Better late than never, I have decided to put the story up. By now, I am sure you've seen it.
Cauhtemac 'because of my disdain for him I will spell his name wrong each time' Blanco is on his way to the Chicago Fire. He will 'officially' sign tomorrow at 11am. Known for the 'bunny hop' (which he pulled most memorably in the second round 1998 World Cup match-up vs. Germany), this guy is going to push some buttons even at 34 year old. Overall, it's a good signing and should win over a lot of the Chicago Mexican community. Here it all is.
- Here is a detailed overview of Don Garber's "Game First" initiatives from Mlsnet.com. Many are small steps but they could dramatically change the atmosphere of the American game. All of these steps lead to a more uniform and celebrated game in America which warrants the new monies being poured into the league (i.e. the $64 million, 8 year ESPN deal, etc.) Even though all it did was reiterate a bunch of recent developments, the power of presenting them all at once makes me feel like MLS is sure as hell goin in the right direction.
- Carlos Ruiz is this year's FC Dallas captain. Maybe for the sake of other MLS opponents, this year's season-end result for Ruiz will be the same as last year's FC Dallas captain Simo Valakari. But no.
- Now former Sunderland midfielder Andy Welsh has formally put the pen to paper for Toronto FC. A left-wing midfielder with Premiership experience. Not bad. Put Ronnie O'Brien on the other wing and you've got potentially dangerous flanks.
- Marcelo Salas had joined Juan Pablo Angel as the Red Bull New York transaction of the week candidate. Salas is a Chilean legend and at one time or another was a solid scoring machine. He's got 35 goals in 65 international caps for Chile. Here.
- In expansion news, there has been talk of a Portland expansion recently. Here's the only source really to check out: OregonLive
The Northwest needs a team. Give'em one.
- In USL-1, the Minnesota Thunder have an ally in Saint Paul. Mayor Chris Coleman, no relation to the other American-lover Fulham
manager named Chris Coleman, said in his state of the city address that there is good reason to believe a soccer stadium of sorts is on its' way. Read here. English Premiership
- Not even 10 minutes after I posted my praises of Nemanja Vidic, he sustains a broken collarbone putting him out for the most part of the rest of the season. I like this guy and that plain sucks. Not a great time to have it happen either. With Vidic, Mickael Silvestre and Gary Neville out, the backline is starting to seem pretty thin. Can Johnny O'Shea and Wes Brown fill the holes?
Everton 1, Aston Villa 1
- An 83rd minute savior strike from young'un Gabriel Agbonlahor screwed up Timmy Howard's clean sheet in Aston Villa's clash with Everton today. I hate to beat a dead horse but Juan Pablo Angel was not in Aston Villa's line-up today...could he be coming east???? Or could he have a case of the Clint Dempseys. That was mean. I like Clint.
EVE: J. Lescott (15)
AVI: Agbonlahor (83)
- Liverpool is getting a new stadium and Newcastle is upgrading theirs to a capacity of around 60,000 or so. First, someone's got to tech them how to win consistently again.
Work on Liverpool's new pitch will begin in May. Bye bye Anfield.
World Soccer
- Owen Hargreaves, the much coveted Bayern Munich midfielder, has a blog/article on BBC.com. It's good stuff reading about a world-class player's take on other world-class players. Check it out.
- A great little piece from the Daily Mail in the UK: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was asked at a corporate event in Switzerland which of his arch rivals, Chelsea's Jose Mourinho or Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson, he would prefer to be stuck in a lift with for two hours. "Is there a fire exit instead," he joked - before going on to be complimentary about both bosses.
- Bosko Balaban, one of my favorite underrated
Croatian strikers, is looking to move to Glasgow Rangers this summer. He is currently with Club Brugge in the Belgian Jupiler league. Balaban recently endured a terrible spell with Aston Villa, but as we know, most Croatians don't far well at Villa (i.e. Milan Baros). Look for this not to be sorted out til late May or even until the window opens up July 1st.
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