Look at that sweater. That is not a sweater that a sane man wears. Since taking over as manager at Barcelona, Pep has been something of a touchline fashion icon, but this...this is madness.

Look at it it's like he cut two different sweaters down the middle and sewed them together to form one headache-inducing schizophrenic bastardization of clashing designs.

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"O massacre português (em Outubro 2004) deixou a Rússia em estado de choque. Por todo o país, nos blocos de prédios, nos bares, nas aldeias com os seus televisores antiquados, tombou um enorme silêncio - mais do que um choque, foi uma enorme sensação de vazio que tomou conta do país inteiro. Click to continue reading...

Image via Wikipedia Although many have called it unfair, the seeding system adopted for the play off matches to decide the final four European teams that will make it to the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa, has produced four potentially exciting match ups. The two leg matches will be played on November 14th [. Click to continue reading...

Is this the curse of Rubin Kazan? Even exasperated Pep has run out of hand movements to last the entire game... and you know that's bad!

Anyway, after pulling off a shock victory at Nou Camp, everyone from the strange bloke who looks like Robert Pattinson on crack to the stray cat next door is wondering if the mighty Barca are really faltering.

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Tires are no match for Wayne Rooney. [101GG] Fixing the SPL in a Dutch...vacuum. (Inside Left) Robin Van Persie could be the new Raul. (Theory not as outlandish as it sounds.) (SoccerLens) Nigerian U17 captain a sprightly 25. (The Spoiler) The lingo of Italian tactics. (Football Italiano) Igor Akinfeev don't get no love. Click to continue reading...

You haven't felt cold till your nuts have shrivelled back up inside you or till you've been to frikin freezing Russia... or both, which are the conditions Barcelona face on their travels tonight. However, as much as I can see Rubin's Cousin putting up a fight in front of a ... Click to continue reading...

The UEFA Champions League wraps up its fourth set of group stage matches on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 with eight matches. Some of the clubs involved are Barcelona, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Lyon, and Arsenal. Can Liverpool get a win at Lyon to keep their knockout stage chances alive? Will Barcelona get revenge as they travel to Russia to play Rubin Kazan?

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Video highlights of the goals in the Manchester United vs CSKA Moscow Group B Match Day 4 Champions League match on November 3, 2009. Game kicks off at Old Trafford at 19.45 UK time. Man United beat CSKA 1-0 in Russia on Match Day 3 thanks to Luis Valencia's 86th minute strike. Related posts:CSKA Moscow vs [. Click to continue reading...

Hello all Russia fans. Sorry about not getting back to you sooner with a post. I will sum up the recent events and share my views and opinions in one entry. As all of you know Russia lost to Germany in Moscow and then drew with Azerbaijan in Baku to Click to continue reading...

Cambiasso returns to the national team. The rumored Walter Samuel and Zanetti call ups did not happen.

Others called up:

Maxi Rodrguez, Gago, Tevez, Aguero, Lavezzi, Coloccini and the always present Heinze.

Cristian Ansaldi?

A defender that plays in Russia.

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This past week I was asked by Inside The Six's Richard Farley to discuss about MLS, the last match at Giants Stadium, Red Bull New York,� MLS as a whole and the situation of the USL & the future of American Soccer.

Richard Farley who has been� a guest many times on the MLS Talk Podcast with Kartik Krishnaiyer was gracious enough to allow me to share my thoughts on the game here in the USA.

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Real Madrid's 0-4 calamity at Alcorcan, a wee club from the suburbs of the same city, is my highlight of the week. Oh to have been an ADA fan that night! Here's the awesome fortress of the Santo Domingo (cap. 4,000) and the Real lineup that made history: Dudek; Arbeloa, Albiol, Metzelder, Drenthe; Diarra, Guti (Gago 46'), Van der Vaart, Granero (Marcelo 63'); Raúl (Van Nistelrooy 72'), Click to continue reading...

Here's the thing : seeding in football - or any other sport for that matter - is a fair and reasonable thing to do.Otherwise, you might end up with a World Cup 2010 qualification group that consisted of Germany, England, Spain and Russia. And, yes, while that may be more exciting than the World Cup itself, it's not unreasonable to keep the best teams apart in order to ensure a thrilling and Click to continue reading...

We got another edition of World Cup Buzz Top 5. This time we're going to breakdown the 5 best national team coaches right now. These 5 men have led their charges to surprise heights in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup or in some cases right on the door step of reserving their place in South Africa.

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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...

Stuff to read while you enjoy the fairly cool Europa League opening theme.... Sixty favorite Wnger quotes to celebrate Arsene's 60th. (Football 365) Let's talk about the little people. (Podcast Offside) The value in a moment rather than a number. (Futfanatico) Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Click to continue reading...

CSKA Moscow v Manchester United Click to continue reading...

The UEFA Champions League had a full set of group stage matches on Wednesday, October 21, 2009. Manchester United, who've reached the last two finals was in action as they traveled to Russia to face CSKA Moscow. Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

Manchester United beats CSKA Moscow 1-0 Video Highlights

Man United won a close match on a late goal to remain perfect in the group stage.

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***Spoiler Alert***
Man United scored a late one through Antonio Valencia to beat CSKA Moscow 1-0 in Russia. The rest of today's matches, including Kaka's return to AC Milan with Real Madrid are taking place right now. If you can find a TV, tune it to Fox Soccer Channel or the sports section on DirecTV. Click to continue reading...

Ireland v France: What ever happened to the "luck of the Irish"?
Portugal v Bosnia-Herzegovina: Corporate sponsors breathe huge sigh of relief Ronaldo is headed to South Africa.
Greece v Ukraine: Mediterraneans in the steppes in mid-November?

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Everyone's calling it the 'Biggest Upset in European Football', but unless you started watching el futbol yesterday, you'd know that teams like Barca can't be on a perpetual winning streak. Mistakes happen, and underdogs have their days! So it's Rubin Kazan's day today and... who knows?

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Probably not...which is a shame. It's got a really good goalscoring record against one of the top teams in the Premiership.

Anyway, here's the line up for the UEFA playoffs: all of them kick off at 7pm GMT on Saturday November 14th 2009.

Greece v Ukraine

Ireland v France

Portugal v Bosnia & Herzegovina

Russia v Slovenia

It's also worth noting that on the Saturday� the second leg of the New Zealand/Bahrain� (0-0) playoff kicks off at 7am GMT that Saturday� and the first leg of Costa Rica v Uruguay kicks off an hour later than the European games.

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The draw is in. Eight team compete for the last four spots from the European zone.

France line up against Ireland in a two match playoff next month. In the other head to head, Portugal face Bosnia, Russia play Slovenia, and Greece take on Ukraine.

Raymond Domenech who has survived innumerable calls for his dismissal gets one more chance to silence his critics.

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The 2010 World Cup in South Africa looms ever closer as teams from around the world compete for a chance to play in the worlds most prestigious sporting event. The FIFA World Cup Games begin on June 1th this summer and will run until July 11th. Only 32 nations will be honored enough to play in the games.

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While everyone was busy anxiously awaiting FIFA's latest release and the seeding for the playoff spots, UEFA was busy concocting a ranking of their own and releasing it under unsuspecting eyes. At this point it means little and will only serve to put Euro 2012 qualifying seeding into perspective, still some way off yet, but it's always interesting to see how others differ from the entirely rubbish FIFA ranking system.

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UEFA 2010 World Cup Qualifying Play-Off Draw Released - Monday, October 19, 2009-1.052009-10-19 14:19:42Jonathon Feyerherm

The UEFA (Europe) region has released the draw for the top 8 second place finishers in the group stage. There will be four teams advancing as the matches will be a home and away.

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The matches will be:

Ireland France
Portugal Bosnia
Greece Ukraine
Russia Slovenia

Photo via The Offside

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It's official. France's playoff opponent is Ireland.

And Raymond Domenech is kissing the boots of UEFA for deciding to seed the draw.

France, the 1998 world champions, 2000 European champions and beaten World Cup finalists in 2006, will have the advantage of playing the second leg on home soil against an Ireland side coached by Giovanni Trapattoni.

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The slightly controversial UEFA bridesmaid's draw has taken place and fortunately it's gone off without controversy. Somehow, someway, despite UEFA being involved, Liverpool and Chelsea will not meet. Who knew?

It's rather pedestrian, really, as perhaps the two best teams France and Russia were handed the easiest draw.

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Here is the European World Cup qualifying playoff draw.
Matches & Scores:
1st Leg
-Sat Nov 14
Ireland v France
Portugal v Bosnia-Herzegovina
Greece v Ukraine
Russia v Slovenia
2nd Leg
-Wed Nov 18
France v Ireland
Bosnia-Herzegovina vPortugal
Ukraine v Greece
Slovenia v Russia Click to continue reading...

The four playoffs for the European Zone of World Cup 2010 qualification are:
Republic of Ireland v France
Portugal v Bosnia-Hercegovina
Greece v Ukraine
Russia v Slovenia
France, Portugal, Greece and Russia as the seeded teams are favorites with the bookies to progress to the World Cup finals in South Africa. Click to continue reading...

Meet the tough little forward whose foot was sliced open yet he carried on, even scoring as the blood seeped out.
"But the lifestyle is very difficult for me. There are a lot of rules I don't understand. In Russia, you can break any rule. Here you can't break rules.''
"There are a lot of crazy things here. Click to continue reading...

The game swill be played November 14th & 18th. Should be some tense battles.Ireland v France Portugal v Bosnia Greece v Ukraine Russia v Slovenia- Greg Seltzer Click to continue reading...

The Republic of Ireland national football team will have to beat France in order to participate in the 2010 World Cup South Africa. This was decided in Zurich� this afternoon (Monday) in a controversial seeded draw.

The two sides (Ireland and France) last met in the 2006 World Cup qualifying stages sharing a 0-0 draw in Paris; a Thierry Henry goal was the difference between the two sides in Ireland.

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With the Ballon d'Or nominations finally releasing this weekend, the headlines have mostly been devoted to the fact that world champions Italy have no representation whatsoever. But why blame the press for paying excessive attention to an irrelevant detail? After all, the award itself is destined to be heading Lionel Messi's way, which means very little is there to be talked about in terms of debating the winner, right?

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