As if going 14-0 in a single match during qualifying wasn't enough, you had to go out and drop 13 on Guatemala? Somewhere, MC Hammer is screaming about copyright infringment.LeRoux got a natural hat-trick (3 goals in the same half, all uninterrupted)... actually, she got four before someone else found the net.

Note: This post comes with a Geek Alert!
Television has had a profound influence on football: the players, agents, business models of clubs, the relationship between league play and international football - you name it. And few television programs are more loved by fans than highlight shows like the BBC's Match of the Day, which has been on the air with interruptions) since 1964.

O Grande Jogo (The Big Game)

Os grandes jogos / The big games
1958 - Suécia [sweden]
1962 - Chile
1970 - México
1994 - Estados Unidos [United States]
2002 - Japão/Coreia do Sul [Japan/South Korea]

We all know that Brazilians are proud to have won the World Cup five times.

So, how's that crossing toward Carroll thing going?
Through the first 17 league games, Liverpool averaged just under 19 crosses per match. In the three since, Liverpool are averaging exactly 35 crosses per match, with 43 against Blackburn, 26 against Newcastle, and 36 against City.

This is a fantastic read.

Now, while I have covered two Commonwealth Games for Ugandan newspapers, this was my first EPL match. Within the EPL bureaucracy there is an implant called Dataco. In order to sit in the Press Box, I had to purchase a "Single Match License" from Dataco.

The defender had been set to move to Chelsea for a fee rumoured to be around the £7 million mark. Complications began when personal terms were discussed. It appears that Gary Cahill's representatives believed the player was worthy of a far more lucrative contract than Chelsea were willing to offer him.

As we learned last week, Christmas cheer may be high all across the Serie A, but come the weekend, festivities had to be put on hold for some actual football. This weekend's round of fixtures was the penultimate before the winter break. So what happened this weekend?

On Saturday, current reigning champions Milan retook their place at the top of the table with a hard-won victory over struggling Siena.

The FA's role in FA Cup's demise - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Jumpers for Goalposts: How Football Sold Its Soul
by Rob Smyth and Georgina Turner
Published 1st December, £11.99 paperback original, Elliott & Thompson

Jumpers for Goalposts is a fascinating and funny reflection on why football has changed so much since the inception of the English Premier League in 1992, and why the old descriptions of "the beautiful game" and "the people's game" no longer fit.

Come on Robin be honest, you can't dribble past 4 players can you?

One more match before the return of Samir Na$ri to the Grove. Not as if Arsene Wenger sees Manchester City as any kind of a threat. Such is the confidence of the team at the moment, the manager looks to put his second string side to face the league leader.

"El 'loco' que Pep lleva dentro"

We've been remiss in posting our weekend TV guides the past couple weeks. This weekend we offer a belated and truncated version, consisting of a single match that's kicking off in just a few hours: La Liga's late match on Sunday, Athletic Bilbao hosting FC Barcelona, kicking off at 8pm in "la Catedral de futbol" Estadio San Mamés (which corresponds to 2pmET; televised in the US on ESPN Deportes, and also available via ESPN3.

Manchester United still kept their current undefeated record in the league after managed to steal a point from their fierce rival, Liverpool at Anfield with Javier "Chicarito" Hernandez acting as the savior for Sir Alex Ferguson's side.

Although a draw isn't a maximum result for Ferguson but it can be considered an important point since the Red Devils haven't won a single match at Liverpool ground in the last three seasons.

Rooney Not Helping England - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Last night Wayne Rooney's astonishing moment of stupidity ensures that Manchester United star is set to miss the start of Euro 2012 next year. It remains to be seen whether he is handed more than a single match ban by UEFA for his act of madness.

He would've preferred to have 13 players protecting in front of him

International week. Not the easiest of weeks to get by. Especially not after that last result. A defeat to your most bitter rival is not something that you want to linger in your thoughts. Usually we'll just have a day or two before to mull over it before the next game.

SINGAPORE, 20 September 2011: Singapore will be taking on the Philippines on Friday, 7th October 2011, in an international friendly, prior to their 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Qualifying Round Three match against Jordan that will be played on Tuesday, 11th October 2011 at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

Stoke away in the Carling Cup third round it is. Only two days after our last match. That is ridiculous isn't it?! Trip to Greece on Thursday, Cheeky win over Liverpool on Sunday, off to Stoke on the Tuesday. It's the same for Stoke, they've had a Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday fiasco going on as well. So are we expecting a second sting side from both teams with all 22 players content not to get hurt, play out a 0-0 bore draw whilst at the same time failing to be good enough to make a stake for a first team start?

The Philly Soccer Page " KYW Philly Soccer Show: Sheanon Williams
This week's Philly Soccer Show podcast with KYW's Greg Orlandini and PSP's Eli Pearlman-Storch features Philadelphia Union defender Sheanon Williams.

Tait added to Union's defensive corps, future (With Video) - delcotimes.

Man, the past week or so has been quite kind to the Red Bulls. After Irene washed away any hopes of the Galaxy match being played, New York saw their playoff position actually improve despite not playing a single match since August 20th. As of now, New York owns the 10th and final playoff spot, sitting behind Columbus, SKC, Houston, and Philly in the East.

Last night's game vs. Costa Rica was interesting for a couple of reasons. The US played a very attractive, attacking style of soccer (just as Klinsmann is wanting to implement), and bossed the opening 30 or so minutes, and also dominated other stretched of the match. Landon Donovan missed what should have been a for sure goal, and the US did have a couple of other chances but couldn't score.

The Copa America will see Uruguay take on Paraguay in the final on Sunday after both nations secured their berths with semi-final victories over Peru and Venezuela respectively.

The Uruguayans are now many people's favourites to win the competition after their 2-0 win over Peru on Tuesday.

Sometimes there simply is no justice in football. Sometimes the one team that plays like a bunch of violent shits wins, and this has just happened with Paraguay, who has made it to the final of the Copa América by not winning a single match in ordinary time. Instead, they retort to defensiveness, dirty tricks and filthy provocations to make it to the penalty kicks, where their only "good" player

SOURCE: REPUBLICA
KATHMANDU, July 16: Nepal Police Club´s dream of lifting the Martyrs Memorial Red Bull A Division League Football trophy with an unbeaten record once again was shattered on Saturday after it was defeated 1-0 by arch rival Laxmi Hyundai Manang Marshyangdi Club (MMC) at the Dasharath Stadium.

SOURCE: REPUBLICA
KATHMANDU, July 16: Nepal Police Club´s dream of lifting the Martyrs Memorial Red Bull A Division League Football trophy with an unbeaten record once again was shattered on Saturday after it was defeated 1-0 by arch rival Laxmi Hyundai Manang Marshyangdi Club (MMC) at the Dasharath Stadium.

Sebastian Grazzini will join the Fire on July 15th when the transfer window opens. He joins the club from Argentinian Primera side All Boys whom he played with in 2010 Apertura and the Clausura of 2011.

The Fire had this to say about him:

"We are excited to bring Sebastián to the Fire," said Technical Director and Interim Head Coach Frank Klopas.

From looking around the internet, I can tell there is quite a buzz about the US Women's National Team comeback win over Brazil, and rightfully so.

It was a tremendous match that featured a little bit of everything: an own goal, some ridiculous decisions from the referee, a late equalizer and even a penalty shootout.

For adults of a certain age, it is a memory that may have become submerged under the weight of what we have seen since. In the late 1970s, though, British television viewers would get an occasional view of football from a parallel universe in the form of the North American Soccer League. Football in America was different, that much we know for certain.

Earlier this week I received my review copy of Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN, so the first thing I did was jump to the index to find any sections that deal with soccer. Based on the directions that the index sent me in, and I should note the index seems a bit poor, the book only focuses on soccer in the context of the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa, which isn't a bad thing, but it seems to leave out the World Wide Leader's dabbling with the Beautiful Game during the bulk of its 31 years.

The Seattle Sounders had their opportunities and there was no results. The same goes for the Chicago Fire. There were some solid attempts and goal, and some solid saves. The "highlights" aren't amazing from either the offense or the defense, though Tyson Wahl did have a solid play that deserves recognition.

The Laszlo Kubala Influence, Part One, 1951-58

On June 15, 1950, two Hungarians joined Barcelona to signify the beginning of yet another transformation: Laszlo Kubala and new manager Ferdinand Daucik. They were the masterminds of the success to come.

In 1951, Kubala scored 26 goals in 19 games, breaking the La Liga's record for most scored in a single match with seven against Sporting de Gijon.

Whatever be the result, come tomorrow history will be made. FC Barcelona and Manchester United will face each other in this season' biggest final, UEFA Champions League final at the Wembley stadium, a place both team claims as their destiny. The Old Wembley stadium has been very precious for these two teams - having won their first European titlesover there.

The end of another trophyless Arsenal season has gooners everywhere wondering how this Arsenal team can get out of its rut and move forward. It's obvious that a couple of quality signings would no doubt improve the team, but I thought I would look at our current resources to see if there is something new or different we could try next season.

Given that the FA recently charged Sir Alex Ferguson for praising a referee, it seemed impossible to imagine Manchester United would get away with resting players against Blackpool ahead of the Champions League final.

Both Hull and Blackpool have got in to trouble for making wholesale changes to their team, before reverting back to their usual XI the following week.

Bust out the computer this weekend, folks. The Soccer Gods have collaborated and come up with a fantastic going away present for their loyal EPL viewers: every single match on Sunday will be available to view either on TV or online.
There's still the pesky little problem of every match having the same start time (11:00AM Eastern), but to help you decide what to focus on I'll list each match in order of importance (based primarily on relegation possibilities and potential finishing table position).

Wednesday night the Dynamo were knocked out of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in second round qualifying. Meh, who cares.

Yes, the winner of the annual "national champions of American soccer" has recently received an automatic bid in the CONCACAF Champions League but since this is still up in the air for this season, I don't think this is really that big of a deal.

The sixth edition of the all-Ireland Setanta Sports Cup, named after the Irish sports station, kicks off on Monday with an expanded tournament and a different format. Twelve teams will compete, six from Northern Ireland's Carling Premiership and six from the Airtricity League in the Republic of Ireland, with four of those teams Crusaders, Glentoran, Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers given a bye into the quarter-finals.

The Seattle Sounders are done with two weeks of training camp and we've seen trialists come and go. Nearly all of the Supplemental picks have left as well, and I would expect that only Josh Ford stays the length of camp. Guys like Baptiste, Prieto, Bah and to a lesser extent Neagle have a longer road to run to make the squad particularly with so many returning players.

The draw for the 2011 CFU Club Champions' Cup was announced today. Fifteen teams from 11 countries will contest the competition, with two-legged ties in the first two rounds, and single-match knockouts in the semifinals and final. The top three teams will appear in the preliminary round of the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League.

When Major League Soccer opened up shop back in 1996 it was mostly to create and sustain this division one league that would help the US National Team to grow and get better in every single match they perform in as well as all the clubs to do well.

Cue the trumpets.

U.S. International and AC Milan defender Oguchi Onyewu is heading to FC Twente for a loan spell.

Can I just say one thing?

WHOOO-HOOO!!!!!!

I was as excited as the next guy when Gooch signed with AC Milan back in 2009. But injuries and circumstances have prevented him from finding a place on the pitch with the Italian giants.