Hospitals across Europe have seen a lot of action over the last seven days. Warm wishes go to the following parents and their family and friends (whom we would hope purchased all the items from their baby registries). Here's a quick update:

Juve keeper Gigi Buffon and his long-time gal Alena Seredova (pictured last month at her 2010 calendar launch) are the proud parents of another healthy baby boy.

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Hospitals across Europe have seen a lot of action over the last seven days. Warm wishes go to the following parents and their family and friends (whom we would hope purchased all the items from their baby registries). Here's a quick update:

Juve keeper Gigi Buffon and his long-time gal Alena Seredova (pictured last month at her 2010 calendar launch) are the proud parents of another healthy baby boy.

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Incredible.

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Alcorcon ply their trade in the third tier of the Spanish league and when they came up against big spending La Liga giants Real Madrid in the first leg of this Copa Del Rey (the Spanish equivalent of the FA Cup) they were probably just dreaming of the much needed cash the tie would generate, however the Alcorcon players had other ideas.

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Ducky's Note: The Other Big Four is back! As is Vishwa.

"� PIRLO+ SPACE+TIME = DISASTER"

- ONE OF THE MANY PROPOSED SOLUTIONS FOR THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM.

" PEPE+DEFENDING=PEPE+DEFENDING WITH RAUL ALBIOL= DIDA+ GOALKEEPING=� 0"

-ONE OF THE MANY PROPOSED SOLUTIONS FOR THE QUESTION OF LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND PHILIP METZELDER.

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All the stuff being covered outside the unfriendly confines of the award winning Dirty Tackle...

Alright, so the angry Hitler videos are totally played out, but this was still funny. Hitler as a Millwall fan and the one who planned the violence on Tuesday? Sounds about right.

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Not sure how we missed this great shot from the Strenesse 2008 campaign with Christoph Metzelder.

To atone for our sins we pledge to wallpaper our kitchen cabinets with this photo.

Via the GBA thread.

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Not sure how we missed this great shot from the Strenesse 2008 campaign with Christoph Metzelder.

To atone for our sins we pledge to wallpaper our kitchen cabinets with this photo.

Via the GBA thread.

Click to continue reading...

Big Story

It's that "crisis" word again.� Following the Sweeper's report last Friday on the SPL's growing financial troubles, the Argentinian Football Association has announced it is canceling the league season's August 14th season opener across all divisions due to unpaid club debts totaling USD$182 million.

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Álvaro Arbeloa recently completed a return move to his childhood club Real Madrid for €4 million. While deserved attention went to the second-generation galácticos Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká, and Karim Benzema, Real Madrid also made transactions that do not rate high on sex appeal yet realign the glaring weakness behind its disappointing last season.

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Cristiano Ronaldo starts to be amortized
The Portuguese was a key player in Real Madrid's victory agains the League of Quito and in the classification to the Peace Cup semifinals. The portuguese star converted a penalty which he intervened in the second goal scored by Esteban Granero. Metzelder, Negredo and Vera, twice, scored the remaining goals of a meeting in which the Pellegrini showed a clear improvement in his game. Click to continue reading...

The 2009 Peace Cup continued on Tuesday with Juventus taking on Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma and Real Madrid hosting LDU Quito. Here's a recap of both matches along with video highlights.

Real Madrid tops LDU Quito 4-2 - Video Highlights

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his first goal for Real Madrid as they beat LDU Quito 4-2 to advance to the semifinals in the 2009 Peace Cup.

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LYON, France (AFP) - Lyon announced on Wednesday the transfer of Karim Benzema to Real Madrid for 35 million euros in a deal which dashes Manchester United's attempts to capture the France striker.
In a statement the French club announced that the fee could rise to as much as 41 million euros depending on various bonuses attached to the deal.

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After this summer is all said and done I expect we will sit back and look and the newly formed Los Galacticos and wonder how any side will stop what will surely be an attacking dream team. With Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo already on board and with potentially Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema and David Villa joining them Real Madrid will have the best attackers in the world with the exception of maybe Barcelona.

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Real Madrid's German defender Christoph Metzelder thinks it's too much money.

"Spending $96m on someone that can get injured or be in bad form isn't correct to me, especially during this period of financial uncertainty."

Real Madrid's German defender Christoph Metzelder is probably on his way out of the Bernabeu. Click to continue reading...

Nothing like making yourself popular with your new team mates, and new president for that matter!
When his club are splashing the cash like there's no tomorow to bring in high profile names. Real Madrid defender Christoph Metzelder hasn't exactly held back in expressing his view that £80million for Cristiano Ronaldo is pretty extravagant spending during the global economic crisis. Click to continue reading...

Looks like Real defender Christoph Metzelder is less than enchanted with Ronaldo's price tag.

This is significant because it is the first sign of player dissent. Public opinion against the deal is something that Florentino Perez can handle. Having Joan Laporta speak out against this transfer is entirely understandable.

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Acknowledged by all, Arsene needs to recruit one or two centre-backs.

� The addition of Silvestre was a disaster.� Gallas may or may not stay for another season, position wise he is the best reader of the game at the club, but he is losing speed and is not brilliant in the air.� Toure is a fighter can be flustered easily.

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Should Bayern Munich have let him go? If his plan was to continue with the same basic team and add a few players then the answer is yes, but if he was going to over hall the team be allowed to do it according to his vision then the answer is no. It doesn't really matter obviously because Klinsmann is gone and even if he had the German Under-16 team playing for Bayern the expectation was still that he should win the championship, make a run in Europe, and confirm Bayern's status as one of the top clubs in the world. Click to continue reading...

(Real Madrid-Barcellona 1-0. Higuain)
(highlights di Real Madrid-Barcellona 2-6)
REAL MADRID: Casillas, Sergio Ramos (26'st Van der Vaart), Cannavaro, Metzelder, Hienze; Robben (33'st Garcia), Lass, Gago, Marcelo; Higuain, Raul. A disp.: Dudek, Drenthe, Faubert, Torres, Huntelaar. Click to continue reading...

El fútbol es un estado de ánimo. En San Mamés se verán cara a cara la euforia y la depresión. El Athletic tiene su ansiada final de Copa frente al Barça y quiere certificar su buen momento ante un Madrid herido de muerte tras su descalabro de Anfield Road. Caparrós mira de refilón al descenso que sólo [. Click to continue reading...

The word crisis, whispered in the last few weeks, has now reached a crescendo at the Bernabéu, as Real Madrid were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by a third division side. A repeat of the 4-3 weekend scoreline was not enough to subdue a Real Unión de Irún squad that ran rampant for large stretches of the game, as if the venue or their opponents were of no consequence. Click to continue reading...

The word crisis, whispered in the last few weeks, has now reached a crescendo at the Bernabéu, as Real Madrid were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by a third division side. A repeat of the 4-3 weekend scoreline was not enough to subdue a Real Unión de Irún squad that ran rampant for large stretches of the game, as if the venue or their opponents were of no consequence. Click to continue reading...

The word crisis, whispered in the last few weeks, has now reached a crescendo at the Bernabéu, as Real Madrid were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by a third division side. A repeat of the 4-3 weekend scoreline was not enough to subdue a Real Unión de Irún squad that ran rampant for large stretches of the game, as if the venue or their opponents were of no consequence. Click to continue reading...

Media reports suggest that Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is set to move for experienced German defender Christoph Metzelder. Having let Swiss centre-half Philippe Senderos join AC Milan last week on a season-long loan deal, media reports claim that Wenger could bring in the Real Madrid's Metzelder in a similar move. Click to continue reading...

Morning, or should I say afternoon, fellow gooners.
Apologies for no blog over the weekend. I was in the process of moving house, something i will have to do again by the end of the month. What joy.
As such, I only caught the second half of the Newcastle performance, but what I did see was rather lovely. Click to continue reading...

  Arsene Wenger has gone one record as saying he will augment the current squad today or tomorrow.  Expect tomorrow to be a hectic day with rumours and counter rumours.  There are two positions that Arsene will be looking at, central midfield and another wide midfielder. One position that we need to re-enforce is the wide positions. Click to continue reading...

Fabio Cannavaro could be about to start his third and last season with Real Madrid, according to his agent. In an interview with Italian radio station Kiss Kiss, Gaetano Fedele said that "the way things currently stand, this will be Fabio's last season wearing the Real Madrid shirt. In any case, we will see during the season whether there is an opportunity to renew the contract with Real Madrid. Click to continue reading...

I wanted to get this post up sooner, but I've been blog-less for the past few days as a result of a beer-filled long weekend out of town. I did watch the final on Sunday, though, and although I was cheering for Germany, I can't say I'm disappointed that Spain won -- they were the best team both over the course of the tournament and in the final itself. Click to continue reading...

Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has told Fernando Torres that he is still not as good as Thierry Henry at his best, but could get there in time.
Torres was the match-winner for Spain in the Euro 2008 final as he latched onto a Xavi pass and finished expertly past Lehmann.
Lehmann has been impressed by the Liverpool striker but feels there is still room for improvement. Click to continue reading...

Spain, then, are the European champions and, with the benefit of hindsight, it's difficult to argue a case against them winning it. Euro 2008, however, was just like that in many respects. How many times did you sit down in front of the television and think, "Well, they're definitely going to win it"? Click to continue reading...

They think it's all over, and it is now.
Wow, what a tournament, 31 matches with only two or three duds and with several genuine classics and plenty of high drama, especially in the knock-out phase where tournament football usually gets too nervy and cagey to be truly entertaining.
With Torres's winner in the final it meant that 77 goals were scored, exactly the same as at EURO 2004, but the manner of many of the goals has meant that it's been an entirely different tournament from last time with fantastic quick counter-attacking and passing moves replacing the reliance on set pieces that saw Greece crowned as champs last time out. Click to continue reading...

Spain put behind them 44 year of disappointments and relinquished the mantle of "perennial underachievers" (leaving that moniker to England, perhaps?) after beating Germany to their second European Championship. It's been a fascinating tournament, with some great open, attacking football, high drama, and, from this fan's point of view at least, the right result. Click to continue reading...

I have tears of joy. Watching Spain get over their mental block against their more heralded European rivals, doing it their way, playing beautiful, attacking soccer and finally winning what was rightfully theirs. There is a God occasionally and he chose the right time to be munificent.

There was Ballack his face streaked with congealed blood and the nonplussed Metzelder and Mertesacker, their faces frozen in disbelief and dismay, as they contemplated another championship without a title.

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Watch out, Cristoph Metzelder just hoofed another clearance in your direction. Pregame odds were split relatively evenly between Spain and Germany. What I'd like to have seen where the odds that that ABC's pre-Euro 2008 final MLS tilt between DC United and the Los Angeles Galaxy would have been the more exciting affair. Click to continue reading...

The final! Will Spain throw off the mantle of underachiever? Will Germany triumph, sending the momentum of its fans gained during the World Cup into a frenzy?
Funny how Foudy talks about how goalkeepers need games to be sharp in reference to Jens Lehmann. Foudy didn't say anything like that when saying she wouldn't want to play in front of Hope Solo after Solo protested getting replaced at the Women's World Cup by Scurry, who had hardly played. Click to continue reading...