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Games to watch at the weekend Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur This week's "Battle for Fourth Place!" Despite four second half goals shared by Liverpool and Manchester City, last week's BFFP lacked conviction. Spurs are riding high in the saddle after Jemaine Defoe's 5 goals left Wigan struggling to get out of the gate at Whiteheart Lane and Villa are "fresh" off another disappointing showing, having won just one in the last five. I'm predicting the we'll be talking about two different teams in next week's BFFP following this sintillating nil- nil fails to separate

Foose On The Loose
I'll admit that I don't have a clue who Bob Foose is other than the Executive Director of the Major League Soccer Players "Union". Probably a lawyer, but we shouldn't stereotype: they're not ALL blood-sucking, bottom-feeding boils on the ass of humanity. Or so I'm told. I'm guessing mid-40's, wife and kids. Maybe a dog too. Springer spaniel or possibly a setter of some kind. Low handicap on the golf course, likes sailing and cigars. (I'm projecting now). We do know that he was around for the last CBA negotiations in 2004, so the players obviously like him, and that's a positive. If you can tell that I'm trying to find some nice

How to destroy your franchise in a day
Looks like the weirdest season ever is seguewaying* quite nicely into the weirdest offseason ever. I'm a bit behind on the Preki disaster in embryo form, but I will be awaiting the inevitable crash on my little tippy-toes. Quote: What left a more lasting impression on him that August day than the 2-0 win by his side was the sellout crowd of 20,178 at BMO Field. "When I saw the passion in the stands, I knew this was the plac

LA, cabrón! Saluda al campeón!
I'm sure much has been made of Real Salt Lake being such a "team" team that, for the first time ever, there are no players for the MLS champs on the MLS Best XI. But there's a more prosaic answer to that - the Best XI was wrong. Olave should have been in the back line ahead of Conde (or better still, De Rosario - does anyone in the league even play a 3-5-2? So the Best XI should have four defenders. QED). Now that Jason Kreis is a genius all of a sudden, it's going to be very interesting to see whether the 2009 Royals are the 1996 DC

YCJ goes to Seattle - MLS Cup 2009 in Pictures
Photos by Scott Bales/YCJ and Andy Mead/YCJ - A BigSoccer Exclusive tons more after the jump