By Ridge Mahoney The good start for Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez at Bayer Leverkusen is bad news for U.S. soccer fans. What’s bad aboutit? In a U.S.-centric sense, everything. No longer is Hernandez an erratic player whose pedigree (his father played professionally) and high-profile persona exceeds his laudable accomplishments. Lessthan three months into his first season […]
clint dempsey
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They're Saying: Clint Dempsey
“If you’re not playing well enough for your club, then you’re probably not going to get those looks for country. And at the same time, if your body’s not right, then you can’t do anything there. So Ijust got to make sure that I’m focused, take care of my body, keep producing on the club […]
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Klinsmann drops Dempsey, adds uncapped Miazga, Nagbe
U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann called in two uncapped players — New York Red Bulls defender Matt Miazga andPortland Timbers midfielder Darlington Nagbe — for the USA’s two opening games of World Cup 2018 qualifying next Friday against St. Vincent & theGrenadines at Busch Stadium in St. Louis and at Trinidad & Tobago four […]
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
Breaking down MLS's Sunday extravaganza
By Ridge Mahoney (@ridgemax) After two incredible days of knockout games in the MLS playoffs, the four survivors jump right back into action Sunday. All of the third andfourth seeds advanced, though only one game — Montreal’s 3-0 defeat of TFC — was a mismatch. Portland endured an epic penalty-kick shootout (7-6) to eliminate […]
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Seattle-LA Galaxy Takeaways: Christmas comes early
The Seattle-LA Galaxy match certainly wasn’t pretty, but it didn’t lack for excitement. After twice blowing leads in the first 22 minutes, the Sounders prevailed, 3-2, to move into the WesternConference semifinals Sunday against FC Dallas or Vancouver. Out of the playoffs is the Galaxy, but the defending champion could have little to complain about. […]
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
MLS Playoffs: Quick turnaround will be followed by quick exit
By Ridge Mahoney (@ridgemax) The 2015 MLS playoffs differ from the previous few years in that fourteams, rather than two, in each conference have landed in the knockout round. Yet the first postseason game between D.C. United and New England at RFK Stadium Wednesday is the same matchup of No.4 and No. 5 teams, respectively, […]
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MLS Power Rankings: FC Dallas jumps to the top
That was quite a week in MLS and set things up nicely for blanket coverage of all 10 games when the regular-season concludes on Sunday. FC Dallas took over the top spot in the PowerRankings by beating Vancouver at home and snuffing RSL’s playoff hopes on the road. The Galaxy tumbled down the ladder after […]
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
U.S. national team succession will begin sooner than you might think
By Paul Kennedy (@pkedit) As Jurgen Klinsmann stated in hispre-Concacaf Cup camp interview with U.S. Soccer, Saturday’s USA-Mexico game at the Rose Bowl maybe the last hurrah for the veteran corps of the U.S. national team. Tim Howard is 36 and Brad Guzan is 31,but they are goalkeepers, so they may still be around for […]
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
My 23 for Mexico
By Ridge Mahoney (@ridgemax) Just about every U.S. fan is anxious to see who will be picked to face Mexicoin the Rose Bowl Oct. 10 in the first, and perhaps only, Concacaf Cup and here’s one man’s plan starting from scratch, not selecting from the designated list of 35 players already submitted toConcacaf. This is […]
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They're Saying: Jurgen Klinsmann
“What I’m worried in the longer run is to find strikers that on a international level give you a goal every second game at least. This is something where we have problems. We have problems to developa young generation of strikers consistently scoring — in their club teams and then coming into the national team, […]