Heartbreaking. That's all I can say about this match. Gut-wrenching, soul-wrenching, the very best kind of completely awful.

The pivot point of the match – and for the rest of time nothing else will be discussed – was Henry's unjustly-allowed goal. (Technically it was Gallas', but Henry had more than a hand in it.

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Alas, poor Hejduk! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite step-overs, of most abysmal crossing. He hath lunged in like a hack a thousand times, and now how abhorr'd in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Quite literally, actually. So... Click to continue reading...

Can I take a minute to testify? Thank you. I'm now 33 years old with little time for exercise and a penchant for rich cheeses and savory meats. It is for this very reason that I possess a body type that could be described as "rotund" and why many soccer jersey's come off like meat casing on my frame. Click to continue reading...

The look of the player on the pitch, a skilled & fiery workhorse, captures the fan's imagination, but what follows?

Few goals, lots of whining, a desire to quit.

If this was said about Carlos Tevez in relation to Manchester United you might take pause to consider if he was done wrong and has a grevience.

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We've all done it. Tried to decipher the means, motives and mayhem behind a certain situation all within the whirling storm of our minds, failing to do the one oh so simple thing which could solve all our problems. On occasion causing a much larger problem through the tangents of an imagination enough to make [. Click to continue reading...

Manchester United and France left-back Patrice Evra has told the press of his inability to drink his favorite drink, Sprite, after seeing nothing but green in it. France take on the Republic of Ireland this weekend in a crucial World Cup qualifyer, and Evra has quickly learned to despise all things green.

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Rumour Mill Spinning: Just Wind?
The rumour mill is starting to spin. It may be imagination, wishful thinking and/or an hallucinatory psychotic episode. Then again there could be a grain of truth in it all. After the drubbing from Crewe something has to keep the flames (embers or just a small faintly warm spot) alive. Click to continue reading...

Match thoughts on our result will follow shortly but here's a unique opportunity? to suggest your own headline on our win. If you suggest I'm devoid of imagination yes this is partially true but I'll tell you where I'm stuck or give you suggestions as a base to get this thing started.

You could focus the headline on.

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The pressure cooker of life is slowly grinding people down, sites like this provide people with a light relief from what we see as the burden of everyday life. Sports professionals are no different with an ever increasing demand placed upon their minds and bodies, is it any wonder then we see burn out occurring all the time.

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This is the famous burst and flattened beachball look. Priceless!

I am still celebrating even though I know it was only a battle we won and not the war. But still, how often have we felt this euphoria in the last, say, 20 years? Not so many times. Anyways, I bet many of us fans have had friends or collegues gone missing the past two days.

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Last week's wacky shaninagians really reminded me 0f the short film The Red Balloon? If you haven't seen the French film, originally titled Le Ballon Rouge, it is the story of a boy who discovers a balloon that drifts around following him with a mind of its own.

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Graeme Souness has launched a scathing attack on manager Rafael Benitez as Liverpool's season goes from bad to worse.
The Reds lost their fourth match in a row for the first time in 22 years after slipping to a 2-1 defeat to Lyon in the Champions League.
And club legend Souness has no doubt that the fault lies with Benitez. Click to continue reading...

AZ v Arsenal
by acidsaid10

Well, as Peevish said in the comments, that wasn't much fun.

To start with, though, let me just say that this is not a bad result for Arsenal. Yes, we're a much better club, but AZ are the defending Eredivisie champions, and has now played 35 home matches in European competition, and has lost just once.

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For life.

Wenger said: "I'd never want to go anywhere else. Touch wood, as long as I have my health, I would want to work as long as I live but adapted to my potential."

I have to tip my hat to the man. He is committed. He is focused. He breathes the club and the game. You simply cannot ask more from a manager.

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Goal.com reported a story which featured in Daily Mirror about a possible exchange deal involving Kompany and Robinho for Yaya Toure and Puyol. This definitely has to be a joke or an imagination of some disturbed mind. Howelse you can explain the exchange of one of the best defensive midfielder and defender for two players who are struggling to find a regular place in the Manchester City side. Click to continue reading...

This simple little story is blowing up!
From one team blog, to a couple soccer blogs, to a couple bigger sites, and now Columbus Crew coach Robert Warzycha addressed Tyrone Marshall allegedly stamping on the penalty-kick mark at a press conference.

"It's just ridiculous," an agitated Warzycha said today.

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I thought about just posting the screenshot of the match report with no commentary, under the theory that what you fill in with your own imagination would be more intense than anything I could describe. But that isn't really true, and besides, you don't need this one to be made more intense. Even buffered in prose, this one is intense enough.

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First of all, sorry about last night and not having anything to discuss here. I honestly wasn't feeling it and furthermore just wanted to relax and watch some of the games that were on. But I am back tonight with a couple interesting items.

The first got me really thinking. Steve Davis, the Dallas writing genius that he is posted this little diddy about the best stadiums in the league 2010 style.

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So we're a month or so in to 2009/10, and it's been pretty hectic, to say the least. Lots of flashpoints, talking points and most importantly, lots of football. So what have been the characteristics of this opening month that have captured the imagination?

1.   There has been an awful lot of football played.

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Having not seen the game from beginning to end, I don't feel 100% qualified to comment too much on Chelsea's first defeat of the season. That said, I think I've seen enough to know that the doomsday-like pessimism from some Chelsea fans on message boards and forums is just as knee-jerk as the talk of Chelsea being shoo-ins for the title had been before Saturday's loss.

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Having not seen the game from beginning to end, I don't feel 100% qualified to comment too much on Chelsea's first defeat of the season. That said, I think I've seen enough to know that the doomsday-like pessimism from some Chelsea fans on message boards and forums is just as knee-jerk as the talk of Chelsea being shoo-ins for the title had been before Saturday's loss.

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The NZ commentator said 'In truth, there were no goals in this game.' How could I disagree with that? There were no goals and it was only luck that were not even less, I say.
Boring long ball game for two teams that lacked imagination. Did CCM really beat Gold Coast 3-0? Click to continue reading...

One of the most popular figures ever to have graced the Premier League, Gianfranco Zola was a magician with the ball at his feet, able to conjure moments of artistry that captured the imagination of English football fans during his seven years at Chelsea. Click to continue reading...

Success in football is a funny old thing. Take Barcelona's treble winning formula last season as an example. With a blend of swift, attacking play, combined with staunch, organised defending, the Catalan giants managed to outperform the majority of the top European sides. The basis for Barca's success was the quality and imagination of the [. Click to continue reading...

Success in football is a funny old thing. Take Barcelona's treble winning formula last season as an example. With a blend of swift, attacking play, combined with staunch, organised defending, the Catalan giants managed to outperform the majority of the top European sides. The basis for Barca's success was the quality and imagination of [. Click to continue reading...

5 Live Football LeagueMondays, 9pm, BBC Five LivePresented by Arlo WhiteThe BBC's increased coverage of our division this season is by no means restricted to the visual medium. There has been an encouraging upping of profile on Radio too and one of the best examples of this is a new magazine programme titled, with bounteous imagination, "5 Live Football League", an hour long meander through the Click to continue reading...

Click here to view the embedded video.

The title of this post is somewhat misleading. After all, the thought of taking a Frank Lampard "masterclass" sends your imagination off on a journey of R-rated festivities. With room service.

But alas, it's just a Disney XD viral showing Frank Lampard at Wembley doing an interview and tutorial with a boy named Alfie.

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When supporting the impending apocalypse theory of our 2009/10 start, people are saying that it's not the result, but the performances that worry them.

To this I have countered that we rarely look good losing (think about it; we're ugly losers).  But they do have a point. We haven't seemed to play particularly well.

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Somehow it seems appropriate that the funeral for Teddy Kennedy should be in the rain. Late summer rain. A grey day sad and kind of empty-feeling. A pause. The end of a season. And much work, many beginnings ahead.

Speaking of work, I have a full plate of it for the weekend so the rain is a relief in some ways.

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In our second to last installment of "The Laws of Soccer 101″ before our Final Exam, I wanted to address the second appendix-like rule tacked into the rulebook that is not actually characterized as a "Law". I guess the fact that this short provision is not a "Law" is a technicality though, because I am speaking about the "Technical Area.

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Someone, I can't remember who, posed the question ‘Could we cope with a serious injury to William Gallas?' It didn't take long to come to the conclusion that any team, no matter who, would suffer if they lost their most experienced defender; although, in our case, the problem is compounded by the fact that he is not only our most experienced defender, he is also our main goal scorer.

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If the old myth rang true that Arsenal could be harried, bullied, kicked and picked on like little kids in the playground, they proved last night it was a load of old codswallop.

GOALSCORERS: GALLAS, CALDWELL (OG)

It was not a vintage performance by any stretch of the imagination, well, from what I could gather through a stream that felt like I was watching through frosted glass.

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The Champions League reaches the final knock-out stage this evening, with an all-British match between Arsenal and Celtic taking centre stage as twenty clubs play off against each other for the right to join the lucrative group stages of the competition. The big question facing the competition as it kicks off, however, is whether the Champions League is lucrative enough for its biggest clubs any more.

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According to Sky Sports News, Hull City boss Phil Brown said that he hopes to sign Real Madrid striker Alvaro Negredo by either Monday or Tuesday. He said,

"He will be an expensive signing for anybody .

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Come and hang out around, say, 3:55 pm Eastern, for a sort-of-live blog of the USA-Mexico game. This isn't going to be the kind of live blog where I print the team sheets and, you know, write a lot of "things" designed to "help" the fan who isn't watching the match. This is going to be more like an occasionally-updating commentary track.

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