Pitch Invasion

The Daily Sweeper is a new feature, that will be on trial until the end of July. It will replace the occasional It’s In the Inter(net) links roundup with more depth and the odd bit of analysis, whilst also providing a return for Photo Daily at the bottom. The links will focus on football culture and news around the world from blogs and the mainstream press.

Please feel free to drop your own links on what’s worth reading elsewhere and your thoughts on the day’s news and articles in the comments, and let me know if you like the feature or not.

Americas

• The second year of Superliga, pitting together 8 Mexican and MLS teams, got underway this weekend. Dave Lifton looks at the curious circumstances in DC’s loss to Mexico’s Chivas Guadalajara, the other Chivas downs Pachuca [MLSNet] and the Dynamo crush Atlante [Who Ate All the Cupcakes]. Meanwhile, Sideline Views looks at whether MLS shortchanging is players on Superliga prize money,
• In MLS, Real Salt Lake’s rise to the top is based on its defense and Fire fans breath a sigh of relief after a 92nd winner over Toronto.
• “A terraced stadium, uniformed police, partisan chants, and an Everton scout” — in Canada. A More Splendid Life continues its brilliant chronicle of soccer in Canada with this tale of Serbs against Croats in the Canadian Soccer League.
• MLS’ Vice President discusses the possibility of further Canadian expansion [National Post]
• So Many Balls and Gruffgoat debate MLS expansion prospects in Atlanta — would two franchises in one city be the way to spark passionate support?
• And The Offside Rules with a curious case of an MLS defender defecting to the priesthood.

England

• Two Hundred Percent looks at the “tyranny of football” in the world of English sport today.
• The Premier League will allow seven subs on the bench next season [Daily Telegraph]. Won’t this only help the richer teams dominate via squad strength?
• The Times chronicles former Arsenal man Kenny Sansom’s battle with alcoholism
• Andy Gray as God [Run of Play]
• Obscure kits from British football history: Aberdeen, 1976-9 [Some People Are on the Pitch]

Women’s Football

• US downs Brazil 1-0 in first of two pre-Olympic matchups this week [Kickster]

Worldwide

• We all know about Sepp Blatter’s foolish Ronaldo-slavery remarks. The Offside considers how he could have been even stupider.
• More seriously, Soccerlens also looks at modern African footballing slavery in contrast to Blatter’s focus, while The Independent thinks Fifa and Uefa might finally be tackling this problem.
• How Hiddink plans to keep working his magic [Reuters]

Video

• 101 Great Goals with the six best goals of the week
• The greatest Goalie goal ever? Ah, how we miss Chilavert [Beautiful Game]

Photo Daily

• Dismantling Euro 2008. Courtesy of domeisen via the Pitch Invasion photo pool.