Where Will Ribery Go???

According to soccernet.com, it seems Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery is very much in demand these days. Supposedly Chelsea, Barcelona, and Manchester United have all tabled bids for his services, with Real Madrid possibly doing the same. Personally i'd like to see him go to Barcelona because then it will be even more fun to watch them destroy teams 200-1 with their beautiful passing game. Don't really want him to go to the EPL though, cause then I'll have to watch him tear up my baby gunners 4 times a year.

I'll leave with a highlight tape of his so the uninformed can know what type of skill these teams would be paying for...........enjoy:

You Too Can Have Ibrahimovic for 90 Million Euros!

You too can have Zlatan Ibrahimovic on your team.............so long as you have 90 million euros or about $124 million. Just so you can see what you would be paying for, check out this cheeky back heel golazo that he pulled off against Atalanta a couple weeks ago. Is that worth 90 million euro? We'll see..

Schalke's Jermaine Jones to Play for USA?

According to the associated press out of Germany, Schalke midfielder Jermaine Jones is switching allegiances to play for the US national team, effective August '09. Personally I know nothing about the guy and how good he is but he seems to be getting plenty of minutes for Schalke so he can only help the national team. The only thing is that he plays defensive mid and god knows we need another person in that position. What do you think? Will Jermaine Jones be a great help to Bob Bradley in the future?

Transfer Day: Keane Back to Spurs, Arshavin to Gunners

Transfer deadline day much like trade deadline days for sports in the US, is an exciting day for fans as they see deals go through that will undoubtedly affect the title races in their respective leagues.

In the EPL it's no different as a flurry of activity happened today, the biggest of which involved Robbie Keane and Andrei Arshavin.

In a move that surprised no one, Robbie Keane made his way back to White Heart Lane today. I think everybody knew this was coming after he was left out of the squad for this past weekends game against Chelsea. Another move that everybody expected to go through was the transfer of Andrei Arshavin to Arsenal.

Personally I love this move by Arsenal because his style of play perfectly fits in with Wenger's philosophy and with Fabregras and Rosicky still sidelined, he brings much needed help and creativity to the center of the pitch.

What do you think was the biggest move made today?

Altidore To Xerez on Loan?

According to this report, Jozy Altidore will be heading out on loan to spanish second division side, Xerez. That cheer you hear is from me and several other US Fans who know that this will only fastrack Jozy's development.

This move should earn him more playing time, and lead to him garnering more consideration from Bob Bradley for the upcoming world cup qualifiers this year and the various other competitions(Confederations Cup, Gold Cup) that make up the packed US Mens Team schedule this year.

Hopefully Monaco will also do the right thing and negotiate a loan for Freddy Adu, so the US can have their young talents playing regular minutes abroad(Although god knows why Adu isn't getting minutes on that team).

What do you think? Is this truly the beginning of Altidore's development into a big time player? Or do you think he should stay at Villarreal and fight for a place in the 18 man roster on game day?

Looks More Likely Becks Will Stay In Milan

It's looking increasingly more likely that Becks will turn his loan spell with AC Milan into a permanent move, as Milan are stating they are willing to pay 4.5 million euros in order to secure his services permenantly.

Is anybody really shocked by this? If anything i'm shocked at the low valuation for his services, I figured it would be a lot more expensive than 4.5 mill euros to secure his services, just because of his impact off the field.

Beckham's stay in MLS will have mixed views. He was most certainly a success off the field with record jersey sales, and sold out stadiums. However, on the field he never really fit the description of a designated player in the first place. Beckham is a player who thrives when he has good players around him, and this is showing with his good run of form at Milan right now.
On the field he was not what the DP slot called for, a game changing player. That is more of the role Landon Donovan has played for the Galaxy over the years.

I have no hard feelings against Becks for probably staying with Milan, and hopefully he will serve as an example to other teams who only think about the off-the-field benefits when it comes to DP's.

What do you think? Was his impact as big as expected?

Findley Back To RSL

According to Yanks Abroad, Robbie Findley's trial with Brondby is over and he will be returning to RSL without an offer. That's not to say he didn't impress them though, having scored two goals in their friendly match on Sunday.

So the good news for RSL fans is that he's staying..............for now, as Brondby has admitted that his play was good enough that he would be in consideration if they were to need another striker down the road.

As far as i'm concerned, this right here is the problem with MLS right now. Your getting young, decent american talent which is opting to go overseas and play for teams in scandanavia rather than here presumably because of the money. (Although it could be the women are hotter over there but that's debatable.) The even bigger problem is that when these guys leave there's nobody good enough left to replace them so you end up with mediocre players in MLS starting 11's who bring the total quality of the game down a notch.

MLS really is a frustrating league to follow. What do you think?

Tottenham Sign Cudicini and Chimbonda

Tottenham announced today that they have successfully signed both Pascal Chimbonda, and Carlo Cudicini from Sunderland and Chelsea. In Chimbonda's case I guess he really missed White Hart Lane because he just left only 6 months ago and now he's back. For Cudicini, he was most likely brought in to challenge Gomes for some playing time seeing how Gomes has been in awful form for what seems like forever.

Will these moves keep Spurs outside of the relegation zone this year? I dont know, but if their performance against Man Utd in the FA Cup this past weekend is any indication, they need to shake things up.

Do you think they'll be one of the three to make the drop this year? As a gooner I would love to see it happen but I don't wanna jinx it.

Madrid After Wenger and Fabregas?

New Real Madrid el presidente, Florentino Perez has supposedly promised to deliver Arsene Wenger as the team's manager/GM by this summer. On top of that he also plans to target Cesc Fabregas and Kaka. Ok this is just getting rediculous, if Wenger somehow gets poached away from the gunners I will go apeshit and you will definitely see me on the news for breaking some shit.

People need to stop being jealous of the Gunners beautiful style of football and realize that we haven't won anything significant in sometime. So let us keep our coach who makes us play pretty but permanently keeps us in football trophy purgatory.

P.S. WE WILL BE HOSTING A LIVE CHAT ROOM DURING THE MANU - TOTTENHAM FA CUP GAME THIS SATURDAY STARTING AT 12PM. PLEASE JOIN US AND VOICE YOUR OPINION DURING THE GAME.

Peace Out: Robinho Missing at Citeh

In a not so surprising development, Robinho has gone rogue and has gone back to Brazil for "family problems."

Now If you have any brains at all, then you would totally understand where Robinho is coming from. He's supposedly mad about the team not being able to his friend and national teammate Kaka, but we know the real reason why he's mad.

It's the bathtub full of cocaine money baller status, that's what he wants. Right now he's only on escort agency VIP baller status right now, but he definitely wants to reach the baller plateau that was set forth by Kaka's propsed monster contract. So we'll see how this plays out, I'm sure it will resolve itself when Robinho realizes that he's really not doing that bad money-wise.

Do you think he can help Man City get out of the relegation zone when he comes back from his short sabbatical?

P.S. We will have a preview today of the upcoming Man U - Tottenham FA Cup game this Saturday, and we will be HOSTING THE 1ST EVER ORANGE CARD LIVE CHAT/BLOG DURING THE GAME. STOP BY THE SITE WHILE YOUR WATCHING THE GAME AND COME CHAT WITH ALL THE MANU AND TOTTENHAM FANS. LIVE CHAT!!!
Ok i'm done.

Good Riddance: Reyna Retires

As first reported on Soccer By Ives, Claudio Reyna is finally doing the right thing and retiring.......thus allowing the Red Bulls to purchase a player with his vacant DP spot. I would write a congratulatory post on all of his accomplishments, but seeing as how he didn't wanna take a buyout to help the team he wasn't helping.......I think I'm gonna hold off on that for a while. I think this is like God's b-day present to me since mine is coming up on Friday........I couldn't have asked for a better one unless the Red Bulls go out and buy Henry with the new found DP slot and cap space?????........OK I'm probably pushing it but you never know.........If your around NYC and you see a guy who looks way too happy and is doing a drunken jig then its probably me.......wow, what a great day it is to be a Red Bulls fan.

GAM On His Way To MLS FC

A couple of days ago Steven Goff reported on his Soccer Insider blog that GAM had left US Training camp in order to finalize a deal with MLS FC (Fulham FC), and now it appears that MLS has about $3.2 Million reasons to let him go. Should this move actually go through, Johnson will become approximately the 22nd American born player on their roster. The reason that this move seemingly makes no sense is that Johnson supposedly didn't want to go Derby in the summer because they were like the Raiders of the EPL..........Awful. Extremely awful. But in moving to MLS FC, he has kind of made a lateral move quality-wise. It's like picking the Knicks over the T-Wolves right now as They both suck. Alot. In terms of comparing this to the Twellman situation, I dont see what his problem is as Preston North End isn't exactly a step up from MLS at all except that the Dollar sucks compared to the Euro, Pound and everything else these days.............except for the loonie...............HA!.............take that Canada!

The Orange Card's 2008 Mock Superdraft

It's draft time again, and no other place will give you a more detailed lowdown of what each team is going to do this year. This information comes straight from MLS insiders, so you will find it nowhere else. So without further interruption I give you The Orange Cards first ever mock Superdraft.

1. San Jose – The Earthquakes trade their first pick to the Oakland A’s for third baseman Eric Chavez and a cash considerations. Chavez turns out to have more futbol skills than anybody anticipated, and San Jose uses the cash acquired in the trade to build and extra stand for their stadium which currently fits about 5 people. The A’s pick Patrick Nyarko with the first pick and he becomes the next Rickey Henderson……..without the multiple comeback attempts at the end of his career.

2. FC Dallas – With the second pick of the draft Dallas decides to look towards the future and drafts a lock of hair from Juan Toja’s magical mullet. Dallas explains that they will use Toja’s hair to create 11 Toja clones so they will be able to field an all out hustling, intimidating hair team in the year 2028. Unfortunately even with this formidable lineup they will still fail to win MLS cup XXXII.

3. Real Salt Lake – In quite possibly his most genius move since becoming coach of Real Salt Lake, Jason Kreis trades his pick to the creator of the upcoming movie Cloverfield so he can see what the monster looks like before everybody else, and in turn ruin it for everybody. Outrage from the movie being spoiled causes RSL fans to forcibly remove Kreis from his coaching position, leading to the appointment of a 6 year old in his place that does significantly better as coach and leads them to the playoffs.

4. LA Galaxy – Using his unparalleled genius, Alexi Lalas makes the most shocking pick of the draft, selecting himself with the fourth pick. Alexi champions the selection as the beginning of turning the Galaxy into a world recognized “superclub,” and predicts that this pick will help change their fortunes for the upcoming season.

5. Colorado Rapids – They’ll probably pick defender Chance Meyers from UCLA. They really don’t interest me enough to write anything about them. They’re boring. Really boring.

6. Columbus Crew – The Crew use their pick to select the current president of Argentina (insert name here) so he or she can possibly talk Guillermo Barros Schellotto A.K.A “their whole team” into coming back to Columbus. The president’s talk with Schelotto doesn’t manage to bring him back to the Crew, but it does allow them to ink 3 Patagonian wilderness guides without having to use allocations.

7. New York Red Bulls – In doing what nobody saw coming, the Red Bulls manage to select a player they had already selected in a previous draft by selecting Steve Shak once again. Shak, currently working at a deli in northern New Jersey, was surprised to hear the news as he wasn’t eligible to be drafted in the first place. Shak responded to the exciting news by stating, “I’ll try to be good this time around.”

8. FC Dallas – Having selected for the future with their first pick in the first round, Dallas decides to select Dario Sala’s boxing coach with the 8th pick, hoping that he’ll be able to instill some fire in their players and teach them that mean right hook he taught Sala. Upon hearing this news, Hunter Freeman promptly pees his pants and feigns injury when the Red Bulls play Dallas.

9. Toronto FC – In what could go down as the most complicated draft day trade in history, Mo Johnston trades this pick to LA for the rest of their picks in the draft. He then takes those picks and trades them to the New York Islanders for the rights to Chris Simon. He then trades the rights to Chris Simon to UFC for Rampage Jacksons chain and a million dollars, which he then gives to McDonalds for a lifetime supply of Big Macs. Johnston subsequently uses these Big Macs to lure Ronaldo from AC Milan to Toronto where he scores more goals in one season than Toronto did all last year.

10. Toronto FC – See above.

11. Kansas City – The Wizards use their only pick of the first round to select a witty copywriter to come up with cheesy nicknames for all of their players, so everybody will no longer be jealous of Eddie “Grown Ass Man” Johnson. Some of the hideous nicknames developed for the rest of the players include: Kevin “The Hitman” Hartman, Scott “Im not Eddie Johnson” Sealy, and finally Jose “I use a protractor to cut my hair” Burciaga Jr.

12. Chicago Fire – Chicago uses their pick to buy a terminator to go back in time and prevent Peter Wilt from being fired. Unfortunately for Fire fans Sarah Conner comes out of nowhere and kills the terminator, thus consigning Fire fans to their current fate with Steve Guppy in control.

13. New England – Wanting to break the curse of always losing in MLS cup, the Revs use their pick to select New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick. With his sweatshirt wearing, douchebag way of coaching, Belichick leads the Revs to their first MLS cup. Although they win the title, people still hate them because their coach is a massive tool.

14. Real Salt Lake – With the organization still reeling over Kreis’ decision to use RSL’s previous pick to watch Cloverfield before it comes out, they decide to give the pick to the people of Salt Lake so they can do what they want with it. Unfortunately they trade the pick to secure a public screening of Cloverfield before the movie comes out. Even with the two wasted picks, RSL is still better off because of their new six year old coach who is now at the helm.

Its The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year....

Ahhh. Its January, which means it's a new year and it's the beginning of the season every futbol fan looks forward to all year. Yes.....it's transfer window time, where managers bolster their teams for title runs and bad teams acquire players to upgrade to mediocrity. For my beloved Arsenal, they are challenging for the prem league title and will probably not make any major moves. They just have to keep from being distracted by goldenballs and his freekicks while he trains with them to prepare for the 2008 MLS season. Over in MLS land, several teams are poised to add cheap talent to their rosters: DC might have found the next Erpen, and several rumors have linked the geriatric Figo with LA LA land. If your like me, your anxiously awaiting what this wonderful time of year is going to bring us; but to me it can't be better than George Constanza's answering machine. Random reference I know, but it is too classic to forget..................Enjoy:

NO VERON FOR YOU!

Another twist occurred today in DC United's courtship of Juan Sebastian Veron as he opted to stay in Argentina at the last minute, deciding not to make his way to RFK. Veron was apparently to attached to his home country and his club Estudiantes, to make the move to MLS which I think is a good one for two reasons: 1. I never thought he would be that good in MLS and thought he would be more of a Lothar Matteus than a Cuau Blanco..........and 2. If he did turn out to be playing in fine form and dominating the midfield for DC, that would mean another season of losing to them for the Red Bulls. So I can honestly say that I'm not too saddened by this news, and for DC fans, I'm sure you'll find some lesser known latin player who will shred the league again.

Boswell Traded to Champs; Perkins on His Way To Norway?

2006 MLS defender of the year Bobby Boswell, was traded to back to back MLS champs Houston Dynamo for their backup goalkeeper Zach Wells and a 2009 pick. Boswell dropped off in form this year and his defensive mistakes will be missed by me and other Red Bulls fans as they cost DC points, and thats always a nice thing to see as a RB fan. In Zach Wells DCU is getting a starting quality goalkeeper whose salary is alot less than Troy Perkins'(who is supposedly heading to Norway), clearing cap room for some player additions down the road. All this is happening while the Red Bulls sit idly, not making any changes to a team that crashed out of the playoffs again for about the 75th year in a row......and speaking of the Red Bulls, when is construction on Red Bull Park going to start? Honestly, this is getting old people.

Aaaand were back.......

It's been a long time folks...........i've been gone for a while and missed a few things. The Dynamo won the cup.........again. RSL's version of bridgeview stadium is coming along nicely.....and DC looks set to sign Juan Sebastian Veron and lose Christian Gomez. But ultimately none of this matters one bit to me because the Red Bulls lost in the playoffs again. I think we all knew it was over when the player who nobody likes, Jay Heaps, managed to almost drive his knee straight through Juan Pablo Angel's skull, giving him a concussion......But i can honestly say that i wasn't pissed as that as i was at the waste of space Claudio Reyna has become whenever he steps on the field. If he isnt willing to re-negotiate his contract to that of a developmental players, then he should accept a buyout because he is really killing this team now. Yes, he does the "little things" well, but im sure that fans would appreciate a dash of "big things" now and then like, I dont know..............how about assists maybe? Goals would be appreciated too, Claudio.

FC Dallas Introducing Player Who Performs Meaningful Stepovers, Today At 1PM ET

FC Dallas is going to formally introduce the league's latest DP signing today, the brazilian stepover king, Denilson. I think this is a welcome addition to MLS for multiple reasons: 1. He can teach MLS players how to properly do a stepover. 2. If everybody on Dallas comes back healthy and plays to their potential, they could probably have the best midfield MLS has ever seen.......and finally #3. With all the talent on this team, they might not actually choke so badly in the playoffs, and an MLS cup final would'nt be out of the question for the hoops this year. Hopefully Dallas can go all the way this year, something which would go a long way towards establishing a larger fan base in the frisco area.

"The Future Is What You Make It...So Make It A Good One."

I offer this poignant quote from Back To The Future 3(awesome movie btw) to one Jozy Altidore, who according to a writer at Yahoo sports, is the future of US soccer. I happen to agree with him that the 6'1 175 pound 17 year old, could in fact become the world class striker that american soccer fans have yearned for so long. There is no question in my mind that he can become a world class talent should he keep a level head and keep working hard in games, unlike another american striker......*cough* Eddie Johnson *cough*. Personally I think that the higher ups at Red Bull over in Austria will do whatever they can to keep Jozy a Red Bull through the opening of Red Bull Park. Although some people may doubt the quality of football played in MLS, you cant doubt the talent of a 17 year old who is part of the best strike force in MLS, and I have a feeling that not many european clubs will be doubting his talents come this January transfer window.

Denilson To Hoops Back On - Stepovers Invade Dallas

As if FC Dallas needed to get any better, MLS Rumors is reporting that Denilson to the hoops is a done deal and a press confrence is going to be held next week. If this move goes through, and Denilson poops all over the opposition like everybody thinks he can, then Dallas has to be considered a front runner for the cup provided everybody can stay healthy and continue their current form. On another note, Denilson also brings his famous stepovers with him to Dallas which actually serve to fool the defender unlike say, Frankie Hejduk, who's stepovers are just about as good as Britney Spears' parenting skills.