As the build up continues and gathers pace for the big game this Saturday against our hated arch-rivals, Liverpool, the team we love to hate and that too with a passion wherever you are in the globe,...
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Park Ji-Sung made his 200th appearance for United last weekend in our 3-3 draw with Chelsea.

When Park joined United for £2m in 2005 several people claimed it was just to appeal to the Asian market in order to sell more shirts. Those people obviously didn't watch him play for PSV against AC Milan in the Champions League a few months before we bought him.

Being slightly fearful of numbers, I'm not sure how the old recipe for success of 'win at home and draw away' stands up in modern times, now we have this new-fangled three points for a win, but right now it will do for me. As against Man City, against the Pool we stood up to the considerable pressure exerted by our rivals near the top of the league, emerging with great credit and in this case a point too.

DARKSIDE CHRONICLES: Edition 002 Let me start off this week by saying that originally I was planning to offer up a different article that dealt with other problems regarding Manchester United. But due to the big game and glorious comeback that the lads fashioned on the weekend, I think I should stick to the match [.

Of course with a headline like this, I just had to post about it. The article in today's SUN heaps more pressure on AVB at Chelsea when would you believe it, we are playing United on Sunday!.
That's not like the press to put pressure on a Chelsea manager before a big game is it?.
The quote taken from the article from a "top source" states the following:

"Jose would go back to Chelsea.

Eli Manning's star has never shined brighter as he leads his New York Giants into their 2nd Super Bowl in the past 4 years.
As accomplished and appreciated as Manning is now, he was not always held in that regard. Playing professional sports in the largest fishbowl of a media market like New York is not easy, as there are very high expectations to manage and distractions to avoid.

Acura just released the extended version of their Super Bowl ad featuring the highly anticipated NSX, six days before the :60 TV spot will air in the third quarter of the big game.

The video depicts the over-the-top antics of comedians and famous car collectors Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno as they bid to be the first in line to take delivery on the first Acura NSX supercar.

Three goals in seven second half minutes that's all it took for Arsenal to win a game in which they were otherwise unimpressive. While the comeback was miraculous and the result crucial, many problems still remain.

As has been the case for the last month or so, Arsenal started at a pedestrian pace.

Handful of games played midweek in Indonesia. Persipura returned to the top of the table beating Persiram in an almost local derby while Sriwijaya dropped points at Persiwa where no team gets anything beyond fed up. Persiba, who also rarely drop points at home, won their second local derby on the spin, defeating Mitra Kukar 3-1 at their tiny Persiba Stadium.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has written an open letter to the club's fans, asking them to behave well when they meet Liverpool in Saturday's 4th round FA Cup at Anfield.

Even those looking at Real Money Casino Games at Mansion will tell you that tensions between the rival clubs have increased in recent times, following the race row between Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra in October's league draw at Anfield.

Liverpool 2 Gerrard 40′ (pk), Bellamy 74′
Manchester City 2 de Jong 31′, Dzeko 67′

"Would it be a risk to play defensively?" the reporter asked Kenny Dalglish as Liverpool prepared to face Manchester City at Anfield in the second leg of the League Cup semi-finals.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard wants to maintain focus ahead of Wednesday's Carling Cup semi-final second leg - by banning talk of Wembley.
The Reds hold a 1-0 lead over Manchester City from the first leg and are favourites to progress ahead of the return game at Anfield, but Gerrard insists the team must prepare correctly.

Ducky's Note: Die-hard Manc Prashanth speaks fan-to-fan to the Arsenal fans. We repeat, this is a post by a Manc. So, you know, #justsaying *runs and ducks behind door. Pun may or may not have been intended*.

No, I don't want to tell you that its okay to lose, or its okay to boo your manager when he makes a substitution (gamble) trying to win the game.

By Joel Greenwaldt
Baltimore Blast (10-4) vs. Norfolk SharX (3-11)
Game Time: 1/20/2012 7:35 PM
http://www.misllivesoccer.com/
Keys to victory for the Blast:

• Quicker distribution: In their loss to the SharX eight days ago, the Blast tired to get too cute with fancy footwork and trying to take on and dribble through multiple defenders.

Why United, City and Liverpool should get three points this weekend - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

With United traveling to Arsenal and Tottenham going north to Manchester City, there's a lot to look forward to this week.

Here's a look at the top betting tips and the best matches this weekend.

The U.S. men's national team will play its first match of 2012, and an MLS-heavy squad will take the field against Venezuela on Saturday night in Arizona with many players looking to impress Jurgen Klinsmann and work their way into the full senior team mix.

Some familiar faces are back in the mix as Benny Feilhaber and Ricardo Clark are in camp, while Heath Pearce joins them as the only players on the camp roster with more than 30 caps.

Ahead of the Big Game at the Weekend..... A "What if ".......

Charybdis. If you value your health ..... don't read this.

Some of our younger bloggers may not know that Sir Alex Ferguson almost became Arsenal manager before Mr Graham. The Don Howe era had come to a sticky end with Steve Burtenshaw acting as caretaker manager, therefore Ferguson who was the hot young manager following his superb job at Aberdeen was approached by Arsenal and according to him, turned them down after lengthy negotiations.

Ahead of the Big Game at the Weekend..... A "What if ".......

Charybdis. If you value your health ..... don't read this.

Some of our younger bloggers may not know that Sir Alex Ferguson almost became Arsenal manager before Mr Graham. The Don Howe era had come to a sticky end with Steve Burtenshaw acting as caretaker manager, therefore Ferguson who was the hot young manager following his superb job at Aberdeen was approached by Arsenal and according to him, turned them down after lengthy negotiations.

Mark Hughes has demanded an improvement from his Queens Park Rangers side after the 1-0 victory over MK Dons in the FA Cup third round replay last night.

Most soccer betting pundits will agree that the League One side were more than a match for Hughes' men for the majority and even though the home side eventually progressed to the fourth round, Hughes knows his team have to be better in all departments.

Lots of websites are going 'black' today, Wikipedia for example, to protest against proposed new laws in the USA which will make everyone have to connect to the internet through AOL with all their family filters turned on.

I was considering going black to bemoan our transfer policy, general crapness, toilet queues at the stadium and 'The Wonder of You'.

Totteham Hotspurs' winger, Gareth Bale, is in a confident mood ahead of his team's travel to challenge the current league leader, Manchester City at Etihad Stadium.

The Welsh international believes that despite losing 5-1 in their previous meeting against City this season, Spurs can come away with a positive result from their upcoming away trip against Roberto Mancini's team.

O Grande Jogo (The Big Game)

Os grandes jogos / The big games
1958 - Suécia [sweden]
1962 - Chile
1970 - México
1994 - Estados Unidos [United States]
2002 - Japão/Coreia do Sul [Japan/South Korea]

We all know that Brazilians are proud to have won the World Cup five times.

The dust has settled somewhat from part one of our interview with former U.S. Men's National Team forward and current Fox Soccer analyst Eric Wynalda.
Part two includes our conversation about working for Fox Soccer, what it's like to put on the red, white, and blue and play for your country, owning a soccer team, and his favorite beer.

Patrice Evra is one of a select few foreign players who genuinely seems to get what this club is all about. Whilst Eric Cantona and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will forever be remembered as United legends, I struggle to think of any player who speaks as eloquently about United as Evra does.

Following back to back defeats in the league before an important win over Manchester City in the FA Cup, Evra has claimed that because of the history of this club, we never give up.

The events leading up to the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl were as exciting as the game itself. On Friday, the teams visited Glide Memorial Church & Kitchen and St. Anthony's Dining Room in San Francisco. On Saturday, it was time for the tailgate party and the big game at AT&T Park. Though there were plenty of highlights, one of the best was seeing Hall of Famers Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott taking part in the festivities.

Anfield Rd: The magic of the FA Cup

Friday night football at Anfield two weeks running with Oldham Athletic the visitors tomorrow night a week after the Reds beat Newcastle 3-1 in the league. Tomorrow night's match is in the FA Cup and it's certainly seen as a big game for the side from what used to be Lancashire.

By Alan Duffy

Unquestionably one of the players of the season so far, Manchester City's Belgian captain Vincent Kompany has decided to use the medium du jour Twitter to launch a new competition which is sure to get the blue half of Manchester rather excited.

Newcastle's task on Wednesday evening will be a tough one against Manchester United. Tim Krul big game needed from goalkeeper on Wednesday The Red Devils were embarrassed by being beaten at home over the weekend by rock bottom side Blackburn Rovers, and no doubt they will want to put that right at St.

It is no real surprise that the Scottish Premier League race already appears to be down to the two usual suspects. How Rangers and Celtic have gotten to their current positions, though, is a story in itself.

Heading into Wednesday's latest edition of the venomous Old Firm Derby (2:45 p.

The SPL works off the turkey and mince pies with a full Wednesday evening fixture. The eyes of the world upon us once more. Or at least the eyes of those Sky viewers not tempted by the tungsten superheroes at the Ally Pally.
Celtic v Rangers
Apparently recent form has left some Celtic supporters confident about this one.

If everyone can stop doing racisms for just one minute! Phew. Glad we got that sorted. Rightio, ahead of tonight's big game with Chelsea, I've roped in one of the chaps behind the fabulous movie trailer review site, Trailer Trash. It's Harry Thompson and he just happens to have the grave misfortune of being a Blues fan.

Vincent Kompany brushes off Theo Walcott

A big game in the world of CultFootball took place Sunday in Manchester Arsenal visited Etihad Stadium to take on league-leading Manchester City. Result was a tense but exciting match, which ended 1-0 for City.

The difference, not surprisingly, was a slight Spanish man named David Silva.

Vincent Kompany brushes off Theo Walcott

A big game in the world of CultFootball took place Sunday in Manchester Arsenal visited Etihad Stadium to take on league-leading Manchester City. The result was a tense but exciting match, which ended 1-0 for City.

Some commentary from one of the CultFootball head honcho:

City deserved the win, though Arsenal had their chances and maybe the game would've tipped if Arsenal had scored first or at all.

*hyperboilk*

Right, big game today and all that. Man City. I remember when they used to be just fields. The other team in Manchester who everyone kind of had a soft spot (sort of) for because they were United's poor relation. Not just the poor relation though. They were the keen, eager yet drooling relation with a club foot and a cleft palate who really wanted to join the kickabout and nobody had the heart to refuse.

Betting Preview: Robin van Persie to lead Arsenal to a win over Manchester City? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Even after suffering their first defeat of the Premier League season, Manchester City still sit atop the Premier League table, but archrivals and reigning league champions Manchester United are only two points behind and ready to pounce, and Tottenham, Chelsea, and Arsenal can‘t be dismissed at this juncture.

Difficult drawing for premiership teams didn't only happened in the Champions League but also in the second rate European competition, Europa League, where all three English representatives are being paired with tough sides.

Manchester United will be facing fellow Champions outcast, Ajax Amsterdam, while Manchester City are set to battle last season's champions Fc Porto and Stoke City got pretty much the toughest one with Valencia at sight.

The big game in the Premier League this weekend is a clash between Manchester City and Arsenal and City captain Vincent Kompany is confident his side can bounce back to winning ways:

"I definitely have a lot of respect for Arsenal," Kompany said. "On Sunday, we are looking to do what they have done.

Modric and Sneijder should be top of Fergie's shopping list

Gutted for Darren Fletcher, who looks like missing the rest of the season with a bowel disorder. I think he's seriously under-rated as a big-game player for Manchester United and Scotland. What I, and I'm sure millions of United fans would like to see now is Sir Alex Ferguson responding to his side's injury crisis by throwing his transfer beliefs out of the window for this January only.

I said before the Valencia game that we needed our big players to put in big performances and to stand up and be counted and lead the rest of the team to victory. They did exactly what we asked for and we got a fantastic result.
I said the same again for yesterday against City and although understated, they still all played a part in getting the right result.

Roberto Mancini ahead of the game tonight has spoken of Danny Sturridge and has made it perfectly clear that he can't believe that Sturridge was able to leave City because he would be a first team regular if he was still there now.
He said:

"I know Sturridge very well, I have watched him many times because he grew up in Manchester and someone let him go for almost nothing.