Introductions are a tough thing to make. Luckily, I have a beautiful woman in body paint to help me break the ice.

Thank You Bethany Dempsey (And here is your plug Sports Illustrated!)!

I'm Dave Martinez, and I will be your blogger extraordinaire on these here USMNT pages leading up to the World Cup!

Fox Sports International sent me a package last week to promote Fox Soccer Plus. You can watch me open the package to reveal what's inside. It definitely took me by surprise.

The package is part of a marketing campaign called Fox Soccer Plus Rowdies. The aim seems to be to inform potential advertisers about the availability of Fox Soccer Plus and how 62 million plus people in America want soccer.

The entrance page of the portal (reproduced with the permission from the owners)
For thousands of social footballers out there, what are the major concerns when you want to arrange a simple kick-about?

• Like your side are eager to seek newer challenge, after facing same opponents week in week out.

Europe's most wanted striker will finally be unveiled as a Barcelona player on Friday after completing a £34.2m move from Valencia.

David Villa 28, has signed a four-year deal with the Catalan club, with Cesc Fabregas also said to be on his way.

The Spanish hitman was top scorer at Euro 2008, despite missing the final in which Spain won 2-0.

Martin Skrtel is desperate to prove his fitness to earn a place in the Slovakian squad for what will be an historic World Cup for his nation.
Skrtel suffered a metatarsal injury in February, missing the climax of Liverpool's season, but is in Slovakia's provisional squad for South Africa 2010.

Alan Hansen on top form last night as he was sneeringly patronising about New Zealand. His failings as a pundit are being highlighted this year by the excellent performance of new BBC signing Clarence Seedorf. Seedorf is everything Hansen could have been, maybe once was, if he hadn't settled for the lazy route of interminable banter with Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer.

While I am sure you will agree, the World Cup has been disappointing so far. However, that is understandable if you think about it. In the opening games teams are concentrating on their defensive discipline with the goal of not losing their opening game.

Individual star players have not caught on fire yet because they are playing cautiously as part of the above strategy.

Americas In Praise of Landon Donovan -- from Soccer America's Paul Gardner: What Howard had done so slickly with his hands, Donovan now continued with his feet. When it comes to the World Cup, aim higher, America -- from The LA Times' Bill Plaschke: I respect soccer too much to compromise its potential by accepting the old stereotypes that drag it down.

We go from no-hope San Diego (the perception, anyway) to the apple of Garber's eye, Atlanta. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution comes a story on an English Premier League team researching the city as a possible place to invest in MLS.
The idea that a(nother) foreign club might enter the U.

Frank Arnesen has been quoted in THE SUN and has spoken of Roman Abramovich's support in developing from within the club. Its proof that Roman is looking at Chelsea's long term futures and not just splashing the cash. Arnesen said:

"We knew when I came the aim in 2010-11 was to have at least one player in the first team.

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted that the Switzerland defender Phillipe Senderos will probably leave this month, but he didn't do much to help him find a new club when he said that "his aim is not to play football"! Everyone was under the impression that Wenger had a problem with Senderos because he never [.

Wayne Rooney returns to Goodison Park as Manchester United meet Everton (7:45am EST on ESPN2) while the battle for a top-four finish intensifies when Manchester City lock horns with Liverpool. Elsewhere, Sunderland aim for a second win over Arsenal this season and their first since November, league leaders Chelsea make the trip to Molineux, bottom-of-the-table Portsmouth entertain Stoke City while Wigan Athletic hope to avoid a repeat of their 9-1 loss to Spurs earlier this campaign.

With only two days remaining in Bradenton the Black-and-Red are maximizing their time in Florida by working hard on the training field. The two photos below depict some of the great individual battles that have occurred over the past two days. The first shot was taken in a one-on-one session between forward Adam Cristman and defender Dejan Jakovic.

The posters supporting the anti-Glazer campaign which have popping up around town have been designed free of charge by Justin Cernis of The Cernis Collective.

He has today revealed that this is just the beginning though, with more ideas on the way to help boost the membership of MUST.

"What we want are as many ideas as possible so that we can organise a co-ordinated campaign," he said.

The Manchester derby between City and United kicks things off this weekend as the former aim to close on fourth place while the latter target salvaging the defence of their Premier League crown.
Elsewhere, division leaders Chelsea make the short trip to Tottenham, struggling Hull City visit Birmingham City, Burnley are seeking back-to-back successes against Sunderland, Arsenal take on Wigan while Wolves and Bolton go in search of vital points at Fulham and Stoke respectively.

Yes, the Diamondbacks beat the Phillies last night in what sounded like an excellent effort on their part. While the Diamondbacks got it done, the rest of the state (with the exception of Boltgirl and her friends and family) was not simply embarrassing itself but causing serious geological damage to the southwestern part of the US.

Slovenian U-21 budding star Haris Vuckic is playing tonight for the Reserves against Rotherham and hopes to do enough to make the squad for Sunday's last league game of the season at QPR. Haris Vuckic hoping for first team outing Vuckic told the Evening Chronicle today: "Like any young player my aim is to play [.

Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas has been confirmed as a participant in July's A:3K Football tournament, in which six of the world's best players will compete in a series of gladiatorial games of skill at the 02 Arena.

The footie stars will battle it out in a tournament testing their skills in front of a huge live audience and millions of TV viewers.

Two years ago almost to the day, Some People Are On The Pitch produced a blog article which would prove to be one of its most popular ever. We're not entirely sure why, but we were glad it was seen by so many people as it took a long time to compile.
The article in question was called All-Time Premier League Tables and its content, like its premise, was fairly self-explanatory.

While most will be hanging on to ever call in South Africa, all the cool kids will be heading to Singapore for the real World Cup: RoboCup 2010. Like the real World Cup, but for robots. With the entire aim to defeat humans by 2050, and then take over the world. But not before their goalkeepers improve their positioning.

Tom Ince believes the 2010-11 campaign could be significant in helping him realise his dream of one day playing for Liverpool's first-team.
The 18-year-old winger has enjoyed a fine season as part of Rodolfo Borrell's improving under-18 side and has now set his sights on stepping up a level during the summer months.

Nordic News Extraaaaa
I'll be in Scandinavia until Monday. I've assured the wife it's a cultural trip and that but rules are rules as you know. As such, I've managed to negotiate the squeezing in of a couple of games in Denners and Sweden respectively. On Saturday I'll be at Malmo IFK v Nosaby IF and on Sunday I travel with the Blue Vikings of Lyngby to FC Vestsjælland.

Stoke City chairman Peter Coates believes that Liverpool will find it "enormously difficult" to reclaim a place in the Champions League due to the new financial rules that UEFA are introducing.
The new rules will mean that clubs will only be able to spend money that they earn, and the Stoke chairman believes that this will just benefit those clubs already in the Champions League, increasing their financial power.

We are just a few days away from the exciting beginning of the FIFA World Cup 2010 being held at South Africa and international superstar Shakira is scheduled to perform her new single, "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" during the opening ceremony on June 10th.

"The FIFA World Cup is a miracle of global excitement, connecting every country, race, religion and condition around a single passion.

Liverpool Football Club has admitted to taking its supporters for granted. The frank revelation was issued by the club's head of customer experience, Jean Crisp, who says standards of customer service at Liverpool have and will continue to improve. Crisp is in charge of the club's customer experience department, set up at the beginning of last season with the aim of improving supporters' off-the-field experience when dealing with the club.

Emmanuel Egbuka Has anyone ever considered the idea that the whole story of Cesc requesting that his future be decided before the world cup was engineered by Arsenal FC, together with Arsene and Cesc? The aim would be to put an end to the media's never ending stories of Cesc going to Barcelona before almost [.

Chris Hughton is a pragmatic guy, who thinks football all the time, and already has his overall strategy for next season worked out. Chris Hughton plans in place but it will take a while He said earlier this morning that his aim was to bring back European football, and to re-establish Newcastle United [.

Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson is confident of further adding to his squad before the end of this summer's transfer window following the captures of Joe Cole, Milan Jovanovic, Jonjo Shelvey, and Danny Wilson.
Hodgson, who will take charge of his first competitive game as Liverpool manager on Thursday in the third qualifying round of the Europa League against Macedonian side Rabotnicki, has spent a little over £3 million in transfer fees this summer, and the former Fulham boss is hoping there will be more new arrivals at the club.

According to Liverpool's official website, Liverpool striker Fernando Torres is completely happy staying at the club. Torres said,

"This is the best club in the country so the targets and expectations are always high. Hopefully we can stay at our level.

With only days remaining before Manchester United kicks off their competitive season against Chelsea, midfielder Darron Gibson has stressed his desire to impress Sir Alex Ferguson. The midfielder had several chances in the United first team last season, and after playing a significant role in preseason he hopes he can nail down a spot in this year's first squad.

Sasha Kljestan and Anderlecht aim for a second straight Eerste Klasse win when they travel to Stade du Pays de Charleroi on Saturday to face Royal Charleroi SC.

"I rate Spurs very highly. They are absolute favourites to win the title."
-Nicolas Anelka, mis-quoted in the Sun

Nico puts a fiver on Spurs on Friday.

Manchester United lost eight games last season inlcluding a loss to relegated side Burnley at Turf Moor in which Michael Carrick missed a spot kick to level the game. Manchester United open their League campaign on Monday against newly promoted side Newcastle United at home.

United midfielder, Michael Carrick, believes Manchester United cannot afford to lose any games espeically against mid-table teams.

Everton player Phil Neville has called for his Toffees teammates to get over their opening day disappointment quickly. Everton couldn't find a way past Blackburn on opening day at Ewood Park, and a Tim Howard error gifted the Rovers the only goal of the match as they ran out 1-0 winners.

"We have to forget about this now and remember we are in the big league, and it's about gaining points," said the former Manchester United defender.

Carthage Tigers, Class 3 District 12 Champions 2009

Cody Dyer at the Carthage Press offers a look at the Carthage Tigers aim for third-straight district title

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Although the Tigers have captured successive district championships, second-year Carthage High School boys soccer coach Jacob Osborne expressed cautious optimism about the upcoming season.

There has been a lot of chatter - in the blog comments, on AIM between me and Jeremy, and on last weekend's Live Chat - about the relative merits of Joey Barton (especially when compared to Kevin Nolan). I thought I'd throw in my two cents before I got on with the usual business of this column. This decision really comes down to philosophy in picking your fantasy team and the quirks of the

As the new recruits begin to show their undoubted talent at Manchester City, the club is slowly but surely rooting out, and removing, all the players who are considered expendable.
Despite being one of City's players of the year in recent times, Stephen Ireland has been sent to Aston Villa.

Following two years of trials and training the Transfer Matching System (TMS) comes into effect on Friday 1 October. The initiative harnesses modern electronic technology with the aim of making international transfers more transparent and protecting minors. But how will it work? FIFA.com has all the details on what is a major step forward in the regulating of international football transfers.

By Alan Duffy

Sam Allardyce Attempts A Rory Delap Special

Fulham schemer Danny Murphy has added his voice to the current debate over bad tackles in the game.

According to Murphy, the blame lies not just with the perpetrators of the nasty challenges themselves, but also with their managers:

"You get managers sending teams out to stop other sides from playing, which is happening more and more.

Watching Bolton Wanderers against Liverpool on Sunday, the Reds seemed to do everything right except in the last third of the pitch where Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres both were completely off form. It was almost as if the two had never played together. The players, again and again, failed to link up with each other.