Marcelo, Drenthe nor Arbeloa satisfy & guarantee the left back positionwhich has been the place that opponents have exploited to "smash"the REAL MADRID defence & score goals. It was evident in the SevillaFC, AC Milan & Alcorcon losses of late.With this problem in need of urgent solution, Club Director GeneralJorge Valdano may have a name, & the local media is publishing thatthere are already Click to continue reading...

Like some star struck teenager I spent the morning at the hotel being shared by both Thailand and Singapore ahead of this evening's crucial Asian Cup qualifier at the National Stadium.
I had hoped to get the thoughts of some of the players on camera but when I actually met them I thought what's the bloody point? Click to continue reading...

OK so Indonesia managed to score a goal against Singapore in their recently friendly but there remains an uncomfortable truth lurking beneath the surface that needs to be addressed.
Defending set pieces is shoddy.
Three goals conceded against Singapore but you can be sure Raddy knew what he was working on in training. Click to continue reading...

Greetings, Dynamo fans. I haven't written in awhile. It's partly because my internet closes out 90% of the time I try to access the site, but mostly because soccer (or MLS) hasn't held my interest.

I am fairly new to soccer so I was hoping this blog would chronicle my growing appreciation and understanding of the sport.

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I must admit I'm rapidly losing interest in 2018-World-Cup gate in Nottingham. A few weeks ago Councillor Kay Cutts of the County Council spread her odiousness around the local media, and attempted to unbalance the scheme the City Council, Rushcliffe Borough Council and Forest have been concocting. Click to continue reading...

Big Story
After years of torturous ownership from the insulting and patronising Halls to the clueless and inept Mike Ashley it would seem no wonder that Newcastle fans would be interested in attempting to assert some control on the destiny of their club, especially given their huge numbers and seemingly endless willingness to pump cash in through ticket sales and merchandise.

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Bryan Robson is currently sitting at home with a piece of A4 and the DVD playing non stop. What he's doing is learning the Thai players nicknames so when he arrives in a couple of weeks to formerly take charge he will have at least some idea of who will be in front of him.
Thai names are a mouthful with four, five, six or more syllables making them a real mouthful for us big noses. Click to continue reading...

Not since the early 1980s when we last seen some of our top footballers left for greener pasture.
Coincide with Singapore's second pulled out from the Malaysia Cup in 1982, stars like Fandi Ahmad, Terry Pathmanathan, David Lee packed their bags and ventured to either the Malaysian or Indonesian leagues then. Click to continue reading...

The same words seems to appear in local media: "Slapped", "beating", "dissappointment", "huge". Those were some of the words that in combination described Saturday night's result at the Gigante de Arroyito.
Great Dissappointment
Argentine yellow rag Cronica mentioned that this loss was one of the biggest and most hurtful losses in recent national team history. Click to continue reading...

TFC's playoff push, or ambush depending on your view, continues to roll on and the local media is keeping tabs. And, as usual it's The Yorkies keeping tabs on those keeping tabs. You know what drink I miss? Tab. Either way, it's Round 5 of the TFC Media League and there's been a change at the top as The Toronto Star aka Blue Star Toronto jump over rival The Sun. Click to continue reading...

Photo credit: P.A. Hudson

Stoke City this week completed the double-signing of Robert Huth and Tuncay Sanli from Middlesbrough. As a Boro fan, I thought I'd run the rule over what these additions will mean to the Potters. I can see ups and downs in both signings.

First to Robert Huth.

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Aloisio, a striker for Brazilian second division club Vasco da Gama, was making his debut as a starter on Tuesday when he nearly died as a result of chewing gum while playing. Seriously. And no, the Brazilian second division isn't a part of the Special Olympics.

Aloisio went up to challenge for a high ball, but instead butted heads with the opposing player in front of him while the ball went over both of them.

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Update!

Last week it was rumored in local news media that the Toronto FC may loan Marco Velez to the Islanders.

Earlier today the Puerto Rico Islanders management confirmed that Marco Vélez would be joining the Islanders to assist the team in the race to the USL championship.

Click to continue reading...

Serie A teams Inter Milan and Lazio acted like tourists and drank wine worth more than $10,000 when they were in China last week for the Italian Super Cup, local media reported on Wednesday. Champions Inter lost 2-1 to Italian Cup winners Lazio in the season curtain-raiser played in front of 70,000 fans at the Bird's Nest stadium on Saturday night. Click to continue reading...

...for a soccer coach to flash money in the face of an official.
Over in the Chinese Super League, Chongqing coach Arie Haan did just that and got a three-match ban from the sidelines.
He was complaining about a penalty decision when he approached the fourth official with a handful of cash:

"Do you want money?

Click to continue reading...

What a great story found by The Spoiler. Since then I've seen something on SI.com also.
Rumor has it the old Brazilian had a bit of liposuction recently. It made perfect sense to couple the surgery with the procedure to fix his broken hand.
Of course, the lipo had to remain under-wraps. Click to continue reading...

CONCACAF Champions League may be hanging by a thread but there's no reason not to check out the TFC Media League! The Yorkies' league, which tracks the quality of local media coverage of TFC, is heating up! The Toronto Sun takes a slim lead this round, pipping its arch rival the Star by 1 point. The mid table is tight and "The Teds" aka Rogers Sportsnet along with The Fan 590 had strong showings. Click to continue reading...

KUALA LUMPUR: Newly crowned Malaysian Super League champions Selangor have declared their determination to shine in next year's AFC Cup.
Team manager Zakaria Ab Rahim told the local media that Malaysia's most popular club would now strive to make an impression in continental competitions.
"It's time to move forward and be counted in Asia," said Zakaria. Click to continue reading...

The Rochester Rhinos of the USL First division had their Open Cup run ended by defending champion DC United of MLS on Tuesday night. The Rhinos were the last surviving USL club in the tournament and their 1999 Open Cup title was the only one by a USL club in the tournament since MLS clubs started competing in 1996. Click to continue reading...

When Ian Ayre took over as Liverpool's commercial director two years ago he didn't need telling what huge potential there was for the club in Asia.
Having spent 15 years living on this vast continent he had seen for himself the passion and devotion of its football supporters.
And in particular a deep love for Liverpool Football Club. Click to continue reading...

HT to Behind the Badge:

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Regular readers of The Yorkies' site know that one of our aims is to shed light on the fairly poor coverage of Toronto FC in the local mainstream media. In order to illustrate this, and positive coverage as well, we are set to unveil The Yorkies' "TFC Media League".
The league will be a year-long tally featuring local media outlets vying to win the prestigious Graham Leggat Trophy named for the Scottish pioneer of Canadian football broadcasting. Click to continue reading...

To the outsider finding information about Singapore can be frustrating at times. The local media hardly touch the game at all and when the majors cover it you can be sure the story bleeds negativity.
There are a couple of websites and message boards that do a good job of providing information and some clubs even have web sites of varying quality. Click to continue reading...

For the first time ever I had to queue to get into an Sleague game. Unfortunately the punters weren't here for the East Coast Derby. What pulled these people from valuable mall time was the prospect of seeing local legends Sheikh Hailkul and Glenn Ong in a charity kick around before the Sleague match. Click to continue reading...

There are many things one may hope never to encounter in their short lifetime here on Earth. One of those things is being mauled by a black bear. Another one of those things is having a Bulgarian mob boss come after you.

Ohhh, looks like a loss for Liverpool reserve keeper Nikolay Mihailov on the latter.

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Been watching the 2009 Confederations Cup? Noticed anything?
If you're an astute observer, you've probably noticed the abundance of empty seat at the stadiums in South Africa.
Apparently, so have FIFA. And they're not too happy about this.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said that unsold tickets for Confederations Cup matches should be given away rather than have empty seats at games after disappointing opening day crowds. Click to continue reading...

CRISTIANO RONALDO could be soon the next World Football Star toland at REAL MADRID as published by most local media,with thesporting daily "As" being to most adamant. Today, with its frontcover, they publishes details of the "supposed" pact deal, the lastestMANCHESTER UNITED reaction & the strategic moves that Real willput in place to get the Portuguese player over to Madrid. Click to continue reading...

How important is the 2010 World Cup in South Africa not only for the host nation but for the entire continent of Africa?
In a word: Important.
While much of the importance is derived from financial concerns, there's also the question of image.
Many international observers have a skewed view of Africa that comes from the news media and reports of war and famine. Click to continue reading...

News from "Sport" & most local media report of a meeting betweenFC BARCELONA President Laporta & INTER MILAN President Morratiyesterday ( see the above photo) that has added wood to the rumoursthat they were discussing ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC. The Italian Club viaits Coach Mourinho has given the OK to transfer Ibrahimovic if Barçaforward SAMUEL ETO´O is his substitute, plus a transfer price ofaround Click to continue reading...

The Italian press places ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC at FC BARCELONAnext season (click here). The deal would go down for 30M€ & theloan for a year of Barça forward SAMUEL ETO´O. The latter endscontract next year & Barça hasn't approached the player to renewhis contract as yet. In fact, news filtered to local media says thatCoach Guardiola has manifested to Barcelona Directives that hedoesn't wish to have Click to continue reading...

As you all know, we do a lot of stuff around here. From our home matches to watch parties to the Jimmy Conrad Show to events such as that at Heritage Park, we've always got something else going on. I've now added an "Upcoming Events" tab on the right side of the blog that we will keep as current as possible throughout the year. Click to continue reading...

Why does this man seem to do more harm than good every time he speaks?
The following report and op-ed piece was composed by a Columbus Crew fan. An angry one at that. One which if he could vote out the GM such as Seattlites can with their GM, would likely be lobbying for votes. He is also an MLSR contributor who prefers to remain anonymous. Click to continue reading...

In a surprising bit of news today, Brazil proved once again that they are crazy about soccer. Fans of the Fluminense club are a little upset with the fact that their team has gone winless during the last four games.

Their last game against Santos even ended in a disappointing 4-1 loss.

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SPAIN has defeated Italy & China to be elected as the host nationfor the 2014 World Basketball Championships. The tournamentwill take place between the 30th of August & 14th of Septemberin the following cities: Madrid, Bilbao, Sevilla, Las Palmas &Granada. Spain lasted hosted the World Basketball Championships28 years ago. Click to continue reading...

Juventus-owned defender Domenico Criscito will return to Turin via Genoa at the end of the 2008-09 Serie A season. This was noted by his representation earlier this week. Criscito has been on loan at Genoa.
The clubs wants to sign the defender away from Juventus but his agent told local media that a return to Turin is likely if Genoa does not act quickly. Click to continue reading...