England play the Czech Republic today in their last ‘friendly’ before the World Cup 2010 qualifiers begin.

The time for experimentation is over and the team you’ll see lining up for England tonight will in all likelihood be 80-90 percent the same as the one set to line up against Andorra and Croatia in September (see all England qualifying fixtures here).

You know the players - if you were Fabio Capello, who would you pick as the right-sided midfielder for England tonight: David Beckham or David Bentley?

Tell us who and why in the comments.

Sepp Blatter was happy to call Ronaldo a ‘modern-day slave’ when asked about Manchester United’s refusal to let the player follow his ‘dream’ to play for Real Madrid.

Now that Real have done the same for Robinho and ‘killed’ his ‘dream’ to move to Chelsea (to Ronaldo’s credit he took it like a man and best of all his agent kept out of it - not so with Robinho’s agent, who’s been doing the talking on Robinho’s behalf), does Sepp Blatter, an honorary Real Madrid member, recipient of the club’s gold and diamond award, one who calls Real Madrid ‘more than just a club’ (hat tip to Tim Stannard), now think that Robinho is a modern-day slave?

Are Real Madrid slavers, Mr Blatter?

Bruce Arena is a tired retread who ran out of ideas ages ago.

Bruce Arena is just the tonic the LA Galaxy needs to salvage its disastrous two and a half year run, during which it has managed to miss the play-offs in each year.

Or both, depending upon whom you ask.

Tim Leiweke, the President and the CEO of the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) surely hopes it’s the latter.

He has to. He must.

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Just like a sheet of paper from a page-a-day-calendar, Argentina ripped Brazil out of the stack, crunched it up, made a little paper ball, did a few juggles and then backheeled it into the trash. Everyone was anticipating this game as the final-before-the final in these 2008 Beijing Football Olympics, and boy did we not get disappointed.

Three goals to nil are a fierce but realistic goal difference, and the two red cards earned by the Auriverde (frustrated by an immense Javier Mascherano) will provide historical evidence this was indeed a severe beating inflicted on their rivals by Argentina. At the very least, a sweet sweet revenge from last year’s Copa America final, lost 3-0 in Maracaibo. Something tells us that in the next few hours, Dunga’s tenure as head of the Brazilian national team (already under severe criticism for poor performances in the World Cup qualifiers) will be severely at risk.

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As a child, the summer holidays brought about a family trip to a campsite in Europe. We’d get in the car to travel down to Dover and I would always be wearing my United shirt. After hours and hours of driving, we’d pull in at our designated tin can and the holiday had begun.

It wouldn’t be long before I started mixing with other kids, mainly English, who I’d bump in to at the pool or the kids club. These times were my first insights to what a hugely popular and unpopular club Manchester United were.

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And so, after a year-long absence from a soccer stadium (the last live match I watched was Chile vs. Nigeria, FIFA U-20 World Cup Quarter-Finals, and only because the tournament took place in Canada), I courageously donned my “soccer fanatic” shirt and went to see Paris Saint Germain vs. Bordeaux Saturday, Day 2 of the French Ligue 1 2008-09 season.

Actually I lied: I was wearing a Montreal Canadians t-shirt which, amidst the dozens of PSG fans, invariably (and appropriately) tagged me as a “fish out of water.” Little did they know that beneath the shirt, a brilliant analytical soccer mind was there to scrutinize, analyse, and report to you on the state of Ligue 1 football….

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