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.

Spurs plied on the pressure but an excellent Steve Simonsen and a dour Stoke defense kept them at bay. Crouch, Keane, Kranjcar, and Lennon tried and tried but all in vain. Twelve shots on goal, none that paid off. Stoke got two chances on goal as they were outclassed and on the second, Keane's Ireland team mate Glenn Whelan scored for Stoke.

Link:

A shambolic display with inept defending. Crosses, corners, and long balls and and out of position Tim Howard in each situation. To be fair to him, the defense gave no help. It was so bad that fans started exiting the stadium after the fourth goal in the 51st minute. Moyes looked like he has swallowed a toad.

Its become almost automatic for the US to qualify for the World Cup nowadays. But there were forty years in the wilderness before the US qualified for the 1990 World Cup when Paul Caliguiri in the grandiloquent "The Shot Heard Around The World" scored against T&T to put the US through. He is therefore the grand poobah of clutch performers.

It seemed the CL was full of petulant players slapping one another. This time it was Grafite slapping Kas in the Wolfsburg vs Besiktas match. It got him the red card.

At the back of the head. That is a highlight, yes sirree!

Lights! Camera! Action! The second half had it all. Saves, goals, a melee, and a win for beleaguered AC Milan.

Clarence Seedorf showed an exquisite touch chipping the ball to Alexandre Pato who volleyed home the match winner past Iker Casillas. Seedorf was peripatetic, playing with a vigour that put some of the younger players to shame.

I have no idea why Yossi Benayoun was substituted by Andriy Voronin. This has been Rafa's blind spot this season - the easy dismissal of the one player who gives Liverpool its best chance at crafting goals in the absence of Torres and Gerrard.

Also, the equalizer by Maxime Gonalons was achieved with 9 Liverpool players in the box who milled around clueless as Reina fell third time unlucky.

I have to say that the Gunners looked like they took their foot of the accelerator most of the second half. In total they possessed the ball just 47% of the time, a statistic that is unlike them. Fabregas did not look sharp and Song looked lackadaisical. The team was missing its characteristic fluid passing style.

Most fans in France barely tolerate Raymond Domenech but he has found one in Catherine Renger, a well known chanteur who gives him a dose of unabashed adulation with her song Le Kiffe Raymond ( I fancy Raymond). The lyrics are unlike Leonard Cohen to be sure.

Go on Raymond, you're handsome, you're good
And I imagine just one golden match and then everyone would adore you
And if he attacked my penalty areas I would be without defenders
A transfer, a good pass and long live our colours
Yeah, you're good, you're classy

Interesting factoid.

AZ Alkmaar inaugurated their new DSB stadium on August 4, 2006 with a 0-3 loss to the Gunners. Gilberto Silva, Emmanuel Adebayor and RVP scored goals. You can watch the goals >>1-0, 2-0, 3-0.

For the record: AZ were undefeated in all 32 of their home matches in European competitions, a sequence which ran from 1977 until 20 December 2007, when they finally lost to Everton of England, by a score of 2-3.

You can clearly see Glen Johnson did not get his foot on the ball. Bent's shot skips just over the defender and hits the red beach ball and deflects into goal. And the culprit is one of Liverpool's fans.

Steve Bruce should heave a sigh of relief on this one.

Even a lay person not well versed with rules, would be sufficiently at unease when an outside agency influences a match.

While most of the US was transfixed by the Balloon Boy saga, Liverpool fans were encountering their own problems with dirigibles.

Yes, a bright red beach ball that wandered onto the pitch seems to have transfixed Pepe Reina's attention. Enough distraction and deflection of a Darren Bent shot to find its way to goal.

Lovely bit of footwork by Van Persie in the box and a snappy finish after Song feeds him of a sloppy clearance by Birmingham. Eboue stretches Birmingham wide before dishing to Rosicky who centers the ball which evades everyone before Diaby arrives to notch up the Gunners second goal.

But Arsenal would not be Arsenal if it did not believe in shooting themselves in the foot.

Jonas Gutierrez is brought down by Martin Caceres in a momentary lapse of reason. Leo Messi feeds the ball to Juan Sebastian Veron who blasts the ball into a thicket of legs. Luckily for Argentina and Maradona, the ball bounces of a Uruguayan defender straight into the legs of substitute Mario Bolatti who turns the ball past Nestor Muslera in goal.

Messi and Pedro ensure Barca safe passage ....

Link:

Tottenham Spurs beat Preston North End 5 -1 in a Carling Cup game during which Peter Crouch scored a hat trick thereby impressing Fabio Capello to no end.

Now let's get that Middle East peace process back on track... Peace!

These derbies have not been as one sided as portrayed. Even as Sir Alex foams in the mouth about "cocky" Man City with their SEVEN center forwards, there is enough evidence that City has beaten them in the past with lesser lights. This includes a double in 2007-2008. But here is Nicholas Anelka and Shaun Goater laying them low in 2002.

Anish references the six referee rule that Michel Platini has implemented for the Europa Cup and already David Moyes is irate because he believes that the goal line assistants missed a deliberate foul on Louis Saha by AEK's Juanfran which got the Everton striker sent off as he retaliated.

So why is it not going to work:

The Parallax error.

Sulley Muntari and Michael Essien scored for Ghana in their 2-0 (YouTube link) win in a Goup D encounter over Sudan becoming the first African nation to book their place to the 2010 World Cup.

Serbian coaches have proved lucky for the Black Stars as Ratomir Dujkovic guided them to the 2006 World Cup.

El Tri overcame the Ticos, 3-0 in a facile win at Saprissa stadium with Giovani Dos Santos providing a goal and two assists as the Spurs attacking midfielder ran rampant.

Mexico is now in third position behind the USA and Honduras. The Costa Ricans leading the table at one time have lost two matches in a row by huge margins and are now fourth.

The Argentinian defense goes to sleep as they fail to mark Luisao who heads home Elano's free kick. Then Luis Fabiano scores as Mariano Andujar fails to collect cleanly. Jesus Datolo responds with a blistering left footed shot from 30 yards out. Argentina are back in it again. But a minute later Kaka threads a devilishly clever pass to Luis Fabiano who outraces the lone Argentinian defender and scores.