Buenas! The realists and statisticians among you won't be surprised that Barcelona defeated the very loveable Valencia 2-0 last night. But as it seems, Madrid are frontrunners to win the La Liga, so el Blaugranas will be hoping to take home their 26th Spanish Cup title title.

The inevitable African Cup of Nations championship matchup between the continent's two powerhouses has made way for a title game involving an underdog side that is a win away from capping off a Hollywood-worthy script.

Upstart Zambia shocked favored Ghana, 1-0, to advance to the tournament final and prevent the Black Stars from seeking redemption for their loss in the 2010 final.

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America writes of the legacy of US soccer pioneer Harry Keough, who passed away yesterday.
The first time I talked with Harry Keough about the 1950 World Cup defeat of England, three and a half decades had passed, yet the details still swirled in his mind. Sights and sounds and smells of the stadium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil; the numbing boredom of a long boat trip from New York to Brazil that took the team to the competition; the joking rivalry between the St.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The U.S. Soccer community lost a legend Tuesday, as Harry Keough, a national team captain during the memorable 1950 World Cup and a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame, died at age 84.

Keough was one of the last surviving members of the 1950 team that beat England, 1-0, in what is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in all of soccer.

Highlights from the March 16th, 1997 World Cup Qualifier and the January 18th, 2003 friendly courtesy of US Soccer Communications. The United States Soccer Federation announced last week that the two teams would meet on June 3rd.

photo by Rick Osentoski/ISIphotos.com

It appears U.S. men's national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann is making a concentrated effort to get to know CONCACAF teams prior to World Cup qualifying.

According to a report, the United States will travel to Canada to take on its northern rival in a friendly before World Cup qualifying begins in June.

By FRANCO PANIZO

U.S. men's national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann scheduled the friendly in Panama to experience what a road game in CONCACAF was like, and he got just what he wanted.

Four days after beating Venezuela, the United States defeated Panama, 1-0, on Wednesday night in a game that felt much like a CONCACAF World Cup qualifier on the road.

The U.S. Men's National Team last faced Canada in the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup, but it's been more than 13 years since the teams met on Canadian soil. With the U.S. and Canada set to face each other in Toronto at 7 p.m. ET on June 3, we took a look at the history between the sides and found some interesting facts.

Time for another year of wishes for 2012. Here's a look of what I am wanting and wishing to see in 2012.
1. Silverware - Is anything else really that important? I want silverware, as Robb Heineman put it tonight on Twitter, #paintthewall. I want to add more stuff to the wall that shows our accomplishments.

Bambang Pamungkas is the Gary Lineker of Indonesian football. Even the masses who loathe and mock the local game as unworthy of their attention recognize Bepe, as he is known, as a rare rose amid fields of energy sapping mud. His cherub looks and calm demeanour have crossed over from the football field to the advertising world where his face sells various products from billboards and buses.

Victory, at last Just 10 years ago American Samoa were a footballing joke after being mauled 31-0 by Australia in a World Cup qualifier, a result that still stands as the most one-sided full international in history. And frankly their entire international record hasn't been much of a party either with the Pacific side managing [.

Photo by Omar Martinez/ISIphotos.com

Bob Bradley isn't the only American making waves as coach of a non-U.S. national team.

Thomas Rongen won his debut as coach of American Samoa, which defeated Tonga, 2-1, in an Oceania World Cup qualifier for its first-ever victory.

By Chris Wright

Barring Ethiopa's World Cup qualifier against Somalia later today, the International Break™ is just about done and dusted so we've rounded up our pick of the 20 best stills from the past fortnight of various footballing action for you to feast your peepers on (open them in a new tab for larger images).

Wrong sport Watch this footage from the World Cup qualifier between the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait and see if you can spot Ali Abbas' subtle tug on opponent Bader Al Mutawa. The eagle-eyed referee somehow spotted the incident and dished out a yellow card to Abbas. Harsh.

The final lineup for next summer's European Championship in Poland & Ukraine is now set after tonight's playoff second legs, with a strong field of sixteen heading for Eastern Europe.
There were no winning fightbacks following the first legs and Portugal, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Ireland and Croatia all advanced to Euro 2012, eliminating respectively Bosnia & Herzogovina, Montenegro, Estonia and Turkey.

By Alan Duffy

Luscious-locked footballing woman's crumpet, David "Because I'm worth it" Ginola is to sue his former France boss Gerard Houllier over offensive comments allegedly made by the former Liverpool manager in a new book, Coaches' Secrets.

Liverpool forward Luis Suarez has laughed off comparisons with Barcelona forward and fellow South American Lionel Messi.
Suarez has been one of the best players in the Premier League since joining the Merseyside giants in January from Dutch giants Ajax and was also instrumental in winning the Copa America with Uruguay in the summer.

'Suarez is extraordinary'

Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez has hailed the 'extraordinary' influence of Luis Suarez following the striker's four-goal haul in a World Cup qualifier against Chile.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2011-11-13 10:43:56 from: Liverpool FC

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

Just when he was starting to gain some ground on his rival Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo had to ruin all the progress he has made in the past few weeks by reacting to Bosnia and Herzegovina fans by showing them middle finger.

According to Ronaldo, he was forced to act the way he did because of incessant criticism from fans during Portugal's training session ahead of their Euro 2012 play off fixture.

The Uruguay PUMA 2012/13 home kit was unveiled on Friday in Montevideo. The new uniform was worn by Luis Suárez and the rest of the team for the first time in their subsequent 4-0 trouncing of Chile in a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier. It is now available at World Soccer Shop. Currently ranked fourth [.

Luis Suarez declared himself 'very happy' after scoring all four goals in a 4-0 win over Chile to help Uruguay stay top of the South American World Cup qualifying group.
Our No.7 became the first player to fire four in a CONMEBOL World Cup qualifier since Brazil's Romario in October 2000.
He hit two in three minutes just before the break, including a stunning low drill with his left foot from 25 yards.

Video: Watch Liverpool striker Luis Suarez score four as Uruguay destroy Chile

The 24-year-old was on top form in the Conmebol World Cup qualifier on Friday, netting twice in three minutes late in the first half in a dominant performance

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-11-12 08:35:00 from: Goal

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

Photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com

The United States-France friendly is sure to capture the attention of American soccer viewers, but it's a big day around the soccer world as a whole, with 2012 European championship playoffs, World Cup qualifiers and other friendlies taking center stage.

Photo by Bill Barrett/ISIphotos.com

After a few days together in a training-camp setting in Germany, the U.S. Under-23 national team got to take to the playing field on Friday and turned in a positive result.

Tony Taylor scored the go-ahead goal, while Terrance Boyd and Dilly Duka also got on the board as the U.

It's few and far between for the matches that actually matter this weekend, with really only one from a Liverpool perspective, as none of the current squad members are involved in the playoffs for the final Euro qualifying spots. Those of you with a strong affiliation for any of the nations facing off Bosnia-Herzegovina v.

This coming March and April, the US U23 team will attempt to qualify for the 2012 summer Olympics in London. And if Caleb Porter, the team's coach is to be believed, the semifinals and finals would seem to be in KC. On The Best Soccer Show, Porter said that the tournament would start in Tennessee before moving to KC, with the semifinals being on April 2nd.

UPDATE III: Alvaro Fernandez will not be called up to the Uruguay national team, after all. On Monday, Fernandez confirmed speculation that the injury he suffered in last week's Western Conference semifinal would make it impossible for him to play in his country's World Cup qualifier against Chile on Nov.

European Championship qualifying group B was a strange one: Ireland beat Armenia who beat Slovakia who beat Russia who beat Ireland (while poor fourth-seeded Macedonia looked on and whimpered). The logical progression would have been for a match to be played out between twenty-two footballs kicking a man around the pitch.

As promised, here is the list of USMNT players (or those hoping to be) that either narrowly missed a position's depth chart or could conceivably climb onto it before the first World Cup qualifier next June.These are listed in alphabetical order and do remember the strength of the Top 5's above can affect how many/who is named here - it's not a straight "these are the best other players overall"

The Dynamo make their first trip to JELD-WEN Field to take on former Houston assistant coach John Spencer and the expansion Portland Timbers, who remain in playoff contention. The Dynamo won the teams' first meeting on August 14 by a 2-1 score, including a long-range goal from former Timber Adam Moffat.

Wayne Rooney's three-game suspension that rules him out of the Euro 2012 group stage has become a polarizing story in the English soccer community.

Rooney's automatic one-game ban was extended to three for violent contact by UEFA following his kick of a Montenegrin player during England's final Euro qualifying match.

FC Politehnica Timisoara forward Tosaint Ricketts (UW-Green Bay) earned his seventh career cap Tuesday night, playing the final 20 minutes of Canada's 0-0 draw against Puerto Rico in a CONCACAF 2014 World Cup qualifier at BMO Field in Toronto.

The Canadians (3-0-1) need just one point from their final two matches in Group D to advance to the third round of qualifying, which will include Mexico, the U.

Time is running short for D.C. United and the Chicago Fire, and an accelerated level of stress is put on each of the remaining regular season games for two teams with postseason aspirations.

As two of the three teams on the outside of the current playoff picture but within striking range, United and the Fire need to pile on the results beginning with tonight's matches against the Vancouver Whitecaps and FC Dallas, respectively.

Spain v Scotland 2011 Highlights 3-1 Video David Silva Goals Villa is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Spain v Scotland 2011 Highlights 3-1 Video David Silva Goals Villa is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Spain v Scotland 2011 Score and result:- Spain v Scotland 3-1 ( David Silva*2, David Villa/ David Goodwillie) Alicante, Spain- 11 October, 2011- 19.

Video: Klinsmann gets the win Who remembers the last time that Major League Soccer played a regular season match during an international date? Who remembers the last time when an important World Cup Qualifier was being played while the New ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

Club captain Landon Donovan, the Galaxy's leading goalscorer, did not make the trip with the team Sunday from LAX to New York to rehab a right quad strain he suffered late in Saturday's win over Real Salt Lake.

The Galaxy play the 8-7-16 Red Bulls at 5 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN2.

Also missing that game:

*Striker Robbie Keane, on duty for Ireland in their Euro 2012 qualifiers against Andorra Friday and Armenia next Tuesday in Dublin.

Despite Keon Daniel reportedly contracting Dengue Fever, the midfielder has made the trip with the Trinidad and Tobago National Team to Bermuda.

Trinidad flew to Bermuda on October 2, forgoing a practice that was originally planned on the same day in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Instead the national team will stay in the island country until their October 7, 2014 World Cup Qualifier.

Genius is not always recognized in its time. Genius is not even always recognized in its own language. We of the present must sometimes toil to correct the omissions, slights, and errors of the past. But above all, we must live fully in the present.

We can never turn back the pages of history to correct the sinking popularity of acting genius Gerard Depardieu.

ZURICH - FIFA has kicked Myanmar out of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup as punishment for crowd violence at a 2014 qualifier in July.
Fans threw stones and water bottles onto the field during Myanamar's game against Oman on July 28, forcing the referee to abandon the match.
Oman was leading 2-0 at the time and was awarded the victory by that score.

Diego Chara gets called up for Colombia's World Cup Qualifier

HUGE congratulations to Diego Chara for getting the call up for Colombia's October 11th World Cup Qualifier against Bolivia.

As we all know the South American conference is especially challenging so this kind of experience could be huge for the young midfielder.