That Tiger Woods killer instinct from his prime? That seems to be lost forever. During the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Tiger collapsed during the final round to finish a disappointing third. Robert Rock ended up winning, while Rory McIlroy finished second.

In the first three rounds, Woods got better and better posting a 70, 69 and a 66.

The current table shows Inter in 5th place yet the Nerazzurri have a greater chance of competing for the league title than Udinese or Lazio who are currently above them in the standings. Inter's players have the necessary experience and the quality players to challenge for titles while both Udinese and Lazio are lacking in terms of experience and the killer instinct needed to win difficult matches.

BY ADAM SERRANO

CARSON, Calif. -- There were plenty of lessons learned on Friday as the United States senior squad soundly defeated the U.S. Under-23's 4-0 in a scrimmage that took place on the Mooch Myernick Field at the Home Depot Center complex.

So a few months after leaving Arsenal, Cesc Fabregas is already starting to talk about his desire to one day return and play for the Gunners. The midfielder who is in amazing form for Barcelona has had a great start to the La Liga season scoring 8 goals in 12 appearances.

Is it just me or was Arsenal holding down Fabregas from his real abilities?

By Joel GreenwaldtBaltimore Blast (5-3) vs. Missouri Comets (7-3)
Game Time: 12/16/2011 7:35PM
http://www.misllivesoccer.com/
What needs to go right for the Blast:

• Play a full 60 minutes at home: In their two losses last weekend to the Missouri Comets and Syracuse Silver Knights respectively, the Baltimore Blast seemed to lack the focus to finish off their opponents.

Manager Kenny Dalglish calls for Liverpool to apply the killer touch

Kenny Dalglish has demanded his players discover their killer instinct after admitting Liverpool's lack of goals has become a cause for concern.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-12-10 00:17:38 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Manchester United have endured a catastrophic week, crashing out of the Champions League and then losing Vidic for the rest of the season due a knee ligament injury. They need to bounce back, and the visit of Wolves to Old Trafford this weekend gives them a glorious opportunity of doing just that. Bookmakers make than a best priced 1.

Betting Preview: Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham and United to catch up with City - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

This weekend, the big teams have a chance to catch up with the Premier League leaders Manchester City, and you can get great betting odds for United, Arsenal and co.

AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri is confident that he will get a new contract extension with the club as his current deal is set to expire in the summer of 2012. According To Allegri, the club is set to offer him a two year extension that will see him stay with the Rossonerri for two more years.

Well, my bags are packed!! If 6 goals wasn't a wake up call to the rest of Europe, then I don't know what is. Where has that killer instinct been throughout qualifying? Each and every one of our players rose their game to a new level for [read more]

Arsene Wenger has admitted that his decision to start Robin Van Persie on the bench in last night's Champions League fixture against Marseille did not pay off. The Gunners resulting barren draw means that they will have to win their last 2 matches if they are to qualify for the knockout stages without a hitch.

I don't think anyone would disagree that Luis Suarez is an excellent player, and former Liverpool striker David Fairclough is no exception. However, despite his admiration for 'El Pistolero', Fairclough believes that Suarez is not delivering enough goals for Liverpool.
Speaking after the Norwich game on Saturday, Fairclough observed:
"For everything he [Suarez] does well, you have to be a bit critical.

I don't know what to think after today's 2-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League in Germany.

On the one hand, we started strong, a Jonas goal in the 24th minute just reward for our early dominance.

Our defense looked solid; our offense wasn't scoring but we were getting opportunities and Bayer didn't look dangerous save the last minutes of the first half.

Denmark face Portugal on Tuesday evening with a win guaranteeing qualification to Euro 2012. Its a big task for the Dane's though, against a really strong Portugal side boasting some world class players in their ranks the likes of Ricardo Carvalho, Fabio Contentrao, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luiz Nani.

Ducky's Note: Much like Torres' drought, BigFourZa has been suffering a lack of Chelsea contributions, putting the very name of our site at risk. Much like Torres' goal at OT, Sushajith has stepped up and broken the 27-month drought in BFZ's blue corner. Much like Torres' later miss in the same game.

The Tauro FC dressing room is so fun before a match!TORONTO FC (3rd) VS. TAURO FC (4th)
CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - GROUP C
　
BMO FIELD - TUESDAY 8PM ET
TV: SPORTSNET ONE
　
THE KICKABOUT:
It's back to Champions League action as TFC make the trek to face TFC.

Setting: Saturday, September 17 at PPL Park in Chester; kickoff scheduled for 7:36:30 PM Eastern.

Broadcast Information: The Comcast Network (JP Dellacamera, Taylor Twellman, Bob Rigby), coverage beginning at 7:00 PM Eastern with a pre-game show / ONN (Dwight Burgess, Duncan Oughton), News Talk 610 WTVN-AM (Neil Sika) and La Mega 103.

There was a lot not to like about the game Saturday afternoon. Not just because of the loss to a Western Conference rival, but because there were opportunities for much more than happened. Real Salt Lake takes that win and now has a better chance at the Supporters Shield than the Seattle Sounders, and even moves into 2nd by PPM, although barely.

This week US Soccer fans saw something new. They saw a team in the red, white and blue attempt to possess the ball, pass the ball, and play out of trouble. They saw players chosen on the hope (if not much prior proof) that they can play a fluid, attack minded game of soccer.

They saw glaring imperfections, certainly.

The Quakes managed to secure another point on the road last Saturday against Toronto FC in Toronto. The result marked the 13th game since the Quakes recorded a win in MLS, but the Quakes were lucky to come out of Toronto with the draw they managed. João Plata managed to slip the offside trap in the second, half thanks to a nice through ball by Ryan Johnson, and beat Jon Busch to finish, but the linesman ruled Plata to be offside.

Arsene Wenger is a happy man this morning. He was able to watch his young side triumph in Italy last night, after a tough week that's been riddled with doubt, apprehension and harsh criticism from every possible angle.

Arsenal were able to overcome a tricky Udinese side, and with Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie both getting on the scoresheet, The Gunners were able to progress to the group stages of the Champions League.

Arsene Wenger is a happy man this morning. He was able to watch his young side triumph in Italy last night, after a tough week that's been riddled with doubt, apprehension and harsh criticism from every possible angle.

Arsenal were able to overcome a tricky Udinese side, and with Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie both getting on the scoresheet, The Gunners were able to progress to the group stages of the Champions League.

Welcome to the New England Revolution vs. Chivas USA live game thread! Tonight's match features a Revolution squad that could possibly be described as resurgent given their recent string of positive road results. They face a Chivas USA squad that, although inconsistent this season, has had the Revs' number in recent years, including a 3-0 result at the Home Depot Center in April.

This is a guest article from one of our roving reporters who kindly reported back on his findings as he watched the Tottenham XI play MK Dons last night.

His name is Charlie Keeler and he is in his late 20′s. This is his first blog article.

He saw the 1987 FA Cup Final Squad on Blue Peter and decided that Spurs were the team for him.

Rarely have the bottom division's promoted teams started a season with so much expectation. The rapid ascent of AFC Wimbledon on the English football ladder and big spending of fellow league debutants Crawley Town means last year's elite Conference National outfits will be under close scrutiny.

The financial strength of the Sussex club might mean they start the season as favourites in the football betting.

The Sounders are a far superior side to Portland and they'll expect to take three points back to Seattle. But without the killer instinct they've lacked all season long, it's far from a sure thing. This is a big game for the Sounders even without the rivalry being taken into account; Supporters Shield contenders need to beat bottom table teams no matter the venue and with the Galaxy picking up a win on Saturday picking up only a point would make the gap look a far tougher hill to climb.

szólj hozzá: Sweden 2-1 United States

Abby Wambach scored her first goal in this World Cup but it was not enough to stop Sweden whose rampaging Lotta Schelin subjected the US defense to all kinds of pressure. Amy LePeilbet had a horror show lucky to escape with just a yellow after she brought down Schelin in the box.

Copa America 2011: Notes on Matchday 1 is a post from: Just Football

A few thoughts and observations after Matchday 1 of the 2011 Copa America in Argentina:

1) Barça-no-la

Sergio Batista's desire to mould his Argentina team into the Catalan sky-blue and whites is well documented, and appears to have filtered down to his players.

I published a quick article earlier that caused a bit of a stir. Maybe I should explain my thinking a little more..

The league champions have brought in a very good player in Ashley Young - a player Arsenal had been keeping an eye on all season they have also brought in a fantastic young defensive player in Phil Jones.

STARTERS
Saturday June 11 was the anniversary of opening day of World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
TEAM USA
Gold Cup
Unacceptable.
A horrific start to game two in the group stage sees the USA go down 2-2 to Panama and fight back but lose 2-1.

"Luka will not go to Manchester United and he will also stay at Tottenham because I know that president Daniel Levy will not let him go."

Mario Mamic.

It's the quote that debunked a thousand rumours. For this week anyway. I'll wager it won't be too long before some tabloid nurk hauls the corpse out of the ground again, slaps a dress and a bit of lippy on it and tries to pass it off as breaking news.

Toronto displayed some teamwork and effort tonight in fighting for a tie on the road.
None of the regular midfielders, JDG, Tchani and Peterson were available tonight, JDG on yellow card accumulation and the others with injuries. It should not be a total surprise to long time Toronto observers that there seemed to be little drop-off by playing Sturgis, Yourasskowsky and Martina instead.

The Chicago Fire have arrived safely in Toronto after some minor plane mishaps yesterday. Kickoff at BMO Field is at 6:00 PM CST. You can catch all the action on CSN Chicago. Game thoughts, a new player rumor and your in-game comments are after the break.

Toronto is just not a very good team.

First half chances from Dominic Oduro, Marco Pappa and Diego Chaves went begging as the Chicago Fire drew 0-0 with Vancouver Whitecaps Saturday night at Toyota Park. With the tie, the Fire extend their unbeaten streak to three matches and move to 1-3-4 with seven points through eight matches.

Morning.

No happy results yesterday mean that we've got to take three points today at the Reebok to just stay in touch. I haven't watched Match of the Day or anything like that but United scoring late on is, to me anyway, the definition of mental strength. That doesn't mean they're not cunts or anything but they do it with such monotonous regularity it was hardly a surprise to anyone.

Let's say hello to Valencia Offside's new blog writer, Dan Corder, who comes to us from South Africa.
Huge Valencia supporter and he's ready to give us his analysis of yesterday's match.

Enjoy Dan's analysis after the jump! AMUNT!!!
Comfortable, at times unconvincing win for Valencia, tonight's victory places more pressure on Villarreal and takes Los Che ever closer to that golden Champions' League Group Stage 3rd place finish.

Written by mickydidit89

Over the last day or two, I have been alluding to the latest of my brilliant ideas. The beauty about this one is that I have unearthed not only the cause of our troubles but also the solution. The other day Mike talked about Eto on RA's excellent post about Wengerball, and between them, I thought they were going to steal my thunder.

For a couple of months now, it seems thing have gone a bit, for want of a better word, stale. Blackpool and Fulham aside, results have still been good overall but we just seem to lack both killer instinct in front of goal as well as a bit of spark. I can't quite put my finger on it because everyone is playing well still and we are creating chances but something is lacking.

[This is the final installment of a three-part series analyzing the Union's roster ahead of Saturday night's season opener. On Wednesday we looked at the team's defense, and yesterday we analyzed the midfield.]

Last season, the Philadelphia Union managed a measly 35 goals, good for 5th-to-last in the league.

There is a romantic view of Arsenal, where style is sometimes regarded more so that substance.
A season that seemed to be destined for titles this season has now seen Arsenal exit three different competitions in the past couple of weeks - UEFA Champions League, FA Cup and the League Cup.