Because with live in a world of litigation and because people get all bent out of shape over the smallest things (that could easily be explained) and because litigation takes forever and lawyers are expensive (otherwise they wouldn't bother to take forever) and because you can get any kind of suspension lifted while you're waiting for an appeal it appears that Chelsea can do business as usual since the Court of Arbitration for Sport won't be able to set a date for a hearing until February.

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Liverpool striker David Ngog wants to score more goals for Rafa Benitez to repay the Spaniard for improving his game.
The 20-year-old has netted twice in the Premier League this term - against Stoke City and Manchester United - in four substitute appearances.
The France Under-21 international has also scored in the Carling Cup against Leeds and for the reserves. Click to continue reading...

Fabio Aurelio is winning his battle to be fit to return to action on Monday – and to take his place in the Brazil squad for the first time.
Aurelio, who is in the last year of his current contract, has missed Liverpool's last two games against Fulham and Lyon with a calf problem.
His form before that, though, had been good enough to catch the eye of Brazil coach Dunga, who will take Aurelio and Reds midfielder Lucas to Qatar for next Saturday's friendly with England. Click to continue reading...

Team manager Bert van Marwijk confirmed he uses a shadow list for potential Oranje players at last Friday's press conference in Zeist. The coach refused to publish the list, though. "It wouldn't do anyone any good to publish that list. It's not a fixed list either, so then I'd have Click to continue reading...

So, one point from a game where it won't really do much to help us. In reality though, we could have come away with all three points had we managed to score one more of our chances, or had Saja not made a terrible mistake that the goalkeeper on my own amateur team would likely avoid.

Well, AEKBaltimore will watch the match on TV soon, since I believe he recorded it, and I'm not sure if AEKMAN74 watched as well.

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Time to kick off the DC United Next Coach Cup with the group stages. In true, bloated, FIFA money-grubbing fashion, we're going straight for the 32-name jugular. Some of these are serious candidates, others are waaaaaay out of left field or half in... Click to continue reading...

MARKHAM - He is creative not only on the pitch, but in his costumes as well.
That's right fans, Pistolas FC Captain Charles Eppich, pulled off another fantastic costume this year, replicating the short and stubby former Argentina great Diego Maradonna.
He went all out too, finding a pair of old cleats that he drilled two holes large enough to slip them on up to his knees, to capture the stature of Argentina's latest coach. Click to continue reading...

Bayern Munich fans are certainly not in a particularly good mood at the moment. The situation in the Bundesliga is far from hopeless but still disappointing, while Bayern will need a miracle of sorts to progress in the Champions League. Thus, some fans may be in disbelieve, some may question the coach or the players, others blame the transfer policy and a few probably just desperately hope for Ribery to return and make it all right again.

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The Minnesota Thunder have no general manager, no coach, 3 employees and a boat load of bills. Will they survive, and will Dean Johnson ask for help?

Four weeks ago, Inside Minnesota Soccer conducted a phone interview with Minnesota Thunder owner Dean Johnson while he was in Chicago trying to close a business deal.

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The Minnesota Thunder have no general manager, no coach, 3 employees and a boat load of bills. Will they survive, and will Dean Johnson ask for help?

Four weeks ago, Inside Minnesota Soccer conducted a phone interview with Minnesota Thunder owner Dean Johnson while he was in Chicago trying to close a business deal.

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image via Chivas USA

This week's guest on the Jared Montz Soccer Podcast is Jesse Marsch. Jesse is the captain for Chivas USA in MLS, one of four MLS original members still playing, and he has played in over 300 games at the club level. Since joining Chivas in 2006 Jesse has been a consistent starter and leader for the Goats.

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At last the 'maybe' penalty goes our way and Van Dijk steals the first half from Adelaide.
Reinaldo, Van Dijk and Nichols where way too strong for Adelaide's defence. Reinaldo and Van Dijk's one touch passing was fantastic to watch. We need to see more of this at home. Mitch scored a cracker that hit the bar, bounced in - behind the line, then out. Click to continue reading...

Quit partying or you'll get it! Players at Argentine outfit Godoy Cruz found threats painted on their cars yesterday after their third successive defeat led to the sacking of coach Diego Cocca. The graffiti politely suggested the squad might like a few quiet nights in. The threats said: "You got the coach sacked to go on partying. Click to continue reading...

Columbus loses 4-2 on aggregate to Real Salt Lake. It was a great season, boys. Maybe not Massive, but not anything to be ashamed of.

None of us expected this, no one thought it was possible. The Crew always performs under pressure. Columbus always gets the clutch goal or Jesus-save that it needs to stay alive.

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Apple Valley is the Boys 2A Minnesota State High School Soccer Champion winning 4-0 tonight over Wayzata who had previously gone 9 games without a loss. Coach Chuck Scanlon says his 24-0-0 nationally ranked team is the first to ever win a Minnesota State High School Championship without a loss or a tie.

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Okay, rather than that staid old, winner-take-all "next coach" poll that the Goffster is running, I'm going to run a tournament-poll competition in honor of our beloved MLS Cup playoffs. So take a look at the names that Goff has listed and toss out... Click to continue reading...

Was it just me or was there a veiled barb in there directed at the FO? You know, the part about maybe the coach shouldn't shoulder the blame, maybe the players should, maybe the MANAGEMENT? But Benny couched that by spewing the Payne party line... Click to continue reading...

Lyon coach Claude Puel has assured Liverpool they will be doing their all to beat Fiorentina, despite already securing qualifcation.
Liverpool's hopes of reaching the last 16 of the Champions League is out of their hands after Lisandro Lopez's dramatic late goal denied the English side all three points in France on Wednesday night. Click to continue reading...

Gutierrez talked yesterday about Newcastle manager Chris Hughton, and like his team-mates, he is very pleased to see the well respected coach get his big chance in management. Jonas Gutierrez please to see Chris the new manager Gutierrez told the Evening Chronicle yesterday : "He was here for the start of the season, so it's good [. Click to continue reading...

Tonight Rafa Benitez is on the managerial tightrope when his side faces Lyon in the Champions League. Liverpool have to win, if Fiorentina and Lyon win then Liverpool can say goodbye to major silverware this season and Benitez can probably say goodbye to his job.

Benitez's side is decimated by injuries and an awful lot of responsibility is on the shoulders of Fernando Torres tonight if he plays.

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It is difficult for a team to recover after losing few games in a row so you can imagine how Grenoble players feel after losing 12 straight games. The League Cup defeat to Lorient probably wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for 11 defeats in as many Ligue 1 games this term.

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After a season that saw Home United move to a new stadium in Clementi and struggle to find any kind of consistency they have decided on some changes for next season.
Out goes coach PN Sivaji and with him Syed Fadhil, Fadzuhasny Juraimi, Itimi Dickson, Ham Hyeong Kyu, leading scorer Kengne Ludovick and Prime League player Naruphol Ar-Romsawa. Click to continue reading...

PSM Makassar v PSPS Pekanbaru 1-2 (Christian Carrasco; Dzumafo Epandi 2)
This was PSPS's first win of the season and it must have come as a great shock to everyone. Fact is PSM don't lose often at home.
The fans were none too impressed and responded to going 2-0 down by throwing objects on to the pictch. Click to continue reading...

The FFA have taken over marketing and ticketing at Gold Coast. I think the owner will be pleased. Meanwhile over at the Roar FFA assistance seems to have been knocked back again. The messages from the top there are very confusing. Brisbane is the City with the opportunity. Meanwhile the coach is now saying that the team will grind out results until the need of the calendar year. Click to continue reading...

The Reds of Liverpool showed great promise early in the season going on a 6 match winning streak after dropping their first match to Tottenham. Then, over the last 4 matches...they've lost 3. Liverpool was so UPthat I considered doing a long interest piece on the team, then I got distracted with all the other mayhem and foolishness going on in the Premier League and now I look up and they've lost 3 of 4 matches.

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One of the big questions of the offseason, is who will be the Wizards coach next season? A few weeks ago after the final home game, Peter Vermes talked about potentially becoming the permanent coach for the Wizards, and Robb Heineman said that he wants to have the head coach in place before the MLS expansion draft, the week after MLS Cup. Click to continue reading...

For those of us that follow a major European team, there is a weekly pattern that develops over the season. After the weekend game, many fans like myself spend a couple of days absorbing commentary about the game. Youtube is scoured for clips and the blogs are mined for insights.

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Franz Smuda called up his first ever squad as the coach of the Polish national team. There were a few surprises such as the absence of Shakhtar's Mariusz Lewandowski and the inclusion of the long time no seen Kamil Kosowski or less than impressive Janusz Gancarczyk. Smuda claims that the door is not closed for anybody and that no player is guaranteed future call ups.

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Look at this great find by Futbolita. The Argentina coach/legend has his own brew.
10 Marado.
I bet it's bitter. Click to continue reading...

Is it just me, or are football clubs digging deep deep holes for themselves every time they sign a manager to a big money multi-year contract? News broke over the weekend that former Inter coach Roberto Mancini had finally reached a settlement with his old club. A settlement that apparently made him €8m richer. Click to continue reading...

Palmeiras-Corinthians will forever always remind us of that louco Brazilian film, Romeo and Juliet Get Married where the characters come from a family of opposing hardcore supporters. They would've loved result in yesterday's 2-2 draw!

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Adam Pearson, the new chairman of Hull City, has told manager Phil Brown that he has one more match to save his Hull City career.
"The manager was expected to be dismissed after the 2-0 defeat away to Burnley on Saturday, but it seems he has earned himself a stay of execution for one more game at least because of the woeful performance of Mike Jones, the referee, at Turf Moor. Click to continue reading...

The Under-17 United States National Team advanced to the knockout stage of the U-17 World Cup with a 1-0 win over United Arab Emirates. Jack McInerney put in a rebound in the 35th-minute for the win. "We are really pleased with today's performance," US coach Wilmer Cabrera said. "I want to congratulate UAE, who have a very good team and were very competitive. Click to continue reading...

Juan Mata's father and agent want Valencia to up their contract offer, amid claims that Liverpool are ready to make a move for the forward.
The Spain international is in talks with Los Che over a new contract and only last week his father, Juan Mata senior, stated that a deal was close. Click to continue reading...

Keep telling yourself that:

"When you look at other coaching candidates, they'll jump at the chance to come to Toronto knowing we're a big organization, knowing we've got great fans," [Toronto FC GM Mo] Johnston said. "We've got the grass, we've got a designated player [Julian de Guzman] in, we're looking to strengthen the team and move on.

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