"I replied: 'How are you speaking to me? Who do you think you are? You are only 20 years old. I am not your friend. He said: 'Me neither, I am not your friend'."

OK. What other response do you think "I am not your friend" gets you? Is the 20 year old going to say "I'm sorry, I thought you were my Christmas tree.

That's just C Ron showing how not to play the beautiful game when your team is losing 5 -2 to a better side.Brazil went on to win 6 -2 and that included a Luis Fabiano hat trick.Ronaldo was more obnoxious than he usually is and did not win more friends and influence more people by trying to break Silva's leg during the game.

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.

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.

Pim Verbeek looked like he wanted to pluck every nose hair off Harry Kewell. Why Kewell remains on this team is beyond me. He lacks speed and gives up the ball too easily.

Then again he wasn't the only Socceroo who looked like he was on Mary Jane. The Socceroos somnambulated through the match.

Terry Butcher has to now live with the fact that Maradona will be the topic du jour of the soccer world and the subject of pundit chatter everywhere.

What can he do to exact revenge for that goal?

He can hire a fat man wearing a Maradona mask to run onto the field after the match, drop him with a sliding tackle, and then administer an enema all the while looking at El Diego.

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.

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.

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.

A flurry of articles examining Obama's relationship with soccer.

David James believes Obama's transformational presidency will be good for the game.

Obama's club of choice, West Ham sends this "We are delighted that Barack Obama has an association with West Ham and are sending him our congratulations and an invitation to attend a match whenever he is in Britain.

Richards puts on the burners

The NY Red Bulls came through for the greatest win in their 13 year history. Leading the charge was Dane Richards who had the game of his life and a hand in all three goals. He scored the first goal, was responsible for the PK that Juan Pablo Angel converted for the Red Bulls second goal, and then sealed the deal when his pass was converted by John Wolyniec for the third and final goal.

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

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'.

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.

Ljungberg signs on with Seattle

Seattle Sounders signed ex-Arsenal midfielder and one time Calvin Klein undie model Frederik Ljungberg for their expansion team. Ljungberg was in the market after agreeing to terminate his four year contract with West Ham playing just one season.

Obama is a West Ham fan, so he knows something about soccer. Read this article to find a sure hand on the tiller.

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.

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.

A very favourable match up for Arsenal:

Theo Walcott vs Roberto Carlos

Roberto Carlos, a former Galactico pitting his 35 year old frame against the blistering pace of 19 year old Theo Walcott down the left. Carlos has lost a step or two and this should be Walcott's day on the field to exploit the space provided.

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.

Fabian Orellana scored in the 35th minute to give Chile its first victory over Argentina in 35 years.

Evincing a genuine concern about mounting debt in the EPL unleashes an unhinged rant from Martin Samuel on Lord Triesman. I wonder why he even bothers to call him Lord PleasedMan. Lets just call him Lord Treason since Samuel keeps playing up his former Communist Party ties. Sure, the EPL is the cynosure of the soccer world but so was the US in the global economy.

The media goes ballistic at the English squad. Rio is unhappy with the fans. This on the heels of a 5-1 drubbing of Kasakhstan. The 4-1 beating of Croatia seems to have raised the bar a whole lot higher. England does not have a holding midfielder and to pretend Gerrard, Lampard, or Barry would fill the role is pretty wishful thinking on Capello's part.

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.

The US cruise into the final round of World Cup qualifying as Beasley (2), Donovan, Ching, Altidore, and Onyewu scored at will against the Cubans. The match also provided an additional highlight in the first cap for Jose Francisco Torres, the American born midfiedler playing in the Mexican first division for Pachuca, who chose to represent the US at the international level over Mexico.

"The referee is a useless, interfering, grandstanding bastard. "

Steven Wells lays the guilt trip. Not all referees are as described above. But some certainly are. I have seen some matches (good or otherwise) overshadowed by heavy handed or incompetent refereeing. Cue Graham Poll or Valentin Ivanov.

Some of the best known names in soccer were born that year in September. Simon Kuper has more on their commonalities and differences.

My observation is that being amongst the first generation of globalized players, seems to have impacted their personal philosophy as much as their game.

Michel Platini's hate for Wenger is visceral. Here is some unrestrained character assassination for you.

On Wenger's commitment to developing youthful talent:

"Me, I only want to talk about football, he (Wenger) only cares about business. We must shut up with Wenger and everything.

Vedad Ibisevic is on fire.

FC Hoffenheim's striker has scored 6 goals and assisted in two more in his club's blazing start in this years season. Hoffenheim lie in second place behind Schalke.

Its a fairy tale start for a perennial second division team that was promoted for the first time in club history to the Bundesliga.

What a lovely word. Germanic in origin, universal in application. The warm fuzzies one gets when reveling in the comeuppance of others. Usually the 'others' are the ones who gave you grief in the not too distant past. An emotional state that Germany find themselves against England since their 1966 World Cup loss.

FIFA again punishes a national team by intruding into a local federation affair.

The general assembly of the Ethiopian football federation voted to get rid of their president Dr Asheber Woldegiorgise in January and replace him with Ahmed Yasin because of the dismal record of the national squad.

The national squad's performances isn't impressing the FIFA head.

Sepp Blatter, president of world soccer governing body Fifa, says he is "really disappointed" at the abysmal showing of Bafana Bafana, and plans some straight talking with local soccer bosses on the issue.

An implicit condemnation of Joel Santana's managerial career.

I read Shaka Hislop's article on the emerging club vs country debate that the US faces. At this point the US is cruising to World Cup qualification. They have had some less than flattering performance but lets face it, other than a total meltdown, the US should guarantee themselves a spot.