Where's Sven?
The last time England played the U.S. MNT in an international friendly Sven-Goran Eriksson was their manager. The U.S. was led by Bruce Arena, who now manages the Red Bulls (no word on whether or not his pants are still involved in the sport). His MLS club is at the bottom of the Eastern Standings.

Meanwhile, Sven is managing Manchester City in the English Premier League. His club is 15-10-11 and in 9th overall (9 of 20).

The U.S. MNT will play England at Wembley on Wednesday, May 28th. They last met on the same date in 2005 in Chicago, IL before a crowd of 47,637. The U.S. lost 2-1.

I went to the match with my brother and it was equaled only by the NFC Championship between the New York Football Giants and the Minnesota Vikings. There's a photograph of Sven I took in this set on Flickr.

The English will play Trinidad and Tobago a couple of days later at Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain. This match is notable for Bermuda who will play the Caribbean titans in their campaign to reach the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

***UPDATE 1***
I just learned that Bruce Arena is NO longer with the Red Bulls. He (and his pants) will miss the opening of Red Bull Park which is scheduled for 2009.

***UPDATE 2***

Ball: City's players united behind Eriksson

Manchester City's players are uniting behind manager Sven-Goran Eriksson to try to quell uncertainty over the Swede's future.

Eriksson met City's Thai owner Thaksin Shinawatra twice over the weekend but speculation over his position refuses to die down.

City's 3-2 home defeat by relegation strugglers Fulham on Saturday did nothing to help Eriksson's cause, especially as Thaksin was at the game.

Labels: england, soccer, weekend