Meanwhile, midfielder Sal Zizzo was jogging with Nagbe around the playing field during the game. Zizzo, who suffered a torn ligament in his left knee during the team's home game against Houston last season, is progressing quickly and will likely begin training sometime after the team returns to Portland.

It was a Papuan derby in South Jakarta. Persiram Raja Ampat don't have a stadium that meets ISL standards so they have become a bit nomadic this season; this was their third home game at Lebak Bulus while they have also used Surajaya Stadium in Lamongan.

At the weekend the ‘hosts' earned their first win of the season, defeating Deltras 3-1, a result that had Deltras coach Jorg Steinbrunner fuming over what he saw as poor refereeing decisions that cost him the match while Persidafon, up in Palembang, were trounced 5-0 by Sriwijaya.

Sporting KC today announced a new TV deal with KSMO today. Not only today did KC announce that KSMO will be broadcasting the 2012 season, but KSMO will also be broadcasting the 2013 season as well. There's plenty of good news out of the deal that was announced today.
First, all 28 games that are not being broadcasted on national television will be shown live on KSMO.

It would appear the Seattle Sounders may be getting close to announcing details of their summer friendly. A league source has confirmed to Sounder at Heart what Michael C. Lewis originally tweeted that the Sounders' home game against Real Salt Lake will be moved from July 18 to Oct. 17 in order to accomodate an international friendly.

Liverpool drew their 8th Premier League home game of the season against Spurs last night, and whilst the club is only four points off a champions league place at the moment, history suggests that a top four finish is now practically impossible.Liverpool have dropped a staggering 16 points at home this season.

While it wasn't exactly backs to the wall for 90 minutes as some media reports are suggesting, Tottenham had to show a great deal of resilience to come away with a draw from yesterday's encounter at Anfield.

After the game, Assistant Manager Kevin Bond hailed a ‘different type of performance' as Spurs took a valuable point from the match.

I imagine there will be people angry about this but City have won every single home game this year, right? So quite what we were supposed to do about that I'm not sure. People talk about our record at Eastlands but that was before City became CITY and, well, honestly...

The shame was that the game was over before it had begun, Adam Johnson managing to fall over Chris Baird in the area to win a dodgy penalty to make it 1-0, then Baird put through his own goal to make it two before we'd even started to play.

Icy Saturdays are meant to be enjoyed in nice warm houses with pints of lovely beer abd the telly on. Waterloo's home game was cancelled so that left us free to do just that. There are few more beautiful trophies in world sport than the Calcutta Cup, it was great to see a young, inexperienced side lift it although really Scotland were the better side.

Arsene Wenger faced the press yesterday ahead of Arsenal's crucial home game against Blackburn, where he is trying to arrest a run of four League games without a win, and he took the assembled journalists to task for always being so pessimistic, even when Arsenal are doing well. "Look, at the moment we are in [.

I think it's so ironic how a team that is famous for giving nothing away at home gets upset when decisions don't go their way in away games. When a nailed on pen isn't given to their opponents. Yet when the same happens to them in an away game they spit the dummy. The word shame doesn't seem to exist.

The Montreal Impact announced on Friday that more than 25,000 tickets were already sold for the home opener at Olympic Stadium, March 17, against the Chicago Fire.

The Impact are hoping to create a new record for attendance at the Olympic Stadium with additional sales leading up to the home opener.

Arsenal have now gone four League games without a win, but that run could pale into insignificance if the Gunners don't start improving very quickly. Arsenal may have an "easy" home game this weekend against Blackburn, but if the DON'T win it may be hard to forecast where the next win will come from as [.

One of the great bane's of Indonesian football is that some teams face big problems find a place to play their home games. Persija are a case in point. They will play Persiwa and Persipura in Yogyakarta while their normal home base, the Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, is being renovated.
Meanwhile the West Java Derby between Pelita Jaya and Persib will be played at the Jalak Harapat Stadium in Soreang making it in effect a Persib home game.

I'll always remember the first game of football I ever went to: I was aged six; the location was Aggborough in Kidderminster as the Harriers took on Aston Villa in Graham Allner's testimonial. It was a few years before I was ever introduced to top flight football at Villa Park or First Division football at Molineux.

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Arsenal supporters are becoming increasingly frustrated at the club's recent failure to compete for major honours in the past 7 years.

The ‘so near yet so far' statement could not ring more true than it does for the Gunners and the fans are starting to lose patience.

The poisonous atmosphere that has swept across the Emirates Stadium in back-to-back games against Manchester United and Aston Villa must be a worry to both the manager and the board.

THFC1882 welcomes back guest writer Kenny Palmer with a preview of Tottenham Hotspur versus Wigan.

A week is a long time in football, as Spurs two contrasting performances highlighted. Heroic in defeat against Manchester City earning plaudits for the character they showed in coming back from 2-0 down to level the scores before losing to an injury time penalty.

This weekend Persija IPL will host Bontang in Solo. Next week Persija ISL will play two home games either in Solo or Sidoarjo. Neither club it seems can get a game in Jakarta.
Persija ISL are being forced away from their home town because the grass at the Bung Karno is being relaid, apparently, and the other options available, Lebak Bulus or Soemantri Brojonegoro are not real options; Lebak Bulus is supposed to being demolished some time soon while the other one is even smaller.

If you have been to a Fire game in the past few years, you have probably heard the steady pulse of the bass drum coming from Section 8. The man behind that beat is long time Chicago Fire fan DJ Racis. DJ has been a dedicated part of Section 8 for almost a decade. Among many other things, he is infamous for running for every Section 8 board position at the Annual General Meeting.

Despite the unbalanced nature of the 2012 Cascadia Cup, the three biggest supporters groups of the Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps elected to have each game count equally toward the trophy.

Various options had been discussed, such as counting just one home game for each team or weighting road results differently, but there was apparently near universal support to make the competition's rules as straight forward as possible.

Mario Balotelli never seems to stop making the headline as despite being Manchester City savior in previous match against Tottenham Hotspurs, Balotelli caught himself involved in another case on that game.

The Italian striker was caught stamping Spurs' midfielder, Scott Parker, on Sunday and now are facing a disciplinary act by the English FA, who already confirmed their stance, only waiting for the forward to respons.

Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli is facing a four-match ban after being charged with violent conduct by the Football Association for his stamp on Scott Parker's head during yesterday's 3-2 win over Tottenham.

The FA statement read:

"The FA has today charged Manchester City forward Mario Balotelli with violent conduct following an incident in his side's home game against Tottenham Hotspur.

Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli is facing a four-match ban after being charged with violent conduct by the Football Association for his stamp on Scott Parker's head during yesterday's 3-2 win over Tottenham.

The FA statement read:

"The FA has today charged Manchester City forward Mario Balotelli with violent conduct following an incident in his side's home game against Tottenham Hotspur.

Manchester City could be without striker Mario Balotelli for four games after he was charged with violent conduct by the Football Association.
The controversial Italian appeared to stamp on Scott Parker's head during City's dramatic 3-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday and despite the incident going unpunished at the time, has been charged retrospectively.

(Editor's Note: This article is a follow-up to one written in late December about St. Louis' struggles to land an MLS franchise. If you haven't read that yet, it is highly recommended. This is Part 2 of the ongoing Soccer in St. Louis series.)

It's a half hour before kickoff and Matt Williams is not happy.

Liverpool's chances of making the top four seem to be dissipating with every home game, and after fourteen points dropped at Anfield so far this season, the heat is most definitely on for Kenny Dalglish's underachieving team. Most fans probably see finishing outside the top four as a major failure, but, unsurprisingly, Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson has a different view.

By Sharon Hom
The Kansas Magic continued their 2-game road trip in Detroit on Saturday night. Seeking to gain a split in their weekend games, the Kansas Magic failed to outscore the Detroit Waza and lost 10-7 at the Taylor Sportsplex.
Behind 4-0 after the 1st quarter, the Magic could only match the Waza's output for the 2nd quarter and trailed 6-2 at halftime.

Liverpool drew their 7th home game of the season against Stoke earlier today, and whilst the club is still in touch with the the champions league places, history seems to suggest a top four finish is now very unlikely. It would be madness to write Liverpool off at this stage, and that's not my intention at all, but historical performance can sometimes be a persuasive indicator of how things may

We're delighted to welcome lovely fella, stand-up comedian and Spurs fan Carl Jones to Cheer Up Alan Shearer. With Spurs second in the table, here's Carl's first guest post about whether his side can actually win the league...
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It's mid-January. Tottenham Hotspur sit three points adrift of leaders Manchester City and level on points with Manchester United.

Nope, not ignoring it. Just not had the time recently to add tables etc. Persema are bottom of the 12 team league with just one point but yet to play a home game.
Tomorrow sees Persibo host Persiba Bantul, Persema v Bontang and Persiraja v Arema while on Sunday Persija host Persebaya...somewhere other than Jakarta!

Nope, not ignoring it. Just not had the time recently to add tables etc. Persema are bottom of the 12 team league with just one point but yet to play a home game.
Tomorrow sees Persibo host Persiba Bantul, Persema v Bontang and Persiraja v Arema while on Sunday Persija host Persebaya...somewhere other than Jakarta!

Craig Bellamy today scooped a well-deserved 'Player of the Month' award for December, and his goals his performances have been essential to Liverpool's improvement under Kenny Dalglish this season. However, ever the perfectionist, Bellamy is unhappy that the club failed to win one particular home game.

The US Soccer Federation has approved a major change to the US Open Cup. A change that will certainly enhance how the tournament is played in the US.

The competition will feature a Modern Professional Era (1995-present) record 64 teams, including every US-based professional club in the American soccer pyramid from Major League Soccer (16 teams), the North American Soccer League (6 teams), and USL PRO (10 teams).

Landon Donovan and Brad Friedel's highly-anticipated match-up is finally here.

The two Americans are both in their respective team's starting lineups, as is Tim Howard, for Tottenham's home game against Everton (2:45 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel). Donovan will look to help the Toffees upset the Spurs in his third game back while also attempting to silence one his most recent critics in Friedel in the process.

Thanks to Melbourne Victory Football Club I have two double passes to give away for the next home game vs Adelaide United, this Friday night (13th January) at AAMI Park. To enter, answer the following question.... Jim Magilton began his football management career at: a) Ipswich Town b) Liverpool c) Barcelona Email your answer, along with your full

Many fans were hoping for early activity from the Gunners in the transfer market, especially to bolster the defence, but things have largely been quiet. Given that Ferguson had to go back to Paul Scholes and Chelsea are taking so long over the Cahill deal, one can assume this is going to be, at best, a tricky month for football business.

Guardian: Race question seems likely to haunt Liverpool for rest of season

Liverpool may be regretting their stance on the Luis Suárez racial abuse controversy after Friday's incident involving Oldham's Tom Adeyemi The Luis Suárez T-shirts Liverpool wore at Wigan were always a bad idea, quite the worst attitude struck in a solidarity campaign that brought the club's decision-making into question if not disrepute, and the sight of supporters wearing them at the next home game at Anfield came with a queasy sense of foreboding.

By Joel Greenwaldt
The Baltimore Blast announced on December 16 that forward Matt Watson would be released from his contract effective January 1 so that he could join Major League Soccer club Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Watson, a member of the Blast for the past five-plus seasons, played his final game at the First Mariner Arena that December evening and remained with the club through their New Year's Eve victory against the Milwaukee Wave.

By Joel Greenwaldt
Baltimore Blast (8-3) vs. Syracuse Silver Knights (6-6)
Game Time: 1/6/2012 7:35 PM
http://www.misllivesoccer.com/
What needs to go right for the Blast:

• Take the lead early and put the game away: Syracuse has benefited from early leads in both of their wins in Baltimore this season.

The Philadelphia Union will welcome the Colorado Rapids to Chester, PA to open PPL Park for the 2012 MLS regular season, a great deviation from what many people have been speculating about the season's schedule on Facebook and Twitter.

A source with knowledge of the Union's 2012 regular season schedule tells the Brotherly Game that the Union will host the Rapids on March 18, which will be Philadelphia's 2012 MLS First Kick home game.