2010 is on the horizon and it's safe to say that it's been a wonderful decade for football. We here at Footy Factor have taken the opportunity to celebrate the greatest teams, players, and matches of the past 10 years. Next up...

Upset of the Decade

Winner: Senegal 1 – France 0 (2002 World Cup, Group Stage).

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On Friday December 4th we will find out how the group stages will look for the XIX World Cup to take place in South Africa next Summer.
We now know the 32 countries that qualified for the world Cup:
For CONCACAF it was The United States, Mexico and Honduras.
For CONMEBOL it was Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. Click to continue reading...

The original headline for this piece was going to be '...And Then There Was One' as in there's only one place left in the finals: congratulations to Algeria, France, Greece, Portugal and Slovenia, all of whom have qualified before.

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So very late last night Australian time, unfortunately the Aussie girls had their first loss of the AFC under-16 tournament when DPR Korea came back to clinch a 4-3 win in the 85th minute. Australia had scored first, in just the 8th minute through Brittany Whitfield and but then Korea equalised in the 18th minute. Click to continue reading...

This weekend will make and break the careers of some coaches and players. The European play-offs which will begin on Saturday the 14th November and conclude on the following Wednesday, will definitely be a must win for the likes of France, Portugal and Russia.

A world cup without the reigning world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo is simply unimaginable.

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Wolves striker Kevin Doyle believes that Ireland are capable of upsetting France in their upcoming World Cup play-off games.
The striker feels that, despite their underdog status, Ireland have an excellent chance of advancing to South Africa at the expense of Raymond Domenech's side, beaten finalists in Germany in 2006. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has not given up hope of qualifying for the later stages of the Champions League this season.
Escaping the group stages is looking like an uphill struggle for the Reds after losses to both Lyon and Fiorentina, who currently occupy the top two places in the group. Click to continue reading...

It seemed that every year you'd hear Paul Doyle on the Football Weekly podcast give his Ligue Un summary with everyone dozing off as he concluded that Lyon were pulling away to win their next inevitable title even though they'd long been jacked out of the Champions League.
That changed last year, with Bordeaux winning the league, and French football has been on a tear since. Click to continue reading...

Rafael Benitez has held talks with his Liverpool bosses over the implications if the club fail to reach the last 16 of this season's Champions League.
Discussions were also held on if the club fail to qualify for next season's lucrative European competition.
The Liverpool manager revealed today that the club did not budget this term for anything beyond the group stages. Click to continue reading...

Time to kick off the DC United Next Coach Cup with the group stages. In true, bloated, FIFA money-grubbing fashion, we're going straight for the 32-name jugular. Some of these are serious candidates, others are waaaaaay out of left field or half in... Click to continue reading...

I'm not quite sure where this week has gone. It's absolutely motored past. However, I suspect I drifted along, basking a bit too much in derby delight, and before I could whistle, the Champions League game had been and gone, and Stan Kroenke had hoovered up yet more shares.

We continued our fine form, albeit against what turned out to be the limited AZ.

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This matchday of Champions League and Europa League has provided us with action and entertainment. Anyone who said the group stages are boring is proved wrong big time, with big teams slipping, and small teams fighting, the group stages will be fought to the death.
In the Champions League, Liverpool boss Benitez is risking big with a 1-1 draw against Olympique Lyon, although the reds aren't out of the competition mathematically, they will need many results to go their way so that they can go through to the knockout stages. Click to continue reading...

It took four rounds of play but the Champions League group stages is finally heating up.

If the group stages finished as they are now, then Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Liverpool would all be playing in the Europa League.

Jose Mourinho and Inter Milan were five minutes away from an 9th consecutive Champions League game without a win, when two late goals not only gave Inter the win, but also propelled them to first place in the group.

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Goalkeeper Pepe Reina has branded Liverpool's Champions League performances this season 'disgraceful'.
The Spain international was left fuming after conceding a late equaliser in the 1-1 draw in Lyon on Wednesday night which has left the Reds' qualification from the group stages in the hands of rival teams. Click to continue reading...

I have to say maybe I was slightly harsh on the boys after the Atletico game the other night as we are sitting pretty at the top of our group with two games to play.
Let's face it there are a number of big european sides that are all but comfortable at the moment and will be giving their all to make sure of qualification for the last 16. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool drew 1-1 with Lyon last night, leaving any chance of getting through the group stages of the Champion's League hanging by a thread' but what do you think went wrong last night? There are a number of possible reasons: Rafa's tactics/his woeful decision to play Voronin/the lack of introduction of Aquilani/bringing on Babel too late, [. Click to continue reading...

Manchester United and Chelsea both qualify the group stages and were in the last 16 of the Champions League. Manchester United scored late twice to draw 3-3 with CSKA Moscow. Click to continue reading...

The possibilities for for the Wizards 2010 home schedule are starting to come into view. Earlier this week, the T-Bones came out with their schedule for the 2010 season, meaning we know what dates the Wizards won't be at home due to baseball being played at CAB. We also know that the Wizards won't be playing any games at all from June 10th through June 25th due to the announcement that the league will take off during the group stages of the World Cup this coming summer. Click to continue reading...

Two weekends ago, Liverpool thought they had reached the turning point of what has been a frustrating campaign on all fronts. A 2-0 win over Manchester United seemed to silence the doubters and catapult them back into Premier League contention.
Now, though, after Saturday's 3-1 defeat at Fulham (and the League Cup loss to Arsenal), it's back to panic stations for Rafael Benitez and his men as they look to resurrect their Champions League campaign. Click to continue reading...

If English giants and 2005 winners Liverpool lose to Lyon in France on Wednesday night their Champions League dreams could be all but over. Should Fiorentina beat Hungarian outfit Debrecen (a very likely occurrence) Liverpool will be six points adrift with just two games left.

It makes for grim reading for the Anfield faithful, with their Premier League title hopes in tatters the Champions League represents a great chance for them to pick up some silverware and an exit in the group stages is virtually unthinkable.

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New Atletico manager Quique Flores remembers the Blue machine well, Michael Essien all too well. Furthermore, a win will take us through to the group stages. Oh, and Didier Drogba is back to terrorize Europe.

I'll have that.

This man may be the fulcrum in 09-10.

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Rafael Benitez grimaced on the touchline as nine-man Liverpool were given a mauling in a humiliating defeat at Craven Cottage.
Liverpool defenders Philipp Degen and Jamie Carragher were sent off for reckless fouls and by the end the Fulham crowd were chanting "Easy, easy" as Liverpool resembled a shambles. Click to continue reading...

News tonight that Steven Gerrard may need surgery on his troublesome groin injury will be meet with dismay by Liverpool football club and its fans.Gerrard, after all, got injured playing for England against the Ukraine when England had already qualified for next year's World Cup so what was he doing playing in that match in the first place? Click to continue reading...

So it's been a while since an Australian youth girls team has qualified for a FIFA under-17 or under-20 World Cup. The last team was the one that went in 2006 to the under-20 event in Russia. And just to clarify, these events are held every two years, not four like the senior World Cups. The under-19 girls just missed out in controversial circumstances earlier this year for next year's under-20 tournament. Click to continue reading...

Rafael Benitez's six seasons at Anfield have been marked by one consistent trend: when his team's fortunes appear bleakest, the Reds have the ability to summon their finest efforts. On Sunday the concept of "Rafaball" was once more on display.
The last time LFC lost four straight, Margaret Thatcher was enjoying high tea with Ronald Reagan. Click to continue reading...

By now you've probably heard the terrible news regarding the U.S. national squad. One week after losing one player indefinitely to a terrible single car accident, this week things didn't exactly get better for the U.S. injury report. Oguchi Onyewu will  be out for around six months making his presence in the World Cup this summer questionable thanks to a horrific knee injury in the final qualifier match against Costa Rica.

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Halfway now, halfway across the Champions League group stages, while many teams look ahead to the following games, many are looking behind at the many own goals and more that cost them points.
Full Wrap Up soon... Click to continue reading...

- How come nobody ever heard of you? I mean, how come you ain't got a reputation? (Support Your Local Sheriff!, 1969)

With the visibly terrified Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Jadson looking like he'd just been told that one of the small plastic spheres in his hand contained a hilarious paper snake on a spring – and a grinning Uwe Seeler looking like the man who'd put it there – August's draw for the group stages of this season's UEFA Europa League had the potential to be highly entertaining.

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- How come nobody ever heard of you? I mean, how come you ain't got a reputation? (Support Your Local Sheriff!, 1969)

With the visibly terrified Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Jadson looking like he'd just been told that one of the small plastic spheres in his hand contained a hilarious paper snake on a spring – and a grinning Uwe Seeler looking like the man who'd put it there – August's draw for the group stages of this season's UEFA Europa League had the potential to be highly entertaining.

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Since so much has been said about yesterday's game, I'm not going to go too much into it. I just wanted to say how proud I am of my team. We've been waiting for this win for a long time. It might just be the group stages, but the biggest criticism of Lyon has been that they've been unable to defeat a big team away from home.

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Liverpool FC manager Rafa Benitez insists he did not take an unwise gamble on Steven Gerrard's fitness in the 2-1 Champions League defeat at home to Lyon.
The Liverpool FC manager believes too that the Reds can still reach the last 16, despite having only three points from three Group E matches so far. Click to continue reading...

If god came to me and asked me to pick one game where we were going to switch off and let in a late equalizer thereby letting go of 2 points I'd have picked AZ Alkmaar in the Champions League group stages without blinking an eye. This phenomenon was something that I feel was our undoing last season (apart from the fact that we were pretty poor otherwise too).

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United have got off to a good start to the season. We have suffered one defeat to Burnley and a draw to Sunderland, other than that we have won every single game we have played in all competitions. With a win tonight, United could be all but qualified for the next round of the Champions League. Click to continue reading...

The Champions League group stages are not renowned for providing scintillating, exciting football and last night was no exception.

A rather dull game looked like it was going to provide Arsenal with three points but there was an inevitability about AZ's late equaliser. Ronald Koemen said before the game that Arsenal had defects and although it took them 93 minutes to exploit one, exploit it they did.

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Who would have thought Chelsea would be hosting Atletico Madrid in the Champions League group stages, and the press would be viewing it as somewhat of a relief for the hosts. Wasn't this side supposed to be the Blues' main challengers in Group D?

That's just how bad Madrid have been thus far this season.

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