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.

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.

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.

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.

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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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

From the NYT's "The Lede"

Coca Cola invokes the infamous 1989 match between Algeria and Egypt as part of their present ad campaign. Its all about marketing emotions and Coca Cola brings it up without any reference to the violent underbelly of that encounter.

A cellphone camera captures the stoning of the bus carrying the Algerian soccer players by Egyptian fans as they travel through Cairo.

Matches between these two countries have never ended well.

All that talk of righting the ship turned out to be bluster as in the Copa Del Rey return leg against Alcorcon at the Bernabeu, Real was able to muster only one goal through Rafel Van Der Vaart. The yellow jerseys of Alcorcon were everywhere as they stifled Raul, Gago, Van Nistelrooy, Kaka, and Lassana Diarra.

Lyon 5 Marseille 5 at the Stade De Gerland. November 9, 2009. A nail biting epic with end to end action. This match will be talked about for years to come.

With L'OM cruising 4-2 it appeared as if the match was done but Lisandro Lopez who surely must be on Maradona's radar for his late goal scoring exploits brought them back on par in the 81st and 84th minute.

Darren Fletcher in particular. He was the hatchet man in Utd's win over Arsenal on August 29th and did quite a number on Cesc Fabregas.

Well, after the match Arsene Wenger talked at length about the anti-football display. He did not mention Fletcher's name but everyone can read between the lines.

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Birmingham was hard done by Peter Walton's decision to award a PK after the French striker went down in the box from a tackle by Lee Carsley. Problem was Carsley never touched him. Steven Gerrard subbing for the injured Riera converted the penalty and Liverpool scraped a draw.

Pat Onstad deserves a medal. Keeping two own goals out. The second one was a sequence of goal line saves in the 42nd minute as Freddie Ljungberg's free kick was helped along by Ricardo Clark with Onstad backpedaling to parry it out before it crossed the goal line and then falling down to bat the ball away from Fredy Montero's opportunistic foot.

David Beckham switches attack with a swerving long ball down the left to Donovan. The Galaxy skipper crosses into the box to Mike Magee who is brought down by Yamith Cuesta's challenge. Ricardo Salazar points to the spot as Magee writhes in pain. Donovan converts the PK after an interminable wait.

Arsenal dance with Wolves.

An own goal by Ronald Zubar gets things rolling. A fine steal by Song puts Aaron Ramsey through as he and Eduardo race ahead. Ramsey passes to Eduardo as they cut off Josh Craddock and then waits for the return because of his clear look at goal. Instead, Eduardo chips the ball over and it deflects of Craddock and loops over Wayne Henessey for the second goal.

Some WWF and some WTF moments in the BYU vs New Mexico match. These girls could whip Vinny Jones anytime. And Julie Foudy had to spin the indefensible. "Ponytail whiplash" like "tennis elbow " could become a recognizable sports injury.

Atletico have not won at the Bernabeu in 10 years. The last time October 30th, 1999 when Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink with his brace and Jose Mari won a now historic victory. Sergio Aguero was 11 years old.

Hasselbaink was virtually unstoppable and so was Joan Capdevila, now at Villareal.

RSL was down on the strength of two Schelotto goals by the 35th minute and it appeared as if Crew would be able to get over the one goal disadvantage and advance to the quarter finals. But RSL struck back from a Javier Morales goal two minutes later. Ten minutes later, RSL were awarded a penalty by referee Baldemero Toledo, a dubious call on Frankie Hejduk as Espindola went down a bit too easily.

Arsenal came into its own with crisp, free flowing football. Cesc with a brace, Nasri with a very welcome contribution on his return, and Diaby rounded up the scoring. But Arshavin was the source having a hand in three of the goals. And Wenger singled him out.

Wenger highlighted Andrey Arshavin - who had a hand in three of the goals - for special praise, saying: "He was outstanding.

Remember this scissor kick against Sunderland a couple of weeks back ? Well he came up with this bit of brilliance against Blackburn yesterday.

Two goals by Gonzalo "El Pipita " Higuain had Manuel Pellegrini pumping his hands Wenger style. It was a must win for the Merengues over Getafe as the knives were out for Pelligrini.

After the match, Pelligrini said that the club had "recovered its spirit." He praised Higuain " What he did today did not surprise me.

"Henrik Larsson always scores." The clip shows Celtic fighting back through Larsson against Porto in a pulsating 2003 UEFA Cup final.

My memories of Larsson will always be defined by the Swedish striker entering the game in the 2006 CL final against Arsenal late in the second half.

Let the trash talking begin ahead of the Arsenal vs Spurs derby.

Robbie Keane bites the bullet as he claimed that Spurs are ready to overtake Arsenal. A feat last achieved 14 years ago.

"We are at the same level as Arsenal now. If you look at the two squads, you look at us and think we're definitely on a par but that will only be judged at the end of the season.

Fran Merida scored with a stinging left footed shot in the 19th minute after Voronin gives it away to Craig Eastmond. It was Merida's first goal as a Gunner as Cesc Fabregas looked on ecstatic at his Spanish teammate's achievement.

Emiliano Insua answered back with an even more impressive dipping shot in the 27th minute which looped over Fabianski's head even with the Arsenal goalie completely extended.

In a Copa Del Rey match, Jerzy Dudek was the goalie under siege as Francisco Borja scored the first goal, a under pressure Alvaro Arbeloa scored an own goal, Ernesto Gomez tapped in a third, and Borja completed Madrid's woebegone display with his second goal and Alcorcon's fourth.

Pellegrini rested Kaka and his place was taken by Guti.

Jack Bell creates a list of 10 most memorable games at Giants Stadium.

Some of the highlights.

Last summer's USA vs Mexico Gold Cup final turned out be an embarrassing 5-0 rout. David Beckham's New York introduction in 2007 resulted in a 5-4 pulsating shootout between the Galaxy and the Red Bulls.

Landon Donovan sparked a 2-0 defeat of San Jose completing a turnaround for the LA Galaxy after missing the playoffs three years in a row. In an interesting formation, David Beckham played central midfield and Mike Magee played striker.