The Egyptians summon the Algerian envoy twice, recall their envoy from Algiers. Sudan summons the Egyptian envoy in Khartoum. The Algerian embassy is currently under siege in Cairo with thousands of fans trying to storm their compound. It's all happening in rapid succession.

Now Egypt has upped the ante threatening to pull out of football for two years in protest of what happened to fans, sports officials, and players in Sudan.

My introduction to Daniele De Rossi was the vicious elbow that he threw at Brian McBride, leaving his face bloody in the USA vs Italy match in the 2006 World Cup. It left a negative impression of him but here is De Rossi doing something rare in football nowadays, acknowledging that he used his hand to score a goal against Serie side Messina.

Arsene Wenger had some good news.

"After being assessed by the Arsenal medical staff, the club can confirm that Kieran Gibbs has sustained severe bruising to the bones and soft tissue of his right foot."

There is no fracture of the metatarsal as feared at first. Gibbs injury is short term and he should ready to face the highly anticipated Chelsea showdown.

Amidst all the drama with the Ireland vs France match and earlier the Egypt vs Algeria showdown, the USA played a friendly with Denmark. Bob Bradley started Jeff Cunningham and I am happy to say, it turned out well because he scored his first international goal and nearly set up Altidore with another.

The Egyptian ambassador to Algeria was recalled by Cairo as the soccer feud between the two countries has now escalated into a full scale diplomatic row.

It is also believed that Hosni Mubarak himself called the Algerian ambassador, Abdel Qader Hadja hours before the recall of the Egyptian envoy, to voice his grievance over the assaults on Egyptian citizens who went to Khartoum to support the Egyptian team.

Two of his former projects, Australia and South Korea, that he nurtured to World Cup glory are in. Russia, his current and most talented team which in actuality should have the easiest of playoff passages, are out.

Thierry Henry's left forearm makes first contact with the ball but then as the ball bounces off ever so slightly his hand comes up and he steers the ball onto his foot. The first touch was inadvertent but his second touch had clear intent. What is so amazing about this is that the linesman on the opposite side should have seen happened because as far as one can see his vision remains unobstructed with Henry furthest out clear of the Irish defenders and Shay Given.

FIFA to Ireland: Thou shall not qualify. Internalize the meme, you will not win a playoff game.

Seems like a whole lot of past and present Arsenal connections have played or are playing a very influential part in the France vs Ireland match and its aftermath.

The latest is Liam Brady calling FIFA for a replay which he says would be only fair given that it was a clear handball by Thierry Henry that set up William Gallas equalizer.

Montevideo, Uruguay was the site of raucous celebrations as the Charruas drew the Ticos at the Centenario but thanks to their away win at Estadio Saprissa on November 14th clinched passage to the 2010 World Cup on goal aggregate.

Sebastian Abreu lost his markers after Diego Scotti centered his cross, to head the ball home past Keylor Navas to put the Uruguayans ahead but the Ticos equalized minutes later with Fernando Muslera diving to the left to get a hand on Alvaro Saborio's shot but unable in the end to keep it out of the back of the net.

Before Adebayor, Robinho and the other eight strikers at City, there used to be Georgios Samaras. Although highly touted by Stuart Pearce, he failed to make an impact in the two years while at the club.

When Sven Goran Ericksson was made manager Samaras was confined mostly to the bench.

L' Equipe on France's entry into the World Cup makes no excuses.

"Henry controlled the ball with his hand."

The article lambastes the team. When you call Kevin Doyle, the Leo Messi of the match then you know something is terribly wrong. If it was not for Hugo Lloris, France would not have qualified.

Slovenia wins over nine man Russia through Zlatko Dedic's toe poke goal in the 44th minute.

Raul Meireles second half strike sink Bosnia's hopes.

Thierry Henry clearly handled Florent Malouda's delivery and then picked out Gallas in front of goal, who drove home the equalizer in extra time. The referee Martin Hansson and his assistant did not see the infraction.

The goal nullified Robbie Keane's 32nd minute opener. And cruelly snuffed out Ireland's chances.

Naguib Sawiris feels that the match should be postponed

Want an Orascom cell phone?

Egypt's giant telecom company, Orascom had its Algiers compund burned and ransacked by thousands of Algerian fans. Property worth $5m was either destroyed or stolen according to Orascom's CEO Naguib Sawiris.

The USMNT meet Denmark, today at NRGi Park, Aarhus, 8:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. ET), and the match will be broadcast live on ESPN Classic at 2:25 p.m.

There maybe a reason for Bob Bradley's faith in Jonathan Bornstein. They both began their national careers on 20 January, 2007 against Denmark and Bornstein repaid his coach's faith by scoring the game winner.

It took 20 seconds to shatter the France's march to the 1994 World Cup. In the 90' minute Emil Kostadinov lashed a ball past Bernard Lama to win the game for Bulgaria, 2-1 and shatter French hopes for qualifying for the 1994 World Cup. David Ginola could have run out the clock but his errant cross led to the Kostadinov disaster.

Gibbs limped off with an ankle injury after a 12st minute tackle forced him out of the U21 Euro match against Lithuania. He is to undergo an X ray as a precautionary measure and more information on the extent of his injury will be available later this week.

With Gael Clichy out for a month with a back injury, the left back position was a lock for Gibbs.

Some uplifting news for the Liverpudlians. Stevie G is ready to rock n' roll against City this weekend. Will Liverpool join the list of clubs that have stuck it to City?

Personally, I think Liverpool played well against Birmingham - they faltered familiarly on set pieces but overall they were a number of positives.

Why is this man not in the All XI?

Its the numbers you produce and not the little things that you do on the pitch to improve your team which seems to drive the MLS All XI. Even when you factor in stats it does not seem to add up to why Cuauhtemoc Blanco was left out.

Blanco played 21 matches, started in 15 of them and in 1452 minutes of playing time he scored 5 goals and 8 assists.

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Haris Seferovic takes advantage of a slow reacting Nigerian defense to head the ball home in the 63' minute off a corner. There were some tense moments for the Swiss when Stanley Okoro's header hit the upright but Siegrist saved the ball in the scramble.

After RVP's injury, the news that Eduardo is being sent to Liverpool makes as much sense as a Sarah Palin presser. A slow news day during international week.

Ramsey was incandescent in Wales 3-0 victory over a disjointed Scotland side. The third goal reminded me of the way Fabregas took off against Spurs for his goal. And now George Burley faces the axe.

A brief statement on Arsenal's website updates RVP's status. He will be traveling back to London this week and resuming his care with the Arsenal medical staff at London Colney.

They also confirm the 6 week convalescence period.

Elsewhere in the Arsenal blog world:

Arseblog mentions, the silver lining is the pretty straightforward series of fixtures till Xmas other than Chelsea and Liverpool (both clubs have their injury woes too).

It is hard to see England overcome Brazil even if they were at full strength with Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, and Glen Johnson given how the Brazilians moved with ease around the pitch. Meanwhile, the English attack was barely able to make a dent.

Fabio Capello probably knows by now that Brazil is the team to beat.

The Guardian picked Liverpool to win the Premiership. We can see how well that is turning out.

Now, they are picking Chelsea to win the Treble. This comes from Paul Wilson who predicted that Chelsea would fall out of the top four.

RVP's convalescence time has been reduced to 4-6 weeks, less than the two months feared. He has a partial tear of the ankle ligament. A Dutch official said it was not a fracture but there was still significant ankle damage.

"It's impossible to put an exact time frame on it because some players heal more quickly than others.

Could this man be back as Nigeria's coach?

A Diego Maradona comparison is too tantalizing. A team that has managed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup despite the incompetence of the coach. Nigeria needed help from Mozambique who beat Tunisia, 1-0. For their part Nigeria overcame Kenya, 3-2 with a brace from Obafemi Martins in a tense match.

RIP: Robert Enke: 24 August 1977- 10 November 2009

A sight never seen in Germany as tens of thousands turn AWD Arena into a church to pay their last respects to Robert Enke and to support his wife, Teresa a brave figure in black, who knew best her husband's terrible depression and in the end could do little.

A 63' strike by Haris Seferovic gives Switzerland their first ever FIFA world title. They withstood a furious onslaught by the Super Eaglets. Nigeria outscored the Swiss in every statistical department except the one that counted most.

For his potty mouthed outburst following Argentina's win over Uruguay. (translation)

Here is an even more graphic video.

Till three weeks ago, Maradona remained unrepentant.

"I was getting it off my chest, and I don't regret it," Maradona said. "I gave my mother a kiss on the forehead and told her: 'If I was wrong I ask your forgiveness, but nobody else'.

Costa Rica's new coach Rene Simoes has had a mixed bag of results. The Ticos beat his old team, Trinidad and Tobago handily, 4-0. The USA were able to claw back a draw against them with Jonathan Bornstein's equalizer (which made him a hero in Honduras) at RFK stadium.

However, the Ticos suffered a setback at home against Uruguay in the playoffs to decide the World Cup spot between the 4th placed CONCACAF and 5th placed CONMEBOL teams.

The Algeria vs Egypt match was played In the backdrop of potentially escalating violence, a build up to the game which saw the stoning of the bus carrying Algerians and injuries to three of their players.

Following the match, violence broke out in Marseille. In Egypt, 32 fans including 20 Algerians were hurt in clashes in Cairo and Nasr City.

Positives:

A) The USA with their below full strength team played patient ball control. They took their time to build up their attack. Having no Donovan and Davies meant that the US had to give up their fast counterattacking edge. But the tactical switch was achieved quite effectively showing that the US is capable of this approach.