With news that Chelsea are looking at a deal for a new right back and rumours that the Gary Cahill deal will be done and dusted by tomorrow, I am just wondering if AVB will revert back to his approach of playing with a high defensive line?.
We have seen that he tried to implement his "high", "medium" and "low" block approach during the beginning of the season and Chelsea suffered badly with heavy defeats away at United and then at home to Arsenal.

On Sunday night Toby and I took in Sutton United v Notts County in the FA Cup second round proper (a trip to Doncaster was on offer to the winners).

No giant killing here. County eventually sauntered to a routine victory, but there were alarms along the way, notably when Sutton were awarded then missed a penalty on the verge of half-time (shooooot!

It's every schoolboy's dream. You're in the Cup Final, it's heading for stalemate. Then, right at the death, you pop up and score the winner. Arsenal are past masters of this; think Alan Sunderland in 1979 and Andy Linighan in 1993.
In yesterday's Singapore Cup Final it was the turn of Frederic Mendy to live the dream.

Most soccer experts would have you believe that a player finally masters his craft in his late 20�s.

The Guardian's Gallery is, by and large, brilliant. But every now and again, someone ascends to the levels of the masters before them. This is one such case, via the Kun Aguero lineage of recent.

Real genius, if only because Diego was chosen as the clothed one.

If all you Chelsea aficionados think you know everything about the club, then the 1,000 challenging questions in this quiz book are almost certainly set to prove you wrong, trip you up and send your crumpled brains screaming for first aid and a stretcher.
To succeed in your quest you will need to be able to cast your mind back one hundred years and recall diverse facts and figures, covering topics such as Cup competitions, players, managers, past masters, opponents, transfer deals, trophies, records, national and international fixtures, and much more.

Jan Versleijan and Han Berger have been slated by many over the last few weeks for their team performances at the various World Cups.
Versleijan as manager of the teams, and Berger for laying down the 1-4-3-3 revolution, with a little help from Rob Baan the former Dutch Technical Director.

New research by psychologists at the University of Amsterdam suggests that goalkeepers are biased to dive to the right during penalty-kick shootouts.
The study found that during penalty shootouts, goalies will dive to the right side 71 percent of the time when their team is down, but not when they're tied or ahead.

One of the bright spots of losing to Japan in a gut wrenching manner is that we won't have to see the horrible jerseys the USWNT wore this World Cup enter into iconic status. That in itself should be comfort enough for those of us upset about the loss. Alexi Lalas's photo should be conclusive proof that the jerseys look just as bad on men, if not worse, as they do on women.

I just read an interesting article on Soccer America today. It's definitely worth the read as the article is by a Masters of Sports Physiology student at John Moores University in Liverpool. The general premise is this, the game of soccer is growing and will continue to grow stale as long as FIFA does nothing to change the rules of the game to compensate for improved fitness of players.

Stephane Henchoz believes Kenny Dalglish will help Liverpool write another successful chapter in their illustrious history books.
The former Reds defender has been impressed by the impact the Scot has made since returning to the Anfield hot seat in January, during which time he steered the team from 12th to sixth in the Barclays Premier League.

We really have the greatest manager of all time. He's witty, he's adorable, even his signature is wholly lovable. In fact, I thought I couldn't love him anymore, but I was wrong. Today he lead out Bolton Wanderers as captain in the Merseyside Masters. I think I actually got quite a bit more excited about it than the occasion warranted, but I am really missing my Wanderers.

We all know he secretly still wants to play. That's why he kits up every match instead of donning a suit. That's why all his players talk about how he "gets involved" in training. That's obviously why he started himself in a friendly last November, even managing to score a goal. Well, the 44 year old isn't done yet, as he's set to lead out the Bolton Wanderers 6-a-side team at the Masters.

We all know he secretly still wants to play. That's why he kits up every match instead of donning a suit. That's why all his players talk about how he "gets involved" in training. That's obviously why he started himself in a friendly last November, even managing to score a goal. Well, the 44 year old isn't done yet, as he's set to lead out the Bolton Wanderers 6-a-side team at the Masters.

Good day to you all and we'll start this morning with young Theodore of the clan Walcott who was speaking yesterday at the launch of something I don't care about.

It seems that as much as we're thinking about who might come and go, he is too. Let's start first with what he says about players coming in:

The manager has said he is going to spend and I'm intrigued about who is going to come in.

Such is the dissatisfaction with this current season many fans are looking ahead to the summer already. Last night a flurry of Twitter based rumour involving Karim Benzema had people more excited than when we beat Barcelona.

Personally, I have no idea if we're interested in Benzema but with two games still left to play this season it's too early to start driving yourselves mad over possible arrivals and departures.

Spanish Tennis ace RAFAEL NADAL has gone down 5 - 7 ; 4 - 6 to Serbian NOVAK DJOKOVIC in the Tennis Final of the MASTERS 1000 MADRID. The Serbian continues his unbeatable run of victories which includes defeating Nadal in 3 straight finals this year. The victory today by Novak demonstrates that the Serb has real chances of grabbing the Nº1 spot off Nadal if he continues with his current form &

Houston Dynamo; masters of the set piece strike

Riddle me this: How can it be that the Houston Dynamo, with a very pedestrian attack at the moment, sit third in the nine-team Eastern Conference?

Well, I'll tell you how: Houston has scored 43 percent of its goals this year directly off free kicks and corner kicks.

Who rattled his cage? 'What's that tall dreamy thing down there?' 'Peter Crouch O Zeus. But he's a footballer'. 'Yes he'll do. I'm bored' 'But you said you'd finished with footballers after the success of the episode with Wayne and the Sky camera'' 'Yes well, I gave golf a go with young Rory but he just shrugged off self destructing at the Masters.

It doesn't get any bigger..

It is never easy for a neutral sports fan to watch two attractive teams or players go at it against each other in the early stages of a competition. For one, when a football team that's renowned for its attacking flair meets another considered past masters at the same art, then you know that there's every chance of a stalemate ensuing.

Arsenal used to be the self-proclaimed 'masters' of playing 'pretty football' until their English rivals forced them to seek balance and Barcelona usurped them on the pitch, with two Champions League titles and their players forming the core group of the Spain team that won Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup.

As you probably know, I'm a big fan of communicating complex and statistical information graphically. So you won't be surprised to hear that I'm also a big fan of The Economist, the masters of the interesting and thought-provoking chart. Here's a graph from the magazine showing a ranking of "football wealth" based on the just released "Football Money League" report by consultancy Deloitte.

Viaggio alla scoperta delle squadre Argentine: Boca Juniors Di Simone Melis Soprannome: XeneizesCitt : Buenos AiresStadio: La Bombonera (57395)Palmares: 23 campionati argentini, 1 coppa Argentina, 6 Libertadores, 2 Sudamericane, 4 Recope, 3 Intercontinentali, 1 Sudamericana, 1 Masters, 1 Copa de Oro Nicolas Leoz Fu fondato nel 1905 da dei giovani di origine italiana nel quartiere Boca, abitato in