Simon Kuper and Stefan Syzmanski titled the American version of their new book Soccernomics (review is here), but their title for the release in the UK is Why England Lose. In the book, Kuper and Syzmanski identified the US as a rising power in soccer and England as a permanent disappointment to their rabid fans.

Every league in the world has its derby matches, those entrenched local, political or social rivalries which give added fervour to the average game. Some of these derbies, however, spill over into frequent violence, hatred and all-out warfare between the fans of the respective clubs.

In this article I list ten of the most vociferous and aggressive derbies in world football and look into the violence which has made them so notorious the world over.

In a long and completely boring interview with London's Daily Mail, Marky Mark Wahlberg had this to say about his neighbor David Beckham:

Man, the Beckhams. It used to be so quiet on my road. Then David moves in with his family. Suddenly we've got paparazzi hanging out day and night.

STARTERS
The Guardian is reporting that Everton is in the final stages of signing Landon Donovan on a loan deal in January.
dN
Not a single home team won in the 8 UEFA Champions League games yesterday. What are the odds of that going down?!?! The road teams got 6 wins and 2 ties.

The star player on defense for the Sounders. He was used primarily as a man marker or as a kind of sweeper shutting down the second ball. Solid lateral quickness and good speed means that even though he makes mistakes, he can recover.

Currently only on loan, Sounders FC have to use some of their remaining allocation dollars in order to lock him in for one more year at the least.

Pep Guardiola couldn't have done much better in his first year or so of management, winning the league, the European Cup and the Copa del Rey, amongst others.

However, it was winning the FIFA Club World Cup Championship last week that reduced him to tears. When Manchester United travelled half way across the world to participate in this competition last year, it was deemed to be a waste of time.

You might call the week that was Separation Week in European soccer. The Champions League group stage completed play and with it the chances of certain clubs finishing in the top 10 by season's end (you know who you are, Juventus). Other teams are resurgent, having rescued their seasons from the brink (Bayern Munich).

The CL group stage is done and dusted, at last. The 16 teams who made it through are the usual suspects plus some interesting dark horses:

Group winners
Bordeaux
Manchester United
Real Madrid
Chelsea
Fiorentina
Barcelona
Sevilla
Arsenal

Group runners-up
Bayern Munich
CSKA Moscow
AC Milan
Porto
Lyon
Inter
Stuttgart
Olympiacos

A very strong-looking line-up.

The biggest news in club action this past week has to be the championships won in South America. At midweek, Brazil's Fluminense defeated Ecuador's LDU Quito 3-0 but it wasn't enough to keep LDU Quito from winning the final 5-4 in aggregate and take home the 2009 Copa Sudamericana. Over the weekend, the top domestic league in the Western Hemisphere, the Brasileirao Serie A, concluded with Flamengo dethroning Sao Paolo as the champions following a 2-1 victory over Gremio.

Big Swiss defender on his way out.

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Phillipe Senderos is hoping to bring an end to his troubles at Arsenal by securing a move elsewhere.

Mark Hughes looks to spend yet more of owners' money.

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Interest is growing in Brazilian starlet Neymar, with Chelsea and Manchester City reportedly now in the hunt for his signature.

Former Liverpool FC striker Stan Collymore is calling on Steven Gerrard to leave Anfield "in search of the Premier League".
Collymore believes the Reds ace will never win the ultimate goal while with Liverpool and he says many players in the current squad are not good enough to play alongside Gerrard.

Now that the Champions League Group Stages are finally over we can all look forward to a feast of football in the New Year when the knockout stages come around. So who are Arsenal's best and worst possible scenarios for the next round in February? There are no easy games at this stage of the competition, but [.

The Galaxy issued an odd statement today that leaves room for a lot of reading-between-the-lines:

We are aware of Everton's interest in Landon Donovan, as they are one of a number of clubs who have contacted the Galaxy about the possibility of a short term loan agreement for Landon.

The draw for the Champions League knockout stages was held and some fantastic matches will be played, some interesting Europa League draws are also included at the bottom.
Stuttgart - Barcelona
Olympiacos - Bordeaux
Inter Milan - Chelsea
Bayern Munich - Fiorentina
CSKA Moskva - Sevilla
Olympique Lyon - Real Madrid
FC Porto - Arsenal
AC Milan - Manchester United
AC Milan and Manchester United have played each other often throughout the years, and the Italian giants have often come out on top.

Landon Donovan was granted his X-mas wish a week early and the MLS Most Valuable Player will be playing on brief loan in England's top flight from January to March in 2010.

And despite much of the criticism that Landon has received for the brief move overseas, one Yank thinks it is the only hope the U.

A lot of credit always goes to the goalscorers of Serie A, but not enough credit goes to the players that create the goals. Tomorrow is Milan-Sampdoria, and the two top assist-men face off at the San Siro: Antonio Cassano and Ronaldinho. Currently, Cassano leads the charts with 7, while Ronaldinho is just behind with 6.

Group A
1. Bordeaux, 2. Bayern Munich, 3. Juventus, 4. Maccabi Haifa
The French side skated to a group win with a workmanlike 1-0 win over the Israelis, who set a dubious UCL record with six shutout losses. Bayern got a PK goal from its goalie (Jorg Butt) and dominated the Italians 4-1 to grab the final berth into the knockout stage.

Well, Arsenal goes down 1-0 to Olympiakos. For all the talk about how we might be disrespecting the competition by fielding a team of players in their teens and early 20s, it sounds like they went out there and put on a pretty good performance. Playing Olympiakos in Athens is never easy, and a 1-0 loss is nothing to be ashamed of.

(L'insolita gara di palleggi)
Un noto videgioco. Ed uno spot per pubblicizzarlo. Fin qui nulla di strano, ma a rendere tutto curioso, e anche indredibile, è stata la scelta di far cimentare campioni del calcio in una gara di palleggi...bendati!. Il difensore della Juventus e dalla Nazionale, Chiellini ne realizza uno, Schweinsteiger e Mandanda appena due, Benzema segna a fatica cinque sul tabellino.

The Portuguese was right to say he was special, but his argumentation was wrong. It is incredible how someone so incompetent earns nine million Euros per season. Anyone with an ounce of honour would have resigned and went on to be a gym teacher after what happened on Tuesday.

Italy crucified Mancini as the Serie A domination bought by money and referees in was followed by the losing run in Europe.

This weekend the unexpected happened: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored a goal. But not just one goal, two goals in the space of one minute. Whoever had bets that he wouldn't score until 2010 lost this weekend. The second was a real beauty too. Cagliari's excellent form at the moment can be attributed to their strike partnership of Nene and Alessandro Matri, both at 6 goals.

Last night the Rapids held a Town Hall at the Dick for season ticket holders. I was planning on going until an unexpected problem at work had me working late. They provided a live stream on their website though and I was able to watch from my computer.
honestly it was mainly Jeff Plush' end-of-season letter in a live format.

This Guy Could Lick Booties To Make The Move To Milan..

A True SOB. Through & Through..

Wenger Tried. But In Vain. No Money Could Buy This C*nt..

Shit Happens!

Man-So-Shitty!

The Whore Who Stamped Robin..

So True..

A Must-Buy For All The Shitty-Zens.

Nel primo anticipo della 15° giornata in Serie A, gara intrigante a San Siro. In campo, nella bellissima cornice milanese, due squadre esattamente agli antipodi. Il Milan, reduce dalla vittoria all'ultimo respiro con il Catania (doppietta di Huntelaar nel recupero), scoppia di salute (così come i suoi fenomeni brasiliani Pato e Ronaldinho) mentre la Samp, ferita dalla brutta sconfitta rimediata nel derby della Lanterna, sembra aver perso lo smalto d'inizio torneo.

05.12.2009 - Serie A
AC Milan - Sampdoria 3:0

Inter Milan's lead atop Serie A was cut to four points on Saturday after Claudio Marchisio notched a second-half winner as Juventus scored a vital 2-1 victory in Turin.

Here are the highlights:

What did you think of Juventus' win? Think the referee had a bad day, or are you not buying Inter's complaints about the officiating?

Juventus 2 - 1 Inter Milan
A second half Claudio Marchisio wonder goal proved the difference in a hotly contested encounter at the Stadio Olimpico.
AC Milan 3 - 0 Sampdoria
Rampant rossoneri crush sorry Samp
Sunday
Roma got the better of local rivals Lazio, Fiorentina closed on the UEFA Champions League places as Siena secured victory over fellow Serie A strugglers Catania.

What an incredible week it's been in world football -

• The hype of the World Cup draw lived up to the anticipation with more talking points than an O'Reilly Factor marathon. The England v USA debate has just started and I imagine it won't end until June 13th, 2010. The group of death, who will go through, which teams will underachieve, which teams will overachieve all these points have been at the fore front of our minds and will continue to raise interesting debate for the next 7 months.

It has developed into some kind of a tradition that every year, when the African Cup of Nations takes place in January, Chelsea come out moaning about the effect it will have on their team with a number of players leaving their club duty to represent their countries in it's continent's most important competition.

Will the Ronnie's both make it to the Round of 16?

AC Milan vs FC Zurich

Milan have two ways to ensure their place in the Round of 16. If they beat Zurich in Switzerland, or if Marseille loses to Real Madrid.

Regardless they are hoping to have Ronaldinho for the match as he was injured this past weekend in the 3-0 victory against Sampdoria.

Some old names and new names here:

• United the 'ideal' fit for Elin Dzeko?
  
• Gattuso to bolt from Milan to Man. City?
  
• Liverpool pleased with Mascherano talks.
  
• Patrick Vieira and Chelsea?
  
• Arsenal after Carlton Cole?
  
• Fabregas bolting for La Liga in the summer.

We took a few weeks off, but the SBI European Club Top 25 is back.

You would think there would be a major shake-up in the rankings after taking a month off, but the reality is there were few dramatic shifts. Eight of the teams in the last Top 10 remain, with Arsenal seeing the biggest fall over the course of the past four weeks.

In about 5 hours Serie A viewers should know whether or not Juve and Milan will be joining...
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The UEFA Champions League resumed its group stage on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 with several matches including AC Milan v FC Zurich. This is the last set of group stage matches before the knockout stages starts in February 2010. Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

AC Milan draws with FC Zurich 1-1 Video Highlights

AC Milan were the huge favorites heading into the match but would concede a first half goal against FC Zurich.

No hay más señores. Esta es la última jornada de la fase de grupos de la UEFA Champions League y algunos equipos definieron su pase en esta jornada.

A continuación les dejo los resultados.

Ahora bien, hay equipos que a pesar de no calificar a la siguiente ronda de la Champions League aseguraron un lugar en la Europe League (lo que antes era Copa UEFA).

Landon Donovan has once again attracted interest from the top European leagues including English Premier League side Everton. Several reports came out on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 that Everton manager David Moyes is interested in signing the USA international on a loan deal (similar to his spell at Bayern Munich last winter).

If you would have told me in August that Group F would be the most competitive in this year's Champions League I would have laughed in your face. But the Champions from Russia and the Ukraine have made life miserable for two of Europe's best sides creating all the drama a football fan could wish for.

08.12.2009 - Champions League
Zürich - AC Milan 1:1

Ronaldo's two goals meant Real Madrid qualified for the last 32 stage in their match against Marseille. They stay group winners as AC Milan followed them close behind. Real won 1-3 as Ronaldo scored in the fifth minute through a free kick. Lucho Gonzalez scored six minutes later from close range after which Raul [.