Winger offends his own boot suppliers as he clutches at straws Damien Duff has claimed that the Republic of Ireland's controversial World Cup qualification play-off defeat to France was the result of a conspiracy between FIFA and Adidas. The Fulham man, who picks up £100,000 a year for wearing Adidas boots (for now at least), reckons [. Click to continue reading...

Sports pundits and fans are going full tilt at Thierry Henry calling him a "cheat", "morally reprehensible", "unsportsmanlike", "a snake oil salesman".

Richard Williams crosses that line when as a Brit he forgives Maradona's hand of God goal saying it amounts to breeding.

"To rank the incident in Paris alongside Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" in 1986 is misleading.

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Morning all, good to see the Thierry Henry stuff has blown over. Erm ... I wouldn't normally bother but I think it's only fair that someone tries to counter the lies and the hysteria. He's not one of ours now but he was and he was one of our best. Plus it's kinda quiet.

The Mirror:

Liam Brady last night branded Thierry Henry "shameful" after launching a bitter attack on FIFA for fixing the outcome.

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Image via Wikipedia The presence of Giovanni Trapattoni continued to grow even at the Stadio de France and things were turning to be dramatic during the first half as Ireland scored in about the 32nd minute to show that they were in the groove and it reflected the score line predicted by Trapattoni the earlier [. Click to continue reading...

París, 18 nov (PL) En una polémica jugada en tiempo extra el defensor William Gallas le dio a Francia hoy la clasificación para el Mundial de Suráfrica-2010, tras imponerse 2-1 a Irlanda en partido de la repesca europea.
En la factura del dudoso gol marcado por Gallas, intervino una mano "evidente" del capitán Thierry Henry que habilitó al defensa casi en la línea de meta para marcar el 1-1 definitivo a los 103 minutos del encuentro disputado en el Stade de France. Click to continue reading...

Thierry Henry clearly handled Florent Malouda's delivery and then picked out Gallas in front of goal, who drove home the equalizer in extra time. The referee Martin Hansson and his assistant did not see the infraction.

The goal nullified Robbie Keane's 32nd minute opener. And cruelly snuffed out Ireland's chances.

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The UEFA 2010 World Cup Qualifying Playoffs had their second legs on Wednesday, November 18, 2009. One of the match-ups was the Republic of Ireland v France that was 0-1 after the first leg. The Irish were the clear underdog with a 0-1 deficit after the first leg and having to travel to France for the second leg.

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Looking for a miracle.

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Republic of Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni is unlikely to make any changes for Wednesday's World Cup play-off second leg against France in Paris.

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Saturday's demoralizing one-nil home loss to France in the first leg of their World Cup play-off sees the Republic of Ireland facing an uphill task to reach next summer's showpiece. As French fans start booking their flights to South Africa, the Irish faithful are left praying for a miracle.

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With the Premier League news slowing down, and the World Cup qualification news speeding up, I figured I'd take the down time that so often comes with international breaks, put the Fantasy Premier League to the side, and focus a bit on predicting the European World Cup qualifiers...
Caveat: While my predicting/gambling skills have been refined over the past ten years through various online and offline channels, I rarely go with deep statistical analyses to back up my predictions. Click to continue reading...

This weekend plays host to arguably the match of the Premier League season when Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea take on reigning champions Manchester United in what could be reasonably termed, a championship "six-pointer".

To honour this occasion, we look back over some of the finest games between these two giants of English football:

You can catch the Soccerlens preview for the Chelsea Manchester United game and our predictions in this week's podcast.

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The fans half feared it, the pundits shook their heads and even the club had doubts, but when it comes to juggling the demands of the Barclays Premier League and European competition, while Fulham are coping magnificently, Rafael Benítez's team are not.
The fragility of Liverpool's season was never starker. Click to continue reading...

They may have fallen to Arsenal in the League Cup on Wednesday, but Liverpool will nonetheless be in determined mood as they return to the capital this weekend to take on Fulham.
Last Sunday's 2-0 victory over Manchester United ended a four-game losing streak, bringing a wave of relief over the red half of Merseyside and boosting the Anfield giants to within six points of leaders Chelsea. Click to continue reading...

Back on the old UEFA coaching site. Watching Roy talk about 3-5-2 and the limitations of three centre-backs, he starts talking about why three centre backs sometimes don't want to leave the middle of the field.   He notes that these players are good headers of the ball, good tacklers, etc, but they are often reluctant to get out on the flanks where they have to face.

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Yesterday's review of the current squad, took a look at the Newcastle defence, an area that this season we've been surprisingly strong in, given our poor reputation in recent years. Tonight looks at arguably the fulcrum of a successful team, the midfield, the place that could and should control a game and dictate the style of [. Click to continue reading...

By TRAVIS CLARK

It was all or nothing for Rafa Benitez and Liverpool on Saturday. While a loss wouldn't quite knock them out of the title race, it would be the club's fifth loss in a row and put title talk on the backburner, at least for the time being.

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First Star: Clint Dempsey went the full ninety for Fulham and got the equalizer in their 2-2 draw with Manchester City. Fulham trailed by two an hour in after Joleon Lescott scored in the 54th and Martin Petrov followed for City in the 60th-minute. Fulham pulled a goal back through Damien Duff in the 62nd, and it was Dempsey with the equalizer in the 68th. Click to continue reading...

The English Premier League had four matches on Sunday, October 25, 2009 including Manchester City v Fulham. The match was a chance for Man City to stay in position for a top 4 finish while Fulham is needing points away from Craven Cottage if they want to repeat a top-1o finish in the EPL table. Here's a recap along with video highlights for the match.

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It's been a while since I bored you with numbers, so:

These are the numbers for the season to-date.  What stands out?

Involvement: This is passes per minute on the pitch. It doesn't mean anything but it's a fair proxy for how much someone's doing while they're out there.

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US National team members Clint Dempsey for Fulham and Jozy Altidore for Hull City met on the pitch at Craven Cottage as Fulham picked up the 2-0 victory. This match was significant because this was Fulham's 130th Anniversary of the club's existance. Hull City saw the return of former Cottager Jimmy Bullard.

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Crunch time at Croke Park.

Liam Lawrence has been handed his first competitive Republic of Ireland start for
Saturday's World Cup Group Eight qualifier against Italy at Croke Park.
The Stoke midfielder gets the nod ahead of Stephen Hunt and replaces the injured Damien Duff on the right.

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Republic of Ireland v Italy
Saturday 10 October 2009, Croke Park
Kick-Off: 20:00 BST

The Republic of Ireland host group leaders Italy at Croke Park on Saturday night, knowing that a win would put them within one point of their opponents with a single qualifying match remaining.

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The injury worries are mounting for Giovanni Trapattoni ahead of Ireland's October World Cup qualifiers against Italy and Montenegro.
Fulham have confirmed that Damien Duff will be out of action for two to three weeks after picking up a calf injury in last weekends defeat to Arsenal at Craven Cottage. Click to continue reading...

Welcome to Ask the Oppo! Perry Groves' Lovechild is still on an extended break so today Eldo71 talks to Martin James, a Fulham season-ticket holder, from Midhurst, West Sussex, who will be at the match today when the Arsenal go to Craven Cottage...

Eldo71: What have you made of the start to the season? Click to continue reading...

Nope, not the Gunnersaurus, the little man next to him, Andrey Arshavin. He offers another dimension to the team and is one of those players that when you see their name on the team-sheet you are either very wary of them, or excited to be alongside them. Of course, depending on what side you are on.

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Hat-trick hero Crouch loves nachos
Let's get right to the weekend preview. Last weekend's primer was chock-full of top fantasy performers - yup, we included Fletcher, Agbonlahor, and Fabregas in the weekend Best Eleven picks which scored a solid 74 points, so let's see if we can keep the momentum going into this weekend. Click to continue reading...

It seems that Sam Allardyce Is a big fan of our new loan signing Zubar Khizanishvili Damien Duff avoids a challenge from Zurab Khizanishvili of Georgia Taken during the FIFA 2010 World Cup European Qualifying Match was on February 11 this year in Dublin, Ireland. Of course the question could be asked why Zurab couldn't get a game for Big Sam [. Click to continue reading...

Here are my thoughts about my 2 teams this past weekend...

DC UNITED

Umm...I thought I was supposed to watch DC United v Seattle Sounders FC this past Saturday. What I saw was Seattle was there. The DC fans were there. The refs showed up. The only thing missing was the home team.

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One of the nice things about Damien Duff is that he appears willing to try things in the final third.  Poor old Zoltan Gera thoroughly lost his way in the end, but as the diagram below shows, Duff got the ball into the box a fair amount on Sunday. Gera (I've got the Chelsea game here simply because I've shown his Portsmouth board before) wasn't doing this.

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Got to show some love for my fellow Israeli Yossi Benayoun, who netted a hat-trick in Liverpool's 4-0 win over Burnley last weekend.
In other EPL news, Tim Howard and Everton stay in the drop zone, but Clint Dempsey's Fulham scored a big win thanks to a turn-back-the-clock day for Damien Duff. Click to continue reading...

. Image via Wikipedia Fulham secured their second Premier League win of the season by beating struggling Everton 2-1 at Craven Cottage. Everton had the better of the first half without looking really threatening. They did however take the lead in 33rd minute through a trademark header from midfielder Tim Cahill. Click to continue reading...

The English Premier League wrapped up its weekend of matches with two on Sunday. The matches on Sunday were Aston Villa traveling to play Birmingham City and Fulham hosting Everton. Here's a recap of both matches along with video highlights on Sunday, September 13, 2009.

English Premier League Recap Saturday, September 13, 2009

Fulham defeated Everton on two second half goals while Aston Villa got a late goal to beat Birmingham City.

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Just because you're the younger brother of John Arne Riise, doesn't give you the right to speak like you are on your brother's level in the footballing world. However, if you're Bjorn Helge Riise, you give off the pompous impression that you're...
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Robbie Keane was Ireland's hero once again as he snatched victory in Cyprus to keep our World Cup dream very much alive.
The striker glanced home Damien Duff's 83rd-minute cross to claim his 40th senior international goal and three precious points, just as it looked as thought Ireland would have to settle for a fourth successive draw during the qualifying campaign. Click to continue reading...

Tough decision?

Bolton boss Gary Megson has confirmed that the club has approached Newcastle in a bid to re-sign Kevin Nolan.

Nolan left the Reebok Stadium for £4million in January but was unable to help the Magpies avoid relegation from the Premier League last season, and his former employers are keen to bring him back to the top flight.

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