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The US Men’s soccer team will need to draw or beat the very good Nigerian team to advance from their Group B. The US will have to do it without suspended Michael Bradley and  Freddy Adu. In the other Group B match the Netherlands will fight Japan for their chance to advance to the quarter-finals. The Dutch have to win to qualify, a rather surprising situation for them considering their strong squad.

The Community Shield match ended 0-0 in regular time, followed by a penalties shoot-out which went the Manchester United way. Portsmouth was  struggling and despite the striking duo of Defoe and Crouch they showed a disappointing performance. Coach Ferguson sent out a strong squad led by Gary Neville who finally saw some action after a lengthy recovery from an injury. Man Utd clearly missed their striker Ronaldo and Ferguson may have to come up with a solution to the team’s weakened strike force.

Brazil led by Ronaldhino showed no mercy and destroyed New Zealand by a score of 5-0. It took Brazil only four minutes to open the score from a header by Anderson.  Pato put in another one after the half-hour mark. Ronaldhino himself contributed two goals and Rafael Sobis added the fifth goal deep into extra time. Brazil leads Group C with six points from two matches without conceding a goal.

LA Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit and  president/general manager Alexi Lalas are out of a job as of Monday. According to Galaxy’s boss Tim Leiweke, the recent string of a seven-match win-less streak demanded action. Former Galaxy player Cobi Jones was named interim coach while the team looks for a new man to fill the post. LA Galaxy remains fourth in the Western Conference with 23 points.

Due to war conflict in Georgia UEFA decided to move the UEFA Cup match  between WIT Tbilisi and Austria Vienna to Rize in Turkey. War conflict between Russia and Georgia could also interfere with World Cup 2010 qualifier between Georgia and Republic of Ireland in September. Irish Soccer Federation asked FIFA to move the match away from the capital Tbilisi.

French Ligue 1 opened a new season over the weekend and Olympique Lyon looks like a title contender once again. Sunday’s comfortable 3-0 victory over Toulouse set them on track for a possible eight league title. Jean Makoun opened the scoring in the 12th minute from a free kick by Brazilian Juninho. Striker Karim Benzema added two goals in the second half.

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Another high profile European club was dumped out of the Champions League competition. Belarus Club BATE Borisov overcame 10-man Anderlecht in 2-2 draw on Wednesday. Yesterday the Glagow Rangers, this year’s UEFA Cup finalist, were defeated by the weaker FBK Kaunas from Lithuania. Rapid Vienna met the same fate, losing to unknown Cypriot’s Anorthosis Famagusta on 4-3 aggregate. Champions League will continue with a third qualifying round from August 12 to 27. The 16 winners of the third qualifying round ties join a similar number of automatic entrants in the 32-team group stage.

US Women’s soccer team lost their opening match at the Olympic Games to Norway by a score of 2-0. Norway scored two quick goals in the first four minutes Wednesday and never lost control of the match. The U.S. team, without injured leading scorer Abby Wambach, was sluggish and out of sync. They have two more games to go, facing Japan and New Zealand. The U.S. men’s team will face Japan on Thursday and you can watch the match on MSNBC at 4:55 EST.

The latest news from Cristiano Ronaldo’s camp confirmed his pledge Wednesday to stay with Manchester United for the coming season. But Ronaldo expressed his desire to join Real Madrid in future. Ronaldo said. “For some time what I wanted was for Manchester to have agreed to my transfer to Madrid,”  “Saying otherwise I would be fooling myself and others.” Alex Ferguson blames the Spanish club for too aggressive approach to the matter.

Despite a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, upholding an appeal from top European clubs, Liverpool said that they have no intention of recalling their players from China.  Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano, Ryan Babel and Lucas Leiva are at the Olympic Games in Beijing to compete for their country. Rafa Benitez knows that taking them out of the tournament would probably make them upset and unhappy. It’s not known at this moment what other clubs will do.

FC Barcelona won an easy match on Wednesday night beating the NY Red Bulls 6-2 at a friendly in front of 38,152 fans at Giants Stadium. Barca coming out of Sunday’s 5-2 victory against Chivas de Guadalajara opened the scoring in the 17th minute from Hernandez. Eto’o added two goals and Rafael Alverz Marquez, Jeffren Suarez, Pedro scored one each. Seth Stammler and Jorge Rojas scored for the Red Bulls. Barca coach Josep Guardiola made 8 substitutions compared to 5 by New York coach Juan Carlos Osorio. It was the last friendly match for Barcelona on their North American tour.

The latest world soccer rankings published by FIFA on Wednesday showed Spain still holding top spot. Germany climbed from third into second changing places with Italy. Brazil meanwhile fell to number six, their lowest ranking in 15 years. Argentina is seventh, France twelfth and England fourteenth. USA occupied thirty first spot, second lowest ranking since being thirty fifth in 1997.

The Men’s Olympic soccer tournament starts on August 7, a day before Olympic games official opening. Sixteen teams from all continents will be competing for Olympic gold. Defending 2004 champion Argentina is once again  the favorite to win the gold .

For the tournament, each country will nominate 18 players, four other players have been included as possible replacements. 15 players must be born on or after 1 January 1985, plus 3 can be over-age players. The official lists of teams squads were revealed on Thursday and with names like Messi, Pato, Babel, Adu, Riquelme and Ronaldhino there will be plenty of quality matches

Five cities will host the tournament with the final on August 23 in Beijing. The NBC Olympic Soccer Channel, CNBC, Telemundo and MSNBC will show complete coverage of all 58 Men’s and Women’s matches from China.

Make sure to keep visiting Socceroverload.com for updated results from Men’s and Women’s Olympic soccer tournament.

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Bayern Munich started their Asian tour with a 4-2 win over Japanese club Urawa Red Diamonds. Miroslav Klose opened the scoring on a cross from midfielder Zé Roberto. But it was Lukas Podolski who stole the show by scoring a hat-trick. Several big stars are out injured and this was Podolski’s chance to shine and he did.

The Superliga which is a competition between the US and Mexican clubs reached an all time low on Wednesday night. The match between New England Revolution and Atlante saw 40 fouls, 11 yellow cards, 6 red cards, 4 of them after regulation time. Things got really nasty after the final whistle when  players from both teams attacked each other. The stadium security had to be called in to brake up the fights and separate both teams.

According to Spanish sports daily newspaper AS, Cristiano Ronaldo has not given up on his desire to move to Real Madrid. The player’s agent Victor Mendes had a message from Ronaldo to Real, “Keep calm, I’ll sort things out next week. I will go to Manchester and tell them I only want to play at Real Madrid and that the decision is non-negotiable.” At the same time Manchester United insists that there is no chance they will sell Ronaldo, not even for the reported $134 million dollars. The 23 year old Ronaldo signed a new contract in 2007 which keeps him in Man Utd till 2012. The saga goes on.

Russian Premier League club Samara beat Saturn 4-0 in a match where former Czech international Jan Koller set-up two goals. Koller came to Samara from Bundesliga club Nuremberg this June in a deal worth $1.57 million dollars. There he joined former Celtic Glasgow player Jiri Jarosik, also a Czech international. The 35 year old Koller who started his soccer career as a goalkeeper had his best years with Borussia Dortmund where he played in 137 matches scoring 59 goals.

Teams participating in Men’s Olympic Soccer tournament revealed today the official list of their squads. Thanks to FIFA’s order telling the clubs to let theirs players go to Olympics, we will see some of the best in the game. Pato, Ronaldhino, Riquelme, Babel, McBride, Kalou and Rossi are a few of the big stars.  Argentina is the 2002 defending champion beating Paraguay 1-0 and Carlos Tevez winning the Golden shoe by scoring 8 goals. The tournament will open in Shanghai on August 7 with Australia vs Serbia.

Tottenham paid close to $38 million dollars for Blackburn’s midfielder David Bentley. The 23 year old who started his career with Arsenal signed with Tottenham for six years. Bentley, who was called  the “new David Beckham” by England’s former manager Steve McClaren, said It means the world for him to join Tottenham. He is known for his impressive technique and crossing ability.

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Israel international Tal Ben Haim has joined Manchester City from Chelsea. The 26-year-old signed a four-year contract with City for an undisclosed fee. He said: ‘I spoke with my agent and even though we had some better offers I preferred to come here because I think it’s a good club with a lot of ambition. As I’ve said, we want to do better things here than over the last few years.”

FIFA could soon claim victory in dispute with major European clubs over releasing of their players for the Olympic soccer tournament. FIFA issued a statement which read: The single judge of the Players’ Status Committee, Slim Aloulou (Tunisia), decided today, 30 July 2008, that the release of players under the age of 23 for the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament Beijing 2008 is mandatory for all clubs. Previously, on 29 July 2008, the FIFA Emergency Committee also took a decision in the same sense.

Former US international striker Brian McBride signed with MLS team Chicago Fire until the end of the 2009 season. The 36 year old who is heading for Beijing Olympic soccer tournament as of one three over age players, played last for Fulham in Premier League. He joined Fulham in 2004 scoring 32 goals in 139 matches. He was often considered to be one of the best headers in the Premiership during his time there.

Bayern Munich midfielder Franck Ribery will have a metal screw removed from his left ankle on Friday. Ribery injured his ankle ligaments during this summer’s EURO 2008 tournament in a game against Italy. He is hoping to be fit by early or mid-September just like other big name stars Luca Toni, Franck Ribery, Tim Borowski who are all recovering from variety of injuries.

Dynamo Houston beat Mexican team Pachuca 2-0  to advance to the Superliga final. Houston had to wait for their first goal till the 77th minute when Bobby Boswell scored off a corner kick.  Corey Ashe added a goal in the 87th minute on final 2-0. In the “all American Final” Dynamo will face New England Revolution who defeated Atlante of Mexico by a score of 1-0 on Tuesday night. The final will be played on August 5th at Foxboro’s Gillette Stadium.

Champions League continues with the first leg of the second qualifying round and we saw a couple of unexpected results.

Tuesday July 29
FC Baku (Azerbaijan) 1 Partizan Belgrade (Serbia) 1
Brann Bergen (Norway) 1 Ventspils (Latvia) 0
Drogheda United (Ireland) 1 Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine) 2

Wednesday July 30

Anorthosis Famugusta (Cyprus) 3 Rapid Vienna (Austria) 0
IFK Gothenburg (Sweden) 1 Basel (Switzerland) 1
Tampere United (Finland) 1 Artmedia Bratislava (Slovakia) 3
AaB Aalborg (Denmark) 5 Modrica (Bosnia) 0
Domzale (Slovenia) 0 Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) 3
Anderlecht (Belgium) 1 BATE Borisov (Belarus) 2
Fenerbahce (Turkey) 2 MTK Hungaria (Hungary) 0
Beitar Jerusalem (Israel) 2 Wisla Krakow (Poland) 1
Rangers (Scotland) 0 Kaunas (Lithuania) 0
Panathinaikos (Greece) 3 Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia) 0
Sheriff (Moldova) 0 Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) 1

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Getafe annouced the signing of Real Madrid striker Soldano. He was on loan at Osasuna and he was hoping to stay there on a permanent basis, but Getafe offered close to 10 million dollars and Real said yes. The 22-year-old Spanish international forward will be officially introduced as a Getafe player today.

Real Salt Lake extended its unbeaten streak at home by beating Toronto FC 2-1 on a late goal from Robbie Finley. Real opened the scoring at the 63^rd minute with a header by Jamison Olave. Toronto answered back in the 84^th minute when Amado Guevara’s free kick made it 1-1. This win gave Real a four point lead over second Dynamo Houston in the MLS Western Conference.

UEFA released some interesting statistics on EURO 2008. UEFA said turnover during three-week tournament in Austria and Switzerland was 2.04 billion dollars with net profit of 394 million dollars. The cost of organizing the tournament was 934 million dollars.  The 31 matches were watched by at least 155 million people all over the world. EURO 2008 also employed 10,000 security personnel.

Manchester United veteran Ryan Giggs blames the player’s greedy agents for some of the recent transfer sagas. He is obviously referring to his teammate Cristiano Ronaldo whose transfer to Real Madrid will net millions for his agent Jorge Mendes. Giggs said: “Many players want to make as much money as they can and change teams for ten grand.”

Chelsea won their third straight match on their Asian tour by beating Malaysian XI 2-0 on Tuesday. They have an impressive 13-0 score from those three matches as they are heading for for the Railways Cup in Moscow. “It was a good tour though for me to see how players are on the field and to decide which players I need. 7-0, 4-0, 2-0—it was all training for us,” said coach Luiz Felipe Scolari.

Deportivo La Coruna’s Fabricio Coloccini is prepared to quit the club if they block his move to Newcastle United. According to the player’s agent Marcelo Lombilla after Newcastle met the club’s original asking price of $19 million dollars, Deportivo upped the price to $22 million. Coloccini has threatened to use FIFA’s article 17 which would allow him to buy out his contract.

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Semi retired Brazil international Cafu may be heading to Australia. The 38 year old Cafu is reported to have signed with Australian A-League club Golden Coast United. The club is looking for some big names and Cafu despite his age, should still be an asset to the Australian Club.

MLS expansion plans are heading north according to MLS’ commissioner Don Garber. Canadian cities Montreal and Vancouver look to be in the race for the next two expansion teams. Garber said “We think soccer can ultimately assume a place beside hockey as Canada’s national sport.”

Borussia Dortmund beat Bayern Munich 2-1 and retained their German Super Cup title. Dortmund’s Blaszczykowski opened the score in the first half and Hajnal added second goal a few minutes later. Bayern  added to the score making it 2-1 by a goal from Ekeci, but Borussia remained firmly in control through most of the match. It was the first defeat for Bayern Munich’s coach Jurgen Klinsmann after taking over the team on July 1st.

Chelsea’s coach Luiz Felipe Scolari insisted Frank Lampard is staying with the club despite lucrative offers from clubs like Inter Milan. Scolari said “Frank is staying with us. Finished.” Reports have it that Chelsea is offering Lampard $300,000 dollars a week in five year deal.

In preparation for next week’s Champions League match, Sparta Prague lost at home with French Ligue 1 team Rennes 2-0. Sparta started with their full squad including new signing Patrick Berger from Aston Villa and Bony Wilfried from Ivory Coast. Rennes opened the score in the 9th minute from a penalty kick by Leroy. Moreira added a second goal in the 60th minute after putting one over the goalie’s head.

Inter Milan’s new coach Jose Mourinho was booed by the team’s fans after he decided to hold training sessions behind the close door. Mourinho apologised to supporters and gave this explanation “Among the fans that come to transmit their support and affection to the team there are also coaches and scouts from other teams that may be our future rivals in the coming season.”

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Chelsea started their five game pre-season tour of Asia and Russia with a 4-0 win over Chinese club Guangzhou Pharmaceutica. The club’s new coach Luiz Felipe Scolari sent a strong team on the field and they dominated the game giving the Chinese no chance. Salomon Kalou, Frank Lampard,  Franco Di Santo and Shaun Wright-Phillips scored to secure the team’s victory.

Blackburns Rovers’ goalie Brad Friedel could be moving to Aston Villa if a replacement is found for him. The 37-year-old has expressed his wishes to move to another club and Villa and Manchester City have shown the biggest interest. He joined the Blackburns in 2000 and played 287 matches for the club.

War of words broke out between FIFA and the European Club Association (ECA) about releasing players under 23 for the Beijing Olympic Games. FIFA’s president, Sepp Blatter, said that clubs must release the players, while the ECA issued a statement saying that there was no legal obligation for the clubs to release them. While we wait for the outcome of this, one thing is clear, once again money seems to be ruling over the sport.

The Swiss star Valon Behrami is moving from Serie A club Lazio to English Premier League’s team West Ham United. The English club paid 10 million dollars for 23 year old Switzerland international who was born in then Yugoslavia. Behrami started in 64 matches for Lazio scoring four goals.

Arsenal defender Kolo Toure was taken to the hospital on suspicion of catching malaria during his trip to his native Ivory Coast. He fell ill during Arsenal’s tour of Austria. More tests need to be done, but if it is malaria he could very well miss the beginning of Premier League season.

As was reported yesterday Spanish club Mallorca was for sale and today they reached a preliminary agreement to sell the club to a British investor. Owner of pipe fitting company Fluid Leader Group Plc., Paul Davidson known as “The Plumber” will pay 57 million dollars in exchange for 93.6 percent of the club. Mallorca chairman Vicente Grande and the management will remain in charge of the club.

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MLS team LA Galaxy beat the Kansas City Wizards 3-1 and moved to the top of the Western Conference. Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle scored one goal each and David Beckham added one in injury time. Beckham’s goal was the highlight of the match after scoring this one from 70 yards out to an empty net.

After Chelsea fired coach Avram Grant a couple of days ago, the list with his potential replacements is growing. Marcello Lippi, Guus Hiddink, Frank Rijkaard, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Luis Felipe Scolari and Roberto Macini all being mentioned as possible candidates for the job. Chelsea fans will get a chance to speak their mind on the matter in a phone-in on the club’s in-house TV station.

FIFA suspended Iraq’s national soccer team after the Iraqi government dissolves the Iraqi Olympic Committee. FIFA gave Iraq till Thursday to revoke the ban and submit in writing that the decree had been annulled. The national team was schedule to play Australia in a World Cup qualifier on Sunday, but the match is in a limbo for now.

Serbian Partizan Belgrade completed their domestic double by winning their 20th league title. They also won the Serbian Cup last month. Partizan beat Napredak Krusevac by a score of 1-0 in the last round and finished five points ahead of their local rival Red Star.

The US national team will face England at the new Wembley stadium on Wednesday and coach Bob Bradley named his squad, made up mostly of European based players. Tim Howard, Eddie Johnson, Carlos Bocanegra, Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley and DaMarcus Beasley are some of those players. Last time the USA met England at Wembley was back in 1994 and England won the game 2-0.

According to the media Barcelona’s Thierry Henry was on the verge of signing with Manchester United a couple of weeks ago. Barcelona’s new coach Pep Guardiola managed to convinced Henry to stay after telling him that he is an important part of his coaching plans for the next season. Henry didn’t have a very good season in his first year with the club, being injured and not scoring as many goals as was expected from him.

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Ruud van Nistelrooy was back at training for the first time since his right ankle surgery. He is planning to return to action next week for the match with Osasuna. The 31 year old striker had his surgery done in his native Holland.

We could see David Beckham at the World Cup 2010 according to Fabio Capello. He said “The door is open. He played the last game and did well against France.” Beckham would be 35 by then and if he is healthy and fit he could very well be on the national team.

MLS team FC Dallas lost its first match of the season to New England Revolution on Thursday night. The visiting side was missing seven regular players, but they managed to dig out a 1-0 win. Khano Smith scored the lonely goal in the 72th minute, his first this season.

Inter Milan denied talking or contacting Arsenal’s Alexander Hleb in a statement on their website. Arsene Wenger earlier warned Inter with possible report to FIFA about the whole situation. Wenger was furious after Inter’s coach Mancini made public comments about signing Belarus midfielder.

Chelsea’s management showed real compassion by letting Frank Lampard decide when to return to play after his mother passed away two days ago. Lampard spent last week by her bedside missing two Premier League matches. He returned to play against Liverpool in Champions League on Tuesday.

According to Italian media, Gennaro Gattuso wants to leave AC Milan this summer. Gattuso who is seeking a less intense climate expressed desire to play overseas. Maybe the NY Red Bulls would come up with enough money to sign this fierce player whose nickname is “the Snarler.”

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Arsenal striker Van Persie is fit and ready to face AC Milan according to coach Arsene Wenger. Van Persie has been out since January 9 with knee and muscular problems. The 24 year old won’t be starting at San Siro, but will be on the bench and could play some part of the game.

Dutch Soccer Federation announced Monday that Bert van Marwijk will succeed Marco Van Basten as the new Dutch national team’s coach. Van Basten is leaving after the Euro 2008 to take over a coaching job with Ajax Amstredam. The 55 year old Van Marwijk is coach of Feyenoord Rotterdam with whom he won the 2002 EUFA Cup title.

Real Madrid will have to do without their winger Arjen Robben against AS Roma in the Champions League competition on Wednesday. Injury prone Robben severely sprained his ankle in a game with Recreativo Huelva. Robben went down after a Quique Alvarez tackle for which he received a red card and later apologized for his action.

Spanish Soccer Federation defies a government order to hold early elections, despite the pressure the government put on them. If they obey the order, FIFA warned them they could face the national team and club’s exclusion from international competition.

LA Galaxy opened their pre-season East Asian Tour with a loss to FC Seoul. Galaxy scored the first goal after David Beckham’s set up from a free kick converted by Alan Gordon. FC Seoul tied the game 10 minutes later. After the game ended 1:1, the shootout was won by Seoul largely thanks to four saves by their goalie.

The Czech international and Nurnberg player Jan Koller vehemently denied spitting at Hannover midfielder Christian Schultz at the end of the game. “It was an exchange of words. I had slobber in my mouth and as I was speak