News briefs – Soccer

* South American giants Boca Juniors will play European champion A.C. Milan on Sunday for the World Club Cup championship. The Xeneizes won over the Italian squad in the 2003 Intercontinental Cup.

* Brazilian striker Kaka can add another award to his mantel; on Thursday he was named as World Player of the Year by World Soccer magazine. Argentina’s Lionel Messi came in second though he was named as Sports Illustrated Latino’s 2007 Sportsman of the Year.

* For some teams, 2007 has been the year of the underdog:

• Lanus won the latest Argentine championship for the first time in their 93-year history.
• Argentina's Arsenal upset Mexico’s Cub America to win the Copa Sudamericana.
• Provincial side San Jose won the Bolivian league title.
  
• Atlante captured the Mexican championship for the first time since 1993.
  
• La Equidad is in the finals of the Colombian league championship despite playing in their first year in the top division.
  

* Though players like Juan Pablo Angel and Cuauhtémoc Blanco flourished last season in Major League Soccer, one Latin American player brought in under the “Beckham Rule” has been an utter disappointment. FC Dallas dropped the option of resigning Brazil’s Denilson; the former international tallied one goal and eight assists during the 2007 season.

* Speaking of designated players and MLS, Argentina’s Olé reported that Juan Sebastian Veron will stay with domestic side Estudiantes de La Plata instead of accepting a “lucrative offer” from D.C. United. (Hat tip: Soccer by Ives).

Sources- Telgraph.co.uk, The Latin Americanist, Reuters UK, ESPN Soccernet, Goal.com, The Sports Network, Wikipedia, Soccer by Ives

Image- CNN (“Neri Cardozo celebrates after scoring the winner for Boca Juniors against Etoile Sahel”)

Commentary: “Becks” and the Latin American impact on American soccer

It’s easy to dismiss Major League Soccer (MLS) as a terribly inferior soccer league in a country where the game is of little importance compared to baseball or American football. Even with the arrival of David Beckham to the States some people doubt that his presence will have any sustainable impact to the league and to soccer in the U.S.

Despite the hoopla and hype surrounding Beckham, MLS has a card up its sleeve that may be very valuable for the league: the Designated Player Rule or “Beckham Rule.” The rule allows MLS teams to obtain at least one expensive (read: high-caliber) player without it affecting their salary caps and was created to avoid the bidding wars that led to the demise of the old North American Soccer League. The overall impact of the rule remains to be seen, but so far it has shown some promise in two Latin American players:

• Colombian Juan Pablo Angel (image) takes up one of the two DPR slots for the New York Red Bulls. (The other slot filled by a U.S. player of Argentine background- Claudio Reyna.) The former star for River Plate and Aston Villa was named MLS player of the month for May and June as he has tallied nine goals in only eleven games. Angel’s efforts were even rewarded during the MLS All-Star Game last Thursday where he received MVP honors.
• Mexican star Cuauhtémoc Blanco showed the promise anticipated by fans after he played in his debut with the Chicago Fire last night. "We saw a lot of his skills, his vision, his creativity” observed teammate Calen Carr as Blanco scored the Fire’s lone goal in a 1-1 tie in a friendly against Scotland’s Celtic FC.

“Beckham Rule” aside, several notable players from Latin America have made a serious impact on MLS since its inception over a decade ago from Carlos Valderrama and Raul Diaz Arce to Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Carlos Ruiz. Given MLS has problems to contend with, yet the impact of Latin American players in MLS along with the “Beckham Rule” could easily pay long-term dividends for the league.

Sources- Al Jazeera, MLSNET, Wikipedia, sover.net, Metrofanatic, SI.com, FOX Sports

Image- infobae.com