Today's article takes us back to that fantastic season of 08/09 and back to that old gem of a phrase "Liverpool are just a two man team." Written by Michael Owen who you can follow on Twitter @mfowen91. He also runs a top #LFC blog called The Anfield Opinion which you can visit here. If you believed the media at the time, Liverpool's side of 2008/09 was a "two man team" to quote a seemingly

So What? Seriously, SO WHAT? What difference does this loss make in the greater scheme of things? None!
This afternoon at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts the Spanish National Team put on a soccer clinic, at least for the first half, against the United States National Team.

Real Madrid's Pipita Higuain is quite a likable hombre, isn't he? Come on now, Blaugranas... Madrid needs their own Moc Moc trio and we're pretty sure these two can improve the animosity between Brasil and Argentina!

Anyway, we just had to share Los Blancos' Christmas video with you even though you're clearly overstuffed with all that roast turkey by now.

27.04.2011 - A los duelos catalán - madridista, Messi - Cristiano, Barcelona - Real Madrid, se suman en primera plana Guardiola - Mourinho.
Pep Guardiola se refirió a los arbitrajes (vídeo), Mourinho salió a la yugular (vídeo) y Pep volvió a contestarle (vídeo).

Alvaro Arbeloa has thanked Kenny Dalglish - for making him love watching...

At the beginning of the season, Jose Mourinho, as part of his I'm-not-Harry-Potter tone to condition the expectations of the Real Madrid faithful, said that this Real Madrid would hit their peak form on their second season, just as he did with Inter (winning the treble on his 2nd season). It was also with this as a ‘base starting point' that explained his early season decision to establish a core starting XI and play them over and over and over again within his set system to get them familiarized with the ‘Mourinho way.

(I posted this article first on Real Madrid Football Blog. The article can be found here):Marca says it's 39, AS says it's 38 Goals just like the rest of the World. That Marca refuses to correct the number: What idiots and losers.With 180 minutes of football left in the season and the outcome already decided, there has never been better time to experiment.

Valentine's Day Irony.
How ironic is it that it had to be the man who has declared Jose Mourinho public enemy no.1 in the Spanish Coaching Community who would gift Mourinho such a lovely pre-Valentine's Day Gift. Marca's cover last Sunday said it all: a gift of 2 La Liga points from Sporting Gijon Coach and Super-Mario lookalike Manuel Preciado to Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho.

Por snedecor
Hay más cosas, claro. El desembarco en la Liga de los propietarios extranjeros, con distinta fortuna (en todos los sentidos de la palabra); la eclosión del árbitro español que quiso ser inglés y va camino de lograrlo (Mateu Lahoz deja jugar y se equivoca en las decisiones importantes igualito que Howard Webb); el esperpento del Hércules, que subió pagando a otros (dicen) y luego se olvidó de pagar a los suyos; o la despedida de un crack injustamente olvidado a la hora de nombrar a las grandes estrellas de la Liga (Frederic Kanouté, duende andaluz en un cuerpo de gigante africano); pero si tengo que destacar 5 puntos de esta temporada que se nos escapa entre los dedos, me quedo con estas:
5 – Los 5 partidos de la última jornada en los que se decidió el tercer equipo que retrocedía a la Liga Adelante (cruel paradoja publicitaria).

Associated Press

In their final preparation match for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the United States were outclassed by the 2010 FIFA World Cup winners Spain, as the visitors dominated 4-0.

The Americans came into this match simply wanting to stay healthy, while co-mingling younger, less experienced players with a few veterans.

Por primera vez en mucho tiempo, el Madrid ganó al Barça sobre el campo con la camiseta de España. Si bien había más convocados culés que madridistas, durante el partido fueron estos los que se llevaron 'el gato al agua'.
Los 90 minutos del encuentro en Boston ante EEUU dejaron para el recuerdo un dato curioso: la presencia de más futbolistas del Madrid que del Barça sobre el césped.

Real Madrid will play Barcelona at the least, 4 times next season. With the possibility of playing Barcelona 7 times in a single season not out of question, Arbeloa says that the team is not thinking about Barcelona at the moment. The match is in August hence they have got too many things going right [.

Por snedecor
Supongo que no es fácil ganar un Mundial, sobre todo si no sabes cómo se hace una cosa parecida. Por fortuna para nosotros, hace años que en España se vienen haciendo bastante bien las cosas con las selecciones inferiores, y por eso no debe ser casualidad que el año pasado en el podio del Soccer City de Johannesburgo se juntaran unos cuantos medallistas olímpicos, muchos campeones de Europa en distintas categorías y un subcampeón y 3 campeones del mundo sub'20.

Not that I was expecting much of a lazy international friendly just before the start of the season, with a call-up list plagued with absences and injured (Sergio Ramos and Xavi had to abandon the team before they left Spain and Nacho Monreal, called up instead of Ramos, got injured during the last training session), but I did expect better than this.

I think I'll let the visuals do the talking. A highly entertaining game, with former Real graduate Daniel Pajero taking the plaudits for his performance for Getafe...

The deadly duo of Cristiano Ronaldo and Mesut Oezil was ever present again for Madrid. Ronaldo, put Los Blanco ahead before Ozil doubled the lead eary on in the game.

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has named his 21-man squad for next Wednesday's friendly with Colombia in Madrid. He has also warned every player to be prepared to play the full 90 minutes, despite a request from Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho not to overload the players.

Del Bosque told reporters:

"We care for everyone in whatever we can, but we will demand the maximum.

MADRID, Spain — Real Madrid responded in style to Barcelona's record breaking 16th consecutive victory with Cristiano Ronaldo leading the way in a 4-1 win over Real Sociedad on Sunday. Ronaldo was charged up for the game after receiving criticism for not scoring in four games and having seen Leo Messi hit a hat-trick in [.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored a double to lead Real Madrid to a 4-1 win over Real Sociedad on Sunday as the Madrid stayed seven points behind league leader Barcelona.

With Barcelona winning their league-record 16th straight win on Saturday, the pressure was on Jose Mourinho's team to keep Barca close.

In reviewing the outcome of Real Madrid's 2-0 victory against Sevilla, Sid Lowe in his recent podcasts last week as well as in his guest spots at Real Madrid TV cleverly pointed out how Real Madrid had essentially ruined their streak of binary-code-like scorelines for the past few games.

It's difficult to come up with an original title for this post, where all I can find myself buzzing about was this brilliantly captured phrase in today's column c/o AS' Mad Madridista Tomas Roncero..It's a bloody clever thing to call Benzema not just because of the fact that 1.) he's IS a former Olympique Lyonnais youth stalwart, or that 2.

Mourinho's Midfield B-Team: Kaka (as 'Face'), Graneo as ('Mad Murdock') and Lass as (Mr. D, er.. Mr. T). Mourinho would be none other than the Man with The Plan: Hannibal Smith.In his post-match assessment of last week's loss at the hands of Sporting Gijon, Jose Mourinho concluded that while the league is still ‘mathematically possible', it is ‘virtually impossible' to overturn Barcelona's 8-point lead to win La Liga.

Mourinho's Midfield B-Team: Kaka (as 'Face'), Graneo as ('Mad Murdock') and Lass as (Mr. D, er.. Mr. T). Mourinho would be none other than the Man with The Plan: Hannibal Smith.In his post-match assessment of last week's loss at the hands of Sporting Gijon, Jose Mourinho concluded that while the league is still ‘mathematically possible', it is ‘virtually impossible' to overturn Barcelona's 8-point lead to win La Liga.

adidas has produced a Spanish Copa del Rey Final preview video featuring adidas athletes Lionel Messi, Xavi, David Villa and Dani Alves (FC Barcelona) and Xabi Alonso, Angel Di María, Álvaro Arbeloa, Sergio Canales and Esteban Granero (Real Madrid). Real Madrid and Barcelona meet tomorrow (April 20th, 2011) in Valencia in a Copa del Rey [.

At the beginning of the season, Jose Mourinho, as part of his I'm-not-Harry-Potter tone to condition the expectations of the Real Madrid faithful, said that this Real Madrid would hit their peak form on their second season, just as he did with Inter (winning the treble on his 2nd season). It was also with this as a ‘base starting point' that explained his early season decision to establish a core starting XI and play them over and over and over again within his set system to get them familiarized with the ‘Mourinho way.

At the beginning of the season, Jose Mourinho, as part of his I'm-not-Harry-Potter tone to condition the expectations of the Real Madrid faithful, said that this Real Madrid would hit their peak form on their second season, just as he did with Inter (winning the treble on his 2nd season). It was also with this as a ‘base starting point' that explained his early season decision to establish a core starting XI and play them over and over and over again within his set system to get them familiarized with the ‘Mourinho way.

El carrusel de 'clásicos' entre Real Madrid y FC Barcelona sigue su curso, al mismo tiempo que la tensión se incrementa. Y es que cada nuevo duelo es un poco más caliente que el anterior. Esta guerra declarada entre los dos equipos más importantes de España ya tiene un gran perjudicado: la selección española, que cuenta habitualmente con hasta 13 jugadores de ambos equipos.

FC Barcelona booked their place in this year's Champions League final in Wembley with a 1-1 draw against their bitter rivals Real Madrid. The only draw back of what was a perfect night was the stupid goal we conceded. Pedro put Barca ahead early in the first half but Marcelo equalised for Real Madrid.

(I posted this article first on Real Madrid Football Blog. The article can be found here):Marca says it's 39, AS says it's 38 Goals just like the rest of the World. That Marca refuses to correct the number: What idiots and losers.With 180 minutes of football left in the season and the outcome already decided, there has never been better time to experiment.

(I posted this article first on Real Madrid Football Blog. The article can be found here):Marca says it's 39, AS says it's 38 Goals just like the rest of the World. That Marca refuses to correct the number: What idiots and losers.With 180 minutes of football left in the season and the outcome already decided, there has never been better time to experiment.

Alvaro Arbeloa feels Kenny Dalglish has succeeded where predecessor Roy Hodgson failed at Anfield because his style is more suited to the team.
The six months the ex-Fulham boss had in charge saw the side struggle for results and performances with many criticizing the Englishman's tactics.
Dalglish replaced him in early January and the turnaround on the field was marked, with the team enjoying the kind of form which would have put them on a par with Chelsea and Manchester City had it been reproduced over a full season.

• Newcastle ready to give up and sell Enrique http://bit.ly/lAiwnX #LFC #FB 23:50:01, 2011-06-13
• Jordan Henderson vows to make impact at Liverpool http://bit.ly/j2T2Me #LFC #FB 23:49:37, 2011-06-13
• Liverpool back in for £10m Charlie Adam http://bit.ly/l2ex2H #LFC #FB 23:49:18, 2011-06-13
• Jordan Henderson aims to reward Liverpool's faith and £20m investment http://bit.

I am in Philadelphia tonight for Real Madrid's third and final pre-season game in the U.S. The team has been training hard in California and they have flown 3,000 miles to a very warm Philadelphia for tonight's game.

More than 50,000 tickets have been sold for this game and the parking lots are full of Real Madrid fans with them all anticipating another convincing Real victory tonight.

Real Madrid continued its impressive pre-seaon with its six victories out of six preseason games as they thrashed Chinese side Guangzhou 7-1.

Just six minutes after the kick-off, Sami Khedira sent the stadium wild when he opened the scoring as he headed home a fantastic cross from Karim Benzema.

Spain vs Chile Fight- Andres Iniesta Vidal Arbeloa Sergio Busquets Push Video 2011 is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Spain vs Chile Fight- Andres Iniesta Vidal Arbeloa Sergio Busquets Push Video 2011 is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter This Spain vs Chile fight took place at the end of the international friendly contested between the two sides on 2nd September, 2011.

Second-half substitute Cesc Fabregas scored twice as reigning European and FIFA World Cup™ champions Spain fought back from a two-goal deficit to beat Chile 3-2 in an international friendly.

Vicente Del Bosque's side were punished for a slow start as Chile raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Mauricio Isla and Eduardo Vargas, but the introduction of Andres Iniesta at half-time reinvigorated the Spanish midfield.

No, Real Madrid is NOT in Crisis. We are merely in a slump. 5 dropped points over 2 games against La Liga teams whose objective is to stave off relegation is proof of that. Maybe Jose Mourinho's sarcastic remarks prior to the Levante game about just wanting to stay up were taken seriously by the team: prompting them to play as if we were a team battling relegation.

(Summary is not available.)