THE hardest thing to do in testing times, when adversity and animosity is mounting in equal measure, is stick to your guns.
It's all too easy to fly off the handle the moment something is not going how you want it and it is a sad indictment of the way football is in this day and age that everything must either be black or white – grey areas no longer exist. Click to continue reading...

University of Denver goalkeeper Joe Willis made three saves during the shootout and all three Denver shooters scored as the Pioneers defeated Air Force in the quarterfinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament on Thursday night at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium.

Air Force (7-8-2) scored twice in the final 15 minutes of regulation to tie the Pioneers 2-2 and send the game into overtime.

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I'm sure you're all like me out there in the Gooner Nation. Still luxuriating in the warm glow of the derby win last Saturday over the Forces of Darkness. The cod DVD cover doing the email rounds with Spurs releasing a highlights video of the first forty-two minutes of the game is absolutely delicious.

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Liverpool face Roy Hodgson's Fulham at Craven Cottage today needing all three points to push for a place at the top of the table.
This will be no easy task as Fulham are very difficult to beat home or away.
Liverpool will again have to do without Steven Gerrard, still suffering from a groin strain he picked up on duty with England. Click to continue reading...

Teenager Fran Merida netted his first Arsenal goal as Arsene Wenger's young Gunners beat Liverpool 2-1 to reach the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup.
Just back from the Under-20 World Cup with Spain, the 19-year-old former Barcelona trainee drilled in a fine first-half strike as Wenger's faith in youth was once again justified. Click to continue reading...

Kop fall-guy Lucas claims the flak he has taken has made him stronger.
Lucas has borne the brunt of supporters' frustrations during Liverpool's rollercoaster start to the season.
The Brazilian has been given the unenviable task of trying to replace fans' favourite Xabi Alonso at the heart of midfield and has been singled out for criticism by supporters. Click to continue reading...

Last weekend provided an object lesson in how football fortunes can fluctuate. Liverpool went into their home clash with Manchester United on a knife-edge. Four successive defeats - their worst run since 1987 - had the air thick with talk of a crisis. Manager Rafa Benitez's transfer strategy, team selection, tactics and substitutions were all being questioned by pundits and fans alike, some even suggesting that his job could, or should, be in jeopardy. Click to continue reading...

Scott the red over at 'The Republik of Mancunia' has kindly taken the time to answer some questions about - amongst other things - where it all went wrong for United at Anfield yesterday.
Jaimie Kanwar: What went wrong for United at Anfield?
Scott the Red: The first problem was the team selection. Click to continue reading...

Jamie Kanwar from Liverpool Kop has interviewed me after yesterday's defeat.

Jaimie Kanwar: What went wrong for United at Anfield?

Scott the Red: The first problem was the team selection. With Darren Fletcher out injured we needed some grit and fight in the centre of midfield, with Anderson could have provided us with.

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Yesterday's game was like one of those pre Christmas pantomimes in which the main character is unaware of an imminent danger but everyone in the audience can see exactly what is going on and cries out, it's behind you, it's behind you.

These situations are usually funny and so should this one have been, if drawing with West Ham, after being two up, wasn't so utterly soul destroying.

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Arsene will spend his 60th birthday today at the club's Annual General Meeting with the shareholders, and, unlike last season, a much more cordial atmosphere is to be expected.

I watched the AGM last year and I have to say that the reports in the press made it seem as though Arsene was attacked and strung up by his legs by the shareholders, who went on to poke and prod him but eventually let him go.

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Matchday 3 sees some crucial matchups but none may be more important at this stage than the Standard Liege Olympiacos fixture. Arsenal look to be a lock for top spot in Group H but second place is wide open. A win today for Olympiacos would put them in the driver's seat.

If they lose at home today against Arsenal, last season's Eredivise champions AZ Alkmaar could be done for.

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A decent if slightly frustrating win on Saturday against Birmingham City. We really should have put the game away easier than we did. We also conceded another sloppy goal for which I think William Gallas and Vito Mannone have to take equal shares of the blame.Â

Despite Mannone making another mistake, not asserting himself sufficiently for the Brum goal I'd still select him ahead of Manuel Almunia for tomorrow night's Champions League game in the Netherlands.

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Somewhat later than planned (for which we apologise), here's a round-up of last weekend's action from the World Cup qualifiers outside of Europe.
South America
With Brazil and Paraguay already in situ for a place in the 2010 World Cup Finals, it was Chile who were the next to take their chance by beating Colombia 4-2 in Medellin. Click to continue reading...

We'll shortly announce officially that we've acquired goalkeeper Steve Cronin on loan from the Portland Timbers (United Soccer League First Division). The club received approval from MLS to obtain the 26-year old as an extreme hardship roster addition. Cronin joined the team at training for the first time today.

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Winning trophies may be the object of the exercise but if they continue to elude us we can take some comfort from what we witnessed yesterday as being pretty darn close to the next best thing. If you were lucky enough to be at the ground and didn't walk away feeling entertained then perhaps you really should think about taking up knitting.

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The United Soccer League announced today that the Minnesota Thunders Lawrence Olum was named as a midfielder to the All-League Second Team.

Lawrence Olum wins All 2nd Team honors - Photo by Jeremy Olson -www.digitalgopher.net

The honor is given to 11 of the top 22 players in the league and voted upon by league coaches and general managers.

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The United Soccer League announced today that the Minnesota Thunder's Lawrence Olum was named as a midfielder to the All-League Second Team.

Lawrence Olum wins All 2nd Team honors - Photo by Jeremy Olson -www.digitalgopher.net

The honor is given to 11 of the top 22 players in the league and voted upon by league coaches and general managers.

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Yes, we didn't get to see any of Chelsea's young talent beyond Borini and Hutchinson. Yes, Chelsea's starting XI was filled with eight full internationals. Yes, it was only one nil and, to be fair to the hoops, Chelsea did need to bring on Lampard, Terry and Ashley Cole to make sure of the result.

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Yes, we didn't get to see any of Chelsea's young talent beyond Borini and Hutchinson. Yes, Chelsea's starting XI was filled with eight full internationals. Yes, it was only one nil and, to be fair to the hoops, Chelsea did need to bring on Lampard, Terry and Ashley Cole to make sure of the result.

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http://www.myfootballclub.co.uk/

For the past two years, I have had the pleasure of being a member of MyFootballClub, the world's first web community owned club. We own Ebbsfleet United Football Club, a professional team in the Blue Square Premier League, the 5th division of English football.

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Chis Hughton has admitted he may need to change things around a bit against Plymouth today after Newcastle's first defeat of the season at Blackpool. Nile Ranger - could he get start today alongside Andy Carroll? Chris should be ruthless today in his team selection  and put out his most attacking team. Click to continue reading...

Trying to see things through Harry's eyes is difficult especially after last week where he baffled most fans, but unless he is a very stubborn man, which he well might be, we won't see Keane starting on the left for a while. Not now we've got Kranjcar to fill in while Modric recovers anyway. However since Keane is undroppable then it looks like him and Defoe up front. Click to continue reading...

What a difference two years make. In November, 2007, England succumbed to Croatia at Wembley by a scoreline of 2-3 and thus surrendered their qualifying for Euro 2008. Cue the images of a fumbling Steve McClaren and an England team with so little confidence. Croatia, meanwhile, looked like world beaters.

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With the Croatia game just a few short hours away and a World Cup in sight it seemed the right time for us to ask you to get your collective thinking caps on.

It seems a great many papers and websites have been musing over whether Fabio Capello should opt for Defoe or Heskey (an easy choice our minds) so we have decided to take the whole team selection to a whole new level!

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Bangkok Glass' style of play is similar to what we saw by their fellow Thai side - TTM Samut Sakorn on last Friday.
Glass Rabbit fans... Wondering we would get to see the famed Glass Rabbit cheerleaders anytime soon?
Patient is the key in orchestrating any attacking play, a logic never seems to adapt by many of the local clubs who would prefer that "kamikaze" style of football (kick and rush before allowing your opponents to hit you hard when at vulnerability). Click to continue reading...

Last season Manchester United may have won the Premier League title, but their form against the rest of the "Big Four" was dire. On Saturday the Red Devils got a massive three points against Arsenal that suggests their form against their biggest rivals might just be better this year, but Fergie's tactics and team selection left a lot to be desired.

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A few questions have been asked of Sir Alex Ferguson's team selection so far this season following decisions to massively rotate the central midfield positions. Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher, Anderson, Michael Carrick and Darron Gibson have all had a go and the press reported Anderson's lack of match time was down to a falling out he had with the manager.

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The first three Premiership rounds have generated a lot of excitement and even though it is still early in the season, some things are clearer after we have seen the teams play. Premiership sack race is as interesting as ever, but Rafa Benitez has, surprisingly or not, emerged as the hot favourite after Liverpool lost two of the first three league games, while Paul Hart and Phil Brown were among the candidates even before the season started.

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Carlo Ancelotti has certainly stamped his mark on Chelsea early in the season so far. A Community Shield victory, coupled with 3 Premiership wins on the bounce has seen Chelsea rise to the top end of the table. So far, so what then? Nothing surprising in that in itself, would we expect the any of the big four to not already be putting markers down for the early running.

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I think it is safe to say that Wenger chose the team he did to play Everton because he expected them to come onto us; and, for the first twenty minutes, this is exactly what they did, until, as we all know, not only did their effort stall it crashed and burnt.

Anticipating a typical high energy charge from the Scots; Wenger, logically stuck with the same team selection, this is also exactly what happened, although, in the case of Celtic they did manage to hold out for forty minutes before they too succumbed to the realisation that they were playing a far superior side.

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Three goals, three points, a clean sheet and a good performance to go with it as Boro crushed Ebbsfleet 3-0 tonight at Broadhall Way. Graham Westley's side continued their steady improvement and showed a clinical edge in front of goal this evening to win the game and install some confidence into the side ahead of the trip to Oxford on Saturday.

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Two years My Football Club came into being where for £35, you could buy a stake into a Football Club of their choice and have a chance to voice your opinions - from kits, team selection - in fact own a share of the club.
The club My Football Club chose was Ebbsfleet United from the Blue Square conference. Click to continue reading...

<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> To celebrate the increase of traffic since linking up with 'Newsnow' I have spent vast amounts of time and money re-painting the site and I hope you like the more 'Tottenham' effect. I tried yellow flashes but they didn't show up and I have settled for pale and dark blue. Click to continue reading...

Two Tampa Bay Hellenic players were among the first batch of invitees to the USL-WPS combine to be held in Tampa in September. The USL announced the first thirty players selected on Tuesday; the total number of invites to be sent out is projected to be 90 total women. The combine will be the second annual event, the first seeing WPS draft 35 USL prospects for the inaugural WPS season. Click to continue reading...