FC Barcelona will be having a along and much tougher next season. We will be fighting for six trophies altogether as I explained in my previous post. Guardiola has already asked for a larger squad that means we will be going to the market looking to buy good re-inforcement. Guardiola has also said that he don't want injuries to hamper his team selection like the way it did in Rome.

A reaction to a good list of potential signings.

Get Arsenal Tickets at Fantastic Prices Now!

Join Our Facebook Fan Page for the Latest News/Rumours/Forums/Videos/WAGS/Funny Stuff/Features!

Gregory van der Wiel
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger originally sent his scouts to Ajax to look at centre-half Thomas Vermaelen, and his £10m raid ended up pretty well.

By AriesArshavin has been speaking on his personal web site about the victory at Wigan. He considers that the forced exit of Mido and the deployment of Arsenal's big guns, Adebayor and Van Persie, were important in deciding the outcome of the game."Mido caused a lot of problems for us. They supplied him with long balls and their assault ended with a goal from a corner.

Two superstars, three stripes, three videos var sid=315;var vid=20106; Adidas' latest campaign rolls out their big guns old and new. Zinedine Zidane and Lionel Messi are the stars of this three-video viral campaign. See the other two after the jump. var sid=315;var vid=20108; var sid=315;var vid=20107;

FIFA World Cup in South Africa is due next summer and we can already feel the excitement everywhere. This year's Confederations Cup proved South Africa was ready for the biggest tournament in sport and football fans around the world are looking forward to hearing the famous vuvuzuelas again.

The United States is pulling out the big guns in an effort to land the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joining the American bid team. Here's Arnold's plea to the world, finished off by a groan-inducing Terminator reference. Your move, England.

Egypt proved they were the surprise package of this year's Confederations Cup by beating Italy in the second round and they are now on the verge of booking their place in the semi-finals. Hassan Shehata's team had hinted they could surprise one of the big guns having played really well against Brazil, narrowly losing the game 4:3.

Who has what it takes to break into the big time?

There is something to be said for a gradual organic approach to building a successful football team and whilst Harry Redknapp has made some good solid purchases he also had the nucleus of a good quality squad to aid a rise up the table.

After the latest round of World Cup qualifiers in the European qualifying zone, Northern Ireland are on track for qualification after their 1-1 draw in Poland. Scotland kept their slim chances alive with a 2-0 win at home to Macedonia. The Republic of Ireland secured a vital 2-1 win away in Cyprus.
Elsewhere results went mostly as expected with the big guns Spain and Italy beating Belgium and Georgia respectively.

Sunderland have signed free agent Paolo da Silva, the Paraguay international has been contracted by The Black Cats for three years. The defender has agreed a move to the Stadium of Light after his contract with Mexican side Toluca expired. He had been expected to join the Black Cats, but there were reports of late interest from [.

And so we play Mexico yet again with all the usual parties hurling the usual invective, spouting off the usual quotes and overall doing little but adding to the usual stew of pollution hanging over Mexico City.
Pardon me, but I'm a bit over the whole Mexico life-and-death rivalry thing.

The big guns, such as Barcelona, Manchester United, and Chelsea, had long since qualified for this round already. But the play-offs brought qualification to the likes of Arsenal and Lyon, who had to negotiate the non-champions round.
But there are some unsung sides among the top table, too.

Things are heating up in Nigeria as the U-17 World Cup enters the quarter finals stage with games being played on the 8th and 9th of November. Champions Nigeria who are the sole remaining African representatives in the tournament will be looking to retain the title they won in 2007 and add on to the one that their fellow compatriots Ghana won in the u-20 world cup earlier last month.

With Manchester United and Aston Villa joining most of the other Premier League clubs in the fourth round, the FA Cup draw has cooked up some interesting draws. The pick of the bunch is perhaps the Merseyside derby. Everton will be making the short trip to Anfield in the fourth round to take on cross-town rivals Liverpool.

Watch Chelsea v Barcelona Live!

Chelsea (Essien 9′) 1-1 Barcelona (Iniesta 90′ + 3) (Barcelona win 1-1 on Aggregate on Away Goals Rule)
Stadium: Stamford Bridge, England
Competition: UEFA Champions League, Semifinals, Leg #2
Date: 6 May 2009
Kickoff: 18:45 GMT, 14:45 EST

Barcelona pulled off a great escape and eliminated Chelsea to advance to the Champions League Final!

For the second time in the matter of a few weeks, the Wizards will take on the New England Revolution. This time, in SuperLiga. The Revolution come into the game having come from behind to beat Santos Laguna 4-2 on Sunday evening. New England is banged up again, and it looks as if three of the Revs best players will not be playing, as Sharlie Joseph, Steve Ralston, and Taylor Twellman are all listed as being out.

Congratulations to the USA Men's team for their stunning victory over World Record holders Spain in the semi final of the Confederations Cup.

Make no mistake, this is a massive victory for the USA. This was no pre season friendly or exhibition game, this was the real thing. Spain had all their big guns out their, Torres, Xavi, Alonso, Rieira, Sergio Ramos, Puyol, Casillas etc.

Looks like the self-proclaimed worldwide leader is bringing out the big guns for next year's big show.
This TV coverage plan via EPL Talk:

• ESPN will present all of its 2010 World Cup coverage from on-site in South Africa, totaling more than 65 hours of original content.
  
• The studio hosts will be Bob Ley, Chris Fowler and Mike Tirico.

Santino Quaranta has had a bumpy last several years. I'll assume all our readers are familiar with his trials and travails so I won't rehash them here. But tonight at his home stadium, Santino Quaranta achieved redemption with his first international goal in his first call up in over three years.

World Cup in South Africa is just around the corner and decisive qualifying battles are set to commence. In the first part of my article I have commented on the European Zone of World Cup qualifiers and now it's time to see what is happening around the globe. In Asia and Oceania there are just play-offs to be played, but plenty of excitement awaits us in South America, Africa and CONCACAF.

This season promises to be a pivotal one in the reign of Arsene Wenger at Arsenal. Wenger has been one of the most influential managers in Arsenal's history but for the first time last year there were rumblings of discontent from the fans.

In the build up to the new Premier League season the Arsenal manager has again been bullish about his side's prospects.

Good news from Anfield as summer signing Alberto Aquilani has begun running after his protracted ankle problem finally seems to have been cleared up, lets hope he is soon fit for first-team as I am dying to get a look at the play maker bought to try to replace the Great Xabi Alonso. That's for another day as we face Hull at Anfield today where we will be looking for a good win to avenge last season's 2-2 draw in the same fixture when Stevie Gerrrard brought us back from the dead with two fine goals after Hull had gone two up after a McShane header and a Carra own goal had left us scratching our heads at half-time.

Internationals breaks rarely make for interesting viewing. Even this one, which concludes the group stages in Europe, only has a few games that actually mean anything, and won't be half as exciting as the playoffs that follow. Those, of course, are being seeded at the last minute because FIFA panicked at the possibility of two of the big guns facing each other and causing one to miss the showpiece.

BESIKTAS HAS A CHANCE TO CAPTURE THE TOP SPOT ON FRIDAY...
As we get closer to the end of the season in the Turkish Turkcell Super League the excitement on top and agony of defeat feeling at the bottom is in full force...
After all disappointment scores by big guns from Istanbul , Sivasspor just could not open the gap wide open , instead they are only one point in front of second place Besiktas and five points away from three teams too
Those teams are,Fenerbahce , Galatasaray and Trabzonspor , they all have 47 points.

Don't expect any big names for tonights game folks (not like it matters since it won't be televised). The struggling Red Bulls are taking on an equally inept San Jose side, as both teams hope to find a silver lining in this mire of frustration.

With both clubs primarily focused on righting the ship late into the season, the big guns should be getting a rest, and some bench players will have the opportunity to see the pitch and possibly compete for starting minutes in the process.

Venue: Riverside Stadium Date: Saturday, 2 May Kick-off: 1245 BST

Sir Alex Ferguson will almost certainly rest his big guns ahead of Saturday's game with relegation threatened Middlesbrough.

Manchester United would want to have an element of freshness in their side when they face Arsenal in the Champions League next Tuesday.

So says Theo Walcott about tomorrow's semifinal match-up. And he is right this is just a massive, massive game for the club. Although if Theo stays at Arsenal (new contract, please!), I suspect he'll play in quite a bit of big games.

There's good news for a change coming out of the Grove. And that good news is that "Robin van Persie is available and back in the squad.

The season brought no trophies to Anfield... Manchester United tied the league title record... The big money summer signing proved a flop... Seven miserable home draws... Mid-season position squandered... Lengthy injuries to the big guns...

And Liverpool still had an outstanding season.

Last night was a battle of the big guns. The first place teams in either conference - Chicago Fire and Chivas USA - played at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles. You could tell both of these sides were near the top...this match was awesome. It had everything: goals, cards, late drama, and some bad refereeing - which is pretty much an MLS requirement these days.

I was lucky enough to watch the Socceroos train in Dubai a couple days ago, before flying they flew over to Qatar to potentially qualify for 'Seth Efrica' 2010... and while I quietly watched the intensity of their training drills from the empty bleachers, in no less than 35-40 dergree Celsius heat mind you, all I could think was that the Qataris are in for one hellofa night come Saturday.

Spain's La Liga is littered with impressive youngsters. Youngsters who are superstars in the making. Youngsters who have shown that their future clearly lies at one of Spain's, or Europe's, big guns rather than at their current mid to lower table employers. Here are the best eleven of them.

Formation: 4-3-3 (Admittedly not a perfect 4-3-3, but close enough).

A useful run out earlier this evening from the parts I caught. With pre-season games, it is hard to judge precisely what you can take from the game but our opponents - although they must be the smallest side I have come across - looked to be a bright, lively side, so Mark Hughes will be pleased that there was some intensity to the game.

I wonder how many Lucas shirts get sold every week?

LIVERPOOL are putting their shirts on Fernando Torres to help ease their debts.

The Reds' American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jnr, rubber-stamped a £290million refinace package this week and cashing in on the success of Torres is a crucial part of their marketing policy.

World Soccer News
for week of 8/2
Lung cancer kills Bobby Robson
Universally popular soccer coach Bobby Robson died on Friday from lung
cancer he had been suffering from for a long time. Robson was the last
coach to lead England to a World Cup semifinals in 1990, and on a club
level he achieved even greater results while coaching Ipswich Town,
Porto or Barcelona.

The top flight of Japanese football breaks this weekend as the J. League All-Star select travels to Incheon to take on their South Korean counterparts in the annual JOMO Cup.
There's no such pause in the 51-game marathon that is J2, however, with the second tier of the Japanese game enjoying a full midweek round of action on August 5.

Philippe Mexes (Roma) gets out the big guns and re-works his new hair into a style we half-approve of. We still think he should have warned us about the pony removal. That was just thoughtless.

Philippe Mexes (Roma) gets out the big guns and re-works his new hair into a style we half-approve of. We still think he should have warned us about the pony removal. That was just thoughtless.

-
For cutting-edge, continually-updated, football-only news about QPR: Visit the QPR Report Messageboard (and quasi blog)! Feel free to just read. But your posts are welcome! All views genuinely welcomed!
- Forty Factoids About QPR
- What All The "Experts" (and just fans) Say re QPR's Championship Chances
- Championship Promotion Odds --- Championship Leading Goalscorer Odds
Chris Kamara/Championship Preview
- ".

Morning Insiders another fantastic day in Blighty!!!! A great (if not lucky) result at Celtic park last night and the papers this morning reflect on the 2-0 first leg victory for the gunners.

The Sun - They think it's Gall over
ARSENAL are hot on the trail of the Champions League big guns thanks to two goals even boss Arsene Wenger rated lucky.

SEVILLA
08-09 LA LIGA STANDING: 3rd
Sevilla was able to secure a third place finish last season and qualify directly to the 2009-2010 UEFA Champions League. Not a bad ending considering they finished behind two very potent offenses like Barcelona and Real Madrid. But the Sevillistas will have their hands full this season.