Soccer America interviewed U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann following their 1-0 defeat away to Belgium in an international friendly.
On the match:
"I think it was an interesting game for both sides. You saw in the first 25 minutes we had good passing movement and we were really involved in the game.

I give up. Honestly.
How can you love a team, desperate for points in the playoff race, that takes a 2-0 lead at home to one of the worst teams in the league and conspires through a combination of catastrophic defending, a complete inability to retain possession, and, most damningly, sheer gutlessness in the face of adversity, to throw away two points?

Featured image: Paul Rudderow

When Freddy Adu joined the Union, Roger Torres must have wondered if he would get relegated to starring in reserve matches for the rest of the season. Fortunately, the Union's most improved young player has found the minutes plentiful in recent weeks and has played some of the best soccer of his Union career.

Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard says he hopes to return for the Reds' September 18 clash against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.
The England international has not featured since March due to a groin injury. After surgery in April, his recovery was further delayed by an infection which put him back in hospital in July and ruled him out of Liverpool's first matches of the new campaign.

Stevie: I Feel Really Good

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard believes his stint away from first team football to rehabilitate after a troublesome groin injury has seen him return fitter than ever. Gerrard eventually had to undergo surgery to overcome a repetitive injury, but recently made a return to light training under Kenny Dalglish.

Steven Gerrard is looking to make his comeback from injury against Tottenham on September 18th and will be returning to full training this week.

Gerrard had hoped to return in Liverpool's final preseason friendly against Valencia but suffered an infection caused by his last groin operation.

A great team win for Carolina.The Railhawks entered the match looking for their third straight victory and a club record 17th victory. They achieved both. The win allowed the team to go nine points ahead on the NASL table. With a win or a draw in the next game, they can clinch the regular-season championship.

By Chris Wright

We know this little font-choice balls-up is getting on a bit in internet years now (it dates back to the primordial ooze of July), but this is the first time we've laid peepers on it so we're counting it as new.

So there...

Via Anorak

More 'Crap Captions' on Pies.

Golden Ball anyone? 3four3 will be looking to hand out some hardware to the nations best college player.

I've seen numerous lists of top college players/pro prospects in the last few weeks and quite frankly they've made me laugh. The same robotic big athletic players are being hyped up and called the nations top players.

Latics have no balls Wigan had to postpone their training session yesterday after thieves stole 48 balls. Manager Roberto Martinez was forced to send his squad for jog after finding that four bags each containing 12 Nike balls had been pinched. The bags had been left on the pitch in preparation for the session, but [.

Once again based on a ten point scale with 1 being epic Fail, 10 being "godlike" and five meaning they didn't help but they didn't hurt.

• Eric Brunner- 7 - He did everything we needed him to do to secure a clean sheet and when he wasn't able to clean up the other defenders did.
• Futty Danso - 6 - Looked a little rusty out there but he made enough plays to keep the clean sheet, pulled a Cooper by being called offside twice on goal scoring opportunities.

I really cannot emphasise enough how proud of the team and our manager I am after yesterday's game. OK we lost the game, but like I said in my match report, we should have got a least a draw. He did exactly what he said about playing an attacking game, had the balls to take Lampard off at half time and continued to encourage the side to keep playing our game and to never give up!

Aek got this seasons campaign underway,even if a week late,with all 3 points at a crowd less OAKA on Sunday night.A beautiful goal from Grigoris Makos on 31 min,after a great through ball by Belleck,was the only difference after 90 min.
Ergotelis started the stronger and really could have led by 3 goals after 20 min if it wasn't for an MVP performance by Arambatzis.

The Philadelphia Union lost another Reserve League game, falling to the Columbus Crew's reserve squad 2-1. However, the Union played better than they have in the past, managing to create many scoring opportunities in the first half before becoming mediocre in the second half.

For the first time in the history of the Brotherly Game, a correspondent was present at a Reserve League game to take notes.

Craig Bellamy today spoke of his delight after scoring his first goal since his return to Anfield as Liverpool booked their place in the fourth round of the Carling Cup after a 2-1 win at Brighton.
It was the Welsh forward's first strike in a red shirt since his famous Champions League effort at Barcelona in February 2007, and he also played a major role in the vital second goal which saw Dirk Kuyt fire home.

Every developing youth soccer league dreams of having the appropriate tools to provide their players with the things they need to succeed and, most importantly, to have fun playing the game.

For five independent soccer leagues in New York City, that dream became a reality when they partnered with Socio MLS, which will provide them with many benefits ranging balls and clinics for coaches and referees, all at no cost to the leagues.

FC Basel's warm-up mats are ridiculously organized but they won't know it from down there! Anyway, before you write off the Swiss side's chances completely against powerhouses Man United later today, listen to what coach Thorsten Fink has to say. Sure, he sounds like the ice-cream man who knows he is running out of cones, but in football, there are always waffle, chocolate cones, cups, etc.

Stewart Downing: The First Six Games

AnfieldIndex Liverpool FC Stats | Liverpool FC Blog | Liverpool FC Forum Stewart Downing came to Liverpool with many fans feeling that we had settled for second best after United had signed Ashley Young. Some even intimated that, in replacing Downing with N'Zogbia, Villa had improved their first team for a fraction of the price.

If nothing against Brighton or Wolves was going to convincingly answer the questions left behind by the Tottenham debacle, at the least fans could hope nothing that happened would make the players involved seem any worse. And if Andy Carroll's first positive performance of the season at least set out a convincing blueprint for the player moving forward, Charlie Adam's performance only left more questions despite forcing a Wolverhampton own goal.

We are coming to the end of September now and after two months I just thought it would be nice to give some of the unsung hero's of our Chelsea side this season a mention. As we all know, most of the column pages in the press lately have been filled with rubbish written about Fernando Torres and Frank Lampard.