F.C. Camena is proud and honored to announce that we’ll be the online home of the world famous Predictorship ™ for the 2006-2007 season. We’ve long been participants (and even occasionally in the hunt!) in this fantastically entertaining and well-run competition, and we couldn’t be more happy to be able to contribute to the Predictorship ™ community. Though we won’t have a way to submit scores through the site here (at least not yet), you should expect the weekly updates and the famous Predictorship ™ Table to show up here on F.C. Camena. We also hope we’ll be able to make some new friends with the folks in the Predictorship community.

Welcome, and enjoy!

Players: 43 out of 47. Points scored: 251. Highest score: 10 (Jill Taylor). Average score: 5.84.

Prediction of the Week: Mazair Sattari (Tottenham 0-2 Everton).

Results:Charlton 2-0 Bolton; Fulham 1-0 Sheff Utd.; Liverpool 2-1 West Ham; Man. City 1-0 Arsenal; Tottenham 0-2 Everton; Watford 1-2 Man. Utd.; Wigan 1-0 Reading; Aston Villa 2-0 Newcastle; Blackburn 0-2 Chelsea; Middlesbrough 0-4 Portsmouth.

Jill Taylor (Dartmoor Rovers) is the early leader of the 2006-2007 Predictorship and the only one of this week’s 43 players to make it into double figures. Her perfect 10 includes correct scores for Charlton v Bolton, Aston Villa v Newcastle and Blackburn v Chelsea. For this week at least, a jubilant Jill has all the bragging rights in the footie mad Taylor household, with husband Dave (Chelsea) sitting comfortably in third place on eight points.

Steven Dunlop, the only two-time winner of the Predictorship (2002-2003 and 2004-2005), has enlisted the help of his newborn son as he embarks on another campaign, and early indications suggest he has a little genius in his hands. Steven, who sensationally walked out on Sporting Charleroi in the summer to become the new Benfica boss, gatecrashes the Taylors’ party with nine points.

After a season in administration, it’s a warm welcome back to Bournemouth and manager Della Torra, whose eight points put her just ahead of Christine Butters (Manchester City) on correct scores. Ominously, Christine completes a top five that includes four players who finished the 2005-2006 season in the top 10.

Last season’s champion, Mike Dufficy (Jersey United), has to settle for six points and 23rd place at this early stage, but 2005-2006 runner-up Cathryn Harker (Clapton F.C.) fares a little better on seven points, which puts her 10th (in a tie with 11 other players). Millwall’s John Collins, the winner of the inaugural Predictorship Cup, comes crashing back down to earth with three points (40th). We suspect motivational issues so soon after winning the biggest prize in fantasy football. The hard slog of the league is now a whole new ball game for the Lions.

Of the new faces, Paul Bentley (Living the Dream) is, er, living the dream on seven points (8th), and two more overseas stars, India’s Saleel Sathe (Liverpool Reserves) and Mazair Sattari (Seattle Gooners) will be delighted with their first foray into the Predictorship with seven points apiece (14th and 15th respectively). Mazair also nabs the first Prediction of the Week award for expertly predicting Everton would bury their 20+-year White Hart Lane hoodoo and leave north London with a 2-0 victory under their collective belts.

We also welcome Jodie Kemp (West Bergholt Wanderers, 24th), Haresh Mirani (Bengal Mumbai F.C., 26th), Michael Whitty (Bunch of Losers, 37th) and Mark Davies (Hornets Forever, 38th) to the Predictorship and welcome back Sunderland’s Trevor Morris (45th), who will no doubt be wallowing in the media storm that has greeted Roy Keane’s surprise appointment. Speaking of which …

Rumour has it the former Nottingham Forest and Manchester United legend was contemplating a return to football as manager of the hapless Norman No Mates before turning his attention to Sunderland. Without the midfield maestro, Norman has a disastrous start to the new season and his blushes are spared only by Sanjiv Sachdev, whose surname comes after Norm’s in the alphabet.

What excitement will week 2 bring?

Link to the Table (Week 1)

In something of a shocker (inasmuch as there are “shockers” in the realm of imaginary soccer video games), Microsoft announced this week announced deals with both Electronic Arts and Konami that will make the XBox 360 the exclusive home of the next versions of FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer (Winning Eleven), respectively. So if you’re into video soccer, then the PS3 will not be the next-gen gaming platform for you!

Given that there really isn’t much of a convincing story around the PS3 right now (probably won’t be fully built out and stocked until late in the spring), this probably isn’t such a big deal. But I’m just psyched I’ll be able to rock the Winning Eleven on my XBox.

I look forward to seeing Camena in HD!

Link:
Xbox 360 Becomes the Home of Next-Gen Soccer [GameDaily]

Camena regulars across the land raised a glass to Premiership newboys Reading FC’s 3-2 opening-day win this past Saturday against a rather stunned Boro side. At this rate, Reading are on pace for 114 points!

In the interests of full disclosure, I think it’s safe to say that the team here at Camena are going to be pulling for Reading this season. While we actually have a legit fan or two on the roster (even a Reading landowner!), there are enough connections to keep it interesting for those of us not from Reading. By this I mean that goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann played his college ball in my neighborhood out here in C@L, and Philly’s own Bobby Convey is a regular starter. And that doesn’t even count the video-Camena-esque influx of Korean talent powering the Royals to victory!

And so I shall draw my lines in the sand: (1) Reading will stay up and (2) I will support them as they do. Let’s go Royals (I suppose I’ll need to learn a Reading song now).

Link:
Reading FC

In case you missed it, former USMNT manager (and current New York Red Bulls headman) Bruce Arena isn’t above airing some dirty laundry in the wake of his departure from the national team. In a “candid” and “wide-ranging” interview with Sports Illustrated (those are the right cliches, right?), Il Bruce takes the “everyone at US Soccer is a loser and an idiot but me ” angle, and lays into both the administration and his former players. Some gems:

Arena: I wasn’t convinced I would come back if they wanted me back. It couldn’t go on the way it was going. There’s too many people who want to be technical directors and soccer experts that aren’t. They’re micromanagers. U.S. Soccer needs a real thorough technical direction in terms of how you go about doing business in this sport every day, and it’s not there. The national training center [at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.] is a joke in terms of a national training center. It’s an amusement park. That has to be the foundation of that organization, which it won’t be.

And:

SI.com: You care about the U.S. team, don’t you?

Arena: Oh yeah. They’re going to win the next World Cup, from what I’m told. So I wish them the best. Because we did so poorly over the last eight years, I’m sure they’re going to win the next World Cup.

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Finally, the money quote:

“Do you think I want to show them something?” Arena says. “What am I going to show them? I’ve probably showed them the finest eight years of the national team they’re going to see for a long time. I don’t need to prove anything to them.”

Never mind that Bruce seemed a little checked out even before the World Cup started or that he actually didn’t do a terribly good job getting his team ready to play. This just all seems a little bitchy, and a little unnecessary. You think Bruce Arena is actually psyched about coaching in New York? You don’t think he thought he would get a shot at a European club? If you’re really such a genius, then get the Red Bulls into the playoffs and beat someone while you’re there. Until then, maybe zip it; even T.O. doesn’t talk shiznit like this.

Link:
Entering a new Arena [cnnsi.com]

So it’s been what, six freakin’ weeks since the end of the World Cup?

The first two weeks were the “what are the Italians going to do about the recent unpleasantness” weeks. Then there was a little quiet (call it a week and a half). But pretty soon the big clubs were off on their international tours (two weeks ago), last weekend was the Charity Shield, and voila — time for the start of the EPL Season! The footy people don’t know how good they have it! Here I am, desperately reading every freakin’ page of Eagles-related content from January to September, sitting on my hands and trying not to act like a loser until the NFL starts up again, and the footy people can barely catch their breath before it’s time to kick off a whole new season.

Oh wait. I’m a footy person too.

With a new season looming, it’s time for predictions. While the NYC contigent is hard at work coordinating their Saturday TV-watching and beer-swilling agenda, I hope we all have some time for preseason predictions…just copy/ paste into the comments and give it a go.

EPL Champion?
2nd Place?
3rd Place?

Which three teams will be relegated?

Which team will go furthest in Europe (Champions League or UEFA Cup)?

Who will be top scorer in the Prem?

Total points for Reading?

Total number of EPL appearances by Claudio Reyna?

Total EPL goals for Bobby Convey?

Will Brian McBride finish the season with Fulham?

And, because it wouldn’t be Camena if we didn’t ask, which team has the coolest shirt this year (home or away)?

I’ll put my answers in the comments on Friday.

You know, they didn’t actually look that bad!

Sure, Chelsea weren’t really in form (as Jose was happy to remind us after the game), and the last thing they wanted to do was make their hosts look bad, but the boys from MLS actually looked like they belonged on the field with the lads from Stamford Bridge. They certainly had a few looks at the Chelsea goal (though it seemed like they had a ton of shots blocked by defenders), and De Rosario’s strike was pretty legit.

Good for you, Don Garber!

Cheers to Jose for actually putting Sheva and Ballack out there to start the game (Sheva seemed more adept at getting himself involved than Ballack, but hey, it’s a long season), and then bringing on legitimately expensive substitutes as well. And certainly Drogba was into it (he even dove whilst under hot pursuit from Jimmy Conrad, who was right to protest)! Good stuff indeed.

I’ll even say that I liked what I saw out of Freddy Adu out there, if only because it’s becoming more and more evident that he has the best ball skills of anyone currently living in America. And it turns out that ball skills matter (which will allow us to overlook the part where he froze up on that breakaway and didn’t get a shot off), especially for the national team. Let’s make sure we keep Freddy in the fold. Though it wouldn’t hurt for him to grow another couple inches; I can’t imagine that he and Shawn Wright-Phillips combine for more than 250 lbs.

Links:
MVP De Rosario Leads All Stars to Win [MLSnet.com]

While we’ve been tracking the MLS-to-Philly story for a while now (and have long since sworn to buy Philly soccer officially licensed products as soon as such products might become available), some stories have dropped in the past week that suggest that Major League Soccer might arrive in the Delaware Valley as early as next season.

Apparently in the absence of a new footy-only stadium, the Wizards are not long for Kansas City, and Philly has been identified as a semi-likely new home. They haven’t yet identified exactly where the team would play — Franklin Field appears to be top of the list, at least until the South Jersey thing gets moving — but hey, details details. As noted before, if Philly can sell out minor league hockey and get 10,000 people to show up for Eagles training camp, I think they can put some butts in seats for soccer. (The Phillies are a different story.)

Just please don’t call the team the Wizards. Also, let them wear Kelly green and silver (since Houston stole orange and black).

Links:
Area Could Be Home To MLS Team Soon [Philly.com]
Is MLS Headed To The Area? [Philly.com]
Soccer Could Find A Comfortable Niche In The Region [Philly.com]

After a not-so-fabulous showing at the 2006 World Cup, some bright spots from the team were expected to gain some interest from the bigger national leagues around Europe. One of those guys is our buddy Gooch, who was definitely a bright spot in the backline for our National Team (I say Gooch will be wearing the captain’s armband in a year or two. Just a suggestion.). Who would have thought that Gooch would be so loyal to his Belgian teammates and reject an offer from EPL team Middlesbrough? The one quote: ‘The financial picture was good too, but I did not want to sign there. A few details in the contract kept me from signing.’, makes you wonder what made him not sign. Any ideas?

Link: US star Onyewu turns down Middlesbrough offer