Stowe sent me this "100 Greatest Quotes from The Wire" video on Twitter the other day, and I watched it, and I was like, "Oh my God, The Wire," because I haven't seen it in a few years and this sort of brought it all back. Then, for no obvious reason, this video started tugging at my brain after the Thierry Henry handball rocked the core of everything that had a core to rock yesterday.

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It is a shame that the only news in Brisbane today on the Melbourne match this weekend is bletting my Robbie Kruse. It is hardly likely that the Roar will doom their hopes by using the same approach twice. Click to continue reading...

Thierry Henry certainly isn't making any Irish eyes smile tonight.

Ireland is fuming after Henry admittedly handled a ball that he immediately played to William Gallas who put it in the net to tie Ireland at 1-1 and send France into the World Cup virtue of a 2-1 aggregate victory.

Here's a video of Henry's incident:

In my book, it's a complete shame that Ireland failed to make the World Cup because of such an obvious hand ball.

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Rafa Benitez today revealed that he originally bought Robbie Keane to be the linkman between Gareth Barry and Fernando Torres.But when he failed to sign Barry, Robbie Keane was quickly sold "as collateral damage".That clears that one up then. I thought Keane was sold because Benitez didn't fancy him as a player. Click to continue reading...

Back to some real football this weekend with the return of the Premiership and the arrival of Wigan at White Hart Lane. It's just a shame we have to wait till Sunday! I'll be at the O2 for the tennis unfortunately, but I'm hopeful of arriving home to a positive result and lots of goals.

It's another one of those games that on paper, you'd fully expect Tottenham to win.

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It has been revealed that Xabi Alonso may have been prevented from writing an open-letter to Liverpool's fans when he left the club. Given the Spaniard's contribution to the club, I find this to be very disappointing.
Both John Arne Riise and Luis Garcia wrote open letters to Liverpool fans when they left the club, both of which were published on the official Liverpool FC website. Click to continue reading...

Well, it had to happen, didn't it? The Interlull had been so dull and tedious the only thing that could spark a bit of life into it was an injury to one of our players. It certainly wasn't going to be the football as anyone who sat through the Sunday park football shitstravaganza that was Ireland v France last night will tell you.

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I mean, I don't like either of these two teams, so maybe I'm biased. But that was dumb. The lights going out? So classy. Houston not scoring in regular time again? You really don't deserve to go to the final
Anyway, if you're really interested in the LA-Houston game last night, here's the game recap. Click to continue reading...

The look of the player on the pitch, a skilled & fiery workhorse, captures the fan's� imagination, but what follows?

Few goals, lots of whining, a desire to quit.

If this was said about Carlos Tevez in relation to Manchester United you might take pause to consider if he was done wrong and has a grevience.

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Man United midfielder Darren Fletcher hasn't had the best of weeks when it comes to decisions of referee's, he has put that down to what Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said about him.
Fletcher has only just returned from injury for United, last Wednesday he has his feet taken out from under him against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League. Click to continue reading...

There are plenty of stories being knocked out this week from Abu Dhabi - no doubt in attempt by journos to justify the expense of jetting them out for the best part of the week, and The Guardian carries one that, whilst not a new subject, is always interesting in how it lifts the lid on the disharmony during the 2008/09 season. Click to continue reading...

Denmark's Footballer of The Year

I have always believed that everyone has their advantages and flaws in certain areas that is different from one another. Some can paint, some can sing, some can dance, while others are just plain stupid. Case in point, Darren Fletcher. After the Chelsea game, he was quoted to say that

I think we are starting to see Mr Wenger's comments starting to influence referees which is a shame really.

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Darren Fletcher in particular. He was the hatchet man in Utd's win over Arsenal on August 29th and did quite a number on Cesc Fabregas.

Well, after the match Arsene Wenger talked at length about the anti-football display. He did not mention Fletcher's name but everyone can read between the lines.

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Much hype surrounded the talented U.S. U-17 national team during the Fifa World Cup in Nigeria. Ultimately, the team fell flat, losing in the round of 16 to a classier Italy side. And so the mumblings have started, gnawing into America's rotten system of developing professional players. "Is the Academy system the best way to develop players?

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Rafa Benitez says Alberto Aquilani will finally get his Anfield debut against Birmingham on Monday.
The Italy international was signed for £20 million man in August but has since been recovering from a knee operation and latterly a recent virus problem.
But the 25-year-old - who played for a few minutes in the Carling Cup defeat at Arsenal - now looks set to be thrown on from the bench against the Blues. Click to continue reading...

Hmmm. At the start of the season this was supposed to be the blockbuster that Gold Coast would steal from the Roar. But with only 5,400 watching and quite a few of those in Sydney colours you would have to say Gold Coast have a long, long way to go build a fan base.
Shame really as this game was won by Jason Culina who was at his best. 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...

Has there been a better team goal in this season's A-League than Wellington's second against Newcastle last night (about two and a half minutes into this)? If Paul Ifill's surging run down the left was typically impressive, Costa Barbarouses' nonchalant flick was sublime. And Chris Greenacre's finish was no less classy. Click to continue reading...

Just when you thought our season couldn't get much worse, along comes Lyon to equalise in the last couple of minutes. We're not out of the Champions League yet, but we're relying on some serious favours now.
It's a shame that Babels stunning goal didn't give us the deserved win. And apart from a couple of defensive errors, can't really fault anyones performance. Click to continue reading...

Chivers with Bill Nicholson/From BBC Sport

Spurs and Southampton legend Martin Chivers joins us on the podcast. Among the topics discussed are:

• His new autobiography
• His current hospitality work with Spurs
• His thoughts on Spurs potential new stadium
• What it took get noticed by Southampton
• Did the move to White Hart Lane help his prospects for making Alf � Ramsey's England squad?

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It looks like we have shut the Spuds up for another few months then with a performance that left even the most hardy Spurs fans noting that they had some way to go to catch up with us.

I had a very good feeling before the game, a feeling I hadn't had since that 5-1 beating we took. Maybe it was confidence or just a sign of what was to come, whatever it was I liked it and enjoyed every second of this North London Derby.

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Well, wasn't that all a pleasant surprise last night. Getting a lead, and holding it (eventually), Nasri and Eduardo getting 90 minutes, Craig Eastmond being an absolute powerhouse in the middle of the park, the fact that the more Liverpool raised the tempo, the better we played, Fabianksi not looking like Nervianski at all, Kerrea (FYI Sky it's not Gary or Ciara) growing into his position, Fran's wonder strike. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal face Liverpool tonight in the Carling Cup, a competition that Wenger has religiously used to give reserves, youth players and first team squad players a run-out. � We have had some success over the years, reaching one final and three semi-finals, so the policy has its merits. � I would like Wenger to take the competition a little more seriously and start to use more experienced players the closer got to the final.

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Go take a trip down memory lane and see how many of these USA jerseys you remember with fondness (superheroes! Speed Racer! shame about the centered logo)... nausea (to be fair, the 90's boasted some hideous jerseys, but still)... or pain (ugh,... Click to continue reading...

Maybe the Bayern Munich U-17s *would* start in MLS since Toronto apparently got beat by a teenage girls side on the weekend. From Monday's Du Nord:

. . . a "correspondent" on from Toronto who was all but bragging about how his team TFC would make the playoffs because their opponent in the final round was a "Kansas City U14 Girls team".

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что же, спрашивается, Вы говорите о Вас сумасшедший человек?

I don't understand a word of it either. What I do know is that whilst 'The Emperor' looked sharp tonight in a hold-up role. However he had plenty of chances to place his name on the scoresheet that went wanting.

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Its Carling Cup time! The trophy that no big club wants to win, but if they win it they'll be happy to gloat about it anyway. Visions of Mourinho celebrating back� in� 2007 when they beat us in the final� still make me sick.

Rafa's red revolution received a massive boost when they humiliated Utd on Sunday.

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Apart from a nervy 20 odd minutes towards the end of the match, Liverpool were awesome against Man Utd, there can be no doubting we deserved to win. The following were the real stand performers :-
Carragher was immense and showed us the Carra of old with a domineering performance and never gave United a chance (although he got lucky with avoiding a red card for his challenge on Owen). Click to continue reading...

Ok, so Liverpool have just beaten Man United 2-0 and I really am not happy. United can't just blame the referee but saying that, he definitely played his part.
Fernando Torres was named as man of the match- that probably explains everything. All he did was score a goal and fall to the floor. Click to continue reading...

Nice soccer team ya got there.
Be a shame if something happened to it. Like, God forbid, your playoff hopes go for an evening cruise on the Stugots with a couple of fat guys in see-through socks.
Or soaking wet young Senegalese guys
Toronto FC showed up at the Meadowlands last night pretty confident. Click to continue reading...

Indonesia Super League
PSPS v Persijap 0-0
Three consecutive clean sheets for former Sriwijaya keeper Dede Sulaiman as PSPS blanked out early leaders Persijap at the Rumbai Stadium in Pekanbaru. Noor Hadi, who hit a hat trick last time out for Persijap, hit the foot of the post with a free header, as opposed to a header you must book in advance on line and pay for using a credit card. Click to continue reading...

After their irmãos lost to Ghana in the painful U-20 World Cup final last week, Lucho Nizzo's kids are raring to go and win the U-17 World Cup in Nigeria, which kicks off tomorrow! We could probably call them fetos (fetuses) for now, but Coutinho doesn't look like one, so we'd best find another name.

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That was disappointing! Letting an inferior team equalize to force a draw at the dead brings back painful memory for a lot of Arsenal supporters.
Ronald Koeman did what he said to the press: his team maintained ball possession against Arsenal and actually had slightly more possession overall in the match. Click to continue reading...

So now that I have sobered up from the drunken stupor after the Valencia Barca match I can look at things a little more subjectively before our next encounter.

But first a recap of our adventure with the best team in the world.

In case you missed it.

Which if you did..

shame on you.

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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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