As so often with the club, there's an touch of pompous self-importance to the Arsenal Supporters' Trust's opinion of the team's recent results. But there's no doubting their statement's validity. Most generously they will reserve final judgement until the end of the season. But for the moment they are jolly well upset. Arsenal Supporters' Trust express 'considerable disappointment'
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.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
We are not amused...
As so often with the club, there's an touch of pompous self-importance to the Arsenal Supporters' Trust's opinion of the team's recent results. But there's no doubting their statement's validity. Most generously they will reserve final judgement until the end of the season. But for the moment they are jolly well upset. Arsenal Supporters' Trust express 'considerable disappointment'
Is Abramovich's Midas touch set to continue with Torres?
Nine games into his spell at Chelsea £50million recruit Fernando Torres cannot buy a goal. But he's not the only expensive strike flop to have grace Stamford Bridge...
He just can't score! £50m Torres joins Chelsea's list of expensive strike flops
Ancelotti could pay ultimate price
All change at Tottenham?
After the humbling by Real, the future of several players is now in doubt...will they be making way for the new Didier Drogba?
Who may be leaving Spurs?
Spurs in pole position to beat Premier League rivals to £17.5m Lukaku
King James stakes King Kenny
Liverpool FC have confirmed that United States basketball star LeBron James has become a minority stakeholder in the club after signing a deal with club owners Fenway Sports Group
LeBron James buys Liverpool stake
FA ignore Rio and lynch, well ban, Rooney
Rio Ferdinand wants people to 'follow Wayne Rooney as a footballer' in the wake of Man Utd's win at Chelsea, but the FA, like Capello, ignore him, and uphold a two-match ban.
Rooney to sit out Cup semi with City as FA upholds ban
'Rooney is top quality - stop lynching him,' says Ferdinand
Wayne's simply a world apart... with fun as his new F-word
Stolica denies Whitecaps
Vancouver was cruising toward its second victory until New England's Ilija Stolica struck in injury time to make the lead disappear.
Whitecaps settle for 1-1 draw
Barça smack down Donetsk
Rampant Barcelona almost certainly book semi-final showdown with Real by thrashing Shakhtar Donetsk, scoring another five goals at the Nou Camp. No doubt their semi-final against Madrid will be a low-key affair, with little hype and attention.
Guardiola urges caution despite mauling
Pique ready for Real after destroying Donetsk
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
EPL Round Up
Pansil and Kalinic are set to leave their clubs, Agger and Johnson are set for a period on the Liverpool treatment table, meaning J Henry is set to get out the cheque book, while Obinna sets the record straight about the West Ham racism claim...
Liverpool squad depth a major issue says Henry
Agger out for rest of season
Pantsil admits Fulham exit is on the cards after losing favour with Hughes
Fed-up Kalinic in Blackburn quit threat as striker demands first-team football
Obinna says family was not abused
Eduardo hopes to achieve what his old team couldn't
Eduardo, the former Arsenal striker still held in high regard by many North Londoners, has become a firm favourite in Donetsk since a £6m switch last summer.
Barca beware! Ex-Arsenal hotshot Eduardo is Shakhtar's secret weapon
Barcelona's Villa eyes end to goal drought
Lampard aims to celebrate anniversary
Chelsea star set for 500th club appearance against United as he seeks elusive Champions League crown.
Lampard aims for 'special' achievement
Lampard: Pain of 08 can spur Chelsea on
Leonardo paints a sorry picture
President Massimo Moratti insists he still has faith...
Inter give Leonardo vote of confidence
Match report: Inter 2-5 Schalke
Berlusconi to Treat Ronaldo Like a Teenaged Girl
Silvio Berlusconi has hit upon the perfect plan to get out of his current predicament- he's been telling friends that he's planning to buy Chrisiano Ronaldo. There's no mention of throwing him private birthday parties with Mummar Gaddafi and George Clooney at his Villa or taking advantage of the distraction this will cause to have Parliment pass a bill giving him immunity from all prosecution; when Silvo's involved those things go without saying.
Lennon: "It's Not My Fault"
Tottenham winger Aaron Lennon has taken to Twitter to defend himself against manager Harry Redknapp's charges of dereliction of duty, claiming that he'd been sick for days and that he was unwilling to be Harry's scapegoat. Aaron, didn't you get the memo? Crouchie has taken goat duties by the horns! He can look forward to further defending himself on twitter after he's sold this summer for failure to play along with Harry's charming lies.
Crouchie Apologizes for Sending Off
Peter Crouch has apologized to his teammates for his pointless red card in yesterday's Champions League match in Madrid.
Fergie's Going Nowhere
The memory of how his father, Alexander, died 12 months after retiring from the shipyards has always stayed with him and was one he recalled when contemplating if the accomplishment of a second treble might just tempt him to make tonight's Champions League quarter-final first leg against Chelsea his last game at Stamford Bridge. "My father retired on his 65th birthday, and one year later he was dead," Ferguson said. "The worst you can do is put your slippers on. People say things like: 'I've worked for 45 years. I have the right to rest.' Not at all. One has the duty to keep active and in good shape."
John Terry Still Crying on the Inside
John Terry is haunted. Not by the faces of referees he screamed in, not by guilt brought on by being a serial philanderer, not by the failure to produce the goods in the England shirt, not by eating human babies every day. No, EBJT is still haunted by missing a penalty in Russia. Buck up JT, maybe hopping into the sack with Mrs Cech will help to ease the pain!
Coke Drops Rooney
Coca-Cola has terminated their relationship with noted English beverage enthusiast Wayne Rooney. Surprisingly the reason they cited is his since-since forgotten dalliance with trash Manchester hookers while his wife was pregnant and had nothing to do with his weekend profanity seminar. However nothing quenches the thirst you work up while kicking a dog while its down better than a Coke Zero!
UEFA Champions League: Wednesday's Previews
Chelsea vs. Manchester United
Phil McNulty: Drogba or Torres?
Barcelona vs. Shakhtar Donetsk
Jonathan Wilson: Will Shakhtar upset Barca?
UEFA Champions League: Tuesday's Reports & Fallout
Real Madrid 4 - 0 Tottenham
Sid Lowe: Five Things We Learned
Inter Milan 2 - 5 Schalke 04
John Duerden: Asian flavour in Schalke rout
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Sid Lowe in Spain
Real Madrid's defeat to Sporting Gijón ended José Mourinho's mind-blowing unbeaten home league record – and his title hopes.
After nine years, 151 games and four clubs, José Mourinho's record ends.
UEFA Champions League: Tuesday's Previews
Real Madrid vs. Tottenham
Preview
Dominic Raynor: All pressure on Real Madrid
Sid Lowe: Ronaldo can make Real predictable
Phil Minshull: Can Real win it all?
Paul Hayward: Spurs feed off inferiority complex
Key Battles
Inter Milan vs. Schalke 4
Preview I
Preview II
Schalke fear Inter backlash after Derby defeat
Chris Birchall living the American dream with LA Galaxy
You could be forgiven for thinking there is only one English-born player currently turning out for Los Angeles Galaxy in the MLS.Given that the player in question is David Beckham, arguably the most famous footballer of his generation, you can understand why.
But there is another, and it charts another remarkable chapter in the football career of Chris Birchall.
He made his debut for Port Vale at the age of 17 in a League Cup tie at Charlton in September 2001.
Since then, he has played for six different clubs in three different countries and also represented Trinidad & Tobago at the 2006 World Cup, despite growing up thousands of miles away from the Caribbean.
Is the Premier League the angriest in the world?
Everyone in the Premier League from managers and players to fans seem angry or miserable, irrespective of results. Just relax and be happy and your fortunes may change, advises Ralph Ellis.
Raphael Honigstein in Germany
The 18-year-old's sensational goal against Hannover 96 brought tributes likening the attacking midfielder to Lionel Messi.
Mario Götze holds his nerve to calm Dortmund's title jitters.
Mario Götze holds his nerve to calm Dortmund's title jitters.
Paolo Bandini in Italy
Edinson Cavani's hat-trick for Napoli would have stolen the show in Serie A this weekend, but for Milan's 3-0 derby win over Inter.
Edinson Cavani answers Napoli's prayers as leaders Milan slay Inter.
Chelsea striker Didier Drogba confronts Chelsea fan after draw with Stoke City
Chelsea striker Didier Drogba was involved in a heated exchange with one of his own supporters at the end of a disappointing draw with Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium that effectively ended the club’s slim hopes of defending their Premier League title. (video)
Wayne Rooney swearing furore is damned by its double standards
There is a double standard to a game so capable of engaging and enraging. Where the great bulk of the audience is concerned, the match is served up to people who are at home or in a sociable pub. So it is that a Sky presenter has to beg pardon of the nation, even though we all understand that football rights are worth so much because the game provokes, excites and often forgets good manners entirely.If Rooney is troubling, it is more because of his psychology. Here was a man who seemed to be taking revenge rather than pleasure in a contribution that flipped a 2-0 deficit into a 4-2 win. At his best Rooney can look a world-beater but his stance is that of someone who also has a score to settle with the entire planet.
Football's modern-day delinquents make me pine for George Best
It is not always just nostalgia that gilds the past. The 60s did, in reality, swing. The 70s did too, so eat your heart out if you missed them because there is no chance of their being matched, certainly not for the uncomplicated happiness they generated on football pitches, or heaving terraces.And George Best at his dissolute worst was unarguably a sunnier presence at Old Trafford between 1963 and 1974 than another teenage genius who arrived there 30 years later.
It will be difficult to erase the image of Wayne Rooney's crazed snarl at the world through TV cameras after completing the hat-trick that rescued Manchester United against West Ham. Here, captured forever, was a beast of his age, angry for reasons it was hard to fathom at the time, and impossible for impartial observers to justify now.
Steve Davis on the USA
More than 10 years have passed since the last time a gaggle of fresh faces has caused such a fuss around the United States national team. Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and other members of the first residency class in Bradenton, Fla., began spicing up the national team scene late in 2000. Three relative newcomers around Bob Bradley's team have fans similarly stoked today. Young defender Timmy Chandler and even-younger striker Juan Agudelo notched their first U.S. starts against Paraguay. Agudelo held up fairly well; Chandler was nothing less than a revelation. Tim Ream, not exactly a newcomer but hardly a national team icon just yet, improved his standing with an impressive collection of peppy passes.
A 1-1 draw with Argentina and a 1-0 loss to Paraguay were all about prep for this summer's Gold Cup; the team won't gather again until training camp in late May for the regional championship. So while everyone buzzes about the new kids, here are other lessons from the pair of contests:
Uli Hesse in Germany
Was it really just two years ago that Hoffenheim were the only Bundesliga club apart from Bayern Munich everybody had an opinion about? This season, they seem to be the only team in the league nobody is even mildly interested in. If Hoffenheim's aim was to become an established Bundesliga club, they have achieved their goal faster and more thoroughly than they bargained for, because the club is now more than merely established - Hoffenheim have become so normal they are boring.
Phil Ball in Spain
What an extraordinary weekend here in Spain, where events in La Liga took place in a counter-intuitive fashion, and more or less set the seal on the destiny of the league title, give or take an improbable implosion of form at Barcelona FC over the next eight weeks. As the weekend turned out, Real Madrid were probably wishing that the strike over television rights had gone ahead after all. The 1-0 win by Sporting de Gijon in the Bernabéu was one of the most extraordinary results of the season for a variety of reasons, as if the gods of destiny had decided to have a fun weekend and spoil the party down below - for some anyway.
Monday, April 04, 2011
The Big Interview: Ricardo Carvalho
The defender has proved himself at Real Madrid to be a valuable member of a third José Mourinho side.
Monday MLS Breakdown
The premise appears perfectly suited for such a tongue-in-cheek day: a perennially unsuccessful franchise ships away its unsettled local star on a day best reserved for timely injections of humor. The April Fools Day blockbuster struck between New York and Toronto FC surely would have constituted a prank for the ages if it had not actually occurred. Alas, cruel jokes often turn into saddening doses of reality in the tone-deaf world TFC inhabits.
Dwayne De Rosario departed for New York on Friday night to cap a sequence of events that included the seemingly requisite tomfoolery surrounding any major decision by the Reds – in this case, a series of incredulous reactions from beleaguered fans for mounting a major move on such a lighthearted day, a set of half-hearted afternoon denials from TFC coach Aron Winter and a dinnertime confirmation from both clubs.
Gabriele Marcotti: St. Pauli on the Other Side of 'Otherness'
No club in world soccer is perhaps as beloved by the cognoscenti as St. Pauli. To some, the smallish team from the Reeperbahn, Hamburg's red-light district, is a kind of anti-corporate utopia. St. Pauli celebrated its centenary last year, but it was in the 1980s when it became the darling of non-conformism in soccer.
Bundesliga game called off after St Pauli fans pelt linesman with coins, lighters and a cup of beer
Friday's German Bundesliga game between St Pauli and Schalke 04 was abandoned one minute from time after a linesman was hit in the back by a plastic cup full of beer thrown from one of the stands after he disallowed a goal for the home side.
Check 1:12
Check 1:12
Assou-Ekotto is not your typical pro
None of the Tottenham players will be daunted by the prospect of Tuesday¹s eagerly-anticipated Champions League quarterfinal against Real Madrid. After all, three of its likely starting lineup have reached this stage of the competition before -- Heurelho Gomes (PSV), William Gallas (Arsenal/Chelsea) and Peter Crouch (Liverpool) -- while another six have represented their countries at major tournaments.
One of the latter group will be particularly relaxed: Benoit Assou-Ekotto never gets nervous before big games, only watches his future opponents in team meetings and has a bugbear about players showing too much emotion during matches (don¹t get him started on badge-kissing after scoring goals). He also admits that his peers take themselves far too seriously, and that he only plays soccer for the money.
England: Premier League Weekend Review, Reports & Analyses
What could prove to be a decisive weekend in the Premier League took many twists and turns as Manchester United tightened their grip on the title. The Red Devils came from two goals down to beat West Ham 4-2 while rivals Chelsea and Arsenal could only manage respective draws against Stoke and Blackburn. Manchester City, Newcastle and Fulham all secured emphatic victories while at the foot of the table it remains extremely tight. Blackpool are now on the cusp of the relegation zone while Wolves are back in the mix as Wigan and Aston Villa both drew.
Manchester United 2 - 4 West Ham
David Hytner at Upton Park
Stoke City 1 - 1 Chelsea
Dominic Fifield at Britannia Stadium
Arsenal 0 - 0 Blackburn
Kevin McCarra at Emirates Stadium
Wigan 0 - 0 Tottenham
Richard Jolly at DW Stadium
Richard Gibson at DW Stadium
Manchester City 5 - 0 Sunderland
Daniel Taylor at City of Manchester Stadium
European Weekend Review
Jose Mourinho's fine home league run came to an end as AC Milan were comfortable winners over Inter in the Milan derby.Borussia Dortmund stay seven points clear in Germany while in Ligue 1 Lyon threw away their title hopes as Marseille and Lille both won.
FC Twente went back to the top of the Eredivisie following a 2-0 triumph over PSV, while FC Porto clinched the Portuguese title with five games still remaining this season.
Review
Jay DeMerit's Watford dream and a friend in need make compelling film
Rise and Shine is an astonishing movie, a tale of friendship and the USA defender's path to the top in England.
Manchester United's Wayne Rooney set to escape ban for volley of abuse
The Premier League will speak to the players' union and the managers' association as it emerged that Wayne Rooney is set to escape with a warning and a possible fine after his foul-mouthed hat-trick celebration at West Ham United on Saturday.
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 week brimming with potential victims.
Friday, April 01, 2011
Paolo Bandini on the Milan Derby
With so little between the sides and the pack chasing, the derby will not be decisive but that makes it all the more fascinating.Milan vs. Inter will not settle tight title race but impact will be huge.
U.S. TV: 2:45pm EDT on FSC
Absolutely Wacko! Fulham stars ordered to perform Moonwalk goal celebration on day of Jackson statue unveiling
In the countdown to Fulham's controversial unveiling of the Michael Jackson statue, Sportsmail can reveal the extraordinary lengths the club are going to in order to mark the occasion.Club officials have secretly organised a series of mini tributes for Sunday's match against Blackpool at Craven Cottage that could further anger the Fulham fans who are already fuming over the statue that has been erected outside the ground.
Sportsmail can reveal that every member of Fulham's first-team squad have been told they must celebrate any goals in Sunday's clash by performing the Moonwalk in front of the home fans. Although the order initially went down like a lead balloon, it is believed the players have now warmed to the idea and have been enthusiastically practising behind closed doors at their Motspur Park training base.
Huge Jacko fans Bobby Zamora and Clint Dempsey have taken charge of the sessions, with coaching staff barely able to hide their amusement while watching on.
Friday MLS Forecast
Jeff Cunningham hosts his former FC Dallas teammates on Friday, while Colorado and D.C. United meet in Goal.com's Match of the Week on Sunday.
Forecast
England: Premier League Weekend Previews & Predictions
Fresh from the international break, the Premier League returns and tensions are increasing at the top and the bottom of the table. Leaders Manchester United travel to London to take on relegation-threatened West Ham in Saturday's lunchtime kick-off, while Sir Alex Ferguson's title rivals, Arsenal, host Blackburn in the evening. Saturday's 3pm matches include Liverpool's reunion with Roy Hodgson at West Brom, Tottenham's trip to rock-bottom Wigan, and Stoke welcoming Chelsea. Newcastle take on Wolves at St James' Park, Bolton visit Birmingham, and Everton and Aston Villa meet. On Sunday, Fulham play Blackpool at Craven Cottage in the lunchtime match, and Manchester City see Sunderland arrive at Eastlands later in the afternoon.Preview
Manchester United vs. West Ham
Paul Merson's Preview
Martin Lipton's Previews & Predictions
Lawro's Predictions
Italy: Serie A Weekend Preview
AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic must settle for being a observer on Saturday when the Rossoneri go up against his former team Inter Milan.The Swede has to complete a two-match ban and that means the Serie A leaders will be without their leading scorer for one of the most important games of the campaign.
Adding spice to the encounter is that Inter coach Leonardo will square off for the first time against AC Milan, the team he spent many years playing for, and coached last season.
Napoli go into this weekend's games in third and just one point behind Inter.
The club have won back-to-back league games going into their clash with Lazio at the Stadio San Paolo. Napoli have not lost at home since October 25. Roma are running out of time if they are going to have a top-four finish. They host Juventus at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday night.
Fiorentina have not given up hope of playing in Europe next season.
They go into this weekend's game at Cesena trailing Roma by nine points.
Spain: La Liga Weekend Preview + Eduardo Alvarez's Quiniela
Barca resume league action following the international break with a trip to Villarreal on Saturday. At the moment they have the comfort of a five-point gap back to second-placed Real Madrid.Villarreal are locked on 54 points with third-placed Valencia as the two battle to be the best of the rest.
Valencia travel to Getafe on Saturday, while Real Madrid host Sporting Gijon, with everyone present at the Bernabeu set to pay tribute to recently retired Brazil striker Ronaldo, a former Real player.
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