TAMPA, BALTIMORE TO JOIN NEW PROFESSIONAL SOCCER LEAGUE
Expansion brings new league to nine teams

Nov. 20, 2009 – The Tampa Bay Rowdies and Crystal Palace Baltimore have joined the new professional soccer league announced last week, beginning play in the United States and Canada in April 2010.

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Take your pick: a meaningless friendly on European soil, or fighting for a World Cup spot today. As far as that goes, American soccer fans can't complain about their situation. Thanks to some gutsy results in the final two games of the tournament, they aren't in Montevideo, with a tough Uruguay squad looking to deal a knockout blow.

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KV crosses the reader-contributor divide to give us his take on the subtleties of Arsenal's 4-3-3 system.
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From time immemorial variation has led to the survival of species. Slight variations have caused species to evolve through the years, making them more adept to the environment.

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When David N'Gog scored so early on, the game opened itself perfectly for Liverpool: this was the ideal starting point, the launching pad that could lead to a much needed win. Then came the inevitable defensive lapse that resulted in a conceeded goal which was followed up by the sucker punch of Cameron Jerome's splendid but somewhat fortiuitous goal and suddenly it was a repeat of so many games this season. Click to continue reading...

When their season on the line, the Fire needed a big-time performance from the back line in Saturday night's second leg of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the New England Revolution. And did the defense ever deliver, putting together a comprehensive performance to shut down (and shutout) the Revolution and pave the way for the Fire to get into the Eastern Conference Final.

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With all the money being thrown around this year The Yank has come up with the perfect solution to any� debt-plagued squad.� Quit spending money on a bunch of different players that only specialize in one� position and instead� focus on one really good player and then once he is under contract� clone him several times.

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Vintage Arsenal Goal

4-1 is may have been the final result but judging from the opening 20 minutes of the game, it would be rather hard to envisaged that scoreline. Credit to Wolves and McCarthy for their game plan as they came out firing on all cylinders and chose to take the game to us rather than just contend to defend.

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It's Ask the Oppo time again and this week Carl Eldridge talks to Molineux regular Peter Hayes ahead of the Gunners' trip to Wolves in the Premier League...

CE: Wolves are back on the big stage after such a long and painful period so life in the top flight must be enjoyable?

PH; Yes it certainly has been a journey supporting the Wolves over the years and yes we are loving it, it really is the place to be.

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Reds undone by last gasp equalizer.

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Now its not all doom and gloom and many will have you believe that we are sinking further into the abyss but that would be a harsh assessment of the tough 90 minute assignment that so nearly bore fruit.

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REUTERS/Grigory Dukor

Though FC Barcelona completely dominated ball posssiesion through the entire match they were unable to capitalize against Rubin Kazan.

In a balmy 25 degrees Fahrenheit Barcelona came out in the first half with revenge on their mind. Having lost 2-1 to Kazan at home just weeks prior Guardiola's men were looking for a win on the road and top spot in group F of the Champions League.

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"There would be something quintessentially Spurs about doing all the hard work and then gifting away the game on a plate, through one moment of madness."

-AANP, yesterday

And sure enough...

It's easy to forget that honours were fairly even in the early stages, as misplaced pass was matched by misplaced pass in a midfield absolutely jam-packed with bodies.

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Robbie Findley, MLS's Player of the Week during the last week of the regular season slipped a late goal past the diving Columbus Keeper from a beautiful Yura Movsisyan pass, and delivers the victory to Real Salt Lake in the first leg of the Eastern Conference semis. The score came late in the game, and it became apparent early on that Columbus would have been happy to get out of Rio Tinto with a nil-nil draw, but RSL was just as determined to get a win at home.

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MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP/Getty Images

With a different looking lineup than Barcelona fans are accustomed to, Pep Guardiola and his men visited third divison side Cultural Leonesa. Today's lineup featured Bojan, Gai Assulin and Pedro upfront and early on the kids looked like they were going to have an easy time moving the ball around the Leonesa defense.

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Wow, this team continues to break its own records, we have now won 6 and tied 2 of our last 8 games!

We put in a very solid and professional performance this weekend running out 3-1 winners. The opposition had beaten us in the previous 24 games before this season. We tied them away from home earlier this season 0-0 after double overtime.

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A few weeks ago we hit Burnley for five despite not playing particularly well; this time our scratchy performance did not have a five-goal veil to mask it.

Bravo Stoke

Stoke, labouring under the misapprehension that cracks would appear in the sky and the apocalypse hasten if they let the ball ever come into contact with grass, showed precious little attacking intent until we were down to ten men.

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I feel the game against the Mancs is timely. What better way to show to the fans our resilience if not by winning this much-anticipated game. This is the sort of games when form is thrown out of the window.

What I would like to see today is a game in which all our players give their all and play themselves to the ground.

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Its a game that's as big as it gets for Liverpool afternoon.Yes its our hated enemy, Man Utd at Anfield in a game which will define our season.Win and we are right back in contention for the league.Lose and our season is over, its that big a match.
With six defeats already this season, four in the Premiership, things have not been going well at Liverpool, to say the least. Click to continue reading...

As I do with most home games against any teams outside the top few teams in the Premier League, I'd expect victory for Spurs against Stoke. Tony Pulis has done wonders firstly to get his club into the league and secondly, turning them into a formidable top flight side.

While Stoke are renowned for their home form, they have also been a lot more solid on the road this season than they were last.

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Chris Hughton is calm about the fact that Newcastle United have only taken 2 points out of the last 12 and went down to Scunthorpe last night. Talking about last night's game, Hughton said: "The game plan was to come here and do well. "On the balance of play and chances it's a game we should have [. Click to continue reading...

Boro's good form continued on Saturday with a hard working win against Salisbury. Boro lined up with Bostwick one again at centre half and Yemi Odubade continuing up front alongside former Salisbury man Charlie Griffin. Once again Lee Boylan and Mitchell Cole missed out through injury and they were joined by Eddie Odhiambo who picked up a knock last week against Hayes & Yeading.

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Well it is finally� down to that expected� time of year that we thought it would be.� Barcelona remains the one undefeated team going into the October week break for the� international World Cup Qualifier final matches.� And of course it is no surprise that the treble winners are the lone undefeated squad and remain a perfect 6-0-0 after about two months of football.

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Cesc Fabregas had a hand in five of Arsenal's six goals as the Gunners came from behind twice to dismantle Blackburn.
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Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce was compared to Prime Minister Gordon Brown before the game and his beleaguered backline very much resembled the Labour party's backbench.

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After yesterday's draw at home to Sunderland, United have now dropped five points this season. Liverpool have dropped six and Chelsea three. With the latter two meeting this afternoon, at least one of those numbers will increase.

We've dropped six, but bearing in mind we've already travelled to United, City, Everton and Fulham in our first six games, that's a pretty favourable number compared to the rest.

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Toughie. I wouldn't fancy Kevin Davies big frame in my face for ninety minutes and I doubt Michael Dawson will either. This is the sort of game we'd get turned over in pre Harry. Even with him last season they bashed us up at the Reebok but he's had time to make the side a bit more resilient since then.

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Colorado finished its stretch of 3 games in 8 days with a quiet draw in Kansas City. Honestly there isn't much to say about this game. The Rapids were obviously hoping to steal 3 points by scoring on a counter-attack and sneaking out of town with a 1-0 win, but otherwise were happy with a scoreless draw. Click to continue reading...

Since I did not do the EPL review for week 5, I figured I'd might as well combined weeks 5 and 6 together in this bumper post on the Barclays Premier League weekend matches review.
Week 5 was all about the fiercely contested Manchester derby in which an Adebayor-less Manchester City traded punches with Man United. Click to continue reading...

What an amazing experience being part of the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer season has been! I'm a part of history. I'm a PRO athlete. But now it's the offseason, and so what next?

The difficulty as a player within this first-year league is that there is very little to count on once the season ends.

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What an amazing experience being part of the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer season has been! I'm a part of history. I'm a PRO athlete. But now it's the offseason, and so what next?

The difficulty as a player within this first-year league is that there is very little to count on once the season ends.

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A good performance from United and an even better three points. In all honesty, after beating Arsenal, Spurs and City, I did wonder whether we'd come unstuck against Stoke. They're so robust at the back and I remember how difficult they were to break down last season. Had they not gone down to ten men, I do wonder whether we could have got that very late winner.

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Fulham

Last Season: 7th, 14-11-13 (53 points, +5 goal differential)

Recent Form: WLLWL

Home Form (last season): 4-4-11

Last Meeting: Arsenal 0-Fulham 0 (2/28/09)

Back in league action tomorrow with a VERY tough match-up against Fulham.

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Funnily enough I was dreaming this morning that I was away on holidays and Tom was supposed to be writing the blog. It was one of those very real dreams so that even when I got up to go to the bathroom I lay back down thinking 'I wonder what Tom is going write about'.

Sadly, I am not on holidays, nor do I have the pleasure of reading what Tom wrote whenever he got around to actually writing it.

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Why won't you score?!

Okay, so we are pretty settled into the 2009-2010 season and I am, yet again, having major issues with my fantasy team. What's going on? How can I have 14 points in one weekend? How can Michael Turner do so well for Hull and not for Sunderland? How, in the name of all that is holy, can my captain, Frank Lampard, not have scored a single goal this season?

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Yes, you read that correctly; Dive, flop, or simulation (as FIFA calls it). It seems the Dynamo have faced a few divers lately, and what are the results of those games? The divers won. They weren't overmatched from a skills perspective. No team can say they possess more soccer skills than the Dynamo.

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The Chelsea monkey is well and truly off our backs, so now is the perfect time to go to Stamford Bridge with confidence. The defeat against Manchester United has guaranteed complacency will not be a problem, but with four wins under our belts we should still head west with nothing to fear.

Stamford Bridge is no longer the fortress it once was – Liverpool and Arsenal both won there last season – and the players have the confidence of knowing they took four points from Chelsea last term.

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An interesting piece from Henry Winter in todays Telegraph:

The temporary absence of all his expensive attacking superstars for Sunday's derby may appear a cruel conspiracy to City, but it also provides an opportunity for Hughes to show how he can juggle depleted resources, how he can devise a game-plan to frustrate the champions.

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