Unbelievably Strange Luck News

Fulham and the teams 4 Americans have lost another coach. Lawrie Sanchez who helped the team avoid relegation late last year was shown the door after a much less than stellar run so far in the 07-08 season. The team sits at 2 wins, 7 draws & 8 losses for 13 points and 18th place in the standings. The clubs former player John Collins is the man most people expect to get the job - he resigned from his job as Hibernian manager on Tuesday.

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Liverpool v Inter & Arsenal v Milan are probably the 2 biggest show downs in the First Knockout stage of the Champions League when it returns in mid February. See the entire draw below.

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Pantone Color Institute has named Blue Iris, # 18-3943, as the color of the year for 2008. You may notice that this is the color of du Nord. We are ahead of the curve, naturally. It is also the main coloring in the new floor I recently put in my kitchen. I know you are impressed.


Columbus Crew midfielder Guillermo Barros Schelotto is not heading back to Boca Juniors as has been speculated. Instead he wants to end his Crew contract now to join a team he played with even before Boca, Gimnasia.
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An excellent moment yesterday over at the fabulous DCenters - Ben Olsen of DC United drops by to give us his thoughts on the "holiday season". And a Merry Olsen to you as well.
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On Glenn Davis's radio show this week, one of his guests was new DC United keeper Zach Wells, and Wells let it be known that he had been invited to the USA training camp in early January. I would expect we will see who else is invited very soon. I hope its a lot of guys. The U23 team will have a separate camp in January as well.
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Now-former DC United goalkeeper Troy Perkins has officially signed with Norwegian team Valerenga. Here's a chance for all of us to brush up on our Norwegian. Troy looks happy.
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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer gives his version of a warning shot to new NYRB coach Juan Carlos Osorio - Many people have stepped forward to fix the Metro curse. Many of them were pretty great coaches. All of them have failed. Be careful what you wish for (my favorite cliche).
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BAS also has words about Osorio from an old acquaintance.
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Ives Galarcep at Soccernet looks at the challenges ahead for Osorio in NY.
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Nick Green of the Daily Breeze on his 100 Percent Soccer blog reports that former LA Galaxy brilliant midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos has been named the coach of Nejapa in his native El Salvador.
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MLSnet talks to Dallas fullback Drew Moor about next season.
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The San Jose Mercury News talks to Earthquakes defender Ryan Cochran about his new team.
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Andrea Canales over at the tremendous Sideline Views blog is rumorizing about Lyon coming to the USA next summer. Aaaaaah, the French in the summer.
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Got an email from Ethan tipping me off the RSLFM rumor on American defender Ian Joy returning home from St Pauli in Germany to play for Real Salt Lake. Joy was all set to leave St Pauli at the end of last season, but they convinced him to stay. He did so, but then has been yo-yoed all season from field to bench. Can't be what he was hoping for.
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MSNBC has a story on the reasons why the NFL is still not in Los Angeles after all these years away. What is the deal? Does soccer play a role in this? (thanks to Nic for this one)
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Jamaican-Canadian forward O'Brian White of UConn has been named Soccer America's 2007 College Men's Player of the Year.
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CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying
If the USA gets past the winner of Barbados & Domenica then will join 3 other teams in a home & away round robin tournament with 2 of them advancing to the mighty Hexagon! Here is the potential USA schedule (if all 3 other teams advance from the first round as expected):
-First Round:
home June 11-14
away June 18-21
-First Group Stage:
Aug 20 at Guatemala
Sep 6 at Cuba
Sep 10 v Trinidad & Tobago
Oct 11 v Cuba
Oct 15 at Trinidad & Tobago
Nov 19 v Guatemala
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Sheffield Wednesday are reporting that their American defender Frank Simek is going to miss up to 2 months of action after suffering a ruptured ankle ligament.
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UEFA Cup - Matchday 5 - Final round of Group play today and tomorrow.
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Dec 19
Zurich 0-5 Bayer Leverkusen
Toulouse 2-1 Spartak Moskva
Braga 2-0 Crvena Zvezda
Bayern Munich 6-0 Aris
Getafe 2-1 Anderlecht
Hapoel Tel-Aviv 1-3 Aalborg
Panionios 2-3 Bordeaux
Galatasaray 0-0 Austria Wien
-Thu Dec 20
AZ Alkmaar 2-3 Everton
Larissa 1-3 Nurnberg
Atletico Madrid 2-1 Panathinaikos
Aberdeen 4-0 Kobenhavn
AEK Athens 1-2 Villarreal
Fiorentina 2-1 Mlada Boleslav
Hamburger 1-1 Basel
Rennes 1-1 Dinamo Zagreb
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UEFA Cup final Group round standings.
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Three Americans are playing matches in the UEFA Cup:
-Dan Califf - Aalborg - went the distance and won 1-3 at Hapoel Tel-Aviv, but have been eliminated from advancing to the knock-out stages.
-Ramiro Corrales - Brann - had a bye for this matchday and they were already been eliminated from advancing to the knock-out stage.
-Tim Howard - Everton - went the distance and won 2-3 at AZ Alkmaar to finish a perfect 4 for 4 in the group stage.
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Americans in action in Europe last night:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - came on in the 83rd minute, and was show a Yellow Card in the 90th for "simulation" aka he took a dive! Ben won 3-0 at home over Estrela Amadora.
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Italian TIM Cup
-Thu Dec 20
Milan 1-2 Catania
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Big Euro games this weekend - and one of the biggest weekends of the year!:
-Sat Dec 22
Arsenal v Tottenham - the classic old London derby.
Nancy Lorraine v Lyon - #2 v #1 in Ligue Un.
Zaragoza v Valencia - the 2 biggest underachievers in Spain this season. Will one of them kickstart a resurgence?
-Sun Dec 23
Lens v Lille - le Derby du Nord!
Barcelona v Real Madrid - El Clasico!
Internazionale Milan v AC Milan - the Milan derby!! AKA Derby della Madonnina.
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Football Italia with a Milan Derby preview.
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Reuters with an article on Samuel Eto'o's timely return to the Barcelona lineup from injury right before El Clasico. They will need him to be sublime.
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The German Bundesliga has gone on winter break. Games will resume on Feb 1.
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Just drawn this morning:
Champions League - First Knockout Round
First Leg
-Tue Feb 19
Schalke v Porto
Roma v Real Madrid
Olympiacos v Chelsea
Liverpool v Inter
-Wed Feb 20
Celtic v Barcelona
Lyon v Man United
Fenerbahce v Sevilla
Arsenal v Milan
Second leg
-Tue Mar 4
Barcelona v Celtic
Man United v Lyon
Sevilla v Fenerbahce
Milan v Arsenal
-Wed Mar 5
Porto v Schalke
Real Madrid v Roma
Chelsea v Olympiacos
-Tue Mar 11
Inter v Liverpool
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Goal.com with their Starting XI - Christmas wishes granted.
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Business Day in South Africa with an article on 3 local companies who have already been accused of illegally using the 2010 World Cup to sell their products.
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From the Public Agenda in Ghana: Harnessing Football for Peace and Development
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After one year in charge of Boca Juniors, Miguel Angel Russo has been booted out, with Carlos Bianchi slated to take over. I bet you didn't know that Bianchi was in the original cast of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, playing the role of Riff Raff (thats him on the far right. Or is that Larry David in charge of Boca? Or was it Larry David who starred as Riff Raff?
-Of course there is another rumor that Argentine goal scoring legend Gabriel Batistuta could be the next boss at Boca.
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The Guardian with an article on Lebanon, where despite on going politically motivated violence, the football goes on.