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For Akron, the rest of the season begins now. 20 wins from 20 matches have come and gone, and now five matches stand between them and ensure that a undefeated season has gone for naught. Teal Bunbury and the rest of the Zips head into the NCAA Tournament with a chance to finish what they've started, and will do so with the number one overall set.

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If your one of the millions of fans of CRISTIANO RONALDO, thesespictures should bring a smile to your face, not to mention as wellas to the Real Madrid fans around the World.The player has begun to "touch" the ball which is an excellent signthat his ankle injury is progressing. Today a small "obstacle" coursewas set up for Ronaldo to test the ankle "sensations" as he dodgedthe cones with the ball Click to continue reading...

Last night we read that Rubin Kazan's manager had instructed the Russian club's groundskeeper not to trim the grass in the stadium, so that it would slow Barca down. Now, it is quite flattering that other teams feel the need to go to such measures when facing us, but really, it's starting to get a bit old. Click to continue reading...

OCTOBER 24, 2009
Stade Municipal Du Ray, Nice
1 PM ET (19:00 CET, 18:00 GMT)
After Tuesday's unbelievable victory at Anfield, we can only hope that the players have come back down to earth- because I'm still on cloud nine- and are ready to dispatch there next league obstacle and maintain their miniscule +1 goal differential lead over second place Montpellier?

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For those on the inside looking out, nary a worse manager reigns in the international realm; for those on the outside looking in...

Viva la Domenech.

What he lacks in coaching abilities, he makes up for in deliciously idiotic words. He's kind of like Maradona without the playing career.

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Big Story
As expected, the Republic of Ireland have not been seeded for the World Cup playoffs the four countries who have been are France, Portugal, Russia and Greece, who will each face one of Ireland, Bosnia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

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The 28th round of Brasileirao was big obstacle for the leaders of the tournament. Palmeiras, Sao Paulo, Goias and Atletico-MG failed to win. The only side rubbing its hand and smiling is Inter, as it pocketed 3 points.

On Thursday, Palmeiras received Avai at home knowing that on the day before Sao Paulo had failed to win.

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Amid the storm of criticism tossed up by his recent performances, the reports that his legs have gone and his body, wearied by years of battle, is starting to wilt, Jamie Carragher could do worse than turn to a fellow veteran for advice and comfort. Sami Hyypia, too, was written off long ago.
The Finn can sympathise with the man who stood by his side, defiant, in Istanbul, when Liverpool beat AC Milan to win the Champions League in 2005, safe in the knowledge that football has the shortest of memories. Click to continue reading...

We're only 24 hours away from a much needed international break. With Lyon's upcoming fixture schedule, the boys will need every opportunity to rest up. Of course, that isn't the case for our international players, but at least the other half of the squad can recuperate from half-healed injuries (I'm looking at you, Lisandro).

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Rewind back to 2003 and you'll see that Jonathan Woodgate had everything. From critical acclaim to a huge fan following, he had all the essentials required to go down in the Newcastle folklore as one of the very best defenders of all time. However, the only obstacle that could stop him injuries came into play very early into his career at St.

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Pro Soccer's greatest obstacle in the busy American sports calendar is figuring out how not to get lost in the shuffle. With the other pro team sports so entrenched in the American sports fan's consciousness, pro Soccer, even in the height of its season, receives little or no time being in the mainstream spotlight.

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It looks as if Jozy Altidore will spend next season on loan with Hull City of the English Premier League. With Jozy in England and a Hull City press conference scheduled for tomorrow afternoon to introduce new players, many speculated that the two sides were finalizing an agreement. Altidore confirmed these suspicions via his twitter account, saying:
"Press conference tomorrow at 2:30 stay tuned! Click to continue reading...

Maikel FAIL Maikel FAIL
Ah, so this is why Maikel plays for Szombathelyi Haladas in Hungary, rather than a club that more than 37 people have heard of. Because not all Brazilians can be amazingly good at football.
Maikel's hilarious miss, which must rank as one the worst pens I've ever seen, happened during Arsenal's pre-season friendly against Haladas earlier this week. Click to continue reading...

Real Madrid have sent representatives to England to conclude the transfer of Xabi Alonso from Liverpool.
The saga has played out all summer, but Los Merengues finally appear to be closing in on their man.
According to Sport, Madrid have sent representatives to Merseyside to seal the deal, with the intention of paying €36 million for Alonso's services. Click to continue reading...

On the 20th of June 2006 in Cologne, Germany, I was sat high behind the goal in the RheinEnergieStadion (then called simply 'The FIFA World Cup Stadium') when in the fourth minute, a figure crumpled to the ground. It was hard to see who it was from my unique vantage point, but the man sitting to my left immediately turned round and said 'any money it's Owen'.

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Real Madrid want to delay their offer for Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso to prevent Real Sociedad claiming 20 per cent of any transfer fee.
Real Sociedad's agreement with Liverpool is believed to run out on July 18 and Madrid see it as an obstacle with Anfield's valuation at €35m and their last offer at €25m. Click to continue reading...

The Tottenham faithful often wonder why their team cannot break into the top four in the Premier League. Before the Martin Jol era, they were told that they needed a great coach. After the arrival of Jol, it was believed that the squad needed bolstering. Once that was done, things got going - until blunders became the norm again at White Hart Lane.

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News comes to us from English paper "The Times" – via elmundo.com – that LIVERPOOL FC has publicly placed a transfer price ontheir Spanish midfielder & International XABI ALONSO of 41M€.The main Club interested & has already expressed its desire toincorporate the player in its squad next season is REAL MADRID &the English media express that it is the most likely future stop. Click to continue reading...

The United States chances of advancing were slimmer than Kate Moss after liposuction. So much so that practically no news outlet even bothered reporting the perfect storm scenario the States would need to qualify to the next round.

An Italian drubbing at Brazilian hands and an Egyptian beating later, the States managed the impossible, and qualified.

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Still no news on the transfer front from Liverpool after the club made an official statement that they are not going for Spanish players as suggested in the press' speculation.

But Rafa Benitez has been looking for fullback to cover for Alvaro Arbeloa since last term. With Philipp Degen entrusted into the hall of croak, Rafa need to break his defence's formation if Arbeloa out injured.

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Despite an injury list that would be extremely worrying if the situation was repeated in South Africa next year, we're going into the next two qualifiers in an extremely favourable position to ensure automatic qualification. We should beat Kazakhstan on Saturday (4:00pm on Setanta, highlights 10:00pm on ITV) and Andorra on Wednesday (7:45pm on ITV), but arguably the most important game in the group is the one between Croatia and the Ukraine, which kicks off at 7:15pm on Saturday: it's pretty safe to say that if Ukraine lose, they're unlikely to get to South Africa next summer, leaving the Croats as the only obstacle to overcome.

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World Soccer and SI.com have the latest take on the contenders for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts. They share my opinion that England remains the heavy favorite for 2018. Suprisingly the article lists Mexico, not Australia, as the biggest obstacle to the United States bringing home the 2022 event. Click to continue reading...

I saw a bit of Chelsea TV on Setanta last night; in the program Gabriele Marcotti of the Times said something like "for Arsenal, these last few games mean nothing and they could play the reserves" or something to that effect.
His argument has some merit. Fourth place is well sewn up so even though CL qualification must be played early next season, the obstacle probably is not great. Click to continue reading...

The shadow of INTER MILAN Swedish International & forwardZLATAN IBARAHIMOVIC hangs ever more over REAL MADRID ifwe are to believe & place weight on the words of Real Madridplayer DRENTHE. According to the Italian press, the youngMadrid player made a comment to his friend & Malmo playerLabinot Harbuzi. Click to continue reading...

Yes, the first half of Bayern's match against Barcelona at the Camp Nou was embarrassing for the Bavarians. Sure it could have been worse had Barca not taken their foot off the gas in the second half of that game. And no, we can't know what the outcome would have been back at the Allianz without the the K2 like obstacle.

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Round 4 of the Adeccoliga was completed on Tuesday night, and generally speaking there was no place like home..

HamKam have had an unexpectedly tricky start to their quest for promotion, but Tromsdalen didn't prove much of an obstacle as Arne Erlandsen's men defeated the Northerners 3-0.

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We are down to six games left in the season and the La Liga is still up for grabs between Barcelona and Real Madrid. The May 5th match-up between these two bitter rivals looms large on the horizon as do some other key games.

1. FC Barcelona (81 points, 6 games remaining.)
Barcelona Fixtures: Valencia A, Real Madrid A, Villarreal H, Mallorca A, Osasuna H, Deportivo A
Requirements: To gain at least 13 points, or 12 while managing a result no worse than a 1-0 loss to Real Madrid in their upcoming head-to-head.

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After Sivasspor was held by Konyaspor in Konya to a scoreless draw , Besiktas has a chance to capture the Turkish Turkcell Super League top spot if they win against Bursaspor on Sunday night in Istanbul.
Turkcell Super League 28th week started with Trabzonspor against Genclerbirlgi on Friday and Tranbzonspor after beating Genclerbirligi with two unanswered goals. Click to continue reading...

DC United's quest to leave RFK stadium has hit another obstacle as the Prince George's County Council has denied requests for funding. I guess any amount of bullshit pie charts and bar graphs demonstrating the benefit to the local economy can't trump the fact that municipal governments everywhere are having a hard time coming up with the funds to cover operating costs, let alone frivolous stadium outlays. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal are center of most of today's transfer rumors as The Guardian is reporting that Arsenal are in hot pursuit of West Ham's Matthew Upson. The move will follow Kolo Toure's departure to Manchester City. Wenger is a known admirer of Upson, having previously purchased him in May of 1997 from Luton Town. Click to continue reading...

Jermaine Pennant is in store for an exciting month. Click to continue reading...