Top Stories

Morning Ticker: Man City eyes Dos Santos, CONCACAF is back and Cahill hurt

Giovanidossantos_ap

Good morning all. Today is one of the relatively slower days in the soccer world, but that doesn’t mean there still isn’t some news to share.

Here are some tidbits to start your day with:

Man City eyes Dos Santos

Manchester City could add its second Mexican star this summer by acquiring Barcelona starlet Giovani Dos Santos. City has expressed interest in Dos Santos, according to the player’s father, Zizinho. Dos Santos has struggled for playing time since Bojan Krkic has hit his stride and become a regular in the Barcelona rotation. If Dos Santos does join city, he would join Mexican forward Nery Castillo.

CONCACAF Qualifying Resumes

The first round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying will resume this week as some of the worst teams in the world get their chance at advancing in the qualifying tournament. Along with Barbados and Dominica playing to determine the U.S. national team’s opponent in the next round of qualifying, you have some other less than glamourous encounters, such as U.S. Virgin Islands vs. Grenada, Aruba vs. Antigua & Barbuda and Belize vs. St. Kitts & Nevis. Get your TIVOs ready. Okay, maybe not.

Cahill to miss key Aussie qualifier

Everton midfielder Tim Cahill will miss Australia’s crucial World Cup qualifier with China on Wednesday (Tuesday in the U.S.) with a foot injury suffered against West Ham. The injury also means Cahill could miss Everton’s derby against Liverpool this weekend.

Comments

  1. Dos Santos may very well turn out to be a good player but he wont be the next Ronaldinho as Mexico hoped. Its telling that Messi and Gio are practically the same age. DS wouldnt be served well in premiership his fancy dribbling will land earn him tough tackles putting him on his butt (see Eduardo).

    Borgetti’s scored very few goals in actual lague games most of his goals came in the FA cup against crap teams and CL against crap teams. Borgettis refusal to help on D (typical of MExican forwards) is what did him in.

    NEry is too small for premiership and his speed will also be dealt with with tough tackles that his slight frame will be hard pressed to handle (see Beasley).

    In general Mex players aren good fit for Premiereship thats all Christain. Vela may be an exception.

    Im not hatin, id just as soon tell you American players arent good fits for La Liga with the exception of maybe Adu and Altidore.

    Reply
  2. I wouldn’t give up on Dos Santos, either. I did expect more of him this season and wasn’t too impressed when he did receive playing time early in the La Liga season and when Messi was out. But his injury has clearly affected him.

    If he doesn’t get moved during this summer’s window I expect him to play a bigger role and thrive at Barca. Given that he’s healthy.

    Reply
  3. Andrew, Interesting stuff. Until today I was not aware that Montserrat existed.

    “Long referred to as “The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean” for both its Irish heritage and its resemblance to coastal Ireland, Montserrat today remains lush and green.”

    Reply
  4. Man City is just prepping for the Champions League in two years for the next 7-8 years. Hart, Richards, Johnson, Caiciedo, Sturridge, Corluka, Onuoha, Bojinov- First team players 21 and under that could form a title contending team in the Prem, toss in Gio as a creative attacker. Woooooooooo

    Reply
  5. CD. I grew up on Montserrat and played for the youth and national teams before I left for college more than 20 yrs ago. The dream was always to play in world cup qualifying which we werent able to do at the time even though the pop was over 10,000. The guy quoted as the assistant coach was the goalie of my club team. Where can I find the games?

    Reply
  6. wait wait wait….you’re not talking about players failing in the premiership are you mike?

    Allardyce didn’t ask for Borgetti and Borgetti didn’t necessarily want to go there either but he did it for the paycheck. Borgetti’s goal per game ratio @ Bolton was actually rather impressive but I’m gonna let you go look that up instead of discussing this topic with someone who obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about. As for Nery well I’m sure you knew that he just recently returned from injury after joining Man City in January. Keep on hatin’.

    Reply
  7. I don’t know, plenty of teams have been interested in Gio over the past year including Chelsea and Man U but that really doesn’t mean anything until the club officially announce that he’s for sale and someone puts a bid on the table.

    From what I’ve read, Rijkaard is very fond of Gio and until recently had given him a bit more PT than Bojan but Bojan has obviously produced more than Gio so it’s no surprise that he’s getting the nod over Gio recently but like I said, that hasn’t always been the case. Apparently Gio has been carrying an injury for most of the season and was willing to postpone the operation he needed until after the season but then he changed his mind and was counting on playing in the Olympics so he decided to push the operation until after the Olympics, of course he didn’t count on the ineptitude of his replacements on the Olympic squad and now won’t have to worry about delaying his operation.

    It seems that his agent is the one making all these ludicrous demands that has Barca going crazy, and this is the same guy that’s filling Gio’s head with a bunch of smoke. Gio loves Barca and is in fact a very humble person but he needs to prove himself on the pitch before he starts asking for money, cars, and bitches.

    🙂

    Reply
  8. I won’t put DS in Denilson category yet, but there are some aspects there. I agree with you on that one. Still a long way to go as he is very young. You can see that the things that overwhelmed youth players don’t work anymore, and it’s up to him to change a bit and learn. Up to him, but he has a lot of tools.

    I watched Vela at Ossasuna when I was there last fall and I wish we had him. I never begrudged Landy for making the US choice over Europe. His life, but when I saw Vela I couldn’t help but think of what LD could have been for us. Damn.

    Reply
  9. Dos Santos is another Denilson, fancy dribbling that amounts to nothing. All style no substance.

    I guess Man City didnt learn from Bolton. Mexican players arent cut out for premiership…..

    But I guess you couldnt tell that by how Nery is tearing up the league….

    NOT!

    Reply
  10. In an attempt to stave off being upstaged (in shirt sales and international appeal people – definitely not football) by FulAmerica, Citeh have adopted the new policy that will convert the team to Mexchester City in the next few seasons 🙂

    Reply
  11. Not surprised about Dos Santos. At every turn I have seen Dos Santos and Vela play I have thought Vela is clearly a better player. That kid has possible WClass written all over him IMO.

    Through GolTV I have sen a lot of DS and he just doesn’t seem to fit in at Barca. He is always just a bit off with regards to his teammates and he has been given A LOT of time to show he has it.

    While he looks to be a quality player, he doesn’t look top club quality right now. Not convinced he will be. Not sure he would survive the P’ship either. There were rumours Barca said DS was for sale this last window and I am not surprised.

    Yes, he is good, but not that good. Vela. He is gonna be good. Just wait until Wenger get’s his hand on him. Talk about a perfect fit.

    Reply
  12. Amazing population statistic. Less than the average attendance of an MLS game to pull their national team from.

    “Running Montserrat’s team has become a complicated exercise since the 1995 volcanic eruption which forced more than half the island’s people to move abroad.

    The eruption buried the capital Plymouth and reduced the population from 12,000 to 4,700.”

    Reply
  13. I cannot wait for the Assie qualifiers! Are they going to be playing a friendly against Turd United before to prepare though???

    Reply

Leave a Reply to kpugs Cancel reply