Fabio Aurelio is winning his battle to be fit to return to action on Monday – and to take his place in the Brazil squad for the first time.
Aurelio, who is in the last year of his current contract, has missed Liverpool's last two games against Fulham and Lyon with a calf problem.
His form before that, though, had been good enough to catch the eye of Brazil coach Dunga, who will take Aurelio and Reds midfielder Lucas to Qatar for next Saturday's friendly with England. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool defender Daniel Agger is taking heart from the Reds' positive performance against Olympique Lyonnais this week, despite the disappointing result – a 1-1 draw placed the Merseysiders' hopes of progress in the Champions League in severe doubt.
"You get what you deserve in football and you have to look at closing the game down otherwise you get punished in the way we did in Lyon," he told the club's official website.

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51 responses to Jeff Plush's letter to fans on the Rapids' blog as of 10am November 5. It shows there are some passionate fans out there. Not that I ever had any doubt about that. What I do have doubts over are the very future of this club and here's why.
I have never really understood why sports trophies are given to the owners of clubs when they win championships. Click to continue reading...

The 4-1 thumping of Alkmaar in midweek was an immensely satisfying affair, a triumph of footballing philosophy over the defensive nous of coaches such as Ronald Koeman, and yet another demonstration that this Arsenal team is serious about combining footballing beauty with tangible success.

But prior the the match, there was a definite sense of relaxation amongst the fans, as if the game really didn't matter, so assured was our progress regardless of the result.

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Last night was pretty depressing but loved this quote from Eusebio

Eusebio on Goodison Park: "Sorry, I don't speak good English. But today for me, for my family, it's a good day, for Benfica to play here. This stadium for me is the best stadium in my playing life.

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I'm not quite sure where this week has gone. It's absolutely motored past. However, I suspect I drifted along, basking a bit too much in derby delight, and before I could whistle, the Champions League game had been and gone, and Stan Kroenke had hoovered up yet more shares.

We continued our fine form, albeit against what turned out to be the limited AZ.

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Andy Williams Seals the Deal for Real in Win

Andy Williams seals the deal for RSL with a late goal in Real's 4-2 aggregate win to advance in the 2009 MLS Playoffs and move on to the Eastern Conference Final. Last week after Real Salt Lake beat Columbus at home in Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, Jason Kreis said something interesting after the game. Click to continue reading...

Conspiracy theories don't usually do it for me, but tonight's farce is enough to make me pause for thought. If Jack Warner can retain a high ranking position in FIFA than nothing in football is impossible; could it be that UEFA, frightened by Roma's poor start to the campaign and desperate to show off their new Europa League, have issued a far reaching anti-non-famous club mandate?

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Goalkeeper Pepe Reina has branded Liverpool's Champions League performances this season 'disgraceful'.
The Spain international was left fuming after conceding a late equaliser in the 1-1 draw in Lyon on Wednesday night which has left the Reds' qualification from the group stages in the hands of rival teams. Click to continue reading...

Lyon coach Claude Puel has assured Liverpool they will be doing their all to beat Fiorentina, despite already securing qualifcation.
Liverpool's hopes of reaching the last 16 of the Champions League is out of their hands after Lisandro Lopez's dramatic late goal denied the English side all three points in France on Wednesday night. Click to continue reading...

I have to say maybe I was slightly harsh on the boys after the Atletico game the other night as we are sitting pretty at the top of our group with two games to play. Let's face it there are a number of big european sides that are all but comfortable at the moment and will be giving their all to make sure of qualification for the last 16. Click to continue reading...

Will we see more of Conor Casey with the US National Team? (Getty Images)

Good evening folks, I hope everyone is having a good day. Now that we are in the evening it is time once again for some links and thoughts. I only have two items tonight and really only one link.

My first thought of the night centers around the US Men's National team and their upcoming friendlies this month in Europe.

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Liverpool's chances of advancing to the UEFA Champions League knockout stage are on life support after the team's 1-1 draw at Olympique Lyon earlier today. With the point from the draw, Lyon become the first team in the group to advance. Likely to join them are Fiorentina, who sit second on nine points. Click to continue reading...

Russian champions Rubin Kazan ensured that they remain unbeaten against UEFA Champions League holders FC Barcelona over the two games played on opposite ends of the continent.

A goalless draw in overcast conditions in Central Stadium Kazan ensured that Rubin remain tied on points with the Catalans.

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The first round of MLS playoffs (aka MLS Conference Semi-finals)Â always spurs heated discussion about its playoff format as well as the League's two conference structure.

Let's take an overview of various playoff format options and League structures for Major League Soccer. There should be three objectives to a playoff format and League Structure:

1) Crown a worthy champion

2) Entertain the fans

3) Maximize revenue for the teams and League

No matter what playoff format is used or what tweaks are made to improve it, a percentage of fans will criticize it and offer other imperfect solutions.

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A lone goal in the 84th minute was enough to give Porto a well earned victory away from home, and propel them into the knockout stage of the Champions League. The game started well, with Helton being forced to make a picture perfect save that kept his side in the match, and Falcao collected a good [. Click to continue reading...

In the Champions League Group Phase, considerable analysis is possible at the midway stage as all the teams have played each other once.
This allows proper analysis of form and the fundamentals, and allows us to determine if any of the events are 3 for 3 or 2 for 2 scenarios (teams sharing the points over the two games). Click to continue reading...

FC Porto got a late goal in the 84th minute from striker Falcao to go on to defeat APOEL 1-0 in Champions League action. The goal by Falcao clinched a spot for Porto in the Round of 16 with two games remaining in the Group Stage. FC Porto will now look to fine tune their game in the next couple of rounds of play and look to fight Chelsea for the Group Title. Click to continue reading...

And the first leg of the MLS Cup Playoffs tells us...

Not much.

Two one-goal winners. Two one-goal losers. And two games ending in draws. At this point it's still looking wide open.

This weekend's results:
Seattle 0-0 Houston
RSL 1-0 Columbus
NE 2-1 Chicago
Chivas 2-2 Galaxy

Who Will Win the 2009 MLS Cup?

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Â

Photo by ISIphotos.com

by FRANCO PANIZO

The U.S. Under-17 men's national team finally put together a strong performance in its final group match, and its reward for beating the United Arab Emirates is a Round of 16 date to face Italy.

Click to continue reading...

Â

Photo by ISIphotos.com

by FRANCO PANIZO

The U.S. Under-17 men's national team finally put together a strong performance in its final group match, and its reward for beating the United Arab Emirates is a Round of 16 date with Italy.

Click to continue reading...

Its got to be Liverpool's worst run in years.Five defeats in the League already, beaten twice in the Champion's League and we will be going out unless we win our last three group matches, plus out of the Carling Cup alreadyIt is Rafa Benitez's poorest spell in charge of Liverpool since he joined us five years ago. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool defender Glen Johnson has admitted an early exit from the UEFA Champions League would be a 'disaster' for the Anfield outfit.
Rafa Benitez's side are floundering in the Premier League title race after suffering their fifth defeat of the season away to Fulham on Saturday, a match which full-back Johnson missed through injury. Click to continue reading...

What goes around comes around eh? Less than a week after hauling Michael Owen down as the last man, Jamie Carragher got his just desserts. In the first half, Carragher fell in to Zamora in the penalty area but the referee let him off the hook again. It was a case of three strikes and your out for Carragher though, with the Liverpool defender finally handed a straight red card for rugby tackling his opponent.

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Rafael Benitez is facing the very real prospect of trying to save Liverpool's European dream without Steven Gerrard.
The Liverpool boss is without his skipper at Fulham in the Premier League, and is seemingly clutching at straws that Gerrard will be available for Wednesday's Champions League trip to Lyon. Click to continue reading...

Miss Cleo asked for the week off after her dismal performance last week of only getting two games right on the calender. This week your favorite false prophet is busy with the holidays and all (what could be scarier then a thousand dollar phone bill) , so I'll try to help out in our prophets absence.

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Sir Alex Ferguson has always enjoyed a good moan. Especially when it comes to England friendlies. So it wasn't a huge surprise to hear him complain about England's upcoming game vs Brazil in Doha, Qatar on November 14th.

Ferguson doesn't mention the Brazil game specifcially. But he may as well have.

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A look at this weekends game in the Premier League. The showcase is the North London derby where Spurs will try and end a 10-year losing streak to their biggest rivals

Arsenal v Tottenham
Arsenal have been really good at the Emirates this season and will hope to continue that form against a Spurs side that is not playing quite as well as they did last month.

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A look at this weekends game in the Premier League. The showcase is the North London derby where Spurs will try and end a 10-year losing streak to their biggest rivals

Arsenal v Tottenham
Arsenal have been really good at the Emirates this season and will hope to continue that form against a Spurs side that is not playing quite as well as they did last month.

Click to continue reading...

After the way he has been treated by Messrs Hicks and Gillett, who would blame him!

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Real Madrid are lining up Rafa Benitez as their next manager after giving Manuel Pellegrini two games to save his job.

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After Sunday's great victory over Man Utd and a very good performance in the Carling Cup defeat to Arsenal on Wednesday, Rafa Benitez must be starting to believe that Liverpool have turned a corner this season and that his side are now prepared to fight again for the Premiership title.
Lets face it, we played United of the park last week and we put in a very good display against Arsenal the other night and were very unlucky to lose that match. Click to continue reading...

Jimmy Conrad and Josh Wolff lead the way in 2009 for Kansas City. (WVH Photo Correspondent Brian Stevens)

The bandwagon was getting bigger for this club going into 2009. Many folks had hoped this was the year the Kansas City Wizards would get over the hump and make a big splash in the eastern conference.

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What a tumultuous ten weeks it has been. When the season kicked off, even the most Italian-friendly pundits were predicting that this season, dubbed 'Year Zero' by the AC Milan fans, would be the dullest season in Italian history.

But it is now clear how wrong that prediction was. In the first two games of the season, most predictions were proven true as AC Milan were pummelled 4-0 by rivals Inter Milan, while Roma slumped to two successive defeats and Genoa and Juve both played with style.

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Arsenal 2 Liverpool 1 (Carling Cup 4th round)

Hello Gooners. Well that was close as well, just like the previous two games. Where was the 3-1 I predicted? As it turns out we didn't need that third goal.

You won't agree but for me Liverpool probably shaded it by virtue of the opportunities they created.

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MORNING folks.
Yesterday FP had a chance to check out a bit of Perth Glory's training session and attend the presser. Also made a couple of interesting observations while he was there.
Firstly, while club stalwart Jamie Harnwell is a few weeks away from recovering from his injury, he had a bit of a run and looked pretty comfortable. Click to continue reading...