England: Premier League Weekend Review, Reports & Analyses

The Premier League season that keeps on giving in unpredictability again delivered as Sunderland beat champions Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Arsenal played prior to Chelsea's slump as they travelled to Everton and won 2 - 1. Despite Manchester United drawing at Aston Villa, the result turned out to be a point gained by the Red Devils - although they again left it late. Liverpool's improvement in form was halted as Stoke City ran out 2-0 winners at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday evening. Tottenham Hotspur earned their first win in five attempts as they saw off Blackburn Rovers in a hugely entertaining encounter at White Hart Lane. The pressure continues to build on Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini's shoulders after his side played out a goalless draw against Birmingham City. Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bolton Wanderers played out a cracking match-up at Molineux which the latter won 3-2. West Ham United failed to defeat newly-promoted Blackpool as the game at Upton Park finished goalless, despite there being chances aplenty for both teams. Wigan Athletic edged their meeting with West Bromwich Albion 1-0 to lift the Latics out of the relegation places following a first win achieved in six matches. Lastly, Newcastle United and Fulham played out a third goalless draw of the weekend.

Review

Chelsea 0 - 3 Sunderland
Kevin McCarra at Stamford Bridge

Aston Villa 2 - 2 Manchester United
Kevin Palmer at Villa Park
Paul Wilson at Villa Park

Manchester City 0 - 0 Birmingham
The Insider at Eastlands

Stoke City 2 - 0 Liverpool
Tim Rich at Britannia Stadium

Everton 1 - 2 Arsenal
Andy Hunter at Goodison Park
Richard Jolly at Goodison Park
Phil McNulty at Goodison Park

Tottenham 4 - 2 Blackburn Rovers
David Hytner at White Hart Lane

Spain: La Liga Weekend Review

Real Madrid returned to the top of the La Liga with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Sporting Gijon. Lionel Messi struck twice as Barcelona overcame an unjust offside decision to beat Villarreal 3-1.

Review

Germany: Bundesliga Weekend Review

Borussia Dortmund pulled further clear at the top of the Bundesliga as two second-half goals saw off Hamburg. Bayern Munich climbed above local rivals Nurnberg into sixth in the Bundesliga with a 3-0 victory in the Bavarian derby. Kaiserslautern and Stuttgart remain just outside the relegation zone after the home side came back from a three-goal deficit in the second half to snatch a draw. Wolfsburg and Schalke also shared the spoils with a dramatic 2-2 draw at the VW-Arena. A late goal from Renato Augusto earned Bayer Leverkusen a narrow win at St Pauli to consolidate third place, the Brazilian striking nine minutes from time. In the day's late game, Sergio Pinto's 44th-minute goal was enough to give Hannover a 1-0 win at Mainz, despite the visitors playing the last 22 minutes with 10 men following the dismissal of Steve Cherundolo.

Review

Italy: Serie A Weekend Review

A solitary goal from AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic was enough to beat city rivals Inter Milan 1-0. Lazio had earlier temporarily climbed to the summit after easing to a 2-0 win over Napoli. Juventus and Roma had to settle for a share of the points in a lively 1-1 draw at the Stadio Olimpico. Fiorentina moved up to ninth thanks to a 1-0 win over struggling Cesena.

Review

Major League Soccer: Conference Finals Reports

Los Angeles 0 - 3 Dallas

Jeff Carlisle: Hartman key to Dallas win

Colorado 1 - 0 San Jose

USA Squad For South Africa Friendly Full Of New Faces

GOALKEEPERS: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, England), Dom Cervi (Celtic, Scotland).

DEFENDERS: Nat Borchers (Real Salt Lake), Eric Lichaj (Aston Villa, England), Clarence Goodson (Start, Norway/Brondby, Denmark), Jonathan Spector (West Ham, England), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA/Tigres, Mexico), Tim Ream (New York), Gale Agbossoumonde (Miami/Braga, Portugal).

MIDFIELDERS: Brian Carroll (Columbus), Robbie Rogers (Columbus), Eddie Gaven (Columbus), Mikkel Diskerud (Stabaek, Norway), Alejandro Bedoya (Orebro, Sweden), Logan Pause (Chicago).

FORWARDS: Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Teal Bunbury (Kansas City). Juan Agudelo (New York).

Article

The Fifth Official: Mancini's tactical masterstroke

Few of us like Mondays but The Fifth Official does, for it brings with it a chance for him to point the finger and laugh. Here he pulls out the pretty, the puzzling and the downright pig-ugly from the past week in football.

Spain: Eduardo Alvarez's Quiniela

The weeks leading to the hugely anticipated first Clasico of the season have brought us distressing news: the match will be played on the night of November 29: a Monday. The previous Sunday, Catalans are due to vote in the elections to their Parliament (Catalonia's legislative body), and La Liga's governing entity believes that playing the match on that same Sunday would generate 'security issues'.

What a way to spoil El Clasico! Probably the most interesting part of the build-up to such an event lies on the preceding hours, when you spend a whole Saturday or Sunday afternoon watching footage from old games and interviews with former players, arguing endlessly with friends about what may or may not happen, awaiting impatiently for the line-ups to be announced...

Similar to other experiences, preliminaries indeed enhance the final climax. On the bright side, we can blame politics for one more thing now.

Let's start. As usual, it's '1' for a home win, 'X' for a draw and '2' for an away win.

The Joy of Six: TV Football Pundits

From Eamon Dunphy to Brian Clough, via Danny Blanchflower and Jimmy Hill, here are half a dozen broadcasting gems.

Sam Kelly in Argentina

After the will-he, won't-he saga surrounding his contract negotiations, after the repeated demonstrations, in nearly every match, of how much his team are missing him, and after a long injury layoff, Juan Roman Riquelme returned for Boca Juniors on Saturday. Perhaps fittingly, he did so against his first club, Argentinos Juniors - who also happen to be the club that current Boca manager Claudio Borghi took to the title back in May.

England: Premier League Weekend Previews & Predictions

Manchester United's travel to Aston Villa, Manchester City welcome Birmingham to Eastlands, Blackburn make the trip to Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool are away at Stoke City, Everton lock horns with Arsenal and Chelsea meet Sunderland. West Ham United boss Avram Grant will come under extreme pressure if his side do not see off Blackpool at Upton Park. Newcastle host Fulham, Wolves welcome Bolton, and Wigan and West Brom clash.

Preview

Team News

Aston Villa vs. Manchester United:
Paul Merson's Preview
Aston Villa vs. Manchester United:
Robin Hackett's Preview

Stoke City vs. Liverpool: Jon Carter's Preview

Lawro's Predictions

Germany: Bundesliga Weekend Preview + Table

Two important local derbies take centre stage with Bayern Munich hosting Nurnberg and Cologne playing Borussia Monchengladbach. Bayern are already 12 points behind league leaders Borussia Dortmund and that gap will increase if the Westphalians win their home game with Hamburg tomorrow night. Anxiety is also affecting Wolfsburg and Schalke, who have failed to live up to expectations so far this season and will both be aiming for three points when they meet at the VW-Arena. Bayer Leverkusen can climb into second if they can win at St Pauli, while Hoffenheim and Freiburg could both have a place in the top three up for grabs when they meet on Sunday.

Preview

CLUB	P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
Borussia Dortmund	11	9	1	1	20	28
Mainz	11	8	0	3	8	24
Bayer Leverkusen	11	6	3	2	6	21
Eintracht Frankfurt	11	6	1	4	9	19
TSG Hoffenheim	11	5	3	3	7	18
Hamburg SV	11	5	3	3	2	18
Nurnberg	11	5	3	3	2	18
SC Freiburg	11	6	0	5	-1	18
Bayern Munich	11	4	4	3	2	16
Hannover 96	11	5	1	5	-7	16
Werder Bremen	11	4	2	5	-8	14
VfL Wolfsburg	11	4	1	6	-1	13
St Pauli	11	4	1	6	-6	13
VfB Stuttgart	11	3	1	7	3	10
Kaiserslautern	11	3	1	7	-7	10
Schalke 04	11	2	3	6	-4	9
FC Cologne	11	2	2	7	-9	8
Borussia Monchengladbach	11	1	4	6	-16	7

Spain: La Liga Weekend Previews + Table

Villarreal will be out to prove the fight for the title is not just another two-horse race this season when they take on Barcelona. Pacesetters Madrid will be following that match with interest as a draw would give Jose Mourinho`s men the chance to stretch their lead at the summit to three points on Sunday when they go to Sporting Gijon. Stuttering Valencia will hope to get back on track when they host Getafe at the Mestalla.

Preview
Guillem Balague's Previews

CLUB	P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
Real Madrid	10	8	2	0	22	26
Barcelona	10	8	1	1	15	25
Villarreal	10	7	2	1	13	23
Espanyol	10	6	0	4	-4	18
Valencia	10	5	2	3	3	17
Sevilla FC	10	5	2	3	0	17
Real Sociedad	10	5	1	4	1	16
Atlético Madrid	10	4	2	4	1	14
Mallorca	10	4	2	4	-1	14
Athletic Bilbao	10	4	1	5	0	13
Getafe	10	4	1	5	-1	13
Osasuna	10	3	3	4	1	12
Sporting Gijon	10	2	4	4	-6	10
Racing Santander	10	3	1	6	-7	10
Deportivo La Coruña	10	2	4	4	-7	10
Almeria	10	1	6	3	-1	9
Hercules	10	2	3	5	-6	9
Levante	10	2	2	6	-8	8
Real Zaragoza	10	1	4	5	-7	7
Málaga	10	2	1	7	-8	7

Italy: Serie A Weekend Preview + Table

A massive weekend in Italy with the Milan Derby heading the fixture list. Elsewhere, Roma travel to Juventus and Lazio face Napoli. Cesena travel to Tuscany to face Fiorentina inspired by their midweek 1-0 triumph over Lazio.

Preview

CLUB	P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
AC Milan	11	7	2	2	9	23
Lazio	11	7	1	3	4	22
Napoli	11	6	3	2	7	21
Internazionale	11	5	5	1	7	20
Juventus	11	5	4	2	10	19
AS Roma	11	5	3	3	0	18
Sampdoria	11	3	6	2	2	15
Chievo Verona	11	4	3	4	1	15
Palermo	11	4	2	5	1	14
Catania	11	3	5	3	1	14
Genoa	11	4	2	5	-2	14
Udinese	11	4	2	5	-3	14
Fiorentina	11	3	3	5	-1	12
Lecce	11	3	3	5	-10	12
Cagliari	11	2	5	4	1	11
Parma	11	2	5	4	-3	11
Brescia	11	3	2	6	-4	11
Bologna	11	2	5	4	-5	11
Cesena	11	3	2	6	-6	11
Bari	11	2	3	6	-9	9

Major League Soccer Cup Semifinals Preview

With the chase for MLS Cup down to four contenders, it's time for a capsule look at each conference final. Due to the wacky bracket set-up, which will hopefully be gone next season, all of the Major League Soccer survivors hail from the West.

Colorado Rapids v San Jose Earthquakes
Saturday 9:30 pm ET - Fox Soccer Channel

Los Angeles Galaxy v FC Dallas
Sunday 9:00 pm ET - ESPN2

Sid Lowe: Copa del Rey losing significance

The phone lines opened at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. At the same time, ATMs all over Spain were activated. Tickets were on sale for Atlético Madrid's Copa del Rey match against Universidad de Las Palmas at the Vicente Calderón -- the ground where the fans are proud of their loyalty and where season-ticket sales actually increased in the summer in which Atlético was relegated. When the lines closed that evening, 12 long hours later, 24 tickets had been sold.

Yes, 24.

Andy Carroll's capers are small beer compared to champagne George Best

At the height of his notoriety, George Best once had similar restriction placed upon him.

He was due to give evidence in court on behalf of his Manchester United colleague Paddy Crerand, who was up on an assault charge after stepping in to a nightclub fracas to protect Best's diminishing honour.

Crerand had hired the prominent QC George Carman to defend him, and the silk, fearful of Best's growing reputation for unreliability, insisted his star witness spend the night at his place, to ensure his prompt attendance in court the next morning. A sound plan, you might think. Except Carman had an approach to alcohol even more unhealthy than his houseguest and the two spent the evening ahead of their date in court in a vigorous attempt to drain Manchester club land of booze. On their return to the late lawyer's house, Carman passed out on the sofa.

Germany and Bayern star Mario Gomez urges gay footballers to go public

The Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez has broken ranks with the football establishment, including members of his own team and the German football federation, who have warned that coming out could destroy a player's career.

But Gomez, who has not said whether he is gay, told a German magazine that being honest about their sexuality would improve gay players' performance.

"They would play as if they had been liberated," Gomez said. "Being gay should no longer be a taboo topic."

Ruthless Chelsea sack Ray Wilkins as Carlo Ancelotti seeks fresh ideas

Ray Wilkins has been left devastated by his surprise dismissal with immediate effect from the post of assistant coach at Chelsea.

The 54-year-old knew nothing about his sacking before being called to meet with Ron Gourlay, the chief executive, while watching Chelsea's reserves play a training-ground friendly against Bayern Munich at lunchtime today.

Dominic Raynor: Off The Ball

Off The Ball never rests in its mission to scratch around the underbelly of professional football to find the most bizarre, humorous and inexplicable stories.

This week, Gazza targets a role in the remake of Escape to Victory, Napoli striker Edinson Cavani has a pizza named after him, an invasive examination reveals players' potential, Carlos Tevez gives Rio Ferdinand a helping hand and the quickest own goal from a sub was scored.