The winning goal for the Taranga Lions was all Gervinho in the 44th minute. The Arsenal winger robbed the ball well behind the half line, and then turned on the burners to blow past the Malian defense down the left channel, cutting in for a superb finish.

Arsenal cannot wait to have him back.

The Portland Timbers announced one change to their 2012 schedule because of a scheduling conflict at Vancouver, Canada's B.C. Place. To accomodate a CFL game for the B.C. Lions, the Timbers - Whitecaps match originally scheduled for Saturday, October 20 has been moved to Sunday, October 21.

Co-hosts Gabon looked like it was going to be headed to their best showing in any ACN when Eric Mouloungui shot them into the lead in the 55th minute. But Mali had other ideas as Cheick Diabate equalized in the 84th minute. At the end of extra time, with the two teams deadlocked, the fate of the match was decided on PK shootout.

Didier Drogba could not be denied as he made up for a missed penalty by pouring in a brace. Ivory Coast added another through Yaya Toure as they send Equatorial Guinea, the co-hosts, out of the ACN. The Taranga Lions are through to the semi-finals.

Drogba will be missing today's huge showdown with Man Utd, and in his absence, Chelsea is hoping that misfiring Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge, take up the goalscoring slack.

The Philadelphia Union are working on solidifying their 2012 friendly schedule by talking to Newcastle United about playing in Philadelphia during the summer, according to a report.

"I Wish I Was A Geordie," an American Newcastle blog, is reporting that Newcastle and the Union are discussing the two clubs playing an international friendly this year.

What happened to the Taranga Lions? They went out with a whimper. One of the ACN's most formidable teams on paper boasting names like Demba Ba, Moussa Sow, Mamadou Niang, and Papiss Cisse, were unceremoniously dumped out by co-hosts Equatorial Guinea. The Lions lost their first encounter, 1-2 to the unfancied Zambians.

This was one result i was not expecting, however one i totally agree with. Right from the start of the tournament and even through out the Qualifying period, the Lions of Teranga had established themselves as one of the very few sides who were strong favourites to lift the AFCON trophy on Feb 12th.

Yesterday's Group D action between Ghana and Botswana and Guinea and Mali capped the end of the first round of fixtures in the Orange African Cup of Nations. Both Ghana and Mali scooped points each after winning their matches by slender 1-0 margins.

It is quickly emerging that no team can be underestimated.

Terrible defending by Senegal let them down. Bouna Condoul, the former NY Red Bulls goalie should have done better in the opening goal being caught out of position. Then the Zambians were able to beat the offside trap to score their second. The high powered attack led by Demba Ba, Moussa Sow, and Mamadou Niang could do little.

So the African Cup of Nations got underway yesterday with a couple of shocking results that i was not expecting. Hosts Equatorial Guinea making their first ever appearance at the AFCON picked up 3 points from a Libyan side who failed to make their possession count.

However, the most shocking result was Senegal's 2-1 defeat to Zambia.

While the Philadelphia Union have yet to confirm any part of their preseason schedule beyond a February 18 friendly against the Orlando City Lions, outside news sources have begun to reveal preseason dates.

The Union affiliated Youth Sports Complex (YSC) is the home of the beginning of the Union's 2012 MLS campaign.

Any Deltras fans out there remember a Kenyan striker called Hilary Echesa? Had a short, very short, spell with the club a couple of years back and managed to impress no one. Admittedly a poor Deltras team that season, no fan who made the journey to Lebak Bulus to see them play Persitara (pictured) could have imagined they would now have the likes of Budi Sudarsono, Mijo Dadic and Sean Rooney in their team.

While the Football World stands still & fixed to the Internet, Tv or a Radio with the 1º leg Spanish Cup match between Real Madrid & FC Barcelona, most forget that before & just finished was another SPANISH CUP ( Copa del Rey ) 1º leg match Quarter Final clash between ATHLETIC CLUB BILBAO & MALLORCA.

Date Opponent Time 4/7 at Charlotte Eagles 7:00 pm 4/15 vs. Wilmington Hammerheads 6:00 pm 4/21 at Richmond Kickers 7:00 pm 4/28 vs. Richmond Kickers 7:30 pm 5/5 vs. Pittsburgh Riverhounds 7:30 pm 5/11 at Antigua Barracuda FC 7:00 pm 5/13 at Antigua Barracuda FC 4:30 pm 5/24 vs.

The Philadelphia Union has released its schedule for 2012. A downloadable file containing the entire schedule can be found here. With the addition of the Montreal Impact to the Eastern Conference this year, MLS has moved to a conference based schedule. Each team will play 34 games, but instead of the balance schedule we enjoyed last year, we will be seeing the following:

Due to the higher number of clubs in the Eastern Conference, each club will play a total of 25 conference matches.

Group A

• Terengganu vs PDRM
• Perak vs ATM
• UiTM vs Lions XII
• Betaria vs Melaka
• POS Malaysia vs USM
• Sime Darby vs Sabah
• Negeri Sembilan vs Johor FC
• Shahzan Muda vs Selangor

Group B

• Kelantan vs Sarawak
• Kuala Lumpur vs MP Muar
• Harimau Muda B vs Pulau Pinang
• KL SPA vs MB Johor Bharu
• Kedah vs Selangor PKNS
• Perlis vs PPSDM
• Johor vs T-Team
• Felda United vs Pahang

Ties to be played 18/02/12 and 10/03/12

The Philadelphia Union will return to Florida to play the Orlando City Lions in a friendly on February 18 at 7:30, according to the Lions' team website. The announcement comes within a day of a Costa Rican news outlet reporting a friendly between the Union and Deportivo Saprissa next summer.

Per the Orlando website:

This year marks year two of a four-year agreement between Orlando City and the Philadelphia Union.

Priority for Lionel is his family and his club, Home UnitedWhile many consider retiring from international football at the age of 29 is too young, especially for the case of goalkeeper.
After all, great custodians like Dino Zoff and Peter Shilton did maintain their presence between the posts for their countries past their forties.

The year's award night was held on the following evening after the last three games were completed on the previous night at Grand Copthorne with the usual gala setting for this annual get-together for the local football fraternity.
The night kicked off with the awarding of the "Young Player of the Year" to Albirex Niigata (S)'s Tatsuro Inui beating the likes of Lions stars Hariss Harun and Safuwan Baharudin.

Picture tells a THOUSAND words....Decent first half defensive display by the Lions until the sucker punch that came in the 42nd minute to see the well placed grounder by Yu Hai (pictured below foreground) to give the Chinese the headstart before end of the first period.
As what they always said in football that conceding a goal at this juncture of any game would have a psychological demoralizing effect on team that conceded that goal.

Various XI's isn't there for us to pick out our favourite footballers of all time, it's there make us struggle. This week we set ourselves the task of picking eleven footballers with the surname 'King' to fill out a team sheet. GK:Bryan King Thought by most Millwall fans as The Lions best-ever goalkeeper .

Scree-grab from the livestreamingWhen asked after the loss to the Jordanians earlier in their first meeting of the qualifiers if we still stand a chance of making to the next round, assistant coach V Sundramoorthy said there's still "mathematical" chance of doing so if we could take "maximum points out of the remaining matches".

Some might suggest the Singapore public are notoriously difficult to please. Others that they are whiney bunch who would complain about beating Brazil 5-0 in the World Cup Final. This performance won't shut them up.
A credible 0-0 in their opening game against the holders Malaysia was greeted with resigned resignation as the nation collectively sighed and said here we go again, a Singapore team promising much but delivering little.

Joey Barton has yet again questioned Fabio Capello's criteria in the selection of England's squad but has backed the Italian's perceived support for Wayne Rooney's inclusion in England's Euro 2012 squad.

Rooney, who is widely considered England's best player, is yet to find out the exact length of his ban from the competition's group stages following a reckless tackle in the Lions' 2-2 draw in Montenegro last month.

• Kop That: England v Spain: The making of Spanish gold http://t.co/z26eEjom 23:58:21, 2011-11-07
• Kop That: Exclusive: Downing determined to be a key man at Euros http://t.co/aDsKFzcu 23:08:53, 2011-11-07
• Kop That: England's Euros base only available thanks to stripping female fans http://t.

By Chris Wright

Puma held a bit of a bash at the Design Museum in London last night to formally unveil their latest nine creations for next January's African Cup of Nations there were originally supposed to be ten on display, though Algeria's kit was omitted after they failed to qualify for the competition.

Lions off the leash: Capello lets players loose for his Euro 2012 farewell

"We are going to be doing things very differently this time. We want to be good tourists and ambassadors," says Club England MD Adrian Bevington

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-11-07 22:00:30 from: The Mirror

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

Arsenal 3-0 West Brom

No perching on the edge of the seat, nails bitten to the quick or hearts a-racing. No early goal for the visitors. No visions of wildebeests surrounded by lions at set pieces. No clinging on to a slim lead for dear life as the clock approaches 90 minutes.

Malaysia Cup Final
Terengganu v Negeri Sembilan 1-2 (Ashaari Samsuddin; S Kunalan, Hairuddin Omar)
The Negeri's second win in three years, they also reached last year's final but were beaten by Kelantan. Malaysian football done and dusted until January when we can expect to see foreign players line up for the first time in three years.

It was only from my Facebook feed that I came to know today's significance.
Twelve years ago today, Singapore football mourned the loss of one of its best players - Borhan Abu Samah aka "Russian Tank".
Known for his tough and uncompromising tackles during his days, the former Lion, who once ply his professional trade with the great Pahang side in the Malaysian League that featured the likes of Fandi Ahmad, V Sundramoorthy, Dollah Salleh and Zainal Abidin Hassan, succumbed to liver cancer that ended his life at the age of 34.

The District tournament will be held at Dixon High School, with semifinal games scheduled for October 31st and November 1st. The Final will be on November 3rd. The Crocker Lions are the defending 2 time champions, losing to Catholic in the next round.

Seed School Record
1 Dixon (11-4)
2 Crocker (11-11)
3 Laquey (8-8)
4 Richland (7-9)

Monday October 31st at 4:30 pm
#1 Dixon Bulldogs -
#4 Richland Bears -

Tuesday November 1st at 4:30 pm
#2 Crocker Lions -
#3 Laquey Hornets -

FINAL Friday November 3rd at 4:30 pm

MSHSAA Link

SPANISH FOOTBALL finished with the last match of Round 8 of LA LIGA with an exciting game of Football palyed between ATHLETIC CLUB BILBAO & OSASUNA. The "Lions" got their game finally together after some difficult past rounds matches & won 3 - 1 in front of their roaring fans ( no punt intended ). However it was Osasuna which got off to a flying start & shook Bilbao whos keeper Iraizoz had to

How frustrated can it be again?
Despite all the hindrances facing the National Under-23 squad in their preparation for the upcoming SEA Games, the local game authority boldly set a "final" target for the Cubs.
Nothing wrong for being ambitious, as it departs from the usual modest target to settle for a "semi-final" in the biennial games even if we had our best squad in the past capable for the elusive gold.

Australia v Malaysia 5-0 Match ReportIndonesia v Saudi Arabia 0-0 Match ReportSingapore v The Philippines 2-0 (Shaiful Esah, Aleksander Duric)Thailand v Jordan 0-0 (Match Comments)

SINGAPORE, 7th October 2011: Singapore beat Philippines 2-0 in an International friendly that was played at Jalan Besar Stadium on 7 October 2011.

"MINI MANILA"
I'm not sure how that sentiment started in the first place, but judging by the posting plastered online and heard from the grapevine, it seems that JBS would turn out become a "mini Manila" for the friendly fixture between Singapore and The Philippines.
True enough that majority turned out for the game were the expat Filipinos.

Philadelphia born Jeremiah White is looking to come back to North America, but it won't be with his hometown team.

White, a former American international, was invited to join the Montreal Impact's evaluation camp, joining 24 other players for a six day tryout with MLS' next team. The versatile attacking midfielder joins fellow American, and Orlando City Lions star, Jamie Watson in the camp.

Tweet my Goal! The funniest comments from Tuesday's Carling Cup ties

It was a cracking night of Carling Cup action with the Shrews scaring Arsenal, United's rag-tag team schooling Leeds and Wolves throwing Millwall to the Lions. You can read our match reports here but these were the funniest Tweets on the game from our @MirrorFootball feed :

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-09-20 21:29:06 from: The Mirror

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

Oguchi Onyewu has just powered home his first Sporting CP goal to put the visitors back ahead 3-2 with 15 minutes to play. If it holds up, the Lions will remain perfect in the big guy's starts. Of course, none of that really matters because he's no good anymore - or so I keep hearing. Ad nauseum.Here's the goods.

Oguchi Onyewu has just powered home his first Sporting CP goal to put the visitors back ahead 3-2 with 15 minutes to play. If it holds up, the Lions will remain perfect in the big guy's starts. Of course, none of that really matters because he's no good anymore - or so I keep hearing. Ad nauseum.Clip to come.

Based on their line up in their league fixture against Albirex Niigata (Singapore) that featured the likes of Lionel Lewis, Shi Jiayi, Qiu Li and Juma'at Jantan, one question floated into my mind and made me wonder if these Home United's Lions (and the rest from other teams in the S.League) felt that national duty is become a liability for having to juggle their club commitments after such a hectic international duty?