There was a sense of anxiety in Santander as the group stage draw for the UEFA Cup were held on Tuesday in Nyon.  By the end, the anxiety became nauseating as their fortunes saw them in the group of death.  The "luck" of the draw saw them emerge as rivals for team such as Paris-St.Germain, [...] Click to continue reading...

Barcelona are back, Ibrahimovic has his cake, Joe Kinnear breaks the press conference swearing record and Tottenham sink to the bottom of the Premier League. All of these stories feature in this week's the good, the bad and the ugly. Click on the links for more information about them below. Good Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored an amazing goal [. Click to continue reading...

Once again back is the incredible, goal animal, the incredible G! Public Enemy #1... MLS Russian Premier League And for good measure, Barcelona's six-goal barrage against Atlético Madrid... I'm still expecting to find a couple more leagues as the day goes on, so check back. - Greg Seltzer Click to continue reading...

Another game, another week where our Beloved top the Spanish La Liga table.

This week, an emphatic 1-0 victory over Real Valladolid, the goal coming from Portuguese midfielder Manuel Fernandes. I mention this because it's the first time since December 22, 2007 and a 2-2 draw against Real Zaragoza that a foreign player scored for Valencia.

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Home Teams Listed First: Saturday, October 4 Villarreal 2 - 1 Real Betis VIL: Gonzalo (69′), Joseba Llorente (70′) BET: Damia (20′) Barcelona 6 - 1 Atletico Madrid BAR: Marquez (3′), Eto'o (6′ pen, 18′), Messi (8′), Gudjohnsen (28′), Henry (73′) ATM: Maxi Rodriguez (13′) Sunday, October 5 Osasuna 0 - 1 Racing Santander RAC: Valera (90′) Recreativo 0 - 4 Malaga MAL: Eli (1′ & 62′), [. Click to continue reading...

The former Barcelona player found himself unsigned after the end of the transfer market.  According to Sport, the former blaugrana midfielder did receive an offer from Sheffield United (team he was on trial with) but it wasn´t to his liking and he would prefer to go to the United States to play in the MLS [. Click to continue reading...

After a few lackluster rebuilding years, Barcelona threw down a marker yesterday to prove they are once again a team able to win the Primera championship. Scoring five goals in the first 28 minutes, they demolished Atletico Madrid 6-1 at Nou Camp last night.

Goal scorers were Rafa Marquez, Sammy Eto'o (with two), Lionel Messi, Eidur Gudjohnsen, and Thierry Henry. Click to continue reading...

Futsal, FIFA's officially sanctioned version of Five-a-side football, may not be as widespread (or receive as much TV coverage) as the 11 vs. 11 "real thing", but its popularity is very much on the rise. A popularity which can only grow further, with the 6th edition of the FIFA Futsal World Cup kicking off last [. Click to continue reading...

For most, the term "giving back" to their club is an expression. Usually it's staying on when a larger club is calling, or taking the hometown discount when a larger checkbook is waiting around the corner, pen poised. Not so for Joseba Etxeberria of Athletic Bilbao, who's truly giving back. In fact, he's giving it all [. Click to continue reading...

Sorry for my prolonged absence and end of the Streak. A nasty illness did me in. But I'm back and getting better. The Streak will return at a later time!

So what did I miss?

For starters, Valencia played a cagey match today against Maritimo but finally advanced in the UEFA Cup with a 2-1 victory, goals by David Villa (who else?

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For the last couple of years, Gol TV has been thought of the third network of soccer in the United States, but over the last couple of months that appears to be changing. Gol TV has updated its network a lot in order to rival Setanta and FSC.
The biggest change for Gol TV has been the updating of their graphics. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal are eyeing a move for Brazilian wonderkid Detinho, according to reports in the Spanish media. The forward, who plays for Brazilian outfit Corintians, has been likened to the Gunners' latest youngster to grab the headlines, Carlos Vela. The Mexican 19-year-old scored a stunning hat-trick in Arsenal's recent 6-0 demolition of Sheffield United and reports in Spain [. Click to continue reading...

I embedded a video of the craziness in Spain and Barca and Espanyol the other day. But, like only soccer can do, there's more.

Apparently Tottenham was abusing Sol Campbell. If not racist chants, than homophobic ones. And Scotland has had some racist chanting.

But some are taking it further than words. Click to continue reading...

The new season is now a few weeks old in Europe, so I thought it was about time we had a look at the contributions of some of Argentina's foreign legion in the European leagues. So far Sergio Agüero and Gonzalo Higuaín have enjoyed great starts for the two Madrid sides in Spain, whilst in [...] Click to continue reading...

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has told the rest of the Premier League that Spanish International striker Fernando Torres will only get better for the Merseyside club.

Benitez has revealed that the 24-year-old is yet to reach full fitness after a summer which saw the former Atletico Madrid forward win EURO 2008 with Spain, but return to Anfield with a slight hamstring problem. Click to continue reading...

I warned everybody last week that all hell was going to break loose in the WCR Top 25 and I didn't lie.  This week we have eight new clubs in the WCR Top 25, including five teams debuting in the Top Ten, including Lazio, Valencia and Bayer Leverkusen.  The reason for this is that last season's results were removed from the statistics used to determine the countdown and the numbers got jumbled in England, Germany, Italy and Spain.

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This has been pointed out by Dina in yesterday's comments and by some other posters around the internet, the one thing wrong with Valencia CF as currently constructed: Our lack of another goalscorer besides David Villa.

Look at the numbers: In 4 games, Villa has scored half of Valencia's 8 goals, tied with Florent Sinama Pongolle of Atletico Madird and Rafael Van der Vaart of Real Madrid as Pichichi (leading scorer) of La Liga.

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More print has been dedicated to Pablo's possible switch to Spain. Which would be cool.

It all sounds good, but like Landon Donovan's situation, I'll get super excited when something's signed. Click to continue reading...

I don't think my article on Landon was advocating a move to Bayern Munich, but I can see where some have taken it that way.

Here's what one reader had to say:

With all due respect I don't think Landon Donovan would even make the Bayern Munich matchday party more than 12 or 15 times in a season. Click to continue reading...

Palermo goalscorer Edinson Cavani will replace Diego Forlán on Oscar Washington Tabárez´ callup for the upcoming World Cup Qualifers against eternal rivals Argentina in Buenos Aires on October 11th and Bolivia in La Paz.   Canvani has become in the past six months has become one of the top scorer in Serie A. Click to continue reading...

Luciano Monzón and Diego Milito were the two newest players to be called up by national team coach Alfio Basile for their upcoming World Cup Qualifiers against neighboring rivals Uruguay and Chile. Monzón has been one of the outstanding performers so far in La Liga this season.  His biggest came earlier this week when Betis headed [. Click to continue reading...

Betis defender Luciano Monzón is one of the few youngsters that has made a quick impact as soon as he arrived in Europe.   His ability to make a name for himself with Real Betis earned him his first-ever callup to the Argentine national team. The former "Boca Baby" has seen 2008 be very [...] Click to continue reading...

Transplanted Brit reporter Nick Thomas has sweetened the long-running Pablo Mastroeni-to-Europe serial by uncovering a pair of Spanish suitors in Málaga and Real Betis. Of course, the veteran midfield stopper is also wanted in Italy (by both Serie A and Serie B clubs, so they say). Mastro would prefer a move to Italy, but I'm actually much more excited by these La Liga possibilities, especially Click to continue reading...

Talk about a good start to the season.

We're in first place after 4 games.
David Villa is scoring goals for us in buckets.
We're short Silva, Vicente, Baraja and Marchena and still holding strong.

Now this: Juan Soler is no more. Vicente Soriano is officially the largest shareholder at Valencia.

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Former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry has today admitted he may consider leaving Barcelona if he does not get more first-team action.

The French international has made just over 50 appearances for the La Liga giants since joining last summer, however he has admitted he may consider leaving in January. Click to continue reading...

Thierry Henry is suffering at Barcelona and it breaks my heart to see the situation that he is in.

The man is a legend at Arsenal and I thought he would have ended his career with us. Obviously that didn't happen and although I, like every Gooner, was sad to see him leave, I wished him no malice and hoped he would be happy in Spain. Click to continue reading...

As we've reported here before, it appears USA and Colorado Rapids midfielder Pablo Mastroeni is set for a move to Europe in January, the only question is where.

While a handful of Italian clubs (such as Cagliari, Catania, and Palermo) have been whispered to have interest, LFV friend Nick Thomas is reporting that interest is also coming from Spain's Real Betis and Malaga. Click to continue reading...

Xabi Alonso insists Liverpool can prove their title credentials by winning tomorrow's Merseyside derby.

The Spain midfielder and his team-mates are desperate to bounce back after being held 0-0 at home by Stoke.

But Alonso believes victory at Everton will show they are ready to compete with Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Click to continue reading...

          Final     Osasuna  0 - 0 Deportivo       Villarreal  2 - 0  Racing Santander VIL: Joan Capdevila 28     Joseba Llorente 32´     Final     Barcelona  3 - 2  Real Betis BAR: Eto'o 17´, 23´     Gudjohnsen  80´   BET:  Monzón 59      Jose Mari   67´   Final     Getafe  1 - 2 Atlético GET:   Albín 75´   ATM: Cortés 30     Sinama-Pongolle 82´       Final   Real Madrid  7 - 1  Sporting Gijon MAD: Van der Vaart 18´, 33´, 47     Higuaín 37´     Robben 51     Raúl 59´, 64   SPO: Kike Mateo  51´         Sevilla FC  2 - 0  Espanyol SEV: Enzo Maresca 57     Javier Chevanton 86´         Málaga  0 - 2  Valencia VAL:   Villa 71´, 90´     Recreativo 1 - 1  Athletic Bilbao REC: Javi Guerrero 71   ATB: David López  76´       Valladolid  2 - 0  Almeria VLL: Alvaro Rubio 66     Medunjanin [. Click to continue reading...

This'll be a short post today. I'll leave the prognosis to you.

But my initial impressions after today's 2-0 over Malaga are good.

We didn't play great. But who cares? We have the three points and remain at the top of the table with 10 points, tied with Villarreal.

If I'd told you before the season started that this is where we'd be, we would have signed up for it right away.

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Pablo Mastroeni, club captain of the Colorado Rapids, is getting closer to his dream of playing in Europe. This week, he has received calls, via his representative in Spain and Italy, from two clubs in Spain - Malaga and Seville's Real Betis. The offers are good, says Pablo, but much remains on the table. Click to continue reading...

Sevilla defender Aquivaldo Mosquera will be out for three weeks due to an ankle sprain.  In the MRIs that were done Mosquera's absence will allow Ivica Dragutinovic to once again be a part of the nervionense  Starting XI. The Colombian international was carried off the pitch after a hard foul by Chica should have earned Espanyol [. Click to continue reading...

Rafael van der Vaart took a hat-trick off Sporting Gijon as Real Madrid walloped them 7-1 to go second in Spain's Primera Liga - one point behind Villareal
Real Madrid 7 - 1 Sporting Gijon Highlights

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Rafael van der Vaart took a hat-trick off Sporting Gijon as Real Madrid walloped them 7-1 to go second in Spain's Primera Liga - one point behind Villareal
Real Madrid 7 - 1 Sporting Gijon Highlights

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I was exchanging messages with Elisa the other day as she thought that I was a tad hard on Athletic Bilbao.  She thought that I was putting them in second division, which is far from the truth. THIS is how I sound when I tap a team to second division. After four weeks in the La Liga [...] Click to continue reading...