Thierry Henry does not have many fans in the Republic of Ireland tonight. The best footballer in the world, according to the Castrol Rankings, used his hand to put France through to the World Cup Finals next Summer. While the Boys in Green are red with fury and probably wouldn't object to a Hammurabi-like justice exacted on the former Arsenal ace, it should be kept in mind why France was playing Ireland at all.

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So in last week's preview I added in a few sentences about just how excellent an idea it was to move a W-League game to Shepparton, citing the 'Canberra effect'. Which is, there isn't much else happening there over summer so why not move women's games to areas where they don't have to compete with men's for attention? Click to continue reading...

Saturday
Sporting the new uniforms for fall the lady warriors broke open the 2009 OPL Tournament with a scoring barrage against PCU Impact.
Following a rain-out [vs. OSA Inferno] at PCC Rock Creek the game originally slated for 7:30pm, against PCU, was moved up to 4:30pm and move to the REC Center. Click to continue reading...

You know there's only one thing to talk about in this photo, right? And it ain't how gorgeous Mrs. Gerrard is looking though she is looking completely foxy.

It's the boots.

Do you love or do you hate? Our shins are getting sweaty just looking at them. We would, frankly, rather go barefoot.

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Liverpool only managed a 1-1 draw away to Lyon tonight which may not be enough to qualify for the quarter finals of the Champions League. A depleted Liverpool team had most of the possession away to Lyon and had a few good attempts on goal saved by the Lyon keeper, until sub Ryan Babel scored with a magnificent thunderbolt shot on 83 mins to give the Reds a deserved lead. Click to continue reading...

In other words, your player of that month.

Yes, a couple of names in the list below are intriguing. However this poll is all about the player who made your October special. So if for instance, its Ramsey with his playmaking goodness against Liverpool, then vote for him. You can also add your own suggestions, either in the poll itself and/or leaving a comment.

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Its got to be Liverpool's worst run in years.Five defeats in the League already, beaten twice in the Champion's League and we will be going out unless we win our last three group matches, plus out of the Carling Cup alreadyIt is Rafa Benitez's poorest spell in charge of Liverpool since he joined us five years ago. Click to continue reading...

After today's bizarre defeat to Fulham which defies description, I have to take a look at the Liverpool's injury list to explain things away.
We were missing Danny Agger, Martin Skrtel, Alberto Aquilani and David Ngog to a virus, not the swine-flu, but a virus nonetheless.
We were also missing Captain Steven Gerrard to a groin injury, Glen Johnson to a calf injury and Fernando Torres wasn't fully fit. Click to continue reading...

A new version of Football Manager is released today, which makes this, in my house at least, a time of hushed reflection. The old era is passing away, the new era is rising up before us. Everything we knew and loved is sliding into the sea, while before us, like a mountainous country, is thrust a terrifying and exhilarating possibility.

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Duders. I think it's been obvious over the past couple of months that my productivity levels with regard to this blog have fallen. New commitments have forced me to stretch myself a tad too thin. Of course, my quality of writing is still pristine you know it to be true but I really want to start bombarding the people with a plethora of intelligent, insightful, satirical, comedic, humorous, pompous, demented, borderline insane material.

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Stop the God-awful crawl ticker thingy during ESPN's soccer coverage. I'm tired of tying two scarves together and wrapping them around my television to block the crawl. Cheers to Jackie for passing this along. -Sanford
Stop the Crawl
Case in point... Click to continue reading...

A few weeks ago we hit Burnley for five despite not playing particularly well; this time our scratchy performance did not have a five-goal veil to mask it.

Bravo Stoke

Stoke, labouring under the misapprehension that cracks would appear in the sky and the apocalypse hasten if they let the ball ever come into contact with grass, showed precious little attacking intent until we were down to ten men.

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Cheerleaders have invaded soccer. They've been part of the game in Central and South America for some time. Now Europe is catching on. This includes footballing powerhouse FC Barcelona. This is the casting call video for the Dream Cheers or FC Barcelona Cheerleaders. Based on what we can tell, they'll make most of their appearances at [. Click to continue reading...

Howdy folks. No, this isn't a mirage, but it's me. Tendering a quiet explanation as for my lengthy absence. I'm not really going to be posting here much do to time commitments and the need to be paid even a little bit for writing.

But since I got my first start here at the ol' Arsenal Offside, I wanted to drop by as I will be doing from time to time to do a bit of self-promotion and updates.

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A match review on the Birmingham game will follow, but I want to know who you thought was our man of the match against the Blues.

It was hard to narrow it down, but I've picked the 5 best players who I thought were better than the rest. If you aren't happy with the choices, you can still add your own either in the poll itself, or by leaving a comment.

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Now that was the best tie I've ever watched. Down early 2-0 the US fought back hard to earn a tie in the final seconds of the game, keeping the US at the top of the table and pushing Honduras into the World Cup.
Bornstien scores as heard on Honduran radio.
Two nations exploded with sound as, Bornstien's head hit the ball and sent it bouncing into the bottom corner of the net. Click to continue reading...

Is what she said, disappearing out the door as I yelled at her "dew want me to run your blog tonight?"
She's away organising next year's Stroud festival. The committee are looking at "interested parties" for next year's event. As you might imagine, GB has got um all organised. And me it would seem. Click to continue reading...

I am happy like a Christmas Chicken that Denmark qualified for the World Cup in South Africa after a deserved 1-0 victory against a very poor Swedish side in Copenhagen. Cheers! Click to continue reading...

A quick (big) thank you to those of our readers who wrote in to the UK's The Daily Telegraph and nominated our site as one of their favorite football websites.
After an initial list published by the British paper, readers submitted their personal favorite sites - and we are happy to be included on the list. Click to continue reading...

• To boo or not to boo: How former players can earn cheers or jeers « Blue Days

  tags: City

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here. Click to continue reading...

Take the Quiz!
Cheers to Smith for this one... Click to continue reading...

Just thought that I should let everyone know about the great promotion soccer.com is currently running. If you spend more than $100, you get your shipping completely free. Just click that image below and use the promotional code. Cheers! Click to continue reading...

Robin Van Persie has had something to say in the press on the subject of diving.
Need I say anymore? Cheers Robin - sometimes you make it far too easy. Click to continue reading...

And we use the term loosely (tackle, not Norway) Were you watching the ball? Yeah, you would have missed Aalesund's Kenneth Dorken's wild off-the-ball assault on Johan Arneng of Odd Grenland in that case. Calm, calculated, and comical. Cheers to Garreth Cummins of the Football Supporters' Federation for the heads up. Click to continue reading...

It is a good thing that I am not a CLB fan right now. In the 41st minute of this CCL match, play is getting chippy as hell and C.A. just scored a second goal a few minutes after one of those stretches when the commentators say, "Uh, the ref really needs to get control of this game soon or someone is going to get hurt. Click to continue reading...

Today Goal.com brings back the old rumor that the LA Galaxy is after Rafa Marquez, first reported here on MLSR back in 2008.
Here's an excerpt:
MLS outfit LA Galaxy are interested in signing Barcelona defender Rafael Marquez for next season, according to a report in Spanish publication Sport. Click to continue reading...

It is vacation time for me.

Yes indeed it is that time of the year for me and as some of you already know by now if you follow me on Twitter or just know me personally I am also getting married this weekend. My vacation/wedding/honeymoon begins tomorrow so the posts on here will be very, very few and far inbetween.

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Well, we mightn't have done much business in the transfer market, but people often forget the importance of tying current players to new contracts.

Today, Denilson and Nik penned new 'long-term' deals (why do Arsenal never tell us how long they're for?) and that's good news as Wenger clearly see the two of them as pivital to the club's future.

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First some history....
Here is what the videographer posted on the ACES09 message board:

Hello fellow ACES supporters, just wanted to drop a note here because I've got a plan set up to expose Seattle for all their B.S. (not bigsoccer, the other BS). My glorious club, the Toronto FC is playing the Flounders in a few weeks.

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Cheers to Loz Smith for this beauty. I bet when Michael Essien/Chris Partlow and Mancienne played together at Chelsea, the opposition trembled. Email me with your Shit Lookalikes!...

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"I blame Health and Safey!"

Chelsea players were jeered yesterday after fans who had turned up to watch an open training session were denied the chance to get autographs from them. Over 8,000 Chelsea supporters were at Stamford Bridge to see Joe Cole complete his first training session on his return from injury but the party atmosphere went sour when the crowd was told players would not be signing autographs due to "security concerns".

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Steven Cohen contacted me via e-mail yesterday afternoon and requested I post the entire e-mail chain between he and Tony that included the comment about his wife's birthday. I'm going to post it, per Steven's request, because however you feel about Cohen and even if you don't feel he deserves it, everyone should be able defend themselves and tell their side of the story. Click to continue reading...

This man is taking it on the chin for Red Bull New York.
From the Red Bull New York Front Office, the team has announced that head coach Juan Carlos Osorio has resigned from his position, effective immediately. The team also announced that assistant coach Richie Williams will serve as the interim head coach for the remainder of the 2009 season. Click to continue reading...

"I think their eyebrows don't get on with each other," says Oller of these two peas in a shitpod. Cheers Oller, good call. Incidentally, Hoobastank is possibly the worst band name in the history of popular music. Got a...

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Frank Lampard leaves Cipriani Restaurant in London last night, on his way to Aspinalls casino. As you can see, he's doing a mini-Bendtner. Cheers Blair! Click to continue reading...