Newcastle United have recorded their highest home attendance for more than 35 years. Newcastle's famous fans Sunday's last home game against league leaders Manchester City, saw 52,389 supporters in the ground to watch Newcastle take on league leaders Manchester City, which we fianlly lost 2-0, after a brave effort.

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.

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.

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.

-
-
Photos from the Bushman Archive
-
-
- Follow QPR REPORT on TWITTER!
- QPR REPORT MESSAGEBOARD - Visit the cutting-edge, football-only, QPR Report messageboard
- Visit the truly-fascinating Bushman QPR Photo Archives
_____________________________________________________________________________________
-
- QPR and Everton Fans: "Livechat on Today's Game"
- On This Day March 3.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Philadelphia Union have been linked to Michael Thurk again, this time with the team being listed as one of the German's two front runners for his services. Thurk's agent, Klaus Gerster, said that Thurk will make a decision this week, with both the Union and fellow MLS team the Vancouver Whitecaps as the forward's favored destinations.

"It means I'm old, it means I've been coaching a long time, it means that there have been great players at Ohio Wesleyan over the 35 years I've been here. I'm proud that I've done something that no one else has, and that's kind of cool."
-- Ohio Wesleyan coach Jay Martin on the significance of his 608th college win, a 2-1 win over over Calvin to capture the NCAA Division III men's tournament.

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.

And....quickly:

Uche

5. La Liga: Oops, Wrong Scoreline

Levante took down Mourinho's Madrid in an unexpected win at home. Bigger? Granada with its first win in 35 years in La Liga by beating reeling Villarreal in a chippy affair that saw the recently-promoted El Graná survive seven yellow cards without a red attached.

Alessandro Nesta and The Classiest Moment at the Camp Nou last night

35 years old. 78 caps for Italy. 19 years of club football calcio in Italy. For Milan fans, for Italians across the world, Alessandro Nesta is a man that makes you proud to be associated with him in any way, shape, or form.

The NSC Minnesota Stars, Minnesota Youth Soccer Association and Bricks Pub are pleased to present Minnesota Soccer History Night this Saturday, September 10, at NSC Stadium. This free event will take place before the Stars' final home game of the season against the Atlanta Silverbacks.

The longstanding FC Dallas man for all seasons and play by play announcer passed away on Monday evening. The public face of FCD he was a much beloved figure amongst fans showing an unsurpassed humility and love for the game and club. From all accounts he was the sort of unspoiled figure one dreams off in an age of diminishing loyalties.

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.

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.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Pavel Pardo's long-rumored move to Major League Soccer is complete.

The Chicago Fire signed the Mexican midfielder, adding the veteran who turned 35 years old on Tuesday.

Pardo's decorated career has taken him from the Primera Division in Mexico to Stuttgart in the Bundesliga and back to his home country, where he most recently played for Club America.

It was reported over the weekend that Aston Villa are close to signing Manchester City goalkeeper Shay Given and this is an excellent move for both the club and the player.

Given was left warming the bench at Eastlands last season with Joe Hart – the man who also occupies the No.1 England Goalkeeper Kit at present – picked ahead of him for the entire campaign.

An interesting bit of news surfaced a few days ago when Club America's coach Carlos Reinoso mentioned that midfielder Pavel Pardo was not likely to return to the Mexican side for their upcoming Apertura season. America begins pre-season training shortly and Reinoso was not certain of Pardo's status saying ".

Pictures of a banner which said "TBC YEARS" started doing the rounds on the internet last night. Whether it was a photoshopped effort or not is unknown. This lead lots of people to believe that Stretford End Flags would be changing the banner to read "43 YEARS", to commemorate how long it has been since City won the league.

Becky Sauerbrunn and Ali Krieger work the abs with a medicine ball throw

This morning was weight training for the U.S. WNT, which the team powered through as usual, but the most amusing part occured when the first group was finishing up and the second group was arriving at the gym and the team decided to have an impromptu "emergency goalkeeper tryout" which basically meant U.

Yaya Toure scored the only goal of the final
Manchester City won their first major trophy in 35 years this weekend when they defeated Stoke City 1-0 at Wembley Stadium. It was Yaya Toure who scored the only goal of the match, punishing a poor Stoke side which only created one notable chance. Manchester City on the other hand were more adventurous, creating chances while defending well.

Well, we all knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Man City have won their first major trophy since 1976, their 35 year wait is over, and with it, so is the totting up of the years on the...
Continue to the full story

This Saturday could pretty much be marked as a special day for the city of Manchester as two rival clubs held a party, celebrating both team's success in winning different achievement, United with their 19th league title while City earned their the FA Cup.

Both achievements are special for the two teams as for the Red Devils, this season's title means they have surpassed Liverpool as the most successful team in the league, while for the Eastlands, getting the Cup broke their 35-years of long wait for adding an important trophy in their cabinet.

Contributing Editor Dillon Young
(links posted are to images of the original documents from the era)
This Week in Soccer History: May 1976
With much buzz in the Minnesota soccer scene about the potential (albeit a long shot) of bringing an MLS team to Minnesota, it should be remembered that Zygi Wilf's press conference came nearly 35 years to the day from when the Minnesota Kicks played their first professional soccer game in Minnesota in front of over 17,000 people.

Roberto Mancini has issued a rallying cry to his Manchester City side warning them not to mess things up in the FA Cup final.

The Citizens are celebrating ensuring Champions League qualification for the first time in their history, securing that Premier League top four spot with a 1-0 win over Spurs.

-
(NOT The Exact 1967-1968 Promotion Squad, but most of it)
-
-
- Throughout the day, updates, comments and perspectives re QPR and football in general are posted and discussed on the QPR Report Messageboard...Also Follow: QPR REPORT ON TWITTER
_____________________________________________________________________________________
QPR Official Statement - CLUB ANNOUNCEMENT
Posted on: Wed 11 May 2011
- Regrettably, the Club can confirm that, for a number of reasons, we will not be holding an end of season parade following our promotion to the Premier League.

Roberto Mancini insists that Spurs can no longer catch his side and that Manchester City will be playing with the big boys in European football in the Champions League.

"I don't think that we have a problem for the Champions League because we have three games and we are missing only three points for the Champions League," Mancini said.

Today, it was learned the Sacramento Kings of the NBA will play on for at least one more season in Sacramento. Sacramento fans and its city organizers convinced ownership for one more chance at getting a new arena built. Ownership has felt a new arena will bring the profits needed to continue operations successfully.

The San Antonio Spurs were the top seed in the Western Conference. They won 61 regular season games. However, in the first round of the 2011 NBA Playoffs, the Spurs were eliminated by the Memphis Grizzlies in six games in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the league. What happened to the San Antonio Spurs?

Drajan Stankovic continues to show great performance despite some of the worst days for Inter this season with three consecutive defeats. Inter lost 0-2 to Parma, but Stankovic almost scored an outstanding (Roberto Carlos style) free-kick.
The second was from the 35 years old Dutch wonderful star Clarence Seedorf with a sensational free kick against Sampdoria in a 3-0 victory
Both players keep producing very consistent performance, with a very good balance between feet skills, brain skills and team work, with a touch of a style.

The perception of Manchester City by rival fans has transformed just as much as their playing squad in recent years.
Their rich owner's rather crude approach to team building has irked many supporters, though jealously certainly comes into it as well as perhaps the British way of being ruffled and offended by brash displays of wealth.

So then United have been drawn against Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final. Realistically, United are the only club left in the competition who can stop City from ending that trophyless Hoodoo that has been haunting the club for 35 years. Most neutral fans wanted this match up to be the final, but alas that wasn't to be.

After knocking Manchester City out of the League Cup semi-final last season, United have another chance to deny City their first trophy in over 35 years, after being drawn against them in the FA Cup semi. City will first have to beat Reading to book their date at Wembley, on April 16th or 17th.

The other semi-final draw is Bolton vs Stoke.

Escalade is dead. You know him from being the huge bigman on the AND1 Mixtape Tour. He died in Los Angeles while in town for the 2011 NBA All-Star Game. Escalade's real name is Troy Jackson and he's the younger brother of Mark Jackson, the former star point guard who now calls games for ABC next to Jeff Van Gundy.

Manchester City fans have written 'Munich' in sky blue spray paint outside the Bishop's Blaize down the road from the ground as well as on the walls of our Carrington training ground.

This shouldn't come as any surprise after some United fans used red spray paint to vandalise City's match day pub, Mary D's, with "35 years" and "Foe cunts" (in reference to former Manchester City footballer, Marc-Vivien Foe, who died in 2003).