By AVI CREDITOR

Wow. Where do we start? With 15(!) fixtures during Week 31, 10 of the 20 teams in the Barclays Premier League will play two games apiece. Goodbye low-scoring weeks, hello fantasy points.

The double matchweek makes more players than normal viable, not just the high scorers from the top teams.

Click to continue reading...

By AVI CREDITOR

Wow. Where do we start? With 15(!) fixtures during Week 31, 10 of the 20 teams in the Barclays Premier League will play two games apiece. Goodbye low-scoring weeks, hello fantasy points.

The double matchweek makes more players than normal viable, not just the high scorers from the top teams.

Click to continue reading...

Liverpool FC legend Mark Lawrenson believes Rafa Benitez's six year tenure at Anfield should come to an end after this season even if the club finish inside the Premier League's top four.
The former Anfield stalwart suggests Liverpool FC have gone backwards under Rafa Benitez, and the Spaniard's record in the transfer market, particular those in the £10 million bracket, has been poor. Click to continue reading...

Official confirmation of the move:

The Club can confirm that it has reached agreement with Santos for Robinho to join them on a six-month loan. The agreement takes immediate effect and ends on August 4.

Santos will assume all of the player's contract terms, including wages and bonuses.

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Hercules Gomez (yes, that one), left, made his Puebla debut Sunday in Carson, but couldn't stop his team going down to defeat. Here he vies with the ball with Monterrey's Jose Maria Basanta. (AP Photo)

Monterrey take final InterLiga berth Sunday in the nightcap at Home Depot Center.

The early dud game.

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The Fantasy Stuff Legends Are Made Of
For brevity's sake, I'm going to skip the game previews and discuss Studs and Duds as well as a predicted Gameweek 20 Best Eleven... It's that "in between" period in the holiday season, and we all have family / extracurricular / etc. obligations so let's go brief for these midweek fixtures. Click to continue reading...

The United States ended their 2009 slate with a resounding dud, being blitzed in a poor second half start at NRGi Park in Aarhus, Denmark Click to continue reading...

It's a tough situation Bob Bradley finds himself in. With very few friendly dates left before South Africa to test our best against quality opposition, today's game against Denmark appears to be a dud. The US is without its two most recognizable field players, Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, while the Danes basically have a "B" side at their disposal which excludes such recognizable names as Daniel Agger and Niklas Bendtner.

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To be honest this game was kind of a dud for the US. Slovakia got a PK and then packed things in for the rest of the game. You could say the US also didn't help matters out for themselves as they couldn't generate solid offense and when they did have changes, well they just didn't do enough with them.

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Alex Brosque's return to form this season has been a delight to watch, but this sudden move up the ranks comes as a surprise nonetheless. The timing is unfortunate, since Brosque was surprisingly ineffective against Gold Coast United this weekend, especially after the game-changing departure of Steve Corica. Click to continue reading...

Maradona has Argentina on the Verge of the Untinkable
The grueling 18-game round robin CONMEBOL qualifiers are down to the last two match days. Only two teams, Brazil and Paraguay, have secured their pass to their pass to the finals. Two other teams, Peru and Bolivia, have been eliminated. Click to continue reading...

Well, folks, it was bound to happen. It only took about seven weeks, but we've finally hit a truly dud weekend in the Premier League. No matches contested between the 'Big Four' or 'Fringe Two' (City/Spurs). No really big derby matches, unless you want to count Fulham hosting Arsenal, but that's more of a one-way rivalry. Click to continue reading...

There has been a lot of focus in Major League Soccer on the expansion success stories of the past three years Toronto, Seattle and even the surprisingly solid Salt Lake but one new team sticks out like a sore thumb: rooted to the bottom of the Western Conference standings and with an attendance average barely scraping five figures at Buck Shaw Stadium, 2008 expansion team the San Jose Earthquakes are not looking so rosy.

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The Premier League is back, and by now we've surely all read through the season previews and predictions around the web. So let's stick to what we do best - and preview this weekend's fixtures from a fantasy premier league perspective:
In this column every Thursday, we preview (I) the best Premier League match from a neutral's perspective (II) the most fantasy friendly fixture (III) an analysis of stud and dud performers to keep an eye on and (IV) a prediction of a weekly best eleven lineup. Click to continue reading...

Fiorentina had a summer full of speculation regarding their new kits. That all ended when it was announced that the Italian side would sign an extension with Lotto.
Apparently, the Italian outfitter did not put enough time into La Viola's kit as compared to Udinese's.
Status quo. Click to continue reading...

The signing of Emmanuel Adebayor was finally confirmed this afternoon - interestingly the clubs' twitter account leading the way in confirming he was heading to Manchester to sign.
Clearly Arsenal fans are glad to see the back of him, with us seemingly getting our hands on a player who by comparison made Nicolas Anelka a terrace hero. Click to continue reading...

Americans Abroad / USMNT
Who Should The USMNT Start vs. Honduras? - Soccer By Ives
Davies Close To Move To Sochaux Of France - SI.com
Four Score - The MNT Blog
Generation Next: American Left Midfielders - Soccer Academics
Unknown Name Tops List Of American Transfer Targets - Goal (NY Times)
Cup Dry Run Pleases Spector - Soccer365
More American Transfer News/Rumors - Match Fit USA
Feilhaber Called In For Honduras Match - Soccer By Ives
Surrounded By Young US Players, Veteran Hopes To Be Noticed - New York Times
Missing In Action: Edu's Wild Ride - SI. Click to continue reading...

Chicago's Wilman Conde, left, heads in the winning goal over the head of Rapids defender Kosuke Kimura and beyond the reach of goalkeeper Matt Pickens.
(photo by Jonathan Ingraham/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)

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The game was a dud, and so were the fireworks.

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In my last post I prompted a discussion that centers around SUM and its relationship to MLS. If you are unaware of Soccer United Marketing(SUM), it was created at a time when the league was in danger of folding. Just 5 years after its first season in 1996, the league was looking at contraction and possibly worse.

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If transfer rumours in the Daily Mail, The Sun, News of the World, and every other rag out there are to believed*, then the Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid talk is a done deal. It's time Manchester United supporters started coming to grips with the idea of their fleet-footed, fairy winger donning a shirt with the words "BWIN" on the front and blazing down the wing for a squad known as the.

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Wayne Rooney in his preferred attire for GW 38 against Hull
Well, it's all over. At the top of the table at least. Despite Liverpool's valiant efforts, Manchester United have done it again. Kudos to them, I guess.
But for fantasy footie managers (and EPL teams at the bottom of the table), the season is still very much alive. Click to continue reading...

Relax, Ovrebo haters. It's a new day and thus our focus shifts from the Champions League to the Premier League. Let's jump on Wigan's and Manchester United's bandwagons and look at this weekend's action: (I) the best match from a neutral's perspective (II) the most fantasy footie friendly game (III) an analysis of stud and dud performers and (IV) a predicted weekly best eleven. Click to continue reading...

Why waste 10M (Arshavin) on a brilliant midfielder classified as a striker when you can spend just 6.6M (Walcott) for one? Will the cheap Amr Zaki return to Wigan's starting lineup and get in on the goals? Will the even cheaper Nicklas Bendtner put two in the back of the net to send down Boro?
A week of major fantasy question marks due to injuries, rest and rotation news is upon us. Click to continue reading...

If you are the Captain of an American cargo ship in the Indian Ocean, your main threat is probably pirates. If you are the Captain of a fantasy premier league squad, your biggest fear is lack of production - and the wrath of millions of obsessed footie fans worldwide. I'd rather be the Captain of the cargo ship. Click to continue reading...