With J Hutcherson -- What was the takeaway from Major League Soccer's Conference finals? Short of expecting no goals in regulation or propping up parity, it's that it takes more than ninety minutes for two teams to figure each other out. It's hard to avoid questioning the decision to make the finals one game when the opening round plays out over two legs. Click to continue reading...

If you read our African World Cup qualifying finale preview post yesterday, then you knew that Egypt vs Algeria was big. Historic bad feeling, exacerbated by Egyptian fans attacking the Algerian team bus in Cairo big. There was also the beautifully weighted qualification situation in Group C, where Egypt needed to beat Algeria by three goals or more to qualify for World Cup 2010 at Algeria's expense.

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World Cup qualification is back on the agenda this weekend as 18 teams from around the globe battle it out for the remaining 9 places. With 23 nations already qualified for next summer's tournament, here's how things stack up in the final 16 matches on the road to South Africa:

What: European playoffs

How: 8 teams clash over two-legs with 4 teams advancing to Finals.

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World cup play-offs take place this weekend and fans around the world will be crossing their fingers hoping for the result to go their way. On this week's show we listen to an Irish fan give his opinion on what might happen when Ireland play France over two legs. You can also:

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• Read our football news review in the good, the bad and the ugly
• Check out a new football expression in English for Football
• Follow the weekly predictions battle between Damon and Damian in the Predictions competition
• For learners of English check out our Football Language Resources page with:
• Football glossary (a huge collection of football vocabulary, football cliches and football phrases)
• Worksheets and transcripts from previous podcasts
  

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With 23 nations already qualified for World Cup 2010, there are just nine places in South Africa still up for grabs. Three of those will be decided when African qualifying concludes next Wednesday. But that's a separate post. The six other qualifiers will be decided by playoffs, starting tomorrow.

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With the Premier League news slowing down, and the World Cup qualification news speeding up, I figured I'd take the down time that so often comes with international breaks, put the Fantasy Premier League to the side, and focus a bit on predicting the European World Cup qualifiers...
Caveat: While my predicting/gambling skills have been refined over the past ten years through various online and offline channels, I rarely go with deep statistical analyses to back up my predictions. Click to continue reading...

Romantic results in the oldest football tournament in the world and giant-killing in Spain, Asian champions, diving in England and violence in the women's game in the USA all feature in this week's good, the bad and the ugly. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

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Don't know how others feel, but I'm pretty fed up with reading the football news, its either about Cesc going to Barca, or Cesc going to Barca so instead I thought over the next few days I would take a look back at a few ‘loved ones' from the team in red and white. Feel free to let me know if it's a stupid idea

Today is all about John Radford just for our newly married blogger Big Raddy.

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Corrigan Brothers love Trappatoni almost as much as we love Soccer Pro
What's better than free footie gear right before the holidays? Almost nothing, that's right. So we've teamed up once again with our favorite online soccer shop Soccer Pro to run a brand new Butt Buddies World Cup Play-Off Prediction Contest this week. Click to continue reading...

It took four rounds of play but the Champions League group stages is finally heating up.

If the group stages finished as they are now, then Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Liverpool would all be playing in the Europa League.

Jose Mourinho and Inter Milan were five minutes away from an 9th consecutive Champions League game without a win, when two late goals not only gave Inter the win, but also propelled them to first place in the group.

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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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Pohang Steelers are just 90 minutes away from making soccer history. On Saturday night, the team from Gyeongsang province could become the most successful club in Asia – ever.
The South Koreans meet Saudi Arabia's Al Ittihad in Tokyo in the final of the Asian Champions League. The opposition also has two wins under its belt. Click to continue reading...

All the colour of the Japanese Yamazaki Nabisco League Cup final will descend upon the National Stadium in Tokyo on November 3, with this year's showpiece event set to be an all-local affair.
FC Tokyo have reached their first League Cup final since 2004, with Hiroshi Jofuku's team winning through on the back of some impressive displays. Click to continue reading...

After a second half of the season that was a tad weird to say the least, Dynamo get a chance to put on their Tri-umph faces and Lay It on the Line for that third title.
I think this video above truly expresses my feeling about Seattle tonight. And while the truth is I have never once flipped the toggle on an XBox, or done a 360 on top of one, I know for a fact that an Orange Ring of Death exists on those consoles, and that's what I am expecting to see over these two legs, starting tonight. Click to continue reading...

First off, I noticed that I forgot to put links to the international cup tournaments and to prior annual rankings in my post for 1989. If you read that post and noticed those missing, I have gone back to that post and remedied that. Sorry.

1990 seemed fairly similar to 1989 in the big scheme of things.

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Hope for the best and prepare for the worst, I always say.

And thank goodness for Group 9, because the worst, if France can earn a point at home against the Faroe Islands, will be advancing to the playoffs.

Serbia's last two matches are against Romania and Lithuania, and there's certainly a possibility that they'll blow their chance of winning the group.

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With the Chuseok holidays in South Korea over, it is traditionally time for local fans to put down their overheated chopsticks and check out the race for the play-offs.
Past battles have been thrilling and this season is no different. As always, we teams that have long forgotten thoughts of merely finishing in the top six to book a place in the championship play-off series and have eyes on top spot. Click to continue reading...

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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Remember how we never win a match at the San Siro? And how, not counting the Champions League final in 2020, which was against Manchester United and thus not exactly at the San Siro, we haven't done so in this decade, or at all since a highly random 4-3 win over Inter in the Champions League quarterfinals in 2019?

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Now is not a particularly good time to be an Argentinian. Not only have their most loathed opposition Brazil and England already qualified for the finals of the 2010 World Cup, but there is a serious likelihood that the Albiceleste themselves might not even qualify for next year's tournament in South Africa, and coach Diego Maradona is receiving hitherto criticism in his home country.

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Well so much for posting fewer Top 25 lists! Turns out so many things happened this weekend, most of them flying in the face of our predictions, that we felt an update was in order. Here it is:
1. Real Madrid
Last ranking: 1
Record (wins-losses-ties, in all competition; two-leg match-ups count as one): 1-0-0
Results of note: None yet. Click to continue reading...

That the EPL is the best championship in the world is plain for everyone to see. The teams are far and away the strongest, most physical, and quickest. With exceptions to super teams like Barcelona, the four Premier League teams involved in the Champions League can (and do) knock off foreign opposition rather easily.

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I don't know how many of you subscribe to the Arsenal TV thing on the official site. Those of you that don't really ought to, even just for a day, to watch Arsene Wenger's press conference yesterday. It was a masterclass. For me Wenger's press conferences are always interesting but yesterday's was a real classic.

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Manchester United

Last Season: 1st, 28-6-4 (90 points, +44 goal differential)

Recent Form: WLW

Home Form (last season): 16-2-1

Last Meeting: Manchester United 0-Arsenal 0 (5/16/09)

Well, here we are, one of the biggest fixtures of the season.

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I'm a little angry this morning with all the negativity surrounding the club and our assassin with regards to the 'dive' incident that occurred against a well beaten Celtic in Europe. The game finished on Wednesday, its now Friday and we are still hearing the same old stories that we are cheats and Dudu should be banned.

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August comes to an end on Monday, and this year it will have outlived Aston Villa's time in the 2008/09 Europa League by four days. Villa beat Rapid Vienna 2-1 at Villa Park last night, drawing 2-2 over the two legs and exiting the competition on away goals. One suspects that the inquest into the defeat is unlikely to be a very long one.

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by CARL ELDRIDGE Evidence, if any were needed, that God is indeed a Gooner came tonight in Monaco when Arsene Wenger's sidde were handed a dream Champions League draw.

The Gunners will face AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos and Standard Liege in Group H of the Champions League and must be very confident of proceeding.

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Another week is past, and you know what that means: yet another A to Z breakdown of this week in Premier League action. Here we go...

A is for Abou Diaby. The underrated Arsenal midfielder grabbed a brace on Saturday as he led Arsenal to yet another early season romp.

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Most of you don't care too much about Maccabi Haifa or the Israeli Premier League, but fans of Liverpool, Chelsea, or Manchester United need to be alert - as one of those teams could just meet up with "Hayerukim" (The Greens) in the Champions League group stages.
Haifa, the only Israeli team ever to advance to this stage, easily beat Red Bull Salzberg (5-1 on aggregate) over two legs. Click to continue reading...

It's Thursday so it's UEFA Europa League time and the first of of two legs with a place in the group stage for the winners:19:15 Rapid Vienna v Aston Villa (Friedel)19:30 Steaua Bucharest v St. Patricks Athletic (Guy)20:30 Lech Poznan v Club Brugge (Jeffrey)21:00 Everton (Howard) v Sigma Olomouc21:00 Fulham (Dempsey) v Amkar Perm21:00 Stabaek (Diskerud) v ValenciaIn addition, NAC Breda, with ex Click to continue reading...

Scott McDonald clearly plays for a better team than Tim Cahill.
Although Celtic lost to Arsenal 2-0 last night, Cahill's mob got hammered 6-1 on Saturday. With the Celtic budget around a couple of Everton players, the cheaper ones, we probably did pretty well.
For me, I didn't watch the game. Click to continue reading...

Barca's first competitive match of the season is here, as the team heads out to face Athletic Bilbao for the Spanish Supercup. The title will be played out over two legs, and Barca play the first leg away, the second at home. A comfortable result in this match will make things alot easier when we meet Athletic again on Camp Nou; but this match could be tough, especiallly seeing as the opposition have the home advantage. Click to continue reading...

A trip to The Wirral for Bolton Wanderers who been drawn against Tranmere Rovers in the League Cup.

Tranmere Rovers booked their place in the second round of the competition by beating Grimsby Town 4–0.

The exact date for the tie is yet to be announced but it will take place the week beginning August 24th at Prenton Park.

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It says a lot for the priorities of the major news outlets in this country that, for them at least, the "real" football season hasn't started. Still, there's not long for them to wait now. The Premier League season starts this weekend and there is a chance that it may be more interesting than it has been for some years.

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Good morning all, and I suppose I should start with the only real Arsenal news there is around, and that is our draw against Celtic in the Champions League final qualifier. Given the amount of people on Twitter claiming we would get Celtic (or Celtic fans saying they'd get Arsenal) prior to the draw I'm gonna say that the whole thing is a fix.

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