Rogerio Ceni Out For Six Months

São Paulo goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni will be out of action for the next six months after he fractured his ankle in practice.

The world’s all-time scoring goalkeeper with 83 goals will need surgery and will miss the remainder of the Copa Santander Libertadores as well as the Paulistão and probably the remainder of the Brazilian national tournament.

The Brazilian international goalkeeper was part of the 1997 Confederations Cup team as well as the 2002 World Cup team.  He also won the 2005 Copa Libertadores title as well as the inaugural World Club Cup tournament.

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Yes, how time flies.  We now have posted ten shows in this new cycle.  You know what it could not have been at a better time and with a better guest.  CNN SI’s Greg Sica was with and he taught us about the best hang outs and why everyone in Uruguay loves TITS (not those, you pervs!).  George starts to feel the the effects of strip clubs as well as his new partnership with Dr. Sica as they scrounge the world looking for hot soccer women.

Oh by the way we did talk about  South America, Spain, Champions League, and some CONCACAF in this edition of Mad About Futbol.

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Mad About Futbol Top 5: Numero Uno

You know with all the talk of stadiums for the World Cup and meeting standards, it got me to thinking of the Top 5 Stadiums I would like to watch a World Cup match or for that matter any football match. Factors going into the Top 5 include size, location, history and crowd enthusiasm, so here they are:

MAF Show 9

This edition of the show were talked about everything… and I mean EVERYTHING!!!

We went worldwide with our topic of The Beautiful Game as we dissected qualifying from all over the world.   So listen to George and Juan (Mike was still recovering from the 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Bolivia) as well as MLSTalk’s Kartik Krishnaiyer, The Third Half’s Johnathan Starling, and MAF newbie Jovannei Arroyo.

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This Week On MAF

The guys will wrap up the weekend in Spain and Italy as well as in Argentina and the rest of South America as well as the MLS alongside MLSTalk’s Kartik Krishnaiyer and Jovannei Arroyo.

SI.com and Goal.com writer Greg Sica will be with us to hang out and talk about Copa Lib as well as discuss the fallout from CONMEBOL quallies. He will also give his Champions League predictions as the quarterfinals are about to begin.

CONMEBOL Week 12 Wrap

For those neysayers that still think that Europe is tops for international play, the past two days in CONMEBOL once again proved why this region is the toughest in the world to get out of.

Venezuela and Bolivia’s chances to get to the World Cup were moribund until they played their most inspired matches of the season. Both sides made history in process. Venezuela beat their neighbors for the first time in World Cup qualifying play at home. A ten-man Colombia side put up a valiant fight, albeit one that generated few chances on goal the last half hour of play.

Nicolás Fedor opened the scoring with a contrversial goal and Juan Arango once again was the Cafeteros’ nightmare scoring off a free kick that David Ospina could do nothing about. This left Colombis in a tough situation come June against an Argentina side that will defintely be motivated.

Diego Maradona thought his side was clicking on all cylinders, but the altitude and a team that poppoed them in the mouth put them in dire straits from the first whistle. Bolivia’s 6-1 thrashing of the Albiceleste was the worst for the Argentines since the 1958 World Cup when Czechoslovakia beat them by the same result.  Joaquín Botero’s hat-trick placed him top the goalscoring list.

Ecuador once again had trouble scoring but once they had the lead their advantage was take away in the dying moments of the match by Paraguay.  The Guaranís are now two points away from reaching the magic number to qualify for the World Cup.

Chile and Uruguay was one of the more exciting scoreless draws that could be seen.  The frenetic pace benefitted the spectators, but neither team got the complete satisfaction to know that they pulled a point away from Colombia.

Brazil had it a long time coming and they were able to beat Peru without a problem.   The win put them in second place behind Paraguay and Brazil inch closer to the cup as well as a huge match in June at the Centenario.

Venezuela 2-0 Colombia
VEN: Fedor (76′), Arango (81′)

Bolivia 6-1 Argentina
BOL: Martins (11′), Botero (33′ pk, 53′, 65′), Da Rosa (45′), Torrico (81′)
ARG: González (24′)

Ecuador 1-1 Paraguay
ECU: Noboa (63′)
PAR: Benítez (90′)

Chile 0-0 Uruguay

Brazil 3-0 Peru
BRA: Luis Fabiano (16′ pk, 27′), Felipe Melo (64′)

CONMEBOL Week 11 Results And Standings

Uruguay took a huge leap towards getting back into the race to qualifying for South Africa 2010 with a convincing win over first place Paraguay at the mythical Centenario in Montevideo.  It was the vanguard (Diego Forlán and Diego Lugano) that scored both goals for Oscar Washington Tabárez’ club.  They will now face a Chile side in Santiago that made history against archrivals Peru.