Season 29 Week 5 processing...

Welcome to week 5 which is the first of five International weeks.

We have four International tournaments kicking off today, the World Cup, the World Youth Cup, the Gold Cup and the International League.

The three cup competitions consist of sixteen teams divided into 4 groups of four teams, each team plays against each opponent in it's group once and the winner of the group goes through to the semi-finals. Sides in the league play each opponent once and the results decide whether the team moves up a division, down a division or stays in it's current division. The usual format is 2 up 2 down 2 stay.

The manager of each club will earn £1millions for each international week they are in charge of each club, so if you have four clubs you could earn £20millions in appearance money for your parent club.

Good luck to everybody this week.

Data entry is underway...

As well as the World Cup kickoff we have some very big and important league games this week.

In the Premiership second placed Manchester City have leaders Charlton to contend with at Maine Road, whilst third placed Watford are at home to Liverpool. With these teams separated by just a point any of them could be top come the end of the week. Watford will be without the influential Paul Pogba so Jorginho comes in to replace him, and Jordan Henderson is out for Charlton and that gives a chance to Lucas, whereas City will be at full strength. City made a cheeky bid last week for Norwich's James Maddison in the hope they could sign him before he was called up for England duty but happily for Norwich they resisted and he makes his debut this week in Norwich's midfield, but i'm not sure how long they can keep hold of him with two more bids going in this week.

A very tough game for Manchester United who travel to Champions Plymouth and drop Smalling to the bench as Ivorians Ake and Bailly try to keep out the Green Machine. Arsenal entertain Fulham in what could be a very close high scoring game as both sides like to attack. Arsenal striker Said Berahino got tired of waiting for a call from the England manager and has agreed to play for the Congo from now on. Unpredictable Newcastle entertain struggling Birmingham and this must be a good chance to solidify the Magpies good start to the season although injuries have taken their toll this week with both Shaqiri and Dembele missing from their midfield. Aston Villa have made a good start to the season and they are at full strength and play Crystal Palace this week at Villa Park, Palace keep faith with Randolph between the sticks despite the blunder last week and Robles is champing at the bit to get back into the side. Seems Palace have a plethora of good keepers with Spiegel not even in the reserves, that can't be good for club morale. Palace decided not to make a £40millions bid this week for Fluminense's Robert Kenedy despite the fact they do need his services, but the cost was deemed to be "out of the club's reach" by the manager.

Serie A has it's own big games this week with Napoli hosting Roma in the Del Sole Derby in Naples, Fiorentina travelling to Cagliari, Parma hosting Inter Milan and the big game has Juventus playing AC Milan. Inter will be without the departing Rui Patricio as he prepares to join Benfica and Rever returns to the heart of Parma's defence.

A bit of a slow start from Sao Paulo in Brazil sees them languishing in fifth place but still only three points off the leaders Flamengo and their game this week away at struggling Palmeiras is vitally important. Still searching for a good left wingback they need all three points. Santos are down in ninth, have they ever been that low before ? but an easier fixture at Goias should see them improve that this week. Vasco are also struggling and a tough away day trip to Coritiba looks unlikely to help them out much whilst surprise leaders Flamengo seem to be returning to top form and should grab another three points this week when they play unmanaged Internacional at the Maracana. Cruzeiro have no less than eight keepers on their books and even though keepers are somewhat immune to morale machinations that can't be good for morale surely. Fourth placed Fluminense will be hoping to beat Botafogo in what has become to be known affectionately as the Grandpa Derby and although the suspended Diego misses out they don't look much weaker as they draft in Scarpa to replace him. Botafogo have Allan injured and he'll be replaced by the evergreen De Rossi and fans get their first glimpse of the exciting Hulk this week as he makes his debut, could be a blinder of a game this one, looking forward to it.

Rangers are fourth prior to their game at home to Hearts in which young Scottish fullback Tierney keeps his place in preference to the more experienced Stankovic. New Hearts boss makes some minor tweaks to his new side as he looks to bring in a top quality striker. Promoted Partick are struggling with a large debt and a multi-lingual disabled squad and will need to sort that out quick else they will be going straight back down. The Hibs boss "was not looking forward to the trip to Celtic this week" although Italian targetman Parigini does seem to be settling in at last, leaders Celtic are at full strength.

Fourth placed Real Madrid will continue to rely on the undoubted talent of their front four this week as Hazard, Ronaldo, Benzema and Messi should continue their fine form, whilst leaders Barcelona play host to Real Zaragoza in what should be an easy three points for them.

Second placed Schalke entertain a strong Dresden side this week whilst fifth placed Bayern Munich probably need to start looking for a few first team replacements as their five over 30s players might be feeling the strain of a long season later in the year. Double disappointment for young German forward Avdijaj this week as he is dropped from the international squad and left without a game for his club side. League leaders MoenchenGladbach entertain Stuttgart with the club looking to the future by drafting in young Thorgen Hazard and listing american winger Fabian Johnson.

The big game in France sees table topping Nantes play host to Olympique Marseille and it'll be a very tough job for the visitors to get something from this game. But the visiting boss isn't too depressed about Nantes superb form as he begins a big clearout of players that are "under performing" this season that includes Amalfitano, Aliadiere and Rodriguez to name but a few. Paris take on Lille at the Parc Des Princes and struggling Saint Etienne will be hoping for better things at Lyon.

Bids continue to pour into Chicago Fire for young starlet Eder Militao and although his future is uncertain the young centreback has said he would be happy to stay in the Windy City and continue to learn his trade in what is now an all Brazilian backline at Chicago.

League games will kickoff at 1000 hours Wednesday morning...

World Cup Results Match Day One of Three

Spain 1 England 2
Russia 1 Belgium 4

Brazil 2 France 1
Scotland 2 Poland 5

Argentina 3 Holland 2
Italy 2 Uruguay 1

Germany 4 Portugal 3
Norway 1 Czech 1

Paul Hemmings wrote:

World Cup Results Match Day One of Three

Spain 1 England 2
Russia 1 Belgium 4

Brazil 2 France 1
Scotland 2 Poland 5

Argentina 3 Holland 2
Italy 2 Uruguay 1

Germany 4 Portugal 3
Norway 1 Czech 1

Get me a waistcoat!

Gold Cup Results Match Day One

USA 2 Korea 1
Denmark 2 N.Ireland 2

Ghana 2 Australia 2
Eire 4 Japan 2

Nigeria 5 Morocco 1
Ivory Coast 5 Colombia 1

Greece 1 Mexico 1
Egypt 1 Peru 1

World Youth Cup Results Match Day One

Brazil 1 England 0
Eire 0 Holland 3

Spain 3 Denmark 0
Wales 2 Portugal 3

Italy 1 France 3
Scotland 0 Russia 3

Germany 3 Argentina 1
N.Ireland 1 Belgium 0

Kickoff approaches as the players lineup...

And the ref blows his whistle and we're off. Good luck to everybody this week...

Flamengo 1 Internacional 0 Talisca on 5 minutes.
Bolton 1 Brighton 0 Eaves header.
Lyon 0 Etienne 1 Harit header.
New York City 1 Vancouver 0 Johannsson header.

St Johnstone 1 Stirling 0 Evans on 7 minutes.

Palmeiras 1 Sao Paulo 0 Kleber on 8 minutes.
Paris 1 Lille 0 Gomis penalty.
Inverness 1 Dundee Utd 0 Samaris.
Parma 0 Inter Milan 1 Neymar.

He's off and running...

Melbourne City 1 Guoan 0 Karlen on 10 minutes.

Newcastle 0 Birmingham 1 Payet penalty on 11 minutes.
Barcelona 1 Zaragoza 0 Koke.

Dmitri Payet in good form for Birmingham...

Forest 1 Spurs 0 N'Gog on 14 minutes.

Schalke 0 Dresden 1 Demirbay on 16 minutes.

Arena Aufschalke falls silent...

Cherry Orchard 0 Bohemians 1 Akinade on 17 minutes.

Traditionally and historically the games between these two sides have decided the destiny of the title so not a good start for Cherry...

Monaco 1 Cannes 0 Debuchy on 17 minutes.
Lazio 1 Cremonese 0 Marusic.
Inverness 2 Dundee Utd 0 Fountas freekick.

Fluminense 0 Botafogo 1 Hulk on 18 minutes.
Villa 1 Palace 0 Lukaku.

The top four in the Premiership is fast becoming a top five especially if Villa can maintain this good form, and a goal for Hulk makes it a doubly good moment for somebody...