The Rapids announced today that Greg Dalby, as predicted, has been waived. They also confirmed that Ceus' loan will be for the full season, with the ability to recall him at any time. The FC Denver blog reported that Jure Travner did not return to the States with the team after his trial in England. Click to continue reading...

With less than 3 months to go until England's first group game against the U.S.A on June 12th in the World Cup and one particular pair of positions are causing more problems than anyone envisaged. At full strength, the English full-backs picked themselves with Ashley Cole easily making a case for being the best left back in world football and Glen Johnson's continual growth as a player.

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CONCACAF president Jack Warner made headlines while he was in the South American nation inspecting the various venues that are planning on being used for next year's U-20 World Cup.
Outside of being his usual self, he did everything in his power to enamor the Colombian media. He masterfully mixed his diplomatic skills with Don King-like faux jingoism. Click to continue reading...

It turns out that Nigel de Jong's rather unfriendly tackle on Stuart Holden yesterday left the promising young talent with a broken fibula. The injury will keep him out of action for up to six weeks.

And while the blow may not be severe for the U.S. men's team, for Holden it's a worsened by the fact he'd been improving for his new club Bolton and had recently forced his way into the first team.

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It turns out that Nigel de Jong's rather unfriendly tackle on Stuart Holden yesterday left the promising young talent with a broken fibula. The injury will keep him out of action for up to six weeks.

And while the blow may not be severe for the U.S. men's team, for Holden it's a worsened by the fact he'd been improving for his new club Bolton and had recently forced his way into the first team.

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So, guys, here we are, looking ahead to the final third of the Premier League campaign. And what a season it's been so far.

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Birmingham City, much derided as potential divisional whipping boys, have been the surprise package, currently sitting eighth after Alex McLeish's strictly regimented men have continued to secure results.

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Between now and late May, speculation and debate will run rampant over American players and their fortunes for 2010. While there is an established core of players already locked into position, there's plenty to play for the fringe players hoping to make the squad come 2010.

And for those players, their performances will likely be rated on a basis similar to those of the stock market -- playing time, goals scored and solid play will increase chances of being there when the window closes, while those unable to see the pitch left off the squad.

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Between now and late May, speculation and debate will run rampant over American players and their fortunes for 2010. While there is an established core of players already locked into position, there's plenty to play for the fringe players hoping to make the squad come 2010.

And for those players, their performances will likely be rated on a basis similar to those of the stock market -- playing time, goals scored and solid play will increase chances of being there when the window closes, while those unable to see the pitch left off the squad.

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Miami FC announced their schedule complete 2010 schedule for the upcoming USSF Division IIseason. The Blues will play 30 matches against some of the best competition that the league can throw at a team that will come into the season with a great deal of question marks. Miami will also play in the Lamar Hunt U. Click to continue reading...

Miami FC announced their schedule complete 2010 schedule for the upcoming USSF Division IIseason. The Blues will play 30 matches against some of the best competition that the league can throw at a team that will come into the season with a great deal of question marks. Miami will also play in the Lamar Hunt U. Click to continue reading...

So far, not so good. Two games into the crucial run and we've drawn at Villa (itself not a bad result) before losing poorly at home to United. According to the press, we've gone from genuine contenders to also-rans in the same short period.

Of course, it is never that simple. A win at Stamford Bridge would leave us with four points from three incredibly difficult games, the same as Chelsea despite their corresponding fixtures being Burnley and Hull.

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The window opens next week I believe and already the rumours are flying with Koreans featuring prominently. Persisam have their eye on striker Choi Dong Su and he had a run out last week before the Borneo Eagles took on Persija.
Persipura have been looking at Kim Jong Kyu while Persiwa are close to securing Yoon tae and Persiba have been looking at Jun Jin. Click to continue reading...

Manchester United's red hot striker Wayne Rooney has moved quickly to end rumors linking him with a move to Real Madrid. The leading scorer in the Premier League has been heavily linked with the Madrid giants in recent weeks but insists he is happy with United.

"There's always speculation, and when other big teams are talking about you, it's nice that you're talked about," said Rooney.

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Ryan Babel's proposed move to Birmingham doesn't look like it'll happen but there are still question marks about his Liverpool future. Rafa says that the Dutchman rejected a move to St Andrews however the Spaniard doesn't want him to move anyway, as he explained:
'I have not said that Ryan has to leave the club. Click to continue reading...

In the aftermath of yesterday's events in Angola, some journalists have, typically, raised question marks over the security surrounding this year's World Cup Final in South Africa.Let me just say this is the kind of tabloid nonsense that we just don't need at the moment. Angola is not South Africa. Cabinda, where the shootings took place, is disputed territory and, because it is oil rich, there Click to continue reading...

Title Race
I wrote before the season started that I expected Chelsea to win the title, and I still stand by that. It is turning out to be a really interesting title race this year as none of the top teams are as dominant as in previous years, which means everyone drops points.

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Title Race
I wrote before the season started that I expected Chelsea to win the title, and I still stand by that. It is turning out to be a really interesting title race this year as none of the top teams are as dominant as in previous years, which means everyone drops points.

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A potential issue for Roberto Mancini to contend with:

Craig Bellamy and Shay Given led a six-man delegation after axed Hughes made an emotional dressing speech telling them he was being replaced by the former Inter Milan boss. There is a huge amount of loyalty towards Mark, the players respect him as a manager and as a person and they can't believe he's being treated as shabbily as this.

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Fulham 3-0 Manchester United: Match Observations

After this showing, question marks will be raised over Manchester United and their hopes of defending their crown this season. Is it really because United are struggling without Ronaldo or something else? I have, and still, believed that the Red Devils can win the Premier League title again this year, despite already suffering our fifth defeat of the campaign, or Chelsea having another chance to extend their lead at the top of the table.

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I think by now you all heard that for today's game we have Denilson and Armand Traoré not available as they suffered injuries against Liverpool and in a way, there are question marks on who ...

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I think by now you all heard that for today's game we have Denilson and Armand Traoré not available as they suffered injuries against Liverpool and in a way, there are question marks on who ... Click to continue reading...

With ten minutes remaining in the Manchester United vs Wolves game at Old Trafford and the visitors 3-0 down, supporters in the away end could take no more. The chant murmured, then hummed before growing to a full and vocal crescendo. "We want our money back, we want our money back, we want our money back, we want our money back," cried the Wolves fans. Click to continue reading...

Everton are in advanced discussions with Landon Donovan to acquire him on loan for a three month deal, according to several sources in the English press.

If the deal goes through, it should be a win-win for both Everton and Donovan. For Everton, the club is desperately in need for new players to help a team that has been savagely disrupted by injuries.

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Adriano celebrates with Flamengo

English tabloid, The Sun, has reported that West Ham could be interested in picking up Brazil front man, Adriano.

Hammers coach Gianfranco Zola is said to be a fan of the big striker and believes that Adriano's physical force and talent could help the club stave off relegation.

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After the two sides finished level at Rockingham Road a week and a half ago, it was the only draw that could have been made. Manchester United. For Leeds United, this match is an opportunity to make acquaintances again with their rivals from the other side of the Pennines. Their fall from grace has been bumpier than most, and possibly the most hurtful aspect of the whole sorry saga is that Manchester United supporters have been going whole days, perhaps even weeks, without thinking about how much they despise Leeds United.

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Some new stuff here that will surely never happen:

• Inter Milan looking at Luca Toni?
  
• Jack Wilshere might be loaned out by Arsenal.
  
• MLS getting some dude named Niko Gkionis?
  
• Bojan Krkic and the Gunners?
  
• United ruling out Dzeko move?
  
• Phillip Lahm to Manchester City?

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Australia 2009 is not as good as team as the one which took the field in Germany.
The group is much stronger this time: Germany and Brazil are not dis-similar, Croatia are nowhere near as strong as this young Serbian side, and of course Ghana are a much stronger proposition than Japan.
All that and a much more battle hardened Aussie team, one which has achieved wonderfully well to qualify, but has not convinced it's supporters it has the goal power to do well in South Africa. Click to continue reading...

Group E contains Japan, Cameroon, Netherlands and Denmark and should be a easy path to the knockout stages for Holland. Cameroon and Denmark will battle for second place and I expect Cameroon to edge Denmark out.

A look at Group E Teams

NETHERLANDS

Manager: Bert van Marwijk
Key player: Mark van Bommel
Best: Runners-up (1974, 1978)
World ranking: 3

The Netherlands were the first European side to qualify for South Africa, having won all eight of their games in Group Nine, conceding only twice in the process.

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At about 12:o3 p.m. EST on Friday, someone on ESPN (probably Alexi Lalas or John Harkes)Â will give the following monologue:

"This is the day we've been waiting for. Trying to make predictions before the draw is foolish because no one knows who's playing who. It's all about matchups! Depending on the group, the U.

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Now the offseason has officially begun. The MLS Cup has gone to Rimando for his amazing work against both us and LA. Without him, RSL would not have won. But that is just me complaining about the fact we did not win in what should have been our year.

Since we have lost, we have now officially lost a number of our players and even our head coach.

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Liverpool crashed out of the Champions League after a bitterly disappointing victory in the Hungarian capital.
They needed to win to give themselves any chance of reaching the last 16, but events in Florence ended those dreams with Fiorentina achieving the victory they needed to qualify. Click to continue reading...

If there was any consolation, this was the first time this season we had really deserved to lose: both the defeats to United and City were particularly galling because we were the better team.
Credit Sunderland. While their performance wasn't out of this world, they did what they had to do. Click to continue reading...

Luciano Emilio and DC United have a lot of question marks. (Getty Images)

The 2009 expansion draft is only a week and a half away here. Today we move forward in our look at each club's potential protection lists with DC United. The Black-and-Red are still without a head coach so don't be shocked if somethings here could change depending on who takes over this club.

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Liverpool defender Andrea Dossena has hailed Alberto Aquilani as a "complete midfielder", and believes that the former Roma player can forge a strong partnership with Steven Gerrard.
The 25-year-old made his Premier League debut as a substitute during the club's 2-2 draw against Birmingham City at Anfield, though he was said to be in contention for a spot in the starting line-up. Click to continue reading...

Bad news. Our list of the fallen is now about as long as Peter Crouch's leg. The BBC so kindly tells us that we're missing Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, David James, Theo Walcott, Emile Heskey, David Beckham, Aaron Lennon, Carlton Cole, John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Glen Johnson.

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The guilty look on Drogba's face sort of says it all....
Its difficult to not just 'go off on one' when you write immediate after a match. My writings are not 'match reports' as some other blogtastic peoples claim to write. They are a reaction to whats just happened on a green pitch. Click to continue reading...

United have once again been linked with January moves for Valencia's star men, David Villa and David Silva. The future of both Spanish Internationals was the focus of much media attention over the summer with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Liverpool keeping tabs on the situation to name but a few.

Valencia managed to hold on to their prized assets in the summer but as their financial troubles show no sign of letting up, it looks increasingly likely they will lose one if not both in the winter.

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OMG I am part of the 60,943,912 block of humanity that owns 43.5% of Glasgow Rangers and nobody told me.
Disinvest me.
I don't wish to own any part of a stock that I would rather make a strategic short selling position upon.
This is a distressed stock.
All the playing staff are on the transfer list and it is rumoured that failed property developer, Sir Murray, was ousted from his eyrie by bankers. Click to continue reading...

Fabio Aurelio believes the team and not Rafa Benitez should take the slack for Liverpool's worst run in 22 years.
The Reds are in the midst of a crisis following Tuesday's home defeat by Lyon in the UEFA Champions League which condemned them to their fourth successive defeat in all competitions. Click to continue reading...

1966 was a great year, or so I'm told by those of an age able to remember it.

It has been a long time since England lifted the highest honour in International football, too long in fact, and many have been brave enough to predict South Africa will be the location for the Three Lions to finally end the years of hurt for the England faithful.

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