USL Update, Courtesy of Inside Minnesota Soccer

Along with Kartik Krishnaiyer over at The Kartik Report, Inside Minnesota Soccer’s Brian Quarstad has been doing yeoman’s work keeping the United States’ football-following public up-to-date on what’s happening with the United Soccer Leagues (USL).

If you don’t know the backstory, Brain has a page set up to track “United Soccer Leagues at a Crossroads.” You [...]

WCQ Preview: Ukraine versus England

Do matches only shown over the internet actually exist? More than the implications of this match, that is the story being discussed in the English-language media. How dare they take our footy out of our pubs?

A better question to ask: Should games involving a team with no stakes exist? Of course, [...]

Inside the Six, Episode #29: Ata Dizdar

Episode #29 of Inside the Six features my full conversation with Ata Dizdar, who was on Episode #28 talking about Turkish football. He is a fellow writer at The Kartik Report.

You can listen at World Soccer Reader, on iTunes, or below.

Inside the Six, Episode #28: Breakdown of Sevilla-Madrid, Chelsea-Liverpool; Ata Dizdar on Turkcell SüperLig

Episode #28 of World Soccer Reader’s Inside the Six will be distributed on that site later today. On it, you will hear my detail analysis of the Sevilla-Real Madrid match-up as well as the Chelsea-Liverpool match. Along with updates on all our favorite leagues in Europe, South and North America, I talk [...]

U.S. U-20: A Good Team Could Go Home (Without A Result Against Korea)

We really should be talking more about the United States’ U-20. They posted a 4-1 win over a very good Cameroon team on Tuesday. Granted, they need the win because they had a disappointing opener – a 3-0 loss to Germany – but that just gives us more to talk about!

But because of [...]

The Turning Point for Karim Benzema at Real Madrid

Nice to have you back, Karim. The Madrid striker had a brace today against Tenerife.

Watching Karim Benzema’s brace (with an assist) against Tenerife gave me a huge sense of relief. Why am I – a dude from San Diego who’s never met Benzema – relieved that he’s scoring goals?

I go into that [...]

All that You Want to Know About UEFA Coefficients: A Practical Example

Over at Russian Football Now, I wrote a piece about the problems Russia is to have with their UEFA coefficient. In the process, I have to actually explain how they work. If you are curious about that or about how the Ukraine is on the verge of having three Champions League [...]

Mexican Primera Previews at MAF, TKR, and Examiner

Three articles, each with a slightly different feel, all about this weekend’s action in the Mexican Primera División.

First, at Man About Fútbol there is a general overview – a concise (well, as concise as I get) way of getting everybody up-to-date for this weekend’s matches.

You can find it here.

At my Examiner site, the attempt to [...]

Juande Ramos Profile/History

Juande Ramos’s hire at CSKA merited a bit of an introduction, which I did here. And here. Well, also here.

Here’s a glimpse:

Ramos’s aggressive approach might cost CSKA in Champions League, where the talent of the opponent could lead to more results like today’s 3-1 loss to VfL Wolfsburg, but it will also push [...]

Oh, Yeah – I’m Writing At Another Place, The Kartik Report

I seemed to have forgotten to officially announce this, so I’m getting some (two) questions about the nature of my relationship with The Kartik Report, and in the middle of a very busy last seven days (beyond football coverage) I have not been able to explain (read: promote) my latest outlet.

Writing at The Kartik Report [...]