What a big win, and a big loss! Conceding the goal in that manner added another chapter to the special Arsenal edition of 101 Extraordinary Ways To Concede A Goal. While the remarkable comeback in extremely trying circumstances completely countered the impact of that goal in the short term, the injury to Mertesacker will make the future games all the more challenging.

In a way this was a fairy tale return for Thierry Henry. Wenger acknowledged as much in his post-match press conference when he said,

It was like a dream when he scored, it was the story you would tell a kid. It is not often like that in our game.

But one could as well say there was an air of predictability about the football and the result.

FIFA 13 Preview and Screenshots - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

FIFA 13 captures all the drama and unpredictability of real-world football, and is driven by five game-changing innovations which revolutionize artificial intelligence, dribbling, ball control and physical play. It is the largest and deepest feature set in the history of the franchise.

Liverpool legend Steven Nicol has expressed his disappointment over Liverpool's ineffective performance against Manchester City last night.Kenny Dalglish's 'tactical' approach of hoofing balls up to lone Striker Andy Carroll was never going to be successful, especially when he was up against quality defenders like Vincent Kompany and Kolo Toure.

While the Kickette staff were away, the gossip mice did play.

Or something like that.

Saturday

- Pato's main squeeze, Barbara Berlusconi, went red on her head.

- Christine Bleakley and Frank Lampard may be above bribing other brides and grooms, but we're not.

New footage showing Blackburn manager Steve Kean bad-mouthing his predecessor Sam Allardyce and claiming Rovers would finish in the top-half of the table this season has emerged. The video, reportedly filmed during last summer's pre-season trip to Hong Kong, was uploaded to YouTube yesterday. We can only assume that whoever recorded wanted to give Kean [.

By Chris Wright

Remember Il Pulpo Paul? The mystic octopus who was denounced by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and then secretly assassinated by the CIA after 'predicting' a stack of results at the 2010 World Cup? Remember? Paul? Okay? Well now forget him, because there's a new psychic animal in town a llama from Ashdown Forest Llama Park in east Sussex (of course he's going to be a Chelsea fan).

This is how crazy ideas get started. It's only a matter of time before someone patents it and calls it a sport.
Would the sport be better on grass or indoors with a machine running the balls back up?
Many variations could be offered for Foot Bowling. Widening the lane could be one option.

I posed some statements to the other writers of Stumptown Footy and asked them to buy or sell the statement with a brief explanation. Here are our answers:

Kris Boyd will score 10+ goals this season. Andrew:

Sell. I've held this opinion close to my chest. I want to believe that Boyd is going to be the goalscorer the Timbers organization has cast their lot in, but to me there are still just a few too many questions.

Their Words "You have to focus on your own game as well but of course we've got players with the size and the quality to cope with the weapon of long balls and throw-ins." Fulham manager Martin Jol. Other Sources Clint Dempsey's Diary: Playing and scoring in the World Cup was the ultimate dream - from Goal.

Arsenal have two visits to Sunderland on consecutive Saturdays in different competitions and both have the potential to improve the season but could also make it far worse. The focus for now, obviously, has to be on the more immediate fixture that is the upcoming League meeting.

It would be an understatement to suggest that Martin O'Neill has turned the fortunes of the Black Cats around.

By Chris Wright

And what a glorious first 39 minutes they were...

Very amusing, though we must point out that it's been done before.

(Spotted on Balls.ie Twitter feed, via F365)

Some of the reaction following the USA's 1-0 win against Italy


U.

Sadly, not Belen Rodriguez though you'd imagine she'd also love to take on an entire football team.

The Philadelphia Union of MLS and AD Belen of Costa Rica enjoyed the unfriendliest of friendlies, in which a Union player took offense to a push-off by one player, taking it out in the form of what would be a 5 game suspension in an official fixture.

For no particular reason, Eric Cantona has spoken out against the likes of Mario Balotelli and Leo Messi for pre-calculating celebrations and seeking attention by revealing messages on their shirts. From goal.com:

"I dreamt of being a footballer, of doing great things, of crying and laughing after a victory, of exploding with joy.

Well, that was satisfying. Let's get right to the talking points, shall we?

• Four goals is nice, but more impressive for me is the defensive performance. Henry and Cooper came into this game averaging more than a goal a game each! They got very few good looks tonight, and most of those from distance.

Team GB will face Uruguay, United Arab Emirates and Senegal in this summer's Olympic games. The draw for the group stages of the London 2012 football tournament was made this morning, with fat Ronaldo and, erm, Robbie Savage among those pulling the balls from the hat. The draw in full: Group A: Great Britain, Senegal, [.

Morning everyone! Woken up this morning and still can't quite believe it, we beat Barcelona with ten men and are in the Champions League final!. I posted my reaction to the game a couple of hours after the final whistle and if you haven't seen it, make sure you click here to check it out.

Norwich came to the Emirates with nothing to lose and expressed themselves with gay abandon. The visitors fought hard, were impressive in their transitions, deservedly scored three goals while exposing Arsenal's weaknesses, and took back a rightfully earned point.

Arsene Wenger started with the same line-up that fought hard for a draw away to Stoke.

TweetDidier Zokora committed perhaps the most horrendous, brutal foul in his career after whacking Emre in the balls during a match between Trabzonspor and Fenerbahce! So why did he do it? Well, according to Zokora, Emre had racially abused him and his lash out was a reaction to the racial provocation by Emre.

A disappointing start to the 2012 Major League Soccer season continued for the Philadelphia Union, as the third year franchise dropped three points on a trip out to the West coast.

Little could be taken away from the game offensively in a positive light, as the Union once again froze in the final third.

By Chris Wright

With charity the theme of the day here on Pies, here's another little yarn to pluck your cockles and warm your heartstrings.

What you are about to see is Manchester United's Nani, Park Ji-Sung, Jonny Evans and Chris Smalling humping 200 footballs into the back of the DHL van (with a little help from the tricksy driver) at Carrington.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Where Manchester United found the time in their hectic EPL campaign to allow four key players to kick footballs into a van, we have no clue. But they did, and the faces of the Kenyan kids who eventually received those balls gave us almost as much pleasure as Nani's did when he realised he was getting out-tricked by a guy he believed to be a van driver.

With Fulham unable to do any worse than 9th, or any better than 7th, their fans are content to play an ultra attacking to go all out for the final game of the season.
They reckon a result against us could be on the cards seeing as they dominated us at Craven Cottage despite us eventually winning the game 3-1.

I want to start by wishing everyone a very happy new year full of peace and contentment. My trip has been a real delight and by visiting town like Amherst and Northampton in Massachusetts I've been reacquainted with the meaning of the words Quaint and Idyllic. Back in India, I used to enjoy living and working in town like Udaipur a lot more than I did in places like Mumbai, Bangalore, or Delhi.

I want to start by wishing everyone a very happy new year full of peace and contentment. My trip has been a real delight and by visiting town like Amherst and Northampton in Massachusetts I've been reacquainted with the meaning of the words Quaint and Idyllic. Back in India, I used to enjoy living and working in town like Udaipur a lot more than I did in places like Mumbai, Bangalore, or Delhi.

A former trialist, a former Uruguay World Cup national team player and a Generation Adidas #1 pick headline the strongest positional set of Seattle Sounder FC. Sigi uses these men to be the playmakers on the outside, each in their own way. Two are used to chase long balls, only one is a traditional crosser and all tuck into take shots.

With news that Chelsea are looking at a deal for a new right back and rumours that the Gary Cahill deal will be done and dusted by tomorrow, I am just wondering if AVB will revert back to his approach of playing with a high defensive line?.
We have seen that he tried to implement his "high", "medium" and "low" block approach during the beginning of the season and Chelsea suffered badly with heavy defeats away at United and then at home to Arsenal.

This Saturday brings us the seasons first game of FA Cup up against Cheltenham Town. There's no denying that the balls have been kind to us and provide an opportunity to rest some of the more weary legs in the first team. The Cheltenham Town fans know this and are hopeful of an upset to our 2nd / 3rd stringers, assuming of course Gomes starts.

Anfield Rd: Liverpool drawn at home to the Mancs in 4th Round

AFTER beating Oldham 5-1 in the Budweiser-sponsored cup at Anfield on Friday night Liverpool were in what used to be a hat (probably) for the fourth round draw this afternoon. The balls were warmed, Jim Rosenthal was excited and the draw was made.

Looks like these balls and puck could do the trick. There might be a side-business for Bridgestone, after tires.
The football and basketball both look like a lot of fun to play with. The puck would definitely create some bouncy, unexpected play.

The challenge today is to see if I can go through a whole blog without mentioning Thierry Henry.

Oh, balls. Well, mentioning him again. I know we football fans live very much in the moment, and the moment is kinda all his, but I reckon I've had my fill of articles about how great he is in training.

Former Liverpool defender Mark Wright was surprised by some of Kenny Dalglish's decisions during last night's game with Man City, and after the game, he argued that leaving Andy Carroll up front on his own was the wrong decision.
Speaking on LFC TV, Wright noted:
"It was unbelievable.

In the early 19th century, when soccer rules were primitive and lacked consistency, some clubs would leave strikers deep, beyond the last defender, attempting to send enormous through-balls. If properly... Read more »

The Thai FA have more front than Brighton beach. A couple of years ago they promised to support England's World Cup bid and in return England agreed to their request to play a friendly in Bangkok earlier this year.
The Thais reneged on their promise and England, perhaps not surprisingly, cancelled their proposed trip to Bangkok.

Jurgen Klinsman, Jermaine Jones and Ricardo Clark. The first a German, and famous at that. The second a mix of American and German, currently playing his club ball with Schalke 04 in der fatherland. The third born in America, a defensive midfielder in the 2nd Bundesliga for Eintracht Frankfurt. Could it be some hidden understanding from this shared German-ness that pushed Klinsman to pick Clark off the bench, and for Jones to find the late substitute with a perfectly dipped cross?

By Chris Wright

When 'super duper set-piece' penalties go wrong, you tend to end up looking like a bit of a massive great sopping tit as Uzbekistan U23 striker Aleksandr Geynrikh found out to his cost during a friendly game against Zenit St Petersburg last night.

Ireland striker Robbie Keane has already become Aston Villa's in-game gaffer by shouting out pitch instructions to his short-term colleagues.
Keane has ingratiated himself to team-mates and fans alike with his brilliant double in the 3-2 victory at Wolves last Weekend and it capped an amazing full Villa start for the 31-year-old Irish captain who is currently on loan from LA Galaxy.

Kuyt gets the winner...Liverpool successfully knocked Manchester United out of the FA Cup on Saturday in a 2-1 win at Anfield. The Reds can now boast getting the better of both teams in Manchester in less than a week. A Dirk Kuyt winner grabbed Liverpool the glory in a game where United had most of the possession.

Quite an entertaining story circulating from Sky Sports today stating that the Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has denied that winger Stewart Downing was signed from Aston Villa based on a fake YouTube video in which Downing is shown kicking balls into 5 different wheelie bins.

The video is so fake its quite unbelievable, so its surprising to even hear the Liverpool chairman commenting on the matter.