It's a bit of a landmark week for the weekly FIFA 10 podcast - episode 40. That's a lot of audio...

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here, but you'd probably do best to just listen to the latest one!

This week's show features the first Live Season 2.0 weekly update of the FIFA 10 era - dominated as the team of the week is by Italians. That's joined by a Newcastle-related Fact of the Week in line with the news their venerable old Stadium is to be preposterously renamed the "sportsdirect.com @ St James's Park Stadium". And of course we have the Big Shout in which we ask you lot what's more valuable - the Champions League or the Premier League.

Have a listen to Episode 40 right here.

New EA SPORTS Interactive Training Features EA SPORTS Technology and Advice from U.S. Soccer Development Academy Technical Director and U.S. Men's National Team Assistant Coach John Hackworth to Help Youth Players Perfect Skills

EA SPORTS and U.S. Soccer have teamed up to introduce EA SPORTS Interactive Training, a free, online tutorial that uses EA SPORTS technology to help train the soccer stars of the future.  This interactive resource, available at www.EASPORTSinteractivetraining.com employs the EA SPORTS soccer game engine to illustrate U.S. Soccer's coaching book "Best Practices for Coaching Soccer in the United States" which serves as the sport's definitive new player development guidelines. John Hackworth, U.S. Soccer Development Academy Technical Director and U.S. Men's National Team Assistant Coach introduces each video segment with expert coaching advice for players ages 8-12 and their coaches to help them improve real-world technique.

The U.S. Soccer "Best Practices for Coaching Soccer in the United States" manual is an invaluable training guide created by U.S. Soccer's Coaching Education Department to give youth and junior level soccer coaches in the United States a set of fundamental tools to help open up the game of soccer to young players in ways that celebrate the sport's spontaneous qualities.  The Best Practices Manual is available for free download at www.ussoccer.com.  EA SPORTS uses sophisticated physics and its animation engine to bring the resource to life by helping players and coaches visualize the professional benefits of drills and convert that to precision on the field.  

Specific features of EA SPORTS Interactive Training include:

• Six videos focused on drills - Passing, Dribbling, Heading, Shooting, Receiving and Defending
• Three levels of complexity for each video module
• Expert advice by John Hackworth, U.S. Soccer Development Academy Technical Director and U.S. Men's National Team Assistant Coach

Given the insatiable appetite EA SPORTS is seeing for digital content among youth demographics globally, this online resource is likely to resonate with young players and help U.S. Soccer in its mission to help continue the development of soccer at all recreational and competitive levels. Since last June, more than 500 million online game sessions of EA SPORTS games have been played, and more than 2 million game highlight videos have been uploaded to EA SPORTS websites.

To experience EA SPORTS Interactive Training, log on to www.EASPORTSinteractivetraining.com.

The topic of this week’s Big Shout in the FIFA 10 Podcast was whether or not Sven-Goran Eriksson has lost his marbles in going to lowly Notts County in League Two as director of football…

My feeling is that he is of sound mind and body and the man has simply found his level. Sven has made a modest ability to manage football teams go a long way and has finally been found out by the football community at large. That’s why he now has to ply his trade in the nether regions of English football.

No Premiership club came in for him and it would appear that his career as an international manager has gone cold. So what was he left with?

Sven’s been rumbled.

For the complete blog and podcast, go the FIFA Off The Bench blog:  The Big Shout - Has Sven Lost His Marbles?

By Stevie Morgan

Regular listeners to the FIFA 10 podcast will know that in our feature 'The Big Shout' Romily Broad and myself tackle the big talking points of the day. This week we responded to comments by Florentino Perez - the Real Madrid president - who said there was a need for the top teams in Europe to break away and form a European Super League.

"I haven't signed all these top players to play against Getafe," El Presidente said. And you know what? I agree with him.

Read the full blog and listen to the new FIFA 10 podcast on the Off The Bench blog here.

Stevie Morgan with Romily Broad here and we arrived today in Manchester for the second leg of the FIFA 10 ad shoot and immediately made a pilgrimage to Old Trafford to worship at the feet of Best, Law and Charlton, before preparing to meet some current footballing heavyweights tomorrow.

Last week in Barcelona - where our adventure began - we journeyed to five locations around the city to bask in the collective fame of some of European football’s biggest names. And to apply the factor 30 under the sizzling Catalan sun, which turned my timid Anglo Saxon skin lobster pink.

For the complete blog entry with video, go to the FIFA 10 blog - Off The Bench:  Manchester - So Much To Answer To