On behalf of the Italy Offside, I'd like to congratulate Ronaldinho on his pregnancy. He looks about 4 months in. Can't wait to see him walking around the pitches of Serie A come August.

Various Serie A news from the day:

- Happy Birthday Antonio Cassano! Fantantonio turns 28 today.

Three things you need to know about Edson Buddle:

1. He's scored seven goals in four games for LA Galaxy this season.
2. That mean he's scored ALL the Galaxy's goals. All of 'em.
3. His first name is Edson because his father named him after Pele. Fact.

Take a look at his four most recent goals.

It has been confirmed today that Joe Cole is leaving Chelsea this summer after the club and player failed to come to an agreement on a contract.

With every month that has passed, my opinion that Cole was set to leave the club became more and more likely to happen. This will be the last big contract of his career, given that he is now 28-years-old, so it stands to reason he wanted reasurrance over his future.

Many of you may have already seen this movie, or read the book on which it was based. I recently re-watched Fever Pitch again for the first time in a few years. It's a movie that, at the heart of it, tells the story of the childlike enthusiasm the protagonist has for Arsenal. The movie is an adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel of the same name, intertwining the love life of the main character with the 88-89 season that culminated in Arsenal's first championship in 28 years.

Zlatan is 28 years old. Only 8 years ago, he was the umptiest failed striker at Ajax Amsterdam. Today, the Swede is a world class forward, who moved to Barcelona to write another chapter in what can only be called a glittering career. Leo Beenhakker tries to trick Zlatan Ibrahimovic to

Despite the number of names that were tipped to leave Tottenham during this transfer window, things have been very quiet. It certainly doesn't look like we'll sell more than one player at most, so yesterday I set up a poll to determine who you would most like to see leave.

One of my motivations was to test the water regarding the popularity of Robbie Keane.

Quite a bit of player news from the Wizards today involving different players coming to and leaving Kansas City. First the Wizards have signed one of their latest trialists to a contract. While the rumors had been that Sunil Chhetri would be signing with KC, he's not the latest signing. Instead it's Craig Rocastle, the midfielder who came into camp around the same time as Chhetri.

Chelsea fans will begrudgingly admit that Joe Cole has been shit for them since returning from injury. The winger that has always had to prove himself has been obviously frustrated by his lack of opportunities under Carlo Ancelotti and this has been reflected by his performances on the pitch.

I spoke to The Chelsea Blog ahead of Saturday's game and they were worried by Cole's lack of effort.

In what is expected to be a three-year deal, Adriano has returned from Brazilian club Flamengo to Italy. However, this time, he will be in the nation's capital instead of in Milan, joining the Giallorossi, who are looking to build off a brilliant 2009-2010 Serie A campaign. ‘The Emperor', who is still only 28-years-old, had been granted a free transfer by Inter to move to Brazil.

That was a miracle shot by Winston Reid of New Zealand who delivered the first goal for his country in 28 years. What is amazing is that he done it with a few seconds left in the clock and finishing the game tied with Slovakia. Below is the video:

>> Click Here To Watch Chile Vs Honduras Live Now <<

Chile Vs Honduras Live Streaming & Match Preview
FIFA World Cup 2010 – Chile Vs Honduras Live Online Click Here
Wednesday, June 16th 2010
Kick Off : 12:30 BST
Venue : Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit South Africa

The opening game of the Group H of the World Cup between Chile and Honduras, will be played at the Mbombela Stadium on 16 June 2010, kick-off set for 12:30 PM.

The meme that Italy are too old was from the start some what of a ruse by the worlds major media.When Italy are mentioned the automatic response mechanism triggered in the media's mind is "Italy are too old."Eliciting in me a cringing response. I started to buy into it also, why? Because i too can be fat and lazy in the brain.

Castrol, the world known oil company and one of the largest sponsors of the World Cup has a number of personnel working in analyzing the World Cup. Every pass, shot or meter ran has been registered in their database. I used their World Cup calculator in April to see the percentage Chile had in winning the World Cup, they gave me 0.

Chivas USA may have one of the worst attacks in Major League Soccer today but the future is looking pretty bright for them as they've landed a guy that should easily help change their attack. The club announced today the signing of Venezuelan international forward Giancarlo Maldonado. He'll be able to join the club next week when the summer transfer window opens up.

Former United States international Alexi Lalas issued statements in stark contrast to those of Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber. While Garber yesterday said that Los Angeles Galaxy star Landon Donovan is off limits for any summer transfers, Lalas insists that if the price is right anyone is for sale.

Biggish transfer news today is that Joe Cole has signed a four year deal with Liverpool. Cole was out of contract at Chelsea, and so joins Liverpool on a free transfer, earning a very respectable £90k per week. Cole is 28 years old, so this is more than likely the last big move of his career.

I regard myself as a peaceful kind of guy. Very little rattles my cage, but every now and again a story will be published, more often than not by Marca, that will get me spitting feathers. It had been a while, but this morning I woke up to a debate of epicly ridiculous proportions: Who is worse....Karim Benzema or David Villa?

Manchester City are due to play in their first semi-final for 28 years this month, under the guidance of new manager Roberto Mancini.

The population of Manchester is 460,000. City fans say all "proper Mancs" are blue. So why couldn't they sell all their tickets for the biggest game they've played in for almost three decades?

Yesterday, Manchester City still hadn't sold all their tickets for the League Cup semi-final which was due to be played the following day. On the Monday, it was announced that any season ticket holder or membership holder could purchase an additional two tickets.

Given that City haven't played in the semi-final for 28 years I thought it was odd that the game wasn't a sell out.

We've said it once and we'll say it again: nothing good ever comes of the January transfer window. But while rumours of big-money moves and blockbuster trades persist, here is our pick of four relegation-bound players ripe for the plucking:

Morten Gamst Pedersen. Having threatened to drop off the radar under Paul Ince's stewardship, the Norwegian winger looks to be re-discovering his best form with Big Sam in charge.

Chivas USA and U.S. international defender Jonny Bornstein is auctioning off the pair of boots he wore when he scored a goal for the U.S. on the final day of World Cup qualifying that sealed Honduras' trip to South Africa and made him a national hero in the Central American nation.

Bornstein, of Los Alamitos, has autographed the boots and put them up for sale on eBay today with 100 percent of the proceeds to go to the American Red Cross to aid in their relief efforts in Haiti.

Man Utd 3 1 Man City (agg 4 3)

Manchester United once again proved that class is permanent with a convincing 3-1 win in a fiercely contested semi-final derby.

Wayne Rooney headed home an injury-time winner which saw the red half of Manchester into the Carling Cup final against Aston Villa after a pulsating second leg at Old Trafford.

Rumors of Donovan making a permanent move to Everton have started to surface. (Photo: ZumaPress)

As Landon Donovan continues to make an impact on the blue half of Merseyside, we are starting to read the first reports of Everton's desire to make the short-term loan a permanent move.

photo credit: Lance Shields

The Host: Clint Dempsey, let me be the first to wish you a very happy birthday! We are here at Steak N' Shake because it is "famous for steakburgers" but we are here celebrating your birthday (with delicious malty shakes and sloppy frisco melts) because you are "famous for your feet", and you have been now for exactly 28 years.

The Host: Happy birthday, Oguchi Onyewu! We are all here at our local Waffle House (but it's a Belgian Waffle House for you Gooch) to (1) consider the actual architectural integrity of a domicile constructed entirely out of waffles and (2) celebrate the amazing feats you have performed on a soccer pitch over the last 28 years.

Aaron Scott said:

"I'm pretty disappointed but I can rest easy knowing I gave it my best shot. I did everything I could so at least I'm not sitting here going, 'man, if only I'd done this or that'."

The All Whites world cup squad was recently released for the world to disect, with perhaps the only controversy being the omission of Waitakere United defender and All Whites Olympic captain, Aaron Scott.

"Petr Cech, Barclays Premier League Golden Gloves winner and one of the heroes of Wembley last weekend, is 28 years old today." Congrats on being born Petr, enjoy a Guinness or two.

When a player like Wayne Rooney says that Joe Cole is even more skilful than him, you really wonder why Chelsea are playing such a hard ball game with him. Only a month remains now after which Joe Cole will officially become a free agent. There will be only one loser in this battle between club and player, and it is certainly not the player.

When a player like Wayne Rooney says that Joe Cole is even more skilful than him, you really wonder why Chelsea are playing such a hard ball game with him. Only a month remains now after which Joe Cole will officially become a free agent. There will be only one loser in this battle between club and player, and it is certainly not the player.

While there have been plenty of injuries with the upcoming World Cup like Ferdinand, Ballack, Pirlo, Altidore, Robben, Essien, and Africa's very own Drogba, there have been two very interesting signings which have made their way to the English Premier League.
Both of them are German and only one of them will be going to the World Cup, they're Jerome Boateng and Thomas Hitzlsperger.

The first World Cup that I remember properly is Spain '82; I have vague memories of Kempes et al in 1978 but Bryan Robson and Paulo Rossi in 1982 is where it really started for me.

International Warm Up Match: Chile 2 -0 New Zealand (Fierro 67′, Paredes 71′). Attendance: 15,000.

If you happened to tune into this game a little late, you could have been forgiven for thinking that it was an opening match for the World Cup. With Chilean television crews, a packed grand stand, and vuvuzela's a plenty, the All white's where given a taste of what will be waiting for them when they walk out of the tunnel on June 15th their first World Cup game in 28 years.

New Zealand v Slovakia
Group F, 2010 World Cup
Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg
Sunday, 13 June 2010
Kickoff: 11:30 GMT, 13:30 Local

The All Whites may have waited 28 years for this match, but the Slovakians have waited an eternity. Having been forced to integrate with the Czechoslovakian team after the second world war, they only gained footballing independence in 1994, and have been unable to qualify for the World Cup since.

World Cup Group F:
New Zealand 1-1 Slovakia
(Reid 90+ 3 Vittek 50)
Video Highlights
Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg, South Africa
Attendance: 23,871

Winston Reid, the 21 yr old newbie from Auckland, became a national hero last night after securing New Zealand's first ever World Cup point.

THE BIG PICTURE
Anyone that says they predicted Spain v Honduras to be a must win for the Spanish is a great, big liar. No one could have foreseen just how crucial this has now become for one of the tournament favourites. They'll certainly be shell shocked after their surprise defeat to Switzerland but won't have anytime to feel sorry for themselves here.

As Manchester City continues to rebuild ahead of the new season, reports are indicating that the Citizens could be turning their attention away from Aston Villa's James Milner and towards Everton star Mikel Arteta. Goal.com reports that City are unwilling to meet Aston Villa's astronomical price for Milner, and Arteta's future could be in doubt at Goodison Park.

The best mouth-breather in the Premier League opts for Anfield
Former Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole has agreed to a 4-year deal at Liverpool, subject to a medical.
"Subject to a medical," is usually an afterthought for most players switching clubs, but for Cole it's a bit more serious than that - the creative former Chelsea # 10 has suffered from injury problems over the last 2 + seasons and at times seemed to have lost his form / confidence.

It looks as though Kaka's days at the Santiago Bernabeu are numbered. Since Mourinho's arrival, Real Madrid have signed two wingers in Di Maria and Pedro Leon putting Kaka's place in jeopardy. Further rumours that the Special One is eyeing Mesut Ozil means that Kaka truly has no place among the Galacticos after an injury ridden first season.

At 3pm on Saturday, Ian Holloway will settle into his place at pitch side and soak in the atmosphere of a half empty DW Stadium. He will look out onto the messy Wigan turf and see a string of Championship players plugging away on a pitch suited for rugby league. Holloway will look around and take a deep breath in and produce a broad, bubbly smile.

I supposed it was inevitable, but these days I am starting to feel a bit old. Since I live my life on a football timeline, I came across the above picture today and felt dated. This photo is from a March, 2004 English Premier League fixture between Manchester City and Leeds United at Elland Road.