Italy march into the International break with qualifications to the Euros already assured in what has been a quite impressive qualifying campaign so far. Cesare Prandelli has settled in nicely with a 4-4-2 diamond formation (or 4-3-1-2 depending upon who you ask) that has been consciously trying to play "modern", possession football as espoused by some zealots in a certain part of Spain (or is it Catalonia)?

Justin Mapp was active, involved and positive. Sebastien Le Toux scored a fine open-play goal. Zac MacMath played 45 minutes of shutout ball and saved a breakaway.

And the Union still lost.

No shots, but who to blame?

An indifferent opening half-hour turned into a desperate chase for a tying goal.

In what could be considered the most entertaining and exciting of any Philadelphia Union match so far this season, the Blue and Gold battled back from two deficits on a pair of Sebastien Le Toux penalty kicks to tie FC Dallas 2-2. Freddy Adu debuted for the Union, starting the game and coming off for Danny Mwanga in the second half.

Each manager came into the match fearing his team was worn-out. Salt Lake was playing their third match in 8 days and had suffered a loss on Wednesday night in Kansas City. New York traveled to London and played games on Saturday and Sunday before making the trek back across the pond to Salt Lake City.

Formation

Real Madrid wrapped up it's American jaunt in the 2011 Herbalife World Football Challenge with a modest 2-1 result in their friendly against the local MLS club Philadelphia Union.

Jose Mourinho started the match with their most prolific scorer, Cristiano Ronaldo, on the bench.

from phillysoccerpage.net

Midsummer friendlies are controversial in nature. Fans point to the extra workload on first team players as being detrimental to the league, especially during what are often the hottest weeks of the year. In yesterday's friendly at PPL Park in suburban Philadelphia, a mixture of Union first team and youngsters proved too much for visiting Everton, as 17 year old Academy product Christian Hernandez scored in the final 5 minutes to secure a 1-0 result.

The Rio Tinto hosted a clash of two of the three best in the Western Conference on Saturday night. Dallas came in winners of three in a row while Real had not been beaten in five.
Salt Lake's Strategy
Jason Kreis started with his usual 4-4-2 diamond formation. The only surprise was Luis Gil starting as Alvaro Saborio's strike partner instead of Fabian Espindola.

With the Seattle Sounders on their best form of the season and being as healthy as they've been all year, you would think that projecting the starting lineup would be getting easier. And it is. But there are still a few questions heading into Monday's game against the Los Angeles Galaxy.

The biggest is who starts as the center midfielder next to Osvaldo Alonso?

Logo from optasports.com

I tend to consider tactics and Major League Soccer like an unabridged dictionary in a fourth grade classroom. While the study and employment of tactics within MLS happens, there is less tactical sophistication in MLS than in the more established leagues of the world.

The Philadelphia Union had gone nearly a month since their previous victory. The home side overcame a halftime deficit to defeat Chivas USA 3-2.

For the second match in a row, manager Peter Nowak fielded a combination 4-1-4-1/4-1-3-2 shape, with Carlos Ruiz as the lone forward when out of possession.

On Saturday night the Union suffered its second disturbing result in a row with a 1-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps at Empire Field. This loss follows on the heels of a disappointing 1-1 tie at home to Real Salt Lake.

I have to say my reaction when I saw the lineup graphic on Saturday night was "Oh – My – God.

Photo by Michael Janosz/ISIPhotos.com

BY ADAM SERRANO

There's nothing that Toronto FC forward Alan Gordon loves more than scoring against his former clubs.

Gordon scored two goals in the second half including a decisive game-tying goal in the 94th minute that gave Toronto FC just their second point away from the friendly confines of BMO Field.

Since our last scheduled programming, the Philadelphia Union have managed to score more than one goal in a game and to do so in two consecutive games. The Union defeated the Chicago Fire on May 22 at PPL Park by a score of 2-1. Michael Farfan scored his first professional goal, and Carlos Ruiz supplied the game winner a spectacular, long shot off a bouncing ball that just tucked in under the crossbar.

AEK took a big step towards qualification for the Champions League last night at the OAKA with a comfortable victory in the 3rd game of the playoffs.Coming off a midweek 1-1 draw against pao(a game in which we could have taken all 3 points).Last nights result leaves us with 8 points,paok 6,pao 4,Oly Volou 3 with 3 games still to play.

A Maxi Rodriguez hat-trick inspired Liverpool to their biggest win of the season and further prove, if anyone was still in doubt, that Kenny Dalglish is the man to lead the club forward.
The little Argentinian was not necessarily brilliant but just put himself in the right places to capitalize on some impressive team play by a side brimming with the confidence instilled by the 60-year-old Scot.

A man in a difficult position, Carlo Ancelotti
Carlo Ancelotti was a made man. He sat at the top of the Premier League having seen his side score more than 100 goals in a season – the first time since the great Spurs side of the 60's –, a £9 million contract in the bag, and the promise of a serious assault on the Champions League in the 2010/11 season.

You like the title of this? I took a little respite from the match reports this weekend, but in catching up on Fulham's draw with neighbor Chelsea, I thought I'd remark that this had 4 or 5 of the most entertaining stoppage-time minutes I've seen this season.

The most notable development in this match was Carlo Ancelotti's response to the Drogba/Torres/Anelka quandary.

The experiment Pazzini-Milito-Eto'o failed miserably, the Nerazzurri found their rhythm only when they reintroduced the diamond formation. The Biancorossi recriminated that Chivu should have been sent off.

Southampton 1-2 Manchester United: Observations

Manchester United were hardly at their scintillating best at St Mary's in this rather contained affair, but then again they hardly have to be to end victorious. There's a running theme through United's season where they don't need to play particularly good to win a game, they just don't need to play bad either.

Image: The Mirror Football via JonUtaka.com.

Footballer costuming catastrophes are becoming so frequent in this neck of the woods (see what we did there? Did you?) that we have been forced to set up a whole new category just to mock them. Yes, ‘Dressed At Gunpoint' is the place to go if you are a woman turned on by eclectic fashion choices, shiny fabrics or Guti.

10 points in 11 games, the best response to me seemed to go into hiding, pray and return when the sunshine breaks through the looming clouds. However, Let the records show that my official excuse for my absence has been insane travelling around the country. It's true, I have tickets to prove it.