David J Warner Posts

What happens when the punishment someone gets is pretty much what they wanted in the first place? We can ask Chicago Fire midfielder Cuauhtemoc Blanco -- or, as MLS commissioner Don Garber called him, the "Mexican David Beckham" (Stay classy, Don!) -- about that, now that he's been banned from the U.S. Open Cup for a minimum of two years and six matches for punching Clyde Simms in the gut during Chicago's quarterfinal loss to D.C. United. The incident is shown toward the end of that video.

I suspect MLS is pleased as, uh, punch that Blanco has gotten out of Open Cup duty, thus allowing the league to save one of its biggest assets for league matches only. Besides, it's not like MLS wants anyone to watch the Open Cup, right?

(H/T: Unprofessional Foul)

So far, we've learned two things from Superliga:

1.) When they care, the New England Revolution and the Houston Dynamo are the two best knockout competition sides in MLS.

2.) If you can read lips, you can see that Mexican players know at least two words in English, and they aren't very nice.

More than words were thrown, however, at the end of the Revolution's 1-0 win over Atlante tonight. Atlante ended up getting five, count 'em, five red cards, including three in post-match scuffle with Revs players. Jay Heaps was shown a red for retaliation -- try to contain your glee, Duke haters -- seconds before he was shoved to the ground by Atlante goalkeeper Federico Vilar, whom cameras spotted throwing punches the fracas after he got his red.

After order was mostly restored, Vilar allegedly told a Telefutura reporter something to the effect of, "This is a country where you can buy everything, even a game and the refs." As if it were the refs who magically guided Shalrie Joseph's clinical header into the net in the 30th minute, or the refs who made Matt Reis so dominant in front of goal. This is a country where Federico Vilar is now Spanish for douchebag.

If you weren't certain that this was a do-or-die season for Carolina Panthers head coach John Fox and GM Marty Hurney, this should remove all doubt. Pro Football Talk -- you know, the blog that hates Jake Delhomme -- is reporting that Richardson will not extend the contracts of anyone in the front office or scouting department beyond the 2008 season.

In short, he's secretly replaced everyone's regular coffee with the threat of a pink slip. Let's see how they respond.

The key here for Richardson? He won't have to buy out anyone's contract if he decides to make changes. He can just sweep everyone out the door and throw a ton of cash at, say, Bill Cowher, or someone else who can find more than two starters from 16 2nd- and 3rd-round draft picks.

So if the Panthers don't make the playoffs this year, you'll see a sudden uptick in the unemployment rate in Charlotte next January. Of course, given that draft record, some scouts might be gone regardless of what the team does this season.

(H/T: 850 the Buzz)

Barcelona FC is doing everything in its power to keep Lionel Messi out of Beijing.

Despite repeated reminders from FIFA that clubs must release players under the age of 23 for the Olympics, Barcelona is refusing to let Messi, 21, play for Argentina, claiming that Olympic soccer not a FIFA-sanctioned event and that FIFA has no right to demand any player's release. The Spanish superclub plans to take its case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport this week while taking Messi with them on their American tour.

Barca isn't the only one holding players back. Two German Bundesliga clubs, Werden Bremen and Schalke 04, are defying a FIFA order to release under-23 Brazilian stars Diego and Rafinha for the Olympics. They plan to go to the CAS as well.

By contrast, Liverpool was under no obligation to release Javier Mascherano, 24, for the Olympics, but they did anyway, and Messi has made it clear that he wants to join Mascherano in Beijing and win the gold for Argentina.

This begs the question: why do these Brazilians and Argentinians care so much about Olympic soccer, which certainly doesn't have the prestige of a World Cup or even a Copa America? They care because, as the BBC's Tim Vickery points out, it was the Olympics that put South American soccer on the map -- and begat the FIFA World Cup.

Barcelona FC is doing everything in its power to keep Lionel Messi out of Beijing.

Despite repeated reminders from FIFA that clubs must release players under the age of 23 for the Olympics, Barcelona is refusing to let Messi, 21, play for Argentina, claiming that Olympic soccer not a FIFA-sanctioned event and that FIFA has no right to demand any player's release. The Spanish superclub plans to take its case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport this week while taking Messi with them on their American tour.

Barca isn't the only one holding players back. Two German Bundesliga clubs, Werden Bremen and Schalke 04, are defying a FIFA order to release under-23 Brazilian stars Diego and Rafinha for the Olympics. They plan to go to the CAS as well.

By contrast, Liverpool was under no obligation to release Javier Mascherano, 24, for the Olympics, but they did anyway, and Messi has made it clear that he wants to join Mascherano in Beijing and win the gold for Argentina.

This begs the question: why do these Brazilians and Argentinians care so much about Olympic soccer, which certainly doesn't have the prestige of a World Cup or even a Copa America? They care because, as the BBC's Tim Vickery points out, it was the Olympics that put South American soccer on the map -- and begat the FIFA World Cup.

Remember a few months ago when we were joking about how deep the Carolina Panthers were at receiver? It seemed silly, didn't it? After all, this team's wideout corps has been Steve Smith and the Droptastics for the last three years. Where are all these receivers going to come from?

Apparently, from nowhere. Reports out of camp are that Jason Carter, a former Texas A&M QB-turned-receiver who was on the Panthers' practice squad last season, is making big noise in camp, catching everything thrown his way -- including passes that third-string QB Brett Basanez is intentionally throwing several feet over Carter's head. As Basanez told the Charlotte Observer: "I make him look good. We work on that all the time."

Does Carter's emergence create a dilemma for the Panthers at receiver? We can assume Smith, Muhsin Muhammad and D.J. Hackett will make the cut, but what about the guys behind them? Dwayne Jarrett is reportedly much improved this year, and Ryne Robinson is still the designated kick returner, so replacing him with Carter seems highly unlikely. John Fox isn't the kind of team to carry six receivers on the active roster. If Carter continues to impress, would Carolina cut or trade someone else to make room for him? Or does the inevitable D.J. Hackett injury leave Carter plenty of room?

It's hard for me to imagine Robbie Keane wearing something other than a Tottenham Hotspur kit. He's been the heart and soul of that team for the last six years. When he did that little dance after Spurs won the Carling Cup Final, he looked like he would be at White Hart Lane for life.

Yet there he was at Liverpool's training ground, completing his physical and coming to terms with another club. Like every other big-name Premier League player, Keane wanted Champions League action, and he wasn't going to get it with Spurs. So the club has granted him his wish today and sold his contract to Liverpool for £19 million.

Keane's move breaks up one of the best strike partnerships in the league, and chances are Dimitar Berbatov could leave, too, if another club meets Spurs' hefty asking price. It's kind of amazing to see this club sell off its two best forwards just as Juande Ramos finally addresses the club's midfield and back line issues, but it seems this sort of thing is standard practice at White Hart Lane. Without Keane and Berbatov, Ramos will likely face a huge struggle to win anything more than another bid to the UEFA Cup next year.

It's not enough that the Carolina Panthers' offensive line looks bigger every day, what with Travelle Wharton bulking up, 340-pound Toniu Fonoti opening camp as the starting right guard -- 325-pound Keydrick Vincent will work with the first team today -- and 330-pound Jeff Otah already being regarded as a freak of nature and reportedly pancaking Tyler Brayton multiple times during his first NFL practice. (Center Ryan Kalil, who weighs only 299 lbs., might be nicknamed "Tiny" before training camp is over.)

No, the Panthers are going one step further. They've brought in Natrone Means, former Tar Heel and San Diego Charger, to mentor Jonathan Stewart and make him ... well, just like Natrone Means.

GM Marty Hurney worked for the Chargers when Means ran over his opponents to the tune of 1,350 yards during his breakout 1994 season. Hurney didn't have to look far to find Means, either -- he's spent the last two years as the offensive coordinator at West Charlotte High School.

If you don't remember Natrone Means, check out the video of him after the jump. If Stewart turns out anything like Means, the Panthers will definitely be in business.

We're never really going to know who owned the player rights to Carlos Tevez when he arrived at West Ham United in 2006. The East London club insisted he was a fully registered player, while stories persisted that Media Sports Investments and their sleazebucket owner, Kia Joorabchian, still owned his economic rights, which would have been a violation of Premier League rules.

That's not the case anymore. The Guardian is reporting that Manchester United paid £32 million to make Tevez's loan from West Ham permanent, officially sweeping one of the most sordid stories in Premier League history under the rug.

That transfer fee is a record for an English club, eclipsing the £30M that Chelsea wasted on Andriy Shevchenko. Perhaps that cash was better spent on Tevez, who's only 24 and who scored 19 goals in 39 games last season. Some have suggested there are better potential strike partners for Wayne Rooney -- and Sir Alex Ferguson reportedly has a list -- but Rooney and Tevez played well together last season and could remain the Red Devils' first options up front for years to come.

Perhaps the only question now is whether the record fee for Tevez might hasten the sale of everyone's favorite brown-and-serve winger, Cristiano Ronaldo. Real Madrid, however, has reportedly given up on CR7 and is only thinking about Cesc. (UPDATE: Cesc isn't thinking about Madrid.)

When Bill Gates got hitched and became a philanthropist, he and his wife decided to use his billions to try and eradicate several persistent diseases. Somewhere at the top of the list: malaria, which is still prevalent in many parts of Africa.

Arsenal supporters would like the Gates Foundation to work a bit faster, please. Center back Kolo Touré contracted malaria while visiting home in the Ivory Coast and is expected to miss the start of the season. You can hear the Gunners switching to Mac now, can't you?

While some like to call malaria "the gift that keeps on giving," Touré is not contagious and has a very treatable form of the disease, so he could be back in action by early September. That's good news for Arsenal, who are already fearful of losing key players on the transfer market. The last thing Arsene Wenger needs is to lose even more players to diseases that Gates and his billions haven't gotten rid of yet. Barcelona is doing its part to help, though -- which is the least they can do, considering their dogged pursuit of Emmanuel Adebayor.