Truth & Rumors > Soccer

11:33 AM ET 05.19 | David Beckham's representatives have held talks with Major League Soccer over the former England captain purchasing a new club in the US. The Paris St-Germain player, 38, announced on Thursday that he is to retire at the end of the season. When Beckham joined Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007 his contract included an option to purchase an "expansion franchise". In 2009 Beckham said: "I have the right to own a franchise, which I will action immediately after I stop playing."

BBC Sport

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10:04 AM ET 05.11 | Landon Donovan loves him some David Moyes. And vice versa, based on everything the world's new "it" manager has always said. Donovan also loves him some English soccer; the game is part of the landscape there, like the Thames or the famous gardens of Cotswolds. Finally, the U.S. national team's all-time leading scorer is out of contract with the LA Galaxy at the end of 2013, which means he's free to go wherever he likes. He could play for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds if he liked; they do have a swell stadium after all. So a few members of the chattering class made the leap on this seemingly non-tricky math: [Donovan + Moyes' arrival at Old Trafford + big transfer expense account] mutual respect = Donovan in a kit of mighty Manchester United. Donovan cleverly deflected questions along those lines, parrying the queries as skillfully as Galaxy teammate Carlo Cudicini has parried anything away from Home Depot Center goal this year, goofing on his recent pair of PK misses at the same time.

ProSoccerTalk

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06:01 PM ET 05.09 | It didn't take long for Manchester United to find a replacement for Sir Alex Ferguson, after he officially announced his retirement at the end of the season on Tuesday. David Moyes has decided to step down from his job at Everton to accept a six-year deal with Man U. He will officially begin his duties as manager on July 11 and his first game will come against Manchester City or Wigan at Wembley Stadium on Aug. 11.

FanSided.co

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11:09 AM ET 05.05 | The Vancouver Whitecaps are now winless in seven Major League Soccer matches, this after a 2-0 loss to Real Salt Lake Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium. And according to midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker, who has captained the side in recent weeks, the team's recent problems are due to players not bringing the requisite effort or attitude to the pitch. "In all honesty, I just think right now at this moment, we're a soft team," Reo-Coker told Vancouver radio station TEAM 1410 following the match. "We need to be tougher. Being tougher doesn't mean running around physically smashing everyone, or putting in hard tackles. It means being tough and hard to beat. Defending properly, running back, doubling back, helping your teammates and making unselfish runs. The reality is, we're a soft team. We're very soft right now." Head coach Martin Rennie was equally miffed at his team's performance, and for the first time in his tenure in Vancouver, threw his players under the bus in a bid to get some sort of reaction after a lifeless performance. "The players have to decide whether they've got the desire or not," Rennie said. "In my opinion, they need to apologize to the fans for that performance. They need to take a good, hard look at themselves and they need to decide if they want to be a part of the club going forward. We will, without any shadow of a doubt, build a team that will be very successful and will be full of players who have the desire required to play for the club. We'll weed out those who don't, and they need to decide if they want to be a part of it or not."

Goal

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04:42 PM ET 05.04 | Robbie Rogers, as revealed by the LA Galaxy, was a "special guest" during their training on Tuesday. If you don't remember, Rogers left soccer because, in order to disclose that he was gay, he felt that he had to retire from the sport even though he's only 25 years old.

The American Pitch

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