It's not strictly Arsenal-related, I know, but by now I'm sure you've all seen the controversial goal which put France into the 2010 World Cup.

If you haven't: there was a cross into the box which fizzed past the far post, and looked like it was headed over the touchline for a goal kick. But off one hop, it hit the arm of Thierry Henry, and deflected back into play in a perfect spot for him to center it directly into the path of the oncoming William Gallas, who headed home the winning goal.

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Thierry Henry helped France into the World Cup with a handball that won't soon be forgotten in Ireland (or anywhere for that matter).

Here's Henry's Diego Maradona impression:

We'll take part of the blame for jinxing Henry by running the above photo with the Wednesday Commentary post, but in the end, the French star cheated and won't live it down any time soon.

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Thierry Henry helped France into the World Cup with a handball that won't soon be forgotten in Ireland (or anywhere for that matter).

Here's Henry's Diego Maradona impression:

We'll take part of the blame for jinxing Henry by running the above photo with the Wednesday Commentary post, but in the end, the French star cheated and won't live it down any time soon.

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Thierry Henry is my favorite player of all time. He has had so many magical moments on the pitch that it is hard for me to list them all. That is what makes this all the more painful. Yes, Ireland should have taken their chances. Yes, this will renew the call for instant replay.

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(Note: Sorry that this is later than usual for the week, but the wifi in my current apartment in Buenos Aires is hit-and-miss and this week, mostly miss. I move this weekend and hopefully, this will improve.)

In 1991, for the seventh consecutive year, the club that won the Champions League did not finish on top of the World Club Rankings annual charts.

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

The MLS season is set to end on Sunday after the 2009 MLS Cup, and the MLS Expansion draft is looming just eight days away, meaning all the teams that need head coaches are about to take part in one of the most frantic coaching change flurries MLS has ever seen.

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

The MLS season is set to end on Sunday after the 2009 MLS Cup, and the MLS Expansion draft is looming just eight days away, meaning all the teams that need head coaches are about to take part in one of the most frantic coaching change flurries MLS has ever seen.

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2009 DU NORD MLS BEST 11
The 2009 du Nord MLS Best 11 was announced on Sun Nov 15. See the list here. You can also listen to this week's United Mania podcast (which was broadcast on Sunday) to hear the list announced and discussed.
STARTERS
It will be Los Angeles v Salt Lake for the 2009 MLS Cup - Sun Nov 22 in Seattle. Click to continue reading...

It wasn't supposed to end that way. We were hosting the Conference Final at home for the first time in six years, after losing on the road to Columbus last year and in New England two years ago when also 90 minutes away from the MLS Cup Final, and everything seemed to be in the Fire's favour against Real Salt Lake, with the 21,723 capacity crowd rocking from warm-ups on.

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• The Galaxy's win over the Dynamo was dramatic but in many ways tainted. A strange call when against Houston, and the rolling power outages that swept Southern California seemed to unfortunately coincide with upsurges in Houston play.
• Chicago vs Real Salt Lake was a better match than the Galaxy-Houston game.

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Although this is the final stage of the World Cup 2010 qualifiers and there are no weak teams in the competition, Portugal and Russia were expected to have much easier jobs. They have minimal advantage before the return leg on Wednesday, but while Russia have a reason feel aggrieved, Portugal were more than lucky against Bosnia.

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It goes without saying that Saturday night's playoff elimination at the hands of Real Salt Lake was an incredibly gut-wrenching defeat for the Fire. It's tough any time a team bows out of a competition due to penalty kicks, but this one was especially painful for Chicago - who has now been eliminated from the Eastern Conference Final in three consecutive seasons.

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The FIFA U-17 World Cup finished on Sunday, November 15, 2009 with the championship and third place match. In the finals, host country Nigeria played Switzerland while Spain took on Colombia for third place. Here's a recap of both matches along with video highlights.

Switzerland beats Nigeria 1-0 to win U-17 World Cup Video Highlights

The match was scoreless through the first half despite a strong start from Nigeria, who were the host country of the tournament.

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Photo by ISIphotos.comÂ

Real Salt Lake is heading to its first MLS Cup Final after beating the Chicago Fire on penalty kicks at Toyota Park on Saturday night.

Goalkeeper Nick Rimando stole the show, making three penalty saves to win the second playoff penalty shootout of his career.

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I will have a piece up at ESPN Soccernet later today looking back at the pair of weekend conference finals and gazing ahead at this weekend's MLS championship. Here's a little sneak peak at the most interesting note:

It involved Landon Donovan and his ability to convert penalty kicks. And it involves RealSaltLake goalkeeper Nick Rimando, whose heroic performance in Saturday's penalty kick tiebreaker against Chicago is a big reason why the men of Utah remain alive today.

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Wow, what a game last night. Yes, I said I wouldn't watch. And I won't lie, part of the reason it's so good is that the team I wanted to win did. It's all gone bad for Chicago - their "most talented team in MLS" has come up short yet again, with the final blow delivered by a local kid.
So now we have an all-west MLS final (LA-Salt Lake), much like last year where we had an all-east final (New York-Columbus). Click to continue reading...

1 for 2 isn't bad when you're picking Soccer matches and last night the boys from Salt Lake came through and defeated the Fire 5-4 in Penalty Kicks. I'd take total credit for picking this one, but RSL didn't manhandle the Fire like I thought they would, but now I think we something else we need to discuss concerning the two teams who will vie for the MLS cup this season.

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The Major League Soccer 2009 Eastern Conference Final was on Saturday with Real Salt Lake traveling to face the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park. The winner would move onto the MLS Cup Final next Sunday against the Los Angeles Galaxy. Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

Real Salt Lake beats Chicago Fire 0-0 (5-4 on penalty kicks) Video Highlights

It was a close match on Saturday but Real Salt Lake found a way to advance and continue their improbable run to the MLS Cup Final.

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The lights went out twice in Carson, California last night, but LA scored twice in the overtime portion to eliminate Houston and win the west.
I would like to salute myself for tactical wizardry in the area of PVR programming. I did not stay up all night to watch this, I pvr'ed it to watch Saturday morning. Click to continue reading...

As the University of Wisconsin women's soccer team went to penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie with...
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Something to read while you support your national team hanging out the window of a moving vehicle. On Friday 13th. FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images World Cup playoff previews here African qualifying preview Like ill-informed radio shows about Asian soccer? Then you'll love this... (Podcast Offside) Premier League legends to cherish right now (EPL Talk) A reminder that penalty kicks aren't [. Click to continue reading...

With the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida pouring heavy rains in Cary, North Carolina, the stage was set for upsets in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals on Wednesday. Three lower seeds knocked off higher seeds to set up a pair of semifinals few would have predicted.

North Carolina State had the upset of the day, knocking off No.

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With the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida pouring heavy rains in Cary, North Carolina, the stage was set for upsets in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals on Wednesday. Three lower seeds knocked off higher seeds to set up a pair of semifinals few would have predicted.

North Carolina State had the upset of the day, knocking off No.

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Landon Donovan leads the Galaxy against rivals Chivas. (Getty Images)

One more weekend of action and we will be in the conference finals here. One club is already in and three others will move on this weekend. After last weekend's play the pressure is on a couple home teams to rebound while one just has to keep on doing what they do best in front of their fans.

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The first Eastern Conference finalist will be determined tonight, when the first seeded Columbus Crew play host Real Salt Lake in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series (7 p.m. CDT on ESPN2).

The Crew fell to Real Salt Lake 1-0 in the series opener last Saturday and they'll need a win to have hope of continuing their 2008 title defense.

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SuperClasico Playoff Passion (AP Photo)

The game is tied at 2-2.

There will be a winner Sunday whether it's after 90 minutes, 120 minutes or penalty kicks.

And the Galaxy are giving away two pairs of tickets to the game to the person who correctly answers the trivia question: Which player has scored for BOTH Chivas USA and the Galaxy this season?

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The University of Colorado soccer team's season come to an end after a 1-0 double-overtime loss to Texas in the first round of the Big 12 tournament on Wednesday in San Antonio.

Texas came out with a spark in the game's second overtime, and Erica Campanelli headed a shot with 3 minutes, 30 seconds left that hit the crossbar and bounced back into play.

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Freshman forward Kaitlin Bast scored two goals as the University of Denver women's soccer team defeated Troy 3-0 in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament on Wednesday in Boca Raton, Florida.

The second-seeded Pioneers (15-5-1) scored what proved to be the winner a little more than 31 minutes into the contest, when Bast headed in a pass from senior midfielder Mariah Johnston.

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Rolla Bulldogs, Daniel McCaddon (2010)

#3 Rolla Bulldogs 3 (PKs)
#2 Waynesville Tigers 2
In a hard fought battle worthy of these two teams and the stage they were playing on, the Bulldogs fought back from a two-goal deficit Tuesday evening and ultimately prevailed in penalty kicks, winning 5-4. Click to continue reading...

The University of Colorado soccer team will be the No. 3 seed in the Big 12 soccer tournament, which starts at 1 p.m. (Mountain time) Wednesday against sixth-seeded Texas at the Blossom Soccer Complex in San Antonio.

And now, courtesy of CU, here is a massive list of facts about the Buffs, the Longhorns and the Big 12 tournament:

• This is CU's second time as the #3 seed at the Big 12 championships.

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By TRAVIS CLARK

Even though it was just a Tuesday, there was plenty of action to go around in Europe today, with Cup competitions calling American players into action. Tim Howard and Brad Guzan were both starters today as the Carling Cup resumed in England.

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The English Carling Cup resumed play on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 with round 4 matches. There were five matches on Tuesday including Manchester United, Everton, and Tottenham Hotspur. Here's a recap of all the matches along with video highlights.

English Carling Cup Recap - Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Most of the favorites advanced on Tuesday as there were not any major upsets.

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First off, I must admit that I hate it in sports when a person is titled Best Ever. Is Michael Jordan the best basketball player ever? If I were to say no then people would be all over me. They would name his championship titles, MVP trophies, signature dunks, and Gatorade commercials as evidence of this.

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Everton boss David Moyes has praised his Everton side ahead of their tricky away trip to Portugal to square off against Benfica in the Europa League. Everton are missing ten players for the trip, but Moyes is confident the Toffees have the quality to cope.

Everton knew that they would be without the injured Steven Pienaar, Phil Neville, Phil Jagielka, Mikel Arteta, James Vaughan, and Victor Anichebe.

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I love a World Cup (any World Cup) for the rare opportunity of putting whole imagined nations on public display. Though the main event in South Africa is still eight months away, one junior version (U-20) just finished in Egypt and another (U-17) is just about to begin in Nigeria.

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