It was the worst possible set of circumstances: a handshake stand-off between Anton Ferdinand, John Terry and Ashley Cole, coupled with a lack of goals to take the attention away from it. Loftus Road might not seem like the natural setting for a philosophical debate about whether respect should be earned or whether it's a [.
Liverpool came within milli-metres of drawing with Chelsea in today's FA Cup Final.
However, it was the negative team selection and tactics in the first half that handed the
initiative to Chelsea and they duly took advantage with Ramires easily beating Pepe Reina after
mistakes by young Jay Spearing and the out-of-form Jose Reina.
Blurry JT gets Indian government into bother John Terry is said to be considering legal action
after his image was used on cigarette packets as part of an anti-smoking initiative by the Indian
government. A blurry image of the Chelsea captain boasting a pair of blackened lungs has appeared
on packaging accompanied by the warning: [.
Can Manchester United regain the initiative? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
The events in the final game of last season had a suitably momentous feeling to them, as
Manchester City snatched victory – and the Premier League title – from United in the dying
seconds of the season. There could hardly be a more wounding way for United to lose their crown,
with the combination of the fact that it was surrendered to their local rivals and in such dramatic
fashion, making the pain all the harder to bear for supporters of the Old Trafford club.
Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen is confident of the club's future prospects as long as the
players continue to give each other feedback with complete transparency rather than holding back on
important communication.
Vermaelen sat down with Arsenal Player to reflect on the club's chemistry off the field
and in the dressing room, which has been praised in recent weeks by the likes of Andre Santos and
Mikel Arteta.
Liverpool FC will change its adidas 2010/12 home jersey logo from sponsor Standard Chartered to
anti-blindness initiative Seeing is Believing for Tuesday's final home match of the season.
According to...
Sir Alex Ferguson will launch a £100million summer spending bonanza in a bid to prevent
Manchester United being replaced by neighbours City as the dominant force in the Premier League.
United could finish the season empty handed for only the fifth time in 23 years following Monday's
derby defeat, which handed the title initiative to City.
Manchester City have not won away to Arsenal since October 1975, scoring just 9 times in 26
subsequent visits. But that will count for nothing when the game kicks off this Sunday. Arsenal
have failed to score in 5 of their last 6 meetings with City in all competitions. That is a more
relevant stat as it reflects the quality, especially defensive, that the visitors have bought in
recent years.
Manchester City have not won away to Arsenal since October 1975, scoring just 9 times in 26
subsequent visits. But that will count for nothing when the game kicks off this Sunday. Arsenal
have failed to score in 5 of their last 6 meetings with City in all competitions. That is a more
relevant stat as it reflects the quality, especially defensive, that the visitors have bought in
recent years.
After a minor faux-pas when he met British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, Jermain
Defoe was determined to make a good impression on the dignitaries present at the 15th Anniversary
celebrations of the Princes Trust Football Initiative.
Arsenal back-up goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski has expressed controversial views opposing the
introduction of goal-line technology in football, insisting that officiating errors are part of the
game.
A number of high-profile errors in recent years have prompted the International Football
Association Board to hold a decisive meeting regarding the issue on July 2.
The great title teach-in: City were rocked, the champions fell, so who will seize the
initiative?
After Manchester City's shock 1-0 defeat at Sunderland in the Barclays Premier League,
Sportsmail writers assess the chasing pack's chances of overtaking the leaders and keeping their
nerve all the way through to the title in May.
Three of Liverpool's promising young players spent a day bringing cheer to children in the
community recently when they paid a visit to the Royal School for the Blind and Alder Hey
hospital.
Academy trio Henoc Mukendi, Yusuf Mersin and Villyan Bijev were a credit to the club as they
firstly visited the pupils at the school in Wavertree before moving on to Alder Hey to hand out
some presents to the children on the wards.
This morning saw this article online that revealed FAS president Mr Zainudin Nordin's thought of
throwing the towel (screengrab below) amid the doldrums facing the local football.
courtesy of Mediacorp TODAYSo much so of listed down of what were achieved during this down time
(even if some critics may not be convinced of those positive stuff), one paragraph of the report
captured my attention and had me pondering.
(P.S: That's precisely why "Instant Reaction" is an essential tag in this blog for cases as
such)
The latest roll-out this morning by the league authority informed that fans who purchase two adult
tickets at selected S.League matches with entitled a complimentary King George's Stand ticket for
the Malaysian Super League (MSL) match between LIONSXII and Perak, 10th April 2012.
O2 is ending its 10 year sponsorship of Arsenal Football Club as it looks to concentrate its
efforts on rugby, its Academy venues and the newly-launched Priority Sports initiative.
Sunderland AFC has joined forces with Africa's largest independent oil company to kick off an
initiative to showcase the continent's capacity for social and business development.
Uefa chose last night's Euro 2012 semi-final between Italy and Germany to introduce their new
'Respect Divers' initiative. Michel Platini and co are fed up with the abuse that is being levelled
at players such as Ashley Young and Cristiano Ronaldo, and are taking decisive action to allow
football's diving community to go about their [.
Renowned for never doing things the easy way, Manchester United's U18′s had to produce a
performance of quality and strength to overcome a Derby County side boasting England U17
internationals, in-form strikers and a notable physical advantage not to mention the early
initiative with an opening goal on 20 minutes.
Defending champions Spain start the Euro 2012 quarterfinals with a match against Group D
runner-up France. The match will take place at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk, Ukraine with kickoff
scheduled for 20:45 local time.
Spain manager Vicente del Bosque
"Everybody thinks we're favourites because we won the EUROs four years ago and the World Cup two
years ago.
One of the things that's surprised me this year is David Stockdale's distribution. Earlier in
his Fulham career he seemed to be clearly better than Mark Schwarzer in this area. Now? Not so
sure.
Take yesterday:
Which looks unfortunate: 31 possession concessions there (and I accept that we may have won a
bit of second ball there, but on past form, probably not much, and not enough to justify just
giving the ball back like that).
The Silverbacks have really put a focus on connecting with the community this year. They've done
this through engaging the fans and local area businesses.
"As an organization, we want to continue growing and developing, but we want to achieve that
with the community at our side," said Silverbacks Owner Boris Jerkunica.
Today the Rapids had a fan event on the 16th St. Mall to announce their new initiative and club
slogan. The new slogan is 'One Club' and to celebrate it they announced that anyone who buys season
tickets for the 2012 season by March 1st will have their name printed on the authentic home player
jerseys in 2013 and 2014 (example above).
PUMA's 2012 Project Pink initiative kicked off in July with a brand new collection if  graphic
tees and tank tops; a pink hoodie, shorts, capris, and the requisite pink soccer gear including
soccer...
The Selecao Brasileira (regardless of the competition they're in) have the
inexplicable gift of playing well, simultaneously conceding careless goals and coming
away with a win in the end. As such, watching them is the equivalent of watching Die Hard 1,2,3 and
the 100 trilogies that Bruce Willis has yet to star in.
When the time came to pull a trigger on a trade sending away Juan Agudelo, the ultimate push to
make a trade happen came from none other than Agudelo himself.
That is the contention of team General Manager Erik Soler as he discussed the details of the
young striker's trade to Chivas USA for defender Heath Pearce, allocation money and future
considerations.
Police have arrested and since bailed a 10-year old boy for delivering a brutal kick to a prone
opponent's head during a school football match between ESF Lions and Kitchee Escola in Hong Kong
on Monday afternoon.
The 'ESF' in the Lions' name stands for the 'English Schools Foundation,' which is a initiative
set up to educate the children of ex-pats around the world and as the child responsible was white
and his 12-year old victim was Asian it should come as little surprise that the parents of the
latter filed a police complaint after the game which has led to the ESF Lions being branded as
'white bullies' in certain circles.
Valencia advanced to the next stage of Europa League and simply glad not to pay for their
mistakes in throwing away a four goal advantage into only having two for the second leg against PSV
Eindhoven.
Adil Rami's goal was obviously the show for El Che on the night as not only he was the one
scoring the La Liga side's only goal in a1-1 draw, but the French international also got himself
send off, leaving some scarce in the last few minutes for his team.
If ever there was a stereotypical 'game of two halves', this was it! United took the initiative and
started the better of the two teams, so much so that after 30 minutes United were literally
'dipping their bread' as-and-when they fancied scoring. Within those 30 minutes United took a well
deserved and impressive three goal [.
It all started according to plan. Milan took the initiative from the beginning against Juventus,
dominating possession and going ahead thanks to another strike from our free scoring midfielder,
Antonio Nocerino. Ten minutes later it should have been two. But, it was not. Roberto Romagnoli,
the assistant referee, somehow failed to see how Sulley Muntari's [.
Every week at the conclusion of the weekly #SoccerSpeakUSA Twitter Chat, Soccer Support
announces a ‘Tweeter of the Week' – someone who we felt gave the best insights and responses
during the hour and embodied what #SoccerSpeakUSA is setting out to achieve.
The winner of this award is then entitled to promote a blog, club or website through the Soccer
Support channels.
Examining the state of MLS's youth development, Part 1
Heading into Year 4 of Major League Soccer's Homegrown Player Initiative, we are starting to see
real signs of progress. Here's part 1 of my look at the state of youth development in MLS.
Don't normally get all political here (unless it involves public financing of private sporting
ventures), but today some* of you may have noticed the black bar over Google's logo today. OrÂ
Wikipedia going 'dark'.
That's because today is an U.S.-wide initiative to oppose SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and
its sister legislation, PIPA.
