Maple Lions

MLS has changed its rules to allow each team to pay one (and only one) player an unlimited salary - and the L.A. Galaxy has its sights set on the one footballer* the average American will have heard of:

…The US football league has just amended its salary cap to allow teams to pay one star player an unlimited amount, a change openly dubbed the “Beckham rule”.

The former England captain has reportedly been stalling on signing up for another season at Real Madrid, but a return to the Premiership also seems unappetising. It seems increasingly possible that Beckham will choose to blow the final whistle on his European football career. And if this is the end, the moment has been prepared for. Philip Anschutz, the billionaire leisure industry mogul and sometime friend of John Prescott, has been building up his relations with Beckham and hopes to lure him to join his Major League Soccer club, Los Angeles Galaxy.

This would be a huge publicity coup for Major League Soccer - but it also threatens to turn MLS into another NASL, which collapsed after paying too many aging stars too much money. The North American league will really have arrived when European players in the prime of their careers are willing to come over.

*well, I guess Mia Hamm is a household name - and maybe even Zidane, whose infamous head-butt has been parodied in everything from The Family Circus to a recent episode of Family Guy.

Damian P.

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The Curse of Curbs lingers on as Ian Dowie departs the gaffer’s post at Charlton.

The Beeb report notes he is the first Premiership manager to be sacked this season. And you know he won’t be the last.

Roeder? Anyone? Roeder?

Paul Canniff 

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Manchester United and Chelsea respectively hold the first and third slots in the latest ESPN World Club 25 rankings; in contrast, Barça and Real Madrid hold down sixth and tenth.

Back in the Champions League, here’s how the English sides are faring as we come up to matchday 5:

1. Chelsea: 10 pts., GD +5
2. Liverpool: 10 pts., GD +5
3. Manchester United: 9 pts., GD +4
4. Arsenal: 7 pts., GD +2

Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United are at the top of their groups, while Arsenal holds second place.

Among the top eight scorers in CL action are Didier Drogba in first, followed by Peter Crouch in fourth and Luis Garcia in eighth.

Paul Canniff

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While the Telly’s roundup of the papers reports that Andriy Shevchenko is pining for Milan, the Sun claims otherwise.

The observation from Soccer Steve in Edmonton may be bang on, that Sheva needs some down time to clear his head and make a proper mental adjustment to the English game. A string of flashes of brilliance does not make up for Drogba taking up the full burden of striking power, even if Didier is doing so masterfully.

Paul Canniff 

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Yesterday saw the Houston Dynamo defeat the New England Revolution on penalties after two rounds of overtime play. What got them into the showdown was some thrilling play in the second part of overtime, as each side scored dramatically within a minute. The downside was the 112 minutes of pedestrian play that it took to get there.

MLS is coming up in quality, although there ought to be a league rule forbidding cannon volleys unless the players are named Wayne Rooney or Michael Ballack, judging by yesterday’s wide misses of the sticks. And ESPN could take some lessons from Sky Sports in field camera work. But with expansion coming to Toronto next season, we may expect to find more Canadian coverage on TV.

Paul Canniff

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The key to Method Acting is motivation. So what makes a man switch in under a minute from sprinting like a Triple Crown winner to hobbling like Dennis Weaver in “Gunsmoke”, as the world witnessed Saturday at Ewood Park?

Weak.

At this rate Vinnie Jones will remain the only footballer to make a plausible transition to the silver screen.

Paul Canniff

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