Douglas Adams will tell you that the best way to escape from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal is to close your eyes.It is so mind boggling stupid that it thinks if you can't see it, it can't see you.
Our own football version of the Bugblatter is sitting with mouth tightly closed and is thereby firmly convinced that no one will notice that he hasn't bothered to say anything about the Henry Handball issue one way or the other.

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SPAIN ended its last International Football game for 2009 with aconvincing 1-5 victory over AUSTRIA in Vienna tonight. The Austriansstarted with aggression & surprised a "cold" Spain in the 6th min when JANTSCHER scored for the home team.This awoken the "red beast" as Spain turned on the machine with Xavi,Iniesta, Silva, Villa & CESC FABREGAS taking over the ball & equalizingvia the later in the Click to continue reading...

Right about now is a probably good time to start another serious discussion of finding a better way to determine a winner in a soccer match of enormous magnitude besides the dreaded PK shootout.
Someplace else.
Not that I'm a fan of the thing - far from it. It's just that the gut punch delivered to the Fire and their fans last night after 120 minutes of emotion, drama and desire seems worthy of something more than just another tedious discussion of the rules of the game. Click to continue reading...

GBS helped lead the Crew to a second straight Supporter's Shield trophy. (Getty Images)

We all expected big things in 2009 for the Columbus Crew. Anytime you win a MLS Cup and retain the bulk of a lineup that got you that title you expect to repeat or come extremely close to do so. As we saw last week the Crew fell short of that this year as they lost to Real Salt Lake at home in the semi-finals of the eastern conference.

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The Beauty: Miss Amaia Salamanca is a beauty with few rivals. She's a top model in Spain, and her acting chops have landed her several roles. She has also gained notoriety for appearing in a memorable commercial for Tampax years back. Like America's "Noxema Girl", Amaia is thought of often as Spain's "Tampon Queen".

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The Metro Reverse Curse lives.

What is the Reverse Curse? It is a temporary suspension of all footballing ability while wearing a Metro Bull kit that is magically cured once a player switches kits to another club. There are so many examples of this, but sticking to recent memory (and not in any order of importance at all); Hunter Freeman leaves Red Bull and has become a regular starter in Norway, Gabriel Cichero leaves Red Bull and becomes a valuable piece of their National teams youth movement, Mike Magee has proven to be a key offensive cog in the Galaxy's overall make up leading the team in assists, Diego Jimenez continues to excel in Mexico, and notched two goals upon arriving back to his country after his RB departure.

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The Beauty: JoJo (who was born Joanna Noëlle Blagden Levesque) is an American pop star. She rose to fame in the music biz at a very young age, and she parlayed her perfect pipes into a successful acting career. Now, the sky is the limit for the young starlet.

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Phil Brown has been talking a storm about Jozy's "Twittergate" this week, including gems like this:

Asked if Altidore had put the twit in Twitter, an unimpressed Brown replied: "I'd have put an 'a' in it."

Now that is the kind of comment Maradona would be proud of!

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The Beauty: While I still believe Serie A probably owns the title of "League With The World's Hottest WAGs", La Liga makes an excellent case for itself too. Exhibit A: Lorena Bernal. In 1981, Lorena was born in Argentina. One year later, her family moved to Spain, and La Liga stars have been forever grateful.

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The Beauty: Alena Seredova is not telepathic, but I think she can communicate without talking. It is her brilliant eyes. As they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words", and the one of Alena to the left is no exception. She communicates a lot with her look, like "I'm so much hotter than you".

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This clip appears to be from last season, but it was just posted on YouTube yesterday, so I'm going to assume it hasn't already made the rounds.

Anyway, here we have Maria Martinez delivering her touchline report during a La Liga match between Osasuna and Racing Santander (who just so happen to be playing each other this weekend).

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In his 2006 book "Floodlit Dreams", writer Ian Ridley brilliantly summed up the small town politics that drive the running of so many football clubs. He had taken the chairmanship at Weymouth Football Club with big ambitions, but a combination of under-achievement on the pitch, vultures circling overhead and internal squabbling saw him eventually removed by a coup d'etat.

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It is fair to say that Paul Tomkins is one of the leading Liverpool writers out there (Brian Reade, Oliver Kay, Tony Barrett and Tony Evans are the others), a reputation built over the years initially on various forums and then on the club's official website. He is also probably the most prolific author of books about Liverpool FC having published some eight books in the space of four years. Click to continue reading...

The Beauty: Miss Luli Fernandez is a South American goddess. Born in Argentina, she became the Messi of modeling at a young age. But then again, if she had never done any modeling, she wouldn't be able to satisfy all the pre-requisites to become a WAG, of course.

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The Beauty: For a few years now, Bianca Kajlich has sort of been labeled the only "real" American WAG. It's not because she is the only beautiful lady on a US Nat's arm. It's because she's the only one with a profession (actress) in the public eye.

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In Wednesday's Eredivisie match between NEC and Utrecht, NEC's Moestafa El Kabir decided to try and save a ball that was already out of bounds and ended up plowing into the pitchside TV camera.

This is generally a bad idea. While TV cameras do have weak legs and rarely defend themselves from an oncoming attack, they are still made of heavy things like metal and.

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The Beauty: What is it about WAGS (aka Wives And GirlfriendS of soccer stars) that captures the fancy of the public and the media. Is it their bountiful beauty? Is it their fabulous fame?

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The Beauty: In a previous post written many moons ago, I ranked Alex Curran the #1 English WAG. While not as famous as Victoria Beckham, or as hot as Melanie Slade, Ms. Curran deserved her #1 ranking because she is the perfect WAG package. Her husband (not her boyfriend or fling), Mr.

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Welcome to the first blog written on my shiny new laptop. Well, to be fair, I've had it for about three weeks, but have been so terrified of getting it dirty due to it's phenomenal price tag, that it has sat in a corner for about three weeks. It is, without doubt, the most expensive thing I have ever owned, and when you think that it was also a gift, it's no wonder I've been scared of it.

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The Beauty: Melanie Slade is the perfect WAG to initiate our PLTO Wednesday WAG of the Week Series. She's an undebatable "hottie" with girl-next-door charm. She's dating England's hottest young prospect, Theo Walcott. Thus, she is the future heir to Posh Spice's English WAG throne.

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A goal down. A man down. And they come back and spank Spurs, 3-1. This was a huge test for both clubs. Were Spurs as good as they looked? Was Utd as vulnerable as they seemed?

What is really impressive about the way Man Utd have turned things around is that they are relying on players already within the club.

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Do you know what ubiquitous means?
I remember the first time I came across the word.
It was in the novel "Moby Dick".
It is an adjective Melville uses to describe the great beast.
Anyway the word came into my head today.
First there was the story about David Beckham hinting he may return to the English league. Click to continue reading...

Saw this on The Offside and was suitably amused.

Chamakh Getting Ready to Dive

I recently spotted an article titled Arsenal Target Marouane Chamakh Isn't Very Good, and guess what, besides their video proof, I have proof too. I agree wholeheartedly with him.

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Russian heavyweight champ Vitali Klitschko is a beast.
Saw this over at The Original Winger. Click to continue reading...

A financially viable option.

Rafa Benitez is looking into the possibility of bringing Julio Baptista to cash strapped Liverpool. The Brazilian international is interested in a season long loan deal in this World Cup year, which would be ideal for the under fire Spaniard.

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There is not much to say about this amazing start to the season. Three wins out of three, twelve goals scored and players who were not convincing last season seem to have turned into true champions. Of course, the tough ones are yet to come, but so far, so good from the Gunners.

I am still not entirely convinced by the forward line, seems as if they are not clicking the way they want to, but I will expand on that tomorrow in my day after thoughts since as always, I will just limit myself to player ratings for now.

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I don't know about the rest of you, but when it comes to sports, I'm a numbers guy. I love statistics! It could be as simple as how many points Manchester United is away from winning their fourth Premier League title in a row (that number should be three points lower after Wednesday, but Burnley really messed with that stat) or as complex as what Everton's home record is when Yakubu scores with his right foot opposed to his left.

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The Chicago Fire take on the Los Angeles Galaxy tonight at Toyota Park. No David Beckham, but LA still does have a strong road record while the Fire don't have the best home numbers.

I'll be watching so I decided to do a running commentary. Whether you are watching, or stuck somewhere you can't watch, please feel free to follow along here.

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If the old myth rang true that Arsenal could be harried, bullied, kicked and picked on like little kids in the playground, they proved last night it was a load of old codswallop.

GOALSCORERS: GALLAS, CALDWELL (OG)

It was not a vintage performance by any stretch of the imagination, well, from what I could gather through a stream that felt like I was watching through frosted glass.

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Dirty Tackle with the great find here. And Jerel "The Beast" Ifil might be the best quote ever.
The defender was recently signed by Aberdeen F.C. of the Scottish Premier League. Here are some of his press conference highlights:

"I had to Google Aberdeen and went, ‘wow, it's way up to the right'.

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Dirty Tackle with the great find here. And Jerel "The Beast" Ifil might be the best quote ever.
The defender was recently signed by Aberdeen F.C. of the Scottish Premier League. Here are some of his press conference highlights:

"I had to Google Aberdeen and went, ‘wow, it's way up to the right'.

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Aberdeen's newest signing, defender Jerel Ifil turned up at Pittodrie Stadium yesterday to sign his contract, pose for pictures and say a few words to press. The first two items on the agenda went swimmingly, but the third? Not so much.

Said the Wembley born former Swindon Town hero:

"I had to Google Aberdeen and went, 'wow, it's way up to the right'.

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CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying took place with all 6 remaining teams playing matches on Wednesday night. The USA v Mexico match was the headliner but there were two other matches including Trinidad and Tobago v El Salvador and Honduras v Costa Rica. Here's a recap of both matches along with video highlights.

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If it were up to Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light division -- department: Lime, specifically -- my summer wouldn't qualify as having even started yet, despite the calendar now reading August/Agosto. (I haven't brought one out, sadly. I'm presuming I won't by autumn, either, by which I'll have then denied myself a summer, which may or may not retard the space-time continuum. Click to continue reading...

Morning all, and a long overdue 'morning all' it is.

I've barely been able to get on the pooter recently, I don't know what's going on.

I did snatch parts of the Emirates Cup over the weekend all the parts except the goals. I sat through the first 75, goalless minutes of the Atletico game before being called away to feed the animals, then managed to miss the first 20 minutes of the Rangers game.

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