Reuters Soccer Blog

from Left field:

Va-va-voom. Vintage Henry scores on Arsenal return.

The clock said 68 minutes, and no one at the Emirates Stadium in north London was looking at the action on the pitch as the fourth official held aloft his lit-up board to signal the re-introduction of Thierry Henry to English football.

Ten minutes later and he'd scored the game's eventual winner. Comebacks don't get this good this often.

14 to replace 15 shone the bright numbers before the goal, but alas Henry's former number has since been taken by young English talent Theo Walcott, who idolises the French great.

Now, for six weeks and six weeks only after which he will return to the United States with the New York Red Bulls, Henry can be seen wearing an Arsenal shirt with the number 12, the same as his France days during which he won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship.

The only numbers Arsenal fans will care about are 228, 229 and who knows, possible even into the 230s.

With a trademark movement of his right boot, Henry had added to his record Arsenal tally of 226 having watched his new teammates spurn chance after chance against Leeds United in the third round of the FA Cup.

Arsenal fans out there, does this worry you? Would you like to see Arsene Wenger bring in another striker in the January transfer window given the lack of goals?

Soccer Break Wednesday – Money buys success

Cash, dollars, bucks, dough, call it what you want, it paves the way for football clubs to be successful.

On Tuesday the bank-rolled Manchester City outfit reached the Champions League qualifiers for next season and could even secure an automatic berth if they pip Arsenal to third place in the Premier League. That would be a real kick in the guts to Arsene Wenger, who has barely spent anything in comparison to City since he took over the North Londoners in 1996.

A further blow to the Gunners would be the departure of captain Cesc Fabregas. Would he go to City of all places?

Football fans out there, is this fair? Should clubs’ success be based purely on the size of their owners’ wallets?

City’s rise has coincided with Tottenham Hotspur’s demise this season. Spurs’ foray into the quarter-finals of the Champions League proved a big step and ultimately hurt their chances of a place in the competition next season. They may not even secure a Europa League spot. Double disaster. Or is it?

Staying with wage bills and money in the game, salaries in Major League Soccer are up 12 percent, and, surprise surprise, David Beckham is the biggest earner.

Beckham however represents everything that is good about the game, an honest, hard-working individual. What we saw on Tuesday was the darker side of football with the FIFA corruption allegations.

Soccer Break Wednesday – One down, one to go.

Well it looks like being a Barcelona v Manchester United final in the Champions League on May 28 after the Catalans booked their Wembley tickets on Tuesday, though Schalke 04 will have something to say about that in the penultimate match of the 2010-11 competition.

Barcelona were simply too good for Real Madrid despite the 1-1 scoreline, and you get the feeling that in this sort of form they will be hard to stop.

Although the 90 minutes were littered with niggly fouls and several acts of ‘simulation’, for the first time in four recent meetings between the bitter rivals, we saw a football match.

And it ended nicely too, with scenes of joy as Eric Abidal was hoisted aloft by his jubilant team mates. Astonishingly Abidal could feature in the final, just two months after surgery to remove the tumor from his liver. Well done that man.

The bickering will continue though especially after Cristiano Ronaldo accused the referee of a Barca bias. Ronaldo, for all his talents, appears to disappear in huge matches. Here are four ways the ‘second best player in the world’ can challenge Lionel Messi as the world’s best talent.

Barca’s next probable opponents then are Man United, a very solid outfit, and should they reach the showpiece event then we could be in for a cracking match.

Any predictions for Wednesday’s game? United will surely score to make Schalke’s uphill climb even steeper.

RSL will miss their ‘Rasta passer’

There is a rare air of jubilation around Major League Soccer after Real Salt Lake managed to come away from the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League final away to Mexican champions Monterrey with a 2-2 draw but it is tempered by the loss of their best player for the return game.

MLS commissioner Don Garber took to twitter to post ‘Congrats RSL! Well done’ and many fans of other MLS teams have been quick to applaud the result. In many ways, this year’s run to the final by RSL has been taken by the league and its supporters as a validation of their status in the game.

Tired of being labeled a ‘Mickey Mouse’ league by foreigners and dismissed as irrelevant by old-school mainstream sports media and equally annoyed at the tendency of some American fans of European soccer to laugh off MLS as a pale imitation of the ‘real thing’, MLS fans have delighted in Real’s achievement. This is the first time a team from the league has reached the final of the Mexican-dominated competition since it changed to a league format in 2008. In the days when the tournament for North and Central America and the Caribbean was a knockout affair – only twice did an MLS team make the final. Added to the odds stacked against RSL on Wednesday was the knowledge that no team from the North American league has ever won on Mexican soil in a competitive game.

As this emotional account of the game concludes, Javier Morales superbly taken 89th minute equaliser was much more than an equaliser “It was, most of all, the moment so many fans of Major League Soccer have waited for: a concrete result providing a firm reason to believe”.

Still, as the author of the above piece notes, 90 minutes remain to be played and they will be anything but straightforward for the team from Utah. The confidence, verging on over-confidence in some quarters, that RSL can finish the job off next week, is largely based on the fact that Salt Lake have not lost at their Rio Tinto stadium for 34 straight regular season and Cup games.

But Jason Kreis will have to a field a team in the return leg that does not feature his most influential player – central midfielder Kyle Beckerman, who is suspended after picking up another yellow card in Monterrey. No player is irreplaceable but Beckerman’s importance to Salt Lake’s success over the past two years cannot be understated. The 28-year-old, who sports distinctive Rastafarian-style dreadlocks, is not only the best American midfielder in MLS, he is absolutely central to the team’s appealing possession football.

Soccer Break Monday

Real Madrid 1 Barcelona 1. Pictures of the teams suggest they were both pleased with the result but you would imagine Barcelona came away the happier side. Though Real were down to ten men for almost the entire second half so must be relieved not to have lost.

Who gained the upper hand then from the first of four clasicos between last Saturday and May 3? Wednesday will be an interesting affair in the King’s Cup final, a one off match as opposed to the two-legged Champions League semi-final.

Another fierce rivalry that was played out over the weekend was the Manchester derby, where the blue half of the city emerged victorious to ease the pressure on Roberto Mancini who must surely fancy his chances of beating Stoke City in the FA Cup final to hand City their first piece of silverware since 1976.

Ugly scenes marred the end of the match in which Rio Ferdinand and Mario Balotelli clashed but the United captain was quick to play down the spat. Balotelli in the news again though, will he stay at City?

At Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium a quite extraordinary end to the match provided two penalties and a managerial dispute after the final whistle following Liverpool’s 102nd-minute penalty to snatch a 1-1 draw with the Londoners, whose chances of the title are diminishing rapidly.

Thankfully Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, who suffered a sickening but accidental blow to the head in the second half and was stretchered off holding up play for eight minutes, is well.

In Europe several teams moved closer to winning their respective leagues, and back in England Tottenham Hotspur’s Gareth Bale was given the player of the year award. If the price on his head wasn’t already big enough, surely now he will be a major target for European clubs this summer. Will he stay or will he go?

Soccer Break Friday – Clasico fever rises

Only one day to go now until Real Madrid face Barcelona in La Liga for the first of four ‘clasicos’ between Saturday and May 3. Excited? You will be now…

Barcelona destroyed their fierce domestic rivals 5-0 in November, and although the gap at the top of La Liga remains difficult for Real to peg back, they looked a very difficult team to beat against Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League quarter-finals.

So, Real to narrow the gap, Barcelona to cut through Jose Mourinho’s men, or an edgy draw?

A former Real player David Beckham knows all about the drama of Barcelona meetings, and the England man is in the news in the MLS. Here’s a wrap of other games. Oh and here’s another Beckham story, it appears Fulham aren’t the only ones making statues of famous people.

On Thursday it was Portugal’s night in the Europa League, where three team progressed to the semi-finals. Villarreal took the fourth spot for a truly Iberian domination of Europe’s second tier competition.

This weekend in England there’s the FA Cup semi-finals and Manchester City’s time is surely now. Lose to Man Utd and manager Roberto Mancini could face a nervous wait to see whether he retains his job for next season. Triumph and they will face either Stoke City or Bolton Wanderers in the final, which you would have to fancy them to win.

One fan hoping for a Bolton victory has flown in from Australia, read more here.

Soccer Break Monday – Champions League last eight week special

With all the hype surrounding this week’s Champions League quarter-finals, the events of the weekend seem like a distant memory. Here’s a recap of a fascinating set of results around Europe the past few days.

Before we move on, your thoughts please. Does Wayne Rooney deserve to be punished for his outburst on camera against West Ham? And Fulham fans, did you take a picture with Michael Jackson on Sunday?

So we start with Real Madrid against Tottenham Hotspur at the Bernabeu on Tuesday. Predictions? Spurs have looked far better in Europe than in the Premier League this season, and their 0-0 against Wigan on Saturday could be a good omen.

That said, Jose Mourinho’s astonishing nine-year unbeaten home record as coach ended on the same day. Will Real’s backlash hit the Londoners?

Also in action on Tuesday are holders Inter Milan against Schalke 04. Worried for the Germans after Inter’s crushing 3-0 defeat by city rivals AC Milan on Saturday got them angry?

Wednesday, and it’s Chelsea against Manchester United. Ok, so there won’t be penalties like in Moscow so John Terry won’t be stepping anywhere near the spot.

Favourites Barcelona will play another high-speed, easy on the eye, slick passing team in Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk in what should be a cracking tie. We are all very excited.

Soccer Break Tuesday

Spring is here and love should be in the air, but instead all we’re left with is bickering managers.

Fabio Capello and Jose Mourinho are no strangers to controversy, so it’s no surprise to see them at it again, though the timing is odd. Mourinho still has it all to prove at Real Madrid over the next two months, while Capello has yet to truly inspire confidence in England fans.

What do you make of Capello’s captaincy decision after handing the armband to Gareth Barry, days after excluding him from the squad to face Wales?

And Real fans, does it annoy you to see Mourinho flirting so openly with other jobs?

Back to action on the pitch, and on Tuesday there will be a special reason to watch England’s friendly against Ghana. Read more here.

Another special occasion will take place in Japan when the national team play a J-League select team to raise funds for the stricken victims of the tsunami and earthquake earlier this month.

A Different League takes a look at Ireland and whether they are strong enough to qualify for Euro 2012 from a formidable group including Slovakia, Russia and Macedonia. Thoughts?

Soccer Break Thursday

Gareth Bale. The dashing Welsh winger primed to scare the living daylights out of England on Saturday. Injured. Did anyone else hear that collective sigh of relief from England fans today?

But what about Tottenham Hotspur fans. Are you worried your star man’s recent struggles with injury could hamper your club’s Champions League quarter-final chances against Real Madrid?

There are of course plenty of qualifiers this weekend so read our preview for all the latest.

Anna on the Italian Soccer Serie A has picked what she reckons might be Italy’s team to play Slovenia in Friday’s Euro 2012 qualifier having spied on Cesare Prandelli’s training sessions. Read more here.

Our man Simon Evans in Miami has written a blog on a player familiar with Spurs, Real, and Euro qualifiers. Read on for the latest on David Beckham’s US adventure.

We’ve a bit of a US theme going today in fact. NFL player Chad Ochocinco (see last Thursday’s Soccer Break) has started his soccer experiment. Can he be successful?

Over in San Francisco, spare a thought for a referee on the receiving end of a player’s anger.

Soccer Break Tuesday

Football’s governing bodies are dominating the news on Tuesday as the FIFA presidency candidates hit the campaign trail and the UEFA presidency will be retained by an unopposed Michel Platini.

The sport is more global than ever, highlighted in December when Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup ahead of the United States, Japan, Australia and South Korea despite the fact a Middle Eastern country has never before hosted a major global sporting event.

For Qatar’s Mohamed Bin Hammam is challenging Swiss Sepp Blatter as the head of football’s world governing body later this year. Who would you like in charge? Reports of a divide, or potential one, have been ruled out by the Qatari.

Michel Platini has more football in him having been the architect of France’s 1984 European championships win, but is his re-election as UEFA president necessarily the best thing? Would you prefer someone who hasn’t played the game to come in with an outside view?

Sticking with the global theme, we’ve already been discussing the new season of the American league MLS. Do you agree with this blog that the MLS is a little misunderstood? Or do you believe it truly is a ‘major league’?

Another league which provokes debate is the Scottish Premier League, dominated by Celtic and Rangers. Is this a good or a bad thing? Scotland’s captain thinks the league is a bore.

One of the world’s best leagues in La Liga often ends up in a two horse race, Barcelona and Real Madrid battling for the title. Do you prefer more open leagues such as Ligue 1?