Liverpool v Manchester City? Tish tosh! The biggest match of the weekend is actually taking place in Seattle and involves a certain Mr. Posh – as our MLS correspondent� Andy Taylor reports:

Sunday night's� MLS Cup Final is set with an unheralded� Real Salt Lake squad squaring off against the� LA Galaxy,� David Beckham and his ever-growing collection of tattoos.

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2010 is on the horizon and it's safe to say that it's been a wonderful decade for football. We here at Footy Factor have taken the opportunity to celebrate the greatest teams, players, and matches of the past 10 years. Next up...

Upset of the Decade

Winner: Senegal 1 –� France� 0 (2002 World Cup, Group Stage).

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Something fishy� is going on at� Stamford Bridge.� Chelsea's marquee signing of the summer – 18-million-pound-man Yuri Zhirkov -� � has yet to play a league game for the club and has played less than a combined 90 minutes for them in all competitions. Ever since his big money move from CSKA Moscow in July, the Russian winger and fullback has been trying to shake off a mysterious rash of injuries that have even baffled club doctors.

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With football heavyweights France, Portugal and Russia looking to seal their place in South Africa you would be a fool to discount the action in Europe. But tonight in Omdurman, the largest city in Sudan, Egypt and Algeria clash in the day's most explosive tie.

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With football heavyweights France, Portugal and Russia looking to seal their place in South Africa you would be a fool to discount the action in Europe. But tonight in Omdurman, the largest city in Sudan, Egypt and Algeria clash in the day's most explosive tie.

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South Africa is getting for all the attention they will receive during the 2010 fifa world cup. The World Cup draw is only a short two weeks away. Many people have expressed doubt about the South African venue, and there is tremendous pressure on the country. The construction of beautiful new stadiums have silenced some critics, and [. Click to continue reading...

Saturday's demoralizing one-nil home loss to France in the first leg of their� World Cup play-off sees the� Republic of Ireland� facing an uphill task to reach next summer's showpiece. As French fans start booking their flights to South Africa, the Irish faithful are left praying for a miracle.

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2010 is on the horizon and it's safe to say that it's been a wonderful decade for football. We here at Footy Factor have taken the opportunity to celebrate the greatest teams, players, and matches of the past 10 years. � Next up...

Free Kick Taker of the Decade

Winner: Juninho Pernambucano.

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There's never a dull moment in the life of Diego Armando Maradona. Following last month's crunch World Cup qualifying victory over Uruguay, guaranteeing his side's passage to next summer's Finals, the current Argentina coach unleashed an almighty, foul-mouthed tirade at journalists and critics.

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Just weeks to go until the bubbly is uncorked and the drunken masses spill into messy versions of� auld lang syne. We here at Footy Factor are celebrating the decade's end by honouring the� best football teams, figures, matches and moments of the past 10 years.

First up...

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In August 1992, on the opening day of the inaugural Premier League season, 22 teams took to pitches up and down the country with just 11 players born outside the British Isles named in the starting line-ups. 17 seasons later and with the foreign invasion showing no signs of slowing down, English born players have become a minority in their own top flight.

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We think diving is as much a stain on the modern game as the next person, but it's come to the point that when someone wins a penalty the armchair fans instinctively brandish the player a liar and a cheat. Such was the case after Monday's Liverpool v Birmingham match, when Lee Carsley's lunge at David Ngog in the penalty box earned the Reds a penalty kick, a valuable point, and ultimately gave Rafa Benitez a stay of execution.

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Football Remembers. Commemorating the end of World War I, prior to each of this weekend's fixtures, football fans up and down the country stood unified in a minute's silence to remember the fallen servicemen from wars gone by. It's good to know that football fans can spot the real heroes.

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‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow.� Between the crosses, row on row...'

91 years ago today, World War 1 hostilities ended. To commemorate the anniversary, most Premier League clubs will be sporting fresh kits this weekend emblazoned with the poppy emblem. Only three out of the twenty clubs in the league are refusing to conform to public sentiment: Manchester United, Liverpool and Bolton.

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Sunday's top of the table clash between Chelsea and Manchester United pits the current Premiership Champions against the current FA Cup winners for the second time this season. The Blues beat the Red Devils on penalties in the annual curtain-raiser, the Community Shield.

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Prior to last night's match against Chelsea at the Estadio Vicente Calderon, Footy Factor called in some favors from our Spanish counterparts and shot some telling footage of Atletico Madrid's pre-match warm-up. Do you notice who's missing?

PS. On a side note, check out Jose Antonio Reyes' hop-step-jump over the touchline.

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You've got to give� Steve McClaren some credit. The man was a pitiful England manager, but for a brief moment in time he was able to derail one of the most powerful forces in modern football:� David Beckham.

When Becks stepped down as England's captain after the� 2006 World Cup, McClaren dropped him entirely from the team.

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Pompey mount revival. Following a miserable season start of 7 losses, conceding 13 goals and netting just 3 in the process, the South Coast club, rooted in last place, were everyone's early season pick for relegation. But how quickly things change in football. In the last 4 matches, Portsmouth have scored 10 goals, conceded just 2 and amassed 7 crucial points on the way to Premiership survival.

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Portsmouth fans have had very little to cheer about this season. A record-breaking losing streak to kick-off their campaign coupled with persistent ownership rumours has seen Pompey become every punter's bet for the drop. Goals have ultimately been the problem on the South Coast, with the club netting only 5 in 10 matches prior to Saturday's Wigan encounter.

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Dressing up on Halloween isn't a challenge to be taken lightly. It's not just about the eating sweets, making friends and putting dog feces through mail boxes. It means much more than that. It's the one night when everyone on the planet can wear whatever they want and be whomever they wish.

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Back in September 2008, when Dimitar Berbatov and Man United CEO David Gill put the finishing touches on a lucrative 4-year contract tying the enigmatic Bulgarian to Old Trafford for the prime years of his career, you would have been an absolute plonker to ask the question.

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No, not Liverpool;� everything's coming up roses for Rafa since his Sunday Revival. No... we're talking about the OTHER club along the banks of the Mersey. The Blue one. The home of Alan Ball,� Neville Southall, and Dixie Deane. The club� that was supposed to be challenging for that fourth place this season.

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Joe Cole is back. In his first Premier League start since January following cruciate knee ligament injury, the pint-sized midfielder produced a mesmerizing attacking display brimming with pace and invention. At the heart of Chelsea's attacking play from the get go, Cole seamlessly linked midfield and attack from the ‘hole' behind Anelka and Drogba inspiring the Blues to a resounding five-nil drubbing of Blackburn.

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On Tuesday night, Boro sacked Gareth Southgate: cue rejoicing on Teesside. Southgate was the clueless manager who got us relegated for the first time in 12 years. He was the man who took us from the Uefa Cup to the foot of the table. He was the man who sold our best players, and brought in our worst.

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Sunday's match between Manchester United and Liverpool has all the ingredients for an October classic:� Fernando Torres v� Nemanja Vidic.� Antonio Valencia v� Glen Johnson.� Alex Ferguson v Rafa Benitez. All of it being played against the backdrop that one more loss for Liverpool would mean curtains on their title aspirations.

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After 27 years supporting Middlesbrough Football Club, I could be forgiven for thinking I had seen it all. Cup finals, relegations, promotions. Liquidation, Europe. Memorable victories and crushing defeats. I thought nothing about the club would ever truly surprise me again. Tuesday night, I was proven wrong.

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There are plenty of reasons to be disappointed with Rafa Benitez right about now. Liverpool head into this weekend's match against� Manchester United with the prospect of lodging their fifth defeat on the trot. After such high expectations for this season, Liverpool have been finally exposed as a two-man team.

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Gareth Southgate has been relieved of his duties as manager of Middlesbrough Football Club with immediate effect. The decision was announced in the early hours of this morning and came hot on the heels of yesterday's 2-0 victory over Derby County at the Riverside.

The win over Derby ended a run of three straight home defeats in the Championship, and it is this along with falling home attendences - less than 17,500 for the Derby game - that is being rumoured as the contributing factors to Southgate's dismissal.

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Winning the World Cup twice on the trot is one of the hardest feats in sports and that's exactly what Italy are aiming to do next summer in South Africa.� Yesterday, we gave you the first two keys if Italy are going to pull off the historic double. Today, we present the final two.

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It is very difficult, if not downright foolish, to predict how a team will perform at a major tournament like the� World Cup in the immediate aftermath of qualification. But such is the assignment with which I have been tasked.

As such, let me say that I do believe the defending world champions of Italy have the talent to win the World Cup again (and certainly as compared to other teams.

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During a week in which the cheeky antics of America's "balloon boy" captivated the world, the Stadium of Light's "beach ball boy" brought controversy to the Premiership. Blurred out in photos by the press for his own protection, we at Footy Factor can finally reveal who the culprit is that cost Liverpool their fourth loss of the season.

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Carlo's ‘cross' with the defence. What do Abdoulaye Faye,� Titus Bramble, James Collins, and Richad Dunne have in common? They've all scored against Chelsea from crosses into the box. Totaling half of Chelsea's goals conceded for the season, 8 in 8 matches, Carlo Ancelotti must address his teams crossing deficiency before their title challenge resumes against high-flying, Lancashire derby winners,� Blackburn.

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The January transfer season began in earnest this week with rumors flying that Manchester City and� Barcelona were working on a deal involving Robinho. But chalk it up to pure speculation because this transfer doesn't make sense for either club. Here are three reasons why:

Barcelona Can't Come Up with the Cash: Manchester City would want to recoup their £32.

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Rumors that� a certain former England coach� was on the verge of taking the helm of North Korea's football team, which qualified for the� World Cup for the first time in 44 years, sent FootyFactor headquarters into a tizzy yesterday.

In the history of� odd couples, we cannot think of a more� far-fetched� but perfectly harmonious pair than� North Korean dictator� Kim Jong-il and� Swedish hard� man� Sven Goran Eriksson.

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Either it's a harbinger for the misery to come or the prologue to one of the greatest sports upsets ever, but� � England� will arrive in South Africa next summer brandishing new lows in their quality of goalkeeping. Never before have the� Three Lions been represented at the World Cup by a keeper who has just finished the season with a side that got relegated. Click to continue reading...