by Andrew Crawford

Having even the remotest interest in Shanghai Shenhua should probably come with a health warning. When I die a decade prematurely, blame it on the side from the Hongkou stadium for weakening my heart and badly damaging my sanity. Shenhua is a dangerous interest to have. Believe me, its lots of fun but if you can, enjoy it in moderation.

Arsenal's wins against Everton and Aston Villa were hard-fought and while the points were all taken, there surely has to be some questions raised over the 4-3-3 formation's productivity in those matches. Let us not be mistaken in both matches Arsenal pulled out hard-fought wins, but chances were fashioned far and few between and [.

by Adam Bate

November 7, 1990 – Napoli were eliminated from the European Cup by Spartak Moscow on penalties.

Look out for Ciro Ferrara and Diego Maradona converting their spot-kicks for Napoli with Marco Baroni the unfortunate Italian to miss presumably put off by the goalkeeper's prescient Movember contribution.

The U-20 Seleção won the World Cup yesterday beating Portugal 3-2 during the overtime with a stellar performance by Oscar. The players of U-20 teams don't always carry through with the promises that they show at this stage but who knows if some of these will be future World Cup stars.

The confirmed starting line-ups for the Premier League fixture of Arsenal v Liverpool at The Emirates Stadium on Saturday August 20th 2011 are as follows:

Liverpool
Reina, Kelly, Enrique, Agger, Carragher, Lucas, Adam, Henderson, Downing, Carroll, Kuyt.

Subs:
Doni, Flanagan, Skrtel, Meireles, Spearing, Suarez, Maxi.

Best news of the day! Scheduled for the next friendly game of the Auriverdes against Ghana in London on September 5. Ronaldinho was for a while the top scorer in the Brazilian league this year and can still be decisive against any team. Let's see if Ronaldinho can make his dream come true of participating in the next World Cup.

The preliminary draw has finally marked the beginning of the long journey to the next World Cup. Some groups look very tough like Ivory Coast and Morocco in African Group C or Spain and France in European Group I. 203 countries are competing for the 32 qualifying seats, a record so far in World Cup history.

La Celeste has done it for the 15th time, smashing Paraguay 3 0 in a brilliant demonstration of team work and star individualities. What a game by Luis Suarez & Diego Forlan & Arevalo Rios! Uruguay played its best game during the final, it's 15th win in 21 Copa America finals.

Now the press has been all over with the Maracanazo of Sante Fe! Imagine, 61 years after Maracanazo I, the Celeste writes another extraordinary episode of world football by wiping Argentina out of its beloved Copa America! Uruguay played 48 minutes at 10 against 11 and still did it.

The striker has a map in his head, at all times, of exactly where the corners of the goal are. How amazing when that goal in the mind plays out on the pitch.

Goals like this give the soccer fan great dreams at night. Glorious

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What does race have to do with it? Nothing. The French national teams have seen Polish immigrants in the great 1958 team, Italian and Spanish in the dream team of the 1980s and the black-blanc-beur world champion team of 1998. The debate is only about how to put back the technical aspects in front of the physical ones, point la ligne.