The England womans team made us proud, up until last night. They reached the European Championships final, for the first time. They were down 2 nil to start, then pulled one back. Germany scored again making it 3-1, only for England to crawl back another. It seemed like it would be a fairly tight game, even against the MIGHTY German women. However. It wasn’t to be, the game ending at 6-2 to the deserved Germans.

Germany’s Euro success was their fifth in a row, and they have also won the last two World Cups.

Simply put, you don’t beat Germany.

The main questions being asked before the match kicks off, is, who will start up front for England? Yahoo Eurosport put up a poll the other day, and take a look at the resutlts.

So, Defoe should be starting right? I wish there was a bookies which would take bets on this NOT happening, I’d bet my whole life savings on the fact that Heskey starts. England need someone like Heskey up there, or Crouchy. Why? Because the second Croatia put any pressure on us, we’re going to be blasting the long balls ALL night. I must say, Heskey is rather good at keeping the ball up there. Defoe, on the other hand, is a whole other can of beans.

Anyway, thats it for now. I’m planning on writing my next article on why I think Owen should at least still be in the squad. C’MON ENGLAND!

All the teams have been divided into zones according to their geographical location. So in all there are 6 zones from which the teams will advance into the 2010 finals. The 6 zones are as follows;

Africa
Asia
Europe
North, Central America and Caribbean
Oceania
South America

Each zone has been allotted different number of tickets to the finals. Asia has been provided with 4.5 tickets. This means 4 teams out of 43 teams of Asia zone will qualify for sure but the 5th team will have to play two legged play offs against the winner of Oceania zone.

Japan, Australia, Korea DPR and Korea Republic have already qualified for the 2010 finals from the Asia zone. The third placed team from both the qualifying groups of the Asia zone Saudi Arabia and Bahrain will contest in a two legged play off. The first leg will be played on 5th September in Bahrain and on 9th September the second leg will be played in Saudi Arabia. The winner will play against Oceania zone winner New Zealand over two legs. The winner will get a ticket to the 2010 finals.

Wenger also stated that, to play football the way United played against them, was a bigger crime than Eduardo’s diving. Such tactics can ruin the fun of the beautiful game, he believed. The good news for Wenger, was that his two key players, Nicklas Bendtnar and Denilson have successfully signed contracts with Arsenal. The details are not known but it is to be believed that the contracts will keep the two 21 year olds, at Emirates for at least another five years.

There was also sad news from the Manchester City camp, as they lost their best defender on the last day of the summer transfer window. The new summer arrivals forces 29 year old Richard Dunne, an Irish player, to leave the club for Aston Villa.

England were again the top spenders for the 2009 summer transfer window with a total spending of $715.1 million. Spain came second with $676.6 million, of which $355 million were spent by Real Madrid alone.

Bomb blasts rocked two seperate hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia, forced the United match, against an all-star Indonesian team to be canceled. The match had a huge hype around it, however, staff, feared for the safety of the team. The tickets, 73,000, we’re fully sold out 3 weeks prior to the game. This will come as sad news to many Indonesians. My heart and wishes go out to those who have died, or lost loved ones in these blasts.

“It’s a bit of a shock for all of us. We just got news of this when we landed,” manager Alex Ferguson said on the team’s arrival in Kuala Lumpur.

“There was no other solution as we had to safeguard our players. So it’s the correct decision.”

Witnesses said the bombings at the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton, where the team were due to stay, were minutes apart and it appeared both had occurred inside the hotels, judging from the way windows were blown out.

England striker Andy Johnson put the Cottagers ahead just after the half-hour when he converted a penalty awarded after he was knocked to the floor by Melbourne keeper Mitchell Langerak.

Substitute Eddie Johnson then doubled the lead shortly after the hour when he raced on to an Andranik Teymourian ball and he fired into the back of the net.

Nevland then rounded off a comprehensive victory when Seol Ki-Hyeon flicked the ball into the path of Nevland with the outside of his boot and the Norwegian slotted home.