The Wolves forums are awash with abuse aimed at manager Mick McCarthy. Not necessarily saying he should be axed, but criticising his team selection and tactics. There are two schools of thought, the first that he will play defensive and put 10 men behind the ball, or the second is that he will put out an attacking side and just go for it.

Spain's 2-2 draw with Costa Rica last night, and their 1-0 loss to England on the weekend, suggest that the European and World champions have become too predictable. Only a David Villa goal three minutes into injury time in San Jose prevented them from being embarrassed twice in four days.

I can't believe I came on here yesterday writing with optimism about our new defensive tactics. I really should have known better to expect Wenger to be able to pull it off, however a good idea it may be.

The guy can't coach defence. Time and time again we see decent players come to the club and immediately look like clowns.

Cristiano Ronaldo should feel rightly aggrieved because Victor Valdes did grab his leg but the penalty was not given. In addition, Valdes could have been red carded.

Before the Madrid fans get their knickers in a twist Barca were equally hard done by the referee, Teixeira Vitienes who failed to spot or chose to ignore Marcelo's blatant foul on Pedro in the box.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has launched a subtle yet scathing attack on Newcastle United by insisting that their players were not playing to win on the opening day of the Barclays Premier League season.

Wenger, whose side was on the receiving end of several controversial calls during the Gunners' 4-4 draw with the Magpies in February, has accused Newcastle of defensive tactics in yesterday's goalless draw while also implying that midfielder Joey Barton brought additional negativity to the game.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Union

Marc Narducci writes on the fact that teams seem content to come to PPL to play for a draw given the effectiveness of the Union's backline. "It's a tactic and the way they chose to play, and you have to respect that," Faryd Mondragon told Narducci. "Our job is to try to get the solution and find a way to break all these defensive tactics.

Santos From Pele to Neymar on the road to immortality is a post from: Just Football

by Gordon Fleetwood

It has been a long road for Santos this year in the Copa Libertadores. This was Santos' first campaign since 2008, when they exited at the quarter final stage.

Barcelona's foul play is hidden away in their exorbitantly high percentage of possession says Andy Simanowitz.

FC Barcelona are widely regarded in football circles as not only the best team in the world but perhaps the best team the world has ever seen. This belief is fuelled not only by the team's unprecedented success on the domestic and European stages but also by the aesthetic qualities of their attacking play.

Barcelona's foul play is hidden away in their exorbitantly high percentage of possession says Andy Simanowitz.

FC Barcelona are widely regarded in football circles as not only the best team in the world but perhaps the best team the world has ever seen. This belief is fuelled not only by the team's unprecedented success on the domestic and European stages but also by the aesthetic qualities of their attacking play.

The good news is the Fire recorded their first clean sheet of the season. A maligned and mistake prone defense managed to limit chances and maintained a shut out. The bad news is the team failed to score for the first time all season and continued to miss chances that should be put away. The result was particularly disturbing because expansion Vancouver had yet to record a point on the road after allowing six goals while going 0-3-0 in their first three road matches.

Lalas....

Editor's Note: We've had a few pieces lately that involved , specifically, Alexi Lalas and his time overseas in Serie A with Padova.

This piece by Eric Beard which acknowledges Alexi's time at Padova and the focus in training. And this piece, Eric Giardini, which discusses the challenges for Americans playing in Serie A.

As the old chant goes, Manchester United fans rarely want anything but their team to "Attack, Attack, Attack (and so on)" the opposition but they face perhaps their most difficult test of the season so far. Manchester City are a rather unfathomable side, for they display great attacking intent one game or tremendous defensive tactics the next.

International week and all eyes are on the stadium formerly known as Lansdowne Road as Scotland make their debut in the Carling Nations Cup.
Making their debut and already playing catch-up after Ireland set the early pace with a 3-0 win over Wales last night.
Ewan Murray has more on the background to the tournament on The Guardian sports blog including the travails the Irish FA have been having with ticket sales.

Photo by ivan03

Manchester City fans may be in for a rude awakening if they honestly believe they will win the Premier League this season. They may not win a title just yet, especially after coach Roberto Mancini has already indicated that his first aim is to get the team qualified for the Champions League next season.

DOHA, Qatar — Reigning champions Iraq set up a quarter-final clash with Australia after beating North Korea 1-0 Wednesday, condemning the Koreans to an early exit having failed to score in the tournament. The 2007 champions finished second in Group D behind Iran, but will be underdogs against an Australian team out for revenge after [.

Arsenal 0 Man City 0
First things first, although the score was the same, this was clearly a very different match from when we played City at home last year - we created chances, and it was only through luck that City didn't concede in the first half.
And of course turning up and playing like that is boring, and one can make any number of heavy-handed jokes about what an expensive bus it was to park, but the bottom line is, they came away with a draw.