Africa Cup of Nations final preview Zambia are winners regardless of result is a post from: Just Football

With the final today, here is my latest Africa Cup of Nations 2012 column for FourFourTwo.com on Zambia and their remarkable journey to the final:

Together they walked slowly to the coastline, singing in unison.

In an interview with "Talk Sport" radio, their French correspondent, Philippe Auclaair, who claims to know Demba Ba and his entourage well, tried to clarify comments made by Newcastle United hitman Demba Ba in a recent interview with French sports radio RNC. In the interview he said he thought that the player would stay at [.

Real Madrid goalkeeper, Iker Casillas will actually have a street in his home town, Mostoles (a suburb of Madrid) named after him! The city's Mayor Esteban Parro, proposed the idea and he is now waiting for the City Council to approve the change of name of the "Avenida de los Deportes" to the "Iker Casillas Avenue.

Every Wednesday, we discuss the quirky outside stories in the world of football. This week, read about Ronaldo's wedding, Mario Balotelli's insane level of vanity and IkerBonero!

Drop what you're doing right now because your best friend and hair confidante, Cristiano Ronaldo, is set to marry his mujer, Russian supermodel Irina Shayk!

Irfan Bachdim burst on the Indonesian football scene some 12 months back but unfortunately it wasn't only his football people were talking about. His supposed boyish good looks, done nothing for me, had teenage girls swooning in ways Budi Sudarsono and Jendri Pitoy could only dream about. Bachdim, and his model girlfriend, moved from the sports pages to the front pages as the celebrity world discovered him and, momentarily at least, made the national team cooler than a polar bear in Raybans.

Manchester City's Spanish forward David Silva slammed Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque for his biased team selection and claimed that the only reason he never featured regularly for his national team was because he was not a Barcelona or Real Madrid player.

City are indeed having a good season so far and many people are starting to take their title ambitions very seriously.

Morning from quite rainy indeed Dublin.

Some interesting developments regarding Juan Mata to kick us off. According to The Mirror his 'entourage' flew in to London yesterday to discuss a move (is his agent called Ari D'Oro?), while The Mail says we've agreed a fee with Valencia. If true it probably opens the door a little further to Cesc's departure, dependent as it always has been on Barcelona paying the money required.

By now, we all know how the Women's World Cup played out. Despite theheartbreaking outcome, the USWNT hasn't had much time to feel down about their loss to Japan on penalty kicks.

It's been 12 years since the US was in a Women's World Cup final and this American team showed such class, pride and respect that they captured the hearts of a nation.

Image via Michael Loccisano/Getty Images North America.

Since we're still on a high from the phenomenal Women's World Cup final, we've got two more tidbits on the USWNT to share with our lovely readership:

- Alex Morgan and Hope Solo attended the premiere of season eight of Entourage in NYC last night and looked gorgeous while doing so.

A five match USA tour by Manchester United possibly requires a bigger entourage than a world concert tour by U2 or The Rolling Stones! Okay, that may be a little over the top - although it cannot be...
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What are the expectations? That is key.

I think people are getting it confused. Hiring a manager who actually has a clue will not get us the World Cup final, and perhaps not the quarters this cycle either.

That is not the discussion we should be having. That is not the appropriate metric to use.

Fabregas is threatening to do an Anelka and go on strike if Arsenal do not agree to sell him to Barcelona. The words did not come from Cesc but from one of his entourage and reported in the Catalan press.

Despite Cesc's protestations that he is happy at Arsenal and any move will be up to Wenger to decide, clearly he is lying and if he refused to return to training then he will join the likes of Anelka in the list of hated ex-Arsenal players.

Just more than 24 hours out from the USA's first game at the World Cup, friends and family have started to arrive. After today's morning training, the team had some down time and some relatives were able to visit the hotel to see their favorite players.
Jack McBean's dad has made the trip to Torreon.

Il concerto è stato annullato, ufficialmente, per "motivi tecnici". Parliamo di quello che, in Almeria aspettava Shakira (nome d'arte di Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll) e i componenti del suo entourage. Ma, dietro la motivazione "tecnica" potrebbe esserci, invece, uno "stato interessante". Infatti, si vocifera che la causa reale dell'annullamento sia la dolce attesa di un [.

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Telegraph Piece/John Ley
Queens Park Rangers celebrate after beating Watford but their fate has yet to be decided by FA
Little with Queens Park Rangers is straightforward.

Whoa. I'm not even gonna lie - they snuck this one right past me. Had no clue, still surprised. Must... formulate... column...By the way, is it just me, or could Benny stand-in for Vince on Entourage?- Greg Seltzer

Not since Manchester United found its way on to an episode of Entourage in 2007 has a mainstream television sitcom in the United States had a Premier League match as it's storyline. That is until last night when NBC's show entitled Community, starring Chevy Chase and Joel McHale, had a sub plot focused on a match between Manchester United and Liverpool.