Only 23 nations are going to the World Cup and the host nation won't even be there. Sounds crazy? This is the world cup when one looks only at the nations of the coaches of the 32 squads. The countries with more coaches? Germany and Argentina, each one has 3. And all the coaches from the latter is heading a South American nation (Argentina, Chile and Paraguay).

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2009 DU NORD MLS BEST 11
The 2009 du Nord MLS Best 11 was announced on Sun Nov 15. See the list here. You can also listen to this week's United Mania podcast (which was broadcast on Sunday) to hear the list announced and discussed.
STARTERS
It will be Los Angeles v Salt Lake for the 2009 MLS Cup - Sun Nov 22 in Seattle. Click to continue reading...

And they are not doing so for the extra cash!

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Female police officers are to pose as prostitutes in South Africa in a bid to snare kerb crawlers ahead of next year's World Cup, security chiefs said.

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This week's Video Of The Week is "Heading For Glory", the official film of the 1974 World Cup Finals in West Germany. There was no English presence (although with the benefit of hindsight there was no disgrace in being knocked out by a Polish side that didn't get a million miles from reaching the final of the competition), but Scotland began their four-yearly routine of almost getting to the Second Round of the competition, the Dutch fielded possibly the best ever international team to not win a World Cup, East Germany met West Germany for the only time (and beat them) and Gerd Muller eventually won the tournament fof the host nation.

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One Fan's Reaction to Watching U.S.-Honduras Eighties-Style

I watch most U.S. national team games cloistered in my own soccer nerdom, hunched over a computer or slouched at a friend's house where I can bitch freely about the team's dry ideas and dire first touch. This is how a lot of us watch games.

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In the opening minutes of Saturday's Ukraine v England match, England keeper Robert Green was forced to scurry out of his goal as the Ukrainian fans hurled flares onto the pitch. Once the threat of being pegged with a fireball and burning alive subsided, the unnerved goalkeeper promptly went on to earn the first red card for England since Wayne Rooney in the last World Cup.

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Leon Best has been dusting off his old World Cup videos as inspiration for Ireland's final push for South Africa 2010.
The Coventry City striker's heroes include, not surprisingly, the likes of Brazil's Ronaldo whose majestic presence in previous competitions provided the stuff that boyhood dreams are made of. Click to continue reading...

Ireland Under-17 manager Sean McCaffrey has today named an 18 man squad for the Under-17 UEFA qualifying first phase qualifiers in Bulgaria later this month.
Ireland will play against the host nation Bulgaria, Latvia and Sweden with the aim of securing a top-two finish in the group to progress into the Elite section of the qualifying series. Click to continue reading...

Courtesy of FIFA:
India goalkeeper Subrata Paul was the hero as the host nation held their nerve to retain the Nehru Cup winning 5-4 on penalties against Syria at New Delhi's Ambedkar Stadium on Monday.
Despite losing to Lebanon by a solitary goal in the opener, India bounced back to reach the final of the five-nation tournament with wins over Kyrgyzstan and Sri Lanka. Click to continue reading...

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Read the cutting-edge, constantly-updated, football-only QPR Report Messageboard - and quasi-blog!)! Simply read about what is happening in the world of QPR; what did happen (Nostalgia!); and what may happen! Feel free to offer your perspective!
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER! Click to continue reading...

After the England U19 beat France 3-1 after extra time on Thursday, they move into the final today against host nation the Ukraine. Nile Ranger second half sub in semi-final win over France Nile Ranger of Newcastle United was brought on as a second half substitute on Thursday, and played in overtime where two goals [. Click to continue reading...

THE Football Association of Singapore (FAS) said last night that it was "shocked and disappointed" with the organisers of the Liverpool visit.
In my view, this pretty much sums up how many football fans feel since Liverpool mauled the Lions 5-0 at the National Stadium. Not because the national team lost, but because of the lack of respect shown to the host nation and its fans. Click to continue reading...

PHILADELPHIA — What was essentially a third string U.S. national soccer team remain in contention to win their third straight CONCACAF Gold Cup following a 2-1 comeback victory over Panama last night. Kenny Cooper's penalty kick in the 105th minute completed the victory and a secured a semifinal berth against Honduras for the tournament's host nation. Click to continue reading...

The biggest national team tournament in the CONCACAF region is here. The 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup will spread across the US with 13 cities hosting matches. It will all culminate with the final on July 26 in Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Let's now focus our attention to Group B. Click to continue reading...

The latest edition of The Third Half Podcast is now available. We start this Confederations Cup recap with Chris Oakley from Some People Are On The Pitch for a more general overview of the competition and how South Africa did both as a host nation...
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The biggest national team tournament in the CONCACAF region is here. The 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup will spread across the US with 13 cities hosting matches. It will all culminate with the final on July 26 in Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Let's now focus our attention to Group B.

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Fresh from giving England fans palpitations after Fridays semi-final win against host nation Sweden, England's young lions have a chance to win some silverware for the junior lions for the first time since 1993. England Under 18's triumphed that year, riding a week long wave of growing optimism and support to beat Turkey 1-0 in front of 25,000 fans in Nottingham.

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South Africa came oh-so-close to advancing to the Confederations Cup final against the United States this Sunday. For now, they'll have to settle for a third-place match against Spain.
Still, the host nation's performance against Brazil in a 1-0 loss in the semi final has made believers of Bafana Bafana's supporters. Click to continue reading...

How do. A 5-minute mouth off today, a sort of two-parter. Lucky buggers

Psycho Stu Pearce steps up to the plate tonight with the young lions against the impressive host nation Sweden in the semis of the UEFA U21's. After starting out as 3rd favourites, we have eased into the latter stages after an edgy start against Finland when goalscorer Micheal Mancienne netted 1st and then lost the plot bringing down the Fin Striker.

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Fast forward through the BS to ~ 35 seconds for the goal
The world's second best right back Dani Alves would start for any other country but he happens to play for Brazil - who have the luxury of starting Inter's Maicon - the world's best right back. But Alves definitely took his chance today. Click to continue reading...

Fernando Torres says no amount of spending by Manchester United and Chelsea during the summer will stop Liverpool's relentless quest for the Premier League title.
Before Spain met host nation South Africa in their final group game of the Confederations Cup last night, Torres revealed just how focused he is on breaking United's stranglehold on the title and emulating the great Liverpool forwards of the past. Click to continue reading...

South Africa, horns and all, have edged their way into the semi-finals of this year's Confederations Cup, but their doing so has been something of a hollow victory for them, as we saw last night. Their procession through to the semi-finals was more about the shortcomings of others than about anything that they managed themselves.

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The host nation will be playing one of the favourites to win this competition, and will certainly hope to take something away from the champions of Europe. Although the Spaniards have managed to score six goals from two outings, Xabi Alonso has admitted that his team are not yet playing to potential.

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The Host nation South Africa are in a must win situation against the All Whites from New Zealand,...
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Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. The clock was ticking this evening as South Africa's Confederations Cup bid slowly dragged itself to life this evening, with a performance that added little to the widely held perception that they are likely to be the worst host nation in the history of the World Cup when the show rolls into town.

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UEFA u21 Championship
For the first half hour, the host nation appeared much like the venue, Malmo's New Stadium, a giant Ikea-like essay in dark minimalism, functional and well-designed, but lacking zest in its final conception.
The Swedes kept their shape well and pressed in numbers when Belarus had the ball, but had forgotten how to forge an end product from all their homework. Click to continue reading...

UEFA U21 Championship: Sweden v Belarus Malmo - After England took the initiative with a 2-1 win over Finland last night and Spain and Germany tussled to a 0-0 finish, it is up to the host nation to stamp their authority on Group A. Click to continue reading...

Here's part 2 of the Under 21s preview from yesterday.

Belarus

Coach Yuri Kurnenins

Some are saying this Belarus team will be the whipping boys of group A but they actually scored the same amount of points as the Serbs. Then in the play-offs they saw off a talented Turkish outfit so no one should under-estimate Yuri's team.

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Joel Santana needs to win against the Kiwis otherwise its over for South Africa and the end of the road for him.

The media was none too impressed with his Iraq efforts.

He was widely perceived as failing to adapt to Bora Milutinovic's ultra defensive approach.
The Daily Times:

But glaringly, Santana did not see reason to alter his tactics and introduce more attack-minded players, keeping men such as Steven Pienaar (although still not fully fit) and Katlego Mashego on the bench until it was too late, while Siphiwe Tshabalala and Elrio van Heerden were not even used as Santana packed his under-worked defence.

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Last night, the Confederations Cup kickoff in South Africa with the host nation takes on Iraq in the opening match. The match ended in a goalless draw.

Then, another Group A match between New Zealand and the current Fifa's world number one ranking team, Spain kickoff later at Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenberg.

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The 2009 Confederations Cup got underway today with two results that I pretty much expected. South Africa and Iraq put us to sleep while Spain and New Zealand was train wreck TV; done and dusted inside of six minutes.Ellis Park was a buzz as host nation South Africa took the park to host Iraq. Great crowd, great atmosphere, pathetic football. Click to continue reading...

It is winter in South Africa at the moment, and it was a winter of discontent in Johannesburg this afternoon as South Africa played out an energy-sappingly drab goalless draw to open this year's Confederations Cup. South Africa's performance was poor enough for questions to be asked about whether they will become the first host nation in the history of the World Cup to not qualify from their group in the final stages of the competition.

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The Confederations Cup in South Africa gets underway today with Iraq playing South Africa, the host nation. In case you are not familiar with the Confederations Cup, it's a competition to prepare the host nation of the World Cup and takes place the summer before the competition. In other words, its sort of a dress-rehearsal for the World Cup.

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The Confederations Cup in South Africa gets underway today with Iraq playing South Africa, the host nation. In case you are not familiar with the Confederations Cup, it's a competition to prepare the host nation of the World Cup and takes place the summer before the competition. In other words, its sort of a dress-rehearsal for the World Cup.

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Watch the U21 Euro 2009 live here.

The 2009 U-21 Euros will take place across 4 venues in Sweden from 15 June to 29 June, with the best and brightest young footballers from Europe hoping to stake a place in the senior national team on the basis of their performances this summer.

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