Name: Erik Thorstvedt In his 1990s prime for: Tottenham Lowdown: Norwegian goalkeeper Thorstvedt arrived at Spurs in 1989 from Gothenburg, and played in the Premier League until 1996, when he was forced to retire with a recurring back injury. He played 97 times for his country, including the number one jersey at the 1994 World [.

Written by Jamie

When Thierry Henry scored in Madrid in 2005, the ITV commentator, Peter Drury, I think, called him "the gunner galactico" and since we have now given our record scorer a statue, it seems a fair representation of his greatness.

In April 2004 I stood in the lower east stand, just over an hour before kickoff.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philadelphia Union

The "2011 in Review" articles for the Philadelphia Union are now up on the MLS website. One provides decent insight, the other, not so much. In the Q & A cobbled together from the last press conference of the season, in addition to relating that Freddy Adu was at "60 percent" for much of the end of the season due to a back injury and the need for defensive additions and competition within the various positions on the field, Peter Nowak discusses the mindset the team needs to win a championship:

"I told you guys at the press conferences we've had all year long that we believe in what we're building, we believe what is the culture around the team.

Took a little while for me to get this post out due to all the stuff that's been going on since Sporting KC's season ended. But here's a look at my post season grades.
Korede Aiyegbusi - INC - Only played 94 minutes for KC in league play this year, not enough to warrent a grade.
Davy Arnaud - C+ - Missed quite a bit of time after having hernia surgery, and once back found himself as a back up to the midfield trio of Cesar, Espinoza, and Zusi.

By Chris Wright

Apparently Robin van Persie suffered a back injury after last night's 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund at the Emirates. You can fill in the 'carrying the team' punchlines yourselves.

The Dutchman scored both Arsenal's goals (Shinji Kagawa netting Dortmund's consolation), taking his tally for the season to 16 and his tally for the calendar year up to 33 in 30 games.

By Chris Wright

Apparently Robin van Persie suffered a back injury after last night's 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund at the Emirates. You can fill in the 'carrying the team' punchlines yourselves.

The Dutchman scored both Arsenal's goals (Shinji Kagawa netting Dortmund's consolation), taking his tally for the season to 16 and his tally for the calendar year up to 33 in 30 games.

Two weeks without club football? Check. The potential for the club's most important players to pick up injuries? Check. All the time in the world to stew over a bad performance leading into the break? Check. A fully functioning liver? That might depend on how many Liverpool players go to sleep Tuesday night without having picked up an injury between now and then.

Here is our last opportunity to vote.

How it works

• Vote by posting a Yes (to Protect) or No (don't Protect) in the subject of a comment, then explain why in the message
• We (the editors) will keep track of all the yes/no votes for each player
• At the end of the whole roster we will total up the results and post the community's Protected list
• Your list will be compared to the list of each contributing editor
• The only player we will not be voting on is Darlington Nagbe as he is automatically protected based on his Generations Adidas Status.

The international break's half done, which is good. But that still means there's a half left to go, which is rather less good. As always, you can catch all the week's action on the usual streaming sites—MyP2P, StopStream, First Row Sports, ATDHE, etc.—if your local television options don't have the match you want covered.

Following the announcement of the USA's roster for the friendlies against France and Slovenia (LINK), U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann answered questions for ussoccer.com:
On his plans for the camp:
"It's going to be busy. The fight will continue for starting spots, and it's important to see how the players perform in every training session.

By Chris Wright

A pair of beautifully-taken goals from the Yaya Monster (the footwork before the second of the two is definitely worth another look) and a penalty both won and dispatched by Mario Balotelli saw Man City cruise to victory over a bare-bones Villarreal side that put in the worst performance by a Spanish club in Champions League history (© Martin O'Neill).

He would've preferred to have 13 players protecting in front of him

International week. Not the easiest of weeks to get by. Especially not after that last result. A defeat to your most bitter rival is not something that you want to linger in your thoughts. Usually we'll just have a day or two before to mull over it before the next game.

Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny has dismissed suggestions that Tottenham Hotspur have become North London's stronger side after winning two of the last three derby clashes.

The Spurs came from two goals down to win 3-2 at the Emirates last year and fought the Gunners to a 3-3 draw at White Hart Lane later in the season before Sunday's showdown once again ended in their favor.

Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuain was understandably delighted after making the most of a rare recent start against Espanyol on Sunday by scoring a hat-trick in his side's 4-0 win

Since returning from a serious back injury in April, Higuain has been mainly used at a substitute by Jose Mourinho with Karim Benzema being Mourinho's preferred choice up front.

STARTERS
Vancouver Whitecaps will debut at the beautifully refurbished BC Place stadium this weekend against long time rivals Portland Timbers. Should be a skeptical.
VIDEO OF THE DAY
The latest video from the Minnesota Stars follows them south to Cary North Carolina for the final game of the regular season - a must win.

The University of Wisconsin men's soccer team hardly gave Drake a shot at winning Friday night.

The Badgers limited the Bulldogs to just four shots in 90 minutes, and sophomores Nick Janus, Joey Tennyson (Menomonee Falls) and Trevor Wheeler scored in a 3-1 victory at the Illinois-Chicago Classic.

Remember the internet joke doing the rounds in the summer about a certain Titus Bramble coming to the Arsenal? If you missed it some mischievous cove used Twitter to spread the rumour that the bungling Bramble was on his way to the Emirates and that Arsene Wenger was convinced it was he, not Per Mertersacker, Gary Cahill, Chris Samba or Phil Jagielka, who was the answer to our defensive woes.

Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni has rewarded Shane Long for his strong start to the season at West Brom with a starting place for tomorrow's vital European Championship qualifier against Slovakia, with Kevin Doyle the player to miss out.
Kevin Kilbane has failed to recover from a back injury and will return to Derby County this afternoon.

Sporting Kansas City has a chance to create some space between themselves and having to play a play in game for the playoffs. With teams 4 through 6 (Philadelphia, New York, and DC) all being off this weekend now due to Hurricane Irene (hope all my East Coast friends are OK) it's a chance for KC to get themselves further away from the chasing pack trying to get into one of the three automatic playoff spots.

Written by Wonderman

Not much to write about today's game, it was not much of a spectacle but still there were positives to be taken. I sat in the west stand today, behind the tv gantry and close enough to recognise Steve McManaman not too far away working for one of the tv channels.

If Arsenal somehow end up leading 4-0 against Newcastle at half-time in their league opener Saturday evening, they will think twice before taking their minds even slightly away from the St. James' Park pitch.

A stunning second-half collapse proved costly last season as the Gunners lost a hefty four-goal advantage to a Joey Barton brace from the penalty spot as well as a goal each from Leon Best and Cheik Tiote to end the match in a famous 4-4 draw.

The injuries for Sporting Kansas City seem to continue to mount up, with news on two more players coming out today. First for some good news, the team posted on Twitter today that captain, Davy Arnaud had returned to training. Combine that with the return of Craig Rocastle to game play yesterday in the reserve game.

Charles N'Zogbia matched Darren Bent's achievement of scoring on his debut in tonight's final pre-season game in Braga; a 1-1 draw that would probably be given to the home side on points by the judges. If we did such a thing.

Vagner Love's stunt double, Alan, opened the scoring for the home side with a wicked effort from 25 yards that nestled the top corner and left Shay Given no chance.

Clay Buchholz entered the 2011 baseball season as a Cy Young award favorite and the best pitcher on the Boston Red Sox. However, his season has been derailed by a back injury. And now sources are reporting that Clay Buchholz's back injury is worse than anyone imagined.

At first, Clay Buchholz's back injury was thought to be relatively minor.

Sporting KC has had a flare for the dramatic during their 13-game MLS unbeaten streak. Things were no different Saturday.

Struggling forward Teal Bunbury came off the bench on his bobblehead give-away night, but with KC down 1-0 to the New England Revolution in the 89th minute, Bunbury buried a shot in the back of the net to save a point for Sporting, set the club record for consecutive games without a loss and keep his team unbeaten at home.

It's been a while since Kansas City has had a mid-week off from a game. While Omar Bravo and Matt Besler had the All Star game the rest of the team probably didn't know exactly what to do with themselves with the week off. Coming out of the week KC plays the New England Revolution tomorrow at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, continuing their long home stand.

Sporting KC took a big blow today with the news that starting defender, Aurelien Collin will miss the next 6 weeks due to a back injury. Collin picked up the injury in the Wizards 4-2 win over Toronto FC over the weekend, having to be subbed just after the hour mark. The Frenchman looks set to miss the rest of the long home stand for KC due to the injury.

With Emiliano Viviano's unfortunate injury, Prandelli is forced to venture from his favorite 3 and call up a third keeper to provide necessary depth. And while people consider Buffon untouchable, remember last year's back injury? Seeing Marchetti between the sticks was worse than watching a deer in the headlights.

By JONATHAN VERA

CARSON, Calif – After battling a back injury for weeks, David Beckham woke up earlier this week feeling pain free and ready to play.

The Chicago Fire found out the hard way just how ready Beckham was.

The Los Angeles Galaxy star set up a Landon Donovan goal before scoring a goal of his own on, of all things, a corner kick to help lead the Galaxy to a 2-1 win over the Fire on Saturday night at the Home Depot Center.

There's been another change at the top.

Despite not losing, the Los Angeles Galaxy has made way for FC Dallas to take over the No. 1 spot in SBI'S MLS Power Rankings. FCD, on the heels of its 2-0 win over Columbus, extended its torrid streak to 9-1-3 in its last 13 games and trails the Galaxy by two points in the race for the Supporter's Shield but has two games in hand.

The 4th place and defending MLS Cup Champion Colorado Rapids (5-3-7) entered their showdown with the 1st place LA Galaxy (8-2-7) leading the MLS in goals scored while only conceding 14. That + 8 goal differential was good enough for 3rd in the league. They ran into a Galaxy squad that was without starting Jamaican national team goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts and USA star Landon Donovan, as they were set to duel Saturday afternoon at RFK Stadium in D.

Sidelined for almost the whole season in favour of Heurhelo Gomes, the 37 year-old veteran keeper has arguably gone beyond the call of duty when asked to stand in for Heurhelo Gomes for two brief periods during the season when the No. 1 was hit firstly with a match ban and then more recently was ruled out with a back injury.

Liverpool welcome Tottenham to Anfield on Sunday in a shoot-out for fifth spot in the Premier League.
The Reds are in pole position to finish fifth and claim a place in next season's Europa League as they are two points ahead of Spurs.
A win for Liverpool will guarantee fifth spot with just one game left after this weekend in the Premier League.

Liverpool welcome Tottenham to Anfield on Sunday in a shoot-out for fifth spot in the Premier League.
The Reds are in pole position to finish fifth and claim a place in next season's Europa League as they are two points ahead of Spurs.
A win for Liverpool will guarantee fifth spot with just one game left after this weekend in the Premier League.

It's maybe not surprising that some areas of the media are questioning the official explanation for Heurelho Gomes' absence from the Spurs squad last night. Tottenham have said that the Brazilian was suffering from a back injury and while we wouldn't want to question that statement, others have hinted at a smokescreen.

American defender Zak Whitbread could be the next U.S.-born player to make the climb from the League Championship to the Premier League after his club, Norwich City, earned promotion on Monday.

Norwich secured passage to the Premier League with a 1-0 victory against Portsmouth on a goal from Canadian national team striker Simeon Jackson.

So I'm glancing over the latest Goffblog United injury roundup and feeling a little paranoid for Chris Korb. Not only is Zayner, the prospective starter at right back, still down, but McTavish, a utility man but putative right back, continues his concussion troubles as well. As a right fullback myself, that has me a little spooked.

So I'm glancing over the latest Goffblog United injury roundup and feeling a little paranoid for Chris Korb. Not only is Zayner, the prospective starter at right back, still down, but McTavish, a utility man but putative right back, continues his concussion troubles as well. As a right fullback myself, that has me a little spooked.

According to Physioroom, Liverpool have had 43 separate injuries to first team players since the beginning of August. The above graphic shows only 38 for two reasons. First, there are two different Gerrard groin injuries listed in February. However, since he didn't play any matches in the meantime, I'm only counting it as one.

Blow for Wales as Gareth Bale ruled out of England clash - ESPN Soccernet Tottenham winger Gareth Bale has been ruled out of Wales' Euro 2012 qualifier against England on Saturday with a hamstring injury. Bale did not train on Wednesday, despite reports that he was injured during a session, and he has only recently returned from a back injury that kept him out for six weeks from the end of