Earlier this summer, the football world was shocked by the tragic death of Espanyol captain Dani Jarque, dead of a heart attack at the age of 26 years.

And now, Antonio De Negris, a striker for Greek team Larissa, and a former Mexixcan international who was capped 16 times is dead at 31 years of age of a suspected heart attack.

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Porto keeper Helton

Brazil have called up Porto's Helton for their final WC qualifiers against Bolivia on October 11th in La Paz, and Venezuela 3 days later in Campo Grande.

Helton is in as cover for Grêmio's Victor who has picked up a muscle injury. However, Victor remains with the squad.

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Dunga has steered Brazil through to World Cup qualification with matches in hand, and has picked up the Copa America and the Confederations Cup along the way. Maradona, meanwhile, is sitting in the hot seat with his Argentina in danger of missing out on the World Cup for the first time since 1970.

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Mexico is hurting. The poor management reigns of Sven Goran Eriksson all but threw out the successful Copa America run in 2007 under Hugo Sanchez and brought Mexico to its lowest point since the struggles of the 2001 hexagonal.

But Mexico is never to be underestimated. Man for man, when healthy and calling up a full squad, El Tri still has more accomplished and quality players than anyone else in CONCACAF.

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The match, which will be broadcast live on mun2, Telemundo, and the Futbol de Primera Radio Networks, kicks off at 3 p.m. CT from the famed Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Additionally, ESPN will provide unprecedented studio coverage, highlighted by a 30-minute SportsCenter 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifying Special from outside Estadio Azteca beginning at 2:30 p.

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via AFP

Good ol' Ronaldo-loving-Lula is so nice that he has accepted Chile's request to host the 2015 Copa America and a further proposal to change the tournament's organization in 2019.

"I've committed to President Bachelet (that I will) change the organization of the 2015 Copa America in 2019.

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via LatinContent Editorial / Cesar Morejon

Benjie Aguero's grandfather is not going to be changing his diapers anytime soon. In fact, he answered to speculation about his role as Argentina's national coach and finally stopped talking about Riquelme.

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2nd Half sub Carlos Vela Sparked Mexico's Outburst
Mexico scored 5 second half goals to win its 5th Gold Cup with a victory over the United States. Mexico did for the third time what the US has never done: win a Gold Cup on foreign soil.
For Mexico, this entire tournament was to see which players can help in the upcoming 5 qualifiers. Click to continue reading...

Remember that Copa America tournament a few years back, where Bob Bradley used all of those second tier players? Click to continue reading...

Maradona told Ole that his contract with the national team does not expire until after the 2011 Copa America, which will take place in Argentina.

Maradona also dismissed rumors that he would resign as manager of the national team to work at Portsmouth.

Maradona said:

"No, it is not like that.

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Clarence Goodson has become a monster on set pieces since leaving MLS to go to Scandinavia a year and a half ago. Had Bruce Arena still been coaching the US, he may not have noticed this. But Bob Bradley has, and Goodson's strength and accuracy on Stuart Holden's late first half corner kick turned an even game into a USA rout.

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It's flying under the radar even by American soccer standards, thanks in part to the extensive coverage of the cash cow "World Football Challenge" going on across the country, but the final stages of the Gold Cup the CONCACAF confederation's biennial championship are upon us. Tonight I'll be attending the semi-finals of the Gold Cup at Soldier Field, Chicago.

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U.S. SQUAD OVERVIEW: Cobi Jones is considered one of the best U.S. midfielders ever and currently still holds the record for most U.S. national team appearances with 165 caps during the span of his international career (which ended in 2004) . Jones served as a U.

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CONCACAFÂ 's oddities have struck once again. The Confederation that has done some odd things through the years (most notably the re-branding of the entity as the Football Confederation about ten years ago) has once again done something that seems from the perspective of someone who watches a lot of football, quite odd.

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Confederations Cup Trophy

As we look forward to an unexpected final between Brazil and the United States in the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup we look at how the competition was established and developed. Has a tournament with a troubled history finally 'made it'?

The Artemio Franchi Trophy and the King Fahd Cup

The precursors of the Confederations Cup as intercontinental international trophies were the Artemio Franchi Trophy and the King Fahd Cup.

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Yesterday, twenty-three players were named to the United States' roster for next month's Gold Cup by head coach Bob Bradley. While there are a handful of surprising selections sprinkled into the squad, several deserving MLS players have been overlooked, in my opinion.
- Bobby Boswell (D - Houston Dynamo)
Boswell is the anchor of the best defense in Major League Soccer - Houston has given up just nine goals in 14 games this season and Boswell has been on the field for every minute. Click to continue reading...

Five days have passed since Italy's whopping 3-0 defeat at the hands of Brazil, a match which put an an end to Lippi's South African countryside scouting (one year before the big tournament) and sent the Azzurri home among general shrugs of indifference, frowned eyebrows, and sincere worries in the ranks of Italian supporters.

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Five days have passed since Italy's whopping 3-0 defeat at the hands of Brazil, a match which put an an end to Lippi's South African countryside scouting (one year before the big tournament) and sent the Azzurri home among general shrugs of indifference, frowned eyebrows, and sincere worries in the ranks of Italian supporters.

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We're making our way around the world with these patches, and today we have part four, Spain:In case you haven't been following, each patch in the Confederations Cup is different. All eight teams' patches have a unique look, each with the trophy from their confederation's continental championship. Click to continue reading...

Oh, I see how it is. A couple of wins, and all of a sudden you all ain't so sure about making a coaching change? Well, not me! When I make a decision, I stick with it!
Aside from the Gold Cup, what has Bradley won since 2000? Not a damn thing. Let's just ease him out while he's in a good mood, have Mike Sorber coach the final on an interim basis, and then start the job search for a REAL coach. Click to continue reading...

                                                                              Photo by ISIphotos.com

Plenty to discuss in the world of soccer on the day after the Miracle in South Africa so let's get started:

Know how many fouls Michael Bradley, Jay DeMerit, Oguchi Onyewu and Ricardo Clark combined for against Spain?

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                                                                              Photo by ISIphotos.com

Plenty to discuss in the world of soccer on the day after the Miracle in South Africa so let's get started:

Know how many fouls Michael Bradley, Jay DeMerit, Oguchi Onyewu and Ricardo Clark combined for against Spain?

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I know we played this game the other day after the Egypt match, but let's revisit it again. Where does the Spain game compare to the matches described below in the Post 1990 history of the US Men's National Team? The 1950 World Cup win versus England obviously was the best pre 1989 result for the US, but actually was the last US World Cup win for 54 years, so it didn't actually usher in any sort of era of good play from the USMNT.

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First we started with Italy's World Cup winners patch and next we saw Brazil's Copa America trophy. Now we have Egypt and the patch for the six-time African champions... Click to continue reading...

The Confederations Cup is in full swing now in South Africa and after a fairly slow start the tournament has got into full swing. The group stages are now over and the two semi-finals feature USA Vs Spain and Brazil Vs South Africa. It is a bit of a weird tournament in all fairness, to qualify you have to win a FIFA Confederation Championship (such as the Copa America or European Championship) or the World Cup or be the host country of the next World Cup.

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We built this city on roque and roll.

A sample of some of the dreadful headlines we could be subjected to.

So what can City expect?.

They can take advantage of the Roque Santa Cruz cult status as an instant impact provider. And his evolution as an assist leader adept at creating goal scoring opportunities for others even while his own goal scoring stalls.

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In terms of US National Team history very few days have matched yesterday in terms of pure drama. Just three days after Team USA equaled its worst ever loss to Brazil and six days after the national teams worst loss to Italy since 1934, the US found itself in a position to clinch passage to the semifinals of the Confederations Cup.

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ESPN recently released a new app for the iPhone entitled ESPN ScoreCenter, which is a must-have app for soccer fans.

The free app features real-time score updates, live game details, schedules, stats, game summaries and more for an exhaustive number of leagues and tournaments, such as:

• Premier League,
• Champions League,
• La Liga,
• Bundesliga,
• Serie A,
• MLS,
• USL-1,
• Championship,
• Confederations Cup,
• World Cup qualifiers,
• International friendlies,
• UEFA Cup,
• African Nations Cup,
• AFC Champions League,
• Copa America,
• and many many more.

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Bora Milutinovic couldn't do it. Steve Sampson couldn't do it. Bruce Arena couldn't do it. But Bob Bradley has accomplished it: consecutive games against Brazil where the US allowed three or more goals. Prior to the September 2007 friendly in Chicago the US had held Brazil to two or fewer goals in ten straight matchups, although the US lost nine of those games.

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An unnecessary addition to an already crowded fixture list or a prestigious curtain raiser to next summer's World Cup?
The Confederations Cup kicks off in Johannesburg tomorrow – leaving followers of Liverpool and Everton with their hearts in their mouths for the next fortnight.
Influential figures like Fernando Torres and Steven Pienaar, Pepe Reina and Tim Howard could see their seasons extended until June 28 by the Fifa backed tournament – barely a week before Everton and Liverpool return to begin their pre-season preparations for next season. Click to continue reading...

This pointless exercise gets underway Sunday. At the very least, however, it should provide some interesting match-ups, as well as some injuries and fatigue to some of your favorite club's players.
The tournament pits the winners of the the six FIFA federation tournaments around the world against each other, plus the World Cup winner and the Host Country. Click to continue reading...

Brazil training in Recife

Brazil take on Paraguay in the estádio Arruda in Recife on Wednesday and goalkeeper Júlio César is looking for revenge. Brazil's shot-stopper has only been beaten twice whilst representing his country and both games were against Paraguay. The first defeat came in 2004 in the Copa America when they went down 2-1.

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Argentina announced that it will host the next version of Copa America with Mexico and Japan getting bonus slots in the South American tournament. Matches will be played in La Plata, Cordoba, Santa Fe, Jujuy and Salta. It's the first...

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Mexico's absence from South American competitions over CONMEBOL's response to the H1N1 outbreak has ended after only a few weeks. Mexico will once again be participating in the Copa Libertadores and Copa America tournaments. Chivas and San Luis withdrew from the Libertadores after being unable to find an approved neutral site to play their home games. Click to continue reading...

Well the big day is upon us. Beginning tomorrow and culminating with the Gold Cup Final late next month the United States National Team will be in almost constant action. No friendlies are on the schedule in this period. Just deadly serious World Cup qualifiers and competitive tournament matches.

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