by Martin Parry
September 30, 2007

SHANGHAI (AFP) – A ruthlessly efficient Germany tamed Brazil Sunday to win the World Cup final 2-0 with goals from Birgit Prinz and Simone Laudehr making them the first nation to successfully defend their title.

The Germans also owed a huge debt to unbeatable goalkeeper Nadine Angerer who saved a second-half penalty from World Player of the Year Marta that left the Brazilians numb.
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September 29, 2007
Special to PA SportsTicker

MADRID, Spain (Ticker) – Thierry Henry opened his Primera Liga goal account for the season, grabbing a hat-trick as Barcelona romped to a 4-1 win at Levante on Saturday.

The France international, who made the move to Barca from Arsenal during preseason, found the back of the net in the 17th, 24th and 49th minutes as Barca ran riot at the Estadi Ciutat de Valencia.
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by Ian Edwards
September 29, 2007

BIRMINGHAM, England (AFP) – Cristiano Ronaldo marked his 100th Premiership appearance for Manchester United in the perfect style with the solitary goal that delivered a 1-0 victory over Birmingham at St Andrews on Saturday.

United warmed up ahead of their Champions League meeting with Italian side AS Roma at Old Trafford on Tuesday night with their fourth 1-0 win of the campaign in their eight games so far to keep Sir Alex Ferguson just two points adrift of Premier League leaders Arsenal.
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Stuart Barnes at Upton Park
Sunday September 30, 2007
The Observer

Arsenal's early-season bandwagon rolled on incessantly. They maintained an unbeaten start with a hard-earned victory at Upton Park where they had not been successful in the league for seven years. Robin van Persie's early header did the trick and his side held on to the advantage without too many problems. West Ham battled hard and Dean Ashton missed one glorious chance of an equaliser. But Arsenal were always the more dangerous side and West Ham keeper Robert Green had to be alert to prevent the leaders enjoying a bigger victory.

West Ham, beaten 3-1 at Newcastle last week, gave Scott Parker and Henri Camara their first league starts and Freddie Ljungberg his first since the opening day of the season. Hayden Mullins, Matthew Etherington and Carlton Cole made way. Ljungberg faced the team he left during the summer, disillusioned by the sale of Thierry Henry.
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9/28/2007
Kaveh Mahjoob, lastkick.com

Overshadowed by Sepahan!

In Iran, week seven of Persian Gulf League was overshadowed by two events:

First, Sepahan eliminated Kawasaki of Japan and advanced to the semi finals of the Asian Champions League. This is the first time an Iranian club has advanced as far since the new Asian-wide league was established several years ago.
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9/27/2007
Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

You guys may have heard about the now famous “Seal Dribble Incident" in Brazil. I read about it a couple of days ago and got curious enough to dig it out on the web. Apparently this Brazilian kid called Kerlon has this trick that is basically lifting the ball on his head and running around while bouncing it like a seal. Click here to see him do it.

I think the defender who fouled him was a jerk and should be punished, but on the other hand I can see why he would be mad at the kid. It is almost as he is almost mocking the defenders.

Anyway, click here to see the incident and tell me what do you think?

Sep 26, 2007
PA Sport

KAWASAKI – Sepahan punished a profligate Kawasaki Frontale to progress to the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League with a 5-4 penalty shoot-out win over the J.League side after the second leg of the quarter-final finished goalless on Wednesday.

Hiroyuki Taniguchi missed Frontale's fourth penalty before Jalal Akbari slotted home Sepahan's final spot-kick to take the Iranians through to a last four meeting with either Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia or Al Wahda from the United Arab Emirates.
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9/24/2007
Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

A funny thing the politics of Iranian football! Just when you think the football brains in the country are suffering from severe case of mental constipation they prove you wrong by showing signs of excessive diarrhea!!

Last year FIFA demanded that the Iranian Football Federation’s structure and bylaws be changed to ensure its FIFA required NGO status. It took the Iranian football think-tanks over a year to draft the new documents.
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9/24/2007
Kaveh Mahjoob, footballmedia.net

Believing in yourself and your ability is step one of road to success. In football, best clubs around the world are led by coaches that inject the positive thinking and the desire for championships to their players. Over the past twelve years, In England, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal have won the championships. These three clubs have enjoyed coaching leaderships unparallel for their clubs yet it is that absolute belief in self and winning desire that have made the difference for them. As every season begins, Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho (resigned last week) and Arsène Wenger start by talking about winning the league. They set the standards high and expectations focused on the Cup. They don’t talk about finishing in top 6 as a goal to be proud of. Such talk would result of them getting laughed out of town.
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9/23/2007
lastkick.com

Hey football fans and Last Kick friends,

As you may have figured it out I was away for a few weeks. I was in lovely Dominican Republic away from cell phones, emails, websites, and computers in general. Believe it or not during the last three weeks the only game I watched was Barcelona’s 3:0 UEFA Champions League over Lyon.

I hope you have been visiting us here on Last Kick while I was gone. My brother Amir took over the responsibilities of keeping the site up-to-date. I think he is relieved that I am back!

As you know Dominican Republic is best known for its superb baseball players and football is not a major sport there, but while I was there I met some hardcore Dominican football fans who kindly invited me to watch one of their matches. I will tell you more about them later.

Meanwhile, I am glad to be back and I hope that you will drop a note (leave a comment) to let me know you are still out there with me following our favorite game.