Photo by David Bernal/ISIphotos.com

By ADAM SERRANO

CARSON, Calif. – The Colorado Rapids squeaked past Chivas USA, 1-0, in a physical preseason scrimmage between the two sides on Tuesday.

Second-half substitute Quincy Amarikwa put the Rapids ahead in the 85th minute.

For much of this season, Spurs number one Brad Friedel has quietly gone about his business and at times, solid performances across the back four have provided him with little to do. When called upon, the American is an uncomplicated keeper who has brought calm between the posts where once there was chaos.

Three goals in seven second half minutes that's all it took for Arsenal to win a game in which they were otherwise unimpressive. While the comeback was miraculous and the result crucial, many problems still remain.

As has been the case for the last month or so, Arsenal started at a pedestrian pace.

They think they're experts. They think we think we're the experts. "He's rubbish!" they say. And us, the good ones we think to ourselves are summoned by our blind loyalty rational thinking to reply: "but he's good ... give him time." And we repeat this until we get exhausted.

They think they're experts. They think we think we're the experts. "He's rubbish!" they say. And us, the good ones we think to ourselves are summoned by our blind loyalty rational thinking to reply: "but he's good ... give him time." And we repeat this until we get exhausted.

The highly anticipated match involving of the U.S. Men's National Team's top talents kicks off at 3 p.m. ET today (FOXSoccer) when Tim Howard and Landon Donovan at Everton welcome Clint Dempsey's Fulham in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Dempsey has been white hot for Fulham, having scored two hat tricks in the last month, including one against Charlton in the third round.

Do you ever expect to win the league again while Wenger is manager at Arsenal?

I was listening to Talk Sport the other evening (I know, I know) when suddenly they posed that question and it struck me like a bolt of lightning. I don't usually take too much notice of the anti-Arsenal rhetoric that Adrian Durham spews out.

It's undoubtedly been a bad few weeks for the club. Speaking to a friend before the United match I suggested that the previous five weeks had been the worst I'd seen us consistently play as a team in the 15 years I've been going to Arsenal. And after the match, we remain pointless in 2012.
But I do think people have suffered from raised expectations.

By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Jan 24, 2012) US Soccer Players -- The National Team is one game into a two-game series that caps another January camp. This annual tradition gives a coach the opportunity to audition players over several weeks, a rarity in most countries. US coach Jurgen Klinsmann has already shown a willingness to experiment, using a different formation from what we've seen with his first choice roster.

Senegal striker Papiss Demba Cisse will team up with international team-mate Demba Ba at Newcastle United after signing from Freiburg for a fee thought to be around £10m.
Cisse has signed a five-and-a-half-year at the club and will wear the much-coveted number nine shirt. The 26-year-old will have to wait for his Newcastle debut due to his involvement in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Wes Brown was repeatedly given a hard time by Sir Alex Ferguson when it came time for contract negotiations. In October 2004 the club had offered Brown what they believed to be a reasonable deal and weren't prepared to budge.

"We've made the boy an offer and he's turned it down," said Ferguson.

It looks like it could be a race between Sebastien Bassong and Giovani Dos Santos to be the first through the White Hart Lane exit door this month with our defender being the first dissenting voice of this transfer window.

Bassong could have gone to Bolton as part of a Gary Cahill deal in the summer but a more likely destination could be QPR, who have been linked with most of the fringe defenders in the Premiership.

By David Walker

The January transfer window is often a frenzied time with chairmen, managers and agents battling against the clock to secure new players. As a result, many players who move during this period often do so at over-inflated transfer fees and are hit-or-miss in terms of success.

Another Ba-rgain buy? Newcastle obviously think they've hit on a successful transfer formula, so they're sticking to it. They've brought another Senegal international striker called Demba with a history of playing in the Bundesliga. Papiss Demba Cisse has signed from Freiburg in a five-and-a-half-year deal, for an undisclosed fee thought to be in the region [.

Good signing from Newcastle today, who completed the signing of Freiburg striker Papiss Demba Cisse for around £10 million. Cisse has signed at five-and-a-half-year deal with Newcastle.

Newcastle will partner Cisse up-front with his international team-mate Demba Ba, whichh should end rumors that Demba Ba is leaving Newcastle anytime soon.

The first choice boot of FC Barcelona and Spain midfielder Cesc F bregas, the PUMA PowerCat 1.12 soccer boot has caused quite a stir in the soccer world since its introduction...

"Shay will go back between the sticks and we explained to Brad that our No. 1 goalkeeper is Shay. Brad didn't necessarily agree but Shay is my first-choice goalkeeper. Football is cruel at times, although Brad's been magnificent. It's the first time I've had a chance to see him in high-profile games and I've been really delighted.

Lazio welcome Atalanta to the Eternal City hoping that last week's humiliation at Siena was a freak performance. Down to 10-men after the sending-off of first choice ‘keeper Albano Bizzarri's , the Biancocelesti were thrashed 4-0 by the relegation-threatened Robur. It was nothing less than they deserved.

Their Words "They're getting the music. They understand that the pace internationally is much faster. The demand is much faster in terms of the concentration, speed of play, speed of thought, speed of implementing certain things." US National Team coach Jurgen Klinsmann. Other Sources Montreal's first choice in MLS draft is versatile - from The Kansas City Star's Randy Covitz: Where to play him?

Despite struggling to overtake David de Gea as Manchester United's outright first choice goalkeeper, Anders Lindegaard has the highest save percentage in the Premier League through 20 games.

The Dane, who caught people's attention when he kept 5 clean sheets in his first 5 Premier League starts has saved 84.

New York-area soccer fans are in for a summer treat.

Brazil and Argentina will square off in a June 9 friendly at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., pitting the two South American rivals and some of the top players in the world against each other. The date falls on a FIFA international fixture date, meaning that first-choice players like Lionel Messi and Neymar should be available for selection, though that is far from being a certainty at this point.

Ipswich boss Paul Jewell is hopeful of signing Leicester City defender Sean St Ledger after agreeing a fee as well as personal terms with the player.
But Jewell says the 27-year-old Irish international, who has made eight league starts this term, has a number of offers to consider.

"It would be an amazing opportunity to be able to stay here at Rayo."

Freddy Adu has been in Spain for what seems like five minutes, but already he views it as his future if chances open to him. Therein lies the problem with Adu: his ambition to play in Europe will once again be detrimental to both his current team and to his soccer career.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The long-rumored friendly between the United States and Italy appears to have come to fruition.

The Italian soccer federation announced that the Azzurri will host the United States at Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa on Feb. 29, the first FIFA international fixture date of the new year.

It's probably the worst kept secret in Singapore football beyond the would DPMM rejoin in 2012 but Darren Stewart has moved to take charge of Balestier Khalsa after several years with Gombak United.
Stewart had built an exciting team at the Bulls a couple of years back and looked set to break the Uniforms monopoly on the SLeague when it was decided by the powers that be that Gabrial Obatala and Kingsley Njoku could no longer stay in the country therefore depriving the team of their first choice strikers with the seasons just 180 minutes old.

Today Colorado made it official and hired Oscar Pareja as the team's 7th head coach. The Rapids say 6th but I like to count Roy Wegerle's 1 game as player/manager at the end of the 1996 season. ;) There's been no details as to the amount or length of his contract other than "long" according to Tim Hinchey at the press conference.

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.

The second half of this player review now, looking at our players who were decent, but not great this season so far, for several reason. We also look at our younger players who made their debuts this term.

Santos' 2nd most meaningful contribution this season (after his goal at Chelsea, of course.

By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Jan 2, 2012) US Soccer Players -- National Team camp opens today in Phoenix, and with it a new set of expectations for the coaching staff. With head coach Jurgen Klinsmann stressing first choice since taking the job last summer, he gets his first look at a group he's calling "the next in line behind the established players.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp has once again insisted that this will be a quiet month for Spurs and has warned fans not to expect any new arrivals this month.

Speaking to the Mirror over the weekend Harry said,

"It's extremely unlikely we will be doing any business in this window.

Debatable decisions from an otherwise horrible refereeing

In the two games that we've played Fulham this season, we've only managed to garner 1 point. For a club with ambitions of winning trophies and finishing as high up the league table as possible, that is simply not good enough. With Chelsea winning their match before the start of ours, it was imperative for us to match their result to maintain our 4th spot in the league.

It was chucking it down with rain as the teams took the field at Anfield, with Newcastle United wearing their first choice kit of Puma's version of black and white stripes. Three ex-united players were in the Liverpool team: Bellamy, Enrique, and of course, Andy Carroll. There was also some bloke called Jordan Henderson, who, [.

The Japan 2012/13 home, away and third goalkeeper uniforms were unveiled as part of Monday's launch of the Japan adidas 12/13 men's and women's national soccer teams' home kits. The new kits to be worn by Blue Samurai first choice goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima and current backups Shusaku Nishikawa and Kaito Yamamoto all the same brand [.

Liverpool's Jose Enrique insists he should be given a chance to prove his worth in the Spanish national team ahead of next summer's European Championships.
The left-back has impressed at Anfield since joining from Newcastle United in the summer, but as of yet has failed to feature for his country above under-21 level.

Yearning to get back in the middle of things

Football returns today amidst the festivities but for Arsenal the game will not be on Boxing Day as tube strike prevented the game from going ahead today. Of the teams ahead of us, 3 of them play later today. Chelsea are up against Fulham, United at home to Wigan and City away to WBA.

Yearning to get back in the middle of things

Football returns today amidst the festivities but for Arsenal the game will not be on Boxing Day as tube strike prevented the game from going ahead today. Of the teams ahead of us, 3 of them play later today. Chelsea are up against Fulham, United at home to Wigan and City away to WBA.

Yearning to get back in the middle of things

Football returns today amidst the festivities but for Arsenal the game will not be on Boxing Day as tube strike prevented the game from going ahead today. Of the teams ahead of us, 3 of them play later today. Chelsea are up against Fulham, United at home to Wigan and City away to WBA.

It's past Christmas and we are two rounds of matches away from being at the halfway point of the season. At the beginning of January in 2011, during the previous campaign, Chelsea were outside the top 4 they were in the middle of a disastrous spell under Carlo Ancelotti whilst Manchester United were top and comfortably clear of Manchester City in second.

When was the last time you heard the words "Wenger must buy" followed by any of the following: Jagielka, Cahill, Samba, Hangeland?

It seems only weeks ago that were as many headlines linking us with other clubs' defenders as there are stars in the sky or skeletons in John Terry's closet.

Now.

Thomas Rooney takes us through some of the candidates and they're not necessarily the ones you'd expect.

The FA have begun their annual search to find out who England fans rate as their player of the year for 2011. With the disappointment of 2010 well behind us, 2011 has certainly been a much brighter year for the national team, with renewed optimism about their hopes for Euro 2012.