Smaller crowd than usual for a Mexico game tonight, perhaps because of the relatively high ticket prices given the squad of youngsters and "B" team players trying to force their way back into the international reckoning.

BTW, Mexico and Chile last met June 4 in the Copa America when they played to a 0-0 draw.

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Earlier this week I talked about how combining CONCACAF and CONMEBOL would make sense but it's all but a pipe dream.

A reader though picked up on the idea and formulated his own concept of a new football region and how it would look like. It gets my stamp of approval.

From reader Brian:

Combine North and South America into a single football federation
(Federacion Americana de Futbol or Confederacion Americana de Futbol)
and run the World Cup qualifying, the federation cup (Copa America),
and the champions league similar to UEFA. Click to continue reading...

With the recent World Cup qualifiers demonstrating how pathetically weak the US striker corps is the time has come for Bob Bradley to call back the player whose exclusion from the World Cup 2006 squad raised the most eyebrows. To Bradley's credit he did feature Twellman in the 2007 Gold Cup and Copa America, but [. Click to continue reading...

(All times UK)

Wednesday 10th September

01:00 Paraguay v Venezuela, World Cup Qualifier, Sky Sports 1
Kudos to Sky for snapping up these South American World Cup Qualifying fixtures. Paraguay may be jaded after their titanic struggle with Argentina on Saturday. Venezuela's success in the Copa America last year was thanks, in part, to some refereeing worthy of the F1 stewards at Spa (sorry couldn't resist). Click to continue reading...

His future as coach of Brazil has a big question mark hanging over it after the the mauling from Argentina.All those who had said he shouldn't have taken on the Olympic job seeing that Alfio Basile had decided not to coach the Argentine Olympic team are saying things like " We knew this would happen"Maradona is adding fuel to the flames and salt to the wounds by saying he had never seen Brazil play like that - (meaning it as an insult and not a compliment).

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Drawing Fouls and Creating Set Pieces: Eddie Johnson's usefulness?

For weeks, maybe months now all the buzz seems to be about Kenny Cooper's non selection to the National Team by Bob Bradley. I understand most in the blogosphere share my view that Cooper's selection for the national team should have been automatic by this point.

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In 1965 these players were plying their trade. Ferenc Puskas, Garrincha, Pele, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Franz Beckenbauer, Eusebio, Johan Cruyff, Alfredo Di Stefano and Gerd Muller. With more than some arguments, from Argentines especially, this could be considered an all time top 10 list. Surely this was the golden age of football, talent wise? Click to continue reading...

Mexico will make its U.S. debut under new Coach Sven Goran Eriksson 8 p.m. Sept. 24 against Chile at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, it was announced today by officials with Federación Mexicana de Fútbol and Soccer United Marketing.

It will be Mexico's fourth game of the year on U.S. soil.

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Morning all, another week over (nearly) and tomorrow sees our first pre-season friendly take place. Woo hoooo!

There's only one place to start this morning and that's the departure of Gilberto Silva, confirmed officially by the club yesterday. In stark contrast to the rather cutting remarks made by Arsene Wenger about Hleb's move the official website was full of good cheer towards the Brazilian, and so it should be.

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Many would agree that allowing the hosts of a tournament free passage into the competition is simply an absurd policy. However, this policy seems to imbue the two major world soccer tournaments today – The World Cup and the European Championships or the Euro, as is more popularly called. In the World Cup, 32 places are [. Click to continue reading...

Hoy hace 15 años, se jugaba la gran final de la copa América en Ecuador 1993. México contra Argentina
México era un invitado y seria su primera participación, pocos, muy pocos pensarían en que el tricolor nacional llegaría hasta las instancias de la gran final.

La prensa mexicana antes de esta competición llamaba a los jugadores de la selección los ratones verdes, pero gracias a esta gran participación nunca mas seria utilizado. Click to continue reading...

I trust we all watched the US match yesterday and if you did not see it, you didn't need to. Barbados missing four of their five best players got rolled by a fired up US squad 8-0. While the scoreline was impressive, many concerns still persist for the U.S. like keeping proper spacing between attackers on the pitch and players knowing their respective roles while on the pitch.

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Steve's Stats: Analysis of Goalkeeper Performance at Group A for 15 June 2008
by Steve Amoia for Keeper Skool

This is the last game of the first round, and co-hosts Switzerland had already been eliminated. Portugal won the group before today, so the Czechs and Turks were fighting for second place.

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It had been a while.

Maybe since 2002.

But for 90 minutes Sunday, the U.S. men's national soccer team proved it could play.

Against the best team in the world, the Yanks didn't flinch, didn't blow it, didn't crumble -- when not many would've blamed them.

Behind the superb goalkeeping of Tim Howard (right), the U. Click to continue reading...

Here's what the Olympics group stage will look like: Sixteen teams divided into four groups for the men, with top two from each moving on. Twelve teams divided into three groups for the women. Top two from each group move on, and also the two top-finishing third place teams. This list came to [. Click to continue reading...

Five days after Mexico beat Ghana 2-1 in London, Hugo Sanchez was fired as Mexico's coach. How so? He had only been in charge a year and a half, so what went so badly wrong?

Under his tenure, Mexico lost the Gold Cup final 2-1 to the USA in Chicago, but that should have been no reason for dismissal since the CONCACAF bragging rights definitively crossed the Rio Grande when the States downed El Tri 2-0 back in the 2002 World Cup. Click to continue reading...

Brazil vs. Chile 3-0

· Real Madrid vs. Olympiakos 4-2

· Brazil vs.

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Back in December, I posted my wants and wishes for 2007. Then in June I made a midyear review of those wants and wishes. Here we are in December again and I'm ready to go through these one last time to see how well my wants and wishes were fulfilled this year.

1. The Wizards Announce 2007-2008 home.

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After months of whispers, it looks like it has happened, DC United signed Juan Sebastian Veron. This deal is worth $3-4 million a year.

As shown in this summer's Copa America, Veron will give United even more power in the midfield, but he does have a tendency to slow teams down. This might not be a major issue, but it is something to watch. Click to continue reading...

Witnessing Juan Roman Riquelme orchestrating the Argentina midfield during last summer's World Cup in Germany was a truly magnificent portrayal of footballing artistry. In the same vain as the legendary France captain, Zinedine Zidane, Riquelme was at the heart of everything majestic his side produced. Click to continue reading...

BrooklynScottish its obvious that we have different opinions and i wont argue anymore, its clear that you know a lot about football and i hope you keep reading the blog and keep arguing with me!!
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Next post will be about the rise of Scottish Football in Europe. Should Celtic and Rangers be let into the Premiership? Click to continue reading...

Clint Dempsey
The 24-year-old, yes, he's still only 24, has really come into his own at Fulham this season. Unfortunately at the expense of fellow American, Brian McBride, 'Deuce' has found himself with a ton of pitch time and is making the most of it. So far he has two goals, including one in his side's last match, an impressive 3-3 draw with Tottenham in which Dempsey played a part in all three goals. Click to continue reading...

A full force Swiss squad featuring Alexander Frei and Tranquillo Barnetta will be in Vienna tomorrow evening to welcome the La Roja of Chile to their UEFA 5-star rated Ernst Happel Stadium. The Chileans will feature former Juventus player and all-time top goalscorer, Marcelo Salas, who hasn't played for his country for over two years. From the looks of their roster, it looks like he's going to need to score a couple of more if they are to have a shot at making this a decent match because the rest of the squad has a combined total of 21 career international goals, 14 less than Salas. Click to continue reading...

I've seen this list posted on a few sites and still can't believe how unbelievably retarded it is. First of all, what is FourFourTwo's criteria? The opinion of Nike, Adidas, and FIFA? They certainly didn't take all-round play into account, because Kaka is a second rate defender at best. That's why they have Gattuso on Milan. There's no doubting the Brazilian's attacking skills, but he's utterly useless and a borderline burden on the other end. Click to continue reading...

Well, the summer has come and mostly gone. We still have the U-17 World Cup to get out of the way, but with the senior and U-20 sides involved in three major tournaments his summer, we got a better picture of what the national program looks like heading into qualification for the most important tourney of all - the World Cup. In this first of a five-part series, we'll take a look at the five players who surprised or impressed me the most - the five who "planted their spears" and gave "fist shaking performances" in the parlance of everybody's favorite Geordie. Click to continue reading...

Reports alleging the demise of Brasil's ‘jogo bonito' are unfounded. They merely reflect the media's inability to pick up on the complexities of Dunga's strategy. Any team that features Robinho as its key player isn't really in any serious danger of abandoning ‘the beautiful game'. Still, Brazil's victory over Argentina highlighted the fact that Dunga's tactics are indeed flexible enough to determine the needed strategy based on the opponent being played.

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FIFA World Rankings has changed anew to reflect the results in the just concluded Copa America.

The FIFA ranking is in favor of Brazil and Argentina as their Copa America stint managed to trick the computations while Italy, France and Germany are drinking beers and chilling out awaiting their next game for the Uefa Euro 2008 qualifier.

Brazil has now regained the top spot in the FIFA world ranking jumping two places.

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Tickle

• The U-20's got dumped by Austria, but they had a pretty good run at the U-20 World Cup. I'm fairly certain we'll be seeing a few of those boys step up to the full national team as qualifying for 2010 progresses.
  
• USL teams are absolutely abusing MLS in the Open Cup with the quarterfinal brackets reading USL 4, MLS 3 with one game pending tonight as Chivas take on the Sounders.

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I know, I know. Late to the party. But it has to be said. Why in the world did Bob Bradley think taking a team of players with so little experience to the Copa America was a good idea? 16 out of 22 players had less than 10 caps. Of the 166 total caps for [...] Click to continue reading...

TOP STORIES

Quakes to Return
According to press reports out of the Bay Area, Don Garber will announce during the State of the League Address that the Quakes will return to the Bay Area despite not having a place to play next season. "Understandings" have been met between the Lew Wolff ownership group and the City of San Jose, just don't ask Wolff for an address. Click to continue reading...

• I decided to watch the final of the Copa America between Argentina and Brazil on Sunday...not that I really like either team, but I figured that at least Argentina had been playing some good football throughout the tournament, so they'd be worth watching.
  
  Wrong.
  
  My theory us that they were so discombobulated by the sight of Julio Baptista acutally scoring that it totally threw them off their game.

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Copa America 2007 is finally over. The Final gave us one last surprise (if surprise it be) as Brazil convincingly beat Argentina 3-0 to win the trophy for the eighth time.

Despite now winning three of the previous four tournaments, Brazil didn't enter the Final as favourites on this occasion. Some muted performances early on, including a defeat at the hands of Mexico, meant that the smart money went on Argentina. Click to continue reading...

Copa America 2007 is finally over. The Final gave us one last surprise (if surprise it be) as Brazil convincingly beat Argentina 3-0 to win the trophy for the eighth time.

Despite now winning three of the previous four tournaments, Brazil didn't enter the Final as favourites on this occasion. Some muted performances early on, including a defeat at the hands of Mexico, meant that the smart money went on Argentina. Click to continue reading...

Just look at this happy portrait of Brazil winning Copa America 2007. It was a come from behind victory but nevertheless, they would only remembered as the winners in Venezuela.

Image source from ESPN

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NERY CASTILLO vs BRASIL. The degree of difficulty alone for this goal is incredible. CASTILLO takes on 2 defenders and yet maintains his balance and follows through with clear and deliberate skill and cunning. Extremely intelligent goal, top class!! Sorry Messi and the rest of the media out there but CASTILLO's goal is still the best one of COPA AMERICA 2007.

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