BY ADAM SERRANO

The San Jose Earthquakes believe that they have found another compliment to Chris Wondolowski with the signing of Turkish forward Sercan Güvenışık.

The 31-year-old German league veteran impressed the Earthquakes during a two month trial with the club last season, which included scoring two goals in a reserve match against the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Welcome to Offbeat Wednesday, where we cover the wacky and gossipy side of football! In today's edition, read about Lukas Podolski's second car accident, David Beckham's new editorial, Luca Toni's fatherly pride and Sara Carbonero!

We kick things off with David Beckham's new editorial spread in Men's Health magazine!

There's a lesson fans need to learn when they're on the road trying to drive up to their football heroes : it doesn't always involve road rage (ouiiii Samir Nasri, je parle de vous!) Case in point... Schalke's Spanish hero, Raul Gonzalez, who is loving life in the Bundesliga at the moment.

Talksport: Transfer rumours: 10 Bundesliga stars linked with Man United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal

Use the arrows to see which top rated German league players have been linked with a move to the Premier League

View the full story here: Talksport

A news article on 2012-01-05 07:30:00 from: Talksport

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

1. Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu, Jermaine Jones, and Kyle Beckerman will hold down the Sorry. Forgot who was coaching. Jurgen Klinsmann (obviously influenced by our latest P2010 Index) cools it on Beckerman and gives the nod to Edu and Bradley in central midfield. The back line will look a bit of a throwback, with Cherundolo,Onyewu, and Bocanegra all starting Timmy Chandler will hold down left back.

1. Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu, Jermaine Jones, and Kyle Beckerman will hold down the Sorry. Forgot who was coaching. Jurgen Klinsmann (obviously influenced by our latest P2010 Index) cools it on Beckerman and gives the nod to Edu and Bradley in central midfield.

On this week's podcast our German correspondent Hans takes a look at this season's Bundesliga the German league. Remember, you can also:

• Listen only to the main report here complete with transcript and vocabulary
• Learners of English can review the footballing news from around the world in our good, the bad and the ugly section of the show
• Check out a new football expression in English for Football
• For learners of English check out our Football Language Resources page with:
• A page with all our Football vocabulary posts
• Football glossary (a huge collection of football vocabulary, football cliches and football phrases)
• Worksheets and transcripts from previous podcasts

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking here

On this week's podcast our German correspondent Hans takes a look at this season's Bundesliga - the German league

Denis Doyle/Getty Images (Bleacher Report) Despite the signing of Park Chu-Young Arsene Wenger could be in the market for another striking option come January. The daunting task of playing four tournaments at once between the Premier League, FA Cup, Carling Cup and UEFA Chsmpion's League can take its toll on a team that is not supplied with depth.

The last international friendly for the season kicks off tomorrow against Argentina's own Independiente! Not a huge team, mind you, but I do recall a few people in a poll I created earlier this year that specifically asked for a South American club to come visit. I hope you're pleased with the choice.

By Jobst Elster / Senior Bier Correspondent

A two part series focused on football, beer and kick-ass German cities
Check out our sampler to kick off the Cup, "Sudsy Facts About the Women's World Cup".
And Part One of our tour of Germany and "Drinker's Guide to the WWC"
Mainhattan: Skyscrapers and World Cup Finals
Frankfurt am Main (the local river) is the financial capital of Germany, home of the DAX (German Stock market), and because of its atypical German skyscraper landscape, oft referred to as Mainhattan.

Jürgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund side may have run away with the title, but there was plenty of the weird and wonderful worth revisiting in the German league this season.
The Honigsteins 2011: Bundesliga end-of-season awards

One of the best lines from that cinematic masterpiece Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby, is "If you ain't first, you're last." While not entirely apt, denizens at Maine Road and later Eastlands might have felt this way a bit as they witnessed Manchester United win league titles and trophies whilst City battled relegations and derby defeats.

One of the best lines from that cinematic masterpiece Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby, is "If you ain't first, you're last." While not entirely apt, denizens at Maine Road and later Eastlands might have felt this way a bit as they witnessed Manchester United win league titles and trophies whilst City battled relegations and derby defeats.

By CALEB SONNELAND

American defender Frank Simek has dislocated his elbow after falling awkwardly in his club's home loss to Yeovil Town on Saturday.

The Carlisle United defender has been a rock at the back for the League One side. The injury has yet to be fully assessed, however, Simek was just an hour away from completing every minute of United's season.

Image Credit: Getty Images.

If you missed it earlier in our Weekend Results recap, Borussia Dortmund was crowned Bundesliga league champs with a 2-0 win at home against Nuremberg. Considering this is the club's first German league title since 2002, we assumed these boys would honour our historic tradition of full time chest festivities with pride.

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This week languagecaster previews the semi-finals of the Champions League and attempts to predict the finalists at Wembley in May. There is a transcript below, while explanations of key vocabulary (in bold) can be found at the foot of the post, while other key phrases (in blue) also have meanings explained.

FIFA has claimed technology should be kept off the field in order to preserve the true nature of the game. After watching an amateur German league match, it seems they might have... Read more »

The European leagues are entering their last stage, and one can begin to see the shape of the champions more or less in many of them:In Germany, Borussia Dortmund destroyed 4th placed Hannover 96, and are 7 points ahead of Bayer Leverkusen with six matches left. They have had an extraordinary season, and it would be a pity if they don't win it.

I have been travelling, and although watching football as much as possible, have not been able to post much here. Still, many interesting things have happened in the world of football!In the Italian Serie A, AC Milan and Napoli played a match where the southerners had the chance of taking over the first spot.

BERLIN, Germany — Bundesliga bottom side Borussia Moenchengladbach sacked their coach Michael Frontzeck on Sunday, 24 hours after their 3-1 German league defeat at St Pauli. 'Gladbach are seven points from safety at the foot of the table and 46-year-old Frontzeck, who has been in charge for 18 months, was shown the door after his [.

The very fact Steve McClaren is already being tipped for vacant positions in English football shows you how his stock has risen despite being sacked as Wolfsburg boss this week.
Rewind three-and-half-years and that fateful, soggy November night at Wembley, McClaren – the wally with the brolly – was dismissed as England boss with his reputation in tatters.

?WOLFSBURG, Germany — Former England coach Steve McClaren was sacked by Wolfsburg on Monday, with the club battling against relegation from the Bundesliga. "We were no longer convinced that we could finish the season with stability by working together with Steve McClaren," the Wolfsburg general manager Dieter Hoeness said on the club's website.

BERLIN- Munich — Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben explained on Sunday the reason why he grabbed team-mate Thomas Mueller by the throat during a Bundesliga game as the pressure mounts on the defending champions. Bayern are up to third in the German league after Saturday's 3-1 away win at Werder Bremen, but are still 14 [.

"Captain... passenger De Rosario wants to complain about his meal"
YOUNG TURKS
We still get a little shocked around here with Toronto FC's new-found quality information sharing. For four years we had more misinformation and doublespeak than a George Orwell novel and a director who only appeared when there was good news.

In earlier posts, I looked at the correlation between fouls and red and yellow cards in the Big 4 leagues as well as the distribution of yellows and reds in the 2009/10 season or the cost of receiving yellow cards, but I haven't spent much time talking about red cards in and of themselves.

He's off to terrorise turntables
from Munich to Berlin.

After the summer entertainment that was Ryan Babel hopping in a helicopter and buzzing off to all four corners of the British Isles in an attempt to find a new home only for nothing to happen, a transfer deal for the enigmatic attacker has finally been done, as he'll be heading off to the Bundesliga to join TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.

It seems to me that Manchester City are purely just about funding agents and accountants. With the upcoming transfer of Edin Dzeko from Wolfsburg for a reported £27million, you have to wonder what he offers that Manchester City that they already don't have.

It's obvious his track record is quite impeccable with 66 goals in 111 appearances in the Bundesliga with it being compelling to clubs, but let's just remind ourselves that goals do not normally mean success.

BERLIN — Borussia Dortmund were 13 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga on Saturday after second-placed Mainz lost at Stuttgart and champions Bayern Munich drew 1-1 at Wolfsburg in a game where both sides missed penalties. Borussia had blitzed Leverkusen with three goals in six minutes on Friday as Jurgen Klopp's young side [.

I've got a splitting headache that's either down to not having a drink since New Year's or Roy Hodgson's continued employment, so it being January and all we might as well dive right into the further headache of rumours rumours rumours...

* Add another name to the pile alongside Klopp and Villas-Boas and Deschamps, as Ralf Rangnick comes out of nowhere to top the betting sites all looking to make you fabulously wealthy by betting on who the next manager of Liverpool Football Club will be.