I opened up my preview for this match with the following paragraph:
Back in action at the Stadium of Light tomorrow, for what I expect to be a very tricky match.
Seriously–this match scares the hell out of me. For one thing, it's a road match against a top
half side with a very good home record–those matches are always tough, no matter what.
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According to Chris Flanagan at the Lancashire Telegraph, Burnley boss
Owen Coyle admitted that although funds will be tight, the club hopes to sign one
or two players. He said,
"We really have to weigh it up and decide what's the best way forward for us given in terms of
the Premier League we don't have a great big squad in terms of numbers .
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Many people have been calling for the France v Rep. Ireland game to be replayed, but I'm not too
sure if this will be possible. Sure, I think the game wasn't fair and France don't deserve to go to
the World Cup, but I'm not sure if you can simply decide to replay this match how can it be
considered to be fair, when bad refereeing decisions affect matches all the time, I don't quite
understand how this match can warrant a replay when others don't.
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Footy Factor 18 November @ 07:18 AM EST
With football heavyweights France, Portugal and Russia looking to
seal their place in South Africa you would be a fool to discount the action in Europe. But tonight
in Omdurman, the largest city in Sudan, Egypt and Algeria clash in the day's most
explosive tie.
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Footy Factor 18 November @ 07:18 AM EST
With football heavyweights France, Portugal and Russia looking to
seal their place in South Africa you would be a fool to discount the action in Europe. But tonight
in Omdurman, the largest city in Sudan, Egypt and Algeria clash in the day's most
explosive tie.
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Confidence and luck running low at Anfield.
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27 shots to 5. That's the real story of last night's match.
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This was brought to my attention in the play-by-play thread on Bigsoccer: Did you notice that MLS
has changed its rules for playoff yellow card suspensions? I'm not sure if this was put into place
this year or last year, but it definitely was not the case as of 2007. Two yellow cards in
consecutive games mean a suspension.
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Fantasy EPL 06 November @ 09:59 AM EST
Premier League Team News - Barclays Premier League - ESPN SoccernetYou can check either the link
above or yesterday's The Week Ahead post for a complete listing of those missing through suspension
after the Premier League's refs. As I mentioned yesterday, the interesting opportunities that
will result from suspensions are O'Shea being a line-up definite and Frazier Campbell deputizing
for
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So, are we going to bounce back from our lacklustre display against the old enemy or will the
players put in another shocker against Steve Bruce's men?
The defeat against Stoke doesn't worry me. We played well, it was just unfortunate. Even more
unfortunate it came before a big game but I think we would have lost at Arsenal in those
circumstances 99 times out of 100.
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Manchester United have submitted a claim of mistaken identity to the Football Association after
Fabio da Silva was booked by referee Chris Foy against Barnsley in the Carling Cup.
Instead the offender for a challenge on Jamal Campbell-Ryce was his twin brother Rafael.
The only way the twins can be separated around training is because Fabio wears a wedding ring,
it begs the question why they don't swap shirts to avoid suspensions, or a free substitution
maybe?
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Perhaps trying to dampen some of the criticism aimed at him - particularly in the wake of Sunday's
drawagainst Fulham, Mark Hughes has offered support for big money signing Joleon Lescott:
"You have to understand, though, that this is a new back four and the more games Joleon and Kolo
[Touré] play together the better they will gel as a pair.
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After not winning any Champions League games last year, United has won three in a row to give
itself a chance to advance to the quarterfinal round of the tournament. It will be a difficult task
though - United must try to get a win in Mexico, a feat never accomplished by an MLS team.
And Toluca will not make it easy.
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Serbia player arrested for attacking fan
That country can't keep out of the news. On Sunday a 28-year-old player went up into the stands to
attack a 53-year-old fan after his game. According to the police, he's suspected of committing "a
hostile act at a sports venue."
Latvian club banned for gambling
Dinaburg FC, one of the top clubs over there, was banned for the rest of the season due to gambling
by the team's coach and general manager, who are each permanently banned.
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Eduardo scored the winner in Arsenal's victory.
Arsenal were under the gun early as Belgian side Standard Liege jumped to a 2-0 lead after only
five minutes. It was a nightmare start for young Italian keeper Vito Mannone. Not that the goals
were his fault but two goals conceded in five minutes is a horrible start for any keeper.
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Blog United 15 September @ 04:41 AM EST
Alex Ferguson believes it was Paul Scholes' reputation which earned him United's first red card
of the season in the 3-1 victory over Spurs on Saturday.
Scholes was sent off for two bookable offences; first taking down Defoe before a clumsy
challenge on Huddlestone. Scholes clearly tried to pull out of the challenge with Huddlestone and
Ferguson believes the referee made a rash decision.
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"The first objective is to arrive at the final."
-Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti on this season's Champions League
The journey begins Tuesday at Stamford Bridge. The Blues welcome FC Porto, a familiar opponent
in this competition, to the Bridge for our Group D opener.
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As pointed out by CA, anything less than a spot in the final will be seen as a
disappointment.
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An undermanned Rapids squad traveled North of the border for the back end of the home-and-home
series with Toronto. The Rapids were hurt by a ton of injuries, suspensions, and players unable to
travel, taking only the minimum 18 players with them to Canada. The changes in the team showed as
Toronto dominated much of the play.
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Quick post - I need to get this in before Kanye West interrupts me. ...
... So the news broke today that Arsenal player Eduardo's (no relation) ban in UEFA Champions
League play for an alleged dive against Celtic will not be punished with a two-game ban, after
all.
And while I'm all for getting diving out of football - in a moment of honesty, I have to think this
is the right decision.
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                                               Â
           Photo by ISIphotos.com
The subject of diving has become one of the most controversial and widely-discussed topics in
European soccer, and it may be time to start addressing it in MLS.
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                                               Â
           Photo by ISIphotos.com
The subject of diving has become one of the most controversial and widely-discussed topics in
European soccer, and it may be time to start addressing it in MLS.
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Now this is a precedent I can get behind.
Bad referees aren't going to cut it in Bulgaria. Two of 'em got four-match suspensions for their
ineptitude.
"There's no place for such referees in Bulgarian football," [BFU Vice President Yordan]
Lechkov was quoted as saying after Sliven's defeat last weekend.
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The U.S. men's national team is in must-win mode tonight as it faces El Salvador in World Cup
qualifying in Sandy, Utah (8pm, ESPN Classic).
The Americans currently sit in third place in CONCACAF qualifying, but a win tonight would go a
long way toward helping the USA qualify.
I will be providing commentary throughout the evening so please feel free to follow along
here.
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HexagonalBlog 04 September @ 02:34 AM EST
It's past time that I come back here to make some proper posts. It's no use saying where I've been,
so let's get started with the Hexagonal matches this weekend. At this stage of the final round,
each of the coaches should have already settled on their best XI, but suspensions and injuries are
taking their toll on the six teams.
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Seriously, is there a bigger frakking joke of an organization on the planet than UEFA?
Apparently they have now come out and said that they will not be instituting a regular program
of reviewing suspected acts of simulation for possible suspensions. So, basically, Eduardo gets
suspended, and none of the other scores of players who have committed or will commit virtually
identical acts will.
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I'm honestly tired of this winless streak, how about you? The Wizards haven't won since they beat
New England back in June (I'm sounding like a broken record saying that, but it's true). Tomorrow
night the Wizards welcome Real Salt Lake to CAB. The good news for Wizards fans is that Real Salt
Lake is not a good road team.
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OMG, what a day yesterday was. Did I miss something? Did we go back in time and wipe the last
few decades of football thus making Eduardo the first player in history to go down a bit easily?
Could there be any other reason why Sky Sports thought it appropriate to ask every English Chief
Exec at the Champions League Draw about it?
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Well, it's official AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, and Standard Liege. Looking over it, my gut reaction
is that we probably got the easiest group out of the Pool A folks.
There aren't any "easy" games at this stage, but there is really no excuse for us not making it
into the knockout rounds with this draw, as we have a much easier path than some of the other big
clubs (I'd say Liverpool (Lyon, Fiorentina, Debrecen), Bayern (Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa),
and AC Milan (Real Madrid, Marseille, Zurich) have much tougher paths than we do).
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Translation of Spanish article by Primera Hora:
Islanders will travel to Costa Rica without Bill Gaudette
Saturday - August 22, 2009
Esteban Pagán Rivera / Primera Hora
The Puerto Rico Islanders will travel tomorrow (Sunday) to Costa Rica to face Saprissa without
their main goalkeeper, Bill Gaudette.
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A busy day at Offside HQ, and whole boat load of stuff to talk about. Strap in.
- First and foremost, roster moves. The long rumored, and now finally finalized move for David
Habaruguira, defender from Anderlecht in the Netherlands. He had throughly impressed Tom Soehn,
enough that he had this to say,
"He is pretty versatile, pretty polished," Soehn said.
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Punishment should fit the crime.
The FA will consider the severity of injuries caused by rash tackles when dealing with
suspensions for red card offences next season.
The governing body say they will reduce or increase the length of bans depending on a number of
factors which include the intent shown by the tackler, the force of the challenge and any
subsequent injury.
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You may be wondering why we have chosen to give valuable COS real estate to this game, well if
you play the video you will see the mother of all comebacks, one that goes one better than night in
Istanbul in 2005!
- Revealed: How Barcelona Ace Leo Messi Managed to Score a Header Against Man Utd!
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Formation is a subject where everyone has an opinion, and everyone has a bias, mainly because
it's so important. Every England debate since 66 has featured formation. Teams have one with
diamonds, Christmas tree's, MW's, and all sorts, so we can understand that it is not the formation
that wins trophies, but the teams adaptability and comfort with these tactics.
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MLS Rumors 31 July @ 08:22 PM EST
Jason KreisReal Salt Lake
Suspension/Fine: 8/1/09 vs. CHI, $500
Reason: Dismissal: 7/24/09 vs. FC Dallas
MLS suspends and fines Real Salt Lake coach Kreis
(AP) – 1 hour ago
NEW YORK — Major League Soccer says it has suspended Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis for one
game and fined him $3,000 for actions that led to his ejection from a game against FC Dallas last
Friday.
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There's probably a hundred or so postgame reports out there so I won't bore you with mine. You
know the Dynamo won 1-0, that's all you really need to know. Plus, I missed most of the first half
anyway because my power decided to go out precisely at kick off. OK, stop begging. I'll give you
the quick version.
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