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No links for this, but in the "good news" department, no Arsenal players were harmed in the playing of friendlies and qualifiers thus far in this international break. Except for Özil and Ospina, who both played full 90s, most of them haven't played much at all. Gabriel, Koscielny, and Bellerin haven't seen a minute, Alexis played a half (although he'll probably feature pretty prominently in the Brazil friendly at the Emirates), Giroud played about 10, etc. Long may this continue. At least through the weekend.
ENGLAND:
Noted journalist Paul Scholes proffers the shocking opinion that Gareth Bale would be a great fit for Manchester United.
Noted pugilist Wayne Rooney will not be celebrating a goal with boxing moves anymore, because his answer to WON'T ANYBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN was a resounding yes.
Noted disgusting beverage Irn-Bru is the Football League's newest sponsor. CORPORATE GIBBERISH WARNING: Story includes the phrase "activation platform".
EUROPE:
Noted hairshirt Ryan Giggs and Manchester United perfected it in the 1990's; Real Madrid continues the tradition today.
Noted guy-who-is-good-at-soccering Lionel Messi tops another list.
Noted Italian cheating club Juventus was forcibly relegated to Serie B nine years ago, thanks to a match-fixing scandal. Their resulting attempt to sue the Italian football federation for damages is being branded as "frivolous" by said federation.
US/MLS:
I really wish people would stop referring to Soccer as The Beautiful Game, because it's a tired old cliche, but noted elitist institution Harvard disagrees with me.
MLS has grown over the years. The great thing is, each team is growing and evolving in their own way, and it's all contributing to the success of the league.
One of the side effects of that growth, though, is a downturn in the fortunes of the NASL as MLS and USL become more tightly bonded.
Vancouver and Portland square off tomorrow in the season's first Cascadia Cup match. Already decimated by callups and injuries, Vancouver will also be missing Diego Rodriguez, because it turns out you can't do this in The Beautiful Game:
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