Since Bayern Munich are not only playing in the Champions League final, but hosting it as well, the locals are understandably excited. So excited, in fact, that a few of them decided to make themselves up to look like Bayern winger Franck Ribery, facial scars and all.

When Ribery was just two years old, he was in a car accident with his family, which left him with injuries to his face that required hundreds of stitches.

It's only been two weeks since the Dynamo last played an MLS match, but it feels like a month. Considering the season just started and the fact we're still a month (a little less technically) from the home opener probably contributes to the gap feeling a lot worse.

It's been a tumultuous couple weeks though for the Dynamo despite not being on the field.

Balotelli was reportedly unhurt but a female passenger in Balotelli's car was taken to hospital 'as a precaution'. It's not known if the passenger was Ballotelli's girlfriend Raffaella Fico or his new merch.

Before getting into a car accident near Deansgate Locks in Manchester late Thursday, Mario Balotelli was seen leaving practice with a Harvey Nicks' bag in tow.

It's been far too long since Andrei Arshavin continued the greatest Q&A ever with the crazies who read his official website and since he returned to Zenit St. Petersburg on loan from Arsenal until the end of the season, we've been light on Arshavin news in general. So to hear that Andrei was in a car accident in St.

In a battle of the reserves of the MLS Eastern Division's top two teams, the winner came up all Orange today. The Dynamo Reserves beat the Plastic Sporks in KC 3-0 at the Sporting Club Training Center in Swope Park, and the hero of the day was none other than that guy to the left right there, Alex Dixon.

It just wasn't the Houston Dynamo's night and it wasn't that the team played poorly, far from it. Seattle were just a little bit better and took advantage of some luck and a mistake by Geoff Cameron to down the Dynamo 2-0 in front of 38,304 at CenturyLink Field.

Houston started promising with a lot of possession and putting some early pressure on Sounders goalkeeper Michael Gspurning.

Benfica's Bruno Cesar and Jardel were involved in a car accident in Portugal around 9pm on the 20th, both players were unharmed and were passengers in a car driven by a friend. Jorge Jesus was glad that both players were not hurt and revealed that he has also been in a few accidents this season the latest being on Christmas Eve.

Photo by Brad Smith/ISIphotos.com

Charlie Davies' comeback in 2011 was one of the stories of the year in American soccer, as he returned to the playing field less than two years removed from a horrifying car accident that nearly took his life and did take the life of another passenger.

MLS has released its list of eligible players for this year's Re-Entry Draft, and it features three New England Revolution players. Ryan Cochrane, Kheli Dube, and Pat Phelan will be available for selection by other MLS clubs after their options for the 2012 season were declined. Stage one of the draft will take place on Monday, December 5th.

We hate to be the bearer of sad news, but this 1-year-old girl suffered the worst bruises (and possibly a bone crack above her nose) in the car accident involving Germany's Lukas Podolski in Cologne two days ago. There is some controversy involved as the child's mother, Ulrike, has accused Lukas of being ignorant (which is pretty unfair to the striker, to be honest!

By Chris Wright

Back in 1988, when football was a man's game, Real Madrid's Juanito was (perhaps unsurprisingly) banned for five whole years for this brazen double-whammy, back-stamping, cheek-mashing assault on Bayern Munich's Lothar Matthaus as the German midfielder lay pole-axed between the legs of the referee.

A horrible story is developing in New York City. Pedro Sosa, the National Golden Gloves champion for 2011, is in critical condition after falling from a bridge following a car accident. The same accident resulted in the death of his sister.

Sosa and his sister got out of their car to check on a pileup that occurred on the Cross Bronx Expressway.

It has been a while since we have had to put our lawyer hat on to look at an issue facing American soccer. However, the news just broke that DC United forward Charlie Davies has filed a $20 million lawsuit against various parties stemming from his car accident in 2009. The defendants in the suit include the bar that hosted the event where he spent his night and Red Bull North America, an event sponsor.

In the build up to Denmark's vitally important qualifiers against Cyprus and Portugal, N.B-52 has joined a new club on loan in the Barclays Premiership Sunderland Afc, he's done well there thus far, getting his first goal on the weekend, and having 2 assists already in his name, one of them a fine assist cutting in from the left side before whipping in a telling cross for his Sunderland team-mate Elmohamody to head in, building up a telling partnership with Phillipe Sessegnon.

Theyab Awana one of the UAE's brightest stars died on Sunday, tragically killed in a car accident. He was just 21. Awana was returning from a training camp held at Al Ain ahead of the team's qualifier with South Korea on October 11 when his car struck a road repair lorry. Awana passed away in the hospital.

Remember the below backheel from a few months ago? Well, the 21-year old Arab Emirates star tragically died in a car accident over the weekend, while driving home from training with his brother.

Awana Diab, who became an instant internet sensation because of the cheeky backheel, was seen as big prospect for the future.

Photo by ISIPHOTOS.COM

BY ADAM SERRANO

Pablo Mastroeni is considering hanging up his boots.

With one of the finest resumes of an American player, the Colorado Rapids captain is considering retirement after the 2011 season. Mastroeni has been a member of two World Cup squads (2002, 2006) for the U.

U.S. Soccer extends its condolences to the family, friends and teammates of former Development Academy and U.S. Under-17 Men's National Team player Jose Perez (1992-2011).
Perez, a freshman at San Jacinto College in Houston, Texas, was killed in a car accident on Tuesday morning.

Welcome to the New England Revolution vs. Philadelphia Union live game thread! Tonight will be the Revs' first match in 17 days as they play the fixture that was originally postponed due to hurricane conditions two weekends ago.

I won't bother with much in terms of preliminaries since the Revs - Union preview was just put up earlier today, except to say that Monsef Zerka is making his full Revolution debut on the right side of midfield.

Nicklas Bendtner has vowed never to return to Arsenal after sealing his loan switch to Sunderland.

The Danish international secured a season-long loan move to Sunderland on transfer deadline day after finding himself out-of-favour at the Emirates.

The 23-year-old believes he has not been given a fair chance in Arsene Wenger's side ever since he had a car crash two years ago.

Diego Maradona has suffered minor injuries in a car accident
on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Dener Augusto de Sousa was a very talented Brazilian player that disappeared without getting a lot of attention globally. In 1994, and just before the World Cup, his career, and even his whole life came into halt. He died in a car accident while driving his fast car.
He was a center-forward, and before turning 20, he played his only international games vs.

Celebrating his 25th birthday tomorrow, D.C. United forward Charlie Davies has much to be thankful for. Less than two years removed from a life-threatening car accident that almost derailed his professional career, the U.S. National Team striker is back to doing what he does best in Major League Soccer.

By FRANCO PANIZO

Barcelona has long flirted with the idea of acquiring midfielder Cesc Fabregas, but the Spanish club will have to increase its offer if it wishes to pry him away from Arsenal.

Barcelona had a $42.6 million bid for Fabregas rejected by Arsenal, which reporedly wants at least $70.

Another day, another dead sports celebrity. Macho Man Randy Savage is the latest death. The wrestling superstar died after getting in a car accident. The accident occurred in Florida and his wife was in the car but she only suffered minor injuries. Macho Man Randy Savage was only 58 years old.

As the story goes, Macho Man Randy Savage had a heart attack while he was driving his Jeep Wrangler.

The Seattle Sounders will hand out No. 11 placards prior to Saturday's game against Toronto FC and are asking fans to hold them up at the 11:00 mark as a tribute to Steve Zakuani, who had his leg broken by a Brian Mullan tackle during Friday's game. The idea for the tribute seems to have risen organically as Sounders fans started pushing the plan on Twitter, which eventually got the ear of part owner Drew Carey.

What started as a grassroots idea for a Steve Zakuani tribute has apparently reached the ears of ownership. Drew Carey, one of the team's minority owners, recently made this comment on twitter:

#11 cards for next #Sounders game in honor of Zakuani and his broken leg have been requested.

We had seen the report on one of the local Newcastle blogs yesterday, that Stephen Ireland could miss the game tomorrow night because his girlfriend had been in a serious car accident. Stephen with attractive girlfriend Jessica It turns out that Stephen Ireland has been at the bedside of his partner Jessica Lawlor, after she [.

The gift of the gab goes a long way Stephen Ireland's first appearance in the famous black and white stripes may be in doubt after his girlfriend, Jessica Lawlor, suffered a broken ankle and internal bleeding after a car accident last weekend. She had been travelling home from a night out with a friend when [.

A bit of good news on the injury front. Djourou seems to be making good progress and could be available for our game against Liverpool at the Emirates on the 17th. Wenger also confirmed after the Blackburn match that Theo and Nasri will be fine despite getting a couple of knocks. Cesc Fabregas was involved in a minor car accident yesterday, but reports say he is fine and showed up to training as usual.

Today I'd like to reach out to the soccer community for a noble cause. Our good friends at Soccer 5 at Kendall Soccer Park are helping out Jasmine Aleman from FIU and her fellow students who are putting on a tournament at Soccer 5 in order to raise funds for a life saving operation for a close friend at FIU who was injured in a horrific car accident.

Barry Zito, a starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, was in a car accident on Wednesday in West Hollywood. The accident, which took place on Sunset Plaza Drive and Sunset Boulevard, sent Zito to the hospital. Thankfully, he was released from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center shortly after he was examined.

Lots of people offered their counsel when Charlie Davies started to ponder his next professional move last fall.
Davies' coach at Sochaux thought he should move elsewhere on loan to find the first team action he needed after returning from life-threatening and body-mangling injuries suffered in a October 2009 car accident.

By FRANCO PANIZO

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Ever since Charlie Davies was involved in the notorious car accident that severely injured him, U.S. men's national team head coach Bob Bradley has been in search of a second forward to pair with Jozy Altidore.

Bradley may have found that forward in 18-year-old Juan Agudelo.

Saturday's opponent is the old enemy, D.C. United. The Revs have played the team in the nation's capitol 54 times in the regular season, but they trail 21-25-8 all-time. Last season, the Revolution swept the series, beginning with a 2-0 week 2 victory at RFK on the strength of a Kenny Mansally brace.

Charlie Davies scores two goals for DC United. USMNT fans rejoice. The 24 year old has joined DC United on loan from Sochaux after sustaining injuries resulting in a serious car accident in October of 2009. As a result, Davies was left out of this past World Cup as a result, but now he looks like he is back on track.

Photo by Tony Quinn/ISIphotos.com

By AVI CREDITOR

The bone-chilling details of Charlie Davies' story have been rehashed, dissected and analyzed on television and radio shows, in newspapers and all over the Internet.

Fans fumed when he was left off the United States national team roster for the World Cup, even though it became evident that he wasn't close to the fitness or form necessary to compete on the highest level of international play.

Looking healed and happy to be making his highly-anticipated return to the U.S. soccer scene, D.C. United's on-loan lad, Charlie Davies, is featured in the newest issue of Sports Illustrated - in which he says he's come full circle since his horrific October 2009 car accident.

Speaking with with Grant Wahl, Davies revealed the spectrum of emotions he expects to feel during his debut (possibly United's 19 March home opener vs.

WASHINGTON, DC D.C. United acquired United States international forward Charlie Davies on a loan deal from French Ligue 1 club Sochaux for the 2011 season, the Major League Soccer club announced on Wednesday. "We are really pleased to have concluded a deal that will bring Charlie to United," D.C. General Manager Dave Kasper said.

Photo by Ben Keller/D.C. United

By AVI CREDITOR

WASHINGTON - After every demotion to the FC Sochaux reserves, Charlie Davies' patience was wearing thinner and thinner.

Despite regaining health in a relatively miraculous period of time considering the severity of his injuries, Davies' light at the end of Sochaux's tunnel wasn't getting any brighter.