Live The Pitch

The new era of Brazilian soccer will begin when Brazil faces off with the United States on August 10 at the new Giants Stadium.  New Brazilian manager Mano Menezes has named his 23 man roster that will make the trip to New Jersey.

Menezes will take this opportunity to give his younger players a chance to impress.  The Brazilian roster will only include 4 players from the World Cup Squad.

Bob Bradley has not  announced his roster yet, but look for him to include most of the roster that participated in the World Cup.

Brazil Roster:

Goalkeepers-Jeferson , Renan, Victor

Defenders-André Santos, Daniel Alves, David Luís , Henrique, Marcelo, Rafael , Rever , Thiago Silva

Midfielders-Carlos Eduardo, Ederson, Hernanes, Jucilei, Lucas, Paulo Henrique Ganso, Ramires, Sandro

Forwards-Alexandre Pato, André, Diego Tardelli, Neymar, Robinho

After 11 months at the helm, Diego Maradona will not be retained as Argentina move forward after the World Cup this summer.  Maradona led Argentina to a quarterfinal appearance this summer, but were embarrassed 4-0 by eventual 3rd place nation Germany.

The Argentine Football Association decided to not keep Maradona based on major coaching differences they had with moving forward.  The main issue was the coaches under Maradona.  Maradona wanted to keep all his assistants from this summer but the Association did not not see it the same way.  The Association offered Maradona a new 4 year contract to lead the team into Brazil but he insisted on  keeping his entire staff.

Maradona will be missed on the pitch, as he was always entertaining on the sidelines and in the press room.  With his outgoing personality, controversy followed him everywhere.  Honestly I am surprised that he was even offered a new deal after the way they left the World Cup.  After the defeat to Germany, Maradona was involved in a heated exchange with some German fans before having to be subdued by his daughter.

This years MLS All Star game will feature the leagues top stars in a match against Manchester United of the English Premier League on July 28.  United are in the middle of its summer North American preseason tour and will finish the tour in Houston against the MLS All Stars.  United are 2-0 so far on the trip with wins over Celtic and Philadelphia Union.

The MLS roster looks extremely strong, but we will have to see how these players match up with a young Manchester United group led by old timers Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.  United are missing key players such as Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick, Nemanja Vidic, Park Ji-Sung, Patrice Evra, and Nani on the trip.

This marks the fifth year in a row with the MLS All Stars facing off with a European  opponent.  The MLS stars have gone 4-1 with their only loss coming last year to Everton of  the EPL in penalty kicks.

It will be interesting to see how coach Bruce Arena handles this roster.  Managing this type of match can be difficult to get all the players on the pitch.  Arena definitely wants to win this match for the league as the MLS is widely considered a lower tiered league worldwide.

MLS All Star Roster

Goalkeepers

Donovan Ricketts (LA Galaxy), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)

Defenders

Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Jamison Olave (Real Salt Lake),  Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Wilman Conde (Chicago Fire), Kevin Alston (New England Revolution)

Midfielders

Bobby Convey (San Jose Earthquakes), Dwayne De Rosario (Toronto FC), Marco Pappa (Chicago Fire), Javier Morales (Real Salt Lake), Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus Crew), Sebastien Le Toux (Philadelphia Union), David Ferreira (FC Dallas), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Shalrie Joseph (New England Revolution), Jeff Larentowicz (Colorado Rapids),

Forwards

Edson Buddle (LA Galaxy), Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy), Juan Pablo Angel (New York Red Bulls), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Jaime Moreno (D.C. United)

New French national team coach Laurent Blanc has suspended the entire 23 man World Cup roster for an upcoming friendly match against Norway next month.  Under former skipper Raymond Demenech the French were lucky just to qualify for the World Cup and were embarrassed in South Africa after going win less amidst in house controversy.

The drama started to unfold when striker Nicolas Anelka and Demenech were involved in a heated exchange in the locker room at halftime of the Mexico match.  Anelka was then sent home by the French Football Federation for his actions which did not suit well with the rest of the team.

The team decided to protest the decision to send Anelka home by not training which led to more team controversy.  There have been a few French players who have publicly stated that this was a stupid decision.

Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was quoted in L’Equipe: ”We acted as a team,  To strike was the decision of a squad who felt lonely, who believed that no one had stood up for them and who had a message to convey. We went too far. It was a very awkward decision, a big mistake. It was completely stupid. But there were so many problems.”

It is understandable to want to send a message to these players, but to suspend the entire team does not make much sense.  With a great nucleus of young players to choose from France will still be a top team when they face off with Norway.  Blanc will choose his young squad wisely to see who can come in and change the mentality of this broken team.