Sometimes I'm not surprised that online piracy is so rampant when it comes to soccer. Trying to find out who has the rights to a game or tournament is very difficult, and even when you find a stream, you're not sure whether it's an official one or not.

Take, for example, the African Nations Cup which kicks off in a few hours from Angola.

Rafa Marquez will miss a big MLS match against RSL this weekend. (Getty Images)

Once again it seems like international dates on the FIFA calendar are going to hurt several MLS clubs in the coming week. All but two clubs will have at least one player called into their respective national team camps for friendlies (or in a couple cases African Nations Cup qualifiers).

Are the CAF guilty of a huge injustice?

Togo have been banned from the next two Africa Cup of Nations following their withdrawal from this year's tournament.
The Confederation of African football (Caf) also fined the Hawks $50,000 for quitting the competition in the wake of a gun attack on the team bus in Angola.

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.

Didier Drogba led his Ivory Coast to a crucial win over Ghana in this African Nations Cup tie.

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The Confederation of African Football (CAF) banned Togo from the next two African Nations Cup tournaments and also imposed a $50,000 fine. "This decision is outrageous," said Togo captain and Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor to the French newspaper L'Equipe on Sunday.

For those who follow world soccer closely, you will have noticed that last week, Nigeria took the remarkable step of firing their caretaker coach, Shaibu Amodu, after a third place finish in the African Nations Cup, and with only months to spare before the World Cup.

With less than 50 days left until the Word Cup I thought I would add to the excitement by looking at who I think will qualify from Group A which contains France, Uruguay, Mexico and hosts South Africa.

France

Not everybody's favourite team after their controversial play-off win over Ireland but the gods were shining on them when they were drawn in a favourable group.

According to the BBC, two players from the Togolese football squad in Angola for the African Nations Cup have been injured following an attack on their team bus this afternoon. We'll keep an eye on the situation.

UPDATE: ESPN Soccernet is reporting three players and the bus driver were injured and quotes Nantes striker Thomas Dossevi as saying that the team no longer wants to take part in the tournament.

Like you, we were shocked when we first heard reports that Togo's team bus had been ambushed by gunmen on its way to its home base for the upcoming African Nations Cup. As of this writing, the details of the shooting remain murky and the number of injured and dead is up in the air.

When we hear about League teams complaining about the playing time that they have to give up for their stars to play for a National team we usually just scoff and say "Get over it!" However, now we see why people complain.

The Togolese National Soccer Team's bus was attacked by machine gun-toting lunatics at the Angola border today ahead of the African Nations Cup.

Lots of news has occured lately, and with a weekend of action coming up, five Premiership matches were postponed, here is a list of the matches postponed:
Hull City - Chelsea
Burnley - Stoke City
Sunderland - Bolton
Fulham - Portsmouth
Liverpool - Tottenham
Togo National Team Attacked on way to ANC Cup


The Togo National team bus was attacked by gunmen on their way to the African Nations Cup, the driver was killed, and two players were hit by bullets, goalkeeper Obilale Kossi, and Serge Akakpo.

The majority of the Premiership games are cancelled due to the bad weather conditions: Rubbish

Both Carling Cup games are called off, also due to the weather: Pants

The Chelsea team go sledging on Parliament Hill and no one is injured: a Wasted opportunity

Patrick Viera returns to the Premiership but with Man City: Upsetting (for Arsenal fans)

Owen Coyle bizarrely leaves Burnley for Bolton Wanderers: Strange and Disappointing

Just before the African Nations Cup the Togo team bus is attacked resulting in the death of the driver and the injury of two players: Awful

So all in all not the best week for football.

Togo have withdrawn from the African Nations Cup in Angola following the terrorist attack on their team bus.

Manchester City confirmed their striker Emmanuel Adebayor, the Togo captain, was returning home.

A statement on Man City's official website said:

"Togo has pulled out of the African Nations Cup after their team bus came under gunfire in Angola.

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.

Those who died in the attack are the Angolan bus driver, the team's spokesman Stanislas Ocloo and assistant coach Amalete Abalo.Nine were injured - two players, an assistant manager, physio, goalkeeping coach and another coach.Defender Serge Akakpo, was hit by two bullets and lost a lot of blood but his condition was reported to be stable after successful surgery.

During my brief six months working in Angola between 2002 and 2003, a favorite pastime of mine when driving around Luanda was to try to identify the replica team shirts worn by ubiquitous street soccer teams playing in any available space. Brazil's canary yellow was the most popular, but the range was impressive; I saw complete teams kitted out in the reds of Manchester United, the burgundy of Portugal, the green stripes of Sporting Lisbon, the yellow/orange/black on white design of Germany, even the all whites of Real Madrid—a hopelessly futile choice in the face of the city's red dirt and grimy haze.

The response to the attack on the Togolese team from much of the rabble that constitutes the English Premier League was predictable. The emirs and oligarchs did not say much, leaving it to some of the old fashioned brass merchants to bellow about bringing their players "home".
Arsène Wenger was not of the same mind.

Mozambique and Benin played out a very entertaining draw in their first matches of the African Nations Cup.

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Mali triumphed over Malawi but failed to progress as Algeria and Angola played out a controversial goalless draw that saw both sides go through and has led to Mali filing a match fixing complaint against their fellow group members.

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While Didier Drogba is playing for his country in African Nations Cup, Nicolas Anelka will be getting a lot more trust as Chelsea's lead forward. His 2 goals and 1 assist against Sunderland show frenchmans ability to decide games in Barclays Premier League. Anelka is still far from his last seasons 19 scored goals but if he keeps up with he's awesome form, he will be a serious threat for any opponent Chelsea will face this season.

Ghana overcame Burkina Faso thanks to a solitary strike from Andre Ayew.

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Egypt got the better of Algeria in this typically bad tempered encounter with Hosni Abou Rabou netting the first goal after Algeria had been reduced to ten men when Halliche was sent off. Mohamed Zidan scored a second to kill off any chance of comeback from the Desert Foxes who's woes continued when they found themselves down to nine men when Nadir Belhadj was red carded.

Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac is convinced that Egypt's greater experience proved decisive in African Nations Cup final. Mohamed Gedo scored Egypt's winner five minutes from full-time to deny Ghana, and hand Egypt their third successive continental crown. Rajevac said: "We are not so experienced, we wanted to win it so badly in our .

Bad news for Blues fans... Michael Essien may not be seen in a Chelsea uniform until next season.

Essien has been sidelined since he tore his hamstring against APOEL in a Champions League match last December, followed by a knee injury at African Nations Cup. Since sustaining the injuries, Essien has had a rough go at rehab and can be considered doubtful for the rest of the English Premier League season.

Operation Rainbow Nation

The General:

Carlos Alberto Parreira is the side's manager and the Brazilian born skipper is looking to shake off South Africa's disappointing African Cup of Nations run in 2008 by advancing deep into the World Cup this summer. Parreira coaching career's highest high was when he led his homeland of Brazil to the 1994 World Cup in the USA.

Dirk Kuyt and Arjen Robben lead the Netherlands in to Group E action. (Getty Images)

We're skipping around in our World Cup previews. I can't for the life of me preview Group C just yet, and I'm sure Geoff can't do the same. We should have Group D up tomorrow sometime but let's move forward with Group E shall we?

Australia World Cup 2010 Preview #13 (Group D) is a post from: Just Football

Australia

Appearances at World Cup finals: 1974 – First Round, 2006 – Second Round

Best ever performance: Second Round in 2006 when Australia was narrowly beaten by Italy only due to a late and controversial penalty being awarded to the Italians.

You often hear pundits claiming that there's no such thing as an easy game in the World Cup anymore: while they're probably correct, it's difficult to contradict the argument that England's game with Algeria tomorrow night is potentially our easiest game in Group C.

The Algerians do not travel well; the Desert Foxes also have a very poor recent record against European opposition.

Nigeria have been suspended from international football for two years by their President Goodluck Jonathan after the team failed to deliver the performance expected of them, as they finished bottom of Group B.

Some Super Eagles fans are shocked at the Presidents decision to suspend their heroes, while some believe it is an attempt by Jonathan to gain cheap political points.

So none of us saw that coming. Over seven million pound coins on an unknown bloke who has represented his country at the World Cup...that being the homeless version.
The signing of the apparently flair driven, Tevez dribbling, deep lying attacker come winger called Bebe, in technical terms is not surprising.

I already have a feeling today will be fairly slow from me as I am a bit under the weather here. Plus its another rainy day here in Dallas which makes me want to do next to nothing but lay on the couch and watch re-runs of The Office or Community.

But before I go all lazy on the day I did want to go into a thought that was posted yesterday by SI.

FC Barcelona will be returning back to La Liga action tonight with Villareal visiting Camp Nou. Lionel Messi will not feature in tonight's encounter as he was given an extended holiday. Yaya Toure has already left for African nations Cup, eventhough it is clear that Guardiola will not have used him even if he is available.

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!
Today the blue boys take on Watford in the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge as we look to defend our Trophy we won against Everton last season. Today is also a chance for Chelsea to make a fresh start to the new year, and get our form back on track.
This started with the win against Fulham, but with Championship opposition in Watford coming to the bridge, its a chance to get our game back on track and really get the confidence back.

A handful of first team regulars were uncharacteristically slotted into the FA Cup team by Arsene Wenger as Arsenal survived West Ham's efforts to upset them. The Hammers looked to be in control and ready to apply yet another blow to Arsenal's season after coming back from two goals down to draw earlier in the season.

The Arsenal defensive midfielder Alexandre Song has now left for the African Nations Cup, and Arsene Wenger has indicated that he will have to make some adjustments for the team to cope in his absence. "We will miss him because he's an important player. In the system we play he plays in front of the defence [.

Winter break is over, and the leagues around Europe will resume in full force this weekend. At this juncture, I felt it appropriate to present a snapshot of how the dust had temporarily settled and will start to pick up again this January 2010. Fahid Ben Khalfallah or "the little Ribery" as he is known in France, is leading the assists table in Ligue 1 ahead of the more established Yoann

Technical Session #10 - The Monarch and his Lions
When I reach Nane Joseph via phone he is unwinding after spending the day training for the 2010 MLS Combine. Joseph, who completed his senior season at Old Dominion, was named one of the nation's top players by the NSCCA.
Making The List
Joseph, a NSCAA Second Team All-American, netted six goals on the season and added three assists.

Puma present a "unified African kit" the continent's teams can use if their national colours clash during the African Nations Cup and World Cup finals.The kit also has an Environmental significance as it is part of the 'Play for Life' partnership that Puma has with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)- which is supporting the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity.