Maradona Being Maradona

Football legend Maradona is now coaching Al Wasl in Dubai and the club has released video from recent training sessions with Maradona. If you watch closely, you can see Maradona is still up to his old tricks.

[VIDEO] Eric Cantona Looking Forward to Return to Old Trafford: Manchester United v. New York Cosmos

Manchester United and Football legend returns to Old Trafford today with the New York Cosmos, who will be playing United in a testimonial match for Paul Scholes, whom United coach, Sir Alex Ferguson, has called one of the greatest United players of all time. On Sunday, United will play Manchester City in the Community Shield.

Here's Cantona, who will be coaching the Cosmos, talking about his return to Old Trafford:

Fabian Scores a Wonder Goal Against Barcelona

Fabian scored this beauty of a goal for Chivas against Barcelona in the World Football Challenge tonight:

Episode 33 of The Zygo Soccer Report: Houston Dynamo 3-1 Seattle Sounders

The Houston Dynamo beat Seattle Sounders 3-1 on Saturday night here in Houston thanks to goals from Colin Clark and Brian Ching.

Featured music by El Général, Public Enemy, and Little Dragon.

-Photo by Katy Umaña

Houston Dynamo Beat Seattle Sounders, 3-1: Video Highlights

-Photo by Katy Umaña

Coming off of a rough 3-0 loss to Chivas USA in California, the Houston Dynamo were looking for redemption as they hosted the Seattle Sounders at Robertson Stadium on Saturday night, and redemption they found as captain Brian Ching led the Dynamo to a 3-1 victory.

The Dynamo picked up their first goal early in the match when Colin Clark scored in the 7th minute:



In the 23rd, Brian Ching, with assists from Geoff Cameron and Brad Davis, scored what would prove to be the game winning goal for the Houston Dynamo:



Seattle finally managed to get on the scoreboard in the first half when Fredy Montero picked up a penalty in the box, a penalty that Alvaro Fernandez converted, making the score 2-1 going into halftime:



In the 71st minute, Brian Ching picked up an insurance goal for the Houston Dynamo:



After this weekend's matches, the Houston Dynamo have 27 points on the season and sharing fourth place in the Eastern Conference with Sporting Kansas City. The Dynamo head to Philadelphia to face the Union on Saturday.

The 2011/2012 Serie A Schedule

This week the 2011-2012 Fixture Schedule for Serie A was released, and I have it laid out below for your reference (granted there may be some changes due to weather etc.)

The season starts in less then a month on the weekend of August 28, 2011 and will end on the weekend of May 13, 2012. I've highlighted some of the more interesting match-ups below.

Although these schedules are balanced in that each team plays each team twice, there are nuances involved especially for teams involved in the UEFA Champions League, such as Napoli, and Napoli's Owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, was less than pleased with the schedule:



Here's the schedule, good luck to all:

Weeks 1 & 20
August 28, 2011 – January 29, 2012

Atalanta-Cesena
Bologna-Roma
Cagliari-Milan
Inter-Lecce
Lazio-Chievo
Napoli-Genoa
Novara-Palermo
Parma-Catania
Siena-Fiorentina
Udinese-Juventus

Weeks 2 & 21
September 11, 2011 – February 1, 2012

Catania-Siena
Cesena-Napoli
Chievo-Novara
Fiorentina-Bologna
Genoa-Atalanta
Juventus-Parma
Lecce-Udinese
Milan-Lazio
Palermo-Inter
Roma-Cagliari

Weeks 3 & 22
September 18, 2011 – February 5, 2012

Atalanta-Palermo
Bologna-Lecce
Cagliari-Novara
Catania-Cesena
Inter-Roma
Lazio-Genoa
Napoli-Milan
Parma-Chievo
Siena-Juventus
Udinese-Fiorentina

Weeks 4 & 23
September 21, 2011 – February 12, 2012

Cesena-Lazio
Chievo-Napoli
Fiorentina-Parma
Genoa-Catania
Juventus-Bologna
Lecce-Atalanta
Milan-Udinese
Novara-Inter
Palermo-Cagliari
Roma-Siena

Bye Bye Bob: But Imagine if the US had Fallen to No. 37

Today the United States Soccer Federation announced that it had parted ways (fired) US Men's National Team Coach Bob Bradley. The Era of Bob Bradley began after the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany where the US failed to get out of their group. The poor showing in Germany resulted in Bruce Arena being fired and Bob Bradley being named interim coach, and then, in 2007, being named coach.

Those familiar with my opinion know that I'm not a big fan of Bob Bradley, never have been. I gave him the benefit of the doubt in 2007, pleased he coached the US to a Gold Cup finals victory and giving him a pass on the type of squad he had no choice but to take to the Copa America (anyone notice Mexico had to do the same thing this year thanks to FIFA player vacation rules?). It was the horrible losses to Brazil and Italy in the 2009 Confederations Cup group stage that turned me against Bradley, realizing he was not the guy to take the US to the next step in the world of international football. While many will remember Bradley for the US's win against Spain in the Confederations Cup semifinals, it's those two group stage losses that are most representative of his tenure.

The sins of the Bradley tenure were clear for all to see: questionable roster decisions, conservative play, poor substitution decisions, poor defense, poor in match tactical decisions, lack of backbone in dealing with foreign clubs.

Soccer House should have given Bradley his walking papers after the World Cup finals in South Africa in 2010; instead, they gave him a contract extension. Speculation that Bradley was out as US coach hit a high point again in June when the USMNT had a lackluster showing in the group stage of the Gold Cup and then lost, 4-2, to Mexico in the final.

US Soccer is set to make an announcement on Friday. Speculation is that Soccer House will announce the hiring of Jürgen Klinsmann as coach, that Soccer House had quietly taken the month since the embarrassing loss to Mexico to search for a coach and/or come to terms with Klinsmann. If that's what happened, I have to give Soccer House credit for doing so totally under the radar. Yes, US Soccer fan was distracted by the 2011 Women's World Cup finals in Germany, but let's be honest, it's still amazing that such could occur without any leak.

I suspect that Bob Bradley's firing was more a result of the United States falling to No. 30 in the most recent FIFA rankings, which were released on Wednesday. Say what you will about the rankings, but they are important to Soccer House (just as polls are important to the politicians who say they don't care about polls), and a 6 place drop in the rankings was more than Sunil Gulati and friends could stomach. If this is the case, Friday's announcement may concern the process by which Soccer House will go about its search for a new coach for the Men's National Team.

If my suspicion is correct, I ask Soccer House to show some guts and imagination by performing a broad and extensive search for a coach that has what it takes to push US Soccer forward.

Neymar Scores Wonderful Goal for Santos But Ronaldinho Wins the Night for Flamengo

On Wednesday night in Rio de Janeiro, Neymar once again showed why he's one of the most talked about young Brazilian football players thanks to this beauty of a goal in the 26th minute that gave Santos an early 3-0 lead over Flamengo. Unfortunately for Santos, they ended up losing this offensive battle 4-5, with Ronaldinho picking up a hat trick for the visiting Flamengo, which managed to score three goals in the first half too. This was only Flamengo's second win at Vila Belmiro Stadium since 1976.

See Also - When Neymar is Neymar: He Scores a Copa Libertadores Hat Trick

And See Also - Neymar . . . Copa Libertadores . . . Enough Said

Marine, Corporal Eric Sears, Asks Alex Morgan to the Marine Ball

A few weeks ago Sgt. Scott Moore asked actress Mila Kunis to the Marine Ball in November via YouTube, at the prodding of Justin Timberlake Mila said yes. Mila's reply has since given other Marines the courage to copycat Sgt. Moore, with the most recent one being the video below whereby this young Marine named Eric Sears asks Alex Morgan from the United States Women's Soccer Team to attend the Marine Ball with him. Sears is a Corporal, works in supply, crucial to any fighting unit, and will be shipping out to Afghanistan later this year. To put some perspective on this, Corporal Sears was a tween 10 years ago when the World Trade Center was attacked and destroyed on September 11th. Godspeed and return home safely Corporal.

As a man who is recently returned to the dating world, I could totally relate to Eric's manner and composure in the video. I'm from an Army family, but I don't look down at Marines, they're clearly some bad ass motherfuckers, but even a Marine is humbled by a good woman, and you can see that in the video. So, without further adieu, here is the video:



Here's a look at the 2009 Marine Ball:





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[VIDEO] Juventus in Philadelphia

I'm not a Juventus fan, and, yes, Juve hasn't recovered from the troubles of 2006, but it's good to see The Old Lady in the United States.