In a move that seemed to be coming based off of his position in preseason games, the Wizards have signed Birahim Diop to a contract. The former Metrostars player is back in MLS after a 9 year leave from the league. Diop played for the Metrostars in the 2001 and 2002 seasons, not appearing much for the club. Click to continue reading...

In only a few hours time the Columbus Crew will renew their battle for the CONCACAF Champions League when they take on Toluca of the Mexican First Division at Crew Stadium. The match is the first leg of a two game series, the second of which will take place on Toluca's home turf, Estadio Nemesio Diez. Click to continue reading...

The halcyon days of the 60's, 70's and 80's were apparently a boom time in England's glorious history of great goalkeepers. From the benchmark that was the great Gordon Banks and his understudy, Peter Springett, to the rotation of Ray Clemence and Peter Shilton in the 70's and early 1980's, England always had a top class goalkeeper.

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Good afternoon everyone. We're here in Orlando, Florida for the Walt Disney Soccer Classic consolation match between FC Dallas and the Houston Dynamo.

This is Franco Panizo and I will be providing commentary throughout the match so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

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A seven day break was supposed to ensure that our walking wounded had the chance to recover for tonight's Champions League resumption. Unfortunately, the opposite has occurred, and the squad have flown to Portugal without Almunia, Gallas, Song, Eduardo and Arshavin.

Most have ready made replacements who will be determined to prove a point.

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Another fascinating night in the Premier League where Chelsea 2-1 loss at Everton on Wednesday allowed Manchester United to move within a point of the league leaders.

Loius Saha scored two and missed a penalty as Everton stunned Chelsea at Goodison. Florent Malouda had put Chelsea ahead early in the first half, but Chelsea's weakness at set pieces undid them again.

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So the expected has happened, and Graham Arnold steps into the chair vacated, voluntarily it seems, by the man who replaced him at Northern Spirit.
For all his team's staleness over the past year, Lawrie McKinna's contribution to the nascent A-League has been considerable, and worthy of great respect. Click to continue reading...

The word "drog" should be in the dictionary(no not the urban one). "Drog" verb- Completely dominating one's opponent in the style of an Ivorian footballing machine.

It was an all too familiar story at Stamford Bridge. Dider Drogba, 12 goals in 12 games against Arsenal.

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I think Sotirios Kyrgiakos will have a key role to play in Saturday's derby.
I'll be honest; when I first saw the big Greek defender play I wasn't impressed. I didn't think he was good enough for a club of Liverpool's stature but he's made me reassess.
Over the past four games he has been excellent. Click to continue reading...

It is an old football adage that a great team is built around a great spine. With that in mind, Arsene Wenger is in big trouble.

In two home games against their two main rivals, Arsenal have been totally overrun, registering comprehensive defeats to Chelsea (0-3) and Manchester United (1-3).

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Most people want Arsene to sign a striker and/or a goal keeper while some want a defensive midfielder. I don't deny the fact that any or all of these signings would strengthen the squad. Well, that's the whole point to signing players anyway. Having said that, in my opinion, the most important signing would be a defense coach.

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It's always the Rooney's and the Terry's of this world making the headlines (although not always for the right reason's) so it's about time some of the lesser players got some kudos. So here it goes.

10. Danny Murphy – A key, Key man for Fulham.

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Bolton's new boss Owen Coyle could hardly have been handed a trickier first fixture with his new club – a home tie against an in-form Arsenal side. The Gunners ran out deserved 2-0 winners but there were some encouraging signs to take away from the home side's display.

Under previous boss Gary Megson Bolton offered very little in attack and were a very one-dimensional side.

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A trip to Goodison Park is a game that has been labelled by some as Roberto Mancini's first 'real test', following a run of games thought of as easing the Italian into the role.
Fixtures against Everton are not ones we have yielded a great amount of success from in recent times, and tomorrow's game is played with Tuesday's sem-final looming large. Click to continue reading...

As those of you who have read my match preview will know, I expect Tottenham will beat Hull quite comfortably.

The punters at Betfair agree, making Tottenham the 7/25 favourites, with the draw at 5/1 and Hull the 12/1 outsiders.

These odds on the home win are a little stingy.

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Every defence has its deputy. While it takes four to construct and coordinate a back line, there is inevitably a linchpin, a player who directs his team's defensive formation and ensures that the door to goal is kept well and truly shut.

For Barcelona, that skipper is Carles Puyol, the aging but foot-perfect rock called upon to extinguish danger when all other remedies have failed.

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By FRANCO PANIZO

The 2010 MLS Combine is history, but before it gets put to bed, we're going to look at the combine's top performers.

While several players impressed during the three days worth of matches in freezing Fort Lauderdale, FL., only a few can be labeled as the cream of the crop.

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By FRANCO PANIZO

The 2010 MLS Combine is history, but before it gets put to bed, we're going to look at the combine's top performers.

While several players impressed during the three days worth of matches in freezing Fort Lauderdale, FL., only a few can be labeled as the cream of the crop.

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Sometimes you just don't get the ball enough.   There are 101 reasons we didn't beat Chelsea, but the following is as good an indicator as any:

Against Spurs (lower chalkboards), Zoltan Gera was a genuine fifth midfielder, but playing all over the field and hard to pick up.

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Chelsea 2-1 Fulham.
Well that was nervy wasn't it. Trust Chelsea to go a goal down after 4 minutes and put us through the ringer once more. To our credit we came back and played much better in the second half and deserved the win.
But again sloppy defending cost us as Zoltan Gera had time and space in the box to spin and volley the ball into the bottom corner with Cech beaten to make it one nil Fulham. Click to continue reading...

I must say the starting line up had me a little worried. Looking at Song, Denilson and Diaby in the middle, it was difficult to imagine where the creativity would come from. The initial few minutes were worrisome as Hull went about hassling our players and it was clear that the ref was going to be lenient about it, once again.

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Before I start -Â this is not a rant, nor is it a critical analysis of our youth system or our manager. I think we have the best manager in the world and also the best youth set-up in the world, but and it is a big but, as in everything in life there are flaws, and this post is about a certain flaw- AKA Theo Walcott.

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Another "big" team. Another big match. Stoke visit the Emirates for the 100th game at the stadium. It'll also mark the 500th league game in charge for Le Boss and 250th appearance for Cesc in Arsenal colors. Small details that tend to come and go in a fast paced world of short term results and instant judgments.

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Much has been made of Liverpool's catastrophic start to the season; out of the European Cup; out of the Carling Cup, and in danger of finishing outside the top four. As they would if any of the top four were doing badly, the media has overreacted and (predictably) come up with age-old clichés to explain Liverpool's problems. Click to continue reading...

Well, that was a devastating loss. And it's hard to deny that Chelsea didn't deserve to win. But as far as I'm concerned, the 3-0 scoreline definitely flattered Chelsea, and I don't buy that it was "men against boys" out there. We had 12 shots to Chelsea's 14; we had 56% of the possession; more corner kicks than Chelsea; and most of the match action took place in Chelsea's half of the field.

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I'm not a fan of November. All semblance of summer has disappeared, it rains all the time, and Arsenal always struggle. Oh, and there's always an international break. It just isn't a great month.

And it hasn't been one this year. Van Persie's injury has developed into one that threatens his entire season, Gibbs has joined Clichy on the sidelines, Gallas can't see, and we've lost our unbeaten run.

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Match Observations: Portsmouth 1-4 Manchester United

The scoreline may suggest that this was an easy, comfortable victory but this unfortunately was far from it as set-pieces had played a large part in a game, where, Portsmouth had had slightly more goal attempts that United in a game which had three penalties.

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With none of the big clubs looking self assured or dominant in their CL campaign so far, this could be the year of Les Girondins. They have dispatched Bayern and Juventus convincingly in a tough group. And they have done it with their set pieces and inventive midfield play led by Jaroslav Plaisil and Yoann Gourcuff.

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Shep seems to think that Bruce Arena's performance this season is proof that the coach RBNY should hire one that they already fired. He also believes that set pieces win the game and that fly-away cuffs are the look for fall/winter 2009. Click to continue reading...

The Major League Soccer Playoffs had its Conference Finals this weekend as the LA Galaxy hosted the Houston Dynamo in the Western Conference and Real Salt Lake traveled to Chicago Fire in the Eastern Conference. The first match was the Dynamo and Galaxy who played on Friday, November 13, 2009. Who won and what happened in the match?

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All-out footie mixtape king Alarazboy has figured out exactly why the likes of Zlatan, Henry & Messi are so rigoddamndiculous; they're all mutants. Surely FIFA has something in the rule books about that right? If not they will just as soon as "Super Baby" Benjamin Aguerro, son of Sergio Aguerro/grandson of Diego Maradona, reveals to the world in an Argentine U-3s match that he has the ability to both levitate during set pieces and disappear/reappear at will a la Nightcrawler. Click to continue reading...

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- In addition to this site, try the combination messageboard and quasi-blog QPR Report Messageboard. If your're interested in constantly-updated QPR-related news; QPR nostalgia; and some other broader football-related isssues: QPR Report Messageboard is there for you. All opinions welcome! Click to continue reading...

Sunday's top of the table clash between Chelsea and Manchester United pits the current Premiership Champions against the current FA Cup winners for the second time this season. The Blues beat the Red Devils on penalties in the annual curtain-raiser, the Community Shield.

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The Fire headed into Sunday's Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals at the New England Revolution knowing that they couldn't afford to give the Revs many set piece opportunities.

"We have to limit their set pieces," Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett said earlier this week. "[We have to be careful on] throw-ins and corner kicks because they do well with those.

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After three consecutive years suffering playoff heartbreak against the Revolution, the Fire will try to extend their playoff winning streak against the Revs to two series this Sunday, when the two sides meet at Gillette Stadium for Game 1 (1 p.m. on FSC) of their two game Eastern Conference Semifinal matchup.

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by CARL EDLRIDGEÂ Baffling coverage in this morning's papers devoting vaulable space to the fact that a toilet in a run-down pit of a place in north London is being knocked down. See the story here in the Telegraph.

Meanwhile, Andrey Arshavin gives his take on the disappointing draw at West Ham on Sunday in this morning's papers and, unlike his leaden-footed performance seemed to demonstrate at Upton Park, it seems he does care.

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The kind of performance that silences critics.

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Well that was just what the doctor ordered...and then some. Its hard to imagine a more perfect result for Rafa and Liverpool Football Club, obviously having Javier Mascherano sent off late on was not ideal but in many ways him giving his all for the team all the way until the last seconds, hence the late challenge on Edwin Van der Sar, is in many ways a good thing and shows that the Argentine is mentally back on the ball.

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Hello Gooners. West Ham 2 Arsenal 2 it finished. Excuse the rage I'm feeling right now but I'll try not to be downright acidic in my assessment in London Derby Number 2 against the Hammers.

Complacency, CarltonCole and Choking. 3 C's I said we needed to be wary of against the Hammers.

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The third C-word to consider is choking. Can you have both 'choking' and 'complacency' in one game. I believe you can. Hello, Gooners wherever in the world you are reading this. As promised this is my second preview-ish post to the game against West Ham. Why two posts BEFORE a game? Special games need special focus.

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Evening, campers.

Perhaps noteworthy, tomorrow will see the loudest two sets of fans come head to head for the first time this season. According to those poindexters with the clipboards and ear horns, Stoke and Tottenham emit the highest level of decibels from their respective strongholds; with Stoke ahead by a whisper.

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