Algeria, Greece, Portugal and Slovenia all won their playoffs and qualified for the World Cup today. Uruguay vs Costa Rica is happening as I type. But there's one story that will be dominating the World Cup playoff headlines, and I think you already know what it is: Thierry Henry's handball for France vs Ireland.

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When you think of a professional footballer's mode of transportation to a match, you probably conjure images of pimped-out limousines with built-in hot tubs, strippers and maybe even a personal pizza chef.

Well, for footballers in the United States (who aren't Davey Becks) it's not like that.

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With 23 nations already qualified for World Cup 2010, there are just nine places in South Africa still up for grabs. Three of those will be decided when African qualifying concludes next Wednesday. But that's a separate post. The six other qualifiers will be decided by playoffs, starting tomorrow.

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We are down to the final 4 teams with LA and Houston battling for the Western Conference crown while Chicago and Real Salt Lake fight for the Eastern crown. The broadcast schedule is below:

FRIDAY, Nov. 13 on ESPN2
LOS ANGELES-HOUSTON, Western Conference Final, 10 pm.
Sunday's hard-earned 1-0 victory against Chivas USA in the second leg of the Western Conference Semifinals was everything Los Angeles Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena thought it would be.

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United legend Marco Antonio Etcheverry debuted as the Head Coach for Bolivian side Oriente Petrolero on Sunday, November 1. Coaching his hometown team, El Diablo earned a 1-0 win in his first game of the Playoffs against rival Blooming. Oriente knocked out Blooming with a 2-1 aggregate score in the home and away series.

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The Major League Soccer Playoffs wrapped up its Conference Semifinal round on Sunday, November 8, 2009 as the Los Angeles Galaxy faced Chivas USA. The score was 2-2 on aggregate heading into the second leg. Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

Los Angeles Galaxy beats Chivas USA 1-0 (3-2 on aggregate) Video Highlights (to be added later)

1st Half

The Galaxy came out aggressive and had chances early.

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First off, I apologize to everyone for not being able to get a post-game analysis together for last week. It was one of those times when life bitch-slapped my futbol blogging time. In the future, I will, at a minimum, create posts where you all can share your own reactions and analyses, even if I can't start your comments off with a comprehensive review from my perspective.

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What a night at Toyota Park.

After losing the first leg of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series with New England 2-1, the Fire stormed back in dramatic fashion tonight, getting a 2-0 victory to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals on a 3-2 aggregate score.

Cuauhtemoc Blanco and John Thorrington scored the goals for the Fire, who will take on fourth seeded Real Salt Lake in the Conference Final next Saturday at Toyota Park.

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USL News Release Thursday, October 15, 2009

Cristian Arrieta

MONTREAL, QC – United Soccer Leagues announced Thursday at the USL First Division Championship Series media banquet the winners of the Defender of the Year, Coach of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards. Portland's Gavin Wilkinson was named the USL-1 Coach of the Year with Puerto Rico's Cristian Arrieta earning the Most Valuable Player and Defender of the Year honors.

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USL News Release Thursday, October 15, 2009

Cristian Arrieta

MONTREAL, QC – United Soccer Leagues announced Thursday at the USL First Division Championship Series media banquet the winners of the Defender of the Year, Coach of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards. Portland's Gavin Wilkinson was named the USL-1 Coach of the Year with Puerto Rico's Cristian Arrieta earning the Most Valuable Player and Defender of the Year honors.

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First off, I noticed that I forgot to put links to the international cup tournaments and to prior annual rankings in my post for 1989. If you read that post and noticed those missing, I have gone back to that post and remedied that. Sorry.

1990 seemed fairly similar to 1989 in the big scheme of things.

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From last week's Copa Sudamericana second leg match between Universidad de Chile and Internacional Inter's Gonzalo Sorondo gets kicked square in the head by Universidad defender Osvaldo Gonzalez on his attempt to clear Sorondo's head from his shoulders the ball from inside the box. There are three insane things about this:

1.

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Portland 3-3 Vancouver (Whitecaps take the series 5-4 aggregate)
The USL final is set and it will be an all-Canadian affair with the Vancouver Whitecaps taking on the Montreal Impact.

Brian Farber scored two first half goals for Commissioners Cup champion Portland Timbers but it just wasn't enough as 14,283Â fans watched from PGE Park.

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The USL final is set and it will be an all-Canadian affair with the Vancouver Whitecaps taking on the Montreal Impact.

Portland 3-3 Vancouver (Whitecaps take the series 5-4 aggregate)

Brian Farber scored two first half goals for Commissioners Cup champion Portland Timbers but it just wasn't enough as 14,283Â fans watched from PGE Park.

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Wow, writing this match preview feels like déjà vu. Oh wait, it's because I wrote one exactly a year ago, involving the exact same teams and coaches. So here's hoping the outcome (which was a 2-2 last season) is at least more in our favor this time.

September 16, 2009
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
2:45 PM ET (20:45 CET, 19:45 GMT)

Match Background:

I was sorely tempted to copy and paste what I wrote about Fiorentina last year, simply because their squad hasn't gone through any drastic changes since then.

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This Wednesday was a busy match day where the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers were concerned, so let's take a quick look at all the important news from around the globe...
Europe
And where better to start (from our point of view) than with news that England have qualified for their 13th World Cup Finals. Click to continue reading...

More shiny stuff in the Barcelona trophy cupboard. Two goals from Messi and one from Bojan Krkic gave them the Spanish Supercup with a 5 - 1 aggregate score against Athletic Bilbao.Picture of Guardiola looking really happy here..

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I confess, it's a little weird to be writing a preview for a CL qualifier. The last time Lyon had to worry about those was in the 2000-2001 season. That was practically ten years ago. But after last season's inglorious third place finish, I'm just grateful that Lyon still have a chance to participate at all - for a while it was looking like Lyon would miss out on Europe entirely.

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On the 9th April 2002, a particularly catastrophic tactical decision by Gerard Houllier robbed Liverpool FC of the chance to participate in what would undoubtedly have been the game of the century.
On the night in question, Liverpool faced Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League quarter-final second leg. Click to continue reading...

Below are collated results for the preliminary round of the 2009-10 CONCACAF Champions League. Ties are a two-match, home-and-away series, higher aggregate score wins, and away goals count. If aggregate and away goals are level, a 30-minute extra time period is played with penalties if necessary. First leg home team score is listed first for both legs. Click to continue reading...

Tuesday night was good and bad for MLS, as Toronto FC and DC United finished their preliminary round ties in the CONCACAF Champions League. With lackluster performances in their respective opening legs, both sides needed to get a good result on the road in order to move on in the competition.
Toronto went down to Puerto Rico needing a win after they dropped the opening leg 1-0 at BMO Field. Click to continue reading...

Below are collated results for the preliminary round of the 2009-10 CONCACAF Champions League. Ties are a two-match, home-and-away series, higher aggregate score wins, and away goals count. If aggregate and away goals are level, a 30-minute extra time period is played with penalties if necessary. First leg home team score is listed first for both legs. Click to continue reading...

Its that time again to crown the Mad About Fútbol Team Of The Week. In South America, the Copa Libertadores final was set and champions crowned. The MLS continues its season and the CONCACAF Gold Cup is underway. Remember that the Mad About Fútbol Team Of The Week played matches and/or made headlines during the calendar week of June 29-July 5. Click to continue reading...

André Santos (right) hits a cracker for Corinthians

Corinthians booked their place in next year's Libertadores after beating Internacional with an aggregate score of 4-2 to win the Copa do Brasil.

2-0 up from the first leg in São Paulo, Corinthians silenced a packed estádio Beira-Rio with first-half goals from Jorge Henrique, and a stunner from Brazil leftback, André Santos.

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England U21 v Finland U21 (Group B)
Date: Monday 15th June
Venue: Halmstad
Kickoff: 17:15 GMT

Finland and England will kick off the the UEFA Euro 2009 Under-21 Championship on Monday at the Orjans Vall Stadium in Halmstad, Sweden. You can watch England U21 v Finland U21 live here.

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I didn't think a 1-0 result in Mexico City was good enough for Pumas, and it certainly didn't look that way after way after Pachuca converted a penalty late in the first half. But the Pumas players reached deep inside, constantly pressed the Pachuca midfield, and took advantage of some key Tuzo errors to win their sixth league title. Click to continue reading...

I know I'm the Wizards blogger but because I have a few contacts outside the country I was given some juicy news about the mess that the Costa Rican soccer league is going through and how this might affect/help the United States National Team, who will be visiting them in June for the next World Cup Qualifier.

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The season for TOP Oss ended with a one goal loss to Dordrecht on Friday night, losing the playoff first round match-up on a 3-0 aggregate score line. Click to continue reading...

Below are collated results for the knockout phase of the 2008-09 CONCACAF Champions League. The current phase is highlighted in red bold lettering. Ties are a two-match, home-and-away series, higher aggregate score wins, and away goals count. If aggregate and away goals are level, a 30-minute extra time period is played with penalties if necessary. Click to continue reading...

Away goals carry an immense weight in the Champions League.

They delivered Milan to the final in 2005. They saw Liverpool oust Barcelona in 2007, despite the latter winning the leg at Anfield. And they pulled Barca's fate from the abyss in the 93rd minute in this past Wednesday's controversial leg at Stamford Bridge.

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The final of the UEFA Cup were determined on Thursday with the second legs of the semifinals. Here's a recap of both games with the final set to be played May 20th in Istanbul.

Shakhtar wins on a late goal to win 3-2 on aggregate - Video Highlights

Shakhtar Donetsk defeated Dynamo Kiev 2-1 in the second leg of the UEFA Cup semifinals on goals from Rodrigues Jadson and Junior Ilsinho.

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A comfortable 2-0 win at the Beira-Rio last night secured Inter a quarter final clash with Flamengo, with Taison and D'Alessandro scoring early in each half.
Inter's latest victory see's Náutico eliminated by a 5-0 aggregate score line as their undefeated run continues. The victory however could come at a price as top scorer Taison left the field injured. Click to continue reading...

Andres Iniesta scored one of the most dramatic goals in UEFA Champions League history to sink Chelsea and send 10-man Barcelona into a final showdown with Manchester United.

Three minutes into injury time in a second leg that Chelsea had dominated, the Spain midfielder latched on to a pass from Lionel Messi and lashed an unstoppable shot spinning into the top corner of the net.

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Tempête FC became the 4th team to qualify to the CFU Clubs Champions Cup semifinals as they defeated for a second time 4-0 the Greenbay Hoppers in the 2nd-leg of their match played last night in Haiti. Tempête won the aggregate score 8-0 over the Antiguans.

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The CONCACAF fabulous Puerto Rico Islanders host tonight the mighty Montreal Impact at Juan Ramón Loubriel stadium, in what would have been a dream final to the 2008-09 Champions League (CCL).

Both the Islanders and Impact had impressive runs in the 1st ever CCL, reaching the semifinals and quarterfinals of the tournament respectively, before sucumbing to Mexico's height to teams that were proven mortal at sea level (Montreal is 187 feet above sea level).

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