While I'm relatively certain that most dedicated followers of MLS will know what United are getting with the likes of Maicon Santos and Danny Cruz, there's still an element of mystery surrounding the acquisitions from the mid-tier Euro-leagues. Most of us see precious little from Swiss or Austrian clubs outside of perhaps the odd Europa League highlight.

The Ajax Experience x Sid Lee Architecture

Aside from my unwillingness to experience an angry pre-match speech from Frank de Boer, the new Ajax Experience museum is one of the freshest things I've seen.

The city is completely related to its club: Amsterdam is Ajax, Ajax is Amsterdam.

Former Galaxy greats Cobi Jones and Chris Klein marked the installation of two Starlight Children's Foundation FunCenters at Children's Hospital Los Angeles Wednesday ahead of MLS Cup. More than 7,000 FunCenters, which include a TV, DVD player and video game system, have been installed nationwide (Photo courtesy MLS).

Review: Why Football Manager 2012 Will Rock Your World - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

The first impression you get while playing Football Manager 2012 is how it's improved as an imitation of the real thing a genuine simulation of what it means to be a football manager, inasmuch as you can simulate the experience digitally.

Welcome to our new series! I'll be doing this for each and every game this season from now on because, well, it's kind of fun. Essentially what it is is a simulation put on by FIFA 12. I controlled none of the players instead allowing the computer to play as both the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps to get the fairest results.

Jose Mourinho admits he is worried about Real Madrid's current form but said Wednesday's 0-0 draw was down to Racing Santander's negative tactics. After the narrow Super Cup defeat to Barcelona, Madrid looked in good form at the start of the season as they scored ten goals in their opening two La Liga games against Real Zaragoza and Getafe.

NFL warns teams about faking injuries NFL SI.com.

I'm always intrigued when I read about incidents that occur in sports other than soccer that crossover in relevance to the Beautiful Game. Last weekend, in the NFL, we had one of those incidents. It happened in the game between the New York Giants and the St Louis Rams when Giants safety Deon Grant fell to the ground claiming he was unable to continue because of cramp.

Jose Mourinho admits he is worried about Real Madrid's current form but said Wednesday's 0-0 draw was down to Racing Santander's negative tactics. After the narrow Super Cup defeat to Barcelona, Madrid looked in good form at the start of the season as they scored ten goals in their opening two La Liga games against Real Zaragoza and Getafe.

Watch Joey Barton's interview prank, Andre Santos' terrible dancing and the worst case of 'simulation' ever

Presenting quality football videos from the interweb, daily at 3pm. Here's today's collection: 1) One minute he's quoting Orwell, Nietzsche and the Dalai Lama, the next he's chucking plastic bottles at his team-mate's head during a Match of the Day interview.

Real Madrid defender Marcelo received a deserved second yellow card for simulation in Real Madrid's 1-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb in tonights Champions League opener in Zagreb.

As the regular season winds down I'm going to be posting a weekly summary of the some of the data and predictions we're generating, which should give you some context going into each week of games.

Previous Week

MLS play got back into the full swing of things last week after the international break, and it was a week that had a dramatic impact on the state of the league.

As the regular season winds down I'm going to be posting a weekly summary of the some of the data and predictions we're generating, which should give you some context going into each week of games.

Previous Week

Playoff & Trophy Probabilities

This is each team's up to date odds of making the playoffs, winning the Supporter's Shield, and winning the MLS Cup based on simulating the remainder of the season 10000 times.

Henderson admits simulation

Jordan Henderson admits he was correctly booked for simulation during Liverpool's Carling Cup win at Exeter.

View the full story here: Sky Sports

A news article on 2011-08-26 10:44:54 from: Sky Sports

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

As the regular season winds down I'm going to be posting a weekly summary of the some of the data and predictions we're generating, which should give you some context going into each week of games.

Playoff & Trophy Probabilities

This is each team's up to date odds of making the playoffs, winning the Supporter's Shield, and winning the MLS Cup based on simulating the remainder of the season 10000 times.

As the 2011 MLS Season rounds the turn to the final stretch of the regular season, we've been talking about playoffs quite a bit here. We've looked at playoff position and playoff chances based on the current MLS table, based on a simulation, based on a target number of points, based on points per game standings, and so on.

It might seem like madness to start projecting playoff matchups when there's still nearly a third of the regular season yet to play, but the results this past weekend clarified the picture in two different ways.

First, the Sounders are almost certain to make the playoffs. This may seem like some uncomfortable pre-hatch chicken counting, but barring a cataclysmic series of injuries (knock on wood) Seattle will be in it.

Delayed reaction FC Twente player Peter Wisgerhof announced himself as one of football's worst divers with this awful attempt in the Dutch equivalent of the Community Shield against Ajax. Wisgerhof joins the likes of Theo Walcott as players who tried their luck at simulation, only to find that they are not cut out for a [.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

In the aftermath of Charlie Davies' dive that earned a penalty against Real Salt Lake earlier this season, Major League Soccer's discipline committee promised further punishment for future offenders.

Real Salt Lake forward Alvaro Saborio found that out first-hand on Friday, as the league suspended him one game and fined him $1,000 for his dive last weekend against the San Jose Earthquakes that deceived referee David Gantar, who called a penalty and gave a red card to Bobby Burling.

Move over fellas. The women are the biggest draw around this summer. With the viewing numbers set to be released in the next few days (and expect some records to be shattered), the internet has already revealed a new Twitter record for the Women's World Cup final yesterday afternoon. The match between the United States and Japan drew an average 7,196 tweets per second at its peak, breaking the previously held record of 6,939 set just after midnight in Japan on New Year's Day.

We're now halfway through the 2011 MLS season, more or less, and the playoff picture has started to shake out. As the last few seasons have shown, championships aren't won by the best regular season team. The secret to winning an MLS championship is making the playoffs by hook or by crook and then managing your matchups (and a little luck) in the postseason.

Sun burnt and annoyed with another draw.

Quick and Dirty Recap:

New York strikes first in the 40th minute with Joel Lindpere scoring after Yamith Cuesta hit his clearance into Lindpere allowing the Estonian to get the ball and put it past Johnson. From my viewpoint it looked like Cuesta's clearance hit Lindpere's hand which allowed the goal to be scored.

When is diving not simulation? A double whammy for you here. Not only can you enjoy a magnificent goalkeeping howler from New York Red Bulls goalkeeper Greg Sutton, you can then take in a truly inventive celebration from goalscorer Roger Levesque. The striker perches on the pitchside advertising hoardings before holding his nose and launching [.

Quick and Dirty Recap:
No one scored. Sean Johnson had one excellent save on a Collin Warner shot. On this play Jamison Olave juked past Segares and put a square ball in towards the spot. Yamith Cuesta missed the ball as he dove for it giving Warner the clear look. Excellent save by Johnson who continues to be in top form.

Here is the MNT in England feature "Red Bird Flies"
First of all, Red Bird is a nickname that Marcus picked up long before he got his pilot's license. He's also called Boomer for reasons which are still unclear.
Most people - especially his teammates - thought we were bonkers for going up in a plane with Marcus.

By Chris Wright

Those good folk over at EA Sports have just released the briefest of FIFA 12 teasers, with a glimpse into the revamped 'player collision engine' (it uses 'simulation' rather than 'animation' don't you know?) that they hope will make their latest offering more bone-crunching-er than ever.

By Chris Wright

Those good folk over at EA Sports have just released the briefest of FIFA 12 teasers, with a glimpse into the revamped 'player collision engine' (it uses 'simulation' rather than 'animation' don't you know?) that they hope will render the latest game in the FIFA series look and feel more bone-crunching-er than ever before.

Timber!!! This youngster should be asked which player he learnt this from and said footballer should be handed a three-match ban. A culture of diving and simulation seems to be infiltrating youth football. They're just not very good at it. Take Matthew, for instance, who takes a tumble (if you can call that) after an [.

The latest FIFA 11 simulation from EA Sports has predicted the result between Liverpool and Manchester City who are scheduled to play later today. Has EA Sports got the predicted scoreline correct? Check out the video above and then watch the real...
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EA Sports have fed all of the data into their FIFA 11 simulation machine to determine who will win the Champions League matches this week between Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur as well as Chelsea against Manchester United. Watch the above video...
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Thanks to the help of FIFA 11, EA Sports has created a simulation of what they think will happen during Sunday's match of the day when Chelsea takes on Manchester City at Stamford Bridge. The game is of upmost importance to both sides. So while many...
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The ghosts within the FIFA 11 video game have predicted the score of another match, in this case Arsenal versus Barcelona. But this is no ordinary pick. Consider the fact that the FIFA 11 Simulation machine correctly predicted that Manchester United would beat Man City 2-1 at the weekend.

Those video game designers at EA are getting smarter and smarter as each year goes by. So much so that they're now able to predict results of matches in the above simulation of FIFA 11 featuring Newcastle United against Tottenham complete with Martin Tyler and Andy Gray commentary.

Watch the video to see who won the match.

By Tony Alvarez & Laurie Fitzgerald

Fair Play, Theo

By Laurie Fitzgerald

I know this probably isn't normal for a Tottenham fan to start off something like this, but I thought I would start this piece by saying well done to an Arsenal player – and actually mean it!

Theo Walcott's admittance to diving to win his side a penalty in the dying minutes against Leeds in the FA Cup on Saturday was a rare show of honesty in a footballing world where simulation is all too easily used and benefitted from.