Finishing up our "what did we miss out on?" series today:

FELIPE MELO Arsenal were probably linked with Felipe Melo this summer more than any other player. The biggest difference between Arsenal's 2007-2008 season and our 2008-2009 season, which saw the club take a large step backwards, was the absence of Mathieu Flamini.

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There are a few international friendlies on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 including #1 ranked Brazil traveling to face Oman. The match will be covered live at our other site, Free Live Sports TV, at the following link. The match starts at 14:30 GMT or 09:30 USA EST.

Oman v Brazil LIVE International Friendly Tuesday, November 17, 2009 14:30 GMT, 09:30 EST

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While a few countries still have World Cup Qualification matches left, most are playing international friendlies during this week. These include some of the favorites for next summer's world cup such as Brazil who face Oman, Italy v Sweden, Austria v Spain, Denmark v United States, and Italy v Sweden.

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There are a number of International Friendlies on Saturday, November 14, 2009 as most nations are done with 2010 World Cup Qualification. Some of the friendlies including Brazil v England, Slovakia v USA, Spain v Argentina, and Italy v Netherlands. All of these matches and more will be covered live at our other site, Free Live Sports TV, at the links below.

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It's a busy weekend of international matches on Saturday, November 14, 2009 in the world of soccer. In UEFA there are playoff matches in 2010 World Cup Qualifying while other regions such as CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, and AFC also have qualification matches taking place. Many matches will be televised and here's a full set of TV listings for the United States and United Kingdom.

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It's finally happened. Fat Ronaldo has admitted that he's a chubby tub of goo. (A very talented chubby tub of goo, but still a chubby tub of goo, nonetheless.)

In an interview with Globo television, The Fat One, who has 11 goals for Corinthians this season, said that he wouldn't call himself up to the Brazilian national team right now, that he will put forth perhaps the greatest effort of his career to make the team, and that he thinks the first half of 2010 will be vital blah blah blah.

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There are several international friendlies on Saturday, November 14, 2009 while the final 2010 World Cup Final spots are determined. One of the more high profile friendlies is England v Brazil which will be at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar. Both nations have qualified for next summer's world cup and are two of the favorites to advance far into the tournament.

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Time is short today, so the weekly stadium spotlight series takes a brief look at a stadium that has a considerable transformation planned for it.

In May, the twelve host cities for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil were announced. One of the winning bids was Fortaleza, the state capital of Ceará in Northeastern Brazil.

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Since 1958 Pelé had become known as the best player in the world, and there were great expectations to the Brazilian national team as the World Cup returned to South America, to Chile specifically.It was sadly one of the most vile tournaments in terms of fair play and bad refereeing, with some matches that will only go over to history for their violence, notably Yugoslavia-USSR and Chile-Italy. Click to continue reading...

It's a little-known fact that Hulk, star of Portugal and selected to the Brazilian national team for the first time yesterday, once played for Japanese team Consadole Sapporo. Supporters made a banner for Hulk in his Japanese and Brazilian kit.

Photo credit: Sasakei on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool.

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FC Porto striker Hulk has earned his first ever call-up to the Brazilian national team. Brazilian manager Dunga gave the striker a call-up for next month's friendlies against England and Oman.

Hulk will be lining up against some of Brazil's brightest stars when he makes his international debut, as his fellow strikers will be Manchester City's Robinho, Villareal's Nilmar, and Confederations Cup sensation Luis Fabiano of Sevilla.

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The CONMEBOL (South America) region finished is qualification on Wednesday as the top four teams will be in South Africa next summer. The fifth place team will play the fourth place team in a two legged play-off in November. Overall, the two favorites of Brazil and Argentina are there but Chile surprised with their first World Cup Finals since 1998.

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The CONMEBOL (South America) region still has the last automatic qualification spot up for grabs as well as the play-off spot. Argentina got a much needed win on Saturday and are currently in 4th place but need another win to guarantee a spot. Brazil, Paraguay, and Chile are all qualified by finishing in the top 3 while Uruguay, Ecuador, and Venezuela have a chance to qualify.

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There was one more CONMEBOL (South America) qualifying match left on the weekend as Bolivia hosted Brazil. Both teams had little to play for as Bolivia was out of contention for qualification and Brazil had already clinched their spot in South Africa. Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights on Sunday, October 11, 2009.

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This is another segment I will do every weekend after a Champions League round. I will name the best starting line-up from this week's games.

Goalkeeper: Oleksandr Shovkovskiy (Dynamo Kiev)

Dynamo Kiev's keeper didn't get much help from his teammates but he single-handedly stopped Barca from running rampant on the score sheet.

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Champion's League group play started on Tuesday... now teams are embroiled in what could be a 9 month process for the teams that make it to the Final Game. Add to that the World Cup qualifying schedules for some of these players on their National teams and you've got alot of busy Soccer players this season.

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A move not worth making.

Arctic Monkeys Tickets Still Available Click Here

Manchester United are to test Sevilla's resolve by bidding for Luis Fabiano in the January transfer window, according to reports in the English press.

The People comments that manager Sir Alex Ferguson is an admirer of the Brazilian, who has the started the campaign in flying form for both club and country, and has decided to offer for the 28-year-old in January, despite him being ineligible for the Champions League.

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The CONMEBOL (South America) Region has a full set of matches on Wednesday as a few teams looked to clinch spots in South Africa next summer. Brazil already was qualified and countries Chile and Paraguay able to earn spots if they earned victories on Wednesday night. Other countries like Argentina have been struggling and needed results to stay in good position with only two matches left after the Wednesday matches.

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The CONMEBOL (South America) Region has a full set of matches on Wednesday as a few teams looked to clinch spots in South Africa next summer. Brazil already was qualified and countries Chile and Paraguay able to earn spots if they earned victories on Wednesday night. Other countries like Argentina have been struggling and needed results to stay in good position with only two matches left after the Wednesday matches.

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"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

What if the legend stops being fact? What if the legend not only stops being fact, but goes on being printed anyway, printed incessantly, at every opportunity, printed and duplicated and reprinted and reduplicated to the point that it becomes an inescapable atmospheric cliché?

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Qualifying for the FIFA 2010 World Cup continues on Wednesday with matches in most of the regions. There are only three matches left for most countries as there are several spots still up for grabs in every region. In CONCACAF and CONMEBOL it's still very close and top countries such as Argentina are on the fringe.

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The South American region or CONMEBOL had a full set of 2010 World Cup Qualifiers on Saturday September 5, 2009 with the biggest match being Argentina v Brazil. Other matches including Colombia v Ecuador, Peru v Uruguay, Chile v Venezuela, and Paraguay v Bolivia. Here's a recap of all the matches along with video highlights.

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There's a full slate of 2010 World Cup Qualifiers in all of the regions on Saturday September 5, 2009. The biggest matchup this weekend has to be in South America (CONMEBOL) as Argentina hosts Brazil. In CONCACAF, Mexico and the United States look to get wins to inch closer towards automatic qualification.

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The latest FIFA World Rankings were released on Wednesday September 2, 2009 with not many changes. Brazil remains on top but Spain has closed the gap to less than 20 points. The rest of the top ten remains about the same with Italy moving up one spot to be tied with Germany for 4th and France slipped to 10th while Croatia moved up one to 9th.

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While several regions had World Cup Qualifying, there were also many international friendlies. Some of the top countries playing in matches were France, England, Netherlands, Italy, and Brazil. Here's a recap of some of the top matches along with video highlights.

England and Netherlands draw 2-2 Video Highlights

The Netherlands took an early 2-0 lead only to see two second half goals from Jermain Defoe to make it 2-2 at full time.

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In an attempt to bolster their defensive back line as they push to make the playoffs, the Miami FC Blues has signed former Brazilian national team defender Junior Baiano. The 39-year old played for a short time with Blues manager Zinho.
Three days before, the Blues signed U.S. U-20 defender Gale Agbossoumonde to a 3 and a half year contract. Click to continue reading...

The latest FIFA World Rankings were released on Wednesday August 5, 2009 as there was little change in the top 20. Brazil remains on top followed by Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Russia, England, Argentina, France, and Croatia rounding out the top 10. The United States remains at number 12 while Paraguay was able to move up to 2 spots to 20.

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Former Jaguares midfielder Andre Luiz Moreira is now a member of the San Jose Earthquakes. "We are excited to add a player of the caliber of Andre Luiz to our roster," said GM John Doyle. "He understands the game well and has great vision. The experience he gained in a number of top leagues around the world, as well as with the Brazilian national team, will be invaluable to our team. Click to continue reading...

From the San Jose Earthquakes Front Office, the team announced today that the team has signed Brazilian midfielder Andre Luiz Moreira. Per league and team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"We are excited to add a player of the caliber of Andre Luiz to our roster," said General Manager John Doyle. Click to continue reading...

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Weeks after initially saying that Franck Ribery wouldn't be sold at any price, Bayern Munich has now decided to set a price tag.

And it ain't cheap.

Bayern has set a €94 million asking price for the French star, increasing speculation that there still may be hope for Real Madrid to add another jewel to its already absurd collection of world stars.

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In a hectic 48 hours for the club, Inter have confirmed the widely speculated sale of Nilmar to Villarreal whilst on the pitch, Inter slumped to a 3-2 defeat to Botafogo.
On Friday, club president Vitório Píffero confirmed that an agreement had finally been made with Villarreal for Nilmar. Click to continue reading...

Spanish "Liga" Club VILLAREAL have signed Brazilian NILMAR da Silvafor 5 years at a price of 10M€ making him the highest transfer inVillareal History. The 25 year old comes from Brazilian team PORTOALEGRE & is currently part of the Brazilian National Team thatrecently won the FIFA 2009 Confederations Cup. Click to continue reading...

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The Chicago Fire moved one step closer to silverware on Wednesday night, riding a Cuauhtemoc Blanco free kick to knock off the New England Revolution, 2-1, in the SuperLiga semifinals.

The victory means the Fire will now face Mexican side Tigres in the SuperLiga final. Tigres defeated Santos Laguna, 3-2, in the second semifinal at Gillette Stadium.

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The Chicago Fire moved one step closer to silverware on Wednesday night, riding a Cuauhtemoc Blanco free kick to knock off the New England Revolution, 2-1, in the SuperLiga semifinals.

The victory means the Fire will now face Mexican side Tigres in the SuperLiga final. Tigres defeated Santos Laguna, 3-2, in the second semifinal at Gillette Stadium.

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In a market that is so drastically inflated, managers and clubs have no choice but to seek out bargains. Sir Alex Ferguson secured the shock signing of Michael Owen last week, and another former worldbeater is still available: AC Milan's Ronaldinho.

Before you dismiss this suggestion, think about it.

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