United went into last night's Champions League tie with CSKA Moscow needing just a point to ensure qualification to the knockout phase of the competition, it should have been a formality - in theory at least anyway - but it wasn't. United have made a habit of doing it the hard way and last night's performance was no different, after going 3-1 down it eventually finished up 3-3 on what was a night Click to continue reading...

I won't write what I wanted to write after watching the Kansas City game, because the more I kicked it around, it was a trite and cliche angle. The game was exciting, and the team fought as hard as they could (in the second half). Reckless desperation is always pretty fun to watch, but as DCUMD noted, a lack of defensive concentration (which is not a skill but an effort) ended our season.

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A common theme I have posted about this season is expectation - where victories become a formality. This is what can ultimately separate teams who do, and don't make it to the top four.
Whilst the media focus on defeats (as we have seen with Liverpool recently), too many draws can be equally damaging in terms of ambition. Click to continue reading...

I've posted previously about a changing mentality in this City side, whereby if we are to make a genuine attempt at a top six (or higher) position there needs to be an expectation of achieving victory heading into games - in that the three points become a formality rather than something hoped for.
A home game versus Fulham has to be such a game. Click to continue reading...

The 30 name shortlist for the 2009 Ballon d'Or nominees has been announced, a formality they may well have dispensed with as we all know Lionel Messi will walk away with the trophy. I did note however, one glaring fact when scrolling down the list of the largely usual suspects – not a single Italian is to be found.

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An unpredictable season took another twist this weekend as two challengers lost and another could only draw as the season really starts to take shape.

I suppose we should be thankful for the Liverpool fan who threw the inflatable ball onto the pitch for ensuring they lost at Sunderland, but from what I saw on Match of the Day on Saturday night they really don't look that threatening without Gerrard and Torres in the side.

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A document actually nicknamed The Doomsday Book was prepared as Tom Hicks and George Gillett flirted with catastrophe last season.
It spelled out the consequences if the owners' failed to secure their £290million refinance deal.
And it was only because the Royal Bank of Scotland feared a massive backlash if they allowed one of the world's biggest clubs to go into administration that Liverpool were able to reject a £70m bid from Manchester City for Fernando Torres. Click to continue reading...

The ever troubled French national team will be facing the Faroe Islands @ Guingamp, the 2009 winner of the Coupe de France and "birthplace" of the current Chelsea partnership of Didier Drogba and Florent Malouda. The match should be a formality but even with a win against Austria at Stade de France on Wednesday , it will take a miracle to see France finish first of group 7 and qualify directly for the World Cup. Click to continue reading...

Sunday 4th October, 2000 BST. Many Arsenal fans are celebrating champagne football conquer Allardyce's Blackburn. A few with� bottles of champagne or bottles of Cava� if you're not as affluent like me. Could the day get even better? The England squad selection is revealed. Theo is not picked for the England senior team.

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In the 2006-7 season Blackburn came to the Grove and scored in the third minute. Arsenal went on to win the game 6-2.

Yesterday Blackburn scored in the fourth minute and the result was exactly the same. I don't think it'd be unfair to say Arsenal might have scored more too, in what was probably their best attacking display of the season.

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It may have been the worst kept secret in Minnesota, but the word is official now. Cody Cropper, the 16 year old goalkeeping phenomena from Maple Grove, MN is on his way to Leicester City FC to become their newest youth academy player.

Meet Cody Cropper – Leicester FC's Newest Youth Academy Player

As reported at IMS back in August, Cody Cropper was in England from mid-July through mid-August with English Championship League team, Leicester City FC.

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It may have been the worst kept secret in Minnesota, but the word is official now. Cody Cropper, the 16-year-old goalkeeping phenomenon from Maple Grove, MN is on his way to Leicester City FC to become their newest youth academy player.

Meet Cody Cropper – Leicester FC's Newest Youth Academy Player

As reported at IMS back in August, Cody Cropper was in England from mid-July through mid-August with English Championship League team, Leicester City FC.

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When the Carling Cup Round 3 draw was first made, it was very difficult to imagine West Bromwich Albion providing much of a competition to Arsenal at The Emirates. Granted, Arsene Wenger uses the competition to provide some first-team action to his reserves, but even those teenagers usually prove to be a handful for the opponents.

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One of the Republic of Ireland's better known and successful defenders, Richard Dunne appears to have agreed a move to Aston Villa. Although the contract has yet to be signed, it does appear to be a formality. He was seen at Villa's training ground on Friday, and ... Click to continue reading...

AmericanSoccerNews.net was one of the first publications to embrace Twitter as journalistic tool one year ago (almost to the day). We've since seen the technology explode for good and bad. We recently came across Tweeterview, a site that allows users to conduct interviews through Twitter, and thought it would be a great idea to try it out.

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From Chicago Fire Confidential:

Well after months of rumors and a few days of unofficial reports, the transfer of the now former Fire Defender Bakary Soumare to Boulogne of the French First Division has finally gone through.
Of course, this news is merely a formality at this point -- I think we all knew Baky was going to go to the newly promoted club -- but all the same, the official aspect of it makes it a little more real.

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"It's not job done, it's job to do"

Arsene Wenger on tonight's game against Celtic in the Champions League qualifying round. Given the 2-0 lead, the start to the season we've made and the fact we're playing at home many think tonight is just a formality.

Now, I would be quite confident indeed that we can go through tonight, nevertheless I think we ought to be a little cautious.

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A report in today's Globe & Mail newspaper hints at Dwayne De Rosario's growing unhappiness at the state of BMO Field's dreadful Field Turf and its effect on his long-term plans. When asked if the green polyester slacks which substitute for grass in Toronto makes him question his future, the all-star midfielder said "Yeah, kind of, in a way, because my career depends on me playing, and if turf is hampering the longevity of my career, then you have to question how long can you actually deal with playing on turf. Click to continue reading...

What is the official name of this new round anyway? Fourth round? "Playoff bracket"? How about "the mere formality", because that's what it turned out to be yesterday. While all were hoping for a big upset and a Champions League Cinderella, the big clubs went quietly about taking care of business, disposing of the riff [. Click to continue reading...

The second leg of the Champions League preliminary round continues with two matches tonight. One is a mere formality; the other isn't. New York Red Bulls - W Connection 1700 (2-2 agg.) Cruz Azul - Herediano 2000 (6-1 agg.) Commentary after the jump. Text commentaries to be added later. See you then. Click to continue reading...

Whilst Arsene Wenger has been quiet in the transfer market with regards the first team, the same cannot be said with the youth recruitment programme.

Arsenal have signed Jamie Edge a centre half from Cheltenham Town. The youngster is 15 years old and will be one of many additions to the youth set up this summer.

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The news Arsenal fans have been waiting to hear all summer... Adebayor is on his way to Manchester City.

� Manchester City have reportedly agreed a fee in the region of £20million for the want-away striker with Arsenal and the Togo striker and his agent are in Manchester to agree a contract.

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The big news of the weekend thus far is the completion of the formality that was Cristiano Ronaldo's world-record £80m transfer from Manchester United to Real Madrid. In case you hadn't heard though, Ronaldo has signed a six-year deal with Real, and he'll officially be unveiled as a Real player on July 6.

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So...Ronaldo is finally going. And to his favoured destination - Real Madrid. At 9.33am Thursday morning, the media and football blogging world started to report the breaking news of an accepted ₤80m bid for the World Player of The Year. The deal looks to be a formality with most papers saying that it is just a question of when. Click to continue reading...

Yes, it's been awhile, but by the time May had rolled around (we begin months on the tenth or thereabouts) we decided to eliminate the confusion and allow the lads to duke it out on the field. They did, someone won, and selecting the best team became a mere formality. (That'd be golden Barcelona if [. Click to continue reading...

OK, so we now have World Cup Qualifiers to watch over the next few days. Some of them will be great games, some of them will be a formality. All of them present us with opportunities to learn more about the game so that we can take this new found knowledge onto the practice field.

Here are my Top 5 Things to look for in a soccer game:

1.

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Dario Verón scored in the 89th minute to secure Pumas' spot in the Final
After the results of the first legs of the Mexican Primera's semifinal round, the second legs were to be nothing more than a formality. 90 minutes of kickball that was to do nothing but prolong the inevitable final between Pumas and Pachuca. Click to continue reading...

Don't look now, but the vaunted Montreal Impact, whose 2008 Nutrilite Championship launched them into a stirring CONCACAF Champions League run which was the cause of much chest-thumping and preening by "owner" Joey "Frat Boy" Saputo, is pretty much dead in the water in their campaign for a repeat.
Their 2-0 loss to Vancouver last night, coupled with last week's loss at BMO, leaves them 6 points behind TFC after only two games. Click to continue reading...

Australia's World Cup qualification seems like nothing more than a formality. It only requires a single point from its final three matches. Given this, they can begin to look towards the 2010 soccer World Cup and anticipate who or what they can expect when they make it back to soccer's ... Click to continue reading...

After Tuesday night's exit from the Champions League, it was so easy to write this season off as over - after all, we're highly unlikely to catch Chelsea but we're assured in fourth, so the remaining league matches are merely a formality, right?

Wrong. Meaningless as far as our positional finish they may be, but the next two games are against Chelsea and United, who are responsible for us failing to reach either of the two cup finals we were chasing.

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Stewart Downing will hold out for a £12million summer move to Liverpool before deciding his future.
Middlesbrough winger Downing, 24, is back on Rafa Benitez's list of targets as the Kop boss was turned down in his first bid to sign Valencia's David Silva.
Silva remains Benitez's first choice but he also needs to add more English blood to his squad. Click to continue reading...

Sunday afternoon was a stroll in the park in the sunshine. Victories do not come much easier and Wenger's first win against Gareth Southgate was a formality, making us 20 games unbeaten in the League. The team is coming together nicely, Arshavin and Cesc are on some sort of magical wavelength, Eboue is splitting defences open with accurate passes and Bendtner is leading the line like he has suggested he can.

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With all the talk about a Man United quintuple in the English media you would have thought this match was merely a formality. But Tim Howard, discarded as surplus to the requirements at United in 2006 came back to haunt his old side today with a fantastic match and two clutch PK shootout saves.

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At first, the fact that Barca play the return leg away may have looked like a serious downside, but after our 4-0 thrashing of Bayern on Camp Nou, qualification will be no problem.
It's purely impossible that we will lose on a five goal difference. And hardly likely that we won't win, even. Click to continue reading...

According to US Soccer, although I read it first on Kenn's site.
Oh, sure, it hasn't "officially" been announced, but I think we can all agree that's a formality. Put a fresh coat of pink paint in the visitors' locker rooms - the World Cup is coming to Iowa City!
The only real question is whether Kinnick hosts the Final, or whether they're willing to settle for the opening game. Click to continue reading...