The U.S. Open Cup dream is still very much alive for Cal FC.

Former Real Salt Lake forward Artur Aghasyan's goal in the fifth minute of extra time gave the United States Adult Soccer Association side a stunning 1-0 victory over the Portland Timbers at Jeld-Wen Field Wednesday night and sealed the club's unlikely place in the fourth round.

Despite the scoreline, the USA showed some encouraging signs in their 4-1 defeat against Brazil in Washington D.C. last night.
Regardless as to how well the USA played against Scotland over the weekend, you knew that they would be under signifcantly more pressure on both sides of the ball versus Brazil.

A warning...

Don't read this blog if you think that Arsene Wenger walks on water, and don't read this blog if you lack independent thought and support the club because that is how it is and how it will always be, and especially do not waste ten precious minutes of your life if you think that writing a negative blog about the club means that RTK does not love Arsenal.

One thing that really gets me is the way people jumped on the bandwagon and have criticised Chelsea for the way we set up against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals.
All we kept reading for days was these so called big names and in European football come out and slate us for being "boring and defensive!

The Bandwagon Effect By JG Jumping on bandwagons is distastefully popular these days amongst SOME (not all) Arsenal fans. That is, until the bandwagons crash due to the "flawed logic" they were built upon. The list is very long, but here are a few recent examples. 1. We need to buy a new goalkeeper [.

Pollyanna had a hand in writing this one. You know, the girl with the constant optimism? Over the last 6 weeks I have been pretty much depressed every Saturday night, except for the week of the Sporting KC Game. However with the help of the community here I got through it and now I want to help everyone else.

This is called gut check time. This is the time to find out who the real supporters are and who the bandwagon fans are. After Monday's loss to City, on so many message boards and blog sites, I saw expressions ...
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It is certainly fitting of Newcastle's unexpectedly successful season that, on the night of the 12th March, after a 2-1 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates, they trailed the 4th placed Gunners by eight points. It looked like the wheels had come off the North East bandwagon and they would slip into the mid-table mediocrity [.

If the wheels haven't completely fallen off yet, the Tottenham bandwagon has been jacked up and is sitting on bricks outside the house. Might as well have a look at the exhaust while we're about it Spurs are badly misfiring and in need of an overhaul.

That job-lot of Brasso we picked up for the end of the season can be tucked away under the stairs because it's the team that need some polishing after another lacklustre performance.

If the wheels haven't completely fallen off yet, the Tottenham bandwagon has been jacked up and is sitting on bricks outside the house. Might as well have a look at the exhaust while we're about it Spurs are badly misfiring and in need of an overhaul.

That job-lot of Brasso we picked up for the end of the season can be tucked away under the stairs because it's the team that need some polishing after another lacklustre performance.

If you haven't hopped on Fulham's bandwagon, or at least Dempsey's, you should. A hat-trick by Progrebnyak and a brace by Dempsey see Wolves taken out back and summarily shot, so to speak. Video: Fox Sports
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Wenger is a good manager by KJ The majority of Arsenal fans have jumped on the bandwagon that they want Wenger out. I'm fine with that, it's an opinion and hence I can live with it. What annoys me is that fans use the excuse that he's bad tactically and that's why they want him [...]

We are getting prepared to say goodbye to Premiership legend Thierry Henry once again. His short loan spell has reinforced Arsene Wenger's credentials as king of the dealing as in the last two months Henry has scored more goals than 85million pound combo Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll put together.

It's been a week for finding positives in things and Spurs' Tim Sherwood has joined the bandwagon after he presided over a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Leyton Orient at the Lodge.

For Spurs fans, the most striking thing to come from the game was another goal for centre forward Souleymayne Coulibaly who fired in a 74th minute equaliser before the away side snatched a winner just two minutes later.

The wheels came of Newcastle's bandwagon in the second half at Craven Cottage this afternoon, when Newcastle conceded five poor goals to Fulham at Craven Cottage and Clint Dempsey hit a hat trick. That was after Newcastle had dominated the game in the first half and were 1-0 up with a great goal from Danny Guthrie.

Or, what if Tim Tebow was a Buddhist or Jew? Would he be getting the support and love he is receiving now from the American sports world?
As a devout Christian, Tebow has raised many eyebrows inside and outside the sports world.
People are rooting for him because they like his style of play and because he stands for Conservative principles.

The Cold...

Is pissing off to the last degree. A few well-chosen hours of sunlight aside, the entire day in this remote corner of Rajasthan is as bone-chilling as watching Overmars running towards you at full-pelt. No central heating and no adipose have collectively ensured that that I indulge in glum sighs and sad smileys galore at the turn of the New Year.

By Alan Duffy

Lionel Richie? I was going for Craig Johnston meets Bruce Grobbelaar...

This hasn't been the best of periods for Liverpool FC, certainly in terms of PR. With the club tying itself in all kinds of knots over the Luis Suarez affair, and then Anfield legend Alan Hansen getting lambasted for his out-dated use of the word "coloured", it's been a heck a few weeks for the club.

It is virtually impossible to forecast the next misdemeanour, potential or otherwise, to emerge from Port Vale's boardroom, without descending into the realms of bad-taste fantasy (one of the major protagonists revealing themselves to be a woman trapped in a man's body, for example).

Presumably believing Christmas to be "a week to bury bad news," Vale chairman Peter Miller informed everyone, including all fellow board members apparently, that he'd re-mortgaged the club's Vale Park ground to facilitate a £277,000 loan covering "short-term" cashflow problems, caused by the collapse of the much-vaunted "investment deal" with American sports turf firm Blue Sky International (BS).

The Mario Balotelli bandwagon shows no signs of abating with UK rapper Tinchy Stryder recording a song in tribute of the Man City striker entitled 'Why Always Me?' Be amongst the first to hear it with In The Sands Related posts:Mario Balotelli 'Why Always Me?' T-Shirts On Sale Now! VIDEO: Mario Balotelli Answers Your Questions [.

1. Gareth Bale- It's easy to jump on the Gareth Bale bandwagon. We all did it after his fabulous hat trick at the San Siro. We all did it after his Player of the Year Award. I'm doing it again now. ...
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Vindication does not come without a downside for Patrice Evra

Manchester United's full-back has seen his reputation take a hit despite Luis Suárez being found guilty of racial abuse So far, there has been nothing from Patrice Evra to indicate what he thinks of the Football Association's verdict, whether he thought the hearing was fair and what he makes of the backlash against him, but it is fair to assume there is vindication and, perhaps, the sense of a strange set of circumstances when a black footballer can be racially abused and yet come out of it with his reputation dismantled, too.

It was probably inevitable that Kyle Walker's breakthrough season should have been greeted with a host of rumours linking him with a transfer abroad.

As most Spurs fans expected, Kyle returned home after his loan spell at Aston Villa to make the right back slot his own and after being called up to numerous full England squads, he finally made his international debut last month.

Alessandro Del Piero may have spent the night in an Italian hospital over the weekend, but that didn't stop him from being semi-consciously cute.

More weekend news after the jump!

Saturday

- Truth be told Andrei Arshavin admitted to stealing his current wife away from her then-boyfriend when the two first met.

At the beginning of the season it was fair to say that Arsenal were playing shit.
We seemed a bigger shambles than a pissed up David Hasselhoff trying to eat a hamburger.
At the time there many people jumping on an RIP Arsenal Football Club bandwagon. A bandwagon that was gaining more speed than Keanu Reeves on a bus.

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QPR VS WBA: Stats & Former Joint Players QPR Vs WBA
Photos from 1967 (From the Bushman Archives)Great Photos from 1967
Neil Warnock's Weekly Comments Neil Warnock on QPR Goalie Situation...Anton Ferdinand Loss of Form
Danny Gabbidon wants to play for Cardiff again Gabbidon Cardiff Ambition
Ex-QPR John Burridge Turns Sixty John Burridge Turns Sixty
QPR Report Correspondent, Maudesfishnchips Q&A Offering a WBA Fan Perspective.

Almost two years to the day since Robert Enke took his life by jumping from a bridge in front of an onrushing train, Gary Speed similarly took his own life.
Whatever the reason(s) behind Speed's decision, it will probably never become public.
Tributes have rightly come from across the footballing and political worlds including tweets from Michael Owen and Robbie Savage.

Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva has polarised opinion ever since he arrived at Anfield, and he's often been on the receiving end of unwarranted criticism. One of the recurring criticisms levelled at the Brazilian is his lack of attacking impact in the final third of field, but club legend John Barnes insists that he should not be judged along those lines.

How can you not love Queens Park Rangers this year (in a fantastic Premiership campaign nonetheless).

Huh?

They head up back to the top flight.

They procure the ever-docile Joey Barton.

Armand Traore behaves like Jose Boswingwa on mushrooms with a shaved unibrow he shares the assist lead with Barton for a grand total of.

Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has joined the bandwagon of people who are calling for the number of clubs playing in top flight Spanish, Italian and English leagues to be cut down to 16.

According to Rosell, La Liga is too big and needs to be cut down to 16 teams. Rosell who also doubles up as the European Club Association Vice President, said that UEFA is in danger of witnessing a mass walk out of some of its biggest club's if the association refused to consider the demands made by the ECA.

Hello and welcome to another edition of "Spain, the World Champions, Have Embarrassing Performances in Meaningless Friendlies"! Today, we have special guests England and Costa Rica, who will tell us how easy it is to make La Roja look miles away from the team that won in South Africa last year.

[caption id="attachment_1666" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="You mean that just throwing talented players at the pitch is not enough?

I'm late on this, but it's worth following up on how Paul Kemsley is out at the Fake Cosmos and that the organization is facing a lawsuit for payment of money to the youth sides it cravenly rebranded. David Kilpatrick at The Viper's Nest gloats accordingly:

Speaking of goodbyes, none more welcome than shyster wideboy Paul Kemsley.

The Galaxy claimed the Western Conference title Sunday in Carson against Real Salt Lake. But the silverware they really want is the MLS Cup trophy (Photo by Staff Photographer Sean Hiller).

One more game. One more win. After Sunday's vintage performance against a very good, but weakened, Real Salt Lake team just one more step remains for the Galaxy to claim a third league title: MLS Cup 2011 Nov.

Former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore has attacked a small section of the club's fans fans for showing 'open dissent' towards manager Kenny Dalglish after the Swansea game at the weekend.
Fans were reportedly booing at Anfield on Saturday after Liverpool were played off the park, and during Collymore's radio show on that night, there were a few very irate fans (Liverpudlians, it should be added), who were vehemently castigating Dalglish for his perceived failings.

The greatest pleasure a celebrity can have is not from doing what people say he or she cannot do, it's by doing what people say he or she shouldn't do.

Inspired by her 'Sport Relief' training regimen, as well as her own sister's personal tales of dieting and sharing germs on the elliptical machines, Frank Lampard's fiancée has officially jumped aboard the fitness DVD bandwagon.

There have been many times when I have blasted ex-Arsenal players, that have become TV and newspaper pundits, who continue to knock Arsenal when we are down.
These 'experts' claim to love the club yet jump on a bandwagon that has gained more pace than Frank Lampard chasing an ice-cream van down a hill.

No games won and no points on the table, this has been a dismal start to the season for Liverpool's reserves team. Or, rather, that would be conclusion if you fail to look at the most significant column, that for games played, the one that shows that this week's defeat at Newcastle was only their second game of the season.

Steven Gerrard's groin is in the news again, Jonjo Shelvey's already made an impact on loan for his new club, and your nearest Evertonian is still pissed about Jack Rodwell's red card on Saturday. Plus we've got a bit of catching up to do, so we should probably get to it. Just watch out for abuse and improvised missiles raining down from the peanut gallery.

After Persib appointed a Wikipedia page less Croatian coach, Drago Mamic, now Persija have jumped on the bandwagon. They have appointed Dejan Gluscevic to be their coach for the upcoming season...which should start next month.
For all Dejan's track record, check this Jakarta Casual post from last year, like Drago he lacks his own Wikipedia which of course is totally irrelevant but still funny!

All the so-called experts and many fans on football forums denigrated Australia for their recent World Cup Qualifier against Thailand.
Why?
Because we allowed Thailand to score first, we didn't pass with fluency, we launched the ball high into the box too many times, or maybe because we didn't win 6-0.