CFC at Pittsburgh in US Open Cup, Hassli Golazo!, Alaska Airline Commercial

CFC travel to Pittsburgh Riverhounds in Round 1 of US Open Cup

The NPSL Southeast Region's representative in the US Open Cup, Chattanooga FC will travel to Pittsburgh to take on the USL-Pro (3rd division) Riverhounds on Tuesday night.  We spoke with CFC's coach Brian Crossman about the rigors of the Open Cup match midweek between two NPSL matches against Rocket City United.

CFC Coach Brian Crossman on the US Open Cup Match vs Pittsburg

Golazo-azo-azo-azooooooooo!

Vancouver's Eric Hassli is perhaps more famous for his tendency to attract red cards, but it's that chip on his shoulder that led him to attempt and score with this strike.  Un-real!

Portland Coach Stars in Alaska Airline Commercial

This commercial staring the Portland Timber's Scottish Coach John Spencer tickles me.  Enjoy!

Old Guys, US D2 Pro League, and Nice Bike Goal

Let's Hear It for the Old Guys!

Did you know that there are 144 players in the EPL that are 30 years or older? MLS has its share of players in their 30s, too. In fact, Climbing the Ladder has named an MLS Old Player of the Year award for each season. As we know, our local league has an appreciation for old guys as HASL has announced that it will start an Over-35 division this fall. And there is also a US cup tournament for old guys with the very PC name of the Veteran's Cup.


Division 2 Preview
MLS began its season this past weekend. Now, the new USSF Divsion 2 Pro League will begin on April 10th. Brian Quarstad of Inside Minnesota Soccer has a complete preview of the league that consists of 12 teams from both the USL and the NASL, including two teams (Portland and Vancouver) who will be joining MLS next year.

Get on Your Bike

Nice overhead kick goal from the Turkish league.

On his bike

That Goal!

US Men's National Team forward Clint Dempsey dinked a delightful chip that sunk the dagger into Juventus in the Europa League yesterday.

Simply amazing goal!

Fulham had been down 3:1 after the away trip to Turin, and battled back after giving up an early goal to Juventus to bring the tie level at 4:4. Then, Deuce Dempsey struck with the no look wedge shot from just off the green.

Dempsey talks about the goal

Every time I watch it, I get goosebumps. I've told many friends that I will retire on the spot, if I ever get good enough to chip a keeper in a game. That, to me, is the pinnacle of skill and audacity. As it is, I'm sure I'll be playing for years to come, because a shot like that is just brilliant!

RCU and SCS, US help from EPL Coaches, and Windy Goal or Not?

RCU and SCS Prepare for the NPSL Final Four
Rocket City United and title sponsor Southern Convention Services are preparing for the 2010 season and the NPSL Final Four which will be hosted in Madison in late July. The Huntsville Times has a nice article on the efforts of the club and SCS to make preparations and generate community awareness for the season and the Final Four in particular.

BTW, I'll be heading out to the RCU Ribbon Cutting ceremony today at 4PM and will bring you all the news from it.


USA Coach Getting Help from EPL Coaches
USMNT coach Bob Bradley has gotten some inside tips for the showdown with England from some unlikely sources, the coaches of English Premier League teams. Many of them are foreign born and wouldn't mind seeing the USA take down the English. Speaking of... Isn't it time we starting hating England a little more?


What's Wrong With This Goal?

Here's a goal from a lower division German league game, it's a fluke for sure as the wind catches hold of the ball, but that's not what I really caught my eye.

Wind aided goal

As one of the commenters notes, this goal should not count. According to the laws of the game, "a goal may be scored directly from a goal kick, but only against the opposing team." It should have been a corner kick for the other team, not a goal. That's one for you referees out there to watch for.

Weekend Warrior Vids, US World Cup Pay, Scorpion Kick Goal, and TV Soccer This Weekend

Weekend Warrior Vids and Polls

Jacob over at Southern Soccer posted a ton of videos from the successful Weekend Warrior tournament held this past weekend. He's also updated some polls to help get an idea of how they can make the tournament better in the future.


USMNT Player Bonuses For World Cup

For some of the guys playing in Europe, the bonuses that they earn from playing in the World Cup are nothing more than pocket change, but for some of the MLS players who are not making astronomical salaries, the money is a big deal. Stephen Goff gives us an idea of just how much the World Cup is worth to the US players.


Sweet Scorpion Kick Goal


This vid from the Portugese League has been tearing up the web in the past few days and for good reason.

It's an audaciously taken goal.


What I'll Be Watching This Weekend


While I wait for DirecTV to upgrade their satellite, so I can get FSC in HD, I'll be watching the following games this weekend, mostly in SD. :(

Today
Bundesliga, Hoffenheim-Moenchengladbach 1:30 p.m GolTV

Saturday
EPL, Everton-Manchester United 6:30 a.m. ESPN2 (IN HD)
Bundesliga, Hamburg-Eintracht Frankfurt 8:30 a.m. GolTV
EPL, Wolves-Chelsea 9 a.m. Fox Soccer Channel
La Liga, Barcelona-Santander 1 p.m. GolTV
Serie A, Inter Milan-Sampdoria 1:30 p.m. FSC
Campeonato Brasileiro, Corinthians-Rio Branco 3:30 p.m. GolTV

Sunday
Manchester City-Liverpool 9 a.m. FSC
Italy, Bari-AC Milan 1:30 p.m. FSC

Tuesday Tidbits

RCU in the Media

Local Media tries to get a good shot of the RCU Press Conference

Here's a photo of the press contingent present at RCU presser last week and another article on the event.

Diving: It's getting bad

This is getting ridiculous.

Another Long Distance Goal

Hondoran Maynor Figueroa hits a bomb from a quickly taken free kick. Nice goal!

Today's History Lesson

In an effort to get to know the USA World Cup opponent Algeria better, here's a quick lesson about the growth of soccer in Algeria.

FSC To Go HD In January

According to EPL Talk, Fox Soccer Channel has confirmed that they are starting their HD broadcasting next month. When they do go HD, you'll have to verify that your carrier is also going to provide the HD channel. To do this, FSC has created a Channel Finder tool. Unfortunately, there is no provider info available for my zip yet, but I hope this changes in January.

More MLSness

Best Goal of 2009



Check out the goal of the week winners and the nominees for Goal of the Year. My favorites are Clint Mathis (Week 6), Eddie Lewis (Week 9), Nate Jaqua (Week 10), Brian Namoff (Week 17), Alecko Eskandarian (Week 18), Landon Donovan (Week 20), and Robbie Finley (Week 32). I'm a fan of the sombrero move. So, I might have to pick Esky's goal as my favorite. Although, I can't deny that the Mathis goal was a thing of beauty.


Best Save of 2009



Here are the Save of the Year nominees. My favorites have to be Kevin Goldthwaite (Week 4), Pat Onstad (Week 5), Kasey Keller (Week 10), Stephen Frei (Weeks 11, 25), Zach Thornton (Week 27), Tyronne Marshall (Week 29), and Geoff Cameron (Week 31).

I can't bring myself to vote for a defender. Keepers get little enought recognition as is, but you gotta give some love to those defenders who made the list. I'm sure thier goalkeepers took them out to lunch for those saves.

Now, I do have to say that many of the saves in the list may have been acrobatic, but there are several that appear on the list only because the goalkeeper found himself out of position. There were others that were just cases of poor finishing. So, those are eliminated for voting in my mind. So, I'm gonna have to give my nod to one of the Stephen Frei saves. Those saves are very hard to make when the flight of the ball is going one way and is deflected or headed back in the opposite direction. What do you think?

MLS, EPL Help FSC, MLS Beats EPL on ESPN

Nielsen is reporting a 125% increase in viewership of Fox Soccer Channel from this time last year, mostly due to its coverage of the EPL and MLS. Over on the world-wide leader in sports, MLS ratings are actually higher than EPL ratings on ESPN. This is yet another indication of the increasing relevance of soccer in the US sporting landscape.

Mayor's Cup Reminder and Other Stuff

Mayor's Cup Tomorrow

The Huntsville college derby known as the Mayor's Cup returns tomorrow as UAH travels to Bulldog Field at Alabama A&M. The match kicks off at 5PM.

Hleb Gets My Goal of the Week

Alex Hleb has to get my goal of the week. Check out the former Arsenal/Barca man's mazy run through the entire Timisoara defence for Stuttgart's second goal. BTW, love the Romanian team's name. Timi!!!




Scorpion Kick Goal Scorer Coming to MLS

Remember that goal I was drooling over a few months ago? Well, the scorer of that unbelievably sweet scorpion kick goal, Luis Angel Landin, has just been signed by the Houston Dynamo. That's a major signing for MLS. Not only is he a young player with plenty of upside, but he's a Mexican coming to a market with many Mexican fans.

Here's that goal again. Check out his reaction. He's just as surprised it went in as everyone else.




Soccer Commercials

Here are a few commercials that ESPN and FSC are showing to promote thier EPL and UEFA Champions League broadcasts respectively.

ESPN's EPL spot

<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/video?vid=4565f918-4bfa-4f9e-9f3e-cdaffb52a190&amp;from=IV2_en-us_foxsports_SOCCERvideocentral" target="_new" title="UEFA Champions League: All Season Long">Video: UEFA Champions League: All Season Long</a>
FSC CL ad

BTW, if you're reading this on Facebook, you won't see the vids. You'll have to go to here for my actual blog to see them.

HASL Anniversary and a Few Randoms...

HASL celebrates its silver anniversary this year. Read more about it here.

Clint Dempsey scored 2 in a win over Man City this weekend. Read more about it here. Note the description of Zamora's pass to set up Dempsey's second goal. That's the impetus for the name of the blog.

I thought that this was the goal of the week...



...Until I saw this one.



Now, that's a golazo-azo-aaaaaazoooooo!