On 5 September 2008, Senegal met Algeria at the Mustapha Tchaker Stadium in a World Cup qualifier. In the 81st minute, Cheikh Gueye scored an own goal which leveled the game for Algeria. 7 minutes later, Rafik Saiki stuck a dagger into Senegal by scoring the winner. Algeria won the match.

This movie could easily have been titled, Little Zizou: A Gratuitous Reference To or the Incredible Vanishing Zidane. Apart from some TV clips and some newspaper articles of him visiting Bangladesh there was nothing else on Zidane.

I happened to see it in a recent NY festival.

So it appears that Argentina played like gangbusters for the first 20 minutes and then faded away letting Scotland have some decent chances, a combination of hustle and and an uneasy Juan Pablo Carrizo in goal. This is what usually happens with Argentina who have been unable to sustain their bright starts and let teams back in as the game progresses.

Most Americans now prefer diplomacy towards Iran rather than seek a knee jerk military solution.

After virtually turning off the charm school for eight years and surrendering foreign policy to the unilateral wet dream of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, Americans have woken to an unfamiliar sense of vulnerability brought on by two draining wars and an unraveling economy.

Add another blow to Arsenal's nightmarish season.

Theo Walcott is out for six weeks with a shoulder dislocation and further depletes the roster missing several key personnel through suspensions and injuries: Fabregas is out against City; RVP serving his three game suspension; Eduardo not due back till the middle of December; Rosicky's rehabilitation remains shrouded in mystery; Sagna and Toure at also out with injuries.

Maradona measures the miss in the 1966 final

I had no idea that Argentina was playing England.

A proxy war has broken out between the two rivals with England a bit sniffy at the Scottish adoration of the one that broke their hearts with the most infamous goal in the game's history.

The overwhelming response to Bayern's visit in May this year when 120,000 fans came to see Oliver Kahn play his last match obviously did not go unnoticed. And so Karl Heize Rummenigge, one of soccer's legends and Bayern's executive director paid a visit to Kolkata to sign a MOU for a soccer academy to be set up in Burdwan on 25 acres of land.

Finally, it would appear that the Kolkata clubs, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan are showing signs of life. East Bengal ran out winners against league leaders Sporting Clube de Goa, 3-1 while their city rivals Mohun Bagan beat JCT, 2-0.

They are now bunched in the middle of the table along with minnows Mumbai FC who have not been able to sustain their fantastic start and have lost some momentum in recent weeks losing to Air India and drawing with Churchill Brothers.

Bayern was poised to take three points as they were coasting to a 2-0 victory over lowly Borussia Moenchengladbach before Rob Friend got one back from a header in the 79th minute. Two minutes later Bradley made it level when he placed a header perfectly off a cross by Roberto Colautti.

Jurgen Klinsmann was livid.

Lots of Terry Butcher who would like nothing better than giving Maradona a black eye and jail Scottish blaggards who give Maradona their unconditional love.

Diego Maradona landed in Scotland just before Wednesday's game and with a curt "I don't speak English" blew by TV crews, hundreds of reporters, and throngs of adoring fans hoping to catch a glimpse of the most famous name in soccer. (Video here)

He was protected by a dozen police officers and private security guards who escorted him to a waiting bus.

Sinisa Ubiparipovic should now be worth more than his $33,000 annual salary.

One of the standouts in NY's historic playoff march has been Ubiparipovic. And he is a flesh and blood person, although his name suggests a character out of a Dostoyevsky novel.

Ubiparipovic was an in and out presence on both attack and defense during the regular season stepping in for the fading Jorge Rojas and provided two invaluable game winning assists, including the one that scored the fastest goal in club history in the season opener against Crew in April.

The man best known for ending Brandon Pollard's career shows no love for his former coach, Juan Carlos Osorio. After RSL's loss to the Red Bulls there will be should be even less love.

For the record there were three players in the RSL squad with connections to the Red Bulls/ Metrostars who took the field in the Western Conference finals.

Eleanor Rigby may have been found at long last.She may have been a scullery maid working for the City Hospital in Parkhill, who signed her name "E. Rigby"What's that got to do with soccer?" you may well ask.Well -in the summer of 1966, after the England team beat West Germany to win the World Cup, the Beatles scored yet another No 1 with the Eleanor Rigby song.

Jones puts a crimp on Gazza

Man City is in the midst of collective player angst and Elano adds to the chorus who have abandonment issues with Mark Hughes.

The problem is that City lacks gritty players who so populated Hughes' Blackburn squads. These squads were always bit discomfited with the finer aspects of the game.

Now it is Oscar Ruggeri.

Maradona wants the former Boca defender and 1986 team mate as his assistant. Ruggeri, an outstanding defender for his country has a poor record in managerial positions. It has led to a standoff between Julio Grondona and Maradona, with threats that he will resign if Ruggeri is not included.

These statements should be treated as a conspiracy against Arsenal to lull them to sleep. How many opposing managers have said similar things in order to fatten the heads of William Gallas & Co. only to see them fall in the next match. Its become psychology 101.

A preamble to present day Arsenal games now means cradle snatching Wenger trotting out ever younger squads with every season.

Today, in the longest time, the US will get to that mountain top.

I suspect we are in for many morning afters. It was Stoke this time. We are getting to the point where it is hard to say who showed up to play or who should have done what or what the next excuse will be. There is a giant feeling of unsettled in the squad.

Arsenal has already proven susceptible to open field shots and this time it was Rory Delap's throw ins that were their undoing.

The hottest team in the MLS is without Josh Wolff but Claudio Lopez is peaking at the right time. Lopez is vying for newcomer of the year with Darren Huckerby and Andre Rocha. He has scored six goals and assisted in seven more. They meet Columbus Crew and Guillermo Barros Schelotto in one of the marquee playoff matches.

Marca's cover morphs Sir Alex into the Franco of Manchester

Man Utd boss Sir Alex Ferguson came off the sidelines accusing Sepp Blatter, FIFA's president for acting like an African despot and then lambasting Ramon Calderon, Real Madrid's president for behaving as if the club were still run by Generalissimo Francisco Franco.

An old and deep rooted fear was stoked by a SA minister promoting the World Cup at the Beijing Olympics. Dr Essop Pahad, was recently reported as saying that ‘Even though they are a minority, there are still a lot of whites who don't support Bafana Bafana". In addition, he reportedly stated: "They also don't care that the World Cup is being staged in South Africa'.

Arsenal: 22 goals for, 10 against

This draw was not caused by a lack of height, Arsenal has been done in by sudden snap strikes from yards out. Geovanni, Ledbitter, Bentley, Jenas, Lennon have capitalized on this Achilles heel. Admittedly some of the goals were nigh impossible to stop but it also points to a familiar lack of defensive focus allowing yards of open space to players not afraid to have a go.

88 minutes: Arsenal leading Spurs 4-2 seemingly coasting along and then the whole world falls apart as Arsenal implode allowing Spurs to draw the match in the last two minutes of regulation. Clichy blew it when a simple clearance should have sufficed. Full marks to Spurs for staying in this game and scoring some fabulous goals but this should have been an Arsenal win.

If Maradona can take Boca out of their current neurosis and put them on top of the table, I will be one step closer to believing that he can guide Argentina back to the days of the 1986 World Cup.

After all there should be no shortage of inspiration since La Bombanera is Maradona's stomping grounds.

FC Barcelona signed CAA Sports, the agency that represents David Beckham and Fredrik Ljungberg to represent the club in many areas including marketing its slogan "More than a Club" and advising it on the MLS expansion process. CAA Sports could also be involved in the development of a Barcelona franchise in Miami if the city is awarded an expansion team in Miami.

The reasons Zabeel Investments gave for not pursuing the Addicks were concerns regarding foreign ownership and the economic downturn in the UK. However, the financial crisis has also left Dubai vulnerable.

The booming real estate market that has changed its landscape has been fueled by a ballooning debt which tops $47 billion and is expected to grow further leaving Dubai exposed to the vagaries of the financial crisis.

I have to hand it to Eduardo and his rehab team that have made this early return possible. In three weeks according to Wenger. However, Rosicky is not expected back till after the new year.

The bottom ranked team in the EPL loses to the second ranked Serie team. Udinese reminds one of what the Spurs looked like a couple of seasons ago as they provided the players that could be deemed the future English squad. Now they are a polyglot of ill fitting foreign players, toothless on offense and waffling on defense.

Last Saturday afternoon FIFA president Sepp Blatter, 72, roared out of an Alpine mountain tunnel in his £100,000 luxurious 6.2 litre Mercedes sports car, smashed into a slower-moving car he was trying to overtake, lost control and cannoned across double white lines, hitting an oncoming VW Golf.

It was a goal fest as Adebayor, Walcott, Diaby, Song, and Ramsey scored for Arsenal while Silvestre (own goal) and Guiza put Fenerbahce on the board. The Gunners gave Wenger something to cheer about on his 59th birthday.

Some decisions for the EPL following the Shinawatra sentence. Since the proper and fit test applies only to convicted criminals and not to ongoing investigations, this should mean that Shinawatra gives up his minority stake in Man City, steps down as honorary chairman, and his surrogates yield their board positions.

An Aragones statement caught on camera calling Thierry Henry a "black s**t" to Jose Antonio Reyes four years ago prefaces any encounter with Arsenal. It provided a backdrop to the Spain vs France encounter in the 2006 World Cup.

Wenger has since then moved on after concluding that the Spanish coach was guilty of an over the top comment but not inherent racism.

Not a very good Thanksgiving for Canadian soccer fans.

Canada lost to Honduras, 1-3 and their World Camp campaign came to a screeching halt. Much of the damage had been done already with some squad members speaking out against Dale Mitchell, the coach. Apparently the CAS had canvassed the players.

Hank Paulson announced yesterday that distressed banks would undergo partial nationalization by the US government taking equity ownership. A move last seen in the Great Depression about 80 years ago. The US government took its cue from a rescue plan announced by Britain last week which has now been adopted by Germany, France, and 13 other countries to unfreeze the credit markets.