A Trophy for Mourinho!!!

Jose Mourinho's tenure as Manchester United boss is off to a rousing start. The club is clearly operating on all cylinders as a friendly against Dortmund showed.

One positive since Mourinho took over is that the famed club has already added another trophy to its haul courtesy of Ryan Giggs.  Giggsy just masterminded a penalty kick triumph for Mumbai over Kochi in the Indian Futsal League championship match.

This triumphant moment showed that Manchester United is back on top, that India is a rising power and that Mourinho's magic has worked yet again! Congratulations to Manchester United supporters worldwide!!

Many Questions after a Wild Weekend of MLS

With top-notch European football playing meaningless exhibitions at this point in the calendar, we here at IMOTGP have decided to focus on the top-flight of United States football, the MLS.  We may actually attend a big game in the league next weekend!

So the blog spent plenty of time this weekend watching matches and highlights - so you didn't have to - and we will begin with a discussion of the jewel of the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Sounders - who were reportedly on the pitch Sunday in Kansas City. Of course, it was hard to notice them outside of the fact that their green uniforms stood out since they barely got close to the ball and should have been walloped by seven or eight goals rather than the 3-0 scoreline thanks to MLS-quality finishing by Sporting.

Now the debate is raging on whether the big German himself, Sigi Schmid, will be gone. Of course, we wish another German-born coach was out of the United States, but that's for another blog post. This is about Schmid, who has won MLS Cup with the Galaxy and Crew. He has not won it with fancied Seattle and the Sounders are bad, folks. They have a bunch of aging players who are wilting in the heat while Jordan Morris has been solid as a rookie but has botched some recent chances.

Seattle is an awful team, no two ways about it.  They looked even worse Sunday than the Chicago Fire, a club that is winless in its last 35 MLS league road matches. We say Schmid should stay and the Sounders need to clean house since one Argentine superstar isn't enough to turn around their woes.

WHINING NYC HUMBLED YET AGAIN BY RED BULLS: Order was restored Sunday in the New York derby as the Red Bulls (Salzburg) thrashed NYC FC (Man City) by a 4-1 score  that wasn't indicative of how lopsided this mismatch was.

Now this wasn't the greatest MLS match ever but it was intense, with NYC coach Patrick Vieira sent to the stands. Vieira and Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch don't exactly get along, and the NYC coach foolishly and pathetically blamed the loss on missed offsides calls afterward.

Those of you who tuned out early with the Red Bulls romping missed some fun stuff near the finish. There was Frank Lampard NFL-style tackling Sacha Kljestan and accusing the Red Bulls star of showboating. Kljestan responded by letting Lampard know the score. Lampard was assessed the first of four NYC yellow cards in a five-minute span with Federico Bravo and David Villa foolishly getting themselves suspended for the next match, and Ethan White getting sent off. Afterwards the NYC players continued to whine and complain, showcasing yet again they are a useless fake club!

As an impartial blogger, we do want to say that the story of how NYC star Jack Harrison came to the U.S. is a good one.

OTHER NOTES:  Ben Olsen, Gregg Berhalter and Dominic Kinnear are MLS coaching mainstays but none have turned in their best work this season. Should any of this trio be axed?  Possibly but we don't quite envision it happening.

The hat tricks by Didier Drogba and reigning MVP Sebastian Giovinco were sensational for sure but the biggest goal was this laser beam by Victor Ulloa of FC Dallas in a hotly contested draw at Colorado.  Many MLS observers consider FCD as the league's best team, but that won't be the case since Fabian Castillo is on to bigger and better things since he's moving to a much tougher league in Turkey.

Finally, we'll leave you with the wisdom of LA coach Bruce Arena after his team's 2-1 victory at Portland in which the Galaxy were outshot 18-9:

We are back from vacation!!!

Asia's finest football talent!

Welcome back football fans! You may have noticed that we were on hiatus since we were visiting luxurious Thailand  due to the relative lack of activity in the football world.  Please don't think it was all fun in the sun, though, as the IMOTGP blog was hard at work finding top footballing talent in Southeast Asia - and we succeeded as you can see from looking at Nadia above!

Anyway the big story remains who will coach England with Jurgen Klinsmann reportedly still in the hunt for the gig. We'd like to give a special shout-out to the U.S. soccer media for their excellent reporting on this story - the contents of which you can see here:




OK we're back. Moving along, whether Klinsmann is gone or not eventually someone else will have to coach the United States. American soccer expert Will Parchman stated his preference for Klinsi's successor in FC Dallas coach Oscar Pareja. Of course, Parchman may be late to the party since the IMOTGP blog endorsed Pareja back in November. It sparked discussion from Adam Belgeri as to whether Pareja is a good choice but it's clear that the Colombian has great support in Parchman and IMOTGP.

In other news, ESPN did another hard-hitting analysis of what needs to be done to improve soccer in the U.S. It's worth a read to see what luminaries like Pareja, Bob Bradley and Mike Sorber have to add to the discussion. The real hope is that this isn't the case.

Well that's all for now IMOTGP fans. We look forward to the second leg of the Hibs-Brondby Europa League showdown to determine the next opponent for this club that features a U.S. superstar.

And we leave you with this 'football' selfie straight from the Bayern Munich training ground!

Maybe we will luck out? Klinsmann to the Brits?!

The football world was stunned when Iceland knocked off England at the Euros in relatively easy fashion, we might add. The English were exposed as a bunch of Premier League pansies and the inquest had begun now that the Brexit jokes are starting to die down. Maybe.

The next England coach, dubbed as the 'Impossible Job', has yet to be named, though there are candidates galore. Gareth Southgate was one of them, even though his credentials were questioned. Nevertheless, he has taken himself out of consideration.

One name who has not as of this writing is former Tottenham Hotspur legend Jurgen Klinsmann, who has been favoured by many for the gig. Even better, he may actually want this.

Now let's examine the situation. This could honestly be great news for everyone involved. The United States is clearly stuck in place with him and a coach returning for a second World Cup could result in a bad situation for us.

Meanwhile, England claim to not like foreign coaches like Sven Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello but Capello's 66.7 win percentage as boss is actually the nation's best since 1946. Even if he was beaten for the group title in the 2010 World Cup by Bob Bradley's U.S. team.

But would Klinsmann automatically be a flop for England? Actually this blog thinks otherwise. England and its managers are stuck in the past, overrating their talent and believing they can control the ball and control matches. The problem is that they can't.

Enter Klinsmann. He's a coach that eschews creative, attacking players like Sacha Kljestan, Benny Feilhaber, Darlington Nagbe and even a Lee Nguyen in favor of one-dimensional sods like Kyle Beckerman and workmanlike plodders like the past-his-prime but useful Jermaine Jones.

Since England play at a slow tempo anyway, Klinsmann will find the type of hard-nosed talentless grinders he prefers for them and will insert them right into the XI.  And that's what they need because throwing in umpteen forwards and thinking that is football is the current ridiculous approach. And Klinsmann is ridiculous too but he can guide subpar talents like Beckerman and Mix Diskerud to mixed results.

This means a radical redefining of English football. It means more of a prominent role for Eric Dier - possibly England's best player in France - and the addition of a Ryan Shawcross from Stoke City. It means Jamie Vardy must get 90 minutes over Harry Kane, who may be all-world in the Premier League but looks lost with the Three Lions. Perhaps Danny Drinkwater and Luke Shaw would fit in well with Klinsmann's cowardly ideas. Klinsmann would covet a player like Ashley Williams, English-born but tied down with quarter-finalists Wales.

Under the Klinsmann approach, England will see less of the ball - which is a good thing because they are awful and clueless with loads of possession! Under the Klinsmann method, they can defend all night and play with 'heart and guts' as opponents attack their goal!

England can only go up. Klinsmann has had a magic carpet ride as a national team coach, getting far better results than he should - not out of his coaching but out of sheer luck. Even he knows his luck may have run dry with the United States. But how bad could he be with England?  Surely he could beat Iceland, right?

We endorse Klinsmann for England coach and wish him the best!

Copa America 2016: Messi calls it quits, Higuain misses the mark and the United States achieves its dream!

Any last requests? "For Pipita (Higuain) to shoot!"

The Copa America Centenario has come and gone and, as predicted correctly on this blog, Chile has successfully defended their title by defeating Argentina. And that's why you come to the IMOTGP blog, to get blunt honest predictions unlike FOX sports idiots telling you that the United States would beat Argentina!

The biggest story to come out of Sunday's final was that Lionel Messi claims he is done playing for Argentina. The truth is nobody really believes it, with numerous other Argentine stars claiming they will retire as well due to a dispute with the federation. It takes the gloss off a final that will be best remembered for Pippa Higuain's astounding miss in the first half, prompting the need for the cartoon you see above. It's yet another Pippa failure in a big spot.

After Argentina demolished the insipid Americans, many saw them as a shoo-in for the trophy. Thse who attended Wednesday's dispatching of an overrated Colombia team like your fellow blogger suspected otherwise - that the battle-hardened Chileans could once again claim the trophy. And between Higuain's shocker and some misfires from Kun Aguero, history repeated itself once again. 

THE UNITED STATES CLEARS THE BAR, THEN PROMPTLY LOWERS IT

And what to say about Jurgen Klinsmann's U.S. team - the outlier among the semi-finalists. The semifinals was the team's stated goal and the team delivered with wins over Costa Rica, Paraguay and Ecuador.

Yet the utter humiliation suffered in the Argentina semifinal seemed to send the U.S. fan base into revolt. Klinsmann threw the players under the bus, saying they were not good enough and had to step on the toes of their opponents more. 

That created a hostile environment for Saturday's third-place rematch against Colombia after the South Americans won the tournament's opening match 2-0 and Klinsmann hailed a strong performance by his side. 

The coach was even more complimentary after Saturday's loss, hailing an effort in which the U.S. failed to score. Tim Howard talked about how great the U.S. was as well.

The problem is that the numbers indicate that the United States isn't actually better in Klinsmann's tenure. Yes, we don't have the players these top sides do. But as Matthew Doyle indicated in the above link, we used to be more competitive in those games while not so under Klinsmann - the highest-paid soccer coach in the history of the country.

Sunil Gulati originally stated some unhappiness after the Argentina game, although he backtracked after Saturday, somehow bizarrely tying in the 2009 Confederations Cup win that ended Spain's 35-match unbeaten streak with Bob Bradley coach to friendly wins over second-string Germany and Netherlands squads. The IMOTGP blog can't make sense of that connection so we will defer to you readers to explain it. 

The bottom line is that the U.S. didn't embarrass itself in this tournament like Mexico did, although keep in mind that beating teams you are supposed to beat on home soil shouldn't be considered too amazing. We know Klinsmann will be there in Russia, where the United States will be knocked out in the round of 16 and he can hail it as another sign of progress. 

England in an Uproar!!!

Football fans following the proceedings in Europe are well aware that England are in an uproar following Roy Hodgson's reckless decision to ring the changes for a scoreless draw with Slovakia. That dropped the Three Lions into second place and into a half of the bracket that includes two-time defending champions Spain, 2012 finalist Italy, reigning world champions Germany and host France.

And so the tabloids are abuzz in England but not because of that. It's because of the scandal surrounding the decision to strip Miss Great Britain of her crown of winning the UK's oldest pageant because she decided to strip down to her birthday suit and have sex on a reality TV show.

That's right, IMOTGP followers and we have the pictures to prove it!  OK not those pictures. But we can confirm that the woman below is the former Miss Great Britain, Zara Holland.

Who ever said the Euros needed Holland when you have a British Holland creating a firestorm for her sexcapades on live TV?  The Miss Great Britain people said that she didn't "uphold the responsibility expected of the title." Well Holland has responded by saying 'having sex is not a crime.'

It all adds up to a classic British scandal and should only serve to take the pressure off of Hodgson, Wayne Rooney and the others since who cares about football when faced with such a juicy subplot instead?

Of course, we know you wan more of a football fix here at IMOTGP so we'll leave you with the following picture of how top MLS stars train for the grueling season.  Enjoy!!!

IMOTGP: Kick them out!

Well its been quite a European championships so far and the violence is deafening. Everybody and their mother wants to blame the 2018 World Cup hosts Russia.

Well the Russians are lashing out at the criticism and blaming who else? England. Credit Russia's Artem Dzyuba for telling it like it is.

"I don’t really understand this kind of reaction of the British media who have this impression that English supporters are like angels who came to this country and they’re just behaving themselves. You have to be objective and it’s 50-50. In every conflict, there are two parts. Everyone has to follow and to see and to communicate with supporters and with fans. Don’t say that only Russians are at fault."

Dzyuba brings up an interesting point.  Why doesn't anyone want to kick out the English? This has historical precedence. Yet while Russia was handed a suspended international ban, England was not.

We know the England team gets plenty of ink but we say enough is enough. Kick them out and let some deserving team like Scotland or Klinsmann's United States take their place (sure the U.S. isn't in Europe but how much fun would this be?)

Furthermore, it is the opinion of the IMOTGP blog that not only should England be kicked out of international football but from cricket as well. Let's keep these hooligan maniacs out of our beloved sports and while we're at it we may as well also institute a travel ban on Premier League teams. It's a blot on the sport and on the world. After all, the Russians aren't the only ruffians!