Top Stories

Tuesday Kickoff: Kagawa joining Man. United, Ampai heads to Thailand & more

Kagawa (Reuters Pictures)

After weeks of speculation, Shinji Kagawa will be joining Manchester United.

Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United agreed to a transfer fee, which may end up being as much as Â£18 million — more than 18 times what Dortmund paid for Kagawa initially. The now-former Dortumund attacker and current Japanese international agreed to terms with the Red Devils as well, with the move being completed pending a physical and Kagawa being approved for a work permit, which should not be an issue considering his presence for the Japan national team.

Kagawa, 23, will provide a necessary jolt to the United attack, which stagnated at times this past season and was heavily reliant on Wayne Rooney. Kagawa scored 29 goals in all competitions in the last two seasons at Dortmund.

Here are a few more stories to get your day going:

AMPAIPITAKWONG SIGNS IN THAILAND

Anthony Ampaipitakwong will be attempting to blaze a unique trail in Thailand.

The former University of Akron standout and San Jose Earthquakes midfielder has joined Thai side Buriram United on a transfer from MLS, though deals of the transfer have not yet been released. The club unveiled Ampaipitakwong as its new signing, though, and the player himself confirmed the move on his official Twitter account Monday evening.

After four standout years at Akron, Ampaipitakwong was a second-round draft pick of the Earthquakes in 2011, and after playing in 12 games and accounting for two assists as a rookie, he did not see the field with the first team in his second season with the club.

OLIC OUT OF EURO 2012

Croatia's hopes at the European championship took a bit of a hit with the word that former Bayern Munich striker Ivica Olic has been ruled out for the tournament with a thigh injury.

Olic, who is set to join Wolfsburg this summer, was a projected starter for Croatia, but he was hurt in a friendly against Norway over the weekend. Everton's Nikica Jelavic and Dnipro's Nikola Kalinic will be charged with filling his void for Croatia, which is currently ranked eighth in the world but finds itself in a tough group with Spain, Italy and the Republic of Ireland.

SOUTH AFRICA FIRES COACH

After one poor World Cup qualifying result extended South Africa's winless run to nine matches, coach Pitso Mosimane has been shown the exit by the South African football federation.

Mosimane was axed following the Bafana Bafana's 1-1 home draw with Ethiopia, which opened the second round of African qualifying for the tournament. The result comes after the embarrassing 0-0 draw with Gabon last year, when he and his team thought it needed just a tie to qualify for the African Cup of Nations when they actually needed a victory.

Mosimane's assistant, Steve Komphela, will take over on an interim basis for the 2010 FIFA World Cup hosts.

——————————–

Do you see Kagawa sparking United's attack and having success in the Premier League? What's your take on Ampaipitakwong's move? Do you see Croatia getting out of the group stage without Olic? Think South Africa has been underachieving since the World Cup?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. The Japanese style (as well as that of the J-league) is modeled on Brazil. They also stress more on fundamentals and technical ability. It’s not as “physical” as here in the states.

    Reply
  2. I’m sad to see Ampai go, I thought he did well for SJ when they gave him a chance to play and find the game.

    Reply
  3. Japan did finish three places above us in the World Cup final rankings, though.
    Miyaichi is 5 years younger than Ream and belongs to a much better club.
    Kagawa is 6 years younger than Dempsey and belongs to a much better club.
    Nagatomo did much better at Inter than Gooch at AC Milan.
    Our Bundesliga up and comers were born and raised in Germany. The Japanese in and going to the Bundesliga come out of the Japanese system.
    The Japanese Nats play a much more technical style than ours.
    This is all positing in one direction…

    Reply
  4. How can it not be good? Clearly he wasn’t getting play time in the MLS, why not try something new? Its what Lee Ngyuen did and look how he turned out. Would you prefer him to go to lower Euro leagues? I mean maybe he could’ve tested the waters in Central or South America, but at least now he goes to a place where they can pronounce his name

    Reply
  5. This. Frank is a huge threat for Buriram. And it’s easy for me to follow the TPL, living in Thailand and all. Season ticket holder for Muangthong United. But as an MTU supporter, I hope Anthony doesn’t turn out to be too amazing for Buriram.

    Any MLS team should be after Teerasil Dangda, although I will hate to see him leave MTU. He’s reportedly getting looks from Europe:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC_HWUJgb9s

    Reply
  6. I think they may be better than us but not by much. I noticed some BL1 players that will be better as time goes by, like Sakai, he is a diamond in the rough.

    Reply
  7. I think i can agree that USA and Japan are about equal when it comes to individual players. Japan maybe slightly better. But as a team their chemistry is so good I would probably put them in the top ten at the moment.

    Also, Miyaichi who is only 19 is still developing and has yet to start for his NT. There’s no shame in being on loan for development. Especially if you’re young and starting every game.

    Reply
  8. I’m not saying he’s a guaranteed starter, but they did not buy him as a back up. He will not play on the wings either…

    Reply
  9. What because they have a handful of people at places like Man U or Inter surrounded by a bunch of domestics? I actually tend to find the variety of teams and integrity to those units more impressive for the Americans. Unlike say Miyachi we aren’t signing with Arsenal and then being shipped to Bolton on loan. That’s effectively Tim Ream who’s not even in our qualifying squad.

    On paper both teams were knocked out in the SA round of 16. Surpassed? With the money they spend on domestic soccer even keeping up reflects an effective USA program.

    Reply
  10. Hey MLS scouts if you are reading this, check out Frank Acheampong of Buriram. He’s from Ghana, is 18 and powerful dynamite of a forward. He has proven himself against 2 J-League teams already and he was more than a handful for them. Get him before the bidding starts going up when everyone hears about him.

    Reply
  11. I hope I alerted them to Ampai’s availability about 1.5 – 2 months ago after Buriam won their first two matches of the ACL against Kashiwa Reysol (J-League Champion) and Guangzhou Evergrande (Chinese Champions). There was a poster by name of Thai Zico (Kiatisuk Senamuang?) and I replied to his post on some Asian soccer website about Buriram’s fairytale run in the ACL before they lost the rest of the ACL group matches.

    In my reply I mentioned that Ampai is a Thai-American who plays for San Jose and that he wasn’t a consideration for the US team (since he didn’t feature regularly for SJ), and would be a good candidate for the Thai national team.

    If this is true of how they heard of him, it is great that the internet soccer community is a small world. 🙂

    This Thai Zico also posts on bigsoccer if you want to reply to him.

    Reply
  12. overall quality probably about equal but individual quality maybe. As a Dortmund fan I hate losing Kagawa to Man U.

    Reply
  13. We’ll see if he starts. He’s behind Young on the left; perhaps will be behind Wellbeck up front, and possibly Hernandez too; Nani and Valencia on the right. IMHO he should start in front of Wellbeck and Hernandez right now, but there’s still a bit of English favoritism, and Hernandez gets on good streaks where he’s NBA-JAM on fire.

    Reply
  14. I’m impressed. Not for the fact that you love the Thai League, but that you waited for that one moment that a story about the TPL was posted and you were the first to comment.

    Carpe Diem, Indeed.

    Reply
  15. I would assume it takes a very special type of dedication to be a big fan of the Tahi Premier League.

    Reply
  16. I’m a big Thai Premier League fan, and Buriram United are a very good team. They only lost once last year, and won the TPL by a 16 point margin. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of an impact he can make on such an already solid team.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Jamin Cancel reply