Morning all, welcome to the blog.
By the time you read this, Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell will hold a testing session for his players and a "midseason" review with the good fellows of Perth's sports media.
What that means, FP doesn't know, but presumably it won't be any different than the usual Glory presser. Click to continue reading...

Whether it's empty, half-baked ‘Spirit of Shankly' rhetoric or brainwashed fans jumping on the ‘Hicks and Gillett are the devil' bandwagon (without actually knowing WHY), there is a damaging and pointless agenda being peddled in the press at the moment by alleged Liverpool fans that needs to be highlighted. Click to continue reading...

It seemed astonishing when Mo Johnston recently claimed to be shocked by the level of criticism that he was receiving after TFC's recent failure. Was the wily Glaswegian watching the same team the supporters were? Why the shock on Mo's part?
It should be no surprise however when you look at the acceptance of mediocrity that comes from places higher in the organization. Click to continue reading...

With only 3 weeks left in the Mexican Apertura regular season, we can be certain of one thing: we still have no idea who is going to make the liguilla. Some call it parity, others call it mediocrity. I call it chaos.
Only one team is assured of a post season birth: Toluca. Mexican futbol's cooky, crazy group system, though, offers no guarantees to the other teams that are in the top 8 slots of the table. Click to continue reading...

New COS columnist Jonny Carter tries to get his head around Rafa's continued presence at Anfield.

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Part I.

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This is the game Southern California MLS fans have long awaited.

I'd like to say there's a buzz in the air, a sense of anticipation and tension and plenty of concrete expressions of the rivalry that have temporarily divided friends and families.

I'd like to say that, but it wouldn't be true.

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by CARL ELDRIDGE Allow me to get a few things off my chest as we reflect on the total destruction of the Haringey Pretenders with a highly convincing, highly enjoyable and ultimately an easy-peasy 3-0 win at the home of football yesterday.

First, a quick memo to Robbie Keane who claimed that Harold 'Steptoe' Redknapp's bunch of over-hyped, over-paid under-achievers were an altogether better squad than that of the glorious Gunners.

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Marlon King is twenty-eight years old. His contract with Wigan Athletic was worth £35,000 per week. He has scored twelve Premier League goals in his entire career. Never has in the field of human endeavour has such mediocrity been so handsomely rewarded. For this reason and this doesn't obviously doesn't even take into account what he has been sent to prison for and if nothing else comes from this grimly predictable story, at least Dave Whelan may be breathing a sigh of relief at getting such an expensive burden upon Wigan Athletic's wage bill.

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This week, our new tifo video series has shown displays from supporters in Australia, Northern Ireland and Sweden.

Now we make a short hop to Belgium to take a look at supporters of KV Mechelen, a team who have historically been close to becoming a dominant force in the Belgian league, but who have somehow often fallen short.

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--------------------That is some quality toad. Nice hole too.

Well, that's it then. 2009 is done and dusted with Toronto FC having nothing but a big wad of mediocrity to show for it. But have no fear brave TFC supporters - Mo Johnston is working feverishly to make everything better!

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So Mo Johnston's big state of the no-union address was to remove the "interim" tag from head coach Chris Cummins title. He also removed the word "head" and "coach" from the affable Englishman's job description as well.
Yes, the ever-humble Johnston dispatched yet another manager from the TFC bench with Cummins being the convenient excuse for the mediocrity which Mo has taken nearly four years to build. Click to continue reading...

101 Great Goals #34 - John Goossens
It's not very often that my adopted Dutch club, NEC Nijmegen, appear above the radar. They are the very definition of 'mid table mediocrity' - sitting in the middle of the Eredivisie every single year, doing absolutely nothing whatsoever.
To include a goal that earned them a 1-1 home draw against ADO Den Haag also sounds like the dullest thing in the world, but this particular piece of brilliance from ex-Ajax kid John Goossens deserves to shine a light on the club. Click to continue reading...

So, DC United misses the playoffs for the second-consecutive season. Am I surprised? Not really, it's been clear from fairly early on that this team was practically built to swoon down the stretch and swoon it did - winning only two of its last seven matches. That said, missing out on the playoffs on a comedy handball by a festering sore of a player (Fred) in stoppage time was an especially emphatic way of doing it. Click to continue reading...

Nine games into the  Barclays Premier League 2009/10 season, Hull City find themselves in the relegation zone. While fans around the Premiership point fingers and laugh at the Tigers, one man is not laughing: Phil Brown.

Following yet another defeat, this time at the hands of Fulham at Craven Cottage on Monday night, Phil Brown knows that his job is on the line.

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"A site with real potential that landed a Nemanja Vidic exclusive earlier this season. The news services is often off the pace, though, so that needs sharpening up."

Well, we just sneaked in at number 10. Potential? For a blog that's been around for a while, I thought we were through with the potential part, going on to a plateau of mediocrity.

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Just in case you needed any help getting fired up for Sunday. And if you're looking for further inspiration there's this:
But before we get to Sunday, we'll spend some time on the weekend undercard:
Last week: 1-3
Year to date: 84-116 (.420 or 17 games over blind chance)
REAL SALT LAKE at TORONTO FC. Click to continue reading...

If everything goes as expected in the next two weeks, Toronto FC players will be packing their bags and heading home for 2009 while many of their rivals prepare for the playoffs. What happened this season? There was such promise back in spring but it quickly slid into mediocrity - all that was left was a look ahead to 2010. Click to continue reading...

I decided not to comment on our 2-0 loss against Chivas since my arguments are the same as the Houston tie except for the Zoltan goal. This week we didn't even score and it would seem that playing those players in a slump (Wolff, Arnaud, Jewsbury) has brought nothing good.

The game did have a horrible offside non-call on the first Chivas goal, but in all honesty should be blamed on the assistant and not the ref (Mike Kuhn has all the evidence, and the video is clear also).

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AS Monaco are the only Ligue 1 club not based in France as they are actually based in the principality of Monaco. They are, nevertheless, one of the most successful clubs in the country but Les Rouge et Blanc have struggled to return to the big stage ever since losing the Champions League final to Porto in 2004.

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Ever since the arrival of the Roman Abramovich era at Chelsea, the world of football seems to exist in two separate yet parallel universes.

There are clubs who teeter on the brink of bankruptcy despite brief flirts with glory (a la Leeds United and recently at Portsmouth). Then there are other clubs whose history has been blanketed by anonymity and mediocrity but now whose names, with the financial aid of the multi-billionaire, are dared uttered in the same sentence with title aspirations.

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Here it is. Like The Riddle Of The Great Pyramids, the Red Bulls have been staring at this mathematical equation for the better part of two seasons now, and that number continues to escalate. 25 game winless streak on the road. Another Osorio record. But can Richie turn it around against San Jose?

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After midweek fixtures in Italy as well as this weekend's results, all of the Serie A clubs have played two more games and we are left with surprise leaders of Serie A.

Midweek results:

Palermo 3-3 Roma

Lazio 1-2 Parma

Udinese 1-0 Milan

Siena 0-0 Chievo

Fiorentina 2-0 Sampdoria

Bari 0-1 Cagliari

Bologna 2-0 Livorno

Atalanta 0-0 Catania

Inter Milan 3-1 Napoli

Genoa 2-2 Juventus

A late equaliser from Totti saved Roma a point at the Renzo Barbera while the dark days at AC Milan appear to be getting ever darker as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat to Udinese.

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Most parents will tell you that if you coddle a child for too long then they will end up spoiled. Now it's unsure how long "childhood" lasts for your average MLS club but three years seems to be at least "young adult". Why then, is Toronto FC being treated so gingerly by most observers - both on the inside and the outside of the club? Click to continue reading...

Let's talk Arsenal. They're playing well this season despite a few bumps in the road, and a host of injuries - and more importantly, they have an upcoming fixture list that is just superb: Fulham, Blackburn, Birmingham, and West Ham are the next four. Talk about taking on mid-table mediocrity.
So - if you're looking for some offensive Arsenal investment (and let's leave the injured Arshavin out of the equation for now), and are considering Cesc Fabregas vs Robin van Persie - let's take a look at the pros and cons:
RVP: In February I called RVP the "next Ronaldo," from a fantasy perspective. Click to continue reading...

363 days ago, at the beginning of their World Cup qualifying campaign, I wrote that England's 4-1 victory over Croatia in Zagreb was just as lucky as good, and we shouldn't expect it every time out.
I was so cocky in my cynicism, I actually wrote, "But if I were a betting man, I'd put money on Croatia to win at Wembley in a year's time. Click to continue reading...

This week saw yet another much-hyped series of columns on the internet that put the US Soccer Federation squarely in the cross-sights. This time it was freelancer and Big Lead contributor Ty Duffy laying into US Soccer with his three piece series. I hate having to, to paraphrase Wiilliam F. Buckley, stand athwart the nonsense being thrown the USSF's way, yelling stop, but in this case, I will again. Click to continue reading...

Ty Duffy, a longtime contributor to our sister site, EPL Talk.com has penned a must read series on US Soccer as we enter the most critical phase of World Cup qualifying. The Big Lead's motto is stubbornly, uncorrupted and unbeholden. This is a masterful series which shows how indepedent and free thinking our press can be, even if they not always are.

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Maybe you had too much too fast. Maybe you had too much too fast.
Or just over played your part.
Nothin shakin on shakedown street. Used to be the heart of town.
Dont tell me this town aint got no heart. You just gotta poke around.

Freddy Adu was once pure potentiality.

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Scott at Republik of Mancunia made a valiant effort at throwing a positive spin on Saturday's result. Of course, it was a win after all, so, really, what can be more positive than that? And he did a good job of trying to alleviate certain shreds of negativism that may have afflicted a lot of United fans.

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Tonight's first home game of the season at Anfield will see Liverpool FC supporters' union Spirit of Shankly leafleting outside the ground to garner support amongst Reds fans against the club's American owners.
The Union issued a statement yesterday blasting Tom Hicks and George Gillett for manager Rafa Benitez's apparent lack of a substantial transfer budget this summer, with the Spaniard seemingly not even permitted to have at his disposal the full amount he has raised himself in the transfer market. Click to continue reading...

Calling all losers! Do you suck at fantasy football? Always lurking around the lower reaches of your fantasy football league like some sort of fictional Newcastle United? OTP has got the answer: Fantasy Football FAIL. This season we will be tipping the table on its head and celebrating mediocrity. And we will be doing from within the [. Click to continue reading...

Each and every season throws up a number of players who seemingly come from nowhere or break the shackles of mediocrity to make a name for themselves with successions of top quality performances for their clubs. So, with that in mind, here's a selection of players I think might just surprise a few people this season.

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Imagine the headline spoken in an intolerably thick Birmingham accent and you will surely remember Harry Enfield and his nouveau-riche comedy characters Stan and Pam Herbert ,who revel in their new found wealth and are desperate to convince those around them that this guarantees them greater happiness and social importance. Click to continue reading...

If Dana White and the UFC need a main event for their next pay-per-view, they should consider looking across the pond. Seems there is quite the battle brewing over the transfer of Sheffield United's Kyle Naughton.
After Everton and the Blades agreed to terms last week, it seems that Harry Redknapp and Spurs have swooped in an offered a larger transfer fee for the 20-year old defender. Click to continue reading...

Now that we have reached the finals of the Copa Libertadores, it's time for an updated WCR Top 25 Clubs in the World list. The truth, however, is that the Copa Libertadores is having very little effect on the rankings. Primarily, this is because the clubs that are doing well in the Copa Libertadores are having significant trouble domestically. Click to continue reading...