There is something to be said about keeping your best player and marking up the value on him when you can. The LA Galaxy appear to be doing just that and honestly it shouldn't come to a shock that the price that they want for their MVP Landon Donovan is high. Try $16 million high according to Martin Rogers over at Yahoo!

If you didn't know EA Sports' FIFA 11 hit stores yesterday in North America. So what does the virtual D.C. United look like?

For starters D.C. United is a two star team, the maximum being five(teams like Manchester United, Spain, etc) and the lowest behind a half star. Fear not, D.C. is not the only two star team in MLS according to EA Sports with Houston, Kansas City, New England, Philly, Colorado, Chivas, and Toronto.

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Every week during the 2010-11 season, the languagecaster team explain a football phrase or cliché. Click on the link below to hear the word or phrase and you can also read the transcript below that.

I'd been meaning to do the tactical analysis of the Blackburn game earlier but last week was quite busy, and since this weekend didn't have any games I thought watching the win at Ewood Park again would be a good way to get the Arsenal fix.

I know many articles have already been written about this game and many of you've probably moved on.

SPORT Magazine asked Xavi and Iniesta to participate in a debate / interview prior to Spain's departure for Argentina. It is pretty interesting seeing them go back and forth on everything from their teammate Lionel Messi, comments by Ibrahimovic, what they think of Pep Guardiola and more. The original source was in Spanish so the translation could be a little dodgy.

The European Championship qualifiers are up and running and on this week's show we feature this and many other stories on languagecaster.com's weekly football podcast. For more football news come to our site, read the posts, listen to our main reports and check out our links section.
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FEATURED POSTS Download the latest podcast which is all about Fabio Capello's England here Read our fabulous Glossary of footballing phrases Listen to something from our back catalogue: The Seven Stages of Being a Manager

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking on the icon

________________________________________ PREDICTION

This week's featured match sees England take on Switzerland in Basle in the European Championship qualifiers.

I grew up really, really caring about baseball. In baseball, a sport that is as much an individual pursuit as it is a team game, awards given to players really, really matter. Careers can be made on a Cy Young or an MVP, and even lesser awards like the Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers are hotly debated.

The regular season is over, and the second year of Women's Professional Soccer saw a 23% drop in overall average league attendance. Only the Boston Breakers were able to improve on their average from year one, going from 4,183 per game to a league-leading 4,490. The league average went from 4,684 to 3,588, a drop of more than a thousand per game.

After every World Cup there are players that get noticed for their performances, sign on to big contracts, and then never live up to the hype. In fact that is more the case than not. After watching the first several performances from Mesut Ozil you can already see that in his case he is in the divine minority.

By Ollie Irish

If you don't mind me indulging in a spot of kneejerk-reaction action, then I have a rather obvious and timely question for you: with Dimitar Berbatov playing so brilliantly, and not just against Liverpool (he's been United's best player this season), and Wayne Rooney blatantly out of sorts, in terms of his centre-forward play and also compared with last season's feats (of course a below-par Rooney is still better than most players), are we witness to the moment when Berba assumes the role of Fergie's No.

Alex Thomas: Which team do you dread most in the Premier League?

Alex Ferguson: Well the Premier League is such a difficult league, it's almost tribalism, you can't dismiss that impact when it comes to winning the Premier League.

I always look at the team that wins the league the year before, you have to be the target to try to work on, it's up the rest including us to do that and Chelsea are the champions, there's no question about that.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it. | Subscribe: Weekly Football Phrase

Every week during the 2010-11 season, the languagecaster team explain a football phrase or cliché. Click on the link below to hear the word or phrase and you can also read the transcript below that.

Up next for Stevenage is the visit of Crewe Alexandra, who have endured a mixed start to their season. After the disappointment of 2 defeats from their opening 2 league games, the Railwaymen returned the following week to smash Barnet for 7! I caught up with the editor from the Vital Crewe site to talk about Crewe's aims for the new season, who their "star" player is plus an insight into what to expect from League 2.

It's almost time for Blanc's first competitive match as coach of France. I'm sure he didn't imagine it would be this way, France is riddled with injuries and suspensions to their key players. At least we have someone competent who can piece together a squad of misfits. To add to Blanc's woes, this morning Karim Benzema was ruled out of today's match.

Iceland boss Olafur Johannesson has spoken pre Euro Qualifier with Denmark on the possible outcome of the game and on star striker Nicklas Bendtner, he acknowledges that Bendtner is a big threat but still thinks The Dane's will be highly ready for the match without their best player.

Olafur Johannesson went on to say .

SPORT Magazine asked Xavi and Iniesta to participate in a debate / interview prior to Spain's departure for Argentina. It is pretty interesting seeing them go back and forth on everything from their teammate Lionel Messi, comments by Ibrahimovic, what they think of Pep Guardiola and more.

Marx: "Up The Reds"

The first Monday of September isn't just the last day you are legally allowed to drink beer in sandals, it is also Labour Day (yes, spelled with a "u" up here our Yankee pals) - the day where workers of the world are celebrated. It is a day to honour ("u" again!) the hard working men and women toiling in all kinds of conditions in such places as football scarf knitting sweatshops, chip butty assembly lines and novelty vuvuzela factories.

Arguably the world's best player (depending on which side of the spectrum you choose to see him from), Diego Armando Maradona is set to give Italian football fans especially those in Napoli a surprise on October 3oth.

On that day, the Argentine legend turns 50 and reports in Italy suggest that he will return to former club Napoli to celebrate his birthday.

Yes, it's a special friendly. It brings together the present World Champions and one of the best national teams of the world, historically speaking, and moreover, one that can boast of having the (to many) best player of the world. But it's still a friendly. Which does not mean we should not all watch it, because it does promise to be good, but that maybe we shouldn't take it so seriously.

When Argentina is playing international basketball, it's usually Manu Ginobili playing the starring role. With Ginobili sitting out this year's World Championships, the mantle has been passed to Luis Scola and he hasn't disappointed. In fact, he's been the World's best player. Against Brazil, Scola was simply awesome.

The European Championship qualifiers are up and running and on this week's show we feature this and many other stories on languagecaster.com's weekly football podcast. For more football news come to our site, read the posts, listen to our main reports and check out our links section.
________________________________________

FEATURED POSTS Download the latest podcast which is all about Fabio Capello's England here Read our fabulous Glossary of footballing phrases Listen to something from our back catalogue: The Seven Stages of Being a Manager

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking on the icon

________________________________________ PREDICTION

This week's featured match sees England take on Switzerland in Basle in the European Championship qualifiers.

Although Real Madrid started off the season slow with a draw against Mallorca, Los Blancos will be looking to bounce back from their disappointing start when they take on Osasuna in league action. With Jose Mourinho having to be without his best player in Cristiano Ronaldo, Madrid should still be able to pull off a win against Osasuna.

By TRAVIS CLARK

For the first time in a long time, all 12 USSF D-2 will be in action this weekend.

With the playoff race creating pressure in almost every match, eyes will be on Rochester as the Rhinos play host to the FC Tampa Bay Rowdies (7:00 p.m., Saturday).

Sir Alex Ferguson was left baffled and is he watched is Manchester United side give away a two goal lead to draw at Goodison Park against Everton.

It was the second time this season that United had been deprived of an away victory late on following their 2-2 draw with Fulham last month – a total of four lost points that may come back to haunt Ferguson's men in the title race.

Kevin Durant is officially a world superstar. The forward for the Oklahoma City Thunder carried Team USA to a gold medal in the 2010 World Championships by scoring 28 points against Turkey. Team USA won the game 81-64, as Durant hit 10-of-17 field goals and 7-of-13 three-pointers while also adding five rebounds and two blocked shots.

Henry Winter was quick to blame Wayne Rooney's absence for United's draw against Everton. Sir Alex Ferguson's decision had "back fired" according to him.

Ridiculous, I thought. We scored three goals away from home, so it wasn't our attack that let us down at the weekend.

However, the reaction of Everton players might make you feel differently.

Another Premier League weekend is in the books with plenty of shocks, stops and talking points. The story of the weekend would be Everton's dramatic comeback against Manchester United and the continued good form of Blackpool. On a sad note though there were one or two concerning injuries and the continued discussion over officiating standards.

As revealed on Friday Messi will racing through London to take part in a special 11-aside match somewhere in the capital where two pre-selected teams will get to play football alongside him and you can be there to watch.

At the moment this location is still unknown but what we can reveal is that Messi will be taking part in a further two challenges and we've got the details on them!

Starting tomorrow Tuesday, September 14th UEFA Champions League football is back! Now sure the tournament technically already began last month when several top four clubs were forced to play in a two match aggregate battle to advance into the group draw stages of the tournament, but the real deal will begin tomorrow and this is exciting news for football fans of any league.

So the focus turns from domestic to europe. I don't know quite how many consecutive seasons it is in the Champions League for Arsenal but it's a lot. I think we also hold the record for the number of consecutive appearances in the knock-out stages.

You can't help but think there's unfinished business in this competition.

Thomas Mueller is easily the best player on the planet who looks like Big Bird. (I'll stand by that.)

• Fixing football, two rules at a time. (SoccerLens)
• A trip to the Bernabeu. (European Football Weekends)
• Ines Sainz fancies football, too. (Soccer Training Info)
• CR just wants to be loved.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you're anything like us, you wake up every day wondering: WWGPD?

While we haven't been granted the complete level of insider access to his life (and pantaloons) that's necessary to feel complete as people, we do know what he was up to yesterday: doing the product promo thing for his new book, Viatge d'anada i tornada (Round Trip).

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you're anything like us, you wake up every day wondering: WWGPD?

While we haven't been granted the complete level of insider access to his life (and pantaloons) that's necessary to feel complete as people, we do know what he was up to yesterday: doing the product promo thing for his new book, Viatge d'anada i tornada (Round Trip).

Alot has been made about Fergie's dramatic change in personnel from the League draw at Goodison Park on Saturday to the Champions League game against Rangers three days later. For those of you who missed it, here are the two line-ups:

Everton

(11th September)

Van der saar

Neville

Evans

Vidic

Evra

O'Shea

Scholes

Fletcher*

Giggs

Nani

Berbatov

Rangers

(14th September)

Kuszczak

Brown

Ferdinand

Smalling

Fabio

Valencia

Gibson

Fletcher*

Park

Hernandez

Rooney

*(Fletcher being the only player to keep his place)

Some good pieces were written in response to this team selection, in particular this one from Scott at Republik of Mancunia, claiming the team was fair, and another contrasting view from Football 365.

Self-portrait, or a desperate man - by Gustave Courbet

]So I wrote a couple of days ago about my habit, developed over long years of Cubs fandom, of treating hope (in terms of hope for actual success for my team) as something of a corrosive substance. Hope so long delayed and so often betrayed demands a re-figuring of the nature of one's fandom: Do I hope for success, and stay perpetually downcast; or do I take a longer view, of the sport as a lovely thing, of tribal passions channelled and used to good end?

Charles: Best player in a Boro shirt today?

Stevenage 0-0 Torquay
Highlights (to come later) | Westley Reaction

Boro held top of the table Torquay to a 0-0 draw at Broadhall Way as they moved up to 15th in League 2. I would have taken a point this morning and after watching the ball in the sky for most of the afternoon, I'm settling for a point this evening.

A couple of storylines today:

As you probably heard yesterday, Carlos Vela has been suspended by Mexico's federation for 6 months for misbehavior arising out of hosting what must have been a pretty wild party for his teammates while on international duty in violation of team rules. Frankly, I couldn't be happier about this Carlos has a reputation for enjoying the night life a bit too much and his motivation has come into question.

Game time: Saturday, 4 p.m.

TV: Telefutura, Live Well HD (abc 6.2)

The only MLS team without a city in their name is fortunately on the road this Saturday, so you don't have to figure out what city the game's in order to watch their match against Philadelphia Union.

The defending college football champions almost lost their No. 1 ranking on the road against tenth ranked Arkansas. Trailing 20-7, Alabama scored the game's final 17 points to win 24-20. With the win, Alabama remains in the driver's seat to win another national championship.

The rally began when Trent Richardson caught a 20-yard TD pass from Greg McElroy.

Malaga want to take Lucas off Liverpool's hands and intend to snap up the midfielder in the New Year, according to talkSPORT.
Lucas, 23, has dropped out of the Reds' starting side after the arrivals of Christian Poulsen and Raul Meireles. The Brazil international is eager to find regular first team football and could be interested in a switch to the Primera Division.