Instead of my usual big game prattle, I will do an impromptu quickie Top 5'er as my preview presentation.--Top 5 MLS Cup KeysThese five are ranked based on a combined factor of importance and "spectacularity".#5 - Watch your mouth, watch your challenges... just watch everything!With the way that MLS refs have thrown about the red card in 2009, nobody wants to be the guy who puts him team down a Click to continue reading...

I have watched, rewatched, and watched again the penalty incident with Vela yesterday, it is as clear, blatant, and unmissible as the one by Fletcher on Arshavin at Old Trafford. Vela has his legged hooked clean from under him and there is no planet in the universe on which that is anything other than a stonewall penalty.

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This past week(s) we've have a couple united boys playing for their countries, attempting to qualify for South Africa. While its not directly "United Related", there's no way I cannot bring up the most blatant handball since Maradonna's "Hand of God".

So a quick roundup of the scores and the United personnel playing before I get to more on to what is going to be the single most discussed play in recent times:

France 1 1 Ireland (2-1 Aggregate)
France : Patrice Evra
Ireland : John O'Shea, Darren Gibson

Portugal 1 B&H (2-0 Aggregate)
Portugal : Nani

Okay, so the handball (seen/touch/heard) 'round the world.

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Congratulations FIFA, they've got the World Cup they wanted now haven't they, and I hope their proud of how they got it. It was a ridiculous decision to seed the World Cup play-offs in the first place, and ultimately prevent the the hard-work in qualifying of teams like Ukraine, Bosnia and of course the Republic of Ireland.

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So, the "story" that David N'gog took a dive against Birmingham to win a crucial penalty is funny to me because it isn't really a story at all. Of course, it is in Birmingham where everyone is ga-ga over the "cheating" of Mr. N'Gog and those disgusting footballers from Liverpool. I wonder if the fans in Birmingham are as honest as they want Liverpool and N'Gog to be.

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by CARL ELDRIDGE There is plenty of fall-out from the weekend's Premier League games and the highlight has to be Darren Fletcher's ludicrous, laughable and lamentable claim that Arsene Wenger's comments after our game with them at Old Trafford has caused him grief with refs ever since.

The Daily Mail reports that Wenger accused United of playing ‘anti-football' after Arsenal's 2-1 defeat in August.

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First of all, observe this visual:

That is a dive. Many players dive in the premier league, as well as around the world. Many players win penalties by diving.

This happened at Anfield. Home of Liverpool. Liverpool were down 1-2 to Birmingham. The resulting penalty was converted and they tied the match 2-2.

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Watch this interview with a local reporter (Jared Lloyd/Desert News) who covered this match. He points out that the "refs allowed" for a "physical game" - and offers a well informed perspective on the tone of the game (explaining New Mexico's use of a physical style of play to break up BYU's movement up and down the field). Click to continue reading...

It's rare to see players fighting out on the field during a soccer match. In hockey it's almost expected, but in soccer it's almost unheard of. That's why this new video showing a Bringham Young University player elbowing, punching and pulling hair is making it's way around the internet like wildfire.

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I'm happy for Salt Lake fans and all, but let's face it, Columbus losing is going to have some horrifying consequences.
(1) Some may suggest that Frankie Hejduk should not be on the World Cup roster next year. What, just because, contrary to what I predicted, he played perhaps the single biggest role in the Crew losing? Click to continue reading...

Elizabeth Lambert's demolition job on BYU's strikeforce is in heavy rotation on the intertubes today:
ESPN's coverage of the event appears to be pretty evenhanded, focusing on "Julie Foudy, tell us in your vast, infinite wisdom: how the fuck wasn't Lambert sent off?" Overall, not too different from ESPN's usual coverage of sports with a niche following - wait until something bizarre like this happens and put it in rotation. Click to continue reading...

As if Rafa Benitez and Liverpool's woes couldn't get any worse after their 3-1 loss against Fulham on Tuesday, word came this week that his star duo Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres both might need surgery in the next month.

Torres has been ailed with a sports hernia injury, while Gerrard picked up a groin injury while playing for England last month.

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As if Rafa Benitez and Liverpool's woes couldn't get any worse after their 3-1 loss against Fulham on Saturday, word came this week that both his top stars, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, might need surgery in the next month.

Torres has been dealing with a sports hernia injury, while Gerrard picked up a groin injury while playing for England last month.

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Ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of the year again. The regular season is over, so now we can look at the official numbers for fouls committed and fouls suffered and put them in the context of "per 90 minutes" rather than just raw totals. Which players will lead in the eight categories below?
1. Click to continue reading...

After a second half of the season that was a tad weird to say the least, Dynamo get a chance to put on their Tri-umph faces and Lay It on the Line for that third title.
I think this video above truly expresses my feeling about Seattle tonight. And while the truth is I have never once flipped the toggle on an XBox, or done a 360 on top of one, I know for a fact that an Orange Ring of Death exists on those consoles, and that's what I am expecting to see over these two legs, starting tonight. Click to continue reading...

Rolla Bulldogs, Miles Wilson (2012) clears in front of Skyler Russell

Kickapoo Chiefs 3
Rolla Bulldogs 2
For the second time this week, the Chiefs fought back from an early deficit to earn the win over a tough Conference opponent. After giving up a goal to the Falcon's on Tuesday 11 seconds into the game, the Chief's saw the Rolla Bulldogs take the lead in the 8th minute on a goal by Kyle Keebey. Click to continue reading...

Where is the refing consistency? Fox, who have now clearly turned to supporting the Roar after ditching them after game 3, clearly need to write to the FFA that the Refs need to be re-briefed. Well maybe not. But apart from Miller's punch, how was the Roar's treatment of Kruse worse than Sydney's treatment of Oar? Click to continue reading...

You can watch West Ham v Arsenal Live online here.

West Ham v Arsenal
Upton Park
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Kickoff: 16:15 BST

West Ham welcome Arsenal in the last Premier League game on Sunday - this London derby may not spark as much interest as the Liverpool - Manchester United game earlier in the day but it's a key game for both London clubs.

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It's one of the oldest jokes in the book, but it will keep on getting used anyway. Referees are often the focus of a lot of negative banter including the recent incident in which Alex Ferguson called out a ref for being out of shape and unable to keep up with the action. The refs (in short) are often called horrible names most of which I will not even get into.

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I watched the replay. The ref waved play on 5 times when Brisbane players were brought down in the box. At least 2 were no argument penalties. Even the Fox commentators who were going on and on about how bad Brisbane were admitted this.
There were Gold Coast and Brisbane fans on my bus on the way home and the only conversation was how bad the ref was. Click to continue reading...

This is going to be a delayed reaction to the Ferguson-Alan Wiley incident, but it's international week, we have little else to talk about, so... sit tight, and read.

Ferguson's rant, comparing fitness of European refs to butchers' dogs, was, to put it mildly, genius. You don't get people with the ability to draw such comparisons every day.

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Rafa Benitez and Sir Alex Ferguson face the wrath of an Football Association who do not see the funny side of the managers of Liverpool and Manchester United.
While many might have chuckled at Sir Alex questioning Alan Wiley's fitness, no one is laughing at the FA's headquarters.
And, while the spectacles joke of the Liverpool boss has badly backfired, the FA Commission are more likely to say "he should have gone to SpecSavers" when they hand out the punishment. Click to continue reading...

Forget for a minute how played "Cars" is, that Gary Numan is 51 years old & wearing black nail polish and that Trent Reznor's sweaty ass is probably only one drip into his keyboard away from electrocuting himself on stage. What I'm feeling from this is the roving on-stage camera; it almost makes you feel like you are part of the band except for the fact that you won't get check or a groupie for watching this. Click to continue reading...

Looks like after bashing England on their attempts to make a bid for the 2018 World Cup, Jack Warner has proposed using "sin-bins" (simply put: a penalty box) for anyone who takes a dive during a match. The idea would be the player would be sent off for 5 minutes while play resumes, much like hockey's penalty box.

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Adrian Leijer has put Henrique out for up to 8 weeks. That is the headline. And he was sitting on a yellow and he went on to score the winner.
But the byline is again the poor refing. The choice seems to be between refs that blow the whistle for everything. And Strebre Delovski who again looked to lost control of a match. Click to continue reading...

AFC Cup
Binh Duong v Chonburi 2-0 (Philani, Molina) 18,000
But South China from Hong Kong are in the semi finals...where they play Kuwait SC. Binh Duong play Al Karamah from Syria in their semi. I wonder...for the legs to be played in arab countries, will they appoint arab refs? Click to continue reading...

Well that was a real kick in the balls.

After dominating Saprissa for 91 minutes, holding a 1-0 lead for most of that, the Crew gave up a stoppage time goal and settled for a 1-1 draw with the Costa Ricans in last night's Champions League match.

To say that Columbus "gave up" the late goal is a little bit of a misnomer, because in actuality Saprissa stole it, fouling no less than two Crew players while trying frantically to get the ball into the net.

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Obviously not the result we were hoping for. The lads did indeed show up to play tonight but the final touch wasn't there. Creating and finishing chances is a huge part of football though, so we've only ourselves to blame (well, maybe the refs can share the blame!). I was stuck in the office for this match, but I was able to watch a low-quality stream for about twenty minutes in the second half.

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In the most recent post on our blog, Aaron fires a right cross at Manchester City manager Mark Hughes, who apparently is still sobbing in his pillows over losing the Manchester Derby on Sunday because there was "too much stoppage time."
Forget that I completely disagree with him, and yes, I'm biased. Click to continue reading...

After what appeared to be a whole mess of home cookin' the last time these two teams faced eachother, the weather seems to favor the road team this time around. Here's a brief lesson in climatology... Arabe Unido hails from Colon, a city in Panama that averages 129 inches of rain each year. Houston averages 54 inches per year.

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Going into the West Ham match I asked for a brace (minimum) from Fernando Torres and boy did he deliver. This calls for some pondifercating on The Football Genius.

Well, maybe Torres isn't at Genius Status yet. But of all the players playing in England he's got to be among the biggest contenders.

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                                                        Photo by ISIphotos.com

Are there any good MLS referees in MLS? Any?

It is a question worth asking after another weekend of questionable decisions and matches decided by the incorrect or missed calls of the men whose jobs it is to get calls right.

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Yesterday was a delayed opening day for my kids. We started at a new club that I had heard good things about, as far away as when I lived in Virginia.
So far we had one day notice on the coaches meeting, and less than two weeks before the season started. When I inquired, about this I was scolded. Click to continue reading...

Look at this ref guy, standing there looking dumb while the action's on the other side.
Can't a camera serve that purpose.
Everton boss David Moyes doesn't like these new refs. And he must be really mad to whine about something after a 4-0 win.
Though his player, Louis Saha, was controversially sent off. Click to continue reading...

Yes, you read that correctly; Dive, flop, or simulation (as FIFA calls it). It seems the Dynamo have faced a few divers lately, and what are the results of those games? The divers won. They weren't overmatched from a skills perspective. No team can say they possess more soccer skills than the Dynamo.

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