The Soccer Thread (VI)

It was. The USA's defense is a problem, however. If they are going to win gold, they are going to need to score three goals a game. I don't know if they are capable of shutting out Brazil, Japan, Sweden, etc. The quarterfinal matchup could be against Canada, which gave the USA defense all kinds of trouble in the last match before the Olympics.

 

Rangers newco gets conditional SFA license so it can play its Ramsdens Cup match on Sunday.

Rangers part of renegotiated SPL TV package and 12-month transfer ban that starts Sept. 1. Full transfer of old Rangers license to happen next week when final transfer of Rangers SPL share is transferred to Dundee. No action on the SPL stripping any titles.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/football/spl/rangers/2012/07/27/rangers-granted-full-sfa-licence-at-11th-hour-after-agreement-between-club-and-governing-bodies-86908-23913648/

 

To those who know this sport better than me...

If Pele, Beckenbauer, Maradona and the other all timers played against today's players, would they be as great?

If Maradona in his prime plays today, is he still the best in the world?

 

Fantastic goal for Brazil against Belarus. Backheel from Neymar to put Oscar clean through. Great stuff.

 

Good thing, too, as Japan-Morocco has been dire so far.

 

Chevy signs $600M deal to be United's shirt sponsor beginning in 2013.

In related news, GM fired the head honcho of the marketing department on Sunday - allegedly because of this deal.

 

Oof, down on page 4. That's no good.

If you're bored on Saturday morning and have nothing better to do, there'll be a live stream of Wembley v. Longford in the FA Cup, possibly including several, erm, old pros?

http://www.thefa.com/TheFACup/News/2012/Aug/espn-wembley-fc-extra-preliminary-round

 

Happened to be walking in midtown Manhattan yesterday and saw Real Madrid's bus pull up to the Four Season. Big crowd -- probably around 750 -- waiting for the players to either get on or off.

 

In semi-related to soccer news, I saw where Standard & Chartered Bank (Liverpool's shirt sponsor) is accused of laundering money for Iran.

 

Dear USMNT, are you watching what the USWNT did? You think maybe, just maybe, y'all could just qualify for the Olympics in four years? Thanks, US soccer fans.

 

Pretty good year for CONCACAF in the Olympics, huh? Three medals, and a losing quarterfinalist to Brazil's men.

 

Rangers draw 2-2 to Peterhead in third division opener. Going to be a long road back to relevance.