Take time this weekend to sign up to support Kansas City's bid to bring the World Cup here. Not just to the United States but to Kansas City. There is a very good chance and we want to help that bid in every way possible.Sign the petition below please!!!The economic boom from be a World Cup host city is only rivaled by the Olympics with little to no need to spend money. Click to continue reading...

Australia's second game of the 2009 under-16 AFC championships has just wrapped up and it's another win for the Aussie team. Which means, barring any huge upsets, they have made it through to the semi-finals of the titles. To make it to next year's under-17 FIFA women's World Cup, they need to finish in the top-three so it means they are halfway there. Click to continue reading...

One of the big talking points with Fabriocio Coloccini is his hair. Coloccini with that hair get the comb! We noticed it when he was playing for Argentina in Germany in the World Cup in 2006, and that made him stand out, along with some steady play at the back for his country. That's when we [. Click to continue reading...

The mere fact that the 2010 World Cup is to be staged in Africa for the very first time has added special significance to qualifying for all the African nations. 53 countries were reduced to 20 through two preliminary rounds. From five groups of four, there are five group winners progressing ... Click to continue reading...

The World Cups have, especially in the start, been the complete dominance of South America and Europe. Therefore, throughout the 1950's and 1960's, the "rest of the world", that is, Asia, Africa and Australia had to play between them for one meager qualifying spot.For the 1966 World Cup in England, this "rest-of-the-world" spot went to the small and closed Communist dictatorship of North Corea. Click to continue reading...

Desculpe, but it's our third Greaseano Saturday in a row and unfortunately, his persistent ankle injury means that he'll not ferociously parading around the field in the Derby Madrileno tomorrow. Yes, we hear the dejected howls all the way from the Moon, but they're doing all they can for him in the trance land of Amsterdam, so ya'll better APPRECIATE.

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One last photo from this week's Japanese League Cup final, as FC Tokyo fans utilise some toilet paper.

Photo credit: dokool on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool.

Related posts:

1. Photo Daily: Nabisco Cup Final Kawasaki Frontale vs.

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Seven stories from The Offside and World Cup Blog this week: Nominate your player/manager football ubermen Gigi's Buffon's incredible Champions League save Ballon d'Or or FIFA World Player of the Year: Which is shinier? Norwegian homage to Brazilian airport ad The return of Johan Cruyff. To Catalonia. Click to continue reading...

ESPN ran a story about a recent match between BYU and New Mexico's women's teams which has become infamous for the elbows-to-the-ribs and ponytail-yank antics of New Mexico player Elizabeth Lambert. Fans of the sport are groaning, because this is what it takes to get a non-Olympics/World Cup/WPS Final into headlines - replays of bitchslap. Click to continue reading...

Look at that sweater. That is not a sweater that a sane man wears. Since taking over as manager at Barcelona, Pep has been something of a touchline fashion icon, but this...this is madness.

Look at it it's like he cut two different sweaters down the middle and sewed them together to form one headache-inducing schizophrenic bastardization of clashing designs.

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Maxi Rodriguez

2006 World Cup.

Simply Breathtaking.

Simply Magnificent.

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Now that Argentina has finally secured a spot in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, they can present the new uniform to be used next year. The new kit is very loyal to past Argentinian shirts and does a great job of keeping the pajama feel

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I'm happy for Salt Lake fans and all, but let's face it, Columbus losing is going to have some horrifying consequences.
(1) Some may suggest that Frankie Hejduk should not be on the World Cup roster next year. What, just because, contrary to what I predicted, he played perhaps the single biggest role in the Crew losing? Click to continue reading...

The Republic of Ireland will take on France in the World Cup play-offs which commence next weekend in what will be an intriguing clash between the shrewd Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni and the much-maligned French national team coach Raymond Domenech.

Trapattoni's record speaks for itself with successful spells almost everywhere he coached yet his most notable job prior to taking over Ireland ended in miserable failure with the Azzurri.

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Ligue 1 teams had an amazing week in the Champions League (not so much in the Europa) that somewhat validated my prediction of French teams being real contenders this year. While Bordeaux won with class and Lyon once again upset Liverpool in the same manner they did 2 weeks ago, Marseille destroyed Zurich and are now in a position to make Real and Milan sweat. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez is looking at Hamburg's Dutch midfielder Eljero Elia to help solve his Anfield crisis.
Benitez has sent scouts to watch the 22-year-old midfielder this season and is desperate to strengthen his squad, despite him being under pressure to save his job.
Under-fire Benitez has suggested agreeing a deal for Elia - who joined Hamburg from FC Twente for £7m in August - and then allowing him to stay in Germany until next summer as he is so keen to get him. Click to continue reading...

Welcome to the latest installment of Your Questions Answered, now with more national team content.

The U.S. men's national team has dominated October's batch of questions as you might expect, but this installment includes some interesting inquiries about the likes of Brad Friedel, Jeff Cunningham and yes, Freddy Adu.

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The agent of Andrea Dossena has released a statement denying that the player is in talks with Napoli ahead of a potential return to Serie A in the January transfer window.

The Italian international has struggled to settle in the Premier League following his £7m transfer from Udinese in the summer of 2008 and has failed to hold down a regular starting place in a Liverpool shirt.

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World Cup hosts South Africa recalled controversial striker Benni McCarthy Thursday for mid-November home friendlies against Japan and Jamaica. The scorer of a record 31 Bafana Bafana (The Boys) goals was ignored for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa after shunning a call-up for warm-up games against Norway and . Click to continue reading...

Could this work of art kill England's World Cup Bid?

OK so perhaps the title is a tad hyperbolic, but really things are getting ridiculous. A quick refresher course for those of you who have missed this: England (as you all should know) is bidding to host the 2018 World Cup. Recently there was a conference in London at which Jack Warner, a FIFA vice-president, was present. Click to continue reading...

With much of the qualification process almost complete and South Africa 2010 looming large, it would make sense to assess some of the world's best custodians who will be present during the World Cup. Goalkeepers such as Petr Cech will be excluded from the discussion since their nation failed to qualify for next summer's big event.

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Morning to the blog, guys and gals.
Just a bit of breaking news, Jamie Coyne will not be going to Wellington after he was ruled out with a thigh injury. What makes this even more interesting, was that no one picked on this at yesterday's presser, the assumption was that there were no new injuries. Click to continue reading...

In a presentation organized by ADIDAS, the official 2010 Argentina shirt was unveiled.

The new shirt has a look similar to the shirt from the 1986 World Cup.

Coincidence?

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Jack McInerney is a young player with a bright future.

As I mentioned a week ago I am hoping to get this into a regular thing for at least the next few weeks as we really start to gear up for the 2010 SuperDraft in just a couple (yes only a couple) months away. The response has been pretty solid so far and I'll be honest a few of you have mentioned some players that I had not heard of yet until now.

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Fernando Torres underwent tests on Thursday at a Liverpool hospital on the serious groin injury which is threatening to ruin his season. Torres played with pain throughout the match, before flying back with the Liverpool party on Thursday morning.

This morning he went to a Liverpool hospital where more tests were carried out on his injury.

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Today Raymond Domenech presented France's new kit to be used at the World Cup in 2010. Not my favorite one to be honest. What do you think?

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So very late last night in China, well 10.30pm Australian time, Australia kicked off its campaign to qualify for the under-17 FIFA Women's World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago. And they kicked it off in some sort of style with an impressive 4-0 win over China.
Newcastle Jets striker Tara Andrews claimed all four goals in the win, scoring in the 18th, 58th, 63rd and then 87th minute. Click to continue reading...

I understand that FIFA have other priorities, you know, the small matter of the World Cup in June next year. Surely though, they have a dedicated team that watch as many as matches of clubs from around the globe. Looking at the current list of nominees however,� leads� me to question whether� FIFA has actually watched domestic football since 2006.

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Inter Milan v AS Roma
Serie A
Sunday, 8 November 2009
San Siro
Kick off: 20:45

As Internazionale faces AS Roma at the San Siro this Sunday, Roma manager Claudio Ranieri will be hoping that the evidence he is looking at is wrong.

Exhibit item A tells Ranieri that Roma without Francesco Totti does not offer much this season.

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You can rack up all the excuses you want: it's a world cup year, the players are fatigued, they were freezing cold, yada yada. But at the end of the day, the reality of the matter is that Barca are simply not up to par this season. Especially lately.
Last night's match felt somewhat like a final going in, and the draw coming out felt like a loss. Click to continue reading...

Cristiano Ronaldo could be looking at missing anther three months of action, if he is forced to have another operation on his injured ankle. Real Madrid have announced that the Portuguese winger has not showed enough improvement to join the first team squad in training and that he has travelled to Amsterdam to see the Dutch ankle specialist Niek van Dijk.

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Sad news from the U-17 World Cup. Those damn Italians knocked out our brave young American team 2-1 in the second round.
Missing a penalty kick? Unacceptable. That kid is banned from the national team.
* * *
Like I predicted a couple days ago, and like he deserves, Chivas USA's Zach Thornton was named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year. Click to continue reading...

This week's QOTW is Fabio Capello talking about his first training session with the England Squad, the Italian manager has guided England to qualification, and he will most probably guide them through South Africa 2010.

"I remember the first training session and I was surprised because the players were really good,"

- Fabio Capello
A bit of humor for this week's QOTW, Capello was very surprised because he thought that because England didn't make it the the 2008 Euro's, the players would not be of high quality. Click to continue reading...

People living in poverty near Soccer City stadium outside Johannesburg battle police during anti-World Cup protests. Local residents demand houses rather than world-class stadiums.
Recommended reading: Ashwin Desai's The Poors and this article.

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There is a great community of soccer bloggers out there delivering soccer news and original content and one blog that is really doing it right is No Short Corners.

Greg Seltzer and Sean O'Connor run the blog and their resume in soccer journalism is very impressive.� Combined, the two have reported on soccer across the globe for over a decade, covering MLS, U.

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