchester City for the rest of the season after their bid to re-sign Ruud van Nistelrooy from Hamburg failed.
Jose Mourinho would then have an option to sign Adebayor permanently in the summer, but Balague feels it's more likely to be a short-term deal to cover for the injured Gonzalo Higuain.
Together again...
England: Tuesday's Premier League Reports
Blackpool 2 - 3 Manchester UnitedReport
Phil McNulty at Bloomfield Road
Richard Jolly at Bloomfield Road
Wigan 1 - 2 Aston Villa
Report
Paul Wilson at the DW Stadium
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Andy Gray Leaves Sky Sports
Sky has confirmed it has terminated his contract in light of "new evidence of unacceptable and offensive behaviour".
England: Tuesday's Carling Cup Semi-Final Second Leg Previews
Arsenal vs. Ipswich
(agg 0 - 1)
Preview I
Preview II
David Hytner: Arshavin registers hazy on Carling Cup barometer
Americans In The UK: Dempsey’s Double Dip
Leading his team in goals this season, Dempsey once again came up big with two huge goals against Stoke.
The Rest
Americans On The Continent: German Movement
Two newer names on the USMNT scene completed their moves recently, with Jermaine Jones heading out of Germany while Edson Buddle entered, respectively.
The Rest
Sid Lowe in Spain
Seven goals, three red cards and a dramatic winner – Valencia v Málaga had it all. But one man was still furious at the end.
A night of beautiful madness at the Mestalla as Valencia win thriller.
Raphael Honigstein in Germany
The man once destined to be the new Franz Beckenbauer is firmly on course to be the next Lothar Matthäus instead.
Matthias Sammer's cold feet ensures a hot fall-out in Germany.
Paolo Bandini in Italy
Bottom after five games, the Zebrette now lie eighth after an ascent founded on the most entertaining football in Italy.
Udinese's swashbucklers put Inter to the sword.
Graham Poll: Martinez and Pulis were wrong... Fabregas and Dempsey are no cheats
Post-match comments from managers are always worth listening to. This week, I was particularly interested in the words of Roberto Martinez and Tony Pulis after their teams conceded penalties.
First things first: they were both penalties, and young referees Kevin Friend and Stuart Attwell were well positioned, decisive and correct in awarding them.
Andy Gray under increasing pressure after release of further footage of him criticising Sian Massey
Sky Sports presenter Andy Gray is under increasing pressure after Sky News unexpectedly broadcast fresh footage of him making sexist remarks about assistant referee Sian Massey.
Uli Hesse in Germany
There's been a lot of talk during the current transfer period in Germany about those ruthless, egotistical, deluded, pampered, spoilt and overpaid specimens known as football players; their cold-blooded, shifty, greedy, perfidious, devious and cunning sidekicks called agents and the almost limitless power that the combination of the two wields in the world today. The debate was triggered when an unnerved Wolfsburg at last waved goodbye to £27 million striker Edin Dzeko, who'd been at the centre of transfer speculations for 18 months running before joining Manchester City, and it was followed by no less than three well-known players asking (or even demanding) to be let out of their respective contracts: Hoffenheim's Demba Ba, Schalke's Jefferson Farfan and Hamburg's Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Phil Ball in Spain
You'll forgive me if I ramble a little this week, or even if I fail to tickle your interests, but I'll try. I've been in England all week, and have only just come back. I missed the Valencia versus Malaga game on Saturday night (4-3) which sounded like a cracker, but I did manage to take in the Villarreal versus Real Sociedad game on Sunday evening (2-1), which was also very entertaining fare. In midweek, whilst Betis were doing the unthinkable and beating Barcelona, I was eating my takeaway curry and watching the FA Cup replay of Leeds v Arsenal on the hotel telly.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Martin Samuel: Roman Abramovich's power play has insulted a good man in Carlo Ancelotti
Carlo Ancelotti, the manager of Chelsea, says he was not interested in signing Steven Pienaar. Someone at his club was, though, because Everton announced last week that they had agreed terms with Chelsea for the player.Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, eventually got the deal over the line for his club, but not before casting a quizzical eye on the transfer machinations at Stamford Bridge.
'It's all very strange that they suddenly offered £3m for him,' he said. 'The manager of Chelsea, who's a lovely guy and honest as the day is long, went on television and denied they made an offer. So I don't know who did it.'
Ancelotti kicked out of seat at Stamford Bridge by an old woman
Here's a great Third Eye clip from Soccer AM -- Carlo Ancelotti was in attendance at Stamford Bridge for the Chelsea U-18 team's FA Youth Cup match against Arsenal when he found out that being Carlo Ancelotti does not trump the writing on an old woman's ticket.
England: Premier League Weekend Reviews, Reports & Analyses
Another entertaining weekend of Premier League action saw big victories for Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, while Darren Bent scored a match-winner for Aston Villa on his debut against Manchester City.
Review
Martin Lipton's Review
Wolves 0 - 3 Liverpool: Richard Jolly at Molineux
Aston Villa 1 - 0 Manchester City: Paul Wilson at Villa Park
Arsenal 3 - 0 Wigan: David Lacey at the Emirates Stadium
Newcastle 1 - 1 Tottenham: Louise Taylor at St. James' Park
Best of the Weekend
Five Things We Learned
Italy: Serie A Weekend Review
AC Milan maintained their four-point lead at the top of Serie A thanks to a 2-0 win over Cesena at the San Siro. Napoli had put the pressure on Milan with a 2-0 win at Bari earlier in the day, and the Rossoneri duly responded, Maximiliano Pellegrino's own goal on the stroke of half-time putting them ahead and Zlatan Ibrahimovic sealing the win in the last minute. Inter Milan slipped nine points off the pace following a 3-1 defeat at Udinese. Dejan Stankovic put Inter ahead in the 16th minute, but the rest of the game belonged to the home side. Cristian Zapata levelled five minutes later before Antonio Di Natale put them in front in the 25th minute. Maurizio Domizzi sealed the win in the 69th minute as Udinese became the first side to take any points off Leonardo's team in 2011.Review
Spain: La Liga Weekend Review
Karim Benzema rescued Real Madrid as they enjoyed a 1-0 victory over Real Mallorca. Espanyol boosted their hopes of a place in next season's Champions League as they came from a goal down to beat Getafe 3-1 in Madrid. Villarreal climbed to third place with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Real Sociedad. Barcelona beat Racing Santander 3-0 on Saturday. Goals from Pedro, after barely a minute of play, and Messi - from the penalty spot - gave the Catalans a 2-0 lead at the break. Andres Iniesta ensured all three points early in the second half for Barca, who made it 55 points from a possible 60 in the league this season.Review
Sky sexism was no surprise but prejudice needs punishment
The attitude of Richard Keys and Andy Gray towards the lineswoman Sian Massey shows how deeply entrenched – and how casual – sexism is in football.
Sky drops Gray and Keys after outcry
Sky Sports presenter Richard Keys and pundit Andy Gray have both been dropped from the channel's coverage of Chelsea's Premier League game against Bolton on Monday night following the sexism row that has swamped the pair.
The Audio
The Fifth Official
Few of us like Monday but The Fifth Official does, for it brings with it a chance for him to point the finger and laugh. Here he pulls out the pretty, the puzzling and the downright pig-ugly from a weekend brimming with potential victims.
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