Winger offends his own boot suppliers as he clutches at straws Damien Duff has claimed that the Republic of Ireland's controversial World Cup qualification play-off defeat to France was the result of a conspiracy between FIFA and Adidas. The Fulham man, who picks up £100,000 a year for wearing Adidas boots (for now at least), reckons [. Click to continue reading...

Image via Wikipedia The Irish Justice Minister had already asked Football's Highest Governing Body, FIFA for a replay match for the World Cup qualification after the controversial incident of Thierry Henry handling the ball in the Irish penalty zone before passing the ball to teammate William Gallas who headed home. Click to continue reading...

Official Press Release The Football Association of Ireland today (November 19) confirmed that it will lodge a complaint with FIFA, following last night's World Cup play-off match between France and the Republic of Ireland in Paris. Conclusive video evidence of a deliberate hand ball by Thierry Henry, which led to France's additional time goal, has been seen [. Click to continue reading...

The Football Association of Ireland today (November 19) confirmed that it will lodge a complaint with FIFA, following last night's World Cup play-off match between France and the Republic of Ireland in Paris.
Conclusive video evidence of a deliberate hand ball by Thierry Henry, which led to France's additional time goal, has been seen by millions of football fans worldwide. Click to continue reading...

The 2010 World Cup Qualification process has finished and all of the 32 teams have been determined. There aren't too many surprises as many of the favorites such as Brazil, Spain, Italy, and England will all be there. Some nations such as France and Argentina struggled to advance but in the end will be there in South Africa.

Click to continue reading...

The furor over last night's game will not settle down anytime soon. Not tomorrow, not next week, not even before the traveling circus takes to South Africa next summer. Not unless something is done to eradicate the impact of The Hand of Henry on the outcome of the game.

The Irish FA, of course you'd hear from them, have come up with a simple solution: replay the game.

Click to continue reading...

Africa
Arguably the headline match of the day was the special play-off match between Algeria and Egypt to decide the final World Cup qualifier from Africa.
Both teams had finished with identical records in Group 3 of the final qualifying round which led to this hastily-arranged one-off match in Sudan to decide the winner. Click to continue reading...

Thierry Henry certainly isn't making any Irish eyes smile tonight.

Ireland is fuming after Henry admittedly handled a ball that he immediately played to William Gallas who put it in the net to tie Ireland at 1-1 and send France into the World Cup virtue of a 2-1 aggregate victory.

Here's a video of Henry's incident:

In my book, it's a complete shame that Ireland failed to make the World Cup because of such an obvious hand ball.

Click to continue reading...

Six teams qualified for next year's World Cup in South Africa today, finalizing the field that will compete in the first World Cup in African soil.

France, Slovenia, Uruguay, Portugal, Greece and Algeria advanced to the finals ending the dreams of Ireland, Russia, Costa Rica, Ukraine and Egypt in the process.

Click to continue reading...

Spain have just launched their home jersey for the 2010 World Cup and the design has a 1980s feel about it. Adidas have once again manufactured this World Cup kit, which is the usual red with a hint of blue on the sleeve and neck areas, and yellow Adidas stripes up the arms and shoulders. The Adidas logo is featured on the top centre part of the shirt and the Spanish badge is on the left of the shirt.

Click to continue reading...

Spain have just launched their home jersey for the 2010 World Cup and the design has a 1980s feel about it. Adidas have once again manufactured this World Cup kit, which is the usual red with a hint of blue on the sleeve and neck areas, and yellow Adidas stripes up the arms and shoulders. The Adidas logo is featured on the top centre part of the shirt and the Spanish badge is on the left of the shirt.

Click to continue reading...

It's a tough situation Bob Bradley finds himself in. With very few friendly dates left before South Africa to test our best against quality opposition, today's game against Denmark appears to be a dud. The US is without its two most recognizable field players, Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, while the Danes basically have a "B" side at their disposal which excludes such recognizable names as Daniel Agger and Niklas Bendtner.

Click to continue reading...

I was watching Eastbound & Down again, and it hit me: we need a soccer equivalent, perhaps set in England to raise the likelihood of someone being that big a star at one point. I'm gonna think about this more, you watch TV...The ESPN Press Pass crew look ahead to a few of the remaining World Cup qualification battles. Click to continue reading...

VS. ,,

In the modern world of football, Europe is the most powerful confederation in FIFA and its a shame that FIFA's most powerful confederation doesn't lead the way in how it runs its World Cup qualification.

When it comes to World Cup qualifying, Europe can look to other FIFA confederations on how it should be done.

Click to continue reading...

VS. ,,
In the modern world of football, Europe is the most powerful confederation in FIFA and its a shame that FIFA's most powerful confederation doesn't lead the way in how it runs its World Cup qualification.
When it comes to World Cup qualifying, Europe can look to other FIFA confederations on how it should be done. Click to continue reading...

Ever since I started watching football many years ago now, when it came time for the World Cup, Spain were always considered a dangerous threat by many pundits that they would win the tournament, only to let everyone down time and time again. Spain are likely to have one of the best selling World Cup Jerseys in the tournament, but the best they have finished is 4th place in a World Cup and that was in 1950.

Click to continue reading...

Ever since I started watching football many years ago now, when it came time for the World Cup, Spain were always considered a dangerous threat by many pundits that they would win the tournament, only to let everyone down time and time again. Spain are likely to have one of the best selling World Cup Jerseys in the tournament, but the best they have finished is 4th place in a World Cup and that was in 1950.

Click to continue reading...

Class Act FIFA has banned Argentina Manager Diego Maradona from football from Nov 15- Jan 15 following his outburst post 1-0 victory over Uruguay last month. The stress of World Cup Qualification proved a bit much for Diego and although his nation had just won their spot in South Africa, he opened up in a lewd tirade [. Click to continue reading...

While a few countries still have World Cup Qualification matches left, most are playing international friendlies during this week. These include some of the favorites for next summer's world cup such as Brazil who face Oman, Italy v Sweden, Austria v Spain, Denmark v United States, and Italy v Sweden.

Click to continue reading...

There are a number of International Friendlies on Saturday, November 14, 2009 as most nations are done with 2010 World Cup Qualification. Some of the friendlies including Brazil v England, Slovakia v USA, Spain v Argentina, and Italy v Netherlands. All of these matches and more will be covered live at our other site, Free Live Sports TV, at the links below.

Click to continue reading...

This is the jam Deco is using to get his adrenaline pumping for Portugal's World Cup qualification playoff match against Bosnia tomorrow. I think.

[Photo: AP]

Click to continue reading...

Late again this week, but this time I'm blaming being busy in Buenos Aires, though I am. This week, I'm blaming the off again/on again wifi that I have where I am living in Buenos Aires. I move next week and I'm hoping it will improve then.

European club football takes the weekend off, so there are fewer much fewer matches this week than in recent weeks.

Click to continue reading...

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.

Click to continue reading...

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...

What: England vs Brazil (or Brazil vs England), friendly game of football
When: Saturday November 14th, 2009. 5pm kickoff UK time. 12noon US eastern time.
Where: Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar
I Don't Live There!

Click to continue reading...

Bosingwa ruled out for three months
Via the official Web site: "Chelsea Football Club can confirm that José Bosingwa underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee this week. His recovery time will be approximately three months."

S***. At least we have an in-form Branislav Ivanovic to continue in his absent.

Click to continue reading...

Â

Â

Every German football-fan mourn national team keeper Robert Enke, who committed suicide yesterday evening on a railroad near Hannover.

Hours after his suicide, fans put candles and team-scarfs as a sign of mourning at the place where Enke spend his last minutes of his life.

Click to continue reading...

There are many factors that have contributed to Argentina's poor form throughout World Cup qualification. Some may look to the exclusion of the old guard such as Javier Zanetti and Estaban Cambiasso or to the continued faith in Carlos Tevez; dismissed twice and only scoring one goal throughout qualification.

Click to continue reading...

By Clemente Lisi - NEW YORK, NY (Nov 2, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- With World Cup qualification in the books, the US National Team has the next seven months to prepare for South Africa. Achieving success at the World Cup comes through a combination of hard work and luck. In other words, things have to fall into place at exactly the right time to make the difference between getting bounced in the first round or making. Click to continue reading...

After a three week hiatus, Kartik Krishnaiyer returns to host the show with some excerpts from our EPL Talk interview with critically acclaimed and best selling author, Simon Kuper. Brian Zygo also catches up with Rico Clark to get his thoughts on scoring for the US in front of his father and World Cup qualification.

Click to continue reading...

On this main report, languagecaster takes a look at a team from the CONCACAF region that has qualified for the 2010 World Cup Honduras. The transcript of the report is below.

Listen to the main report here

Transcript

First a few facts and stats about Honduras.

Click to continue reading...

Liverpool's Argentina captain Javier Mascherano has admitted that his international commitments are taking a toll on him.
The combative midfielder thinks that his workload has been too heavy - and the constant globetrotting has left him tired.
Mascherano has made a bad start on his return to England since featuring for Argentina in their final World Cup qualification matches. Click to continue reading...

Isn't awful how work always gets in the way of TV viewing? Bastards...We start this week with MOTD2's "2 Good 2 Bad" - a little later than usual, but it still counts.Our ESPN friends run down their Top 10 MLS Goals of the Season, and then John Harkes answers JPD's burning questions about the playoffs. Click to continue reading...

Happier times in Colombia, but certainly not today
The bullet ridden bodies of 10 members of a Colombian football team who were kidnapped two weeks ago have been found on the Venezuelan border.
The main suspect in the Los Maniceros massacre are the Colombian National Liberation Army, a terrorist guerilla group. Click to continue reading...

With World Cup qualification confirmed, U.S. coach Bob Bradley continues to evaluate players. ESPNsoccernet projects whom we think Bradley will choose as his 23-man U.S. roster for the 2010 World Cup.
Still in the mix...
Players are ranked from top to bottom in terms of how certain a lock they appear to be for the roster and their current perceived pecking order. Click to continue reading...