In a post from Soccer by Ives, it turns out that Dave Van den Bergh not only got traded away to FC Dallas, but REQUESTED that trade. It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy here in NY/NJ area – his wife has family in the Dallas area who, according to SBI:

Van Den Bergh’s wife has family in Dallas which could help them with the care of their oldest son, who has been battling an undisclosed illness. The Red Bulls weighed the request, along with Van Den Bergh’s own demands for a new contract, and decided the best thing to do for all parties involved was to trade the 32-year-old winger away.

[Soccer by Ives]

The good news is that we got good value for him: the Red Bulls traded Van Den Bergh and the No. 14 overall pick in the MLS Draft to FC Dallas for forward Dominic Oduro, the No. 11 and the No. 18 picks in the draft. The MLS, Agoos and JCO did right by DVB.

I never thought that I would say that.

Wow, Ashley Young is a stud. His counter against Everton just delivered an Aston Villa win right at the death in Goodison Park. I heart you, Ashley Young.

Ashley Young grabbed his second of the game deep in injury time to give Aston Villa a 3-2 win over Everton in an amazing finale to the match at Goodison Park.

Joleon Lescott thought he had won a point for Everton after netting his second of the game in the third minute of added time, but with just 15 seconds remaining, Villa broke to the other end and Young finished coolly to give the visitors all three points.

[Yahoo! UK]

Guess he shook off that calf injury, eh?

Isn’t this the cat from the Amstel commercial?

This past week, there was a great piece over at KeeperSkool regarding the current goalkeeping situation at Aston Villa. Being a big follower of Villa, I am really quite proud to see two very talented Americans “manning the pipes” in Birmingham, and think its a blessing for the US National Team, even if they did quote Bruce Arena in this article.

We all know that Bruce Arena = ratings!

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Yesterday, RBNY lost veteran defender Jeff Parke to the Seattle Sounders. This made some people sad, but I wasn’t among them because, frankly, I am still bummed about the MLS Cup loss.

On Wednesday, the Red Bulls lost defender Jeff Parke (No. 2 on the club’s career list of most games played in the regular season with 132) to the Seattle Sounders in Major League Soccer’s expansion draft.

Then in the waiver draft, the club reacquired Mike Petke (No. 1 on the club’s games played list with 134) from the Colorado Rapids.

Parke, 26, one of team’s most reliable and inexpensive defenders since he was drafted 60th over all in the 2004 M.L.S. draft, is serving a 10-game suspension after violating the league’s substance-abuse policy. (Goalkeeper Jon Conway was also suspended with Parke and both missed the team’s run to the league championship game last Sunday.) Parke earned a shade more than $58,000 last season and Seattle will need to negotiate a new pact with Parke, whose contract has expired.

[New York Times Goal Blog]

Ugh. So how did we make up for this? We re-signed Mike Petke! Yay us. Boo Jeff Parke.

(Honestly, after the suspension of Parke and Conway for use of performance-enhancing drugs, I never bagged on Parke because he issued a statement. That illustrated a bit more regret than Conway’s lack of ANY statement. Eff Conway, and we’ll miss you Jeff Parke.)

For as much ribbing as I have been taking these last few months for talking up my love for Red Bull New York (aka New York Red Bulls) of Major League soccer, it is pretty clear that the largest media market in the world having a team in the league’s title game is good for exposure.

In this graph here, you can see that as Google Blog Posts relevant to “MLS Cup” increase, the number of sales (Sales Rank at Amazon) increases as well. That’s an encouraging sign for those in the MLS offices as they head into the offseason, and illustrates the league’s need to embrace social media as a whole in order to truly drive awareness.

Source: Trendrr

OMG! WTF? RBNY are going to MLS Cup after a 1-0 win in Salt Lake City.

Wow. I think I might throw up from glee. Thank you, Dave van den Bergh. Thank you, Danny Cepero. Thank you, multiple goalposts and RSL’s lack of finishing ability.

Wow.

In a week with only three games to choose from, “Great” Dane Richards was selected as MLS Player of the Week for his heroics in Houston yesterday. The midfielder, in case you weren’t watching the Red Bulls bounce the two-time defending champions from the playoffs, has a goal, an assist and also set up the second goal (a PK) with his cross that was handled in the box.

Playing in 23 games this season, Richards has tallied a career-high in goals with three to go along with a team-high six assists in 2008. He played the full 90 minutes against Houston the first leg of the teams’ playoff series. The speedy winger from Montego Bay, Jamaica, was acquired by the Red Bulls in the 2007 MLS SuperDraft after he was selected in the second round (19th overall) from Clemson University. Richards joins Angel (Week 20) as the only Red Bulls named MLS Player of the Week in 2008.

[MetroFanatic]

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Not the Nuns in Question, but Still Pretty Rad

Yeah, that headline is pretty amazing, but it turns out to be pretty true. An order of Croatian nuns (Nuns of the Order of Saint Benedict in Zadar, to be exact) are among shareholders in football club Hajduk. That’s amazing and thanks to Sports by Brooks for the tip.

They own shares worth 25,000 kunas or around 3,600 Euros (SMS Note: about $4500 worth), which puts them among the top 20 Hajduk shareholders.

I don’t know about you, but I have a great-Aunt who is a nun. They have little-to-no money to their name, so that these ladies were so committed to this team that they scrounged together enough to purchase a stake in the club is, well, amazing.

Go read more about these fabulous ladies here: Croatian Times

Rich people will drop tons of dough on just about anything. Expensive cars, jewelry, “field hands”, everything is fair game if you have enough money. Add to this list (for the nominal amount of $40,000) a private lesson with “Becksy” David Beckham.

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