Who says football can't teach you stuff? For instance, once today's Arsenal-Porto match in Group G is done, we'll know if the Gunners come equipped with an on-off switch. You know those devices: teams flick them to the "off" position against lesser opponents. They play down to the level of their competition, and usually lose in [. Click to continue reading...

Here are some words and phrases you can hear on languagecaster's Full Podcast's Good, Bad and Ugly section - a review of the footballing news. For more English practice check out our worksheets, football glossary and English for football phrases as well as the Learners' Podcast. (to) pick up: get, earn Example: The premier League newcomers (Hull) [. Click to continue reading...

It was Arsene Wenger's twelfth anniversary in charge of the club, Hull City were the opponents. The fans were expectant of a cricket score. Yet as we've seen in a number of games in the past four years, the players became complacent. They did not respect Hull [...] Click to continue reading...

Spurs aren't very good at the moment. In fact, they are the worst team in the Premier League, having failed to beat any of their six opponents in the league to date. True enough, the departures of Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov upset the applecart at White Hart Lane in ... Click to continue reading...

Der Bomber. He came from Veendam. He wasn't a team player. Didn't defend or trail back. Didn't take on opponents. Didn't have a lot of assists. Didn't even look like an athlete. But he scored. And he hit them hard. Volleys, half-volleys, whatever. Hard, high. Spectacular. Except for this one... :-) Click to continue reading...

NPL Reserves 2 - The Irons 6 It seems to becoming the 11th Commandment -"Thou shalst give your opponents a two goal lead" as yet again the The Irons did just that for the 3rd week running and this time after just 15 minutes !!! NPL came out all guns blazing and their second goal was certainly a bullet from 40 yards though legend will say 60! Click to continue reading...

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Strange that one particular club is not included in the category of "Giantkillers!"

Football League - WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER
The draw for Round 4 of the Carling Cup takes place on Saturday and there are no less than eight Football League clubs left in the competition. Click to continue reading...

Rivaldo plays for Adelaide United's Asian Champions League Semi-Final opponents Uzbek side Bunyodkor.

And they thrashed Pierre Littbarski's Iranian side Saipa 7-2 on aggregate.

Out of interest how do you get from Uzbekistan to Adelaide for a Wednesday night game..for that matter the the other way as well:)

And you thought Perth Wellington was a long trip! Click to continue reading...

We had barely digested Saturday's match before it was time for another epic performance. This time Sheffield United were to be ridiculed by Arsenal's youngest team ever in the Carling Cup. The average age was merely 18 years and 6 months and the oldest player on Arsenal's side was Lukas Fabianski at the age of 23. Click to continue reading...

If you like your football full of passion, great skills, end to end excitement, two sets of pumped up fans, a full stadium and a Semi Final prize up for grabs you'd have loved the Adelaide United Kashima Antlers clash at Hindmarsh Stadium last night.

The Reds won 1-0 and made history becoming the first Aussie side into the Continents major football tournaments Semi Final. Click to continue reading...

I have to say I feel slightly envious of those who were at the Grove last night. With almost every game these days either on TV or available via a stream you really notice when there's just no way of seeing it. The fans who were in attendance were treated to a display from a team of great talent and potential and Sheffield United just couldn't live with them.

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The lead up to World Cup 2006 was costly for the United States. Not only did Team USA play opponents in friendlies that did not prepare them for the ultimate test in football, but both Frankie Hejduk and Cory Gibbs went down with serious injuries. Hejduk in particular was a huge blow: The best American during [. Click to continue reading...

I defy anyone who loves football to say they did not admire some of the beautiful play displayed by the Arse at the weekend.

I know there are times when they can appear quite mediocre and don't quite get it together. But when they do they really do.

You will probably think I'm going over the top but when I see them play like that it is truly like watching beautiful choreography. Click to continue reading...

Before the match against Chelsea on Sunday, Carlos Tevez was more than happy to wind up our opponents, letting them know they'd get to see the real Champions playing at Stamford Bridge. It seems he's not content to leave it there though, rubbing in their failure of last season, claiming they're not over the pain of [. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool forward Dirk Kuyt admitted to being frustrated in the wake of his side's goalless draw with Stoke City at Anfield but insisted that their opponents' defensive outlook was a compliment for the hosts. The ex-Feyenoord man wants to make amends in the Reds' upcoming matches.

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Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez is ready to offer the younger members of his squad the opportunity to impress against Crewe in the Carling Cup on Tuesday.

Benitez is expected to name the likes of left-back Emiliano Insua, midfielder Damien Plessis and forward Daniel Pacheco in his plans as he looks to rest a number of his first-team stars when the Railwaymen arrive at Anfield. Click to continue reading...

Excessive self-satisfaction: that was really the only flaw of Inter Milan Sunday. With the score up by three, Abbruscato's goal, a crossbar, and two great saves by Julio Cesar reminded the Nerazzurri matches last for 90 minutes. Other than that, José Mourinho's really dominated their Torino opponents, and deservedly closed the game with a 3-1 [. Click to continue reading...

For the second week in a row Arsenal travelled to the North-West to face opponents who have in the pastr caused us problems.  For the secodn week Arsenal have come through a tough challenge and taken all three points. Arsenal started well, knocking the ball around with confidence.  Bolton looked to be hanging on, whne on [. Click to continue reading...

The Champions League group games started this week and languagecaster takes a look at how teams from la Liga and the Premier League fared. For learners of English check out our Football Language Resources with: Worksheets and transcripts Vocabulary lists ** NEW ** Football language glossary Transcript Damian - The Spanish Teams Spanish teams usually feature among the favourites at the [. Click to continue reading...

"Everything was unusual for me," he told Izvestia daily newspaper. "It's a different kind of football, with a different speed... I immediately realised that English football is much faster than in Russia. Our opponents didn't give me enough time to get to the ball properly."






Sounds to me like Spurs might have scored another Rebrov. Click to continue reading...

To finish the opening game of our Champions League title defence with a 0-0 is always going to be disappointing. Whilst missing a few players, we had enough quality on the field yesterday to beat Villarreal, especially based on the way our Spanish opponents played. However, it was just 'one of those days'. Click to continue reading...

With today's start of the UEFA Champions League and our impending journey to Portugal for the UEFA Cup, it got me to thinking: Why aren't we playing in the Champions League??

Oh, right. Koeman. Soler. Sorry.

Of course, the answer isn't that simple. And I haven't the patience to go through it now.

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The Champions League group stages get underway tonight. The success of English clubs in recent seasons is undeniable but have oddsmakers have gone overboard in their evaluation of Premier League sides?

There are certainly some sizeable prices chalked next to the names of their opponents. Two that interest me the most are Bordeaux and Villarreal. 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...

Full name Kerlon Moura Souza. This Brazilian became popular with his signature move "seal dribble" that piss off the defenders as well as the the opponents' coaches. Kerlon gets all the beating, literally, when he does his "seal dribble". Seal dribble is hard to defend since the defenders find it hard to tackle. Click to continue reading...

Michael Bradley and Steve Cherundolo could possibly meet on the field for the first time as opponents, while Neven Subotic will hope to continue his stellar play for Borussia Dortmund. Click to continue reading...

If a team is looking at available free agents, they could do much worse than the fastest man in the world, even if he has no footballing skills to speak of. I mean, just think of how that would affect opponents playing the offside trap. Throw him ten yards in front of the last defender [...] Click to continue reading...

Cockney Irishman, ex Millwall stalwart, and now a respected columnist in the times today wrote a rambling article about the importance of pace in, especially Theo's, game today. I think that this is rather sad. That the difference isn't about how good your ball skills, which you have worked on since when you were five, but about something that is innate to you; you were born with it. Click to continue reading...

This was a game I was really looking forward to: A chance to see the boys play at home against a team we have historically dominated.  I was curious to see the metamorphosis of team USA into the monster squad that chews up opponents and spits them out in the relative comfort of our stateside [...] Click to continue reading...

Goal scorer and assist man... We would like to see a passionate, disciplined and somewhat inspired Oranje work hard and win against tough but still lesser opponents. And we did. With the laughter and ridicule of one draw and one loss in friendlies put aside, Oranje bagged the three points in a match Click to continue reading...

MARKHAM - Limey's FC were in full form on Sunday as they decimated their opponents, Silver. Coasting to a 6-1 bashing, the Silver team never stood a chance. Limey's FC, a team that has been consistently strong all year long, earned a well deserved the victory and move on to the semi-finals next week. Click to continue reading...

There are plenty of games hyped to be the biggest in the World, with local rivals passionately hating their opponents eager for the war. When your team wins one of these matches, you are buzzing for days, even weeks sometimes. When your team loses, it's absolutely gutting, and the sooner next Saturday comes the better. Click to continue reading...

Japan won away 3-2 in Bahrain, and in the big news Aussie opponents on Thursday our time Uzbekistan got flogged 3-0 by Qatar!

Fantastic result for Australia. Given we comfortably disposed of Qatar, if we can get a decent result in Tashkent on Thursday we could be off to a flyer.

Putting ourselves and Japan firmly in the driving seat for South Africa, even at this early stage. Click to continue reading...

Singapore Armed Forces poor form continues but this time they were lucky enough to get away with a victory.Winston Yap accidentally own goal in the 87 minute gave SAFFC an undeserved win. Sengkang has been containing their opponents well until they concede the goal.Overall,Wiston Yap,who played extremely well in that match,deserved to be given the man [. Click to continue reading...

With the trade today for former FCD striker Abe Thompson, we added our second attacking player in the last two days. Add the trade for Herculez Gomez into the mix, and we've acquired two 26-year-old forwards who are very different but exciting players. Combined, they have 36 goals and 19 assists in just over six total seasons. Click to continue reading...