By TRAVIS CLARK
If this weekend is any indication, Jeff Cunningham's annual goal-scoring streak could just be getting started.
The MLS veteran scored a brace against the Philadelphia Union on Sunday, his plaudits earning him MLS Player of the Week honors. Cunningham joins teammate Brek Shea as one of two FC Dallas players to earn the honor this year.
A red-hot Cunningham would be a huge lift for FC Dallas down the stretch, though the team has been hard to beat all season, as the club's last loss came back on May 20, 1-0 to the Galaxy. If Cunningham hits another scoring streak, they could be an even harder side to stop late in the season.
Here are a few other stories for the afternoon:
BARCELONA, MANCHESTER UNITED EYE OZIL
The future of Werder Bremen playmaker Mesut Ozil is up in the air, with reports linking the 21-year-old to Barcelona and Manchester United. A move always seemed possible after Ozil enjoyed a sensational World Cup, as he is in the last year of his contract with the Bundesliga outfit.
It was previously expected that Ozil would play out the last year of his contract with Bremen, but now that Barcelona has lost out on Cesc Fabregas, the Catalan club could sign the World Cup star. They'll have to fight off the advances of Manchester United, as Sir Alex Ferguson was linked with a move for Ozil as well.
MUELLER SIGNS BAYERN EXTENSION
One of Ozil's World Cup teammates won't be going anywhere for a long time. Thomas Mueller, the Golden Boot winner and Best Young Player winner at this summer's tournament, signed a two-year extension with Bayern Munich that will keep him at the Bavarian club until at least 2015. Mueller, who turns 21 in September, has only played one full season with the club, but earned a pay raise with his performances last year and with Germany this summer.
MANCHESTER CITY WITH GOALIE CONTROVERSY
There could be an imminent goalie controversy at Manchester's other club. Either Joe Hart or Shay Given will be the odd man out in City's goal — Hart is fresh off a fantastic season on loan for Birmingham City, though Roberto Mancini has already admitted he won't send out the England keeper again. That could lead Given, at 34, to look for a loan move of his own in order to secure playing time in order keep his starting position with the Republic of Ireland national team.
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What do you think about Cunningham as Player of the Week? Will Ozil move now or next summer? Glad that Mueller signed an extension?
Share your thoughts below.
Somehow I have a feeling that this was not fully explained to Movsisyan. It will be interesting to see what he says about this in the future if indeed what you say is true Andrew.
Yura Movsisyan will be playing for Armenia on the 11th against Iran. Since he does not have US nationality at the time of his first cap by Armenia, it doesn’t matter if it’s an official FIFA tournament. He is gone and can never play for the US.
Johnson is more than deserving. He almost literally single handedly kept the Fire in the game.
Stop spending Barca. You have enough players.
well said. Man Ut’d debt is considered “healthy” despite what the protesters would like you to think. Barca is doing in soccer what people ere did with real estate. They are living above their means. They cannot afford to play the players what they’re paying now. This is why they need loans to cover operating costs. Man Utd is and will be fine, Barca, it’s yet to be seen
The difference between Barca and Man Utd.’s debt is how they are structured. Barca needs cash now. Like yesterday. By all accounts United have structured their debt well and are fairly easily covering the service payments. They also haven’t bought anyone for serious cash in a season. It’s possible that the Glazers are taking all the operating profit off the club for other purposes (perfectly legal, mind you) but the club should have money to spend, they aren’t taking bridge loans to make payroll, like Barca is. The big English and German clubs reacted to the financial crisis faster than the La Liga ones who continued to spend like drunken sailors the past two seasons.
ozil will end up in madrid.
Shay Given is one of the best goalies in the world. Top 5. I don’t see the controversy.
make findley the aston villa coach so bradley cant start him any more
Barcalona has no money…they spend 40M Euros on David Villa and the have to borrow 200M to pay wages….go figure…then again United is 500M + in debt too….:)
Hopefully I don’t double or triple post…
He probably gives as much thought to Guzan’s role in the USMNT as USMNT gave to his career when he was benched for Meola and Keller. It didn’t hurt Friedel’s career, and brother-in-lawing Guzan won’t help his.
When Guzan breaks through, he will have earned it and he will be a bad man; no reason to cheat the process. Remember, Friedel and Keller were fighting for national team caps almost 20 years ago…no need to rush GKs.
So who thinks Mancini will get through the entire season at Man City? Not me.
haha nice
how often does any premier league manager sit his obvious no. 1 keeper in a premier league match when he is 100% fit?
friedel puts them in a better chance to win and when you’re a club like aston villa that is always on the cusp of european qualification, every premier league match is important. im sure friedel still cares about the usmnt, but probably not when he’s in birmingham and there’s a premier league match to play that day.
Whats the latest on some of our guys transfers? Bradley, Jozy and such it should be getting closer? And its a shame FCD never gets to play infront of any fans for having such a good team. I guess thats the downfall for building an hour outside the city.
How would you all rate Davies in USMNT history of strikers? He only had 17 caps with 4 goals but those goals made quite a difference especially 2 of them.
We’ve had guys like Wynalda, McBride, Wolff, Mathis, Ching, Twellman, EJ and now Altidore.
where would you rate them? McBride our LEGEND is average in the eyes of many nations.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_intelligence_woman_director;_ylt=AgT8VxaofXGa8fnKaSaGtfX9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTMxbzE4NGxjBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwODA5L3VzX2ludGVsbGlnZW5jZV93b21hbl9kaXJlY3RvcgRjcG9zAzYEcG9zAzYEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNmaXJzdHdvbWFudG8-
FORT BELVOIR, Va. – Letitia A. Long became the first woman director of a major U.S. intelligence agency Monday, taking her post as chief of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency at a ceremony at the agency’s half-built, high-tech campus in Springfield, Va.
Long saluted what the relatively new agency has accomplished, from aiding troops on the battlefield, to helping draw together intelligence from across the national security spectrum.
“I have never seen an agency as young as the NGA do so much in so little time,” she said of the organization, which was established in 1996.
She spoke before several hundred VIPs from the intelligence and special ops community on the roof of a parking garage next to her future offices. The “Jetsons”-style rounded wedge of buildings is rising from a vast construction site at Fort Belvoir. The NGA’s staff, now spread among several sites across the Washington metropolitan area, is slated to relocate there by fall 2011.
Long’s 32-year career has led to a series of senior management positions: deputy director of Naval Intelligence, deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and, most recently, second in command at the Defense Intelligence Agency.
I thought Ronaldinho was coming to the Galaxy but if Adu comes I can imagine Adu will be making at leats $300,000. You know for sure they’ll want to market him, the league.
Poor Adu. Portuguese, French, Greek leagues. None where he could stick in. Always Holland or even Scandinavia or Turkey or Switzerland. Hot white chicks, maybe they encourage him to excel.
So tell me is Friedel ever going to let Guzan start a few PL games? Guzan is our no2 GK and it’s as if like Friedel refuses to allow him breathing space. Friedel has the PL record broken for like the past year. Come on dude, do it for the NT. Or is Guzan aiding Hahnemann in keeping the competition for no2 out of Guzan’s reach.
Love the fact that Cunningham rocks the Copa Mundials. It makes him look like he might show up for a Sunday rec league game, but be way better than everybody else of course.
Joe Hart is the no1 for England going into 2014. Green’s confidence is shattered and probably will regain but his blunder will hurt him. James is practically over. Robinson retired. Kirkland is a good option but would he wanna be no2 or 3?
Who had comment #8 in the “when will someone bring up Freddy Adu” pool for this post?
I thought the same thing. Cunningham played all of what? 22 minutes, if that. S. Johnson was extremely impressive the last couple times i’ve seen him play.
referring to the shay given link
and the headline for the daily mail story you linked to is just ridiculous, even by daily mail standards. looks like the sun has a proper rival in that regard now.
anyone hear anything about freddy coming home and going to LA?
can’t see ozil going to barca. they’re probably going to get fabregas next summer anyway and iniesta and xavi easily start over ozil, so in essence, he would go there, sit on the bench, and then be even deeper on the bench next year. but i guess if youre real madrid, barca, or citeh, you only think about buy, buy, buy, not how players will actually fit in.
I don’t think he would play for Barca. He was in talks with Real Madrid but they would not guarantee him a starting position.
It’s a Catch-22 for these guys. They want to go to a successful team and start, not realizing that teams tend to stick with the players who made them good in the first place.
That said, Man U could use an attacking midfielder.
Does MLS do anything other than look up whoever scored twice that week and give them the player of the week honors? That seems like the pattern. My vote would have gone to Johnson, the Fire’s keeper.
BREAKING NEWS FROM INDIANAPOLIS- US Diving has called up Jeff Cunningham after witnessing last week’s impressive performance in international competition against European champions from Italy!
Seriously, I am a fan of FCD and JC, and this is well deserved. So is ribbing about diving, even in a meaningless game.
Reports are rife now that Ozil will be a Barca player next year, a huge mistake in my eyes, although I am a United fan so maybe Im biased.
Can we get Cunningham a start?? Rodriguez has looked ok, but I still give Jeff the nod over him. Dallas hitting their stride …
Ozil wouldn’t fit in with Barca’s formation, think he’d really shine at United.