Arsenal will tour the Far East taking in Seoul, Beijing and Hong Kong in the summer, it can be revealed.

Gunners chiefs are in talks with Far East parties to finalise the jaunt having already sealed a deal to play a friendly match in Nigeria.

With exposing the brand to global markets key to Arsenal's business strategy, gone are the days when Arsène Wenger could take the squad to Austria to take the Alpine air and prepare for the season ahead.

Thailand are currently hosting the King's Cup, I'm not covering it, featuring teams from Scandinavia and North Korea and not doing particularly well it must be said. Anyway striker Sompong Soleb decided to go out for a few beers, breaking curfew, drove home, smashed up his motor and in fine Thai tradition, fled the scene.

The death of long time North Korean leader Kim Jung Il was greeted with shed loads of tears by North Koreans living within the secretive Communist state. Kim Jung Il's death has also triggered memories of Jong Sae-Te's heart-wrenching tears before North Korea's match with Brazil at World Cup 2010. It was eye-opening stuff and [.

Incompetence over fixture scheduling is an ASEAN speciality. The Indonesians have long led the field, and now there are two leagues there we get to see double the incompetence.
Lately the Thais want their turn. The current Thai Premier League began in March and there have been so many changes to the schedule I think everyone has forgotten when it was originally slated to end.

There are a lot of inane stories the football machine spits out over the course of a week. Alberto Zaccheroni and issues with North Korean customs might just take the wasabi paste for this one.

North Koreans ‘pinched Zaccheroni's mustard'

Over-zealous North Korean customs officers may have contributed to Japan's first defeat under Italian Alberto Zaccheroni earlier this week after confiscating his favourite tube of wasabi.

Japan lost 1-0 to North Korea in their WCQ, their first defeat of the campaign, but it was the events off the field that will be remembered more than what happened on it.
Arriving in Pyongyang the Japanese team were kept waiting four hours while immigration and customs did their shit while ahead of the game their national anthem was roundly booed by the reported 50,000 crowd.

No one really takes the Unofficial Football World Championships seriously; it's merely a nice bit of fun. But even with its inherent flaws the best team ever (as in...ever) is Scotland no one probably expected the trophy to head to Pyongyang anytime soon. Or ever. But they beat former title holders Japan (Spain -> Argentina -> Japan) today 1-0 in a WCQ and thus.

By JOEY SAMUEL

When Argentina opened its campaign to qualify for the 2014 World Cup with a commanding 4-1 win over Chile, things looked to be back on track for the Albiceleste after a disastrous 2011 Copa America.

But only two games later, that optimism has completely faded away.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it. | Subscribe: Predictions

On this week's predictions we look at three of the vital play-off games for the European Championships, as well as a selection of World Cup 2014 qualifiers. You can listen to Damon and Damian discussing their predictions on this week's show.

Group E
Thailand v South Korea 1-0Thailand v Chinese Taipei 1-0Thailand v Guam 13-0Thailand v Japan
1 - Thailand 3 3 0 0 15-0 92 - Japan 2 2 0 0 31-0 63 - South Korea 2 1 0 1 18-1 6
Group F
Malaysia v Vietnam 0-0Laos v Myanmar 2-2Laos v Malaysia 1-4North Korea v Laos 2-0Vietnam v Myanmar 2-2Vietnam v Laos 4-0Malaysia v North Korea 1-4
1 - North Korea 2 - Vietnam3 - Malaysia4 - Myanmar5 - Laos
Group G
Indonesia v China 0-0Indonesia v Macau 3-0Indonesia v Australia 1-4

The U.S. WNT is still the top ranked team in the world according to the latest FIFA rankings released on Sept. 23.

North Korea is back in the top-10 (8th) on the heels of it successful qualifying run for the 2012 Olympics, while Norway is down to 12th, the lowest ranking ever for the Norwegians since the world rankings started in 2003.

They made not be going to the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup after being banned due to the positive drug tests this summer in Germany, but North Korea will be at the Olympics in London next summer after finishing second behind Japan in the AFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

North Korea just needed to avoid defeat against Thailand in its final match to join the already-qualified Japanese in London and ended up winning 5-0.

Again, one more time, Japan is the new promising team in the world. It is impressive how their football developed in the previous 20 years in very consistent way. Japan defeated North Korea in the WCQ 1-0 today. It seems that Japan played vs. North Korea that lost to Brazil 1-2 not the one that lost to Portugal by 7 goals.

FIFA has come down hard hard on North Korea for having players test positive during the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, including excluding the team from participating in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada. That means that should the USA qualify for 2015, it will not play the North Koreans for what would have been the FIFTH straight Women's World Cup.

The field at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup has been narrowed to 16 teams.

Spain, Nigeria and host Colombia were the only teams to win all of their matches in the group stage, with Nigeria boasting a tournament-best +10 goal differential.

On the other end of the spectrum, Guatemala managed to qualify for the group stage after a late goal lifted the first-time participants to a 1-0 victory over Croatia in their final group game.

Nathan Baker's Under-20 World Cup adventure will last for at least one more match after England qualified for the knockout stages in Colombia, but Andreas Weimann will be heading back to Europe as Austria finished bottom of their group.
England might consider themselves a little fortunate after squeezing into the knockout phase as one of the best third place finishers thanks to three goalless draws.

Host Colombia isn't the only South American team enjoying a strong start to the FIFA Under-20 World Cup.

Brazil routed Panama, 4-0, to win Group E, and Argentina shut out North Korea, 3-0, to win Group F as both powers advanced to the knockout stage of the tournament Thursday night.

By ADAM SERRANO

After a disappointing loss to Argentina, Mexico roared back to life in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup with an impressive 3-0 victory over a fiesty North Korea side.

An own goal by North Korea moments before halftime gave Mexico the lead. El Tri doubled that lead in the 54th minute when forward Taufic Guarch launched a laser from 30 yards out, and Mexico midfielder Diego De Buen added a third goal four minutes into stoppage time to cap off the victory.

Spain's dominance on the world stage has extended to the FIFA Under-20 World Cup.

The Spaniards opened their tournament with a thorough 4-1 beating of CONCACAF runner-up Costa Rica behind two goals from Rodrigo on Sunday. Spain wasn't the only team to impress in the opening round of games, either.

Sweden went into the 2011 Women's World Cup as anything but favorites. We were thought of as some kind of unknowns. We hadn't done well at the last Euros and given a string of recent results, just advancing from the group stage would be a feat of its own. Plus we were in a group with two supposedly strong teams: North Korea and the United States.

Ngoo unused as England draw

Michael Ngoo was an unused substitute as England drew 0-0 with North Korea in the U20 World Cup on Friday night.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2011-07-30 11:38:34 from: Liverpool FC

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

I'll be honest, I didn't actually spot Nathan Baker dancing, but he was certainly there as member of the England squad landing in Medellin, Colombia ahead of the U-20 World Cup. So what? Well, just watch the video... let's just say that airport security in Colombia is a little different.

¡Arriba!

(The entry is formulated from the transcript obtained via Integrated Marketing Solutions Group -IMSG, the PR agency of Nike Singapore)
(P.S: The copyrights of the images and video depicted in this blog entry belong to Nike, unless stated on the images itself.)
With its "DRI-FIT" apparel and Tiempo Legend by Nike, Hariss is always at the top of his gameHis performance on the last Saturday night captivated those who were at the Jalan Besar Stadium and also the millions of those who watched the crucial World Cup Qualifier match between Singapore and Malaysia at home.

Jordan has played 1-1 draw against Japan, defeated Saudi Arabia 1-0 and beat Syria 2-1 in the first round of the Asian Cup. Jordan lost 2-1 to Uzbekistan in the Asian Cup quarterfinal. Recently, Jordan played 2-2 draw against Uzbekistan, 1-1 draw against Kuwait and identical draw against North Korea in friendlies.

Was there a picture after the game of President Obama screaming and throwing furniture around while his wife and children looked on horrified?
No? That was just in my house? Okay.
Looking at the US after the game really gave me an insight on how China felt twelve years ago. I thought Hope Solo was going to kill someone, and then we saw her getting consoled by fans - presumably relatives, but if not, that's not surprising.

Liam does a kit launch.

[OTP]

• Everybody sucks. (Inside Track)
• Getting there really fast. (IBWM)
• Back to reality. (Studs Up)
• Truffle Shuffle alert. (Dirty Tackle)
• The elder statesmen. (The Best Eleven)
• There is Hope, afterall. (KCKRS)
• Obviously.

So remember that whole "We had a keeper and 4 starting defenders who were struck by lightning, so that's why we lost to the US"? Turns out, that after a random post game drug test, FIFA turned up positive steriods use results on two players and then subjected the rest of the team to testing, as they quickly left the country to return home.

So, your team's going to play a tournament in Colombia and you need a place to train. How about Colorado?

Evidently, that is the thinking of the English U-20 team, which departed for the Rocky Mountains today. The U-20s are training for the U-20 World Cup, which opens on July 29.

The Young Lions squad met up in Hertfordshire on Thursday before traveling Friday to spend 10 days in Commerce City using the Colorado Rapids facilities in order to help acclimate to the conditions they will face in South America.

The Swedish media, and here I generalize and put them all together in the same batter as Expressen and Aftonbladet, spent the month leading up to the Women's World Cup playing down our chances for a medal. There were several reasons for this, but the most prominent three were: we just weren't good enough any more, the other national sides had improved so much in the last few years, and finally it was being played in Germany and therefore the winners of the two previous cups were to be held as the favorites.

The FIFA World Under-17 Championship has been won by hosts Mexico in what was a thrilling climax to a hugely successful tournament.

Mexico got to the final having topped Group A ahead of Congo, North Korea and European champions the Netherlands before getting past Panama, France and Germany in the knockout rounds.

LINEUP:
USA: 1-Hope Solo; 11-Ali Krieger, 19-Rachel Buehler, 3-Christie Rampone (capt.), 6-Amy LePeilbet; 9-Heather O'Reilly, 7-Shannon Boxx, 10-Carli Lloyd, 12-Lauren Cheney; 8-Amy Rodriguez, 20-Abby Wambach
Subs: 2-Heather Mitts, 4-Becky Sauerbrunn, 5-Kelley O'Hara, 13-Alex Morgan, 14-Stephanie Cox, 15-Megan Rapinoe, 16-Lori Lindsey, 17-Tobin Heath, 18-Nicole Barnhart, 21-Jill Loyden
PRE-GAME NOTES:
- Heather O'Reilly is back in the lineup for the USA, meaning they start the game the same way as the opening match against North Korea.

FIFA allows just one stadium training per team per venue, and as the USA has already played in Dresden during this Women's World Cup (the 2-0 opening win over North Korea), the team practiced at the official training site today. It was a gorgeous day in Dresden as the USA ran through just a one-hour session to prepare for tomorrow's quaterfinal clash with Brazil.

The Women's World Cup is down to its final eight teams after yesterday's conclusion of group play.

Yesterdays last day of group play action was an exciting one with several key games.

Brazil 3-0 Equatorial Guinea
Brazil seemed to have no problems with Equatorial Guinea winning 3-0.

FIFA Womens World Cup 2011
Quarter-finals
Germany v Japan (Sat)
France v England (Sat)
Sweden v Australia (Sun)
Brazil v USA (Sun)
Norway, the 1995 World Cup winners and one of the traditional powers of the women's game, have missed out on the last eight of the tournament for the first time and also lost their chance to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Please forgive me for not having presented the best football being played in the world right now (apologies to MLS, Copa America, and the "racially biased" Russian league), and you need look no further than the Women's World Cup in Germany. Not only are there as many group stage goals now, twenty games in, as there were in South Africa last summer (51 compared to 39), but a number of them are some of the best pieces of technique and brilliance you will see all year.

FIFA Womens World Cup 2011
England 2:0 Japan
Germany 4:2 France
Nigeria 1:0 Canada
Mexico 2:2 New Zealand
England will play France in the quarter-finals after a comfortable 2-0 win over Japan in Augsburg left them winners of Group B. The Japanese also qualify but coming second have to play the hosts next on Saturday.

WWC on ESPN: Euqatorial Guinea - Brazil at 12pm on ESPN and the same time for Australia - Norway on ESPN2. In the 2:45pm slot, Sweden - USA is on ESPN and North Korea - Colombia is on ESPN2. Copa America on TeleFutura: Argentina - Colombia at 8:45pm. All Times Eastern

Fan interaction Sweden's Josefine Oqvist did her bit to promote the Women's World Cup by swapping shirts with a Germany fan after the Swedes' 1-0 victory over North Korea. Beckoned over to the crowd after the match, Oqvist found herself in an unexpected shirt-swapping proposition courtesy of the forward German.

By Eric Beard, writing from Boston

Every tournament in football contains, at least to a certain degree, a sense of discovery. Commentators enlighten us with facts and subtle connections that the average fan does not have on their radar. However, the difference between the World Cup and the Women's World Cup seems to be the amount of knowledge about the players, the tactics, and the teams the average viewer holds.

The U.S. women's national team sealed its place in the knockout rounds of the Women's World Cup with an emphatic 3-0 win against Colombia on Saturday.

The Americans were coming off their tournament-opening 2-0 win against North Korea and produced an even better display, though poor finishing kept the USA from posting a six or seven goal blowout.