Soccerblog 22 November @ 01:53 PM EST
Amidst all the swirl of Hiddink's possible moves, the Chelsea rumours seem to carry most
credibility. They could soon have Guus Hiddink back as technical director. It would look a bit
crowded at the top with Carlo Ancelotti as manager, Frank Arnesen as director of football, and Ron
Gourlay elevated to CEO in place of Peter Kenyon.
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Soccerblog 22 November @ 12:02 PM EST
Sunderland went ahead with a Darren Bent goal in the 71st minute and held on for the win. A
somewhat lucky goal but the they are getting quite the reputation as the club that the big four
fear the most. Liverpool and Man Utd have had their share of difficulties with them, so it was
never going to be easy for Arsenal.
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Soccerblog 22 November @ 05:13 AM EST
Bad news for Barca.They were held to a 1 - 1 draw by Athletic Bilbao.Messi received this kung fu
kick in the face early on in the game. He was back on his feet in a while but not for long.He was
substituted in the 75th minute with a suspected muscle tear in the thigh.
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Soccerblog 21 November @ 09:18 AM EST
The match fixing scandal has tainted 32 matches in the Bundesliga lower divisions. The
investigation into it have been widened the dragnet. Former and current players of VfL Osnabruck
have come under suspicion.
Thomas Cichon, former captain of Bundesliga third division side VfL Osnabruck
who now plays for Moroka Swallows in South Africa, is alleged to have accepted an undisclosed
amount of money to lose to Augsburg's (17 April 2009) by three goals.
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Soccerblog 20 November @ 09:54 AM EST
A bit of conjecture here. The injury news is looking a bit more positive but that might not be
what could be worrying Arsene Wenger now.
He has to get William Gallas and Bacary Sagna to refocus on club football after the Ireland
France odyssey. Gallas of course was one of the principal characters in the France farce and might
be in for some stick with fans with Irish national players in their club like City and Aston
Villa.
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Soccerblog 20 November @ 09:37 AM EST
17 arrests for a match fixing scandal which affects 200 matches in nine European countries.
The matches include the Bundesliga second division, and the leagues in Belgium, Switzerland,
Croatia, Slovenia, Turkey, Hungary, Bosnia and Austria. 12 Europa matches and 3 CL matches are said
to be manipulated this year, and it is unclear as to whether it is the group stage or qualifying
rounds.
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Soccerblog 20 November @ 01:19 AM EST
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.
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Soccerblog 20 November @ 12:18 AM EST
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.
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Soccerblog 19 November @ 10:20 PM EST
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.
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Soccerblog 19 November @ 09:17 PM EST
Its not just the Egyptian and Algerian governments having a holy go at each other.
The replay request is now being echoed in the upper echelons of the Irish government as Brian
Cowen, the Irish PM is now suggesting that he will approach the French premier Nickolas Sarkozy to
discuss a replay and circumvent FIFA's objections.
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Soccerblog 19 November @ 08:45 PM EST
Soccerblog 17 November @ 09:55 PM EST
Robin Van Persie flew today to Belgrade to meet with Marijana Kovacevic, a Serbian housewife who
uses fluid from horse placenta to massage injured tissues enabling it to heal faster. At least that
is what many footballers using her treatment claim.
RVP did not seem to know much about her or the therapy:
"She is vague about her methods but I know she massages you using fluid from a placenta," he
said.
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Soccerblog 17 November @ 08:16 PM EST
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.
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Soccerblog 17 November @ 09:31 AM EST
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.
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Soccerblog 16 November @ 11:05 PM EST
Earlier this summer, the football world was shocked by the tragic death of Espanyol captain Dani
Jarque, dead of a heart attack at the age of 26 years.
And now, Antonio De Negris, a striker for Greek team Larissa, and a former Mexixcan
international who was capped 16 times is dead at 31 years of age of a suspected heart attack.
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Soccerblog 16 November @ 09:17 PM EST
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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Soccerblog 16 November @ 09:37 AM EST
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.
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Soccerblog 16 November @ 09:21 AM EST
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.
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Soccerblog 16 November @ 08:41 AM EST
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).
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Soccerblog 15 November @ 09:50 PM EST
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.
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Soccerblog 15 November @ 07:27 PM EST
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.
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Soccerblog 15 November @ 03:23 PM EST
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.
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Soccerblog 15 November @ 01:01 PM EST
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.
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Soccerblog 15 November @ 08:57 AM EST
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.
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Soccerblog 14 November @ 11:27 PM EST
As an Arsenal fan, this is disastrous news.
RVP is feared to have torn his ankle ligaments as he went down after a heavy challenge from
Giorgio Chiellini in the Italy vs Netherlands friendly. He is undergoing an ankle scan in the
Netherlands to ascertain the exact damage.
Wenger must be going out of his mind.
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Soccerblog 14 November @ 10:55 PM EST
Three big saves by Rimando in the penalty shootout keeps the Fire out. Ned Grabavoy nails the
winning penalty kick after Fabian Espindola misses his chance. The Fire fell victim to a peculiar
directional bias that made them test Rimando low on his left as Thorrington, Pause, and Prideaux
became predictable.
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Soccerblog 14 November @ 09:34 AM EST
The Galaxy weathered two power outages, a disallowed goal by Andrew Hainault, and a dominant
Dynamo display in the second half to score two extra time goals.
Landon Donovan becomes the MLS all time leader in goals scored as he converted the penalty after
Alan Gordon was brought down by Ricardo Clark in the box.
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Soccerblog 14 November @ 04:22 AM EST
From the US Soccer website's game notes:
There are a few instances in sporting history of father's coaching their son's at the highest
level. A couple of famous ones include - Cesare and Paolo Maldini in soccer and Cal Ripken Sr. and
Jr. in baseball.
"But how about having two teams with this phenomenon playing against each other - anyone heard
of that happening?
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Soccerblog 13 November @ 12:20 AM EST
A smart Alex.
Sir Alex Ferguson was given a four match touchline ban and a fine for 20,000 pounds following
his attack on Alan Wiley's fitness. But the referees union is still baying for evermore blood. Here
is Alan Leighton of Prospect, the referees union.
"From our point of view it is disappointing.
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Soccerblog 12 November @ 07:46 AM EST
Nassim Ben Khalifa, the face of the U17 Swiss squad
In a few minutes the Swiss U-17 squad will take the field to face Colombia in the U17 World Cup
semi-final. It is worth commenting that one has to look once or twice to find a name of Swiss
extraction in the squad.
Nassim Ben Khalifa, their pre-eminent striker is a second generation Swiss with Tunisian
roots.
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Soccerblog 12 November @ 12:03 AM EST
The carpet bagger wants to leave but an angel waits in the wings.
Something about Brazilian music not being good enough for the neighbours.
Mark Hughes seems to be doing a good job of getting rid of all the Brazilians in the team.
Elano, Jo, and now Robinho. We can also look forward to the African clique, Adebayor and Kolo
Toure, being broken up.
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Soccerblog 11 November @ 10:11 PM EST
Happier days: With Louis Van Gaal at Barca
From what one can gather, Robert Enke kept a terrible secret.
He hid his depression to himself, fearful if it became public, his adopted daughter would be
taken away, he would lose his sport, and his family destroyed.
As his widow, Teresa says, "I tried to be there for him.
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Soccerblog 11 November @ 08:35 AM EST
The solitary 81st goal that Rafael van der Vaart scored was all Real Madrid could come up
against lowly Alcorcón.In contrast Barcelona continue to score prolifically bashing Cultural
Leonesa 5 - 0 in the process.Goals from Bojan Krkic (two),Pedro, Messi and Xavi.
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Soccerblog 11 November @ 08:03 AM EST
In Bob Bradley's search for Jozy Altidore's strike partner now that Charlie Davis is
unfortunately out for six months or more recovering from that horrific car crash.
Johnson has always been an enigma. Great promise and an ability to get behind defenses with his
speed. His was a blazing start with the MNT as he scored 7 goals in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers
including a goal on debut against El Salvador and a hat trick three days later against Panama.
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Soccerblog 10 November @ 10:58 PM EST
Keith Hackett stating the obvious.
"I have said to managers in the past that this is an area of great difficulty for referees and
it can come down to the viewing angle of the referee."
I think it is time to give him the goods on the human eye. The game has gotten a lot quicker and
the art of deception even more perfect.
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