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Robbie Rogers (right) will get another U.S. national team shot when the Americans meet South Africa in Cape Town next week.

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Mea culpa: how soccer writers sometimes get it wrong

I write for a living.

Thursday, June 17th at 19:30 GMT from Peter Mokaba Stadium

The world will have its eyes firmly set on heavily criticized France manager Raymond Domenech. In their tournament opener against Uruguay, Les Bleus looked average, at best, and failed to pick up all three points as they were expected to.

Bound for Stamford Bridge?

Bookmakers Paddy Power suspended betting today on the proposed move of Liverpool and Spain striker Fernando Torres to Chelsea.

"We re-opened the market on Fernando's next club due to the speculation and interest from punters following comments from the City boss Roberto Mancini," said Paddy Power spokesman Roberto Coladangelo.

Football betting is a massive industry, with millions of pounds, euros, etc changing hands each season. There are all kinds of punters, from the obsessive fan to the statistics nerd to the seasoned gambler, and the bookmaking companies are always on the lookout for new customers. One method that many of the bookmakers have used to bring in new business is 'free bets'.

Sam Allardyce has been sacked by the new owners of Blackburn, and the respected manager has already revealed his surprise at the decision. Big Sam had been at Ewood Park since 2008, and his managerial duties will temporarily be placed in the hands of first team coach Steve Kean.

Blackburn Rovers' official website said: "The Venky's Group, owners of Blackburn Rovers Football Club, has today confirmed the departure of manager Sam Allardyce and assistant manager Neil McDonald with immediate effect.

FIFA's latest world rankings were released in December 2009, with the next assessment due at the start of February, just after the African Cup of Nations is due to end. So with the tournament about to get underway, how do the teams involved fare? The number on the left represents the nations' standing within Africa, the number in brackets their overall world ranking.

Ricardo Carvalho was full of confidence after helping Chelsea to secure a 3-0 win against a Birmingham team who started the match on a 15 game unbeaten run in all competitions. Chelsea produced a master class of attacking football throughout the 90 minutes at Stamford Bridge and, while the defense didn't have a lot to deal with, Carvalho and his teammates at the back did a good job to help goalkeeper Petr Cech keep a clean sheet.

Ghana 0-1 Egypt
African Cup of Nations 2010 Final
Scorer: Gedo '85
And in the end, Egypt win.
It is turning into a bit of a running theme at the African Cup of Nations now isn't it? 3 weeks, a lot of buildup, lots of hyping up other teams and then, when all is said and done, Egypt take home the trophy.

IPL 3 Results thusfar

Delhi Darevils won the 6th IPL3 match against the Rajastan Royals by 6 wickets with a splendid batting performance by Virendra Sewag Shane Warne's charges are not as good as they were during the opening IPL season when they won against all odds but have not performed well in the IPL 2 and are not doing so well now.

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The 2010 Football World Cup is likely to be one of the biggest sports betting events in history. The explosive growth of the online sports betting sector will give millions of football fans around the world the opportunity to capitalize on their love and knowledge of the beautiful game in the World Cup betting markets during the tournament.

This is a sponsored post.

‘Special' bets are hugely popular amongst sports gamblers. Bookmakers are offering increasing amounts of these quirky bets every sporting season – they're fun, and provide additional enjoyment to the viewing experience. Bookmakers have recognized the demands for ‘specials', and available now to all customers is a series of ‘World Cup Specials' – there's sure to be something for everybody.

Paddy Power is one of the biggest bookmakers in what is an extremely competitive UK market. In order to stay ahead of the game, they have come up with a very unique set of commercials that illustrate their "money back specials".

Sunday's 2-0 victory over Liverpool has put Chelsea football club within touching distance of their third Premier League title. Didier Drogba's opener and Frank Lampard's second seemingly sealing the deal on who will be this season's Premier League champions with just one game to go.
It is as sure as eggs are eggs apparently.

Five times World Cup winners, Brazil, head to South Africa looking to confirm their position as the best international team in World football by winning the World Cup for a sixth time, which would mean that they would have won one in every three tournaments since the competition started in 1930.

You may have read somewhere in your history books that the US has faced off against England a number of times throughout history. In most of those encounters, the Yanks have been prohibitive underdogs... The Revolutionary War (1776) - granted we had home field advantage in this one but if there were bookmakers in international conflicts at this point in history we would have looked a lot like

I have been notified about an online project that will be running throughout the World Cup by bookmakers Coral.

They have set up a site called The Dugout, a place for debate by people like yourselves, betting tips from experts and exclusive interviews with people such as Terry Butcher, Martin Peters and Graham Poll.

Sponsored post South Africa geared up for the first ever World Cup to be held in Africa and so far there's a lot of excitement with football fans from around the world. Bookmakers and online casino providers are also noticing a rise in activity among people interested in sportsbook betting on the tournament.

Uruguay 1-0 Mexico Uruguay top the group as both teams advance is a post from: Just Football

If you believed the bookmakers leading up to this game, this was an absolute nailed on draw. Neither side would want to risk losing and possibly going out if one of the other sides were to have a thumping win in the other group.

The USA soccer team PK (-150) has opened as betting favorites at online bookmakers in World Cup picks for their Saturday match against Ghana PK (-150). The soccer money line has the United States +135 with Ghana +200 and ...

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Spain has been made a 15-8 favorite to win the Cup by William Hill, the British bookmakers. Germany and the Netherlands were rated next as 2-1 second favorites, while Uruguay is the longshot at ...

Note from the BFZ Times: After a brief hiatus from the site, caused in part due to the BFZ Times team of editors stunned by the startling truth that 90% of readers are really dumb (no no, you're good, its those other people) and cannot really grasp certain aspects of humour, it returns with some ahem.

The shocking news that Martin O'Neill has resigned as manager of Aston Villa is sparking rumour after rumour regarding his departure. Many Villa fans will see this as a dark day in the clubs history with the Ulsterman bringing Europe and Wembley back into their lives.

A true managerial great has now left the club who must now embark on the difficult task of replacing the Irish talisman.

Wednesday is hump day, and what better way to struggle through it than with some links about your favorite club. Let's jump right in...

Dundee United

BBC Sport's preview of tomorrow's European fixture here. The Aberdeen Press and Journal has a preview here. More on Dundee United, their strikers and tomorrow's fixture here from the Herald Scotland.

At the start of the season bookmakers would have had you believe Tuesday's City Ground showdown was a top of the table clash between two title favourites. Just goes to show they're not always on top of their game doesn't it? Or maybe they know more than we thought and wanted us to waste our cash on the the Reds either of Nottingham or Teesside [.

Newcastle have released a statement tonight to quell speculation in the press that Newcastle manager Chris Hughton is under pressure for his job, and they have said it is the club's intention to renegotiate a contract for Chris at the end of this year. Chris Hughton - Newcastle job is safe good! Some bookmakers [.

"Please accept my resignation. I wouldn't belong to a club that would accept me as a member", said the telegram that Groucho Marx in his famous telegram to the Friar's Club of Beverly Hills, and the Football Association must be inwardly feeling the same as Marx with their admission that recent press revelations into the behaviour of various senior FIFA delegates has had an extremely damaging effect on their bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

Liverpool will turn to former Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill as new owners NESV look to replace Roy Hodgson. The under fire Anfield manager is thought to be nearing the axe after a poor start to the season and the 58 year old Northern Irishman is apparently seen as the man to take over the reigns at the Merseyside club.

Qatar has been chosen to host the 2022 World Cup. The middle Eastern nation beat out the United States among others for the bid.

My early take on this decision? FIFA can't be serious can it? Qatar was favored for some time by bookmakers and it's clear they knew something. The USA bid for 2022 was the most viable and made the most sense, but FIFA voters went with the highest risk bid.

With the bookmakers slashing the odds of Gary Speed being the next Wales manager from 40-1 down to 2-1, it seems somebody knows something. The rumours are getting stronger that the Welsh FA are about to approach Sheffield United regarding their manager.
Wales have been on the look-out for a new gaffer after John Toshack stood down in September and they are now weighing-up a move for the former midfielder.

"The future, always so clear to me, had become like a black highway at night. We were in uncharted territory now, making up history as we went along. The unknown future rolls toward us. I face it for the first time with a sense of hope, because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can, too.

Video search and navigation company Edit.TV has signed a deal with Liverpool FC to offer fans personalised match highlights.
Liverpool-based Edit.TV says LFC is the first major sports club to sign up to its YourSportTV application.
The service – backed by 17 patents – means fans can search and tag video of a match to create their own highlights package.