A second half goal by Ireland striker Daniel Kearns at Tolka Park on Thursday night made it two wins from this week's double-header friendly against Poland.
Belfast born Kearns marked his first start for Ireland with a goal which gave his side a 1-0 victory in the U-19 international.

European champions Spain were given no favors this morning when the draw for the UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying rounds were made. Spain's group includes the Czech Republic, Scotland, Lithuania and Liechtenstein.

Runners up in 2008 Germany were handed a much easier draw as they will play Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and the side they beat in a dramatic UEFA EURO 2008 semi-final, Turkey.

(Summary is not available.)

At some point, the footballing world is going to need someone to whip up a quick book listing all the ways a famous person can land on the internet and all the things one should not do to avoid the inevitable embarrassment.

A bottle of wine, France v Bosnia-Herzegovina and Ludovic Giuly in a bar tick these boxes.

The draw for the 2012 Euro's in Poland and Ukraine will be held tomorrow and UEFA has already conformed the seeds for the draw.

With the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland all in Pot Three, the likelihood of England drawing one of them is 38%. We could also see a repeat of the World-Cup playoffs games between the Republic of Ireland and France.

This week's Video Of The Week is from the BBC's "Frontline Football" series, and follows Ben Anderson as he visits Sarajevo for a 2006 World Cup qualifier between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia & Montenegro. It's the first match between the two teams since the brutal war that followed the collapse of the Yugoslavian state in the early 1990s, and feelings are running predictably high.

The first World Soccer issue of 2010 hit news stands, mailboxes and bookstores this week. This year is sure to be a big one for the top soccer magazine in the world, which will have plenty of coverage of the 2010 World Cup, African Nations Cup, UEFA Champions League, etc. Here is a preview of what this month's issue features:

• Cover Story: 2009 Awards Special - Player of the Year, Manager of the Year, Young Player of the Year, Team of the Year, and Player of the Decade
• World Cup Countdown: A look at the final qualifying position playoffs, team profiles for New Zealand, Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria, Greece, Slovenia, Portugal, France, Uruguay, and in-depth looks at Nicolas Anelka (France) and Rafik Saifi (Algeria).

England will take on Wales in the Euro 2012 qualifiers.

They will also come up against Switzerland, Bulgaria and Montenegro.

The Scots were drawn in Group I where they will play world cup favorites Spain along with Czech Republic, Lithuania & Liechtenstein.

Northern Ireland have the toughest draw as they face world champions Italy, Serbia, Slovenia, Estonia & The Faroe Islands.

UEFA has announced the 12 dates that have been reserved for group matches in qualifying. Those dates are:

• 3/4 and 7 September 2010
• 8/9 and 12 October 2010
• 25/26 and 29 March 2011
• 3/4 and 7 June 2011
• 2/3 and 6 September 2011
• 7/8 and 11 October 2011

The following dates are reserved for the play-off matches between the remaining eight runners-up:

• 11/12 November 2011
• 15 November 2011

Countries have until 16 March to agree on the order of their matches.

Tras el tremendo fiasco de la Eurocopa de 2004 en Portugal, Luis Aragonés fue nombrado seleccionador nacional. El "Sabio" llegó con la idea de hacer una selección de consenso: "la gran sentada" que uniera sus propias ideas a las de jugadores, prensa y afición.

What Or Who Decides The Outcome Of Football Matches?
Roberto Martinez refers obliquely to "third party decisions" and the astute Spaniard is more than correct.
But the loci of those third parties are both disparate and interlinked dependent upon the murky circumstance.

Southend United's young striker Harry Crawford has been called up to the Republic of Ireland's Under 19 squad.
Crawford, who made his debut in March during Southend's 3–0 home win over Walsall, will join the squad in Ukraine immediately, and will compete in the European Championships elite round qualification.

Join us at 20.15h CET to watch and discuss the big unveiling of what will be Germany's probable starting XI for this World Cup - give or take one or two players, we all know Jogi Löw by now.

Germany - Bosnia-Herzegovina [read more]

By AVI CREDITOR

The string of pre-World Cup international friendlies continues Thursday, as Italy-Mexico (1:15 p.m. EST, Telemundo) highlights a three-game slate.

Spain and South Korea kicked off at noon in a matchup of two South Africa-bound teams, and Germany and Bosnia-Herzegovina will meet at 2:30 p.

By AVI CREDITOR

The string of pre-World Cup international friendlies continues Thursday, as Italy-Mexico (1:15 p.m. EST, Telemundo) highlights a three-game slate.

Spain and South Korea kicked off at noon in a matchup of two South Africa-bound teams, and Germany and Bosnia-Herzegovina will meet at 2:30 p.

Qualification: 1st in European Qualification Group 5 World Ranking: 2 Head Coach: Vicente del Bosque Captain: Iker Casillas Most Capped Player: Andoni Zubizarreta 126 (1985-1998) Top Goalscorer: Raúl 44 (1996-2006).
Star Players: The whole team!
The Team: The European champions Spain have a golden generation of players who are all on top of the World's greatest.

Nascido em 1968, é um dos melhores árbitros assistentes da Escandinávia.
É professor de educação física.
É árbitro FIFA desde 1999, e seu primeiro jogo oficial foi: Hungary-Bosnia-Herzegovina (10.03.1999).
Seus jogos, oficiais, foram:
Mundial Sub-20
30/06/2007 - Argentina 0x0 República Tcheca
03/07/2007 - Estados Unidos 6x1 Polônia
07/07/2007 - Uruguai 0x2 Zãmbia
11/07/2007 - Espanha 4x2 Brasil
14/07/2007 - Áustria 2x1 Estados Unidos
22/07/2007 - Áustria 0x1 Chile
Mundial Sub-17
13/08/2003 - México 0x0 Colômbia
19/08/2003 - Nigéria 0x1 Argentina
24/08/2003 - Brasil 3x0 Estados Unidos
27/08/2003 - Argentina 2x3 Espanha
Copa das Confederações
18/06/2009 - Egito 1x0 Itália
28/06/2009 - Estados Unidos 2x3 Brasil
Será sua primeira Copa do Mundo.

European Championship qualifying wil be the focus of plenty of attention today, but the Argentina-Spain friendly just might be the most intriguing match of the day.

Argentina will be led by new manager Sergio Batista, who has taken over for Diego Maradona on an interim basis.

By AVI CREDITOR

Despite his name popping up in British tabloids for all the wrong reasons, Wayne Rooney got back to doing what he does best: Scoring goals.

Rooney scored the opening goal of England's 3-1 victory over Switzerland in 2012 European Championship qualifying on Tuesday, helping England maintain a perfect record in Group G through two matches.

Yep, England is solid (without Lampard and Terry). The Netherlands did its job and Portugal did not. Germany and Italy had a walk in the park and France managed to finally pull a win against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Here are EURO 2012 Qualifiers Results for Sept 7th.

Related posts:

1. Photo: England's New Kit for EURO 2012 Qualifier
2. Euro 2012 Qualifiers Results: Torres Is Back And So Is England?

By AVI CREDITOR

Despite his name popping up in British tabloids for all the wrong reasons, Wayne Rooney got back to doing what he does best: Scoring goals.

Rooney scored the opening goal of England's 3-1 victory over Switzerland in 2012 European Championship qualifying on Tuesday, helping England maintain a perfect record in Group G through two matches.

These days FIFA release their much derided (but pretty good) World Rankings, and UEFA release c0-efficients for the rankings of leagues. I thought it'd be interesting to compare these two rankings to discover the most over-performing leagues and the international sides that under-perform (or the other way around, whichever way you want to look at it).

International qualifiers might now lack the quality of top flight European football, but they more than match the major leagues for drama and unpredictability. In the qualifiers for Euro 2012, one feels that anything and everything could happen and probably will. For the likes of Italy and France, things are going to get worse before they get better.

France put some distance between the bad memories of the South African disaster and the loss to Belarus in their first Euro qualifier.Laurent Blanc is a happier man than he was ...
They beat Romania 2 - 0, both goals coming at the end of the game.
Draws between Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina (1-1) and Luxembourg and Belarus (0-0) mean that France ,by default, are now top of their group.

France 2, Luxembourg 0
Oct. 12, 2010

Hoarau Benzema
Malouda Gourcuff Diaby
A.Diarra
Clichy Mexes Rami Reveillere
Lloris

Subs: Nasri, Payet, Remy

France 2, Romania 0
Oct. 9, 2010

Benzema
Malouda Nasri Valbuena
M'Vila A.