EA Sports' FIFA franchise strives for realism, to approximate the experience of being a footballer or managing a club. When you see the gaudy, arcade style interface of FIFA 10 for the Wii, you realize this will be a very different game.

Creating for the Wii constrains developers.

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L' Equipe on France's entry into the World Cup makes no excuses.

"Henry controlled the ball with his hand."

The article lambastes the team. When you call Kevin Doyle, the Leo Messi of the match then you know something is terribly wrong. If it was not for Hugo Lloris, France would not have qualified.

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Theo Walcott was out for dinner at Langans in Piccadilly last night he looks well-fed and happy.

Interestingly, he doesn't look £140k poorer than the last time we saw him, which is quite a feat. (Yes, we're still going on about it.)
Singer Katy Perry goes for West Ham bootyliciousness.

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Theo Walcott was out for dinner at Langans in Piccadilly last night he looks well-fed and happy.

Interestingly, he doesn't look £140k poorer than the last time we saw him, which is quite a feat. (Yes, we're still going on about it.)
Singer Katy Perry goes for West Ham bootyliciousness.

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The cutest photo we've ever seen of Leo Messi and his girlfriend, Antonella. Can this couple be any more adorable? They're at Disney World so we're guessing it was taken when Leo was there promoting the youth soccer tournament, during his United Sates vacation which he mainly spent between California and Florida with his family. Click to continue reading...

One of the great disconnects in the Argentina World Cup qualifiers was the anemic performance of Leo Messi when compared to his stellar Barca exploits. It was as if there were two different performers inhabiting the same body.

Maradona might have come to the realization that Messi needs the sort of laissez faire environment that he enjoys at Barca where his creative genius alongside that of Iniesta and Xavi create parallel points of attack.

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Once again, Barcelona is exhibiting an intense lack of "hand" when they gave away a draw to Osasuna. � I think the picture says it all...

Now that you've a minute to look it over I'll get to the real problem here. � It's not that Osasuna drew Barca. � Technically, any team can beat or draw anybody on any given day (regardless of how bad they are.

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Fernando Torres, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Iker Casillas, Carlos Puyol, and David Villa head a Spanish heavy representation for the player of the year award. It's noteworthy that Torres is the only player who is not part of the Liga.

The English have Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, and John Terry.

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FIFA has announced its shortlist of 23 players for the Men's World Player of the Year award, and 10 players for the Women's World Player of the Year Award. National team captains and coaches will now vote (but not for players from their own country) and this final five will be revealed in early December, with the winners announced at FIFA's World Player bash in Zurich on December 21st.

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After Barca destroyed Zaragoza 6-0 the other day now we have saying Xavi saying it's all good in the home of the '92 Olympics.

I beg to differ.

Listen, they drew Valencia (no slouch of a team, but they're not as good as Barca), they lost to a Russian club in the Champion's League and then they took out their frustrations on Zaragoza.

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After Samuel Eto'o's alleged statements against Pep and others at Barca, he adressed the subject as expected at the presentation campaign for "Shoe Aid In Africa" which he's the face of. And Samu's statements were far from any sort of lashing out at the club:
"My relationship [with Guardiola] has never been bad. Click to continue reading...

CR9 fails with poor attempt at mind games.

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I Would Not Sign Any Barcelona Players For Real Madrid Cristiano Ronaldo
Barca may have several major stars, but none of them could play for Los Blancos, according to 'CR9′.

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Battle of the Brands In the world of soccer sponsorhip, there are two big boys. Adidas and Nike. Adidas sponsors footballers like Leo Messi and Ricky Kaká, Nike sponsors footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo and Ibrahimović. Neither are particularly shy when it comes to telling us about this. In fact, after spending millions on getting the players [. Click to continue reading...

Pepe Guardiola's Barcelona side overtook Real Madrid at the top of La Liga with this impreious display against Zaragoza. Seydou Keita scored a magnificent hat-trick and Zlatan Ibrahimovic grabbed a brace and Leo Messi scored to hand the Catalan giants a fabulous win over very weak opposition.

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By Barca's high standards this year's CL performance has been shocking. A bare four points and tied with Dynamo Kyiv and Rubin Kazan at the half way mark in the group stage is not what Pep Guardiola and Xavi had in mind.

Xavi sounded a bit defensive, when he said that all the talk of an end of a cycle was nonsense and that the defeat against Rubin Kazan was unexpected.

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Leo Messi's getting to be quite the little model, isn't he? We don't know when he found the time to do this what with the insanely hectic football schedule right now, but here he is in a photo-shoot for LadyStork shoes, for the second time.
We still can't get over how dorky that name is, but Leo manages to come out anything but dorky with these casual poses. Click to continue reading...

This picture of Lionel Messi was taken last month when he attended some women's wear fashion week thing in Uzbekistan. Don't ask us what he was doing there, but hello beard! Isn't he looking fine?
We're saddened though that Leo's let his hair grow out even more since then, and now he's sporting that long-stringy-hair-parted-over-a-headband look again. Click to continue reading...

The matches to watch after you read about the prank war between Burnley and Blackburn.

Saturday

Aston Villa v Chelsea at Villa Park Go hump a turtle in joy because club football is finally back. Luke Young makes his season debut for Villa in this one and Petr Cech returns from his red card suspension.

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Jonas Gutierrez is brought down by Martin Caceres in a momentary lapse of reason. Leo Messi feeds the ball to Juan Sebastian Veron who blasts the ball into a thicket of legs. Luckily for Argentina and Maradona, the ball bounces of a Uruguayan defender straight into the legs of substitute Mario Bolatti who turns the ball past Nestor Muslera in goal.

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It is perhaps the most decisive & media attracting World Cupqualifying clash for sometime; the URUGUAY vs. ARGENTINAgame. The latter is in real danger of losing & having its World Cupparticipation at the mercy of a qualifying 2º leg game againstthe winner of the Oceanic team, while the former could haveits direct ticket to the World Cup if they win. Click to continue reading...

The matches to watch after you realize that calling him "Leonardo No Win" is almost too true and too mean to be funny...almost.

Saturday

Manchester United v Sunderland at Old Trafford United eked out a midweek Champions League win over Wolfsburg and Sunderland have shown they can be dangerous.

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Giant-killing in the Champions League, troubles for two London clubs and one from the south coast of� England all get a look in on this week's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

Good

Always good when a minnow brings down a giant, and that is exactly what happened last night as FC Zurich stunned AC Milan 1-0 at the San Siro.

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Craziness continues down in Maradona-Land.
Rumor is someone on the national team wants to break Leo Messi's legs, this according to some lawyer Marcelo Open.

Open said that "if we have a headcase threatening Messi and tells him he'll break his legs, and it's a colleague who's in the squad, there's something wrong.

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This is a tough question, and it requires a few generalizations. But here we go: There is a top tier of soccer players. No one's 100% sure on exactly who's in there or where the cutoff is. But it features the likes of Pelé, Diego Maradona, Johann Cruyff, George Best, Ferenc Puskás, Eusébio, Garrincha (pictured), Alfredo [. Click to continue reading...

Daniel Passarella (PEPELOTAS)
Originally uploaded by gjoffre Para los que no se acuerdan de este jugador y entrenador argentino (en Monterrey lo extrañan) aquí un poco de su palmares gracias a gioffre:
Daniel Passarella
Passarella, el gran DT
Si bien su carrera como futbolista fue de alto nivel y alcanza hitos destacadísimos, su carrera como técnico fue inicialmente meteórica y espectacular. Click to continue reading...

(video gol e highlights di Racing Santander-Barcellona)
Ancora Ibra-Messi. Ancora spettacolo e gol e il Barcellona conferma la leadership, in attesa di vedere cosa combiner� il Real Madrid impegnato nell'insidiosa trasferta contro il Villareal di Giuseppe Rossi. Click to continue reading...

FBL-ESP-BARCELONA-ATLETICO-MADRID
Originally uploaded by deco189 Creo que esta foto habla por si sola, mientras algunos pocos se ciegan y siguen pensando que un solo hombre es el fútbol y endiosan a jugadores, sin duda el equipo siempre levantara y hará grandes a las individualidades no al revés. Click to continue reading...

I want to remember Diego like this...superhuman

I remember the days gone by. � I remember fondly watching the '86 World Cup (yes 1986) and seeing Diego Maradona lead a powerful Argentinian team to victory. � It was his coronation. � Diego was the best player in the world (and not like people claiming his countryman Lionel Messi is.

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Big news on the official Barcelona website today is that Leo Messi has signed a new, improved contract with the Blaugrana. They even have a photo of him putting pen to paper (which I've stolen and embedded to your left) so it must be true. Young Leo (he's still only 22) already had a contract with [. Click to continue reading...

With Barcelona, Valencia, Real Madrid and Bilbao all atop the standings it appears that someone needs to step up and separate themselves from the pack.� Unfortunately, it's too early to tell who that will be.

I spent an entire previous column lamenting how the major acquisitions for Real Madrid might derail their entire club:� Well, right now they're making me look good.

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- Barca coach Pep Guardiola stars in a new book entitled "Paraula Pep", or "The World of Pep". The book is the result of the success of a television program by TV3 under the same name, which was broadcasted in the week before Barca's CL victory in Roma. Editor Ernest Floch was quick to take the initiative to commision the book, which records the phrases that have been considered outstanding in the path of Guardiola on the bench of FC Barcelona, and that define his philosophy. Click to continue reading...

Leo Messi's father is the latest person to publicly criticize Maradona's performance as national team manager.

Jorge Messi spoke with national team secretary Luis Segura and told him the following:

"Leo (Messi) does not receive tactical indications from Maradona, Maradona does not talk to him on the field.

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Two of the World maximum Football stars, LEO MESSI & CRISTIANORONLDO, are going through a physical & mental depression that isattracting the criticism of the media & fans. Rightly or wrongly,these two figures of World & Spanish Football are privilegedsportsmen that earn huge amounts of money that are way beyondthe reach of 99% of humanity & are not immune of criticism. Click to continue reading...

An airborne Argentinian. Say it isn't so. Crespo shows his aerial abilities.

Please help out Don Diego.

He should go for a 4-2-3-1 with either Diego Milito, Gonzalo Higuain, and the best of the lot, poacher exemplar Hernan Crespo as the lone striker allowing the three man attacking midfield in Datolo, Aguero, and Messi to become more creative, open up the spaces, and create goal scoring opportunities.

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The new season calls for an updated poll, what with new players arriving and others leaving - which Barca Boy will win your votes as the ultimate hottie on the squad this time around?
Despite being new to the club, Gerard Pique won the last one by almost a hundred votes, with Leo Messi behind him followed by Bojan. Click to continue reading...