Weekly football post #40.

Can you, the loyal LSF reader, believe that we are in the 40th week of the LSF football post? What a heartthrob! 

The latest news coming out of Glasgow regarding my boys from Celtic is about a possible move to get a quite expensive striker. The Hoops have been told that they would need to pull 3 million pounds out of their deep Scottish pockets to get 27 year old Marc-Antoine Fortune. The French Guiana native currently plays with West Brom as he is on loan from some squad called AS Nancy. With 5 goals on loan this season, Fortune has been pretty solid, with his best stretch getting 18 goals in 57 appearances with Angouleme from 1998-2002. Most recently, however, he earned 10 goals with Nancy in just a couple of years. Could he bring just another special striking power to the Hoops of the SPL. Meanwhile, the rumors are that Tony Mowbray is getting closer to being confirmed as the new coach for Celtic. The current manager of West Brom, which may be why Fortune is rumored to be moving as well, played for the Celts back in the day, and could make a triumphant return if he could march up back to the SPL title. 

Over at my Championship League team from Newcastle, some key players are going a couple of different way. The lovable Obafemi "Oba Oba" Martins has made it clear that he wants to stay with the Magpies to help them get back to the EPL after just 1 season of relegation. Of course, Oba hoping to stay may not be enough, as the Mag brass may want to deal him to a team like Arsenal and keep the cash (about 10 million pounds). Let's do the right thing and keep this stud, especially since he is willing to turn this ship around. A much less beloved striker, Michael Owen, is actually trying to shop himself around. His agents have reportedly put together a brochure that they are sending out to try and gain some interest from an EPL team. That's right, you come to our team with huge hype and hopes, play pretty horribly for your entire Bar Code career, and now you want out because you deserve the EPL glory? Hit the road, you loser. 

With all of this going on, I'm mostly worried about my guys at Chivas USA. The Red & White have suddenly started sliding, and no longer own first place in the West by their lonesome. What is going on? This weekend, the Goats dropped a tough 1-2 decision to Columbus, earning consecutive loss #2. The most underrated Chivas player here in 2009, Eduardo Lillingston got the sweet game opening goal against Columbus. He fought for the ball outside the box, dribbled toward the net and slid an easy ball past the Columbus keeper for the game opening goal. It was EL's sixth goal on the year, leading the team. The Crew stole a couple of goals in the second half, one in the 61st minute and a game winner in the 87th. Zach "The Beast" Thorton has been having some tough times lately since the game against Seattle that we watched live at the HDC, but you'd have to believe that he is going to turn it around based on his season opening amazingness. Chivas continued to have to do their best, with clutch players Jonathan Bornstein and Sacha Kljestan still being with team USA for the FIFA Confederations Cup. This loss has dropped us to 8-4-3 (27 points) now tied with Houston (27 points) atop the Western Conference. Seattle is holding tight in third place at 20 points. Next week we will see Chivas starting three weeks off of MLS play to get into the Super Liga against Los Tigres, and hopefully they can get a boost and make a solid run against the rest of their Super Liga opponents, Chicago and San Luis. MLS action returns on July 11 against the LA Galaxy, and what a way to get back into things. The run down of the best goal scorers on this Chivas squad is Eduardo Lillingston (6), Paulo "Naka" Nagamura (4 goals), Maykel "Shhhh" Galindo (2 goals), and Atiba "A-Team" Harris (2 goals). Can these guys continue to run this squad to the top in the absence of clutch money players like Bornsteirn, Kljestan, and the still injured Razov? Let's hope so. By the way, just to further point out how underrated Lillingston is, because you've never heard of his, he also leads the team with 3 of his 6 goals being game winners on the '09 year. Chivas es mi vida! 

In random other LSF soccer news: 1) How about Jose Mourinho trying to sign Carvalho and Deco from the Blues?  2) Was is smart of Everton to release seven players, including Andy van der Meyde and Nuno Valente? 3) Can Hull take Man U's under-21 sensation Fraizer Campbell? 4) Is Brandon crazy proud of "his" KC Wiz just beating the hell out of New England 3-1 this weekend?