A strange old match. Brazil's midfield and attack boasted some of the world's most talented youngsters, the Polish side had some decent players, but were mostly a fit, organised bunch. An early goal, a quick sending-off and then dogged determination saw the Polish under-20 team upset Brazil.

Alexandre Pato of Internacional is probably the biggest star of this tournament, and he took the attack to Poland in the opening minutes. However the Poles, even though they weren't anywhere near as skillful, played intelligently, and looked to counter at every opportunity. No chances of note were created, and then in the 23rd minute, Krychowiak put Poland ahead from a free-kick. It was a decent strike, but not very powerful, and i'm of the opinion that the Brazilian 'keeper could have done much, much better.

The elation of taking the lead was then brutally ended when Polish midfielder Krol was sent off. It was a hard tackle, and definitely deserving of a yellow, but somehow the young Pole received a red from Premiership ref Howard Webb. There's no disputing that it was a foul, but both teams got away with the same thing throughout the match, with only yellows or free-kicks being issued. Harsh decision, and it really put Poland at a disadvantage. I'm not sure if Krol maybe swore or said something to the referee, but I couldn't see that.

Brazillian fans might say that on balance of play they deserved to win, because they attacked the most, had the most possession and dominated the game, but they did so against 10 men and never managed to look like scoring. They would probably have dominated against 11 men as well, so the Polish team had to show incredible, incredible bravery and determination to come away with the victory. Time and time again there would be last-ditch tackles, headers and blocks to deny the Brazilians, who despite all their trickiness and skill were less-than-effective, most often passing too narrowly and intricately and allowing the play to breakdown. In fact, Poland 'keeper Bartowski only had 2 or 3 real saves to make... the best of them being from a dribble and shot from Jo.

The Brazilian players really didn't show up either. Much of the focus had been on £18 million Chelsea-target Alexandre Pato, the Internacional attacker and current golden boy of Brazilian football, but he was missing his renowned composure. Manchester United and Arsenal target, Renato Augusto from Flamengo, was flickering but ineffective, and CSKA Moscow's Jo (prolific last year until injury) was threatening but lacked support. It was another talented midfielder, Leandro Lima, who was the most impressive Brazilian on show today, constantly tricking his way past defenders and trying to make things happen.

With 12 shots to Poland's 2, the Brazilians were clearly missing any kind of end product, and they will look to fix this in the next game.

Oh, and the pronunciation from the Canadian commentators is awful.

Sorry to interrupt everyone's Copa America fever (who would have thunk it eh?), but I just thought I'd take a quick look around what's been happening in the transfer market. Please note that this is more or less just what is on my mind, so sorry if I miss out on discussing any transfers that people want, but you can always add on in the comments, or discuss it on the forums.

David Rozehnal
From PSG to Newcastle - £2.9 million
This is an interesting signing, and the type of signing you continually find with the German or French leagues - decent players being sold at decent prices, without the ridiculous over-hypedness/over-pricing(England) or buyout clause nonsense (Spain) or just general bickering, corruption and co-ownership (Italy and South America). Lyon, Marseille and Bayern Munich aside, all the clubs in those leagues seem perfectly content to transfer players between each other, irrespective of nationality or rivalries.

Newcastle have acquired a very solid, decent defender at an excellent price. 26 year old Czech centre-back Rozehnal is good in the air, has decent pace, and is a great reader of the game who can play the ball out of defence as well. It's one of those situations where the bigger clubs have busied themselves going after defenders who are quicker, stronger, and bigger, and Newcastle managed to strike a quick deal with struggling PSG, and Rozehnal was probably more-than-happy to come to a well-supported club in the "almighty" Premier League. Good luck to him, and Sam "I am the Walrus" Allardyce has added solidity to a backline that was about as stable as a jellyfish when featuring the talents of Titus Bramble, Ogyuchi Onyewu, Jean-Alain Boumsong and Craig Moore. NEXT.

Darren Bent
From Charlton to Tottenham - £16.5 million
Tottenham have continued their policy of "If it's English and runs, buy it". Livewire striker Darren Bent has signed from Charlton for a colossal feel of 16.5 meeyun quid. It's basically got most of England asking - "Did I hear correctly? Is Darren Bent actually more expensive than Thierry Henry?" I don't think that there will ever be an end to this ridiculous intra-England policy of deciding that English players are 100 times more valuable than their foreign counterparts (most of whom speak better English than them anyways). What is only slightly more bizarre is that West Ham had bid £18 million, and offered Bent £75,000 per week (he eventually signed for Spurs on £45,000 a week).

Still, Bent is a really good young player, very quick, subtly powerful, and with a real enthusiasm to score goals. He's still very raw, but will inject much needed pace into Spurs' front line. He will complement Berbatov well, but there are rumours that Berbatov is being lined up by Manchester United. His arrival will put into doubt the future of fellow Arsenal fan and Spurs teammate Jermain Defoe, who has gone from being a 20-goal a season man to a 20-minutes from the end substitute.

Olivier Kapo
From Juventus to Birmingham City - £3 million
Almost 4 years ago, Olivier Kapo was touted as being one of the biggest talents in France. Kapo, one of those weird attacking players who has never really been allowed to settle in any role (an AM LC/FC on FM), was a product of Auxerre's acclaimed youth system, and a member of the "golden generation" that saw the emergence of Philippe Mexes, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Khalilou Fadiga and Djibril Cisse (admittedly, some a bit less "golden" than others).

Unfortunately, instead of taking gradual steps up, he made the mistake of signing for Juventus (who promptly signed about a dozen other midfielders the next day), and never saw any first team football. He went on loan to Monaco and Levante, but seemed to be in limbo, and now has the chance to resurrect his talents in the midlands. If Birmingham do manage to sign Mathieu Flamini from Arsenal, then Flamini's workrate and running, and Fabrice Muamba's covering and tackling should provide a great base for Kapo to attack freely. Of course this is all dependent on Steve Bruce showing at least a little bit of tactical ability, and I have no faith in that.

And in the realm of rumours:

Djibril Cisse from Liverpool to Marseille (rumoured fee of £7 million)
About time really. All Cisse has done at Liverpool (apart from scoring in the FA Cup final) is break his legs. We all know the biggest part of Cisse's game is his hair, and he made the massive mistake of marrying his hairdresser on Merseyside... a marriage clearly not made in heaven, because in almost Samson-like fashion his hair and football ability both went to shit, and he was later arrested for assaulting his wife. Off you go.

Fernando Torres from Atletico Madrid to Liverpool (rumoured fee of £27 million)
If Rafa Benitez wants to sign El Niño, he is going to have to pay a hefty fee. The iconic young no. 9 is supposed to have a release clause of about £25 million pounds, and Atletico also want Liverpool to pay the £2 million loyalty bonus that Torres is supposed to be receiving from the Madrid club. Loyalty bonus. Can you believe that?

Anyways, although Torres has a lot going for him, he is very overrated. He has the potential to be a great player, but so far has always flattered to deceive. I wonder if he will flourish under Rafa Benitez, because Rafa doesn't really have a great record for grooming young players (or playing attacking football for that matter). He might have done better under the tutelage of Wenger or Ferguson, but it looks like Liverpool it is. Torres is talented, he's got bags of potential, and he's got great charisma and marketing value, but he is VERY overrated. When Djibril Cisse arrived, he was an expensive, overrated player, but one who had scored bags of goals. Torres arrives(?) as an expensive, overrated player as well, but one who really hasn't scored many goals.

Juninho Paulista to Hull City
THIS IS THE STRANGEST RUMOUR OF THEM ALL. Juninho, once the darling of the Middlesborough fans, one of the most talented players to have played in the Premiership, and one of the stars for Brazil in their 2002 World Cup triumph, is going to end up in the orange strip of Hull City FC. Bizarreness. In a career that has taken him from Sao Paulo to Boro to Atletico to Boro to Vasco to Flamengo, back to Boro AGAIN, and then Celtic and then back to Brazil with Vasco and then Flamengo (I AM COMPLETELY CONFUSED BY THIS MERRY-GO-ROUND NOW), Juninho is now set to go back to England.

He seems to have a special place for the English fans in his heart, and English fans all over remember him fondly as well. Hull City would be an interesting option. They are one-tier below the Premiership, and if Juninho was to help them get promoted, he might enjoy one last-love affair with the Premiership, and it might be worth it just for the reception at Boro vs Hull alone. That's assuming that Hull get promoted. Or that Boro get relegated :) Either way, it'll be the only way that Middlesborough manage to fill up their stadium for the first time in years.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand, i'm done. That was long. Hope you enjoyed it.

Well, Giovanni van Bronckhorst was released on a free today, and will rejoin Feyenoord.

Question is... who will Barca's new left-back be? It's not as if Gio was the reserve full-back, so someone would need to come in an replace him.

Silvinho is a very good player, but Barca regard him as a backup, and at his age he is not going to suddenly take the Nou Camp by storm.

Barca are chasing Christian Chivu and Eric Abidal (allegedly), with the latter threatening to go on strike in order to get his desired move.

Chivu is left-footed, and has played left-back before (he started there), but is really a centre-back and has done his best work for Ajax and Roma in that position. He's a technically gifted player, great at set pieces and with terrific touch and passing.

Abidal is a left-footed left-back, who started out at centre-back. He is a tough, reliable defender, who is very quick and powerful, but someone who offers very little going forward (in my opinion). There's no doubt he would be a good signing for any team, but Barca's system has so often relied on a zippy, technical lfullback overlapping down the left and providing width and creating space for Ronaldinho. Van Bronckhorst had undoubtedly one of the best left-foots (feet?) in Europe, and produced many great crosses and passes. Abidal would not provide any of this.

The other option of course is for Gianluca Zambrotta to play at left-back. He has played there so well for so many years, for both club and country, despite having started out as a right-winger, and he has always done well. For a right-footed player, his left-foot is probably better than that of many left-footed players, and there's no doubt he would do an excellent job there. But then Barca would need to be searching for a right-back... and with Belletti gone and Thuram looking slower and slower, that's a problem they don't need at the moment.

The USA brushed Mexico aside to win the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup, 2-1. For once the Mexicans were out of excuses, as the US deservedly won the match, even coming back from a goal down.

Previous USA-Mexico games had been accompanied by rigorous bouts of "we were the better team" from the Mexicans (only when they lost of course), and... truth be told... they were justified in many of these claims. But last night the USA for once took the initative and were rewarded, although this was by no means an easy victory.

Although Andres Guardado and Nery Castillo were both incredibly dangerous on the day as individuals, Mexico never really looked cohesive enough as a team. The US were quite fluid and passed better, and as I said earlier, took the initative more. The Mexicans seemed to be playing as the US had for many of their previous encounters, closing down, trying to win the ball back and launch counter-attacks at every opportunity. The US for all their efforts, had gotten nothing, and they went into-half time even more under pressure after having gone a goal down in the 44th minute.

The lethargic, error-prone Onyewu was once again culpable. Having received the help of the officials in saving his face after gifting a wrongly disallowed equaliser to the Canadians, he failed to pick up the lurking Guardado, who poked the ball into the net to give the Mexicans the lead.

But the US came out strong and focussed in the second-half. Ricardo Clark replaced the dull Mastroeni, and did a great job hustling and bustling, and imposing himself on the midfield. To his credit, the misfiring Benny Feilhaber pulled himself together, and starting pinging passes around and running the show. Many US fans regard him as someone with the potential to be a genuinely top-class playmaker, something the team needs to complement the roaming wizardy of Landon Donovan. He is inconsistent though, but today he really shone, and capped his performance of with something really special (but more on that later).

The US got their reward in the 60th minute though. Brian Ching was tripped in the box, in what was a technically legitimate, but also very "soft" penalty. Ching had done nothing all game, and this was his decisive contributon. Landon Donovan stepped up, and as he so often does, put the ball in the back of the net. 1-1 to the US.

And then came Feilhaber's coupe de grace. With just over 15 minutes left to go, a clearance looped up in the air and just out of the Mexican penalty area. Feilhaber was lurking outside, and as the ball fell, he adjusted himself to deliver one of the most sweetly-struck, unstoppable volleys that you will ever see. It was an absolutely top class goal, and the kind that you dream you will score as the winning goal in a cup-final.

And that was it really. It knocked the stuffing out of the Mexicans, and the US could have gone ahead further, but DaMarcus Beasley and Ching both hit the woodwork.

And that was that. 2-1, congratulations to the States. I suspect the Mexicans were saving themselves for the Copa America a little bit, but who knows, maybe there will be a re-match in a month's time (however unlikely that is). Cuauhtemoc Blanco gave a fair assessment of the game... that the US had deserved their victory, but the Mexicans had wasted whatever chances they had.

And here's Feilhaber's goal:

The USA beat Canada 2-1 last night in the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup semi-final to reach yet another final. However the game ended very controversially, when an equaliser in the last seconds of injury time from Canada was ruled out for no good reason.

The "scorer", Denmark-based Atiba Hutchinson was shown to be about level with the defense when the ball came to him, but that was irrelevant anyways, as the ball had arrived at his feet via a wayward header from USA defender Oguchi Onyewu. By the laws of the game, with Onyweu getting the final touch, Hutchinson was not offside. To add to that, it was not as if it was a pass that had deflected off Hutchinson (which would have somewhat made the decision more palatable), but just a desperate, badly executed header from the big defender that put the ball into the Canadian midfielder's path. It was tough on the reds.

Earlier in the game, the USA had gone ahead through veteran right-back Frankie Hejduk, who had charged upfield to combine well with Donovan and then tuck the ball past Pat Onstad, the stand-in Canadian 'keeper.

Donovan then doubled their lead from the penalty spot after Onstad had clumsily brought down DaMarcus Beasley, who had been played in brilliantly by Clint Dempsey.

However, Canada fought their way back into the game through the tigerish Iain Hume, and then proceeded to charge forward at every available opportunity. The Canadians possess technical midfielders of a very, very high quality in De Guzman, De Rosario and Hutchinson, and along with the experience, attitude and ability of Paul Stalteri and Ante Jazic behind them, they should never have allowed themselves to slip behind in the way they did, but having dug their own hole they almost managed to climb out of it.

Hutchinson scored, Team Canada went wild, the linesman and referee made their opinions known, and the gloss was taken of an amazingly exciting finish. Paul Stalteri was livid at the shame-faced officials, and rightly so, but really Canada had only themselves to blame in letting this game slip away.

The USA, on balance of play, deserved to go through, but had much to thank Lady Luck for. Yet again they will face Mexico in the final in what can only turn out to be a fiery encounter.

The Mexicans had beaten Guadeloupe 1-0 with a wondergoal from Pavel Pardo.

The US Men's National Soccer Team (what a moutful) breezed past El Salvador in the Gold Cup yesterday, with goals from DaMarcus Beasley (2), Landon Donovan and the hilariously/brilliantly/absurdly monikered Taylor Twellman. They were already through to the quarters after winning their first two games, and they went into this tie quite relaxed.

There really wasn't much chance of El Salvador taking anything from this match; in the history of this tournament they've conceded 12 goals and scored non against the States, although both teams worked very hard for the first 30-odd minutes, until Beasley gave the States the lead. 1-0 in the 34th minute. Donovan's corner somehow arrived at his feet after a scramble in the box, and he finished easily.

Next came a somewhat "controversial" goal in first-half injury time. The El Salvadorians will feel doubly hard done by, when having already been penalised for a penalty after an unintentional hand ball, the referee ordered the penalty to be retaken after their keeper had saved it. As far as the penalty goes, well El Salvador had a strong case, but at the same time these things keep happening. As far as penalising the keeper for moving off his line, I suppose by the written rules it was illegal, although how often do we see it? No one complained much though, because Donovan tucked the rebound in immediately.

Anyhow, Donovan put his retaken attempt straight down the middle, 2-0 to the US. Th El Salvador coach was then sent off at the end of it all, protesting far too much to the Mexican referee at half-time.

Twellman added the gloss in a US-dominated second-half, scoring in the 73rd minute to make it 3-0, and then Beasley capped the result in the 89th minute, producing an easy finish to make it 4-0.

Game, set, match.

Despite their strong showing at the World Cup (well... relatively speaking), the Tobagans have failed to provide much impact at the Gold Cup, and seem to rely too much on a few of their European based players, all of whom are missing at this event. Once again, they were beaten, this time by a US team that had several changes made to it, with more youngsters and new faces, and key man Landon Donovan on the bench.

Although T&T weren't swept aside, they didn't offer much of a threat. They lacked any kind of spark, and although they offered some brief, arbitrary resistance after Brian Ching scored the first goal for the US, but never looked like seriously causing any trouble.

Team USA produced a solid, professional performance on this occassion. They had endured much criticism for their struggling performance against minnows Guatemala, and this time around they did the job more convincingly. The England-based centre-back pairing of Jay DeMerit and Frankie Simek both produced solid, effective performances at the back, undoubtedly helped by the presence of Kasey Keller behind them between the goalposts.

In midfield, Ricardo Clark and Benny Feilhaber produced industrious performances to ensure that the ball was won and possession kept, and that was a major improvement on the last game where the USA couldn't take control in the middle of the park.

Ching's goal came from some excellent play by Justin Mapp from the left, although Mapp's contribution was otherwise limited. Ching as always was tidy and dangerous. He may not always look like scoring, but always contributes.

However, on this occassion, although the USA managed to impose itself on the game, the attacking play was very disjointed and lacked any sort of finesse. Landon Donovan's introduction in the second-half completely changed that, and he contributed immediately, showing all his wizardry to conjure up a perfect ball for Eddie Johnson after exchanging passes with Ching. Johnson duly produced the finish, and the more or less wrapped it up for the States.

It's a big relief for Bob Bradley, but in some ways worrying as well, because sans Donovan, the US looked very, very impotent. It's not a situation that will matter in bigger games, because Donovan will be an automatic choice for those, but if injuries take their toll, then I can imagine that Bob Bradley would be quite perturbed, because his side didn't seem to know what they were doing with their talisman.

Anyways, there are a lot of positives to take out of this game for the US - I would stick with the same pairing in the centre of the defence. Ogyuchi Onyewu seems to have a very inflated reputation with US "soccer" fans, and indeed on paper with his presence and physical abilities, he has all the attributes needed to succeed in that position. But he seems to lack the know-how that Simek and DeMerit have from playing against difficult opposition in England. Onyewu's time at Newcastle was underwhelming, and he's probably not high on confidence at the moment either.

As for Donovan, it's probably worth leaving him on the bench again once or twice, just to see if the team can manage to pull themselves together without him... it will be beneficial for the future.

Apparently, there is some sort of clause in the Beckham-Galaxy contract that might allow Real to hangon to him .

HAHAHAHA if that happens... anticlimax of the century.

After already emulating Diego Maradona with his brilliant goal against Getafe, the littler little man has gone a step further by emulating the the infamous Hand of God against Zaragoza in the most recent round of play in La Liga. Some might even say that without it, Real Madrid might have won the title today, and if they lose it next week, then Messi's "goal" will be even more crucial and controversial. Video below:

Have to say that Messi, despite his brilliance must go down as a quite brazen, dirty little cheat after this, and questions must also be definitely asked of the referee, who had a good enough view of the incident (in my opinion).

Just thought i'd post to see what kind of football injuries people on here had picked up.

In my last 5-a-side game, my continued stubbornness to not wear shinpads finally came to bite me in the... shins. One of the blades on the underside of someone's shoes punctured my shin, which has subsequently gotten infected and now I am on antibiotics. Great joy! Definitely something different to the usual knocks, kicks and sprains that i'm accustomed to.

So what do you guys have to add?