International Friendly England versus Republic of Ireland 29 May 2013

A football friendly for the ages as England squares off against the Republic of Ireland on 29 May 2013. The national teams last met at Wembley in 1991 during European Championship qualification action.

Ticket purchasing and other match-day information now available at the official site of Wembley National Stadium.

Check back for other informative links as the build-up to this historic football friendly continues.

International Football Friendly Brazil versus Chile 24 April 2013

Last December we offered up some discussion on Brazil's coach Luiz Felipe Scolari wanting to add stronger competitors to the national team's football friendly lineup.

Friendly matches remain against a host of quality sides including Italy (March 21), Russia (March 25), England (June 2), France (June 9) and Sweden (August 14) coupled with the Confederations Cup to be staged by the 2014 World Cup hosts in June.

Brazil will also play Chile in yet another warm-up to the Confederations Cup per a report at Yahoo! Europsport.com. The football friendly will take place on April 24 at the renovated Mineirao in Belo Horizonte.

Looks like Scolari ended up with his "competitive" football friendlies as the coach hopes to guide Brazil's national team to yet another World Cup title; this time on home soil.

Manchester United new addition Wilfried Zaha wants to help Crystal Palace to the Prem

Here's part of an exclusive interview offered online at Crystal Palace's official YouTube Channel. In the short, Manchester United's newest addition Wilfried Zaha, on loan with his former side until summer 2013, notes how it's his goal to help Palace join the England Premier League in 2013-14.

Will Zaha add to his legend status at Selhurst Park and accomplish the task?

You'll have to join the Palace Player to see the interview in its entirety.

Video via Crystal Palace Official YouTube Channel.

Official YouTube Football Soccer Channels List

Please leave other official YouTube football or soccer channels in our comments section or email us. We'll add them to the ongoing list.

To the best of our knowledge each listing represents the -- Official YouTube Channel -- and should we deem otherwise, the link will be removed. Thanks!

English Premier League Official YouTube Channels

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Other English Clubs Official YouTube Channels

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Scottish Premier League

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La Liga

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Bundesliga

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Other German Clubs Official YouTube Channels

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Ligue 1

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Liga MX

+ Chivas del Guadalajara
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South America

+ Atlético Mineiro (Brazil)
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+ Santos TV (Brazil)
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Other Clubs

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Football Federations

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Sponsors, Apparel and Cleats

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Other Official Channels (Media, etc.)

+ goal.com
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Footballers

+ David Beckham - Official YouTube Channel
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+ Messi - Official YouTube Channel

Ashley Cole 100th England international cap video tribute

Fantastic bit of work below:

Video via The Official Vauxhall YouTube Channel.

Ashley Cole to earn his 100th international cap versus Brazil in friendly action on 6 February 2013

Per a report at BBC Sport, England manager Roy Hodgson stated during today's press conference that left back Ashley Cole will earn his 100th international cap against Brazil tomorrow. The footballer will start at Wembley.

"Ashley will definitely start the game," said Hodgson per the report.

Pittsburgh Steelers likened to Liverpool FC

The Yanks Are Coming's Jon Levy recently completed a two part series on soccer clubs and their NFL counterparts (Part II linked).

Interestingly, he listed Liverpool as the counterpart of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The comparison actually makes a good deal of sense.

From Levy's article:

"Perennial contenders, competitive even in down years, immense championship history, snazzy but not outlandish uniforms, a tremendous homefield advantage, and a city that prides itself on being blue-collar but also increasingly modern and young. They even have loveable leaders alike in Steven Gerrard, one of the finer players of his generation, and Troy Polamalu, one of the finest defensive players of his generation."

From a cultural standpoint, the water is critical to the city's identity in both cases. In addition, in the same away Liverpool and Manchester are often seen as rival cities so too are Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The rivalries bitterly carry over to sport with Manchester United and Liverpool engaging in several historic contests; the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers also battle for Pennsylvania bragging rights.

Brazil and Sweden to meet on 14 August 2013

Skål! It's another Brazil vs. Sweden friendly.

The Brazilians, who traveled to Stockholm in August 2012 for a 3-0 friendly victory over Sweden will once again match up with the European side on 14 August 2013 per the CBF, Brazil's football confederation. The venue for the competition was announced recently as St. Jakob Park in Basel, Switzerland.

Brazil competes in the FIFA Confederations Cup from June 15 to June 30; several other friendlies are lined up this year including the 6 February 2013 match with England.

Everton January 2013 Loan Deal

Everton loaned out 19-year-old midfielder Ross Barkley (Leeds United)

+ Source: TribalFootball.com PREMIER LEAGUE LOANS: All the January deals

Aston Villa January 2013 Loan Deals

Aston Villa completed a loan deal for 25-year-old attacker Simon Dawkins (Tottenham) and loaned out 28-year-old Scottish international right back Alan Hutton (Real Mallorca).

+ Source: TribalFootball.com PREMIER LEAGUE LOANS: All the January deals

Chelsea January 2013 Loan Deals

Chelsea loaned out 19-year-old forward Patrick Bamford (MK Dons), 19-year-old forward Lucas Piazon (Malaga), 20-year-old midfielder Billy Clifford (Colchester United), 21-year-old goalkeeper Sam Walker (Colchester United), 18-year-old Brazilian right back Wallace (Fluminense) and 19-year-old right back Todd Kane (Blackburn Rovers).

+ Source: TribalFootball.com PREMIER LEAGUE LOANS: All the January deals

+ Search, compare and save on - Chelsea FC kits, shirts and other apparel.

Arsenal January 2013 Loan Deals

Arsenal loaned out 19-year-old midfielder Chuks Aneke (Crewe Alexandra), 21-year-old midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong (Fulham), 26-year-old Swiss international defender Johan Djourou (Hannover 96) and 29-year-old Moroccan international striker Marouane Chamakh (West Ham United).

+ Source: TribalFootball.com PREMIER LEAGUE LOANS: All the January deals

+ Search, compare and save on - Arsenal kits, shirts and other apparel.

Tottenham to QPR pipeline to continue today?

QPR's ol' Harry Redknapp continues to wheel and deal with The Sun reporting on a smashing idea where Redknapp will bring in a Hotspur troika of David Bentley, Andros Townsend and Jermaine Jenas on the last day of the transfer window. The trio going on loan from Tottenham until the end of the 2012-13 campaign.

Manchester United's South American Pipeline

Since 2008, Manchester United and Desportivo Brasil have enjoyed a mutual exchange where players, coaches and football knowledge have traveled between the two sides.

Desportivo Brasil was founded in 2005 by the Traffic Group, a vast sporting company in Brazil, with the sole purpose of utilizing the club to send players abroad to greener -- in terms of pitch and pound -- pastures. Desportivo's multi-million pound training centre is one of the finest in all of South America. In this new age of football, the first-rate facilities are not utilized for trophy acquisition but for financial gains.

Desportivo's location in Porto Feliz, only 90 minutes ride to Sao Paulo, is critical to the club's vision of moving players to Europe for financial gain. Sao Paulo is the largest city in South America, in terms of population. The mega-city boasts a modern airport with frequent incoming flights completed by American Airlines, Air Canada, Delta, Iberia, Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France.

The proximity lends to cheaper costs when players are sent out on trial to clubs on the European continent or to North America.

Manchester United gained a foothold early at Desportivo and the relationships remains strong today.

In March of 2012, the Old Trafford machine added 17-year-old midfielder Lucas Evangelista. The teenager, capable of playing in an attacking or defensive role, impressed the United scouting machine with his work-rate and dribbling skills. In 2013, he will sign a professional contract after his 18th birthday joining Anderson, Rafael and Fabio da Silva as Brazilian Reds.

In yet another savvy move United is utilizing FC Twente to essentially host the Brazilian wunderkinds until the Samba stars-in-training can gain valuable first-team experience and more importantly the credentials needed for EU status.

In the past, Traffic's president of international business Jochen Losch noted the relationship between United and Twente.

Losch stated to Sportsmail:

"Twente are a partner, helping United to resolve the problem of their EU passports. For two reasons it's good that a player goes first to Holland. First, after two or three years he's considered to be European. And of course it's easier to play in the Dutch league than the Premier League."

If the player succeeds in Europe, Desportivo and its owner Traffic succeed as well. For example, United pays a fee to Traffic for players such as Evangelista. The Brazilian company then retains a fifty-percent share of any future profits from the sale of the player.

In addition to Evangelista, striker Aguilar and midfielder Agnaldo are two more Desportivo prodigies who could prove critical to future United title teams. And now comes word this December that United will add yet another Desportivo youngster when Bruno Gomes joins United in 2014.

So in a full-circle kind of way, Desportivo is about trophy acquisition after all.

Source notes

Links via TribalFootball.com and FiestaFootball.com

Information sources: Manchester Evening News and Man Utd's Brazil Project

Photo via Hanumann at Flickr's Creative Commons