Another weekend, another full slate of matches to look forward to! Serie A and the Bundesliga are back in action, Premier League continues with Manchester United looking for one of their many strikers to put the ball in the net, and a huge MLS clash awaits Sunday night between Eastern Conference leaders Sporting KC and New York Red Bulls. Today’s DKA focuses on many of the top match previews, and as always at this time of year, more transfer news within EPL.

Serie A

Serie A kicks off a new season today, and Juventus are the clear favorites to repeat as champions. But will they be the same without Alessandro Del Piero? And what other clubs are condenters? Soccer by Ives offers a comprehensive preview of the season ahead.

English Premier League

Manchester United will look to get back to their winning ways against a Dempsey-less Fulham today, but don’t expect it to be “a walkover” for United, writes ESPN’s Mark Payne.

Liverpool meets Manchester City on Sunday and all eyes are on new signing Fabio Borini as Liverpool faces another tough test after their defeat at West Brom last week.

Chelsea signed two new players on Friday, Wigan striker Victor Moses and Marseille full back Cesar Azpilicueta.

Is Scott Sinclair’s switch from Swansea to Manchester City the right move for the young striker? SI’s Georgina Turner looks at his growth from bit player at Chelsea to everyday starter at Swansea and how this move could help him take the next step in his game.

 Major League Soccer

In a match nobody will be telling their grandkids about, Salt Lake and Philly finished with a scoreless draw last night as Real continued to struggle on the road, even with their new 4-1-4-1 formation.

Ignore the first five months. The time is now for F.C. Dallas, who now has hope of grabbing a postseason spot, thanks in large part to the return of  2010 MVP David Ferreira.

Ryan Meara’s season is over, after the rookie Red Bulls goalkeeper had arthroscopic surgery on his left hip yesterday.

The Vancouver Whitecaps’ digital media department has taken the rivalry of the Cascadia Cup clash with Portland to new heights in this video dubbed “Battle of the Hearts.” A must-watch for any MLS fan.

The top two teams in the Eastern Conference meet tomorrow night, with Sporting KC looking to hold their narrow lead atop the standings and extend their three game winning streak. The Red Bulls, who will be without captain and new dad Thierry Henry, look to extend their 2-game streak and return to the top of the conference.

Follow @AerysSoccer on Twitter for more of today’s top news and reactions to the weekend’s matches!

Good Monday to you all! I hope you had great weekends! Today’s headlines are packed with US Soccer news, and big news from the English Premier League, including John Terry’s ban. It’s your Monday Daily Kick Around!

U.S. Men’s National Team

The USMNT are in Mexico for the first time since 1984. The game, set to kick off at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday, will definitely be entertaining. It is US v. Mexico after all! Yesterday, head coach Jurgen Klinsmann named a 23-man roster to take to the match. The biggest snub I think would be D.C. United’s Chris Pontius. Chris has been on fire for D.C. this season and definitely deserves the call up.

Major League Soccer

The SuperClasico kicked off last night in LA between the Galaxy and Chivas USA. And make no mistake, it definitely was a show from the Galaxy. They stomped Chivas 4-0.

Other scores:
Philadelphia 1 – Chicago 3 
New England 0 – Montreal 1 

La Liga

Saturday marked a big day for Barcelona forward David Villa as the club took on Dinamo Bucharest. He played in his first game since his broken leg last season. And he told media after the match, which Barca won 2-0, he felt “very pleased” and good on the pitch; he intends to come back better than ever this eason.

English Premier League

Well John Terry has the luck of someone on his side, that’s for sure. After being found not guilty of racial abuse to Antoin Ferdinand this summer, it seems the UEFA is reducing his three-match ban from the red card he received during the Champion’s League second-leg semi-final match. ESPN is reporting Terry’s ”final match of his suspension was deferred for a probationary period of three years.” If that isn’t lucky, I don’t know what is considering Terry’s track record.

Manchester United’s ploy to go public with its shares is sort of blowing up in their face. Some headlines are even comparing it’s demise to that of Facebook’s recent stock fall.

PrivCo, an independent financial analyst, said United’s stock price could plummet further – and gave the shares a value that would mean the club is worth less now than when the Glazers bought it in 2005. 

World Soccer

Some times things happen during matches when players’ tempers get out of control. One ref is hitting back at a player who he claims purposely attacked him on the field. During a friendly match yesterday between Portuguese side Benfica and German side Fortuna Dusseldorf, Benfica’s Luisao allegedly knocked over ref Christian Fischer on purpose. And Fischer plans to sue Luisao because of it.

Fischer, who refused to restart the Esprit Arena game after the 38th-minute incident, told the Express he would be taking legal action, adding: “As proof, I got hold of the TV recordings. Thus he [Luisao] can say whatever he wants. It just makes his statements even more ridiculous: everyone saw what happened.”

This post was put together by our MLS and San Jose Earthquake writer, Alyssa Olszewski.

It was a comparatively low-scoring weekend in MLS (all except one game–read on to see which!), but one that had some major consequences in the standings.

It all started on Friday, when the Houston Dynamo defeated the New York Red Bulls 2-0 to overtake them at the top of the Eastern Conference standings.  Despite NY pulling out all their big guns, including Tim Cahill in his team debut, it was Houston’s Jermaine Taylor and Calen Carr who put their team up 2-0 in the first half.  Dynamo keeper Tally Hall only had to make 2 saves to preserve the clean sheet.

Sporting Kansas City found themselves tied with Houston at the top of the Eastern Conference standings after putting down the New England Revolution 0-1 on Saturday, thanks to a goal from Teal Bunbury.  This was their first win in 4 matches.  New England, in their first game without former captain Shalrie Joseph, lost their fourth in five matches.

DC United hung on to the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference after their 1-0 win over the Columbus Crew.  Chris Pontius put his team up in the 49th minute.  He nearly scored another in the 58th minute, but in the end it didn’t matter as United managed to make his goal stand up.

The Montreal Impact moved to within 2 points of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference through their 2-0 win over the Philadelphia Union, their fourth straight victory at home.  Montreal went up in the 44th minute due to a goal from Andrew Wenger.  Both teams went down to 10 men in the 69th minute after Montreal’s Nelson Rivas headbutted Antoine Hoppenot after a hard challenge.  Philadelphia’s Jack McInerney came in to defend his teammate, and both he and Rivas were ejected.  Felipe Martins sealed the deal for Montreal when he scored in the 78th minute.

The Chicago Fire came back from a couple defensive miscues to defeat Toronto FC 2-1.  Toronto went up in the 16th minute after Ryan Johnson intercepted a bad back pass from Marco Pappa and converted past Sean Johnson.  However, Pappa made up for his mistake in the 64th minute when he scored to tie the game up at 1-1.  Defender Austin Berry secured the win in the 84th minute after Toronto went down to 10 men in the 79th.

The Colorado Rapids finally broke their 6 game losing streak in a 1-0 win over Rocky Mountain rivals Real Salt Lake, denying them the opportunity to overtake San Jose at the top of the Western Conference standings.  This was Colorado’s first win over RSL in 9 matches since May 2009, and it was brought about by Joseph Nane’s first career goal.

Sunday continued to feature Western Conference match-ups, with the two bottom teams Portland Timbers and FC Dallas playing to a 1-1 draw.  Brek Shea was back on the field for Dallas after not playing since July 18, and he provided the assist to Scott Sealy’s goal in the 51st minute.  Within a minute, Dallas went down to 10 men after Zach Lloyd received his 2nd yellow card of the day.  They nearly hung on for a much needed win, but Portland’s Jack Jewsbury evened the score in the 79th minute and in the process snapped his team’s five-game losing streak.

In the final match of the weekend, the Seattle Sounders served up a 4-0 thrashing to the recently resurgent LA Galaxy.  They got on the scoreboard early, with Eddie Johnson scoring in the 6th minute, and kept right on scoring until the 88th minute, when Andy Rose put an exclamation point on the game with his first career goal.  Fredy Montero and Alex Caskey, also with his first career goal, scored  in the 52nd and 61st minutes.  The Sounders extended their unbeated streak to 6 games while snapping LA’s 5 game unbeaten streak.

Image courtesy of mlssoccer.com

Do you love Saturdays as much as I do? Sleeping in, getting some brunch, and then a full slate of MLS and international friendlies to kick back and watch. Right now I’m watching Red Bulls-Union, with the big headline being Sebastian Le Toux’s first match against his old club. MLSSoccer.com has the story on how Union players feel about their old teammate playing for their biggest Eastern Conference rival.

It may be taking the influx of international clubs and national teams on U.S. soil for summer friendlies, but the media’s ears are finally starting to perk up and realize that soccer is actually pretty popular on this side of the pond and bringing in profits. More news on that from NBC’s ProSoccer Talk below.

Plus, more on Brek Shea’s troubles, and why keeping Shea off the field right now might be the best thing for his future.

International Friendlies

From the World Football Challenge to international friendlies on U.S. soil between top clubs abroad and even national teams “the high season of highly profitable friendlies is upon us,” writes NBC’s Pro Soccer Talk, and the media is – finally – all over it.

As a case-study in the increasing media interest in these games, tonight’s passing and trapping from Toyota Park will be live-blogged, and how about that?

A few years ago, a team like Aston Villa could have come over to the United States, and the only media mention would be the maddeningly cliché “Fans like them some soccer” story in the local paper.

Washington Post’s Soccer Insider has a list of all of this summer’s friendlies on North American soil.

Major League Soccer

Sebastian Le Toux takes the field for the Red Bulls this afternoon for the first time against his former club, Philadelphia Union. And his old teammates say that Le Toux’s presence on their Eastern Conference rival’s squad will add even greater motivation to win.

“I think it will be a little more intense,” center back Amobi Okugo said. “I know some fans are still upset with the way he left and everything. But we forgot about that. And now that he’s a New York Red Bull, we’re not going to play him lightly or anything just because he’s our old friend.”

The Red Bulls aren’t done wheeling and dealing since the Le Toux trade. Today they traded forward Quincy Amarikwa to Toronto for a conditional draft pick.

Le Toux’s not the only Frenchman switching clubs:

Toronto FC have acquired French forward Eric Hassli from the Vancouver Whitecaps in exchange for a first-round pick in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft and an international roster slot, the clubs announced Friday.

“Adding a player of Eric’s ability gives an immediate improvement to our club,” said Toronto FC head coach and director of soccer operations Paul Mariner in conference call. “He has had a lot of success in this league and we are pleased to bring him to Toronto.”

With the addition of Scottish DP forward Kenny Miller and the emergence of rookie Darren Mattocks, Hassli found himself increasingly relegated to the bench in Vancouver, though Whitecaps head coach Martin Rennie admitted the decision to trade the player was not an easy one.

Yesterday we reported on Brek Shea’s recent struggles, and it looks even more like Shea may need some more time away from the field before he can control his emotional outbursts. ProSoccerTalk reported this morning that Shea was dismissed from practice on Friday and could be held out of Dallas’s match with Portland this evening. Manager Schellas Hyndman is no stranger to this type of situation, having dealt with a similar issue with now New York Red Bull Dax McCarty a few years back:

McCarty was benched for his attitude and for general grousing about. Hyndman was still new as FC Dallas’ manager, and he was giving minutes to players who were clearly lesser talented.

The coach was taking a lot of public criticism for it, too. People wondered if the longtime college coach simply didn’t recognize the kind of talent it took to perform professionally.

But Hyndman told me privately at the time that McCarty’s attitude was awful. The coach told me that he could “deal with the problem right now, or that he’d be dealing with it later.”

Long story short, McCarty shaped up, and look at that guy now; he’s having a sensational season for the Red Bulls. McCarty has told me since that he was young and being a brat and needed to be benched.

English Premier League

The rumors about Clint Dempsey to Liverpool continue to heat up, as the Daily Mail today reported that Liverpool could be looking to sweeten the pot for Fulham with midfielder Charlie Adam in exchange for Dempsey’s services. Think we’ll see Dempsey in a Liverpool kit back in the States this summer?

Follow @AerysSoccer on Twitter for more commentary on this weekend’s MLS matchups, international friendlies, and of course, transfer rumors!

Hey footy fans! It’s been a crazy Friday and if you’re like us, you’re catching up on the headlines for calling it a night or going out to party. Luckily for you, we’ve got all your big headlines of the day right here! It’s your Friday late night Daily Kick Around!

MLS

If you follow MLS, then you probably know that Brek Shea hasn’t had such a good season. That’s an understatement. Last year, people were saying that Shea was the next big thing in American soccer. What has happened since? Maybe there was too many high expectations for him. The fact that he’s missed 76 training sessions this year doesn’t help. One thing that might help is a change of scenery. Looking on twitter, it seems there is a lot of  fans who would like to see Shea go to LA Galaxy, including myself.

New York Red Bulls will be missing key players on Saturday against Philadelphia Union.  Heath Pearce, Rafa Marquez, and Ryan Meara will all miss tomorrow’s games due to injuries.

Vancouver Whitecaps have traded Eric Hassli to Toronto FC in exchange for a first round pick in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft. Vancouver will also have a spot open for a DP and for an international roster spot.

La Liga

Last year, Sergio Canales went on loan to Valencia from Real Madrid. It looks like Valencia has decided to buy Canales for this upcoming season. Joining him will be Fernando Gago, a Real Madrid player who was on loan with Roma last season.

EPL

The Robin Van Persie transfer drama continues.  I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t wait for all this to be over. Three clubs are after him- Manchester City, Manchester United, and Juventus. I’d rather see him go to Juventus, I don’t think City needs him and I don’t want to see him joining United.

Euo 2012

UEFA has fined Italy’s Antonio Cassano for using what they consider a slur during a press conference during the Euro games this past June.

It’s late and we know you’re probably watching the Sounders vs Chelsea in the World Football Challenge, so we’ll keep this one short and sweet today!

To kick off, we’ve got some news about Liverpool’s interest in poaching Clint Dempsey from Fulham. If you missed today’s MLS matches, we’ve got the highlights, including the Fire getting overheated in New York, and something that’s never happened to the Union at home! And finally, who doesn’t love off-day video footage of the U.S. Women’s National Team goofing around?

English Premier League

The buzz around Clint Dempsey’s next whereabouts continue, with ESPN reporting that Liverpool is interested in the Fulham striker’s services. The club is tight lipped with any more info than that and will not comment on any of the rumors swirling around about a loan of Andy Carroll:

“Clint is a player we’ve enquired about, it is as simple as that,” Rodgers said. “Ian Ayre, our managing director, has spoken with the club to see what the position is. That is where we’re at.

“He’s a very talented player but we don’t like to talk about other clubs’ players.”

The waiting game continues…

 MLS

The Fire couldn’t stand the heat today, as they fell 1-0 to the Red Bulls in an afternoon game in New York, where temperatures were well into the 90s. Thierry Henry provided the winner in the 70th minute.

Philadelphia Union dropped their first home international friendly to Aston Villa tonight at PPL Park. Villa will head to Chicago this weekend and Portland next Tuesday on their pre-season tour.

The Dynamo continued their torrid run with their unbeaten streak running to nine games now. Led by a brace from Calen Carr, they bested Sporting KC, 2-1, tonight at home.

The Revolution won’t want to return to Canada anytime soon, after falling to the Impact 2-1 today and remaining winless in the Great White North. Watch highlights of Sanna Nyassi’s go-ahead volley in the  67th minute.

U.S. Women’s National Team

We’re just one week before the kickoff of the London 2012 women’s football tournament and defending gold medalists USWNT hard at training in England. But it can’t be work all the time. The ladies took a break one day for a round of golf. U.S. Soccer captured all the hijinks on their YouTube channel.

Women’s Professional Soccer

A new women’s professional soccer league is coming in 2013 (so we hear…), but after the initial hype, the media coverage is bound to be pretty low. Equalizer Soccer’s Jeff Kassouf writes that the next incarnation of a pro league will have to do a better job of producing its own media — digitally — and looks to MLS as an example:

In 2009 MLS completely changed its digital strategy. The league dropped MLB Advanced Media as its platform and MLSnet.com became MLSsoccer.com, a change not only in name but in tone. (Read more in at nysportsjournalism.com.)

MLSsoccer.com suddenly became the online landing spot for news, video and written content covering not only the premier U.S. league but soccer abroad as well. Most interestingly, the site began to break news on its own league and feature content critical of players and managers. It was discussion, it was engaging and it’s drawing more eyeballs than ever.

MLS

It’s a busy weekend for the MLS and last night was no exception. Today’s big match ia between the NY Red Bulls – Seattle Sounders but first here’s the scores from yesterday!

Crew 0-2 Sporting KC

Rapids 1-2 FC Dallas

SJ Quakes 5-0 RSL

Timbers 3-5 Galaxy

Union 2-1 Impact

New England 0-1 Toronto FC

 FIFA

FIFA is corrupted, who knew!! Today, FIFA president Sepp Blatter suggested that Germany was given the 2006 World Cup through bribery. Blatter stated that during the voting process, someone got up and left the room and that an unnamed football association attempted to bribe him in 1986.

Serie A

Roma have confirmed the signing of Michael Bradley (son of former USMNT coach Bob Bradley) from Chievo  for €3.75 million with a contract good until 2016.

World Football

Ever wonder who made it to the Top 10 Most Expensive Defenders of all time? Goal.com put out their list (which you can read here) of who they think are the most over-paid men standing in the backline.

Image courtesy of LA Galaxy’s official Web site.

The LA Galaxy game held on the Fourth of July should’ve been a great day for us LA fans, but we were disappointed by our team’s result.  After LA won 3 games in a row a few weeks ago, it looked like the old LA Galaxy was back – the one from 2011. Then LA lost to San Jose last week and that brought LA fans back down to earth. This week, we thought LA could get a win against Philadelphia, a team that had only won 3 games before this one. Unfortunately, Union left the Home Depot Center with all 3 points.

Coming into this game, there were mixed feelings. Some people were sure LA could get a win, others, not so much. One thing that everyone was happy about was Omar Gonzalez’s return. Not only was this was his first game of the season, it was also his first start of the season. In January, he went to train with Nurnberg. On the first day of training, he collided with occasional USMNT defender Timmy Chandler and tore his ACL. He was set to be out 7-9 months. When LA’s season started, and they were losing, people were saying the reason for all the losses were him not playing. He recently started training again and surprised a lot of people when it was announced that he’d be playing.

With his return, it almost seemed like there was no way LA could lose. At least, that’s what LA fans thought. LA started off just like they had against San Jose. They had a few chances to score early in the game. There was also another missed handball that the ref missed. LA should’ve been rewarded a penalty early on, but just like in the San Jose game, the ref did nothing about it. It was scoreless for most of the first half. It wasn’t until almost HT that Philadelphia scored and ended the half one up on LA.

Gonzalez was subbed out at the beginning of the second half and was replaced by Sean Franklin. I thought Gonzalez did a good job. With him, the defense seemed a little better than before. But when he was subbed out, it was shaky again. It wasn’t until the 73rd minute that LA scored a goal, the equalizer coming from substitute Chad Barrett. It looked like LA was going to settle for the draw. At the end of regulation time, however, the ref decided to add 6 minutes of extra time. In those 6 minutes, Philadelphia scored yet again, to the disappointment of all the Galaxy fans at the HDC. The game ended 2-1 Philadelphia.

So LA lost again. While having Gonzalez back for the team is great, the defense isn’t the only problem with LA’s team. Our attack needs more work. The team had 9 corners, but weren’t able to take advantage. LA also had 16 shots and 6 of those were on goal. With all these chances, it’s a little worrying that LA was only able to score one goal. One thing that some people think is important in games is possession. Well, LA had approx. 56% possesion and that didn’t help them at all. I need to give the Philadelphia keeper, Zac MacMath credit though. He made 5 saves last night. LA’s next game is on Sunday against Chicago Fire.

Okay, we don’t know about you guys, but the Euro 2012 have not only fired us, but our computers decided it would be cool to just, you know, not work too. But now we’re back! And we’re pretty excited because there has been SO much going on in the footy world. Mangers are coming and going in the EPL, Euro 2012 is battling racism unfortunately and tons more. Here’s your Thursday Daily Kick Around!

Grygoriy Surkis, president of the Ukraine soccer body, said the racism threat was overblown in Ukraine and urged everyone to turn their attention from politics to sports.
“There can be individual cases of racism in Ukraine stadiums and that needs to be stopped,” Surkis said Tuesday. “But it is important we focus on the most important thing – football … We should not keep talking about racism in Ukrainian football. The tournament is about football, not politics.” 

I know everyone is probably emotionally exhausted from Survival Sunday, but while the Brits slept, we Americans had to soldier on and face two MLS matches before we could call it a day.  For me personally, the San Jose Earthquakes v. Chivas USA proved a fittingly frustrating end to an already agitating day that saw Manchester City win the Premiership (sorry City fans!).

Chivas’ 19-year old Jose Correa, in his first MLS start, put his team up in the 4th minute.  While the Quakes dominated play after this point, with 62.5% possession and 24 attempts on goal to Chivas’ 5, it took them a full 84 minutes to equalize on a gorgeous Alan Gordon header.  Once again, Frank Yallop earned his paycheck by making the right substitutions at the right time, as it was fellow sub Sam Garza who set up Gordon’s goal.

While the players and fans were glad to come away with at least a point, the exasperation was evident as Referee Ricardo Salazar made some seemingly inexplicable calls and non-calls, and a few Chivas players appeared to spend more time on the ground than on their feet.  However, credit must be given to the Chivas defense and keeper Dan Kennedy, as they managed to do what few clubs this season have been able to do: shut out Chris Wondolowski.

Despite being held scoreless, Wondo still leads the league in goals scored with 11.  After today’s game, the Quakes are in sole possession of second place behind Real Salt Lake.   It was certainly a frustrating match, and one that the Quakes were pegged to win, but it is by no means the end of the world.  They did well to recover from last week’s loss, and will hope to return to their winning ways when hosting the Columbus Crew next Saturday.

–

In the day’s other game, the Philadelphia Union fell to the visiting New York Redbulls 2-3 after seeing an on-fire Freddy Adu sent off for diving.  This win puts New York at the top of the Eastern Conference, finally unseating Sporting Kansas City, and tied for third overall with the Seattle Sounders.

Image courtesy of mlssoccer.com