My internet has been down for a few days so I'll send you over to my friend Bob Wagman's excellent wrapup of Saturday's US match against Cuba. Check it out here. Click to continue reading...

I can see right up your shorts! Finland came up with an interesting way of distracting Azerbaijan goalkeeper Kamran Aghayev during their World Cup qualifier, and it seemed to work. Here is how to try the tactics out with your team: 1) Take one Daniel Sjolund. 2) Open his legs and leave him lying on the ground within [. Click to continue reading...

Still no Cooper!  I know Dallas is still fighting for a playoff spot, but so is Colorado, and we managed to get Pablo "Mastrioni" Mastroeni away from them.  Oh, dear.  Here we go again... GOALKEEPERS: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Troy Perkins (Valerenga) DEFENDERS: Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Danny Califf (Midtjylland), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Michael Orozco (San [. Click to continue reading...

In my absence, Argentina finally returned to winning ways after six matches of forgetting what it felt like. In the Monumental, in the clásico against their ancient cross-river rivals Uruguay, Alfio Basile's side finally looked like a team again. It took seven minutes of the first half - between the fifth, when Lionel Messi opened [. Click to continue reading...

With the U.S. wrapping up a place in the final round of World Cup qualifying in Saturday's 6-1 win over Cuba, Coach Bob Bradley released nine players from that squad - including the Galaxy's Landon Donovan - ahead of Wednesday's meaningless clash against Trinidad & Tobago.

Among those added to the roster were Chivas USA left back Jonathan Bornstein, who has struggled this year to recapture the form he showed last season, and Rolling Hills Estates' Robbie Rogers of the Columbus Crew, who looks likely to make his U.

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As expected, the US Men's National Team throttled Castro's Cubans yesterday @ RFK Stadium in Washington D.C. The win secures the US a spot in the final qualifying round. Even more important though, the win signified many, many good things about the state of American soccer. First of all, the man of the match, DaMarcus Beasley, finally broke out [. Click to continue reading...

In perhaps the oddest news from the international match-up weekend, German international and Shalke 04 forward Kevin Kuranyi did not board the team bus after Saturday's 2-1 win over Russian in World Cup qualifier action.  Germany's coach Joachim Low reported in a statement at the German Football Federation website on Sunday, "I cannot accept a reaction such [. Click to continue reading...

Saturday, October 11, 2008 Estonia 0-3 Spain Belgium 2-0 Armenia Netherlands 2-0 Iceland Germany 2-1 Russia Romania 2-2 France Poland 2-1 Czech Republic San Marino 1-3 Slovakia Greece 3-0 Moldova Bulgaria 0-0 Italy Serbia 3-0 Lithuania Luxembourg 1-3 Israel Turkey 2-1 Bosnia Herzegovina Sweden 0-0 Portugal Click to continue reading...

The U.S. thrashed Cuba 6-1, Jamaica beat Mexico and Croatia shot blanks.

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International breaks are becoming more and more a goal festival for Arsenal strikers. After Walcott's hat-trick away at Croatia, this weekend it was Adebayor's turn to find some magic. Emmanuel, who boycotted the National side for a month, made his comeback by scoring once before half-time and three times in the second half. Click to continue reading...

First off, why did Fox Soccer Channel inflict the overly chatty and not particularly insightful Nick Webster and Warren Barton on viewers from an L.A. studio rather than on-site English commentators during the England-Kazakhstan game this morning? (Which also has the effect of lowering the crowd noise from the almost 90,000 in attendance, further detracting from the game).

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Scotland top group 9 this evening, but a stagerring miss from three yards out from Chris Iwelumo - making his debut for Scotland - may well come back to haunt George Burley's side. The Netherlands, Scotland's next opponents in March next year, play Iceland this evening in Rotterdam and will overtake the Scots should they [. Click to continue reading...

In less than 30 minutes, England will be in action against Kazakhstan for their World Cup qualifying match. Needless to say, the media has been writing about Walcott following his hat-trick away at Croatia and in these last couple of days I've read a lot, maybe too much for a young 19-year old lad. Even [. Click to continue reading...

As promised, I will now channel my flu fury into blasting some of the most insipid, wrong-headed regulations to be found in the world game. I'm sorry this took so long, but the research for some of these rules was far harder than I anticipated. It's almost like they don't want you to know the exact deal, eh? Click to continue reading...

This weekend, qualifying for The Great Tournament resumes with matches all over the planet. Injuries and intrigue surround various matches with some outcomes determining whose dream of playing in South Africa in 2010 will become a closer reality or a nightmare in the failure to advance.  Therefore let's breakdown some of the key matches in [. Click to continue reading...

On Saturday afternoon at Hampden, Scotland play the third game of their World Cup 2010 campaign when Norway come to Glasgow, a qualifying match which we should, given the confidence that has recently been instilled in the national squad following their win over Iceland, win - in theory anyway. Squad Currently, three players have pulled out of [. Click to continue reading...

I don't know about you, but the weekend can't quick enough for me after the less than cheery news this week about what one newsroom wit described as our 301.K plans.

And there's plenty of soccer on TV and live locally to distract us.

I'll be back with a Chivas USA preview Saturday and a Galaxy one Sunday, but the bottom line is although the 1-1 draw last night between Real Salt Lake and the Red Bulls did little to clarify the playoff picture Chivas USA can still qualify for the playoffs while the Galaxy can put themselves (and us) out of their misery and be eliminated from the post-season.

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Friday is the last full day of training for Argentina's squad ahead of the World Cup qualifying clásico against Uruguay in the Monumental on Saturday. It's been a disrupted week for Alfio Basile's men but on Thursday, Juan Román Riquelme returned to training with the squad. Things aren't all quite to plan so far, though - [. Click to continue reading...

Dexy knows best! Sometimes, there is only thing worse than watching England, not being able to watch England. Last month I was faced with the prospect of not being able to watch an England game for the 1st time in donkey's years unless I shelled out on the Sultana package, no way Pedro I thought as I read the morning reports filtering out of Barcelona. Click to continue reading...

When you are enjoying your Starbuck's double tall non-fat this Saturday morning, spare a thought for Colorado Rapids' favorite, Bouna Coundoul. Bouna is currently in his native Senegal preparing for a crucial World Cup qualifier against Gambia which kicks off at 10am Mountain Time. Click to continue reading...

Predicted formation and line-up: We will probably see the usual 4-2-3-1. Wilkshire and Chipperfield will be the full-backs. The main question is whether Moore will come in for Coyne. Coyne hasn't been first-choice for his club which will count against him. Meanwhile, Moore has been playing regularly and has been in good form for the [. Click to continue reading...

Some might say I was fortunate enough not to have witnessed the impossible job first time round, but sat squirreled away on ITV4 this week I got to see second hand the car crash telly that documented Englands attempt to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in America, and call me a sad sentimental old fool, but I still hoped the outcome would be different. Click to continue reading...

Argentina play Uruguay in the Monumental on Saturday and whilst things are rarely friendly between two of the oldest rivals in international football, the sniping has come from an unexpected angle on Tuesday: Julio César Cáceres. That's Julio César Cáceres of Paraguay. Obviously seeking to crank up the pressure on a team currently trailing in [. Click to continue reading...

With upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Bulgaria and Montenegro on October 11 and 15th, Italian national team manager Marcello Lippi finds himself scrambling to suit up players for his squad.  Italy was already heading into the matches sans Marco Materazzi (Inter Milan), Fabio Grosso (Lyon), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan), and Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus) because of [. Click to continue reading...

Domestic football takes a break this week as World Cup qualifiers take place all around the globe. Damon still holds a healthy lead in the predictions battle race but with 8 games to predict this week Damian must fancy his chances of making a comeback. 08/09 Podcast 9 DB DF RES Sweden - Portugal 1-0 Romania - France 1-0 Bulgaria - Italy 1-1 Germany - [. Click to continue reading...

The new Women's Professional Soccer league conducted its third draft Monday, this one for American players not allocated when U.S. Women's National Team players were divvied up or international players not previously allocated.

Here are the complete draft results.

The as yet unnamed L.

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Two pieces of news regarding Argentine selecciones today, both of which took place on Sunday whilst the league action was going on. In the Brazil 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup, Argentina drew 2-2 against Ukraine in a frantic end to a highly entertaining match which saw all the goals come in the closing minutes (in spite [. Click to continue reading...

Manchester United are still embroiled in the will he go/will he stay Ronaldo farce. Chelsea have brought in Deco, Jose Bosingwa and a former World Cup-winning coach in Luiz Felipe Scolari, while Arsenal have brought in talented schemer Samir Nasri... Click to continue reading...

I know Cooper's absence may have something to do with FC Dallas' match on the same night as the qualifier, but I'm gonna keep on posting this until Bradley gets it through his Ivy League head that Super Cooper deserves a call up. Click to continue reading...

Dunga, fairly or not, is feeling the heat for the Selecao's performances the last couple of matches.  He decided to make some changes for the next two qualifiers.  The most obvious move was replacing Ronaldinho for Kaka.  The two AC Milan playmakers seem to be meshing well after their performance in the Rossoneri's 1-0 win [. Click to continue reading...

Poland preparation for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers as well as their hosting of Euro 2012 is under threat after they were threatened with suspension from international competition due to government interference. Poland and Ukraine are set to co-host Euro 2010 and only last week Platini backed the 2 countries to . Click to continue reading...

What if Eusebio hadn't dismantled Nuremburg in the European Cup in 1962? Or Yugoslavia hadn't erased the miracle of Berne by sending West Germany home early at the 1962 World Cup? No we probably wouldn't still have the Oberliga system! But if we did, this is what it would look like currently. I [. Click to continue reading...

Two bits of news for Tuesday: Boca Juniors' quest to find a replacement for Martín Palermo during his long-term injury layoff has come to an end with the signing on loan (with a US$1.5 million fee should Boca wish to make the signing permanent) of former Central and River Plate striker Luciano Figueroa from Genoa. Click to continue reading...

Considering his crazy travel schedule with international and MLS duty, I wouldn't mind some R&R either.

That Theo Walcott performance, might make it an easy decision.

Beckham said: "I want to be part of the squad, part of these qualifiers and, hopefully, part of the team to the World Cup.

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Champions League take three. The team is in need of a positive result and will look to do so on Wednesday against Mexican team CDSC Cruz Azul. Here's a little bit of info about the Blue Machine.

HistoryThe Cruz Azul Coorporation, a cement-making company, first got into the sports world in 1924 with a baseball team. Click to continue reading...