Here are the final fixtures for the teams in the CCC for the pre-season. Sheffield United 14 July Ferecvaros (A, Hungary) 16 July KRC Genk (A, Belgium) 19 July Helmond Sport (A, Holland) 26 July Scunthorpe United (A) 29 July Bury (A) 2 August Huddersfield Town (A) Sheffield Wednesday 15 July HFC Harrlem (A) 17 […]

Who's Going To Be In The Euro 2008 Final? ( polls)

Chelsea has confirmed that their new away shirt for the 2008/2009 season will be all black. Designed by Adidas and sponsored by Samsung, the new shirt design is a welcome change from Chelsea's away shirt that it wore last season, which was a yellow day-glo color. The new shirt may be partially inspired by the […]

A photograph of Hull City's away shirt for the 2008/2009 season has been revealed. The color is flint — a very dark grey. Manufactured by Umbro, the shirt features an amber and black trim and is sponsored by Kingston Communications. Fair play to Hull, this is one of the most aesthetically pleasing shirts among the […]

In international tournaments such as Euro 2008, tactical formations are overrated. Just because a team that plays a 4-3-2-1 formation beats a country playing 4-4-2, that doesn't mean that a Christmas Tree lineup is better. At the end of the day, so much of football comes down to chance.When you think about the 16 teams […]

Flattering headline you ask-What else would you expect? The reality of today’s match versus Barbados is complicated but before complaints about the performance get out of hand I want to state something very openly on the record: I have said for sometime that I felt the US program was slipping fairly quickly and that simply […]

It was supposed to be a classic. Two of the top teams in Europe, Italy and Spain, with some of the best footballers in the world on display. But what we saw was a dire game featuring two teams more focused on avoiding defeat than trying to win. Other than the Romania against France game, […]

Costa Rica used the home field advantage of their infamous plastic pitch to dispatch a pesky Grenada side 3-0. The Chicago Fire’s Gonzalo Segaras went ninety minutes picking up a yellow card for the Ticos while Shalrie Jospeh as usual gave a workmanlike performance for his nation, Grenada. Guatemala struggled with St Lucia but prevailed […]

—————-Guzan———— Moor–DeMerit–Califf—Pearce Kljestan-Bradley-Szetela-Lewis (c) ———Adu———Beasley—– Eddie Lewis captains the team. Danny Szetela gets his first start for the National Team. Thoughts? Feel free to discuss the match in the comments section here or in our live game chat at the Third Half.

And so the last of the quarter finals is upon us and of course this is the one with most needle involved. To say that there is a little bit of animosity between these two sides would be an understatement and it is 88 years since Spain beat Italy in a competitive fixture, way back in the […]

As was discussed here earlier, former England manager Steve McClaren was announced as the new manager of Dutch side FC Twente on Friday. McClaren, who had been out of work since November when he was sacked after England failed to qualify for Euro 2008, has agreed a two-year deal at the Eredivisie club. McClaren takes […]

Costa Rica used the home field advantage of their infamous plastic pitch to dispatch a pesky Grenada side 3-0. The Chicago Fire's Gonzalo Segaras went ninety minutes picking up a yellow card for the Ticos while Shalrie Jospeh as usual gave a workmanlike performance for his nation, Grenada. Guatemala struggled with St Lucia but prevailed […]

Derby County 16 July Burton Albion (A) 19 July Rotherham (A) 23 July Oldham Athletic (A) 26 July Mansfield Town (A) 29 July Rushden & Diamonds 2 August FC Utrecht (H) Doncaster 19 July Scunthorpe (H) 29 July Port Vale (A) 1 August Bolton (H) Ipswich Town Could not find any information on the clubs […]

EPL Talk has two Euro 2008 shirts to give away as prizes courtesy of sponsor Castrol Oil, creator of the excellent Castrol Performance Index which provides statistics and analysis of the Euro 2008 matches. To win one of these shirts, all you have to do is visit http://www.castrolindex.com/ and search through the pages looking for […]

Watching Russia beat Holland 3-1 tonight in Basel to qualify for the semi-finals of Euro 2008, we may have seen the future champions of Europe. Their performance, at times, was simply breathtaking. Over the entire 120 minutes, the best team deservedly won the match. Holland had plenty of chances to score but they were, for […]