Femi Fasoyinu

Manchester United is going to be very dangerous when everyone gets healthy. With yesterday’s transfer of Dimitar Berbatov from Tottenham Hotspur for 30.75M pounds, a team record. He now joins a front line which already had the hot tempered Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez.

Throw in Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani in the midfield, and suddenly the Reds have the most dangerous attacking squad in the Premiership. By a long shot I might add.

What did their cross town rivals, Manchester City, do to counter United’s move? How about signing the most coveted player of the transfer market, Brazilian, Robinho. The 24 year old, who wanted to move to Chelsea so bad, pleading like a toddler, goes to City to help out his Brazilian compatriot, 21 year old Jo, up front.

His transfer was just for a mere 32.5M pounds. United beat that.

Fans in this football crazy city must be going nuts to see the talent which has come in such quick time. The Manchester derby is on again. Fans should get ready for some goals.

Mark Lincir

Chelsea looked excellent against Portsmouth last week (understatement of the year - they absolutely dismantled them 3-0) and did a dilligent job against Wigan (1-0) this weekend courtesy of a world-class strike by Deco, but I think this season will belong to Liverpool.

I’m glad they shipped out Peter Crouch and even though I was never a Robbie Keane fan (mostly because I’m not a Tottenham fan) I find myself feeling compelled to tune in whenever Rafa’s boys are on my 70″ plasma (kidding…reality check…my 27″ old school model that I bought off of my Uncle for $100).  How about having to face Robbie and Torres every weekend? That’s not on anybody’s wish list!

The pairing of Keane and Torres will give their opposition fits all year. Not only are they both extremely talented finishers…but they both work non-stop. Pity the fools that think they’ll be able to stop either one with some flimsy defending.

Arsenal did not look good at all without Fabregas in their loss to Fulham at Craven Cottage. I think I might have to go buy a Hull City replica jersey if they keep gobbling up points…four points in two games after being out of the top flight for a century…gotta love it!

On the international front…I failed to get through ten minutes of the U.S. vs Guatemala game the other night, mostly because THERE WERE NO LIGHTS ON!!! How can you have a World Cup qualifier in a stadium where the lighting is so bad. It’s CONCACAF, that’s how. It’s sad that the United States has to play all these games, because they are a total waste of time and resources, but if the U.S. were trying to qualify out of any other region the World Cup might revert back to being the pipe dream it was just less than twenty years ago.

Former Derby outside midfielder Eddie Lewis is back with the Los Angeles Galaxy and my question to Eddie would be this: why would you do that to yourself? Eddie went to UCLA, so he can’t be that stupid, but coming back to a team that is horrible and now led by former U.S. National Team coach and former Red Bulls Sporting Director (whatever that entailed) Bruce Arena has got me thinking that Eddie has taken too many headers on the noggin.

But I know he hasn’t since he’s an outside mid and they never win balls in the air! Good luck Eddie, I like you as a player and hope you have fun crossing the ball to nobody.

Speaking of which…the Galaxy now has two fine crossers of the ball in Beckham and Lewis, but nobody capable of finishing balls in the air on a consistent basis. Alan Gordon misses far more than he makes and Landon doesn’t usually want to wreck his pretty little face by sticking it into the mix too often. I’m going to play General Manager for a minute (that can’t be too hard, Lalas did it for years and now Bruce Arena is going to do it) and say that the Galaxy must go out and get a legitimate target man and aerial assaliant.

Houston’s Brian Ching fits the bill and even though I don’t think the Dynamo would let him go, the Galaxy have got to try it. He’s the best header of the ball with American citizenship (that’s right, I do think he’s better than Brian McBride in the air and still can’t believe that the EPL hasn’t come calling yet) and is willing to do all kinds of dirty work up front. But most of all, the Galaxy would benefit from his world-class ability in the air.

So I ask you….would you sign two great outside mids and not have anybody on your roster who is capable of finishing their crosses on a CONSISTENT basis on your roster? Of course you wouldn’t, but that’s why you’re not a part of the LA Galaxy.

And I haven’t even touched base too much on the Galaxy hiring out-of-work and just been fired from his last two jobs Bruce Arena. I’m over it…the team needs to bring back Sigi Schmid, who has the Columbus Crew tied for first place in the East and tied with the best record in the league with the New England Revolution.

Uh-oh Sigi…you remember what happened the last time you were in this position. You LOST YOUR JOB! At the Galaxy no less….they fired him! From what I’ve heard about the whole situation, it wasn’t Doug Hamilton who wanted Sigi gone, it was Tim Leiweke. Well Tim, you should have eaten a little crow this time around and gone back to the guy who coached your team the last time they were good during the regular season…which was FOUR years ago.

But no, you’ve got Bruce now…don’t worry, he’ll turn things around in about a decade. Just hold on to your seat.

Congratulations to United States midfielder Maurice Edu who just inked a deal with Rangers ($5 million transfer) and is sure to love the high-flying, hard-tackling antics of the SPL..he’ll do well there and I hope he doesn’t come back to MLS too soon.

Man Utd. faces Portsmouth on Monday and you have to think that Portsmouth hopes to touch the ball more against Manchester United than they did against Chelsea last weekend (which was not at all). Man Utd. needs to win big and build some momentum while they hang on for dear life until Cristiano gets healthy.

Other than that, enjoy life again with me now that the European leagues have finally started back up. That lull between the Euro Cup and now felt longer than having to listen to my wife tell me about her day over dinner.

QUESTION: Who will win the English Premier League this season and why? 

Mark Lincir

So much for the United States much-hyped Olympic soccer team. After blowing a chance to beat the Netherlands and secure passage into the quarterfinals last weekend by giving up a last second goal and being forced to settle for a 2-2 tie, the U.S. fell to Nigeria 2-1 in their last group match, thus eliminating them from the competition.

Oh well, it could have been worse. Four years ago, the U.S. Mens’s Team didn’t even qualify for the Olympic tournament. Some will argue that the U.S. was in a tough group…they were. But in any competition with only 16 teams, chances are that most groups are going to be pretty solid. Let’s not start getting all Bruce Arena now and hoping that we gain passage to the second round once the draw has taken place.

It’s not like that anymore. Everybody is good. And the U.S. continues to underperform. Coach Peter Nowak had all professional players at his disposal for the first time ever, and we still can’t make it to the quarterfinals. Michael Orozco’s early game red card obviously didn’t help, but who’s fault is that? You can’t blame Nigeria or the ref…Orozco should have done a better job of keeping his composure. He’s a full-blown pro in Mexico.

The U.S. team was missing Freddy Adu and Michael Bradley. I’ll admit that missing Adu probably hurt, but that was Freddy’s fault too…and Bradley’s second yellow for delay of game was just idiotic. Another tournament, another flame-out. Let’s keep looking to the future like everyone keeps talking about, it’s gotta be out there somewhere.

Changing gears…if you thought that Paris Hilton, Britney and even the Presidential race were enough drama for you, think again. How about the continual implosion of a soccer club that is the Los Angeles Galaxy. I’m sure David Beckham is thoroughly enjoying winning every 9th game or so. The Galaxy finally fired Alexi Lalas and accepted the resignation of half a season coach Ruud Gullit.

AEG’s Tim Leweike is dropping the hammer on the Galaxy and he should be. The team plays in the best stadium in the country and trains in perfect weather year round. What’s there to complain about besides three players (Landon, Ruiz and Beckham) eating up over half your cap space and leaving chump change for the rest of the squad. Don’t think for a minute that isn’t causing some resentment in the locker room.

The damage that Alexi Lalas has done to the club might take a lot longer than the rest of the season to fix. Gullit will go down as yet another foreign coach who came here, made lots of money, didn’t do much and then left.

The Galaxy ARE the laughing stock of Major League Soccer. Tonight, with rookie head coach Cobie Jones pulling the strings, they face stadium-mate Chivas USA on ESPN2. We’ll see if they can win their first game since the millenium or continue along their woeful ways.

It might also be a good time for AEG to put in a call to a former coach to see how happy he is in the midwest. He was the last guy in charge the last time the team was good during the regular season, which was a long, long time ago.

DEBATE: If you were David Beckham, would you want out of the Los Angeles Galaxy right now?