Photo by John Todd/ISIphotos.com

After coming off a dominant run through CONCACAF Olympic qualifying, the U.S. women's national team had its hands full Saturday night with New Zealand before rising star Alex Morgan came to the rescue.

Morgan scored in the 88th minute and again in stoppage time to help the U.

Cristiano Ronaldo struck his sixth Liga hat-trick of the season as Real Madrid came from behind to beat ten-man Levante 4-2 and go ten points clear of Barcelona at the summit.

FC Barcelona were shocked 3-2 at Osasuna on Saturday, but Gustavo Cabral gave Levante an unexpected fifth-minute lead it looked like Madrid would miss out on the opportunity to push their lead into double digits.

Chicago Fire original CJ Brown played in his last professional soccer game on October 23, 2010. Both Brown and teammate Brian McBride had announced their retirements days earlier. Chicago was already eliminated from the playoffs going into the game. Prior to kick-off the players knew it was going to be only the second time in the club's history that the Fire did not make the playoffs.

szólj hozzá: Man Utd v Liverpool 2:1 GOALS

The scoreline does not reflect how good Man Utd were or the dire Liverpool performance especially in the second half. That was on the pitch as the rest of the world tuned into the Luis Suarez vs Patrice Evra telenovela.

The Manchester side came to play football while the Reds came to do, well, whatever Luis Suarez wanted to do.

Photo by Brad Smith/ISIphotos.com

Planning for summer friendlies is already in the works, and it appears that the New York Red Bulls will be welcoming one of the Premier League's top sides to Red Bull Arena for an exhibition.

According to the New York Post, the Red Bulls will play against Tottenham either July 31 or Aug.

FC Barcelona booked their place in the Copa Del Rey final with a 2-0 victory against Valencia at Camp Nou. Goals from Cesc Fabregas and Xavi gave Barca a bit of nervous victory. Now the final will be against Atletic Bilbao, between the two most successful teams in the Copa Del Rey history.

There is plenty of high-profile soccer going on around the world this Wednesday, but perhaps no games carry as much significance as the two African Cup of Nations semifinals. Ivory Coast and Ghana took care of business in the African Cup of Nations quarterfinals with matching 3-0 victories, and all that stands in the way of a star-studded tournament final is one more win for each team.

Two goals from Didier Drogba and a fine free kick from Yaya Toure gave Ivory Coast a comfortable 3-0 win over Co-host Equatorial Guinea to send the Elephants through to the Semi final where they will face either Gabon or Mali.

In the day's earlier match Zambia beat 10 man Sudan with a scoreline to make it through to the semis for the first time since 1996.

Liverpool vs Tottenham Hotspur
6 February 2012
20.00 GMT
Anfield

History:
Total: 153
Liverpool Wins: 70
Tottenham Wins: 45
Draws: 38

Last Premier League Meeting: 18 September 2011 – Tottenham 4-0 Liverpool

Form:
Liverpool: The last three games have been perhaps the best run of three games Liverpool have had this season, advancing in both cups with first a 2-2 draw against Manchester City in the League Cup then a 2-1 win over Manchester United in the FA Cup, before pulverizing Wolves a weekend ago by a 3-0 scoreline.

In our last poll, we asked whether the club needed to sign a striker, winger, attacking midfielder, or holding midfielder in the transfer window to shore up one of the areas of weakness that had become apparent over the course of the 2011-12 season. An overwhelming majority of nearly 70% said that what the club needed more than anything was a striker, while 17% said winger, 8% said attacking midfielder, and only 5% said holding midfielder.

We thought it'd be appropriate to spend a few minutes of today to send our thoughts and prayers out to the families of Egypt's football tragedy last night. Contrary to popular beliefs, we all know that football shouldn't be a matter of life and death. Lives can't be taken away out of one's anger at the scoreline of a match.

Sunder, Sunder, SUNDERLAND, HO! - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Ever since I saw the scoreline for Sunderland's win against Norwich yesterday, the above title has been ringing around in my head. There's always the uplifting effect that a new manager has on the club and yes, many of the mid-table clubs in the Premier League haven't fared too well of late, but Sunderland's sustained success in the last couple of months is heartening.

How bad was Wolves' 3-0 home loss to Liverpool on Tuesday? Andy Carroll scored the match's opening goal. That's how bad. It was his first league goal since October. Liverpool scored two more second half goals to leave Wolves with 18 points from 23 matches and slumped over at 19th in the table.

STARTERS
Remember two weeks ago when forward Kris Boyd of Rangers turned down Houston? Well, today he signed with Portland!! Hoooo-Weeeee! Bet he won't receive a friendly welcome when he makes his first visit to whatever that new stadium in Houston is called.
dN
After getting a yellow card in the first minute of play(!

After sweeping through the qualifying for the Olympics 2012 in London like Charlie Sheen on Tiger Blood, the USWNT decided to put their emphatic stamp on the tourney and ensure a top seed. Wambach nets two to move her to 2nd all time in FIFA's top women goal scorers (131) and the US rolls to a 4-0 win that wasn't as close as the scoreline indicates.

Arsene Wenger has said that he can take criticism from his own fans as the club heads into the business end of the 2011/12 season.

Last weekend, Arsenal once again lost to bitter rivals Manchester United by a scoreline of 2-1, which was their third consecutive league defeat. Wenger infamously substituted impressive Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with severely out-of-form Andrey Arshavin in the second half of the match.

Very interesting reports emerging that are linking Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger with Mourinho's job at Real Madrid. Though very flattering the possibilities of Wenger leaving Arsenal any time soon are almost zero!

However, the same cannot be said of Jose Mourinho. The 'special one' once again had a negative result against arch rivals Barcelona, this time going down 4-3 on aggregate after pulling 2 goals back to level the scoreline in their Copa Del Rey quarter final return fixture at the Nou Camp.

Liverpool 2 Gerrard 40′ (pk), Bellamy 74′
Manchester City 2 de Jong 31′, Dzeko 67′

"Would it be a risk to play defensively?" the reporter asked Kenny Dalglish as Liverpool prepared to face Manchester City at Anfield in the second leg of the League Cup semi-finals.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard wants to maintain focus ahead of Wednesday's Carling Cup semi-final second leg - by banning talk of Wembley.
The Reds hold a 1-0 lead over Manchester City from the first leg and are favourites to progress ahead of the return game at Anfield, but Gerrard insists the team must prepare correctly.

It has been announced that the Philadelphia Union would be hosting the 2012 MLS All-Star game at PPL Park. Philadelphia is an ideal location and few could argue they do not deserve to host such an event. They have a lively crowd who are passionate, knowledgeable and they have a facility which rivals every stadium in MLS save perhaps for LiveStrong Park.

On the eve of one of the more important matches of the season for Real Madrid, manager Jose Mourinho is making headlines again for all the wrong reasons.

According to reports out of Spain, Mourinho is letting it be known that he wants out of Madrid at the end of this season, which would be two years into his four-year contract with the club.

By Alan Duffy

Sometimes the world isn't fair. And for League Two Morecambe on Saturday, the world was very very unfair.

After getting the scoreline back to 2-1 in their home clash with Torquay, play-off hopefuls Morecambe pushed for a late equaliser.

Surprised? No. Disappointed? Of course.

Watching that match was painful, and I'm sure most of you caught the match. I will describe the match in laconic detail, in order to spare us the pain:

First Half: We were dire. Really, really dire. We couldn't get out of own half for most of the half, as United, who weren't so hot themselves, probed for an opener.

Lionel Messi scored his first away hat-trick of the season to give Barca a comfortable 4-1 victory over Malaga. The match wasn't as comfortable as the score-line suggest. In the first half Malaga had some serious chances and ended as 1-0. Rondon scored the consolation goal for Malaga.

Besides using nothing but acronyms, if you missed the record setting game yesterday for the USWNT, then, wow...Let's break it down for you:14-0... Scoreline for the US.37"... The amount of time for the US to score their first goal.1991... The last time the US scored at least 12 goals in a match.5... record tying number of goals scored by a USWNT player, in this case, Amy Rodriguez (5 in one half,
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FC Barcelona rallied from a goal down to beat Real Madrid 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday night. The scoreline in the Copa del Rey quarter-final sees Barca head...

The time has finally come to play out the reverse fixture of the 8-2 defeat that Arsenal suffered at the hands of Manchester United on that horrific August evening at Old Trafford. The memories of that mauling are fresh on the minds of not only the Gunners fans but also European bookies like Champions League betting, which is why Arsenal have been priced as the underdogs even though this Sunday's match is taking place in the North Londoners' own backyard.

After scoring the winner against Leeds a week ago, many Arsenal fans expected their legendary club icon Thierry Henry to carry on where he left off against Swansea yesterday.

However, a controversial goal in the 16th minute from Scott sinclair brought the home side level on one goal apiece after Robin Van Persie had netted in the 5th minute.

Barcelona returned to within five points of Liga leaders Real Madrid with a 4-2 defeat of ten-man Real Betis, on a day when Athletic Club improved their European chances by beating Levante.

Josep Guardiola's men made an explosive start at Camp Nou as Xavi Hernández opened the scoring after ten minutes and Lionel Messi took his league tally to 18 shortly afterwards.

Adu had some moments.The U.S. Men's National Team opened up 2012 with some very interesting talking points. Certain call ups, certain omissions, scrimmages and of course the obvious questions that accompany such things. First up would be the scrimmage between the full team and the Under 23's.
The senior squad paid a lesson to the U23 Olympic team with a 4-0 dismantling of their younger brothers.

BY ADAM SERRANO

CARSON, Calif. -- There were plenty of lessons learned on Friday as the United States senior squad soundly defeated the U.S. Under-23's 4-0 in a scrimmage that took place on the Mooch Myernick Field at the Home Depot Center complex.

Following their terrific performance to knock City out of the FA Cup it's back to Premier League business this weekend for United who are a top priced 1.16 to beat Bolton at Old Trafford and keep the pressure on Mancini's men. The performance put in by Wayne Rooney and Co to beat City 3-2 at the Eithad would have delighted Sir Alex, as they looked sharp and threatening and a different side to the one that got hammered 3-0 at St James'.

Meet Francisco Cruz, the winner of the FIFA Interactive World Cup of 2011. He won an invite to the Ballon d'Or on Monday and like a real pro, he gave one of his favourite players - Wayne Rooney - a battering on the FIFA 12! In an imagined encounter between his native Portugal and Rooney's England, the scoreline ended 3-0 in Francisco's favour and he later received a diploma for his win.

Stay cool, it may feel like deja vu but you're not in the Matrix. It's just this French invention of adding to the venerable Coupe de France a modern nemesis called Coupe de la Ligue, and programming them at the same period.

This cup is the least respected of the two and many presidents already said it should be abandoned, but it has at least two advantages : First, it is the shortest route to a title, meaning it's an opportunity to salvage your season when you've missed the top spot of the championship (thinking of anyone?

For the third time in two months, Liverpool and Manchester City square off, this time in the first leg of their League Cup semi-final. Liverpool's trip to the Eastlands last week ended with the visitors on the wrong end of a 0-3 result that saw City concede most of the possession but take the chances they managed to create.

By Chris Wright

A flurry of late goals saw Chelsea rack up an impressive scoreline against Championship paupers Portsmouth at Stamford Bridge, with Juan Mata sticking away Florent Malouda's cut-back just after half-time before Ramires (85th and 87th minutes) and Frank Lampard (93rd) padded out the rout as the clock dwindled down to nowt.

• Kop That: The Sweeper: Tottenham will hold imminent talks with London Mayor to discuss £18m 'take-it-or-leave-it' ... http://t.co/n3VaFama 23:32:33, 2012-01-06
• Kop That: Dickov Something was said http://t.co/C9sz0j8J 23:32:24, 2012-01-06
• Kop That: Reds and police probe incident http://t.

A comfortable scoreline and advancement to the next round of the FA Cup. Struggling players getting on the scoresheet. A good day, then. Even a great day. When absolutely nothing went wrong and no bad news came out...

* Luis Suarez served the second match of his eight-game ban, Andy Carroll scored, and Stewart Downing broke his 22-match scoring drought.

Manager Kenny Dalglish admits the 5-1 scoreline in Liverpool's FA Cup third-round triumph over Oldham at Anfield flattered his side.
The League One visitors took a deserved lead through Robbie Simpson's brilliant strike in the 28th minute but a freakish deflected equalizer from Craig Bellamy soon after was followed by Steven Gerrard's penalty just before half-time.

Mail: Kenny Dalglish admits Oldham Athletic result flattered Liverpool

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish admitted the 5-1 scoreline in their FA Cup third-round victory over Oldham flattered his side. The League One visitors took a deserved lead through Robbie Simpson's brilliant strike.