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.

The English Football Association (FA) has announced Roy Hodgson has signed a four year contract to become the National Team manager. The news has come has a bit of a surprise as it had been widely expected that Tottenham Harry Redknapp would take the job. Instead, the FA had talks with Hodgson in the last few days and came to an agreement.

Phil Dowd will referee for this season's FA Cup final between Chelsea and Liverpool FC.

The 49-year-old will be assisted by Stuart Burt (Northamptonshire FA) and Andrew Garratt (Staffordshire FA) along with fourth official Michael Jones (Cheshire FA) and reserve assistant referee Simon Long (Cornwall FA).

Having been performing well during his stay with Fulham, Pavel Progrebnyak, who is currently on-loan from Stuttgart, is apparently eager to continue playing for the Cottagers next season.

The player revealed that his decision to stay with the club is pretty much based by the fact his getting along well with coach, Martin Jol, who Progrebnyak believes is the perfect mentor for him.

Jan Berenstain, who played a big role in bringing the Berenstain Bears to life, died this weekend. She was 88 years old. Her husband Stan Berenstain died seven years ago at age 82. Reports indicate that Jan Berenstain died of a stroke.

Jan Berenstain and Stan Berenstain created the Berenstain Bears back in 1962.

Just several weeks into the summer transfer window Juventus sealed the deal for Swiss defender Stephan Lichtsteiner from Lazio for a fee of 10 million euros. Although the other summer signing, Andrea Pirlo, has received most the praise so far this season, Lichtsteiner has arguably been the more consistent of the two.

Free agent Scottish striker Kris Boyd, formerly of Rangers, Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest and most recent, EskiÅŸehirspor, is apparently considering an offer from the Dynamo, at least according to Bryan Swanson of Sky Sports.

Boyd is 28-years old and has a fairly strong goal scoring record from his Rangers days, including three 20+ goal seasons.

Who knows more about success than University of North Carolina women's coach Anson Dorrance. A resume that includes 20 NCAA championships in 28 years, a winning percentage of over 93 percent of the team's games and 20 National Players of the Year tend to speak for itself.
Success in sport is often emulated in the business world, and Karl Moore of Forbes Magazine wrote a great article outlining lessons that can be learned from the blueprint of Dorrance.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxZKJ5Xiuxc I've been waiting 28 years for Swansea City to play Manchester United. The last time the two teams played was during the 1982-83 season when the Swans were in the old First Division. Ever since then, I've kept my...
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-jwClzsDog Tomorrow's clash between Liverpool and Swansea City will be the first time the two clubs have played each other in the league in 28 years. What I find interesting about tomorrow's game — and what has transpired in...
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Coming from the same background as Cesc Fabregas, many people at first expect Arsenal's summer signing, Mikel Arteta, becomes a direct replacement for the former Gunners' captain especially since the latter plays in the same role as Fabregas.

However, Arteta, who has actually started off pretty well with Arsene Wenger's side, insisted that people especially fans won't compared him with Fabregas as the current Barcelona player already gave much more for the London outfit.

TRABZONSPOR KEEPER.... TOLGA ZENGIN
First Trabzonspor in Italy than, Besiktas at home in Istanbul gave something to simile to Turkish football fans after Turkish football rocked with negative news about Turkish football...
They shocked the world and beat Inter in Italy 0-1.

Turkish delight for Inter's opposition as the unheralded Turkish club beat them 1- 0 ,
It was their first time playing in the group stage of the Champions League.
The last time they beat Inter Milan was 28 years ago.
To the day.
They beat them 1-0 in UEFA Cup match at home on Sept.

As we approach the Emirates Cup and Wenger's self -imposed timescale for transfers, there are favourable rumblings.

One of Spain's leading sports newspapers Marca is quoted as saying that Arsenal are close to finalising a deal for the Valencia winger Juan Mata. The deal is being held up as Tottenham, surprise, have launched a late bid.

The pre-season tour to the Far East is over and we are entering the transfer season. Wenger told us that clubs will wait until the end of the month to make their moves and Wenger will be one of those. Ivan Gazidis said he spent the week in the Far East to discuss Arsenal's transfer strategy with the boss.

Paraguay celebrate their penalty shoot-out success against Brazil

The Copa America is defying all expectations as tournament hosts Argentina and defending champions Brazil both went out at the quarter-final stage this weekend. Even when one takes into consideration Venezuela's progress to their first ever semi-final and Peru's extra-time triumph over Colombia it is fair to say that this year's tournament is one of the most open ever staged.

By Chris Wright

Not bad for a day's work Sunderland have, as of a few hours ago, officially wrapped up three pretty decent signings, with Wes Brown and John O'Shea putting pen to paper after serving for a combined total of 28 years with Manchester United, and ex-Blackpool terrier David Vaughan arriving on a freebie with four-year, four-year and three-year deals agreed respectively.

Mario Been

The Dutch Under 17 team is in Mexico now to go for gold.

28 Years ago, it seemed our Dutch youth team would do the same but they simply forgot to win it. The 85 year old Kees Rijvers (former Twente, PSV, St Etienne and Oranje coach) looks back.

The Dutch [read more]

Yesterday, MLS posted an article on its website regarding whether or not San Jose's Chris Wondolowski is on the verge of another breakthrough. The 2010 Golden Boot winner has notched a goal in three of the Quakes' last four games, and now, despite San Jose still having not won any of their past four home matches, he looks to continue the trend.

Maarten Stekelenburg
Stekelenburg 28-years-old playing for Ajax in Eredivise league, is still waiting for offers from Arsenal and other big clubs such as AC Milan and Manchester United.
The Dutchman has appeared in 36 games for Ajax this season.
I personally think that the Gunners do not need Stekelenburg at the moment since we have Szczesny as our first choice goalkeeper, but adding him to the squad would not be a problem.