FC Barcelona would belooking at a huge 10 point deficit with League leaders Real Madrid by the end of tomorrow night after going down 3-2 against osasuna. If the Villareal draw had put a huge blow to Barca's title hopes, then this defat at Pamplona virtually ends the league hopes. If Real madrid win against Levante at home tomorrow, the lead at the top will climb to a huge 10 points.

Pepe wished he hadn't pulled Gareth's finger
Monday night was not Gareth Bale's.
While a 0-0 draw with Liverpool at Anfield is a good result for Tottenham, and the match itself was arguably one of the better stalemates you're likely to see in terms of energy and commitment, it is a game Bale might soon wish to put behind him.

Match Report Video By the numbers

I know for many people the word they might use to sum up this Arsenal season would be stronger, much stronger, than 'frustrating', but that's what seems to fit for me this morning.

On Tuesday night Chelsea, our main rivals for 4th spot, dropped two points against Swansea.

The 2010 African Cup of Nations fell away in quality and excitement after the opening round of group games. If this year's tournament does the same, we will be in for a long three weeks. Over the course of the next couple of weeks, we'll be bringing you up to date with the progress of the four groups in this competition as each round of matches is completed and the first round of group matches is now over.

Terrible defending by Senegal let them down. Bouna Condoul, the former NY Red Bulls goalie should have done better in the opening goal being caught out of position. Then the Zambians were able to beat the offside trap to score their second. The high powered attack led by Demba Ba, Moussa Sow, and Mamadou Niang could do little.

Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov could leave the Premier League champions in January for his former side Bayer Leverkusen if reports doing the rounds are anything to go by.

Berbatov spent 6 years with Leverkusen before joining Tottenham in May 2006 where his impeccable form saw him score 26 goals in 70 appearances before United signed him 2 years later.

Arsenal missed the chance to go fourth in the Premier League as they were denied by a series of saves from Wayne Hennessey when being held to a 1-1 draw by Wolves at Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners, without a defeat to Wolves since 1979, were looking to capitalise on a draw between Chelsea and Fulham on Boxing Day and took the lead after only eight minutes whenGervinho beat the offside trap to score his fourth goal of the season.

Arsenal missed the chance to go fourth in the Premier League as they were denied by a series of saves from Wayne Hennessey when being held to a 1-1 draw by Wolves at Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners, without a defeat to Wolves since 1979, were looking to capitalise on a draw between Chelsea and Fulham on Boxing Day and took the lead after only eight minutes whenGervinho beat the offside trap to score his fourth goal of the season.

Arsenal's ambition to improve position in the league was halted again as the Gunners only picked up one point from their home game against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday.

A quick goal by Gervinho didn't resulted in a goal flowing result for the home team as their visitor managed to pick up an equalizer through Steven Fletcher, and hold it until the final whistle.

szólj hozzá: Ajax v Real

This was a cruel match to watch. Cruel because Ajax deserved both goals that were ruled controversially offside. Those goals would have been enough to see them go to the knock out stage along with Real even as Lyon was pounding Dinamo Zagreb in the other group match.

Forget Thanksgiving. This week we're honoring the release of the brand new Muppet movie with a line-up of our favorite furry or feathered puppet pals.
The Muppets are one-of-a-kind, endlessly creative, slightly manic, and a fantastic team to boot, so, naturally, we made them Total Footballers.

Liverpool Reserves secured their first victory of the season with a 3-1 success over Chelsea at the Academy on Wednesday afternoon.
An impressive first-half performance from the Reds saw Raheem Sterling give them a deserved lead when his shot from distance was deflected into the back of the net.

The New England Revolution scored goals on either side of halftime to overcome an early Toronto FC lead, but in fitting fashion gave up a late equalizer to finish the season with a 2-2 draw. The Revs (5-16-13, 28 points) finish last place in the Eastern Conference, five points behind eighth-placed Toronto (6-13-15, 33 points), for the first time since 1998 and fail to reach at least seven wins for the first time in club history.

Finally, a late goal goes in our favor, we keep a quality opponent from scoring, and we secure a huge win in the Champions League. Aaron Ramsey, who only came on in the 78th minute, coolly fired home in stoppage time after a nice cross from Djourou was deflected by Gervinho, right onto Ramsey's path.

A massive crowd of 64,140, the third largest standalone crowd in MLS history, came to pay tribute to the Sounders' retiring goalkeeper Kasey Keller on Saturday and they were treated to a dramatic come-from-behind 2-1 victory for the Sounders over the San Jose Earthquakes.

Seattle overcame a plucky San Jose side and a 24th-minute strike from Chris Wondolowski, getting goals Sammy Ochoa and Fredy Montero in the 82nd minute and 87th minute, respectively.

Video goals, highlights, reaction

The best and the worst of Arsenal were on display yesterday, which is par for the course these days, but the influence and quality of captain Robin van Persie ensured we took three invaluable points.

The first 20-25 minutes were a taste of what this Arsenal side has the potential to do when their tails are up and the confidence starts to flow.

Arsenal moved into the top half of the Premier League table for the first time since the opening day of the season with a nervy 2-1 win over Sunderland at the Emirates Stadium.

Robin van Persie scored after just 29 seconds to give Arsenal the lead, but Sebastian Larssonlevelled for the visitors just after the half-hour mark with a trademark free-kick.

In the long history between these two teams (winners of the first five MLS Cups), there has never been an ending quite like this. The Chicago Fired dealt DC United's playoff chances a major blow while keeping themselves alive for ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

By IAN HOLLIDAY

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The Columbus Crew came into Gillette Stadium Saturday night knowing all it needed to secure a fourth consecutive playoff berth was a win over the last-placed New England Revolution. Ninety minutes and one of its more dominant performances of the year later, the Crew had done just that.

Three of the Chelsea boys managed to make it on the scoresheet for their international teams on Friday as we continue the agonizing wait for the Premier League to resume.

Juan Mata managed to beat the offside trap against Petr Cech's fellow defenders, latching on to a nice pass and slipping the ball past his club's number one as Spain ran out 2-0 winners over the Czechs.

When the referee blew the final whistle last night, I breathed a big sigh of relief. It was a miserable game from start to finish: a game where there were very few positive moments from a Swedish perspective. Lets start with the good stuff though. Somewhere around ten minutes in Sebastian Larsson makes a run into the middle, puts his arms up and yells for Källström to give him the ball on the run, Källström does just that and after beating the offside trap Larsson thumps the ball on a half-volley into the ground and then watches it bounce past the oncoming Finnish keeper.

As we mentioned last week, the Portland Timbers needed draws from the rest of the MLS. Well, they got 'em. There were four draws in nine weekend matches, and two of them were of the utmost importance to the Timbers. And of course the Timbers did their part with a 1-0 away victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps.

The New York Red Bulls needed a win against Toronto FC on Saturday to really boost their playoff chances, but for a team with just two road wins all year, a draw was probably the more realistic goal.

Toronto FC nearly left the Red Bulls with zero points, but Thierry Henry stepped up to save New York one more time, collecting a Dax McCarty' corner kick and hitting a perfect turn and shot in the 88th minute to help the Red Bulls salvage a 1-1 draw at BMO Field.

When Joe Roth announced the Seattle Sounders Football Club he said that he wanted to compete on the international stage. In just two short years they showed up on that stage, and were crushed. Now, in just their third year the advance to the CONCACAF Champions League Championship Round after a 2-2 draw against CSD Comunicaciones of Guatemala.

By Chris Wright

I'll just leave this clip of King Kenny shanking one wide from about 30cm after the buccaneering Alan Hansen had busted Manchester United's insanely stupid offside trap wide open at Old Trafford in April of 1980 here, and leave you to insert your own 'Fernando Torres' jokes as you see fit.

Welcome to a fairly gloomy Monday morning. Not just from a weather point of view either. Ideally we'd be sitting here now looking forwards, not backwards, and twirling, always twirling, after a good win at the weekend. The reality is somewhat different.

The team hit its easy to find self-destruct button again against Blackburn and the frequency with which we do that seems to be increasing, which is a real worry.

Atalanta 1-0 Palermo The lunch time kick off this Sunday in Italy and it was a sole German Denis goal that gave Atalanta the three points on a game that temporarily halted for 25 minutes due to a waterlogged pitch after a torrential downpour. The goal game just after the half hour as Denis broke the offside trap to coolly slot past the Palermo keeper Bologna 0-2 Lecce Leece surprised everyone.

The Colorado Rapids entered Tuesday night sitting atop their CONCACAF Champions League group with a chance to move themselves in pole position for a quarterfinal place.

Santos Laguna had other plans.

The visitors from Mexico turned Dick's Sporting Goods Park into their own personal playground, demolishing a make-shift Rapids defense with speedy wing play and precise passing on their way to a 4-1 victory.

By Chris Wright

In which Heerenveen forward Oussama Assaida gets pipped by the offside trap during his side's 3-0 Eredivisie win over Groningen at the weekend and runs through, rounds the 'keeper and flicks a doozy of a trick-shot into the empty net regardless...

I'm sure I wasn't alone in willing Assaida to fall arse-over-tit there.

Indonesia v Bahrain 0-2
Well, that's that then. Indonesia's World Cup ambitions have been shelved for another four years after this disappointing performance against a Bahrain side who were that yard quicker throughout the game both with their feet and their brains. Coach Rijsbergen won't have been happy with the way the goals were conceded.

The Quakes managed to secure another point on the road last Saturday against Toronto FC in Toronto. The result marked the 13th game since the Quakes recorded a win in MLS, but the Quakes were lucky to come out of Toronto with the draw they managed. João Plata managed to slip the offside trap in the second, half thanks to a nice through ball by Ryan Johnson, and beat Jon Busch to finish, but the linesman ruled Plata to be offside.

CARSON, Calif. – Portland Timbers defender Rodney Wallace scored the lone goal of the match for Costa Rica in the 65th minute, shortly after entering the game for his debut, and it would be all the visitors would need to leave the U.S. with a 1-0 win.

The U.S. Men's National Team started strong on Friday night, but failed to find the back of the net, and Costa Rica made them pay with an improved second half effort and the eventual goal from Wallace.

A brace from Kaitlin Bast and the second last-minute winner in three games this season from Kristen Hamilton produced a 3-2 Pioneers win over the visiting University of Nebraska at DU's CIBER Field.

"It was a very emotional game," said coach Jeff Hooker. "That's a Kristen type of goal. Everyone's got a jersey, pulling her hair, pulling her shoulder, pulling her shorts.

We won and what a way to win at that! Tobias Hysen, son of Sweden legend Glenn Hysen, beat the offside trap (by millimeters) late in stoppage time and with a light flick of the ball from Anders Svensson's genial pass gave us the victory. To be fair to the Ukraine team though they put up a masterful fight and that the referee didn't call offside on that final play must be winners luck.

Wonderful article from the Defensive Minded Blog about Barcelona defending system at corner kicks. What is interesting that it stated that according to a study, that Barcelona is on average, the team with shortest heights in Europe. Despite that shortfall, Barcelona was always a solid defense team that is very difficult to score goal against, especially from corner kicks.

Rapids' Strategy
With Nyassi on fire, it was easy for Gary Smith to maintain his dynamic strike partnership with Omar Cummings. The home side employed their usual 4-4-2 lineup with Mastroeni and Larentowicz in central midfield and Mullan and Thompson on the flanks. The first half strategy was to switch the ball across the field to Mullan who was in acres of space because the Crew kept a narrow defensive shell.

The Rapids used two of the prettiest goals you'll see all season to get an ugly win in Philly. The heat and humidity gave the home team an advantage and they took full advantage, controlling play and out-shooting Colorado.
Despite that, it was the Rapids who went up first, from an unlikely source.

Rajko Lekic gave the New England Revolution a 1-0 halftime lead, but sloppy defending caught up to the Revs and a late red card to A.J. Soares opened the door for an 89th minute equalizer from Teal Bunbury, preventing the Revs from securing a much needed victory on Saturday night at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kansas.

Manchester United continue their successful U.S. Pre-season tour while having a ‘mini-revenge' at the same time after defeating Barcelona 2-1 in a friendly game at Washington DC as Luis Nani and Michael Owen scoring the goals.

The victory didn't really give that much joy though for Man United as not only because it was only a pre-season friendly, but the fact that the Catalan didn't include several of their star players and even played a make shift line up in several position simply making the victory kind of lack something.

Cary, N.C. – 7-25-11

Carolina RailHawks forward Pablo Campos has been named the Week 16 NASL Offensive Player of the Week.

Pablo Compos - Photo courtesy of Rob Kinnan

Campos scored two goals on Saturday night to lead the RailHawks to a 4-1 win over Edmonton at WakeMed Soccer Park.