So many optimism before the game, so many positive comments on our young players coming of age. But we had to wait for today to judge and unfortunately, many will be asking the same questions which were asked last season.

Until the 60th minute, you can say we didn't deserve to lose as we could have easily been 0-2 up, but if Almunia decides to kill all the good that was done since then, I'm afraid questions should be asked on our players and not on the referee or Rooney.

This is the new Nike ball that you will see being kicked around next season. It's called the Nike Total 90 Ascente and will also be used in the EPL and in Spain's La Liga. The ball will be used in all Serie A, Serie B, and Coppa Italia matches as well as the SuperCoppa this August and in all Primavera matches.

Last World Cup draw saw Heidi Klum prancing about on stage kicking balls and pulling them out of pots; this year we're led to believe that South Africa's finest piece of ass, Charlize Theron will flaunt her Sth. Africaness on stage and even babble off some cheesy FIFA script. Ah, ...

Worle FC a local club in Somerset, England found a huge penis drawn on their pitch on Monday. But this wasn't an on-the-spot prank. This was planned. According to Worle FC assistant manager Mark Chesney, the club had their line painter locked up, so whoever did it brought their own. And who are the suspects for this oddly proportioned work of art?

The Technology in Sport series will delve in to many ways in which science and technology are being applied to the various components of Soccer – from balls to the goal line, and beyond. In this part, we take a look at a new medical technique – Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy – and try to [...]

Monday afternoon saw US hopes raised, dashed, and slaughtered in quick order. As Bruce over at du Nord pointed out it's the first time the US has lost when scoring first in over 75 games. It was disappointing but the US still looked strong despite going a man down. Altidore looked ferocious up front and he could have easily put the US up early on but squandered an incredible chance.

I've carried him long enough get this freaking Limey off my back NOW!
Over in England, the reaction to preview quotes from Grant Wahl's uber-hyped book/hatchet job on Becks, 'The Beckham Experiment', has naturally centred around the following outburst from Landon Donovan, the man Beckham replaced as captain of the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Si, ugly peoples from Canada come back to Miami to lose again! If it not enough these pinches Canadians can't even get along with themselves and fight between each other! Why? Maybe it's too cold in Canada? Maybe they tired of being called America's Hat? Burrito don't know and no care.
All Burrito know is that the Blues need to wins and get the three points.

Thank God, it's over! This was truly the interlull from hell. Not only was our best current player injured for almost two months, but our best former player has been branded "a cheat" and "a liar." I have refrained from covering and incessantly commenting on this whole affair because I am just absolutely sick to death of the British media.

By AriesArshavin has been speaking on his personal web site about the victory at Wigan. He considers that the forced exit of Mido and the deployment of Arsenal's big guns, Adebayor and Van Persie, were important in deciding the outcome of the game."Mido caused a lot of problems for us. They supplied him with long balls and their assault ended with a goal from a corner.

I have generally been impressed by the jobs of the center officials in MLS this season. While there have been quibbles and complaints, for the most part the officiating has been iffy at worst, and more often than not decent.

Which is why I hope that Hilario Grajeda was misled by his AR on an atrocious penalty kick decision.

Lady luck is back, it seems. A lot of questions will be asked after last night's performance, starting with why on earth seven, eight, maybe more highly-paid professional footballers decide to approach a Champions League game with such an uninterested approach.

I don't know, it seemed many didn't want to travel to Belgium or maybe thought that wasting time against such a weak team was not in their plans.

Dear DC United,
I thought you weren't supposed to handle balls in the penalty area HA HA HA HA OH GOD THE COMEDY it burns
Boy, I'm really glad you guys got a chance to do that picture. Remember when Brian McBride and Cobi Jones did the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue? Remember those fashion shoots the Nats did - boy, I sure hope they do another one next summer!

It was announced yesterday the New York Red Bulls signed Catherine Zeta-Jones Alfredo Pacheco from El Salvador's CD FAS. Apparently this is a very big signing for the scoreless club. Of course I had some witty input after seeing this picture of Pacheco on the Red Bulls page.

Have they always allowed women to play for the Red Bulls or are they making an exception this year?

Another fairly lazy day today so gonna plump you all up with another fill of Man Utd Ramblings. It could be worse, I don't know how but I'm sure it could be.

The news came out recently that Man Utd will wear a full white kit for the Champions League Final against Barcelona.

The folks at U.S. Soccer sometimes like to refer to themselves as one big family, and it's easy to see why on weekends such as an Academy Showcase. But sometimes it's truer than you'd think.
This here is Trevor Mulqueen. He's the son of U.S. MNT U-20 goalkeeping coach Tim Mulqueen and one of the smallest members of the coaching staff.

* First and foremost, I'd like to add my voice to the chorus of those calling for the resignation of Bob Bradley. It's pretty safe to say at this point that he doesn't know how to prepare his players for big games (at least those against an opponent other than Mexico). Of course, a lot of that responsibility is shared by the players, but this particular group just does not seem willing to give any more for this coach.

After celebrating the USA's historic win over Spain, U.S. coach Bob Bradley described the approach his team took into the game: "We really felt strongly that when we got the ball we needed to be aggressive. We needed to play some of the kind of balls behind their defense that could cause them trouble.

This was clearly a match between two teams going in different directions. Chivas was starting guys like Maicon Santos, Jesus Padilla, and Yamith Cuesta - all who joined the team in August and have already claimed starting jobs. They haven't been afraid to bench their veterans like Razov, Galindo, and Marsch and have instead sought out better players.

He scored 150 goals for Manchester United in just five seasons - yes 150 goals - and he's currently on the books at Real Madrid - but reports in England suggest that Ruud van Nistelrooy could move to Blackburn of all places.
This is essentially MJ to the Washington Wizards redux. (Michael Jordan, not Michael Jackson, relax.

2009/2010 Premier League Predictions Players & Clubs

Best Overall Squad

Yes, the tide has shifted and judging from the potential individual winners for next year you should know by now that I think Chelsea will most likely be crowned Best Squad of 2010. Chelsea just seems to be a complete squad to me.

US Soccer have released their ProZone analysis stats for the win, as well as a behind the scenes video from what is truly a great camera angle.

Prozone Analysis:
Here is the Summary from ussoccer.com:

* 7 DaMarcus Beasley had the highest pass completion percentage with 95%
* 10 Landon Donovan received the most balls with 63
* 17 Jozy Altidore had the most shots with 5
* 2 Frankie Hejduk had the most crosses with 10
* 4 Pablo Mastroeni won the most headers with 11

Thoughts: 1.

Before the match started, the big question was if Brazil as a team was back to normal levels of Dunga suffering seen in the past game or if the last game was a unseen performance by Egypt.

And before Dunga and the fans could seat to much with that question, Brazil was winning 1-0. Great start for the team that had a squad that tested 3 new players - Miranda replacing Juan, Andre Santos replacing Kleber and Ramires replacing Elano.

Definitely for Italians, June 21st is not a good day to take on Brazil. On this date, the Gods of football wear yellow jersey. 39 years after the 4-1 massacre in the final of the World Cup, Brazil humiliated Italy one more time. Since 1982, Italy does not beat Brazil.

The first-half was a lesson in football.

(left Clint Dempsey the American Spirit)

The USA showed the world how to do it on Sunday in the Confederations Cup in South Africa, thrashing an Egyptian outfit that played like mummies. Needing three goals to keep hopes alive, the boys in red, white and blue did exactly that, while Brazil finished off a weak Italian effort, allowing the States to go through to a semi-final match up against current World Cup favorites, Spain.

It took less than 30 minutes for Beckham's banger against Barça it to make it to the interwebs. This was scored in the 44th minute and as I type this we're less than 5 minutes into the second half. As unsavory as some of his traits may be, dude can get it done on the field (scoring dead balls) and off the field (scoring attention) like no other.

LA Galaxy's Chris Birchall, David Beckham and Landon Donovan line up to defend a kick from Barcelona's Dani Alves at the Rose Bowl, Aug 1, 2009.

Chris Birchall: Looks like I'm taking one for the team. I hate being the new guy.

David Beckham: I should be above having to line up for these shots.

This is how the balls dropped (British teams in bold): GROUP A Bayern Munich, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa GROUP B Man Utd, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsburg GROUP C AC Milan, Real Madrid, Marseille, FC Zurich GROUP D Chelsea, Porto,...

Bad breaks from Belgium Standard Liege's Axel Witsel dealt out the ultimate footballing humiliation to Anderlecht's Marcin Wasilewski over the weekend by breaking his leg so badly that he inadvertently kicked himself in the balls. This is one of those sickening leg breaks that we get every so often in football.

Here at Premiership Talk we received three soccer balls to test out from SoccerPro. The first soccer ball that we tested out was the ever popular Nike T90 Strike. Right from the second I pumped the ball up I could tell it is a quality ball. The material on the outside of the ball is extremely durable, and very padded.

Is it me, or does Liverpool always feature in classic CL-matches...? As I already wrote in my preview, getting back from 1-3 down in 90 minutes away from home is not that big an ask for the Reds. They have the fighting spirit, the pace, the opportunism and the balls to

Lionel Saint-Preux attacks - Photo by Jeremy Olson, Digital Gopher

The MN Thunder lost their home opener last night 3-2 in a game which I attended. The match was entertaining but it saw Vancouver with the better scoring opportunities and too many second balls lost in the midfield as well as ball given away in places that were dangerous.

Let me start out by saying that I will take three points any day, any time, any way. I will take a home win, I will take the first victory of the season, and I will take the clean sheet that came with it.

But that doesn't mean I have to be entertained by it.

We're now seven weeks into the season, with the Galaxy completing game six.

Conclusions? Wicks sure is a dick about balls in the net. Geez, between that kind of behavior and Crayton's flopping of a few weeks ago, I really want to see more of Kocic in net, primarily so I'm not embarrassed by the behavior of our keepers.Was...

Spain were predicted to beat the USA comfortably, but if you took a look at the whole match, anything but occurred

Usually in soccer, USA have nothing to show, but if the Americans showed one thing tonight, however cliché it may be; it's that having a coach who knows his tactics and who knows how his players fit the tactics can prove to be very effective, effective enough to beat the European champions.

You need to know what I did when he scored the goal. It's embarrassing, but as you know your verbose blogger has to share these things.

First, a little recap.

First, I screamed. I scared the crap out of my seven-year-old daughter who was scrapbooking in the kitchen.

My husband screamed too but in a more manly way.

Well, it's all over the place today, so let's dive right in.

First off, it appears that we lost out on Felipe Melo, who is reportedly going to be unveiled as a member of Juventus today. It's not official, of course, so it could still change, but at this point it appears to be legit. Well, balls.

For the complete quote sheet, visit ussoccer.com.
U.S. Men's National Team Head Coach Bob Bradley
On allowing goals in the second half:
"The second half for us is not what we're all about. It's important we can look hard at ourselves and learn from a half like that and use it the right way.

Boy did I miss the feelings of 2008. Poor motivation in international tournaments, decent possession but few shots on target, costly individual mistakes... This is deja vu all over again.
1. In his first bit of extended time, Danny Szetela stood out in an otherwise mediocre midfield.

"He's here, hes there, hes every fcuking where. Ka-kuuu-taaaaa Ka-kuuu-taaaaa" Yes Yes. Yesterday Google announced that the biggest increase in a search term was the words "Gael Kakuta". Not Cristiano Crappants. Not Lionel Im Allowed to Headbutt People. Not even the original Golden Bollock Balls himself.