Image: blogdelosfamosos.com.

As we all already know, Fernando Torres missed last night's Liverpool match against Aston Villa to witness the birth of his second child. We're now giddy-with-glee to confirm that Olalla gave birth to a baby boy, Leo, late yesterday. The footy world was rocked to its core [as were the pastry shops within 10 kilometers of our flats] so much so that the baby's birth was not reported according to the time of day, but rather, what minute mark of Liverpool's match (the 74th, FYI).

It wasn't so long ago that Kevin Payne railed on about the likes of Colorado and New England making MLS unwatchable by playing a disruptive, counterattacking style that went against everything that Payne claimed that was good about United. So how's that picture look less than a year on? You want a mirror, Kevin?

Top-class ridiculous tactics from the Special One Jose Mourinho has pulled some stunts over the years, but this is definitely up there with OTP's favourites. With key players Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos on yellow cards, Real Madrid cruising at 4-0 up against Ajax, and already through to the knockout stages, the Special One allegedly [.

Hello readers.

I refrained from writing about the title race until it was done and dusted and there's plenty to talk about, from pre-season predictions to key battles where the title was won and of course, what the future holds for the 'big' teams.

Pre-season Predictions

What a joke!

It was not a pleasant outing for Steven Gerrard as England captain in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Although he opened the scoring for his country merely four minutes into their tournament opener, the very sight of a dejected Gerrard exiting the Lions' team plane suggested that he was ready to leave England's sorrows behind to move on to club football.

Not gonna lie, the Pied Piper of Higuain is starting to really grow on us! Take out your flutes because he is now officially Los Blancos' top scorer two goals behind the Messiah after their 6-2 thrashing of Villarreal last night. It's OK, Nilmaaar, você vai ficar bem.

A case for Carrick after England's passing horror show?

One thing was increasingly obvious during the England-Algeria game those bleach blonde hairstyles donned by some of the Algerian players were horrible. Oh, and if you didn't notice England's passing in that game was dreadful.

Club Social y Deportivo Colo Colo is a Chilean football club. It has won a record number of national titles and is the only Chilean team to have won the Copa Libertadores de América (1991). Last night at their shop in Tais en Alonso de Córdova, Colo Colo presented their Umbro 2010 home, away and training [.

SPAGNA

CASILLAS 7: dopo aver salvato le Furie Rosse parando il rigore a Cardozo sullo 0-0, si ripete respingendo con sicurezza la conclusione a botta sicura di Kroos, episodio decisivo visto che quattro minuti dopo arriva il gol di Puyol.
SERGIO RAMOS 7: Una spina nel fianco della difesa tedesca.

As promised, managed to find a better REAL MADRID TEAM PHOTO for season 2010-2011. This is the starting line-up against Peñerol yesterday & could be the starting line-up for the start of the SPANISH FOOTBALL season - LA LIGA. Top (L to R): Casillas, Ramos, Khedira, Alonso, Carvalho, RonaldoBottom (L to R): Marcelo, Canales, Higuain, Lass Diarra, Ozil.

1 POR José Canales 2 DEF Alfredo González Tahuilán 3 DEF Néstor Vidrio 4 MED Luis Robles 5 DEF Ricardo Jiménez 6 MED Gerardo Espinoza 7 MED Elías Ribeiro de Oliveira 8 MED Lucas Ayala * 9 DEL Hebert Alférez 10 DEL Alfredo Moreno * 11 DEL Daniel Osorno 12 POR Miguel Pinto 13 DEL Carlos Costly 14 MED Cesar Ibáñez 15 MED Gerardo Flores16 DEF Alonso Zamora 17 MED Lúcio Flávio dos Santos 18 MED Jesús Paganoni 19 MED Saúl Villalobos 20 MED Christian Díaz 21 POR Jesús Gallardo 22 MED Edgar Pacheco 23 DEF Wilman Conde 24 DEL Alejandro Leyva 25 MED Carlos Gutiérrez 26 DEL Flavio Santos 27 DEF Hugo Rodríguez 28 MED Daniel Arreola 29 DEL Guillermo Martín 30 DEF Darvin Chávez Gracias por tu visita Estadísticas de Fútbol

BREAKING NEWS: It has just emerged that all the main sport channels have banned ex-footballers from being able to be pundits during high profile football matches.

Jamie Redknapp came under fire from Liverpool manager Rafael Benetiz form saying that ‘Liverpool were missing Xabi Alonso' in the recent 2-1 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

I'm delighted Spain won the World Cup. As I've often said in the past, along with Argentina, they are the team I most like to watch. And for once there can be no arguments the best team won the championship.

I can understand that people find the behaviour of Barcelona players and management to be despicable.

Lately the Sounders have been using a kind of 4-2-3-1. It is similar to the Arrow that we used to note around here, and has primarily been the way that the Sounders have dealt with the loss of Brad Evans to injury. Nathan Sturgis doesn't play forward as much as Evans, but he also doesn't get back as much as Alonso.

Normally, I don't have the time to watch the games of other teams. It was only when I saw this post on Another Arsenal Blog that I discovered Ben Arfa was the latest to join the list of broken legs. Nigel De Jong of the Kung-Fu kick on Alonso in the World Cup final fame being the culprit.

You can see the tackle in the following videos from youtube.

por ESPN.com.br com AFP
O atacante paraguaio Salvador Cabañas, do América-MEX e da seleção de seu país, passa neste momento por uma cirurgia no Hospital Los Angeles, na Cidade do México, após ter sido baleado na cabeça na madrugada desta segunda-feira, informou Michel Bauer, presidente do clube.

From the Seattle Times we learn that camp has cut way down. There were some extra keepers around, and one of them is still under contract (Eylander), and Jeff Parke doesn't have an contract yet either, but there are 22 Senior Roster slots occupied if you count both of them, with up to 3 guys that could wind up on the Injured List (Eylander, Graham and maybe even Jaqua who just returned to the pitch).

MADRID 0-2 BARÇA
GOLES: 0-1 Messi (min. 32); 0-2 Pedro (min. 56)
El Barça de Pep logró lo que ningún equipo ha conseguido hacer en el Bernabéu este año: Ganar al Madrid. Los blaugranas realizaron un partido muy serio y lograron aguantar el arreón inicial del Madrid.

According to almost every 'official' source under the sun, Liverpool received £30m from Real Madrid for the services of Xabi Alonso. A more than fair fee if you ask me considering Alonso's quality, but is it really true?
That Liverpool received £30m for Alonso is pretty much accepted amongst Liverpool fans.

View full size photo »

Looks like we were one off on the starting X1, as Nathan Sturgis apparently will get the nod over the still healing Osvaldo Alonso. We were less accurate on the bench, where Miguel Montano and Jeff Parke will be.

Could Javi be Emirates bound?

Think Ghana will be top African team at the World Cup at 4/1 Bet with SkyBet and get £20 bonus!

Get Your Anti Vuvuzela T-Shirt Now!

Arsenal are reportedly interested in Atletico Bilbao's highly rated young midfielder Javi Martinez.

The last quarterfinal match of the World Cup pits Paraguay and Spain (2:30pm, ABC) against one another in a bout that will determine which team meets Germany in the semifinals.

Entering the match as the heavy favorite, Spain will be hoping to knockoff a Paraguay team that has failed to score in its last 214 minutes.

Netherlands and Spain are similar because not only that neither have ever been crowned a world champion but also because time and time again have been related to beautiful football and exceptional passing. But as far as the World Cup is concerned, Netherlands have been in the final twice before.

It still feels like a dream... walking to work early on Monday morning, stopping at each newsstand on the way to look at the newspapers and grin like a fool.

Spain, World Cup Champions.

SPAIN, WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS!

¡Campeones, oé!

Finally, finally, we've conquered not only the 'Quarterfinal Curse', but the World Cup itself.

Real Madrid 6 - 1 Deportivo La Coruña(1-0) 5' Cristiano, (2-0) 24' Ozil, (3-0) 34' Di Maria, (4-0) 53' Higuain, (5-0) 60' Ze Castro, (5-1) 78' Juan Rodriguez, (6-1) 89' Cristiano Ronaldo
Six games into the new season and we finally get a Real Madrid exhibition.

Liverpool currently sit 18th in the league with their worst start to a season 57 years: What the hell has gone wrong? Here are six reasons...

1) The World Cup hang-over :- Many of the liverpool squad had terrible summers. Agger crashed out with Denmark, Carragher, Gerrard, Johnson and Cole were poor for England.

"The ONE day I don't wear my vest turns out to be the ONE day I could realistically have pretended to be in ‘Die Hard'" - dubbed Xabi Alonso

Absurdly entertaining stuff from the guys over at TalkSport.

In a jokingly manner, Inaki Alonso (Murcia Coach) said that the only way to beat Real Madrid today is by praying.

Both sides will meet later today in a Copa del Rey match and with Jose Mourinho labeling this match very important as he is making it a "Make or Break" situation for some of his players, praying is probably the right answer for Murcia.

Uefa says it will study the match referee's report before deciding whether to charge Real Madrid players Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos for appearing to get intentional red cards in their Champions League match against Ajax.
Paul Wilson: An intentional red card is not that bad
Under article 5.

1 POR Alfredo Talavera 2 DEF Diego Novaretti 3 DEF Osvaldo González 4 DEF Francisco Gamboa 5 MED Martín Romagnoli 6 DEF Manuel de La Torre 7 DEL Néstor Calderón 8 MED Diego de La Torre 10 MED Antonio Naelson * 1º 11 DEL Carlos Esquivel 12 POR Miguel Centeno 13 MED Moisés Velasco 14 DEF Edgar Dueñas 2º 15 MED Antonio Ríos16 MED Carlos Galeana 17 DEL Arturo Tapia 18 DEL Isaac Brizuela 19 DEL Raúl Nava 20 MED Alonso Granados 22 DEL Emmanuel Cerda 23 MED Erbin Trejo 23 DEL Jaime Ayoví 24 DEF Héctor Acosta 25 POR Sergio Pérez 26 MED Juan Calderon 27 DEF Mario Méndez 29 POR Ernesto Sánchez Gracias por tu visita Estadísticas de Fútbol

1 POR Carlos Rodríguez 2 DEF Enrique Pérez 3 POR Federico Vilar *** 4 DEF Luis Fernando Silva 5 MED Adrián García Arias 6 MED Ismael Pineda 7 DEL Rafael Márquez Lugo 8 MED Jorge Kalú Gastelum 9 DEL Miguel Sabah 10 DEL Joao Rojas 12 POR Yair Urbina 13 DEF Joel Huiqui 14 MED Luis Miguel Noriega 15 DEF Francisco Dórame 16 DEF Adrián Aldrete17 MED Rodolfo Vilchiz 18 DEL Luis Gabriel Rey 19 DEL Miguel Sansores 20 DEL Ángel Sepúlveda 21 MED Jaime Lozano 22 DEF Víctor Barragán 24 MED Manuel Pérez 26 DEF Mauricio Romero 77 MED Elías Hernández 81 MED Aldo Leao Ramírez 100 POR Alonso Árciga
DEF Jesús Castillo
MED Jaime Ayala
MED Ernest Nungaray ** Gracias por tu visita Estadísticas de Fútbol

There are two scenarios that normally come into play when a player enters the final six months of his contract: either panic because of the imminent loss of a player for free or else relief at the realisation that someone who wouldn't otherwise be shifted is about to leave.
Deciding which end of those two Fabio Aurelio fits into, however, isn't that simple.

Let's take a deeper look at Sigi's Arrow. We shall examine my interpretation of the system as the Sounders ended the season, both on offense and defense. How they countered the deep ball, and how they established a bit of width.
Graham calls it a 4-1-Diamond-1, I have called it a 2-3-3-2.

Zabi Alonso was the biggest departure from Anfield last season but Sami Hyppia's move to Bayer Leverkusen was also a huge blow.
However, it could be that, at long last, Sotirios Kyrgiakos is ready to fill the void left by the Big Finn.
I'm not for one moment comparing the two, as Sami was rightly thought of as a Liverpool legend.

It is rare in club soccer in relatively minor leagues to be able to watch the best player that has ever played for your own nation. For the Sounders of Seattle we have that unique privilege. Certainly the best American Keeper in history has retired from international play, but he is still a decent player.

0-1 Xabi Alonso (Autogol) 10'0-2 Dragutinovic 52'1-2 Ronaldo 60'2-2 Ramos 64'3-2 Van Der Vaart 90'DISCLAIMER: Calcioplus non hosta alcun video pubblicato su di esso. Tutti i video pubblicati sono caricati da amanti di calcio su siti di video hosting come Youtube e Dailymotion ed ubicati dunque su siti esterni a Calcioplus.

Rafael Benitez is convinced Alberto Aquilani will prove to be a good signing for Liverpool.
The Reds splashed out £20million on the Italian midfielder last summer, keen to find an able replacement for the Real Madrid-bound Xabi Alonso.
Unfortunately, the Anfield faithful have seen little of their big-money signing this season, with injury and illness keeping him sidelined for long periods.

Now I know most of you probably just glance past the sidebars, but on the left side you are missing updated Goals, Assists, Clean Sheets, +/-, Points Per 90 and Plus/Minus Per 90 numbers for League Play, and in Reserve/Friendly action you are missing the Goals, Assists and Points.

Below is the full data for both current League Play and Reserve/Friendly play.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

By JOSE M. ROMERO

They weren't, and probably won't be last year's New York Red Bulls. But Saturday night's Seattle Sounders FC was in many ways the same club as it was in Year One. And that doesn't bode well for the Rave Green and its faithful.

Liverpool Manager Rafael Benitez has challenged the club to find investment and provide him with transfer funds to take the team forward after a disappointing season at Anfield. Fernando Torres spoke out this week saying that Liverpool had failed to replace Hyypia, Arbeloa and Alonso and that the team had suffered as a result of their [.