“African countries are looking to profit from another change to the FIFA statutes which has further eased restrictions on players seeking to switch footballing nationality. The age limit at which players had to make a choice has been removed, letting a handful of players claim a new international career.” (WorldSoccer)

“As the Argentina squad drove sadly away from the stadium in Rosario on Saturday night there were no protests from the supporters who were still milling around. Despite the 3-1 defeat by Brazil there was applause and shouts of encouragement. So much for the team bus, but what about the coach? Argentina’s struggle to qualify for next year’s World Cup will inevitably be personalised. It is not just Argentina who are stumbling, it is ‘Diego Maradona’s Argentina’. How much responsibility should the little man bear for his team’s current plight?” (BBC – Tim Vlickery)

“Not everyone has great ideas all the time. That is simply too much to ask. For his genius in science, art, and engineering, DaVinci was a chronic procrastinator. The Spaniards likelwise slept a siesta of a first half – but finally awoke to banish Belguim with inventive buid-up play. Cuidado – la furia roja is back!” (futfanatico)

 
“You might expect to react with amazement at the jaw-dropping hubris of FIFA and UEFA, to laugh at their petty politics or to wonder at the creative geography of their World Cup groupings. So the realisation that statements and actions by both organisations might actually make sense is a strange feeling.” (WSC)

“Albion’s new head coach is a man on a mission, a man of ambition, a man in a hurry. Right man, right time, right place. Timing is all, in football as it is in life. The right job becoming available for the right applicant at the right moment, that takes the precision timing of an expensive wristwatch, every element of the movement synchronised, all falling into place. The world’s finest timepieces come from Switzerland, a nation of peace, tranquillity, a nation of peace, democracy, without conflict for half a millennium.” (First touch online)

“No lie, right now I feel like one of those monkey’s chained to Mr. Burns’typewriter tasked to write the greatest novel ever written. My mind is going a mile a minute following the U.S. National Team’s heart-attack-inducing 2-1 win over El Salvador Saturday night in CONCACAF 2010 qualifying in Sandy, Utah.” (That’s on point)