Happy Birthday Alessandro Nesta and Kolo Touré

Alessandro Nesta was born in Rome, Italy and turns 32 today. He plays centre back and is one of the best players in the world. He joined Lazio's youth academy when he was 9 years old and joined their professional team in 1993 when he was 17. He played on Lazio until 2002 and made over 190 appearances including a goal. He helped them win Serie A in 2000 and Coppa Italia in 1998 and 2000. He joined AC Milan in 2002 and has been there ever since. Nesta has made over 150 appearances for Milan including 3 goals. He helped AC win Serie A in 2004, Coppa Italia in 2003 and the Champions League in 2003 and 2007.

Nesta represented his country in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Cups. He has capped for Italy 78 times and was a member of the World Cup winning squad in 2006. He was also on the Italian squad that won the 1996 Under-21 European Championship.

He was named to the FIFA 100 list which was a list that Pelé made of the 125 greatest living players. He was named to the UEFA Team of the Year in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2007. He was the Serie A defender of the year in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 and the Serie A young player of the year in 1998.

Kolo Touré was born in Bouake, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and turns 27 today. Touré played on ASEC Mimosas's youth team from 2000 to 2002. ASEC Mimosas is in the Ivory Coast and is known as one of the best youth academies in Africa. It has produced stars like Emmanuel Eboué (Arsenal), Salomon Kalou (Chelsea), Yaya Touré (Barcelonas) and others. Kolo was bought by Arsenal in 2002 for £150,000.

He has capped for the Gunners over 270 times scoring 13 goals. Kolo plays centre back for Arsenal. He has also capped for his country over 40 times and represented them in the 2006 World Cup. He has too younger brothers who play professionally as well. Yaya Touré is on Barcelona and Ibrahim Touré is on Metalurh Donetsk (Ukraine).

USA vs. Cuba

So the USA tied Cuba in their opening match of 2008 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying. Under-23 teams play in this. My recap of the match can be found here:
http://www.americansoccerdaily.com/news/usacubaoq110308.htm

The game ended 1-1. It seriously upsets me too much to talk about. Adu scored for his and Altidore left after the 1st half because he got nicked up (nothing serious).

Freddy Adu and Dax McCarty played great. Adu was by far the best on the field. He played really well.

That is all I can say, it is too upsetting. The fact that 5 Cuban players are now missing made it a bit easier:
http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2008/03/five-cuban-play.html

That is insanely funny. They got defected, hahahahahaha!

At least the USA Women won the Algarve Cup. They defeated Denmark 2-1 in the Championship. My recap is here:
http://www.americansoccerdaily.com/news/uswdenalg120308.htm

Two Americans played yesterday in lower division English games. View my recaps here:
http://www.americansoccerdaily.com/news/eng110308.htm

Also, Everton lost to Fiorentina in the UEFA Cup. View my recap here:
http://www.americansoccerdaily.com/news/evefior120308.htm

I will make more entries later tonight.

Happy Birthday Clint Dempsey, Youri Djorkaeff and Roy Makaay

Clint Dempsey turns 25 today. The American forward played on the New England Revolution from 2004 to 2007 before being bought by Fulham for $4 million. At that time that was the largest transfer fee for an MLS player. Dempsey has also capped for the United States over 30 times. He was the 2006 Honda Player of the Year (best U.S. mens footballer). He also won the 2007 U.S. Football (soccer) Athlete of the Year. He has scored 9 goals for the U.S., including their only goal at the 2006 World Cup (Our other goal was an own goal against Italy).

Youri Djorkaeff turns 40 today. The Frenchmen started his career at Grenoble Foot 38 in 1984 and he would stay there until 1989. He then went to RC Strasbourg (1989-1991), AS Monaco (1991-95) and PSG (1995-96). He left the French League to go to Inter Milan and he played there from 1996 to 1999. Youri then played with German club FC Kaiserslautern from 1999 to 2002. He played at English sides Bolton Wanderers from 2002 to 2004 and Blackburn Rovers in 2004. He then played for thee MetroStars from 2005 until his retirement in 2006. He was Metro's player of the year in 2005. He played 49 games for Metro and scored 13 goals.

Youri also played for France at the 1998 and 2002 World Cup. He scored in a group match against Denmark at the 1998 World Cup. France would go on to win the Cup that year.

Roy Makaay turns 33 today. The Dutch striker started his career at the Dutch club Vitesse in 1995 and remained there until 1997. He played in over 100 games and scored over 40 goals while at Vitesse. He then transfered to Spanish side CD Tenerife and played there from 1997 to 1999. Makaay played at Deportivo La Coruña from 1999 to 2003 and played over 130 games; scoring more than 75 goals. Roy then left Spain and played for Bayern Munich from 2003 to 2007. While with the German powerhouse, he played in over 125 games and scored more than 75 goals. He won the European Golden Boot in the 2002-03 season for scoring the most goals in Europe. He came back to the Netherlands in 2007 to play for Feyenoord. He has played in over 25 games and scored over 10 goals for the Dutch side.

Makaay played for his country 43 times and scored 6 goals. Due to an abundance of Dutch strikers, he has never played in the World Cup but played in Euro 2000 and 2004.

Upcoming MLS Season

Ok it is crazy that I have not spoken about MLS yet in this blog. I love Red Bull New York (Metro) and recently joined the Empire Supporters Club. The season starts on April 5th and this has been an eventful off-season.

My first ESC event was when I went on the bus trip to New England for the playoff game against the Revs. Despite losing 1-0 it was fun and I met a bunch of people. I also got to know people through MetroFanatic.

About 15-20 of us also went the MLS Draft which was great. We were the best supporters there and out sang Sons of Ben (Daughters of Betsy) and D.C. Scum. We also got to meet new Red Bull Eric Brunner.

A match viewing party was held at Stout for the USA - Sweden and USA - Mexico matches. I became an official ESC member at the USA - Sweden viewing party. USA beat Sweden 3-0 and tied Mexico 2-2. Jozy Altidore scored his first international goal against Mexico and I went so crazy I thought I was going to pass out.

Off-season events have been fun. We also go to Ironmen games sometimes (indoor soccer). The off-season is not over yet though.

USA U-23 Olympic Qualifiers start soon and some of the ESC is going. Sadly, I can not go but hopefully we will have some watch parties. Also, March 29 is the day that most of the MLS teams start their season. We are going to watch the games together in Kearny and rip on teams all day. Then the next day some Red Bull players will be at Nevada Smiths to watch EPL action with us. I look forward to meeting them.

Metro opens the season against the Crew on April 5. The tailgate's theme is pulled pork and it will be great. I can't wait to chant and go crazy for our guys on the 5th.

GO METRO!

Derek Dooley (1929-2008)

Sheffield legend Derek Dooley has died today of natural causes. He was 78 years old with a life spanning from December 13, 1929 to March 5, 2008. He was born in Pitsmoor, England and died in in Sheffield.

Dooley started his career at Lincoln City in 1946 and scored 2 goals in only 2 games for the club. He then joined Sheffield Wednesday and played there from 1947 to 1953. He scored 62 goals in 61 games for the Owls and helped them win the Second Division in 1952.

It looked as though Dooley would have a great career until February 14, 1953. On that not so lovely Valentines Day he collided with Preston North End goalkeeper George Thompson and broke his leg. He would then have to get his leg amputated after complications with gangrene. Dooley most likely would have played for the national team as well.

He became manager at Wednesday in 1971 but was sacked in December of 1973 and then did the unthinkable by taking a job at rival club Sheffield United. He was not the head coach at United though. Dooley started as Commercial Manager and had various other roles including managing director before becoming the chairman of Sheffield's Football Club board.

He was awarded a MBE (Member of the British Empire) in 2003. He was also given a key to the city of Sheffield and a honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University.

More recently though Dooley played a key role in getting Sheffield United back to the Premiership. They moved back up the the EPL for the 2006-07 season for the first time since the 1993-94 season. They were relegated after one season though. In April of 2006 he moved down from Football Chairman to be the Vice President.

Derek and his wife Sylvia shared a house in Sheffield since the 50's. He had a son, Martin, a daughter, Suzanne, and four grandchildren, including one named after him.

People have said that he is the only person who has ever brought Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United together. Fans of both clubs respected him. Sheffield United have named their new junior development center after him. Sheffield United take on Coventry City on Tuesday and Wednesday take on QPR on Saturday. Both clubs will have a minute of silence for Dooley.

The flags at United's home of Bramall Lane are currently flying at half mast for Derek.

Carl Hoddle (1967-2008)

I will be honest and say I had never heard of this guy before he died on March 2. But he was a footballer so I looked into it.

Carl Hoddle lived from March 8, 1967 to March 2, 2008. He was born in Harlow, England which is in the county of Essex.

He was a midfielder and started his career at Tottenham in 1984 and would remain with Spurs until 1989. He never played for them though and moved to Leyton Orient where he would stay until 1991. Orient was in the lower divisions then just as they are now. While there he played in 29 games and scored twice.

He then played for Barnet from 1991 until he retired in 1995. They also played in the lower divisions and Carl played in 92 games scoring 3 goals. In 1994 Barnet played Chelsea in the F.A. Cup and interestingly enough, Chelsea's coach was Carl's brother Glenn (more on Glenn later).

He also spent a short amount of time at non-league team Woking F.C. (I can't find any numbers on it).

He returned to football to be a coach and scout for Wolverhampton Wanderers from 2004 to 2006. His brother Glenn was the manager at the time and when he left, Carl did the same.

Many articles are referring as him to the brother of Glenn Hoddle because Glenn was very successful. Glenn played for England in the 1982 and 1986 World Cup and managed the team in 1998. He played over 350 games for Tottenham and over 50 games for England.

Carl was found dead from what looks like a heart attack.