Columnist Nick Green has written 100 Percent Soccer
since 2005. A
native of England, he began writing about soccer in
the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat
in the stands for one in
the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home
Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas
USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer.
Married to a long-suffering soccer widow, he has a cat
named Pele.Football Friday: Becks, Capello & More
Fabio Capello has yet to sign on the dotted line as the new England coach and already there's speculation he has made up with a certain player the then Real Madrid coach once vowed would never play for him again (although he did anyway with Real's season going south last season). Yup, David Beckham, it's said, will captain England on Feb. 6 against Switzerland and earn his century of caps. But will he make it to 101 England appearances?
Local Manchester United fans hoping to see former Red Devils midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron grace the Home Depot Center field (albeit playing for D.C. United) are apparently out of luck. Or maybe not.
At the other end of the soccer spectrum, here are today's prep soccer stories ripped from the pages, um, Web sites of the Daily Breeze, Daily News and Long Beach Press-Telegram.
Finally, while no local schools are involved, the NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament has come down to the final four. Wake Forest plays Virginia Tech at 2 p.m. today on ESPN2, while the Ohio State-Massachusetts game follows at 4:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
Still, if you can only see one game this weekend on television make it Arsenal against Chelsea at 8 a.m. Sunday on Fox Soccer Channel. Manchester United take on Liverpool the same day, but that 5:25 a.m. game is on the more expensive Setanta. Here's a preview of the match-ups between the big four of the EPL.