THE FINAL THIRD

Real Madrid are on their way to Los Angeles!

The 18 players who are making the trip will begin two-a-day workouts on Thursday on the UCLA campus. The US tour includes a match against Club America in San Francisco on 4 August followed by a game against the LA Galaxy in the Rose Bowl on 8 August. We will most likely have pica and video of training at UCLA!

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David, Victoria, and the boys made it out for the free Jonas Brothers concert at The Grove here in Los Angeles. Ever the cool parents on the block they look great and take their kids to cool stuff. You gotta love it.

FC Internazionale and Nike presented the new away kit for the 2010/11 season during the 18th Scudetto celebrations at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in Siena. 

I have to say that it is really bad. It looks like an awful, over the top shirt that tourist buy on Melrose here in Los Angeles.

Nike’s designers have taken inspiration from the white away shirt with the black and blue band used in the 1964/65 season. The V-necked shirt also features the club’s historic serpent logo.

The Inter logo is on the right of the chest, with the Nike swoosh (blue) on the left and the Pirelli logo (black) in the middle.
The shorts are white with a blue band on both sides. The socks are white with a black and blue border.

Inter’s new kits are designed for increased performance with lower environmental impact. Each shirt is made from one hundred percent recycled polyester, obtained from eight plastic bottles.

The advanced Nike Dri-Fit material makes the shirts 13% lighter, drawing perspiration away from the body.

“Nike and Inter celebrate together another extraordinary success today: the 18th Scudetto,” said Andrea Rossi, general manager of Nike Italy. “We are particularly pleased to present the new away shirt of the Italian champions at the end of an exceptional season that we hope can become unforgettable.”

The new shirts will available for purchase at all Nike Stores, authorised retailers and www.nikefootball.com, starting Monday 17 May.

Animals are often used to represent football clubs in Italy, the grass snake, called Il biscione or Serpente representing Inter. The snake is an important symbol for the city of Milan, appearing often in Milanese heraldry as a coiled viper with a man in its jaws. The symbol is famous for its presence on the coat of arms of the House of Sforza (who ruled over Italy from Milan during the Renaissance period), the city of Milan, the historical Duchy of Milan (a 400 year state of the Holy Roman Empire), and Insubria (a historical regional area which the city of Milan falls within).

Cherif Zein, Mat Davis, Bryan Byrne

Jetski and I hit the town last night to celebrate Brazilian football culture with Nike!

It was a great time for all as the Los Angeles footballing community was brought together for a truly Brazilian football experience. It all started off on the roof of the Ricardo Montelban theatre with drinks, Brazilian music, dancers and some Capoeira. I saw a ton of people that I haven’t seen in years including the “godfather” of Southern California soccer, Cherif Zein.

After the party Marcus, myself, Alex, and Malcolm headed over to Voyear Nightclub on Santa Monica Blvd for a guys night out. After being there for less than 30 minutes Alex made two football sightings that were completely out of the blue. Standing at the bar was none other than Jimmy Bullard of Hull City. If that wasn’t enough about 10 minutes later we were having a few drinks with Jay Demerrit (US & Watford). Two very random sightings to say the least. Jay was cool enough to show me some close up pics of his horrific eye injury that he had on his iPhone and chat a little about football. Jimmy was all about the birds though, hey why not he had a rough season.

Pics courtesy of Cherif Zein More pics and some video in the coming days!

Bob Bradley has named his 30 man provisional roster for World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Obviously the big question on the minds of everyone was what he was going to do up front with the loss of Charlie Davies. It seems Ching, Gomez, Findley, Johnson and Buddle are going to fight it out for a spot or two. Are you scared?

Jozy didn’t do much at Hull but you have to figure that he is a shoe in along with Donovan and Dempsey with the later two listed in the midfield. Our chronic issue of not having a truly special striker is continuing to haunt us once again. Let’s hope our superior goalkeeping and some toughness in the back can keep us in matches.

U.S. TRAINING CAMP ROSTER BY POSITION
GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton), Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton)

DEFENDERS (9): Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover), Jay DeMerit (Watford), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan), Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United)

MIDFIELDERS (12): DaMarcus Beasley (Rangers), Alejandro Bedoya (Örebro), Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus), Stuart Holden (Bolton), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), José Torres (Pachuca)

FORWARDS (6): Jozy Altidore (Villarreal), Edson Buddle (Los Angeles Galaxy), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Herculez Gomez (Puebla), Eddie Johnson (Aris Thessaloniki)

The squad will start training at Princeton University on May 15th, with games against the Czech Republic in East Hartford, CT on May 25th, and against Turkey in Philadelphia on May 29th. They will leave for South Africa on the 30th and play Australia there on the 5th of June.

Seattle Sounders - The Club of the people?

After being destroyed by the Los Angeles Galaxy this weekend 4 – 0 at home and slipping into last place in the Western Conference of Major League Soccer, the management of the Seattle Sounders decided to issue a one match refund to their 32,000 season ticket holders.

“We’re in this for the long haul. We need them (the fans) to be in it for the long haul,” said Adrian Hanauer, the team’s co-owner and general manager, at the Starfire Sports Complex.

“That wasn’t Sounders soccer. And it was quite frankly embarrassing, humiliating, and they don’t deserve that.”

Clubs in Europe have been known to refund fans after poor performances, but Hanauer said this move will not set a precedent.

“We don’t plan on giving people money back every time we have a bad game,” Hanauer said. “But as the owners of the club, we reserve the right to do whatever we think we need to do to treat our fans the way they’ve treated us.”

Despite losing by four goals late in the game Saturday, many of the 36,273 fans (a team-record crowd for an MLS game) stayed and cheered through the final whistle.

Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid said the fans’ tribute was moving, despite the team’s shockingly bad performance.

“The fans support throughout the game and the way they remained and supported us after the game was phenomenal — something that for me was very emotional,” Schmid said. “It’s something that doesn’t happen anywhere else.

“I’ve been in Los Angeles and coached there where if you would’ve lost a game like that, even playing with the best intentions or losing with a tighter score, that’s not the reception you would’ve gotten. You would’ve been booed off the field. And you would’ve had to dodge obstacles as you left the field. But our fans were in full support and it’s something that we appreciate.”

The compensation will come in the form of a one-game credit toward next year’s season-ticket packages.

From a business stand point Sounders management may find that a move like this is worth more than they think. Today fans are asked to put out more and more of their hard earned money to attend matches in every American sport. Prices for tickets to other American sports have become almost astronomical given the current economic crisis. A move like this is not only great PR for the Seattle Sounders franchise it is also great for the sport of soccer in the United States. Many sports fans will look at this and have some serious respect for the way professional soccer clubs treat their fans.

Wesley Sneijder could be out of the critical semi-final against Barcelona in two days time. Inter Milan’s influential playmaker is a doubt for Wednesday’s Champions League semifinal second leg in Barcelona due to a thigh problem.

The former Real Madrid man, who scored in Inter’s 3-1 first-leg win, came off at halftime in the 3-1 Serie A victory over Atalanta which sent Jose Mourinho’s side top on Saturday.

“Wesley Sneijder has undergone a medical check-up which showed a muscle tweak in his left thigh,” Inter said in a statement.

“The condition of the Dutch midfielder will be monitored in the next 48 hours.”

The possible absence of Sneijder on Wednesday would be a big blow for Inter given he has been one of their most consistent players this season and expertly links midfield and attack.

Forward Goran Pandev and right back Maicon were not risked for the Atalanta game because of muscle tightness and a broken tooth respectively but are in line to be fit for the Barca game.

Does anyone see a Jose Mourinho mind game going on here, or is it just me?

Inter Milan is definitely going out of their way to make the status of Sneijder extremely vague to say the least. Obviously Pep Guardiola will be preparing his squad for all possibilities but it does add a little confusion. There is no question how important this game is to Inter Milan and Italian football.

Anyone in the Los Angeles area can join Jetski and I at Dillon’s on Hollywood Blvd. to catch the game on Wednesday!

Former Wimbledon star Vinnie Jones last night told how he got involved in a furious fight with co-star Tamer Hassan.

Vinnie- Even hard when modeling.

The British pair – due to start filming together next week – battled outside Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood!

Vinnie, 45, told a British Tabloid “Me and Tamer had words and a bit of a scuffle like a lot of blokes do on a weekend after a drink and a curry.” (ummm… I’ve never had a scuffle in LA…) The former Wimbledon footballer added: “We’re making a movie together next week. It’ll all be forgotten about by then.”

The Football Factory star Tamer, 42, was left with a swollen face. Vinnie injured his nose but joked: “I’m still the best-looking British actor in Hollywood.”

A source said: “They fell out over Christmas but started chatting in an attempt to bury the hatchet.

“Sadly things quickly turned ugly and they took it outside instead. They ended up in a brawl. It’s going to be rather awkward on set.”

Tamer’s lawyer said he was “subjected to an unprovoked attack” by Vinnie, adding: “He regrets being put in the position of having to defend himself, but defend himself he did.”

Vinnie’s spokesman said the actor “got into an altercation” during a business dinner with some producers and his wife, but returned to his table after a few minutes.

Vinnie turned out as usual for his Hollywood Allstars footy team yesterday.

The actor, whose film credits include Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, lives in LA with wife Tanya.

Tamer moved to LA earlier this year in a bid to launch his career in the US.

The two men are due in Louisiana next week to start new movie Blood Out.

Now… it’s not for us to judge, but these two guys are in their 40’s… should they really be brawling on the streets of Los Angeles? Or is it just another case of ‘Brits on the piss’?

No wonder Vinnie is taking the easy way out though, there are all sorts of rumors that Tamer used to be involved in a well known crime family in the UK… best stay on his best side then!