It's been 17 years since Rene Higuita executed his audacious scorpion kick to block a weak shot from Jamie Redknapp in a friendly between England and Colombia at Wembley. Since then, it's become one of the most iconic in the sport's history and has been attempted by goalkeepers and attackers alike, some more successful than others.

For some reason we thought that Sylvain Marveaux would be back in training at the end of this month. Sylvain Marveaux still out about two months This is what 25 year-old Sylvain Marveaux has said on the Newcastle web-site today: "I've been working hard. I've been doing strength work for my legs and upper body as [.

1. At the start of the day I'd have taken a point at Stamford Bridge. We never win there, regardless of which team goes in to the game in better form, so a draw is a decent enough result. Don't forget that City lost there a few weeks ago, so despite some of their drag performances this season, Chelsea are still the 4th best team in the country.

By Chris Wright

Je suis bostin' for a slash

It's pretty damn parky over in France at the moment, with freezing temperatures (we're talking -13ºC in places) threatening to disrupt the weekend's football fixtures not that Saint-Etienne 'keeper Jeremie Janot is remotely fussed, for Monsieur Janot has devised a fool-proof method to beat the cold snap as a game ticks over into it's latter stages.

Tottenham have invited the six-year-old son of former star striker Steffen Iverson to join their youth set-up. Spurs have asked Joey James Iversen to train at the club, according to his mum. "Joey's tall for his age and muscular," says his mother Anna. "He has the same powerful legs as his father." Although he won't [.

Jose haz a sad. Image via Jasper Juinen/Getty Images Europe; Denis Doyle/Getty Images Europe.

Like a lot of you, we've noticed that The Special One's dress sense has gone from GQMF to WTF. Case and point: to sweat out Wednesday night's El Clasico, Jose wore track pants, a hoodie, and a puffer vest.

More than any other matchup, the coming together of Barcelona and Madrid forces apart the usually shared preferences of the cultfootball brain trust. So today's match was one where both sides could come away feeling they'd won some important battles, if not the war.

The game was not 90 minutes of pure flowing football.

By Chris Wright

When 'super duper set-piece' penalties go wrong, you tend to end up looking like a bit of a massive great sopping tit as Uzbekistan U23 striker Aleksandr Geynrikh found out to his cost during a friendly game against Zenit St Petersburg last night.

So many times he's saved us. The forward bursts through, draws back the hammer and pulls the trigger, eyes not on the ball but on the expectant net only to find that in a whirl the object of his desire has disappeared, swept away by the sweetest of tackles. No bone or muscle, it's the timing that has defeated him.

1. Mario Balotelli should not have been on the pitch to score the winner against Spurs. He should have been answering questions at the local nick after his stamp on Scott Parker. 2. Everyone said Spurs would miss Emmanuel Adebayor's height, but they can hardly have envisaged Jermain Defoe's little legs unable to stretch far [.

Melbourne Victory were worse than ever - and yet that's despite changing the coach.
Kevin Muscat has been told to work on the defence!
He'd be better doing a Paul Scholes and get himself back on the pitch.
Adrian Leijer and Roddie Vargas are not just weak, but have been exposed all season and how is Leijer a leader.

Post Match Quotes from USSoccer.com


U.S. Men's National Team head coach JURGEN KLINSMANN:
On Jermaine Jones and what went in to decision to make captain:
"It was certainly a difficult situation for Jermaine with the suspension in Germany.

We all have our ghosts. For Steve Zakuani, that ghost is memories of his former self.

As the Seattle Sounders midfielder continues his recovery from a horrific leg injury that cost him the final six months of the 2011 season, the progress he has made is obvious. On Friday, Zakuani was able to participate in full training for the first time since that April 22 tackle broke his right leg.

I don't think they come lower than Pepe. Even animals have a sense of fair play. This man if you can call him that should be banned from the sport for life. Leo Messi goes down after colliding with Callejon and while he's down, Pepe strolls casually over and deliberately plants his studs on Messi's hand.

In soccer (or football, as it is called in the majority of the world), most individuals on the field are only able to touch the ball with their legs, chest and head. Arms and the hands are completely off limit, as it is easier to direct the ball with the assistance of hands. Outside of throw ins after the ball goes out of bounds, the players are not able to touch the ball with the hands, outside of the goal keeper.

During the January camp in Phoenix, several members of the U.S. Men's National Team will write journal entries for ussoccer.com. The journals will provide a first-hand, behind-the-scenes account of what's going on in the January camp.

A member of the 30-man preliminary squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Chivas USA defender Heath Pearce writes the second installment and gives a detailed look at a day in the life in Phoenix .

By the standards used to judge recent red-carded tackles like Vincent Kompany's against Manchester United and Jay Spearing's against Fulham, on Wednesday night Glen Johnson at the very least put himself in a position where seeing red was a very real possibility. Maybe even the most likely possibility.

Robin van Persie, wife Bouchra and their two kids paid a visit to Diego Maradona and club Al Wasl in Dubai over the holidays. Image via Twitter.

Unlike some of our other more classic side eye examples of disgust and disregard, Robin van Persie's son is going for a more intense "bubba on the edge" vibe.

GB's legs can only treat one customer at a time so please grab a number and get in line behind us.

So I saw this happening yesterday, but can't, for the life of me, find a credible source aside from an errant tweet from somebody named Guillermo Arango, an apparent radio host or writer for RCN Radio. How trustworthy is he? Entirely unknown. Still it got Twitter all in a flurry of activity yesterday so I guess we should report on it.

Real Madrid set up a potential Copa Del Rey quarter-final against FC Barcelona after a 1-0 victory against Málaga earned the Whites a 4-2 aggregate win.

It was a tense night as Malaga only needed a 1-0 victory in order to advance on the away goals rule. In a very tactical first half the best chance fell to Sergio Ramos, whose header right before half-time just missed the target.

Vincent Kompany was rightly sent off for a two footed challenge on Nani at the weekend in a game that saw Manchester City knocked out of the FA Cup.

Nani got out of the way of the challenge, saving himself from getting hurt, and Wayne Rooney complained to referee Chris Foy.

After the game, Roberto Mancini claimed that the challenge was "300%" not a red card and accused Rooney of influencing the ref.

LFC: Kompany blow for City

Manchester City will be without influential skipper Vincent Kompany for both legs of the Carling Cup semi-final against Liverpool, after the FA rejected an appeal against his four-match ban.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2012-01-10 15:41:13 from: Liverpool FC

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

Mirror: Cheap pints, changing tyres and the magic of the Cup

Matt Lawrence has played for seven league clubs including Fulham, Crystal Palace and Millwall, for whom he appeared in the 2004 FA Cup final during his 16-year career. Now with League Two Gillingham, his diary will appear on MirrorFootball every Monday.

Mirror: Cheap pints, changing tyres and the magic of the Cup

Matt Lawrence has played for seven league clubs including Fulham, Crystal Palace and Millwall, for whom he appeared in the 2004 FA Cup final during his 16-year career. Now with League Two Gillingham, his diary will appear on MirrorFootball every Monday.

Manchester United ended their two game losing streak with a massive 3-2 win over Man City at the Etihad Stadium. Some quick thoughts on the game:

• Kompany tackle was worthy of a leg card. You cannot slide in with two feet off the ground anymore. Doesn't matter if he went through Nani or not.

Today's post is written by Neil, a QPR supporter who we met up with before the game last Saturday. These are his thoughts on the game and the Emirates experience.

I got the chance to visit the Emirates stadium as I have always wanted to, as iI had heard a lot about it and it always looks great on TV.

Good morning, apologies for the slight lateness of this blog but I'm having some spinning colouredy-wheel issues with my computer this morning. And it turns out punching it does nothing. Who knew?

Anyway, a quick round-up of the news for you, starting, of course, with the return of Thierry Henry.

When doing research on U.S. midfielder Jeff Larentowicz, we kept coming across the nickname 'Ginger Ninja" written in stories here in the United States. It even followed him abroad when he went to train with Bolton.
So where did the comic-book, action-hero type nickname come from?
"Back in 2007, I scored a goal against the Chicago Fire," Larentowicz recounted.

Following Liverpool's decision not to appeal Luis Suarez's 8 match-ban earlier today, I did a check on which games the Uraguyan forward will miss and 7 of them occur during January in which we face a hectic schedule of fixtures.
We play 5 Premier League games, the Carling Cup semi-final legs and an FA Cup game versus Oldham Athletic on Friday.

Liverpool have given into reason and decided not to appeal Luis Suarez's eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra.

Having assessed the findings, Liverpool notified the FA they will not contest the ban, which takes effect immediately, ruling him out of tonight's match against Manchester City.

Liverpool have given into reason and decided not to appeal Luis Suarez's eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra.

Having assessed the findings, Liverpool notified the FA they will not contest the ban which takes effect immediately, ruling him out of tonight's match against Manchester City.

I said in my preview that all we wanted primarily was three points today and we got exactly that today but it wasn't easy. We had the game won, then threw it away but picked ourselves up and scored again and then relied on Petr Cech to push a close range header over the bar to ensure we got a great and important three points.

Liverpool loanee Joe Cole has been singing the praises of his Lille team-mate Eden Hazard, one Europe's most sought after players, and allegedly a transfer target for Kenny Dalglish.In an interview with TalkSport, Cole enthused: "He [Hazard] is a bit like Messi. There's only one Messi and I don't want to put pressure on the kid, but he's like him: short, squat, powerful legs, great touch, he can

Don't normally put stock in transfer rumors, but it's a slow week and this story has legs.

Blackburn boss Steve Kean expects the green light to bid for unhappy Fulham striker Andy Johnson on Wednesday and make him one of the first signings of the winter transfer window.

Kean is due to meet Rovers director Vineeth Rao on his return from a summit with owners Venky's to secure the cash to carry out the £2million swoop.

Don't normally put stock in transfer rumors, but it's a slow week and this story has legs.

Blackburn boss Steve Kean expects the green light to bid for unhappy Fulham striker Andy Johnson on Wednesday and make him one of the first signings of the winter transfer window.

Kean is due to meet Rovers director Vineeth Rao on his return from a summit with owners Venky's to secure the cash to carry out the £2million swoop.

By Chris Wright

Let me list the reasons I hate Arjen Robben with the burning fire of one thousand imploding suns...

1) He doesn't run, he gingerly minces.
2) He, and you may have noticed this yourselves, feigns career-ending injuries quite regularly only to get up when it suits and keep on gingerly mincing.

Another player that Chelsea fans are confused about at the moment is Josh McEachran. Having asked to go out on loan back in the summer and being told "No" by AVB and that he is in his plans for the season, we are reading reports yet again this morning of a loan deal on the cards in January.

Daft quotes of the Week starring Merse, Wilkins, Dwight Yorke and more

Daft quotes of the Week "Everton are literally a bag of Revels" – PAUL MERSON "What do I like about Spurs? The flairness" – DWIGHT YORKE "Every ball that is kicked, Martin O'Neill will be literally kicking it" – DWIGHT YORKE "This young man has legs to die for" – RAY WILKINS ON RAMIRES "Marlon King is as predatory as ever" – BOB HALL "United won't be talking visibly about it" – GARY NEVILLE "Jay Bothroyd absolutely lambasts the ball" – SAM MATTERFACE "2-0 up with three minutes to go and you c.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LAST 16 DRAW

Olympique Lyonnais v APOEL Nicosia

Napoli v Chelsea

AC Milan v Arsenal

Basel v Bayern Munich

Bayer Leverkusen v Barcelona

CSKA Moscow v Real Madrid

Zenit St Petersburg v Benfica

Marseille v Internazionale

*The first legs will be played on Feb.