By Ollie Irish

"Man on? I thought you said 'Mandon'?"

Landon Donovan, who has impressed in his two games so far for Everton, has in return been more than impressed by how vocal footie fans are in England. After his new team's 2-0 win against Man City, the MLS star said:

"The atmosphere completely surpassed what I thought.

For the first time since joining Everton FC at the beginning of the month, U.S. international Landon Donovan has floated the possibility of staying with the Premier League side past the date that his loan deal allows. Under the current arrangement agreed to by Major League Soccer, Donovan would return to the United States in mid-March so that he can be available for the Los Angeles Galaxy's first game on March 27th, but after two successful outings with his new club, the reigning MLS MVP is now admitting that he could look to extend his stay at Goodison Park through the remainder of the English league's season if all goes well.

U.S. international Stuart Holden has spoken out for the first time since leaving the Houston Dynamo to play for Bolton Wanderers of the English Premier League. The 24-year-old midfielder shared his thoughts in a posting on his personal website on Tuesday morning, expressing excitement over the opportunity to play in England and gratitude to the fans of the Dynamo who have supported him for the past four years.

Sorry for the delay for this one. AEKMAN74 posted a good summary of the game which you can check out as well.

Well, my Father and I decided that since I only have half a year left in Greece before I, unfortunately, have to return to North America for university (don't get me wrong, I love North America, I just don't know how long I'll be able to stay away from AEK) we'd go up to Thessaloniki and watch this one so I could experience a proper away game.

Unfortunately for Philadelphia Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz, history does not portend wide-ranging success for his club in 2010. Expansion teams that did well on the field usually sacrificed atmosphere in the stands. Others had terrific support, but no results on the field. Some a little bit of both.

Britain's standard-bearer ultras group, Aberdeen's Red Ultras, disbanded earlier this month.

Their website simply states:

We are sad to announce that as of Tuesday 5th January 2010 the Aberdeen Red Ultras have ceased to exist.

The Red Ultras were set up in 1999 by a group of supporters who wished to bring colour and atmosphere to games involving our beloved Aberdeen Football Club.

At the beginning of the month there was talk that the club would stop playing the deafening music as the players walked out of the tunnel, in a bid to get the atmosphere going. The club gave in to this request and the ground was almost silent as the players walked out, with the exception of the Burnley fans' singing, who are one of the few clubs to take up their full allocation.

Join us at The James Joyce - the meeting place for the DC/Baltimore Toffees - for the big match this weekend. Landon Donovan may well make his first appearance for the Toffees. Great atmosphere and service at The James Joyce. Come one, come all! 10 AM KO COYB!For address and directions, visit:http://www.

Plenty of positive vibes in the aftermath of yesterday's victory:
Firstly Shaun Wright-Phillips:

"Carlos Tevez was fantastic again for us, he has been unbelieveable all season. His energy is superb but everyone played their part in what was a memorable win and that's a few we have had over United in recent seasons.

Following up on my earlier best-of list for club matches of the 2000s, here is my list (in chronological order) of what I felt were the best national team matches of the 2000s involving CONCACAF sides. Honduras vs. Peru, 2000 Gold Cup Quarterfinal. This Gold Cup marked the return of Honduras to regional prominence, and this match was a cracker, full of rapid-fire scoring, thrilling end-to-end action, and a fiery atmosphere on the field and in the stands.

Well it looks like Carlos Alberto Parreira is making headway with Bafana Bafana. They managed to score three goals at Moses Mabhida Stadium against Zimbabwe last night.

Bafana Bafana Magic

Although the game was no walkover for the South African National team, there were certainly moments of sheer Bafana magic.

Michael Carrick is hoping that Sir Alex Ferguson will pick him to play on Sunday, as Manchester United take on bitter rivals Leeds in the Cup.

"Experiencing those types of feisty atmospheres are why you play football," said Carrick. "Rivalries like that add extra spice. It is great for the fans and good for the players.

Okay, this conversation that's popped up on Mike's blog intrigued me. The premise is, if being a Eurosnob is bad - and it is, for reasons that I detail in my upcoming book, Crap, All We Have To Do Is Beat England And There Will Be No More Eurosnobs Forever...Oh Please Beat England, Please Please Please Please - then being an MLS snob at the expense of lower division teams is also bad.

MLS announced yesterday that the 2010 MLS Cup will be played at a neutral venue. League officials had apparently toyed with the idea of moving the championship match to the higher seed's home stadium but nixed that possibility with yesterday's announcement. No word as of yet in regards to where the match will be played.

So, the Bolton fans have got their way, with chairman Phil Gartside finally putting Gary Megson out of his misery on Wednesday.
The reaction of the fans at the Hull game perhaps pointed to such an outcome; they clearly weren't happy and such an atmosphere forces a board into action. But the reality is that the fans have been hostile to Megson since day one.

John DiRaimondo is the young central midfielder brought to United in late March of last year. He has experience playing for Colorado and also had loan stints at Harrisonburg City Islanders and Richmond Kickers while with United last season. He scored two goals during his five games on loan with the Kickers and has been invited back to training camp by United this year according to Steve Goff.

When I first heard that Sol was heading back to Arsenal, my first reaction was a shrug of the shoulders and rotate both hands from palms down to palms up at the same time. Really it's like signing a new tea lady he won't get many games anyway.

Morally this isn't the best move.. A fair number of people were against Flamini coming back.

The table where the magic will happen.
Draft day is upon us. Philly and New York fans are entering the draft room, creating lots of excellent atmosphere. We have the #4 overall selection, behind Philadelphia (who has also traded for #6 and #7 in the past 18 hours), New York and San Jose. Who would you like to see us pick?

Apologies for the delay in postings today. It's been a full morning and afternoon of activities in Los Angeles as focus on the match heats up, from media turnout at training to a series of interviews for Saturday's edition of Studio 90. The show will include a look back at the four matches against Honduras in 2009, and how each meeting meant something special to at least one member of the U.

Smiles abounded at Anfield last night for the first time in what seemed like forever and they weren't just about the Kop's light-hearted advice to the visiting manager about his well-documented fiscal activities.
There have been several so-called 'turning points' in this most excruciating of seasons and it would be foolhardy in the extreme to begin making rash predictions as to what the hard-fought but ultimately fully-deserved win over Tottenham might mean in the overall context of Liverpool's season.

It's so easy to get spoiled by watching English football games on television each week. Without thinking about it, you always have the best seat in the stadium. And you have the luxury of seeing close-ups, action replays, slow-motion, different camera angles and more.

So when you do physically go to the stadium to see a match, you sometimes feel disappointed.

A local TV channel has just been reporting on Persebaya fans trail of destruction ahead of tonight's game with Persib.
Trains heading east to west have been trashed as what appears to be thousands of fans have been making a beeline for tonight's game at the Jalak Harupat Stadium and it appears that police have allowed visiting supporters to enter the stadium without tickets.

With our top four chase fluctuating, there's a very real chance that the F.A. Cup may represent our only chance of genuine success this season. Of course, such success is still months away. But victory today over Leeds would take us a good step closer. Our apparent blase attitude towards the cup is no doubt a result of being drawn with Man Utd at this stage for the last few seasons.

It is a phrase that is often trotted out by supporters of a team that have had a period of success followed by a period of disaster that everyone should strap themselves in and enjoy the "rollercoaster ride". There is one significant problem with this analogy, which is that most people wouldn't want to spend too long on a rollercoaster and would actually want to get off it after a few minutes.

After knocking Manchester City out of the League Cup, Sir Alex Ferguson has praised the players and fans.

"It's a derby game, and you like to win your derby games," said Ferguson. "The atmosphere tonight, and the fact it was a semi-final tie, added a lot of spice to the match. And the fact we scored so late in the game brought a special type of celebration.