CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

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.”

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Matchday 24 of EPL saw Arsenal beat Newcastle for a second time in row by a score of 3:0. Newcastle, under their new coach Kevin “Kev” Keegan has yet to score and maybe the crisis in the club is deeper them we think.

David Beckham World of Sport will be opened in Brazil by David Beckham, it was announced Tuesday in th City of Natal. Beckham said that he is there not to teach Brazilians about soccer but wants to offer a safe place for kids to play and develop their skills.

Bundesliga team Hertha Berlin signed D.C. United teenage player Bryan Arguez for 3 1/2 years. Arguez was drafted by D.C. as a first round pick a year ago, but never played for them earning his reputation on the US Under 20 team.

Today’s action in Coppa Italia resumed with AS Roma beating Sampdoria by a score of 1:0 and advancing to the semi finals. The Cup continues Wednesday with Lazio taking on Florence and Juventus facing Inter Milan after a 2:2 draw in the first game.

Mali midfielder Mohamed Sissoko signed a five year contract with Juventus Turin on Tuesday. Juve reportedly paid close to 17 million dollars for Sissoko who was not playing much in Liverpool after Javier Mascherano joined the club.

The Czech national team captain, Tomas Rosicky won’t be available for the friendly against Poland on February 6th. He suffered a muscle injury during the game with Newcastle United, but the good news is that he should be back soon.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

FA announced that there will be no punishment for alleged headbutt by Emmmanuel Adebayor on his team-mate Nicklaus Bendtner. This happened during Tuesday night defeat by Tottenham in Carling Cup, where Bendtner was attack by Adebayor.

MLS all time scoring leader, the 34 old year Bolivian Jaime Moreno re-sing with D.C. United on Thursday. Moreno has been with D.C. since 1996 and scored 112 goals and 89 assist during his career in MLS.

Former Southampton coach George Burley was named Thursday as the new Scotland national team’s boss. Burley said that he is thrilled and ready for the job and his dream is to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

The Czech Gambrinus Liga’s team FC Brno is step closer to sell their midfielder Lubos Kalouda to Juventus Turin. The 20 years old Kalouda who has silver medal from last year under 20 World Cup is according to his club worth around 7 million dollars and Juve is ready to pay that.

Inter Milan’s Luis Figo who is recovering from the broken leg hinted he is most likely retire at the end of the season when his contract in Milan expired. But same time he has said if right offer coma along he would consider , maybe MLS could be the possibility.

Czech national team’s coach Karel Bruckner will have to do without midfielder Jaroslav Plasil for the friendly game against Poland next month. The 26 year old who played for Spanish club Osasuna sustained tight injury and will be sidelined for three to four weeks.

There is a bidding war on for the new Czech sensation , twenty years old Martin Fenin. Big European clubs like Werder Bremen, Benfica Libon or Espaynol Barcelona showing enormous interest in singing him. Fenin scored all three goals of his club FK Teplice and was one of the key players in the U-20 World Cup. His club FK Teplice said, they will respect the player’s wishes, where he would like to play. So far, he is leaning toward Werder Bremen in German Bundesliga.
Fenin said: “I personally preferr Bremen. I like the fact Bremen is closer to the Czech Republic, compare to Spain and the fact that I speak little bit of German.
The transfer fee is believed to be around 10 million dollars, which would make this transfer the second biggest in history of the Czech Liga. The biggest transfer was Tomas Rosicky going from Sparta Prague to Borussia Dortmund for reported 24 million dollars in today’s money.
More then question, if the whole thing will happen, is how soon this transfer will take place. All three clubs are willing to pay the big money and all of them also guarantee Fenin a place on the first team.

After an uneventful first half, the Czech player Fenin struck first in the 60th minute. This seemed to be the wake up call Argentina needed, because two minutes later the most valuable player of the championship, Aguero struck the equalizer. The Czechs, not even expected to make it out of their group, put up an exiting and impressive fight. The wining goal came later as Morales fed the ball to Zarate. This makes Argentina’s 6th win of the U-20 Cup.

Read More: FIFA.com: A sixth star for Argentina

Chileans playing at the end with only nine players lost to Argentina 3:0.

Argentina will meet the Czech Republic on Sunday’s final and Chile will play Austria for third-place.

Read more: Argentina muscle’s into Final

The Czech’s have beat Austria and are going to the Finals, now it’s the Argentinian’s and the Chilean’s turn to fight it out.

Read More: FIFA.com:

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