Saturday morning Landon Donovan will arrive in Goodison Park to begin his loan spell with Everton. As he settles into his seat and watches his new team take on Carlisle United in the FA Cup, he will be working on his checklist of what he wants to accomplish over the next 75 days. This loan spell at Everton, along with his performance in South Africa this summer, will be critical in determining the future direction of Donovan's career, and he knows there are a number of boxes he needs to check in order to make this loan a success.

Arsene Wenger starts to plan impressive January additions to his Emirates squad.

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti have been put on red alerts after Inter Milan forward Mario Balotelli's future was thrown into doubt following an outburst by his Cameroonian teammate Samuel Eto'o.

If you're unfamiliar with World Cup Blog, then allow me to explain: The blog you're reading now is the front page, but the core of WCB is the multitude of team specific blogs, including one for each of the World Cup 2010 teams.

The authors of these team blogs have forgotten more about their sides than I'll ever know, so I decided to tap that knowledge by asking each of them a set of 10 questions.

The Togo national team bus has been machine-gunned by Angolan rebels on the Congolese border ahead of the African Cup of Nations.

Love = Football. Haircut nearly = nasty head injury Not content with providing all the kits for the tournament, Puma decided they were missing an advertising trick by not using Mohamed Zidan's head as promotion. This was rectified in time for yesterday's African Cup of Nations victory over Ghana. A gentleman with a razor blade was let [.

Here are some of the major stories and rumors from the past couple of days outside of the on the pitch results:
- Arsenal team doctors have revealed that striker Robin Van Persie is set to return against Tottenham tomorrow afternoon. This is a huge boost for the Gunners who are clinging to hope for the EPL title and recently lost captain Cesc Fabregas for the rest of the season to injury.

Who will win the World Cup?(survey software)
With only 4 months to go until I touch down in Cape Town, and the disappointing African Cup of Nations behind us, we can look forward to the world's greatest spectacle in South Africa. Spain and Brazil are clearly the big time favorites going into the World Cup, and I wonder if any other team has a legitimate chance.

So, will he or won't he?

Will Landon Donovan, now on loan at Everton, get on the field at the Emirates this weekend?

He's easily the most polarizing figure in American soccer and the debate on whether he's the best player ever to pull on a national team shirt or a spoiled kid that doesn't care about the game enough to reach his full potential can be saved for another post.

The hosts managed to blow a four goal lead in fifteen minutes to share a point with Mali; Angola were leading 4-1 with two minutes left, then Freddy Kanoute (Sevilla), Sadou Keita (Barcelona) and Mustapha Yatabare (Clermont Foot Auvergne 63 in France's Ligue 2) scored to level the game, with the last two goals coming in four minutes of injury time.

By Ollie Irish

Some of the most clickworthy footie links I saw on this snowy London Wednesday...

Inevitable Cristiano Ronaldo news: C-Ron does a Beckham, models in his pants for cash homoerotic rating off the charts [Kickette]

Emmanuel Adebayor spotted wearing Arsenal shirt?

Pep Guardiola

How can it be? ... How can it be true that Barcelona have been eliminated from the Copa del Rey? ... Is that even allowed? ... Have they forgotten that we play beautiful football and, therefore, must always win for the good of the game? ... There must be some mistake.

By AVI CREDITOR

The double-whammy that is the red card/penalty kick may be no more.

FIFA has submitted an item for the International Football Associations Board to review that would downgrade a red card to a yellow on a foul that denies an obvious goal-scoring opportunity in the box.

Book Review: Feet of the Chameleon by Ian Hawkey
Every two years, managers from across the continent seem to join forces in their criticism of that which has become the most despised competition in European football: the African Cup of Nations. Being deprived of some of their best players for up to a month in the middle of the season can have a highly unnerving effect on managers, particularly if results start going against them during that period.

By FRANCO PANIZO

The deadly attack on the Togo national team prior to the start of the African Cup of Nations left the soccer world stunned, and few disagreed when Togo decided to pull out of the tournament.

The African Football Confederation (CAF) is among those few.

The black eye on the African Cup of Nations appeared to get worse.
CAF (African soccer confederation) president Issa Hayatou has announced that Togo is to be fined $50,000 and banned from the next two editions of the tournament for dropping out of the African Cup of Nations.
This is a travesty of all-time, punishing a tiny nation with apparently no political clout among the world's governing body of football.

Egypt won the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations yesterday, beating Ghana 1-0 in the final with the above 85th minute goal form Mohamed Nagy, a.k.a Gedo, a.k.a the world's greatest super sub. Why is the 25 year old Al-Ittihad Al-Sakndary player the world's greatest super sub? Here's why:

Gedo didn't start any of Egypt's six games at Angola 2010, and yet somehow finished the tournament as top scorer with five goals.

We've complained alot, England fans, about friendly matches. Everytime is followed by a round of managers moaning that its pointless having England friendlies, followed by pundits, and to some degree supporters about how they feel a bit of a chore.

Next Wednesday England run out at Wembley to launch their new kit, to prepare for the World Cup group game against Algeria by playing Egypt, their local rivals and recent winners of the African Cup of Nations.

Germany v Ghana

It is fun but usually wrong to predict German failure. Euro 2008 was yet another example of Germany's ability to deliver in major tournaments; they reached the final despite being low on star players and performing poorly in the early stages.
Ghana, however, will give them a good game.

By Eric Beard

With recent news coming out of South Africa that England captain Rio Ferdinand will miss the World Cup due to a knee injury suffered in training and Ivory Coast national hero & captain Didier Drogba is questionable for the cup as well thanks to an elbow fracture suffered in a friendly match against Japan, it seems like the right time to recognize a few truly special players that fans from all around the world would have loved to see partake in this summer's festivities.

Not sure if they are wearing this at the world cup but I do think this was a good idea
Puma African Unity shirt
"To celebrate the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa, Puma have teamed up with nine African football federations to launch the African Unity kit – a revolutionary sporting concept designed to promote harmony across the great continent.

Yura Movsisyan wanted to play for the U.S. national team, and under a different set of circumstances, he could be wearing a United States uniform tonight for the U.S. team's friendly against Brazil.

Instead, Movsisyan has given up his quest to play for the United States and is preparing to make his debut for Armenia against Iran on Wednesday.

The Ultimate Football Blog
Premier League Player Of The Week
We continue our quest with Arnold Furious of 411 Mania to identify the best players from each Premier League game week. Here's how the voting went after week four.
Arnold
1.

Unsurprisingly, Ghana lead the list of nominees for the African Footballer of the Year

The short list of nominees up for the African Footballer of the Year have been making their way into the press this morning. Not surprising that Ghana lead the list along with some other predictable nominations .

Sierra Leone will continue their quest to qualify for the African Cup of Nations next week, but they will do so without the Wizards leading scorer, Kei Kamara. Word out of Sierra Leone is that Kamara has been suspended by the Sierra Leone FA for the game on the 10th of October against South Africa.

Woke up early to do the Sweeper for Pitch Invasion, and tried to give a taste of the newspaper hyperbole setting up today's Man United, Leeds clash. Of course, after all that, Leeds went and won 1-0 at Elland Road. I caught portions of the first half and you could tell it was one of those games where something comes out of the pitch, into everyone's feet, one of those beautiful aberrations that explode the stat records.

The mascot for the African Cup of Nations is not an artistic impression of a cheerful looking Drogba as previously reported.
It is instead an artistic impression of the Giant Sable antelope, which is a national symbol of Angola.It has the scientific name, Hippotragus Niger Variani.

Can host nation Angola emerge from a tricky group?
The tournament preview is up, you've seen the African Cup of Nations 2010 match schedule, now let's crack onto the group previews. Here is our team-by-team guide to the competition, which kicks off in Angola this weekend.
Group A
Algeria - Angola - Malawi - Mali
Algeria
Algeria is a country that has been sat until recently in the shadows of international wilderness.

Sometimes reviews are instances where you not only learn about certain products, but you also learn to acquire new tastes and finally realize what you were missing. In previous reviews I always talked about how good certain boots were for everyone- except me. I talked about what they offered Joe Fan.

While scouring that new fangled interweb thing for interesting 2010 World Cup news, I came across this piece on GhanaWeb.com.In it, the author suggests that the fact that many of Ghana's key players - Michael Essien and John Mensah among them - are injured for the African Cup Of Nations is, in fact, a very good thing for Ghana.

Since it's the Silly Season, we're grinding the rumor mill over here at Starting Eleven:

1. Rafa Benitez will not be fired at Liverpool. Instead, to solve the club's ever-inflating debt, LFC will be sold to Barcelona and Liverpool will officially become FC Barcelona-Liverpool. See, since Barcelona pulled out of its MLS-Miami deal, they have all this petty cash hanging around.

The 2010 Africa Cup of Nations kicks off this Sunday, January 10th in Angola. You can find the full match schedule here.

Below you'll find the squads for all 16 qualified nations, divided by group. A quick glance down the list reveals a lot of familiar names and a lot of European clubs.

Gunmen opened fire with machine guns on a bus carrying Togo's football team to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, wounding several players.

Officials say the shooting occurred in the Angolan oil-rich territory of Cabinda, where rebels have been fighting for independence. The Angolan government called the incident an "act of terrorism".

Terrible news ahead of the African Cup of Nations. A bus driver was murdered and two players from the Togo national team were shot and injured during a machine-gun attack against their bus today.
An ESPN report says Angolan rebels are responsible for the attack, which happened on the Congo border.

So on the eve of the African Cup of Nations 2010, African football's jewel in the crown, tragedy strikes. As was reported earlier, the Togo national team bus was ambushed by gunmen and shot at on it's way from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the team's base in Cabinda, where they were due to play their Group B Cup of Nations matches.

Gunmen opened fire on the coach carrying Togo's national football squad to African Cup of Nations in Angola, killing the driver and wounding nine others, including two players.

L'Equipe said the wounded players were Serge Akakpo, who plays for Romanian first division side Vaslui, and reserve goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale, who is with French fourth division team Pontivy.

Folks, I have a question from a reader. Denise Grady, a loyal fan of the Colorado Rapids and the University of Colorado soccer team, wants to know if there are any public viewing venues for games of the African Cup of Nations.

Denise says the games are available online at MyAfricanFootball.

If it can be said that one of the principle aims of terrorism is to raise the profile of a specific cause, then through any means necessary, the actions of Chibandan seperatists yesterday could probably be said to be a success. Their ambush of a coach carrying the Togo national football team to the African Cup of Nations has sent shockwaves out through African football and on to the rest of the world.

It has been a day of conflicting news and uncertainty following yesterday's deadly attack on the team bus of the Togolese national team.

With players and other staff members of the Togolese national team, officials of the Togolese FA and government, officials of the Angolan FA and government, CAF, FIFA, Sepp Blatter and a range of European clubs all releasing statements and bits and pieces of sometimes contradictory information, it's difficult to give a definitive picture of the current situation.

The news started coming through early on Saturday morning and as the information became clearer, it was soon apparent that the whole African Cup Of Nations would now be tainted. When the dust had settled, 3 members of the Togo party were dead and several were seriously injured. Angolan rebels had attacked the team bus as it drove through the dangerous territory of Cabinda.

The 2010 African Cup of Nations (ACN) couldn't possibly have had a more turbulent start, what with the Togo bus tragedy and then one of the most bonkers games in the tournament's history.

Firstly, a few words about the shocking attack on Togo's team coach, which killed three people and injured eight more, including goalkeeper Dodji Obilale; Obilale is currently in a stable condition in a South African hospital, having been shot in the back.