Argentina coach Diego Maradona on Wednesday put Brazilian legend Pele in his place, insisting the latter was the second best player ever after himself. A FIFA internet poll in 2000 saw Maradona, who will lead the albiceleste against the five-times world champion Brazilians in a September 5 World Cup qualifier, come .

17-year-old Brazilian teenager, Dodo, has claimed that he will be signing for Manchester United in the summer, with reports suggesting he would cost £5 million.

Reports in Sao Paulo today suggest the defender will first come on loan from Corinthians before the deal is made permanent.

If he was to join, he would be linking up with the Brazilians we already have at the club, Anderson, Rafael, Fabio and Possebon.

If you're a regular here - you know we sometimes cover topics that are a bit less mainstream - focusing on peace matches in the Middle East, model bar Rafaeli's love for footie, Israeli - Palestinian conflicts, and a whole lot of Yossi Benayoun.
I look at football through a lens that may be a bit different from the way others look at football - because I've seen the potential of "peace matches" on the ground level, and I've met with organizers first hand who (naively or not) truly believe that organized sport and common experiences on a football field can bring kids closer together off the field - even where their ideologies - political or religious makeups - may often be kilometers apart.

(left- Jesus robs the ball and takes off)

Nifty work by the television director of today's big soccer game between Brazil and the United States. The Brazilians came ready with I Love Jesus t-shirts, and some quickly pulled them on, after their nail-biting victory over strong American boots.

A suggestion for World Cup success Dear Mr Capello, An idea. OK, so it may be a tad premature but if we're going to finally win another World Cup, we need some cutting edge ideas. The Argentinians had a Hand of God in 1986, the Germans perfected the noble art of diving in 1990, the Brazilians learned [.

Oh god, do you remember the terribly over drawn Robinho transfer saga and his final day move to Man City off the back of their mega money takeover?

Have you ever wondered what life would be like with Robinho amongst our ranks? I have... and this is what I have come up with.

Just say on August 30 we sign him, beating Manchester City to the deal - they are still mega rich, they just didn't poach him.

Lots of questions. No easy answers.
Bob Bradley reunited the central midfield duo that started the 2009 World Cup qualifying campaign, re-introducing Sacha Kljestan along with Michael Bradley. DaMarcus Beasley returned to left midfield. Benny Feilhaber, who struggled against Italy, was left out.

The summer transfer window is looming and once again Manchester City are expected to be the Premier League's big spenders. It seems no target has been too audacious since new owners transformed them into the world's richest club, and now with time of their side for the first time, you can expect big, box office names to be targeted.

An international conspiracy:

John Harkes in the Brazil vs USA final said at one point that US defenders will have to be careful with their tackles given how the referees have been carding them. The Italy match got the ball rolling on that controversy. Thereafter, it was a cumulative process as the US picked up their share of yellows and reds generating a buzz that FIFA did not want to see the US succeed against the bigger teams.

Cinderella stories happen everyday, everywhere in this world. In particular, when it comes to the world of football, we have seen quite a few of them. After all, who would have thought that Senegal would knock France out of the World Cup in 2002? Or who would have picked Greece to win it all in the European Cup of 2004?

Many Italians and Brazilians will be tuning in Sunday June 21st at 2:30 PM EST to watch a massive match taking place in the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 in South Africa. This is the 3rd match in the qualifying group which contains Brazil, Italy, USA and Egypt. The funny thing is that with 2 games played [.

After an extremely surprising Confederations Cup in South Africa, it's come down to this - David vs. Goliath, Round 2, aka USA vs. Brazil. The USA's shocking turn-around and even more unexpected upset victory over Spain in the Semi-finals has everyone wondering if this up-and-coming team has one more shock result in them.

Neymar and Ronaldo: just two of the big stars in this year's Brasileiro

The dust has barely settled on the major state championships, but already it's time to focus on Brazil's national league – the Campeonato Brasileiro.

The 2008 competition was one of the closest for years but this season could be even tighter.

You can watch the Brazil v USA match live here.

USA v Brazil (Group B)
Date: Thursday 18th June
Venue: Pretoria
Kickoff: 16:00 GMT

After an unconvincing win over Egypt, defending champions Brazil will be hoping for a better performance when they take on the USA in Pretoria in their second Group B match.

The Colorado Force will attempt to win its first game of the season tonight as Brazilians Fabiane Nascimento and Paula Pires and the rest of the Ventura County Fusion visits the Loveland Sports Park.

Pires played for Brazil's U-20 national team in the U-20 World Cup last fall, a tournament that also featured Force midfielder Nikki Marshall.

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.

By NESTOR F. SEBASTIAN

After 11 weeks of competition and more than 130 matches so far, the mind-blowing tournament that is Copa Libertadores boils down to the final three weeks of group-stage matches before the original 32-team field is slashed to 16 for the next round.

ATTACK THE LEFT SIDE

The left side is where you attack Brazil. Under Dunga, Brazil essentially plays without a left sided midfielder. The left back position for the Brazilians has been a similarly problematic as it has been for the United States. Andres Santos and Klebar are both below the acceptable standard and we saw Dani Alves inserted on the left side late against South Africa despite being right footed.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

by GIANFRANCO PANIZO

When the U.S. national team plays Brazil on Sunday in the Confederations Cup final, there will likely be twelve Brazilians on the field when the game kicks off.

Fabio Capello had a quandary this morning when Glen Johnson pulled out of his squad to face the Brazilians. He thought he would give Luke Young a quick phone-call and tell him to go get his kit and boots. Nobody says no to an England call up (unless you are Jamie Boo-Hoo Carragher) However the Villain [.

There is no one thinking of international football without pointing out the five-time winners of the World Cup, Brazil. The football history of this South American country is so illustrious that one might even think that they invented contemporary soccer. From this obvious thought comes this popular quip: "The English invented it, the Brazilians perfected [.

Definitely for Italians, June 21st is not a good day to take on Brazil. On this date, the Gods of football wear yellow jersey. 39 years after the 4-1 massacre in the final of the World Cup, Brazil humiliated Italy one more time. Since 1982, Italy does not beat Brazil.

The first-half was a lesson in football.

First off, I hope everyone had a wonderful Father's day yesterday. I had a kickaround, then had some beer, then indulged in some razor clams and some more beer and watched Young Frankenstein with the family.

It was nice, but I was thinking, Father's day should be held on Saturday so that you can have a hangover on Sunday and be ready to go back to work on Monday.

The Confederations Cup is in full swing now in South Africa and after a fairly slow start the tournament has got into full swing. The group stages are now over and the two semi-finals feature USA Vs Spain and Brazil Vs South Africa. It is a bit of a weird tournament in all fairness, to qualify you have to win a FIFA Confederation Championship (such as the Copa America or European Championship) or the World Cup or be the host country of the next World Cup.

South Africa put up a world-class performance, but went down to a late goal in a 1-0 defeat to Brazil in Confederations Cup semifinal defeat at the Coca Cola Park Stadium on Thursday night.

There are 67 FIFA rankings between the two sides, but you wouldn't have thought it as the home side put up a performance which tested the star-studded South American champions to the fullest and bodes really well for the future.

From time to time, especially after U.S. Men's Team matches and other big games, the Ref chats with a seasoned USMNT observer -- the Samurai.
Samurai is familiar with the academy system and is a longtime watcher of the US team and club soccer.
Here is the conversation after the U.

Burrito get to it pronto pronto carnales! (Click over words you don't understand)
'Boob' Bradley's head needs to be chopped off! Why? Porque? How can a coach in a final of a championship let his pinche team lose a 2-0 lead? Especially knowing you play Brazil and their chingados players who are born with balls when they born!

Despite concerns from Cruzeiro officials about the H1N1 outbreak in Argentina, the 1st leg of the Copa Libertadores final went off as scheduled. The atmosphere was intense at the Estadio Ciudad de La Plata as Estudiantes La Plata hosted Cruzeiro.
The two teams were in Group 5 of the group stage of the tournament.

A full slate of World Cup qualifying matches will kick off around the world on Saturday and no match will have more international interest than Brazil vs. Argentina.

Argentina finds itself in the improbable position of fourth place in the South American World Cup qualifying, just a spot away from missing out on automatically qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.

by NESTOR F. SEBASTIAN

With Europe and CONCACAF's Champions league tournaments almost reaching exciting conclusions, Copa Libertadores is still in the process of determining who will advance to the Round of 16 as group-stage matches intensify this week.

Paraguay's Libertad is the only side that's assured a berth in the next round but Uruguay's Nacional, Brazil's Gremio and Argentina's Boca Juniors can take huge steps towards advancement.

Is Keirrison worth all the hype?

Liverpool could be ready to make an early swoop for Palmeiras striker, Keirrison, if his side crash out of the Libertadores in the group stage.

Last night, the São Paulo club could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to fellow Brazilians Sport Recife and are in danger of missing out of the next phase of South America's most prestigious club competition.

Brazil's meninos defeated their Argentinean counterparts to claim the nation's ninth U-17 South American Championship last night. The Brazilians were leading 2-0 thanks to goals from Martinez and Coutinho, but threw away their lead in the second half, allowing Argentina to equalise.

By NESTOR F. SEBASTIAN

Copa Libertadores returns to action and its semifinalists will be determined this week as the second legs of he quarterfinals get underway this week with all four matches pretty tight, making the away-goal rule crucial. Brazil has a great chance of having a champion with four of its representatives in the final eight, which would give it its first title since 2006 when Internacional won it.

...says Landon Donovan, in his interview with FIFA.com as the US team prepares to play against world power Brazil in the FIFA Confederations Cup.
"We had the opportunity to see some of their (Brazil's) game against Egypt and I have to be honest, it looks like they're human after all," Donovan told FIFA.

Palmeiras and Gremio played the second leg of the Copa Libertadores quarter finals.

The first in Montevideo, visiting Nacional. The second receiving Caracas in Porto Alegre.

The two controlled the first-half. The victory seemed close for the two.

One, Palmeira, had no time.

Only two weeks ago I was sitting by my laptop thinking up an article about Brazil national team coach Dunga, and how he has disappointed fans of the Seleção since taking the helm. I decided to put the article on hold and lucky I did too as I would have looked like an idiot after their group games in the Confederations Cup.

Fast forward through the BS to ~ 35 seconds for the goal
The world's second best right back Dani Alves would start for any other country but he happens to play for Brazil - who have the luxury of starting Inter's Maicon - the world's best right back. But Alves definitely took his chance today.

The Brazilian coach Dunga's name translates as "Dopey" in Portuguese, but this soubriquet could have applied to his entire team this evening as the South American champions rode their luck against an American team which, unencumbered by such considerations as fatigue, outplayed them in every department in Johannesberg for forty-five minutes this evening.

This was the final that the Confederations Cup deserved.
A great tournament, wrapped up with a brilliant final match where Brazil came back from 2-0 down against a valiant United States to clinch the Confederations Cup.
If ever there was a game of two halves, it was this.

After hearing from fellow Americans who follow the Premier League, I've been pondering the idea of coming to English football as an outsider. Here's how my own love affair from distance got started...

Part 1: Inhaling the World Cup...

Back in 2006, my inner football junkie came alive when I discovered the World Cup.