I am sorry for the radio silence – as usual, an international break combined with the middle of the academic term means I've been less likely to seek out topics to write about, and thankfully, there hasn't been a ton of Liverpool news to begin with.

Until yesterday, that is. I don't have any solutions and can't do much else but bitch, but how many times is Torres going to come back from an international break injured? Click to continue reading...

Remember how I said that China were becoming Lyon's new best friends? Well, it looks like Aulas takes this BFF business seriously because today Lyon launched a Chinese version of their official website, thanks to a partnership with TitanSport, a Chinese sports media giant.

Pretty soon OL will be signing token Chinese players a la Manchester United.

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It's international week, so things are rather quiet on the Lyon front. Here's what's been going on:

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Fabio Grosso is back in training and is expected to play against Lille on October 18th. This is good news because if he does well, he play against Steaua a few days later.

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Great news last night with the Gooner Kids putting six unanswered goals past Sheffield Utd. However, when you bear in mind that Gallas and Almunia practically double the average age of the rest of the first XI, and that Bendtner, Vela, Song, Ramsey and Djourou are already full internationals for their countries, its clear that these kids are a class act, and are very close in standard to the Click to continue reading...

US national youth team player Vincenzo Bernardo has just signed a 3-year professional deal with Serie A side Napoli which ties him to the club until 2011. Currently with the Napoli reserve team, the 18 year-old New Jersey native saw his fortunes rise this fall after a strong reserve friendly performance against the first team a few weeks ago. Click to continue reading...

3pm Eastern Time, not on TV in the US

Last three matches:
Liverpool: 0-0 Stoke (h); 2-1 Marseille (a); 2-1 United (h)
Crewe: 3-4 Southend (h); 2-0 Colchester (h); 2-5 Leeds (a)

Referee: Michael Oliver

Guess at a squad:
Cavalieri
Degen Agger Hyypia Insua
El Zhar Plessis Lucas Benayoun
Ngog Keane

I'd be very surprised to see many first-team regulars. Click to continue reading...

England will play friendly internationals against Slovakia and Slovenia at Wembley in 2009. Fabio Capello's side will face Slovakia on 28 March, three days before the home World Cup qualifier against Ukraine. Slovenia will be England's opponents on 5 September ahead of the Group six match against Croatia on 9 September. Click to continue reading...

In case you haven't heard (and if so, where have you been?), our very own Theo Walcott got a hat-trick with England in Zagreb. The 4-1 win was an amazing result, even with 10 men on the Croatia team. Croatia hasn't lost in Zagreb since 1994, England have been generally terrible for two years (and not hugely impressive for years before that), and no one was expecting much.

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More World Cup Qualifiers means more recaps. I think Abby will have some post gushing about Theo Walcott, so I'll only briefly mention him here. And post a picture. Lot of Gunners in action, and from what I've heard, no major injuries.

Robin Van Persie
Started and played 69 minutes for the Netherlands in their 2-1 win against FYR Macedonia.

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Just a placeholder, as I'm still at work (don't tell my boss). Hopefully I'll have time later to get a fuller post up this evening. But I couldn't just let this pass.

Congrats, Theo Walcott! A hat-trick away, where the home team hasn't lost a qualifier in years, when no one expected anything.

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So, I'm expecting Capello to be knighted before the week is out. The English sure love their revenge.

If it's too good to be true, chances are it is.

I'm hoping and praying the English media won't get carried away with themselves, but I know without even looking that they will. I actually almost feel bad for Theo Walcott; scoring a hat-trick in Croatia in an amazing feat, but the hype he'll get and pressure he'll be under are going to be absurd. Click to continue reading...

France coach Raymond Domenech has handed Arsenal left back Gael Clichy his first senior start in les Bleus' World Cup Qualifier against Serbia this evening. The 23-year-old was on the bench for Austria's 3-1 mauling of Domenech's men last Wednesday, but after Man United fullback Patrice Evra's abysmall peformance, Clichy finally gets his well deserved start. Click to continue reading...

France midfield maestro Samir Nasri will miss his countries World Cup qualifier against Serbia this evening because of pain in his right knee. Nasri felt a nagging pain after Tuesday's training session, and coach Raymond Domenech decided to rest him "only as a precautionary measure," said team press officer Francois Manardo. Click to continue reading...

Holland coach Bert van Marwijk has played down reports of a rift with Dirk Kuyt after the Liverpool forward voiced his dissatisfaction at being relegated to the bench.

Speaking to Sportweek magazine ahead of Holland's World Cup qualifier against FYR Macedonia on Wednesday, Kuyt lamented the decision of Van Marwijk to leave him on the bench for Saturday's friendly against Australia, branding it "unacceptable". Click to continue reading...

Spanish Football Internationals XAVI HERNANDEZ & DAVID VILLA were given their respective Euro 2008 awards by the hands of the Spanish Football Association President Villar. Xavi was awarded the... Read all the news, results, details & comments in English on Spanish Football & Sports Click to continue reading...

Five points if you can guess what country Lake Balaton is in?

For the record, I'd have scored a zero.

Anyway, here are the rankings. One team is on a surge and has shot up, up, up the rankings. They're not in a playoff position yet but I'd take them to beat all the teams from 6-14 without question, at least at home. Click to continue reading...

As could be expected, lots of Gunners in action over the weekend in World Cup Qualifiers, mostly in the UEFA region. As promised, a brief look at each player and his role (if any):

Alexandre Song Billong
Started and played 90 minutes for Cameroon in their 2-1 win over Cape Verde Islands.

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Yesterday's Andorra versus England game was a fix.

Later in this post, we detail for our subscribers how the fix was perpetrated, minute by minute on the field of 'play'.
As for the rest of you freeloaders, at least you know that the match was rigged.

Yesterday's Andorra versus England game was a fix. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal's International stars were in action for their respective countries tonight and it was the World Cup Qualifiers that became the main talking point of the week. Here at Gooner Talk, we look to bring you the latest updates and results on how the Arsenal players are doing for their countries with a brief summary of [. Click to continue reading...

Denmark striker Nicklas Bendtner has shaken off an ankle injury to start for his country in their World Cup Qualifier against Hungary tonight. Speedy winger Theo Walcott claims a surprising start in England's WCQ versus Andorra at the Olympic Stadium. Johan Djourou continues in defence for Switzerland v Israel while Arsenal's French trio Bacary Sagna, William Gallas [. Click to continue reading...

There's a host of Arsenal players to keep your eyes on today. While Aaron Ramsey didn't get on the pitch for Wales, backup keeper Lukasz Fabianski got the start in goal for Poland with Artur Boruc suspended? Or out of action. Regardless, they'll be much more later on today/tomorrow. Here's to a great (and boring) day of internationals, plus hoping for no injuries.

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Scotland take on the FYR Macedonia tomorrow in Skopje, looking for their first win under George Burley. It's a win that could not come at a more important time, as this is not just another friendly but the first in a series of two games the national side will play in their campaign to qualify [...] Click to continue reading...

Booooring. Time for a respite from EPL action on the weekend. To little surprise, a break in the action means a lull in any sort of Arsenal-related news, with no games to preview. That and with the transfer window shut, no new signings can be made. Instead, it's cross our fingers and hope that none of the players get hurt time.

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With the Scotland squad about to start a series of games that will hopefully qualify us for the World Cup in 2010, we continue our story of how Scotland recovered from the disappointment of Argentina '78 to reach the next world Cup in '82. We left off in Part I with Scotland in the middle of [...] Click to continue reading...

MADRID (AFP) - Real Madrid's Brazilian striker Robinho said Sunday that his "head was at Chelsea" and that he was determined to leave the Spanish club despite efforts of team bosses to keep him.

"I've already told the president (Ramon Calderon), and coach (Bernd Schuster), management and (the media): my head is there (at Chelsea), I want to play over there," the 24-year-old said. Click to continue reading...

Hmm, where to start? *boilk* might be a good place.

Now, let's put that behind us and move on. We have a game against Fulham today and preparation has been far from ideal. With all the internationals this week the manager just had one outfield player to work with, Denilson, and that may see a revolutionary 0-1-0 formation today at Craven Cottage.

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I've been tracking no less than nine transfer situations involving U.S. internationals, and it would appear that most of them are becoming quite interesting. I have nothing definitive to break right now (if I did, you'd see it on Soccer365) and I can't repeat everything I've learned as of yet, but I figured I could drop a few harmless, yet interesting notes this fine Friday morning. Click to continue reading...

So far in this transfer window, Lyon have spent nearly €60m on incoming players. They are surely in the top five when it comes to overall spending this summer.

But it's not just the men's team getting the attention. Aulas stayed true to this promise and has strengthened the women's team as well.

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7-0!

Talk about luar biasa. Indonesia's last internationals have seen them score a single goal against Yemen, Bayern, Malaysia and Vietnam and go goal crazy when they hit two past New Zealand. Now they go and thump seven past Cambodia!

Budi Sudarsono hit four in 25 first half minutes while Charis Yulianto, M Ilham and Bambang Pamungkas finished the route. Click to continue reading...

Friendly internationals, we are told, are not about the result. They're about the performance, and about preparing the team for competitive matches to come. What, then, are we to make of a match when more or less the only thing to come from a friendly match that can so much as remotely be regarded as [. Click to continue reading...

James
Brown Ferdinand Terry Cole
Beckham Lampard Barry Gerrard
Rooney
Defoe

Goals:
Baros 22'
Brown 45'
Jankulovski 48'
Joe Cole 90'

Yeah, it's nice to see England eke out a draw even though they didn't deserve it. It was an okay performance in the first half, less so in the second, but more than anything, it was a run-out against decent opposition. Click to continue reading...

And how right he is. Phil Scolari must be wondering what all the fuss is about when it comes to the Premier League. He's inherited a vast squad of talented internationals, been given a shedload more cash to land Deco and Bosingwa, while also been told that Kaka and Robinho ... Click to continue reading...

First thing: Check out this beauty of an assist that Hatem ben Arfa pulled off for Marseille in Champions League last week.

Second thing: Hatem is out and Samir Nasri is in for France's game against Sweden on Wednesday.

What do you think is there intrigue here, or just one player coming and one going?

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QPR's Next game after the Internationals: Newly-promoted Doncaster Rovers at Loftus Road, who have made a very solid start. Doncaster won their opening game, 1-0 against Derby County. They then drew Saturday's game at home to Cardiff. In the Carling Cup, Doncaster experienced their own 'shock" defeat away to Notts County. Click to continue reading...

Now that we've skated past the deals that didn't happen, let's take a look at the ones that did.

The big four

Chelsea signed three Portuguese internationals, Deco, Jose Boswinga and, of course, Big Phil Scolari. Boswinga was terrific in Euro 2008 and looks like adding the pace and attacking verve to the right back slot that Chelsea already have at left back. Click to continue reading...