Steve Howey is a center-back who was born in Sunderland and was on Newcastle's books from 1989 through 2000. Steve Howey - while at Newcastle Steve ended up playing around 200 times for the Magpies before he moved to join Manchester City, but his career was blighted by various injuries. Howey earned four full caps for England and was part of [.

Steve Howey is a center-back who was born in Sunderland and was on Newcastle's books from 1989 through 2000. Steve Howey - while at Newcastle Steve ended up playing around 200 times for the Magpies before he moved to join Manchester City, but his career was blighted by various injuries. Howey earned four full caps for England and was part of [.

Danny Welbeck got his first England goal in their 1-0 win over Belgium in a friendly. Ashley Young got the assist for the goal which saw Welbeck finish with a lovely dink over the keeper.

"To get my first England goal in that way, obviously I'm really delighted and it's a massive honour," said Welbeck.

Harry's handwriting has been the butt of enough jokes in recent weeks but it's hard to resist the suggestion that it is responsible for Spurs going after Marvin Martin and not Marko Marin.

Stories began to emerge yesterday suggesting that the club were considering a bid for Sochaux midfielder and French international Martin after the player revealed that he is ready to head abroad.

This Sunday, at 4:00, in Coquitlam, the Sounders Women will kick their season off against their neighbors to the North. The rivalry between these two teams is not unlike the men's sides. There is certainly no love lost between these teams. Especially since Sydney Leroux signed with the Sounders, rather than her "home" team.

When sentences begin with the words ‘Sky Sports understands' it seems to imply that we are all supposed to sit up and take notice. On many occasions however, the story that follows comes to nothing in the same way that much of the paper talk does.

Yesterday, Sky reported that Tottenham were ready to make a bid for Udinese midfielder Kwadwo Asamoah in an attempt to snap up the Ghanaian ahead of a host of other clubs that had expressed an interest.

The U.S. WNT had a special guest at training the other day in the form of one of the true women's soccer pioneers, namely Lisa Gmitter, a forward for USA in 1986 and 1987. Gmitter, who lives and works and coaches in the area, is a good friend and former youth WNT teammate of Princeton head women's soccer coach Julie Shackford.

Reports emerging in the last 24 hours suggest that Spurs are about to make an approach for the 28 year old Ivory Coast striker Arouna Kone. The player is currently out of contract at Seville and despite a decent season with Levante, the player's parent club have dispensed with his services and he is now a free agent.

Seattle and Vancouver headline a busy Week 11. (Getty Images)

Two games down, a bunch more to go as Week 11 rolls on.

Nine games headlined by two big rivalry games in Vancouver and in LA certainly a busy weekend in MLS. I have a busy day ahead of me here so I'll cut out the big intro and get to the meat of the post here, the items I'll be focusing in on this weekend.

Numbers don't always tell the story, and no truer words can be spoken about Saturday night's victory over Vancouver. While the final score indicated a lopsided affair, a quick glance at the stat sheet doesn't seem quite as convincing.

New England scored four goals in a match for the first time since last September, and in the process racked up some pretty impressive numbers in the stat sheets.

Article by Brad Snook
Earlier today, Jurgen Klinsmann announced the first 16 players invited to the USMNT training camp in Orlando in preparation for the upcoming slate of friendlies and the start of the next stage of World Cup qualifying. Full roster announcement here. One glaring omission from the list is Timothy Chandler, the German-American defender whom many US fans had pegged as the left back of the future for years to come.

After a busy road schedule to begin the season, The Revolution return to Gillette Stadium tonight where they will play 7 of their next 9 games. They begin this important home stretch against a revamped Vancouver Whitecaps team that tied the Revs for worst in MLS last season, but have since turned things around significantly since Martin Rennie took over at the helm.

News in the Daily Mail today that Newcastle are lining up a move for the exciting young Ajax left back Nicolai Boilesen. Nicolai Boilesen Danish International left back This lad stands 6'1″ tall and has played for all the Danish youth sides, from U16 through U21, and has two full caps too, getting his first cap [.

A lot of moving this week in the Power Rankings. The four tiers are starting to fill out a little differently than in the previous weeks.

The top tier gained a team while the second tier lost two sides (though they did gain a couple newbies as well). The bottom tier is still a total mess. Teams 13-18 are just a toss up and I totally understand any argument for anyone being higher/lower than they currently are.

The Football Association of Malaysia, where public relations gaffes are a job requirement, have basically stuck two fingers up to supporters ahead of next weekend's FA Cup Final between Kelantan and Sime Darby.
The FAM don't think 40 RM is expensive. My brother doesn't think paying 100 quid to see the Arsenal is expensive either but then he is a consultant for a bank and flies everywhere Business Class.

The Newcastle journal are reporting that Newcastle have invited Marseilles and France Under-19 international defender Christophe Lowinsky for a trial. Christophe Lowinsky French U19 defender The lad turned 20 only last Saturday, and Christophe has 6 caps for France at various youth levels and has been playing well for the Marseilles reserves side.

The Revolution parted ways with veteran midfielder/forward Kenny Mansally (middle) on Friday. (Photo: Chris Aduama/aduama.com)

After failing to find the field with the first team this season, Revolution midfielder/forward Kenny Mansally was waived by the club on Friday.

The 23-year-old Gambian international, who played in 25 games last season, was limited to reserve team duty in 2012.

Yesterday Arsene Wenger made it quite clear we were a team that was far too reliant on the goals of Robin van Persie.

Yesterday Arsene Wenger said there was nothing we could do about it until the end of the season and he urged the captain to drag us over the line into third place.

Yesterday, he did something about it, for next season at least, by finalising the signing of Lukas Podolski from Cologne.

Getting the feel for it

That's what Gooners will be chanting come August 2012. Arsenal yesterday announced the signing of Lukas Podolski from Cologne. Let's be honest, we knew this was coming for weeks but it is still good to hear about it officially. One of the reasons muted online for the delayed announcement was that Cologne didn't want the news to affect their relegation scrap.

After Wolves were related against Manchester City it would be easy for the team to just fold and give in the rest of their games this season. But the players however have a lot still to play for, that is their own personal Premiership survival.

Take their most recent game against Swansea (and what a game).

Jeff Larentowicz is not going anywhere anytime soon.

The Colorado Rapids made sure of that by locking up the integral central midfielder to a multi-year deal on Friday, the terms of which were not disclosed.

Larentowicz has had success ever since joining the Rapids ahead of the 2010 season.

Hamburg's technical director, Frank Arnesen, has expressed his admiration for the Liverpool forward Dirk Kuyt as speculation over the Holland international's future continue.

"A player like Kuyt, who is still sharp, can bring a lot to any club. He's a selfless player with a great mentality," Hamburg sporting director Frank Arnesen told the newspaper

However, the Dutchman's agent has stated that there has not been any contact with the German club.

United States National Team defender Frankie Hejduk officially announced his retirement on Thursday. Hejduk won 85 caps with the National Team, playing in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups and missing out on a third World Cup in '06 due to injury. Hejduk played for Tampa, Bayer Leverkusen, St Gallen, Columbus, and Los Angeles.

In recent weeks there's been much talk about Spurs looking for a long term replacement for Brad Friedel when the time comes for the American to finally hang up his gloves. The majority of these links hint at keepers who will stay at the Lane for a year or two and will then be ready to take over when Brad retires.

Two time European Cup winner Trevor Francis has suffered a suspected heart-attack.

Francis (57) became the first player to break the £1m transfer barrier between two British clubs when he moved from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest for £1m and then went on to lift two European Cups with Forest under the great Brian Clough is said to be recovering well at Hospital.

Joe Gyau earned four caps this year with the U.S. U-23 Men's National Team.

U.S. forward Joe Gyau has agreed to a three-year contract extension with Hoffenheim through the 2014/2015 season, it was reported by Yanks Abroad on Friday.

The 19-year-old Silver Spring, Md.

Hatem Ben Arfa hasn't played for France in 20 months. Ben Arfa - calls to be included in French squad Indeed ever since he came to Newcastle he has never been selected in the French squad and the last of his eight caps was against Norway in August of 2010. That's about the time he traveled over [..

Micah Richards has claimed that Manchester United players get straight in to the England squad whilst players like him have to work twice as hard to get recognition from his country.

"Had McClaren been still in charge, I would have had 60 caps by now," said Richards. "McClaren believed in me and Capello believed in people like Phil Jones and Smalling.

Micah Richards has claimed that Manchester United players get straight in to the England squad whilst players like him have to work twice as hard to get recognition from his country.

"Had McClaren been still in charge, I would have had 60 caps by now," said Richards. "McClaren believed in me and Capello believed in people like Phil Jones and Smalling.

Yesterday, we told you that Puyol's inclusion in tonight's match is set to propel him to "Catalan Glory" in Barcelona's Ten Men club. And when he runs out of the Nou Camp to face Milan, he is poised to overtake Migueli's record of 549 caps an achievement which will be celebrated for possibly decades to come.

As I expected when Emory was waived last week, Colorado added on of their trialists today. Midfielder/forward Kamani Hill has been signed and will be available as soon as his ITC is received from Germany (don't worry, there's no spurned club to throw a wrench into this one). Hill is a former U.S. National Team forward who got 2 caps in 2007.

Ji-Sung Park has revealed that he turned down a place in South Korea's Olympic squad to focus on his Manchester United career.

"I was called but I had to say no," Park said. "I know how it is like at the Olympics because I was involved in Sydney (2000). "I have also played in three World Cup finals and my best memory was the tournament in Japan and South Korea in 2002.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

The Philadelphia Union announced on Friday that they expect Sunday's opener to be standing-room only. The club strongly urges everyone to arrive early for the game to ensure everyone has enough time to park and enter the stadium before the 4pm kickoff.

Parking

For recommended directions to the stadium, click here.

One of the main focuses for the transfer gossip columns is a mission to find a long term replacement for Ledley King. The name of Darijo Srna is the latest to earn a mention but does he have the experience and credentials needed to step into the club skipper's boots?

At first glance the answer may be no because his favoured position is at right back.

Colorado's reserves traveled to Houston yesterday for a game this morning. I don't cover reserve games very much here, mainly because the focus of the reserves isn't winning games so much as getting players ready for the first team. in this case the Rapids lost 1-0 on a late goal, but the reason I mention the game is that Edu got the start for the team.

Finally the off season has ended. With the hot streak Chicago finished 2011 on, the winter seemed unbearably long. A few moves have been made in the downtime. And the remaining players have had another preseason to gel as a team. Today I will break down the team by goalie, defense, mid-field, and forwards.

Morning all, a quick Saturday round-up for you.

Aside from the team news, which we'll touch on later or in tomorrow's blog (or Monday's blog), the first thing Arsene was asked at the press conference yesterday was whether or not a deal had been done for Lukasz Podolski.

Naturally, Arsene gave it the old, "When we sign a player we will tell you" stuff, said that a deal hadn't been done, cautioned people that even though a deal can be very close it doesn't take much to turn very close into very far away, and generally gave nothing away.

Croatian international Ivica Olic may be a player the Seattle Sounders are interested in, but that doesn't necessarily mean his arrival is imminent. In response to an Internet report that the Sounders were in "advanced conversations" with the current Bayern Munich forward, Sounders general manager Adrian Hanauer had this to say in via email: "Ivica is a player who we like very much.

Photo by Jose L. Argueta/ISIphotos.com

Andy Najar is a step closer to representing his country in its quest for the Olympics.

Najar has been included on Honduras' 28-man preliminary roster for Olympic qualifying, which will be narrowed down to the final cut on Friday, according to reports out of Honduras.

News from talkSPORT today that Newcastle are in a three-way fight to sign Napoli's Blerim Dzemaili this summer. Blerim Džemaili Napoli central midfielder The 25 year-old central midfielder was born in Tetovo in the old Yugoslavia, and he was signed by Napoli only last summer from Parma, and the 5'11″ player has 15 caps for [.