It's been 7 days since the beginning of the Dragon Year – and here we are 7 points ahead of Barca in the league table. Our 3-1 over Zaragoza and Barca's 0-0 (their first scoreless game in 15 matches) made sure of that. In a league where the margins of error between a league title or a bridesmaid finish is a hairline, 7 points is gold – it gives us that all-important precious margin for error: to account for that somewhat inevitable match that will see us drop points against a Levante, Sporting or.

By Joel Greenwaldt
@Joel Greenwaldt (On Twitter)
The Baltimore Blast secured their fifth consecutive win at home on Friday, an 18-10 victory over the Norfolk SharX in front of 5,764 fans. The victory improved Baltimore's record to 12-4 on the season, and has them sitting five games up on Rochester for the division lead with eight games to be played.

They say that lightning doesn't strike twice but both Equatorial Guinea and Gabon scored late goals in their matches to make the last eight of the African Cup of Nations.. Then again many experts said that Equatorial Guinea and Gabon shouldn't be hosting the African Cup of Nations as neither country has any real football pedigree.

By Joel Greenwaldt
Baltimore Blast (11-4) vs. Norfolk SharX (3-13)
Game Time: 1/27/2012 7:35 PM
http://www.misllivesoccer.com/
Keys to victory for the Blast:

• Stick to the up-tempo pace: I think the Blast played one of their best games of the season last Friday in their 18-2 victory over the SharX.

The Indoor Soccer News Weekly MISL Power Rankings are sponsored by:
By Joel Greenwaldt
@JoelGreenwaldt (Twitter)
Each week during the season I'll post an updated MISL Power Ranking which will be based off the cumulative results and current strength of each team.

Fans of the Philadelphia Union have had plenty to chear about in the club's brief two-year MLS existence. From the opening of PPL Park in 2010, to the team's MLS playoff debut in 2011. Now Union fans are ready to have a new experience to celebrate in 2012, the hosting of an MLS All-Star Game.

I'm glad I'm not a football manager. Davide Santon brings down Andrew Johnson this afternoon. Alan Pardew seemed to have the perfect game plan in the first half, as the Newcastle team completely outplayed Fulham and Alan Pardew seemed to completely out coach Martin Jol. And then came the second half.

Alan Pardew deserves great credit for the way he prepared the lads for last night's fantastic 3-0 win over Manchester United. Alan Pardew put together terrific game plan for Newcastle The Red Devils were left last night to lick their wounds after they had been mauled by an energetic and skillful Newcastle side, and let's see now oh [.

It's headlines like this we wake up to this morning with The Sun claiming from their so called "Chelsea source" that there is player unrest and AVB has lost the dressing room.
The basis of this information has come about because apparently Nico Anelka was banned from the club's Xmas do by AVB so the players organised a separate one and didn't tell AVB for Anelka.

Goals:
Bellamy 11'
Skrtel 15'
Winning with ease when not on top form is far more fun than frustrating draws or defeats when dominant. Still, if not for converting the first two corners within 15 minutes, Liverpool could well be ruing more missed chances and more effort rebounding off wider-than-normal goal posts.

The game went ahead amidst many calls for its postponement following the tragic news of Gary Speed's death. The result doesn't seem that important in the scheme of things right now, but it's probably a point that will prove invaluable at the end of the season.
Following a heart warming and entirely spontaneous round of applause in place of the planned minute of silence, the first half didn't provide any shocks.

One thing that winds me up about the media, especially after a poor Chelsea performance and result, is the fact that they dig up any old tom, dick or harry who has some kind of affiliation with the club to comment on the situation.
There are a couple out there who like to give their opinions but one person in particular is making himself a career out of pointing out the complete obvious and that's Tony Cascarino.

Jay Heaps has always been known as a fiery competitor as a player during his professional and collegiate career, and know has the opportunity to translate that as the new coach with the New England Revolution.
Brian O'Connell of ESPNBoston.com writes of the Revs' new head coach.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. Flanked by the men who hired him, newly-appointed head coach Jay Heaps spoke confidently about the immediate changes that need to take place in order to return the Revolution back to respectability.

"Fundamentally, a few things have to change right off the bat," said Heaps as President Brian Bilello and General Manager Michael Burns looked on.

Tuesday with his take on what just happened in Paris

No surprise that this one should become a battle between revolutions.

Blanc's squad: Thumbs up effort...

Laurent Blanc came in to clean the French house after the 2010 World Cup, with the federation sending players like Nicolas Anelka to their international doom.

England's narrow 1-0 victory over Spain proved that Fabio Capello's Italian influence can force England to play without the cavalier tendencies that cause them to be knocked out of every major tournament.

Rather than arrogantly attacking the World and European champions at Wembley, England played with rare discipline and composure.

Once again, Liverpool flattered to deceive. At Anfield, against a Swansea that does not travel well, the mighty Reds laboured to a disappointing draw. An out-of-sorts Liverpool performance was made worse because of a superb goalkeeping display by the Swans' Michel Vorm. His two saves from Suarez highlighted his sterling performance.

Former Liverpool defender Jason McAteer has expressed his disappointment over Liverpool's home draw with Swansea City.
McAteer, who was commenting on the game for LFC TV, was clearly frustrated with Liverpool's inability to convert the chances created during the game:
"It's becoming quite predictable - Liverpool creating chances and not being clinical in front of goal and coming away with a 0-0 draw.

A couple of weeks ago, Gary Gillespie revealed that when he was at Liverpool under Kenny Dalglish, the players were 'just told to go out and play', and that during his 8 year spell at Anfield 'the days we were actually coached I can count on one hand'. Against Swansea yesterday, it seemed like the coaching had regressed back to Gillespie's 1980s heyday for the afternoon.

Hand up all those who know Archie Thompson is a proven top goalscorer in the A-League? Good that's 21 million or so Aussie's with their hands up; but there are a couple of Aussie hands not up...
Okay and hands up who didn't know - don't be shy Mehmet and Kev. We see your hands and it's okay because you are newbies to the job.

(Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz)

What: Philadelphia Union v Houston Dynamo

When: 8:30pm EST

Where: Robertson Stadium, Houston, TX, USA

Why: GAME ON!

TV: ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPN-Deportes

Referee: Ricardo Salazar

Messing with Texas

Despite the number of times Texas has rudely suggested we not mess with it, Thursday, November 3, 2011 needs to go down in future Union lore as the day the Union went down to Houston and messed up Houston's game plan, ultimately stealing victory on the road.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Union

Faryd Mondragon said, "If we play the way we know how to play, we can beat anyone."

Sebastien Le Toux on Houston: "We know we can beat them."

And, as Marc Narducci reports, Danny Califf knows it can be done. Califf was on the LA Galaxy team that, in the 2003, beat San Jose 2–0 in the first leg, was up 2–0 in the second half, and lost 2–5 in extra time.

Newcastle's game plan on Monday night at Stoke worked a treat. Alan Pardew it worked at the final whistle on Monday night And you can bet that game will be used as a model for other sides who have to take on Stoke City, as they work out just how well Newcastle dealt with the aerial threat of [.

Newcastle's game plan on Monday night at Stoke worked a treat. Alan Pardew it worked at the final whistle on Monday night And you can bet that game will be used as a model for other sides who have to take on Stoke City, as they work out just how well Newcastle dealt with the aerial threat of [.

No Olave, No BorchersReal Salt Lake and the Seattle Sounders squared off in what had to be one of the more exciting playoff matches in recent years. Those on the east coast who stayed up and those on around the country who watched bore witness to a near astounding comeback by Seattle that fell just short of triumphant.

Fantastic weekend of footie:

• MLS Playoff Odds

Big changes in the little schematic we put together last week:

• Seattle Sounders (now: 12 to 1) vs. Real Salt Lake (remains 6 to 1)

Beckerman wants you to believe...

Mauro Rosales are no Mauro Rosales, Seattle now looks dusted.

Mourinho has plenty of reasons to be happy given how his Ramos-Pepe Central Defensive Partnership has fared. So we're back to Binary Code scorelines once again. After goalfests in the Champions League and against our La Liga rivals, we're back to clawing our way to victory again. Not that I mind – as I am a believer that there is a need for the team to suffer on their way to victory every now and then.

Robin van Persie now has nine goals in five matches.

Mindblowingly awesome.

I speak of course of the massive and totally unexpected Arsenal 5-3 away victory over Chelsea on Saturday. Chelsea had not lost a game at home this season. Arsenal found itself racking up its worst string of away results since 500 B.

Sporting KC didn't have to rely on other results, KC took care of business themselves, beating DC 1-0 and earning themselves the top spot in the Eastern Conference. KC started an unchanged lineup from the one that clinched a playoff spot vs New York. KC once again had the early pressure creating some decent chances, the best of which was a cross that Omar Bravo ran onto in the fourth minute.

Boro's progress in the FA Vase was halted by a combination of cheating opponents and a referee (Mr D Hunt) who should not be allowed anywhere near a football pitch again after this performance. I am used to seeing inept officials in this league, but yesterday's was I have been told by many fans the worst yet to officiate a Boro game.

Blast, and other unseemly vituperations. Apparently armed with a game-plan to avoid, at all costs, ever stringing together more than three passes, our heroes stuck to the drill fairly resolutely throughout, and it's two points a-begging, faster than you can say "someone track that Ba fellow, he's making a late run into the area".

Gerrard celebrates...Liverpool were forced to settle for a draw against Manchester United on Saturday with captain Steven Gerrard converting a fantastic free kick in the process. Manchester United found their equalizer with ten minutes left on the clock courtesy of front man Javier Hernandez.

Reds Take One Point From United Game

Gerrard celebrates... Liverpool were forced to settle for a draw against Manchester United on Saturday with captain Steven Gerrard converting a fantastic free kick in the process. Manchester United found their equalizer with ten minutes left on the clock courtesy of front man Javier Hernandez.

South Africa manager Pitso Mosimane made a bit of history at the weekend by becoming the first manager to lead an entire nation astray.He convinced himself and everyone else in South Africa that the Bafana Bafana needed only a draw against Sierra Leone in order to make it to the finals of the AFCON in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea'
So they followed the game plan and played out a goalless draw in Nelspruit.

Just remembered an article rjbiii sent me:

About Dutch players vs their English equivalents:

McClaren proved, however, with Twente in the Netherlands that success can be achieved without an open cheque book. In 2010 he became the first Englishman since Sir Bobby Robson, with Porto in 1996, to win a major European league title.

We collaborated with Sounder at Heart on projected lineups for tonight's game. All the credit goes to them in the creation of this interesting statistical and visual look at the lineups. The stats are for MLS Regular Season play because those lineups and statistical set represent a much better picture of the style of play and quality of opponent each squad will face tonight.

"It's our game plan to go up early and calm it down and hopefully we can stick to the game plan," he said on Monday. "You always got to tune [the fans] out. It's really a hard place to play. You have the fans screaming that you can't hear your own teammates ask for the ball. An early goal would calm them down and silence them a little bit.

Tonight proved once again that the Philadelphia Union cannot figure out how to properly save a lead. A goal by Chivas USA striker Juan Pablo Angel in the 90th minute of the game took the air out of the Union's chance to go back to the top of the Eastern Conference table.

Head coach Piotr Nowak deserves the criticism that comes his way for his management of the game tonight.

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson
KC has probably their biggest game of the season to date tomorrow when they take on the Philadelphia Union at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. One point separate KC and Philadelphia, with the Union having a game in hand on KC. The Union are coming off of a big home win over the East leading Columbus Crew 1-0 last weekend.

Quotes

Head Coach John Spencer
On the overall result:
"I think that we came out a little flat. We never started the game particularly sharp. Obviously, you go a goal up and the goalkeeper pulls out an unbelievable save on Darlington (Nagbe), we could've been two-nil up, but to be fair I think if you look at the game as a whole, San Jose was very unlucky to not get more than one point.