The amazing Chipolopolos pull off the impossible as Gervinho misses his PK. The art of war, Sunzu Stophira made no mistake with his chance as Zambia win their first ACN.

A fairy tale end for a country who lost so much 19 years ago in one of sport's heart breaking tragedies minutes away from Libreville, the venue for today's finals.

First let me kill any hopes you may have for screenshots or comparisons with current or former players. You can safely rule out long-winded analysis as well. There won't be any for this one. Put simply: Alfredo Francisco Martins is a mere sketch of a player in FM. No size, no footedness, roughly a quarter of his stats defined[1].

Video: Carling Cup: Liverpool/Man City

Kenny Dalglish feeling the heat after a series of underwhelming displays by Liverpool in the Premiership was able to get a satisfying consolation in today's Carling Cup match pipping City to the Wembley finals.

Nigel De Jong gave City the lead to level the aggregate.

szólj hozzá: Man City v Tottenham 3:2 MOTD

The first half was as dull and dragging as the Utd vs Arsenal match. The second half was just the opposite - a high voltage pulsating encounter between 1st placed City and 3rd placed Spurs. Roberto Mancini's squad went ahead in the second half through Samir Nasri and Joleon Lescott, both goals within minutes of each other.

The first half was rather uneventful. Van Persie scores in the 5', Sinclair hits a pk at the 16' mark and all goes quiet. The second half was a little better as Swansea get goals from Dyer then Graham scores less than a minute after Arsenal levels it. Swansea walk out winners, 3-2.Video: Fox Sports
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szólj hozzá: City v Liverpool 0:1 EXTENDED

Have at the 20 minutes highlights before it is taken down. Stefan Savic brings down Daniel Agger and Steven Gerrard converts the PK in the 12th minute. Liverpool were much the better team for large parts of the match in the first half. In the second they played good hard defensive ball to deny City at the Etihad.

Today Colorado made it official and hired Oscar Pareja as the team's 7th head coach. The Rapids say 6th but I like to count Roy Wegerle's 1 game as player/manager at the end of the 1996 season. ;) There's been no details as to the amount or length of his contract other than "long" according to Tim Hinchey at the press conference.

Now that we're through the holidays its time to get back to business. Hopefully KSE will make a coaching choice this week, as this debacle of an off-season can't go on much longer. More on that in a moment.

Sean Johnson got his first cap with the full team last January
Three players from the U-23 December camp roster will be moving up to the full team next month when the group gathers for their annual January training camp.
Teal Bunbury and Sean Johnson are veterans of last year's camp.

Maybe Chelsea wanted to focus on CL play, because this game they never seemed to get into. Andy Carroll misses an early pk, but Rodriguez and Kelly score within 5 minutes of each other in the 2nd half to down Chelsea at home.Video: Footytube
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Maddie H charges goals and gets flattened by keeper. Jadyn hits the PK for the win!!

Sodium plays for Surf Cup Championship at noon vs Sparta (UT).

Go Sodium!!

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Another season of AYSO is in the books. Once again I coached a U-14 boys team. That means the team consisted of 12 and 13 year-olds. We were the Honey Badgers.

This year was tough. We played 10 league matches. Our record was 0-9-1. Our goal difference was minus 26. We didn't score a goal until our 6th match, which coincided with out first lead of the season.

Salcido scores in the 2nd minute (Mexico always likes to get on the board early) and Chicharito scores yet again, this time via pk, to down Serbia 2-0.Video: Footytube
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Last night the soccer gods turned away from the Rapids. I'd say they were too busy with golden boy Tebow, but he might have had a worse day than the Rapids. As a Seahawks fan I feel no sympathy. :D A combination of a lack of offense and bad luck really destroyed Colorado's hopes of repeating.
The home side controlled play for most of the first half, but as we've seen in recent games, they could not convert that into goals.

Clinic. Not sure what Wolves were even doing on the pitch today because they couldn't finish save for a token pk in the 2nd half. City rolls again, 3-1.Video: footytube
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According to FIFA Task Force Football 2014, led by 'Der Kaiser' Beckbauer, the idea of red carding a defender in the box, giving a pk, and the obvious game suspension that goes with the red card is too much for teams to "endure". To reduce this, the Task Force has recommended that cards be given only if they would be cardable offenses anywhere else on the pitch.

Eclipse Select Communications
CHICAGO -- University of Wisconsin senior goalkeeper and Eclipse Select alumna Michele Dalton (Mount Prospect, Ill./John Hersey) was named co-Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week on Monday following her nine-save 2-0 shutout victory over Indiana on Sunday at McClimon Soccer Complex in Madison, Wis.

Colorado was the better team and controlled play for most of the game, but for the first time in Rocky Mountain Cup history there were no goals to be had in the game and both teams got a point. With it FSL maintains control of the Cup for a 5th straight year.
It was really a tale of two halves.

Soccer can be a cruel game. Sometimes you can do everything right and fall short of victory. That was the case for the Carolina Railhawks in their final match of the season. The stage was set for an incredible night of drama and both teams delivered. The second leg of the NASL semi-final between Carolina and Minnesota was one for the history books.

First things first, on Friday night in Portland the Dynamo had to take care of business and get three points against the Portland Timbers...and they did. It was a bit physical, borderline dirty even*, but a clever header deflection by Andre Hainault and a 40-yard wonder strike from Danny Cruz was enough to give Houston a 2-0 victory and the first piece of the final playoff spot puzzle.

As the game wound to a close, I was toying with an opening line for a reaction post, something along the lines of: "These two teams could play for 90 days instead of 90 minutes and never find the damn net."
So imagine my surprise when a late whistle finally answered a United attacker flinging himself to the ground in the box.

Sebastian Grazzini -- Getty ImagesBy Charlie Corr
ESPNChicago.com
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- Chicago Fire interim head coach Frank Klopas was been cautious from the get-go when the team brought in midfielder Sebastian Grazzini.
Klopas limited Grazzini's minutes at the start to integrate him with the team by midseason.

Editor's note: Moving this to the front page because this is pretty significant news and there's no reason for me to repeat it. - Jeremiah

Real Salt Lake went down a man to a very questionable (in my opinion, bad) "intentional handball in the box" call by official Chris Penso.

[Editor's Note: Nice look into Le Toux's goal scoring history with the Union.]

Now that Sebastien Le Toux has been on a red hot scoring streak we have seen many goals over the past few weeks and I noticed a pattern of how Le Toux has been scoring his goals. I thought I would dive into his history with the Philadelphia Union.

Welcome to our new series! I'll be doing this for each and every game this season from now on because, well, it's kind of fun. Essentially what it is is a simulation put on by FIFA 12. I controlled none of the players instead allowing the computer to play as both the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps to get the fairest results.

KC's games are really starting to get a deja vu felling to them, because so often the script is the same. Go at the opposing team, pressure early (some times get a goal, sometimes now), start to see back a little bit, defensive error gives opponent a great opportunity (that they may or may not put away).

Not even sure why I bothered giving you the highlights in this match. Was it the lackluster performance on both sides? Was it to see 2 pathetic goals (a pk and an own goal)? Actually, yeah, it was the way Aston Villa decided it really didn't want to be in the Premiership this year by scoring yet another own goal to blow the full 3pts away.

Rob Kinnan Photography
With the regular season championship already secured, the Carolina Railhawks took the field against the Minnesota Stars in a match that only mattered in spirit to the Railhawks.
Unfortunately that mentality carried over to the field. Minnesota defeated the Railhawks by a score of 2-1 in Cary.

I give up. Honestly.
How can you love a team, desperate for points in the playoff race, that takes a 2-0 lead at home to one of the worst teams in the league and conspires through a combination of catastrophic defending, a complete inability to retain possession, and, most damningly, sheer gutlessness in the face of adversity, to throw away two points?

Jeremey Vuolo and AC Oulu are in action on Wednesday against OPS while Daniel Stevens and Kyle Luetkehans will look to lead PS Kemi Kings in their game against PK-35

Man U makes it a first half affair at Old Trafford as Rooney, Nani and Smalling all score. Rooney later misses a pk and while Torres scores a nice goal, he misses a sitter that your 4yo kid sister could hit. Red Devils win, 3-1.Video: footytube
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It may not make up for the loss last night between the first teams, but the Swope Park Rangers earn a bit of revenge today defeating the Salt Lake reserves 1-0 thanks to an 88th minute penalty by Davy Arnaud. Both teams created some chances in the first half, the best was probably CJ Sapong hitting the post.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Union

Today is Roster Freeze Day in MLS and at 5pm the final Philadelphia Union roster for the remainder of the season must be submitted to the league. Will there be any surprises?

How did some of the Union players react to the shambles that was the 2–2 draw between Columbus and Houston on Wednesday night?

Liverpool stumbles as Stoke picks up the 3pts from a Walters pk in the 1st half. That's all she wrote.szólj hozzá: Sto 1-0 LivVideo: Goalsarena
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The Arab Spring seems to have have had a liberating effect on penalty taking. This is Amir Sayoud's PK for Egyptian side Al Ahly which looks like he was attempting a paradinha (a Brazilian stutter step) but instead falls flat on his face. To add insult he received a yellow card and lots of counseling from opposing side Kima Aswan who were losing 0-4.

Hurricanes, goals and a new record holder. It was a pretty solid week in Major League Soccer when the dust all settled. My weekly recap is posted over at SBNation.com. Feel free to give it a look.

Jeff Cunningham is now the all-time goal scoring king in MLS. His PK against Seattle was number 134.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

When it comes to goals, it's easy enough to find out who has scored them. As the season goes on, the hard part is remembering how the goals were scored. Did this goal come from open play or was it a set piece? Was that goal from a throw in or was it from a corner kick.

A pair of PK's leaves Philly and Dallas with a point apiece at Freddy's big debut.

The Columbus Crew finished ahead of the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night, but did so by the slimmest of margins.

A questionable penalty call against Philadelphia defender Sheanon Williams helped give the Crew a PK, and Union goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon looked to save the ensuing penalty only to see it trickle past him and into the net to help give Columbus a 2-1 victory at Crew Stadium on Saturday night.

Rob Kinnan Photography
After a disappointing 1-1 mid-week draw to Minnesota, the Carolina Railhawks were looking to come out strong against Ft.Lauderdale. In there last match, the Railhawks were able to snap a two game losing skid, but the win eluded them. However, Carolina turned things around, made changes and put Ft.