Soccer By Ives

(Some of) Your Questions Answered

Good afternoon folks. It's another dreary day on the East Coast and I will be heading offline for a bit today. I was hoping to have last week's Q&A session completed but was unable to get to all of them. Rather than make you wait, I have decided to post some of the answers to some of your questions. I will get to the rest ASAP (Monday at the latest).

Feel free to use this thread to discuss anything you'd like, be it the Q&A, Red Bull Park, Beasley's injury, The NCAA Tournament, the upcoming U-23 training camp, Harry Redknapp's arrest, the UEFA Cup or anything else in the soccer world you would like to discuss.

Before you start firing away, here are some of your questions answered:

The 50 most exciting teenagers in soccer

If you missed the November issue of World Soccer magazine you missed a cover story on the 50 Most Exciting Teenagers on the Planet. It was a great piece with quality information, especially for those of you who relish knowing about the best up and coming talents in the game.

Some of the players you would expect were on the list, including Sergio Aguero, Alexandre Pato, Micah Richards, Giovani Dos Santos, Bojan Krkic and Anderson, but there were two players who were NOT on the list that left me scratching my head a bit.

Jozy Altidore and Freddy Adu were nowhere to be found.

Now I'm not saying it's a travesty that neither is on the list. I just found it interesting that neither made it, particularly after how both performed at the Under-20 World Cup. Altidore nets two goals against Brazil and Adu was on fire, but neither made the list.

If you are wondering what players WERE on the list, here they are (not in any particular order):

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving folks. It is a slow day in the soccer world (thankfully), which will give us all a chance to relax and think about the past week's events in the soccer world.

As you know (or maybe not), Thanksgiving isn't a holiday in England, but this date will go down as The Day After Hell. As expected, England fired Steve McClaren as manager. The list of candidates to replace him is growing by the second. If only England's problems were isolated to the choice of manager.

Here are some other tidbits you may have missed:

Dane Richards played 70 minutes and looked pretty good playing a left wing role for Jamaica in its friendly win against Guatemala on Wednesday. No, he still can't shoot or cross, but he runs at defenders well and makes things happen.

Bouna Coundoul played a half for Senegal in its 3-0 win against Mali last weekend. He is vying for the third goalkeepers slot on Senegal's African Cup of Nations squad.

That's all for now. I wasn't planning to blog much today but you never know when inspiration may strike.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving folks and, as always, thanks for continuing to support Soccer By Ives.

Euro 2008: The teams that Did make it

For those of you who, like me, are waiting for the turkey to be done, here is some food for thought. Here are the 16 teams who DID make it to next summer's European Championships:

• Austria (host)
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Russia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland (host)
• Turkey

The draw for the Tournament is set for Dec. 2. Here is a breakdown of how the teams will be divided in the pots for the draw:

For those of you who, like me, are waiting for the turkey to be done, here is some food for thought. Here are the 16 teams who DID make it to next summer's European Championships:

• Austria (host)
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Russia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland (host)
• Turkey

The draw for the Tournament is set for Dec. 2. Here is a breakdown of how the teams will be divided in the pots for the draw:

Your Questions Answered

Good afternoon folks. It took a bit longer than I had hoped for but I finally finished off the last round of questions. I was supposed to do these last week but as you know, things got a little crazy around here.

Now, without any further ado, here are the answers to ALL most of your questions:

KAHLVA- It's the old question: What's up with Red Bull Park? We've had perfect weather for them to do any sort of construction...and nothing. Just a big flat field of dirt, week after week.

IVES- I've been trying to get information from the team but have been getting the runaround. Some new information has come to light about the project that I will work on. Let's just say it isn't good news.

Good afternoon folks. It took a bit longer than I had hoped for but I finally finished off the last round of questions. I was supposed to do these last week but as you know, things got a little crazy around here.

Now, without any further ado, here are the answers to ALL most of your questions:

KAHLVA- It's the old question: What's up with Red Bull Park? We've had perfect weather for them to do any sort of construction...and nothing. Just a big flat field of dirt, week after week.

IVES- I've been trying to get information from the team but have been getting the runaround. Some new information has come to light about the project that I will work on. Let's just say it isn't good news.