Catholic vs Kennedy, Class 1 State Semifinal

Springfield Catholic Fightin' Irish 3
JF Kennedy 0
1st half goals by senior captains David Bailey and Justin Bowenschulte gave Catholic a 2-0 lead after only 15 minutes. They extended the lead to 3-0 late in the second half when Adam Entrup was sent in alone and buried his shot. Click to continue reading...

The Hand of Henry

Think of all those brand names that players pick up as endorsements. And make bags of money in the process. And the team strips emblazoned with corporate logos. But maybe it's time for a new logo to be branded across the chests of our favorite soccer stars, those ones who like to dive, or use their hand to earn a goal.

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The Vancouver Whitecaps have announced the signing of former Minnesota Thunder star Ricardo Sanchez. Sanchez who has been a crowd favorite at Minnesota for the last 2-seasons. It also signals the first of the Thunder players to leave the team for greener pastures. The Thunder released all players from their contracts several weeks ago after not being able to make the teams payroll.

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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...

Uruguay have taken a big step towards qualifying for the FIFA World Cupâ„¢ finals after beating ten-man Costa Rica 1-0 away from home in the first leg of their qualifying play-off.

A first-half goal from Diego Lugano gave Oscar Tabarez's side strong hopes of playing in South Africa next year, following their failure to qualify for the 2006 finals in Germany.

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Uruguay have taken a big step towards qualifying for the FIFA World Cupâ„¢ finals after beating ten-man Costa Rica 1-0 away from home in the first leg of their qualifying play-off.

A first-half goal from Diego Lugano gave Oscar Tabarez's side strong hopes of playing in South Africa next year, following their failure to qualify for the 2006 finals in Germany.

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The FIFA U-17 World Cup finished on Sunday, November 15, 2009 with the championship and third place match. In the finals, host country Nigeria played Switzerland while Spain took on Colombia for third place. Here's a recap of both matches along with video highlights.

Switzerland beats Nigeria 1-0 to win U-17 World Cup Video Highlights

The match was scoreless through the first half despite a strong start from Nigeria, who were the host country of the tournament.

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Galaxy 0 Dynamo 0

Two 15 minute halves.

Few clear cut chances in the second half with both teams knowing one mistake could settle this one.

Dynamo sub Luis Angel Landin had the ball in the net in the 80th minute (actually it was Andrew Hainault), but the goal was disallowed for Landin's foul on A.

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Whatever happens tonight it's the last game of the season at Home Depot Center with a trip to MLS Cup 2009 in Seattle against either the Chicago Fire or Real Salt Lake in the offing for the winner.

Looks like another good playoff crowd gradually filling in with the temperature about 60 degrees and excellent for football.

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Elizabeth Lambert's name is now synonymous with violent play. What happened to Joe Pimentel (pictured here, giving Lambert the one yellow card he issued)? The center referee basically folded his arms and did nothing through that match - was he suspended, pending some sort of inquiry and evaluation? Nope - He went on to referee a men's game a few days later: the UCLA/Washington PAC-10 championship match, in fact. Click to continue reading...

Ignore what this fool says about taking your shirt off; you will receive a yellow card and most likely be reported to Human Resources. I would just suggest you nod your head and drop your jaw instead as it's by far the safer course of action. Click to continue reading...

Man United midfielder Darren Fletcher hasn't had the best of weeks when it comes to decisions of referee's, he has put that down to what Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said about him.
Fletcher has only just returned from injury for United, last Wednesday he has his feet taken out from under him against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League. Click to continue reading...

From the United-Chelsea game on Sunday...

and then afterwards:

When I saw this in real-time I missed the first incident and only saw Drogba writhing on the floor. I was worried for a few seconds; regardless of Drogba's antics you don't want to see a professional footballer badly injured and I was worried he had suffered a spinal injury or something that could keep him out of the game for a long period of time.

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Conrad after the Costa Rica match. Photo courtesy of Andy Mead/Yellow Card Journalism.
Jimmy Conrad has been named to the US National Team for the third time this season, after first joining the team for the CONCACAF Gold Cup then re-joining for the final two World Cup qualifiers of the hexagonal. Click to continue reading...

Chelsea's Didier Drogba is a man who has a beautiful ability to make headlines, be it good or bad. This weekend, he was the victim of a shocking tackle, no, make that assault from Manchester United's Johnny Evans. He then had the last laugh, darting across Edwin Van Der Sar in an offside position for John Terry's late goal.

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Alex Ferguson, like all strong leaders, is 5% a fascist, which means he's 95% not a fascist, don't think I'm criticizing him, 95% is nineteen parts out of twenty and there are plenty of everyday people, history teachers and flight attendants and mechanics and biographers, who are more of a fascist than he is, but there's still that fascist sliver, all strong leaders have it, and it has to be that fascist part of him that wants Jonny Evans around.

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Chelsea 1 Man Utd 0 at Stamford Bridge.

Not exactly classy football but Man Utd was the team with better ideas and creativity. It also unfortunately had more loose cannons, specifically, Jonny Evans.

In fact, Evans provided a menace that the Chelsea attack had a hard time mustering.

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Youth team - picking up a yellow card. Click to continue reading...

This was brought to my attention in the play-by-play thread on Bigsoccer: Did you notice that MLS has changed its rules for playoff yellow card suspensions? I'm not sure if this was put into place this year or last year, but it definitely was not the case as of 2007. Two yellow cards in consecutive games mean a suspension. Click to continue reading...

They say that girls can be a lot crueler then boys and it's no lie if you saw the highlights on ESPN of the college women's soccer match between New Mexico and BYU yesterday. Defender Elizabeth Lambert of New Mexico seemed to be playing the wrong sport as she tackled, punched, kicked, slapped, elbowed, and hair pulled opposing players throughout the match.

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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...

Soccer can be a tough game and it's especially so in the Mountain West Conference. Footage of the conference semifinal game in Provo, Utah where BYU beat New Mexico 1-0 has been making the rounds and not for the right reasons.

Why is it that the only times women's sports make the nightly news is when they cross the line?

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Soccer can be a tough game and it appears that's especially true in the Mountain West Conference. Footage of the conference semifinal game in Provo, Utah – where BYU beat New Mexico 1-0 – has been making the rounds and not for any of the right reasons.

Why is it that the only time women's sports make the nightly news is when the players cross the line?

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Mayor Bill White has proclaimed today as Dynamo Day. Are you wearing orange?

Mayor Bill White today proclaimed that Friday, November 6th, will be recognized as "Dynamo Day" in Houston. In observance of the day, the mayor encourages Houstonians to wear orange, the color of the Dynamo.

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Manchester United new boy Gabriel Obertan only came on for the final eight minutes of United's 3-3 come from behind draw with CSKA Moscow on Tuesday, but he still managed to get in an off the ball cheap shot on Deividas Semberas, earning himself a yellow card.

Looks like he's already been hanging around Paul Scholes too much.

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Liverpool FC's manpower crisis has got worse after they lost their appeal over full-back Philipp Degen's red card in Saturday's defeat at Fulham.
Injury-hit Liverpool had both Swiss defender Degen, and stand-in skipper Jamie Carragher sent off in the second-half of the match at Craven Cottage which they lost 3-1. Click to continue reading...

As if Rafa Benitez and Liverpool's woes couldn't get any worse after their 3-1 loss against Fulham on Tuesday, word came this week that his star duo Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres both might need surgery in the next month.

Torres has been ailed with a sports hernia injury, while Gerrard picked up a groin injury while playing for England last month.

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As if Rafa Benitez and Liverpool's woes couldn't get any worse after their 3-1 loss against Fulham on Saturday, word came this week that both his top stars, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, might need surgery in the next month.

Torres has been dealing with a sports hernia injury, while Gerrard picked up a groin injury while playing for England last month.

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After the boring 1-0 win by Manchester United on the plastic pitch in Moscow a couple of weeks ago, my expectations were lowered before I began watching last night's game from Old Trafford. But surprisingly, the game was extremely entertaining and a very close match.

CSKA Moscow played with a confidence and direct tactics that definitely shocked me and put Manchester United on the backfoot.

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Conrad celebrating after the USA clinched qualification in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Photo courtesy of Andy Mead/Yellow Card Journalism.
Tonight, the final Jimmy Conrad Show of the 2009 season takes place live from Fox and Hound in Overland Park from 8-9 p.m. CT. As an added incentive for fans who come out to the show, Conrad will be raffling off an autographed U. Click to continue reading...

And earns a yellow card for his tomfoolery. Click to continue reading...

Oscar Ustari can only stare blankly as Gonzalo Higuaín beats him for a second time.

The fashionable district. The working-class south. The established. The disrespected. Commerce. Industry. A comparison between the two top Madrid clubs. Getafe just wants to be in the conversation.

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Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has defended substituting striker Fernando Torres in their 3-1 defeat by Fulham.
Torres has been nursing a groin injury and was taken off with the scores at 1-1 ahead of the crucial Champions League game at Lyon on Wednesday.
"It is a big risk if you keep a player playing if he has this problem so we wanted to protect Torres as we knew it could be worse for him," said Benitez. Click to continue reading...

Rafael Benítez is facing renewed speculation over his future at Liverpool after his nine-man side collapsed to a humiliating sixth defeat in seven games. The 3-1 loss at Fulham, during which defenders Philipp Degen and Jamie Carragher were both sent off, was their fifth league defeat of the season. Click to continue reading...

Morning All – I did a little bit of multi-tasking yesterday, using my vast experience and skill around the keyboard; I typed while watching our wonderful team put in a lunchtime shift at the Emirates!
Ok, I am fibbing, I just typed as I watched and corrected a huge amount of spelling mistakes afterwards, it took an age!

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