By Chris Wright

What's that I smell? Is it cabbage? It smells a bit like cabbage...*sniff*...mixed with...creosote? It's...it's...PROPER FOOTBALL! Proper football is back! Enough of your rubbish inter-lull nonsense, the time has come to hunker down in your armchair, set your phaser to 'slob', grab a room-temperature Tizer and spend the entire weekend driving a wedge between yourself and your loved ones studiously watching triffic match after top top match, highlight after highlight, cringing as the results pour in and Garth Crooks continues to splutter and froth over something so insignificant it'd make your mind pop if you even began to know what he was up-in-arms about.

A mix of exciting youngsters and grizzled veterans had breakout games in Week 8 of the 2011 fantasy football season. We saw a number of upsets and a few great games. Here's a look at the best fantasy football performances of Week 8.

QB Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers
The Panthers rookie continues to dazzle.

Stekelenburg denying Kaka

Hi guys, there were so many great games this weekend and most of them are broadcast delayed here in Oz, which means I won't have an up to date post this time around.

My reflections on the weekend will have to wait a bit. Time is my enemy, with [read more]

The top team in the Group E, Besiktas will try to win their second match against Stoke City, after beating Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv with 5-1 score.
Besiktas coach Carlos Carvalhal told his players to be on their guard against the threat of Stoke striker Peter Crouch.

I might as well start with the bad news because there is plenty of it at the moment. We are currently tied at 18 points with Hungary for the second place in group E and while Hungary have only one game left (and that is Finland at home), we have two to go and one of them is Finland away and the other is the Netherlands at home.

While there is a lot of fantasy football quarterback talent this season, there is also a lot of hype. That has resulted in a few quarterbacks getting much more credit than they deserve heading into the 2011 fantasy football season. Here are our top overrated QBs in the fantasy world:

Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles
As a second rounder, I like him.

Keyln Rowe and UCLA hope to top Louisville this weekend. (Photo via UCLA)

One thing I love about the start of the college soccer season is the amount of big time games that are usually going on all over the place. The start of this new season is no different as there are plenty of great games listed on the schedule this weekend.

Fantasy Premier League gameweek 2 showed us once again, how even this years premier league is. There are only 3 teams that continue with 6 points. Those teams of course being ManU, ManCity and Wolves.
This gameweek, I again await big things from Chelsea. Their performance last week left a lot of room to improve, but I think that they will.

Robbie Keane marked his Los Angeles Galaxy debut with a goal as his new side defeated San Jose Earthquakes 2-0 at the Home Depot Centre.
Ireland international Keane became one of the hottest properties in Major League Soccer when he swapped Tottenham for Galaxy and showed what he can do but breaking the deadlock after 21 minutes.

The New York Giants really wanted to keep their best running back. On Monday, they were able to re-sign Ahmad Bradshaw and avoid a disaster. Bradshaw received $9 million guaranteed. In total, his contract can be worth as much as $18 million over four years.

Last season, Bradshaw had the most productive season of his career.

"Gentlemen! Argentina is Colombia, and Colombia is Argentina"
That was a very descriptive comment for Argentina Colombia 0-0 tie by an Arab commentator.
Colombia didn't rely on defense, violence, luck and keeper to get a "winning" tie from the host country. In reality, Argentina was very lucky to get the tie, thanks to great game by their keeper Sergio Romero, luck, one stupid miss by Colombia and the ref, who was too generous not to award Colombia a penalty kick.

"Gentlemen! Argentina is Colombia, and Colombia is Argentina"
That was a very descriptive comment for Argentina Colombia 0-0 tie by an Arab commentator.
Colombia didn't rely on defense, violence, luck and keeper to get a "winning" tie from the host country. In reality, Argentina was very lucky to get the tie, thanks to great game by their keeper Sergio Romero, luck, one stupid miss by Colombia and the ref, who was too generous not to award Colombia a penalty kick.

This is, believe it or not, a plastic match ticket, found by Dad recently while tidying up. Dad used to take me to Kenilworth Road, Luton for a few seasons, the Sealy-Foster-Hill- Harford-Stein side. We saw some great games on Luton's infamous plastic pitch, always from the very front of the terrace, right behind the goal.

After a fantastic International break with two great games for Sweden the Allsvenskan returned to its more average and everyday existence and yet the drama was just around the corner and waiting for the right game to have it released...

The struggling kings of Sweden Malmö FF have finally ended their trainer speculations by hiring Rikard Norling (formerly of Assyriska and AIK).

Harry Redknapp believes that yesterday's match at White Hart Lane was a fitting finale to what he claims is Tottenham's best season ever. In a manner befitting of the season as a whole, there was drama until the end yesterday as Roman Pavlyuchenko scored with virtually the last kick of the game to seal fifth place for Spurs and confirm Birmingham's relegation.

Really dissappointed with the Europa League final last night...usually they are great games but last nights final in the ridiculously lob-sided Aviva Stadium (Lansdowne Road for the corporately challenged amongst us) was a sifled, scrppy stultified affair.
Braga looked more afraid of losing than being desperate to win and Porto seemed to come down to their level.

First shot of the new war. 2010.Looking to all the great games this weekend, one stands above the rest. The Cascadia Rivalry. The Seattle Sounders are hosting their 30+ year rivals the Portland Timbers. Expect this one to be three things: loud, physical and damned exciting.
Just as the New York/LA game was billed as a battle of the league's most expensive and start studded teams, this game is billed as the rivalry that never sleeps.

Contrary to the impression you may have acquired from the hyperbole feast that masqueraded as media coverage of this game, Wednesday was not the first time a football game got a bit nasty. In fact, compared to some of the glorious madness that has decorated El Clasico in the past we could argue that Mourinho gave the fixture a much-needed boost.

The Emirates Cup has quickly become one of the best pre-season touraments and the 2011 edition is shaping up to have some great games.

Arsenal have announced the teams who will be competing in the 2011 Emirates Cup this summer, and the big news is that Thierry Henry will return to play against Arsenal.

This weekend was a great two days in the world of football. There were some absolute wonderful things that took place and I felt it time to reflect on the ones I saw. Great games and outstanding performances in England and in Spain.

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QPR in the Charity Shield
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- Throughout the day, updates, comments and perspectives re QPR and football in general are posted and discussed on the QPR Report Messageboard...Also Follow: QPR REPORT ON TWITTER
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- El-Hadji Diouff Speaks of his admiration for /Friendship With Gadaffi
- Send Your Questions to Neil Warnock
- Year Flashback: "QPR Stay Up!

Gary Neville has been known as a loyal servant for Manchester United team since a long while especially under Sir Alex Ferguson's reign, having already retired from the club since the start of the season, Neville will have his career honored by the club with a special farewell game.

The special match will involved one of United's European 'rival' Juventus, a team that have been sharing many glorious European nights with Man United in the past.

Weekend Six Pack Diving into 'Pools away from home, draws appeal at Wembley and San Siro is a post from: Just Football

Each week Rob Hartnett from 188BET.com will bring you six of the best football betting opportunities from the weekend action. Rob is the public face of the leading In Play betting specialists and appears regularly on the Bolton, Wigan, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Everton websites doing betting previews.

The first week of the MLS season was loaded with top-flight individual performances, but certain ones stood out above the rest.

Just how many great games were there? Consider that players such as Charlie Davies, Juan Agudelo and Nick Rimando actually didn't make SBI's Best XI for Week One.

Love Adelaide United, love Travis Dodd, and love that goal last night.
Flowing football at its best, Brazil, to Argentinean, to Dutch slotted by an AUSSIE!
While all the focus has been on Paul Reid I'm more intrigued by the Iain Ramsay debacle.
Why has Ricky Dicky Coolen given us Mr Slory.

It's time once again for the annual trek to Portugal for the U.S. WNT which will be participating in the Algarve Cup for the 16th time. The Algarve Cup -- the biggest little tournament in the world -- has long been one of the favorite trips for the U.S. team, mostly for the great games, the food, the beautiful coast line and hopefully, the nice weather.

Biker boy: Wayne Rooney scored Saturday what he described as the best goal of his career. Let's hope the highlight reels shift into OT when the round of 16 begins today in the UEFA Champions League (AP Photo).

*Dema Kovalenko, who finished a 13-year career with just over 20 appearances for the Galaxy in the last couple of seasons, has confirmed what most of us had already assumed - his retirement.

The U.S. team will return to the southern coast of Portugal once again for the Algarve Cup and U.S. WNT head coach Pia Sundhage has selected 24 players for one of the best trips the team makes. Why is it a great trip? Great training, great games, great food, great country, great area...and if they're lucky, great weather.

It was an incredible day in the Premier League Yesterday 41 goals were scored bottom club Wolves stunned United, Arsenal lost a half-time lead of 4-0 against the Toon Army, Everton won an 8 goal thriller against Blackpool and there were many more great games, so for anyone who missed Match of the Day here's a look at all 41 EPL goals from yesterday.

*Need to see live MLS soccer after the long offseason?

You can (of a sort) when the expansion sorry, new, Portland Timbers play their first-ever scrimmage against the PDL Ventura County Fusion tonight in Ventura.

More from a Portland perspective is here.

The game kicks off at 7 p.

El Clásico is arguably the greatest rivalry and the greatest game of football in the entire world. With the league version looming in April and it looking very much like the Copa del Rey will also double as a Clasico, we thought it was worth revisiting this post.

Despite the magnitude of the fixture, tickets for El Clasico can usually be found if you plan ahead.

WARNING: The following 1200 words are the moans of a grumpy old man who believes even though Spurs are sitting in 5th, have AC Milan on the horizon in the Champions League and are still in the FA Cup things aren't what they were last season. I blame Stratford.

OK, so again life happens and we did not get to film the show last Monday night as planned. My son has bacterial pneumonia and my cohost was sick as well.

I have been working through www.elance.com to try and find someone to update the format of this blog to make it easier for you to watch the videos and share them with your friends via facebook, twitter etc.

Six SPANISH FOOTBALL games played tonight as part of Round 19 of the SPANISH LEAGUE - LA LIGA competition. Great games, spectacular goals that are worth going to the video sections of the Internet & action galour. Here are the results & scorers. Game covered in fog : Zaragoza - Levante Both teams are in deep trouble & REAL ZARAGOZA managed a "health saving" 1 - 0 victory over the last placed

Not much news to report today so just spend your time this weekend watching ALL these great games:
-Fri Jan 14
Bayer Leverkusen v Dortmund
-Sat Jan 15
Wolfsburg v Bayern Munich
Stuttgart v Mainz
Chelsea v Blackburn
Manchester City v Wolverhampton
West Ham v Arsenal
Lens v St Etienne
Lyon v Lorient
Nice v Lille
Paris St Germain v Sochaux
Stade Rennes v Arles
-Sun Jan 16
Eintracht Frankfurt v Hannover
Birmingham v Aston Villa - the big Birmingham derby
Sunderland v Newcastle - the Tyneside derby
Liverpool v Everton - the city of Liverpool derby
Tottenham v Manchester United
Almeria v Real Madrid
Barcelona v Malaga
Marseille v Bordeaux

The 19th Giornata has ended, which means the first part of the season is officially over. So this weekend the Serie A calendar will start all over again from the beginning, just inverted. It was an interesting weekend in Serie A with 30 goals scored and lots of great games. Milan continue to lead the way with 40 points, while Napoli are sole second with 36 points.