The Portland Timbers held a lively practice today, playing some of what could actually be called soccer for the first time this preseason. After the usual warm-ups and passing drills, the Timbers played games of 9v9 which was a deviation from last season which saw the Timbers doing purely fitness and passing drills for their first several weeks together.

And let's face it, it's the back four that is the club's biggest problem. So the signing of 30-year-old defender John Alexander Valencia, who has made 112 starts in 114 games for Colombian champion Atletico Junior since 2007, sounds exactly what the club needs. "John is a player we have

Alex Bunbury foi um internacional canadiano que durante seis épocas, entre 1993/94 e 1998/99, foi a principal referência atacante do Marítimo. Vindo dos ingleses do West Ham, o possante avançado rapidamente "pegou de estaca" na equipa madeirense. Hoje com 44 anos, Alexander Bunbury está retirado do futebol, após ter terminado a carreira nos norte-americanos do Kansas City Wizards e acompanha a carreira dos seus dois filhos: Teal (21 anos) e Logan (16) e nascido em Portugal.

I did not want to believe it at first, but it seems like the rumours about AC Milan striker Alexander Pato joining French Club PSG are true. I am a big of the 22 year old Brazilian striker and feel that Milan would be making a big mistake if they let him go.

To be honest, i feel that if something is not done immediately about Allegri's coaching tactics, then even more stars will end up leaving the club.

Qual a probabilidade de haver um futebolista com o apelido Cona? Certamente muito reduzida. Qual a probabilidade desse jogador actuar nas divisões secundárias da Suécia? À partida, parece uma hipótese ainda mais remota, mas a beleza do futebol é mesmo esta: a de tornar reais situações que parecem impossíveis de acontecer.

Having a footballer that thinks more about money more than playing seems to irritate Manchester City's manager, Roberto Mancini, who publicly suggested those who didn't have a place in his team to accept playing at other teams, despite having lower payment.

The player that Mancini refer to is Wayne Bridge, who have been rejecting several offers in the summer and continue staying at City despite not being considered as part of the first team member.

La Universidad de Chile superó con autoridad a la Liga de Quito por 3-0 y se proclamó campeón de la Copa Sudamericana, el primer trofeo internacional que llega a las vitrinas del club.
La U no falló en su cita con la historia y aniquiló al conjunto ecuatoriano con dos goles de Eduardo Vargas, el máximo artillero de la competición, y otro del argentino Gustavo Lorenzetti.

Having just suffered their first defeat in the league against Chelsea last Monday, another important challenge must be faced by Manchester City this weekend as an in-form Arsenal are coming to Etihad stadium.

Despite the difficulty of the upcoming match, City's manager, Roberto Mancini apparently isn't worrying that much especially since they have a big boost with the potential return of Micah Richards for this Sunday.

szólj hozzá: CL: Basel - ManUtd 2-1 071211

Marco Streller and Alexander Frei combine to put the hurt on Man Utd. To add to the gloom, Utd lose Nemanja Vidic with suspected knee ligament damage which could keep him out for a while. Sir Alex did not get his 100th Champions League win and now takes Utd to the Europa Cup.

Marco Streller and Alexander Frei combine to put the hurt on Man Utd. To add to the gloom, Utd lose Nemanja Vidic with suspected knee ligament damage which could keep him out for a while. Sir Alex did not get his 100th Champions League win and now takes Utd to the Europa Cup. It's akin to Greg Louganis doing a belly flop and coming up purple in embarrassment.

Murat Yakin (r). When you're hot, you're hot. And when you're wearing a classy coat/scarf combo instead of a hideous quilted jacket and jeans, you're even hotter. Images: REUTERS/Christian Hartmann, Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images Europe.

It's been a while since we've visited this category, but while we were browsing the photos of this weekend's league action we happened upon the rather fetching countenance of FC Luzern's manager, Murat Yakin.

It is that time of the year to start speculating on exactly what the Portland Timbers' roster needs are for the next year. For starters we need to take a look at the most used formations by John Spencer and the Timbers and then fill in what the Timbers still have on the roster.

Formation(s):

The Timbers employed a 4-4-2 for almost the first half of the season.

Jeremy Hall is acquiring quite the jersey collection in a short amount of time.

The one-time U.S. youth product and Generation adidas signing is on the move again after being traded from FC Dallas to Toronto FC on Tuesday in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2013 MLS SuperDraft.

Liverpool are keen on rookie Romanian goalkeeper Valentin Cojocaru according to talkSPORT.
The 16-year-old stopper is widely regarded as one of the brightest young talents to come out of eastern Europe, and is currently on the books at Steaua Bucharest.
Cojocaru has been offered the chance to train with Liverpool at the club's Melwood academy - where Reds boss Kenny Dalglish will ask his team of coaches to determine whether or not the teenager could have a future at Anfield.

Mais um jogo das eliminatória da Eurocopa 2012, foi realizado no dia 02/09/2011, na cidade de Andorra La Vella-ESP, onde jogaram as seleções de Andorra (203º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção da Armênia (71º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo
2006Andorra La Vella 12/10/2005 AND0:3 (0:1)ARM First stage2006Yerevan 26/03/2005 ARM2:1 (1:0)AND First stage
Eliminatórias Continentais
Yerevan 12/10/2010 ARM4:0 (3:0)AND 2000Andorra La Vella 09/10/1999 AND0:3ARM Preliminary round2000Yerevan 05/09/1998 ARM3:1 (1:0)AND Preliminary round
Amistosos
2007Andorra La Vella 07/02/2007 AND0:0ARM 2001Andorra La Vella 07/06/2002 AND0:2 (0:1)ARM

O árbitro desse jogo, foi: Alexander Kostadinov-BUL
O primeiro gol do jogo, foi de Marcos Pizzelli, aos 35 minutos do primeiro tempo.

Mais um jogo das eliminatórias da Copa do Mundo de 2014, foi realizado no dia 02/09/2011, na cidade de Port au Prince-HAI, onde jogaram as seleções do Haiti (116º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção das Ilhas Virgens Americanas (149º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
2005Kingston 24/11/2004 HAI11:0 (5:0)VIR First round2001Port-Au-Prince 10/04/2001 HAI12:1 (4:0)VIR Group matches
O árbitro desse jogo, foi: Hugo Cruz Alvarado-CRC
O primeiro gol do jogo, foi de James Marcelin, aos 19 minutos do primeiro tempo, sendo seu segundo gol pela seleção nacional.

Tonight kicks off the SB Nation Mock Expansion Draft where each current editor for each respective SBN blog will protect their chosen eleven from our soon-to-be Montreal Impact editor here with the great MLS blog family. It should be a lot of fun and I hope you join us at 4:00 PM today for the actual mock draft.

You read that right. Here's our deal for you:
Donate $10 to support soccer in urban areas and secure a chance to win an all-expense paid trip for two to MLS Cup to watch the LA Galaxy take on the Houston Dynamo at the Home Depot Center on November 20th!

Alexander Ferguson cumple 25 años (ininterrumpidos) como DT del Manchester United. Aquí el especial de ESPN (60 minutos) y una breve reseña.
05.11.2011 - La condecoración de la Orden del Imperio Británico (1984) y su nombramiento como "Sir" (1999) trazan un perfil de Alexander Ferguson, el veterano escocés (31.

Photo all rights reserved by tbirdshockeyfan

Manchester United's long serving manager is considered to be one of the best in the world. He is at the helm since 1986, and presently has no signs of retiring.

Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson currently has 12 Premier League championships, and helped beat Liverpool's 18 league championships in 2010-11 season.

Image taken 17.8.2011. H/T to @LFCTransferSpec & @RobbieFootieFan.

Steven Gerrard's wife, Alex, has popped Kickettes, giving the LFC captain a hat-trick of daughters. Around 4pm GMT today, Lourdes Gerrard arrived into this world at a hospital in Liverpool, presumably with her mini-me Alexander Wang bag in tow.

With the season over and some time to digest all that has occurred during the season it is time to give every player a grade. In this edition we will only be looking at the midfielders who played minutes with the first team. We will also be looking at a variety of stats to determine each of the players grades.

With the Expansion draft less than a month away it is time to decide who we, the Stumptown Footy Community, would protect. The goal is to create the top 11 players whom you want to protect through a vote by comments. We will not be following the international player rules as it gets super complicated if you want the rules go here.

Doni suffers dislocated finger

Liverpool goalkeeper Alexander Doni suffered a dislocated finger in Tuesday's friendly defeat to Rangers.

View the full story here: Sky Sports

A news article on 2011-10-19 00:05:13 from: Sky Sports

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

For today's betting lines, we're keeping it simple. You can only bet on goal scorers. One twist is I'll try to give you a line on every player who might actually score.

The Lines

Who will score against Houston?
Cooper 4:1
Jewsbury 8:1
Perlaza 8:1
Nagbe 8:1
Chara 10:1
Dike 12:1
Brunner 15:1
Alexander 16:1
Wallace 16:1
Zizzo 16:1
Danso 17:1
Chabala 17:1
Alhassan 18:1
Marcelin 20:1
Palmer 20:1
The field 20:1

The Rules

-Everyone gets $20 in monopoly money each week to bet with.

As Carlos Tevez awaits further action from his club, new reports emerging claim that he had an altercation with team mate Alexander Kolarov that led to averbal exchange between the two where Kolarov called Tevez and idiot.

It is true that Tevez's actions were rather foolish and unbecoming and although everyone is right in thinking this, it still does not give anyone the right to speak their mind.

Eren Derdiyok who is Alexander Frei's heir apparent in the Swiss national team shows off some awesome skill with this improvised bicycle kick. In a showdown between the two corporation owned teams, Bayer Leverkusen under Robin Dutta beat VfL Wolfsburg, 3-1. Immediately after, the Wolfsburg team took loads of aspirin to dull the pain.

After playing even for a half, Fort Lewis College erupted for three second-half goals and cruised to a 4-1 win over the Colorado School of Mines in Golden on Friday.

The Skyhawks scored first when Artur Piperkov connected for his first goal of the season 10 minutes into the match. Piperkov banged his shot in from 15 yards out.

Ecuador has released their roster for the October 11th friendly against the United States at Red Bull Arena. Ecuador opens CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying on the 7th against Venezuela. GK: Máximo Bangüera (Barcelona), Alexander Domínguez (Liga de Quito) Adrián Bone (Deportivo Quito) DEF: Gabriel Achilier (Emelec), Diego Calderón (Liga de Quito), Fricson Erazo (El Nacional), Eduardo Morante (Emelec), Jairo Campos (Deportivo Quito), Juan Carlos Paredes (Deportivo Quito), Walter Ayoví (Monterrey-México), Giovanny Caicedo (Liga de Quito).

By Chris Wright

Frei-ed/Fried!? Geddit?!? Yeesh, that was a stinker.

Anyway, the crux of the matter is that Manchester United were almost turned over at home by FC Basel in the Champions League last night with Ashley Young heading home a last-minute equaliser to save face after the Swiss side cancelled out Danny Welbeck's quickfire double with three second-half goals from Alexander and Fabian Frei (no relation).

Manchester United were involved in an error ridden Champions League goal fest at Old Trafford last night. It was a roller-coaster of a game, it finished up 3-3. Basel were two-nil down at half-time, but fought back strongly in the second-half and deservedly led 3-2 thanks to goals by Alexander and Fabien Frei.

Manchester United were made to salvage a last-minute draw with Swiss side FC Basel in their UEFA Champions League meeting at Old Trafford on Tuesday night. After going up 2-0 on a Danny Welbeck brace after 17 minutes, United allowed goals by Fabian Frei in the 58th and Alexander Frei in the 60th. Basel went [.

1-0 Danny Welbeck 16' 2-0 Danny Welbeck 17' 2-1 Fabian Frei 58' 2-2 Alexander Frei 60' 2-3 Alexander Frei (Rig.) 76' 3-3 Ashley Young 90' Vuoi conoscere le classifiche, i risultati, le statistiche e le quote scommesse da tutto il calcio mondiale? Visita Calciometria.com DISCLAIMER: Calcioplus non hosta alcun video pubblicato su di esso.

Usually I wait a day to digest the game and rewatch it but after today's game I really don't think I have to because all but three of the players will get the same score. So I am going to break it down into Three groups.

Group 1 - The good - 7

Troy Perkins- Without him it would have been 4-0 or worse.

Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis has confirmed there is a buyout clause written into the contract of reported Liverpool target Ezequiel Lavezzi.
But Laurentiis is irritated that he ever reached such an agreement with Lavezzi and his representatives - and claims it will never happen again.
"Lavezzi's agent very sneakily asked me for a buy-out clause and as a novice, I fell for it, but from that point on I have never accepted another clause in the contract," said De Laurentiis.

It's not often that we'll talk about a tragedy in another sport, but this is just sad. Yahoo Sports is reporting that en route to a Kontinental Hockey League match, all but one of the 1st team of Russian club Lokomotiv were killed in a horrific plane crash. The surviving member, Alexander Gamilov, is currently in intensive care with burns covering 80% of his body.

Mais um jogo da Europa League de 2011/2012, foi realizado no dia 14/07/2011, na cidade de Marijampole-LTU, onde jogaram os clubes Suduva-LTU 1x1 Elfsborg-SWE
O árbitro desse jogo, foi: Alexander Kostadinov (BUL)

Atletico Madrid have signed Diego on loan while Barcelona's Alexander Hleb replacing him at Wolfsburg.

Diego, 26, joined Wolfsburg from Juventus last summer but ran into trouble with the club's hierarchy for disciplinary reasons. Wolfsburg have now confirmed he has now moved to Atleti for the coming season with Coach Felix Magath said:

"I'm convinced Diego will play an outstanding role in Madrid.

Liverpool has been dealt a decisive blow in their pursuit of Wigan Athletic striker Hugo Rodallega.
The Colombian international has been linked with a Barclays Premier League switch this summer, with Kenny Dalglish thought to be keen on bringing the 26-year-old to Anfield.
However, Latics boss Roberto Martinez has quashed rumours that the former Necaxa striker could be making a move to Merseyside in the closing stages of the transfer window.

Benfica Portugal
Last season: 2nd in the league, 21 points behind Porto. Semi-finals of Europa League. Winners of the League Cup.
This season: 3rd out of 16. 2 points behind the leaders.
Last season's top scorers: Javier Saviola (9) and Óscar Cardozo (9).
European success: 2 European Cups (1961 and 1962).