Something to read while you wonder what the age difference is in this tackle... Spotted on the appropriately named (and excellently written) Dirty Tackle Wii + lego = rudimentary robot soccer (Botropolis) Top 13 goals of the week. Feast your eyes. (101GG) Nani and C-Ron share everything (With Leather) England's biggest rival: Argentina, Germany or Scotland? Click to continue reading...

Happy birthday, Nani, 22-years-old today! He is currently in Brazil with Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of Portugal's friendly with Brazil. In modern football, 22 is no longer that young. Just think, Wayne Rooney is 22-years-old and this is his seventh season of Premiership football! Plenty of comparisons have been made between Ronaldo and Nani, with them both being [. Click to continue reading...

With no Premier League matches this weekend due to International World Cup Qualifiers, some Manchester United players were playing for their countries, here is how they got on. I will start off with... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Click to continue reading...

In modern day football, comparisons between rising stars and those who've already established themselves as household name have become commonplace. When Sporting Lisbon's young, flamboyant winger, Nani was rousing interest amongst several English clubs, including Manchester United, the media sprang no surprises by instantly comparing him to Cristiano Ronaldo. Click to continue reading...

The headlines wrote themselves this morning for all the wrong reasons. Rob Styles' itchy whistle finger contrived to invent a new type of offence for awarding a penalty of which he is yet to explain to the media.

It was pretty clear to everyone that it wasn't a penalty and Styles was spooked by the OT faithful and immediately blew.

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As good as Manchester United were last year, and they were very good, their off the field shenanigans, mostly those involving Portuguese speaking attackers and their hooker-a-thons, left something to be desired. Not exactly getting off to a shining start in the department this year either because Anderson had a drug dealing buddy of his [. Click to continue reading...

Manchester United 1 - Middlesborough 1

Amos, Da Silva, Vidic, Brown, O'Shea, Nani, Possebon, Anderson, Giggs, Welbeck, Ronaldo
Subs from Zieler, Manucho, Gibson, Tevez, Cleverley, Gray, Eckersley

1st Half
Alves and Brown seem to be having quite a battle.

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Manucho, the Angola striker named in the Africa Cup of Nations Best 11, could make his Manchester United debut tonight Carling Cup against Boro. I didn't know too much about him so, to save you faithful readers the trouble, I researched him and have to say I'm looking forward to seeing him have a run out.

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But Park is starting. Swings and roundabouts.

Chelsea: Cech, Bosingwa, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Obi, Joe Cole, Deco Ballack, Lampard, Malouda, Anelka. Subs: Cudicini, Drogba, Ballack, Bridge, Kalou, Alex, Belletti.

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Fletcher, Hargreaves, Scholes, Park, Berbatov, Rooney.

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Following in the footsteps of last season's emphatic success was never going to be easy, nor was it ever guaranteed. However, those of a Manchester United disposition could be forgiven for perhaps expecting a little more in the opening games of the new season. This season's early uncertainty culminated in last weekend's frustrating loss to Liverpool, a result which subsequently puts even greater emphasis on the trip to Stamford Bridge on Sunday, but just why haven't things gone quite to plan for the European Champions on the pitch so far this season? Click to continue reading...

United started their Champions League campaign against La Liga runners-up Villarreal. United's starting eleven was: Van der Sar Neville, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Park, Fletcher, Hargreaves, Nani Rooney, Tevez Suprisingly, no Vidic, Brown or Giggs United had a great opportunity in the 9th minute from the first corner kick in the match. Click to continue reading...

Manchester United versus Villarreal CF, Wednesday September 16th 1945 BST

Well, you learn something new everyday. Apparently, Villarreall's nickname is El Submarino Amarillo (The Yellow Submarine)! I'm not going to go all tabloid and start coming up cheesy headlines to do with 'sinking' the submarine, Berbatov scoring with 'depth charges' or a spurious link to the Yellow Submarine being inspired by a long and heavy association with mind-altering drugs.

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FC Basel 1893 How They Got Here:Basel beat Vitoria de Guimaraes (also known as Vitoria SC) 2-1 on aggregate in the third round of qualifying. Basel won the Swiss League last season. Star Performer: MF Benjamin Huggel. An experienced member of the Swiss national squad, Huggel is a strong presence in central midfield. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez believes he has just as lethal a strike force as Manchester United and has hit back at criticism from Sir Alex Ferguson.

The two North West rivals are preparing to do battle at Anfield on Saturday, live on Sky Sports 1 and HD 1, with Benitez looking to secure a first Premier League victory over United boss Ferguson. Click to continue reading...

Theodorus Walcottus Awesomus

Arsenal meets Blackburn this weekend, another team that believes in Josip Simunic style of tackling. Here is hoping that Walcott gets the start after his barnstorming performance against Croatia which should have boosted his confidence to stratospheric levels.

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The US Men's Team shut out Trinidad & Tobago 3-0 last night (that's the game I was enjoying). They are now 3-0 with 3 games remaining in the semifinal round of qualification (12 teams will become 6 teams, with 3 moving onto the WC).

Elsewhere, Soccer by Ives offered several good articles this week:
Here are the CONCACAF Standings prior to the games last night
Mexico Beats Canada puts our neighbors to the North very close to elimination
Oh, and for those of you born in the 80's or later, here's some history for you from Ives.

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It's typically tasteless to laugh at serious injuries, but go ahead and howl at this one with our blessing. Fabian Espindola - hereby known in these parts as The Dumbest Guy Alive - broke/sprained/hurt his ankle during a flipping goal celebration for Real Salt Lake this weekend and is now out for 8 weeks. Click to continue reading...

The path to the West Ham manager's desk appears to be clearing for Gianfranco Zola after Michael Laudrup and Slaven Bilic fell out of the running for the job. Denmark legend Laudrup was expected to be interviewed by Irons chief executive Scott Duxbury and technical director Gianluca Nani on Monday, only for Russian giants Spartak Moscow [. Click to continue reading...

As you probably no, Manchester United aren't in action this weekend with internationals being played. There were a few United players in action last night for their countries and this is how they got... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Click to continue reading...

Despite being without a manager West Ham have completed the signing of Uruguayan defender Walter Lopez. In a clear indication of the influence of technical director Gianluca Nani has at Upton Park the Hammers have snapped up the free-agent on a one-year deal, following his release by River Plate. It is also thought the Italian will now [. Click to continue reading...

In the latest from The Special One (and friends) Jose and It go on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to raise money for the Berbatov Appeal. There's also a not very convincing apology to Nani, the return of Ameobi super-fan Dave, another mysterious glimpse at Capello and - déjà vu alert - the promise [. Click to continue reading...

With the transfer window set to slam shut until January and with no new signings on board Fergie will be concerned with United's lacklustre display in the Super Final in Monaco that ended with Zenit St Petersburg lifting the trophy by the odd goal in three. Vidic's consolation goal led to a late attacking flurry by the Reds, but for too much of this match United were very much second best all over the park. Click to continue reading...

There is always apprehension ahead of travelling to Fratton Park due to their recent good history against us. When looking at the players we had available to us, the worries increased. No Ryan Giggs, Nani, Cristiano Ronaldo, Park Ji-Sung, Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves, with Anderson supposedly exhausted after 6 games in 18 matches in China. Click to continue reading...

"It" with jetlag, Nani's likeness to a young Michael Jackson (I think that's the joke, right?), a fantastic Berbatov appeal from The Boy ("it's tragic like"), Fergie calling The Special One "pretty boy") and the fearsome pedantry of Roy Keane. But easily the best thing about the new season of I'm on Setanta Sports: the [. Click to continue reading...

Predictably, much has been made of the Reds lack of a cutting edge up front without an obvious out and out striker available to Fergie. But on the evidence of the Champions performance against Portsmouth on Monday night there's little worry about, with Rooney and in particular Carlos Tevez looking razor sharp. Click to continue reading...

Tomorrow Manchester United take on Portsmouth at Fratton Park for their first away match of the new Premier League season. United are still without Ronaldo, Park, Carrick, Saha and Anderson. Nani... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Click to continue reading...

Sir Alex Ferguson announced that Cristiano Ronaldo's return is ahead of schedule, which is great news for us, considering the players we are currently missing (Owen Hargreaves, Michael Carrick, Nani, Anderson, Park Ji-Sung, Ryan Giggs...). "Ronaldo's maybe a little bit ahead of schedule," said Ferguson. Click to continue reading...

Press reports this morning claim West Ham boss Alan Curbishley isn't happy with new technical director Gianluca Nani about the possible signing of Chilean striker Sebastian Pinto. The Santos striker flew into London to play in a trail match for the Hammers with the view to completing a £5million on a four-year deal. Click to continue reading...

Sporting Lisbon has a good reputation of producing players from their youth system, with Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, João Moutinho, Nani, Ricardo Quaresma and Miguel Veloso probably the most notable of these. Manchester United have a good relationship with the club, forking out substantial transfer fees for Ronaldo and Nani in recent years. Click to continue reading...

He is simpy known as Jeffren Suárez by his fans. At fist quick glance, he looks like Nani of Manchester United. But in skills and work, probably this 20 year old kid can do more than Nani. His numbers in Barcelona B, 8 goals in 26 games is a good indication. In the 2008-2009 preseason, he [...] Click to continue reading...

A quick check of sub's bench for Newcastle, versus the options last May in Moscow, show just how much the squad is being stretched at the moment:

Saturday

Kuszczak, Neville, Evans, Gibson, Possebon, Da Silva, O'Shea

Moscow

Kuszczak, Silvestre, O'Shea, Fletcher, Anderson, Nani, Giggs

*Gulp*

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...and Carlos Tevez, Owen Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson, Gary Neville, Louis Saha, Ji-Sung Park and Michael Carrick (for 65 minutes). We weren't at the races today. As soon as Edwin Van der Sar made the decision to punch the ball rather than collect it, leading to the corner which Newcastle opened the scoring from, you knew we [. Click to continue reading...

Following John Terry's ludicrous suggestion that Manchester United's young team had already peaked and had no room for improvement, Michael Carrick has hit back at the Chelsea cry-baby. It stands to reason that a team with so many talented youngsters, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, Anderson and Nani, will continue to improve with every [. Click to continue reading...

West Ham United are unlikely to pursue a bid for Ghana midfielder Stephen Appiah. The 27-year-old, who spent the 2002/03 season under new Irons technical director Gianluca Nani at Serie A side Brescia, has spent the last three seasons at Turkish giants Fenerbahce. However, the past two years of his career has been blighted by a serious [. Click to continue reading...

Last season, United were some way short of what I'd expect of a team filled with the ability it has. Despite adding Owen Hargreaves, Carlos Tevez, Anderson and Nani to what was already a Championship winning side, we finished 2 points behind our total from the season before. Even with all the goals Ronaldo scored, [. Click to continue reading...