In a move that was highly speculated, Fabio Capello was named manager of the England national team thru the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 European Championship.

I think this was a great decision by the FA.  After Jose Mourniho, Capello was definitely the next best choice as manager.  Capello is a no nonsense manager who does not play to favorites and will not be swayed by the media or anyone else to make decisions on who plays and who does not.  with Capello at the helm, you can count on under-achieving stars being dropped from the England squad.   Frank Lampard, are you listening ?

With all that talent and sub-par results, its obvious that the England needs a kick in the butt and Capello will certainly do that.  A few injuries should not derail a country such as England as badly as it did during the 2008 European Championship qualifiers.  For England, there is no excuse for not qualifying for any World Cup or European Championship. 

For Beckham fans, this probably means Beckham will most certainly earn his 100th cap for England.   Capello coached Beckham at Real Madrid and is well aware that Beckham can still impact games especially on set pieces.

I posted this a few months ago when this rumor first surfaced.  According to espn.com, the rumor is back on again claiming a deal has been struck to bring Ronaldinho to Stamford Bridge.   I still think its a great move for Chelsea for the same reasons I mentioned back in September.

Back on September 26, 2007…

According to Yahoo Sports, a deal is being finalized to bring Ronaldinho to Chelsea FC for a whopping 70 million euros. 

Wow, if this is true and the deals goes thru, then talk about fireworks at Stamford Bridge!  What a week for Chelsea.  Just when you thought you have seen it all from Abramovich…  You fire your very successful coach and then you sign the best footballer on the planet in Ronaldinho!  

I like the move and it makes perfect sense.  Here is why:

Keep the Faith - Firstly, this move goes a long way in restoring the faith of the the Chelsea faithful who are still furious and confused as hell over the firing of their beloved coach, Jose Mourinho. 

Lampard - Now with Ronaldinho, they have several personnel moves they could make without losing any firepower at midfield.  One option and the most obvious one is to move Michael Ballack and/or Andriy Shevchenko to recoup some money used to sign Ronaldinho.   Neither won have done a damn thing since they arrived at Stamford Bridge.  Another option this gives Chelsea is to let Frank Lampard go.  I know the Enlgish fans would be shocked, but lets not forget that this past off season, Lampard did not sign a contract extension with Chelsea.   I do not recall what his lame excuse was, but essentually he is not sure if he want to play for Chelsea beyond his current contract.  I am sure firing Mourinho does not help matters and neither would a move for Ronaldinho.  Plus, for some reason we have not seen the same Frank Lampard we saw during the 2005-2006 season and his form has also suffered with the national team.   If Lampard does not want to play at Chelsea, let him go sign somewhere else. 

Worldwide Popularity - Ronaldinho is not only the best footballer on the planet, but he is also the most popular.  Lampard and John Terry are not that well-known or that popular outside of England.   Ronaldinho will instantly increase the popularity of Chelsea FC all over the world.  In there last Champions League match, there were only 15,000 fans.  That is ridiculous with all these stars on that team.  Too bad they all lack any excitement.   You could expect more than 15,000 fans at any Champions League game Ronaldinho is playing in. 

Let’s see what happens !!!

England’s heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Croatia at Wembley Stadium sealed their Euro 2008 fate and also sealed the fate of coach Steve McClaren.  McClaren did not lose his job based on the loss to Croatia or his stupid decision to start Scott Carson instead of Paul Robinson at goal.  There is absolutely no excuse for any English national team coach to fail to qualify for any World Cup or European Championship.  The bottom line is, England is simply too talented for this to ever happen.   I do not buy the excuse of too many foreign players playing in the Premiership.   If you cannot put together a competitive squad over 12 matches despite some injuries, you do not belong as the English national team coach.  This result should be considered a total embarrassment for England and the FA should clean house and get this straightened out before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Much credit to Croatia for playing their hearts out for this victory when they could have easily let this match slip away.  They played as if they had to win to qualify.  Well deserved win for Croatia and congrats to Russia for qualifying!
 

For those of you that may have missed it (I know there was a lot of you), the 2007 MLS Cup final took place this past Sunday.  I must say it was a prety exciting game at the end with two 2nd half goals by the Houston Dynamo highlighted by an incredible header by Dwayne De Rosario to clinch the 2-1 victory over the New England Revolution. 

I was switching channels back and forth between watching the NFL games and the MLS Cup final as I am sure many people were or for that matter, most people were simply watching the NFL.  Does MLS or ABC for that matter really think that most people would choose to watch the MLS Cup final over NFL on Sunday?  I wonder how many people actually knew the MLS Cup was on and who was playing in it?  Why didn’t ABC schedule the game at a time where no other major sporting events were going on?  I am sure more people would have been watching. 

Despite an exciting Cup final, MLS still sucks!!!

As we all had suspected, Greg Ryan is out as USA Women’s soccer coach.  Ryan had a great win/loss record of 45-1-9 with his only loss the beatdown by Brazil in the World Cup.    Ryan obviously did not win the only tournament that matters, the World Cup.

It is unfortunate that Greg Ryan did not get the opportunity to continue as coach at least thru the 2008 Beijing Olympics which is only one year away.  At least we could see how good or bad of a coach he really was.  His predecessor, April Heinrichs did a horrible job in her 6 years losing the 2000 Olympics and 2003 World Cups and got lucky when the team won the 2004 olympics.  Heinrichs had 3 chances to shine and she had the luxury of coaching the veterans including Hamm, Fowdy, Chastain.    Everyone forgets that Greg Ryan is coaching a bunch of young and inexperienced players while the rest of the world has gotten much better.

The USA women’s team has a lot of work to do.  The current players suck and no coach can fix that.  Whether it is Hope Solo or Briana Scurry in goal, it really does not matter.  These players need to get their act together and stop blaming their coach for their failures..  They have a lot to learn….