IT'S a cliche to say that a loss is disappointing. EVERY loss is disappointing, from the big thrashings to the winner in the 94th minute.
But what is different is the reasons for the disappointment, well usually.
Yesterday Perth Glory lost 2-1 to Melbourne Victory and it's the third successive lost for the boys in Purple. Click to continue reading...

I won't write what I wanted to write after watching the Kansas City game, because the more I kicked it around, it was a trite and cliche angle. The game was exciting, and the team fought as hard as they could (in the second half). Reckless desperation is always pretty fun to watch, but as DCUMD noted, a lack of defensive concentration (which is not a skill but an effort) ended our season.

Click to continue reading...

Toronto @ NY, DC @ Kansas City, Colorado @ Salt Lake, Dallas @ Seattle, San Jose @ LA, Houston @ Chivas, and New England @ Columbus. This, my friends, is your final weekend of the 2009 MLS Regular Season.

Chicago already locked up a spot with a win at Chivas and Seattle jumped into the playoffs as well.

Click to continue reading...

International week. For clubs and supporters alike, an opportunity to sit back and reflect (cliche alert - why? Why can't we do star jumps and reflect?) on the first three months of the season and consider the tribulations which might lie ahead. In the lack of any grand theme to get our teeth into, this column is getting in on the act: this week, a scattergun approach to North East football. Click to continue reading...

Her ABC TV commentating W-League debut that is. I was excited to hear that both Chez and the lovely Amy Taylor were joining the ABC TV commentary team this year (although Julie Murray and Liz Deep-Jones were also very good last year), but it's particulary exciting to have someone like Salisbury in the box - who clearly has such great knowledge of all the girls playing. Click to continue reading...

This post gives explanations of two more footballing clichés. You can find many more examples by going to our football cliché page here.

To run your socks off | Listen to the cliché here

This cliché is used when a team or an individual player is seen to work very hard during a game.

Click to continue reading...

The Crowd=The Passion

Goats v Bulls ,

My name is Simon a 30 something Brit now living here in sunny California ,

I was born in Swindon England where I lived pretty much all my life ,

My team is my home town club Swindon Town F.C. , an unfashionable

Small team from Wiltshire , for 30 years I followed my Robins from the lows of

The old division 4 to the dizzy high of the premiership only to fall from

Grace to the foot of England's professional leagues ,

On arrival to the states I was keen to check out the local "soccer" for my personal

Views about football and my ultra mentality I could not follow nor shout for galaxy ,

For their golden boy becks and his one time links to Manchester Utd , but for now I shall

Save those views for another time ,

Chivas USA came to my attention and now for the last year the goats have substituted my Robins ,

For my footballing fix.

Click to continue reading...

With J Hutcherson -- If you choose to believe Columbus Crew coach Robert Warzycha, this is undoubtedly their year. After all, this is a team that can run with that MLS cliche of a transitional lineup and actually get a meaningful result. "We don't have a reserve team; we have 23 players right now that can step up anytime on the field and win any game . Click to continue reading...

Before Michael Ngoo signed for Liverpool he was on trial at Manchester United, and played in the recent 'Milk Cup' tournament. Here is some good footage of the player in action against Club Cantolao.
The footage is hosted on the BBC website - click here to view --->>>
Ngoo is wearing the number 18 shirt. Click to continue reading...

In an exclusive interview for the Guardian, Manchester City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak criticized Michel Platini's planned control of football club expenditure. He has a point.

Platini wants new financial rules by 2012. Under those guidelines, Clubs would spend within their soccer-generated income.

Click to continue reading...

Oh, hello! I, Richard Whittall, author of the semi-reasonable A More Splendid Life, will be taking over Sweeping duties this week until Tom returns from outer space.

Big Story

Yes, there was the stamping incident against Robin Van Persie which, from the replay, seems as deliberate as a split second reaction can be.

Click to continue reading...

"I am sad and disappointed by my former team-mate Emmanuel Adebayor's mindless and malicious stamp on me during today's match. "We are both professional footballers and I know that the game is physical, I too have made hard and sometimes mis-timed challenges but never with the intention of hurting an opponent.

Click to continue reading...

From Mark Hughes:

"We have high hopes for Vladi. He knows he is still very early in his development, when he came out of the Academy last year I think it was all a little bit too much for him. He found the step up difficult to negotiate initially.

"But, we knew we had a talented boy on our hands.

Click to continue reading...

This week is World Cup qualifying week, so we continue our feature which takes a look at some of the great World Cup players through the ages. Second in the series is Argentinian sensation, Maradona who is also in action this week as his country's coach in a crunch game against arch-rivals Brazil.

Click to continue reading...

... the Fearsome Chickens of AS Bari.

Promoted side Associazione Sportivo Bari are not too attractive. But you could have said that about Hull, or Stoke, for that matter. In each case, the Premiership club became more attractive with exposure both their own and ours to them.

Click to continue reading...

Unfortunately due to imaging rights I can not post a picture of our new signing Ivan Klasnić. A brief biography for those who don't know: Klasnić gained fame at FC Pauli in his hometown of Hamburg. In 2001 he transferred to Werder Bremen, gaining quite a fan following and the nickname the Killer (which can't be a bad thing).

Click to continue reading...

This post gives explanations of two more footballing clichés. You can find many more examples by going to our football cliché page here.

Can't win the title in August but you can certainly lose it | Listen here

This cliché is a classic example of stating the complete obvious to make a point.

Click to continue reading...

Oh, to be a fly in the half time dressing room!

Whilst it's a god awful cliche whoever first coined the phrase "It's a game of two halves" (perhaps Jimmy Greaves?) was essentially describing perfectly what occurred at the newly named DW Stadium.

Sir Alex must have been fuming at the way we lacked that cutting edge, and have done for our first two matches, and as such must have given all concerned the hair dryer treatment at full force.

Click to continue reading...

Let's take a moment to try and see into the mind of the man that bought the Manchester United shirt in this story from The Guardian. He went to a sports store and spent fifty-five pounds on a replica shirt - fifty-five pounds! - and, instead of having the name of his favourite player or even his own name printed on the back of it, decided to have "YSB" (which stands for "You Scouse Bastards", apparently), "96″ and "Not Enough" printed on the back of it.

Click to continue reading...

In the baking heat of London, Chelsea won the 2009 Community Shield on penalty kicks after a 2-2 regulation tie against Manchester United at Wembley Stadium. Here are some of my observations from the match. Feel free to add yours to the comments section.

• The match was surprisingly much more competitive than I anticipated and it was clear that both teams wanted to win by fielding first-team squads and playing with a tenacity that has been missing from the Community Shield matches over the past several years.

Click to continue reading...

Ok, today I start with a theory. It has been quite a week.
My theory is that the Puerto Rico Islanders put Toronto FC (players, coaches and front office) in their proper place by eliminating them from CONCACAF Champion's League earlier this week. Improvements in tactics, offensive ability, adapting your game to different conditions are all on TFC's list. Click to continue reading...

I figure I should recognize Sir Bobby Robson like everyone else even I though I've never had hugely strong feelings either way about the guy. I am too young to have seen him manage at his peak such as with Ipswich, England, or Barcelona. I am most familiar with him from his most recent tenure at Newcastle and also from the seminal book All Played Out by Pete Davies. Click to continue reading...

Throughout Peter Crouch's career he has constantly been judged on his appearance more so than his on-pitch appearances. When Crouch is praised for his footballing abilities, it is usually the famous cliche that the media has tagged Crouchy with 'good touch for a tall guy', but is this all that the England International is good for?

Click to continue reading...

As some cliche-ridden commentators repeatedly state "you can only beat what's in front of you" and that's what Sir Alex's men did in this one. Some quality goals amongst the 8 scored by Man United including two more for Michael Owen and a second half hat-trick for Ryan Giggs.

• Man United Striker the Target of (Fake) Billboard Abuse!

Click to continue reading...

ball control, speed, a lot of endurance (the average midfielder runs about nine miles in a game), a good foot, team skills, and a lot of background in the sport... and as cliche as it sounds.. practice makes perfect Click to continue reading...

Last week, saw the confederations Cup reach its climax with an exciting game seeing Brazil come from two goals down to beat the USA 3-2. The USA certainly impressed the worldwide audience by beating Spain and going close against the South American powerhouse. Perhaps their world ranking of 12 is merited.

Click to continue reading...

As Real Madrid continue to build their new dream team, other teams are beginning to make moves in the transfer market, World Cup qualifiers continue - good news for North Korea (a 0-0 draw against saudi Arabia sees them through to the World Cup), not so good for Argentina (they lie fourth in the South America table after losing 2-0 away to Ecuador), and of course, in South Africa, the Confederations Cup is in full swing.

Click to continue reading...

Back in February/March time when I could still get to games I was 'raving' about Persitara's attacking options. An odd thing to do seeing how they had struggled all through the first half of the season but the additions of Prince Kabir Bello, who had played with Sepahan in the ACL, and Mostapha Aji, promising with Persikota but still raw, could only complement the tireless Rahmat Rivai. Click to continue reading...

Bit of a mixed PR bag for Setanta Sports today. On the good side, they've brought some much needed innovation to football broadcasting. I'm on Setanta Sports/Special1 TV has been a huge success (Shut up Dave) and having John Champion tweet the FA Cup final was an interesting way to get some attention. Click to continue reading...

Toronto FC: More Grizzle than Gisele

Houston Dynamo 3-0 Toronto FC

The old cliche goes that football is a game of two halves. Never more so than tonight at Fortress Robertson. Ever been out on a blind date with a chick who your mates all said was really attractive, only to find on meeting her that she was more grizzle than Gisele?

Click to continue reading...

Logo via Match Fit USA
Jason Davis of Match Fit USA kindly took some time to talk about the U.S. men's national team and the state of MLS. We also spoke about his site, which Soccer City FC highly recommends if you are looking for insightful pieces on the state of U.S. soccer.
Q. Click to continue reading...

The leagues around Europe are reaching their climaxes and on this week's show languagecaster takes a look at how three of the big leagues were decided. We also...

• Review the football news in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• Introduce a new football expression in English for Football
• And continue the predictions battle in the Predictions competition

For learners of English check out our new Football Language Resources page with:

• Football glossary (a huge collection of football vocabulary, football cliches and football phrases)
• Worksheets and transcripts
• Vocabulary lists

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking on the icon

Transcript

Three of the big European league titles were decided last week as Inter Milan won in Italy, Barcelona in Spain and Manchester United in England.

Click to continue reading...

The Wizards continue play this weekend with a match out West against Real Salt Lake. RSL comes into the game off the backs of a 1-0 loss in LA to Chivas USA. RSL is winless in league play since putting half a dozen on the board against New England, but the game is at Rio Tinto, where RSL is undefeated this season (3-0-1). Click to continue reading...

This certainly felt like another one of those games where we outplay our opponent, but settle for a tie, or worse. Yet somehow, for the second week in a row, DC scores in stoppage time to secure the victory. That's four points that we've earned now in the final five minutes.
1. Great to see Santino Quaranta back to form. Click to continue reading...

Download the latest podcast - The Copa Libertadores

It's the 50th anniversary of the biggest football competition south of the equator. and languagcester takes a look at the Copa Libertadores and makes a bold prediction.

• Download the latest free worksheets and transcripts here.

• Check out this week's predictions.

Click to continue reading...