Ugh. Espn3 was just decimated by beIN Sport. And I doubt there will ever be enough demand for Comcast to add it (can't get satellite in my building). This is the start of a sad season for many American fans. Grant Wahl brought up a great point on Twitter: "Coming to grips with inability to see Spanish & Italian leagues on my provider or online subscription. This is why illegal streams thrive."

Just for the record, the head of the Scottish Premier League AND the head of the Scottish FA support the creation of an SPL-2. It would include Rangers, and then invite the other teams in the SFL 1st Division. Now getting this to actually happen will require a lot of convincing, but this isn't over just yet. As far as people asking why Rangers weren't saved by a new owner given their potential earnings, it's because HMRC (gov't tax authorities) wouldn't agree to any plan that involved someone taking over Rangers. Mainly because they want a full criminal investigation. Also, the estimated tax debt ALONE could have been over £100 million. Personally, I agree with today's decision. The fundamental fact is that Rangers that played for all those years don't EXIST anymore. Sure, I feel bad for their fans in the same way that I feel bad for basketball fans in Seattle. But there have to be repercussions for club's actions. And if this decimates Scottish football, then so be it. It's ridiculous that a country that small has 4 professional divisions anyway.

As any season ticket holder in ANY sport can tell you, if you watch the guys enough, especially when they're not playing, you'll eventually pick out who's dogging it. Agudelo flat out dogs it at times. I've heard coaches yell at him for it before. They're not doing it for their health. But I still said he's got a ton of talent. Great instincts. THAT'S why Klinsmann brings him in, as he should. And I'm sure when the spotlight's on, like it always is for the Nats, he gives 100% all the time. But the only way he gets better is if he does that ALL the time, for club AND country.

Good deal for the Red Bulls. *IF* Agudelo develops he'd quickly go to Europe (ala Jozy) anyway. Listen, I would LOVE to see Agudelo develop into an excellent player. But I watched him for two years... and he's got lousy training habits. Obviously I don't get to see him in closed door practices. But my tickets are right where the subs warm up, and Agudelo always coasted while warming up. He was always lackadaisical in pregame warm ups and in open practices, too. I'm firmly convinced the reason Rodgers started over him was that he out WORKED Agudelo. That has to change, and maybe this will be the catalyst that starts it. Great talent, needs more dedication.

Well said. The backlash against "Euro snobs" has created a larger group of MLS snobs who are just as bad. I mean, I don't expect a LOT of balance from comment threads, but could we at least get a little?

Please. The vast amount of pro-Henry comments I've seen are that the incident when handled by a strong ref would be a yellow. Yes, by strict letter of the law it's red. But any good ref knows that this penny-ante garbage off the ball happens ALL the time. Henry did not "drop a knee" into Espinosa-- he ran into the dude. Intentionally? Sure. But it was a very minor incident. Literally HUNDREDS of times I've seen refs in European leagues give players a strict talking to and a booking for stuff like that. Does Henry deserve blame for putting himself in that position? Yup. But with better refs (which is a major problem for the USSF) it doesn't become a major incident. The game moves on and the players get to play.

He didn't say "Ireland got screwed out of a trip to the WC" he said they got "screwed over in WC qualifying." Meaning they got screwed out of a *fair shot* of qualifying. That's indisputable. Of course there are no guarantees-- in fact, France would have been favorites even if it had gone to penalties. But a truly egregious non-call took away even that chance. And why would people stop bitching about it? They're still bitching about the Hand of God, and that was 25 years ago. Such is sports.

Brutal. I just feel awful for him. Can anyone remember a promising young player who had this many long term injuries and went on to have a good career? Cause I can't, and it's thoroughly depressed me.

Donovan could start at Arsenal. He could play the same role for them that he did for Everton, i.e. take over Arshavin's spot and do it better. Arshavin has been in terrible form for a long time now, Donovan OR Dempsey would be an improvement. And while neither has the speed of Walcott, both bring things to the table that Walcott does not (Landon's final ball is much better than Theo's, and Deuce is way better in the air.) I don't know if either could unseat Gervinho from the pecking order (haven't seen enough), but at the very least they'd be heavily in the rotation for either of the two winger roles in the 4-3-3. And that means they could see 30+ matches for a Champions League club. Of course, this is all theoretical, since MLS isn't letting Landon go anywhere, but I think they'd be the two US players who could make it.

Honestly, I think his biggest challenge with adapting to Serie A will be on the defensive side. Positional defending and proper man-marking is pretty much a religion in Italy. Bradley has a bad habit of relying on hustle to make up for errors in that area. And defensive mistakes will piss off an Italian manager a lot quicker than a lack of on the ball flair. But hopefully he takes this chance to improve his game and earn some playing time. I'm not sure how many more shots he'll get.

Mike, forgive me, but you don't know what you're talking about. Do you realize how often this club has had fantastic crowds in their history? Do you have any idea how many great crowds they had in their first few seasons? If a club screws over their potential fanbase THAT often, for THAT long, you only have to expect that it'll be a long, hard road to win them back. There are 19 MILLION people in this area, pretty sure there's some possible MLS fans.

Settle down Ricky, it's still early in this season. This team will eventually average more than 20k. Keep in mind they had more than a decade of terribly inconsistant performances, and an awful stadium to watch soccer in, and a really bad relationship with their fans. It's gonna take a few years to heal that. But Red Bull NA have made the right choices, so it'll eventually happen.

Well, not really. McBride spent two years in Germany starting at 22 before MLS began. Yeah, he mostly road the pine, but he was training full time as a professional, which had to impact his development. And Deuce was just about to turn 24. But your larger point is true. Most success stories are players who don't go overseas until they've got a few years of development. In the MLS era, the only player to go overseas and succeed before they turned 20 was Bradley... and seeing how his career has come off the tracks now he really isn't a strong example.

The weather seems to be awful in a lot of the US. I'm headed to Red Bull Arena tonight, and I'll be positively shocked if there's more than 5k in attendance.

Good thing there's promotion/relegation battles and cup competitions... because the title chases in England, Spain and Italy are OVER.

Watching this Crew-Red Bulls match on MSG, and I'm really impressed with Glen Davis as a play-by-play guy. Not a lot of results come up when googling him-- where's he worked before?

The last time MLS tried a stunt like this was with Andrew Shue. And Shue looked totally lost, even though he played soccer in college and semi-pro in Zimbabwe just 6 years before his MLS attempt. No way Chad can hold his own after not playing for almost two decades.

OM vs St Etienne. Boca's playing.

Any streamers out there use the vshare plugin? I'm finding it more and more common, but I'm hesitant to trust it. Any opinions?

According to the BBC, Blackburn's local sponsor awarded him the MOTM. And Steve Kean had high praise for him after the match.

Red Bulls also had 1 clear penalty and another very close one denied. Ref let everything go in that match. That being said, the match was certainly not "far from boring." Both teams were satisfied with that draw. It was cagey, and reminded me a lot of Serie A matches from days gone by. But for the average fan there wasn't a lot going on.

I've been playing soccer video games for over 20 years now, and as a former Pro Evo fan I couldn't disagree with you more. Pro Evo WAS a great game, and more realistic and rewarding than the FIFA series. But it really stagnated. FIFA 09 passed Pro Evo and the subsequent additions have expanded on that lead. FIFA is now much more realistic, polished and just FEELs more like soccer. Almost all of the critics agree with that take, btw, so it's not just first timers or FIFA fanboys.

This is getting ridiculous. Regardless of the CCL's faults, THIS is where you show how good your league is. Meaningless friendlies against European clubs during their preseason garner us no respect. You have to show up when the matches against clubs from other leagues actually MATTER. I'm sick of this kind of performance.

It's a very big problem, considering the Spanish economy. Banks are really starting to tighten up with their lending to sports clubs, because there's no guarentee that the huge revenues of years ago will come back anytime soon. And keep this in mind: if Barca don't significantly reduce their operating debt by 2012-13, no Champions League for them. That'd be a huge loss. So expect to see major earners shipped out the door in the next 2 seasons, and replaced by young players on lower wages.

The constant use of the term "Eurosnob" on this site has gotten FAR more snobbish than the few people who are unreasonable in their love of European soccer.