It's always fantastic hearing from brilliant futbolitas or futbolitos from other parts of the world! In our Travelling Postcards series this week, meet Agne Ziukaite from Lithuania who plays football, loves Barcelona more than life itself and dreams of being a sports journalist one day.

The Chicago Fire opened Red Bull Arena in 2010. In 2011, the Men in Red had the 'honor' of opening Jeld-Wen Field in April and Livestrong Sporting Park in June. In the three away games, Chicago was outscored 5-2 and had two losses and one draw. I'm not a big fan of the Fire opening stadiums because the opposition brings their top game for the special event.

Toronto FC goalkeeper coach Mike Toshack leaves the club and joins Portland Timbers #MLS

via @LukeWileman, a well respected Canadian sports journalist.

No official announcement just yet.

Barney's Version
Armed with some rubbish questions from EFW and some gems of her own, Lizzy Ammon clicked the heels of her favourite pair of red shoes together three times before marching off to meet Guardian sports journalist Barney Ronay...
Thanks for taking time away from Guardian Towers to talk to us.

Welcoming Laurie Dunsire this hour. A Hearts fan. This blogathon is inclusive to its bones.
Laurie writes for the excellent Scottish Football Forums
And follow him @lauriedunsire
I'll let Laurie explain what this hour has been about:
Aidan Smith, Hibs fan and sports journalist, carried out an unthinkable challenge when he became a Hearts fan for a whole season, something which he documented in his book, Heartfelt: Supping Bovril from the Devil's Cup.

Untold Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal.......Arsenal History ...... Making the Arsenal ...... Arsenal Uncovered By: Anne *Much thanks to Shard and bjtgooner for their research contributions to this article. Daily Mail columnist (and reigning "Sports Journalist of the Year") Martin Samuel's Arsenal coverage beginning on 1 July, 2011 (and particularly in August, 2011) can [.

Arsene Wenger eventually made some significant signings as the transfer window slammed shut with Mike Arteta arguably being the pick of the bunch of the new recruits for the Gunners.

But AW isn't the only one who has been busy tracking down top talent to represent the Arsenal.

Ducky's Note: Wannabe journalist and so-rational-that-it's-bordering-on-the-pessimistic Arsenal fan Swaroop has been a regular contributor to BigFourZa for so long now that we decided to honour him with the Order of the Gooner, First Class. With the, he gets to experience the immeasurable joy of seeing one's own byline in an article, given that in his day job as a sports journalist for a national newspaper, he would've never experienced.

British sports journalist Andrew Warshaw has reported in the Inside World Football newsletter that sources close to the FIFA Ethics Committee's case against Asian Football Confederation President Mohamed bin Hammam "have indicated" that the Qatari, accused of paying cash bribes to 25 Caribbean FIFA members in exchange for votes, "will almost certainly be banned for life and be forced to go to

One of things I've been interested in since the recent FIFA corruption debacle and its subsequent disappearance under the regular news cycle is the transformation of the impartial sports journalist into anti-FIFA crusader.
I don't think this is necessarily a negative development, and we're far off from seeing any editorializing in actual news articles, but the line is slowly blurring.

And then there was one. Admittedly the shiniest, most prestigious looker in the bunch, but having stumbled out of three competitions in fourteen days, it still feels somewhat deflating. If one more po-faced twat accosts me with "ooooh, you lot were talking about the quadruple two weeks ago" I think I'll hack liberally at his testes with vinegar soaked razor blades.

An interesting piece was sent to me about corruption in FIFA. Yeah, that is nothing new but I thought it was a good read. In the picture you can see FIFA President Blatter (left) sharing a drink with alleged Russian criminal Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov (right) and Russian World Cup bid member Viacheslav Koloskov at a Moscow nightclub in 2005.

I've spent the morning reading a few bookmarked articles on the AOL/Huffington Post takeover in the New York Times, specifically on whether the Huffington Post makes its money "on the backs" of unpaid bloggers. If you believe the answer is "yes," I'd recommend reading through Nate Silver's HuffPo page-view breakdown from last week.

It doesn't get any bigger..

It is never easy for a neutral sports fan to watch two attractive teams or players go at it against each other in the early stages of a competition. For one, when a football team that's renowned for its attacking flair meets another considered past masters at the same art, then you know that there's every chance of a stalemate ensuing.

Jonathan over at Just-Football wrote a post yesterday reacting to the recent Twitter "gaffes" of Liverpool players Glen Johnson and Ryan Babel, who got in trouble for tweeting their honest, if tactless and ill-advised, opinions on the game they're paid a great deal of money to play. He ends his post with a question: "Should players have free reign to say what they like on social networking sites like Twitter?