Chicago Fire original CJ Brown played in his last professional soccer game on October 23, 2010. Both Brown and teammate Brian McBride had announced their retirements days earlier. Chicago was already eliminated from the playoffs going into the game. Prior to kick-off the players knew it was going to be only the second time in the club's history that the Fire did not make the playoffs.

Neil Blackmon turns last week's narrative from the failed WPS to the USWNT

Quite a past week for women's soccer in this country.

The morning after one of the most dominating qualifying performances, for any international tournament, in the history of the sport, the already-on-life-support WPS cancels the 2012 season.

As London went Siberian (although not for me; watched at home while looking after the boy) Fulham were much as Fulham are. Yes, we lacked a true number 25, but individual players are always less important than we think they'll be. In truth we looked more or less okay.

Fulham lined up with what was more or less a 4-4-2, Murphy and Sidwell flanked by Duff and Davies, with Dempsey and Ruiz a surprising but skilful front two.

Goals:
Carroll 52'
Bellamy 61'
Kuyt 78'
The result implies dominance, and Liverpool were fairly dominant throughout, but 3-0 did not look likely at half-time.
Sure, had Liverpool taken one of their multiple first half chances, most notably from Kuyt in the third minute, or had Anthony Taylor given Adam an absolutely dead certain penalty in the 35th, the side might have strolled to victory sooner.

WPS Season Canceled

Mere hours after the US Women reaffirm their dominance in the CONCACAF Olympics Qualifying tournament, WPS has announced the cancellation of their 2012 season.

This is not entirely surprising considering the well publicized struggles with the owners of MagicJack reducing the league to only 5 teams (FIFA guidelines specify a minimum of 8 teams to be considered a league).

This weekend saw the top two reassert their dominance and pull even further away from the six teams below who all failed to record wins. Manchester City's late, late winner at Spurs kept a cushion between themselves and the chasers ...
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It started as a soccer game. It ended with a football score.

Former Boston Breakers' striker Amy Rodriguez grabbed a record-tying five goals in the United States' record-setting 14-0 demolition of the Dominican Republic in the first game of Olympic Qualifying at BC Place in Vancouver.

By: Peter Espinosa
Thirteen hours is the time it takes for the bus to leave Hartman Arena on its way to US Cellular Arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Wings have made three of their scheduled four trips to play the Milwaukee Wave this season and before they venture into the champions house again, the Wave will play in Wichita three times in one week.

By Alan Duffy

West Bromwich Albion 1-2 Norwich City Premier League 14th January 2012

What a superb season Norwich City, newly-promoted to the top tier, are having. Finding themselves in ninth-place, only eight points off a European place, Paul Lambert and co.

Avram Grant takes over at Serbian champions Partizan

Avram Grant has taken many pundits by surprise by joining Serbian champions Partizan Belgrade as coach from today.

With fifteen games played so far this season in the Jelen SuperLiga, Partizan have a ten point lead over arch rivals Crvena Zvezda and already look set to continue their recent dominance by winning a fifth consecutive title.

Homare Sawa and Lionel Messi won the Women's and Men's Player of the Year awards last night

FIFA's annual awards ceremony took place in Zurich last night and there weren't too many surprises as to who would come top of the main awards of the evening.

It was obvious to all of the world and his dog that Lionel Messi would come to win the Player of the Year award in 2011 following yet another truly successful twelve months with his club FC Barcelona.

Google and Apple may not exactly be the first names that spring to mind when looking for alternatives to challenge Sky's dominance of sports broadcasting in Britain, but it should be no surprise that two of the giants of the tech and online world are eyeing up sport as a way to lure consumers into their new offerings.

This is a pretty awesome collection of, from best I can tell, is what this group considered the best Tifo from around the world this year. ECS's Decades of Dominance was one of two MLS entries to make the cut, as a Red Bulls Tifo was also in here. The MLS stuff is around the 4:00 mark. (h/t @bestsoccershow)

Mirror: Simon Bird's FA Cup previews and predictions (Third Round)

For all our love of an FA Cup upset on third round day, the competition rarely end with a fairytale finish. The chances breaking the two decade long dominance of the big five, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City and Liverpool appears to be just as slim as altering their Premier League hegemony.

If it had not been for such a difficult start to the season, Arsenal would now be fighting for the title.

And, that includes the loss of points against Wolves at home (unfortunate) and Fulham away (well deserved). The last few games have been disappointing, but Arsenal have gathered 29 points in their last 13 games and during the process it was able to pre-qualify for the CL against a very good Udinese, and win their CL-group against strong opposition with style and dominance.

Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool | Premier League match report

Manchester City returned to authoritative ways. This may not have been a rout, but it was an efficient win. When Gareth Barry was sent off in the 75th minute after a second bookable offence, for fouling Liverpool's Daniel Agger, the side reacted almost immediately.

By Alan Duffy

Seeing your team squander a whole load of chances in the first half and then capitulate in the second would be enough to make anyone a teeny bit frustrated at the very least. However, the failure of Theo Walcott in particular, to make the most of Arsenal's first half dominance looks to have sent Arsene Wenger a bit mad.

Well, that was frustrating, but let's start at the beginning (always a good place to start):
* We had, in many respects, an excellent first half. We raced out the box and dominated the game - I think we had something like 60% of possession at certain points in the first period, which is brilliant for any performance away from home.

Liverpool welcome Newcastle to Anfield in 2011's final match, with both squads barely on the outside looking in at the European places. Tomorrow's guests rode a hot start to the season to the top three, going unbeaten in their first eleven matches and surprising everyone after expectations were low entering the campaign.

After dominating the first period at Carrow Road last night, Tottenham had to show great patience in turning that dominance into a vital win. With sides all around dropping points, Spurs read the script for once and sealed the victory that cemented third place – four points ahead of nearest rivals Chelsea and with a game in hand.

By Alan Duffy

Arsenal 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers Premier League 27th December 2011.

Arsenal's old failings came back to haunt them at the Emirates in their rearranged clash with Wolves. Despite having a hugely superior amount of possession and firing in countess efforts on goal, the home side still came unstuck, conceding a sloppy goal and failing to make the most of their dominance.

Well that was frustrating, but not entirely unexpected. Just before writing this post I saw a Tweet by Orbinho (follow him) that summed up a lot of what's been going on with the side over the last year or so: in Arsenal's last 15 home games in the prem, they've only scored more than one goal on 4 occasions.

By Alan Duffy

Everton 1-1 Norwich City Premier League 17th December 2011

Dutch wideman Royston Drenthe rescued a point for Everton at Goodison Park after the Toffees had failed to make their dominance against Norwich City count.

Seven English wins in nine last 16 ties against Italian clubs the stats that show why history favours Chelsea and Arsenal over Napoli & AC Milan...

Arsenal face AC Milan and Chelsea will take on Napoli when Europe's elite competition resumes in February, and they will be hoping to continue a trend of Premier League dominance

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-12-17 09:20:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Seven English wins in nine last 16 ties against Italian clubs the stats that show why history favours Chelsea and Arsenal over Napoli & AC Milan...

Arsenal face AC Milan and Chelsea will take on Napoli when Europe's elite competition resumes in February, and they will be hoping to continue a trend of Premier League dominance

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-12-17 09:20:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Seven English wins in nine last 16 ties against Italian clubs the stats that show why history favours Chelsea and Arsenal over Napoli & AC Milan...

Arsenal face AC Milan and Chelsea will take on Napoli when Europe's elite competition resumes in February, and they will be hoping to continue a trend of Premier League dominance

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-12-17 09:20:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Seven English wins in nine last 16 ties against Italian clubs the stats that show why history favours Chelsea and Arsenal over Napoli & AC Milan...

Arsenal face AC Milan and Chelsea will take on Napoli when Europe's elite competition resumes in February, and they will be hoping to continue a trend of Premier League dominance

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-12-17 09:20:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Seven English wins in nine last 16 ties against Italian clubs the stats that show why history favours Chelsea and Arsenal over Napoli & AC Milan...

Arsenal face AC Milan and Chelsea will take on Napoli when Europe's elite competition resumes in February, and they will be hoping to continue a trend of Premier League dominance

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-12-17 09:20:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Seven English wins in nine last 16 ties against Italian clubs the stats that show why history favours Chelsea and Arsenal over Napoli & AC Milan...

Arsenal face AC Milan and Chelsea will take on Napoli when Europe's elite competition resumes in February, and they will be hoping to continue a trend of Premier League dominance

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-12-17 09:20:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Liverpool's Dirk Kuyt says team-mate Luis Suárez has rebuffed critics

• Suárez's contribution hailed by Dutchman • 'It's important for us all to score but especially for Luis' Luis Suárez's match-winning goal for Liverpool against Queens Park Rangers has prompted his team-mate Dirk Kuyt to round on the Uruguayan's detractors.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish praised the courage of his players after their perceived dominance was again not reflected in a scoreline.
A 1-0 win over QPR at Anfield ended the Reds' run of four successive and frustrating home draws after star striker Luis Suarez headed the only goal of the game early in the second half.

Dalglish delight at courage

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish praised the courage of his players after their perceived dominance was again not reflected in a scoreline.

View the full story here: Sky Sports

A news article on 2011-12-10 17:51:10 from: Sky Sports

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Sounders U16 Academy Profiled By ESPN High School

Focus on defense, attacking from the back and then this quote from Jalen Markey about the upcoming game against the Vancouver Whitecaps

They're like our rival, even though they're new to the Academy. We want to get the win to show that we're the best team in the Northwest," Markey said.

by Adam Bate

Cristiano Ronaldo doesn't look like an underdog. He doesn't feel like one and he most certainly doesn't act like one. But this weekend he is the player more than any other who will be tasked with the role of challenging Barcelona's footballing oligarchy.
And yet, don't expect people to thank him for it.

The weekend has been an emotional roller-coaster for so many reasons, so what do you make of the action so far? Spurs success – Part of the North London dominance, but what about their opponents? Who deserved their red this ...
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Marcio Leite Celebrates a Goal
By: Brandon Arendt
The Milwaukee Wave cemented their hold on the Central Division lead with a convincing 24-18 win over the Missouri Comets in the US Cellular Arena. Milwaukee remains the only unbeaten team in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) improving to 5-0, while the second place Missouri Comets fell to 4-3 and are now two games behind the Wave.

By Alan Duffy

Wigan Athletic 0-4 Arsenal Premier League 3rd December 2011

Arsenal moved to within two points of a Champions League place after destroying Roberto Martinez' struggling Latics at the DW Stadium.

The 2012 EURO's are slowly approaching, and just yesterday the groups for the initial stages of the tournament were drawn. Below are the resulting groups of the draw:


Group A
Poland, Greece, Russia, Czech Republic
Group B
Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Portugal


Group C
Spain, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Croatia


Group D
Ukraine, Sweden, France, England
As for just about every international tournament, a group of death naturally formed.

Hi everyone,
It has been clearly seen that Roman Abramovich is starving for titles and does everything possible to dominate England and Europe. However, things have not been going the way he wishes. Unlike some other clubs, finance is one of the least of worries that the owner has, thanks to his outside business which does not make him shy to spend almost unlimited amount of money with the club.

El Clasico showdown, Old Firm derby and lots of Man City action in December - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

There's only one more month left in 2011, and it looks like the year will go out with a real bang from a football standpoint.

December features several must-see matches, with a few that will have title implications on top of deciding bragging rights between fierce rivals.