Etienne Barbara officially joins the Whitecaps. (Photo via Vancouver Whitecaps)

I won't go too much into this signing. The Vancouver Whitecaps have signed their 7th, yes 7th striker for the 2012 season in the form of Maltese international Etienne Barbara.

Barbara rejoins head coach Martin Rennie, the two were together in the NASL with the Carolina RailHawks.

The English claim to have invented football... "Football's coming home" they sang in 1996... But everyone knows Holland re-invented football in 1974 and we will take the victory back to Holland. The sacred pitch of Wembley will be ours...

1. Inexperienced attackers

Mathijsen and Heitinga are laughing themselves silly for days.

Photo: Earl Gardner

Everyone else has season previews. Why not us?

But this is a Philly site. Forget the Western Conference. We're keeping it simple and focused. And guessing at the order of finish.

1) Sporting Kansas City

In the Eastern Conference, there is Kansas City and everyone else.

The stage is set for the 28th edition of the African Cup Of Nations that begins tomorrow in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon with two Group A fixtures between the hosts Equatorial Guinea and Libya in the early kick off and the eagerly awaited Senegal v Zambia clash in the late kick off.

Video: FA Cup: Everton/Fulham

In a showdown between two of the USA's best attackers, Landon Donovan prevailed providing both the crosses that resulted in two perfect strikes as Everton beat Clint Dempsey and Fulham. The man from Nacogdoches had a quieter evening.

Donovan has had an instant impact on Everton making the best of his two month loan and Dempsey is on par to repeat last season's success, most recently scoring a hat trick against Newcastle.

Since its founding in 1907, Al Ahly S.C. has been known as ‘the people's club,' representing resistance against the many forms of colonialism that have long plagued the African continent. Initially the first sporting club to allow Egyptians to join, Al Ahly remains the most popular of Egyptian teams, wearing to this day the red kits that honour the pre-colonial Egyptian flag.

Welcome to the Friday Crackovia Club, our weekly special on Catalonia's wacky football sketch show! This week, a member of Barcelona's staff accidentally disassembles the magnets on Pep Guardiola's tactics board.... which spells a big dilemma. Will Barca now field an absurd 1-9-1 formation, with Messi as the sole striker?

That goal-scoring has been one of Liverpool's greatest problems is no great secret. But Liverpool's first two goals last night – more specifically, how Liverpool scored those goals with quick transitions from defense to attack – shows the promise in this side. If Liverpool play a certain way.
The first was an archetypal break from defense.

I spent much of the day yesterday reflecting on Saturday's game. What did I like? (Not much.) What didn't I like? (Far too much.) If anything, Saturday's game showed by that there are still a few jitters left over from the 2011 squad that made them an easy road team to beat. The fact that the New England Revolution managed to score within 30 seconds of kick off is fairly telling of our current defensive back line.

Veteran Italian striker Bernardo Corradi has started to leave his mark for the Montreal Impact, with goals in each of the club's last two games. As of now, he'll only have about two more months to contribute up top, though he hopes to extend that period for at least the rest of the season.

Serie A will witness a drastic haul once the 2012-13 season begins with legendary players such as Alessandro Del Piero and Alessandro Nesta destined to leave the peninsula. There are a number of other players who made some major contributions throughout their career who will either retire or move outside Italy.

I spent the last glorious week post-graduation curled up in a fetal position in my room back in Houston. As if my body finally relented to the exhaustion of 4 years of college, I was stricken by a sudden illness the afternoon of my return. Now, I get colds from time to time, but rarely have I been this sick.

If I had to sum up the first half in one word, it would be boring. If I had to sum up the second half in one hyphenated word it would be squeaky-bum. We looked flat in the first half an the attackers really weren't in the game, the second half, we nicked a cheeky goal from nowhere, looked like we would go on and get a few more, but instead spent the last 20 minutes with our backs to the wall.

So after weeks of uncertainty over Marco Reus's future, Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund were finally able to land the services of the highly rated attacking midfielder.

Dortmund beat out the likes of Arsenal and Bayern Munich who were the two clubs closely associated with the 22 year old.

January 18, 2012 will mark Frank Klopas' 4th full year as technical director for the Chicago Fire. The club has enjoyed a roller coaster ride, from the highs of cup finals to the lows of missing the Playoffs. In this time, Klopas has been responsible for signing players both foreign and domestic. With the transfer window opening in the past couple of days, I believe an examination of the Fire's international signings under Klopas is important, especially considering that the search for international talent for the 2012 season is well under way.

Skillful wingers in the player pool are at a premium ahead of Thursday's MLS SuperDraft, but three of the top players available at the position are some of the more sought-after attackers eligible for selection.

Sam Garza, a Generation adidas signing out of UCSB who can play up top or on the wing, helped his stock considerably with his showing while playing for the adiPure team at the Combine and had a big hand in helping set up Ethan Finlay as part of the Creighton forward's hat trick.

Liverpool are now one step closer to reaching the Carling Cup Final after an impressive display at Etihad Stadium. Liverpool were by far the better team in the first half, keeping possession well and creating chances.

They were rewarded in the 11th minute when Daniel Agger was fouled in the box by Stefan Savic.

Oh dear.

Yakubu sent off in the first half, Samba missing. What more could we ask for?

Made a right horlicks of this one. Blackburn are a half-decent side in the middle of a horrible season but we're good enough to win in these circumstances. Should have done, comfortably.

Blackburn scored the first with a Pedersen free-kick just on half-time, then the second from Dunn just after the break.

BY ADAM SERRANO

It appears that injury bug has hit the U.S. January camp and that may render two key players for the senior team and Under-23 side doubtful for upcoming friendlies.

Under-23 right winger Josh Gatt was unavailable for training on Monday after suffering an apparent ankle injury on Sunday evening.

By "The Other 87 Minutes" / Senior Unemployed English Major CorrespondentsWay back in April, in what I'm pretty sure was our first-ever Tuesday XI, we devised a lineup of superheroes, ready to take the pitch against all-comers. Here now at last, we've found the comers, an opposition squad ready to give those heroes the fight of their lives, or at least a game every now and then on Sundays.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

For U.S. Under-23 winger Joe Gyau, the future is now.

Gyau confirmed on his own Twitter feed that he will be in TSG 1899 Hoffenheim's matchday 18 against Hannover 96 this weekend for the first time. Hoffenheim is dealing with a number of injuries, and Gyau, who has been playing well for the club's U-23 team, is going to get his first taste of first-team life in the Bundesliga in what could prove to be a seminal year in the 19-year-old winger's career.

Photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com

The Philadelphia Union's preseason is starting to become more notable not for who is in camp but for the attackers who are spending time in England.

According to his agent, Richard Motzkin, third-year forward Danny Mwanga is training with Aston Villa for the next 10 days.

In the preview I wrote, "there will be goals in this game for sure". I don't know how, but both sides managed to keep the ball out of their opponents' nets when scoring would have seemed like the easier option. Arsenal had a lot of chances, very good ones. And they missed them all.

Twitter went mad after the game, as it usually does after a disappointing result I guess.

The NASL expansion San Antonio Scorpions club added four more players, including long-time MLS vet Ryan Cochrane, along with one of the top NASL attackers last season, Pablo Campos of the Carolina RailHawks, in addition to signing two young players with local ties. The RailHawks, meanwhile, will have Chris Nurse back in the fold for [.

Spurs played for a scoreless draw, Spurs got their scoreless draw.
While Liverpool's attackers could and should have done more, Tottenham's defending merited the scoreless draw. King and Dawson were outstanding, with Parker almost as important. After a paucity of clear cut chances for both sides, each could have scored the winner in the last five minutes, with Friedel and Reina making huge saves on Bale and Suarez.

In the first part of our FM scouting series, we looked at United's new DP forward Hamdi Salihi. Now it's time to turn our attention to central defender Emiliano Dudar...

click to enlarge

What jumps out immediately is Dudar's marking ability and aerial power, the later of which, given his size, was to be expected.

It's been 17 years since Rene Higuita executed his audacious scorpion kick to block a weak shot from Jamie Redknapp in a friendly between England and Colombia at Wembley. Since then, it's become one of the most iconic in the sport's history and has been attempted by goalkeepers and attackers alike, some more successful than others.

Arsenal traveled north to face a Sunderland club that has seen a resurgence since installing Martin O'Neil as their manager and it took a two late goal by impact substitutes to come away with the three points. Keep reading for all the glorious heart-stopping action.

Arsene Wenger chose to start the same squad that demolished Blackburn last week with the exception of Francis Coquelin as Bacary Sagna was drafted in for his 2nd start since his broken leg.

AC Milan

Position 1st, 14-5-4 (47 points, +25 goal differential)

Home Record: 7-3-1, +19 goal differential

Recent Form: WWLDW

Last Meeting: AC Milan 0 Arsenal 2 (March 4, 2008)

Tomorrow brings a trip to one of Europe's great venues to play one of the greatest, if not the greatest, clubs, historically, in all of European football.

Did Juventus throw away the title by drawing 0-0 in Parma after the scorless home draw with Siena? The Bianconeri continue to struggle in front of goal at an alarming pace which could cost coach Antonio Conte and his players the dream of winning the Serie A title. There are a number of factors but below is a list of some of the major concerns which were on display against Parma:

1) Vucinic: For the umpteenth time summer signing Mirko Vucinic failed to score while making wrong decisions or rushing his shots.

Big, big match for us. Let's hope we can get back on track and arrest what could be a worrying downturn in our season.

Sunderland
Recent Form: Very, very good. If the League started on the day O'Neill became manager, they would be top. We did beat them in the same stadium a weak ago, doe.

Newcomers Fernando Cardenas (pictured) and Saër Sène will boost the competition for spots in the starting XI. (Photo: Chris Aduama/aduama.com)

When Jay Heaps took over as head coach of the New England Revolution in November, the rookie tactician had a host of issues in front of him that needed to be addressed for the team to be competitive in 2012.

Apologies if this is a bit scattershot, but the web feed was pretty rough (though much appreciated) and I'm enjoying some Cabernet Franc with my footie tonight...
* * *
Chicago controlled much of the possession and had more and better chances, but Hamdi Salihi did what he's been paid the DP cash to do.

Timbers fans saw a lot of sights many thought they might never see on Monday night. John Spencer played something other than a 4-4-2 to start the match, Jack Jewsbury got into a shoving match with a San Jose player who thought he could get away with something, and Kalif Alhassan scored a goal in a two-tone timbers kit.

When Joe Mason slotted Cardiff's first goal of the night through Pepe Reina's legs, putting the underdog Championship side up 1-0, it may have in fact been the worst goal conceded by Liverpool this season. Past contenders for worst of the year have come when a series of individual mistakes over a fairly short period of time have conspired to hand an opponent a goal, and as bad as the markers given up against the likes of Stoke and Norwich may have seemed at the time, as with most any side will concede they came from a series of minor mistakes that slowly added up to the ball hitting the back of the net.

By ADAM SERRANO

The Vancouver Whitecaps begin their second year in MLS with a new head coach and a new sense of promise.

Martin Rennie, who was hired midway through the 2011 season, has quickly sought to revamp a club that finished at the bottom of the Western Conference last season.

It was a classic opening game. The fans came hoping to see signs of a rebirth with new acquisitions and a team style that had finally gelled. They went away disappointed as DC United remained mired in the same ineffective scoring rut that ended the 2011 season.

Kansas City was superior in possession and earned far more good shooting chances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VIt0CQbFaU Did you happen to catch the league game in Romania between Concordia Chijana and Visalani on Saturday night? If not, you missed out primarily on a masterclass of calamitous keeping that makes Massimo Taibi's time at Manchester United look like a reign of consummate composure.

Sometimes it feels as though for years now, fans have wildly swung between believing the club can't survive without Gerrard and suggesting they can get on just fine without him—even if it would be nice if they didn't have to. It's understandable. After all, the simple truth is Liverpool don't have anyone else capable of doing what Gerrard does when he's on form.

The 2011-2012 season has been quite lacklustre for Manchester United. Even though they are at the top of the Premier League summit, as of the time of writing, the Red Devils have been knocked out of the FA Cup, League Cup, Champions League and were defeated by Athletic Bilbao 3-2 in the Europa League last week.