Recite the last name of some of association football's legendary players and their achievements immediately spring to mind. Just mentioning Pelé, Maradona, Eusebio, Puskas, or other luminaries should arouse images--most likely fuzzy and pixelated ones from YouTube--of what made them great and become instantly vivid, incredibly tangible.

As we prepare to face off in a friendly against the United States next Wednesday, I thought it would be wise to touch up on a bit of history of the sport in America, where it almost seems like the sport's last frontier, despite having the makings of s football superpower early on. We have a lot of Americans who read this blog, and I know questions have been raised in the past about why Americans call it soccer, etc.

Still being several weeks away from the start of a new season for association football in the US, much of the current chatter surrounding Major League Soccer revolves around the announcement of this summer's All-Star Game in Philadelphia and, well, oatmeal. Okay, perhaps not specifically about oatmeal, but rather the unveiling of Quaker as the new shirt sponsor for Chicago Fire SC that begins with this video of a morning bowl of Quaker Oats and has continued by sending these rather special packages to not only sports media but also prominent US football bloggers to spread the word.

Yes, I admit that I enjoyed American Football today, Super Bowl Sunday, but in the rest of the world, Association Football was played as usual. Especially in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, co-hosts of the 2012 African Nations Cup.Yesterday, powerful co-favorites Ivory Coast defeated co-host Equatorial Guinea 3-0.

John Nyen on the U.S. Open Cup.

Ninety-two

years ago there was some big news in association football.

World War I was finally finished and in England, official competitive football was allowed to resume (between 1914 to 1919 the FA Cup and League Cup were suspended due to the war with regional competitions taking place in their stead).

So, Scottish venture capitalist Craig Whyte is not fit and proper to be a football club owner and director. That is amazing. I'll be avoiding feathers for a few days, that's for sure, because you could knock me down with even one. In one sense, and possibly two senses, the Scottish Football Association's declaration that Whyte "is not considered a fit and proper person to hold a position within Association Football" is amazing.

Hic! Henry Norris is the rather squiffy football correspondent of the Bugle newspaper and an ardent Arsenal supporter to boot. Each week he'll join us here at arsenalinsider.com to bring you his forthright views on all things AFC...please be advised, he hits the bottle early!

Jack the lad.

At the same time the modern era of association football was being ushered in, a book celebrating view from the terraces during simpler times, Nick Hornby's "Fever Pitch", was published, says writer Mark Barbeau.

I have been conspicuous by my absence on here of late so I thought it was time I pulled my finger out and tried to contribute something. In keeping with my normal modus operandi here's five random points of interest from the game for you to mull over.

1. Winning games can overcome all sorts of concerns and doubts about a team.

The culture of association football is sometimes best regarded as a blank canvas onto which we can project just about any value system. Over the years, it has come to take on its own ecosystem as a world of its own. It has clearly defined seasons, its own judiciary which mirrors but seldom matches that of the outside world and it demands its own autonomy, free from what it haughtily describes as "outside interference.

With February's victory in the League Cup, Liverpool's tally in England's younger cup competition rose to eight—three more than the second place side. It also pushed them one past their FA Cup total. On Saturday, the club gets the chance to equal its silverware haul in England's first cup competition, move past Manchester United's tally of trophies won in the two domestic cups, and end what has been a rather up and down season on a distinctly high note.