Javier Hernandez came off the bench to score a 92nd minute winner for Mexico in a friendly against Bosnia.

"It was totally random," he told Medio Tempo. "Everyone was joking right now in the dressing room. The most important thing was that we won 2-1 thanks to God. I'm happy. I've always said I'm 100 percent [fit] and available for the team.

Soothing hearts the immediate task

Yesterday I kicked off the Euro 2012 theme on the blog and started with the favourites, Spain. Moving on, today we'll have the joint favourites, Germany (in the eyes of the bookmakers, at least).

Germany

In terms of the top 6 teams earmarked with the best chance to win the tournament, Germany has the lowest average age in their squad.

When soccer riots broke out in Egypt in February, Bob Bradley did not hesitate to speak out despite having only just arrived as the new coach of the national team.
It didn't matter that the American had been in Egypt less than six months or was still coming to terms with the country's post-revolution politics.

Chelsea beware, 5 years ago today Lionel Messi did this.... is a post from: Just Football

18th April 2007. Exactly five years ago today, Lionel Messi channelled the spirit of Maradona. Not by going off on a cigars, booze and goodness-knows-what-else-fuelled bender, or by losing his composure in a press conference, shouting 'la concha de tu madre' at journalists and storming off telling everybody in the room to suck it.

On Saturday against Wigan, David Luiz made his 50th appearance for Chelsea and has become one of the success stories of our season. Heavily criticised by pundits all over the place, Luiz has taken a step back and has taken a very different approach lately with defending first the priority and as a result, we have seen his performances improve.

So let's say you have two players: Player A and Player B. Going back to the beginning of the 2010 season, here are their stat lines in Major League Soccer Regular Season play:

Player A: 2 goals, 19 assists
Player B: 15 goals, 8 assists

Player A profile:

Great goal scorer in college.

Lesson One: Roster Rules and the Salary Cap

Lesson Two: Allocations, Lotteries, DPs, Discoveries and Home Grown Players

Lesson Three: New Player Drafts, Generation adidas, Trades, Waivers and Roster Exceptions

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Lesson Four: Re-Entry Draft, Contracts, "Right of Refusal" and the CBA

Welcome to another edition of MLS 101.

You can have too much of most good things in life, but this video might be the exception to that rule. Lionel Messi broke a 60-year-old Barcelona goalscoring record against Granada last night. He reached the milestone in style with a hat-trick, naturally. As if you need reminding, the Argentine star is just 24 years [.

Lionel Messi made more history on Tuesday, breaking Barcelona's team record for career goals, with his hat-trick against Granada helping him surpass Cesar Rodriguez on Barca's all-time list.

Messi's club goal total is now up to 234, an astronomical number for a player who is just 24 years old.

So Messi became the first player to score 5 goals in a single Champions League match, that is great, however, despite not being the kind of player to rest on his laurels, the Argentine star should enjoy his time at the top while it lasts (and it will last for sometime), because there are hungry youngsters all looking to steal the limelight from him.

A 5 star display against Leverkusen last night made Barcelona forward Lionel Messi the first ever player to score 5 goals in a single Champions League match. Thanks to last night's display, Messi is assured of winning the tournament's golden boot as his tally this far is 12 goals.

Having previously equaled the record of legends Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Marco van Basten and Simone Inzaghi back in the 2009/2010 season when he scored 4 goals against Arsenal.

Darron Gibson has agreed a four and a half year deal with Everton today. His contract was due to expire in the summer and the club were not interested in offering him a new deal.

Gibson had been desperate to make a go of his Manchester United career and has waited until he is 24-years-old to make the move on after failing to hold down a regular place in the team.

Leo. The Best. 3x.

24 years old. An ego that is pushed far beneath an incomparable will to win. 5 feet, 6 inches of skill and athleticism. The players, the media, and the coaches have spoken. Lionel Messi is, for the third time, the FIFA World Player of the Year. With so many years left in his career, it's mystifying.

Arsenal's ambition to improve position in the league was halted again as the Gunners only picked up one point from their home game against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday.

A quick goal by Gervinho didn't resulted in a goal flowing result for the home team as their visitor managed to pick up an equalizer through Steven Fletcher, and hold it until the final whistle.

Good morning,

it's interesting to read this morning Arsene Wenger talking about the financial might of Man City, and then how those comments are interpreted across the media. Obviously we've taken quite a bit of City's money over the last few seasons and that has led many to think that Arsenal are open and willing to sell any player to them provided the price is right.

Legendary coach Manny Schellscheidt has been a pioneer in American soccer for decades, and on Monday he retired from his long-time profession, stepping down as Seton Hall head coach after 24 years.

Schellscheidt spent nearly a quarter century in charge of the Pirates, but he had already established an impressive coaching resume even before that.

BY ADAM SERRANO

Robbie Keane is looking is to cap off one of the best weeks of his career with a championship.

Keane led Ireland qualify for their first appearance at the European Championships on Tuesday with a convincing playoff victory over Estonia. Now, the Irish striker will look to cap off his impressive week with an MLS Cup title when his Los Angeles Galaxy take on the Houston Dynamo on Sunday.

England face Sweden at Wembley tonight in what the FA would describe as another ‘vital' friendly. But look into the history of the two nations and one statistic jumps out: England cannot beat those Swedes! It was a friendly at Wembley on May 22, 1968, when we last recorded a win over them. Since then, [.

A Lionel Messi hat-trick sent Barcelona into the knockout stages of the Champions League as Barca beat ten-man Plzeň 4-0 on Tuesday

Any hopes that Plzen had of causing an upset ended in the 22nd minute when Marián Čišovský was sent-off. Lionel Messi scored from the resulting penalty kick and the only question left was how many would Barcelona score?

The NHL needs to make money any way possible these days. To bring in some extra cash, the NHL sold the naming rights to the 2012 NHL All-Star Game to Tim Horton Doughnut Shop. The game will now be known as the 2012 Tim Hortons NHL All-Star Game.

Tim Horton was an NHL player for 24 years until he died in 1974 in a car crash.

With a World Cup on the way and the 2016 summer Olympics on the horizon, Brazil is gearing up for a high-profile decade by hosting the planet's two largest sporting events. This brilliant decade in Brazilian sports will kick off with the 2014 World Cup estimated to bring millions of football fans into the country.

Tottenham Hotspurs' midfielder, Sandro, hints at potential future aside from White Hart Lane as the Brazilian international revealed his dream of playing in Italian Serie A sometime, which he believes would be another positive step for his footballing career.

Sandro, who is currently sidelined because of injury have been highly linked with a potential move to several Serie A teams such as Inter Milan, Ac Milan and most recently Roma but opted to stay in England for the new season, pretty much opens the door for those teams to approach him in the future.

Transfer are always the talking point during pre-season (and for many, the lack of them). Obviously we're all much more aware of what's been happening here in Albion and the big money transfers, but around Europe teams have been snapping up bargains all over the show, so we have compiled an eleven of players signed up in what may turn out to be inspired deals.

So Samir Nasri has officially left Arsenal, much to the chagrin of his teammates (Frimpong, anyone?!) and fans. The signs were there, obviously, even if it initially pointed towards the other Manchester team. But if you were a footballer at your prime 23, 24 years old you'd want to win as many trophies as possible too.

Rodolfo Borrell believes Manchester City will provide the perfect opposition for Liverpool Reserves ahead of next week's eagerly-anticipated NextGen Series opener against Sporting Lisbon.
The second-string's head coach has identified several similarities between the two sides and hopes to use the final encounter of pre-season to fine tune his preparations for the big kick off.

Mustapha Jarju. You got that name? Alright. Learn it because he's MLS's newest Designated Player today as Vancouver announced the signing of the 24-year old Gambian striker today.

Jarju joins Whitecaps FC after three successful seasons with Belgian club Royal Albert-Elisabeth Club (RAEC) de Mons.

France never managed to win the World Cup or even reach the final, till they had the genius of Zinedine Zidane. Now, the French women national team managed to reach their first ever World Cup semi-final, big part of the credit goes to Lousia Necib.
She is 24 years old now, she got an Algerian origin, like Zizou, and born in the same city as well, Marseille.

Kenny Dalglish is targeting a winger, keeper and a left-back signing in the transfer period, after completing a deal for Charlie Adam, according to the Daily Mirror.
Stewart Downing is reportedly now Dalglish's number one target, with Liverpool having an offer of £15 million for Downing rejected.

Being heavily linked with a move away from Arsenal, Samir Nasri, was being accused of becoming money oriented as rumors claim he refused a new deal at the Gunners due to wanting a better wages.

In an attempt to clear things out, Nasri denied all of the negative accusation on him by stating that he never put money as the main priority in playing adding that should he decided to leave the Gunners it will mostly because of pursuing the chance of winning trophies.

Hair band to be back in style at Arsenal?

This is the one story which won't go away and has been reported to be done but nothing is confirmed yet. Gervinho is apparently the player Arsene Wenger wants to bolster his attacking options. He is a wide attacker cum striker who is currently contracted to Lille, the Ligue 1 champions.

An interesting report appeared for Liverpool's fans as the Reds' activeness in the market looks to continue sharply as not long after securing the signature of highly rated England u21 midfielder, John Henderson, Kenny Dalglish's team are reportedly already closing in another target, Christian Zapata.

The 2011 Copa Libertadores final will see two of South America's pioneering club sides take the competition back to its halcyon days of the 1960s. Uruguayan giants Peñarol are one of the grand old clubs of the continent having won South American football's greatest club competition on five occasions, just two behind record champions Independiente.

It is being reported that Darron Gibson has agreed a move to Sunderland after Manchester United accepted a bid for him last week. Wes Brown and John O'Shea were also a part of that offer, although it is understood Wes is more interested in a move to Everton.

Gibson had hoped to secure a first team place this season but has failed to impress when given the opportunity.

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The Copa del Rey takes place this week in Valencia between Barcelona and Real Madrid. The languagecaster team takes a look at the second of four clásicos and predicts a winner.

The current Serie A season has seen a trio of clubs compete for the Scudetto with Milan ahead by a small margin over Inter and Napoli respectively. The Milan-Inter showdown, set after the international break, will determine to a large extent the direction of the title. From an individual standpoint, there have been very few influential signings this season who can be credited with shaping the fortunes of their respective clubs.

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Taraabt wins Championship Player of the Year award
QPR star Adel Taraabt was named Championship player of the year last night to cap Rangers' memorable charge towards the Premier League.

German outfit MOPO is reporting that Dutch youngster Eljero Elia is set for a summer exit. The talented midfielder currently plies his trade at Bundesliga club Hamburg, but he has failed to nail down a first team place after disputes with his manager.

Manager Armin Veh recently criticized the midfielder for his lack of match fitness.

This has to be one of my least favourite fixtures of the season. Games against Wigan, especially away, never end well. We put in poor performances and get poor results (well not ALWAYS). But here we are again, playing Wigan for the fourth time this season. Our three previous meeting with Wigan this season have all been unsatisfying draws.

The first one is from 24 years old Newcastle midfielder, Cheik Ismael Tioté, who is from Cot Devoir. This goal was a wonderful volley, but what it makes it such a special one is that Arsenal was leading 4-0 in the first half after 26 minutes only. 22 minutes before the end of the game, Newcastle scored its first goal.

I take a look at five of the best young talents outside English football who are still relatively unknown to the average football fan, but are attracting plenty of interest from major clubs across Europe for their superb performances and early promise.

Hulk

As his nickname suggests, comparisons to the comic book character are rather accurate.