Atletico Madrid striker Diego Forlan has revealed the reason on his Old Trafford departure football boots. The Uruguayan caught the infamous hair-dryer treatment from Sir Alex Ferguson after he ignored instructions on what studs to wear. On his last game for Manchester United, the striker was told to wear studs for soft-ground as the pitch [.

Well so much for posting fewer Top 25 lists! Turns out so many things happened this weekend, most of them flying in the face of our predictions, that we felt an update was in order. Here it is:
1. Real Madrid
Last ranking: 1
Record (wins-losses-ties, in all competition; two-leg match-ups count as one): 1-0-0
Results of note: None yet.

Barca coach Pep Guardiola made quite a statement when he showed up to yesterday's press conference in a shirt with a message that underlines his concern for the environment. Not only that, but it's a bold choice of dress for a figure like him when going before all the media, but Pep never ceases to surprise.

Ladies and gentleman of the soccer world, here are the groups of the 2009-2010 UEFA Champions League. Tune into the next episode of Mad About Futbol as we will be discussing and analyzing the groups and all the implications surrounding the teams involved. There is certainly a lot of excitement with the drawing of the groups and the upcoming Mad About Futbol show will have all the information you need to know about this season's Champions League.

Would've been a good buy in my book.

According to a report in Portuguese daily Diario de Noticias, Juventus had set aside €22 million to lure Atletico Madrid winger Simao to the Stadio Olimpico, but could not complete a deal.

The offer was resoundingly rejected by the Spanish club, whose director of sport, Jesus Garcia Pitarch, admitted that several European clubs were keen on the 29-year-old.

This weekend is the first full weekend of American football, but if you're a soccer fan, you'll have your own full plate of soccer action to follow as all the world's leagues take the field.

The English Premier League boasts several great match-ups, while leagues from Italy to Germany also feature intriguing clashes.

The UEFA Champions League began its group stage on Tuesday with many of the favorites in action such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich. There were not many upsets as most of the favorites won their matches. Here's a recap of all the matches along with video highlights for Tuesday, September 15, 2009.

The new season saw one of the biggest Italian clubs left without a manager already after first two rounds. Luciano Spalletti obviously had enough after his team was demolished in the derby against Juventus and right after the game he resigned from the post of Roma boss. New coach on Roma bench, Claudio Ranieri stated on his presentation that he will try to shake things up, so his team could contend for the title this season.

All the stuff being covered outside the unfriendly confines of the award winning Dirty Tackle...

Goalkeeper gets caught out of position on a bouncy 70-yard shot. [101gg]

Florentino Perez has rules that no one will listen to. [The Spoiler]

A compilation of the most memorable premature write-offs of Davey Becks.

The world's top club leagues returned to action after a two week layoff for international matches. With one exception (you know who you are, Arsenal), the top clubs in our ranking won their games this weekend. Ahead of the UEFA Champions League schedule, which kicks off this week, things are about to get very interesting.

Oh, hello! I, Richard Whittall, author of the semi-reasonable A More Splendid Life, will be taking over Sweeping duties this week until Tom returns from outer space.

Big Story

Yes, there was the stamping incident against Robin Van Persie which, from the replay, seems as deliberate as a split second reaction can be.

STARTERS
Happy Birthday to my amazing brother Bill!
dN
Major League Soccer has announced that they will not play games next summer during the group stage of the World Cup. It's not perfect, but it's better than what we currently have going on. The league will also not play on the day of the Semifinals or Final!

Here at our pick of the fixtures for the weekend coming...

Sheffield United vs Sheffield United Friday Night
The famous steel city derby is sure to be a tense and exciting affair. Wednesday did the double over United last year for the first time in ninety-something years and Kevin Blackwell's boys will be looking to avenge that.

Some Messi quotes after he had scored two out of the five goals against Atletico Madrid.
"Their defence put some strong challenges in, but that is part of football.I am happy with this week, with the contract renewal and this win. I have always felt loved here.The club has understood my feelings.

Barcelona 5 - 2 Atletico Highlights

First off, a happy Eid to all who celebrate it, and particularly to Barca's muslim players, Keita, Yaya and Abidal! Right now we're running late and you'll have to excuse us the match report for Barca-Atletico; but we've rounded up all the post-match tidbits:
- This was the fiftieth Liga match for Gerard Pique (having played 27 with Barca, 23 with Zaragoza) and he played hella great.

As we head towards October, at the end of the week at hand, the weather in the northern hemisphere gets cooler but the coaching seats hotter. No longer can underperforming look to early season disconnects, jitters, weakened legs and evolving squads as substitutes for results. So while we head towards firing season, a look at [.

transfer window wrap-up courtesy Yahoo!UK/Eurosport:

Everton signed Dutch defender Johnny Heitinga from Atletico Madrid for six million pounds (6.8 million euros) just before the transfer window shut on Tuesday.

Heitinga agreed a five-year contract with the Premier League club and the move was announced in the final hour before the 1600GMT deadline.

via Reuters

"The loss to Brazil killed us we were very discouraged. It was a tremendous blow to our morale. We were very ill and knew that against Paraguay would have a very difficult match. What did Maradona say? It's the same for us. When you lose, nobody wants to talk.

Sergio Agüero and Atlético Madrid cannot see or find their form.

Atlético Madrid prolonged their faltering start with a 1-1 draw against Racing Santander on Saturday. Even with a man advantage for the majority of the second half, they lacked the finishing touch to nip the win from a feisty Santander side.

Atletico Madrid's Diego Forlan says that the breaking point in his two year stint with Manchester Unted came when he dared to defy Sir Alex's footwear advice. He recalls the harrowing incident:

"Ferguson wanted me to play with high studs, the interchangeable ones that suit wet pitches, but I feel more comfortable in low ones.

"Please, no acclaim, I'm just a humble footballer... who scored twice from two incredible free kicks."

The group stage of the Champions League began on Tuesday evening, and two La Liga outfits looked to initiate the exorcism of their personal demons.

Real Madrid and its galácticos played its first Champions League match of the season against an upstart FC Zürich team who, before the match, seemed more interested in whom they would swap shirts.

His head may have been in Madrid but his heart was already in Liverpool.
Even though Fernando Torres didn't actually realise it, his fate was already sealed.
A flick of the arm, a fleeting connection with a defender jostling for the ball and the ripped skipper's armband revealed his destiny.

Everton manager David Moyes is keen to land former West Ham United defender Lucas Neill. Everton are short of options at the back following Phil Neville's recent injury, and Neill certainly fits Everton's budget. The Australian has been on a free transfer since the expiration of his contract at Upton Park at the conclusion of last season.

Soccerlens Podcast duo Adrian Clarke and Iain Spragg make ten big match predictions each and every Thursday and competing against one another throughout the season to discover once and for all who the best tipster is! As well as a large slice of pride being at stake, Clarkey and Spraggy also have copious amounts of beer riding on the outcome.

All the European leagues are in full swing as they continue this weekend. There are several matches that will be broadcast on TV with matches from Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1. Here are the full USA TV listings for this upcoming weekend (September 19 and 20) for these leagues. All times listed are USA Eastern Standard Time (EST).

After a successful first two Liga matches, Barca goes on to be tested by Atletico Madrid. We met them four times last season and achieved some great results, the memorable 6-0 standing out as the team's first big win at home that season; but the painful 3-4 loss in Madrid doesn't fade away to quickly either.

There are a full slate of good soccer matches on the plate for today as the European leagues start to round out of the beginning of the year and MLS continues to inch towards the close of the 2009 season.Some matches that I might be checking out include Barcelona v. Atletico Madrid (3 p.m. GolTV) and Seattle v.

Atletico Madrid-Apoel Nicosia

Atletico Madrid was able to grossly out shoot their opponent in this one with 10 shots on target to APOEL's 1. But in the end neither club could score and Atletico Madrdi remains a squad struggling to find the net. Next match will be against FC Porto who just lost to Chelsea, so both clubs need a win in that battle.

Pictures of famous Athletic Bilbao players at San Mamés. Photo courtesy of Nicholas McGowan.

Athletic Bilbao would have no problems with the proposed UEFA plan of mandating eight homegrown players in the squad of eighteen for every match or the theoretical 6 + 5 rule, where six players of the starting eleven would have to be eligible for the national team of their club's country.

Lionel Messi

It has been claimed many times by many different people, Messi is quite simply "the man" as we say here in the states. Messi continues to fuel Barca's ridiculous offense and who knows maybe the club can potentially win the treble two straight seasons even though it had never been done by any La Liga squad ever before last season.

Unlike last year, when summer transfer deadline day saw some records broken and millions upon millions of pounds change hands, things were a lot quieter this time around.

But as always, it's just as much about who didn't move as it is about who did move, and there were plenty of misses to go with the hits.

photo: Yiorgos Karahalis | Reuters

Dutch international right back, Johnny Heitinga, has accepted a transfer from Atletico Madrid to Everton, completing a physical just under the transfer window deadline which closed at 5pm yesterday.

It's a loss for Atleti and a serious loss for the Champions League competition (Everton, though, is in the Europa League).

It's always tough picking games at the beginning of the season because you never know who will be the surprise squads this year and what teams will disappoint.

But with that being said my first week of picks was not too bad. Finishing 4-3 (I remove ties) in the first week let's see this week's predictions.

(video gol: Getafe-Barcellona)
Il Barcellona vola con Ibra-Messi e si prepara alla grande per la sfida di Champions, di mercoledì prossimo, con l'Inter del suo ex tecnico Mourinho. Lo svedese dapprima realizza il gol del vantaggio (spizzando quel tanto che basta la palla recapitatagli da Abidal), poi serve su di un piatto d'argento la palla del secondo gol al compagno argentino (gustatevi il video).

Two weeks into this early season and the top dogs in Spain are looking the part. Barcelona has started their defence of their crown with two solid performances; a much brighter start than last year when they lost and tied their first two games. The Blaugrana's back line has impressed me and their mega-signing Dmytro Chigrynskiy has added some much needed stability in front of Victor Valdes.

The second week of La Liga football has wrapped up and let's take a look at the winner's and losers of Week Two of Spain's most coveted league.

Getafe, who was very impressive in their road debut match, would get the fun challenge of playing against treble winning Barca. Barca proved to be too much for the likes of Getafe winning 2-0.

So, with the UEFA Champions League group stages kicking off today, I thought it might be a good idea to have a little fun with it.
With that in mind, it's time to introduce the Fighting Talker UEFA Champions League Prediction Contest. Now, the budget here at FT is still in the developmental stages, so there's not really a prize.

When Real Madrid splashed the cash to make Cristiano Ronaldo the most expensive player in soccer history, it did so with the hope that Ronaldo would help lead the club to a Champions League title.

Ronaldo took the first step toward fulfilling that job on Tuesday, scoring a pair of free kick goals in Real Madrid's 4-2 win vs.

A colorful week in Colombia's capital for me, spiced up by snacking on the Beautiful Game. Like a medieval pilgrim seeking a shrine, the first thing I seek in a foreign capital is its stadium, and like my ancestors, I come home with tales and tacky trinkets. My family heirlooms will include a South Korea World Cup CD case, a Sparta Prague ashtray and an Atletico Madrid singing alarm clock with