By AVI CREDITOR
The John Terry foot-injury scare was all for nothing.
Tests revealed no serious damage in the Chelsea and English centerback's foot, and Terry has declared himself 100 percent fit for Saturday's FA Cup final against Portsmouth.
Terry collided with Daniel Sturridge in Wednesday's training session and feared the worst – having to miss the cup final and the World Cup. But after tests revealed no structural damage and just bruising, the former England captain returned to training on Thursday.
Terry and Chelsea will look to secure its second piece of silverware this season and its second consecutive FA Cup, while Portsmouth hopes to finish off its dream run in an otherwise dismal season in which the team went into administration and was relegated.
Here are a few more soccer stories from around the world:
MEXICAN CLUBS CANCEL ARIZONA FRIENDLY
Club America has pulled out of a slated July friendly with Pachuca citing Arizona's immigration law as its reason.
The match was supposed to be played at the University of Phoenix Stadium on July 7, but Club America has joined a long line of those opposed to the state's new immigration law that is among the most stringent in the country.
BERBATOV RETIRES FROM INTERNATIONAL PLAY
Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov has retired from international competition, leaving Bulgaria with a big hole to fill at the forward position.
Berbatov, just 29 years old, is Bulgaria's all-time leading scorer (48), but he was unable to guide the country to a World Cup berth. He cited being "exhausted" and also said that "there are many guys who can emerge from my shadow."
CARDIFF OUTLASTS LEICESTER IN PKS
Cardiff goalkeeper David Marshall saved two Leicester penalties after the two sides played to a 3-3 aggregate draw, leading his team one step closer to Premier League promotion.
Cardiff hasn't been in the top flight for 48 years, and it will need to get by Blackpool in the League Championship's final playoff round to do so. Cardiff finished the regular season in fourth place, six points clear of Blackpool.
Newcastle and West Brom have already been promoted.
PREMIER LEAGUE RUMOR MILL
- Tottenham and Liverpool are reportedly discussing a Roman Pavlyuchenko-for-Yossi Benayoun swap.
- French defender William Gallas' days at Arsenal appear to be over.
- Didier Drogba would gladly welcome Fernando Torres to Chelsea.
- Chelsea's Portuguese internationals Ricardo Carvalho and Deco are for sale.
- Cesc Fabregas would like to figure out what his club future holds before the start of the World Cup.
- Roy Hodgson commits his future to Fulham.
——————
What do you make of Terry's non-injury news? Do you support Club America's decision? Surprised that Berbatov would retire from Bulgaria? Which team would you like to see secure promotion? What do you think about all the Premier League rumblings?
Share your thoughts below.
Agreed..anyone buying Keystone Light should be suspected of mental disease and be locked up for 48 hours.
“Crime is a poor excuse” unless you live in a crime ridden area, or unless you are murdered on your own land.
So every white person with a mullet is a racist sniper? Not every person of any skin color is a ILLEGAL ALIEN, nor will they be stopped.
When I have been in other countries and I was stopped by the authorities(France, Jamaica, England, Costa Rica and Canada), i have had to show proof i was allowed to be there(and pay the fine/fee on the spot to a few times)
i say let the Peruvians, Hondurans, Costa Ricans, Panamanians, Cubans, Haitians, Salavadorans or anyone else in lets just keep out the Mexicans!!! It is not a race, skin issue with me it is a NATIONALITY issue.
The problem with this law is the following:
E. A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER, WITHOUT A WARRANT, MAY ARREST A PERSON
38 IF THE OFFICER HAS PROBABLE CAUSE TO BELIEVE THAT THE PERSON HAS COMMITTED
39 ANY PUBLIC OFFENSE THAT MAKES THE PERSON REMOVABLE FROM THE UNITED STATES.
What is probable cause in a state where most, if not all, illegals are Mexicans? I am against illegal immigration and I would probably be okay if they asked me for my “papers” once or twice. But who guarantees me that just because I “look” Mexican i won’t be stopped every day? What if any day I forget my “papers”? Sure I will be able to provide them but what about the inconvenience?
This is reason why many are against this. Being against this law does not mean support illegals. If you asked me, the real solution is to give employees big fines and/or jail if they hire someone illegally and there is prove they knew about it. Once jobs are not available illegals will stop coming.
Completely agree with you. We are not going to spend big money and if we do find players to develop they will be sold off like Smalling. We need to keep finding grinders that will give everything each day and hope to make it to Europe every few years.
It does show how a great coach can get guys to play for each other, with each other and win.
BTW that Lamps and Terry picture would make a good u write the caption.
Amen chupacabra, Aristotle and senevada,
Interesting name, coward.
turistas go home!
Move to Mexico.
Stop lying.
Don’t try and present these people with common sense and facts, it just won’t work.
Why is it no one talks about Mexico’s policy on illegal immigrants?
Ironically, Mexico’s law is the one that people here are trying to say is in effect in Arizona.
It’s amazing how wrong and racist everything in America is when it’s generally so much better than anywhere else in the world (especially Mexico) where there is supposedly no problem. A policy or law is racist and unjust here. A law that really is bad or is the same somewhere else is not. That speaks volumes. It’s amazing how many people have chosen to attack their own country and side with outsiders just to try and gain favor and be self righteous.
You’re a prick.
Mexican clubs cancel friendly.
YAWN.
I’m sorry, I just can’t get behind this as a civil rights issue. Last time I checked breaking the law was not a civil right, and when people are getting shot in their own back yard, you need to give the cops a little more to work with to protect the public.
Anyone has a right to live here. I just think they should do it legally.
If all kidnappings in Arizona were like this one, few would complain:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,319402,00.html
The hypocrisy and disgusting hate coming from California is similar to all of the other ignorant haters attacking Arizona and a law they refuse to read, or have just decided to lie about regardless. This has to be one of the most lied about laws in history.
Has anyone noticed that in all of the spewing of hate and lies here regarding this law that NO ONE has referred to the specifics of the law at all? What is it, specifically, that’s so bad? No one attacking the law cares. It’s just the usual hateful biased politics of the ignorant. Grab your pitchfork and torch, and go!
I am a resident of Arizona for 15 years and this is one of the most bigoted and racist areas of our great country. I support any and all boycotts of Arizona, even though it will do financial harm and may cause me lost revenue..
The jokers that passed this bill are all trying to win support of the rabid right-wing constituency. The law itself is unworkable and because the determination and regulation of immigration is a power of the Federal Government and has not been assigned to State governments, it has a good chance of being struck down.
I am white but I am stopped each and every day at “checkpoints” in my region of SE Arizona. I have several Hispanic friends who are routinely stopped for “DWH’s” (driving while Hispanic). This is under current law, imagine: under the new state law, you can be arrested if the officer does not believe that you are a citizen, even if you have ID or a Drivers license. (hundreds of thousand of illegal immigrants have some sort of a legal State ID or Drivers license some even have legal SS nos.). That means if you are a US citizen of Hispanic descent and are stopped by an Arizona Officer of the Law, you can be arrested because “he thinks” you are an illegal. even if you have a legal DL or ID, it still might not be good enough. It’s a crazy and stupid law.
The more economic consequences Arizona faces due to this law, the more reticent they will be in passing future spiteful laws.
Remember, Arizona lost the right to the holding the Super Bowl because the State Legislature several years ago deemed that Martin Luther King’s life was not deemed to “be of historic value” (the words of the then Arizona State legislature) when they refused to pass legislation designating MLK day a Holiday. That is their mindset.
They eventually changed their position when the public outcry became an embarrassment to the state.
I am hoping the boycott by entertainers, sports figures and sporting events as well as other pressure will turn the heads of the State Legislature to admit their mistake and rescind this law.
And Peru stole land from Ecuador and England stole land from Argentina and Russia stole land from everyone and……
They also need to defend their own nation against reverse racist attacks from ignorant people like you who talk about right and wrong but have no interest in what’s right and wrong. Where was all of this fuss when the federal government wrote this law?
Exactly! He’s just another anti-American idiot.
You’re a hypocrite and you are clueless.
You need to read the law. You’re disgusting.
Don’t bring the MLK holiday into this, please.
Just in case you hadn’t noticed, blacks in this country have been racially-profiled for years, and I doubt half of you got so up in arms about those cases as you have these.
I’m not saying I agree with the law, but to get SO outraged and upset over something that has been carried out against another ethnic group is just boggling to me.
I am now boycotting this thread.
Peace.
That will only happen when parents are convinced it’s necessary to help recover their kids in the case of kidnapping or getting lost. Parents will do anything if they’re are properly scared first.
I think the leaders of Mexico just have bigger issues to deal with. And if I had to guess, their bottom feeders are choosing to sit on their butt in Mexico and not take care of their families rather then come here to work.
I remember once in a lecture hall in Yale the professor was going on and on about how bad a job Vincente Fox was doing. A kid in the middle of the hall raised his hand and you could see the professor saw him, but she wouldn’t stop her rant (afterall, this was Yale). She went on about how Fox won’t stop corruption, how he couldn’t stand up to the sycophants around him, and how he couldn’t even control his own people let alone drug lords or rebel fighters in the more remote part of Mexico. At that point the teacher, with a great look of disgust on her face said “Yes, well, what is it you’ve been dying to interupt me with.”
The boy replied “I happen to think my father is doing a good job as President.”
The teacher turned red and mumbled her way through repeating some basics about the assigned paper and ended class early.
Guess what, there never was a large donation to Yale by the Fox family and there’s no “Vincente Fox Building for Foreign Affairs Studies” as a result.
So having a chip inserted somewhere in our forearm is in the near future.
Deco, just come to MLS with Henry.
because you dont get it
The unfortunate thing about soccer is that it produces so much fodder for the soccer hater in the form of pictures taken mid-stride or mid-stretch. Whereas with gridiron football it doesn’t matter, the players always look like robots and baseball players don’t have to move fast enough to get caught in compromising situations.
Ha! LB and I might be on the other side of this issue (not sure but I suspect we are) but that was funny none-the-less.
For the record I thought AKDN wasn’t being insulting. In fact, he seems a very thoughtful and considerate person. Actually, i’d argue that the whole issue has been dealt with rather politely and thoughfully with the exception of a couple comments and some off-track tangents (of which I was a big part of–specifically our Tampa/Houstan sidetrack earlier… sorry).
I’d say the whole issue was handled much better by both sides here then it has been dealt with on any political page out there.
Sincere Kudos to Ives and his moderators not to just delete any comment on it out of fear of it getting out of hand. What’s that old quote about “the thing about football… the important thing about football is that it’s ever JUST about football.” Seems apt here today.
bud selig said today they’re not moving it. i found the blackmailing by californian cities hysterical. arizona could always just shut off the water supply to california, i mean fair is fair right?
I wouldn’t say that’s entirely accurate. Roy said all season that playing in Europe was an honor, but that their goal, as always, was to secure their premier league survival. Midway through the season, long before their survival was certain, Fulham faced a do or die away to Basel, and it looked like they would bow out. Surprisingly they won. Their top flight survival was eventually secured and they could turn their sights to chasing European glory.
I see nothing wrong with that. Fulham have no delusions about where they fall in the pecking order. Our club can’t compete week in and week out like Chelsea, Man United. We can’t spend what City and Spurs have been spending. We do the best we can with what we have, and we are generally content. No one cares about our finish in 12th. We realistically might have finished as high as 9th. That’s just what we are capable of, barring an injection of an insane amount of money.
You are not apologizing for accidentally supporting the anti-apartheid movement, are you? It sounds like you regret buying the record, sending proceeds towards opposition of S. Africa’s policies of racial discrimination up until that time.
i’m sorry but illegal immigrants should not have the same civil rights as citizens or legal residents of this country. the first they did by coming was break the law. and it amazes me how people try and fear-monger this thing into being racist. the law states they can’t just stop you as you go and get ice cream bc you look a certain ethnicity, as obama would like you to believe.
what majority of americans are you talking about? I just do not believe that….
It’s definately not redundant as it has never been enforced before. What has gotten redundant is the knee-jerk reaction that says “they’re being nazi’s demanding papers from anyone who looks non-white” from people who clearly haven’t read the law.
I’m not complaining about next January’s NCAA football championship being in Arizona.
But can I complain about how annoying it is having to scroll through too many posts on politics and immigration laws when I specifically log on to this site to read posts on SOCCER?!?!?!?!
Arizona’s new law will do nothing to stop illegal immigration. What it will do is increase the intimidation and harassment of people of a certain ethnic background, regardless of whether they are illegal aliens, US citizens, tourists, etc. There are also no specifics as to what documents are necessary to prove that one is in the country legally. This will in turn lead to many innocent people being jailed and fined. That is the reason for the protests and boycotts.
The “crime” scenario is just a poor excuse. The snipers who terrorized Phoenix in 2006 were a bunch of good ol’ whiteboys. Maybe Arizona should pass a law making it illegal to have a mullet, goatee, and a pickup truck and all sales of Keystone Light should be curtailed.
And this just one example why I don’t discuss issues like this. People insult each other.
For the record and to state the obvous: AKDN isn’t the first or last guy to do it. No matter what side of any controversial issue people are coming from–I’m just not into the soapboxing. I don’t like being talked to like I am an idiot (while I will be the first to admit that being conceived, born and spending my formative years in Charm City, aka Baltimore, MD I may just in fact be a bit “challenged” in several ways).
Lampard is a dead ringer for batboy in that picture.
Agree that both Fab leaving and Arteta a step backward.
What creative, attacking mid is available otherwise?
If so upset about immigration law, why not boycott the entire country since the feds lack the the political balls to support anything short of amnesty! Remember as soccer fans how we and our players are treated at our own home matches and the crap we have to put with from Mex fans. Oh the double standard and arrogance of wanting to come here only to boo our national anthem and throw things at our players and fans during matches! The filth that is the Mexican government is only concerned about the billions in remittance and pushing their bottoms feeders here so we can take care of them! Hope you enjoy the free stuff while booing our national anthem!!!
You make me sound like the guy from those Dos Equis commercials.
All in all, great photo.
And Frank Lampard looks like he just took one of those pictures on a Macbook where you can look half ‘tarded. Always love the distorted pictures on here.
AKDN, For such a worldy and intelligent man of mystery, you are a homophobe! How slanderous of you to challenge the gender of an English Icon (did I say English? Then you are a xenophobic homophobe!)
But, yes, he could pass for Tinkerbelle.
I’d be much more interested in hearing that then what this thread has fallen into.
Don’t really think politics has any place on a soccer blog.
An obscure band from Virginia called “Eddie from Ohio” (no joke) has a song about a guy who is Canexican. It’s actually not bigoted and quite funny.