For nearly 80 minutes last weekend, Blackpool thoroughly deserved to beat the Wanderers. The last 10 to 15 minutes were when Bolton turned on the style. A great turn and half-volley from Petrov pegged one back and then an absolutely wonderful team goal sealed the point. That team goal, a move that involved Kevin Davies, Johan Elmander, Ivan Klasnic, and a neat little backheeled pass, was the perfect metaphor for Bolton's season thus far.

The following squad lists have been announced for the upcoming 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar. Squads will be added as they are announced:

Group A: Qatar, Kuwait, China, Uzbekistan
Group B: Saudi Arabia, Japan, Jordan, Syria
Group C: South Korea, Australia, India, Bahrain
Group D: Iraq, North Korea, United Arab Emirates, Iran

Australia Squad

Goalkeepers: Mark Schwarzer (Fulham), Brad Jones (Liverpool), Nathan Coe (SønderjyskE)
Defenders: Lucas Neill (Galatasaray), David Carney (Blackpool), Saša Ognenovski (Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma), Luke Wilkshire (Dynamo Moscow), Jonathan McKain (Al-Nassr), Jade North (Wellington Phoenix), Matthew piranović (Urawa Red Diamonds)
Midfielders: Tim Cahill (Everton), Jason Čulina (Gold Coast United), Brett Emerton (Blackburn), Harry Kewell (Galatasaray), Brett Holman (AZ Alkmaar), Mile Jedinak (Gençlerbirliği), Carl Valeri (Sassuolo), Matt McKay (Brisbane Roar), Neil Kilkenny (Leeds United)
Forwards: Scott McDonald (Middlesbrough), Robbie Kruse (Melbourne Victory), Nathan Burns (AEK Athens)

Bahrain Squad

Not yet announced

China Squad

Goalkeepers: Yang Zhi (Beijing Guoan), Guan Zhen (Jiangsu Sainty), Zeng Cheng (Henan Construction)
Defenders: Wang Qiang (Changsha Ginde), Zhao Peng (Henan Construction), Du Wei (Hangzhou Greentown), Liu Jianye (Changsha Ginde), Zhang Linpeng (Guangzhou Evergrande), Rong Hao (Hangahou Greentown), Li Jianbin (Chengdu Blades)
Midfielders: Zhou Haibin (Shandong Luneng), Zhao Xuri (Shaanxi Zhongjian), Hao Junmin (Schalke 04), Deng Zhuoxiang (Shandong Luneng), Wang Song (Hangzhou Greentown), Yu Tao (Shanghai Shenhua), Huang Bowen (Beijing Guoan), Yang Hao (Beijing Guoan), Yu Hai (Shaanxi Zhongjian)
Forwards: Yang Xu (Liaoning Whowin), Qu Bo (Shaanxi Zhongjian), Gao Lin (Guangzhou Evergrande)

India Squad

Goalkeepers: Subrata Pal (Pune FC), Subhasish Roy Chowdhury (Dempo SC), Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (AIFF XI)
Defenders: Anwar Ali (Dempo SC), Deepak Kumar Mondal (Mohun Bagan), Mahesh Gawli (Dempo SC), Irungbam Surkumar Singh (Mohun Bagan), Gouramangi Singh (Churchill Brothers), Rakesh Masih (Mohun Bagan), Moirangthem Govin Singh (East Bengal), Manju (Mohun Bagan)
Midfielders: Naduparambil Pappachan Pradeep (No club), P.

The commentator mash up of England's World Cup performance.

Here's the links:

• Adam Johnson chat [Manchester Evening News]
• Star man report [Sky Sports]
• 3 Up Front podcast [Soccerlens]
• Sir Alex dishes out punishment [Dirty Tackle]
• Diaby injury blow [BBC]
• Asian Cup squads [World Cup Blog]
• Neil Young tribute [Manchester Evening News]
• Top 10 moments from S.

A week after the US loss of the 2022 World Cup, much ink and internet type has been spilled on whether the U.S. deserved the bid or was robbed, whether we American soccer fans have a false sense of entitlement or a shady process overwhelmed everything, and even whether U.S. soccer is ok without the Cup or seriously set back.

The Asian Cup begins on January 7th, and the best international sides in Asia are descending on Qatar for the tournament. In store is not only a continental cup, with all the passion that goes along, but also a preview (sans their promised bid technology) of Qatar as a hosting nation. We have some tasty matchups in the group stage, both in terms of the football and cultures.

The Asian Cup begins on January 7th, and the best international sides in Asia are descending on Qatar for the tournament. In store is not only a continental cup, with all the passion that goes along, but also a preview (sans their promised bid technology) of Qatar as a hosting nation. We have some tasty matchups in the group stage, both in terms of the football and cultures.

Con la victoria de Japón sobre Australia 1-0 (gol de Tandari Lee) en tiempo extra finalozó en Qatar la XV edición de la Copa Asiática o Asian Cup, según su denominación en inglés (o كأس آسيا, en árabe). El pequeño país del Golfo Pérsico, que viene de ser elegido como sede de la Copa del Mundo 2022, exhibió todo su potencial organizativo: Doha, la capital, puso 4 estadios, a los que se sumó uno en la localidad de Al Rayyan.

Stoppage Time celebrates its first birthday today

It was on December 1st, 2009 when I posted my first ever blog on Stoppage Time and it is good to know that the novelty hasn't worn off. Of course when one tries to cover the world of football it is difficult to keep up with every event as it happens but the intention is there on my part to provide a service dedicated to informing my readers about the world of football.

If Australia wins the World Cup bid I wonder if the Canberra football community, Capital Football lead this, are ready to take advantage.
Sure we'll see statements from Capital Football about how the World Cup will be great, (even I could write that) but will there be a press release to show how it will benefit our community, in terms of facilities for football, community football, attracting business to football.

In what appears to be a bit of Club v. Country tug-of-war, apparently Yuto Nagatomo may choose to miss January's Asian Cup Finals to help out his club Cesena instead, despite having been named in Zaccheroni's list of 50. Cesena, as any regular reader of my Euro-exports posts will know, are utterly useless at the moment struggling near the foot of Serie A despite having briefly hit top spot in the first few weeks of the season.

Not sure if Thai coach Bryan Robson reads the Thai English language papers but if he does you can imagine him choking on his third Shredded Wheat after reading this tale of woe.
v Singapore 0-1 First home defeat to Lions in 34 yearsv Iran 0-1 First time failed to qualify for Asian Cup in 23 yearsv Lao 2-2 First time failed to defeat Lao in 41 yearsv Indonesia 1-2 First time ever failed to qualify for AFF Cup semi finals
Throw in failure to qualify for the SEA Games second round for the first time in 36 years and defeat to Vietnam in the 2008 AFF Cup Final and you can see why Thai fans are unhappy chappys these days and are demanding McD step down.

Raddy Avramovic has come under fire from Singaporeans impatient at the lack of success from the Lions over the last couple of years. Failure to reach the Asian Cup along with poor results in the last two ASEAN Football Federation Cups has some questioning whether the time has come for the Serb to move, or be moved, on.

Ji-Sung Park once again sunk Arsenal as Manchester United went back to the top of the Premier League. Park's fourth goal in seven starts against the Gunners decided the Old Trafford showdown.

Park plays in all the big games for United and they will miss him when he heads off to the Asian Cup in Qatar after the Boxing Day fixture with Sunderland.

Ji-Sung Park once again sunk Arsenal as Manchester United went back to the top of the Premier League. Park's fourth goal in seven starts against the Gunners decided the Old Trafford showdown.

Park plays in all the big games for United and they will miss him when he heads off to the Asian Cup in Qatar after the Boxing Day fixture with Sunderland.

Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed today that Ji-Sung Park, who has scored 4 in his last 6 league games, will play his last game for a few weeks on Boxin Day. The battling midfielder will be representing Korea in the Asian Cup in Qatar in January.

"Ji is in fantastic form," said Ferguson.

Anderson, the Brazilian chap who doesn't half know about swing-bowling, went off to a standing ovation towards the end of the Arsenal game knowing he'd done himself proud, playing one of his best games in a Manchester United shirt. He was coolness personified but had the crowd capacity been around 70,000 less, I'd guarantee you he'd be cartwheeling too the bench.

After his poor start to the season, I'm sure I'm not the only one who was questioning Ji-Sung Park's Manchester United future.

Now, with the Korean in the best form, at least scoring-wise, in what's now his sixth season at Old Trafford, all of the talk is about how much he'll be missed when he has to depart after Boxing Day to join up with South Korea ahead of the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, which kicks off early next month in Qatar.

Today, this blog is featuring a new book - "Planeta do Futebol: do Brasil a fronteira afega"("Football Planet: from Brazil to Afghan" in English, pictured above) written Brazilian football journalist Renato Andreão
Renato, as you can remember, was the kind gentleman who conducted my email interview with S.

Losing 5-1 to Indonesia in their first group match, it was easy to see how people were quick to right Malaysia's chances off in this competition but, as regular readers may recall, I have been touting them as a dark horse for many weeks now.

For many years now football in Malaysia has been a laughing stock both domestically and internationally.

Indonesia v The Philippines 13-1

(Bambang Pamungkas 4, Zaenal Arief 4, Budi Sudarsono 2, Sugiantono, Imran Nahumaury, og)

2002 AFF Cup Indonesia v Philippines 13-1

2000 AFF Cup Indonesia v Philippines 3-0

1998 AFF Cup Indonesia v Philippines 3-0

1997 SEAG Indonesia v Philippines 2-0

1993 SEAG Indonesia v Philippines 3-1

1991 SEAG Philippines v Indonesia 1-2

1989 SEAG Indonesia v Philippines 5-1

1984 ACQ Indonesia v Philippines 1-0

1983 SEAG Philippines v Indonesia 0-2

1980 OLYQ Indonesia v Philippines 4-0

1977 SEAG Indonesia v Philippines 1-1

1972 PCUP Indonesia v Philippines 12-0

1971 MERD Indonesia v Philippines 3-1

1967 ACQ Indonesia v Philippines 6-0

1962 AGMS Indonesia v Philippines 6-0

1962 MERD Indonesia v Philippines 9-0

1958 AGMS Indonesia v Philippines 5-2

1934 FEG Philippines v Dutch East Indies 3-2

P 18 W 16 D 1 L 1 F82-11

AFF Cup – ASEAN Football Federation Cup

SEAG – South East Asian Games (SEA Games)

ACQ – Asian Cup Qualifier

OLYQ – Olympic Qualifier

PCUP – President Cup

MERD – Merdeka Cup

AGMS – Asian Games

FEG – Far Eastern Games

Welcome to the tenth issue of The Red Report, the round table discussion of all things Manchester United by your favourite United blogs: The Busby Way, Stretford-End, Bangalore To Old Trafford, ManUtd24, United Youth, and Red Force Rising.

With Christmas less than a week away can we'd like to take this opportunity to wish our readers a very merry Christmas.

In response to a chorus of criticism led by the nation's President the Indonesian FA have reduced the price of tickets for the AFF Cup Final against Malaysia. Upper Tier tickets will now coast 50,000 IDR instead of 75,000 IDR. Other prices remain the same from 150,000 IDR to 1,000,000 IDR.
I had someone queue for tickets today and they gave up after a couple of hours.

The outside consultants brought in add some zest to the Young Lions are planning to have one home game a month played on a Saturday afternoon, perhaps with a 4 or 5 pm kick off. The aim is to try and attract more younger fans to the game.
Good idea. But of course a report about the SLeague without a whine would be like a dog with a dry nose.

AEK'S Australian International Nathan Burns will be leaving Greece shortly to join up with the Australian team,as they prepare for the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar.He will be missing for approximately 1 month as Australia are one of the favourites and are expected to do well in this tournament.
Burns had this to say about his time at AEK,to an Australian website:-"This is shaping as a very good season for me," Burns said shortly after helping AEK crush Larissa 4-0 away in a Greek Cup game.

India has named their roster for this January's Asian Cup in Qatar. SKC Wizards forward, Sunil Chhetri made the 23 man roster for the tournament. Chhetri had scored a few goals after joining the national team for their extended camp after the Wizards play Manchester United this summer. He'd suffered from injuries the past month or so that have kept him out of India's last few friendlies along with many other members of India's team.

More dramatic Asian Cup memories from Japan's past to get us in the right frame of mind for the upcoming tournament...

Having come through the controversial quarter final penalty shootout with Jordan, Japan's semi-final opponents were Bahrain and this match was even more dramatic.

Following a straightforward victory over Sunderland on Boxing Day, Manchester United travel to St. Andrews to face Birmingham City, a side that have not beaten United in their last 23 attempts.

Though the home team remain a formidable force at St. Andrews losing only one of their last 23 Premier League home matches.

Gabriel Obertan has taken a sensible approach to his career at Manchester United, recognising the importance of being patient.

"I am at Manchester United to improve," Obertan told L'Equipe. "I would prefer to play all the time, but I am not panicking. At a club like this, there is no reason for me to be impatient.

In the last four years Indonesia have hosted three major footballing tournaments. The Asian Football Confederation and the ASEAN Football Federation seem to like having Indonesia as host because they put bums on seats.
In 2007 Indonesia was one of four hosts of the Asian Cup. In 2008 they hco held the AFF Cup and again this year.

Resplendent in the flags of the countries due to compete at the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, the team buses of the 16 national teams participating in next month's continental championship were unveiled in Doha.