photo by ISIphotos.com

By FRANCO PANIZO

A day after unveiling Quaker Oats as its jersey sponsor, the Chicago Fire made another big announcement.

The Fire re-signed midfielder Pavel Pardo on Wednesday, the club announced on its website.

Will need to step up tonight

What a wonderful night of football yesterday was, if only for the one game which mattered. Nicklas Bendtner did us no favour as he squandered an early chance to put his team ahead but Sunderland won it right at the death to beat Roberto Mancini's Manchester City.

One of the things that's surprised me this year is David Stockdale's distribution. Earlier in his Fulham career he seemed to be clearly better than Mark Schwarzer in this area. Now? Not so sure.

Take yesterday:

Which looks unfortunate: 31 possession concessions there (and I accept that we may have won a bit of second ball there, but on past form, probably not much, and not enough to justify just giving the ball back like that).

Don't look now, but Fulham are tied with Wolves for the most yellow cards in the league (37). We had 52 yellow cards all of last season, 46 in 2009-10, and 40 in 2008-09.

Brede Hangeland, Chris Baird, Danny Murphy, Moussa Dembele, and Steve Sidwell all have 4 yellow cards. Mark Schwarzer has one.

By Alan Duffy

Swansea City 2-0 Fulham Premier League 10th December 2011

Fulham 'keeper Mark Schwarzer buries his head in the sand

Unquestionably one of the surprise stars of the season so far, Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm was once again in superb form on Saturday against a talented Fulham side.

Fulham 1-0 Liverpool: Late Goal Sinks 10-Men Reds

A Clint Dempsey goal five minutes from time gave Fulham victory over 10-men Liverpool. The USA international struck after Reds goalkeeper Pepe Reina uncharacteristically fumbled Danny Murphy's low shot. By that time, Liverpool were down to 10-men after referee Kevin Friend controversially chose to dismiss Reds' midfielder Jay Spearing after a challenge on Moussa Dembele.

Fulham striker Clint Dempsey struck a late winner as Liverpool's outstanding form on the road ended during a controversial evening at Craven Cottage.
Dempsey stabbed home a long-range 85th-minute shot by Danny Murphy that had bounced off the arms of Jose Reina, to secure only Fulham's third Barclays Premier League win of the season.

Clint Dempsey punished an error from Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina to score five minutes from full-time and guide Fulham to a famous 1-0 win at Craven Cottage.

The result was reminiscent of the Cottagers' 1-0 win over the Reds in May 2007, when Dempsey scored his first goal for the club to secure their top flight status.

Other things:

Mark Schwarzer seems to be back to something like top form very impressed

Nice how Stephen Kelly has won people over another good game from him. It's a shame about Zdenek Grygera though. He's looked a fine defender and this doesn't look like a minor injury, so our thoughts are with him.

Other things:

Mark Schwarzer seems to be back to something like top form very impressed

Nice how Stephen Kelly has won people over another good game from him. It's a shame about Zdenek Grygera though. He's looked a fine defender and this doesn't look like a minor injury, so our thoughts are with him.

The story of the weekend for National Teamers was Clint Dempsey's 42nd minute goal with Fulham beating Wigan Athletic 2-0 at DW Stadium. Moussa Dembele scored Fulham's second goal in the 87th minute. Mark Schwarzer needed six saves for the shutout, with Fulham only putting three shots on frame. "I'm happy we got the points today and I'm sure people back home in the States like to see me doing well.

By Alan Duffy

Wigan Athletic 0-2 Fulham Premier League October 2011

It's now eight league defeats in a row for Wigan Athletic after Roberto Martinez' side went down 2-0 at home to Fulham.

Despite dominating for large periods of the game, the home side couldn't find a way past Fulham 'keeper Mark Schwarzer, with striker Hugo Rodallega continuing his worrying goul drought.

Fulham playing Wigan means one thing: Clint Dempsey will score a goal. Those of us bold enough to put money where our mouth is were able to turn £3 into £13.38. Thanks, Clint; thanks Wigan!

Perhaps the result was a bit hard on Wigan, who had most of the ball and spent much of their time in Fulham's half, but when you've lost six on the spin you need a spot of luck, and that was missing today.

In London for a conference and I could not miss an opportunity to see the two best American players in the Premier League; Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey, meet at Craven Cottage on a beautiful Sunday in London.

If you have never been to Craven Cottage before, the ground is situated right next to the river Thames.

In London for a conference and I could not miss an opportunity to see the two best American players in the Premier League; Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey, meet at Craven Cottage on a beautiful Sunday in London.

If you have never been to Craven Cottage before, the ground is situated right next to the river Thames.

In the cold light of day that was sporting theatre at its finest. Two teams in a bit of a rut gave the afternoon a tension that never left us, and we got a number of notable twists and turns:

Nervous? How about going a goal down after two minutes?

Because of a mistake by our captain.

What about that then, eh? What can we say? Taken in isolation, two evenish teams played out an entertainingish game which was ultimately decided by the two centre-forwards: ours missed, theirs didn't. But there's so much more to it than that, isn't there?

Everton scored in the second minute, Royston Drenthe smashing home from 'downtown' with a skimming drive that Mark Schwarzer couldn't get to.

Towards the end of the game between Fulham and Blackburn in the EPL last week we witnessed a frightful collision between Mark Schwarzer (Fulham goalkeeper) and David Hoilett (Blackburn striker). The forward was chasing a high ball into the penalty-area...

This seems to have flown under the radar a bit with all the hand-wringing about Sunday, but our squad for the Europa League group stages has been announced. Not too many surprises, except one.

Goalies
1 Mark Schwarzer
22 Csaba Somogyi
38 Neil Etheridge*
41 Marcus Bettinelli*
44 Jesse Joronen*

Defenders
2 Stephen Kelly
3 John Arne Riise
5 Brede Hangeland
6 Chris Baird
14 Philippe Senderos
18 Aaron Hughes
26 Zdenek Grygera
28 Matthew Briggs*
39 Stephen Arthurworrey*
40 Alex Smith*

Midfielders
4 Steve Sidwell
10 Pajtim Kasami
13 Danny Murphy
15 Marcel Gecov
16 Damien Duff
20 Dickson Etuhu
21 Kerim Frei
23 Clint Dempsey
37 Courtney Harris*
43 Josh Pritchard*

Forwards
8 Andrew Johnson
9 Orlando Sá
25 Bobby Zamora
30 Moussa Dembélé
35 Richard Peniket*
42 Marcello Trotta*

No, the surprise is not Ruiz.

By Alan Duffy

Fulham 1-1 Blackburn Rovers Premier League 11 September 2011

Steve Kean's Blackburn Rovers picked up their first point of the new season at Craven Cottage, courtesy of a superb strike from Ruben Rochina on 32 minutes. The creator of that goal, David Hoillet (one of the few Canadians playing at a high level), would have to be stretchered off later on, after clashing with Fulham keeper Mark Schwarzer.

It occurs to me that the chairman's spending has come in bursts, and when Premiership survival was under threat.

http://www.transferleague.co.uk/premiership-transfers/fulham-transfers.html (for full details)

Big splurges (Premier League era):

On promotion to the division
When Chris Coleman's team nearly stumbled out of the division and Lawrie Sanchez was given money to overhaul things
When this didn't work, Roy Hodgson got money to overhaul things

Since then we've been in tick-over mode.

Fulham 3 - Dnipro 0 A big night at the Cottage for Clint Dempsey, who scored twice in a three goal shutout of Dnipro. Aaron Hughes opened the scoring for Fulham in the 39th minute. Dempsey's goals came in the 43rd and 49th, with both goals coming off of crosses. Mark Schwarzer kept the clean sheet for Fulham.

Neither side were able to break the deadlock at Craven Cottage in a game that failed to ever spark into life. As the visiting manager, Alex McLeish will rightly be happier with his point, but will have Shay Given to thank for a number of important saves and might be concerned about the lack of any real threat at the opposite end today.

The new 2011/12 Premier League season is finally here! It's the battle of the new managers at Craven Cottage today, although Martin Jol does have several competitive games under his belt in the Europa League.

Here are the confirmed line-ups for both sides:

Fulham Aston Villa 1 Mark Schwarzer 1 Shay Given 18 Aaron Hughes 2 Luke Young 14 Philippe Senderos 6 James Collins 5 Brede Hangeland 5 Richard Dunne 7 John Arne Riise 3 Stephen Warnock 16 Damien Duff 10 Charles N'Zogbia 20 Dickson Etuhu 16 Fabian Delph 13 Danny Murphy 19 Stiliyan Petrov 23 Clint Dempsey 18 Emile Heskey 8 Andrew Johnson 11 Gabriel Agbonlahor 25 Bobby Zamora 9 Darren Bent Subs Subs 38 Neil Etheridge 22 Brad Guzan 2 Stephen Kelly 21 Ciaran Clark 6 Chris Baird 7 Stephen Ireland 28 Matthew Briggs 17 Jean II Makoun 4 Steve Sidwell 12 Marc Albrighton 10 Pajtim Kasami 25 Barry Bannan 30 Moussa Dembele 14 Nathan Delfouneso Probable Formation: Castrol Football Prediction Today's other Premier League fixtures:

• Blackburn vs Wolves
• Liverpool vs Sunderland
• QPR vs Bolton
• Wigan vs Norwich
• Newcastle vs Arsenal (1730)

Who impressed you the most last season? Who disappointed?

Dave:
David Stockdale. After all the talk of Schwarzer leaving it was a mighty relief to find that we'd got a readymade replacement already in the ranks.

Old friend Eddie Johnson's had a spot of bother. Never mind that though I like the caption above: "local soccer pro Eddie Johnson kicks a soccer ball". Which is a) delightfully descriptive, b) not necessarily correct (he's heading it, isn't he?) and c) just nice anyway. It would be good if all football photos had such captions.

There was an interesting comment on Twitter today from Tor-Kristian Karlsen, a football scout. Karlsen noted that while Premiership clubs do have an overview for the world's footballers, most are, I quote:

Tor-Kristian Karlsen
karlsentk Tor-Kristian Karlsen
many people (justifiably) puzzled that few premier league clubs were seriously in for arturo vidal (no idea if arsenal interest was genuine)

personally i think the reason is lack of contacts and connections.

Faroe Play Fulham kick off season 2011-12 is a post from: Just Football

It's 7pm on June 30th, precisely one month after Swansea's play-off final triumph over Reading heralded the close of the season. Hoards of football fans flow out of Putney Bridge station, some adorned with white shirts, some carrying beers, but all looking distinctly out of season.

Last summer Arsene Wenger made an early bid for the Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, but his manager Mark Hughes stood by his guns and made the Australian international stick to his contract and stay at Craven Cottage, despite the player's protestations that he was desperate to join Arsenal. Well this year it is the turn [.

Clint Dempsey is Fulham's player of the year. Thank goodness.

This should have been the most one-sided vote in recent memory, and by the sounds of it Dempsey did win by some way. Simply put, without Dempsey we'd have been in huge trouble last season.

Brede Hangeland might quietly feel a little miffed, having established himself as arguably our *best* player, but for whatever reason centre-backs just aren't as glorious as their team-mates, and I doubt he'd have been surprised at not winning.

Hughpocrite Some of Mark Hughes' former players might have raised their eyebrows at the ease with which their ex-boss quit Fulham this week. Hughes resigned from Craven Cottage and is now widely tipped to take up a new position at a 'bigger' Premier League club. His matter-of-fact departure to further his career could have the [.

Philadelphia Union midfielder Amobi Okugo will be out for at least the next three weeks after suffering a high ankle sprain against the Chicago Fire over the weekend, according to the Delaware County Daily Times.

Okugo suffered the injury in the opening minutes against the Fire and was replaced by Kyle Nakazawa, who figures to see the lion's share of Okugo's minutes while he is out.

" I'm here and you're there and we're not together. Backs to the wall r us."

The signs of retreat were everywhere. From Cesc Fabregas preferring to spend his day in Barcelona at the Spanish Grand Prix to Arsene Wenger cheerleading Man Utd's Champions League dream. But it was on the pitch once again to remind us where it had all unraveled.

That was painful. Fulham were excellent, but so bad were Birmingham that the victory seemed almost cruel.

Why should I care? I think it's that about a year ago Birmingham and Fulham seemed so similar: defensively very sound, occasionally prone to lack of invention, but good enough to win enough games to stay in the league.

Liverpool may be about to be knocked off their perch by Manchester United, but they showed at Craven Cottage they might just mount a serious challenge for a 19th league title of their own next season by destroying Fulham.
The Reds made it 13 goals in their last three games and Maxi Rodriguez completed his second hat-trick over the same period, with Dirk Kuyt making it 12 goals in his last 13 matches for club and country and Luis Suarez wrapping up the rout.

Kenny Dalglish hailed a Liverpool masterclass after they thumped Fulham 5-2 at Craven Cottage.
The Reds were rampant as a Maxi Rodriguez hat-trick set them on course for a fourth win in five games, which took them above Tottenham into fifth place.
The visitors charged into a 3-0 lead inside 16 minutes, with Maxi scoring after just 32 seconds and the Argentinian midfielder again in the seventh minute.

Liverpool ruthlessly sweep aside Fulham at Craven Cottage and moved above Spurs into fifth place and the final Europa League spot. The style that Liverpool showed was a message to the rest of the Premier League that Liverpool will be aiming to regain their mantle as most successful English side next season.

Liverpool ruthlessly sweep aside Fulham at Craven Cottage and moved above Spurs into fifth place and the final Europa League spot. The style that Liverpool showed was a message to the rest of the Premier League that Liverpool will be aiming to regain their mantle as most successful English side next season.

Well bugger me. Who knew? Last we heard Liverpool were a deluded team caught up in their glorious but distant past, on the rebound from appointing our best ever manager. Then this.

Fulham were in many ways the archetects of their own downfall how many times have you seen Hangeland and Hughes made to look like amateurs?

David Stockdale's been on twitter saying more or less what he's thinking, e.g. I want to play first team football. Whether this is the correct medium for the message, and what he accomplishes by making these comments is a debate for another day, but there they are: Stockdale wants to play.

The problem is big, yellow and Australian.