Referees have once again made their way into the headlines and for once MLS has no apologies to make. In the second leg of a UEFA World Cup Qualification playoff, Thierry Henry made a vital assist, crossing across the face of goal to William Gallas' head to score the tying goal. The goal pulled France level in the match and ahead 2-1 on aggregate.

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Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has vented his fury at FIFA in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport.
'I would like to know what have I done to (Sepp) Blatter,' Trapattoni said. 'If he explains it to me at least I would be calm.
'I often go to schools and speak of fair play. Click to continue reading...

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has given the world another clue regarding his plans for Liverpool defender Andrea Dossena, indicating that a move could take place.
De Laurentiis, who is in Milan for the Lega Calcio general assembly, has uncovered part of his agenda for the January transfer window. Click to continue reading...

So, in the sober light of day, a few things I feel need to be said. Traditionally when people get hot and bothered about something in football, I try and keep my distance. I didn't this morning, and so I want to add a few things to my little two-cents.
First, I don't buy the whole "poetry of the injustice of life reflected in sport" business, that soccer, indeed all of sport, has always been this way, with dives, fouls, goals not given, twas ever thus and ever shall be, world without end, amen. Click to continue reading...

France qualified for the World Cup in South Africa in the summer thanks to a William Gallas header against Ireland in Paris. With French supporters everywhere celebrating, replays showed in the build-up to the goal, Thierry Henry hand-balling the ball onto his foot to cross. Of course, that is against the rules and it is very unfortunate that he should have done that however, would we be complaining if Kevin Doyle had done it for Richard Dunne to score?

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Ahoy there.

A word of caution. If you ever decide to visit Cairo in the near future, particularly if it involves a back-crippling, desert traversing, eight hour coach trip from the south coast in the small hours of the morning, perhaps don't choose the day when Egypt are hosting Algeria in a World Cup qualifying decider and the City is on relative lockdown; traffic has stalled, shops are abandoned and from every stationary, horn-honking mini-bus there's a national flag being hoisted from the sun-roof.

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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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The English Football Association (FA) Cup is wrapping up its first round with replays this week. One of them includes Stevenage Borough v Port Vale as the first match ended in a 1-1 draw. Our other site, Free Live Sports TV, will be providing live coverage (including streaming video) of the match at the following link.

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There are no two ways about it: David N'gog deliberately deceived the referee to win a penalty. There was no contact, no hint of a foul and no reason to go down. It was cheating, pure and simple. I don't blame N'gog though; I blame (a)pathetic Liverpool fans who are happy to condone cheating if it gains the team an advantage. Click to continue reading...

This is going to be the strangest, most illogical football rule you see all day, so prepare yourself or your brain just might melt and slide out your ear...

Second division club Portimonense won their Carlsberg Cup (Portugal's league cup) first group phase by simply substituting in a 19-year-old goalkeeper (pictured above.

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There's no Arsenal news today. So this will be a very very short one and it's only a hint of Arsenal related stuff. A toast for my shortest ever posting.

First, Yaya Toure's agent wins my Hero Of The Day award for his wonderful response to Man City's pursue of the unsettled Barcelona midfielder.

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From the United-Chelsea game on Sunday...

and then afterwards:

When I saw this in real-time I missed the first incident and only saw Drogba writhing on the floor. I was worried for a few seconds; regardless of Drogba's antics you don't want to see a professional footballer badly injured and I was worried he had suffered a spinal injury or something that could keep him out of the game for a long period of time.

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So, after last night's gripping draw at Anfield, all the talk today is about David Ngog taking a dive in the penalty box.

Replays show that the young French Striker did try to con the ref and it worked but I think he went down in anticipation of contact from Carsley.

The fact that the Birmingham player didn't touch him at all has led to universal condemnation of the player.

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I tread lightly as I am intending to bring up one of everyone's favourite subjects, namely diving, referees and what we do about it.I only saw the replays of David Ngog's acrobatics against Liverpool and he has been roundly criticised for his disgraceful and theatrical dive that earned the Scousers an ill-deserved point. Click to continue reading...

by FRANCO PANIZO

Liverpool midfielder David N'Gog may have salvaged his club from losing against Birmingham on Monday, but he did so with one of the most highly-criticized dives in recent memory.

With Birmingham shockingly leading the hosts 2-1 in the second half, N'Gog dribbled into the penalty area before being brought down by midfielder Lee Carsley's sliding challenge.

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by FRANCO PANIZO

Liverpool midfielder David N'Gog may have salvaged his club from losing against Birmingham on Monday, but he did so with one of the most highly-criticized dives in recent memory.

With Birmingham shockingly leading the hosts 2-1 in the second half, N'Gog dribbled into the penalty area before being brought down by midfielder Lee Carsley's sliding challenge.

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Steven Gerrard's hotly-disputed second-half penalty rescued a point for Liverpool but did little to lift the pressure on boss Rafael Benitez.
It is just one win now in nine matches for the Reds and they must be grateful for the two-week international break which will allow the dust to settle on their faltering season. Click to continue reading...

David N'Gog won a controversial penalty that spared under-pressure Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez a humiliating home defeat to Birmingham in a 2-2 draw at Anfield. The draw means Liverpool, with only one win in nine matches, are seventh but 11 points behind leaders Chelsea. Birmingham stay 15th, two points above the drop zone.

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There was a lot of action in topflight soccer last week, with a full suite of Champions League, Europa League and domestic competition on tap. After the dust settled, however, the number one team is the same one it's been for three weeks running now. Not that anybody should be surprised by that. There was plenty of movement elsewhere in the top 25 however. Click to continue reading...

Small but raucous crowd at the Jalak Harupat Stadium, something the Singaporean players will be used to. Well, the small crowd anyway!
1' - Munawar goes close for Indonesia with a 20 yard drive
3' - bright start by Indonesia with their #9 going close with a header
This is the first chance most of us have had to see the lads who have spent the last couple of years in Uruguay
6' - Syamsir Alam goes down under a challenge with the Singapore keeper Neezam
8' - hmm, should Indonesia have had a penalty? Click to continue reading...

ESPN ran a story about a recent match between BYU and New Mexico's women's teams which has become infamous for the elbows-to-the-ribs and ponytail-yank antics of New Mexico player Elizabeth Lambert. Fans of the sport are groaning, because this is what it takes to get a non-Olympics/World Cup/WPS Final into headlines - replays of bitchslap. Click to continue reading...

West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola was over the moon after Zavon Hines' last-gasp strike earned his Hammers their first win since the opening day of the season. England Under-21 striker Hines was the toast of Upton Park after he netted the winner in the fourth minute of injury time.

Zola said:

"This could be the turning point for us.

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Some nights Arsenal just click and it's beautiful to watch. After about five minutes we put together a flowing, pacey, one-touch move which ended up with a Robin van Persie shot flying just wide of the AZ goal. After that you knew Arsenal were in the mood.

We opened the scoring through Cesc Fabregas whose low shot scuttered between a defender's legs and practically trickled across the line.

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If you follow this blog with any regularity you know that unlike most soccer blogs, English people who are not under the employ of the LA Galaxy are a sighting as rare as goals by goalies. But when someone like Sunderland's Darren Bent decides get custom boots branded with his Twitter handle and Twitter logo it's kind of special. Click to continue reading...

I recently asked the question: When Will Phil Brown Go?, & it seems in all actuality I'm no closer to an accurate answer of that question than when I posed it last week. Hull City lost another football match this weekend at Turf Moor to current over-achievers Burnley, 2-0. Two Graham Alexander goals were enough to see off a brave Hull City that will feel slightly cheated by the outcome.

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Manchester United looks to recover from last weekend's defeat to Liverpool as they face Blackburn Rovers. Were they able to win or did Blackburn get a result? Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

Manchester United beats Blackburn 2-0 Video Highlights

The match had a slow start as neither team really had any great chances in the first 20 minutes.

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Good from the Arsenal. I'm popping online about 5 hours after the match, and none of the blogs I read have updated.
Van Persie scored the opener. This match was available stateside in HD. ESPN is doing a good job with their EPL coverage - much better than they had done with their CL coverage. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool will appeal the red cards shown to Jamie Carragher and Philip Degen; Rafael Benitez has confirmed. Degen's challenge was more worthy of a yellow than a red; but it was still a bit wreckless, whereas Carragher's could be rescinded if the FA watch the replays and decide if firstly Zamora was offside; and the fact [. Click to continue reading...

photo courtesy Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com

What was Pat Onstad thinking? How could he lose his cool so suddenly in the most important game in the Dynamo's season? A dangerous cross came through the penalty area, just out of his reach, and continued over the byline. Sure, replays show Fredy Montero obstructing the goalkeeper, but not in any way dangerously.

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Shall we just give up now? Fuck the title race, fuck the cups and fuck Arsenal. Lets just give up because we drew with fucking West Ham. Excuse the fucking French.
I had a look round some of the Arsenal sites today and I wished I hadn't of bothered. It depressed me. Some of the comments I've seen made me shake my head with despair. Click to continue reading...

I have been on road for last two days and missed the Champions league match against Rubin Kazan. So this one resulted in the first defeat officially this season. Now if we take the last three matches into presective, there could be some alarm bells ringing. The 1-0 victory against Almeria was far from convincing, the draw at Valencia was aided by some heavy fortune and the 2-1 defeat can be attributed to lack of the same. Click to continue reading...

The World Cup Final, 1966: England's Geoff Hurst strikes the ball off the underside of the bar. As fast as a bullet, it lands over the line if you are English, and on the line if you are German. The referee looks to the linesman. The linesman looks to the Queen of England sitting in the stands.

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Sunderland hosted Liverpool in the English Premier League on Saturday, October 17, 2009. Was Liverpool able to win without Gerrard and Torres or did Sunderland continue their strong start to the 2009-10 season? Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

Sunderland beats Liverpool 1-0 Video Highlights

Liverpool were without captain Steven Gerrard and leading scorer Fernando Torres as they struggled at Sunderland.

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A dejeted looking Souza and Marcos as Náutico thrash the leaders 3-0

Despite a shock 3-0 loss at strugglers Náutico, Palmeiras remain five points clear at the top of the Brasileiro with nine games to go. As usual when the Palestra Itália outfit slip up, none of their main rivals were able to take advantage as no one in the top five managed to win.

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Since there are only Johnstone's Paint Trophy matches and FA Trophy Second Qualifying Round replays this week, we thought it would be about the right time to have another "Video Of The Week" and this, I have to say, is something rather special a complete episode of London Weekend Television's "The Big Match" from April 1979.

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