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- Forty Years Ago Today: Rodney Marsh's Final Game for QPR at Loftus Road (Played another couple away, before his sale)
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- Follow QPR REPORT on TWITTER!
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- QPR REPORT MESSAGEBOARD - Visit the cutting-edge, football-only, QPR Report messageboard
- Visit the truly-fascinating Bushman QPR Photo Archives - QPR's 1971-1972 Season in Photos
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- Forty Years Ago Today: Rodney Marsh's Final Game for QPR at Loftus Road (Played another couple away, before his sale)
- "Must Watch" VIDEO!

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- Forty Years Ago Today: Rodney Marsh's Final Game for QPR at Loftus Road (Played another couple away, before his sale)
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- Follow QPR REPORT on TWITTER!
-
- QPR REPORT MESSAGEBOARD - Visit the cutting-edge, football-only, QPR Report messageboard
- Visit the truly-fascinating Bushman QPR Photo Archives - QPR's 1971-1972 Season in Photos
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- Forty Years Ago Today: Rodney Marsh's Final Game for QPR at Loftus Road (Played another couple away, before his sale)
- "Must Watch" VIDEO!

In the second preseason game of the season, KC once again took care of business, this time against their First Kick opponent DC United. What would be assumed to be the first team started the game again for Kansas City. It was the same lineup as KC put out against San Jose last weekend, with one exception.

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- - From the Bushman Photo Archives
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- Follow QPR REPORT on TWITTER!
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- QPR REPORT MESSAGEBOARD - Visit the cutting-edge, football-only, QPR Report messageboard
- Visit the truly-fascinating Bushman QPR Photo Archives - QPR's 1971-1972 Season in Photos
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- "Must Watch Video"!

Without a doubt, the book that Simon Kuper (British author and Financial Times sportswriter) is most famous for is Soccernomics. Soccernomics takes a look at the analytical side of the sport; the statistics, the psychology, and the economics behind why certain trends and results in soccer are the way they are.

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- Follow QPR REPORT on TWITTER!
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- QPR REPORT MESSAGEBOARD - Visit the cutting-edge, football-only, QPR Report messageboard
- Visit the truly-fascinating Bushman QPR Photo Archives - QPR's 1971-1972 Season in Photos
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- Great Video!

The Return of Luis Suárez - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Ahead of the Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur match on Monday night, we look at the return of Luis Suárez and how Liverpool have fared in the Premier League in his absence.

Luis Suárez returns to the Liverpool squad for Monday night's game at home to Tottenham Hotspur following a much publicised eight-game suspension.

I 7-1 to be a Blackburn fan? No, it doesn't quite work, does it. One day we'll get to the promised land of an 8 goal victory, and all the wonderful pun-based jokes this allows. For today, I think 7 will do. My thoughts as follows:
* We started brightly, and scored after only 2 minutes.

Sebastien Le Toux and Kyle Nakazawa were seen as the two major free kick takers on the Philadelphia Union through the team's first two seasons of existence.

For Le Toux it was because of his massive number of free kicks, coupled with a perceived high failure rate on them. Nakazawa's status as a free kick taker came from a mystique that he developed among the Union's fan base from great technique.

Nakamura, we adore ya Ex-Celtic midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura is now plying his trade back in his homeland for Yokohama F Marinos. At the age of 34 Nakamura clearly feels that he has been doing normal training for too long, and so now just practises his free kicks in weird situations. This beauty was filmed during [.

Note: This post comes with a Geek Alert!
Television has had a profound influence on football: the players, agents, business models of clubs, the relationship between league play and international football - you name it. And few television programs are more loved by fans than highlight shows like the BBC's Match of the Day, which has been on the air with interruptions) since 1964.

We've all seen the 'magic spray' soccer trainers use to heal injured soccer players everyone wonders what it is and given how it often causes a miraculous recovery, it must be magic.

While researching something else in the USSF Advice To Referees and IFAB Memorandums, I came across this section in the USSF 2011-2012 Laws of the Game Memorandum:

5.

[101gg]

For whatever reason, the story of this week's Coppa Italia rounds has been free kicks and their fashionably late arrivals. Three games stole the headlines with late, late drama on the back of excellent free kicks, one each the last three days.

Today it was Goran Pandev's controversial oh-no-he-didn't/oh-yes-he-did ball which no one will remember by about.

So the Premier League season is finally here, it's Tottenham Hotspur's opening game versus Everton..........

That's how the preview for this one should have started, but the unfortunate and unseemly rioting of early August put paid to Spurs opening fixture. Now this is the game in hand it's vital that Spurs get maximum points if they want to be taken seriously as title challengers.

New Melbourne Victory interim coach Jim Magilton isn't just a football manager. He was also quite a decent player in his day and at 42 years of age he's still got the skills. Here he is wipping in some nice free kicks that even Carlos Hernandez would be proud of in the Hyundai Football Challenge last year.

One of the most pleasing moments to see in our game is a goal being scored from a dead ball situation, or primarily, a free kick. Over the course of history there have been numerous occasions where a player will simply make your jaw drop in striking a perfect shot past a flailing goalkeeper's hands from 20-35 yards out.

So, how's that crossing toward Carroll thing going?
Through the first 17 league games, Liverpool averaged just under 19 crosses per match. In the three since, Liverpool are averaging exactly 35 crosses per match, with 43 against Blackburn, 26 against Newcastle, and 36 against City.

Match report Video -

Defeat is generally a painful experience. Defeat in circumstances like yesterday's even more so. It was late, very late, and pretty much self-inflicted.

It came after what was a pretty good opening 45 minutes from us. We were energetic, good going forward and while Fulham had their moments I thought we contained them pretty well defensively.

When Aston Villa starting goalkeeper Shay Given went down with an injury in an early December match against Manchester United, Alex McLeish was forced to turn to American backup Brad Guzan, who has been patiently waiting for a starting role in the Premier League ever since joining Villa from Chivas USA in 2008.

The 25 best goals of the year you won't see on Match of the Day video special!

This year has been a cracking one for special goals from Wayne Rooney's spectacular overhead kick against Manchester City in February, to Robin van Persie's stunner against Everton just a few weeks ago.

- Maxi Rodriguez

It's a cliche, especially in the sports world, to describe a certain "electricity in the air" surrounding a sporting event. Used to describe everything ranging from the enthusiasm that precedes a Vegas title fight, to the excitement that surrounds certain sports memorabilia conventions, the idiom is a crutch for the generic sportswriter in the face of stifling deadlines.

Honestly, despite my reputation as the Negative Nancy blogger, I thought we'd snatch a winner all the way up to the final whistle. Not only did we control possession, chances, corner kicks, free kicks, etc, but we also played the final 20-ish minutes (including added time) with a man advantage.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish believes Craig Bellamy is being unfairly treated by referees.
The Welshman has a feisty reputation and his manager fears that may be working against the forward after four bookings in as many matches.
Dalglish has been disappointed by the yellow cards Bellamy has received in the recent games against Fulham and Wigan, and the Scot hopes a pattern is not developing.

Referees are picking on Craig Bellamy, says Liverpool's Kenny Dalglish

• Striker has seen yellow in Liverpool's past four matches • Dalglish sympathises with Blackburn's league plight Kenny Dalglish has questioned whether there is an agenda against Craig Bellamy, who is under threat of suspension after a spate of harsh bookings.

Gems of the Lower Leagues: Jacob Butterfield is a post from: Just Football

Just Football's ‘Gems of the Lower Leagues' series continues with a look at Barnsley midfielder Jacob Butterfield. James McMath looks at why talk of a January move to the Premier League will surprise some, but not Barnsley fans.

Peruse the Sunderland fan forums and you'll find quite a few optimistic fans. Despite our brilliant form of late, following our defeat against Stoke, Sunderland's win against Blackburn and the appointment of Martin O'Neill, a few of the Sunderland fans genuinely think they will win this match and that "Spurs ain't all that" and "we've just been built up by sky and the media into thinking we're something we're not".

Just a short year ago the majority of Arsenal fans opinion on Robin van Persie could likely be summed up as, "Great technique, but a crock" or simply "A luxury player". Even the Dutchman's most ardent supporters (me) would have had difficulty arguing the point convincingly because well... he was a crock and rarely was fit enough to prove to all his worth.

Luis Suarez could be in trouble again after allegedly giving Fulham fans 'the finger' after Liverpool crashed to defeat at Craven cottage earlier tonight.
After the game, which saw the Uruguayan fail to score in the league for seventh match in a row, Kenny Dalglish was asked about the incident, and he responded:
"I haven't seen the picture and I'm not taking anybody's word for it.

Liverpool show a packed midfield is how to beat Manchester City | David Pleat

Kenny Dalglish's five men in the middle of the park worked hard to snuff out the threat of City's main threat, David Silva Manchester City started brightly, with the Champions League defeat to Napoli last week a distant memory but Liverpool were powerful opponents, who slowly wrestled control with a thoroughly organised, hard‑running and skilful performance.

... Brad Gregory. Congratulations to Brad who triumphed over the two nights of the Heineken Star Player League this week by predicting the outcome of events in the Napoli v Manchester City match and the Bayer Leverkusen v Chelsea game in the Champions League. Brad is now on his way well, not just yet [.

KUALA LUMPUR: National skipper Safiq Rahim will get his long overdue chance to impress at Malaysian-owned English Second Division side Cardiff City.

The 24-year-old Selangor midfielder leaves for Cardiff today with high hopes of achieving a first for Malaysian football and take his football career to new heights.

I've watched Diego Maradona's final World Cup match (a 2-1 victory over Nigeria played in Boston) at least ten times. Nigeria pushed Argentina back early with plundering counter-attacks, one of which led to the match's first goal a sumptuous chip that had more than a whiff of offside to it. Maradona was imperious that day though, Napoleonically strutting around the confetti-flaked pitch, drawing fouls, and making key passes for both of Argentina's goals free kicks finished by Claudio Canigga.

Roberto Martinez plays guerrilla football. Sure, he seems a decent guy – mild-mannered and well-behaved on the sidelines – but underneath beats the heart of Che Guevera. The Latics have been in trouble every season they have played in the Premier League. Yet, once more, Martinez's Latics narrowly escaped relegation last year, returning to the DW Stadium to play another day.

Competition time One lucky OTP reader will win a pair of tickets to the Manchester City v Bayern Munich match at Eastlands on 7 December. We're still talking about events from last time the two teams met, so it promises to be a great match. We've teamed up with Heineken StarPlayer to offer this fantastic [.

By Chris Wright

Heineken Star Player is a real-time game that allows players to predict the outcome of various incidents during live Champions League games and by playing along with Pies next week, you could stand to win a really rather fantabulous prize.

A strange game last night at a bitterly cold Queensgate, Boro didn't really show until the 2nd half, they missed the midfield bite of Gary Hepples who was on the bench, when he did eventually join the game with just 20 minutes left then his presence told immeditely but it was too late in the game to have the desired effect.

Like mentioned, I did not get to see the match that Cubs lost to the Indonesians due to work.
However, here's the Youtube clip of the match via a Vietnamese broadcaster.
General thoughts of the game gathered online lauded the performance of the Singapore side for keeping the scoreline respectable especially with their performance in the second half, after conceding two goals and a player sent off (Nigel Vanu)in the first half.

So here was my initial prediction/explanation in August: Notes: It's unfortunate for Brad Davis that Brek Shea plays his position, because his assist record is better than Beckham's. Tried shoehorning him in there, but Becks gets the 11th hour selection over the field so far due to his still-world class ability from free kicks and crosses.

Luka Modric completed his 100th Premiership appearance on Sunday against Fulham – a milestone that a few may have felt he wouldn't reach after the summer speculation surrounding the player.

Typically, the Croatian used the opportunity to deflect attention away from himself and onto the victory itself.

Union

Danny Califf said of the Union's long-ball tactics against Houston, "It played right into their hands. They have a couple of big center backs, and all of them, aside from Corey Ashe, are big, and along with their midfielders they eat that up."

CSN Philly completely sidesteps the issue of Peter Nowak's selection and tactical decisions by saying that, in losing to Houston, the Union were beaten by a better team.