Arsene Wenger has his sights set on Sunderland captain Lorik Cana as he aims to bring some bite
to Arsenal's lightweight midfield. Reports from the Sunderland Echo suggest that Arsenal
will do their best to sign the Albanian midfielder when the transfer window opens.
Cana is a new signing at the Stadium of Light having joined the Black Cats over the summer.
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With the Ballon d'Or nominations finally releasing this weekend, the headlines have mostly been
devoted to the fact that world champions Italy have no representation whatsoever. But why blame the
press for paying excessive attention to an irrelevant detail? After all, the award itself is
destined to be heading Lionel Messi's way, which means very little is there to be talked about in
terms of debating the winner, right?
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Beyond the nation's borders, Italian football has certainly faded into the background in recent
years. A devastating match-fixing scandal in 2006 bitterly overshadowed the country's World Cup
triumph that year while the domestic league has clearly become a one-horse race ever since.
Reigning champions Inter Milan have shown no signs of a slip up in the Serie A for the last three
seasons and that trend continued with their strong start to the current season as well.
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Patience is a virtue, and for two of the Premier League's best players, that patience has
finally paid off. The crazy thing about it all? These two players are on the same team! And the
lucky team is Sunderland.
It was just last season that Sunderland were in the heat of the relegation battle.
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With yet another exciting Premier League weekend in the books it's time to review this weekend's
winners and losers.
Winners Robbie Keane
Robbie Keane emerges from this weekend as the biggest winner. The Tottenham striker has had a
relatively quiet start to the season, oftentimes playing second fiddle to the red hot Jermain
Defoe.
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Antonio Cassano has reinvented himself. Not only has he changed his physical approach by losing
weight, he has changed his mental approach too, becoming not only more mature, but also a leader.
He is now someone who visits hospitals and gives signed shirts to sick children. He is now someone
who can carry a team on his back, provide assists for his teammates, and entertain the crowd.
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While he was honored as Estonia's best player in the past half a century by the nation's
football association, Mart Poom could not earn even remotely the same kind of respect on club
level. Despite boasting a variety of Eastern European and English clubs on his resume during his
early days as a player, the legendary former Estonia goalkeeper is best remembered for an extremely
inactive spell as a back-up keeper at Arsenal F.
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Rewind back to 2003 and you'll see that Jonathan Woodgate had everything. From critical acclaim
to a huge fan following, he had all the essentials required to go down in the Newcastle folklore as
one of the very best defenders of all time. However, the only obstacle that could stop him injuries
came into play very early into his career at St.
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There is absolutely no doubt that Fulham's gritty displays of late are
deserving of their newfound reputation as the people's club in the Premier League.
The masses can relate to their mid-sized squad and down-to-earth players while tourists from all
over the world simply cannot resist the amazing atmosphere at the conveniently located
Craven Cottage.
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PFA chief Gordon Taylor has urged football fans, pundits, and the FA to put a stop to the lynch
mob mentality that is surrounding Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor. The targetman stirred
up controversy over the weekend by first stamping on Robin van Persie's face before scoring a goal
and sprinting the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the angry Gunners fans.
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This weekend's headlines were stolen by Emmauel Adebayor even before a ball was
kicked. Saturday morning, Adebayor finally lashed out at his former club Arsenal,
moments before the Gunners kicked-off a challenging visit to the
Eastlands.
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Last week's biggest headline was the announcement that Chelsea have been handed a transfer ban.
The Blues are accused of illegally tapping up former Lens youngster Gael Kakuta, and the ruling has
sparked controversy all around the world of football. Manchester United appear to be the next club
on the chopping block as French club Le Havre are accusing the Premiership champions of tapping up
16 year old Paul Pogba.
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Another week of Premiership action is now in the books, and Thursday means one thing: it's time
for the Thursday Throwdown from A to Z. Here we go...
AÂ is for Anelka. Chelsea fans should be counting their lucky stars that both
Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba are in spectacular form.
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The pre-season is in full flow and the build up to the new season is getting more exciting by
the day. Therefore, let's take pre-season preparation as a variable to preview this upcoming
season in football rather than discussing the oft-repeated, boring variable known as the transfer
market.
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Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Carlos Tevez, and Emmanuel
Adebayor! Such is the caliber of each of these players that their involvement in this
summer's transfer market has left no spotlight for the lesser-known talent. Such is the nature of
the market right now that none of the European giants can be bothered with a move for the hidden
gems.
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While the summer months toil away and the transfer rumors get even more boring (or exciting if
you're a Football Manager fan), football fans around the world start to get excited for their
club's upcoming season. Will your club succeed? Will they fail? Will your star player remain
healthy? Who will Joey Barton hit next?
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If there is one team that is secretly thriving in a summer of high-profile transfers, it is
Birmingham City. As mentioned by my fellow Premiership Talk writer, Brian Lofrumento, the newly
promoted outfit is reportedly pursuing former Arsenal captain Patrick Viera, which is in addition
to a handful of other acquisitions made recently.
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On the 20th of June 2006 in Cologne, Germany, I was sat high behind the goal in the
RheinEnergieStadion (then called simply 'The FIFA World Cup Stadium') when in the fourth minute, a
figure crumpled to the ground. It was hard to see who it was from my unique vantage point, but the
man sitting to my left immediately turned round and said 'any money it's Owen'.
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The Tottenham faithful often wonder why their team cannot break into the top four in the Premier
League. Before the Martin Jol era, they were told that they needed a great coach. After the arrival
of Jol, it was believed that the squad needed bolstering. Once that was done, things got going -
until blunders became the norm again at White Hart Lane.
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One of soccer's absolutes. This concept is vital for youth education in small sided games. Duration
: 0:4:43 Technorati Tags: 1v1, 4v4, best, coach, coerver, drills, fa, FIFA, games, goals, license,
nscaa, practice, sided, small, Soccer, ssg, Training, Tricks, uefa
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Recently, the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame announced its list of candidates for induction. The
HOF, which was established in Oneonta, New York in 1999, requires candidates to receive 66% of the
available votes to gain induction. Here's who I think gets in: The Americans: Jeff Agoos was a
three time MLS all-star and five tie [.
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Jaime Moreno, the MLS all-time leading scorer, underwent ACL surgery yesterday. At 34, this sort of
surgery could signal Moreno (who was already in the twilight of his career) may be done for
good. But I think otherwise, and I'll tell you why... Moreno had 10 goals and 10 assists this
season. Not too shabby.
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The life of Diego Maradona is already one of our greatest modern morality tales. It
has it all. He had unparalleled skill. He achieved superstardom. He was done in by
his addictions. He sought redemption. The only question now is: how does it end? Diego
Maradona is arguably the greatest soccer player who ever lived.
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Well, MLS has decided who the finalists are for the 2008 MVP award. If you'll recall, I
speculated on who might get nominated way back here. It looks liks I was pretty close, yet a
comparison between my picks and the MLS's reveals a few surprising snubs. For MVP, Blanco, Donovan
and Schelotto got the nods.
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With only one game left in the season for most teams (well, except for Colorado and
Chivas, who play today), the playoff brackets are finally being filled in. San Jose lost by one
goal to Houston on Wednesday, then dropped another one goal game to Kansas City on Saturday. The
Quakes are no longer in playoff contention.
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I was going to write a full post about each team's playoff chances, but its getting close to game
time and the three teams left (Toronto, San Jose and LA)... Well, let's just say I don't need to
delve too deeply into analysis to discover these teams probably are not going to make it. The
Sounders [..
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I've been prattling off predictions here all week. Most of my guesses will likely be dead
wrong. After all, I do not exactly have a great record picking winners. Just read my preseason take
on DC United, and you will see that I will sometimes (er, often) miss the boat a
little (uh, badly). I'm definitely no psychic.
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Women's pro soccer is back. Well not quite yet. At least it will be in Spring 2009. Hopefully, some
people will notice this time. WUSA folded in 2003 after only three seasons. The league went all-in
after the 1999 World Cup, tried to grow too soon and eventually busted. The losses were
huge (of the $100 million variety).
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For the first time in a few years, the race for MLS Coach of the Year has been pretty hotly
contested. With so many historic losers having good years, it seems to me that there is a multitude
of individuals who could hear their named called at the season's conclusion. Who should get it for
2008? Well, other [.
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US Men's National Team fans, your mission, should you decide to accept it, is as follows:
Acquire Neven Subotic. The target is a 6-foot-4, 19 year old future soccer star. He was born
in 1988 in the small town of Banja Luka in what is now Bosnia. In 1990, he moved to
Germany after war broke out in his homeland.
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The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, or T&T, is found on a small archipelago in the southern
Caribbean. 96% of the population lives in Trinidad and the other 4% live in Tobago, which leads me
to question why Tobago gets equal billing. T&T is famous as the birthplace of calypso music and the
steelpan drum.
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The Republic of Cuba is the largest island of the Greater Antilles and the most populous
nation in the Caribbean. The name "Cuba" means "great place" which, depending
on your political preference, you may or may not agree with. Cuba has been a Socialist
Republic for almost fifty years now, but its history extends as far back as 1492.
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With soccer ever becoming affected by the amount of money in the game, and the changing of the
older ways of doing things as shown by the mess at Newcastle United I thought that we could all use
some inspiration about what a truly great game that soccer is. When you need the best you turn to
the best and in this case its the goal that George Best scored for the San Jose Earthquakes back in
his NASL days.
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U.S. MNT midfielder Michael Bradley, aka "MB", was dealt by his Dutch side SC Heerenveen
to a newly promoted member of Germany's first division. The team's name? Borussia
Moenchengladbach. Gesundheit! I think I will just stick with "BM" rather than trying to
type that again. So, MB is going to BM.
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We are now 2/3rds the way in! Lets take a look at our last 10 games.
OVERALL: 7-6-7
LAST 10: 3-3-4
The Second Trimester (and Juan Carlos Osorio)
The Red Bulls took an nose dive in the early part of the last 10 games. Amounting only one win
in the first 6 (which included two heartbreakers with a 4-1 loss to DC and an equally embarrassing
4-0 loss to Colorado), the 1-3-2 Red Bulls looked destined to collapse.
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