Landon Donovan is back on U.S. soil and made an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman.

Last night it came out that Landon Donovan would be making an appearance on the Jimmy Fallon show tonight (Wednesday). Now we know why. He'll be unveiling the FIFA 11 cover, featuring himself in the blue USA World Cup kit. Donovan posted the cover on his Facebook page this morning (see below). Donovan was previously the FIFA cover athlete for FIFA 07, wearing his yellow LA Galaxy kit.

JESU Christi, it's all a bit Liverpool-heavy on the wire of late.

Anywhom, this morning comes the news that Manchester United's in-house stable boy Michael Owen is to become a Liverpool player once again next month after leaving the club for Real Madrid six years ago.

NSC pal Bryan Zygo was using pretty good logic when he guessed that Stuart Holden's impending New Year's Day appearance on Good Morning America meant that the U.S. midfielder would re-sign with the Houston Dynamo.However, it appears that Holden will be making a different announcement, delaying his decision while he auditions for Burnley manager Owan Coyle.

when Jozy Altidore trotted onto the field for Villarrea's Europa League match against Dnepr Mogilev (a 5-0 win) on Thursday, he not only made his European tournament debut, and made his first official appearance for Villarreal in almost two years. Altidore also made it that much more unlikely that he leaves the Spanish club this summer.

Edson Buddle took another step on the path of his dream year today by making the cut for the 23-man roster of the United States' Men's National Team for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

After a strong showing in 45 minutes in Tuesday night's friendly against the Czech Republic, despite an acute lack of service, Buddle played himself into a ticket to the world's largest sporting event in only his second appearance for the team ever.

España vs. Deutschland: The Final, again Semifinal

It's (essentially) the 2008 EURO Final all over again, but this time the stakes are even higher. It's the semifinal of the World Cup. One team will be remembered forever, while the other will be forgotten.

As the season rapidly approaches, with roster compliance day coming even quicker (now Wed @5PM EDT) things are getting hectic around the League.

The Fire Waved Jon Busch, while the Sounders have waived Chris Eylander.

Goalkeeper Chris Eylander Waived

RENTON, WASH.

I remember Alan Hansen saying during the 1994 World Cup that he hoped football never caught on in the United States. The reason: they'd end up being better than us. We might have reached that point. The US are preparing for their sixth World Cup on the bounce. Scotland are missing out for the third time in a row.

Three takeaways from Lando's appearance on the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon last night:

• Unlike many of us Landon Donovan is far better actual soccer than video game soccer.
• The Late Show is has love for MLS (see Thierry Henry's PK shootout a few weeks ago).
• Jimmy Fallon is the personification of the term "manchild," possibly in not-so-good way.

Arsene Wenger gave an interview about Paul Scholes offering plenty of praise, claiming he wished he played for Arsenal and that he has been integral to United's success over almost two decades.

Wenger was then asked whether he thought Scholes was a fair player. I think any United fan would be happy to admit that Scholes' tackling can be suspect at times, with him flying in on an opponent and not always coming away with the ball.

Alex Morgan and Sydney Leroux, two of the heroes of the USA's title-winning run at the 2008 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup have been united in a full WNT training camp for the first time. Leroux won the Golden Ball as top player and Golden Boot (five goals) as top scorer in 2008, and followed that up with a Bronze Boot (five more goals) in the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.

(photo courtesy of Zimbio.com)

As many of you know, I had the privilege of speaking to Landon Donovan Wednesday evening during his appearance at the Gillette EA Sports Championship of Gaming Finals in NYC. And yeah, I felt about the same as Landon in that photo above taken with video game contestant Matt Bushell.

By Chris Wright

"Been dazed and confused for so long it's not true"

TOTTENHAM manager Harry Redknapp has admitted that he is in the dark as to the whereabouts of his new signing, Brazilian midfielder Sandro.

Spurs paid Internacional £8 million to secure Sandro's services in July, with the understanding that the 21-year-old would move to White Hart Lane after his involvement in the 2010 Copa Libertadores which finished on August 18th.

For this week's player spotlight, we're going to the island of Sardegna, where a certain striker named Alessandro Matri has quickly become one of the reasons for Cagliari's success over the past few years. He also has a strange trademark celebration where he makes a duck motion with his hand but he won't tell anyone what it means.

A pair of Americans netted this weekend for their respective European clubs -- Carlos Bocanegra eventually getting credit for the lone goal in Rennes' 1-0 win over Monaco, and Landon Donovan piling misery on Hull in a 5-1 thrashing Sunday. Here's a clip from Bocanegra:

Donovan, in his final appearance in front of a home crowd at Goodison Park, netted the game's fourth before turning provider on the day's final tally.

(imagine you hear that old-timey background telegraph sound)After Landon Donovan's sub appearance in a 2-2 draw at Birmingham, Everton manager David Moyes had this to say:"He is on a plane home tomorrow. We are still trying to do something. You never know, who knows?"- Greg Seltzer

Man, it's been quite a year for wonderful football stories this season. First, there's Fulham who have made it to the Europa League Final. And we also have the incredible Portsmouth who have reached the FA Cup Final (to be played May 15) against Chelsea.

In honor of Portsmouth's FA Cup final appearance, their shirt manufacturer Kappa has designed a special away shirt that the Pompey players will wear.

LD will be making an appearance tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live. The show airs on ABC at 12:05am. Set your DVR or stay up late to watch.

And can I just say that I don't know how the man has time to train with all of the midweek media appearances he makes. I wonder if he enjoys that aspect of his career, or if he merely tolerates it.

Goalkeeper Manuel Almunia [Appearance : 34 (PL-29; CL-7)] Lukasz Fabianski [Appearance : 10 (PL-4; CL-2; FA-2; LC-2] Vito Mannone [Appearance : 8 (PL-5; CL-3)] Wojciech Szczescny [Appearance : 1 (LC-1)] Perhaps the weakest of all departments in the current Arsenal squad. Almunia and Fabianski are both considered senior custodian but neither enchanced their reputation with [.

After arriving in Philadelphia today and getting settled at the hotel, futbol met football as the team trained during the afternoon at the Philadelphia Eagles practice facility. After training, a football came out (the kind made out of pigskin) and some of the U.S. players tossed it around a bit. Turns out, DaMarcus Beasley has a gun on him.

Rising Celtic starlet Paul George has committed his international future to Giovanni Trapattoni's Ireland. The 16 year old striker is believed to have contacted the FAI requesting to be considered for selection.
George from Killough in County Down recently signed a three year deal with the hoops and spent last year on the Celtic Academy's innovative school programme at St Ninian's High, he has already made an appearance for the first-team, coming on as a substitute in a friendly match with AZ Alkmaar at the end of last season.

No, Chris. FIFA are really mad

As usual the injury updates are given and we only added one new casualty, that being Kieran Gibbs. He's had a bad run of injuries ever since being promoted to the first team. This during a period where the player in front of him in the pecking order at left back, Gael Clichy, is not is very good form.

Quite a week for Gareth Bale, now universally regarded as being up there alongside Pele, sliced bread, the wheel and opposable thumbs on the list of The Best Things Anyone Has Ever Seen Anywhere, Ever. Unfortunately, and I suppose inevitably, one publication has gone completely overboard in their praise of the chap, the Daily Telegraph going to the ludicrous extent of describing Bale as "photogenic".

In my first two posts on the MLS draft I was looking at patterns in the 2009 and 2010 drafts. I've now started looking at the data from the first 5 seasons. Again, I'm using minutes played as an indicator of success. I'm not attempting to predict which players should be picked when and who will be successful in MLS, but instead I'm trying to reveal patterns that show a breakdown in the draft decision making process.

Why so serious, tipo? Worrying about when Dopey will call you up next? Não se preocupe, ele ainda está pensando ... and yes, there isn't much change to the official 'camisa da selecao' although Pato claims that it's a lot lighter in texture.

Readers of this blog certainly know a lot about the Men's Mexican National Team, but with the USWNT upcoming friendlies against Mexico later this month, I thought I'd attempt a little "what's up with Mexico Feminino?" Except, while the USA released it's roster (and it seems Kristine Lilly actually did not go walk the earth after all), The FMF website crashed my browser.

Let's take a moment to light a candle simply because these men of Serie A are too ferosha for words and all of you are going to need Eye Drops every soon (except the hombres because Megan Fox didn't RVSP to this!) Anyway, because they're not exactly doing anything important these days, Uncle Galliani summoned the Rossoneri to turn up at the First Annual Champions Gala for the "Champions For Children" Foundation last night.

Here is a first sighting of what may just be the Chelsea FC 2010/11 adidas home kit. While the new Blues strip officially launches on May 6th, 2010, the appearance of the likes of Chelsea men Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and captain John Terry in the images below may indicate that this is indeed the [.

Bayern Munich will meet either Inter Milan or FC Barcelona in the final of the 2009/10 UEFA Champions league on May 22nd following their 0-3 win at Olympique Lyon earlier today. The result saw FC Bayern win the home and away series 4-0 on aggregate to make their first UEFA Champions League final appearance since they won [.

Rafa not only treads the boards, but bounces on them to breaking point Rafa Benitez made a special appearance at the theatrical interpretation of the finest moment of his career. One Night In Istanbul is currently running at Liverpool Empire - to mixed reviews, it must be said - and the story's protagonist turned up to [.

Sitting here almost a week after the 2010 World Cup, I like many other US fans have been going over the many pros and cons of retaining Bob Bradley as the US manager. US Soccer President Sunil Gulati and Fulham owner Mohamed Al Fayed probably have many of the same questions that we do, as they decide what action they should take regarding Bradley.

Press conference . . . CHECK, modest unveiling . . . CHECK, first practice at a nearby college . . .CHECK, time to hit the late night talk show scene!

Yep you are officially playing professional football in the United States. Thierry Henry began the tour of the late night talk show circuit with an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

With J Hutcherson -- With Frank Simek signing with Carlisle in League One and Jay DeMerit out of contract, we could be approaching a Championship season in England minus any player with an appearance for the full United States National Team cap. Even some people's favorite past time of find the mystery American in a given European league comes up short.

The MLS Players Union has updated their list of salaries for the 2010 season for the players in the league. The Wizards added two players since the salaries came out, as the Wizards added Nikos Kounenakis and Shavar Thomas. Kounenakis is making a $60,000 base and $70,000 guaranteed. Not a horrible salary for a guy that has yet to make an appearance for KC.

More photos » Otto Greule Jr - Getty Images

Brad Evans showed his first significant signs of being able to return.

Browse more photos »

It was a rather eventful day at practice today with the biggest news undoubtedly being Brad Evans' participation in on-field practice drills.

Zach and I cover the USMNT roster and some CONCACAF shenanigans, but this show is really about the appearance of the outspoken Eric Wynalda. Wynalda doesn't hold back on his belief the American soccer is getting it wrong when it comes to developing players, talks about his belief that there are only four or five guys in America with his unique set of skills and experience, and talks about the challenge facing him as he takes a job with a third-division Mexican club.

This year, Ireland celebrates the reopening of Lansdowne Road Stadium under the name Aviva Stadium. To celebrate the occasion, the IRFU has released a specially designed 2010/11 commemorative jersey from PUMA. The Ireland PUMA 2010/11 Aviva Stadium Commemorative kit will make its first and only appearance when Ireland plays its first game at the new stadium [.

Check out the CSKA Moscow player and his new Mizuno boots. Pretty solid looking pair. Hopefully he will make an appearance for Arsenal in the near future.

I can't believe I missed this . . . I don't know how I missed this. Apologies good reader - mi dispiace - mi scusi . . ..
Back in April, Juventus' Alessandro Del Piero was on the Italian television show Chiambretti Night. I'm nine months late on this, but here is the video I've found on YouTube - the first few videos are just some excerpts, but the rest seem to cover his full appearance, though the quality is not great.