Galaxy's Landon Donovan diagnosed with swine flu

Wow, i just realized that I haven't posted for a while (since the end of June I think)....but anyway, I was just on Fox Soccer Channel's website and I found out that Landon Donovan now has the swine flu. However, according to the article, the Los Angeles Galaxy is confident that he will be able to play for the club on Saturday night when they play against the Seattle Sounders at home. He will be evaluated by a doctor on Saturday to make sure.

Three Galaxy players (Donovan, David Beckham, and Chris Birchall) were given the day off from training today after returning from matches that they played with their national teams. The United States played a World Cup qualifier on Wednesday, losing to Mexico in Mexico City.

Team spokesman Justin Pearson stated that Donovan's case does not seem very severe: " "Even Landon said it hasn't hit him as hard as the normal flus have hit him."

Donovan told SI.com, who reported it Thursday night, that he was feeling "real bad" on Sunday after joining the US national team in Miami before leaving for Mexico. Donovan found out on Thursday (read the SI.com article that I linked to above), the day after he played in the 2-1 loss to Mexico.

Landon Donovan did not get the swine flu in Mexico. After complaining that he was not feeling well on Sunday when he met with his national team, "they took a swab from my nose and confirmed it, so that was that." Some comments on the Fox Soccer Channel article make it look as if Donovan knew of the illness before he left for Mexico City and intentionally played, but he did not learn of the diagnosis until last night.

According to Fox Soccer Channel, Galaxy coach and general manager Bruce Arena told the Los Angeles Times that he "is not infectious" and that he probably caught the virus from the team's chiropractor and its administrator during last weekend's match in New England. Both staff members have returned to work.

In other non-related news, Croatia earned a much needed 3 points against Belarus on the road on Wednesday keeping their World Cup qualifying hopes alive.

More news regarding the 2010 World Cup to come soon.

QUICK UPDATE!!!!!! SCORE NOW 3-2!!!!!

JUst minutes after finishing the last post, I checked the match tracker and Spain has scored from a direct free kick!!! Come on South Africa, make this game even more interesting!!!!!!!

Score now 3-2 for Spain in the second extra time period.

If there are any Americans out there who still think the world's game is boring, you must be crazy!!!!!

Confederations Cup 3rd Place Update: South Africa and Spain at a 2-2 tie; all goals scored within the last 20 minutes

90 minutes is now up in the third place playoff. I managed to watch most of the match, but I was only able to watch the first Spain goal in the 88th minute. The guys over at ESPN were actually ready to write Spain off. Haven't they learn their lesson yet?

South Africa scored the first goal of the match in the 73rd minute. Spain answered in the 88th making it 1-1 and again in the 89th to make it 2-1 within 2 minutes but South Africa tied it up again in stoppage time.

Extra time has begun! I will try to update more, but I cannot promise it as I have to get ready because my friend is picking me up at around 1 pm eastern time to get some food and get ready for the USA-Brazil final. Believe it or not, I don't really care who wins this one. I am born in America with Croatian parents and my brother is married to a Brazilian. My niece is Croatian and Brazilian also born in the States. I respect the Brazilian team while being extremely happy that the United States has made it this far.

I have been a big critic of allowing countries to host a World Cup while not being very good teams. I always looked at South Africa has a pretty weak side. Many people look at me as crazy for watching the Confederations Cup calling it a minor tournament but I use it so I can give the future World Cup host nation a fair shake and I see now that South Africa is not only a good host but you cannot count them out. Thank you ESPN for showing every match here in the United States.

Something tells me that the United States and South Africa will unlikely contenders in 2010 (at least I would not have believed this if you told a few months ago). HOwever, a part of me will be missing if Croatia does not qualify for next summer's World Cup.

Anyway, the first period of extra time is now over. Score is still tied at 2-2. I smell penalty kicks. If you want to track the match minute by minute and talk about the match with other soccer/football fans, cllck here.

I can't wait for the World Cup!

Score alert: Columbus Crew leads Red Bulls 1-0 at halftime in MLS Cup rematch

The New York Red Bulls have had a horrible season so far but tonight they at least have a chance to get their revenge (on the road) from the Columbus Crew, the club that defeated them in last season's MLS Cup final.

It is now the 56th minute as I am writing this and the Red Bulls are down a goal.

The Columbus Crew scored at the end of the 1st half.

More to come soon if there is more scoring.

Confederations Cup 2009: Overview and Predictions for tomorrow's third place playoff and final

I haven't been able to watch too much of the Confederations Cup since the second round of Group matches, but I was really amazed when I found out that the United States was able to make it out of the Group after a 3-0 win against Egypt (especially since Egypt came back against Brazil to tie it 3-3 until Kaka was able to get one last opportunity in the final minutes). The United States was able to get the exact situation they needed in order to progress--a 3 goal win for both Brazil and the United States. As I am writing this, I am watching the re-airing of the USA-Spain semifinal on ESPNU. Now, of course, I thought Spain was going to win and if I was betting, I would have bet on a Spain win for sure. As many of you are aware, the United States beat Spain (the best team in the world according to FIFA's rankings) 2-0. Not only did they win a spot in the final and force Spain to play for third place, the Americans also ended Spain's unbeaten streak in their last 35 matches (15 wins, 0 losses, 20 ties). Spain's last loss before this was against Sweden in a Euro 2008 Qualifier, a 2-0 loss in July 2007. Their last tie was against Italy in the Euro 2008 knockout round which forced them to rely on penalty kicks to progress and eventually win the Euro 2008 title, which qualified them to the 2009 Confederations Cup.

Here's a video from youtube with the reactions and opinions of players currently in the US Development Academy regarding the US National Team at the Confederations Cup. For more coverage from US Soccer regarding the Confederations Cup, check out the US Soccer channel on youtube.



Now, I don't want to get into too much into the USA-Spain match or any of the other matches that didn't cover since I missed so many of them. Instead, I'm going to use this post to quickly give my overview and prediction of tomorrow's third place playoff between host nation South Africa and European champions Spain as well as the USA-Brazil match for the title. In you are in the United States, both matches are being broadcasted live on ESPN (title match between the United States and Brazil at 2:30 pm) and ESPN2 (third place playoff between Spain and South Africa at 9 am).

Third place match: hosts South Africa vs Euro 2008 champions Spain: I don't think the Euro 2008 champions really thought they were going to end up settling for the third place playoff. They were in a fairly weak group with the hosts South Africa, Asian champion Iraq, and Oceanian champion New Zealand, so it was not really difficult for Spain to get out of this group. They already beat South Africa once in the Group Stage 2-0 but the hosts never really caused any upsets in the tournament and their only goals scored were the two against New Zealand while their match against Iraq was a scoreless draw. With a 1-1-1 record in the group stage, they managed to crawl out Group A and into a semifinal match against Brazil which I saw part of and they played fairly well but could not find the back of the net and it ended with a 1-0 loss against the team ranked 5th in FIFA's rankings. This was all thanks to the South African defense as Spain's only goal was scored in the 88th minute. Check out the official match report for more on this match. The way South Africa has played throughout the competition, I would say that Spain will win it but the match will be tight. Like the match against a Brazil, who from what I saw did not give it their usual full force against the hosts, I think Spain will score a late goal or else it will go into overtime. Both teams will play well but I think Spain will dominate on possession. I'll probably be live blogging this match for as much of it as I can.

Title match (USA vs Brazil): I would never have believed it if you told me that the United States would have beaten Spain to qualify themselves for this match tomorrow. If you told me that they were going to beat Italy in their first group match, I would not have been as shocked as I always thought Italy was an overrated team. I didn't watch the match against Egypt and I didn't find out until the day after that the United States was progressing to the knockout round. The stars and planets were definitely aligned exactly as the United States wanted as they snuck past Italy and Egypt in the Group B standings with the exact number of goals they needed (3 against Egypt and a 3 goal win for Brazil against Italy). A mere tie in the Brazil-Italy match would have eliminated the "stars and stripes" no matter how they did against Egypt so they owe quite a bit to Brazil for their qualification to the semifinals although the Americans did play amazingly well against the African champs. Even if they do lose to Brazil, the Confederations Cup has given the Americans quite a bit of confidence as they continue through World Cup 2010 qualifying and as they make their return trip to South Africa for the World Cup next summer if they qualify. In the CONCACAF Zone, the United States is currently in 2nd place with 10 points (3-1-1) and 2 points behind Costa Rica who is in 1st place. The top four teams qualify for the World Cup directly. The fourth place team has to play the fifth place team from South America in a two legged home and away play off in order to earn a spot. More on this later. Now back to the Brazil-USA match. The United States already lost to Brazil in the group stage 3-0 so the United States will have a very tough match tomorrow but recent matches for the United States have ended with good results so tomorrow's match may be tighter than the match in the Group stage. The United States goes in to this match with quite a bit of confidence but Brazil will definitely come out to win this match. Even though the Confederations Cup is not a very important competition and is not near as important as the World Cup, Brazil will definitely want to win it and they are going to want to defend their 2005 Confederations Cup title so I expect Kaka to be in the starting line up. However, with the United States playing better than I have seen them play in a while, anything can happen.

Confederations Cup 2009 Group A Update

The second round of Confederation Cup Group A matches were today and nothing out of the ordinary occurred-- no real upsets, the teams that were supposed to win won. As promised I am posting this entry to give an overview of the day and give my prediction for tomorrow's Group B matches.

Group A (Wednesday June 17)

Match 1: Spain vs Iraq: As I predicted, Euro 2008 champions Spain beat Iraq and predicted the score correctly too (1-0). Iraq plays well and I was pretty sure the match was going to remain tight. The win gives Spain the points they needed to qualify for the semifinals no matter how they finish their match against the host nation South Africa. Spain is currently at the top of the group with 6 points in their two matches. Iraq opened up with a chance early in the match in the 9th minute that would have put them in front. However, Spain did dominate on possession. Despite this, Iraq was just as stubborn as in their 0-0 tie against South Africa. In other words, Iraq did not make the match easy for the European champions. Spain is on their way to breaking another record. They are currently tied with three other national teams for longest winning streak in international football/soccer-- 14 wins in a row. For the complete FIFA match report, click here..

Match 2: South Africa vs New Zealand: As with their match against Spain, New Zealand did not stand much of a chance against the South Africans. Although my prediction was that South Africa would definitely win, I forgot to predict the score (I apologize for that, by the way!). The ESPN commentators were saying before the match that South Africa has been put on a lot of pressure hosting a tournament like this (if this is true, the pressure of next summer will be really high as they are getting set to host the World Cup). The coach, Brazilian Joel Santana, is also under a lot of pressure because his job is supposedly on the line if he unable to South Africa out of this group. This is a bad move on the part of the South African Football Federation right before the big competition next summer being that a new coach might not be able to organize the team properly in one year. However, South Africa should be able to move on the knockout round after defeating New Zealand 2-0. For more information regarding the match, see the official FIFA match report.

Group A Standings (as of Wednesday June 17)

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1. Spain 2 2 0 0 6 0 +6 6
2. South Africa 2 1 1 0 2 0 +2 4
3. Iraq 2 0 1 1 0 1 −1 1
4. New Zealand 2 0 0 2 0 7 −7 0

As you can see, Spain is still in the top spot and has already qualified for the semifinals. The top two teams advance. The only way Spain will not finish in first place is if South Africa beats them on Saturday. If that happens, South Africa will have 7 points and Spain will stay at 6. In this situation, Iraq would be eliminated no matter how they do against New Zealand. New Zealand is already eliminated. If Spain and South Africa tie, Spain will keep the top spot and South Africa will still qualify no matter how Iraq does against New Zealand. Iraq could advance only if they win against New Zealand--shouldn't be too hard. However, Spain must win against South Africa in order for this to happen. If Spain and South Africa tie, South Africa will have 5 points which would make it impossible for Iraq to catch up with them. However an Iraq win and South Africa loss is the only way Iraq could have a chance but this would put South Africa and Iraq tied on points. This is the most probable situation since Iraq is most likely going to beat New Zealand and Spain already has the momentum and will most likely stay undefeated throughout the tournament. What Iraq would need is a superior goal difference over South Africa (4 or 5 goals against New Zealand would be good) and pray that Spain's defense keeps South Africa out of the net.

Predictions for next match day (Thursday June 18th)

Group B will have their second round of matches tomorrow with CONCACAF Champion United States facing South American champion/Confederations Cup defending champion Brazil and African champion Egypt going up against reigning World Champions Italy. Both matches will be shown on ESPN or ESPN2 if you are in the United States at 10 am and 2:30 pm.

Match 1 (10 am): USA vs Brazil: This will be a very tough match for the United States but seeing that Egypt was able to come back after going into halftime down 3 goals and were able to come from behind to make 3-3 by the final minutes, the United States could come out of this match with a point, but it is pretty hard to predict. Brazil is definitely beatable but with Kaka on the field, it will definitely be a tough one. 2-1 for Brazil is my prediction.

Match 2 (2:30 pm): Italy vs Egypt: I was really surprised by the way Egypt came back against Brazil. I turned on the TV just before halftime to check the score and noticed that it was 3-0 for Brazil. I was ready to count Egypt out. I had to turn off the TV to get some work done and when I checked the score online when it was over, it was 4-3 for Brazil. The match will not be an easy one for Italy and I expect Egypt to play very well as they did in the second half against Brazil. A 1-1 tie is my prediction in this one.

Group B is the most exciting of the two groups. Right now all teams are still in it. The results of tomorrow's matches should make it a little bit clearer.

My next post regarding the 2009 Confederations Cup will be a little earlier tomorrow night, probably at around 7 pm eastern time. The next post will include an overview of tomorrow's Group B matches and predictions for Saturday's Group A matches.

Basketball meets Soccer as NBA players get ready for the Steve Nash Charity Soccer Game in New York City

NBA players Steve Nash and Grant Hill of the Phoenix Suns, Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs, Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks, Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors, and Raja Bell of the Charlotte Bobcats will join Claudio Reyna (retired American international), French international and FC Barcelona player Thierry Henry, Argentine international and player for Italy's Serie A club Inter Milan Javier Zanetti, Chelsea player and Ivory Coast international Salomon Kalou, Dutch international and Liverpool striker Ryan Babel, Dutch international Giovanni "Gio" Van Bronckhorst, French international and AC Milan player Mathieu Flamini, Colombia international and Inter Milan player Ivan Cordoba, and Romanian striker and player for Italian club Fiorentina Adrian Mutu for a soccer match at Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Chrystie and Houston Streets in New York City. THe match will take place on Wednesday June 24 at 6 pm (the night before the NBA Draft).

Steve Nash is a big fan of soccer and plays the sport a lot in the NBA off season, especially during the summer. In doing so, he has become good friends with former Red Bull player and long time US national team captain Claudio Reyna, who was born and raised in Livingston, New Jersey. Together they decided to start this annual charity event inviting NBA players as well as soccer stars from throughout the world. The first was last year. Nash also has a good relationship with Henry of France who was invited to both last year's and this year's event. However, last year Henry did not expect to make it due to Euro 2008, but did due to France's early elimination from the tournament. France scored only one goal in the competition which came from Henry.

Nash became a fan of the sport because his father, John, played soccer professionally in England and South Africa. His younger brother also plays for the Canadian national team as well as the Vancouver Whitecaps of the United Soccer Leagues, the league underneath Major League Soccer in the American Soccer Pyramid. Steve Nash was born in the Vancouver area.

Steve Nash, himself, plans on being involved in the "world's game" when his NBA career is over. Last year, Nash revealed that he dreams of getting involved in the sport through the ownership of his favorite club in the English Premier League-- Tottenham Hotspur (my favorite club as well after my favorite player--Luka Modric--started playing for them). He was also a big part of bringing a Vancouver team to Major League Soccer as an expansion team, which is set to happen in the 2011 season. Vancouver will be one of three Northwest region clubs in Major League Soccer. The other two are the Seattle Sounders, currently in the middle of their first season this year in MLS, and the Portland Timbers which will also have their expansion year in 2011. Nash also joined former Yahoo! president Jeff Mallet as an investor for the struggling Women's Professional Soccer League. He hopes to use the women's soccer league as something that would give his own twin daughters role models in his other favorite sport besides basketball.

More information regarding this charity event will be provided as more information becomes available.

Stay tuned to my blog as I update the 2009 Confederations Cup tonight at around 10:30 p.m. eastern time. I was able to catch the second half of the Spain-Iraq match which has ended a little over 90 minutes ago. My prediction was right. Spain was only able to get 1 goal passed Iraq for a final score of 1-0. More on this match, the upcoming South Africa-New Zealand match at 2:30 pm eastern time (on ESPN 2), and predictions for tomorrow's Group B matches will come at around 10:30 tonight.

Confederations Cup begins in South Africa

The 2009 Confederations Cup began on Sunday with Group A action and continued Monday with Group B. Today (Tuesday) has no matches on the schedule. The Confederations Cup will continue Wednesday with Group A.

In this post, I am going to give my overview and analysis of the matches of the last two days and my prediction for the next match day, which will take place on Wednesday.

Group A (Sunday June 14, 2009)

Match 1: South Africa vs Iraq: The host nation South Africa (ranked 72nd in the world, 17th in Africa) met Asian Champions Iraq (77th in the world, 7th in Asia) for the first time in world soccer/football history in the city of Johannesberg. The host clearly dominated over their Middle Eastern opponent but a stubborn Iraqi side refused to allow South Africa to find the back of the net as the match ended in a stalemate. I only got to watch the first half, but from what I saw, it was a very good start for Iraq under the Serbian coach that also coached the MetroStars in Major League Soccer a while ago. With Spain in the same group, I think South Africa and Iraq will have to battle for second place and a spot in the knockout round since Oceanian Champion New Zealand does not have much of a chance. For more on the match, see FIFA's official match report.

Match 2: Spain vs New Zealand: The second match that took place on Sunday was a little more one sided. Spain (ranked 1st in the world) did not have much of a challenge against Oceanian champion New Zealand, the weakest team in the Confederations Cup. Although New Zealand is ranked #1 in Oceania, a spot that Australia used to have before becoming a member of the Asian Confederation, they are 82nd in the world. Spain dominated the match throughout from beginning to end. One Confederations Cup record was actually broken in this match: Fernando Torres scored the fastest hat trick in the history of the competition, scoring three goals inside the first 20 minutes of the match (6th minute, 14th minute, 17th minute). Cesc Fabregas scored at the 24th minute making it 4-0 at half time. he second half saw only one goal for Spain and the match ended 5-0. For the official match report, click here.

Group A Standings (as of Tuesday June 16)

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1. Spain 1 1 0 0 5 0 +5 3
2. Iraq 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
3. South Africa 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
4. New Zealand 1 0 0 1 0 5 −5 0

As you can see, Spain is clearly at the top of the group with 3 points. Iraq and South Africa are tied with no clear tiebreaker since their match ended in a scoreless draw. New Zealand is at the bottom, but with Spain--European champions and the strongest team in the competition--out of the way, the champions of Oceania still have to play South Africa and Iraq. Although they are a weak team, I wouldn't count New Zealand out yet. They could be the spoiler of the group and affect South Africa's or Iraq's chances of taking the second place spot to advance.

Group B (Monday June 15)

While opening day for Group A ended with a pretty clear picture of who will most likely be the group champion, Group B is still a little bit hazy. It was also the most exciting of the two match days.

Match 1: The first match of the day saw a determined African side take on one of the best (I would say THE best) and highest paid player in the world in Kaka as African champions Egypt (ranked 40th in the world, 5th in Africa) took on South American champions Brazil (5th in the world, 1st in South America). Now, this match may seem one sided but it was anything but. The first half saw a strong Brazilian side score 3 goals. The scoring started with Kaka's goal in the 5th minute. Egypt tied it up 4 minutes later. However, Brazil dominated the rest of the first half scoring two more goals, ending the first 45 minutes with a score of 3-1. The second half was very different however. At the 54th minute, Brazil started to lose their dominance and Egypt became the better team. Egypt scored two goals in the 54th and 55th minute to tie the match 3-3. This score stuck until the very end of the match when Brazil earned a penalty kick in the 90th minute. Kaka scored the penalty ending this exciting match 4-3 for Brazil.

Match 2: USA vs Italy: This was a rematch of the 1-1 tie that these two teams played in the 2006 World Cup as the CONCACAF champions USA (14th in the world, ranked 1st in CONCACAF) faced the World champions Italy (4th in the world, 4th in UEFA). American citizens scored 3 of the 4 goals in this match but two of them were scored for Italy. No, no own goals occurred in this match. How can this be, you may ask? Well, Giuseppe Rossi was born in the United States and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, but when he was 13 year old, him and his father moved to Italy because he entered a football academy there. He kept his American citizenship but also became a citizen of Italy. This made him eligible to play for both teams, but while he always respected American soccer, he always dreamed of playing in (he plays for a club Italy) and for the county of his father's birth. Landon Donovan was the other American that scored. He scored in a penalty kick chance in the 41st minute. The Americans did not play that well in the first half hour or so of the match until a red card sent off Houston Dynamo midfielder Ricardo Clark, who was playing in his first major international match for the United States in his career, in the 33rd minute. This was pretty harsh red card, in my opinion, and the commentators on ESPN agreed. A yellow card would have been more than enough, but anyway, the Americans played the remainder of the match with 10 men but they played the rest of the 1st half very well, but their only goal was off Donovan's penalty kick in the 41st minute (this was Donovan's 40th career goal for the "stars and stripes". Italy scored all of their goals in the 2nd half. Final score was 3-1 for the Italians.

Group B Standings (as of Tuesday June 16)

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1. Italy 1 1 0 0 3 1 +2 3
2. Brazil 1 1 0 0 4 3 +1 3
3. Egypt 1 0 0 1 3 4 −1 0
4. United States 1 0 0 1 1 3 −2 0

At this time, Italy and Brazil are tied for 1st place with 3 points after one win a piece. Since Brazil snuck by Egypt with Kaka's penalty in the final minutes of the match, Italy winsthe tiebreaker because of goal difference. Unless the United States pulls off some kind of miracle against Brazil, they will most likely miss out on the knockout round. I think the United States has what it takes to defeat Egypt but they shouldn't take the African champions for granted.

Predictions for next match day (Wednesday June 17th)

Group A will go back into action tomorrow at 10 am and 2:30 pm eastern time in the United States. If you are watching the matches in the United States, ESPN2 will be showing both matches live.

The first match will be between Spain and Iraq. I don't expect Spain to have too much trouble with Iraq but Iraq will be a tougher opponent than New Zealand was. Iraq is not the same team that won the Asian Cup in 2007 and they were already eliminated from 2010 World Cup. However, Iraq is a stubborn team and I think the score will be tight. I predict a score of 1-0 for Spain.

The 2:30 pm match will see the hosts South Africa face New Zealand. South Africa should easily defeat the Oceanian champions unless South Africa messes up with a draw. I don't see South Africa losing to New Zealand though.

My predictions for the next Group B match day (Thursday) will come tomorrow when I wrap up tomorrow's matches.

World Cup Qualifying Update: Ukraine win against Kazakhstan puts Ukraine neck and neck with Croatia for second place battle in Group 6

UEFA's Group 6 World Cup Qualifying competition is heating up as Croatia is neck and neck with Ukraine for second place and England is still in first with one more win needed to qualify.

Croatia failed to get 3 much needed points in their match against Ukraine on Saturday. They did gain 1 point as a result of a 2-2 tie at home in Zagreb. While Ukraine was in action on Wednesday against Kazakhstan, Croatia did not have a match scheduled.

Ukraine defeated Kazakhstan 2-1 on Wednesday giving them 3 points. This leaves them in second place with 11 points tied with Croatia. Croatia is till in second place after a superior goal difference breaks their tie with Ukraine.

Based on these recent results, here is how the Group 6 standings look right now with some of my own analysis (the percentage included is the superior points percentage):

1. England (7-0-0; 21 pts; 100.0%): England is in perfect form right now at the top of the group. They played two qualification matches this month in which they conceded no goals and scored 10 in total against Kazakhstan and Andorra. England only has 3 matches left against Croatia at home, Ukraine on the road, and Belarus at home. One more win and they are on their way to South Africa next summer. Their next qualifying match is not until September 9 against Croatia at home.

2. Croatia (3-1-2; 11 pts; 61.1%): Croatia has not been as lucky. They only had one match in their qualifying schedule this month and that was a 2-2 tie against Ukraine at home on Saturday-- a match they needed to win in order to dig themselves out of a deep hole that they put themselves in. Although Croatia did begin their qualifying campaign with a strong 3-0 win against Kazakhstan (which is pretty weak team I might add) at home, their second match was a 4-1 loss to England at home. Ever since then, Croatia was never really able to get back on track with a scoreless tie at Ukraine, a 4-0 win against a weak Andorran side at home, and a 2-0 away win against Andorra. With 6 matches down, Croatia has four left to go and it is not the easiest schedule. They get back to action on August 12 in Belarus, a team that Croatia should not take lightly. Belarus is a tricky team and although qualifying would be a long shot for them, they can act as a spoiler in the group. My prediction is that they tie against Belarus on the road. Croatia then goes back home on September 5 to play Belarus again. I expect a win out of this match. After this, they travel to London to play England. Croatia will have Eduardo da Silva back for this match and the English Premier League season would have started already so Eduardo da Silva should get a few matches in for Arsenal to warm up for this qualifying match. Injuries have screwed up Eduardo's chance to play in Euro 2008 so he is definitely eager to play for Croatia. Hopefully, nothing happens to him between then and now. My birthday happens to be on the day Croatia plays England in London so it would be awesome if Croatia can beat them although I understand that it is a long shot. Wayne Rooney, who was injured for the Euro 2008 qualifying match in which Croatia beat them and eliminated them from the competition, is in very good form with 8 goals scored already for England so this will be a very tough match for Croatia. The last match is away at Kazakhstan which shouldn't be much of a problem. With England almost unstoppable, Croatia should be focusing on keeping second place but this is easier said that done. Not all second place teams in the 9 qualifying groups in UEFA are guaranteed a place in South Africa. Only 13 teams out of a total of 53 teams competing are getting spots. This includes the 9 group winners+ 4 runner ups. These four runner ups are determined through a playoff round that will take place after the group stage is over. Only 8 of the 9 second placed teams can play in the two legged playoffs which will take place in November. However, since one group only has 5 teams (8 matches) and the rest have 6 (10 matches), an alternative way to rank the runner ups has been established: the teams that are in second place in group 1 through 8 (group 9 is the group with only 5 teams) will not have results against the last placed team counted so everything will be equal. With a rather tough schedule left to play and being that Croatia has already played and beaten Andorra twice, coach Bilic and company really have to play as well as they can and leave it up to fate. As it is now, Croatia is 9th out of the 9 second place teams. Mathematically, they are not eliminated from first place but they can only do it if England loses all of their remaining matches. Also, Croatia cannot lose or tie any of their matches. This scenario looks like a long shot so Croatia should set second place as their goal. If they lose to Belarus in their next qualifying match then Croatia can only qualify through the playoffs. Croatia should not only win but should win with high goal differentials to ensure that they have better results than the other second placed teams. If Belarus does win or tie any matches, they could play a part in spoiling either Croatia's or Ukraine's chances. Belarus is still very much in the race to South Africa.

3. Ukraine (3-1-2; 11 pts; 61.1%): Ukraine has the same record as Croatia, but a schedule that is a bit easier. Croatia wins the tie breaker because although the Croatians tied both meetings against the Ukrainians (0-0 in Ukraine and 2-2 in Croatia), Croatia has a better goal difference than them (+6 to Ukraine's +3). Ukraine also has 4 matches left: Andorra home and away, Belarus on the road, and England at home. Just like Croatia already did, Ukraine should be able to pocket 6 easy points against Andorra-- a loss or tie would be humiliating to Ukraine but good for Croatia, but Ukraine should be able to take care of business against the Andorrans. Ukraine opened up their qualifying campaign against Belarus at home. In this match, they had quite a bit of trouble finding the back of the net. It took all 90 minutes plus stoppage time in the second half to finally earn a penalty kick ending the match 1-0 for Ukraine (this is proof that Belarus is a tricky team as I stated already above). Ukraine does have to play England but they do have home field advantage. This may seem like a tough schedule, but while Croatia has Belarus twice and England at home, Ukraine gets to plays the worst team in the group twice and Belarus only once.

4. Belarus (3-2-0; 9 pts; 60.0%): Belarus is still very much in this race to qualify for South Africa. Any slip up from Ukraine or Croatia could give Belarus a chance to sneak through to second place. They do still have to play both Ukraine and Croatia at least once. It probably won't happen but at this point, I don't want to dismiss the possibility. However, I don't think Belarus will ever get enough points to make it into the top 8 of the second placed finishers. They also played only 5 matches so they still have half of their qualifying campaign in front of them. Their remaining schedule looks like this: Croatia home and away, Ukraine at home, Kazakhstan at home, and England on the road. England should be able to defeat Belarus, but Belarus could cause a little bit of trouble for the other teams.

5. Kazakhstan (1-6-0; 3 pts; 14.3%): Kazakhstan has officially been eliminated from the World Cup after a 4-0 loss to England. However, what Kazakhstan does in the 3 matches they have left to play could help Croatia. Here is how Kazakhstan's schedule looks: on the road vs Andorra, on the road vs Belarus, and at home vs Croatia. The match against Andorra means nothing since Andorra has been eliminated too. If Belarus beats Kazakhstan (they already did once 5-1 at Kazakhstan), it could complicate things for Croatia depending on how Croatia does in their two matches against Belarus. Belarus is currently only 2 points behind Croatia.

6. Andorra (0-7-0; 0 pts; 0.0%): Andorra is obviously eliminated with no wins or ties and only 3 matches left to play. None of Andorra's remaining schedule is easy. They are, after all, the worst team in the group so it makes sense. Two out of three teams that they have to play on their remainder of their schedule are teams that are still in the competition and not yet eliminated (they have to play (they have to play Ukraine twice). Their other match against Kazakhstan means nothing as mentioned above.

For more information and standings regarding Group 6, click here.

For official information about qualifying matches, groups, and news from FIFA, click here.

As I stated above, one of the second placed teams will be eliminated early and will not go to the play off to determine the final 4 qualifiers for next summer's World Cup. Below are the current standings for second place teams. Top 8 will go to the playoff round where they will play a two legged home and away aggregate series. I am only going to include the standings here. I will give my analysis in a future post.

1. Russia (4-1-0; 12 pts; 80.0%)
2. France (3-1-1; 10 pts; 66.7%)
3. Bosnia and Herzegovina (3-2-0; 9 pts; 60.0%)
4. Hungary (2-1-1; 7 pts; 58.3%)
5. Switzerland (2-1-1; 7 pts; 58.3%)
6. Ireland (1-0-4; 7 pts; 46.7%)
7. Northern Ireland (2-2-1; 7 pts; 46.7%)
8. Scotland (2-2-1; 7 pts; 46.7%)
9. Croatia (1-1-2; 5 pts; 41.7%

Eduardo da Silva expected to play for Arsenal next season

As I have posted earlier on this blog, Brazilian born Croatian striker Eduardo da Silva is out for the rest of the English Premier League season (which isn't for long as the season ends this weekend--Manchester United has already been crowned champion).

However, Arsenal has announced today that the injury-plagued player should be fit for the beginning of next season which starts in August. This would mean that Eduardo da Silva will be ready to play for Croatia in September as the Croatians face England in an extremely important World Cup qualifying match in London. Eduardo will miss Croatia's qualifying match against Ukraine on June 6 because he still recovering from a recent thigh strain.

"Eduardo underwent simple revision surgery on his left ankle earlier today," Arsenal said on their website (www.arsenal.com). "The operation went well and Eduardo will follow a dedicated rehabilitation programme throughout June."

According to the Arsenal website, he is expected to return to full training in the pre-season.

DC United wins first match in 2009 Atlantic Cup (or what I like to call the "Capitals Derby")

DC United defeated the New York Red Bulls 3-2 in the first match of the 2009 Atlantic Cup. This match, which was played in 90 degree heat at Giants Stadium (114 degrees on the turf according to one of the MSG sportscasters) was one of the best that I have seen the Red Bulls play this season with both clubs getting plenty of chances.

DC United scored the first goal of the match at the 21st minute. The score stayed this way until halftime. The Red Bulls scored the equalizer at the 68th minute off the foot of Juan Pablo Angel (assisted by Jorge Rojas). This was Angel's second goal of the season. Six minutes later, Dane Richards scored the second Red Bull goal making the score 2-1 for New York. The score remained 2-1 until the final few minutes of the match when DC United's Luciano Emilio scored the equalizer at the 90th minute giving the DC United the chance to leave New York with at least 1 point but this was not enough for DC as stoppage time began and both clubs worked at breaking the tie in the final seconds. However, it was DC United that found the back of the net off the foot of Chris Pontius.

Although the Red BUlls lost, this was a great match to start off this season's DC-NY rivalry.

For more detailed coverage of the match, check out the official match report.

This regular season match was also part of what Major League Soccer calls the "Atlantic Cup" which is, according to Wikipedia, a trophy awarded to the winner of the regular season series between arch-rivals DC United and the New York Red Bulls.

Unlike the Honda Superclasico (the rivalry between the LA Galaxy and Chivas USA), this cannot technically be labelled as a "derby" as the clubs are not based in the same city although some rivalries like this one still use the term. In addition, as the Honda Superclasico also includes matches from the US Open Cup and MLS Cup playoffs (if the two clubs happen to meet) in addition to regular season matches, only regular season matches have been used to determine the Atlantic Cup winner since this cup was first created. To be honest, I find this to be somewhat silly. All matches between the clubs should be used no matter what they are used for. This would also intensify the rivalry as both clubs try to win the Atlantic Cup. Another thing that I don't like about this cup is the name. The name does not in any way fit the specific rivalry between these two clubs. Instead, it makes one think that Toronto FC and New England Revolution would be included. A better name would be the "Capitals Derby" (I95 Cup cannot be used because that would include the Revolution as well). In future blog posts, I will use my coined term of "Capitals Derby" to describe this bitter rivalry. The reason why I think this is the more proper name is because of one of the reason for the rivalry--the fact that while Washington DC is the political capital of the United States, New York is the economic center as well as the center of commerce and media.

I will use Atlantic Cup to describe any matches the Red Bulls play against all 3 clubs (Toronto FC, New England Revolution, and DC United) and I95 Cup for matches between the Red Bulls, Revolution, and DC). In other words, the Red Bulls will be playing this fierce rivalry for two additional cups (although two of them are fake, don't exist, and I'm just doing for fun for this blog). Matches in all competitions will be used.

Since the trophy's inaugural season in 2002, DC United has dominated the Atlantic Cup (Capitals Derby) winning 6 out of 7 of the cups. Remember, this is only using regular season results.

Last season (2008), the Red Bulls and DC United split their regular season matches (these are the only matches they played against each other last season). The series started on June 14, 2008 with a 4-1 DC United trashing of the Red Bulls at home. However, when DC visited New York on August 9th, the Red Bulls unleashed their revenge at Giants Stadium with a 4-1 win tying up the series as well as the goal difference. In the final match at RFK Stadium, both clubs looked forward to a heated match to break the deadlock only to have frustration veer its ugly head as the match ended in a scoreless tie. Despite the tie, Major League Soccer considers DC United the defending champion since they won the 2007 edition 6 points to 3 points and a 2-1-0 record. However, I disagree with this. Every season should have a clear winner. If they are all tied up at the end, they should look at the performance of the two clubs throughout the entire season (overall records and other domestic competitions that they played in as well as whether or not they would be playing in the Champions League). Both clubs have qualified for the Champions League preliminary round (DC United by winning the US Open Cup and the Red Bulls by being MLS Cup runners up). However, the Red Bulls come closest to qualifying for the group stage of the Champions League being that the MLS Cup champion gets seeded directly to the group stage. In addition, DC United did not even qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs and therefore the Red Bulls should be considered the "Capitals Derby" defending champions.

Unlike previous seasons, this season's series will only include two matches as the Red Bulls have been scheduled to play their extra matches against two other regional rivals, New England Revolution and Toronto FC--even better reason to include them in the Atlantic Cup. In order for the Red Bulls to be able to play all three clubs three times, Major League Soccer will have to extend the season to more than 30 matches (as it was in 2006). However, I don't see this happening because of the Superliga, US Open Cup, and Champions League making the MLS schedule congested--add the World Cup, Gold Cup and any other national team tournaments, and these players would never get a break.

The Red Bulls and DC United will meet again in a US Open Cup qualifier on May 20th. The winner qualifies for the final knockout stage of the tournament. All 8 MLS clubs that qualify are seeded into the third round. For more about the US Open Cup, check out its Wikipedia entry.

Aside from the Honda Superclasico, the Atlantic Cup is the second most bitter rivalry in Major League Soccer. The rivalry is partially due to the somewhat close proximity of the two cities (about 200 miles apart according to Wikipedia) and other incidents and clashes between the players of the two clubs. For more regarding the rivalry, click here.

Eduardo da Silva out for remainder of Premier League Season: What does this mean for Croatia?

According to Goal.com, Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger has decided to take Eduardo da Sila, the Brazilian-born Croatian international out for the remainder of the English Premier League season after a recent new injury.

It has only been a few months since da Silva returned from about a year off the pitch because of the terrible injury that caused shivers for all Croatian and English fans watching-- causing him to miss Croatia's Euro 2008 campaign-- a tournament that many believed would have ended better for Croatia than it has if they had him available on the roster.

Ever since Eduardo started playing for Arsenal, the former Dinamo Zagreb star has had terrible in regards to injuries. In addition, he has never yet actually played on a major tournament roster having missed out on the 2006 World Cup because then coach Zlatoa Kranjcar bypassed Eduardo in favor for his own son--who is a talented player but Eduardo is much better.

Eduardo only had four appearances for the English side this season. His most recent match was against English rival Manchester United in the Champions League semfinals (1st leg), a series that they have already lost giving Manchester United the chance to defend their Champions League crown. The 26 year old scored three goals in those four appearances since his return at the end of 2008.

Eduardo's most recent injury is due to groin problems after a clash with Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand.

Does this put the rest of his World Cup qualifying campaign for Croatia in doubt?

I think he will play for Croatia seeing that he is out for the rest of the English Premier League season (Arsenal's last match is on May 24 and Croatia's next match is on June 6th) but it is not yet known the extent of his injuries so even if he does miss the June match, he should be back for Croatia in the more crucial matches, especially the one against England in September (on my birthday as a matter of fact).

According to this article from javno.com, Eduardo told fans that he dreams to play in World Cup for Croatia so I don't think a groin injury would slow down this determined striker.

Eduardo was recently on uefa.com answering the questions of loyal fans (Javno made a point to say that the fans were from all over-- not just Arsenal fans from England or Croatians-- the player has respect and fans from all over). Javno has summarized his answers in the article I linked to above.

Red Bulls gain 3 points in first win of the season, FINALLY!!!

It may have taken 2 losses and two ties (4 points in 4 matches) to wake up them up, but the Red Bulls have finally gotten their first win of the season in their fifth match at home at Giants Stadium against Real Salt Lake, the same club that they defeated 1-0 to win the 2008 Western Conference championship and qualify them for the MLS Cup final as well as a spot in 2009-2010 CONCACAF Champions League which begins this summer.

The Red Bulls dominated the match in their 2-0 win against a weak Real Salt Lake side. I wasn't able to watch the match because I was at a play off hockey (my second favorite sport after soccer/football) game for the Bridgeport Soundtigers, the AHL affiliate of the New York Islanders, at Nassau Coliseum, but that's for another blog which I will start eventually. I did however catch a few minutes of the replay today on MSG although I missed both goals. From what I did see, the Red Bulls played very well and had a lot of chances.

Macoumba Kandji opened the scoring in the 2nd minute and Juan Pablo Angel finally scored his first of the season in the second half.

For more detailed match coverage, see the match report and the official match tracker.

Croatia welcomes first Irish player to league

Croatia Times has reported back in March that Stephen Murray, an Irish football/soccer players, will be playing professionally in Croatia.

Murray is a 27 year old born Kilkenny, Ireland and has signed with Junak, a club based in southern CRoatian town of Sinj and currently plays in Croatia's second division.

After playing for Waterford United, Murray moved to Memphis where played for a club there. Murray told Croatian daily newspaper "Jutarnji List" that his "coach in the USA was a Croat, and he helped me get into Croatian football."

I'm surprised no other Irish players were interested in playing in Croatia, but anyway, I wish the best of luck to Stephen Murray. I will talk more about him as I find more news.

Clubs promote political parties in Croatia

In most of the world, separating politics from sport especially football/soccer (being the world's most popular game) has been a daunting task. This is mostly common in international competitions and with national teams as many rivalries between two nations are due to political reasons. However, in Croatia, politics has been used as a form of propaganda and political symbols have been shown on team jerseys, according to this article from the Croatian Times.

According to the article, clubs have been promoting certain political parties in Croatia and local football authorities in eastern Croatia are trying to find a way to stop it after finding out that referees have allowed this to happen in up to four matches in which political part symbols and politically related materials showed up on jerseys. These refs may face suspension.

This has been especially widespread now as political parties are trying to promote themselves before local elections take place on May 18.

Ante Vucemilovic, president of the Slavonska-Baranjska county football federation in eastern Croatia, made the following statetment to daily newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija (Free Dalmatia): "Referees and other authorities are supposed to prevent political propaganda."

Native American Indian living in Canada is interested in playing for Dinamo Zagreb

This is somewhat old news but while looking at some of the sports articles on the Croatian Times, I thought this was noteworthy enough to post about it here.

Cheona Edzerza is from the Tahltan tribe in British Columbia, Canada and is interested in playing for defending HNL-1 and Croatia Cup champion Dinamo Zagreb.

The 14 year old arrived in Zagreb in late March to train with the club's under 15 squad.

Croatia Times reports that the player is "allegedly extremely talented." Edzerza was part of the Native American British Columbia team that won the championship at the North American Indigenous Games last year in which he scored the golden goal in overtime to win the championship.

Edzerza was interested in furthering her career and found Dinamo Zagreb online and impressed with what he saw. Edzerza told "Sportske novosti" ("Sports news"), a daily Croatian sports news source, that he is "happy to be in Croatia after having informed myself about Dinamo on the internet, and I was thrilled by what I saw. I will give my best to show what I can do in order to stay with Dinamo. I want to have a great career, and I am already dreaming about playing for Dinamo in Maksimir Stadium."

He spent two weeks in London before arriving in Zagreb.

Could this be a new trend over at Maksimir? Ever since Eduardo da Silva signed with the Zagreb-based club, Dinamo signed a few more Brazilians to the club. With Edzerza's interest in a Croatian club, could we be seeing more Native American Indians playing in Croatia and the rest of Europe?

All Croatian Sports Club fans hold initiative to help poor families in Vukovar

According to this Croatian Times article, fans from all of the Croatians sports clubs will be starting a humanitarian initiative called "From Croatian fans to Vukovar" to help poor families in Vukovar, a city in eastern Croatia on the Serbian border that many patriotic Croatians call "heroic."

The city was almost completely destroyed during the early 90's Croatian War of Independence leaving many residents still living in horrible conditions.

Donations will be raised through different local activities or going directly to a bank account number at "Privredna banka" which is in the article I linked to above and will go to the Saint Vinko Paulski Association, which will distribute the money among the families.

The initiative will end on May 16 which is when fans will participate in a procession from Vukovar's city centre to the Memorial Cemetery where the war victims are buried.

More information can be found at www.slobodanavijacima.org.

Klasnic rejects Werder's offer for damages

The hearing is over and the results are in--Werder Bremen has offered 350,000 euros to Klasnic but he has refused to take it.

According to the Croatian Times, the 28 year old striker rejected the offer at a hearing which took place at a Bremen courtroom. Klasnic stated that he did not actually file the suit for the intention of taking money from the club but rather just for principle.


However, according to German sources, Klasnic is demanding over one million Euros in damages from his former club because he lost one year of his career, suffered damage to his health and had to undergo kidney transplants. According to the Croatian Times, a verdict will probably not be handed down for another year.

Klasnic Update

About a year ago I posted this blog entry about Croatian striker Klasnic's decision to sue his former German club. Well, this recent article from the Croatian Times states that he has finally done so. He has sued Werder Bremen of the German Bundesliga for professional carelessness over a kidney transplant he had to undergo two years ago at the recommendation of the German club's medical team.

According to the Croatian Times. Klasnic believes that they are responsible for the loss of a kidney that was donated by his mother and was rejected by his body. His father later donated his kidney which his body accepted.

There was a hearing yesterday (Thursday April 16) with a decision to come sometime today. Being that it is already around 8 pm in Germany, the decision was most likely already reported so I will post this as soon as I found out.

Klasnic, who currently plays for Nantes, a French club, has stated that "It is very important to me to learn the truth about the doctors’ failure. I often think about it, and sometimes I cannot even sleep because of it."

More to come soon.

2009 Honda Superclasico kicks off with 0-0 tie

One of the biggest and fiercest rivalries in Major League Soccer is the one between the LA Galaxy and Chivas USA, both of which play there home matches in Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. The rivalry is also known as the Honda Superclasico. It also considered the only true derby in Major League soccer being that both clubs are located in the same city. The name comes from the Mexican derby between Club America and Chivas de Guadelajara. The 2009 derby will consists of three already scheduled league matches as well any US Open Cup or MLS Cup matches.

The first league match of the derby was dominated by defense leading to a frustrating scoreless draw.

The Los Angeles Galaxy is currently the defending champion of the derby with a 1-0-2 (5 points) record in 2008. LA has won 3 out of the 4 derbies, the first of which they sweeped 4-0-0 in 2005 when Chivas USA was added to the league as an expansion team). The Galaxy also holds the most wins against Chivas USA since Chivas joined the league with a 9-3-5 record (which includes Saturday's scoreless tie).

I will keep a close eye on this year's derby and keep you updated regarding how it progresses throughout the season.

New York Red Bulls continue winless season

The New York Red Bulls played the Houston Dynamo in Houston on Saturday night to a scoreless draw. This was the first competitive clash between the two clubs since the New York Red Bulls eliminated the two time MLS Cup champions Dynamo in the first round of the 2008 MLS Cup Playoffs so fans of both clubs were assured a great match as the Dynamo were set for revenge.

Both clubs played extremely well during the first half and have had some pretty good chances at goal throughout the match but neither club was able to find net. Despite the lack of goals, the match was very intense and tempers flared with several yellow (and red) cards as the Dynamo attempted to avenge their elimination from the MLS Cup Playoffs last season.

With this result, here is how each club stands right now (note that the percentage I have listed is the superior points percentage--instead of using points as the first criteria for ranking clubs throughout the season, I take the number of points earned divided by the number of points possible for the number of matches played and multiply that by 100. I use this so that one club will never have the "upper hand" over any other at any point during the season):

New York Red Bulls (0-2-2; 2 points earned/4 matches(3)=16.7%; last place in east; 13th out of 15 in league): The Red Bulls have had an extremely disappointing start to the Major League Soccer season as you can see from their record. Not one goal was actually scored by a Red Bull player so far. The only goal came in the form of a New England Revolution own goal in a match that ended in 1-1 draw. Red Bull Juan Pablo Angel (a favorite to win the MLS Golden Boot although he does have quite a bit of competition and the Red Bull's current form is not helping him any), however, has had several chances in these matches but could not find the back of the net. The Red Bulls are back in action next Saturday when they will face Real Salt Lake (currently 2-1-0; 6 points in 3 matches; 66.7%; 3rd in west out of 8; 5th place overall). The last time the Red Bulls faced Salt Lake was in the 2008 Western Conference championship game in which the Red Bulls beat them 1-0.

Houston Dynamo (tied with Red Bulls with a 0-2-2 record but beats them on goal difference putting Dynamo in 6th place in the west and 12th overall)have also had a pretty disappointing start to the regular season. It started with their first competitive loss back in February in which Mexican powerhouse Atlante eliminated them from the CONCACAF Champions League. Despite being upset by the Red Bulls last season in the 2008 MLS Cup Playoffs, the Houston squad started the 2009 season will a glimmer of hope after ending the 2008 season with a Champions League win making them the only MLS and American-based club to qualify for the elimination round of this important international competition. The Dynamo's next match is next Sunday against the Colorado Rapids at home.

Eduardo da Silva is back as Croatia defeats Andorra 2-0

In Eduardo da Silva's first competitive match for the Croatian national team since the nasty incident while playing for Arsenal last year, Croatia defeated Andorra 2-0 in a 2010 World Cup qualifying match Croatia was expected to win quite easily.

Both of Croatia's goals came in the first half. The win keeps them in second place behind England (5-0-0) who defeated Ukraine today to keep themselves in the #1 spot with a perfect record in Group 6.

Croatia opened the scoring in the 15th minute with "Ivan Klasnic's precise shot from the edge of the box" according to this article from Reuters. The pace of the match slowed since then and Croatia created very few chances while Andorra hardly had a look at goal. Croatia's second goal came at the 35th minute as a cross from Klasnic was slotted in by Eduardo da Silva.

In the second half, Croatia dominated but failed to create any noteworthy chances to increase their lead away from home against weak Andorran team.

Despite the win, the result is quite disappointing to me as Croatia should have scored more against such a weak team. Croatia's next qualifying match is against Ukraine at home in Zagreb June 6. Croatia already played Ukraine away in Kharkov resulting in a disappointing 0-0 tie.

For more World Cup 2010 European qualifying results and standings, check the official website.

Bilic turns down opportunity to coach German club Schalke

All Croatian soccer/football fans should know by now that by 2010 Slaven Bilic will no longer be the coach of our national team. Bilic's reason is that four years at the helm is enough. This shouldn't matter even though Bilic is the best coach Croatia has had since 1998 when they took the bronze medal in France defeating the likes of Germany and the Netherlands Eduardo da Silva is back and that should be enough to qualify us for South Africa 2010. If Croatia does not qualify (a chance but it seems very likely that they will even if they have to rely on a playoff in order to do it), Bilic will be available for a club gig as early as November 2009 or else any European club interested in this Croatian rocker/coach will have to wait until after the World Cup in 2010.

Even though Bilic has expressed interest in coaching a few English Premier League clubs, German side Schalke 04 has expressed interest in Bilic, but Bilic has turned them down according to this article.

Owners of the German club approached Bilic during the weekend with an offer that would allow him to take over as interim coach until the end of the season after firing Fred Rutten last Thursday but accepting this position would mean Bilic leaving the national team about 7 months before World Cup qualifying is over.

Croatia's next match is a World Cup qualifier against Andorra on April 1st.

Croatia is currently 2nd in Group 6 with 7 points (2-1-1) and four matches-- 5 points away from England--currently at the top of the group. In Europe, the winner of each group qualifies directly while the top 8 of 9 second place finishers must play off against each other to fill the 13 spots that UEFA gets to send to South Africa.

Bilic told one German newspaper: "It is a huge honour for me to be considered a candidate with such a big club. I thanked them and repeated that I just want to focus on the Croatia national team at the moment."

Major League Soccer Club Update

As the finals stages of the CONCACAF Champions League 2008-2009 approach (the quarterfinal round begins on Feb 24 with the final sometime in the April), it is pretty clear which club is the best in Major League Soccer for period between March 2007 (which is when the 2007 MLS Regular season started) and now (the middle of the Champions League Season). It is Houston Dynamo! I say this because in my honest opinion, the best MLS club cannot be measured fairly when simply based on the regular season or even the playoffs, but mostly on how far the club can make it in the Champions League since they play more clubs from other countries from within the rest of North America (the most difficult being the powerhouse clubs of the premier Mexican league), the Caribbean, and Central America). Despite being eliminated by my club--the New York Red Bulls, the Houston Dynamo have proven several times that they are the best club in Major League Soccer and can play well against anyone. After defeating Luis Angel Firpo of El Salvador in the group stage, Houston Dynamo became the only club based in the USA to make it to the quarterfinals of the Champions League where they will play Mexican powerhouse Atlante. At this point, anything can happen and the Dynamo have proven that. Houston Dynamo qualified for the 2008-2009 Champions League after being crowned champion of MLS in 2007 (which should basically be considered part of the 2008-2009 Champions League since most clubs qualify for the tournament in 2007 through their own leagues and national domestic cups) for the second time in a row. Whether or not the Dynamo progress further in CONCACAF this year, it doesn't matter, they are still the best MLS club of 2007-2009. However, after the final stages of the 2008-2008 CONCACAF Champions League, Dynamo's chance of being #1 may seem to fade (although they have qualified for the 2009-2010 CONCACAF Champions League) as Major League Soccer grows and new players from outside of the United States start playing here, which brings me to the topic of this blog post: my current Major League Soccer rankings when looking at how the league would look while playing in the 2009-2010 Champions League which is set to start this summer. These rankings basically come from the quality of play during the regular season/playoffs of the 2008 MLS season and how they qualified for the 2009-2010 Champions League. These rankings can change as the 2009-2010 Champions League begin and as MLS clubs get eliminated:

The top 2 clubs qualified for the group stage of the 2009-2010 CONCACAF Champions League:

1. Columbus Crew: The Crew had a great MLS season in 2008 from start to finish. They are a club that I would have never believe to have even made the playoffs if you asked in 2007, but with a great head coach and great players, they pulled it off. However, as I admit that they had a great season after winning both the 2008 MLS Cup and the 2008 Supporters Shield (best overall regular season record), they will only stay at #1 in my MLS rankings if they can win against tougher clubs from Mexico and Central America. This is the Crew's first time playing on the confederation level, so we will see if they play among the best of CONCACAF. The Crew were already assured qualification into the Champions league group stage after winning the Supporters Shield so winning the MLS Cup was not really important in terms of qualifying for the international stage, but it was an awesome end to an awesome season.

2. Houston Dynamo: The Dynamo are somewhat lucky that they were able to bypass the preliminary round in order to qualify directly into the group stage in the 2009-2010 season, which is partly why I think that they are going fade as the #1 club in the USA soccer. The reason why I think they were lucky is because only 4 clubs can represent the United States (2 clubs qualify directly to the group stage--the winners of the MLS Cup and the winner of the supporters shield--and the other 2 have to prove they are worthy to play in the group stage by playing a two legged playoff, these clubs are the MLS Cup runner up and the US Open Cup champion. Houston Dynamo's greatest to qualify directly into the group stage would have been to win their third straight MLS Cup, but that was not meant to be as the New York Red Bulls defeated them causing the biggest upset in MLS history. Houston's only other chance to keep skip the preliminary round--which they were expected to do was to hope that the Columbus Crew would win the MLS Cup so that Houston Dynamo can claim group stage qualification as Supporters Shield runner up since the Columbus Crew had qualified through both methods. Luckily, this is exactly what happened. If this did not happen, Dynamo would have had to play in the Superliga, which has recently become a reject or consolation competition for MLS clubs that were unable to qualify for the Champions League, somewhat like a UEFA Cup for CONCACAF. However, at this point, the Superliga is only open to American and Mexican premier clubs and was started to strengthen the rivalry between Mexico and the United States.

The clubs I have ranked as third and fourth are the ones that qualified for the preliminary round of the 2009-2010 Champions League. These clubs have to play a two legged playoff in order to prove worthy for the group stage:

3. New York Red Bulls: As a fan of this club, it is really exciting to see the Red Bulls finally play against some other CONCACAF clubs in a high level tournament. I don't expect them to make it far, but I expect them pass the preliminary stage and at least show some good effort in the group stage--making it to the final 8 would be great! The Red Bulls qualified simply by making it to the MLS Cup final. If they had beaten the Columbus Crew, they would have joined the Crew in the group stage automatically which would have forced the Houston Dynamo to play in the preliminary instead. However, I am still critical of the Red Bulls for their rather disappointing regular season, but eliminated Houston in the Western Conference semifinals and finishing as runner up was better than nothing. Hopefully they will do well in the the Champions League.

4. DC United: ONCE upon a time, the United was the most successful club in Major League Soccer, but NOW, they are extremely overrated. I'm not just saying this because I am a fan of their biggest rival, but because it is a FACT. The DC club is extremely lucky to have qualified for the Champions League through the easiest tournament for an MLS club--the US Open Cup--the one cup competition in which all divisions can take a part in as long as they are based in the United States--this included ameatur clubs. DC United is also extremely lucky that the USL Division 1 has seriously embarrassed the single premier soccer league in the United States--lucky because that forced them to play their USL1 rival--the Charleston Battery and therefore, was able to salvage at least some respect for Major League among American soccer fans. DC United was hot only for a small amount of time during the 2008 regular season and it just so happened that the 2008 US Open Cup final was around that time. DC United was able to qualify for this season's Champions League as well by winning the 2007 Supporters Shield but were easily eliminated from the group stage.

Clubs ranked 5 through 8 are the clubs that qualified for the Superliga. Clubs qualify for the Superliga through their overall place in the MLS Regular Season. The top 4 clubs that have not qualified for the Champions League, join 4 of the best clubs in the Mexican Premier League in this competition.

5. Chicago Fire: Lately, the Chicago Fire has become of the better clubs in the Eastern Conference--finishing 2nd in the conference in 2008 behind Columbus Crew. THey are expected to perform well in the Superliga, which the MLS somehow dominated since it started in 2006.

6. New England Revolution: They say the curse of the bambino has left the Red Sox and have now haunted the Revolution or maybe it is also affecting the Patriots as well. If so, the curse must be living in Gillette Stadium because both the Patriots and Revolution play there. The New England Revolution had two chances to win an MLS Cup in 2006 and 2007 against Houston, but Houston won it both times. In 2008, they didn't even make it to the Eastern Conference Championship game. However, they did take the Superliga title in 2008 against Houston. We'll see how they do in 2009 in the Superliga--no Houston to stop them and they are my second favorite club after the Red Bulls.

7. Chivas USA: Nothing much to say about Chivas. They are a good club and they are also expected to do fairly well in the Superliga.

8. Kansas City Wizards: same as Chivas USA. Nothing much to say about them.

Ranked 9th is the club that made it to the MLS Cup playoffs, but did not qualify for the international stage in 2009-2010:

9. Real Salt Lake: Even though they made it to the Western Conference Championship game--on match away from the MLS Cup--only to lose to the Red Bulls 1-0, they failed to make it to the at least the Superliga. This is mostly due to DC United winning the US Open Cup causing Real Salt to take a lover spot in my rankings. Only clubs that manage to qualify for the Champions League/Superliga (international competitions) make it to the top of these rankings.

The clubs ranked 10th to 14th are the ones that did not make it to the postseason in the 2008 MLS season. These clubs are ranked according to their final places in the regular season standings:

10. Colorado Rapids

11. FC Dallas

12. Toronto FC: This club managed to not end the season in last place. However, they still have not really improved that much since their first season on Major League Soccer. This club can still move up in these rankings though as they still have a chance to qualify for the 2009-2010 Champions League. This is because since they are a Canadian based club, they are not allowed to qualify for the Champions League through MLS, but instead through the Canadian Championship-- Canada's version of the US Open Cup. However, this tournament only includes 3 professional clubs: Toronto FC and two USL club--Montreal Impact and the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Canadian Soccer League clubs are not yet allowed to join until they Canadian Soccer Federation decides to expand the competition. This competition will take place during the earlier part of the 2009 MLS season since the 2009-2010 season of the Champions League does not begin until July or August.

13. Los Angeles Galaxy: One of the best players in the world and one of my most favorite players despite being a member of the national team I most despise (England), plays for this club and that is David Beckham. However, ever since Beckham started playing for the Galaxy, they have not advanced to a Conference Championship once, yet Landon Donovan still managed to win the Golden Boot in the 2008 season--the award given the player that scored the most goals in the regular season. The Galaxy is my favorite Western Conference club and I would love to see them make a return to the postseason.

14. San Jose Earthquakes