Chelsea players have stuck two fingers up at the freezing weather and their dire form by engaging in a series of fun and games at their training ground in Cobham All a bit of a laugh really especially the scene where Fernando Torres and John Terry viciously grapple as the pair aim to win the [...] Related posts:

1. Didier Drogba, Romelu Lukaku or Fernando Torres Who Will Lead The Chelsea Attack?

Venue: White Hart Lane, Tottenham. Date: Saturday 11th Feb, 2012. Kick-off: 5.30pm. Referee: Andre Marriner. It would be tempting to think that Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp had been distracted by one or two other things this week whilst preparing his 'Spurs squad for this weeks game, but that would probably be folly.

Bitter seems to be a very popular word at the moment, just think of the weather that has affected the country in the last week or so. Over on Merseyside, Kenny Dalglish has done his best to remind everybody that the word is not exclusively associated with meteorological elements or beer. The Liverpool manager is [.

Right, back to business as usual. Sort of. The game will begin with a minute's applause before kick-off and both sides will don black armbands in memory of Reds owner Nigel Doughty who passed away last weekend. Our first action in twelve days thanks to the interventions of weather and our own rubbishness in the cup, one would hope that the players will be eager to proffer a considerable improvement over recent encounters [.

Waterloo Bridge, yesterday at 5pm.

Why is the weather always bad when we play Stoke?

Crazy stat alert: we out-passed Manchester City on Saturday.

No, I'm not grasping at straws. And yes, one can easily nuance that point away (weather stunk so the passes were short and 'easy', we were chasing the game, City was more than willing to play 10 men behind the ball), but still, the stat remains: we out-passed City, the team that almost attempted 1000 passes in a game.

As you are probably already aware, the weather took an axe to this weekend's non-league fixture list and only a handful of matches took place anywhere. The FA Trophy Third Round matches were completely called off and will be played at a later date, so the draw for the quarter-finals, which is to be made tomorrow, will have a somewhat odd look about it.

I imagine there will be people angry about this but City have won every single home game this year, right? So quite what we were supposed to do about that I'm not sure. People talk about our record at Eastlands but that was before City became CITY and, well, honestly...

The shame was that the game was over before it had begun, Adam Johnson managing to fall over Chris Baird in the area to win a dodgy penalty to make it 1-0, then Baird put through his own goal to make it two before we'd even started to play.

Inter and Palermo shared eight goals in a 4-4 thriller where Diego Milito netted all four for Inter at the San Siro. Roma's defence needs to be looked at as they were humiliated away at Cagliari. Lazio overcame AC Milan at the Stadio Olimpico and the weather managed to play its part as four games were called off due to the big freeze.

Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has publicly slammed Arsenal midfielder Andrei Arshavin following Sunday's match at the Emirates.

Neville, now in his role as a Sky Sports pundit, was critical of Arsene Wenger's decision to sub the effervescent Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, especially as the struggling Arshavin replaced him.

This game against Panama represents the USA's first friendly match on Central American soil since March 25, 1993, a 4-1 loss to Honduras in Tegucigalpa. So why now?
"We wanted to take the players out of their comfort zone and give them a different experience," said U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

We don't think there's anything wrong with Alan Pardew taking the first team squad away on a sunshine break for a few days in January. Alan Pardew taking a break in Tenerife Alan did that last January about the same time, when he took the lads to Faro, Portugal, but the weather at that time was [.

[T]his hasn't been a plum week in the history of MK Dons. Their dumping out of the cup at the hands of Premier League QPR on Tuesday night followed a weekend of sincere apology from all involved at the club after the farcical cancellation of their League One match with Carlisle. The game was the only weather casualty in the entirety of the professional game across England and Scotland – a mind blowing situation that owed much to bad planning and which was unbecoming for a stadium which was one the England 2018 bid's chosen host venues.

Corner is a new feature each Monday on US Soccer Players that attempts to breakdown an issue trending in the world of soccer in under 400 words. Yes, this explanation counts. Germany's Bundesliga hasn't played a game that counted in the standings since December 18th. Their season won't resume until January 20th.

Excuse me while I cough up an organ, momentarily- I've just made the dreadful mistake of going on a post-New Year jog in weather I can only describe as ‘a bit blustery'. If I don't crumple onto the keyboard before the day's out it'll be a minor miracleeeeeeeeertttttttttttttyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyhjjj.

I dunno how many football matches I've seen over the years in various countries; can't be far off a 1,000. But outside of a pub league game on a Sunday morning in brass monkeys weather I have never seen a professional footballer take a phone call just minutes before kick off in a vital top flight game.

After reducing our allocation for this weekend's FA Cup game at The United Stadium, Manchester City still haven't managed to sell out their home section. The tickets are on general sale (the only criteria being you have bought one match day ticket from City already this season) yet just days before kick-off, they still have tickets available.

It's Manchester for top spot, but which one?

I have stared long and hard into my crystal ball over the festive period, but when I tried to find out who will finish top of the Premier League the damned thing clouded over. Given the weather they have in Manchester, I've taken that to mean that either United or City will win the title.

This is my Arsenal Christmas Carol, to the tune of Good King Wenceslas: Good King Arsene look'd out, Over the Premier League Season. He saw the fixtures lay crowd'd about, Over the Christmas Season. Strong though was the Gooner fight, Though the weather cruel. Then poor 'Arry came in sight, Searching for winter fuel.

Today Sporting Kansas City announced a portion of their preseason schedule. As expected, the team will be making a return Arizona, but as announced previously will not be competing in the Desert Cup, instead they'll also spend part of preseason in Orlando for the Disney Pro Soccer Classic.
Preseason kicks off on January 19th, a week after the MLS SuperDraft, and 2 days after the Supplemental draft, where the team has a combined seven draft picks, with physicals.

Not quite our immaculate selves against Sunderland.The JimmyG2 Column Nobody could accuse Harry of being a dedicated follower of fashion. No rip-arsed jeans for Mr. Redknapp. On Sunday though he was forced to have a closer inspection of the wardrobe. He decided to go with both belt and braces in midfield and his favourite 'Ledley' cashmere overcoat in case the weather at The Lane turned nasty.

Mouth-watering affair, eh? Once again we hit the point in the English Premier League season when the weather gets cold, the pitches get icy and the powers that be decide its best to cram in as many games as possible hell be damned for the players. We'll get into that a little more later, but for now it's games .

Through Ryu's Lens - Ligue 1 - PSG vs. Lille, Parc des Princes

Christmas time in Paris does not promise good football. Though PSG were in the spirit of the holidays, as was the weather, the match ended in a nil-nil stalemate despite the best efforts from Edin Hazard and Javier Pastore to break the deadlock.

Snow hits Premier League players

The Premier League is heading for the big freeze as the icy weather spreads across the country. Matches this weekend are expected to be played in cold temperatures as the top-flight stars unpack their gloves and fancy tights.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-12-16 14:56:56 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

With the African Cup of Nations set to begin in about a months time, many Premier League clubs are already starting to prepare for the departure of their players, however, one club Manchester City are delaying the departure of Ivorian duo Yaya Toure and his brother Kolo.

According to the club, they have been granted a special allowance to delay the Toure's departure so that they can take part in the the FA Cup fixture against United and the First leg tie of the League Cup against Liverpool.

Got, Not Got: Bring back Hull City's Boothferry Park Fer Ark's sake...

It's been labelled ‘football porn' for ‘nostalgia junkies', and ‘the best book about our national game since Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch'. 'Got, Not Got' is this year's must-have football nostalgia book.

Here they are again! The Top Goals from the 2011 Development Academy Winter Showcase. This time from Day 3:

A chance to play at Anfield

IT'S that time of year again: the Christmas tree is up or at least threatening to be, the snow is falling or at least threatening to, and the streets are packed with frantic shoppers threatening to do things to the next person to get in their way as they search frantically for the ideal pressie for their loved ones, never quite sure if the loved one in question already has that particular one anyway.

Kyle Altman is back home in Albuquerque, New Mexico now. When IMS caught up to him he was kicking the ball around in 63° weather after just finishing a working out. But just a few weeks earlier he was training with the Portland Timbers. A move orchestrated by Minnesota Stars head coach Manny Lagos so [.

Liverpool defender Sebastian Coates has thanked Luis Suarez for helping him to settle in to life in England after moving to Anfield last summer, describing the striker as his 'big brother'.
The 21-year-old joined from Nacional and has revealed his fellow Uruguayan Suarez encouraged him to make the step of leaving his homeland.

So Joseph Blatter made a slightly less questionable pronouncement last week by repeating his call for Major League Soccer to switch to a European calendar. I wrote a long piece earlier this year explaining the reasons why MLS won't, and to be honest shouldn't. I am not sure that a person like Blatter truly appreciates the challenges that a fall-to-spring MLS would face, from weather to pitches to media, and when he says that such a move would improve the popularity of the sport in this country, I find it challenging to believe that he knows what he is talking.

The squad will be arriving in intervals all day as they acclimate to the Calif weather.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Go Sodium!!!

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.1

Perfection?The Galaxy celebrate winning MLS Cup 2011 in Carson Sunday (Photo by Staff Photographer Stephen Carr).

Despite the weather, it was a picture perfect third MLS Cup triumph Sunday for the Galaxy.

It has been a long time coming.

The Galaxy first won MLS Cup in 2002, the year before moving to Home Depot Center, almost a decade ago.

By Clemente Lisi – Carson, CA (Nov 20, 2011) US Soccer Players – The joke in the press box at the Home Depot Center on Sunday night was that it had been the fault of the large contingent of English journalists credentialed for MLS Cup (there to see David Beckham) who brought the rain with them to Southern California.

This is it, the finale to the 2011 season, the game in which the Galaxy underline a three-year climb from worst to first in MLS with a championship or fall to the Houston Dynasty, um, Dynamo, and retool once again.

The rain that has lashed the South bay all day appears to be easing up, but they're not going to need to water the field beforehand (and they just canceled the pre-game concert with Young the Giant due to the weather, too).

After a first chilly day in Phoenix/Scottsdale for the U.S. WNT, the weather has been perfect for the "hit-the-ground-running" training camp as the team prepares for Olympic Qualifying being held in Vancouver, B.C. in January.
Despite the long layoff, the players have looked fit and sharp and there will be plenty of competition for the 18 rosters spots for the Sweden game on Nov.

Today MLS commissioner Don Garber held his State of the League address. Two of the main topics were were the schedule for the 2012 season and the league's 20th franchise.
In regards to the schedule, Garber said that the league will not expand the number of games played. There will be 34 games for each team next season, which means we've seen the end of the balanced schedule.

Brrr, seems like yesterday wasn't just a one off. Cold again this morning as we head into the Interlull. My weather widget is not exactly a welcome sight, I have to say. Still, not much we can do about it. Other than move house and Mrs Blogs is not keen on the equator. Oh well.

So now we face a two week gap with no real football, which is pretty frustrating.

There are plenty of story lines surrounding tonight's match between the Dynamo and the Philadelphia Union. Jeff Gordon will be an honorary captain, this will be the final Dynamo match ever played at Robertson Stadium, but in the end though, the only thing that really matters is holding off a comeback from a Union team that is perfectly capable of turning this series around.

By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Nov 3, 2011) US Soccer Players -- It had to be a rainy night in Seattle, right? With their season on the line against Real Salt Lake, the Sounders needed the weather on their side. Expecting rain in the Pacific Northwest might not be much of a stretch, but it suited what this game meant.