More Soon.

Australia's remarkable run of results has come crashing to a halt at the Seoul World Cup Stadium as Korea downed the Socceroos 3-1 tonight in an International Friendly. With both teams safely through to the World Cup Finals as top of their Asian qualifying groups, this was a chance for both managers to test some new players, and Aussie coach Pim Verbeek rang in the changes in what was a homecoming for him, as he coached South Korea before taking the Australian job.

News that may finally get some folks off the MLS front office executive's backs for a little bit. Today the league announced that next year's schedule would include a two week break during the World Cup in South Africa.

The two week break will be during the group phase of the World Cup starting June 11 through the June 25.

The University of Denver's Alex Tarnoczi, above in a scrimmage against Stanford, was named to Top Drawer Soccer's National Team of the Week for the week ending Sept. 13. (photo by George Tanner/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)

Another roundup of notable news from the beautiful game in this beautiful state.

This Sunday, Ghana became the first African nation to get a ticket for South Africa. The qualification came after a 2-0 victory over Sudan with goals by Sulley Muntari and Michael Essien. The other nations already in the cup are Brazil, Holland, Australia, South Korea, North Korea, Japan and the hosts South Africa.

Good weekend for the USA, as none of Argentina/France/Portugal could win.
1) In Africa, this weekend's results mean that Cameroon and Tunisia should now be considered clear favorites to qualify. If Gabon can't beat Cameroon at home, then how they can hope to get a result on the road? Togo let in a last second equalizer against Morocco which probably ended their hopes.

I want big teams to miss out, which helps the USA next year. What to watch for:
1) Argentina gets tested. Currently 4th place in CONMEBOL, they'll first face Brazil at home. Given the recent form of both teams, that's not an easy match even though they've won it the previous two qualifying cycles.

Despite the fact that nearly all of the top European leagues have the weekend off, today is still a big day in the world of soccer, as important World Cup Qualifiers are taking place across the globe. There are also three MLS matches scheduled for today, with the most high-profile game between Toronto and Colorado.

"It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times?!?" -- Mr. Burns, "Last Exit to Springfield." No lie, right now I feel like one of those monkey's chained to Mr. Burns'typewriter tasked to write the greatest novel ever written. My mind is going a mile a minute following the U.S. National Team's heart-attack-inducing 2-1 win over El Salvador Saturday night in CONCACAF 2010 qualifying in Sandy

Can we look forward in anything other than trepidation?The all conquering Dutch stand between Scotland and a place in the play off. Except they don't really. We know three points is a must but even then it might not be enough. What a classically Scottish story that would be.Can we do it? Well, yes we can.

George, I'm afraid we're going to let you go. Second place was the minimum requirement from this group and you've failed. So we think it's time to find someone else.I can confirm, however, that both myself and Gordon will also go and we'll be recommending a root and branch review of the way Scottish football is run.

Come in Mr Burley. Your time is up. Or is it?At various points before the Macedonia game it appeared that the SFA were ready to sack the national coach. So bloodthirsy did they appear that I thought he might actually be beheaded in the dugout after our inevitable failure against Holland.But then the team came to life in the second half against Macedonia and carried that form into the game against

Major League Soccer's announcement that they will take a break during the group stage of the 2010 World Cup is a sensible decision that is long overdue. During the 1998, 2002, and 2006 World Cup finals, league officials have insisted on a full league schedule during the World Cup because of scheduling pressures and (my speculation here) that the league would fade from press view if the league was suspended for two weeks or more.

Domenech reflects on his French future

With France's spot at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa still unclear, the FFF must surely be pointing the finger of blame at the manager rather than the squad. Another draw last week leaves France chasing the leaders in the table and looking over their shoulders at who may take their place in the playoffs.

Fabio Capello has always been consistent with his selections, and in four of England's last five matches, it has been Manchester United's Wayne Rooney and Aston Villa's Emile Heskey who have been England's starting marksman and both can be considered as shoe-ins for England World Cup squad.

Scotland 0 v 1 HollandAnd so we're gone.As expected. Again. Another major championship without Scotland. Not even a play off place. Not even a chance of a play off place before the groups are finished.We'll leave the forensics until tomorrow. There will be plenty of people carving up the corpse.And we said no glorious failure.

With Brazil qualified to the World Cup, the match against Chile was going to be important for 2 reasons: 1)add another victory to the incredible sequence of 18 undefeated matches; 2) test new players to join the group of 23 going to South Africa.

For that, Brazil came with the following formation: Júlio César; Maicon, Luisão, Miranda, André Santos; Gilberto Silva, Felipe Melo, Daniel Alves, Júlio Baptista; Nilmar, Adriano.

The 2009 Highway Africa Conference, held recently at Port Elizabeth's new World Cup stadium (photo above), helped African media be better prepared to cover the 2010 World Cup, according to Guy Berger, head of Rhodes University's School of Journalism and Media Studies. African media should work to ensure that "coverage is not only focused on the glitz and glamour aspect of the World Cup," Berger said, "but must be extended to critical evaluation of socioeconomic consequences.

Fabio Capello feels England should make the World Cup final next year, but has warned the squad that form in the qualifying group will mean nothing when they arrive in South Africa.

England sealed their place in the 2010 World Cup with two games to spare in Group Six thanks to a crushing 5-1 win over Croatia at Wembley, making them one of the favourites to lift the ultimate prize next summer.

Hey everybody, it's a busy afternoon for me so here's a few quick links to get you through the day. Here's a brief interview the Chicago Fire media relations people did with new acquisition David Myrie. Not a whole lot there, but worth checking out.MLS announced yesterday that the league will take a break during the Group Stage of next year's World Cup (June 10-25) and that all 16 teams (remember Philadelphia is coming in next season.

England have qualified for the South Africa 2010 World Cup, all they needed was a draw against Croatia, and they won in style, winning 5-1. Lampard and Gerrard scoring two goals each, with Rooney scoring one to finish off the Croatians.
Italy having won both of their matches in this International break, look to be in a good position in their group with 20 points, 4 above the Ireland Republic.

Hey everybody, it's a busy afternoon for me so here's a few quick links to get you through the day. Here's a brief interview the Chicago Fire media relations people did with new acquisition David Myrie. Not a whole lot there, but worth checking out.MLS announced yesterday that the league will take a break during the Group Stage of next year's World Cup (June 10-25) and that all 16 teams (remember Philadelphia is coming in next season.

Hey everybody, it's a busy afternoon for me so here's a few quick links to get you through the day. Here's a brief interview the Chicago Fire media relations people did with new acquisition David Myrie. Not a whole lot there, but worth checking out.MLS announced yesterday that the league will take a break during the Group Stage of next year's World Cup (June 10-25) and that all 16 teams (remember Philadelphia is coming in next season.

So George Burley lives to fight another qualifying campaign.Or so it seems. George Peat has suggested he could still be "released" if things don't go well in October's friendly with Japan.So having survived a weak qualifying campaign, having come through a review of that campaign, the manager's fate may now be decided by a meaningless game some 6000 miles away.