The World Cups have, especially in the start, been the complete dominance of South America and Europe. Therefore, throughout the 1950's and 1960's, the "rest of the world", that is, Asia, Africa and Australia had to play between them for one meager qualifying spot.For the 1966 World Cup in England, this "rest-of-the-world" spot went to the small and closed Communist dictatorship of North Corea. Click to continue reading...

Quit partying or you'll get it! Players at Argentine outfit Godoy Cruz found threats painted on their cars yesterday after their third successive defeat led to the sacking of coach Diego Cocca. The graffiti politely suggested the squad might like a few quiet nights in. The threats said: "You got the coach sacked to go on partying. Click to continue reading...

Adriano has been doing really well since returning to Brazil and getting his head back together. So well, in fact, that people are even using his image on their products. Unfortunately, those products are drugs.

From the Corriere dello Sport:

Now that Adriano is back in Rio de Janeiro and is the top scorer in the Brazilian championship with Flamengo, he's so popular that his picture is even selling packets of drugs.

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Sickening arm injury Hopefully your breakfast has digested before you decide to watch this video. Vasco Da Gama's Rodrigo Pimpão puts his arm down to break his fall, but the momentum of his body had other ideas. The arm stays put and the body keeps rolling. Although it looks sickening the injury proved to be only [. Click to continue reading...

Since 1958 Pelé had become known as the best player in the world, and there were great expectations to the Brazilian national team as the World Cup returned to South America, to Chile specifically.It was sadly one of the most vile tournaments in terms of fair play and bad refereeing, with some matches that will only go over to history for their violence, notably Yugoslavia-USSR and Chile-Italy. Click to continue reading...

On this week's show we put the spotlight on Honduran football as we continue to take a look at the countries that will be competing in next year's World Cup.

• Read our football news review in the good, the bad and the ugly
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• Follow the weekly predictions battle between Damon and Damian in the Predictions competition
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• Football glossary (a huge collection of football vocabulary, football cliches and football phrases)
• Worksheets and transcripts from previous podcasts
  

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South America is a million miles away from contemporary, cosmopolitan western Europe. Distances are vast, mass salaries are low, air travel is expensive. There has been little significant mass immigration to the continent in decades. Click to continue reading...

DC United saw their season come to a close after this weekend with their draw at Kansas City and FC Dallas winning at Seattle. The time has come to decide what the team needs to do next season. This is the second season in a row United has not made the playoffs with winning the Supporter's Shield the 2 years prior.

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This has been a fantastic weekend to hate somebody and wish him ill almost everywhere around the world. As Daryl pointed out earlier, this weekend's fixture calendar was overflowing with big derbies and heated rivalries including three different flavored clasicos, inter-city and intercontinental matches. Click to continue reading...

Each day, I scour the Internet looking for fascinating stories regarding the Premier League and share most of them on my Twitter account and my shared items on Google Reader. But I often come across some mouthwatering stories that I save to share with you on EPL Talk instead. Trouble is I often run out of time and I'm not able to post them.

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Damian keeps pulling away from the crowd Damon and guests. Can anyone stop him? This week a huge game for Rafa's Reds in the Premier League, top of the table action in Germany and a six-pointer at the bottom of La Liga. Games from South America and Japan complete this week's predictions. This week's guest is Sayumi, a Kawasaki fan living in Tokyo, Japan.

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Cheerleaders have invaded soccer. They've been part of the game in Central and South America for some time. Now Europe is catching on. This includes footballing powerhouse FC Barcelona. This is the casting call video for the Dream Cheers or FC Barcelona Cheerleaders. Based on what we can tell, they'll make most of their appearances at [. Click to continue reading...

World Cup qualification in South America came to a close with only one change from the previous two campaigns. Brazil, Paraguay and, in the end, Argentina made it through once again, while Uruguay claimed fifth spot, the play-off position, for the third time running. The sole modification is that Chile have qualified instead of Ecuador. Click to continue reading...

[video sent to us from See the Cup] Brazilian team Santos won the inaugural ladies Copa Liberatadores on Sunday, or to give the tournament its full and excellent sounding Spanish language title: Copa Libertadores de Fútbol Femenino. A healthy crowd of 14,000 were in attendance at the Estádio Urbano Caldeira to see Santos beat Paraguay's Universidad Autónoma [. Click to continue reading...

Just in case his comments to the press weren't enough to get across his preoccupation with revenge based fellatio, his emphatic/psychotic gestures from the window of the team bus should really cement his message.

Then again, I'm not sure if that's a taunt or an offer.

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Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres have both been ruled out of Liverpool's trip to Sunderland on Saturday because of injuries picked up on international duty.
Gerrard, Liverpool's captain, suffered a groin injury in England's World Cup defeat to Ukraine last weekend and limped out of training two days later, subsequently missing the home win against Belarus. Click to continue reading...

Here's the setup Going into the last day of the Maranhão State League second division season in Brazil yesterday, two clubs sat atop the league with the same number of points: Viana and Moto Club. On this decisive day, Viana hosted Chapadinha, a club they had a scoreless draw with the last time they played, and Moto Club took on Santa Quiteria.

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Liverpool co-owner George Gillett claims to have been ''pleasantly surprised'' on a visit to Saudi Arabia to discuss new club academies.
Liverpool recently announced they had reached an agreement with Prince Faisal bin Fahad bin Abdulla of Saudi Arabia to set up a number of academies in the Middle East. Click to continue reading...

10am, live in the US on FSC
Last 4 head-to-head:
2-0 Liverpool (h) 03.03.09
1-0 Liverpool (a) 08.16.08
3-0 Liverpool (h) 02.02.08
2-0 Liverpool (a) 08.25.07
Last three matches:
Liverpool: 0-2 Chelsea (a); 0-2 Fiorentina (a); 6-1 Hull (h)
Sunderland: 2-2 United (a); 5-2 Wolves (h); 2-0 Brum (h)
Goalscorers (league):
Liverpool: Torres 8; Benayoun, Gerrard, Kuyt 3; Babel, Johnson 2; Ngog 1
Sunderland: Bent 7; Jones 5; Reid, Turner 1
Referee: Mike Jones
His first Liverpool match, and only 18th Premiership contest. Click to continue reading...

.What a dramatic turnaround? Well it seems a never ending saga with Diego Armando Maradona being inside a football stadium, be it in the field or out of it. Argentina scraped 0-1 past Uruguay, who were reduced to ten men. However, it was overall a poor match in terms of football qualities. Lionel Messi again failed [. Click to continue reading...

Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Bin Abdullah has confirmed that he would be interested in investing his money in a football club.
The Saudi billionaire is reportedly set to invest his considerable funds in Liverpool after being caught pictured sitting with co-owner George Gillett at the 6-1 win over Hull at Anfield last month.

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By Clemente Lisi - NEW YORK, NY (Oct 15, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- In another thrilling CONCACAF matchday, Honduras made it to the 2010 World Cup - joining the US and Mexico - after snagging the final automatic qualifying slot by finishing third in the hexagonal. At the same time, Costa Rica's 2-2 draw against the US in Washington, DC, forced the Ticos into a two-game playoff against Uruguay, who finished fifth in South America after. Click to continue reading...

In another tense evening of World Cup qualifiers across the globe, Switzerland and Slovakia qualified from the European zone for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Switzerland played out a nervous 0-0 home draw with 10-man Israel and Slovakia held on for a 1-0 win in Poland.
Portugal, Greece, Slovenia and Ukraine took the remaining play off spots. Click to continue reading...

Things are not great in Argentina at the moment. The national team is, as you may have heard, riding through tumultuous times at the hand of perhaps the only unfireable man in the country. Fortunately they're masters of their own destiny this evening, so perhaps that will change. Domestically it was a tough start to the [. Click to continue reading...

[101 Great Goals] This goal is already being declared by many the goal of 2009. It just might be. What is almost entirely certain is that it's the best goal ever to come from a Serie D Brazilian side. (For those without basic alphabet skills D is the fourth tier.) One bicycle kick is good. Two bicycle [. Click to continue reading...

Results and final scores from the World Cup 2010 South American Qualifiers ( CONMEBOL) games played on October 14, 2009. Four teams still in the running for one automatic qualifying spot, and one play off spot at the beginning of the day. Key fixtures include Brazil vs Venezuela, Chile vs Ecuador and Uruguay vs Argentina. Click to continue reading...

Imagine a world cup without the world's best player? It's still a distinct possibility with Argentina stuttering over the finish line. Defeat tonight and the unthinkable may become a reality.

If Diego Maradona's Argentina lose to Uruguay and Ecuador beat Chile, who have already qualified, then Argentina will miss out.

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MONTEVIDEO - With only one game remaining in the schedule of the hardest qualifying continent in the world, the highly anticipated matchup of Uruguay vs. Argentina may boil down to the most crucial game in the history of international qualifiers. Not only because each team must win, but because an Ecuador win, will definitely seal the fate of one of them. Click to continue reading...

Things have not been going well for River Plate this season. As one of Argentina's two biggest clubs, there are a certain level of expectations always hanging over them and so far this season they're falling short of those targets. Like, by a lot.

Currently in 16th place through eight matches, River reached a new low by losing 3-1 at home to Independiente in the newly re-appointed Leonardo Astrada's second debut as the club's manager on Monday, marking the first time they've lost at home to one of their biggest rivals in 13 years.

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Why not take some effeminately posed pictures? That was Paraguay goalkeeper Diego Barreto's idea. Fierce, Diego. Very fierce.

[Photo: Reuters]

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If two results fall a certain way, Argentina could find itself completely locked out of a World Cup finals spot in 2010. That's the main storyline on the most interesting qualifying group still in play as South America will finish...

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The CONCACAF Region has two of its three automatic qualification spots decided with Mexico and the United States winning on Saturday. The third spot is up for grabs as Honduras and Costa Rica still have a chance. The fourth place team will play the fifth place team from CONMEBOL (South America) to determine the final spot from both regions.

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The injury-laced success of Fat Ronaldo since he's joined Corinthians has evidently not gone unnoticed by fans of Brazil's national team. During their surprising loss in Bolivia on Sunday, one portly fellow (that's not Ronaldo himself, is it?) ran out onto the pitch, holding up a sign promoting Fat Ron's inclusion in the national team just as the second half began.

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Amidst all the World Cup qualifying craziness of Saturday came one of the most dramatic finishes seen in quite some time.

No, I'm not talking about the U.S. team's win vs. Honduras, which was dramatic in its own right. I'm referring to Argentina's late game-winner vs. Peru. With just seconds remaining and with Argentina facing the very real prospect of falling into fifth place in South America's World Cup qualifying race, forward Martin Palermo knocked home a loose ball for a game-winner that will go down in Argentine history.

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Bees! Quick, call the fire brigade! The World Cup qualifier between Mexico and El Salvador was held up for ten minutes after a swarm of bees decided to make their home in the stadium. The pesky swarm decided El Salvador keeper Miguel Montes' net was the perfect vantage point to watch the game. Montes disagreed. Click to continue reading...