Shockingly there's a full weekend of soccer action about to start. I know, how can that be?!?! Have the authorities lost their minds? With Thierry Henry roaming the streets, handling a ball, destroying a nation's economy, causing cancer and eating children, it's hard to believe European governments are allowing people out of their houses. Click to continue reading...

Blame it on my Liverpool supporting Uncle who is in from his retirement compound in Thailand. Hopefully I'll get some previews up later today. Thankfully countries playing countries is behind us for a spell and we can focus on the true beautiful game: club football. -Sanford
His fault. Click to continue reading...

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Hosts South Africa

Europe England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Denmark, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, France

Africa Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria

Asia Japan, Australia, South Korea, North Korea

Oceania New Zealand

Concacaf United States, Mexico, Honduras

South America Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay

Interactive Guide

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Take one look at the scoreline from the United States' 3-1 defeat by Denmark, and it's tempting to assume that the more inexperienced elements of manager Bob Bradley's lineup were to blame. But closer inspection reveals that some veteran performers should bear most of the responsibility.
Winners and Losers
Lessons learned from Denmark and Slovakia Click to continue reading...

Trap's dreams denied by missed chances and underhand tricks
Cascarino: Henry is an insincere cheat
Richard Williams: How Henry could have handled it all so differently
Maher: Ireland hard done by
Barclay: Lucky Domenech spared trial by video
Lee Dixon: Henry has tainted his reputation
Amy Lawrence: Trap finds no luck
Bitter Keane blasts FIFA, UEFA & Platini
Fifa rejects calls for replay after Henry handball Click to continue reading...

Slovenia reached the 2010 World Cup finals at the expense of nine-man Russia thanks to Zlatko Dedic's 44th-minute goal on a dramatic night in Maribor. Russia, who had Aleksandr Kerzhakov and Yuri Zhirkov sent off in the second half, were left to rue some poor defending and an overall disjointed performance. Click to continue reading...

Portugal belatedly secured their place at next summer's World Cup with an impressive performance in Zenica. After scraping a 1-0 win in Lisbon at the weekend with a laboured showing on home turf, Carlos Queiroz's side upped their game to close out the qualifying play-off and book a ticket to South Africa. Click to continue reading...

Dimitris Salpigidis scored the only goal as Greece clinched a place at the 2010 World Cup courtesy of a narrow victory over Ukraine at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk.
Agony for Sheva... Click to continue reading...

Uruguay struggled to tame Costa Rica before booking their place in the World Cup finals with a 1-1 draw at home in the second leg of their South America/CONCACAF play-off on Wednesday. The match was held up for nearly five minutes near the end because of fighting between a Uruguay camera crew near the touchline and the Costa Rica bench amid a nervous denouement. Click to continue reading...

Algeria qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1986 with a disciplined if patchy display, in a match as testy as it was tense. Antar Yahia's winner emphasised the commitment to attack the Algerians have shown throughout qualifying: the scorer was a right-back on a far from unusual foray. Click to continue reading...

Forgot to mention that I'm all a twit today as the matches progress. Here's my name:
SanfordssoccerI think that's all you need, but I might be wrong.
-Sanford Click to continue reading...

Bloody hell. It finally all comes down to this. After today, we're done.
CAF
Egypt vs. Algeria
12:30 EST
Khartoum Stadium, Khartoum, Sudan
Preview
Preview II
Battle for final African spot at fever pitch
UEFA
France vs. Ireland (1-0 agg.)
3pm EST
U. Click to continue reading...

Carlo Garganese runs down the Top 10 list of players who should never been allowed to wear the sacred No.10 shirt... Click to continue reading...

Liverpool have risked a furore over a film starring Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher that portrays Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, as a whisky-guzzling drunk and Gary Neville, the club's captain, as a rat who "hates Scousers".

Gerrard and Carragher were joined by Rafael Benítez, the Merseyside club's manager, at the premiere of Fifteen Minutes That Shook The World in Liverpool on Monday evening.

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