Ah, September. We hardly knew ye.

It was a month filled with pressure (two must win-matches), promise (CONCACAF Champions League), and putrid performances. It opened with a stunning 4-0 Revolution loss to Joe Public FC, which was duly followed by another 4-0 loss to the Columbus Crew. Within five days, the Revs gave up a total of eight goals. Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Yes, I will admit it. I thought the MLS Western Conference was toast, a collection of speed bumps, a series of rest stops on the way to legitimate soccer in the stronger Eastern Conference.

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Needing a win to keep pace with their closest Western Conference rivals, Chivas USA got strikes from a player returning from injury and a new acquisition in the first half and then held on for a 2-1 victory on Saturday night. The win keeps Chivas in second place in the Western Conference, closing their gap with the Houston Dynamo to four points. Click to continue reading...

Wellington won, honest the beat the leaders Sydney FC. I kid you not. And Victory had another sent-off, for what I don't know.


Central Coast thumped Perth, will Dave Mitchell be sacked after Pim Verbeek's vote of confidence, and the youngsters shine for the Kruse less Roar.

Queensland Roar are better away. Click to continue reading...

Was magician David Copperfield in the house for the second half?

Despite a disappearing act worthy of a prime time special, Chivas USA hung grimly onto their two-goal half time advantage and salvaged a crucial 2-1 victory, overcoming a pretty Josh Wolff bicycle kick with 20 minutes to go.

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Claude Puel says that the only game he's thinking about is tomorrow's game against Nancy, but we all know he's lying because next Tuesday is Lyon's crucial match against Bayern Munich, a game that Lyon need to get at least a draw in if they want to keep their hopes of qualifying for the round of 16.

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Newcastle have named former Wimbledon and Luton Town manager Joe Kinnear as their interim boss until the end of October, succeeding Kevin Keegan. Kinnear has been out of work since 2004, which tells you everything you need to know about this appointment (desperate and stop-gap). I don't see how the likes of Owen and Duff will [. Click to continue reading...

Good day for Roman Pavlyuchenko yesterday. Scored his first Spurs goal against Newcastle, after thieving the ball in the midfield which wound up in the back of the net via his head. Safe to say he prefers gamedays too, because training for him is just a wee bit difficult. "But when there is a week's gap [. Click to continue reading...

Craig Foster from SBS has written an explosive piece on football registration fees, coaching costs, coaching development etc.

Here's just one issue he picks out.

The best known example is the Coerver system, a private training franchise, which Football NSW formerly ran in what was a fundamental conflict of interest and led to a neglect of the junior clubs and Associations who were, in essence, in competition with their own State body for the training of young players.

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Estonia's two most recognised clubs are set to draw battle once more for this season's Meistriliiga crown. The nation's domestic league is drawing to a close with only nine matches remaining, with Levadia Talinn and Flora Talinn separated by a meagre two points. While reigning champions Levadia have only suffered one defeat in their last 25 league matches, Flora have produced equal resolve with a 20 matches unbeaten. Click to continue reading...

Six games to play and still no definite answers--vive la parité! Let's do a quick rundown of the table thus far. New England pulls back two points on Columbus, closing the gap to three points at the top. Chicago and Houston both fumble their chances to make up ground and will be hoping for further stumbles from the Crew to let them back into the chase. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal Premiership: Class gap a chasm as Blackburn given the run-around

Arsenal and their Premiership ambitions were given a huge boost after this performance. Star of the show, was England man Walcott.

Walcott's pace and vision made the opening goal for Robin van Persie and his continual pacey runs constantly showed up the immobile Blackburn defence and midfield. Click to continue reading...

ITV to air Guinness Premiership English club rugby highlights | Media | guardian.co.uk: "ITV has secured the rights to show highlights of the Guinness Premiership English club rugby union matches this season in a new show to be presented by Craig Doyle on ITV4.

The broadcaster has signed the deal with Premier Rugby for the new season, which starts September 6, taking over from the BBC, which previously aired domestic club rugby highlights in Rugby Special. Click to continue reading...

The takeover of Manchester City by the Abu Dhabi United Group has sparked fears that their thriving academy may suffer and inevitably it will be much more difficult for the next generation of footballers to break into the first-team. The question being asked is can a more effective method of bridging the gap between the reserves and the first team be developed? Click to continue reading...

Even before TFC sold Edu to Rangers, the size of their squad has been of concern all season long. The salary cap is the final factor, but the Senior roster numbers eighteen and the reserve squad has room for 10. So the international call-ups that will take 9 away from Toronto's roster may be a concern, but it should have been anticipated long ago. Click to continue reading...

Any team that comes away from Villa Park with a point this season is not going to be disappointed – but I can't help but think that Liverpool missed a big opportunity on Sunday.

If they had won the game, they would now be five points ahead of Manchester United and with the international break that gap could not have been closed until the two sides meet at Anfield on September 13. Click to continue reading...

As I'm sure you've noticed, the promises I delivered about contributing regular articles and even live blogs during my time in Germany were as empty as...well as a net after Cunningham has had a breakaway. The live blogs were not possible for various reasons:

Colorado: I couldn't get a consistent feed (just like the TFC strikers, but thankfully one of them buried a deadly set piece)

New York: I was on an 8 hour train ride home from Freiburg, where I watched the season opener of my other team, 1860 Munich.

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It's been a frustrating summer for Toffees fans, who have had no new signings to get excited about. After finishing fifth in the Premier League last season, it had been thought that Everton wouldn't be standing still, looking to make the sort of signings that could close the gap between ... Click to continue reading...

A day after amazing achievements for USL-1 sides in CONCACAF Champions League action Major League Soccer continued its pattern of showing that they don't get it by rejecting New York's $200,000 bid for Macoumba Kandji according to Ives Galarcep of Soccer by Ives. The apparent stumbling block: MLS does not believe any player in USL could possibly be worth $200,000.

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With another great week in football that saw its end with a great match between Manchester United and Portsmouth, I look back at all that made it special.

This week started early with a game between DC United and the New England Revolution. This match comes after New England lost to San Jose 4-0 and DC beat Colorado 1-0. Click to continue reading...

Dirk Kuyt believes Liverpool have gained a trait of league champions - the ability to win when playing badly.

The Dutch forward admits he and his teammates were not at their best during the Barclays Premier League opener at Sunderland, with Fernando Torres leaving it until the 83rd minute to secure the points. Click to continue reading...

This is not rational evaluation, but in my bones I feel that TFC has made a mistake in obtaining Carlos Ruiz from LA. There is still a sour image in my mind from his antics in last year's Gold Cup and while playing with FC Dallas. Even if he is a TFC goal a game marvel, I will be waiting for the inevitable crap behaviour to surface. Click to continue reading...

Morning all, it's the start of another week. Dreary too. The weather really is depressing for summertime.

After the chorus of boos that Emmanuel Adebayor was treated to on Saturday Arsene Wenger has urged fans to get behind the Togonator and leave what happened in the summer in the past.

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- Photos from the game (QPR, wearing their third strip of black and yellow)

Guardian/Mark Tallentire - Blackwell sticks to his guns and sees Sharp shoot down QPR
"... Kevin Blackwell stuck by the Sheffield United side who lost their previous league match in the final minute and had Saturday's game won before his players had even broken into sweat - proof, if newly rich QPR needed it, of the value of knowing your best team and sticking by it. Click to continue reading...

Spain broke their major tournament jinx in the summer, so now Liverpool will do the same, right? Well, if they are to win the title for the first time in 19 years, a good start will be essential.

However, starting well is not something the Reds really do. Last season's win at Aston Villa was their first on the opening day in five years - and it should be remembered a crass refereeing error gave them the points that day. Click to continue reading...

Every year sees an influx of foreign players hailing from a wide variety of countries into the Premier league, whether its Africa, South America or Europe. This year has been no exception, and Premiership Talk look into what the top new foreign players have to offer this coming season.


Luka Modric
After a lengthy pursuit for the 22 year olds signature, Tottenham came out victorious, having splashed out a massive £16. Click to continue reading...

2008 hasn't been a great year for Arsenal and their fans. In February, they watched their hated North London rivals Tottenham win a major trophy (Carling Cup), something Arsenal hasn't done since winning the Premiership four seasons ago. They've watched Spurs bring in several high-profile players this summer already and significantly strengthen the team, whereas Arsenal has taken a step backwards with what they've done. Click to continue reading...

After Sunday's 0-0 Community Shield, a friend of mine said it was probably the worst match ever. Refusing to believe the sport was at an all time low right now (as opposed to a few years/months ago), I quickly rattled of all the worse games that came to mind. The last two FA Cup finals, the League One and Championship play off finals this year, England's pointless encounters recently against the USA and Switzerland were among the first matches I spoke of. Click to continue reading...

Arsene Wenger today confirmed that central midfielder Abou Diaby will be out for a month. The Frenchman has been sidelined by a thigh injury which was suffered before the  start of Arsenal's victorious Amsterdam Tournament campaign. Diaby's injury has left Arsenal with a massive gap in midfield. In the close season Mathieu Flamini and Gilberto [. Click to continue reading...

Who: Chicago Fire at New England Revolution
What: MLS Regular Season
Where: Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Mass.
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. (TV38, Cox 3 [RI], HDNet)

It's been over a month since the first-place Revolution defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy in their last MLS regular season match.

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Beijing Games opener analysis, Olyroos 1 v Serbia 1 GIVEN the context of an average performance, Thursday night's 1-1 result with Serbia was just about as good as it could have been for the Olyroos, and at least keeps them alive. What the game demonstrated above all else was the significant gap in technical "on-the-ball" ability between the two sets of players. Click to continue reading...

Now that Rafael van der Vaart has been sold to Real Madrid, Hamburger SV is shopping for an attacking player to fill the gap. Both the Hamburg press and Kicker report that the two main candidates are Spartak Moscow striker Roman Pavlyuchenko and Heerenveen's attacking midfielder Michael Bradley (currently in China playing for the US Olympic team). Click to continue reading...

Fresh reports out of London are breaking the news that Chelsea have officially submitted a bid for Real Madrid winger/striker Robinho. Roman Abramovich's side have bid £19.7 million for the Brazilian and Real Madrid have not yet responded.

This news comes as a surprise to me considering that Madrid are going through an injury crisis. Click to continue reading...

Fresh reports out of London are breaking the news that Chelsea have officially submitted a bid for Real Madrid winger/striker Robinho. Roman Abramovich's side have bid £19.7 million for the Brazilian and Real Madrid have not yet responded.

This news comes as a surprise to me considering that Madrid are going through an injury crisis. Click to continue reading...

They've traditionally come a distant second to their North American rivals the US, but that gap is starting to narrow: in qualifying from Concacaf they easily won their group, then lost the final to the US only after 7 rounds of penalties. Click to continue reading...