FIFA Narrows Down World Player of Year Candidates To ...

C. Ronaldo from Manchster United and Portugal, Kaka from AC Milan and Brazil, and Messi from Barcelona and Argentina.

I think these choices are good and well deserved. I can't think of any other person that should be in the last list. These three are absolutly the best players that have been very instrumental in both their club teams and their national teams.

C. Ronaldo is a young fast magician. His ball control and his speed are amazing and he is getting better and better in passing and free kicks. He has scored some essential and winning goals for Manchester United and at this point, he is the winning card of the red devils.

Messi is another great player that currently plays for Barcelona and Argentina. He is also key players for both teams that teams can't do without. His new title is Messidona mainly because of his technique and also scoring a goal with his hand last year against Getafe.

Kaka, is THE PLAYER for Brazil and AC Milan right now. With AC Milan under performing and Ronaldinio from Brazil now shinning like before, Kaka is standing out for both teams.

He is also my choice for the world POY award. His style of play fits all type of players and all teams. He is not much of a dribbles like C. Ronaldo or much of goal scorer like Messi, but he is absolutely THE BEST PLAY MAKER in the world right now. His speed with ball is amazing, and his passing ability and play making are next to none.

If the POY select committee in FIFA do their homework correctly, they will realize C. Ronaldo is too young to be the next World Player of the Year and Messi has not been very consistent. Kaka is the type of player that should be the WPOY award. He score goals, he makes great passes, he is fast, he has great and humble personality, and he has class.

Asian Player of the Year (POY) Award

Yasser Al-Qahtani from Saudi Arabia won the Asian Player of the Year award Wednesday and while discussing this issue on Iranian soccer forum Irankicks.com, an Iraqi member brought up a very valid point. Since Iraq won the Asian cup and since traditionally AFC POY are given to best palyer of the team that wins the title, this POY award should have gone to Younus Mahmood from Iraq.

Younis Mahmoud was also my choice because was very instrumental to Iraq's win of Asian Cup 2007. Yasser Al-Qahtani is a great and consistent player but according to traditions of AFC in the past, should have gone to Younis Mahmoud from Iraq. This has raised some concern around the Asian soccer fan community on how AFC decided to change the tradition and the system to pick the POY. I ran into this great and well put article on this issue and the poor system of AFC on goal.com by John Duerden who is the Asian editor of that site. Click here to read his article.

LA Galaxy Loses to Sydny FC but Beckham Bails Himself Out

LA Galaxy lost 5-3 to Sydney FC, and showed how MLS is behind other leagues but David Beckham bailed himself out by scoring his trademark goal, a free kick outside 18 yard.

Here is his goal clip I found on youtube.



If you are a David Beckham fan, you can buy your David Beckham Soccer Jersey on sale at Soccer Nation.

Jose Mourinho also Expresses Interest in England Job

According to Fox Sports, beside Klinsman who said he could be interested in England job, Jose Mourinho seems to be also interested in the job.

"You will have to speak to the FA to see if they are interested in offering me the job" he told to the Sun reporters after asking him if he was interested in the job. Jose Mourinho has been without a job since he left Chelsea.

I personally think he would NOT be the right choice for England. One can be a great club coach but that does not necessarily qualify him for national team coach. I have read alot on Jose and he is the type of coach who wants to be in constant control of his player, training them to adapt to his style of play. That is very possible when you are coaching a club team because you have the players you want every day of the week, year around. But in national teams, you only see your players a few days before the big game and then you have to work your tactical magic to lead the team to get results you want.

Jose however has one advantage. He has coached current England national team players like John Terry and Frank Lampared and is aware of their potentials and weaknesses. But my choice is still Klinsman who has better success record coaching a national team. Germany national team in fact! He brought out a losing team into an attacking style winner team that reserved the third place in the world cup.

More to come...

Iran May Have a German Coach

According to Goal.com and other sources, Winfried Schafer the German coach who coached Cameroon national team is close to deal with Iranian Football Federation (IFF) to be first Germany coach for Iranian national team. The other candidates Vanderlei Luxemburgo and Peter Reid have been reported to have rejected the offer.

IFF currently does not have a president, more verifiable news are expected to be available after IFF election.

England will play Croatia AGAIN

According to Associated Press, it seems that England will have to face Croatia again for World Cup 2010 qualification. After failing to qualify for Euro 2008, England lost their first spot seeding and fell into second spot, where they were seeded in the same group as Croatia. While the Croatians are happy to get England again, the Coratian coach is not very happy about it.

He said "It is a very, very hard draw because they are by far the best team from the second pot. The only team I wanted to avoid was England. We are not afraid of them, but they have got a terrific team and brilliant players. They should jell and they are going to jell".

On the Asian side, South Korea and North Korea will face each other for qualification, although South Korea is the favoirate, but due to political differences, the teams often try to avoid each other.

US also have a great chance to face Cuba, as we all know, two countries are at political odds.


But this could be a good thing, it has always been said sports usually bring nations together, and in world cup 1998, this came through. Iran and USA met in world cup finals, and despite all tensions, the players played a fair and freindly game, even took pictures together and exchanged gifts.

Here is a picture of that game. I watched it live and it is a memory I will never forget:

and here is the youtube clip of the came...enjoy

Klinsmann Interested in England Job

According to Sky Sports Jurgen Klinsmann maybe interested in England job if the conditions are right.

Klinsman is among one of the favorite soccer coaches among England soccer fans because os his success at Tottenham Spurs and his ability to turn Germany, a dying soccer power back on power trail, and lead them to third place in world cup 2006.

Klinsman has said that "the conditions must be suitable" in order for him to take the job. He currently lives in beautiful and sunny southern California and is involved in US youth soccer programs. Klinsman was offered the job for both Los Angeles Galaxy and US national team, which he refused since he could not agree to terms.

More to come ...

Euro 2008 without England: Who to Blame?

England failure to qualify to Euro 2008 has put a lot of blame on the coach and as the result he was sacked. However I believe the blame should go beyond himI believe the following people should be blamed for England soccer team’s failure and loss to Croatia:

1. England Coach McClaren for wrong arrangements: Wrong tactics, suddenly benching Beckman and Robinson, and not having a well thought of plan. English players were lost, their defense was weak, Carson their goalkeeper did not belong there, and David Beckham came in too late.
2. The FA: Because they cut Erricsson’s contract short because of his personal life and media pressure. English media and general English public did not like not having a non English coach who was from Sweden.
3. The Players: England has major issue when it comes to players. They key players are often injured for key games, or out of fitness. In this game, Rooney, Owen, and John Terry were inured. Beckham just recover from a long injury and Robinson was out of fitness. Also England players lack modern soccer creativity and play similar to each other, hence they become too predictable.
4. English Media and fans: Often too much pressure is put on England players, coaches, and FA officials from the fans. England media and fans put too much pressure on FA to sack Erickson who was a great coach. Also big coaches are always afraid to take the England job because of heavy Media and fan pressure and their biased and unfair criticism.
5. Egos and Arrogance: English fans and players are often a bit too arrogant and not realistic enough about their true stand in the world and their true abilities. Let’s face it, most of top English Premier League teams such as Chelsea and Arsenal often play without even one English born player. And England national team does not have players like Zidane, Ronaldino, Messi, Kaka, or C. Ronaldo.

Ok I am going to stop here. I know there is probably enough critisizm going on at England team and I just wanted to make sure that blame goes beyond just their coach!

Good luck to England in future

by the way here is the highlight of the game on you tube:

A Big Mistake: Beckham to be Benched Against Croatia

According to various reports, it seems that Mr. Steve McClaren who is currently coaching England national team, may bench Beckham for the Croatia game.
The motives are unknown but unless McClaren has something in his sleeve, this could be a big mistake that could cost England the Euro 2008 and certainly McClaren his job and his reputation.

Just a couple days ago, in a friendly game against Austria, it was off Beckham's cross that Peter Crouch was able to score the only goal of the game. With Michael Owen and Rooney being injured again, it is up to the tall striker, Peter Crouch to score goals.And who is better to send high crosses for this tall striker other than David Beckham?

After McClaren dropped Beckham after the world cup, he saw better that he could not get any result without him. That's why he invited him back to England national team. And he is about to make another mistake again by benching him. Unless he has some tactical tricks up his sleeve, I think is making a huge McClaren by Benching David Beckham.

Found it!

I came across this soccer video on YouTube a year or so ago. Nike soccer triecks and I looked all over and found it again so I thought I share.

And I love the song too, it is called "guns are drawn by the roots"

enoy

Home Grown Talents Solution for MLS

Houston Dynamos winning the MLS cup for the second year in a row proved current MLS strategy is wrong! This strategy that is based on brining more people to the stadiums by brining over paid soccer players such as over paid David Beckham, the Brazilian start Danielson who is over his peak, and the Mexican stat Blanko,

Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against these players. I enjoy watching David Beckham bending it, Danielson dribbling through 3 players, and Blanko put up a good show. But these people are only individuals who are past their peak and won’t be able to bring up the MLS quality of match and therefore average soccer fans would prefer to watch regular EPL, Serie A, or La Liga game over MLS games.

MLS is reaching out to people wrong. They need to improve the quality of the game but investing in home grown players, better coaches, better facilities (soccer stadiums as oppose to NFL football stadiums), better media contract, and better marketing strategy that has long term goal in mind.

Soccer is a growing sport in US, but is has its own speed of growth. And I believe MLS needs to grow with the sport and not rush this growth for sake of money or brining people to the stadiums. Start with home grown talents, give them what they need, and let them lead the soccer in this country.

MLS Cup at LA for 2008

It seems that MLS cup will be at LA for the third time past 6 years. Regardless of who the contenders will be, LA will host the MLS cup of 2008, which could give competitive edge to David Beckham's LA Galaxy if they make it that far.


I can only think there is two reasons MLS has decided this move.
1. The Home Deport Center in Carson city is a nice soccer specific stadium that is capable of hosting this cup without worrying about NFL games being scheduled on the same day and stadium.

2. Media Attention: MLS is often pretty successful in filling up the stadium for that day but not so very successful to get better media attention. Well with LA Galaxy, the new home of David Beckham, hosting the MLS cup, that problem could be solved.

Absolute and Unquestionable Dominance

Today while working at the Soccer Store, I got the chance to watch the Euro 2008 qualifying game between Sweden and Spain.

What I saw today was absolute and unquestionable dominance by Spain. And that is something that you don’t see often from this team. Unlike the usual, the Spanish team was in synch and worked greatly as a team. They work totally as a team, they had a plan, they implemented, and they scored three goals while being in complete control of the game.

Sweden had absolutely nothing to offer. They rarely had any chances (with exception of one offside goal by Ibrahimovic). If the Spanish side remains consistent, they may well be a contender for the 2008 Euro title.

Michael Owen Injured Again

In a friendly win against Austria, England's striker Michael Owen was injured after straining his hamstring. This injury put a dent in England's hopes to qualify for the Euro 2008 tournament even after Israel beating the Russians in a beautiful game in which Israel played a counter attack style of the game to beat Russia which gave would help England to qualify.

It is very noticeable that Michael Owen has been injured many times in recent years and that has made him ineffective for both of his teams, England national team and his club, New Castle United. His Absence last world cup cost England the world cup , his continuous injuries has put New Castle United in a bad spot of the table as they have striking problem, and now with his new injury, England is going to play without one of their strikers against Croatia.

Injuries do happen and Michael Owen is not at fault, he is the victim. But other victims are New Castle United and England national team, who invested heavily in him only they keep finding out he can't live up to expectation due to his injuries.

England needs at least one point against Croatia. That is not hard to achieve. Without Owen, they should play with more defense in mind, contain the game and have more ball possession. So if you are England fan, there is still hope. So buy your England Soccer Jersey from our sponsor website, Soccer Nation and support your team to qualify to Euro 2008.

FIFA Trying Goal Line Technology Again

It appears that FIFA is going to try the Goal Line Technology (GLT) again for the next club world cup which is in Japan at the end of 2007. Last time they tried it was not successful. Apparently they have come up with a more updated technology and fixed the issues they had when they first tried it in the U17 world cup. If it is successful, this technology will be implemented for next world cup and all the international matches.

This technology is basically a microchip planted inside a soccer ball which sends signals to the ref when the ball crosses the line which helps the ref to determine if the ball went in the goal or not.
on.

I am personally not 100% sold on that. I like technology in general and like to stay up to date with it, but I really believe there is a better solution for the refs to find out if the ball crossed the line or not. And that is to have more assistant refs. Just like tennis, basketball, and other sports, if there are more lines men and assistant refs, there will be less room for error.

David Beckham Will Play Austria

Not that he only plays, he will start as a right winger. I don't really understand why Steve McClaren has asked him to stay aside after the world cup. I think Beckham played just fine. Scored a couple of goals, made a couple of assists . What else can you expect from him?

I can only suspect that pressure from English media had something to do with it. Those guys need to get a life! They need to recognize that England lacks home grown talents. It is well obvious when you see top four teams of the Premier Ship rely so much on their foreign players.

Beckham is one of the true talents they have and they need him and it seems McClaren has recognize that fact and he is going to use the guy because after many failures, he recognizes he is going to need David's leadership and play making.

Good luck to England.

By the way you can buy David Beckham Jerseys on Sale at Soccer Nation.

Ali Daei Invited to the WC drawing 2010

According to Khabars Persian news, Ali Daie the retired Iranian striker has been invited to World Cup Drawing for 2010.

This is a great news for all Iranians who love soccer and it is certainly something to be proud of. By both Ali Daie and his fans, all Iranians.

About Ali Daie

Ali Daie is a recent retired Iranian soccer player who is currently manager of Saipa F.C. in Iran's Premier Football League. He is a former player of the Iran national soccer team, and is the world's all-time leading goal scorer in international matches.

Daie was never a typical soccer player. He was more educated and smarter than an average player. He was a graduated from Iran’s top engineering school, Sharif Institute of Technology and earned his bachelors in Metallurgical Engineering.

His club career started in Iranian first division and premier clubs, when he moved to Europe and played for big German clubs such as Arminia Bielefeld and Bayern Munich.

He is well known for his goal score ability and his leadership and he has many times been complemented by soccer legends such as Franz Beckenbaure and Lothar Matthews.

To learn more about him, please refer to Wikipedia.

Drew Carey and Seattle Gain a MLS Soccer Team

According to Guardian Unlimited, Seattle is the latest city in US to have a professional Soccer team and a long time LA Galaxy fan, Drew Carey now has a reason to switch to his new club since he is one of the owners of this new MLS franchise now. Other owners will be Hollywood movie studio executive Joe Roth, Seattle Sounders Managing Partner Adrian Hanauer, and the Vulcan Sports and Entertainment (VSE), the owner of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.

This new franchise will become the 15^th team in the league following reinstating San Jose franchise in 2008. It is important to add that that Seattle is also home of Seattle sounders, first team division

Changes to this blog

You will start seeing changes in this blog. I am going away from business postings more to sports in particular Soccer. It only makes sense that way for me to talk more about Soccer. Because my wife and I own a Soccer Store and soccer is also my passion.

I will be covering soccer leagues such as English Premier League or EPL, the Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, Germany Bundesliga, French Liga 1, Mexican FMF Liga, Iranian Premier League or IP (yes I am an Iranian American if you can't tell by my name already) and our very own domestic professinal league, the Major League Soccer or MLS.

Also will be covering international competitions and tournaments so stay tuned.

Also if you are interested in Search Engine Optimization, I will be writing posts on my SEO blog, BKOSEO.com

BKSEO.com is alive!

Besides enjoy selling soccer balls at Soccer Nation, I also enjoy working as independent SEO consultant for other companies. Therefore I am putting up an SEO Blog called BKSEO.com which I will be sharing my SEO knowledge, and talk about latest on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines.

You may still see me talking about SEO in this blog too but BKSEO.com will be mainly dedicated for SEO purposes. Please visit my search engine optimization blog if you are interested in SEO.

Liverpool Destroys Besiktas 8-0

Liverpool revive its hopes for Champion's league next round by defeating the Turkish club Besiktas 8-0. Yossi Benayoun from Liverpool got a hat trick by scoring three goals, Peter Crouch scored twice, and Steven Gerrard scored as well.

Liverpool remains third place behind FC Porto. Liverpool must finish top two in order to make it to next round.

My two cents, it's never too late. 2004 Champions league champs have the potential and they continue pressuring for the next round. They well showed they are capable today and they just need to keep it up.

Manchester United Unable to Stop Arsenal

Arsenal vs. Manchester United soccer match ended with a tie today and the result of this game keeps Arsenal on top of the EPL table with more points. Arsenal remains unbeaten so for for this season despite prediction of many that Manchester United was there to end that.

William Gallas scored an own goal while trying to defend Wayne Rooney's shot, then my favorite player Cesc Fabregas scored the equalizer for Arsenal. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the second goal for Manchester United and Willian Gallas made up for his own goal by scoring a goal for Arsenal in injury time leveling up the game keeping the Gunners on top of the EPL table even they have played one less game than everyone else.

You can check out the highlights with Spanish commentary below:




Also don't forget to get your Manchester United Jersey or Arsenal jersey online at Soccer Nation online Soccer Store.

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Alireza Sefati