Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year Vagabonds!

Happy New Year to all of our readers wherever you are; from Dubai to New Jersey and from Korea to Texas - thanks for stopping by this year.

2009 should be an exciting year and here is just a bit of what we can look forward to:

- The USA taking on Sweden on January 24th
- Gooch perhaps finally making the jump to a new club
- Players like Marvell Wynne and Sacha Kljestan possibly moving across the pond
- Vincenzo Bernardo and Jozy Altidore possibly being loaned out
- Young Giuseppe Nazzani getting a chance with Bologna's first team
- The Confederations Cup and U-20 World Championships
- Seeing if Clint Dempsey can keep his hot touch into the spring
- Waiting for Freddy Adu to establish himself as a first team player at Monaco
- Michael Bradley finding his stride and tearing his way through the Bundesliga
- Carlos Bocanegra continuing his strong play at Rennes and earning a CL spot
- Danny Szetela continuing his solid left midfield play at Brescia - with few at home noticing
- Seeing if Landon Donovan can prove that he can hang with the big boys every week
- Whether DaMarcus Beasley heads home to play in MLS or finds a new European club
- Watching Maurice Edu assert himself as a key player in Rangers' title run
- Watching Bruce Arena turn the LA Galaxy into a winner
- Watching juggernaut Barcelona dominate La Liga all the way to the title
- Seeing if TSG Hoffenheim can keep the dream alive and win the Bundesliga championship
- Seeing if anyone can challenge Olympique Lyon's dominance of Ligue 1
- Whether Cristiano Ronaldo can avoid the burnout syndrome that comes with being the world's hottest player
- Wondering when Brad Friedel is finally recognized as one of the best keepers in Europe
- Whether Steven Gerard goes to jail for some recent brawling (doubtful)
- Whether Juventus can catch Inter from running away with another Scuddetto
- Whether Real Madrid qualifies for a UEFA Cup spot, much less a CL one
- Whether Fiorentina sells all of its talent (again) or makes a run for the top three
- Seeing how far Edy Reja can take his bargain-basement priced Napoli team...all the way to the Champion's League?
- Seeing how far AS Roma will continue to slide, especially now that Francesco Totti is injured
- Watching and enjoying how well Seattle (a great soccer town) supports the return of the Sounders
- Wondering when the scary young talent on the Argentina side starts to gel into a world-beater


Here are some fun highlights from 2008 which we hope you'll enjoy:

Best Goals:


Best Keepers:


Best Skills:


Flops and Follies (Multisport):

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Someone on BigSoccer is claiming Nazzani and Bernardo were kicked off the U-20 team along with Bryan Arguez and one other during the December camp for unknown reasons. Thought you might be interested.

Chris Courtney said...

Thanks Matthew!

I've been following this one but won't speculate on the other three until I have some kind of confirmation.

Happy New Year!

Chris

Editor said...

Chris, great post! I've been on football blog hiatus...my only excuse is that I started playing again so rather than spending Sunday nights writing, I'd spend them hobbling around the pitch! haha! Looking forward to getting caught up and Happy New Year to you.