The members of Manchester City not busy with international duty finally met the man who pays their massive wages for the first time yesterday in Abu Dhabi, ahead of today's friendly against the United Arab Emirates (which City lost 1-0). The awkwardness of the occasion is evident especially the shot at 10 second into the video where it appears they just finished talking about the weather and now have absolutely nothing left to say to each other.

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Jogaram em Serravalle, no Stadio Olimpico, para um público de 1.745 pessoas, as seleções de San Marino (203º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção da Eslovênia (49º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
12-08-2009 - Eslovênia 5x0 San Marino (Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo)
O quarteto de arbitragem que foi definido para esse jogo, foi:
Árbitro: Zsolt SZABO-HUN
Primeiro Assistente: Vencel TOTH-HUN
Segundo Assistente: Oszkar LEMON-HUN
Quarto Árbitro: Sandor SZABO-HUN
Aos 12 minutos de San Marino, o camisa 9, Manuel MARANI recebeu o primeiro cartão do jogo. Click to continue reading...

Remember that one coach that got busted for driving drunk?
First he got suspended. Well now he got fired.
That's a lesson to the kids.
Now the links:

• Quotes o' the week. [Sanford's Soccer Net]
  
• Aquilani's Liverpool debut coming? [ESPN]
  
• W.

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The Czech Republic's fate rested in the hands of San Marino who were unable to prevent Slovenia from winning and rendered this game meaningless.

Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager!

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Tabloid offers pretty low reward for pretty impossible task The Czech Republic recognises that its chances of qualifying for the World Cup are pretty bleak. They need to beat Northern Ireland tonight and hope that minnows San Marino can beat Slovenia to allow them to sneak into a play-off spot. Czech newspaper Blesk is offering San [. Click to continue reading...

.The Czech Republic got a 2-0 victory over Poland on Oct 10 in a home match at Sparta Stadium. The first half of the match was uneventful. In the first half goalkeeper, Peter Cech saved a closed one to one shot by Irenuesz Jelen in the 33 rd minute. After a few minutes, a goal [...] Click to continue reading...

Bir yıl önce Andy Selva post'u blog'un ilk post'u olarak San Marino'lu halk kahramanına selamlarımızı gönderiyordu. Bu yıl içerisinde Kaka-Ronaldo transferleri, Beşiktaş'ın şampiyonluğu, Barcelona'nın oynadığı futbol ve Rijkaard'ın Türkiye'ye gelişi gibi pek çok tarihi olay yaşadık. Click to continue reading...

England had already qualified before their defeat to the Ukraine - several other teams joined them on Saturday, including Italy after their last gasp equaliser against Ireland. Read on for a full round up of what is left to be decided (when time is short and articles are factual we tend to reproduce the best of the rest - that's the case here, lawyers, we are reprinting an article from the ever-excellent Football365.

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We know Arshavin is unavailable for tomorrow. Fabregas is back, although Nasri, Walcott are unavailable. So it is fair to say we are a little short on creativity and fire power.
Rosicky made his comeback on Wednesday. It might have only been against the mighty San Marino and he only played 56 minutes. Click to continue reading...

It seems strange that a team that has gained 22 points from a possible 24 is not yet guaranteed World Cup qualification. Whilst it is true that England, Netherlands and Spain have perfect qualification records, Germany might feel like they have also done enough already. In fact they face a tense climax to their qualification campaign. Click to continue reading...

Goodbye! Cheerio! See ya later, Interlull. Yeah, that's right. Pack your bags and shove off.

Thankfully it's over. It seems like the longest Interlull of all time and there have been many lengthy and tedious ones in the past. At this moment in time there don't appear to be any casualties but we'll have to wait for official confirmation of that.

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Czech coach Ivan Hasek revealed he had an agreement with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger on how to utilise midfielder Tomas Rosicky for the game against San Marino.

Speaking after the 7-0 win, Hasek said:

I'm happy above all that Tomas could play, that he was ready for the game.

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It was another full set of matches in UEFA 2010 World Cup Qualifying. While a few teams have already qualified, most of the spots are still up for grabs. Here's a recap of the all the matches on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 along with video highlights.

UEFA 2010 World Cup Qualifying Recap

In Group 3, the Czech Republic kept their hopes alive with a dominating 7-0 win over San Marino.

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The long term injured midfielder played the first hour of the Czech Republic's 7-0 annihilation of San Marino. Hopefully he will be back in Gunners action soon enough!

Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager!

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Remember the fake trailers from the movie Tropic Thunder? Scorcher I, II, III, IV etc. saves the world once again, again and again. This is the scenario for the Polish national team as well. The first part against San Marino was a piece of cake, but we stumbled as early as in the sequel against Northern Ireland.

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Valentino Rossi won in the GP catagory at San Marino in front of000s of "home" fans - his town is 15 km away from the racing track- to open a 30 point lead over Spainard JORGE LORENZO on the World Championships table. The latter finished 2º with anotherSpanish rider DANI PEDROSA coming in 3ºrd & also gaining the 3ºplace in the Championship table. Click to continue reading...

Excellently, the conclusion to the European World Cup 2010 Qualifiers are a mathematical diversion of some consequence.
And all because of one little FIFA rule - that only eight of the nine second placed nations will move forward for the Play-Off head-to-heads in November.
So all your column inches of projection and requirement are mindless chatter as a thoroughly systems thinking approach with a dose of specified game theory is the only way to strategically analyse or plan ahead. Click to continue reading...

This week, three days before the Scottish Premier League season started, Scotland had to play a World Cup 2010 qualifying match against Norway. They got hammered. 4-0 to Norway.Also in World Cup Qualifying action were France, Croatia and Germany, not to mention San Marino. I said : not to mention San Marino. Click to continue reading...

The seventeenth round of Allsvenskan leaves us scratching our heads, with absolutely no idea what to expect in the title race. Allsvenskan has been called the second most competitive league in Europe after the top flight in San Marino and it's certainly living up to that reputation. The top five teams are currently all neck-in-neck with only three points separating Helsingborg in first place from AIK in fifth. Click to continue reading...

Hardly a month has passed since Barcelona's triumph in Rome, and Europe's best are back at it again. Well, maybe not the "best." The revised format for Champions League qualifying has the continent's diminutive champions taking the field first. The first round kicked-off Tuesday with matches between the champions of Malta, Andorra, Montenegro and San Marino, allowing Europe's longest of long shots to enjoy a moment in the spotlight. Click to continue reading...

Missing in action
14 Penalties Missed By England Players In The Last Fifty Years
(not including penalty shoot-outs)
1. Bobby Charlton (v Scotland, 1960)
2. Alan Ball (v Finland, 1966)
3. Francis Lee (v Wales, 1969)
4. Allan Clarke (v Malta, 1971)
5. Kevin Keegan (v Switzerland, 1975)
6. Click to continue reading...

The UEFA World Cup Qualifying is about 2/3 finished with some teams already qualifying and others still fighting for a spot in South Africa. The Netherlands are the only European country to clinch qualification while others such as England, Serbia, and Spain are within reach with another win or two.

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Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel has stated that he is looking forward to the chance of a rest over the summer months before the Premier League restarts in August.
The 24-year-old will play his last game of the 2008/2009 season when Slovakia meet San Marino in a World Cup qualifier on Saturday, and the Reds central defender has said he is pleased at the chance of a rest. Click to continue reading...

World Cup qual.� -� Africa (Group 1) June 6 FT Gabon 3 - 0 Togo World Cup qual.� -� Africa (Group 2) June 6 FT Tunisia 2 - 0 Mozambique World Cup qual.� -� Africa (Group 3) June 6 FT Zambia 1 - 0 Rwanda World Cup qual.� -� Africa (Group 5) June 6 FT Malawi 0 - 1 Burkina Faso World Cup qual. Click to continue reading...

Here at Chelsea Offside, we'd like to offer our congratulations to Miroslav Stoch for scoring his first-ever international goal in Slovakia's 7-0 demolition of San Marino on Saturday in a World Cup qualifier. Surely, based on goals of this quality, the 19-year-old Chelsea startlet has to see first-team action on a more permanent basis this coming season, eh?

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Newlywed Nilmar scored a fantastic goal for Internacional to seal a 1-0 victory over Corinthians in the opening game of the Brasileirao yesterday. You have to see it... it's unbelievable!

"Nilmar scored a (great) goal and to me, he is the best striker in Brazil," said Coach Tite after the game.

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Stuff to read while you go Looking For Eric#8230;#8230;. Potential Guus replacements - just in case. (SoccerLens) Mourinho enjoys a lap dance. (Dirty Tackle) Mexico is in lots of trouble. (Unprofessional Foul) Throwing a new hat into the Real Madrid presidency ring. (La Liga Loca) Things might just be looking up for Newcastle. Click to continue reading...

Apparently Polish players don't read this blog (after all, most of them don't speak English) as they didn't listen to my plea voiced in the last note. This game was a very harmful experience. Who would have thought that a goalkeeper can be your best player in a game against San Marino. Everything is possible in football, especially in Polish football.

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1. Grup
21:15 İsveç - Macaristan
21:45 Arnavutluk - Malta
22:45 Portekiz - Danimarka
2. Grup
20:30 Moldova - İsrail
21:15 Letonya - Yunanistan
21:30 İsviçre - Lüksemburg
3. Grup
21:30 San Marino - Polonya
21:45 K. Click to continue reading...

I hate these kind of games because you can't gain anything from them. First of all, this is a match that we really MUST win, San Marino is the weakest team in Europe. Secondly, in order not to be criticised we must win by a large margin. Thirdly, if we don't score in the first half then we're in for a lot of nerves as San Marino will play ten behind the ball.

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Everyone says that international football isn't like it used to be, that we can't expect to rock up and beat these smaller nations 7-0 any more.  And perhaps that's right.   But somehow Germany still have that knack.  And we don't. Here are some results, all 21st century: 2007:  beat San Marino 7-0 2006:  beat San Marino 13-0 2006: beat [. Click to continue reading...

A couple Polish guys did and got kicked off the national team.
I don't know much about Poland national team, but I'm guessing with World Cup qualifiers on the schedule, it needs all the players it can get.
But sometimes guys just have to party. As these three did. With some journos at a hotel. Click to continue reading...

Leo Beenhakker presented today a list of players that will compete for Poland in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Slovenia and San Marino. As expected, Artur Boruc, Dariusz Dudka and Radoslaw Majewski were not included after their alcohol adventures in Ukraine. The biggest news is the call up for the Polish league's top goalscorer Pawel Brozek.

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Not the sort of emotions I expected from the friendly against Ukraine. Artur Boruc, Dariusz Dudka and Radoslaw Majewski are banned from the team as a result of late night drinking after the game. They won't play in our World Cup qualifiers against Slovenia and San Marino.

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The 2008/09 UEFA Champions League has begun.
The big boys will get the ball rolling in September, but in the heat of the summer the first qualifying round has begun. Ten matches took place last night, with another four scheduled for tonight.
For many, this stage of the competition may be tedious -- who cares about the Maltese champion! Click to continue reading...