The explanation is simple: Granada's Borja Gomez De Jong'd Malaga's Diego Buonanotte in the first half of Monday's 2-1 win. Gomez was shown a yellow card for his high kick and somewhere, Xabi Alonso felt an intense pain in his chest. Even if he didn't know why, he knew why.

Video right this way.

Luis Suarez's return to action against Spurs last night was not enough to inspire Liverpool to victory, but once again, the Uruguayan sparked a major talking point. This time, Suarez kicked Scott Parker when trying to get the ball, and received a yellow card for his trouble. Any fair-minded person can see that it was clearly accidental, but as all Liverpool fans know, Manchester United thug

STARTERS
5 minutes into their first preseason game of the year Atiba the Hun Harris of Vancouver picks up a yellow card for a reckless tackle. The more things change the more they stay exactly the same!
dN
Crazy cool idea! All Colorado Rapids fans that have renewed their season tickets for the 2012 season, as well as those that purchase new seats by March 1, 2012, will have their names printed into the design of the Rapids authentic home jerseys in 2013 and 2014!

By FRANCO PANIZO

Sacha Kljestan has quietly put together a solid season for RSC Anderlecht, but he made some noise in the club's latest win on Sunday.

Kljestan scored his third goal of the season (fourth across all competitions) in Anderlecht's 4-2 win over Racing Genk when he fired home a free kick from 30 yards out.

With increasing confusion in the Premier League over which tackles should or should not be punished, an attempt to teach players what is acceptable is being made in home video form. "How to tackle" DVDs will be sent to clubs next week because if there's one thing professional footballers will pay attention to, it's instructional videos.

Blackburn's Junior Hoilett does his best Scuba-Diving impression against Newcastle last night and not only does he get away scot free, his opponent Ryan Taylor is given a yellow card for venting his anger. It's time the FA stood up and banned this type of behaviour once and for all!

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech is extremely impressed with Swansea City's home record and suggests that the toughness of the Welsh outfit at Liberty Stadium should ensure survival in the Barclays Premier League.

Following last night's 1-1 draw with the Blues, the Swans are now nine points clear of the relegation zone with a little over a third of the season left to go.

STARTERS
Remember two weeks ago when forward Kris Boyd of Rangers turned down Houston? Well, today he signed with Portland!! Hoooo-Weeeee! Bet he won't receive a friendly welcome when he makes his first visit to whatever that new stadium in Houston is called.
dN
After getting a yellow card in the first minute of play(!

Cardiff City keeper Tom Heaton was the hero for the Bluebirds as they edged out Crystal Palace in an absorbing cup clash at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Heaton saved two penalties in the shoot-out to send Cardiff to the Carling Cup Final at the expense of Dougie Freedman's spirited Palace side.

photo by ISIphotos.com

By FRANCO PANIZO

In a week that saw several young and inexperienced players make their cases for more playing time on the U.S. men's national team, it was the veterans of the United States who shined brightly.

Landon Donovan was one of those players, as he inspired Everton to victory by setting up both of its goals in a 2-1 win over Fulham in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Friday.

Oguchi Onyewu didn't start today's Sporting CP match off in the best of fashions, drawing a first-minute yellow card. He quickly made up for that slow start by scoring a pair of first-half goals against Beira Mar.

If you watch the videos below and think you're seeing the same goal, you aren't.

Alternate title: "Welcome to the guns show" translated into Portuguese. Before they'd even hit the half hour, Sporting CP defender Oguchi Onyewu had notched one yellow card and two goals.Visual evidence to come...- Greg Seltzer

Danny Murphy converted a 14th-minute penalty to put Fulham up at Goodison Park, but it would be Everton advancing to the Fifth Round of the FA Cup. Denis Stracqualursi equalized in the 27th minute and Marouane Fellaini headed in the winner in the 73rd. Landon Donovan and Tim Howard started for Everton, with Clint Dempsey in the lineup for Fulham.

Morning all,

the dust has settled somewhat following Sunday's drama, and if anything illustrates how quiet things have gone from the club's point of view, it's that one of the main stories on the official website is the news that Luis Boa Morte is joining South African side Orlando Pirates of the Caribbean.

According to the laws of the game, shouldn't Robin Van Persie have been sent off against Manchester United in Arsenal's 2-1 loss on Sunday? I know when it comes to yellow and red cards it's often pretty hard to keep track of all of football's strange rules. But it's widely believed that an automatic yellow card is to be shown to any player who lifts his team shirt to reveal a printed message on a tee-shirt below.

On this week's show we feature the phrase 'to be booked for dissent'

Jose Mourinho's intentions were perfectly telegraphed as he consigned Mesut Oezil and Esteban Granero to anonymity. He started three holding midfielders with Lassana Diarra, Xabi Alonso, and Pepe in a deliberate park the bus tactics. The last mentioned was relocated to midfield from his usual centre back position with Sergio Ramos partnering Ricardo Carvalho.

The Manchester City manager is set to be reprimanded by the FA, the English Football Association, for his consistent card waving gestures. The gestures typically involve Roberto Mancini waving a closed hand, with finger and thumb touching exclusively, high above his head, indicating that the referee should award a card, either yellow or red, to an opponent.

One thing we were really worried about at half time in Sunday's game against QPR was how long Yohan Cabaye would be out. Yohan Cabaye still gesticulating as he's being stretchered off Cabaye was the target of a rather brutal lunging tackle from Shaun Derry, but referee Chris Foy only gave the QPR defender a yellow card, but it ended up in Cabaye being stretchered [.

One thing we were really worried about at half time in Sunday's game against QPR was how long Yohan Cabaye would be out. Yohan Cabaye still gesticulating as he's being stretchered off Cabaye was the target of a rather brutal lunging tackle from Shaun Derry, but referee Chris Foy only gave the QPR defender a yellow card, but it ended up in Cabaye being stretchered [.

Fed-up of a night of Sergio Aguero running in behind the Wigan defence, Latics left-back Maynor Figueroa came up with a new way of defending Manchester City's counter attacks. After misjudging the flight of the ball, Figueroa opted for a leaping handball to deny Aguero a clear run on goal. Referee Chris Foy opted to [.

Barcelona returned to within five points of Liga leaders Real Madrid with a 4-2 defeat of ten-man Real Betis, on a day when Athletic Club improved their European chances by beating Levante.

Josep Guardiola's men made an explosive start at Camp Nou as Xavi Hernández opened the scoring after ten minutes and Lionel Messi took his league tally to 18 shortly afterwards.

By FRANCO PANIZO

Sacha Kljestan and RSC Anderlecht returned to league action this weekend for the first time since December, and they both picked up right where they left off.

RSC Anderlecht continued its winning ways with a 3-0 victory over third-place Club Brugge on Sunday.

Brad Friedel and Spurs got the better of Tim Howard and Landon Donovan's Everton in the latest battle of the Americans at Premier League level. Aaron Lennon fired in a shot from distance to open the scoring in the 35th minute, and Benoit Assou-Ekotto made it 2-0 with a strong shot in the 63rd. Friedel had an easy night, with Everton not putting a shot on goal.

It's not a trick of the eye, it's not a fancy photoshop job. That is indeed Thierry Henry in an Arsenal shirt, an Arsenal shirt of 2012, wheeling away to celebrate a goal.

And not just any goal, but an Henry goal. Song played in a brilliant through ball that split the two covering defenders, Henry took one touch to control the ball, and himself, and then he curled right into the corner of the net away from the keeper's despairing dive.

Let's face it, yesterday's Manchester derby was awful. Yes, there were goals and a spirited second-half fightback from City after an understandably poor first-half display.

But the game was ruined as a fair contest by Chris Foy and Wayne Rooney in the eleventh minute. Anyone who knows the rules of football intimately will understand that Foy's decision to send off City captain Vincent Kompany for his tackle on Nani was plainly wrong.

1. Poor refereeing – the gift that keeps on giving.

Those that have been watching long enough will argue if Kompany's tackle was really worth the red card. A few years ago, it would have been a brilliant tackle but now considered a foul, but honestly to fans on both sides, was it really worth a red card?

By Joel Greenwaldt
In a match up that was billed by many as the must see game of the season, the Baltimore Blast and Milwaukee Wave battled fiercely for 60 minutes in a game that lived up to it's billing. Baltimore was able to secure a hard fought 9-4 victory over Milwaukee, and at the same validated their belief that they are the best team in the MISL.

Germany's Federation has announced that Jermaine Jones will have to serve an eight week suspension for a yellow card offense during Schalke 04's 3-1 loss to Borussia Moenchengladbach on December 21st last year. Jones stepped on Marco Reus's foot, with the German Federation judging the foul intentional.

Manchester City's Roberto Mancini apologises for red-card gesture

• City manager says reaction to penalty-area foul was 'a mistake' • Mancini signalled for Liverpool's Martin Skrtel to be sent off Roberto Mancini issued a public apology after admitting he had made "a mistake" by brandishing an imaginary red card during the 3-0 defeat of Liverpool that put Manchester City three points clear at the top of the Premier League table.

Manchester City and Liverpool need a solution for striking flaws | Richard Williams

Edin Dzeko's ponderous play blunted the creativity of Sergio Agüero and David Silva, while Andy Carroll needs more support Emerging from an unexpected post-Christmas hangover, Manchester City had something to prove on Tuesday night.

I'm not feeling at all witty this morning and the things I have to say are mostly obvious and not earth shatteringly different. What I want to know most of all is what on earth happened in our dressing room at half-time yesterday? We had played a very acceptable game up until then, we were good for our lead and yet we didn't come onto the pitch with any belief that we were going to win the game.

There was some good news in the relative gloom of being beaten once again by Liverpool at Anfield last night. Fab Coloccini in aaction last night Both Fab Coloccini and Cheick Tiote were both on four yellow cards before last night's game, and neither of them received another yellow card, which would have seen them suspended for one game.

First fifteen

For a quarter of an hour on Boxing Day, it seemed like Sir Alex Ferguson had taken the term 'Christmas surprise' too literally. By the time that we eventually figured United were playing with 9 men + Evans + Gibson, Evra had already skipped around a static Wigan defence for Park to score his first goal in the Premier League since those days when he only scored against Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea etc.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish believes Craig Bellamy is being unfairly treated by referees.
The Welshman has a feisty reputation and his manager fears that may be working against the forward after four bookings in as many matches.
Dalglish has been disappointed by the yellow cards Bellamy has received in the recent games against Fulham and Wigan, and the Scot hopes a pattern is not developing.

The Norwich fans seem to be quite confident about the game against us. Whether it's genuinely because they are doing pretty good for a team that's just come up from the championship and are scoring lots of goals. Or whether its because they just haven't come up against us in a while, either way, they have a good feeling about this.

Referees are picking on Craig Bellamy, says Liverpool's Kenny Dalglish

• Striker has seen yellow in Liverpool's past four matches • Dalglish sympathises with Blackburn's league plight Kenny Dalglish has questioned whether there is an agenda against Craig Bellamy, who is under threat of suspension after a spate of harsh bookings.

By FRANCO PANIZO

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Terrence Boyd should have been sent off on Thursday.

After delivering a clumsy and dangerous challenge on Zarek Valentin in the second half of the U.S. Under-23 men's national team's intrasquad scrimmage, Boyd was given a second yellow card.

U.S. national team midfielder Jermaine Jones could be facing some disciplinary action in the coming days.

Jones is reportedly under investigation by the German Football Federation for allegedly stepping on an opposing player's injured foot on purpose during Schalke's 3-1 loss to Borussia Monchengladbach in the German Cup Round of 16 on Wednesday.

Suarez: Charged As Being Racist On One Man's Word

Suarez at Alder Hey with Martin Kelly... If i called you a murderer and you said you weren't one but then you were sent to jail, you'd be pretty miffed I'd imagine? You'd want to see some evidence, some reasoning, something other than one persons word against another and the fact that you admitted to having a spade in your shed.