SoccerBlogs

Vincent Kompany was rightly sent off for a two footed challenge on Nani at the weekend in a game that saw Manchester City knocked out of the FA Cup.

Nani got out of the way of the challenge, saving himself from getting hurt, and Wayne Rooney complained to referee Chris Foy.

After the game, Roberto Mancini claimed that the challenge was "300%" not a red card and accused Rooney of influencing the ref.

Why City need a Fergie figure to scare players to success

Wembley is like a second home to Manchester ­United – they've been there so often in recent times. But today's opponents ­Manchester City will ­happily recall that when they met at Wembley last season it was the Blues who emerged victorious from the FA Cup semi and went on to win their first piece of ­silverware for 35 years.

Troy Perkins is now headed to Montreal. (Getty Images)

This could go down as one of the more interesting deals of the 2012 MLS season.

The Montreal Impact and Portland Timbers have announced a swap of their starting keepers today. Montreal sends Jamaican keeper Donovan Ricketts to Portland in exchange for keeper Troy Perkins.

There were too many brilliant moments from Athletic Bilbao's Europa League semi-final celebrations yesterday to choose from that surely, the city set to hold the craziest 'fiestas' over the weekend will be Bilbao! And who can blame Iker Muniain (above) for celebrating the way he did really diving headfirst into the crowd and sharing the love especially after Bilbao turned the scoreline around and handed Sporting Lisbon a 3-1 defeat to progress 4-3 on aggregate.

Steven McInerney from the impressive City blog, In Esteemed Kompany, has had a chat with us about his aspirations for the season ahead, as well as looking back at the success of last season.

Scott the Red: Were you happy with your team's performance last season?

Steven McInerney: Of course it was a fantastic year for us.

If you're anything like Carlos Tevez (and who isn't?), you know how hard it can be to keep friends. So with that in mind, Carlos has put together a fail-proof system to make friends and keep them for as long as you find them useful (even if they don't want to like you!).

Though your individual situation might be different, following some variation of these steps will bring you guaranteed friendships forever (sort of).

At 35 years old, former Germany captain Michael Ballack is nearing the end of a long and very impressive career as a footballer. Yet, instead of admitting that age is catching up to him, as it does everyone, Ballack has decided that his diminishing place as a footballer is due to a series of conspiracies that may or may not involve aliens (OK, he didn't say that.

Not to be too much of a wet blanket, but rumors that the Seattle Sounders are pursuing Michael Ballack appear to have no basis in reality. At least, that's the plainly obvious way to read comments Sounders GM Adrian Hanauer made to Sounder at Heart.

"Although Michael Ballack is a player that we have admired for many years, he is not a player that we are currently pursuing," Hanauer said in an email.

Plaxico Burress is looking for a job in the NFL. Where does he want to end up? With the Philadelphia Eagles and playing with Michael Vick as his quarterback. Burress and Vick were friends when they were children and the two talk to each other often.

"I really believe he can bring a championship to Philadelphia," said Burress on ESPN Radio, "and I'd love to be part of that.

Click here to view the embedded video.

George Lucas didn't spend billions of dollars on laser beam technology for Star Wars on a whim, y'know. The man knew that exciting zappy type things are appealing to most boys (and the occasional Kickette staffer), and when Nike released their new NT kits last month, they proved that 35 years has not dented the laser's appeal in the slightest.

Roma legend and skipper Francesco Totti broke the Serie A scoring record for a single club after managing to score a quick double on Saturday during the 5-1 win over Cesena. The two goals scored by Totti brought his tally to 211 goals with the Giallorossi in the Italian top flight.

Totti has now played 486 times in Serie A and scored 211 goals to beat the record of Swedish legend Gunnar Nordahl who managed to score 210 goals for Milan in league play.

What took so long? Bernie Fine has finally been fired by Syracuse. With allegations swirling that he's a child molester, Syracuse really had no choice. Especially when Bernie Fine's own wife was recorded saying that she knew that he had molested boys in the past.

On top of the confession from Bernie Fine's wife, a third accuser has come out saying he was molested by the assistant basketball coach.

It only took 2.68 seconds for midfielder, Michail Osinov, to score this goal, from about 51 yards out, for Mitos against Olympia Gelendzhik in a recent Second Division South match in Russia. While the goal is impressive, Osinov is 35 years old so it's unlikely any higher division clubs will be looking to acquire the Russian player.