Qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa continued on Wednesday with matches in CONCACAF, Asian and Oceania zones. The rest of the world had some very interesting friendly matches.

The Oceania zone underdog Fiji ended New Zealand’s unbeaten record at home with a surprise 2-0 win. Despite the loss, New Zealand will advance to next round of qualifiers.

In the Asian zone, Japan comfortably beat Qatar 3-0, while United Arab Emirates tied with  Iran 1-1. Australia  with stars like Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill faced Bahrain, but had to wait till 94th minute to break the tie on goal from Marco Bresciano. South Korea’s 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia move them to the top of their group.

The only European zone World Cup qualifier was between the Czech Republic and San Marino. The Czechs were the clear favorites and the only question was by how many goals they would win. But in front of only a thousand fans, it took the Czech team almost 50 minutes to score their first goal. The final score was 3-0 but the Czechs didn’t look to convincing.  Striker Baros and Fenin once again failed to score and one of the few positive things was a goal by rookie Tomas Necid. The Czechs occupy the second spot in Group 3, with two points less than first place Slovakia.

England beat host Germany 2-1 and recorded their fifth win in a row under coach Fabio Capello. Both teams were without their major stars. England was missing Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and last minute injured Theo Walcott. Germany were without Michael Ballack, Philip Lahm and Torsten Frings. England opened the score by Matthew Upson in the 23rd minute. Germany equalized in the 63rd minute when Helmes put it through the goalie’s legs. John Terry delivered the winning goal after Downing’s free kick. A victory in Germany provided the perfect end to England’s 2008 season. Fabio Capello should get most of the credit for that. Tough coach but knows how to deliver results, something England didn’t have for awhile.

Serbia trashed Bulgaria 6-1 in what was a farewell match for former Aston Villa striker Savo Milosevic. He scored two goals but managed to miss two penalties, yes you heard right two. He blamed the misses on his emotions. What a way to end one’s career.

The Netherlands 3-1 win over Sweden proved to be too easy. Robin van Persie scored twice and Dirk Kuyt added one. Kallstrom came on as a substitute and scored the lonely goal for Sweden.

Argentina won their first match under Diego Maradona’s coaching. They beat Scotland at Hampden Park by a score of 1-0. Maxi Rodriguez scored in the eighth minute on a pass from Carlos Tevez.

Theofanis Gekas’ goal in the 50th minute put Greece 1-0 ahead in friendly match with Italy. But not for long. Luca Toni equalized on 1-1 after a free kick from Daniele De Rossi. It was 31 consecutive international matches without defeat for coach Lippi.

more results….

World Cup 2010 qualifying continues on Wednesday September 10. Here is the TV schedule for U.S. viewers as shown on Fox Soccer Channel. All times are in EST. Enjoy the “Greatest show on Earth.”

Men’s soccer Olympic tournament finished on Wednesday with it’s group qualifying matches.

Cameroon, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, Nigeria, Netherlands, Belgium and Ivory Coast all qualified to the quarter-finals.

US team came close to qualifying, needing only a tie, but with only ten men they were no match for the Nigerian team.

Brazil and Argentina won their groups without losing a point and remain the tournament favorites.

August 13 results

Complete standings in Men’s Olympic soccer tournament after matches played on Sunday August 10.

The Men’s Olympic soccer tournament starts on August 7, a day before Olympic games official opening. Sixteen teams from all continents will be competing for Olympic gold. Defending 2004 champion Argentina is once again  the favorite to win the gold .

For the tournament, each country will nominate 18 players, four other players have been included as possible replacements. 15 players must be born on or after 1 January 1985, plus 3 can be over-age players. The official lists of teams squads were revealed on Thursday and with names like Messi, Pato, Babel, Adu, Riquelme and Ronaldhino there will be plenty of quality matches

Five cities will host the tournament with the final on August 23 in Beijing. The NBC Olympic Soccer Channel, CNBC, Telemundo and MSNBC will show complete coverage of all 58 Men’s and Women’s matches from China.

Make sure to keep visiting Socceroverload.com for updated results from Men’s and Women’s Olympic soccer tournament.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

According to Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport, Inter Milan offered Jose Mourinho to coach the club. Inter is having some internal problems and there are reports that Inter’s president Massimo Moratti will fire coach Roberto Mancini. Moratti however denied all this as rumors, so we have to wait till summer to see who was right.

Bayern Munich defender Luco expressed a desire to leave Germany for sunny Spain or Italy this summer. He said that he is happy in Bayern but it is time for him to go. According to the Italian press Juventus is very interested in signing Luco.

Australia recorded an important draw with China in the Asian World Cup qualifier on Wednesday. Australia was playing without many injured, Europe-based players. Among them Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka. The hero of the match has to be Australian goalie Mark Schwarzer who saved an 89th minute penalty and kept the score on final 0-0.

Fiorentina captain Tomas Ujfalusi said he feels better than ever and is really enjoying his time in Fiorentina. Despite all this Ujfalusi could be leaving the club this summer when his contract is up. Several European Superclubs are interested at him and talks about his contract extension with Fiorentina are going nowhere so far.

The bribery scandal in the Portuguese Premier League claims its first victims. Porto’s president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa and referee Augusto Duarte will stand trial. According to the charges Pinto da Costa was trying to bribe referee Duarte before the match between Beira Mar and Porto in 2004. The investigation into this started after Pinto da Costa’s ex-girlfriend wrote a book where she claims that bribery in Porto happened many times.

Wednesday was a very busy day filled with many international friendly matches, but a few really stand out. USA beat Poland in their homeland by a score of 3-0 and had at least that many chances to score more goals. Romania trashed Russia in a match where according to coach Guus Hiddink, Russia played a naive match losing 3-0. Another surprise came from the tiny country of Montenegro where Norway was beaten 3-1.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Arsenal’s striker Eduardo was released from the hospital on Wednesday. His team said that the 25 year old Eduardo will make a full recovery, but will be out for nine months. He suffered a fractured left fibula and open dislocation of his ankle joint.

Iranian Soccer Federation gave Spaniard Javier Clemente a second chance to take over as Iranian national team coach. Clemente refused to live in Iran which was was one of the conditions set by Iranians. Apparently he change his mind and now agrees to live in Iran while he coaches the team. Must be a good paying job.

David Beckham admitted that he is not fit enough to play for the English national team. He said “All I have done is training, so I have not much fitness”. Beckham was denied 100th appearance for England last month when coach Fabio Capello left him out of the team.

Chile’s Universidad Catolica beat Peruvian Deportivo San Martin by a score of 1:0 in the South American Libertadores Cup. Deportivo dominated the second half but were unable to score. The only goal came in the 30th minute from Argentine midfielder Dario Botinelli.

Tottenham’s goalie Radek Cerny will most likely leave his club after this season. His contract expires at the end of the season and so far the club hasn’t offered him an extension. The former England’s goalie Paul Robinson doesn’t have his place secure there either. He lost his starting position to Cerny after a series of mistakes. Tottenham is actively searching for another goalie and they are interested in Maarten Stekelenburg from Ajax Amsterdam and Carlos Kameni from Espanol Barcelona amongst others.

The winner of Australian’s A-League Golden Boot Award, Joel Griffith was named the Player of the year. The Newcastle Jets striker scored 12 goals this season and helped his team to win the A-League Championship on Sunday. Griffith won the best player award by a landslide , scoring 140 more votes than second place Alex Brosque from Sydney FC.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

AC Milan’s Ronaldo who is recovering from knee surgery in Paris said that he has not decided yet what he should do after his full recovery. According to his doctor’s prognosis, Ronaldo won’t be able to run for five months and train before end of this year.

Tottenham overcame a scare and advanced to the Round of 16 in the UEFA Cup. They tied 1:1 with Slavia Prague who was more than an equal team and came close to winning the game. Tottenham opened the score but Slavia leveled in the 51st minute and had several good chances at the closing minutes.

LA Galaxy lost to Japan’s Gamba Osaka at Pan-Pacific Championship in Hawaii and will face Sydney FC in the third place play off. Rather poor results against a mediocre team, but it was Galaxy first game in a while and it showed. In the other game Dynamo Houston beat Sydney FC and will be playing Gamba Osaka for the tournament’s title.

UEFA Cup will continue on March 6st with a Round of 16. Germany has the most teams left in the competition, four. England is second with three teams and Tottenham is among the five former Cup winners. The others are Leverkusen, PSV Eindhoven, Bayern Munich and Anderlecht.

Manchester United is trying to re-sign Wes Brown with an offer of 80,000 dollars a week for him, but Brown rejected that offer. According to coach Alex Ferguson, Brown’s agent is behind the whole thing in what Ferguson called “players living in pockets of their agents”. Wes Brown has been with Man Utd since he was 12 years old.

Marc Van Basten will take over as Ajax Amsterdam’s new coach on July 1st. His contract with the Dutch national team is over after the EURO 2008. He will join Johan Cruyff who signed on as technical director recently. Ajax hopes this move will bring them back to their glory days.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

AC Milan’s defender Paolo Maldini reached a milestone on Saturday, when he played his 1000th game for the club and his country. He debuted for AC Milan, the only club he has ever played for back on January 20, 1985. The 39 year old Maldini won the Serie A title seven times, the Champions League five times, the Italian Super Cup five times and the Italian Cup once.

David Beckham’s wife Victoria can work on her suntan while David is competing at Pan-Pacific Championship in Hawaii at the end of this month. The inaugural edition will host LA Galaxy , Gamba Osaka, Dynamo Houston and Sydney FC. The tournament will serve as a warm-up before regular season.

Bayern Munich’s Luca Toni proved once again that he is worth the money the club payed for him. The Italian striker scored a hat trick against Hannover in a 3:0 victory. Toni cost Bayern 15.5 million dollars and scored 13 goals this season so far.

Blackburn Rovers team is in Orlando but don’t look for them at Disneyland. They are there to hold a three day training session at the Disney Wide World of Sports complex. Coach Mark Hughes said that the team is looking for a change of scenery and of course the warm weather.

Real Madrid honored their legendary striker Alfredo di Stefano with erecting a statue of him at Real’s training center. Alfredo di Stefano, who is Real’s honorary president played for Real from 1953 to 1964 and scored the club’s all time high, 216 goals. He was known back then as the “blond arrow”.

Ronaldo will be out with his latest knee injury close to one year but he expressed determination to play again. Brazilian club Flamengo is showing a serious interest in signing him once he is healthy and ready to play again. Ronaldo’s contract with AC Milan is up this summer and it is highly unlikely they will offer him a new one.

Happy Holidays!

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In the first game of the FIFA Club World Cup 2007, Sepahan beat Wiatakere 3:1 and qualified to the quarter-finals where they are going to meet local favorite Urawa Red Diamonds. Sepanah recently lost to Urawa in the AFC Champions League and will look for revenge against them in Monday’s game. Considering the fact that Waitakere Utd is made up mostly of amateurs, they didn’t fair all that bad. They made three terrible mistakes costing them three goals, conceiding the first one after only four minutes, second came shortly after that. Second half saw a better Waitakere but once again a mistake this time by their goalie Simon Eaddy cost them a goal.

The New Zealand team didn’t give up and scored a consolation goal at last. At the end they were pressing hard, scoring a goal but the Iranian team was just too much for them. The Kiwis were visibly disappointed but took the game as a valuable experience and as an honor to play in FIFA tournament.

You can watch the game between Urawa and Sepahan on Fox Soccer Channel on Monday at 5:00 am EST.

Japan will host the fourth edition of the FIFA Club World Cup 2007 starting on Sunday Dec. 9.

Seven teams from every continent are competing for the title of the best club in the world.

Favorites among them are AC Milan, this year Champions League winner and Argentine champions Boca Juniors, but lets not count out strong Mexican club Pachuca and local favorite Urawa Red Daimonds.

Urawa has probably the smallest chance of qualifying to the finals but with strong support from local fans they will for sure try their best. According to their coach, German Holger Osieck, their target is to get to the semifinals and he says they are ready to do that.

Other competing clubs are Waitakere United from New Zealand, Etile Sportive du Sahel from Tunisia and Iranian club Sepahan.

The first game is Dec. 7 and it’s a play-off between Waitakere and Sepahan. The winner will qualify to the quarter-finals which starts on Sunday Dec. 9 in Tokyo. AC Milan and Boca Juniors are seeded directly to the semifinals.

Toyota City and Yokohama are the other two city hosting the tournament with finals held at the International Stadium Yokohama on Dec. 16.

All the games can be seen live on Fox Soccer Channel for US fans only. Because all the games will be shown either at 5 am or midnight, they will be repeated during the day at more reasonable times.

TV schedule for the FIFA Club World Cup tournament. All times are EST.

There was a riot during Thursday’s UEFA Cup game between Sparta Prague and Spartak Moscow fans. Several fans sustained heavy injuries after clashing with the Czech riot police and eight fans were detained for displaying a Nazi propaganda.

Honolulu will host the first Pan-Pacific Championship tournament in February. Japanese champion Gamba Osaka, Houston Dynamo, LA Galaxy and yet to be named Australian club, will play a pair of doubleheaders and the winners of those games will meet for the title.

As was reported early this week, Alex Ferguson was given till Dec. 11 to tell his side of the story about him verbally abusing referee Mark Clattenburg at Bolton. The Man Utd coach now says that he wont fight the charges and will accept the verdict.

AC Milan Kaka, Man Utd Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi are the names on the short list of candidates for this year FIFA world player of the year. The award will be presented on Dec 17 in Zurich and the Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro is the current holder of the trophy.

Englishman Roy Hodgson quit his coaching job with the Finland national team after they failed to qualify for the EURO 2008 finals. Hodgson who led Switzerland to the 1994 World Cup and into EURO 1996 will assist the Finland soccer federation in search for his successor.

Bad news for struggling AC Milan after Ronaldo suffered calf problems during warm up in a game against Benfica on Wednesday. He played his first game last week after sitting out for six months with leg injuries and showed promising form.

Portsmouth’s coach Harry Redknapp has denied any involvement in the ongoing investigation into the corruption of English soccer. He was one of the five men arrested and questioned by London police along with his boss, chief executive Peter Storrie.

The Spanish soccer federation denied rumors about Spain and Portugal planning to co-host the World Cup 2018. The federation said that they have no intention of doing that and the whole thing was an idea of Portuguese soccer federation president Gilberto Madail.

The “LA Galaxy circus” with their main star David Beckham arrived in Wellington, New Zealand on Thursday to play a game against the local team, Wellington Phoenix. In a country were rugby is the number one sport, the organizers hope to sellout the game due to Beckham’s worldwide popularity.

Chivas of Mexico started their quest for the league’s title by beating Atlante 1:0 in the first leg of the Mexican League semifinals. In the other semifinal game Pumas will face Santos on Thusday night in what should be a very interesting game.

You don’t hear this too often, but Milan’s Kaka wants to study theology and eventually become an evangelic minister. Kaka, who is one of the world’s best players right now knows it could be difficult task to achieve but is planning to give a shot.

Glasgow Rangers DaMarcus Beasley has injured his knee ligament during Champions League game against Stuttgart. The American midfielder who is having an excellent season so far maybe out for several weeks.

Another game and another zero goals in Germany’s net. They were facing Norway today and till halftime Norway was more than an equal opponent. Unfortunately they scored their own goal right before halftime after Prinz sent a low pass across the goal that deflected off Ronning into the net. According to Norwegian coach Byarne Berntsen this was the game’s turning point. Germany had the majority of the ball possession in the second half and Prinz and Renate Lingor had a few opportunities to score. Well, they scored in 72nd minute by Stegemen and three minutes later Mueller finalized the score to 3-0. Norway was really pushing the Helgas in the closing minutes of the game, but their effort didn’t bear any fruit. They still have a chance to go home with a medal, bronze that is, playing on Sunday either the Amazons or the Gringas. Let’s hope they will meet Australia, so we will be playing for the gold. Go USA.

USA team beat England 3-0. The British were equal to the US team in the first half, but somehow fell apart in the second half of the game. Abby Wambach playing her 100th game scored in the 48th minute. Shannon Boxx added another one in the 57th minute and three minutes later Lilly scored the third and the final goal. This means that US team is advancing to semi-finals of the World Cup and they will face the winner of tomorrow’s game between Brazil and Australia.

Favorite in Group A Germany has sent home Japan today by beating them 2-0. Their best player Birgit Prinz scored the game’s first goal in the 21st minute and became the Women’s World Cup all-time leading scorer with 13 goals. Renate Lingor added the second goal in the 87th minute and put the German team into the quarterfinals. Second team to qualify today was England, who easily beat Argentina 6-1. The Argentine team wasn’t a match for the well playing England team and exits the tournament with zero wins and score results 1-18.

The US team will face Nigeria on Tuesday and all four teams in Group B have a mathematical chance to advance. Having a perfect score from their meetings with Nigeria, making it highly unlikely that Nigeria would beat them by three goals. That is the score Nigeria needs in order to advance to the quarterfinals.

In Group C, Ghana is out and Norway who is one of the favorites, needs to win or draw to qualify.

New Zealand is out in Group D but the two top qualifying spots are still open. It would be a big disappointment if the Chinese team, playing in front of their home crowd wouldn’t qualify. We will have to wait till a Wednesday to know all the qualifiers.

In one of the most physical games in Women’s World Cup so far, Brazil registered an impressive 4-0 victory over host team China. Brazil’s best player Marta, who happens to be the FIFA player of the year, scored two goals. That brings her scoring so far to four goals in two games. China needs to win over New Zealand to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Read more: Yahoo! Sports: Brazil stuns China 4-0 behind 2 goals by Marta at Women’s World Cup

Starting September the 10th, five Chinese cities will host 16 of the best women’s teams competing for the 2007 World Cup title. The top two teams from each group will advance. Germany is the defending champion.

Group A

Germany– England — Japan– Argentina

Group B

Sweden– USA — Nigeria– North Korea

Group C

Norway — Australia– Canada–Ghana

Group D

Brazil — China– Denmark — New Zealand

Germany is the reigning World and European champion. One of the strongest team, they scored 31 goals in 8 qualifying matches. Two-time FIFA player of the year Birgit Prinz scoring 8 goals.

USA is one of the favorites, finishing third in the 2003 World Cup. They are coming to China as the CONCACAF champions. The USA team will be led by veteran Kristine Lilly who scored 116 goals in 319 caps.

One of the top teams in history of women’s soccer is Norway. Gold medal from the Olympic games in Sydney 2000 and the World and European champs in 1995. They reached only the quarterfinals in 2003, but cruised through qualifying with seven wins in eight matches.

Brazilian women have a tough act to follow, since their male counterparts won the World Cup five times. Despite the fact they been to every Women’s World Cup so far, they have only one 3rd place to show for it. The team won the South American qualifying tournament with only one loss.

FIFA Women’s world ranking

1. USA
2. Germany
3. Sweden
4. Norway
5. North Korea
6. Denmark
7. France
8. Brazil
9. Canada
10. Japan

The Czech’s have beat Austria and are going to the Finals, now it’s the Argentinian’s and the Chilean’s turn to fight it out.

Read More: FIFA.com:

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