It was an El Clasico: Real Madrid vs. Barcelona.
.One team, pressed, controlled possession and created chances, while the other one tried to keep up and with their first 2 opportunities to strike, scored 2 goals on the back of the super talents of their players. Which one was Real Madrid?

Apparently our Landon has been D-Town down this week and has worked the Super Bowl party scene like a total and complete champion. Dude's been spotted all over town at everything from the Playboy party to Direct TV's Celebrity Beach Bowl. The shot above was from Pepsi's party (which was, tragically, DJed by Pauly D.

There's a beast in the East, and it's not New York.

The Philadelphia Union doesn't seem to care about all of the talk about the New York Red Bulls' vaunted attack and sound distribution from the back. It's looking down on its Eastern Conference rivals from atop the standings after a gritty win at an electric PPL Park.

Eric Brunner knows kung-fu. Dude's got a red belt. Game of the Week Seattle 3, Portland 2 What. A. Game. I'm glad the USWMNT's thriller Sunday morning went the way it did, because who knows if I'd have been willing to put in two hours to watch this beast in a disheveled mindset. As it was, I was so amped after Wambach & Co.

It is not always just nostalgia that gilds the past. The 60s did, in reality, swing. The 70s did too, so eat your heart out if you missed them because there is no chance of their being matched, certainly not for the uncomplicated happiness they generated on football pitches, or heaving terraces.
And George Best at his dissolute worst was unarguably a sunnier presence at Old Trafford between 1963 and 1974 than another teenage genius who arrived there 30 years later.

Down, yes. But out? Certainly not.

A game of inches

In re-watching the match last night, I was reminded of Al Pacino's memorable halftime speech from the movie Any Given Sunday. Inches, he said, were the difference between winning and losing. Between living and dying.

Slo-mo pretty.

• Football and beyond. (Phil Ball)
• Football and The Beast. (Sid Lowe)
• France just drama, drama, drama. (Football Fairground)
• Read between the... (Studs Up)
• Great seating. Just great seating. (The Ball Is Round)
• The most valuable goal scorers.

Same Old England...Always Losing - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Before the European Championships, Stuart Pearce was given the assignment to prepare England's under 21′s for what life would be like as part of the full national side. By crashing out at the group stage in a blaze of glorious failure, Pearce has managed to pass the test in flying colours.

This is for the spot in the Gold Cup final - the USA is there courtesty of their 1-0 victory over Panama earlier today.
3 - Already Chicharito has threatened the Hondo goal. Not wasting any time, that one.
4 - Guardado is a beast, and his outside shot just now doesn't miss by much.

I wrote recently that the MVP chase in Major League Soccer is a slippery, elusive beast. Things tend to shift quickly in this thing, I wrote.

So, I'll try not to bust my arm patting myself on the back for this one, but, uh ... nailed it!

Two weeks ago, Dwayne De Rosario was an "also ran" at best in the MVP sweepstakes.

WPA Pool - Getty Images

Beckham, seen here in June with Prince Harry.

View full size photo »

David Beckham lives in a place just off the coast of a little place we call planet Earth.

By Chris Wright

In which Pies' favouritest ego-swathed wrecking-ball Zlatan Ibrahimovic scores yet another crashing volley from somewhere around the 25-yard mark with irritatingly nonchalant ease this time against Lecce on Sunday.

Also, check out Milan owner Adriano Galliani's 'sad cartoon Moon' face on 18 secs it's worth the admission fee alone.

The New York Yankees signed a potential future baseball Hall of Famer. However, this one didn't cost an arm and a leg. Andruw Jones, whose best days are obviously behind him, signed with the Yankees. The contract could be worth as much as $3.2 million for one season with Jones guaranteed to make at least $2 million.

Brawls happen. Sometimes they seem to happen a bit more frequently in ertain places, but they happen on every level at some point. Tis the nature of the competitive beast.

A junior brawl erupted in Florida last week, the scale of the scrum proportional to the level itselt twas a high school game.

Our Serbian beast has no intention of abandoning ship despite our stuttering form of late or the appearance of new, young competition in central defense he has signed on for five and a half more years as a Chelsea blue!

Despite rumors that he was unhappy playing as right back or that he was going to run off and join AC Milan or Sevilla, Ivanovic has finally put pen to paper and committed his long-term future to the Blues.

By Darshan Joshi, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

He is the beast of the fashion capital of the world. Not a beast betrothed to a beauty (I've checked), and not a beast in a candle-lit bedroom (we, hopefully, will never have to know), but simply a beast in the simplest form of the word – an animal, of sorts.

Well, at least it was entertaining.

The aftermath of the match has not been pretty with the usual fury from fans lamenting about the ref's performance. Yes, that Luiz did not get sent off was incredibly questionable, but we know(or hope?) that these shoddy decisions tend to even out over the course of the season.

Boy, that felt awfully familiar, didn't it? Makeshift starting lineup due to injuries/suspensions. Decent amount of fight and a few nice combinations in the middle third. Missed marks and poor one-v-one defending. Lack of a cutting edge. Undone on the counter. It could almost be 2010 all over again.
That said, biblical weather at altitude without half of the normal starters.

A £3k policing bill looks set to spoil Gloucester City's weekend but is it justified?

Football hooligans, they are on the rise in parts of Europe (some of the blogs about Russia are particularly scary) but in the Blue Square North? Really?

There have been a few well documents ‘issues' this year – Nuneaton v Telford, Stafford v Telford – but nothing outside the realms of two former giants meeting at a lower level or what is essentially a local derby.

Every Easter week, Dallas plays host to one of the largest and more prominent youth tournaments in the nation (and the world). This year we had the opportunity to travel north from FBM HQ in Austin to take in the thirty-second edition of the Dallas Cup. Hundred of teams, thousands of players, and tens of thousands of fans took in a week's worth of action.

We all know Derrick Rose is going to win the 2011 NBA MvP for his regular season play. However, which players are playing the best in the 2011 NBA Playoffs? While there's no such thing as a postseason NBA MVP, here's our look at the top five best players so far in this year's NBA playoffs.

1.

After the Hulk it's the turn of the ‘Beast' in the long line of players to be linked with a move to Spurs at the end of 2010-11.

The Beast is otherwise known as Sao Paulo's Carlos Henrique Casemiro, who is only 19 but fits Spurs' price bracket at a mere £5m. However, contrary to some reports, he plies his trade as a midfielder, not a striker and with only one season of first team football behind him, he is unlikely to be the man Tottenham turn to as the answer to their goal scoring problems.

Boy, that felt awfully familiar, didn't it? Makeshift starting lineup due to injuries/suspensions. Decent amount of fight and a few nice combinations in the middle third. Missed marks and poor one-v-one defending. Lack of a cutting edge. Undone on the counter. It could almost be 2010 all over again.
That said, biblical weather at altitude without half of the normal starters.

Hello and welcome to a brand new week, one which has the potential to be quite busy indeed.

Over the weekend I have come to accept that the fact that Ricky Alvarez is indeed a genuine target for us. Despite the fact I can't get my head around it from a footballing point of view, people I trust have assured me this isn't some bizarre Candid Camera style joke.

This is for the spot in the Gold Cup final - the USA is there courtesy of their 1-0 victory over Panama earlier today.
3 - Already Chicharito has threatened the Hondo goal. Not wasting any time, that one.
4 - Guardado is a beast, and his outside shot just now doesn't miss by much.

Arsenal signings 2 1 Arsenal sales

Arsenal: Specialists in snail-paced transfers. The good news is that Gervinho has definitely signed or at least, he'll "shortly join" us "subject to a regulatory process". If Cesc and Nasri's summer represents the longest goodbye Wenger disagrees on this point, vehemently then Gervinho's has without doubt been the longest hello.

The Blues provided another 4-0 performance in preseason, this time against Hong Kong champions Kitchee in the Asia Cup. We will now go on to play Aston Villa in the final while Kitchee will take on Blackburn for third place in the competition.

Chelsea dominated proceedings from the get-go with the usual problem of failing to test the goalkeeper enough during the first half except when Benayoun broke into the Kitchee box, was tripped and Lampard smashed home the penalty.

Our next View from the Enemy on our final day is with Jon Owen from Why Delilah who has spoken to us about the highs and lows of last season.

Scott the Red: Were you happy with your team's performance last season?

John Owen: Very. It was disappointing not to finish in the top half, but it was another season of progress for us.

Welcome to the Premier League, AVB.

Is this seat taken?

First: That shot from Mikel. Brilliant. I told you, the man is going to score this season.

Now as Jack said, a draw away at Stoke isn't exactly a bad result. Especially as we seemed to start a bit slow and Kenwyne Jones was winning headers all over the place against our defenders as Stoke lumped the ball forward.

Dwight Howard en la Gira adidas por China compartió el entarimado con aficionados

Esta es la primer gira adidas Basketball por Beijing y contó con Dwight Howard que estuvo conviviendo con fanáticos.

Próximamente Dwight lanzará los nuevos adiPower que llevan su nombre y logotipo "dh"
Cientos de aficionados se reunieron en el Parque Di Tan en Beijing y formaron el logotipo "dh" de Dwight Howard (DH Beijing Ditan Park-11)

Dwight Howard usó una máscara en alusión a la Ópera de Pekín (foto DH Beijing Ditan Park-14)

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Dalglish promises not to tame the beast in Bellamy

'I can't believe I haven't signed him before' says Liverpool boss

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-09-09 21:30:18 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

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.

Europa League or Carling Cup, which ought we to want less? It's a tricky one. The Europa League trophy is a sizeable beast, and its lack of handles gives it a pleasingly Neanderthalic edge – one cannot help but handle it in rough, uncouth manner when raising it aloft, which is rather apt after 90 minutes of blood and thunder.

It hasn't always been about the Champions League and domestic doubles for Chelsea Football Club. The club's saga over its ownership of Stamford Bridge was at a time during which it had nothing like the status that it has today one of the ongoing crisis stories of the 1980s, but the club was (after the collapse of Marler Estates in 1992) reunited with the freehold to the ground and subsequently set up the Chelsea Pitch Owners, a non-profit organisation which took ownership of this freehold and the name of the club, and granted it a 199-year lease on Stamford Bridge, which secured the club's future even though the ground stands on one of the more sought-after areas of London a city that has seen a fair few football grounds disappear in the name of property development in recent years.

1. Find Abou Diaby
He's gone missing. Injurepol have been alerted but there is still no sign of our no-minutes-on-the-pitch midfielder. If spotted, feel free to approach him. He's completely harmless.

2. Avoid what Denilson's been drinking
Six appearances for Sao Paolo, three red cards.

Some notes on the game that recently end:

• What a win for the Philadelphia Union. Ignore the fact that the Seattle Sounders were missing three of their best players, including striker Freddy Montero. Seattle needed this win to stay in the Supporters Shield hunt, coming off of a third straight United States Open Cup (USOC) victory.

Porto's Brazilian beast Hulk has been targeted by Wenger as a new powerhouse up front. Now called up into his country's full squad, the striker has been in decent form yet again this season with 3 goals from 6 games already. However, is the Portuguese league big enough to prove that he is good enough [.

By Chris Wright

Want to achieve that thick, lustrous, healthy 'Brendan Rodgers' look that all men are striving for this season? Fetch your old school uniform out of the attic, get your see-through protective face mask on and WORK IT GIRLFRIEND...

Want to know what else went on at Newcastle training this afternoon?

Scott Parker. Man. Beast. Legend.
Scott Parker doesn't sleep, he waits...There is no theory of evolution, just a list of animals Scott Parker allowed to live.Giraffes were created when Scott Parker uppercutted a horseM.C. Hammer learned the hard way that Scott Parker can touch this.When the boogeyman goes to bed at night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris, Chuck checks his for Joe Jordan and Joe Jordan checks his for Scott ParkerScott Parker can slam a revolving doorScott Parker was once stabbed by a knife.

Most of us have been quietly, and painfully, waiting for the day when Barcelona shows up at Cobham with a few million euro and trudges back to Catalonia with a monster of a holding midfielder named Oriol Romeu in its pocket. As it happens, that's probably not going to happen. Not unless Chelsea loses its mind in the near future that is.