Weekend Club Love, More Ince, Asprilla Porn Star Offer

Friday, Peeps! 

There will be football tomorrow (and today!) played on pitches between clubs. Clubs are associations or organizations dedicated to a particular interest or activity. And we love them here at SSN. Nations? Not so much. As such, we are quite excited about the upcoming program. And what a way to kick things off -- we've got an extremely attractive fixture thanks to the Italians. Napoli are in Rome this afternoon if you can manage to get away from the office or grab a stream and wish to partake in what should be a good one between the current Serie A leaders and the current Serie A second-placers. Check it at 2:45pm EDT on beIN Sport en Español. Or your stream. Elsewhere in Italy, Fiorentina host Juventus on Sunday and Inter go to Turin to face Torino. Here's a preview of all the weekend fun.

Since we're on the Continent, we might as well shuffle west and see what's up in Spain. What's up is all eyes are on Real Madrid because they're already five points adrift of their two biggest rivals: neighbors Atlético and Barcelona. Here's a preview of all the weekend fun.

As is customary, we'll continue our trek west, curve to the north, and check out the weekend menu for the Premier League. Things get going early tomorrow when Newcastle host Liverpool. There could a lot of goals in that one. The Joy of Six looks at the history of the fixture. Other intriguing matches include Aston Villa vs. Tottenham and West Ham vs. Manchester City. Here's the lovely list of links to get you pumped up:

Premier League Preview
Premier League Spotlight
Weekend Watch
10 Things To Look Out For
Lawro's Predictions
Paul Merson's Predictions

Is Asprilla ready to spread his...wings?

We linked to Paul Ince's diatribe yesterday. Today, Barney Ronay takes a welcome stab at the nature of the beast that is profanity.

Manchester United? Richard Jolly takes a close look at the players at the club and who should be worried for their future.

Major League Soccer? The regular season is nearing its conclusion. The first trophy awarded will be the Supporters Shield. Who will win it? And, just because we love you, Reviews & Previews.

Santa Latina want Faustino Asprilla to be a porn star for a week. If anyone would do it, he would. A different kind of scoring? Oh!

Hey! You have fun out there.

-SSN

Deep Breath. Catch Up.

Celebrating in Sarajevo

Holy Moses. So much went down on Tuesday that we couldn't even get out of bed yesterday morning. It was all too much to handle. We felt like these guys who totally lost it when the U.S. gave Mexico a lifeline. Right, so the U.S. won in Panama (quite impressive) which means Mexico can still make the World Cup even though they lost in Costa Rica. Which is rather absurd, actually. Here are more images, videos, and words from all the CONCACAF craziness. And, as is customary, Grant Wahl has Three Thoughts.

Further south, Chile and Ecuador joined Colombia and Argentina on the bus/train/car/flight to Brazil while Uruguay earned the right to clash with Jordan. Yes, Jordan. Sam Kelly reviews the entire CONMEBOL qualifying saga here.

Bosnia are in! They will go to their first-ever World Cup. Dzeko is overjoyed.

England managed to qualify thanks to a win against Poland, but they won't be seeded. Neither will Italy. But Switzerland will. Go figure. Here's the breakdown. Iceland made the playoffs, too! Here's all the UEFA action.

Going to Brazil? The BBC World Service has this helpful post. Find out how much the meal at McDonald's will cost.

Things did not go so well for our old pal Bob Bradley. His Egypt side got walloped by Ghana 6-1. Ouch.

Moving away from the international game for a moment -- Arsene Wenger is doing his best Captain Obvious imitation with the admission that selling RVP caused unrest at the Emirates. Brilliant.

Paul Ince is in the news, too. He said "cunt" 15 times back in September during a nice little tirade.

We should spare a thought for Luis Suarez. He just keeps rocking -- gotta love him!


-SSN

Bob Bradley, World Cup Scenarios, Iceland?, Panama!, Edgar Davids

Thank God, this is the end. Except for playoffs...

Right! Let's jump on in. We're going to begin with our old friend Bob Bradley. Since leaving the the U.S., he's had quite the time in Egypt dealing with minor issues such as a stadium massacre and a revolution. Even the wisest sages at SSN Headquarters could not have predicted the insanity that has been Egypt over the last year or so. The Guardian has The Big Interview with Bob today ahead of his country's clash with Ghana. Not to be outdone, Grant Wahl has a big piece on Bob as well. The match begins soon: 12pm EDT on BeIN Sport.

This is the end of the road to Brazil (almost), so without further ado, we give you
Ten, Five, Six, and Scenarios.

Ten Things To Look Out For

Five Storylines
Six Crunch Qualifiers

Standings and Scenarios

Iceland think they can make their first World Cup. Norway stand in their nor...way. Sachin Nakrani takes a gander.

England host Poland at Wembley (3pm EDT on Fox Sports 1). English people who care about their national team are wigging out. Poland kept us from reaching the 1974 World Cup! That crazy goalkeeper is back! All those Poles who live in London will be at the match! Croatia! Phil McNulty sums it all up quite well.

The United States hope to rock in Panama tonight. There's not much to play for. Chances of the Yanks getting a top seed are slim at best. Here's a preview. View the fun tonight at 9:30pm EDT on BeIN Sport.

Yikes! There is a Football Weekly. How nice. As you might expect, Jimbo and Co. are talking World Cup qualifying. As you might NOT expect, they're talking Edgar Davids. Have a listen. Go on.

Tim Vickery is down in Rio and he's been so kind as to provide us with an update on the World Cup qualifying situation in South America. Apparently, Uruguay are scrambling. Cheers, Tim.

Meanwhile, Major League Soccer might might might switch to a "normal" schedule. Might. Check it out.

That's it. Go watch some internationals while you can. Club football returns this weekend!!

-SSN

Who's Going to Brazil?

Hello Monday!

Brazil 2014. Who's going? So far we've got:

Brazil (Host With The Most), Netherlands, Germany, Argentina, United States of America, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Iran, Colombia, South Korea, Australia.

Tomorrow is another round of qualifying. We'll deal with that...tomorrow. For now, let's take a look back at the shit that that went down over the weekend and Friday.

Mexico busted out a massive sigh of relief Friday night when Raul Jimenez's insane bicycle kick gave them a late win at home against Panama. It kept El Tri in the hunt for a ticket to Brazil. Check it:



Is Mexico better off without its European-based players?

Meanwhile, up north in Kansas City, the U.S. didn't really impress too much but still cruised to a 2-0 win over The Reggae Boys. Local hero and K.C. Wizard (we don't like change) Graham Zusi came on for Donovan at the half and helped the Yank cause quite a bit. As is customary after such events, Grant Wahl has Three Thoughts. And Jeff Carlisle looks into Lando's half-time benching.

Roy Hodgson was another who was massively relieved on Friday night. England won at Wembley and boosted their hopes of a trip to South America. Dominic Fifield was on hand to see Andros Townsend make his mark. Here's a wrap of all the UEFA action.

As noted earlier in this post, Colombia will be in Brazil next summer. How? Falcao! He grabbed a brace in Colombia's draw with Chile. Here's a wrap of all the CONMEBOL action.

Colombians are quite pleased...

Spain have yet to qualify for Brazil. We're certain they will, but Sid Lowe has an interesting piece on the lack of a national stadium for the Spaniards and how that is such a disadvantage when it comes to any sort of home field advantage for qualifiers.

Africa! There are rains. We have blessed them. Nigeria has defeated Ethiopia and Tunisia and Cameroon have drawn. Those were some of the results of the first legs of the playoffs. Other results? Ivory Coast managed to cruise while Algeria managed to lose.

We'll finish back here. Major League Soccer. Still no breakdown, sadly, but there is a wrap. Portland beat Seattle, among other things...

The week is off and running.

-SSN