Manchester United's fourth signing of the window is most likely its' strongest. Carlos Tevez has passed his medical and will be introduced as a Man Utd player next week (says Soccernet.com). The deal will initially be a loan signing which could further segue into a permanent deal. The pricetag could be upwards of $60 million. Add that to the $50 million or so spent on Anderson and Nani and I'd have to say that the Glazer-owned Red Devils are firmly entrenched in the "I want to repeat" market.
The Ryan Babel and Yossi Benayoun to Liverpool transfers have been completed. Babel cost a cool $23 million, while Yossi fetched $8 million. Combine that with Fernando Torres' pricetag and you have a got the firm spending of a significant transfer budget handed to Rafa Benitez by new American owners Gillett and Hicks. Hopefully, we don't see an underperforming domestic year...again.
Khalid Boulahrouz, the catalyst of the Portugal-Holland World Cup red and yellow card bonanza, has been loaned out to Sevilla by Chelsea as Mourinho, though having a hand in his selection, could not deal anymore with his lack of discipline in the back and errant tackling. Think....the Facundo Erpen of the EPL. Boulahrouz is known for cleating Cristiano Ronaldo in the inner thigh during WC 2006 in Germany and leaving Ronaldo to operate at less than 100%.
Auxerre's standout defender Bakari Sagna is Arsene Wenger's newest recruit as he looks to build for the future (or so it seems, as none of these players - Eduardo, Sagna - have the qualities to bring the EPL title to Emirates now). The Frenchman has been compared to the likes of Emmanuel Eboue and will look to join Eboue on the starting backline. A figure of around $12 million has been reported.
Jerzy Dudek has left Liverpool and is off to serve as back-up to ironman Iker Casillas at Real Madrid. Casillas, in goal for Madrid since he was 19, has never really wavered in consistency and does not miss many games at all - so essentially, some could say Dudek is effectively retiring. One thing Dudek has done, however, is put in a good six solid seasons at Anfield.
Better late than never...taking some advice. A small analysis of the USWNT World Cup 2007 Roster.
2007 UNITED STATES WOMEN’S WORLD CUP ROSTER
| Players | Pos. | Ht. | DOB | Hometown | College | Caps/Goals |
| Barnhart, Nicole | GK | 5-10 | 10/10/81 | Gilbertsville, Pa. | Stanford | 3/0 |
| Boxx, Shannon | M | 5-8 | 06/29/77 | Redondo Beach, Calif. | Notre Dame | 66/14 |
| Chalupny, Lori | M | 5-4 | 01/29/84 | St. Louis, Mo. | UNC | 40/4 |
| Ellertson, Tina | D | 5-9 | 05/20/82 | Vancouver, Wash. | Washington | 22/0 |
| Jobson, Marci | M | 5-7 | 12/04/75 | St. Charles, Ill. | SMU | 14/0 |
| Lilly, Kristine | F | 5-4 | 07/22/71 | Wlton, Conn. | UNC | 327/123 |
| Lloyd, Carli | M | 5-8 | 07/16/82 | Delran, N.J. | Rutgers | 32/5 |
| Lopez, Stephanie | D | 5-6 | 04/03/86 | Elk Grove, Calif. | Portland | 20/0 |
| Markgraf, Kate | D | 5-7 | 08/23/76 | Bloomfield Hills, Mich. | Notre Dame | 159/0 |
| O'Reilly, Heather | F | 5-5 | 01/02/85 | East Brunswick, N.J. | UNC | 61/10 |
| Osborne, Leslie | M | 5-8 | 05/27/83 | Brookfield, Wisc. | Santa Clara | 40/2 |
| Rampone, Chrstie | D | 5-6 | 06/24/75 | Point Pleasant, N.J. | Monmouth | 164/4 |
| Scurry, Brianna | GK | 5-8 | 09/07/71 | Dayton, Minn. | UMass | 162/0 |
| Solo, Hope | GK | 5-9 | 07/30/81 | Richland, Wash. | Washington | 44/0 |
| Tarpley, Lindsay | F | 5-6 | 09/22/83 | Kalamazoo, Mich. | UNC | 69/15 |
| Wagner, Aly | M | 5-5 | 08/10/80 | San Jose, Calif. | Santa Clara | 112/21 |
| Wambach, Abby | F | 5-11 | 06/02/80 | Rochester, N.Y. | Florida | 92/74 |
| Whitehill, Cat | D | 5-5 | 02/10/82 | Birmingham, Ala. | UNC | 110/11 |
The USWMNT looks set to kick it off in September with a veteran-laden team, highlighted by none else then the invincible and never-younger Kristine Lilly who still averages a game almost every other game. The big goalscorer here, however, is Abby Wambach who has the scoring efficiency of a Mia Hamm except with the advantage of almost 4 extra inches. The other big-time veteran on this roster is Briana Scurry who has seemingly been in goal since the 1991 World Cup.
Two to watch as they continue their breakout - midfielder Carli Lloyd (a South Jersey product) and defender Stephanie Lopez who holds the esteemed title of youngest girl on the team (with 20 caps nevertheless). Another Jersey product, Heather O'Reilly will hopefully join fellow SEC grad Wambach on the front-line to reek havoc on North Korea, Sweden and Nigeria.
There will be three international friendlies against Japan, New Zealand, and Finland in an effort to put the pieces together and bring back the title to the USA. A full roster breakdown is available at USSoccer.com.
Enjoy that Thursday night game.
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