In perhaps the oddest news from the international match-up weekend, German international and Shalke 04 forward Kevin Kuranyi did not board the team bus after Saturday's 2-1 win over Russian in World Cup qualifier action.  Germany's coach Joachim Low reported in a statement at the German Football Federation website on Sunday, "I cannot accept a reaction such [. Click to continue reading...

Painted Soccer Girls
Originally uploaded by liragos Hoy es Fecha FIFA , eliminatorias mundialistas, por eso hay que recordar a las bellezas europeas. Mas días de estos.

0460|0300|F|Nana (L) and Honey, bodypainted in the colours of Sweden and Germany, kiss each other at the public viewing area 'Fan-Fest' in Berlin, Germany, Saturday 24 June 2006. Click to continue reading...

A book of 90 such pictoral analogies between images from Euro 2008 and the Swiss countryside etc.
Details and more pics to preview here..

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It it game day. What does this mean? It means leave streams and thoughts in the comments.

Game starts at 20h40 according to l'Equipe, so I'm assuming that's France time. This would be 11:40 Pacific and 2:40 Eastern.

Probable starting lineup is:

L'équipe probable : Mandanda - Sagna, Boumsong, Abidal, Evra - Vieira, Toulalan - Ribéry, Gourcuff, Malouda - Henry.

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The English Premier League raked in roughly £1.8 billion in revenues in the 2007-2008 season. In comparison, UEFA earned €1.3 billion (£1 billion) in revenues from Euro 2008, and FIFA earned €2.6 billion (£2 billion) in revenues from World Cup 2006. The catch, of course, is that while UEFA's and FIFA's most lucrative tournaments are [. Click to continue reading...

Making Kyrgiakos captain was not enough to limit the damage when playing the red team away, so now we've slipped to sixth.  We'll have to wait another week to move back up though, since World Cup 2010 qualifiers return this weekend. Speaking of which, former AEK star Lyberopoulos is trying to rally the fans behind the [. Click to continue reading...

All righty, a few changes since the last post. (Thanks to everybody who's been keeping our readers up to date in the comments!)

First, Lasssana Diarra is forfait with a left knee inflammation. He hasn't yet been replaced. There was talk about bringing in Mathieu Flamini, but Flamini himself is not at 100%, so for now Raymond isn't bringing in anybody.

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The Spain national football team's sponsor, lager Cruzcampo, promised every member of the squad their weight in beer if they made it past the quarter finals of Euro 2008. The team well and truly kept its side of the bargain, and Cruzcampo has now delivered too. The players had a special weigh-in to decide how [. Click to continue reading...

How to take out your competition for that national team spot Behold, the champions of Europe. The Spanish national team's euphoria at winning Euro 2008 seems to have regressed their players to school age. Under the tutelage of Señor Del Boque, training sessions are just like playtime! Spotted on ONTD Football via The Spoiler. Click to continue reading...

Andrei Arshavin only played three matches at Euro 2008. In two of those matches against Sweden and Holland he was immense, dominating the game with his elegant touches and passing, and scaring to death the opposition with his eye for... Click to continue reading...

4 seeds are the new 3 seeds; or, Transylvanians, Cypriots & Belarusians are legit. BATE were very fortunate to be eying a blonde Austrian rather than a turban-sporting Italian in net, but they were never predicted to sneak a deserved point. Cluj proved their Roma win was no fluke, even if they used a vastly different [. Click to continue reading...

Raymond Domenech unveiled the list today for the WC qualifier vs. Romania and the friendly against Tunisia.

Biggest surprise for me? No Samir Nasri. Raymond's reason? "Samir is back playing but he is still not fully fit." And of course it has nothing to do with the fact that Yoann Gourcuff took that #10 role that was expected to be Samir's and made it his own instead.

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As has been mentioned in the comments, there has been a lot of criticism in the French press lately about the way the FFF and Domenech are running things, most of it coming from former French players. The biggest surprise? Zinedine Zidane, on Canal+. (I've looked for videos with no luck.

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It was not quite as astounding as what went on in the global economy, but the week in football was certainly an eventful one.

I was certainly dumbfounded, but perhaps should not have been, by FIFA's woeful CHF 30,000 ($27,500) fine for the Croatian FA after their fans made monkey noises at black England players last month. Click to continue reading...

GOLTV will air this (apparently) updated comedy "documentary" stariing former Python John Cleese at 5 p.m. Wednesday that's a couple of years old, but now includes references to Euro 2008.

From the GOLTV press release:

The documentary begins with a look at the frenzy behind the 2008 UEFA Euro in Austria and Switzerland, offering an unconventional, amusing take on the game of soccer, which attracts more viewers than the Olympics and more money than Hollywood.

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Bayern Munich coach Juergen Klinsmann is preparing for Tuesday's Champions League clash against Olympique Lyon with the pressure already mounting on the former German national team boss.
The German champions are off to their worst start to a Bundesliga season in 31 years, winning just two of their opening six games as Klinsmann's side followed up a 5-2 home hammering by Werder Bremen with a shock 1-0 loss at Hanover at the weekend. Click to continue reading...

The sun is shining. The preparations have been perfect. A couple of weeks break, before a few weeks training sessions, all in high spirits. Ordinary staff will become servants for a few weeks, as people will probably kill everyone in the room if you simply asked. You arrive with scores of people with nothing but encouragement for you. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has told the rest of the Premier League that Spanish International striker Fernando Torres will only get better for the Merseyside club.

Benitez has revealed that the 24-year-old is yet to reach full fitness after a summer which saw the former Atletico Madrid forward win EURO 2008 with Spain, but return to Anfield with a slight hamstring problem. Click to continue reading...

In light of the recent accusations that Lyon get favored by arbitration by getting calls decided their way and the brouhaha over video replays, I thought I would post the results of an in depth investigation by Nice Matin, who took a look at every single error in every single Ligue 1 match in the 2007/2008 season.

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Liverpool striker Fernando Torres shrugged off his Euro 2008 hangover to score twice to beat 10-man Everton in the 208th Merseyside derby.

The Spain international had managed just one goal all season before this match.

He got himself booked at Goodison Park, argued with referee Mike Riley about the heavy-handed treatment he was getting from Everton's defenders and then hit back where it hurts. Click to continue reading...

Mientras Michel Platini le restrega sus verdades a Wegner el director técnico del Arsenal, diciéndole que solo le interesa el negocio. El ex-astro del fútbol mundial Beckenbauer anuncia lo siguiente:

Burdeos - La UEFA ha acordado ampliar de dieciséis a veinticuatro equipos la fase final de la Eurocopa, a partir de 2016, según anunció hoy el alemán Franz Beckenbauer, miembro del Comité Ejecutivo de este organismo. Click to continue reading...

The European championship is set to be expanded to feature 24 teams from 2016 instead of the current 16. A Uefa executive committee meeting on Thursday discussed the issue and will rubber-stamp the decision on Friday. The proposal to expand the competition was put forward by the Scottish Football Association and Football Association of Ireland last [. Click to continue reading...

Few, if any, players in Spain excite as many contradictory opinions as the Real Madrid (and formerly Spain) captain, Raúl González Blanco. Many idolise him as one of the greatest Spanish players of all time, publicly berating Luis Aragonés (then national coach) for not including him in the Euro 2008 squad. Click to continue reading...

An assortment of Valencia news today ahead of Thursday's match against Malaga ...

- The club officially named their captains, as Carlos Marchena, Raul Albiol, Vicente and David Villa will wear the armband.

Three are Euro 2008 champions, with Vicente getting the nod for his commitment to the cause.

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The quality of an international tournament is, of course, determined by the games played during its duration and those magical moments which stick in the memory for all time. That's why Euro 2008 will be remembered for Spain's resurgeance and the 2006 World Cup for Germany's fairytale summer.
Euro 2008 was so good that no-one even bothered to waste any energy learning the names of the rather lame mascots (they were called Trix and Flix if you still have a passing interest). Click to continue reading...

Ebi Smolarek can't find his form from Euro 2008 qualifiers. He posed no threat whatsoever in his debut game for Bolton Wanderers. The Premiership, at least in the first match, proved too fast and competetive for him. The other Polish highlight of the weekend was Tomasz Kuszczak's involvement in Super Sunday game against Chelsea.

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Rafael Benitez, previously renowned for his rotation policy, has indicated that Fernando Torres will remain one of his "untouchables" despite the goals drying up for the Spain striker. The Liverpool manager, who was left frustrated by Saturday's goalless draw against Stoke City at Anfield, argued that the 24-year-old will be better off playing his way back to full sharpness rather than resting. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez insists he is not concerned by the lack of goals from strikers Fernando Torres and Robbie Keane.

Torres has netted only one goal in seven appearances this season, while Keane has yet to open his account since joining from Tottenham in July - and both struggled as Liverpool drew 0-0 with Stoke at Anfield on Saturday. Click to continue reading...

Spanish players can do whatever they want after winning Euro 2008. Click to continue reading...

One of the summer's enduring and assumingly never-ending transfer stories was that surrounding Russian playmaker Andrei Arshavin. Inspiring performances at Euro 2008 earned him plaudits throughout Europe, where he starred as his country's dynamo in their success story at the tournament. As with any major talent that shines during an international tournament, speculation grew over Arshavin's future and whether he would be departing the Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool's Dirk Kuyt has given support to strikers Fernando Torres and Robbie Keane both of whom are looking to be amongst the goals but have been frustrated in their endeavour, as the Reds were held to a goalless draw by new-entrants Stoke City at Anfield on Saturday.

Spanish ace Torres has the record of being the most prolific foreign striker in the Premiership debut campaign following his last season's tally of 24 league goals. Click to continue reading...

Dirk Kuyt is convinced Fernando Torres and Robbie Keane will soon start scoring for Liverpool despite drawing a blank against relegation favourites Stoke.

Tony Pulis' well-organised, defiant Potters forced an unlikely goalless draw and celebrated as if they had won the Barclays Premier League title. Click to continue reading...

Sensitive young souls, cover your eyes. Everybody else? Please join me in wishing a Happy (slightly belated) Birthday to Noémie Lenoir, Mrs. Claude Makélélé

Noemie was born on September 19, 1979, 29 years ago yesterday.

(More photos below the jump.

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A decent win today against a pretty poor Maritimo side in the opening leg of the first round of the UEFA Cup, 1-0 on a goal by Fernando Morientes.

The 32-year old striker evaded numerous challenges from the Maritimo defense after just 12 minutes to fire home. Morientes was part of a physically imposing forward line on the night, paired with Serbian Nikola Zigic.

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Footbo, a social community network for football fans from all around the world has grown from strength to strength since it was launched in June 2008. And things are about to get even better!

Since its launch coinciding with Euro 2008, Footbo has stamped itself on the online map for football fans. Click to continue reading...