Bocanegra at Rennes: "A Real Leader"

On Monday, Carlos Bocanegra and his Stade Rennais teammates got off to a good start in 2009 with a 1-0 Coupe de France victory over Sochaux.

The team is currently in third place in Ligue 1 with 34 points, four points behinds leaders Olympique Lyon and one point behind second place Bordeaux.

Reflecting on how the team's new additions have done during the first half of the season, manager Guy LaCombe told the Ouest-France: he saw "a good surprise with Kader Mangane (pictued on the far right) in central defense and as for Carlos Bocanegra, on balance I knew he would fit right in and he's turned out to be a real leader. ”

Bocanegra and the rest of the the Rennes squad will start the chase for the league championship on Saturday at home against FC Nantes. At the same time, Lyon is reportedly interested in acquiring Rennes right back Rod Fanni, who has started every game for the club this season.

When asked about the report, Fanni told the French media: "I've heard talk. Lyon has made contact with my agent. I won't lie, there were discussions but between that and saying I'm on my way… it's way too soon. They simply made enquiries. I would like to stay at Rennes for at least the rest of the season because things are going well here. After that, we'll see."

If the club ends up selling Fanni this summer, they would be wise to consider picking up FC Toronto's Marvell Wynne, whose speed and technical ability would make him a perfect fit.

Photo courtesy of Ouest-France

Everton Eyes Altidore

According to the UK's Sky Sports network, Premiership side Everton is interesting in acquiring Villarreal's American striker Jozy Altidore. Check out the story here.

According to the article, manager David Moyes has no money to so they may have the idea to take him on loan for the second half of the season.

Alas, injury issues at the Yellow Submarine and Altidore's early season form have led the club to spurn the Toffee's offer - for now.

And watch this space because Altidore's growth in Spain is not just being noticed by Everton - FIFA just named him as one of the young players to watch in 2009.

Bradley Named To Kicker's Flop List

German soccer weekly Kicker has just put out its annual mid season list of "Tops and Flops" and Borussia Moenchengladbach's Michael Bradley made the list - the wrong one.

The annual list is complied based on interactive results from the magazine's fantasy soccer managerspiel but the results are usually pretty reliable. This week, Bayern Munich's French international Franck Ribery was named the best midfielder in the Bundesliga (the Tops) followed by Bayern Leverkusen's Renato Augusto and Hoffenheim's Sejad Salihovic.

The list of the three most disappointing midfielders (the Flops) was "led" by Hamburg's Jonathan Pitroipa, followed by Roda Antar of 1. FC Köln, and Gladbach's Bradley in third.

Bradley's ranking is largely due to his Kicker rating average of 4.75 (on a scale of 1-6) in 11 league appearances, including a match against Energie Cottbus in which he was given a seldom awarded 6 - the lowest score possible.

In the grand scheme of things, these ratings are basically meaningless since they are highly subjective and have no bearing on what a player is capable of doing in the next match. That said, consistent low ratings can help apply greater public pressure on a player to step up their game.

Over the years, less than half of the Americans playing in the Bundesliga told me they paid attention to the Kicker ratings while the rest said they ignore them altogether. Either way, let's hope Bradley can kick it up a notch this spring and re-capture the mojo he seems to have left in the Eredivisie.

Adu Shines in Monaco-Juventus Friendly

Freddy Adu put in a strong performance for AS Monaco tonight in a friendly match against Juventus, played in Sicily. During the match he showed a few reasons why he deserves a chance in this Saturday's league match against Nantes, including a 13th minute attack in which he beat two defenders and nearly scored.

His pièce de résistance came in the 35th minute when he once again infiltrated the Juventus penalty area but was taken down for a penalty. His Croatian teammate Jerko Leko nailed the penalty shot past Gigi Buffon to give his team the 1-0 lead.

Adu helped to create a few more dangerous chances in the second half before being replaced by youngster Valère Germain in the 68th minute. Juve's Vincenzo Iaquinta saved the home team's honor by brilliantly one-touching a long ball past Yohann Thuram in the 90th minute to make it a 1-1 draw, leading to penalty kicks (for some odd reason). Thuram then redeemed himself by stopping two penalty kicks, giving Monaco the win with a 6-5 advantage.

Elsewhere, American Danny Szetela played 62 minutes at left midfield in Brescia's 2-1win over Monza on Saturday.

Support Our Soccer Brethren: Vote For Ives

OK vagabonds, we're up against the rest of the sporting world in the Best Sports Blog 2008 competition. This year, the beautiful game's entry is LFV friend Ives Galarcep and his blog, Soccer By Ives.

Be sure to vote early and often here, and don't forget to have your friends, friends with benefits, family, girlfriends, wives, husbands, children, cousins, step-brothers, neighbors, plumbers, second-cousins, AYSO pals, co-workers, proctologists, podiatrists, massage therapists, bartenders, congressmen, tree surgeons, IT help desk people, and cable guy vote as well.

Good Luck Ives!

Onyewu To PSG In June?

As the long-running Oguchi Onyewu transfer saga becomes closer to achieving War and Peace epic status, the strongest links remain with French clubs. We've all seen recent statements from Standard Liege that he is not for sale this winter and after the club just pocketed 20 million euros to send Maroune Fellaini to Everton and appears set to make another 10-12 million euros in selling Milan Jovanovich, who can blame them?

As we've mentioned earlier, Marseille's defensive needs are immediate and they are looking for a fix in January to battle for a Champion's League spot. They've got their eyes on Fiorentina's Da Costa but may not be able to outbid his other suitor, Juventus. So, if Standard is unwilling to sell Onyewu now, L'OM may need to look elsewhere.

But Paris Saint-Germain seems a bit more patient and may be willing to wait until the summer to acquire the American defender. Some observers in Paris seem to think this may be the case but again, its all speculation until a deal is done.

My spidey sense tells me its a June move to either PSG or L'OM unless an English team (Fulham?) swoops in with an offer. Both one English observer and the always reliable Matthias Seidel estimate Onyewu's transfer value at circa 4 million euros ($5 million).

Arguez, Three Others Sent Home From US U-20 Camp

Steven Goff and others are reporting that Hertha Berlin's Bryan Arguez and three other unidentified players were sent home from the recent US U-20 camp, reportedly for disciplinary reasons. For Arguez in particular, it confirms a pattern of disciplinary problems which began early in his tenure at Hertha; missing practice and showing up late for practice - unpardonable sins when you are being paid to play. The press in Berlin is already lambasting Arguez for being tossed out of the US camp and wondering aloud when his club will do the same.

Last summer, Arguez had been whispered as a strong possibility to seee significant playing time for the high flying Hertha this year before disciplinary issues put the rangy midfielder into coach Lucien Favre's doghouse. Since then, he's made only one appearance with little hope of seeing the field in anything but a reserve team match. Still, he is young (20 years-old), loaded with talent, and has a chance to redeem himself if he can cease this pattern of standing out for all the wrong reasons.

Its not clear yet who the other three players are but according to Goff, they'll all be eligible to return to the next U-20 camp. I hesitate to speculate on who they may be but the truth will come out eventually.

One thing these young players will learn quickly is that while clubs enjoy the honor of their players being called up for national team duty, they are not amused when those same players are sent home under such circumstances. There will be some awkward moments for each of them as they return to their club team's training camps over the next few weeks.

While many players are ready to play at the next level, not all are ready for the level of scrutiny and professional standards which are expected by coaches and team management. I'm glad that U-20 coach Thomas Rongen is putting the hammer down now, six months before the world championships, rather than trying to correct disciplinary problems in the coming months.