In the wake of Ireland's heartbreaking aggregate defeat to France, where Thierry Henry's handballed assist for William Gallas to score an equaliser in extra time denied a team who had performed magnificently to haul themselves level, we pay tribute to five of the greatest footballing heartbreakers in recent memory.

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Germany and the world footballing community are in shock this morning at the news that Hanover 96 captain and German national first choice goalkeeper Robert Enke apparently committed suicide yesterday by stepping in front of a speeding train.
German police sources have confirmed that a suicide note was found. Click to continue reading...

El día de hoy el arquero alemán Robert Enke, de 32 años se suicidó al arrojarse a las vías del tren en Neustadt am Rubenbege cerca de Hanover. Se puede decir que fué un arquero discreto y un poco "suplente" a lo largo de su carrera.

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The Offside's Main Page decided to compile a list of the "100 Best Players of the Decade." I thought it might be of some interest to you, especially since Arsenal is out of action for a couple of weeks. It was voted on by all of the Offside's bloggers, as well as readers. I will say that I thought the criteria was a little vague it was simply to name the 20 best players who played in the decade.

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Según el diario italiano Tuttosport, el Bayern Munich estaría a la búsqueda de un portero consagrado para este mercado invernal.

Se habla nada más y nada menos que de Gianluigi Buffon, considerado por muchos como el mejor portero del mundo en la actualidad.

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A German goalkeeper who can breath fire? Who could imagine such a thing?
This post is part of the Goalkeeper Commercials and Producs Series. Click to continue reading...

Just like there is only one true Mecca, can really only be one true spiritual home of world soccer? Until recently, such a place existed in the form of Wembley Stadium (the most storied grounds in the capital city of the founding nation of the sport? I don't think anybody could compete with that) but the old Wembley was demolished in 2003 and replaced with a new version four years later. Click to continue reading...

2008 beendete Oliver Kahn seine Karriere. Die Nachfolge im Tor des FC Bayern wurde bereits zuvor dem damals hoffnungsvollen Talent Michael Rensing versprochen. Doch Michael Rensing schien mit dem Druck nicht wirklich klar zu kommen; und patzte immer wieder. Vor dem Spiel in der Champions-League gegen den FC Barcelona degradierte ihn dann sein damaliger Trainer zur Nummer Zwei – und der vorherige Ersatztorhüter Hans-Jörg Butt durfte das Tor der Bayern hüten.

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Als es noch keine Ronaldos, Kakas und Carsten Janckers auf der Welt gab, wurde ein anderer Name in der Fußballwelt ganz groß geschrieben. Es war der Name eines Mannes, bei dem man gar nicht so genau weiß, warum er diesen Namen überhaupt trägt. Die Rede ist von Augustine Azuka Okocha, besser bekannt als Jay-Jay Okocha.

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Come and get it.

[Story: Bild]

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Never one to keep his mouth shut. Former Bayern Munich 'keeper Oliver Kahn has not let retirement diminish his ability to let his stong opinions be known to all who bother to listen.
Kahn made feelings clear yesterday, that in his opinion much-coveted winger Franck Ribery is a disruptive influence on Bayern and ‘behaves like a diva'. Click to continue reading...

Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Carlos Tevez, and Emmanuel Adebayor! Such is the caliber of each of these players that their involvement in this summer's transfer market has left no spotlight for the lesser-known talent. Such is the nature of the market right now that none of the European giants can be bothered with a move for the hidden gems.

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Part 1: Your Ego

If you walked on fire and glass, broke boards and bricks and invested heavily in book plus CD sets full of advice, then you definitely shouldn't miss out on our new possibly life changing miniseries here at the Bundesliga Offside. Because a mad German goalkeeper knows best.

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El 'payasete' Ribéry
Por TFM
A Ribéry le hace gracia echarle cubos de agua en la cara a Oliver Kahn o conducir el autobús del Bayern mientras se ha ido a comer el chófer. Con sus celebraciones y sus bromitas de niño de los del final del autobús, se ha ganado una imagen de chico tontito y chistoso. Click to continue reading...

Every now and then I ask myself what Oliver Kahn is up to these days. Then I ask YouTube the same question. Then I blog about my findings.

The last time I heard about Oliver Kahn was back in March, when he was quite busy not becoming Schalke's new general manager. From there it was off to Japan for Ollie.

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Scariest words heard in sometime? Probably. But at least he's not literally trying to mold them, pounding their bones into the shape he so desires - and don't put that past him. In his retirement Ollie was linked to the front office post with Schalke, an entire football club at his merciless mercy. But Kahn [. Click to continue reading...

Well, the Business-Punchinellos in the Bundesliga management decided before that season that it would be a great idea to bring back the 1991 abrogated relegation play-off games, meaning that the 16th of the Bundesliga plays the 3rd of the 2nd Bundesliga in back-to-back matches. We now get treated with soccer-istical dainties such as Cottbus against Nuremberg.

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Well, the Business-Punchinellos in the Bundesliga management decided before that season that it would be a great idea to bring back the 1991 abrogated relegation play-off games, meaning that the 16th of the Bundesliga plays the 3rd of the 2nd Bundesliga in back-to-back matches. We now get treated with soccer-istical dainties such as Cottbus against Nuremberg.

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Well, the Business-Punchinellos in the Bundesliga management decided before that season that it would be a great idea to bring back the 1991 abrogated relegation play-off games, meaning that the 16th of the Bundesliga plays the 3rd of the 2nd Bundesliga in back-to-back matches. We now get treated with soccer-istical dainties such as Cottbus against Nuremberg.

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Die Mannschaft is on tour in Asia right now. The German contingent includes several fringe players trying to prove their mettle to coach Joachim Löw. "Charm ambassador" Oliver Kahn along for the ride. Yesterday, the team was joined for training in Shanghai by another member of the Mannschaft entourage Olympic gold medal winning fences and [. Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
Huge Congrats go out to Maurice Edu, DaMarcus Beasley and Oguchi Onyewu as their teams Rangers and Standard Liege have won the Scottish and Belgian championships, respectively. Awesome seasons for these guys! Edu lead a special charge as he moved into the starting lineup 2 months ago and Rangers has won every single game since then! Click to continue reading...

One of the most talked about incidents towards the end of the controversial Chelsea-Barcelona semifinal in the midweek was the reaction of Chelsea's German midfielder Michael Ballack as he protested against� one of the many refereeing blunders made that night. Ballack raced towards the official and came within inches of getting physical with the infamous Norwegian.

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As you probably know, I'm playing Football Manager using fictional players and coaches. In the world of my Pro Vercelli, no one's ever heard of Kaká or Lionel Messi; there, the legends are told of men like Francismar and Márcio, men who may bear an uncanny resemblance to players from our universe, but who ultimately stand apart from them as quantum variations or reflections in the magical looking glass.

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- Replace Bruce Arena at the Galaxy and get them to win two games, back to back.

- A corollary to the above. Tim Leiwecke declares Klinsi the real saviour of MLS and the gag
order on Alexi Lalas is finally removed.

- Sunil Gulati has him on speed dial, in case Bob Bradley slips up against Costa Rica.

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The Champions League is the latest incarnation of the UEFA-organised cup competition for the top European sides. It was previously known (from 1955 to 1992) as the European Cup and remains Europe`s most prestigious club tournament.

THE TOP XI

GOALKEEPER

Oliver Kahn
German `keeper Oliver Kahn earns his place in the top XI courtesy of his formidable shot-stopping ability.

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John Carver and Sir Bobby Robson/Getty Images

Jurgen Klinsmann and John Carver left their respective jobs within a few short days of one another. While Klinsmann was sacked, and Carver left voluntarily both are bad signs for the current perception of American football in Europe.

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This is not Manuel Neuer's way of paying tribute to one of Germany's best ever goalkeepers - it is his way to exact revenge. Revenge for four minutes in May 2001.

Manuel Neuer was 15 when he stood in the curve of Schalke's old Parkstadion, ready to celebrate Schalke's first championship since 1958.

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This is not Manuel Neuer's way of paying tribute to one of Germany's best ever goalkeepers - it is his way to exact revenge. Revenge for four minutes in May 2001.

Manuel Neuer was 15 when he stood in the curve of Schalke's old Parkstadion, ready to celebrate Schalke's first championship since 1958.

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Video ansehen

Besser als Olli Kahn kann man die Bedürfnisse, die der Durchschnittschrist am Ostersonntag hat, nicht so kurz und prägnant zusammenfassen, daher sag ich auch nichts weiter zu seiner Videobotschaft.

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Despite earlier rebuttals from the iconic keeper, it has emerged that Schalke have spoken to the German legend about succeeding Andreas Mueller as the club's manager. Schalke general manager Andreas Mueller paid for the club's poor season recently with his job and the Koenigsblauen are now on the hunt for a successor. Click to continue reading...

If you haven't yet taken our weekly quiz, stop by here and make your guesses, then come back to see if you're correct. It didn't take you long to guess that these were goalkeepers, did it? And it also didn't take you long to guess who most of them were. Nobody got all nine, [...] Click to continue reading...

The best of the worst Bundesliga "hair cuts". (BILD.de) Six goals and two assists in five Bundesliga matches = Hoffenheim's Vedad Ibisevic. (SoccerBlog.com) Olli Kahn: where has all the testosterone gone? (DW Ballspiel) Want to know more about how Stefan Effenberg mate poached Thomas Strunz's wife? Click to continue reading...

As you may know former longtime Germany and Bayern no. 1 Oliver Kahn had his testimonial exactly a week ago in Munich. The match, between Bayern and Germany, ended 1-1, but the score was less important than the man honored that night. His accomplishments are legion and well-known, including, perhaps most impressively, [. Click to continue reading...

One of the Italians to move abroad this summer was World Cup winning fullback (and team barber) Massimo Oddo. The 32 year old right back had a nightmare season last year. He wasn't himself at all, he played poorly, all his crosses ended up in Row Z, and he found himself left out of the national team set-up, missing Euro 2008.

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In a slow match that looked exactly like the charity event it was, Germany's national team and Bayern Munich bid farewell to German soccer legend Oliver "King" Kahn on Tuesday night in Munich.
With Bayern trailing in the Bundesliga and Germany facing a pair of World Cup qualifiers next week, it was clear Oliver Kahn's goal for the night would be different from that of the other 21 players on the pitch. Click to continue reading...