Is It Already Over, Over There?

In 119 days the most watched and anticipated sporting event will kick off in South Africa. While countries like Brazil, England, Italy, and Germany are having problems selecting just 23 athletes to represent their country, the U.S. finds itself scraping to find 23 fit, experienced, and effective footballers.

Many of the U.S. players are not match fit or ready for this tournament. American players are faced with many difficulties. Not only did the domestic MLS season end months ago, but many American players that are playing abroad are not seeing any action. With the exception of Jozy Altidore, Jonathon Spector, Tim Howard, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, and Bolton's new acquisition Stuart Holden, no other players are seeing proficient time with their clubs right now. In addition to the lack of conditioning and competition, many of star players and play makers are hurt and will not be ready until the South Africa. Clint Dempsey is nursing a knee problem, Stuart Holden has a thigh strain, Davies is still recovering from that horrific car accident, Oguchi Onyewu is still battling his knee problem he received against Costa Rica, and the new American citizen, Jermaine Jones is still recovering from shin surgery. Things are not looking up for the Yanks.

In addition to these problems, the U.S. has been extremely streaky and unpredictable from game to game since the Confederations Cup. How can a team who beat then number one team in the world, Spain, be picked apart by Honduras? The U.S. is not in the group of death this time around like they were in last cup, but it is not going to be a cake walk for them. Opening against England, with red hot strikers Rooney, Defoe, and Bent, along with a solid midfield led by Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, and a brick wall back line with Terry, Johnson, Brown, and Bridge. The U.S. will have to be firing on all cylinders right out of the gate if they want to be able to get out of the group stages.

Realistic goal for the U.S. team= quarterfinals, if the U.S. wants the respect of the world, they have to reach at least the semi finals.

People will be watching the Yanks on the biggest stage in sports...but you have to wonder, will we be impressed or embarrassed, because of late, we haven't had a lot to cheer about in the soccer realm. As the thousands of supporters scream out "The Yanks are Coming!!!!!" will the rest of the world turn and run or stand and laugh? 119 lonely days will determine so much for U.S. Soccer.

Who Are Ya?

If you have watched a match on fox sports, or have seen any games on espn, then you already know about the official unofficial shirts of football. Who Are Ya Designs have taken cult chants, club logos, classic slang, and underground sayings and printed them on shirts for all to appreciate. Take a peak at them at whoareyadesigns.com

Support your club, support your nation, support the Blues

Updates coming

New Years Promise is to update this soon. It's been a crazy few months with my job, working at the Palace, and everything else.

Cheers, and thanks for your patience


Pbo

Fall Clearing

My apologies for the lack of updates in the past month, but a lot has been happening, both domestically and internationally, without me.

For starters, this past week of international games has determined what countries will be at the World Cup this summer. South Africa, Denmark, Germany, England, Italy, the Netherlands, Serbia, Spain, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Mexico, the Untied States, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Korea DPR have all officially qualified. Other teams in Europe and else where are deciding the last few remaining spots through play-offs. Some of these European teams include France, Russia, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia. This is very exciting and there is a lot of drama surrounding some of these teams as well as Argentina and Honduras who are still fighting to get into the World Cup.

The US had a spectacular game or should I say last 15 minutes against Costa Rica. However, the US has seemed to fallen into a predictable pattern the last few games: give up a few early goals and then wait to the very end to tie or win. The US has gotten away with this in the CONCACAF, but will not be able to get away with it in the World Cup. With the lose of Davies because of the horrible car accident, the US will have a harder time in the tournament, and hopefully the injury to Onyewu is not too serious to keep him out of the cup as well. It was a very emotional game on Wednesday with all of the fans support for Davies. A lot of players will need to step up if the US is going to make it out of the group stages this summer. They will probably not win the World Cup, but that doesn't mean that they can't hang with the big boys.

What would be a blog without mentioning the Premier League or David Beckham? Well, I have news on both! Beckham will be playing for AC Milan in January on yet another loan.

Saturday kicks off league play once again. Chelsea will be protecting their number one position in the league and will play Aston Villa, who could find themselves in the top 5 with a win against the Blues. Man U will be playing Bolton, which should be an easy win for the Manchester even without Rooney. The Spurs should have an easy welcome back win against Portsmouth who were once again taken over. However, there could be an upset brewing at Sunderland when they take on Liverpool, who will be without both Torres and Gerrard.

There should be some great games this weekend

as always

GO CHELSEA

Home Grown Premier League

Next season, the English Premier League is going green...kinda. The League has announced that each club has a 25 player limit roster and 8 of those players need to be home grown. Home grown refers to any player who has played for an English or Welsh club for three years before their 21st birthday. In addition, out of the 25 players, no more than 17 of them can be over the age of 21 and not home grown. As of right now, every club in the Premier League team meets these new restrictions, however; Chelsea and Liverpool both barely meet the requirements. With the new transfer ban on Chelsea, the Blues will rely more heavily now on their Academy reserves to meet all criteria.

It can get worse for Chelsea too. The League has announced also that Chelsea cannot recall loan players at this point in time...so Chelsea will have to play with the players that they have for the rest of the season...more or less...

The new rules will help the Premier League. The League has been under attack the last few years for buying foreign players. Billionaire club owners have open their wallets to attract some of the best talent in the game to England. England would like to see more English players in the top flight, and with more opportunities for English players to be in the top flight, England's national team will benefit. If everything goes according to plan, this new legislation can only help the Premier League.

Blues seeing Blue?

Last week, FIFA places a one year transfer ban on Chelsea for acquiring French youth international star Gael Kakuta two years ago. Allegedly, Chelsea encouraged Kakuta to break his contract with then French club Lens. In addition, Chelsea has also been charged by FIFA for violating rules pertaining to acquiring youth players.

In response to FIFA's attack on the current Premier League leader, many other English clubs have come under attack including Manchester United, Manchester City, and Arsenal. I am assuming allocations will also be presented for Spanish club Real Madrid after their summer long spending spree to get many of the top names in the sport. Chelsea is appealing the harsh penalty that FIFA has issued, and like many people, I believe the ban will be lifted. But then again, everyone has their own opinion. FIFA and Chelsea have clashed heads many times in the last few years, the most notable incident happened in last season's UEFA Champions League. Drogba, Ballack, and Belletti were all fined and suspended for outbursts during the semi-finals match against Barca. Like many reporters, I believe that FIFA is still trying to make an example out of the London team.

Yet, if Chelsea is unable to secure a reduced punishment, it may be a long year for the club. The Blues have an aging line up which include 8 players that are over the age of 30 (Belletti, Ferreira, Carvalho, Deco, Ballack, Lampard, Anelka, Drogba). Chelsea will need to find replacements or substitutes for many of these players in the next couple of years. With the year transfer ban, Chelsea will not be able to find replacements for these players for the next 2 yeras (this season plus the next). By then, most of those players may be thinking about retirement...especially with the World Cup coming up this summer.

However, things might not be so bleak yet. Currently, Chelsea is holding their own in the Premier League, and is a dominating force. Their line up is strong and they have much more depth this season than last. In addition, many of their youth squad is receiving Premier League experience via loan spells (Michael Mancienne to Wolverhampton Wanderers, Scott Sinclair to Wigan Athletic, and Franco Di Santo to Blackburn Rovers), not to mention the numerous other loans to the Championship League. If there is a mass exit like Former Chelsea winger Arjen Robben believes there will be if FIFA holds firm on the ban, there will be many opportunities for Chelsea's youth system. This can only help the Blues, even if they are not as competitive.

Win, lose, or draw in the courtroom, you can bet that the Blues will bounce back and will be more ferocious than ever before.

It's good to be back!!

Well it has been a very exciting opener in the English Premier League, and it only seems to keep heating up with the trading deadline a few days ago. As of right now, Chelsea is on top of the table with Tottenham, Manchester City and United right behind the Blues. I think these teams along with Liverpool will be in the top 5 at the end of the season. I am going to say it now: Chelsea is winning the Premiership this year. I think that with their new diamond formation brought in by Carlo Ancelotti, along with a deep, healthy line up will give Chelsea the extra push to bring their dreams of the Premier League Title closer. In addition to a new head coach and formation, the Blues added a few more players in the off-season including Nemanja Matic, Yuri Zhirkov, and Ross Turnbull. Chelsea has started the season strong, and will only get better when Joe Cole, Zhirkov, and Alex come back from injury.

Many of the Premier League clubs have a lot of new faces. Manchester United has spent the whole off-season buying a new team which now includes Tevez, Cruz, Adebayor, Toure, Lescott, and Barry. These new faces might be enough to break into the top 4, if not the top 3 with a deep offensive line up. Tottenham also added a few new members. The Spurs might have one of the best teams in the league with Bently, Pavlyuchenko, Keane, Defoe, and Modric. Hull also took advantage in the summer window and made a great move to sign Altidore on a season long loan from Villarreal. Newly promoted Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and Burnley all made numerous moves in hopes to stay in the top flight at the end of the season. So far it has paid off for some of these clubs. Burnley did beat Manchester United, and both Wolverhampton and Birmingham have 4 points and are sitting in the middle of the table.

However, while some teams added new faces, some clubs have lost some familiar faces. Both Manchester United and Liverpool fell victim to Real Madrid’s summer spending spree. Manchester United lost Ronaldo while Liverpool conceded Xabi Alonso to the Spanish club. Although these clubs have replacements, it still will be hard for those replacements to fill the gaps that Ronaldo and Xabi left at their respective clubs. Depending on how these clubs do in the first half of the season, I foresee that they will be splashing some cash in the Januarry transfer window. Portsmouth fell victim to a mass exit of players and a take over by new owner Sulaiman Abdul Kareem Mohammad Al-Fahim. Key striker Peter Crouch left Pompey and moved over to Tottenham in the off-season and star defender Glen Johnson transferred over to Liverpool. As of this point in time, Portsmouth is the anchor in the table with no points in 4 outings…things are not looking good for this club.

All in all, I think your top 3 teams will be 1) Chelsea 2) Manchester United 3) Tottenham. I feel that Chelsea will be too much for Man U this season and that Tottenham has the depth this season to do very well…I mean they are currently undefeated. In addition, Tottenham has a ton of offensive talent and will be a hand ful for virtually every club. Liverpool and Man City will be rounding off the top 5. I think it will be a close foot race for the fifth position with Arsenal. Everyone has been writing the club off since they did not make many moves in the off season and the only headlines before the season started was exiting of key placers. However, they started the season strong and are currently at the top half of the league with 6 points. However, I think that their lack of depth could plague them later in the season, especially when the Champions League picks up. One of the big surprise is Everton’s performance has been so far. Many experts believed that this club would be in the top 5, but they have only one win to show so far and only 3 points in 3 games. I hope that they get their act together.

The thing that is on the back of many clubs’ minds is relegation. Yes, it is very early to talk about this, but it’s never too early for predictions. As of right now, Portsmouth, Bolton and Blackburn are at the bottom of the table. My prediction is that Portsmouth will be relegated at the end of the season, as well as Blackburn and Sunderland. So far this season, Portsmouth has not look well at all, and were nearly relegated last season. Sunderland seems to be in the same position as Portsmouth…I thought that they were going to be relegated last season. Finally, I am getting a bad feeling from Blackburn, I just don’t see them winning a game in October. Then again, this is just my opinion…feel free to chirp in.