Some good things; some bad things...

The United States went south to Panama Wednesday night and came away with a win against a CONCACAF up-and-comer and little else.

The small margin of victory came early in the contest as Zach Loyd lofted a ball into the box. Chris Wondolowski challenged his defender for it as it skipped (or grazed) past their heads.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

With the release of the Union's 2012 regular season schedule, I, along with my colleagues at the PSP, am buzzing about the prospects of the new season. Just 66 more days (stupid leap year) until the Union take the pitch in Portland to get Year Three underway. In the meantime, now that MLS has thrown out last year's balanced schedule (take that purists) we have plenty to talk about with respect to the construction of the 2012 Union schedule.

Under the banner of "Best of 2011," MLSsoccer has created an award for "gaffe of the year."

These guys are idiots.

Alan Hansen under-fire after 'coloured' race gaffe on Match of the Day

Alan Hansen has landed himself in hot water after making a racial gaffe TWICE during last night's Match of the Day. The BBC pundit described black players as 'coloured'.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-12-22 09:03:33 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Deep thoughts: FIFA President Sepp Blatter appears to be pondering about which group he can offend next while attending a recent Euro 2012 qualifier (AP Photo).

FIFA President Sepp Blatter has added offensive comments about racism to a questionable repertoire that included previous missteps involving sexism and bigotry toward gays.

Sepp Blatter told to quit over racist storm

Sepp Blatter is facing increasing calls to quit after his gaffe in the fight against racism. The FIFA president is facing renewed calls for his resignation after dismissing on-pitch racism with an astonishing response.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-11-17 10:42:34 from: The Mail

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Gazzetta dello Sport Milan dance with Binho Napoli-Juve postponed, a rainstorm of controversy All Toto, Udinese don't stop Lazio party, Sculli goal but Klose is super Rossi for Mihajlovic? Montolivo gaffe Inter still have Eto'o idea, meeting in December Tuttosport Oh My Sunshine Stadio San Paolo, yesterday afternoon Miha KO, Rossi is ready Milan, Udinese and Lazio are thankful and fly away "Toro.

3PM Extra: Steve Kean is An Idiot Aboard, plus classic goalie gaffe and horror miss

Presenting quality football videos from the interweb, daily at 3pm. Here's today's collection:

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-11-07 15:00:33 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

And another international weekend comes and goes. While no Portland Timbers were involved, yet again, I feel like I should update you guys a bit on the USMNT as well as how our guys did who were with their national teams.

So first, before we get to the players, the US team!

The USMNT played twice this past weekend (and then some) first against Honduras and then against Ecuador.

With England's ticket to the 2012 European Championships now booked, Fabio Capello's thoughts will be away from the colder temperature and focused on his 23 man squad selection for the tournament next summer.

The question of who to take, and who to leave out, always excites a media frenzy, with the age-old debates of club form, age, and experience brought out to trump up heroes or tear down villains.

After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of the New England Revolution players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5 average, 10 perfection). This week Sean Donahue and Brian O'Connell contributed ratings for the New England Revolution's 2-1 loss to Seattle on Saturday.

Dreadfully poor defended helped gift Chicago an early 3-0 lead on Sunday evening and only poor finishing from the Fire and a stoppage time brace from Ryan Guy left the final score a somewhat respectable 3-2 loss for the New England Revolution at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill.

Guy's first two MLS goals came far too late to salvage anything for the Revs (5-13-12, 27 pts.

Teams earn a share of the points in a tie, but rarely do they toil for it like the Colorado Rapids did on Saturday night.

The record book will show that Chris Wondolowski scored an unassisted goal for San Jose in the 18th minute, and Drew Moor delivered an unassisted equalizer in the 71st. What the stats line will fail to show is the frenzy and oddity on display at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

What else can be said about this debacle. It was yet another must win situation that our team managed not to win. Goalkeeper Frank Rost was probably wishing he was back in Germany (enjoying his retirement), after getting shelled for 3 goals in the 21 opening minutes. Another set piece our team couldn't defend, another classic Tim Ream gaffe and another forward waltzing right through our defenders.

Fernando Torres's open goal gaffe against Manchester United no worse than Kenny Dalglish's miss for Liverpool

Fernando Torres's open goal miss no worse than Kenny Dalglish in 1980.

View the full story here: The Telegraph

A news article on 2011-09-21 12:11:23 from: The Telegraph

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The miss of the ages. A clever through ball by Ramires, a streaking Fernando Torres latches onto it, cleverly sidesteps David De Gea, and with an open, inviting goal at his disposal, completely misses!

This will really be the epitaph of his career. Chelsea were looking quite threatening and Fernando Torres was playing probably his best game in a long, long time.

By Alan Duffy

Soccer Saturday's very own vidiprinter, the one which spews out all the goals and cards from the day's games as Jeff Stelling and his panel of ill-prepared pundits indulge in cringeworthy in-jokes and back-slapping, is, like Paul Merson and co.

That was embarrassing wasn't it?

San Jose is, essentially, a one man team. Take away Chris Wondolowski and you are looking at TFC levels of ineptitude. The Fire let that one man run all over the place and be a holy terror all night long. Don't get me wrong Wondo is a very good player who does that to a lot of teams.

As good as the Seattle Sounders have been playing lately, a result like Saturday's 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake really seemed to come as quite a shock to the system. I'm sitting here in the pressbox, overlooking an empty stadium, and am actually having a hard time processing what exactly what happened here.

Farewell then, Garry Cook, whose resignation from his job came after a investigation carried out by Manchester City's owners revealed that "there is foundation to Dr Onuoha's allegations", or, in other words, that not only did Cook send an email mocking the condition of Dr Anthonia Onuoha, the mother of and agent to one of the club's squad players, Nedum Onuoha, but also that he lied in public about having sent this email.

Manchester City chief Garry Cook's blunders

Garry Cook's latest gaffe at Manchester City follows a succession of embarrassing blunders and his job as chief executive lingers in the balance at Eastlands.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-09-06 13:41:26 from: The Mail

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David Beckham and the Galaxy scored a big win over the Fire this weekend. (Getty Images)

To put it lightly, that was interesting. MLS had a fairly big week for the second week in a row as we gear towards the playoff push here in the second half of the season. The week opened with a massive rout in New York and ended on a high-note (at least looks wise) in Portland.

Good afternoon! A beautiful day, surely befitting a Rapture, here in Red Bulls Land. Our team closes out the regular season series against the Dynamo today at Houston's Robertson Stadium (8:30pm et, MSG). The first Dynamo/RBNY meeting this season ended in a 1-1 draw @The Cathedral of Football, thanks to a massive gaffe by RBNY goalkeeper Bouna Condoul.

A fourth consecutive draw once again displayed the positive and negative aspects of the Fire's 2011 season to date. On the positive side the team continues to battle, create scoring chances, and improve on their possession game. On the other hand another 1v1 with a goalkeeper was missed, miscues continue to cost goals against, and the Fire failed to gain all three points while matching up against a presumably lesser opponent.

He's got the armband. He's got the hair. He's got the ability to keep us all informed as to his movements every 6.5 seconds via Twitter. But despite photo evidence to the contrary, Robbie Savage does not yet have the whole package.

Sav? Please step forward. It's time to receive your Kickette Fail File.

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On this week's football review we feature Champions League hero Raul, a goalkeeping gaffe and a spot of petulance from Neymar. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast and can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below.

Amidst all the excitement and discussion about the Kroenke takeover, I chanced upon an amusing news article yesterday. The headline caught my eye and I ended up laughing for a few minutes after reading it.

CORLUKA: I CALLED FAN AN IDIOT

These were the words that had me in splits,

I told one supporter he was an idiot.

Richard Keys has sparked more outrage by accusing Liverpool fans of seeking revenge before the Heysel Stadium disaster.
Richard Keys suggested the ugly riot that left 39 Juventus fans dead was part of a payback for beatings Liverpool fans took from Roma fans.
Tragedy struck when a wall collapsed as fans clashed before the 1985 European Cup Final at the Brussels ground.

The Chicago Fire and the Charleston Battery showed signs of a true rivalry with a chippy first half in the last match of the Carolina Challenge Cup. Three red cards were shown and multiple yellows all within 8 minutes secondary to some suspect refereeing.

The majority of the match was played 10 v 9 with Charleston down a man, and the score finished without any goals.

Quite a few of my favorite blogs have shaken off their winter slumber and roared back to life! So buckle up and get ready for some delightful required reading.

First and foremost, yesterday the Guardian lost lots of journalistic credibility thanks to some twitter manipulation. The crime? Building hype about an "exclusive," and then running a run-of-the-mill transfer rumor seemingly stolen from goal dot com.