Back when I posted about my 2012 Wishes, one of the wishes was wanting to get the 2000 MLS Cup back. For those that missed it, or don't know, the 2000 MLS Cup is not in Kansas City. The cup that teams get to keep after winning MLS Cup is in Dallas at the Hunt Sports Group Headquarters in Dallas.
Since that point, I've not said much about the the trophy or built off of that comment regarding getting the trophy back.

Didier Drogba could not be denied as he made up for a missed penalty by pouring in a brace. Ivory Coast added another through Yaya Toure as they send Equatorial Guinea, the co-hosts, out of the ACN. The Taranga Lions are through to the semi-finals.

Drogba will be missing today's huge showdown with Man Utd, and in his absence, Chelsea is hoping that misfiring Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge, take up the goalscoring slack.

What a rough week I have had. My week was similar to Arsenals current form, depressing. Well screw all that, we still had a great week of football. So let me give you a slightly over the top review of the week that wasn't:

Arsenal

It was another dramatic week for the Gunners.

We appear to have two stock scripts at the moment be bloody awful and roundly beaten, or suffer misfortune (oft of the refereeing persuasion or perhaps a moment of slack defending) and lose because basically we can't either provide the final ball or finish to opportunities we may carve out ourselves.

Relax. We can still qualify The JimmyG2 Column PAOK acting on Danny Blanchflower's advice equalised almost before we took the pitch. Then like 'New York; New York' they liked it so much they did it again. 2-0 down in 12 minutes through slack defending and the future looked bleak. As Danny had once suggested, 'Get your retaliation in first' But that is at least the 4th time we've been 2-0

Women's soccer in America has encountered another setback. The top-tier female league in the United States, Women's Professional Soccer, is facing a loss of sanctioning by the U.S. Soccer Federation as a Division I league. Entering its fourth season, WPS "terminated" its Florida franchise, magicJack, bringing the number of teams down from six to five in early November.

Three points? A clean sheet? At the Bridge? What the hell?

Rebounding (Latent NBA Reference)

Well, that was certainly nice to see now wasn't it? After almost a month and change of suspect performances, last-minute defensive lapses, and whimsical finishing that made us all shudder, we put in a comprehensive 90-minute shift that should quell a few of the naysayers.

Hey, remember that? Yeah, I was a little slack in updating our pickem game results after the final. It's possible that I only just recovered from celebrating Osvaldo Alonso's cherry-on-top goal. But there's no time like the offseason. . wait, what's that? The season still isn't over yet? Whatever.

England is a great place for football. Yes, we all know that and their domestic structure is all too awesome, that's why we love it. But, internationally the English team and its players look nothing like their premier league avatar, instead they look like a bunch of boys in tutus who play Sunday morning football.

Sporting Kansas City and the Houston Dynamo squared off in the Eastern Conference Final in front of 20,839 fans at LiveStrong Sporting Park in the win or go home match.
Both teams had experienced an up and down season but each were bringing impressive late season results into the match. Although Sporting KC might have been the favorite heading into the match Houston had developed a stouter defense of late and were undefeated in their last 6 matches heading into the Conference Final.

Two weeks ago I put up a piece making a case for Mike Burns, or at least for giving him some slack in the coming months as he puts on the coaching search. I let everyone know that a lot of the criticisms we level at him for the construction of the squad might actually be misplaced, and while I can't say he's going to be great now that Stevie Nicol is gone, I also can't say there's a lot of evidence to say he'll be catastrophic.

Breaking with his normal routine of announcing his team the day before the game, Craig Levein has just announced the Scotland team for this evening's match.
Given that we knew Kenny Miller was out and that Darren Fletcher looked likely to play, you get absolutely no prize if you had already guessed this starting XI:
McGregor, Hutton, Caldwell, Berra, Bardsley, Fletcher, Bannan, Morrison, Adam, Naismith, Mackail-Smith
4-5-1?

I have to admit; I've pronounced the season to be dead more than once before. But you gotta cut me some slack, I wasn't counting on the absolute ineptitude of the rest of the Eastern Conference. Thanks to their shortcomings, the Red Bulls found themselves clinging to the tenth and final playoff spot after a draw away to Toronto.

The Los Angeles Galaxy take on Real Salt Lake tonight in a match-up of Western Conference powers, and a game that could draw the Galaxy to the verge of the MLS Supporters Shield.

Real Salt Lake will try to spoil the Galaxy's party, while also snapping their own two-match losing skid.

Shades of Winterburn and Adams szólj hozzá: Bl0-1Ar[Matchhighlight.com] Arsenal's new defensive duo Per Mertesacker and Andre Santos made an inauspicious start to their time at the club. The pair allowed Yakubu to grab an equalising goal for Blackburn with some pretty slack defending. Looks like they'll fit in well!

If you're a loyal Kopite, today's controversial loss at Stoke probably wasn't the best way to start your weekend. That said, don't hit the panic button. There are plenty of reasons to be thankful if you're a Red, and I'm not talking about the fact that George Gillett and Tom Hicks no longer own the club.

Despite being just 20 years of age David De Gea has shown maturity in recent weeks that bodes well for his future at Old Trafford.

The former Atletico Madrid keeper has not had the best of starts to his time at Old Trafford. In the first live football of the season, the Community Shield, he was to blame for both of Manchester City's goals.

Closing in on a season defining fortnight, I have several questions about our beloved Naranja. We discussed this ad naseum over lunch today. The answers, of course, will mean the difference between attending the playoffs possibly for the last time at Robertson Stadium and watching the playoffs from the depths of my couch (those that are actually broadcast on noncable TV).

One of the most maddening things about Liverpool under Rafa Benitez was his frustrating penchant for playing square pegs in round holes (Peter Crouch on the left-wing, anyone?). After today's disappointing draw with Sunderland, let's hope history is not going to repeat itself under Kenny Dalglish.
I grew up idolising Dalglish so I wouldn't presume to question the King's tactics; however, I just can't understand the decision to move Downing to the right and play Raul Meirelles on the left wing for the last part of the game.

Attempting to achieve better results in the new season, Liverpool doesn't give a convincing start for their fans as the Reds failed to pick up three points in their opening league game against Sunderland at Anfield.

Taking the lead in the first half through Luis Suarez's header, Kenny Dalglish's side have to settle for a point after the Black Cat's equalized in the second half from Sebastian Larsson's wonderful finish.

Arsenal 1 New York Red Bulls 1: match report Telegraph.

Once again, so-called Gunners fans showered themselves in glory earlier today following a 1-1 draw in The Emirates Cup game against the New York Red Bulls and Thierry Henry. From match reports, it appears that Arsenal's performance was somewhat below par, but to the fickle support that they have to endure, this was another "blown lead".

It's been a while since anything surfaced here at Aston Villa Central, I know. The last post confirmed Ashley Young's somewhat low key move to Man Utd and since then very little of substance has actually happened. Well, the Stewart Downing "situation" has threatened to develop into a "saga", but aside from a couple of actual bids from Liverpool being reported, nothing has changed yet; Downing is still an Aston Villa player.

Yes, I know there was Sunday slack on that TV Top 5 list I owe. I just never quite woke up from being up 'til 5-something for the USMNT game. Or maybe it was the USMNT game. Regardless, that drops tomorrow, scout's honor...You've seen Hassli's brilliance, now check out Shea's drive and Zusi's shark with a frikken laser beam on its head in this week's MLS Goal of the Week nominees.

Who needs the MLS Golden Boot winner?

With Chris Wondolowski on US national team duty at the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup, his forward partner Steven Lenhart more than picked up the slack, registering his first career hat trick and an assist in the San Jose Earthquakes' 4-2 road win over D.C.

In any league, and in any sport,there's always going to have to be a handful of teams that aren't doing to well. It's just the facts, and it will periodically happen to just about every franchise.

Of course, most teams won't look at this as a chance to serve the greater good and accept the position, and all will eventually make moves to fix whatever ails them.

Yesterday, MLS posted an article on its website regarding whether or not San Jose's Chris Wondolowski is on the verge of another breakthrough. The 2010 Golden Boot winner has notched a goal in three of the Quakes' last four games, and now, despite San Jose still having not won any of their past four home matches, he looks to continue the trend.

Ryan Rosenblatt, of SB Nation Soccer, joined me to talk about tonight's game between the Philadelphia Union and Los Angeles Galaxy.

Scott: The two times that the Galaxy and the Union have faced one another, a Galaxy goal off of a David Beckham freekick has been the game winner.

Earl Gardner has given Philadelphia Union fans the next great hit: "Harvey All The Time."

Based upon Eddie Murphy and Rick James' 1980s hit single "Party All The Time," Gardner brings to life a running meme on Twitter about the Union's starting left back, Jordan Harvey. It has been proposed numerous times through Twitter that the Sons of Ben should adopt a song around Harvey and "Party All The Time" for Harvey, along the lines of how Danny Mwanga sports his own song.

Jose was trying but he knew the thought of playing Jenas would render Harry inconsolableThat tub-thumping, all-for-one, rallying cry all seems rather silly now, doesn't it?
Tottenham's Champions League hopes were all but extinguished in Madrid as Jose Mourinho's men delivered a no-prisoners performance to catch Spurs off guard and reduce them to a 4-0 defeat.

If you haven't seen them yet, here are the two goals from the game yesterday. Slack defending cost Chelsea but Didier Drogba scored a fantastic header to level things up and make a case to start against United on Wednesday.
I am interested to hear your take on this one. Leave your comments on the game below.

My predictions were made early this week to allow them to feature on The Commentary Box radio show on Monday (available for download now.)
Last Sunday evening I saw the results going this way:
Aberdeen v Kilmarnock: 2-2
Hearts v Dundee United: 2-0
Inverness v St Johnstone: 1-2
Motherwell v Hamilton: 0-0
Has anything changed?

Arsene Wenger has promoted the youngster Jack Wilshere into the Arsenal first team this season, so it is no surprise that both Stuart Pearce and Fabio Capello have both wanted the young Englishman in their teams. Capello has basically said that he intends to build his new England side around Wilshere, but Stuart Pearce also [.

Ebbsfleet Utd keeper Preston Edwards was livid with his defence after been sent off after just 10 seconds of their Conference South tie with Farnborough at the week-end and you can't have blamed him, what a slack back-pass.

Like many of you Chelsea fans yesterday, I was really looking forward to seeing Chelsea kick on from two good performances in the Premier League and hopefully to get a result at Everton. I'd mentioned in my preview that it would be a difficult game and we would need to play well to get a result.

As Kenny Dalglish dons the red and white tracksuit once more for his first Anfield training session since 1991 the feeling of relief among the supporters is palpable. Whether justified or not the supporters angst and anger towards Roy Hodgson had reached unsustainable levels, meaning his all to inevitable departure was the only way to [.

MILAN, Italy Leonardo made a winning start as Internazionale manager after the Champions League holders downed Napoli 3-1 in a pulsating Serie A encounter at the San Siro. Former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez departed due to a disagreement with the Inter president Massimo Moratti in the aftermath of their win in the Club World [.

I was really looking forward to this game today as it was going to be my first AEK match that I'd be seeing live since last season. I'm now sitting here wondering what I was all excited about in the first place!

First match of the new year after a fairly quiet holiday period and we needed a win to keep a good grip on third place.