Slow week...

...so since there's not much to analyze, I figured I'd share some of the weeks greatest quotes and chants from the games in the UK, courtesy of the BBC...

"If you've just joined us, we are having a long delay, because Bassong's head has bounced off the pitch." Radio 5 live commentator during Chelsea's win over Tottenham.

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"If the ball is in the back of the net, you can't catch them on the counter." Johnny Giles with a cutting insight during RTE commentary.

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"Portsmouth - Still winless, still pointless." Mark 'Chappers' Chapman questions Pompey's very existence on Final Score.

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"Cardiff City's new £50 stadium holds 26,500 and was opened in the summer." Picture caption on BBC Sport website. I always knew Cardiff were cheapskates!

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"West Brom are having a bad little spell. They were leading 4-1, but now they're leading 3-1." Jeff Stelling on Soccer Saturday.

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"I was going to hitch the shorts up to my nipples. I thought that would have been a good celebration, but the fans would have thought what the hell's he doing?" Newcastle's Steven Taylor ditches his planned goal celebration after scoring against Plymouth.

And we can't forget some great chants...

"We've got Morten Gamst Pedersen; Gamst Pedersen is what we need!"

A soft rock tribute to the Blackburn midfielder to the tune of Bon Jovi's Bad Medicine.

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"Hey! Chelsea! Leave those kids alone!"

Villa fans to the tune of Another Brick in the Wall (following the transfer ban for allegedly illegally inducing French teenager Gael Kakuta to sign).

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"We only cost five quid!"

Morecambe fans to moneybags Notts County during the Shrimps' 2-1 victory on Saturday.

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"The Unibond, it has no nails,The Unibond it has no nails,And its anti-mould bath sealantIs very good, it never fails."

From the Stand Band at Marine FC. Should please the sponsors of the Northern Premier League! To the tune of When The Saints.

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"Jo, Jo, Jo, he's magic, you know."

Sung to the Brazilian forward after he finished off AEK Athens with a fourth for Everton. To the tune of Magic by Pilot.

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"Petr, Petr love your socks."
Chelsea fans appreciate Petr Cech's bright green football socks.

"Danny, Danny Coyne! Danny, Danny Coyne!" Middlesbrough fans at Hillsbrough to Boro's keeper (To tune of Daddy Cool).
And after the teams changed ends...
"You're not Danny Coyne! You're not Danny Coyne!" Boro fans still sharp as ever!

"U-N-I. T-E-D.United fans are from Surrey,With a nick-nack paddy whack, give a dog a bone,Manchester is not your home!" Heard in the Park Lane end at White Hart Lane in honour of our 'northern' guests. Which still doesn't beat a similar one from last year---Arsenal fans to Manchester United fans at Old Trafford: "We'll race you back to London!" For those unaware, most Manchester United fans aren't actually from Manchester...

"If you all won at Wembley, clap your hands!" Gillingham fans (last season's League Two play-off winners) to Millwall fans (League One play-off losers).

And finally, the best stadium announcements of the weekend...

"Oxford United would like to thank the fans for the great support shown. The attendance today is 5688...5600 of those fans being Oxford supporters." The stadium announcer mocking the lack of Eastbourne Borough supporters during their 4-0 defeat to the U's.

"Devastating news from Pride Park...Derby are losing!" Tannoy announcer at Leicester-Blackpool game, followed by a big cheer.

Hope you all enjoyed!

Back to the Same Old, Same Old...

Another week, another loss for the Red Bulls...

Following last weekend's 1-0 home loss to Kansas City, there really isn't much of anything to do except look forward. The Red Bulls are the first team mathematically eliminated from the playoff race in MLS, dealing with a multitude of injuries (including Juan Pablo Angel's sprained ankle, which kept the skipper off the field over the weekend), and are being led by an interim coach. Will Richie Williams continue at the helm for the debut of Red Bull Arena in the Spring? Well, that decision appears to be a ways off still---the man who will hire a permanent replacement for Juan Carlos Osorio is likely not even an employee of the franchise yet, as Jeff Agoos will likely be let go at season's end. Rumors are rampant that current Chicago Red Stars (WPS) CEO---and former President and GM of the Chicago Fire---Peter Wilt will be hired to replace Agoos. Wilt, who was the first President and GM of the franchise, and led them to the Double (MLS Cup Champions and US Open Cup Champions) in their inaugural season of 1998, wouldn't comment on the rumors during an interview with ESPN's Kirstian Dyer, saying only that his partner with the Red Stars have known that he would like to return to the MLS one day. As for his thoughts on the New York franchise, and why they've struggled to find success... "The New York and New Jersey market and new stadium give them the potential to be MLS' flagship team, but I think there are a few other teams which can credibly stake that claim ahead of the Red Bulls.
Lack of consistency in personnel on and off the field has been their biggest challenge since the beginning. The most successful organizations in MLS have found ways to retain their best staff and players over long stretches of time. That's done by creating good environments, doing the little things right and treating people with respect. You look around the league and the clubs that have used that formula are the ones that have been successful." If Wilt does get hired, and uses this as a starting point for the direction of the franchise, then the Red Bulls might just be in good hands after all...

As for one person who won't be back with the Red Bulls next year... bye bye Alfredo Pacheco. The Red Bulls terminated the loan deal and contract of the defender, another Osorio signing who couldn't hold up in the league. After a promising start, Pacheco was victimized all too often in his last games, before finding himself stuck on the bench (in favor of Danleigh Borman, who isn't even a natural defender) after Williams took over the team. While the Red Bulls are set at the right back position (if Carlos Johnson could stop picking up red cards---he picked up his 3rd of the season AFTER the final whistle on Saturday night), they, much like the US National Team, are thin at the left back position, something they should definitely look at in the draft...

Speaking of the draft (and looking forward), the Red Bulls find themselves in a fantastic position going into January's draft. In addition to likely having the 2nd pick in each round (thanks to their awful record this year), the team will also get an extra pick in each of the first two rounds---NY gets Houston's first-round pick (as part of the deal for Dominic Oduro), as well as LA's second-rounder (from the trade for Mike Magee). RSL could still owe NY a pick, as a conditional draft pick was included in the trade that sent Dema Kovalenko out west...but that pick is still up-in-the-air, as it's been tied-in to the conditional draft pick RSL picked up when they shipped Kovalenko to LA (and the league reviews all situations where one team gets two draft picks from another in the same draft)...



Meanwhile, in other news...

--Costa Rica will arrive in the US next month for their final World Cup qualifier with a new coach. Rodrigo Kenton has been fired after 3 straight losses, which have seen the Ticos drop from 1st to the 4th-place playoff spot in the CONCACAF hexagonal. The US plays Costa Rica at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 14th---and SoccerJunkie will be there, in the Land of the Bouncing Stands, to bring you a full report!

--Chelsea Chief Executive Peter Kenyon is stepping down, effective Oct. 31st. The former Umbro CEO--and former Manchester United Chief Exec--was brought to the helm at the club after Russian billionaire Roman Abromavich took over, and has led the club to their recent successes in the Premiership and UEFA Champions League, as well as scandal, which now sees them banned from the transfer market for the next two windows. Kenyon could be the first of a mass exodus from the London club. One of Kenyon's biggest achievements at the club...negotiating a then-record jersey sponsorship deal with Samsung...

--Which leads us to a new record jersey sponsorship deal, and the end of an era of sorts for another Premiership leader... Liverpool's long-standing deal with Carlsburg is coming to an end, and Standard Chartered Bank is set to become the new jersey sponsor for the Reds. The deal is said to be in the neighborhood of 80 million Pounds, and will take effect next July. Carlsburg had been Liverpool's jersey sponsor since 1992.

--Arsenal's Italian rookie 'keeper Vito Mannone was handed his first UEFA Champions League start this afternoon, after first-choice 'keeper Manuel Almunia picked up a virus, while #2 'keeper Lukasz Fabianski continues to recover from knee surgery. How has his deputizing started off? Mannone allowed 2 goals in the first 5 minutes on the road to Belgium's Standard Liege. It could be worse...he could've given up a goal to the opposing goalkeeper (::cough:: Andy Gruenebaum ::cough::).



Quick look at the Premiership table and this coming weekend's matches:

-The top of the table has no surprises left...Chelsea #1, Manchester United #2. United will face a HUGE match on Sunday morning, when they host 3rd-placed Manchester City at Old Trafford in an unusual top-of-the-table Manchester derby. Chelsea will host former leaders Tottenham on Sunday at Stamford Bridge. Tottenham dropped to 4th after last weekend's loss to United.

-Second-to-last Everton (complete shock there!) look to get headed in the right direction Sunday, as they host Blackburn Rovers at Goodison Park. Though Blackburn are 5 places ahead of Everton, only 1 point separates the two teams, and a win could vault Everton to the top-half of the table.

-Saturday's big matches will see 5th-place Liverpool travel to Upton Park to play West Ham, while struggling (and 9th-place) Arsenal will host Wigan at the Emirates. Other Saturday fixtures: cooled-off Burnley host Sunderland, Stoke travel to Bolton, Hull hosts Birmingham at the KC, and Aston Villa takes on Portsmouth at Villa Park. The 4th Sunday match will see Fulham travel to take on newly-promoted Wolves.

And then there were 3...

After walking off the field with a 2-1 victory over El Salvador on Saturday, the US has three games remaining in a tightly-packed CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying hexagonal...

Saturday night's win continued to show that the US has a scary trend of surrendering the first goal this year---this match makes the second consecutive home qualifier (with June's win over Honduras in Chicago) that the Yanks have spotted their opponents a lead, and also the second time in this final round that they had to come-from-behind against El Salvador (a team that is rightly entrenched in the 5th spot in the standings), overcoming a 2-0 deficit to rescue a point in the road leg. The back four on Saturday (Spector, Marshall, Bocanegra, Bornstein) were shaky too many times, with Spector and Bornstein equally responsible for numerous giveaways in the defensive half---with Bornstein turning over the ball unneccesarily 20 yards from the endline on El Salvador's goal (though some responsibility also sits with Tim Howard, who overplayed a far-post run). Possible solutions for the Trinidad game? If Jay DeMerit has recovered from his groin injury, pairing him with Gooch Onyewu (back from suspension) would be likely, with Bocanegra moving back out to the left side (while his lack of speed against Trinidad could be an issue, it's far better than having Bornstein out there). Should DeMerit be unable to go, Bob Bradley wouldn't be unwise to keep Bocanegra parked centrally (though he will likely move him out to the left, with Marshall deputizing for DeMerit once again), and play his two best outside backs---Steve Cherundolo on the right, and Jonathon Spector on the left (if it weren't for DeMerit's coming out party at the Confederations Cup, this could've easily been the World Cup backline, should the US qualify).

Regardless, unless the US does better possessing the ball, especially from the backs to the midfield, this could be an uncomfortable final three games...

Heading into these final three matches, the top four teams (3 automatic qualifiers, 4th place playoff spot) are clearly separating themselves from the field...the problem for the US? Realistically, unless the Yanks walk away with maximum points from these matches, it's all too easy---and likely---that they'll fall to the 4th-place spot (a far guarantee from a spot in South Africa, as this leads to a playoff against the 5th-placed team from South America...a team that could easily be Argentina). The good news? Maximum points in these final 3 matches would guarantee (because of a road match against Honduras) that the good 'ol US of A finishes at the top of the hexagonal---and, unlike 4 years ago (when the US won the final qualifying round, but Mexico was reseeded as the top CONCACAF team), will get that valuable spot in the higher pot for the World Cup draw (helping avoid the "Group of Death").

Standings going into Wednesday's matches (which feature USA @ Trinidad, Honduras @ Mexico, and Costa Rica @ El Salvador): 1. Honduras 13 pts, 2. USA 13 pts, 3. Mexico 12 pts, 4. Costa Rica 12 pts, 5. El Salvador 5 pts, 6. Trinidad 5 pts.