well first things first, you must realize the US love to push the pace..the 2 forwards in charlie davies and jozy altidore love to run alongside capain donovan for counterattacks...other than that..its alot of long balls and physical tackling..sound familiar?? basically england's play style but one class below as passing may be sloppy at some points of the game. if owen hargreaves is healthy to be called up, capello shouldnt have much to worry about..with his pace and defensive mentality at midfield..he can disrupt donovan all day..

i never thought nations scheduled games prepping for group stage opponents..for korea its hard to say..argentina is too unpredictable to strategize against..which argentina will show up is a big question..form leading up to the game should provide much insight on what to expect..greece has the element of surprise...their cinderella run and beating portugal in euro 2004 says alot about this nation..though squads will be different from 5 years ago..theyve major heart and they show up to play all 90 minutes, not 60 or 45..

nigeria..well, its a throw up..we can base info from japan's earlier clashes with ghana(2-2 D) and south africa(2-1 W), but we play opposite of japan..we dont have that flair like japan does..korea's matches always seem to be a tug-of-wars..which team will outlast the other..any team we schedule to prep will do i think, but i guess a mixture of strong and weaker teams'll do..and ALL on away soil..the more we're comfortable playing away from home..the easier the games should be

Well well MU won against Wolfsburg 3:1 and all the goal created by M Owen, look like he still got the skill.
What a surprised Juventus lost to Bayern Muenchen 1:4 hahaha, i thought Juventus will won the match. Chelsea draw 2:2 huh after lost against Man city.

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/index.html

yea swallowtail..juventus losing did catch me off guard..i mean its possiblt to lose to a strong side in bayern, but not by a 3 goal margin..

important fixtures 9-dec 09

inter milan - rubin kazan
dynamo kyiv - fc barcelona
vfb stuttgart - unirea urziceni

ALL upsets can shake up groups..IF rubin kazan can pull off another david/goliath upset as they previously knocked off barca..they upset inter, make the knockout stages, and put some nervousness in the inter milan executive determining if jose mourinho is fit for the position as manager..
if dynamo kyiv were to win in ukraine tomorrow..puts them on level with barca in points and puts them in a prime position to reach the knockout stages if inter and rubin kazan were to draw..

if urziceni can beat stuttgart, they'll prevent the german giants from pipping their 2nd position in the group and lock their place in the round of 16..all the other matches are clear cut..its just to see how many points 1 and 2 finish with.

Ancelotti rested established stars for challenging premier league matches ahead, with qualification as top of group D assured, Chelsea headed for the last sixteen and the knockout stages with a line up against Apoel Nicosia at Stamford Bridge consisting of Chelsea's shadow squad, which provided an opportunity for 18-year-old Gael Kakuta to start (Kakuta at the centre of the transfer ban briefly imposed on Chelsea earlier this season after his move from Lens), while Joe Cole also started.

This is a mini slump for Chelsea that have gone three games without a win and let in seven goals in the process; our lead in the premiership has been cut to just two points and with five more Premier League games this month alone, this is the time to focus on consistency.

this weekend's fixtures

stoke city - wigan athletic
birmingham - west ham
bolton - manchester city
burnley - fulham
chelsea - everton
hull city - blackburn
sunderland - portsmouth
tottenham - wolverhampton
manchester united - aston villa
liverpool - arsenal

can city keep the streak going after getting 3 points finally?

chelsea's defence may be a bit porous after losing essien for the next month..and are very fortunate to have their good players still there before leaving at the end of december. so i guess acquiring kun aguero and ribery may be necessary hmm?

united seems to have the toughest match..the villians, who are in great form right now want this game to tighten things up; with a decimated opposition in united and possibly the best keeper in the world right now in brad friedel, chances are high..they can steal 3 points so dont be surprised..

liverpool and arsenal is tough to call, but still i think the gooners are favored..despite being at anfield, without van persie, and not in good form right now, liverpool seems to be majorly lacking offence without fernando torres..gooners look to win and stay close to the blues..but if everything goes wrong..look for chelsea to capitalize and further stretch their lead..

and you thought 5 games in one month was bad pips?? (mark this date on next year's calendar: feb 7th and 10th)..think again, arsenal travels to stamford bridge and welcomes liverpool at the emirates in a span of 4 days..thats 6 points well deserving if we can take both matches..

Thanks Kayoko.. looks like you have covered all the bases here and another tough weekends of fixtures for all the top clubs, I have a feeling that the lead is slipping away from Chelsea?s grasp, the failure to produce focus, and consistency key ingredients necessary to win the premiership, all of which still seems to elude them, Man U seem to ghost past opponents, and produce players of the calibre I am refering to Giggs and leave the words to Sir Alex

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8402176.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/sports_personality_of_the_year/8394904.stm

Look at his dinky little shorts

Without doubt Arsenal face a challenge at Anfield, this is a showdown with the possibility of Fernando Torres making his first league start for six weeks, and with all the speculation surrounding the future of Rafael Benitez.

Liverpool?s poor form is costing them the their usual assured place in next years champions league after dropped out of the top six and with Klinsmann criticism ringing in his ears, the same Klinsmann sounded out for the job 2 years ago, interestingly Wenger praised Benitez as one of the leagues super managers, both teams have player s injured, it does not get for serious that this?

Gah i hate last night , MU lost..... give back my 2 hours time for sleep i awake. XD even though Chelsea have a draw match

city just cant seem to win matches anymore..mark hughes is lame to play bellamy. youve that much depth at striker and tevez/bellamy was the best combination to come up with. 3-3 the result against mediocre bolton

chelsea arent consistent anymore for some odd reason. still a strong side in the evertonians, but in that form, chelsea were easily favored. a disappointing result..

but they caught a break as i said, aston villa shock united at old trafford. gabby agbonlahor's lone goal enough to seal the 3 points and continue to push up heading into january.

gerrard said liverpool got a huge morale boost when torres was expected to play his first match in 6 weeks due to multiple calf/groin injuries. he said theyve a big chance to surge late if they can beat the gooners. also theo walcott pleaded arsene wenger to get a rare spot on first team starting xi. theo admired liverpool when he was young and surely would like to play in the city he grew up in.

and read up on world cup news and saw that some former nigerian player gives no credit to korea?? saying like theyve a good chance to reach the knockout stages. says they'll have trouble against argentina, face a tough team in greece but should beat and says this about korea: we're better in terms of size, achievements and in players..no right to say that..does nigeria have any players that played for manchester united? how far has nigeria gotten in the world cup in their country's history?? i didnt think so mr. 'mathematical' ..just shut it. if youre gonna talk crap, say it to all other teams in the group..we'll find out come june...see where all that confidence came from. just because you have john obi mikel and obafemi martins doesnt mean a damn thing.

Val... Giggsie did it ...Congrates

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/sports_personality_of_the_year/8410840.stm

Well Kayoko Andrey Arshavin proved he has the play to break Liverpool?s defence into pieces as a Jubilant Arsene Wenger again insisted his side can take the title.

Well I won?t go into Chelsea?s lack of pace or defence but it does help if they are all facing in the same direction, Carlo Ancelotti says his side's 3 3 draw with Everton is not good enough and adds that they need to improve their defending at set plays well that is an understatement if I had ever heard one, and look at the Men U match, count the numbers of villa players in the 10 yard box at any one time 9 , yes 9 this is football under siege....

The only way Man U was going to score was borrowing Troy?s wooden horse and leaving it in the ten yard area ...really it?s the only way ..

yea if you let him do whatever, arshavin can tear team's back lines up. chelsea's however is more organized, so solely he cant do it. liverpool? nobody exceptional except jamie carragher. glen johnson proved to be the mvp of that game for arsenal. popped in the goal for theo, then offered himself to be burned by arshavin for the winner. so thats a 10 match rating in my book for him..lol

united had ONE!! golden opportunity to score, and im sure you know pips which one im talking about. rooney shot it so hard that brad friedel showed his world class reflexes by putting his hand up to try to block the shot 2 seconds after the ball had hit the bar and bounced away. lol using troy's wooden horse was an understatement if i heard one sister..nobody couldve scored on villa that day.

and chelsea doesnt have to improve on set piece defence. recommended but not required. come on pips, you and me and val know roman abramovich is going to sign players come january so improvement isnt necessary, and we all know abramovich can solve all of chelsea's woes and his solution ideas ALWAYS work. just enjoy chelsea dropping points for now and laugh come january, arsenal are set for a late surge! before facing portsmouth on the 9th on january, the next 4 matches excluding aston villa, consist of clubs ranked 14th and lower on the league table(everton, burnley, and hull city). villa in between these fixtures can shake up momentum heading into january, but if we can take points from villa, we can charge up the table in a heartbeat. so be prepared ms. n, i was kinda down because arsenal was struggling, but with chelsea and united handing the gooners points on a gold platter, we've a great chance.