So Newcastle's new signing Papiss Demba Cisse and fellow Senegalese team mate Demba Ba netted goals for the Magpies in their 2-1 home win over Aston Villa yesterday. However, whats funny is that the same two players could not do the same for Senegal in the Africa Cup of Nations.

And this is interesting because African players have a tendency to perform well for their clubs, but when it comes to their national sides, it is a different story.

The Indonesian based Bakrie group have taken ownership, 100%, of Brisbane Roar.
With Clive Palmer, Tony Sage, Nathan Tinkler and all the Billionaires in and around Sydney FC ownership it can't be too hard for the hard-nosed progressive Aussie businessmen to see how they might get an opportunity to meet and greet and get introduced to some very rich men.

Venue: St James'Park, NE1 Date: 5th February 2012 Kick Off: 1.30pm Referee: Mark Halsey I never used to bother much about Aston Villa. They were just one of those "middle of the road" clubs who chug along season after season with reasonable-sized crowds but nothing particular to shout about. I got a bit annoyed at [.

Viteslea Lavicka is leaving!
Well is he leaving or was he dumped? Guess it doesn't matter.
Has a manager in Australia, in Sydney, ever been given such an easy ride.
The media in Australia all write and tweet about the guy being a lovely bloke but what about his coaching, how will he remembered?

Some players like lots of time and space, others can operate in crowds.

To play in central midfield you need to be at one end of what we'll call the space-time continuum; if you are not at the right end you may struggle in that role. In that case you need to find somewhere else where you will get space and time.

""Football can go to hell if this is the situation.""
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Those were the words of Al-Ahly's star player Mohamed Aboutrika in the wake of the tragedy in Port Said, calling for the Egyptian league to be suspended indefinitely. "Crowds are dying in front of us, and there aren't any police or security forces," he said.

Group C: African Cup of Nations Preview (Gabon, Morocco, Niger, Tunisia) is a post from: Just Football

We've looked at Demba Ba and friends in Group A and contemplated Côte d'Ivoire in Group B. Just Football's team-by-team African Cup of Nations 2012 group previews continues now with a look at Group C.

The U.S. team got its first look today at the game venue - BC Place -and were quite impressed. The players reported that the quality of the artificial surface is high and they enjoyed the way the organizers have down-sized the stadium in a highly aesthetic way with huge tarps. The stadium has a retractable roof, but needless to say that thing is staying closed.

Papiss Cisse has given various interviews to the press, and the lad certainly seems delighted to be joining Newcastle. Papiss Cisse will wear the iconic number 9 shirt at Newcastle He knows all about the sell-out crowds at St. James' Park, and will no doubt have been told of Newcastle 3-0 annihilation of Manchester United a short two weeks ago in front of over 52,000 fans.

The MLS SuperDraft is happening live on ESPN2 right now. I went home to get some food and watched a little bit. The Sporting KC fans are rocking it! They are louder than most basketball crowds ever get!

Get all the SuperDraft info here: http://www.mlssoccer.com/superdraft/2012/superdraft

The Seattle Sounders continued their active offseason on Wednesday, officially announcing the signing of 23-year-old fullback/midfielder Christian Sivebaek. The move has been rumored since late December, and the player himself had even confirmed the deal.

"Christian is a player that we have been following for quite some time," Sounders technical director Chris Henderson said in a team release.

Fantastic game in Melbourne last night. Is it me or does this stadium lend itself to exciting games. Fast, furious and full of entertainment.
Is it the surface, or the proximity of the crowds?
Harry Kewell was superb in Melbourne last night as the Victory defeated the Jets 2-1.
Returning to his left wing position - wonder what Mehmet thought - Kewell simply did what everyone knows he can.

A solid, professional job in the end. Charlton, as the third division table shows, are a tidy enough team, but in the end class told. Clint Dempsey scored a hat-trick, Damien Duff whopped in another, and Fulham are in the hat for the 4th round.

We scored early, Murphy's through ball finding Dempsey, who lifted the ball home expertly.

A solid, professional job in the end. Charlton, as the third division table shows, are a tidy enough team, but in the end class told. Clint Dempsey scored a hat-trick, Damien Duff whopped in another, and Fulham are in the hat for the 4th round.

We scored early, Murphy's through ball finding Dempsey, who lifted the ball home expertly.

It hasn't been the best of starts for Arema in the Indonesia Super League. Yesterday's 2-2 with bottom club Persiram was their first point from their opening four games and apparently after the game the Arema fans vented their displeasure at the team.
The club have responded by sacking coach Wolfgang Pikal.

MLSsoccer.com: As a native of the Seattle area, what has it been like watching the Sounders take off in the region?
Rowe: It's been great. The fan base is unreal. You walk through Seattle and half the people you see are in Sounders gear, it's just an amazing movement.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish declared that football required specific guidelines about what language was considered racist, at the end of a week in which his striker Luis Suarez has been dealt an eight-game ban and his former team-mate Alan Hansen has been engulfed in controversy over his use of the word "coloured.

Kenny Dalglish has hailed the Liverpool fans that made the trip to Wigan for the support they showed controversial striker Luis Suarez in his side's 0-0 draw on Wednesday night.
Liverpool had released two club statements since the FA announced Suarez's eight-game ban for "misconduct" towards Patrice Evra, and the players warmed up in 'Suarez 7' t-shirts as a show of support.

Kenny Dalglish insists Luis Suarez has never been a disappointment for Liverpool, as the storm of controversy continues to surround the striker.
The Uruguayan started his club's 0-0 draw at Wigan on Wednesday less than 24 hours after being hit with a Football Association ban of eight matches and a fine of £40,000 for allegedly racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra.

Time for a bit of the armchair psychoanalysis. Take a depressed crowd and lay them on Dr. Freud's couch. These mobs are suffering from a condition known to shrinks as SimonandGarfunkelitis – symptom – the sound of silence.

December 2011 presented us with an excellent case study in this horrible affliction that curses certain teams.

A couple weeks ago Duane Rollins thought it was a good idea to advocate for the death of WPS. A few days later he backed up his stance by pointing out that the Vancouver Whitecaps didn't want to associate with the struggling league:

If one of the most committed organizations to the women's game is rejecting the WPS model as it currently stands, well, that should tell you something.

Picture Credit: 123RF.comIt has come to this part of the year when I would always pen my annual review to summarize my thoughts on what happened in the past twelve months in Singapore Football.
Having said that, I must admit that it's been quite a difficult year for the local football that has been struggling with myriad of procrastinating problems that remain lingering.

MirrorFootball Podcast: Listen again to Robbie Savage's MirrorFootball live chat with Steve Anglesey

He became known as football's Mr. Marmite during his days as a professional footballer, then he swapped his boots for a microphone to become one of the game's most outspoken and honest pundits before wowing the crowds in Strictly Come Dancing.

Indonesia Super League
PSPS v Deltras 0-1 (M Fakhruddin) 5,675Persiwa v Persiba 2-0 (Eric Lewis Weeks, Eddie Foday Boakay) 3,150Persipura v Gresik United 3-1 (Alberto Goncalves, Boas Solossa, Pauline Bio; Gaston Castano) 6,000Persija v Persidafon 0-0 16,000
Persiwa go top of the nascent ISL after two wins in their opening two games.

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By JOHN BOSCHINI

We're getting down to the nitty gritty of the postseason as the Round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament kicks off at campus sites around the country on Sunday.

With students still returning from Thanksgiving break, don't expect crowd support to be quite as raucous as it has been during the season.

It was once the home of one of Australia's finest teams based in Sydney's southern suburbs, St. George Budapest (who later became St. George Saints), playing in Australia's then-leading professional division, the National Soccer League (they won the league in 1983). The club had a rich history, having supplied almost half of Australia's 1974 World Cup team.

Article by Chris Egan
Soccer Blossoming in the USA
Now we are moving into the last game of the MLS calendar, it feels fitting that we reflect on another successful year for the Major league soccer. I will be looking into their current stature with the other big four sports in america and where i think they need to go for them to expand and grow bigger.

Last week ussoccer.com headed to the Chicago Premiere of Rise and Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story.
With around 300 tickets sold, the AMC River East in Chicago had one of the biggest crowds in the country. The atmosphere in the theater was amazing, and everyone seemed to enjoy the film.

As we wrote last week, it is the time of year when votes are cast in Major League Soccer for MVP, Defender of the Year, Coach of the Year and more. This is the third year that Footiebusiness.com has been a voter, but the first year that a Team PR Award isn't among the offerings. However, whether official or not, we thought it worth casting our vote for the 2011 Team PR.

LA Lads: Former local Fox Sports commentator Max Bretos, former Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas and Chivas USA's Alejandro Moreno are the in-studio team for the 7 p.m. Seattle Sounders-Real Salt Lake match as the MLS Playoffs resume on ESPN tonight.

It appears fans are responding to the MLS playoffs this year, games that have traditionally struggled to draw decent crowds on relatively short notice.

Spurs will be playing QPR for the first time in the league for nearly two decades this weekend and over the years there have been some classic encounters between the two sides.

For most Spurs fans, they will recall the two FA Cup games in 1982 as their happiest memory but there have been some other memorable games as well.

7:1 win vs Adelaide last night. Oh yes oh yes oh yes. Ra ra ra. We actually are the best in the World and everyone else is, slowly but surely, learning to live with it.
The question being repeated everywhere is, how come only eleven and a half thousand people saw one of the greatest football spectacles we might expect to see in club football?

Steve Doughty of the Daily Mail recently wrote a piece that defies logic. In the wake of the allegations facing Louis Suarez and John Terry, his piece entitled "Football may not be perfect but it has come a long way since the 70's" He not only condones the racist abuse allegedly dished out by John Terry, he goes on to suggest that the victims should just get on with the game, for in his analysis ".

Anyone who was at Old Trafford on Sunday to see Manchester City annihilate their neighbours or who watched the highlights on MOTD2 would have seen the same thing. United fans streaming out of a ground a full 20 minutes before the end. Yes, their outplayed team were 3-0 down but so what? By the time the sixth goal had been hammered in by Edin Dzeko, most of the stadium was about a quarter full.

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The European leagues are about a third of the way through their seasons and the Champions League is in the middle of the group stages, but what about elsewhere in the world?

FFA came under a lot of fire over the last couple of years as they put all their attention and resources into the World Cup Bid, at the expense of a still fragile national league sitting in an over-subscribed professional sporting arena.
Now it seems things are improving.
We had the season changes, and like the AFL and NRL, some key planning has gone into making noise at the right times.

When any Liverpool and Manchester United fixture takes place, there is a very strong chance that the encounter will be fiery. Whether there will be any madness on the pitch such as a player being sent off or multiple goals hitting the back of the net, this is something which many look forward to seeing.

So, we start the season with a nil-nil draw but in the context of things you really can't complain. A fantastic crowd turned up to see a very entertaining game of football and although the atmosphere did die down a little bit at times, overall it was a very enjoyable experience. Given the crowds for

Crowd Of 62,000-Plus May Be Just The Beginning

Talked to Adrian Hanauer for a story I did at MLSSoccer.com and he admits that even he is amazed at how quickly the Sounders' popularity has grown. He says he can see a day in the not-so-distant future when the team is regularly drawing crowds like Saturday's to CenturyLink Field.

"MINI MANILA"
I'm not sure how that sentiment started in the first place, but judging by the posting plastered online and heard from the grapevine, it seems that JBS would turn out become a "mini Manila" for the friendly fixture between Singapore and The Philippines.
True enough that majority turned out for the game were the expat Filipinos.