SoccerBlogs

Jamaica, Honduras, Canada, Mexico, and Guatemala all won as El Salvador and Guyana played to a draw in CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying on September 7, 2012.

Honduras won their first match in Group C with a convincing performance at the Estadio Pedro Marrero.

Canada moved on top of Group C with a crucial home win at BMO Field.

Colombia thrashed Uruguay, Ecuador edged Bolivia, Argentina beat Paraguay, and Peru beat Venezuela CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying on September 7, 2012.

Teofilo Gutierrez had a brace to lead Colombia to a dominating home victory. Falcao and Camilo Zuniga provided the goals as Colombia led for almost the entire match.

Anderlecht, BATE Borisov, Dinamo Zagreb, Malaga, and Braga all advanced to the Group Stage in the UEFA Champions League on August 28, 2012.

The home side scored two late goals to secure their place in the Group Stage. AEL were able to hold onto their 2-1 lead from the first lead until the 81st minute when Anderlecht's Deiudonne Mbokani scored.

Sampdoria, Inter Milan, Napoli, Lazio, Genoa, and Chievo Verona all won in the Italian Serie A on August 26, 2012.

The Rossoneri had a disappointing opening match as they lost at home to Sampdoria. Andrea Costa scored the lone goal for Sampdoria who were not expected to get anything from this match.

Sociedad edged Celta Vigo, Zaragoza won at Espanyol, Rayo beat Betis, and Mallorca held Malaga in the Spanish Primera Division (La Liga) on August 25, 2012.

Real Sociedad recovered from conceding an early second half goal to win the season opener. Imanol Agirretxe scored both goals for the home side.

Bayern Munich won on the road, Monchengladbach narrowly won at home, and Wolfsburg edged Stuttgart in the German Bundesliga on August 25, 2012. Other results on Saturday were Eintracht Frankfurt winning at Bayer Leverkusen, Fortuna Dusseldorf winning at Augsburg, and Freiburg were held to a draw by Mainz.

Malaga won on the road, Sevilla edged Getafe, and Mallorca defeated Espanyol in the Spanish Primera Division (La Liga) on August 18, 2012.

Malaga started the season with a victory thanks to a late second half Fabrice Olinga goal. Malaga finished fourth last season and will be looking to challenge for third which would avoid qualifying for the UEFA Champions League.

Celtic edged Aberdeen, Hearts blanked St Johnstone, and three other matches ended in draws in the Scottish Premier League on August 4, 2012.

The defending SPL champions started the season on a high note with a victory at Celtic Park. The lone goal of the match, scored by Kris Commons, was a bit lucky as it fumbled by the goalkeeper and should have been saved.

FALL RIVER, Mass. Dean Williams scored the lone goal to lead the Taunton Eagles to a 1-0 win over Fall River Sports in the first leg of LUSA Cup competition at Billy Gonsalves Field on Saturday.

Williams scored in the 44th minute while Eagles keeper Sean Gonsalves made five saves to give the Eagles a crucial one-goal advantage going into Wednesday's second leg in Taunton.

Lauren Sesselmann (Green Bay Notre Dame) left London with precious metal.

Sesselmann played all 90 minutes as Canada outlasted France 1-0 in the Olympic bronze-medal match Thursday in Coventry, England, scoring the lone goal in the second minute of stoppage time.

"WOW is this real life?

Benny Feilhaber returned to form out on the left during Saturday's 4-3 loss to the Crew. Feilhaber assisted on Jerry Bengtson's 23rd minute tally. (Photo: Kari Heistad/CapturedImages.biz)

One-goal games.

It's often said that good teams prevail in one-goal games. That, somehow, whether it's squeezing out the lone goal of a 1-0 win, or grabbing the game-winner in an offensive outburst, good teams, more often than not, come out on top.

Even though the Chicago Fire will not be taking the field until Sunday when they host the Houston Dynamo, it does not mean there are no MLS matches worth watching on Saturday. Matter of fact, there are three big matches with playoff implications taking place. The MLS has been catching some flack for the new unbalanced schedule this year, but this final third of the schedule is giving us some very intriguing matches to watch each week.

Stephen McCarthy put in a decent performance in the Revs loss. (Photo: Chris Aduama/aduama.com)

After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of the New England Revolution players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5 average, 10 perfection).

Sporting Kansas City won the 2012 US Open Cup on penalty kicks over three-time defending champions Seattle on August 8, 2012.

Below are player ratings for the match (1 being worst and 10 being best).

Nielsen 7.5 Wasn't tested that often but made the saves when it mattered including the shoot-out

Sinovic 6.

The Chicago Fire's 2-1 victory over Toronto FC on Saturday was not a comfortable one. While Toronto has been on the upswing, this should have been a game that was easily won. Marco Pappa's equalizer was a huge relief. Between the last recorded shot of the first half (in the 38th minute) and Pappa's goal (in the 64th minute), the Fire managed to record only two shots.

They're not all going to be pretty and the U.S. women's national team final Olympic group game, a 1-0 decision over North Korea, fit the bill of a solid, but tough win.

A physical North Korea was helped by the right goal post that saved two shots, but Alex Morgan's hold up play allowed Abby Wambach to slipt through the defense and hammer home the game's lone goal.

Last Sunday was yet another game at home and, while we didn't get the result we all wanted, looking back it was a sad occasion for more than just the draw. It was Troy Perkins' last game as a Portland Timber. Of course, we didn't know it at the time, but with the recent trade, it's almost hard to remember the game at all.