31 posts filed under this category.
David Beckham will leave Real Madrid and join the Los Angeles Galaxy in July. Beyond the pure salary and bonus structure, the United States provides lucrative corporate sponsorship opportunities. The world does not only want to bend it like Beckham, they want to shave like him, use his cell phone, and have the entire Beckham lifestyle. The David Beckham Academy will also take advantage of one of the world’s largest youth soccer programs….
The World Cup Final match between France and Italy will be shown this Sunday in Dolores Park starting at 11 a.m. If you live in San Francisco it should be a pretty fun place to watch the game with a good crowd. Food and drink proceeds will help fund science field trips for Bay Area inner city kids to places such as Slide Ranch. I recommend a trip to Phil’s Coffee on 18th and Sanchez to wake yourself up before the game….
Germany plays Argentina this Friday, June 30, at 8 a.m. Pacific time. If you’re at Gnomedex I’ll have a viewing party in my room at the Edgewater. I’m rooting for Argentina. I’ll be missing Chris Pirillo’s opening statements and Mike Arrington’s discussion, but no way they can’t compete with Germany playing Argentina in Berlin. Sorry Om, I might miss the beginning of your session too. Given the possible matchups on Saturday such as England vs. Portugal or Brazil vs. Spain/France these will be tough choices for morning sessions….
I’ll be looking at World Cup schedules every day for the next month, but a few people at Microsoft put together a small application named Soccer Scoreboard to track your favorite team, group, and results from your Windows desktop. It even has a RSS aggregator built-in so you can follow along with the latest news about Rooney’s foot or whatever you’re into. Game times are displayed in your local time and the application is localized to close to 20 languages. Here’s a short list of soccer feeds from around the world if you’d like to add them to Soccer Scoreboard…
Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. home team Germany will take the field against Costa Rica to kick off The World Cup, the biggest sporting event in the world. I am a total soccer nut and I’ll be distracted for the next month as I watch from afar as the U.S. lives up to its #5 ranking and Ronaldinho weaves through the defense with his golden boot and a smile. The world’s attention will be on Germany for the next month watching blades of grass fly and a thermal-bonded ball hit the back of a specially woven net. This is…
I just noticed MSN’s Road to the World Cup site in the UK. Soccer stars such as Michael Owen, Edgar Davids, and Gianluigi Buffon are now representing their national soccer teams with individual blogs. It looks like the players are just well-known front-men who contribute quotes to a team staff member each day. I wanted to have player or team blogs for the San Jose Clash and Los Angeles Galaxy six years ago but the tools were nowhere as advanced as they are now. Many more teams now have access to a variety of software for fan marketing. The new…
Huge news from Ulster! Northern Ireland defeated England 1-0 in a World Cup qualifying soccer match. England is currently ranked #7 in the world and Northern Ireland is ranked 116. England did play their full squad. Tags: northernireland, england, ulster…
FIFA announced an insurance fund to compensate clubs for injuries sustained by their players at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Each national association will contribute 5% of its prize money to the insurance fund for a total of $13 million. The surplus will be reimbursed after the tournament. it’s good to see assurances to the companies sponsoring these athletes and their long-term development. The World Cup would be very different without club soccer and the two need to learn to get along….
Adidas secured exclusive rights to Major League Soccer clothing and equipment for the next 10 years. The deal is reportedly worth over $100 million according to The Financial Times and $150 million according to the Washington Post. Adidas will be the only sports brand advertised during television broadcasts of MLS games and English language broadcasts of the 2006 World Cup. Adidas was able to sign an entire league for less than one-fifth the cost of Nike’s £300 deal with Manchester United. Hopefully all twelve team’s jerseys will not use the same style. Adidas is currently using its Shark jersey with…
The Los Angeles Galaxy announced the firing of Sigi Schmid in a conference call this afternoon. The Los Angeles Galaxy currently have the best record among the ten teams of Major League Soccer. Sigi was in his sixth season as the Galaxy’s head coach. He coached the Western Conference in the All-Star game on July 31. It is very unusual for a first place team to fire its coach. Over the last five games the Galaxy tied four and lost one. It will be interesting to see how the Galaxy positions itself given the expansion of Chivas USA next season….
Jürgen Klinsmann is the new head coach of the German national team under a two-year contract. Holger Osieck will be an assistant coach with a general management role and Oliver Bierhoff will be an assistant coach focused on training….
San Francisco Chronicle: “Mayor Gavin Newsom confirmed Thursday that he has met with Quakes president and general manager Alexi Lalas and other team representatives to talk about moving the Major League Soccer squad north from San Jose.” A soccer-specific stadium in China Basin was discussed. Kezar Stadium or SBC Park could be temporary venues until the new stadium is constructed….
Major League Soccer announced Salt Lake City as the site of the league’s newest expansion team. The team will be owned and operated by Dave Checketts’ Sports Capital Partners. The team will play at the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles stadium for its first two seasons. Rice-Eccles stadium is the home of the United Soccer League’s Utah Blitzz and was the site of the 2002 Winter Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. The playing field is synthetic Field Turf, not real grass….
Daniel Gross writes about the capitalism of soccer and the protectionism of American sports in Slate.. “American sports are virtually all socialistic while the European soccer leagues more closely resemble the entrepreneurial capitalism we Americans fetishize.”…
BBC News reports on a new soccer jersey developed by David Evans at Northumbria University. Silicon strips at the top of a player’s back monitor sweat loss. A heart monitor keeps track of the player’s vitals. A vibrating patch on the jersey’s arm alerts the player to come to the sideline for some attention….
Nick Littlehales is the official sleep consultant for the English Football Association during the Euro 2004 championships. The Financial Times profiles Nick and his efforts to help the team turn less times per night. “The England team’s bedrooms were adapted to create Kingsize and Superking sizes providing more room to sleep and relax. A visco-elastic foam pressure relieving layer was added to each mattress to improve comfort and support. The traditional hotel bed coverings were replaced by hypoallergenic pillows and breathable duvets covered in a pure Egyptian white cotton linen to provide coolness.”…
Jenna Cooper, captain of the University of Nebraska women’s soccer team and member of the U21 player pool, died yesterday from a gunshot wound in her throat. The Nebraska soccer team was celebrating the close of its spring training season….
Two nuclear submarines, the HMS Tireless and USS Hampton, surfaced near the North Pole today for a game of soccer….
Eric Wynalda says “our core fans are the only ones who matter.” Stark contrast to Mark Cuban’s comments I mentioned on Wednesday. “Our fans now know our names, and it’s time we start doing a better job of learning theirs, because there will come a time when that might not be possible.”…
Mulrooney Soccer Academy is a soccer day camp in San Jose featuring professional soccer players as coaches. Richard Mulrooney, Landon Donovan, Craig Waibel, Pat Onstad, and other professional soccer coaches will teach 90 kids per session. Formerly Cannon Mulrooney soccer camps, but with Joe Cannon in Denver it makes sense to rebrand….
Manchester United has declared a ban on players signing memorabilia. “[T]he players will refuse to sign footballs, shirts, posters, portraits or anything else that could constitute a collector’s item.” The club suspects that dealers are paying children to wait outside the training grounds all day for sale on the Internet….
Last night’s 60 Minutes featured a segment on DC United player Freddy Adu. Ben Olsen was interviewed as the veteran of the team. Why was Peter Nowak, his coach, and who also started his pro soccer career at a young age, not interviewed? “Freddy’s $500,000 salary from D.C. United dwarfs even the game’s veterans. It has become a cliche that every rookie with a big contract buys his mama a house. Freddy may be the first one ever to do it…and then go home and live with her.”…
David Beckham was at adidas headquarters in Germany this morning to announce his contract extension and unveil his new logo to appear in merchandise later this year. Similar to Michael Jordan’s slam dunk, the free kick is Beckham’s well known pose….
To celebrate 100 years of FIFA, the Federation Internationale de Football Association, Pele has chosen 100 living soccer players that represent the best, most outstanding, creative players of their generation….
The Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) announced today that it has approved plans for expansion to Stockton, California. MISL teams play 162 games in 6 months….
The Republic of Ireland has just tied world champion and #1 ranked Brazil 0-0 in Dublin. The game was just a friendly, but Brazil did bring their full squad. Brazil’s starting 11 were: Dida, Cafu, Lucio, Roque Junior, Roberto Carlos, Kleberson, Gilberto Silva, Ze Roberto; Ronaldinho, Kaka, and Ronaldo. Ireland was ranked #15 in the world as of this morning according to FIFA….
Jürgen Klinsmann officially joined the Los Angeles Galaxy yesterday as Technical Advisor. Jürgen has been working witht he Galaxy for some time, but the new title gives the Galaxy and Jürgen more recognition for their work together. One of Jürgen Klinsmann’s new interests is how technology can be better used to promote soccer, and I hope to work with him on such projects in the future….
The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits in Germany (yes, the MP3 and AAC people) is working on an RFID system for soccer balls and jerseys. The chip embedded in the ball has been worked down to the size of a fingernail. The biggest problem right now is suspending the chip in the middle of the ball to measure acceleration and protect against being pummeled as part of the outer skin. An article in German is available here, or you can use Google for the English translation. This technology would be a great coaching tool. Right now in pro soccer there…
I just saw John Wolyniec’s goal against the Columbus Crew on September 20. Wow. ( Windows Media | Real Video )…
The Anschutz Entertainment Group admits to a meeting with Manchester United officials, but no word whether a club purchase was discussed. Manchester has been unloading some big salary stars, which should make them more attractive for a takeover. Current market cap (MNU.L) is £488.4 million….
Jimmy and Carlos both made MLS Team of the Week for May 10. UCLA is dominating the league’s back line….