Search: ' Club World Cup'

Gavin Willacy tells the turbulent tale of USA team the San Jose Earthquakes, the club that refuses to go away

While British media coverage of the MLS play-offs started and ended with David Beckham and LA Galaxy’s exit at the penultimate stage to Dallas, a more interesting story was ignored in the other semi-final. San Jose Earthquakes came from mid-table to within one win of the MLS Cup final, losing 1-0 to Colorado in only their third season since returning to the league. The Earthquakes – football’s ultimate boomerang club – are back, again.

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John Duerden covers the growth of the Asian Champions League, currently held by Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma thanks to their manager known as “the Korean Mourinho”

If José Mourinho was still manager of Inter he would be in with a chance of meeting his eastern equivalent at December’s FIFA Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi. The Italian club are likely to play the newly crowned champions of Asia, Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, who are led by Shin Tae-Yong, aka “the Korean Mourinho”.

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Andy Brassell explains how a controversial move from Bordeaux to domestic rivals Lyon, alongside a reluctance to interact with the press, has found Yoann Gourcuff out of favour with many in France

Transfers between genuine domestic rivals are never especially clean affairs, and Yoann Gourcuff’s late August move from one recent former French champion to another – Bordeaux to Lyon – is no exception. Three months on, the sensation has settled down and the man himself has started to find some form, but we’re still gathering odd bits of scattered debris from the event.

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Cameron Carter investigates the vast spectrum of football collectables, with some unusual finds

It used to be a lot simpler. Collecting football memorabilia meant saving your match programme and tremblingly accepting the football card from father’s cigarette packet. Now there appear to be hundreds of different categories of collectables to choose from. And, like television channels, the greater choice means only that there are a lot of choices that should never have existed.

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Dave Lee watches Abbey United v Bully Wee United – two of the UK’s supporters’ clubs

It’s 10.30am, and in the car park of a leisure centre, manager Richard French nervously thumbs out a text message. It’s half an hour until kick-off, and there is still no sign of today’s opponents. He’d last heard from the opposition manager an hour ago. They had just passed Birmingham, but the minibus was limited to a paltry 60mph. And, after a night of heavy snow, they were down to just 11 men after one of their number found himself snowed in.

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