Well, whaddya know?!The USMNT has pulled off a small miracle by rallying in game three to advance to the Confederations Cup semifinals by topping Egypt 3-0. Combined with Italy's 3-0 loss to Brazil, the Americans proceed from group play despite losing their first two games by a combined 6-1 tally.All the video clips and such still to come.

We're almost to the 2010 World Cup in Africa, as the continent is now half way through their last phase of Cup qualifying.
Where do we stand? Let's take a look at the standings for the five groups.
Remember, the five group winners go to the 2010 World Cup. The top three in each group advance to the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola.

Remember Lefika Emerging Equity, the company allegedly behind the corruption besetting the Mbombela World Cup stadium project? They've come up repeatedly in the story of Jimmy Mohlala's murder, and never on the right side: they collaborated with Jacob Dladla, whose crimes Mohlala helped reveal, in various forms of graft and contract fraud; they committed the [.

CONEMBOL is staging its U-17 qualifying tournament, with the top four teams set to head to Nigeria for the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup. The way it looks so far: Argentina and Brazil are in. The two traditional powerhouses topped their respective groups to earn automatic berths to the World Cup, with Brazil winning Group A on nine points and Argentina leading Group B on 10 points.

Stuff to read while you enjoy that tackling clinic from Paul Scholes in Rome..... Trying to explain Messi's header. (Studs Up) African ManU fan goes well overboard, kills four Barca fans. (ManU Offside) A brief explanation of the Confederations Cup glorified friendlies. (Unprofessional Foul) There's a new phenomenon in Argentina - Javier Pastore.

As I sat down to write something on the blog two hours ago, my thoughts immediately went to John Hartson, wondering how come many preferred to talk about Adebayor and his possible Manchester City future.

And I just couldn't help asking myself where all this Adebayor hatred is coming from. Last week, both Arsene Wenger and Adebayor's agent Stephane Courbis said the player will stay at Arsenal.

A gnawing and suspicious paradox lies at the heart of African national team experiences in world competition: African teams tend to do much better at the youth level than they do at the senior level. Take the fact, for example, that African teams have won 5 of the 12 FIFA U17 World Cups (with the 2009 version scheduled to be hosted by Nigeria in October and November), but not a single African team has ever made it as far as the semi-finals of a full World Cup.

The top football leagues' fear of the political has now reached the point at which players have to deny supporting freedom of speech. Salomon Kalou, who scored both goals for Chelsea in their 2-0 win over Middlesbrough on Wednesday, celebrated both by crossing his arms at the wrist and running toward the crowd.

Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor revealed a curious episode, by him described as a "miracle", which made him understand that he was born for the game of football. The Togo striker, who was unable to walk in his early years said: 'I was in the church, lying down, and a football came straight into the building and [.

I don't know about you, but I am genuinely excited about the rest of the Premier League season. Unlike other seasons, it's not just the title race that is exciting me. Instead, it's the whole table. After the closing of the January transfer window, I can't help but take a look at the battle going on between Aston Villa, Arsenal, and Everton.

Everton are heading to Africa for a preseason tour of Ghana. The club will train in the country and will also face off against one of two Ghanaian Premier League clubs -- Asante Kotoko or Accra Hearts of Oak -- on Sunday, July, 12.

Plenty of transfers are floating about this summer, but almost all of them revolve around familiar faces. Premiership Talk takes a look at this summer's hottest targets.

David Villa

Real Madrid have already clinched the signings of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, and David Villa appears to be next on the list.

Let's all laugh at these guys.

Then let's thank Brasil for getting the job done.

After my last post, I called Coach Bradley's coaching decisions into question. I was specifically concerned with his personnel choices. Shortly after that post, my point was validated with an absolutely sad performance against Brasil.

They Think It's All Over... is envious of the strength in depth that Spain possess and takes an in depth look at what is holding back the development of English goalkeepers in comparison.

Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor believes ex-captain Willaim Gallas was right to question the side's fighting spirit in an interview which cost him the armband, then handed to Cesc Fabregas. The Togo striker said: There is some truth in what he said. Someone had to say these things, to make each person face up to their responsibilities.

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Ben Olsen, Bryan Namoff, Santino Quaranta, Chris Pontius and Rodney Wallace star in the video below about the history of D.C. United rookie pranks...

D.C. United is in the midst of a four-team challenge to see which club can collect the most funds for Nothing But Nets during a month-long Major League Soccer initiative that culminates on World Malaria Day on April 25.

Urgh, I forgot to change Cut of the Day until now... sorry!Anyway, here is the first decent highlight reel. I may switch it out if a better (or English language) clip surfaces.- Greg Seltzer

US MNT Player Power Rankings (10/15/09): The US Men's Soccer Team has qualified for the 2010 World Cup, which kicks off a mere 8 months from now. Now that we're in, the big question is who will represent the Red, White, & Blue at the world's biggest sports spectacle.

Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor has been named the African Player of the Year.

After an extensive inspection from FIFA officials the venues for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil have been decided. The cities that were chosen to host matches of The Great Tournament were jubilant at the opportunity. Because of the massive size of Brazil, FIFA agreed to have 12 host cities instead of the usual 10.

Asia
As we've just mentioned in our TV Preview, Asia is awash with three new countries that have qualified for the Finals in South Africa next year.
From Group 1, Australia and Japan are assured of occupying the top two places after the Aussies played out a goalless draw against Qatar and Japan won 1-0 away to Uzbekistan.

The Wizards have had another trialist in this week, and if a poster on bigsoccer is correct, the player is Zahui Thierry from the Ivory Coast. Thierry has played for both the U-17 and U-20 Ivory Coast national team. It would appear that in the 2008 season, he scored 2 goals for African Sports Academy, his club team.

"Who do you support?" For your average American that question, particularly without any context, is almost impossible to make sense of. But as I learned on a tour of Uganda and Kenya with a group of American educators in the summer of 2008, for a surprising number of Africans (particularly the teenage students we met) it is among the first questions a Western visitor will be asked.

.World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 1) Denmark 1 1 Portugal Hungary 1 2 Sweden World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 2) Moldova 0 0 Luxembourg Israel 0 1 Latvia Switzerland 2 0 Greece World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 3) Poland 1 1 Northern Ireland Slovakia 2 2 Czech Republic World Cup qualifiers [.

Brent Latham from ESPN Soccernet checks in with a story on the U.S. U-17 team for the upcoming FIFA U-17 World Cup in Nigeria. A good portion of the team the U.S. is taking to Africa played here at our Swope Park Training Center last week, falling to a team made mostly of KCW Reserves 3-0.
In full national team news, Jermaine Jones has been cleared by FIFA to play for the United States after initially representing Germany in three friendlies.

United States striker Charlie Davies has left hospital nearly a month after being involved in a fatal car accident.

Davies, who plays for French side Sochaux, broke bones in his right leg and suffered a lacerated bladder and is almost certainly sure to miss next summers World Cup Finals in Sputh Africa as his injuries are expected to take to 12 months to recover from.

VS. ,,
In the modern world of football, Europe is the most powerful confederation in FIFA and its a shame that FIFA's most powerful confederation doesn't lead the way in how it runs its World Cup qualification.
When it comes to World Cup qualifying, Europe can look to other FIFA confederations on how it should be done.

I stumbled upon this article that describes Ghana national team coach Milovan Rajevac's new pursuit of Italian striker Mario Balotelli. Balotelli, an Inter Milan forward, is widely regarded as one of the top young talents in the world. Having been born in Italy to Ghanaian nationals, Mario is eligible to play for both national teams.

While David Beckham is a forgotten man in the English Premier League, the world's most popular man is still causing controversy around Europe. When he signed for the Los Angeles Galaxy, he promised to make a splash into the American sports market. Being here in America, I witnessed the entire episode first hand, including seeing the reception he received in person at Gillette Stadium just outside Boston, Massachusetts.

Learn some of the words and phrases from languagecaster's Good, Bad and Ugly section of the podcast. For more English practice check out our worksheets, football glossary and English for football phrases. To see (someone) through: to help succeed, to help a team progress in a competition Example: Cris Commons, a former Forest player and a confessed [.

Er, yeah . . . how many of these did you make?While SMiA loves anything footie-related, Rebecca Lowe may be the main reason we tune into Football Matters every week. [Guardian]Ian Wright Wright Wright has a kid that likes to fight fight fight. [The Sun]Becks finally sorts out the rest of his Galaxy career.

Here are the results from World Cup Qualifying games Africa played on March 28, Saturday, and March 29, 2009 Sunday. To check the tables after this round of games, please go here. Final scores and goal scorers given below Kenya v Tunisia Rwanda [...] Related posts:

1. African Cup of Nations results Here are the results from the 26th African Cup of.

Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor revealed he has no regrets after staying with Arsenal despite interest from Barcelona and A.C. Milan last summer and wants to stay with the North London club. He said: I'm very happy. I never regret anything. At the moment it is very difficult for the club because we haven't won a lot [.

They Think It's All Over... explains why the Confederations Cup simply isn't a major international tournament.

Boy, before this tourney started, I'd bet most of you had this one down as an almost certain "W" - and now?Even with a snowball's chance in Royal Bafokeng Stadium of advancing to the Confederations Cup semifinals, the U.S. National Team will have much more to do besides be in it to top Egypt by at least three and hope Brazil does the same to Italy.

They Think It's All Over... draws four conclusions from Brazil's Confederations Cup semi-final triumph over South Africa.

Last week, saw the confederations Cup reach its climax with an exciting game seeing Brazil come from two goals down to beat the USA 3-2. The USA certainly impressed the worldwide audience by beating Spain and going close against the South American powerhouse. Perhaps their world ranking of 12 is merited.

Thanks to Prost Amerika for this. Normally I wouldn't go into a release of a player but since I know the guy and covered him during his college days at West Virginia University.

Seattle Sounders FC have released New Zealand striker Jarrod Smith.

Sounders FC have released forward Jarrod Smith.

There was a very quiet start to the Premier Soccer League season for Moroka Swallows, who drew 0-0 with Golden Arrows. Technical Director Eddie Lewis, formerly of West Ham United and Leyton Orient, was said to be have been pleased with the clean sheet, if not the result. Another former West Ham player who is [.