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 […]

Sometimes readers ask me why I don't have DirecTV or DISH Network. One of the main reasons why was on display today, and it's definitely one of the pitfalls of watching soccer on satellite television.The culprit is the weather in South Florida. During the summer here, you can almost guarantee that by 2pm that the […]

Here are the pre-season schedules for most of the CCC clubs. Barnsley 11 July Buxton (A) 12 July Glossip (A) 19 July Yeovil Town (A) 22 July York City (A) 26 July Rotherham (A) 29 July Wigan (H) 2 August Chengdu Blades (H) Birmingham City They will be on a tour of Austria from 13-22 […]

I have a new name in my house. I have now been dubbed the Spectre of Football Death by my partner after my two stunning Quarter Finals failures. She is now highly concerned as her favourites are playing today and tomorrow, so to prevent myself suffering some sort of domestic incident, I have promised to […]

Dale Mitchell's Canadian side continued its rise in CONCACAF with a 4-1 victory over St Vincent on Friday night and now enters the group of death in CONCACAF with Jamaica, Honduras and presumably Mexico. It can be strongly argued (as it will be here) that four of the five best CONCACAF footballing nations at this […]

One of the pleasures of going to see a live match in England and continental Europe these days is the lack of fan segregation. After leaving Wales in 1984 and returning to England in 2006 to attend a professional match again, I was shocked by how fans were allowed to mingle together in the streets […]

Here's a photograph of me, The Gaffer, partying with two friendly Dutch fans in the streets of Berne, Switzerland before the Italy against Holland match. I'll be at Slainte's Pub in Boynton Beach this afternoon cheering on the Dutch. Come back later tonight for a full report as well as articles throughout the day from […]

Newcastle United has unveiled their new away shirt for the 2008/2009 season. Modeled by Michael Owen, the blue shirt is designed in the new Adidas template. While the new Newcastle United kit looks attractive, it looks similar to Chelsea's new home shirt although the blues are definitely different shades. Thanks to Football Shirts for the […]

Sky Sports has announced its schedule of televised Championship matches for the first few months of the 2008/2009 season. Here's the schedule: Sunday, August 10: Nottingham Forest v Reading Saturday, August 16: Bristol City v Derby County Saturday, August 30: Watford v Ipswich Saturday, October 4: Coventry City v Southampton Saturday, October 25: Reading v […]

Fans of association football will have all experienced this at one time or another. When watching a match on TV, there's a specific camera angle that's diagonal to the goal where it looks like the ball is going near the net, only to find out that the ball goes up and is sent in the […]