Lazy, sloppy, Messi penalty It is typical of Lionel Messi that even when he makes a balls up of something, he cannot help but do it in spectacular fashion. Take his penalty against Real Betis last night, for instance, which made Chris Waddle's Italia 90 spot-kick look relatively accurate. The Argentine skied the ball over [.

A club that exists to win trophies. Remember when that used to said about Liverpool? And remember when people actually believed it because that is what happened every year?
The way things have unfolded this season, saying such a thing about the club at this present time isn't even funny.

Doha in the oil and natural gas rich state of Qatar takes center stage in the world of sport today as the 2011 Asian Cup kicks off today.
Meanwhile on the tennis courts Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are battling it out in the Qatar Open.
In a different type of court, the International Cricket Council's spot fixing inquiry into claimsagainst three Pakistani cricketers is being held in Doha.

Well I guess that settles one argument. Picking a strong side does not guarantee a result.

This game also proved Arshavin's First Law of Football – If you do not score, you'll concede!

But for large parts this was a tale of a woefully disjointed performance by Arsenal and some determined textbook defending by the hosts.

I hope everyone's rage has died down a little. Mine was slowly subsiding as I looked ahead to the West Ham game on the weekend and today's MLS SuperDraft. However, my anger began to bubble up again after hearing the latest comments from our captain:

"I don't know if it is long ball or it is a rugby kick but it worked for them.

By Chris Wright

Always nice to see a such lovingly sculpted balls

The £25,000 ox sculpture that stands outside Oxford United's Kassam Stadium has been besmirched!

The BBC are reporting that vandals covered the bovinous (probably not a word) statue in bright pink paint late last night, with the words 'GOTTA LOVE ART' then daubed onto the marble plinth underneath.

Bunbury is looking to BBQ a few more goalies in KC's new digs next year...

Standard direction to take on a Teal Bunbury interview is to play up the "father-son" angle. Teal and his father Alex are the first father-and-son pairing to grace MLS and Alex, Teal's Dad, is a Canadian soccer legend.

This is my overriding fear vis-a-vis tonight's monster clash in North London.

City will be missing their main man, their orchestrata, the man who makes them "play football", therefore, men like De Jong, Barry and Yaya will be key for them.

I very much doubt they will come to have a rumble with us, a point is more than good enough and this should plant the tactical side of their job tonight.

Andrey Arshavin may not have hit the heights he was reaching on a regular basis during his first season at the Emirates in recent weeks and months, but he's still an extremely valuable asset for the club and a very popular figure with the Arsenal faithful. The Russian playmaker has seen his efforts in midfield largely overshadowed this season by the stellar form of Samir Nasri, who has been the Gunners' star man both in Premier League matches and in European competition, but remains a key weapon in Arsene Wenger's artillery.

A sore nose AND an o.g. on the scoresheet The defender in this Japanese High School Football Championship was not taking any chances with his clearance and gave it some welly. Unfortunately, the full brunt of the mammoth hoof was felt by his team-mate stood a metre in front of him. The balls smacks off [.

LONDON, England The Football Association will launch an investigation after a Stevenage player was punched by a fan while celebrating the shock FA Cup victory against Newcastle. Defender Scott Laird was floored by the blow following the final whistle as the League Two side celebrated their 3-1 win over their Premier League opposition.

Arsenal 1 Leeds 1
There's a very nasty tendency among Arsenal fans to pick on individual players when the game isn't going for us.
The thing about the Leeds match, was that things just weren't going for us. Leeds weren't creating anything, but frankly, neither were we. And we can have no complaints about the penalty we conceded.

Well that wasn't very good, was it?

Before I start let me credit Ipswich for their performance. After a 7-0 thrashing at the weekend they could easily have gone to pieces again last night but when it became obvious, fairly early on, they were facing an Arsenal side at less than half-throttle they not only continued to defend well but they had more of a go at us than Man City did.

I have no idea who or what the BOPI is beyond some kind of jobs for boys. I think it's Body for Professional Sports Indonesia. Apparently because of this body the breakaway league, Liga Primer Indonesia, have been getting approval to hold football matches in this country.
As far as I'm aware the only body authorised by FIFA, the world's governing body, to arrange and organise football matches is the local FA which in the case of Indonesia is the PSSI.

Laurent Koscienly and Johan Djourou are two of the most complete Central defenders in the league. They intercept, they win balls aerially, but best of all, they come out of defence with the ball and then play it off like elegant passing midfielders.

What a partnership this is developing into and long may it continue to flourish injury free.

Life without soccer seems like a cruel joke to many, but thousands of people live in impoverished conditions without the help of soccer everyday. Thankfully, Balls Without Borders, a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles, is working hard to improve that reality with the help of soccer. Led by Viva Guerrero, president and CEO, BWB [.

Not just poor sides, but even the likes of Manchester United. You deploy a flat back four, with 3 central defensive midfielders sitting in front of the defence, blocking, chopping and slicing up everything that tries to slip through. You then play your fastest players wide and hit them with long balls once you break up the Arsenal play.

This week is very rich with wonderful goals. Even in Asian Cup, we seen four great goals so far. After Villa Real great goal couple of days ago, Ibra scored a super goal vs. Lecce
I am amazed not only by the magical finish, but also his fight for the ball. Usually, these type of balls are lost to defenders.

Still unbeaten, still top of the Premier League, so despite a 0-0 draw against Tottenham at White Hart Lane there are still many positives that can be taken from the result.

The match itself was tense with neither team coming out on top despite United having to play the last quarter of an hour with only ten men as Rafael was sent off for collecting two yellow cards.

Training this morning was of the technical nature, which means less tactics and scrimmaging and more work on the basics - ball striking, precise passing, and of course finishing, just to name a few. Above Becky Sauerbrunn works on some long balls while Lauren Cheney (below) goes all Abby Wambach on this cross.

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to make a balls up of a cup draw... Caught Offside

Why Pienaar shouldn't have moved from Everton... Football Team Talk

Why managing in the Premier League is harder than ever... A Football Report

The top-50 best paid players in the world, with C-Ron at the top.

This week's Picture That Dotmund Did is a double whammy of art and LEARNING. As we are now in the middle of the Australian Open Tennis, your correspondent (who likes tennis so much that he has yellow fuzzy balls) turned his attention to the Ladies' Singles draw, where three notable players were the products of professional footballer's loins.

1. The January Camp friendlies rarely provide the most exciting matches normally our MLS-ers against a decent country's domestic-leaguers but they do provide a glimpse at our youth (most players on our roster are under 25). For a lucky few, it can even propel them into the first-team conversation.

1. Dimitar Berbatov, you beauty. Fancy scoring three hattricks in one season? Fancy scoring more hattricks than Rooney has goals? 17 in 19 games is some return, at long last! This is the way a striker we paid £30m should be playing. Now, surely it's time the fans treated him the way the Premiership's top scorer should be.

Today offered us all another insight into the potential of the Seattle Sounders Academy. With a local "away" game it gave the Sounders crowd the opportunity for a display of passion in late January, and the ECS the opportunity to taunt some high school kids. The U-18 game wasn't just marred by the 2-1 result with Seattle's only goal coming from an own goal, but also marred by a scuffle that resulted in dual Red Cards to players on each team, as well as a Yellow Card to the Crossfire keeper.

By Chris Wright

Perhaps an indication of the 'short-term' nature that has engulfed everything pertaining to Liverpool FC over the past few years, it seems that one win over a patchy Wolves outfit has transmogrified a universally panned rabble into a fluid unit akin to that of the legendary 1970′s Dutch national side at least as far as 'Deadly Dirk Kuyt is concerned, who also jibed former manager Roy Hodgson's slightly 'agricultural' approach:

"[Playing under Dalglish] comes close to the old Dutch style.

By Jason Davis - WASHINGTON, DC (Jan 26, 2011) US Soccer Players -- They have featured together in just two United States National Team games - the sum total of their respective international resumes - but young strikers Juan Agudelo and Teal Bunbury are already becoming a tandem. Dynamic attacks and balls hitting the back of the net top the typical soccer fan's list of favorite things.

As the season begins to approach a thrilling finale in four months' time, many players around the Premier League are noting down games that could define their season.

For out-of-form Arsenal play-maker Andrey Arshavin, the club's season-defining game is already in the books. And that game is none other than the North Londoners' impressive 3-1 triumph over champions Chelsea.

Carlo Ancelotti has admitted he has no idea whether Liverpool striker Fernando Torres will become a Chelsea player this month.
The Blues had a £35 million bid for the World Cup winner rejected earlier in the week, but are now said to be preparing an improved offer after Torres submitted a written transfer request at Anfield.