London- Watching the Miracle of Bloemfontein from England was doubly delightful as the BBC were forced to eat their words on the US for the first time since World Cup 2002.Korea was a flash in the pan, as the 2006 edition and the US defeat to England at Wembley last year confirmed, you see.3-0 and 4-0 to the Spanish, confidently predicted the punditry duo of former Arsenal and England defenders

In his first start for Hull City in Carling Cup action, our young American scored from long distance and played a full 90 minutes in a 3-1 win against Southend United.
That's rave reviews from coach Phil Brown after his second-straight game.

Brown said: "The biggest bonus of the night wasn't just the fact some young lads have made their debuts and done well, it was getting 90 minutes out of Jozy Altidore.

So, judging by Victoria Beckham's nipple situ, London temperatures dropped to about -40 yesterday morning.

Guess the BBC weather channel called that one wrong.

Following Darren Bent's goal against Liverpool set up by this beach ball there is one Liverpool fan who will want the whole episode to go away. The BBC did the decent thing and blurred out the lads face on Match Of The Day... enter The Sun.

Unlucky for this young Liverpool fan The Sun have released a picture of his face asking for his name and no doubt he will be named, shamed and later forced to leave Merseyside and support a new team.

Well, Monday morning in the U.S anyway.  We've got readers from all over the world, so my apologies for sounding so Ameri-centric.  Still, I haven't had enough coffee, so to me, it certainly feels like Monday morning. Moving on. Press coverage of yesterday's win over PAOK here and here. Djebbour gets a nice mention of his goal in [.

Bizarre attempted own goal from the Israeli? Surprisingly, Yossi Benayoun's length of the pitch own goal attempt didn't pay off. Thanks to the Beeb's Jonathan Stevenson for that!

Here is a list of where to watch FIFA's Confederation Cup. Pretty nice coverage overall by ESPN (or online by ESPN-360.com if you have Verizon as a provider) and BBC for the UK. This great list was gathered by the folks at The Offside so all credits to them. I will put the TV schedule but you can check more details here.

Before Michael Ngoo signed for Liverpool he was on trial at Manchester United, and played in the recent 'Milk Cup' tournament. Here is some good footage of the player in action against Club Cantolao.
The footage is hosted on the BBC website - click here to view --->>>
Ngoo is wearing the number 18 shirt.

The BBC debuted a new late night football highlight show aptly titled "Football League Show" last night, but don't let the boring title and worn territory of sports highlight shows fool you the world's largest broadcaster has taken a unique approach to the old format.

While showing highlights from Saturday's League Two clash between Torquay and Chesterfield at 12:50 am last night, the video inexplicably cuts to a scene from the surfer girl flick Blue Crush just as Kate Bosworth sits down on a toilet (0:42 into the video above).

Arsenal Boss Wenger and Sir Alex appear to have become the best of friends.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has backed Uefa's decision to ban Arsenal striker Eduardo for two Champions League matches for diving.

The Croatia forward was found guilty of deceiving referee Manuel Gonzalez to win a penalty against Celtic in August.

Over the weekend, the BBC gave football fans the length and breadth of the world the news that they'd waited years to hear. Finally, after 13 years of clueless ramblings, smug arrogance and a frighteningly poor knowledge of the game he professes to love, Tim Lovejoy is to be booted off as a regular presenter of 5 Live's 6-0-6 football phone in show.

No sooner was the Chelsea ban on transfers announced than BBC Radio 5 rushed out an interview with an ex-KGB player who linked this case with the Eduardo case. It was one of the most sickening pieces of anti-Arsenal propoganda yet launched in the media war on Arsenal. Chelsea are banned from signing new players [.

First off, Kickette has some shots of the children in some interesting get-ups. Love the hat and sunglasses.
Also, I hear David Beckham has his kids watch BBC on television so they'll appreciate their heritage and language.
Sadly, more BBC means more fire-breathing Gordon Ramsay on TV.

I ran across this excellent video featuring David Coleman and Jimmy Hill from BBC presenting highlights from the 1982 World Cup in Spain, which was one of the most entertaining in terms of football.

In this particular episode, the video includes highlights of the game between Poland and Belgium at the Nou Camp Stadium.

When the final whistle went and those West Ham fans who'd spent most of Saturdays game against Chelsea abusing former old boys, Frank Lampard and John Terry, had disappeared to the pubs around and about, I bet they never thought they'd ever see either player back at Upton Park that soon. Obviously they were unaware that both players have agreed in principle to play for West Ham in a testimonial match for the Hammers' academy director, Tony Carr as a celebration of his 36 years working for West Ham.

Some players for an Honduran team caused quite a stir after a celebratory smooch.
They say the photo is deceiving, and that they kissed on the cheek.
I dunno. Judge for yourselves.
Now the links:

• Updated MLS allocation order. [WV Hooligan]
  
• Lee Nguyen is training with Arsenal.

It was a tedious morning of "Henry is a disgrace" and "Henry, Eduardo, we investigate the cheats in football." Then BBC Radio Five Live decided to get Republic of Ireland assistant manager Liam Brady on. Liam sounded as if he had not slept for a week. But he spoke slowly and clearly, and utterly refused to be [.

Evra was interviewed on the BBC ahead of tomorrow's game against Everton and joked about the consequences of United reaching the final. As one of twenty six children, he was curious whether he would be able to ask for thirty tickets for the family.

"When I call my family, they go 'Who are you?

Holy crapola! According to the BBC, Manchester United have accepted an £80m bid from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo. And about time too. "United have agreed to give Real Madrid permission to talk to the player," a statement from the...

I am currently an elite level soccer player, but I am looking for ways to further develope my soccer skills. I would like to kjnow ome drills and fitness exercises to become a great soccer player. LEARN ALL THE SKILLS YOU WANT HERE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/skills/default.stm

photo London Evening Standard

Beckham did not receive a kind reception from fans in The Riot Squad during the AC Milan match yesterday.

As long as he plays his ass off and keeps the drama down to a minimum then I'm fine with his return to the team. He is definitely fitting in much better (playing-wise) than he did at the end of last season.

Rounding up all the days biggest transfer news and gossip.

Has Mido Joined Liverpool?
"Egypt striker Mido is set to leave Middlesbrough after manager Gareth Southgate accepted an undisclosed offer for him from an unnamed club." BBC

Right. Nowhere on the world wide web, does it state that Mido has joined Liverpool.

Whilst browsing on the BBC 606 forum (we have a little forum by the way) I stumbled across the most ridiculous comment I think anyone in the world has ever made. This stupid Liverpool fan leaves me lost for words...

I am honestly lost for words. I don't know where to begin.

Gunners#8217; early goal ruins commentator#8217;s day Arsenal v Blackburn Match of the Day commentator Simon Brotherton probably wasn#8217;t too concerned when he suffered a bout of verbal diarrhoea about the Arsenal captaincy as Arsene Wenger#8217;s men passed the ball around the defence. These things can be edited out of highlights packages after all.

Ex-Arsenal midfielder Mathieu Flamini revealed how he left the North London side in good terms and is still very close to some of his ex-Arsenal team-mates.

In a long interview to BBC, he said:

For me, I left on good terms. I don't want to comment on what Arsene said. He has to say something to the fans and I don't want to say anymore.

Reports have surfaced this week linking FC Dallas forward Kenny Cooper with a move to Football League Championship side Bristol City in England.
The same situation presented itself last season, when several European teams swooped for Cooper's services during the summer transfer window.

Who should you trust?

The Three Stages of the Transfer Window Insanity!

There are alleged sightings of West Ham striker Carlton Cole at Liverpool's training ground (BBC Sport)

This is what makes the transfer deadline so damn amusing.

Good News.

Standard Chartered Bank is to become the main sponsor of Liverpool football club after signing a four-year deal.
The agreement, which begins in July, runs to the end of the 2013-14 season and will end Liverpool's 17-year association with brewer Carlsberg.

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I ran across this BBC documentary about Pele and Garrincha put together in 2002. The film starts off in the 1950's, as Brazil lost in the Maracana versus Uruguay. It follows the careers and lives of Brazilian football stars Pele and Garrincha.
When they played on the same team, they never lost a game but by themselves their lives and careers took diffrent paths.

US international midfielder Maurice Edu is set to start later today when Rangers play St. Mirren in the Scottish Premier League, benefitting from the Barry Ferguson fallout. Ferguson has been stripped of his captaincy and suspended along with Allan McGregor following their behavior with Scotland's National Team.

It used to be just the Premier League that showed open contempt for all things internet. But now that technophobia has trickled down the tiers of English football, all the way to League Two. Double-barrelled BBC Technology blogger Rory Cellan-Jones was the victim/culprit. He recorded 37 seconds of League Two's Brentford vs Exeter City on a [.

Today's links are brought to you by the letter "C" and the celebrity Megan Fox 1. Emmanuel Adebayor's car was keyed by angry Gooners. [@ Popbitch] 2. Irish army banned from playing football on Chad's hard pitches. [@ BBC Sport]...

Now I don't mean to rip off the idea Dexy, but this whole best XI business somehow got my mind racing. It got me thinking about those past and present who have been our eyes, ears and experts on the game, and just what we think about them. Who do we appreciate (see below) and who are best forgotten (see David Pleat, Mark Lawrenson, John Barnes, etc.

BBC Sport is reporting that former Newcastle United Chairman Freddy Shepherd is heading a consortium that is about to launch a £60M bid for the Newcastle club. Freddy Shepherd bid for Newcastle but the price seems very low If the bid is successful it's not surprising to hear the news that Alan Shearer has [.

A report by the Commission on the Future of Women's Sport which the BBC's Gordon Farquhar blogged about earlier this month points out that just 2% of media coverage on elite sport focuses on women. Now I first got into writing about football by following one of my best friend's journeys through the matches, tournaments and politics of women's football in Oxford.

• Sir Bobby Robson, English legend, dies at 76 [NY Times]

• Darren Bent uses Twitter to attack Tottenham boss Daniel Levy [Goal]

• It's time to start considering strategies and selections for Fantasy Premier League 2009/2010. Are Man City worth looking at? [The Football Blog]

• Mutu loses appeal against Chelsea over huge fine.

Now I don't mean to rip off the idea Dexy, but this whole best XI business somehow got my mind racing. It got me thinking about those past and present who have been our eyes, ears and experts on the game, and just what we think about them. Who do we appreciate (see below) and who are best forgotten (see David Pleat, Mark Lawrenson, John Barnes, etc.

Richie Jones returns to typically opinionated form with a rallying cry for Tevez to turn to Liverpool.

So in today's Sun it says that Michael Carrick has "issued a ‘please-don't-leave-us' plea to teammate Carlos Tévez," who apparently has been linked with Liverpool. Now, first I would like to point out that I learned this from the BBC website gossip column as I refuse, on principle, to buy The Sun.

It's pretty much well known that Setanta Sports are struggling financially at the moment and according to the BBC are on the brink of collapse. Setanta apparently owe £30m to the Premier League and have already failed to make a £3m payment to the Scottish FA for its rights to the SPL highlights.