I'm Gonna Hafta Get Back To You On That News

[Use Howard Cossell voice] Down goes Houston! Down goes Houston![End voice] I am stunned. For me it was Houston taking their third in a row. Now what happens??

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Houston coach Dominic Kinnear after the loss: "I feel sick to my stomach."

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Chicago, Columbus, Salt Lake & New York make up a fairly unlikely semifinal foursome. Chicago is the only team you might have picked before this season started. But the other 3? Wow!

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Samuel Eto'o scored 4 in the first half(!) as Barca clobbered Valladolid 6-0 at home on Saturday! And to think, there was talk of the club selling him this past summer.

~and~

A new website has popped up - FCB Miami.


MLS Scoreboard

Playoffs
Quarterfinals - 2nd Leg Matches & Scores (1st leg score included):
-Thu Nov 6
Chicago 3-0 New England - Chicago advances 3-0 on aggregate - CF goals by Chris Rolfe, Wilman Conde & Gonzalo Segares.
Attendance: 17,312
Venue: Toyota Park, Bridgeview IL
-Sat Nov 8
Columbus 2-0 Kansas City (1-1) - Columbus advances 3-1 on aggregate - CC goals by Brad Evans & Robbie Rogers.
Attendance: 11,153
Venue: Crew Stadium, Columbus OH
Match report by Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch.
Match report from the Kansas City Star.
Post game analysis by Michael Arace of the Columbus Dispatch.
Post game notes from the Dispatch.
Post game notes by Mitchell on his blog Covering the Crew.
Post game notes & quotes from the KCW official team blog.
Chivas 2-2 Salt Lake (0-1) - Salt Lake advances 3-2 on aggregate - CUSA goals by Sacha Kljestan(PK) & Justin Braun. RSL goals by Dema Kovalenko & Javier Morales.
Attendance: 19,265
Venue: Home Depot Center, Carson CA
Match report by Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise.
Match report by Phil Collin of the LA Daily News.
Match report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
Match report by Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Match report by James Edward of the Deseret News.
Post game notes from MC Lewis.
Post game notes by Edward.
Player grades for RSL by Edward on the Deseret News RSL blog.
Post game audio of Jesse Marsch - and - Preki - and - Jason Kries from Bueno on his blog The Touchline.
-Sun Nov 9
Houston 0-3 New York (1-1) - New York advances 4-1 on aggregate - NYRB goals by Dane Richards, Juan Pablo Angel(PK) & John Wolyniec.
Attendance: 30,053
Venue: Robertson Stadium, Houston TX
Match report by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.
Match report by Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer.
Match report by Michael Lewis (same guy) for the NY Daily News.
Match report from the Newark Star Ledger.
Match report by Stefan Bondy of the Herald News.
Post game notes by Fallas.
Players grades for Houston by Fallas on his blog Soccer y Futbol.
Post game notes, mostly Dane Richards raves, by Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle on his blog The Soccer Hour.
Post game analysis from Metrofanatic.
Post game analysis by Brian Lewis of the NY Post on his blog Extra Time.
Post game analysis from the New York Times blog Goal.
Post game analysis by M Lewis.
Post game analysis by Ives Galarcep of Soccer by Ives.
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EJECTIONS:
Chris Albright - New England - two Yellow Cards
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Soccer America hands out grades to players in all 4 quarterfinal series.
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Columbus was the team that choked on attendance in this round of the playoffs. That number is just plain sad. The other 3 drew great numbers, for an average of 19,446, nearly double last weeks attendance. New England still get the F for drawing less than 6000 to their home game.
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Semifinals Matches & Scores:
-Thu Nov 13
Columbus Crew v Chicago Fire - 6:30pm central on ESPN2
Venue: Crew Stadium, Columbus OH
-Sat Nov 15
Real Salt Lake v New York Red Bulls - 8:30pm central on FSC.
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy UT
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Luis Bueno on his blog The Touchline already looks ahead to the semifinals.
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Greg Lalas of Sports Illustrated writes about these four semifinalists.
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MLS News

CD CHIVAS USA

Grahame Jones of the LA Times talks to Jesse Marsch about getting knocked out of the playoffs (on his birthday no less). Just brutal for him.
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Luis Bueno on his blog The Touchline takes a look at the now ended season of CUSA.
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COLUMBUS CREW

Michael Arace of the Dispatch feels that the quality of the Crew this season has earned them a bigger crowd than they currently draw. I agree.
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DC UNITED

The co-owners of DCU, Victor MacFarlane & Will Chang, have written an open letter to the teams fans, telling them what they thought of the season past, and what they expect to see next season. From the teams official blog.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO

Ives Galarcep of Soccer by Ives asks many questions about the future of this current version of the Dynamo.
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Jerome Soloman of the Chronicle salutes Dynamo fans, even in defeat.
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KANSAS CITY WIZARDS

I was bemused when a guy came on as a sub for KC that I had never even heard of - Michael Kraus. Does this mean they had no one else who could have played in such an important playoff game?
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LOS ANGELES GALAXY

Bob Hunter of the Columbus Dispatch alludes to Paul Caligiuri leaving Cal Poly to work for the Galaxy. (scroll down, you'll find it.) If this is true then I think it signals that the Las Vegas investors will NOT be moving the Columbus Crew, because Caligiuri was their spokesperson for Vegas.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

Juan Pablo Angel has 14 goals in the last 17 games!
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What in the name of all that is unholy was that dance that John Wolyniec did after he scored the Bulls 3rd goal Sunday. I was terrified. See it here. (But honestly, to hell with the dance, how about the run by Richards!!!!!!)
-Word from the teams official blog is that JW is reenacting a scene from the Thriller video. The Michael Jackson connection makes it even more terrifying.
-Lewis of Big Apple reports that Woly had not scored a goal in 897 minutes stretched out over 21 games.
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Jack Bell of the New York Times on the season of Dane Richards and his insane performance on Sunday.
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Michael Lewis of the Big Apple Soccer on the amazing performances of goalkeeper Danny Cepero and midfielder Dane Richards.
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Dylan Butler of Soccer by Ives raves about Richards too.
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REAL SALT LAKE

Left fullback Ian Joy didn't play in LA on Saturday night due to a hamstring strain that had been bothering him for several days before.
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The Tribune looks at the effort of the defense in winning at Chivas.
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The Deseret News on the timing of Dema Kovalenko's goal.
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TORONTO FC

Morgan Campbell of the Star on TFC's decision to DP or not DP.
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GENERAL

New York midfielder Dane Richards has been named Player of the Week.
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Steve Davis of Soccernet with 10 things to note from the 2nd week of playoffs.
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Jen Chang of Soccernet with some really good notes from the weekend and beyond.
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Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram talks to Clark Hunt about the financial stability of MLS.
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Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com with a breakdown of the second week of playoffs. Much better than week 1 he says.
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MLS Stadium Talk

I have read in 2 different places now that KC wants their new stadium to be "Green". But both articles really said no more than that. I would like to know some details on what exactly that means. I lived through the 70's when "ecology" was the buzz word, but it never went anywhere, so excuse me if I am skeptical every time someone drops the "green" bomb.
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MLS Expansion News

ESPN Soccernet with an article on Barcelona's bid for a new team in Miami. The bid is serious, and should be taken serious by the league. I have asked this before - how does MLS turn done Barcelona? Even if Miami is less than desirable. One very important thing to note: Barcelona would like their team to start playing in 2010, not 2011.
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Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald has an article on the man really behind the Barca bid - Marcelo Claure.
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Team USA

Soccer 365 has a report from the IK Start website quoting defender Clarence Goodson saying he has been called into the USA camp for the Nov 19 match v Guatemala in Denver.
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Goal.com: In Defense of Bob Bradley. As far as I am concerned the guy needs no defending.
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USA U20 News

This week the team goes to Spain for 3 friendlies.
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Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 19
Real Madrid U20 v USA U20
-Thu Nov 20
Atletico Madrid U20 v USA U20
-Sat Nov 22
Rayo Vallecano U20 v USA U20
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Here is the roster:
G:
Bill Hamid - DC United Academy
Josh Lambo - FC Dallas
D:
Gale Agbossoumonde - IMG Academy
Anthony Arena - Crossfire Premier
Kyle Davies - Southampton
Zarek Valentin - PA Classics
Anthony Wallace - FC Dallas
M:
Bryan Arguez - Hertha Berlin
Jorge Flores - Chivas USA
Gregory Garza - Sporting Lisbon
Josh Hernandez - FC Dallas Juniors
Jared Jeffrey - Club Brugge
Alfredo Morales - Hertha Berlin
Giuseppe Nazzani - Bologna
F:
Vincenzo Bernardo - Napoli
Tristan Bowen - Los Angeles Galaxy
Abdusalam Ibrahim - Toronto FC
Jose Torres - Loros de Colina
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USA U17 News

The team was in France for 3 friendlies, winning 2 and losing 1. The loss was to the France U17 national team (which was the game that mattered the most), while the wins were over club teams.
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Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 5
Bretigny U18 0-2 USA U17 - USA goals by John Agudelo & Dustin Corea.
Match report from US Soccer.
-Thu Nov 6
France U17 2-0 USA U17 - Fran goals by Benjamin Jeannot & Christopher Missilou.
Match report from US Soccer.
-Sat Nov 8
Paris St Germaine U18 0-5 USA U17 - USA goals by Soony Saad, Stefan Jerome(2), Juan Agudelo & Jack McInerney.
Match report from US Soccer.
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Soccer In America

The New York Daily News with a flashback article on New York Cosmos defender Andranik Eskandarian. He is the father of Chivas USA forward Alecko Eskandarian.
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Americans In Europe

Jay DeMerit is the only American left in the English League Cup tournament. They play at Swansea on Wednesday. This is the same team they just lost to 3-1 on the road Saturday in regular league play.
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Greg Seltzer at Soccer 365 with a great article on goalkeeper Luis Robles, who due to injury, is suddenly the #1 at Kaiserslautern in the Germany 2nd division. And he is playing very well.
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Goal.com talks to a fellow Monaco player who thinks Freddy Adu has what it takes to be a very good player. Soon.
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UPCOMING MATCHES

Danish SAS Ligaen
-Dan Califf - Midjtylland - host Vejle on Monday.
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French Ligue 2
-Quentin Westberg - Troyes - host Boulogne on Monday.
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English League Cup
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - at Swansea on Wednesday.
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MOST RECENT MATCHES
(only players who saw the field are listed)

Norway - League Cup Final
-Troy Perkins - Valerenga - went the distance and beat Stabaeck 4-1 to win the Cup!!
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French Ligue 1
-Carlos Bocanegra - Rennes - played the full match as they won 0-3 at St Etienne, and moved up into 4th place! St Etienne fired their coach after this loss.
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German Bundesliga 1
-Michael Bradley - Monchengladbach - started and went the distance as they won 0-2 at Arminia Bielefeld, which got them out of the relegation zone.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - went the full 90, got himself booked, and lost 2-1 at Koln.
-Neven Subotic - Borussia Dortmund - played the full match but lost 2-1 at Hamburger.
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German Bundesliga 2
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - went the distance but lost 0-1 at home to Oberhausen.
-Luis Robles - Kaiserslautern - played all 90 but lost 4-2 at Wehen Wiesbaden.
-Matt Taylor - Koblenz - came on as a sub at half time, but they lost to Alemania Aachen 2-0.
-David Yelldell - Koblenz - played all 90 in goal by lost at Alemania Aachen 2-0.
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Dutch Erstedivisie
-Charles Kazlauskas - TOP Oss - played the entire match but lost at home 0-2 to the oddly named Go Ahead Eagles.
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Belgian Jupiler League
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - played the full match and they won 1-3 at Germinal Beerschot.
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Austrian Bundesliga
-Preston Zimmerman - Kapfenberg - came on as a sub in the 53rd minute abut they lost at Sturm Graz 2-0.
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English Premier League
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - came on as a sub in the 64th minute and they won 2-1 at home over Newcastle. They are now up to #10.
-Brad Friedel - Aston Villa - played all 90 as usual but lost 1-2 at home to Middlesbrough. Don't blame the keeper though, his defenders made 2 HUGE mistakes to allow both goals.
-Tim Howard - Everton - went the distance in a 1-3 win at West Ham.
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English Championship Division
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - played all 90 but lost 3-1 at Swansea.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - went all 90 as usual and they won 3-0 at home over Derby County. They are 1 point out of 2nd place.
-Eddie Johnson - Cardiff - started and went 72 minutes but lost 1-0 at Queens Park Rangers.
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English League One
-Jemal Johnson - MK Dons - played the entire match and got his teams only goal, but lost 1-2 at home to Bradford in the First Round of the FA Cup.
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Danish SAS Ligaen
-Jeremiah White - Aarhus - started, got a Yellow Card and was subbed off in the 62nd minute of a 1-1 draw at Horsens.
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Swedish Allsvenskan
-Colin Burns - Ljungskile - played all 90 but lost 3-0 at Orebro.
-Charlie Davies - Hammarby - went the distance scoring 2 in the first 5 minutes, then watched the defense surrender everything and they lost 5-2 at Norrkoping the last place team.
-Etchu Tabe - Ljungskile - played all 90 but lost 3-0 at Orebro.
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Americans In Mexico

Luis Bueno on his blog The Touchline tells us all about the performances of our boys playing in Mexico this weekend.
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CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying News

FIFA.com has a Q & A with new Jamaica boss John Barnes.
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Canada & CSA News

Ben Knight of the Toronto Globe & Mail is really on roll trying to find answers to reform the CSA. Two new posts:
Lessons from lacrosse
Putting a wheel in the driver's seat
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South American News

5 teams still have a shot at the Brasileiro with only 4 games left to play.
-Standings & last 4 opponents:
65 Sao Paulo (v Figueirense, at Vasco da Gama, v Fluminense, at Goias)
63 Gremio (v Coritiba, at Vitoria, at Ipatinga, v Atletico MG)
61 Cruzeiro (at Nautico, v Flamengo, at Internacional, v Portuguesa de Desportos)
61 Palmeiras (at Flamengo, v Ipatinga, at Vitoria, v Botafogo)
60 Flamengo (v Palmeiras, at Cruzeiro, v Goias, at Atletico Paranaense)
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Copa Sudamericana

Semifinals
1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 12
Guadalajara v International
-Thu Nov 13
Argentinos Juniors v Estudiantes
2nd Leg Matches & Scores (with 1st Leg scores included):
-Wed Nov 19
International v Guadalajara
-Thu Nov 20
Estudiantes v Argentinos Juniors
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England News

Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports reports that 3 Americans are in the bidding to buy Newcastle - Phil Anschutz, Mark Cuban & The Hunt Family.
-Paul Allen's named has been read in print too. So all this rumor sent me off in search of more on these four. Here is what I found:
Newcastle Sunday Sun on Hunt.
The Telegraph on Anschutz.
The Shields Gazette on Anschutz and Hunt.
Sky Sports links Anschutz bid to former Newcastle star player Alan Shearer.
Fans FC says Anschutz and Hunt are the only ones in chase.
-The company handling the sale of the team has stated We have two very serious contenders".
-And there is really nothing out there about Allen & Cuban except the name drops in some of the previous articles.
-So I think it could be Anschutz & Hunt. Amazing. Or someone completely different. Not surprising.
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The First Round of the FA Cup took places this past weekend with lower division teams facing off. Here are the results.
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The League Cup Round of 16 matches take place this week on Tue & Wed. Here are those matches.
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The Times with an article on the scourge of gambling that could be manipulating the outcome of games.
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Andrew Rogers of Soccer 365 has a Q & A with Fulham boss Roy Hodgson.
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John Ashdown of the Guardian with a round up from the Football League divisions.
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European News

FRANCE

Coupe de la Ligue Round of 16 matches happen this week. Here are the matches. (This is the lesser of the 2 cups in France)
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GERMANY

Some semblance of boring normalcy is returning to the Bundesliga with Leverkusen getting a draw to go to #1, Hoffenheim losing to drop to #2 but tied on points, and Bayern winning to climb to #1 just one point off the top. Hamburg, Hertha & Schalke claim the next 3 spots.
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ITALY

Paolo Bandini of the Guardian tells us about week 1 in Bologna for new coach Sinisa Mihajlovic (a right wing guy in a left wing city), and the rest of Serie A.
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Alberto Cerruti of the Gazzetta rates this weeks Serie A performances. Lazio gets the high mark, and Palermo the low. League leaders Inter rated #6.
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Football Italia with all the goodies from Round 11 in Serie A.
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The Times looks at Lou Gehrig's disease hitting dozens of Italian football players. What is going on? (thanks to Joe for this one)
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Coppa Italia Round of 16 matches start this week. Here are those matches. (The last match of this round will not be played until Jan 14 though.)
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NETHERLANDS

Leeander Schaerlaeckens of the Guardian with a review of the Eredivisie, and Steve McLaren's Twente.
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Ajax's great striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar has torn ankle ligaments and could be out until the 1st of next year.
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SPAIN

Sid Lowe of the Guardian on La Liga - from the brilliant Barca & Real Madrid to the heinous Osasuna.
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Copa Del Rey 4th Round, 2nd leg, matches take places this week. Here are those matches, with 1st leg scores included.
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Big Club Matches Around The World This Mid-Week

England Premier League
-Sat Nov 8
Arsenal 2-1 Manchester United - the biggest rivalry in England over the past decade, goes to the Arse, with Man U falling further off the leading pace.
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Turkey Super Lig
-Sun Nov 9
Fenerbahce 4-1 Galatasaray - the hosts destroy their visitors in what is traditionally one of the craziest derby’s in the world! Neither is challenging to the league title right now.
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Italy Serie A
-Sun Nov 9
Inter Milan 1-0 Udinese - with the win Inter moves#3 to #1 and Udi drop #2 to #5.
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Russia Premier
-Sun Nov 9
Spartak Moscow 0-1 Lokomotiv Moscow - yet another weekend with a Moscow derby.
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Greece Super League
-Sun Nov 9
Panathinaikos 0-0 Olympiacos - the old rivals squared off, with each getting a point, which is enough to keep Oly at the top of the table.
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Brazil Brasileiro
-Sun Nov 9
Palmeiras 0-1 Gremio - the win moves Grem up from #3 to #2, and drops Palm from #2 to #4.
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German Bundesliga
-Sun Nov 9
Schalke 1-2 Bayern Munich - with the win Bayern move up from #4 to #3, and Schalke drop from #3 to #6. Hoffenheim and Leverkusen.
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Top European League Leaders

Villarreal is the only team in the major European leagues to have not lost a game yet.
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Bundesliga - 12 of 34 rounds played
25 Bayer Leverkusen
25 Hoffenheim
24 Bayern Munich
23 Hamburger
21 Hertha Berlin
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Premiership - 12 of 38 rounds played
29 Chelsea
29 Liverpool
23 Arsenal
21 Manchester United (only 11 played)
20 Aston Villa (only 11 played)
20 Hull City
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Ligue 1 - 13 of 38 rounds played
30 Lyon
26 Marseille
24 Bordeaux
22 Rennes
22 Nice
22 Toulouse
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Serie A - 11 of 38 rounds played
24 Inter Milan
23 AC Milan
23 Napoli
22 Lazio
21 Udinese
21 Juventus
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La Liga - 10 of 38 rounds played
25 Barcelona
24 Villarreal
23 Valencia
23 Real Madrid
20 Sevilla
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World News

Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports with notes from around the world. (Scroll down past opening "article".)