Athletic Bilbao-Barcelona

Bilbao had one of the hottest starts of any La Liga squad, but the squad has not proven that they can consistently score with only eleven goals on the year as a team. Barcelona has a few guys that are not too far from that total including newly acquired forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

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With football heavyweights France, Portugal and Russia looking to seal their place in South Africa you would be a fool to discount the action in Europe. But tonight in Omdurman, the largest city in Sudan, Egypt and Algeria clash in the day's most explosive tie.

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With football heavyweights France, Portugal and Russia looking to seal their place in South Africa you would be a fool to discount the action in Europe. But tonight in Omdurman, the largest city in Sudan, Egypt and Algeria clash in the day's most explosive tie.

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U.S. Soccer SC Members Who Register by Dec. 3, 2009, Will Have Priority Status to Request Tickets

CHICAGO (Nov. 17, 2009) – The U.S. Soccer Federation has announced initial details for U.S. Men's National Team fans to apply for tickets for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Priority status for applying for tickets to the U.

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U.S. Soccer SC Members Who Register by Dec. 3, 2009, Will Have Priority Status to Request Tickets

CHICAGO (Nov. 17, 2009) – The U.S. Soccer Federation has announced initial details for U.S. Men's National Team fans to apply for tickets for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Priority status for applying for tickets to the U.

Click to continue reading...

From the U.S. Soccer Communications Center:
INITIAL DETAILS FOR U.S. SUPPORTERS TO APPLY FOR 2010 WORLD CUP TICKETS ANNOUNCED
U.S. Soccer SC Members Who Register by Dec. 3, 2009, Will Have Priority Status to Request Tickets

CHICAGO (Nov.

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As in the guys that aren't Mr Kasey Keller. Due to injuries Keller played essentially all competitive matches. Next year with the potential for a dozen more matches in the season and Kasey passing 40 in just a few days the back-up keeper will be much more important. While he does feel healthier at the end of this season than in the past, he made many statements that it was due to the nature of MLS playing basically once a week.

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I have to say I'm quite liking Arsenal's current situation; the team is playign really well and everyone off the bench also fits in exceptionally, which is great and the first time I believe this in a while! To add to this the media are not rating us this may be a bit down heartening for the players but there is currently no pressure on them, unlike Chelsea Man Utd and Liverpool.

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Barcelona-Mallorca

A great battle in this one as our number one squad faces off against our number five. Barcelona has looked unbeatable so far this season and what do you know? The treble winners still have yet to lose a match and now the season is about 25% over.

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You can rack up all the excuses you want: it's a world cup year, the players are fatigued, they were freezing cold, yada yada. But at the end of the day, the reality of the matter is that Barca are simply not up to par this season. Especially lately.
Last night's match felt somewhat like a final going in, and the draw coming out felt like a loss. Click to continue reading...

The first round of MLS playoffs (aka MLS Conference Semi-finals)Â always spurs heated discussion about its playoff format as well as the League's two conference structure.

Let's take an overview of various playoff format options and League structures for Major League Soccer. There should be three objectives to a playoff format and League Structure:

1) Crown a worthy champion

2) Entertain the fans

3) Maximize revenue for the teams and League

No matter what playoff format is used or what tweaks are made to improve it, a percentage of fans will criticize it and offer other imperfect solutions.

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Arsenal-Tottenham Hotspur

Both even at nineteen points for the year, this one promises to be a goal scoring feast as the number three Premier League club faces-off against the number four. Plenty of great players will be available to put the ball back into the net and either club could use a win to increase their chances of taking home the league title.

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It was another incredible weekend of English Premier League football. One single match was all it took to lift the doom and gloom at Anfield. A stunning 2-0 win over arch-rivals Manchester United was just the tonic that Rafa's men needed. An excellent all-round Liverpool performance got even better when David Ngog glossed the scoreline with a goal that put the issue beyond doubt. Click to continue reading...

Has there ever been a final weekend of league games in the history of the universe where every single match actually meant something?
I bet Don Garber lit himself a big old Red Auerbach style victory cigar last night. All the other commissioners over at the Commissioner's Club are getting set to throw him a roast. Click to continue reading...

Well it must be time for the holidays with all the firings that are beginning to occur around the world of football. Plenty of dismal managers have already been kicked to the curb in other leagues and now La Liga has its first prominent replacement happening this week. Atletico Madrid's skipper Abel Resino is the first coach to go from any powerhouse squad in Spain and the coach could not last an entire year in total length with his new squad.

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Toronto @ NY, DC @ Kansas City, Colorado @ Salt Lake, Dallas @ Seattle, San Jose @ LA, Houston @ Chivas, and New England @ Columbus. This, my friends, is your final weekend of the 2009 MLS Regular Season.

Chicago already locked up a spot with a win at Chivas and Seattle jumped into the playoffs as well.

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If Santos' fans are not so happy with the men's team in the Brasileirão, the Santos' ladies are giving fans total happiness: the team took home today the title for the women's Libertadores Cup. This is the first edition of the tournament and Santos brought in big names such and Marta and Cristiane to help win the title.

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A couple of days ago we heard about the tragic one car accident involving Charlie Davies and his two friends, sadly one of them died. You think to yourself how could these men go out on the field and try to play a match that honestly didn't mean anything, since they already qualified in Honduras for the World Cup.

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In the world of football Armenia is not exactly considered an awesome team with an unbelievable history. In fact you could compare them to the MLB's Kansas City Royals for you Yanks out there. Armenia's biggest career matches have been in World Cup qualifiers if you get my drift. In other words Armenia has never been good enough to make the Cup in the first place, so their World Cup history is as limited as it can get.

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Republic of Ireland v Italy
Saturday 10 October 2009, Croke Park
Kick-Off: 20:00 BST

The Republic of Ireland host group leaders Italy at Croke Park on Saturday night, knowing that a win would put them within one point of their opponents with a single qualifying match remaining.

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It was an intrigue-packed evening of football in Argentina on Thursday, in the eighth round of the 2009 Torneo Apertura. Colón went fourth with a performance full of golazos to beat Arsenal 4-1. Shortly afterwards champions Vélez Sársfield, who haven't lost a single match at home in 2009, ended Argentinos Juniors' unbeaten run with a [. Click to continue reading...

Argentina boss, Diego Maradona in his desperation has called up Martin Palermo into his Argentine squad for the crucial World Cup qualifier against Peru and Uruguay. The last time Palermo was called up was ten years ago, when he was 25. To say this is a waste of national caps may be too judgemental but I would have thought that there could be better alternatives to Palermo as replacement for the injured Diego Milito. Click to continue reading...

In today's match against Villarreal, Cristiano Ronaldo will be aiming to become the only Real Madrid player to score a goal in each of his first four La Liga matches. Already with the transfer fee world record in hand, this is far from the only other record Cristiano will be attempting to break at Real this season.

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The 25th round of Brasileirao had all the elements to belong one more time to Sao Paulo. Inter visited Vitoria always a tough match. Sao Paulo "visited" Santo Andre (piece of cake) and Palmeiras will visit Cruzeiro on Wednesday. But the tricolor round ended up to be a green round.

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A clamor against divers resounded throughout the soccer world when Arsenal's Eduardo dove and won a penalty against Celtic a few weeks ago. As a result, UEFA handed down a two match ban to the Croatian hit man. And as usual, the ban was appealed by Arsenal. Many were glad to see UEFA take that stance against divers.

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A clamor against divers resounded throughout the soccer world when Arsenal's Eduardo dove and won a penalty against Celtic a few weeks ago. As a result, UEFA handed down a two match ban to the Croatian hit man. And as usual, the ban was appealed by Arsenal. Many were glad to see UEFA take that stance against divers.

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• Botafogo's fans made a banner teasing Fluminense's injured striker, Fred in their 0-0 home draw yesterday. The striker has been suffering muscular problems in his thigh and hasn't played a single match since July 23rd. The banner read : "Hey Vilma, where's Fred?

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There are few things that the average British male enjoys more than settling down on the sofa on a Saturday evening to watch the BBC's Match of the Day. How this has become such a fixture of British life I'm not sure, because there are also few things the average British male enjoys more than settling down with a pint at his local pub at about the same time on a Saturday evening. Click to continue reading...

It's official.

I've said it before so I won't rehash it in too much detail here. Eduardo dived. No doubt about it. And that embarrasses me as an Arsenal fan. And I don't have any problem with the idea of banning players for diving.

But the timing of this is very, very questionable.

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This blog neglected for too long the Brazilian second division. And this is a shame. The second division in 2009 has a giant (Vasco), former Brazilian champions (Guarani and Bahia), former Brasileiro runner's up (Sao Caetano, Bragantino and Portuguesa) and many other traditional sides that played the first division for many years (Figueirense, Parana, Fortaleza, Juventude, Ponte Preta).

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The Wolves displayed some fighting football to get some points against their names in their second match of the Premier League here last night. Andy Keogh's early header was the only goal of the match after which the Wolves managed to hold Wigan Athletic defensively.

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