May 2009 Archives

The best news for Bordeaux apart from winning their 6th Championnat over the weekend with their 1-0 win over Caen was Yoann Gourcuff's decision to remain with the club and sign a four year permanent contract worth €15million.

Gourcuff's midfield gifts were nurtured by coach Laurent Blanc, who as a player was called Le President for his intelligence and leadership qualities on the pitch. He's bought that same intelligence to his player transfers. In Gourcuff he saw a player that he could build a team around. The midfielder whose progress was stymied at Milan did not disappoint with 12 goals and 11 assists in his first season, an achievement that won him the Ligue's POY award. Gourcuff's presence means that Marouane Chamakh and Fernando Cavenaghi can keep up their sharpshooting ways. He also has David Bellion, one of Man Utd's infamous busts after being "tapped" from Sunderland who seems to be scoring goals a bit more frequently.

Blanc's defense are rejects from other clubs who unde his tutelage have found their footing. Alou Diarra from Lyons, ex-Charlton defender Souleymane Diawara, and Lille's Mathieu Chalme bolstered the defense keeping the goal count down to 34 goals which proved crucial after Marseille looked firm favourites to win.

Sigi Schmid faced upto his old club and the result was another frustrating draw. The Sounders coach looked mighty unhappy.

Freddie Ljungberg muffed an easy penalty given his years of experience. He only managed to kick wide left. That was in the 32nd minute. In the 58th minute Steve Zakuani running from the left, passed the ball to Jacqua who moved it up to Ljungberg and kept running forward. Ljungberg's lobbed pass behind the Crew defense saw Nate Jacqua tracking the ball and volleying home magnificently to equalize in the 58th minute. Earlier, Alejandro Moreno's diving header converted of Pat Noonan's cross put Crew up.

This was the Sounders fifth draw on the trot. The bright start seems to be petering out and a bit of drift has crept in. Much of the criticism is centered around Fredy Montero's reluctance to connect with Ljungberg. Steve Zakuani's ability to get open not being exploited fully. Softness at the left back position and confusion about Brad Evans role.

Tyrone Marshall was ejected in the 92nd minute and will miss the next match against Chivas, the best performing MLS team so far this season.

The one positive note. With 29,126 fans watching the match, Qwest Field still leads MLS attendances by a mile.

The Fire go down to their perennial nemesis, Dallas and their loss ends an unbeaten 11 game streak, one shy of an MLS record.

Goals from Jeff Cunningham, an own goal by CJ Brown, and Kenny Cooper, gave Dallas an easy, 3-0 win over the Fire.

The second half turned scrappy with 6 yellow cards and Bakary Soumare's 79th minute ejection.

The Fire were coming off a grueling third game in a week which saw them travel coast to coast for matches against the Red Bulls and Chivas and then finally back home to play Dallas. They were also without Cuauhtemoc Blanco called up for national duty. Fire coach Dennis Hamlett also decided to rest standouts Marco Pappa and Gonzalo Segares.

"It's asking a lot to put the same 11 players on the field three times in a week," Hamlett said.

Their weariness showed as they looked a step slower compared to the Dallas players and gave the ball away easily.

FIFA announces the World Cup cities that will host 2014 World Cup matches.

Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Cuiaba, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio De Janeiro, Salvador, Sao Paulo

These 12 lucky cities were pruned down from the original list of seventeen. Of them, Natal, Salvador, and Recife will have to build new stadiums. Manaus wins one for Amazon adventurers who want to see matches and wrestle with anacondas.

We bid farewell to Paolo Maldini, Luis Figo, and Pavel Nedved.

Men of unbelievable talent, longevity, and work rate. This was their last day, their last season. We were privileged to see them play even when in opposition. Women all over the world weep, the eye candy store has been ransacked.

Paolo Maldini, El Gran Capitano, as everyone knows spent his entire playing career at Milan. A great organizer at the back; calm, composed and classy. Maldini was a seraph.

He was last of the quartet of great backs and along with Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta, and Mauro Tassotti formed a steel trap defense responsible for Milan's golden '80s and '90s era. Along the way he won 7 Serie and 5 CL titles in 901 appearances spanning a quarter of a century. Milan ended its season on a positive note against Fiorentina winning 2-0 erasing some of the bitter memories that Maldini had to endure against his Curva Sud detractors in his last home game.

Luis Figo ended his career at Inter spanning four clubs, 20 years, 573 appearances and 91 goals. His speed down the wings, slick passing skills, and Craig Owen looks made Figo a media darling. Having a knock out Swedish WAG did not hurt either.

He began his career at Sporting CP before moving to Barca in 1995 for his best years becoming a fan favourite and defining his winger role. In 2000 he won the Ballon d'Or and the following year was anointed FIFA's best player. Figo also became one of the few players to play for both Barca and Real for which he left in 2000 as part of Florentino Perez's galacticos. For this he was branded a traitor by the Blaugrana and never forgiven. He spent 5 years at Real and was the last galactico to leave, making a long overdue move to the Serie when he joined Inter in 2005 and won 4 consecutive scudetti under Roberto Mancini and thereafter Mourinho. His retirement was hastened by a series of injuries which began after Pavel Nedved's hard tackle broke his leg.

Pavel Nedved, he of the flying golden locks and mercurial midfield moves finished his last day at Juventus. He was best known for his blistering runs, spectacular open field goals, loyalty to the club after the Calciopoli disaster and a hard tackle that broke Luis Figo's leg.

He joined Juventus from Lazio as a replacement to Zidane when the French legend left for Real. With Juve he won 4 scudetti and the 2003 Ballon d'Or. In 2006 with Juventus relegated to Serie B as punishment for match fixing, Nedved showed his fealty remaining at the club and pledging its promotion.The last few years of his career was marked by injury and constant rumours of retirement. His career spanned four clubs, 18 years, 499 appearances, and 110 goals.

Robin Van Persie's frequent muscle injuries have been linked to his molars. He is to undergo surgery to remove his wisdom teeth.

So is there any wisdom in the link between Van Persie's teeth and his nagging muscle injuries or is it just a bunch of yucks.

Actually there maybe. Being in the field of neurosciences, I can tell you that there is evidence of neuroanatomical connections between the trigeminal nerve which is primarily responsible for sensation in the face and the motor functions of chewing, biting, and swallowing and brain areas which control body posture and muscle tone. Parts of the trigeminal nerve receive sensory and proprioceptive information from the teeth, specifically the mesencephalic nucleus of the trigeminal nerve.

In vertebrates this "nucleus" which is actually a bundle of sensory nerves sends out sensory connections to the parts of the cerebellum and a structure called the superior colliculus, which is responsible for eye gaze stabilization (it allows us to rapidly process changing visual information) and postural adjustments. The cerebellum is the brain center that co-ordinates and controls body posture and movements by using information gathered from various parts of the body and relaying it to the cerebral cortex which is finally responsible for the muscles moving the limbs. We make accurate reaching movements to a glass of water and drink from it without spilling a drop with an intact cerebellum.

There are studies that show that dental occlusion (e.g., an overbite/ underbite) can cause problems with eye gaze stabilization and postural control. Similarly, Trigeminal anesthesia causes imprecision of postural control and change in body posture.

We also know that the human body is structured as a composite of mutually interdependent anatomical linkages. Acupuncture and massage therapists like to use myofascial chains, i.e., intimate linkages between groups of muscles running longitudinally in the body, connected to each other through fascia, the supporting structure that sheath muscles and bones. The myofascial chains act in synergy.Their function is to distribute tension in response to mechanical stress or pain. It could explain why pain from chewing and swallowing disorders due to dental occlusion, wisdom tooth impaction, and TMD (Temporo-mandibular dysfunction) can affect muscles in other parts of the body.

Carlo Ancelotti announced his long awaited resignation from Milan soon after the Fiorentina match was over. He ended his Milan association a year before his contract was to expire.

He should be confirmed as Chelsea manager shortly.

OK. We already have Franck Ribery joining up Real. Before that it was Cristiano Ronaldo. If it Tuesday it must be Kaka. Now, it is Alonso.

If you keep shooting BB shots, a duck will fall.

One thing is certain. A number of tabloids and blogs are kept afloat by the Real rumour mill. Yours truly included. It is a gift that keeps giving.

Btw, I take back that duck reference. It would mean that Alexandre Pato is on his way to Real too. Which he might. Which he might. Stay tuned.

Tout Simplement means "its just that" in French.

It is also the title of the new book by Claude Makelele which has already generated a fair bit of controversy. The former Blues midfielder claims in his book that John Terry's unhappiness with his playing time was the catalyst behind Jose Mourinho's ouster. Essentially, Terry asked Peter Kenyon for an exit after he clashed with his manager over his form.

By now, Mourinho was looked on as a divisive figure, drawing support from some players while alienating others. The club's poor start to the 2007 season and Mourinho's dissatisfaction with Avram Grant's installation as director of football had the owner wavering over whether continuing on with Mourinho was in the club's best interest. Simply put, the potential loss of Chelsea's talisman convinced him that the Portugese was expendable.

There is truth to all this even as John Terry strenuously denies any role in Mourinho's departure and insists that he never asked for a transfer. A revelation like this is potentially damaging and it is significant that his lawyers came out against such claims. It warns parties against future "Turncoat Terry" type defamation.

Terry and Mourinho's deteriorating relationship forcing the manager's ouster was already the topic of intense media speculation. It really took a nosedive after the CL fixture against Rosenborg which ended in a shocking draw against the lowly Norwegian side. Mourinho's departure by mutual consent came after 24 hours of a rapidly developing timeline.

Terry was upbraided by the manager at half time for failing to stop Mika Koppinen's set piece. The defender failed to accept responsibility. Earlier in the day, Terry found out Mourinho had gone to the club's medical team to find out if there were physical reasons responsible for Terry's decline in performance following spinal surgery to remove a disc. It seemed to have disturbed Terry to the extent that at first he refused to join the warm up prior to the match apparently preoccupied "with things on my mind" only agreeing after a team mate convinced him.

Peter Kenyon, in an emergency board meeting brought up the Terry dispute as evidence that the manager had lost his players support which the board accepted prima facie and Mourinho was asked to resign. He refused and "by mutual consent" was agreed upon.

It would be very interesting to hear Mourinho's side to the story. He would probably support Makelele's claim. After his ouster, he supposedly texted Terry "sarcastically thanking him for talking to the club's hierarchy."

I think Terry was really spooked by Mourinho's sleuthing. A physical reason would rule out a transient loss of performance and potentially mean early retirement. Terry had a lot riding that summer signing on with Chelsea on a multi year deal which made him England's most expensive player.

Yep, you now know why Adebayor does not show up to play when he can score virtually.

Chelsea got their names into the record books by conceding the fastest goal in FA Cup final history and then went on to beat Everton 2-1 to give Guus Hiddink his farewell present.

FA Cup Final Chelsea Vs Everton 2-1 Highlights 30.05.2009. - Free videos are just a click away

Guus Hiddink's mandate was clear cut. A short term intervention that would halt Chelsea's spiraling fortunes which at one threatened to undermine their CL spot. In that he succeeded magnificently. Instilling discipline, excising self doubt, and getting the best out of players overlooked or playing below par under Scolari. Next year's CL appearance is assured, they play for the FA Cup final today, and their CL finals spot was cruelly snatched away by Barca. In a matter of months, Hiddink effected a string of singular achievements.

It is serves as a useful reminder that a year ago, another cruel event snatched away Chelsea's chances. The CL was theirs to win if it was not for that fateful John Terry slip on a slick surface. Chelsea went on to lose the finals to Man Utd in a nail biting penalty shootout. A visibly moved Grant had to console his inconsolable captain. More to the point, under Grant, if popular opinion was a barometer, they should not have even been contesting the final. Instead, the Israeli manager managed a feat that escaped even Jose Mourinho. In fact, till the last day Chelsea challenged Man Utd for the Premiership title after Arsenal succumbed to injuries and an inability to put away matches.

Abramovich's decision to saddle a no name as manager of one of the world's biggest clubs was clearly a wrong one. But clearly as the results prove it did not go south either. It was an impressive debut for a little know man with a thin managerial resume. The mass implosion that everyone feared did not happen otherwise Guus Hiddink might have gotten an emergency call up a year before with the exact same mandate. But Grant guided Chelsea to a CL final in some fashion without a bailout.

Grant followed not just a manager but a personality made for TV. Mourinho was a media godsend. The Premiership was all Sir Alex, Wenger, Benitez, and the Special One. Their eye catching verbal sparring was tabloid fodder and fans loved it. Suddenly, a taciturn and little know Israeli had taken over. His media interaction were horror shows. Mourinho was a tough act to follow. Clearly, the Israeli was aware he was not sexy but his football was going to be, an important distinction which he thought would make him more palatable to fans. Whether that qualitative change took place is debatable. Certainly, Joe Cole was given more freedom under Grant than under Mourinho. However from a result standpoint, Grant proved effective. He however, did not become more palatable to fans.

I remember seeing the Arsenal match when the Gunners went up a goal at the Bridge. The boos that chorused down had the commentators shamed into offering a rare defense of the embattled manager. Chelsea went on to win the match, after Drogba, in typical muscular fashion scored a brace. The Ivoirian striker had been so distraught over the departure of Mourinho, that a transfer appeared inevitable. Yet, here he was months later being as effective, just like under Hiddink. Grant may have not been a media darling but he knew a few things about keeping his players together. He gained the respect of John Terry.

"To get to where we are and to still question the manager's the role at the club is unbelievable."

Terry added, "things have been very good and results don't lie."

The CL loss made Abramovich's task of getting rid of the unpopular manager easy. He of course, went on to hire Big Phil Scolari, a huge name, whose arrival was trumpeted by many as righting the ship. Ironically, Scolari's subsequent lack of results and increasing unpopularity with players and fans necessitated the Hiddink transfusion. Its important to note in a perverse way, that Chelsea's cruel run in the CLs was kept intact under Grant. We would not have had any talking points at all otherwise.

A lucky song.
Gerard Pique quote- “We always play Viva la Vida by Coldplay on the bus when we’re travelling to the stadium. I think the lyrics motivate us and prepare us to fight on the pitch. Pep ,Dani and Xavi all love Coldplay. I think for Dani, Coldplay is the only English band he listens to.”

Uli Hoeness shows who is boss in Bayern. Its not the manager for sure, he will always be a figurehead.

"For 50 millions euros, I don't even pick up my telephone," Hoeness told the Bild tabloid. "Because a figure like that doesn't even give you rights, at best, to one of Ribery's legs.

Its all been a bit confusing. Chelsea's bid of £43.7m (50m euros) for the Bayern midfielder has been rejected.

The Times is now reporting that Real's offer of more than £40m has been accepted and Ribery is all set to join the club. Wait, how much is more? And is it per leg?

The simple fact: Man Utd believed in its invincibility built up by its stunning performance against Arsenal, bolstered by the last moment goal by Barca which saved the champions from an embarrassing semi-final exit, and honed to perfection by the media drumbeat that they only had to show up to play for the inevitable anointment.

It was almost too perfect. While Barca had many questions to answer at the Nou camp after that near loss. Especially on defense. For the first time in a long time, we saw a Sir Alex side, poorly prepared with many players no shows. Where was Carrick and Anderson? Well, its all unraveling a bit. The club are worthy winners of every title there is including last year's best club in the whole wide world shout it out loud from the mountaintop status. However, this was not just a defeat, it was a stylistic showdown. Barca showed that the beautiful game still exists and it can win matches. With Xavi and Iniesta purring on the field, Man Utd's midfield looked like their shoes had been replaced with clogs.

There is nothing like defeat to measure self worth or open up questions. Their midfield remains in transition. Anderson has a long way to go before replacing Scholes adequately. The self centered Nani is a poor option for Giggs. Hargreaves is perpetually injured. Man Utd inherited that injury from Bayern. Carrick and Fletcher are very competent but cannot be considered world beaters by a mile. On attack, Berbatov struggles with consistency. Tevez remains in a strange twilight where the price has to be right. Rooney may define "total football" but he is being marginalized in his primary role. Van Der Saar may have a year or two left but who replaces him as Man Utd's sentinel is unclear. On defense, the right back spot has rotated between Wes Brown, Gary Neville, Rafael, and John O'Shea.

It should all be put in perspective. Man Utd have a soul searching off season to answer these questions but they are still good enough to repeat their domestic success with this squad. It is true, in football we always ask for the level. Are they at the level to reach the top? It is a question that has dogged Liverpool and Arsenal for many years now in the Premiership. Well, Man Utd came off second best on one of the biggest nights in football. It maybe a while before they win another CL.

Terry Venables has learned that it is wise to mince one's words - just in case you have to eat them later.Here's a quote he gave to the Mail online that he must be finding a bit hard to digest now.

"If it does come down to Messi against Ronaldo, well, Messi is one of the best players in the world, but give me Ronaldo. Messi is wonderful on the right but Ronaldo is terrific on the right, the left and through the middle as well. He also scores goals with his head, which Messi couldn’t do even if they put a top hat on him."‘

Andres Iniesta delivered a world-class performance in the Champions League final against Manchester United, his pace, trickery, agility and passing ability against Man Utd was at times - stunning, but how did he come to this? The video below shows Iniesta, at 16 years old, with potential sky-high, scoring a late-winner against Chelsea.

One last, little thing... look who hands Iniesta the cup...

The moment when Messi took the game away from Man U.
Man U's last line of defence,is about to be breached - and you can see it on Edwin van der Saar's face.

...as he takes the new dream team to greater heights

Investors complaining of poor customer service relations. Bust ups with investors. Arbitrary rises in housing units, severe penalties for late payments, delayed construction work, and unhonoured site visits.

"Does anyone know of anywhere else in the world where a seller is able to sell an off-plan property without a contract and then a year or two later provide a contract showing an increase the price of what he has already sold? Beware of buying Hydra Village units!"

The problems are partly due to the difficult financial times that is affecting everyone. But it is also not a case of badmouthing that the potential owner of Portsmouth FC claims it to be. The financial problems confronting Hydra Properties is true. The problems are compounded by the fact that Abu Dhabi does not have a regulatory organization that oversees the real estate sector. Most of these real estate investment projects are floated out by big companies on their financial strength and closeness to the royal family. In good economic times, this may not be a problem. But when things go south, it becomes a potential flashpoint between investors bailing out of their commitments and the company that goes to any lengths to keep them in and pad losses.

It maybe a good PR exercise on Suleiman Al-Fahim's part to de-emphasize the Hydra Properties part of the resume when talking about the takeover of Portsmouth FC. That is why he talks up the private investor part of the deal. It also clouds the connection between ADUG which controls Man City and is a subsidiary of his own company.

I am sure Portsmouth FC fans are delighted to have a source of seemingly unlimited transfer funds to propel the club to new heights but they must also be curious to know more about the entity taking over their club. Between oil rich Arab sheiks and billionaire American businessmen, the financial turmoil has taken the shine out of every stereotype.

Sulaiman Al-Fahim, the prime mover behind the Man City takeover now owns his own Premiership club. He is purchasing Portsmouth for a reported figure of £80m, through the investment arm of his company, Al Fahim Asia Associates. Portsmouth has flirted with relegation all season long and its transfers have not panned out. The club was £65m in debt, of which £25m was owed to the present owner Alexandre Gaydamak.

He also owns a Versace Lamborghini Murcielagos, one of only three in the world and is the host of the reality show, Hydra Executives which pits eight Americans against eight Britons for a chance to work in his company, Hydra Properties, and win $1million for a business venture.

Falcon Equity, the private equity and asset management company which structured and negotiated the Man City deal was behind the Portsmouth takeover. It reportedly raised the funds from Asian and Middle Eastern investors through its network of offices. Al-Fahim in an interview denied any further involvement with Man City after September 2008, and said that his role in Portsmouth is yet to be defined.

He also denied rumours that Hydra Properties was in financial trouble and dismissed them as 'badmouthing" his company. He was at pains to separate out his company, Hydra Properties and the investors who had been tapped by Falcon Equity to put money into Portsmouth FC. In a customary disclaimer, he said that none of the investors were from the real estate sector or were part of the royal family.

I certainly hope that shoe-kissing will not become the new celebratory signature for Messi. A brilliant game for Barcelona, but you gotta draw the line somewhere.

What now for United? The wheels came off for the Red Devil Express. Ronaldo fizzled after the first ten; Rooney was busy playing defense, and across the pitch it was Barcelona that controlled the ball and the game.

More on failed tactics here >>

Ferguson won't make the same mistake twice. Next time these two meet, you can count on a physical game.

Until then, Guardiola and gang have proved themselves the best team on the planet.

More on Messi's shoes here>>

Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez hold the CL trophy aloft

The number 4s are a special breed in Barcelona history:

It was love at first sight, so the story goes. When Barcelona's then-captain Pep Guardiola first clapped eyes on youth team midfielder Xavi Hernandez he turned to a team-mate and said: "This kid will retire me."

Several years later when the veteran Guardiola was now playing alongside Xavi in Barca's midfield, they watched a teenager called Andres Iniesta, and Guardiola turned,this time to Xavi and said: "And this kid, is going to retire the both of us."

La Masia's alum are the proud winners of the triple crown, none more heralded than the CL trophy that they hold in their hands. It is in its 20th year of existence and it could not have asked for a better anniversary.

Leo Messi found his "head of God" goal, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez pillaged the midfield, Victor Valdes, the sentinel kept the Man Utd attack at bay, Carlos Puyol held the defense together, and Pep Guardiola had a dream debut as Barca's manager in his first year.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' ...and other such expressions used when one is chortling with joy......!

Barcelona Lifting the Champion League Throphy and Celebrating 2008/2009 - The funniest videos clips are here

In the end it was the heroic Carlos Puyol, overmatched in speed but not in intensity and in desire who held aloft the CL trophy. His Barcelona side turned in a dominating display which overwhelmed the Red Devils. I have to say, watching this match, gave an impression of a sacrificial lamb fattened up before the inevitable slaughter. Man Utd had swept aside Arsenal and Barca had barely survived Chelsea.

The Guardian pundits had all said that it would be Man Utd's to lose. But if the team did not show up to play, what then was there to lose? Could we also rest all charges of a conspiracy because if Barca had not played Man Utd, we would have not known what a circular firing squad the EPL actually is.

Eto'o's subtle trickery yielded a goal against the run of play in the 10th minute cut against conventional wisdom. It was supposed to be Man Utd that would stick the knife in the very counterattack that fetched Barca a goal.

This was repeated ad nauseam by everyone in the world:young, old, infirm, fan, pundit, prisoner, Inuit, despot, midget, and internalized by the Utd players. The goal shattered Man Utd's psyche, forcing it to retreat into a shell, only venturing out to make an occasional foray in the first half. The pendulum had swung the other way in a heartbeat. Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez started moving the ball around effortlessly. Man Utd's bright and domineering start became a distant memory. A spell which saw Victor Valdes tested a few times by Ronaldo. Park Ji Sung coming close after Valdes spilled a cracking shot from Ronaldo into his path. The Korean ballooned the ball over under Pique's challenge. That was the extent of Man Utd's chances.

More was to come in the second half and Van Der Saar and the back four were rocking back on their heels. Barca should have gone up by a few more goals, with Henry muffing a simple chance. A brief interlude of Man Utd possession proved to be ineffectual in attaining the equalizer. The deal was sealed when Evra's sloppy clearance found Xavi who took the ball and chipped it elegantly to Messi, who rose unchallenged, all 5' 7" of him to head the ball past Van Der Saar in the 69' minute.

In doing so, Messi answered the challenge. It was a no contest between him and Cristiano Ronaldo who faded away as the match went on. Man Utd came closest to scoring what would have amounted to a consolation goal when Park Ji Sung failed to meet Rooney's cross. Carrick and Anderson were invisible, and the Brazilian was substituted by Carlos Tevez who failed to provide a spark. The elegant Berbatov could not change the game either when he came on for Park Ji Sung.

Barca's back four widely considered its Achilles heel proved to be physical and very adept at winning the 50/50 chances. Yaya Toure was a force with Pique at the center and won Man Utd's long balls. Sylvinho was industrious on the left and kept Rooney quiet. Puyol had a few problems handling Evra and Park's pace but he did not make any major mistakes.

So Barca go out deserving winners. Congratulations to Pep Guardiola and his men.

Eto'o's goal (10' minute)

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Barca becomes the first Spanish side to record the triple in a season: La Liga, Copa Del Rey, and the CL final. Messi records his first goal against an English side.

The fallout escalates over the Curva Sud's fans behaviour towards captain Paolo Maldini. He now says that the club failed to defend him. Its not been the type of farewell that he envisioned, far from it.

The club defended its silence by saying it did not want to give any more attention to those disrespecting Maldini.

Manchester in the mid 1980s, the mecca of the rave scene and Factory Records. Impresario Tony Wilson brought to life through Steve Coogan in Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People walks us through The Haçienda, ground zero for the Madchester scene which saw Ian Brown, Shaun Ryder, Mark "Bez" Berry, Martin Hannett and many other names. Fac 51's history was tightly linked to New Order who financed most of the club when it opened in 1982 till it folded in 1997. Two years later Man Utd won its first CL title.

The will to win. That's what it's going to take. Both teams appear talented, strong, evenly matched.

Will Ronaldo or Messi seize the opportunity to be the world's greatest? Or will someone else - Tevez, perhaps - or Henry - steal the day?

The experts, Lineker for example, say the defense will win the game and give the game to Manchester United. I'm not so sure. If Messi performs up to his Maradona-like promise, we'll see Ferdinand limp off the pitch clutching his calf with 15 minutes to go. If Rooney keeps his cool and takes control, we'll see Barca collapse.

I have no clue, as you can tell. That's why this is going to be a great game. Forget about the money. Bring it.

Beautiful lyrics and wonderful guitaring.

Rambla pa'qui
rambla pa'llá
esa es la rumba de Barcelona
Rambla pa'qui
rambla pa'llá
esa es la rumba de Barcelona

Manu Chao's origins are Basque but he was born in Paris and now calls Barcelona his home. These disparate musical influences have shaped a unique sound. His live album Radio Bemba Sound System has some songs from Manu Negra, a group influenced by Spanish anarchism. He is a huge fan of Diego Maradona, for his football and politics. His song La Vida Tombola is a tribute to the Argentinian legend.

Blue Suede Shoes? Nope, it's adidas' new F50i!

To the Italian Summer Soccer School program.

Giggs and Henry try to psyche each other out before the finals as Reebok plays mind games with cash strapped consumers who were not thinking of buying a new pair of shoes to wear while watching the game.Not exactly subliminal advertising but it'll most probably work anyway.

Man Utd player touched by Cantona

Cantona's self aggrandizing announcement that he would like to coach his former club was met by a collective loss of bodily functions of acolytes all over the world.

The man is an attention seeking gadfly. At the moment when the world watches the CL final between Man Utd and Barca, Cantona will be attending the premiere of his film in which he utters, " I am Cantona " Great line but that's the problem. It works because those words define his legend. Everything will fall into place when he says that. Man Utd's opponents will be caught in Magneto like force fields in which they mutate into spineless jelly fishes. His players will be set free of doubt and self loathing. Its a bit like the Flying Spaghetti Monster. A parody. Why believe in evolution and its complexity when there is a simple design. Its unthinking and fallacious. Just like when it comes to football, that a fetish for a cult of personality, will work.

Do you think Sir Alex in a million years would hobnob with the Cannes crowd? Good managers are for a lack of a better word, nerds. Even Jose Mourinho who looks a bit like a botoxed telenovela star was ill at ease when dragged into a studio in front of a live TV audience and forced to watch some scantily clad nymphet commit a sideline foul on him. Marcelo Lippi, Guus Hiddink, Arsene Wenger, Rafa Benitez, Felix Magath, every good coach shuns attention. Except Phil Brown who could have single handedly revived Chrysler's used car division. They can ill afford being egotistic. Or launch some half career. Or kick sand. Or launch some half career in kicking sand.

It means paying attention to details. From transfer budgets to fouls committed. It means remaining focused doing grunt work. Sounds like an accountant but that is what managers are deep down inside. Wenger's thoughts don't turn to love when spring comes around, he is already calculating the transfer market. Sir Alex is worried that Ronaldo might leave, he wants Ribery. Think Cantona can handle all that. Bollocks.

Anyway, his next movie is called "The Pelvis moves". Seems like the right move.

Barca will field Mali's Seydou Keita, Cote D"Ivoire's Yaya Toure and Cameroun's Samuel Eto'o. If they win, they join a select group of African CL winners. Eto'o would become a double winner.

Bruce Grobbelaar and Craig Johnston (Liverpool FC) in 1984, Rabah Madjer (FC Porto) in 1987, Abédi Ayew (Olympique de Marseille) in 1993, Nwankwo Kanu and Finidi George (AFC Ajax) in 1995, Samuel Kuffour (FC Bayern München) in 2001,

Benni McCarthy (FC Porto) in 2004, Djimi Traore (Liverpool FC) in 2005 and Samuel Eto'o (FC Barcelona) in 2006.

Seydou Keita talks about what this win would mean:

SK: Of course it will be a great achievement for me. The Malian people are waiting for this success and a lot of Africans want us to win because there are three Africans at Barcelona. To be named alongside players like Abedi Pele, Kanu and Eto'o is something every African football will cherish and I am keen to join the great group of African players who have won the title.

Martin Jol stepped up as Ajax manager following Marco Van Basten's resignation.

Jol's former club Hamburg started the season at a furious pace and was favoured to win either the Bundesliga, UEFA Cup or the German Cup but in the end Werder had their number and they lost three straight times to end up empty handed. They managed 5th position, good enough to get a Europa spot but the season ended disappointingly for many fans who believed the club should have done better.

This is a huge deal.

It appears that Real's former president Ramon Calderon and present president Vicente Boluda are being investigated for the illegal transfer of club property. The judicial investigation conducted by magistrate Santiago Torres has asked that copies of all books and trading accounts be submitted. This includes receipts, contracts, and invoices. The investigation will open up an office on the club premises which means that the club offices will be sealed.

The magistrate is also asking the Mercantile Registry and the Office of Land Register to provide financial data on the accused. It is a wide ranging inquiry and covers the gamut of financial transactions from real estate to foreign currency reserves.

If the investigations turn up evidence of financial impropriety then the magistrate could dissolve the current board. This represents the most serious turn of events since Atletico Madrid was put under judicial administration.

The timing is exquisite. With Florentino Perez poised to return as president on June 1st, it appears someone got the ear of the magistrate. Perez could not have set this up better. Saviour of Madrid indeed! He will bring in Jorge Valdano and Zinedine Zidane along with him.

Brazilian midfielder Juninho will leave Lyon at the end of the season, his contract is due to finish at the end of this campaign and Juninho leaves with plenty of glory - he has won 7 league titles with Lyon and to finish off a glorious career with the fantastic French football club, he scored his 100th goal for Lyon during a 3-1 home victory (against Caen) in his last appearance for the club.

Juninho is well-known for his fabulous free kicks, in which he can hit in various techniques - curl, power, or even lob from 45 yards, as the video below shows some of the best the Brazilian has produced.

Juve shows it means business. Today, it went some distance in filling its creative lacuna.

Diego, the Brazilian playmaker joins the squad from Werder on a five year contract worth €24.5m.

The midfielder who began his career at Santos, made his way to FC Porto as a replacement for Deco, and finally found his goalscoring abilities at Werder. He made 84 appearances and scored 38 goals.

Werder has some cash leftover for a quality playmaker. Paging Misimovic.

Barcelona stands against the trope of English dominance. If they lose, it will be UEFA's last shot at a concerted effort in keeping parity. Well, as per conspiracy theorists. How many times will they rely on Tom Hennings Ovrebro? Then there is Platini's 6+5 argument. Surely, that was hatched to loosen the English death grip on the CL.

Barcelona is still a mystery. There is a feast or famine quality to their play. Sublime against Bayern, ridiculous at the end of season against local rivals. Their problem is that they resemble Arsenal in possession with more attacking firepower but the same suspect defense. They rely on attrition. Very effective against leakier levees which dissolve in a barrage of attacks. But as Chelsea proved, against stronger and physical defending, they have problems creating a swathe.

So the chatter coming out of Spain provides fascinating reading. El Pais weighs in.

Much of the talk is centered around solving Man Utd's Vidic and Ferdinand, by far the best central defending duo in the world. Barca's aerial attack is looking a bit thin.They don't have Dani Alves, out with suspension. The galloping wing back is an attacking threat with his probing crosses. Guardiola acknowledges this: "Without Alves, we lose offense".

On the other side, the loss of Alves and Abidal has forced Pep Guardiola to consider shifting Carlos Puyol to the right flank and possibly Sylvinho mans the left, leaving out the relatively inexperienced Martin Caceres.

Keita could be dropped back from his usual midfield role, to pair up with Pique at the center. The back four's lack of pace exposed by Chelsea on many occasions, could lose another step with this configuration. These open up considerable opportunities for Evra, Ronaldo, Park Ji Sung and Rooney to punch back with rapid counterattacking runs and win set piece opportunities. To seal against such real threats, Barca needs to maintain a tight lid on possession and when they lose the ball to cut off supply: the long diagonal balls or via intermediaries like Carrick and Anderson. Guardiola mentions the duo as the building blocks of Man Utd's game. Carrick almost constantly overlooked in his role as one of the most effective holding midfielders. "He is the lynchpin of Man Utd" while Anderson "shines in his defensive strength."

The matchup of goalkeepers favours Van Der Saar over Victor Valdes, who has looked tentative at times having problems timing his charges from goal and being assertive in set pieces. He was very good against Chelsea but there were unnerving moments against Drogba. VDS has been solid having bounced back from those losses to Liverpool and Fulham. He has povided insurance against the occasional mistakes made by his back four.

Cristiano Ronaldo's maintains a distinct edge over Messi remains in his work rate. He has launched 32 shots on goal scoring four while Messi has made considerably fewer attempts, 11 but been more effective, scoring eight times. Ronaldo needs more open space but shows more versatility with the ways he scores while Messi is much more effective closer to goal, maneuvering out of tight spaces with his foot skills. He also enjoys the advantage of wrong footing defenses cutting in from the right side with his lethal left foot. Its the football version of the crossover dribble. However it also reveals a directional bias which can be used to minimize his forays or render them ineffective.

Like Arsenal, Barca enjoys walking the ball home. So they need to keep VDS honest with some long range efforts. Xavi and Toure can crack a few.

Man Utd's strikers are no slouches at tracking back. They will be very busy. Evra will be bolstered by Park Ji Sung, whose work rate needs no introduction, to manage Messi. John O'Shea's potential weaknesses can be exploited by Thierry Henry who returns to pace after injury but it must be comforting to have Rooney's help with his speed and physicality used so effectively for defensive purposes. In the center Rio and Vidic will keep a wary eye on Samuel Eto'o to stop the Camerounian from slipping in and monitor the movements of the dangerous Iniesta controlling the center.

Essentially, it will come down to Barcelona inventing ways to win but Man Utd looks the more dangerous team.

Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa is an Indian version of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing and ABC's Dancing with the Stars.Baichung Bhutia had been causing consternation in his club Mohun Bagan by bunking practice sessions so that he could concentrate on his dancing.Well all the heartburn has been worth it I guess because he has danced his way to the top of the pops- with a little help from his friends..

Elliott's 13th minute curler was perfectly placed and Paddy Kenny could do little about it.

Wade Elliott will be remembered: A red letter day in Burnley history

Burnley made its top flight entry after 33 years of steadily falling through the cracks to the second, third, fourth divisions and in 1987, flirting with non-league extinction. They dodged that one by beating Leyton Orient. They do however, enjoy the distinction of winning except for the Premier League; every other division title, a rare feat with just Wanderers and Preston North End matching that record. And yes, they did win the FA Cup in 1914.

Owen Coyle's men beat Sheffield United with Wade Elliott scoring a beautiful 25 yard curler in the 13th minute. After the match:

Asked whether his goal was the best of his career, the midfielder said: "In terms of importance - no contest. It's far and away the best goal I'll ever score, probably.

Mike Dean also turned down two appeals by United for penalties adding to the drama. Burnley join Wanderers and Birmingham in the Premiership from the Championship league. In the process, they enrich themselves by £60m. Not a bad chunk of change. Even more cheering was Coyle's renewed commitment to managing the club after being scouted out as a possible replacement for Gordon Strachan who resigned from Celtic.

So what do we know about Burnley. It is one of the bigger North West towns located in Lancashire, population approx 88, 000 making it the smallest city to field a Premiership club since the league began 17 years ago. It was famous at one time for its textile industry but for many years now has suffered a serious decline in its traditional manufacturing base. It is better known now as a commuter town for cities like Manchester and Leeds.

Shahid Malik, the disgraced undersecretary of state for justice in Gordon Brown's cabinet, the first minister to resign in the expense scandal sweeping England was born in Burnley. Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Magneto, Wolverine's nemesis in the X-Men series is a Burnley native.

Chumbawamba is probably the most notable Burnley band.

Strangely enough, Burnley is well known amongst tipplers for ingesting the most amount of Benedictine, the French liqueur, in the world. The connection is no accident. The liqueur became a favourite amongst Lancashire regiments for warding off the cold while stationed in France during World War I. Apparently, they brought the taste back home.

Burnley's entry is a great story. A celebration of a small blue collared club with strong roots to the community. For the Wembley playoff match, 36000 fans made the trip. That is 40% of the population. Victory was achieved without the additives of enormous amounts of money or foreign players.

Nicolas Anelka's 19th goal (video) of the season in Chelsea's 3 -2 win against Sunderland saw him pip Ronaldo at the post to claim the golden boot.

Newcastle United will be playing Championship football next year for 3 reasons :

1. Managers have come and left too frequently over the last couple of years,
2. Newcastle have an owner who doesn't have a clue about running a football club as gigantic as Newcastle.
3. Newcastle have players who just lack quality.

We will look at 5 players that have been bought by Newcastle that have contributed to the clubs downfall. Let's start with the most severe.

1. Titus Bramble

When do you know you have a terrible player in your team? Having a flash of fear play into your head whenever his name is read out just before a game. While he has improved this season, Bramble often gave a series of comedic defensive performances when he put on the Newcastle shirt, signed for just under £5 million, Bramble, along with Jean-Alain Boumsong were meant to form a lethal defensive combination for Newcastle. There is even a video dedicated to Bramble's best blunders, as shown below. Makes you wonder - what did Sir Bobby Robson see in Bramble when he bought him from Ipswich? From concentration lapses, to lethal own goals, when Bramble had a bad day, you knew Newcastle were doomed.

2. Jean-Alain Boumsong

If ever a player failed to settle into the Premier League, it would be Jean-Alain Boumsong, currently playing for Lyon and before playing for Newcastle had spent a season in Scotland (at Rangers), this man had some experience, after a couple of promising performances the Toon army thought they had a real player in their ranks, how wrong they would be. They should have seen the future when Boumsong made 2 errors in a league match against Manchester United. Boumsong had difficulties dealing with balls over the top and often had no idea where his touch would lead the ball, often his concentration would be related to the level of a small child, and combined with Titus Bramble, Newcastle's defensive game at times was a joke.

3. Hugo Viana

Viana, before joining Newcastle showed huge signs of talent, a real Portuguese star in the making, he couldn't settle into Newcastle's first team and 12 million Euros went down the drain, unlike Boumsong and Bramble however, Viana did show some signs of promise, enlisted in the video below.

4. Albert Luque

A minority will remember him, none of these minority will want to remember him, Luque had performed very well for Deportivo La Coruna before being purchased for £9.5 million by Newcastle, Luque quickly picked up a hamstring injury in a match against Fulham and after spending a long time battling the injury, only scored 1 league goal for Newcastle.

5. Carl Cort

Bought for £7 million, Cort a large striker made a good impression in his first couple of games, just like what happened to Luque - Cort suffered an onslaught of injuries (the first being a hamstring, just like Luque's) and was never the same player that Newcastle dished out £7 million on. He is currently a free player after being released by Norwich City.

Link:

John Arne Riise finally nails one with a blistering shot. Ambrosini answers in the second half as Artur parries Inzaghi's shot into his path. Menez puts the Giallorossi up catching the Milan defense flatfooted. I have to say this was not one of Maldini's best games. Ambrosini responds seconds later as Artur fails to stop Kaka's cross.

Then comes Totti's delectable free kick which swerved away from a diving Dida. How many times have we seen him do this? Berlusconi looked ill by the end of the match.

Roma snare a Europa spot while Milan cling to the second spot being pushed hard by Juve who won against Siena, 3-0. The worst they can manage is third spot, even if they lose to Fiorentina in the final match because the Violas are behind by three points and have an inferior goal differential. It may not mean direct entry to the CL but the more painstaking qualifying round.

A shocker at the San Siro as Totti's free kick stunned the Rossoneri. It added to the angst and anxiety enveloping the club.

Worse still, Maldini's sendoff was marred by Milan's Curva Sud ultras standing on the terraces mocking the Milan legend by unfurling a banner with the number 6 marked on it with the caption "There is only one captain" a reference to Franco Baresi, Maldini's mentor and former team mate.

More was to follow as a banner read" Thank you captain: On the field you were a never ending champion but you failed to respect those who made you rich". In reference to Maldini's gesture of silencing them with a finger to his lips. Another read, " For your 25 years of glorious service, you should thank those you have called mercenaries and peasants."

Silvio Berlusconi was hit hard by banners saying "Sell Kaka to revive the club" and "For years you bought trinkets and figurines, this year we bought.... tissues?"

The Milan captain responded by saying, " I am glad I am not one of you."

He inquires about prostate screenings for players.

Filed under snark.

They won against Stoke, 4-1 with Van Persie scoring twice, Diaby adding another, and James Beattie's own goal rounding of the tally.

But it was all touch and go before the match because a voice from the past had sent doom and gloom through the club. Yes, it was Aliaksandr Hleb, surfacing from a bunker in Barca, like an unwanted boil on the buttcheek to air everything that was wrong with his former club. The modern day version of the woes of the Pharisees. He could not have done better if he were a paid spokesman for Usmanov.

Wenger paid no heed to the carping former Arsenal midfielder with the pretty feet. His concession:

“In the big games, we were still a bit young and played a bit the occasion more than the game, because we were under a lot of pressure and wanted to do so well,” accepted Wenger.

Other than that he was satisfied that the team had made the semi-finals of the FA Cup and the CL. We can debate the measurement of these successes. Wenger's supporters, the majority will point to these achievements and counsel patience. His critics, a vocal minority will highlight the way most consequential matches ended, as a widening gap between the club and the pinnacle.

There is a lot riding on Wenger to succeed. He is the anti-thesis of the big club manager. In fact, he manages Arsenal with the self discipline of a small club. It is very attractive from a football economics point of view which sees skyrocketing expenses to attain titles as the norm. If Wenger wins, he will have won the right way, and his success will be worthy of emulation. In fact, he should be recruited by the Republicans as the one fiscal conservative who practices what he preaches. Yeah, I thought so, that French thing is a problem.

Nicholas Nassem Taleb will not be writing about this Premiership. It was a tame end to the 2008- 2009 season.

Hull lost to Man Utd, 0-1. Sunderland also lost to Chelsea, 2-3. But the results were inconsequential because their other promotion rivals lost their matches.

The Magpies lost to Villa, 0-1 through a Damien Duff own goal. The loss relegated Newcastle and ended 16 seasons in top flight competition. Boro lost away to West Ham, 1-2, ending their 11 year representation.

So 35 is the new 40.

Meanwhile you can read all about match predictions from a professor of risk management. It is only slightly less risky than betting on the stock market.

The media has painted a bulls eye on Phil Brown as he tries to keep a leaky Hull afloat. He has banded together a motley alliance of detractors from Stoke City to Arsenal, who have even created a Facebook page “for all those who hate the orange-faced, goatee-bearded moron”.

When he gets someone who fights in his corner, it makes news.

Hull meets a revamped Man Utd team which should start Nani, Gibson, Kiki Macheda and Danny Wellbeck. Sir Alex has been accused of going soft but even Utd's second stringers are better than anyone that Hull puts out on the pitch.

It has been a second half implosion for Hull who have given away goals by the gallons. Up front injuries to their forwards have rendered the attack ineffective with their defenders lead by Michael Turner matching them in output.

If all the relegation zone teams lose then Hull is safe. The Magpies and Boro join West Brom.

Hull is just above the drop zone and if they can manage to hold Man Utd to a draw they should be safe. The main challenge comes from the Magpies who have a point less but have some padding with a much better goal differential. Hull will be hoping that Villa's trend of drawing matches against lesser teams continues. Alan Shearer's team is looking for a similar inspirational moment that Obafemi Martins provided against Boro.

Boro are further back three point behind with an insurmountable goal differential. Gareth Southgate has to hope for a Magpies loss but first they need to win against the stumbling Hammers who have won only one in their last six.

The real story of course, would be the relegation of Newcastle. Richard Scudamore has essentially written it off if it does happen, as a sentimental loss but with minimal impact on the business of the Premiership.

In the end it was easy. Goals from Lafferty, Mendes, and Boyd made it 3-0 against Dundee while Celtics ground out a goalless draw against Hearts.

Kyle Lafferty goes from a scapegoat to a hero in a week and Barry Ferguson makes an appearance after his drunken desecration of club spirit got him suspended. Victory can indeed redeem any transgression.

The helicopter bringing in the SPL trophy has touched down at Tannadice.

Dons latch onto the final Europa spot. They beat Hibs, 2-1.

Congratulations to Rangers. I am happy for Maurice Edu who worked himself into Walter Smith's favour, taking full advantage of his playing opportunities.

Cesare and Paolo Maldini: Like father, like son

Silvio Berlusconi offered a laconic "Shame" when asked what he thought of Milan's talisman farewell. And Ancelotti? "The same."

Ancelotti should be getting the message loud and clear.

Maldini ends his career against AS Roma in a very consequential match for both. A win will assure Milan's automatic qualifying and Roma would book a Europa spot.

25 years and 901 matches later the number 29 will be retired.

Kyle Lafferty and Pedro Mendes score against United to keep Rangers in front for the title. Maurice Edu starts the game.

Celtics and Hearts is scoreless so far. Not looking good for the titleholders.

Its raining goals at the Hibs vs Dons game with the latter up, 2-1. At stake for the Dons is a Europa spot. If the match were to end now, Dons would pip Dundee on goal differential and go through.

Sounds like a suitable title for another Indiana Jones movie.But it is not.It's Samuel Eto’o in pursuit of the trophy awarded by Spanish sports newspaper Marca to the top goalscorer for each league season.The award is named after the famous Athletic Bilbao player, Rafael Moreno "Pichichi".
The chances of him getting it however are fairly dim as he did not score in Barca's last match and Diego Forlan of Atletico Madrid scored a hat trick in their last game.The three goals put Forlan up by two with just one more league match remaining.Hence the Pichichi is going to prove elusive for Eto'o.Meanwhile Forlan's goals in Atletico Madrid's 4 -1 win over Athletic Bilbao

On the eve of the Wolfsburg success, Klinsmann had much to say of his former overseers.

"They are all alpha males and also need their space," he said. "They are all personalities you have to work with."

He also said that his departure was premature.

"The most hurtful thing for me was feeling I could have finished the job," he said. "I could have led Bayern to the German league title."

Klinsi, it is not you fault. Your former club suffers from dissociated identity disorder.

The imperious and distant Der Kaiser, the comically upbeat Karl Heinz Rummenigge, the paranoid and angry Uli Hoeness, the skulking and secretive Paul Breitner, and a composite character called Breitnigge. Read all about it >>

Magath's two years saw the Wolves rebuilding the team almost from scratch adding key players like Josue, Ricardo Costa, Grafite, and Edin Dzeko in the first season. They climbed from relegation zone to 5th place in his first season. The trend continued in the second season with defender Andrea Berzagli and goalie Diego Benaglia.

However, the most influential signing as it turned out would be that of Bosnian playmaker Zvjezdan Misimovic who joined in 2008 at a price of £3.9 million.

Misimovic's dazzling passing skills have been instrumental in turning the Wolfsburg attack into a potent force and in no small measure, his contribution in creating so many chances for Grafite and Dzeko, made it possible to set their record 54 goals, the first striker tandem to score over 20 goals each in Bundesliga history. While the media focuses on that attention grabbing stat, Misimovic quietly accrued another record with the most number of assists in a season with 20. He is no slouch when it comes to scoring with 7 goals including the opening one in yesterday's drubbing of Werder that gave them the title.

He is described as a classic number 10 who stays in the middle of the pitch, making himself available to receive passes and in turn waiting for the perfect moment to dish to a sprinting forward. He also takes the clubs free kicks and corners. Misimovic's introverted personality makes him the ideal team player, preferring his precision game to make a statement.

"I think a number 10, i.e. a playmaker, always has to put himself in position to receive passes when his team has the ball and has to set up his teammates, especially the strikers," Misimovic said. "You have to read certain situations, spot the space that opens up and play the ball on quickly. Basically you set the tempo for the team."

The ability to set a tempo, or dictate the flow of play, is very important because Misimovic is not the fastest player, a shortcoming that he is aware of.

"I know I'm not the fastest guy around but there are other players who aren't quick and still play at the highest European level."

He is on contract till 2012 so he will still be with the Wolves next season but his form makes him a huge transfer target. Bayern may seek the return of a player who was part of the 2003 title winning team. Ribery is getting restless in Munich, as his team struggles making any meaningful impact in Europe. Werder is reportedly interested too as Diego has been linked with Juve. His price has gone up and he is currently valued at about £10m.

Osasuna became the second team to sour the title party- beating Barca 1 - 0 in their own lair.However it must be part of the Guardiola's cunning ploy to lull Man U into a sense of security.He has played most of the youth academy players in the final league games.Barca looked out of sync with many of the reserves and youth players in the lineup not familiar with each other.More..

As another English Premier League comes to a close, with Manchester United winning their 18th league with a game to go, we look at 5 matches that make the Premier League one of the best to watch. (in no order) Let's start.

1. Arsenal 4-4 Tottenham

Scoring 4 goals at The Emirates on its own is something to be proud of, scoring 2 in the last minute and one from 44 yards is even more special, not to mention that this match is a North London rivalry match - emotions are high, the tempo is just a little faster. David Bentley, a failed Arsenal player scoring from more than 40 yards was a sign of things to come; Arsenal's deadly counter attacks with 2 set-piece goals due to comedy goalkeeping from Gomes, this match had everything, oh, and 2 goals in the 90th minute from Spurs just to finish it off.

2. Man Utd 1-4 Liverpool

In a season where Manchester United equalled Liverpool's record of 18 league titles, Liverpool had their own little success by crushing Man Utd at their own stadium, the so-claimed fantastic defence Manchester United had was totally crushed by Torres and Gerrard - Torres humiliating Vidic on a number of occasions. Not yet however was the humiliation complete, like watching two fat blokes run, watching Andrea Dossena outpace John O'Shea in the race of turtles and lobbing the rooted Van Der Sar completed the humiliation of Manchester United.

3. Manchester United 5-2 Tottenham

Down 2-0, at the most important part of the season - Liverpool were extremely close to Man Utd, and being outplayed by Tottenham, Man Utd turned on the attack force and put 5 past the Spurs, a controversial penalty to start the comeback, but none-the-less a brutal second half by Manchester United.

4. Liverpool 4-4 Arsenal

Liverpool's title hopes hanging by a thread, Arsenal needing points to confirm a spot for Champions League football, after a dull first half in which Fabianski was tested many times by Liverpool, a rare mistake by Mascherano allowed Arsenal to pass the ball in the net in a super move containing Nasri, Fabregas and Arshavin. The signs were there - both defences had cracks, both teams were looking to attack, who could have predicted 8 goals however? Torres scored 2 super goals, one a header and the other a little turn followed by a snap shot, showing the versatility of the Spanish striker, however it was Arshavin who stole the highlights with 4 goals, the last possibly the best - Theo Walcott running with the ball after a corner, seeing little Arshavin sprint into the screen from out of nowhere and finish with super composure was reminiscent of Michael Thomas scoring in 1989, in the same kit at the same stadium.

5. Arsenal 1-2 Hull

Usually when teams beat Arsenal - they suck out all of Arsenal's creativity and usually win in a defensively-sided manner, but Hull's fairytale, while it lasted, was remarkable, travelling to The Emirates and outplaying the Gunners of the pitch is rare - Hull not only did this, but they showed a clinical edge to their game which has gone missing of late, Geovanni scoring a screamer from 25 yards was just one of the things that Hull need to do tomorrow to stay in the Premier League.

Do you disagree or think there was another top-class game that should be in this list? Feel free to share your opinion via the comments section.

It's been going on for a while now.India's soccer icon Baiching Bhutia got a nasty show cause notice from his club questioning his commitment to their cause.It was probably composed by some overenthusiastic member of the Bagan politburo who had too much free time on his hands.Bhutia's reply was a brief and courteous "I quit".
The latest on the saga can be seen here

Bundesliga goal machine Grafite scores the second of the 3 goals that Wolfsburg have scored in reply to Bremen's 1 when reports were last coming in...

Link:

Will it be Hull City, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, or Newcastle?

Phil Brown, Ricky Sbragia, Gareth Southgate, and Alan Shearer live in trepidation and anxiety. Sir Alex has had to come out in public to reassure Hull's rivals that he is not short selling them with his eyes firmly on the CL finals three days later.

For the Magpies, the financial stakes are enormous if Mike Ashley wants to sell the club. A drop down to the second tier means certain devaluation of what the club is currently worth. The flip side is that there maybe more suitors lined up who might be willing to buy the club, just that it won't be the price that Ashley wants to get.

Louise Taylor walks us through how these clubs got to shadows and fog.

In a London bookshop:

Adidas and Zidane in search for the perfect beginning for a perfect team.

Maldini retires.

I would have never imagined those two words together.

The Peter Pan of football seemed so indestructible. Milan knew him and he knew Milan for a quarter of a century when team mate Ronaldinho was but 4 years old and Alexandre Pato had not yet seen one living day.

On Sunday, after 900 matches for Milan, his last match will be against AS Roma at the San Siro. It will be emotional and tears will flow freely. A fin de siecle moment for the Rossoneri everywhere in the world.

His retirement comes at the crossroads of a Milan team that has pushed its few able bodied players to the limits. At Pyrrhic cost, they have till now, managed second place.

Where they do they go now without their talisman?

He is the last of the golden quartet of backs that defined Milan's incandescent rise in the 80s and 90s. Maldini, Costacurta, Baresi, and Tassotti, defined by their longevity, fealty to one club, and suffocating defense. Between them they logged close to 2400 appearances, won eight Scudetti and five CL titles.

Baresi was the canny leader, the visionary who taught them all: Costacurta, the technician, Tassoti, the enforcer. Maldini, the most photogenic of the four, who Maradona infamously said of: " Another great player who chose the wrong profession. He should have been an actor; he's too pretty to play football" turned out to be the most durable. The emotional force in a waning Milan side. A bookend to a yesteryear of beautiful memories and stirring moments.

How many years before someone like Maldini comes along? The answer can be found looking to their crosstown rivals.

The same question was posed to Inter when Giacinto Facchetti, legend; four time Scudetti winner in the 1960s and all around Mr Nice Guy, sent off only once in his 634 matches, retired after 18 seasons. His number three was retired. Seventeen years later on, Javier Zanetti provided the answer, joining Inter in 1995. He recently played his 600th match and on the day Milan lost to Udinese, won the same number of Scudetti as did Facchetti. He is good for another 5 years at the rate he is going.

Goodbye Paolo Maldini. We are sure there will be fewer of you the way the game presently goes. It is left to the pundits to shine accolades on your place in the annals of performances. For us, you will be cherished, on the simple fact that you were never part of the transfer rumour mill and remained faithful to your club.

The Milan midfielder finds no place in Dunga's squad for next month's Confederations Cup in SA as well as World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Uruguay. A victim of indifferent form and lack of regular appearances.

This tough cookie should be part of the deal

It as they say, quite complicated. Adebayor has been talking from both sides of his mouth which helps him maintain his options. Does he have the gumption to stick it out with his stock hitting rock bottom or start anew?

Silvio Berlusconi is very keen on landing the Togolese striker but Milan's summer shows a lot of upheaval. Ancelotti in now a certainty for the Chelsea job and his move is likely to be confirmed after the FA Cup. Kaka is being wooed as part of the relocation.

There is going to be a mass retrenchment forced upon Milan with retirements, injuries, and transfers once the Ancelotti era ends. Maldini has announced his last season. Seedorf is on the bubble. Nesta and Gattuso's careers have been undermined by serious injuries. Becks and Sheva will walk away. The new manager will have to shake up the midfield and attack with sub par performances from Pirlo and Ambrosini. Ronaldinho's trajectory is on the wane. Up front, Inzaghi is the lone ranger.

Milan needs more firepower. So getting a striker like Adebayor will be a huge priority. If Milan is serious about getting Ade then Wenger should also press Flamini's return as part of the deal.

Flamini has seen a revised role in Ancelotti's scheme. After being overlooked the first half of the season, he has been pigeonholed at right back. It is not a good situation. Flamini was a natural fit at Arsenal. He is also proven quality. With him holding the middle, he drastically improved Fabregas game. The Spaniard was left free to use his uncanny vision and passing skills. Flamini's work rate was phenomenal. He was also a fan favourite. A Flamini return would sharpen the amorphous midfield that we have at the moment.

It was not Cesc who used Brian Horton as a spittoon. Who was it then? A llama or a paan chewing Indian or mere projection on the part of Hull's assistant manager at losing a bitter match.

Anyways, good news for Cesc. He has been cleared of charges.

We walk you back in time for a look back at a few more infamous spitting episodes. Cesc on Ballack. Rijkaard on Voller. Fabiano on Cornthwaite

No entry is complete without a Robbie Savage mention. This time its Ronaldo.

If these gentlemen ever want to use their projectile talents then there are showcases. How about that Kudu dung spitting competition?

Barcelona revealed their new look for the 2009/2010 season.

Saba Battery were three goals down before they decided to score a few of their own.They scored five,securing their first win in the Asian Champion's League infliciting quite a lot of misery and soul searching on Al Ahli in the process..

The media drumbeat: Anyone and everyone will join Real. From Kaka to Cristiano Ronaldo. From Wenger to Mourinho. Real is a black hole.

You maybe a unicellular organism and your name Ktoereoteawhehtrheth Sakjwentewthhyte. It does not matter as long as you can kick a ball and score 93 goals in two matches. Anyone who can do that is linked to Real forever. Under Florentino Perez.

Like Don Quixote forever chasing windmills, success in Real terms, is presently a mirage.The greatness of the Santiago Bernabeu yesteryears which spawned the likes of Di Stefano, Puskas, Kopa, Gento, Rial, and Santamaria have become too costly to bear. There are constant comparisons. The pity is that we have not tried seriously to resurrect those days. For that we have Ramon Calderon and Florentino Perez to thank, men who believe that they can pay their way through.

The paradigm shift occurred when Perez did his Galacticos spiel in 2000. The simple premise envisaged a grand scale migration of superstars to Real if the price was right.

Goalactico! La Liga was under blitz with all this attacking talent and Real had its way. Due homage was paid at a pretty price to the attacking talent at its disposal: Raul, Zidane, Ronaldo, Owen, and Beckham. But like 80's music living on a prayer and song, it all fell apart abruptly when Claude Makelele, the underpaid grunt managing the defense, left unappreciated. Perez was left holding his cojones after Real slumped.

He wants to do it again.

Six days to the CL Final and adidas gives us a peek at the next gen of TUNiT boot technology called the F50i which Lionel Messi will debut on Wednesday in Rome.

Do shoes make such a difference? Any player will tell you they do. Nano-seconds count, when it's all about performance.

Plus there's always the psychological factor. Not to mention protecting the metatarsals - just ask Wayne Rooney!

Let's look at shoe architecture for a second. I'd say adidas' philosophy of modular design is pretty impressive. It's like, er, what's the phrase I'm looking for? ... German engineering. Performance and aesthetics.

So what's Messi's shoe going to look like? The previous model of the F50 was pretty cool: players customize the boot according to personal preferences and weather conditions. This includes choosing the color of the upper. Prevailing weather conditions on the day of play also affect the choice of upper. There are five colors and three different materials to choose from. The first material is an easy-care, durable and non-absorbent synthetic. The second is a soft leather and the third the ultralight and breathable material.

As a next step, the player chooses between two different chassis. The chassis forms the interior of the shoe and holds the studs. The tuning options are a lightweight standard chassis for perfect stability and optimal distribution of stud pressure as well as an ultralight competition chassis for maximum flexibility in the forefoot and optimum breathability in combination with the breathable upper.

The selected chassis is then inserted into the upper and the studs can be screwed in from the outside. Three stud systems ensure a perfect hold and a good grip, whatever the conditions on the pitch. The patented adidas studs ensure optimum contact on all kinds of hard and artificial turf, as well as on various hard and soft natural turfs.

Finally, the player selects the insole to determine the boot’s degree of comfort and breathability. The premolded, soft and slightly cushioned insole as well as the somewhat thinner, perforated and thus extremely lightweight, breathable sock liner offer real comfort.

Heck, if they made a modular street-sole I'd clip it on and wear it to work! Cleats 2.0 - we've come a long way from this! Don't get me wrong, I spent half my life in those... and loved 'em!

Until Wednesday, then!

The CL Final could become the Battle of the Boots! Personally, I think CR has already lost that one.

Ronaldo (the other one) might face censure after television cameras caught him pulling an opponent's hair playing for Corinthians at the weekend.
The incident happened as he tussled with Botafogo midfielder Fahel in Sunday's goalless draw in the Brazilian championships.

Silvio Berlusconi seems to be making the hard choices for Carlo Ancelotti. And he seems keen on embarrassing him at forums which have little to do with soccer.

Criticizing him for playing Ronaldinho off the bench. Castigating him for Milan's inability to stop late goals. Belittling his managerial skills by saying that the team has the players to easily outstrip Inter.

Now he seems to leading Ancelotti into making personnel decisions. Inviting Adebayor to join the club. But all this pales in comparison with what he said yesterday:

"This time I may have to sell Kaka for real," he revealed.

He dropped the bombshell at a dinner for candidates standing for EU parliament elections.

Inquiring minds want to know whether the French playmaker instrumental in Bordeaux's success this season will return to Milan after completing his year long loan. Or will he be open to staying on for at least another year?

Bordeaux is desperate to lure Gourcuff away. The club's president has said:

“I will not comment on Gourcuff but I must say he is a world-class player. We never hid the fact that we want to keep the player. We can afford it.”

The club is on the brink of winning its first Ligue title in 10 years and there are a number of key players who have already talked about leaving including marksman Marouane Chamakh and holding midfieder Fernando Menegazzo. Both are looking to the bigger leagues. Chamakh is in negotiations with Spurs. These developments do not bode well for Bordeaux's long term plans.

The principal figure in this end of season, will he won't he back and forth is Christian Gourcuff, the father of Yoann and career adviser who reportedly said, “The fact that talks with Bordeaux are underway show the mutual intention to find an agreement. Then it is all about a career plan.”

Christian Gourcuff is also FC Lorient's manager. It maybe a bit of a conflict of interest when you have a father who manages one of Bordeaux's rivals advising career moves. Especially when Lorient has been on the receiving end. Yoann Gourcuff also got his career off the ground at Lorient under his father after graduating from the youth system. So it is safe to say that Yoann's father has been a very influential figure in his development as a player.

A lot depends on Carlo Ancelotti's move to Chelsea. Gourcuff was starved of regular appearances there while Ancelotti kept his "old is gold" mantra alive, of playing older players and recycling them. His father in an interview said that his son had not gained the confidence of Ancelotti at a crucial stage in his career.

"You cannot not play a 21-year-old - his career is at stake. We all agreed a loan out was necessary."

If Milan gets a coach who believes that a core group of younger players is crucial to reviving the club's success and Gourcuff is part of that change in philosophy, it might be attractive to return.

If Ancelotti, who is being pressurized by the likes of Beckham, for obvious reasons stays on then the picture gets a bit more cloudy. The Milan midfield has underperformed with Kaka and Pirlo falling way short of form. Clarence Seedorf does not have the legs to go 90 minutes. Ronaldinho and Pato play off the bench. Ancelotti will have to make some hard choices and jettison his policy of reviving the career of players like Becks and Sheva.

I bet you both father and son are watching with very great interest Ancelotti's summer plans.

Most people when asked what a Zoetrope is will say ..." Everyone knows that a"zoetrope" is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words zoe, "life" and trope, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life" or "living wheel.".
That bit is easily answered.The question is what was Kaka doing in one ?
Doing an AD for Sony what else.It's not exactly breaking news and I have a sneaking suspicion that we have seen this video before...
However,just to pass the time...

A $1 crowdsourcing exercise .....
The task is to invent a tagline (with fewer than 100 characters) for Australia's 2018 Soccer World Cup Bid.
The tagline should summarise why Australia should be selected to host the World Cup. View some of the creations submitted so far here.
The objectives of this experiment are:
1) To demonstrate the power of the crowd;
2) To estimate how much creativity each $1 of crowdsourcing spend can generate; and
3) To come up with a pitch that will help Australia to win the World Cup in 2018 .
Look it up here ...

The Daily Mail has the goods on the new away colours. It looks a bit dull and not particularly distinctive. The current yellow away shirt is quite attention grabbing.

Link:

A tired group of defenders react too late and poor goal keeping by Tim Weise lets in Jadson's extra time goal. Shakhtar become the first Ukraine side to win the UEFA Cup. Congratulations to them.

It was an all Brazilian show as Luiz Adriano put Shakhtar up in the first half, again latching onto a pass after a defensive breakdown. Weise charged out half heartedly and then inexplicably flopped down while the chip was in the air. Naldo equalized through a straightforward free kick which Andrei Pyatov ended up parrying into his own goal. All the goal action took place in the first half. Regulation time ended with the teams deadlocked. ESPN's matchcast here >>

Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that defender John O'Shea will start in next week's Champions League final against Barcelona. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson praised United's utility player with a shower of appreciative words - "John deserves his place" and "To my mind John is one of the unsung heroes like we had when Denis Irwin was here"

O'Shea has been used as an utility player for Manchester United - often putting in excellent performances at left-back and right back - he once even played as a goalkeeper for Manchester United.

Nothing major. Just arthroscopic surgery to remove his ankle screws. He will be out for 4-6 weeks missing his country's World Cup fixture against Ukraine.

Eduardo has had a number of niggling injuries that have hampered his complete rehabilitation since his return.

It is tough to say this but I doubt he will ever be fully match fit. An ankle surgery of that magnitude works well when your occupation is sedentary or fairly sedentary. But when it comes to football with its shearing torques and loading of the ankle, a small compromise in the structural integrity of the bones and/or the supporting fascia, including muscles and ligaments can prove detrimental in the long term.

All smoke no fire in that small brouhaha which Peter Hill Wood set off over the weekend with his rant against shareholders asking "disgraceful questions" of Wenger.

Today, Wenger committed himself to staying on at Arsenal. Florentino Perez better look elsewhere.

A comment here:

For some entrenched Arsenal bloggers who pooh pooh the notion that we should go "for Ednkdhfg Dzumbhfgrizo from random Bundelisga side for £4m". These are the same commentators who presently get lathered up over Arshavin. They would have discounted his arrival at the Emirates too. As well as Eduardo. Yep, playing in a random Bundesliga side is reason enough to turn our noses up at them. The disquieting noises that the club maybe putting up a paltry £13m, add to it Adebayor's plus a few others transfer fees, gets you a transfer budget in the vicinity of £50m. Even if the £13m figure is not strictly true; the club even if it does have the money, might choose not to invest in big name players. Wenger's recent signings from smaller leagues show a pattern. Older players who have proven central to their club's success as well have international experience in their resume. Someone like Edin Dzeko who has that profile could very well be on his radar. It all depends on a careful balance between priorities and the money given to them. But lets forget that cheap shot at random Bundesliga sides. We may fault Wenger for his preoccupation with youthful talent but even he is not that willfully arrogant.

Ryan Giggs came up with the following when asked make up his Manchester United all time best team selection...
Schmeichel/Van der Sar
Neville - Stam - Ferdinand - Irwin
Beckham - Scholes - Keane - Giggs
Cantona - Rooney

The second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) T 20 cricket tournament,heading towards its last very successful week,has proved to be " (the) perfect opportunity to show the world that we can host a major event in 20 days."That quote is from Gerald Majola - Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief executive.
More sporting and organisational challenges for SA to check on their world cup preparations will come with the hosting of the Confederations Cup due to kick off on Sunday 14 June.
ESPN has released some hints on their advertising plan for the World Cup.
SA seems to ready already.
And if you are planning to be a first time visitor to the country here is a pretty exhaustive list of answers to questions tourists would ask....
Examples:
Q: Will I be able to see elephants in the street? ( USA )
A: Depends how much you’ve been drinking.
Q: I want to walk from Durban to Cape Town - can I follow the railroad tracks? ( Sweden )
A: Sure, it’s only two thousand kilometres take lots of water…

Rarer than that species: a winning English coach, is a sighting of Freddy Adu.

Fear not, Freddy is still in AS Monaco. Alive, just on the bench a lot.

He is most likely return to Benfica because it appears Monaco is not interested in buying him out. So far he has logged 169 minutes of playing time in 11 appearances. Ten of these have been as a substitute and the one that he started was a Ligue Cup game against Caen. All the appearances came before the new year. So it is very fair to say that Monaco has given Adu very little exposure.

Adu might fare better in his Benfica return, where the two loan moves David Suazo and Jose Antonio Reyes have not worked out. Suazo's appearances have been curtailed through injury. Reyes most likely will move back to Atletico. Angel Di Maria, the left winger/ striker is sure to be a sought after transfer target. So there should be more regular openings for Adu.

There seems to be a push towards building a team around younger talent like Di Maria, Urreta, Bastos, Sidnei, David Luiz, Vitor, and Ishmael Vartey. Quiqui Flores the manager has also resorted to juggling midfield and attacking responsibilities which have unsettled players like Ruben Amorim and Pablo Aimar. The only consistent attacking threat has been Oscar Cardozo and his 16 goals. Adu's versatility maybe a good fit in this transitional Benfica team feeling its way forward under Rui Costa's new stewardship.

FC Twente's ascent up the Eredivisie has gone a some ways in rehabilitating the image of the much maligned ex-England manager. Steve McLaren's resume now includes a Dutch accent picked up at beer nights. He does a passable impression of Guus Hiddink, which might make him attractive to Boro, his former club who might be walking out Gareth Southgate.

Meanwhile Richard Williams can barely contain himself at the prospect of that rarest of species: A winning English coach. What next, peace in the Middle East?

Simon Kuper says so. Read on >>

Ciro Ferrara takes over Claudio Ranieri at Juve's helm for the last two matches.

Zero titles claimed their first big victim this season.

Juve have gone eight matches without winning one. They lost to Atalanta which jeopardized their automatic CL spot. They now need the maximum points from the last two matches. The decision to fire Ranieri was arrived at by consensus:

"We made the decision to sack Ranieri yesterday evening and once we informed the club leadership of our decision, we made Ferrara's arrival official. We know that sacking a manager is not our style and the last dismissal mid-season took place in 1969. However, for the last 3 years we have been in a different situation from previous seasons. Having to go through the Champions League preliminary round and ending seasons this way isn't like us either."

Mouinho is looking for a second striker since Adriano and the club terminated their contract by mutual consent. It appears Diego Milito presently at Genoa is coveted by Mourinho. He has been in spectacular form scoring 20 goals and leading Genoa to a UEFA spot.

Meanwhile, Massimo Moratti has assured worried fans that Ibra is not going anywhere.

Richard Caborn maybe embarrassed that a BNP member was allowed to attend the opening of the World Cup bid. A jarring note, potentially undermining a major selling point: England's inclusiveness.

However it is the expenses scandal rocking England that is proving a major embarrassment for the Labour party. It has provided a major fillip for the BNP. Labour's image is so bad, only a few percentage points separate the two parties if a election was held now. The BNP may be excluded from the 2018 bidding table but at this point, their real power lies outside. They can used their increased political relevance to create a backlash against immigrants, stoke tensions, and keep prospective World Cup visitors away.

The scandal also opens up questions as to who benefits from the financial windfall that the World Cup brings? The same MPs shielded by years of government opacity on how taxpayer money was used to finance their lifestyle? A perceived lack of transparency was a factor in sinking SA's bid for the 2006 World Cup, awarded finally to Germany. The same sort of questions are being raised by western skeptics in SA's preparation for the 2010 World Cup.

Mark Fry, the administrator in charge of Southampton FC is a very important chap nowadays.

The saga to save the Saints seems to have taken many twists with a number of mysterious groups all ready for an 11th hour bid. But who are they?

Why does Mark Fry keep giving Matt Le Tessier's Pinnacle group extensions when they fail to submit bid documents?

One thing for sure, it is giving Saints fans sleepless nights wondering who their saviour will be?

Its ironical but the club could have been saved with a fraction of the taxpayer money that British MPs have looted to waste on the most frivolous of things, including horse manure.

Barcelona's title celebrations fell a bit flat as they surrendered a one-goal advantage to crash to a 2-1 defeat at Real Mallorca.Not a good omen - definitely no.

Portsmouth made Sunderland pay for all their defensive lapses as they won, 3-1.

Sunderland made a bright start as Kenwyne Jones put them up. But the lead was shortlived as John Utaka scored the equalizer when Grant Leadbitter made a hash of a clearance gifting the ball to the Nigerian striker who converted.

Then Anton Ferdinand failed to clear the Portsmouth goalie's long punt and Utaka gathered the ball and would have scored against Fulop even before Phil Bardsley's desperate intervention resulted in an own goal.

Armand Traore put the icing on the cake with Portsmouth's third. In between there were chances as Pompey waned but Sunderland failed to convert them.

It will be left to Chelsea, if they feel even the slightest bit magnanimous, to give Sunderland a chance to remain promoted.

...selected at goal.com.The latest of his feats would include the hat trick he scored against Hannover recently.His team - the hitherto unheralded Wolfsburg are a mere 90 minutes away from an unbelievable maiden Bundesliga title and a place in the Champions League.Goals of the Hannover game below..

Link:

Kudos to Tuncay who was voted Boro's player of the year. He fully deserves it. In the MOTD highlights is the perfectly placed bicycle kick that Daniel was referring to. Boro will in all probability be relegated but Tuncay was one of the bright spots of the season.

Middlesbrough All But Relegated

While many were watching Manchester United claim their 18th league title, a few others saw Middlesbrough's status in the Premier League all but over.

36 games into the league with 31 points, Aston Villa faced Middlesbrough at 'Boro's stadium, with disgruntled fan support and terrible home form, surprisingly, Middlesbrough started brightly against Aston Villa, 60 seconds inside the game Middlesbrough almost scored when Stewart Downing's cross was turned behind by Gareth Barry. A Julio Arca header followed by a Garry O'Neill shotgave 'Boro fans a flicker of hope to hang on to, this bright start was followed by a rare early goal from Middlesbrough when Tuncay hit a stunning bicycle-kick from a deflected Downing cross 14 minutes into the game.

Middlesbrough fans of course, had seen all of this before - pretty football, followed by a rare, but stunning goal then followed by a defensive calamity - the warning signs were there. Minutes before Tuncay scored, Gabriel Agbonlahor was one-on-one with Brad Jones but the speedy striker could only shoot at Jones's feet.The hosts pushed forward but with only a goal to their name, the attacking, adventurous football could easily be discarded by only one goal from Aston Villa - which would all but end Middlesbrough's race to stay in the Premier League.

Just like that, it happened so fast - Middlesbrough conceded a goal, finished a match with a draw, the fans were disappointed yet unsurprised by a team who haven't scored enough. In the second half - Aston Villa started playing like the team that were once in 4th place ahead of Arsenal, Villa had more possession of the ball and started to attack, the cracks in 'Boro's defence started to open and the clinical John Carrew scored.

Villa are everything Middlesbrough aren't; stubborn as a rock, defensively solid with attacking players who can do something - Middlesbrough's defence has fallen apart time after time this season, and when they surge forward, players like Alfonso Alves haven't put away the rare clear-cut-chances created. Knowing a win wouldn't be acceptable, Boro surged forward for the last quarter of the game, despite being open on the counter-attack, the match finished 1-1 - and effectively it ended any optimistic chance of Boro staying in the league in this year.

Gareth Southgate's team must win their next match by 4 goals to stay up - with huge cracks in the defence, a lack of explosive power up front and very little money to splash, Middlesbrough's manager Gareth Southgate hasn't been able to buy forwards who can finish - Alves and Aliadere haven't done much this year, so much as to leading Aliadere being converted to a right winger, neither has he been able to buy a goalkeeper like Mark Schwarzer - as solid as a rock yet as cheap as chips, the defending... has been terrible through out, with inexperienced defenders needing older, experienced players who know how to defend with huge pressure - new centre backs were needed at the start of the year, at the middle of the season (Why didn't Southgate buy one in January? Lack of cash one suspects) and will still be needed for next year.

It's a shame that Middlesbrough are going down, for a team that plays creative football with a touch of flair like an artist drawing a masterpiece with his handsome hand, they don't have a solid spine to allow the hand to operate efficiently.

Having a good lafferty at Mulgrew's expense?

Charlie Mulgrew found out after being sent off in a Oscar worthy moment by Kyle Lafferty. The Rangers forward fell feigning injury over a head butt with the Aberdeen defender. The fracas resulted in Mulgrew's expulsion. It would have made (insert here customary cheap pot shot at) Cristiano Ronaldo proud. Lafferty then winked at the bench.

Later, he posted a public apology on Rangers website. The SPL will impose a prospective penalty that kicks in next season. For now, Lafferty gets to play the final match against Dundee.

A controversy that might make Aberdeen vs Rangers matches a bit tetchy in the future but Rangers now have to fancy their title chances. They beat Aberdeen, 2-1.

Celtics lost quite a bit of steam drawing Hibs, 0-0. They fall two points behind Rangers.

It should set up a fascinating last day with Celtics taking on third placed Hearts at home while Rangers travel to fourth placed Dundee. Celtics have been very good at home while Rangers have the best road record. Celtics have a goal advantage over Rangers. It could all come down to goal differential.

Jens Lehmann was of the opinion that Almunia couldn't stop Ronaldo's free kick the other day because he apparently did not know that the new footballs pick up speed after they've been kicked.It's something that he has been warning goalkeepers about all along.Here's some scientific analysis on whether this is true or merely another Lehmann superstition.
Lehmann is also going to take to acting as part of his world cup preparations.He will play a football scout in ‘Themba’, the story of an african youngster who is spotted and makes it as a professional.

Deja vu all over again for the Crew who seem to specialize in giving away late goals that rob them of wins. This time it was Eddie Lewis celebrating his 35th birthday with a goal in the 91st minute as the Galaxy came from behind to equalize.

Earlier Guillermo Barros-Schelotto took advantage of a defensive mistake by Tony Sanneh to put the Crew ahead.

Usain Bolt on Man U and Cristiano Ronaldo shortly before his world record run.

....and then there's Alex Ferguson on winning a marathon 18th title.

McBride's sixth goal of the season in nine games gave visiting Chicago a 2-0 win over Toronto. The Fire are on top of the Eastern division standings and McBride and Josh Wolff lead in league goal scoring.

Lyon blows by Marseille, 3-1 on the strength of two Benzema goals. Juninho adds another in stoppage time. Sylvain Wiltord scored Marseille's only goal. Jeremy Toulalan and Jean Makoun imposed their physical presence on the midfield and blunted Ben Arfa and Mathieu Valbuena.

Mamadou Niang appears to have been denied two penalty opportunities after Anthony Revelliere charged him in the box. There was a bit of luck as the goalpost came in the way of Niang and Cheyrou.

Marseille now needs a Bordeaux stumble to help to win the title. Bordeaux won against Le Mans, 3-2. With the Marseille loss, Bordeaux move three points clear in the title race. They have two games left. Lyon are in third place and appear to have secured the final CL qualifying spot with this win as PSG lost 2-1 to Auxerre.

Real Madrid has come knocking and part of Florentino Perez's rebuilding of the club not only includes the potential signing of high powered stars like Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Cesc Fabregas but also getting a quality manager. Real has been linked with Wenger for a number of years but it is usually in the fevered imaginations of publications like Marca. The Frenchman usually dismisses them.

However, he met up Perez in Paris last week in which he was informed about Real's plans. In an interview with a French media outlet, Wenger reportedly said that the Perez's vision would sound attractive to any coach. When it came to the question of commitment to Arsenal he offered a bit more ambiguity saying ""In general I usually stay until the end of my contract." His contract runs till 2011.

I think Wenger has been hurt by the negative feelings of many supporters who see the present club's performance as hitting an impasse.

Frustration bubbled over in recent shareholder meeting where Wenger was put on the spot and reacted with some feeling stating that "You sit here, you are in the last four in Europe, and every day you feel you have killed someone," he said. "It is unbelievable."

The less than unequivocal commitment to the club maybe a bit of a shot across the bow to the fans but it also feels like a warning to the board that they need to open up the purse strings to get some quality players. So far Wenger has been very careful, tightly controlling transfer money so as not to add onto existing stadium debt. What works in the clubs favour is Wenger's mantra that the club needs just a couple of quality additions to the defense and midfield to start winning titles. He will need to honour his contract to prove this theory true.

However you might want to interpret this, a line has been crossed with this meeting.

Harry Redknapp has not taken kindly to Pavlyuchenko's unsporting conduct. The Russian striker was taken off after muffing a simple goal chance against City. He reacted by storming off into the tunnel. Redknapp had some very strong words.

Its been an on and off season, the Russian did not endear himself when he first joined up complaining about the intensity of the training sessions. He has been injured frequently, most recently with a back problem that has kept him out of the starting line up. But Pavlyuchenko has managed to score goals and his technique has impressed Redknapp. Which has led to the will he, won't he renew situation.

Redknapp also might be selling off David Bentley, who in an Arsenal repeat is missing vital first squad action with Aaron Lennon as firm favourite in the right winger position.

A pro Silvio Berlusconi paper says it:

"Ancelotti, una sconfitta che sa di addio."

"Zeru tituli" is a code word in both Inter and AC Milan's history.

It refers to Massimo Ambrosini's two year old Inter taunt when AC won the 2007 CL finals.

On March 3rd, Mourinho threw the taunt back as he said the Rossoneri would win no titles more than two months before the end of the season. The infuriated Ambrosini went on air to ask for an apology. Which set off Mourinho.

The two words have become viral with legions of Inter fans sporting banners. Zero titles has become Dante's inferno for Ancelotti, Ranieri, and Spaletti. None of them might return next season. It has become a verdict without trial. Split rivals, sown dissension, and vitiated club atmosphere.

Yesterday, Milan lost to Udinese, 1-2 gifting Inter their fourth Serie title in succession. It gave the Special One his first scudetto making today's 3-0 win over Siena moot.

El Pais has a fascinating article (it is in Spanish) about Barca's manager.

He is obsessive, intelligent, passionate, a legend in a legendary city.

His impeccable sartorial style comes from his companion, Cristina Serra, whose family runs a well known boutique. She has cultivated the couple's interest in photography, travel, and reading.

His mother shows a photo of a small boy who was declared the best player in a football tournament but cried when he received his trophy because he had missed a penalty.

That was in 1986. Guardiola went onto win 18 honours with Barcelona as a player, including 6 La Liga titles and a CL championship. By that time he established himself as one of the most important players in Johan Cruyff's dream team. A legend in Camp Nou. Injuries cut his Barca days short and he left in 2001 for a brief stint with Brecia and AS Roma.

By all accounts it was a disaster, with very few appearances because of injuries, and worse still, testing positive for nandrolone. It led to a four month ban. In a measure of his obsessive personality, Guardiola fought to clear his name with a single mindedness for 6 years till the charges were finally dropped in 2007.

Xavi, a Barca product talks about how Guardiola's playing style influenced his own: He was the most mentally agile player in the Barca team. He would see the play before it had developed. "It seemed he had an eye on back of the neck, all the while turning the head, as if it had mirrors."

As a manager, Xavi says that Guardiola has little idea of how intensely he lives and breathes the game. "Es un enfermo del fútbol." Yet strangely, this intensity does not make him a despot as he remains first and foremost a friend to all his players. Football is a fast game and it needs clarity of communication. Guardiola has proved himself a very effective communicator. His success with Barca's B team leading them out of the third tier to the second within a year of joining up convinced Txiki Beguiristain, the sports director and Joan Laporta, the club president to appoint him as successor to Frank Rijkaard in 2008. He now lies at the gates of attaining a treble.

He has Barca in his marrow. A product of La Masia, Barca's youth training facility that shaped the careers of Carlos Puyol, Victor Valdez, Leo Messi and Andres Iniesta, who form the fulcrum of the club's success. An iconic figure to all the children from his neighborhood of Santpedor, who aspire to be the next number four. Guardiola's number.

Guardiola, Celades, Milla: All quality holding midfielders, a unique Barcelona tradition passed down to the present team; to Xavi, Iniesta (who started as one), and Busquets.

Roman Bednar on match day, jus' chillin'

They get relegated.

Tony Mowbray's team played fine attacking stuff all season but were miserable in stanching the potshots. Talking about potshots, the Baggies bag Bednar on charges of purchasing narcotics.

Real Madrid falls to Villareal, 2-3 at El Madrigal. It snuffs out their slim chances of overtaking Barca.

Barca are now La Liga champions, two days after being crowned Copa Del Rey champions and on May 27th fight Man Utd for the title of the best team in Europe in the CL final. A chance for a triple crown.

Marca documents the 12 step recovery program.

Messi, Eto'o, and Henry are duly mentioned but the most intriguing entry is on Joan Laporta (link in Spanish).

Laporta must be the most reviled and at the same time most resurrected man in the history of Barcelona because in the beginning of the season, he lost a popular censure vote by a whopping enough margin but since it did not cross the 66% threshold for new elections, he did not tender his resignation. Barca was coming off a disastrous season under Frank Rijkaard. Ronaldinho had grown heavy and complacent. Henry was only operating sub-optimally. Eto'o had spent almost a whole season out with injuries. The laissez-faire attitude extended to training and physical fitness.

But Laporta managed to survive, withstanding the subsequent pressure of the board of the directors who tried to force him out. When he did not resign, eight of them left in protest. His failure to energize the club's fortunes was complicated by his use of the club to espouse his passionate advocacy of Catalonian independence. The media was not amused by his volatile mix of politics and sports. In short, Laporta cut a polarizing figure.

However he did one thing right, he brought in Pep Guardiola, a local man and kept his faith in him. It was Laporta's only move but it turned out to be the right one.

Barcelona were crowned Primera Division champions after Real Madrid were beaten 3-2 at Villarreal.
Madrid didn't give up without a fight.They came back twice from behind to draw level, but an error from Iker Casillas in stoppage time gave Villarreal a victory which left Real 8 points behind Barca with just two games left.

Adidas is promoting its new kit designs with a series of "Every team needs a 12th man" videos from various Premier League training grounds.This video of Michael Ballack wearing Chelsea’s new home shirt was going around a week or so ago.Features him riding around on a bicycle.

and here's another one in which Xabi Alonso parades Liverpool’s new away outfit -while practising (practicing?) the perfect free kick..

Dzeko cuts a heroic figure

In the alternate world of The True Table or www.wahretabelle.de if referees were perfect, then Bayern would have leapfrogged over Stuttgart and Wolfsburg to a comfortable Bundesliga title. Cold comfort for Juergen Klinsmann indeed.

What do we get out of this exercise in keeping tabs on refereeing blunders. A grand conspiracy to keep Germany's most hated club from winning one more title. A support group for human imperfections. A pointed statement to install video replay technology. Another reason to hate the man with the whistle.

In the real world it is evident that Grafite and Edin Dzeko are having the time of their lives. A 30 year old Brazilian journeyman is teaming up with a 23 year Bosnian wonder boy for the most lethal striking tandem in Bundesliga history. They have scored 51 goals with Grafite up by one goal over Dzeko. Wolfsburg latest victim was Hannover who got their clock cleaned out losing 5-0. Grafite scored a brace while Dzeko recorded a hat trick.

Bayern would have been done in by Hoffenheim if it was not for a last gasp Luca Toni equalizer. Franck Ribery showed why he remains a Man Utd target as he single handedly kept Bayern in the game as they drew 2-2 with Hoffenheim. The French midfielder was outstanding, as the rest of the team muddled through.

The draw most likely means their death rattle in winning the title. They fall behind Wolfsburg by two points and even further in goal differential. But the match was even more damaging to their CL prospects.

They have their work cut out as their last match is against Stuttgart. Only goal differential separate these two. Hertha is in fourth position, a point behind. The first two spots get automatic entry into the CL while the third enters the qualification round. The Stuttgart game is now a must win. That is because they have to assume a Hertha win over relegated Karlsruher. A draw will not suffice.

Link:

Man Utd once again crested the pinnacle. Arsenal played a much improved game and at moments looked threatening but Utd was far too strong defensively to let this game go. The draw was enough for the Premiership title.

RVP had Arsenal's best chance of the match. It should have been a sure goal but he mistimed the header and the ball went sailing harmlessly over the crossbar. Its been a frustrating season for him with injuries and a loss of form. Fabianski was solid, snuffing out Ronaldo and Tevez's dangerous moves in the box. At the opposite end, Rooney could have put Man Utd ahead but his header missed the near post by inches. The Gunners piled on the pressure in the last quarter of the match with Fabregas coming close as his shot hit the woodwork but finally time ran out.

Tevez was substituted and the Argentinian walked off with Old Trafford chanting his name calling Sir Alex to keep him in the club. He could not have asked for a better vote of confidence.

It was Man Utd's 18th title, 11 of them Premiership, and they now equal Liverpool's record. Rafa Benitez can live in a world of denial but the fact is that their challenge came to an end today.

Congratulations to Man Utd. Once again the club as its wont, overcame moments of doubt, pulling themselves up, through sheer force of character and desire, to win. I have to say as integral as Ronaldo is to the club's success, it is Wayne Rooney who is the fiercest spirit of them all.

And to keep Man Utd's title hopes in check for at least another week. Well, we can hope, can't we? Man Utd will come out of the gates with intensity of purpose, to claim what is rightfully theirs.

If the Gunners win, at least the season won't end on a sour note. If not, then Fabregas and men will have to applaud the champions on their home turf in front of their fans. It will hurt this fan to see the team as the sacrificial goat. But not for long, the best team in the Premiership once again will have won. We can step back and let them enjoy the moment that they fully deserve.

Arshavin is back and should bring some meaningful zip back into the attack. Adebayor did not start the Chelsea match and Wenger should keep it that way, because when he did come on, he chose to exhibit his diving capabilities. In that too, he failed miserably. Nicklas Bendtner was far more solid. Almunia is out, so Fabianski starts. Its going to be nervy at the back and with Man Utd scenting blood, the Polish goalie will have to wade out a torrid start.

For an entertaining start to today's match, here is an unrestrained Arshavin speaking his mind about the game.

"I believe that out of the top four English teams, when it comes to football, Arsenal are the best. They have the best style and the best coach. At the moment, young players come to Arsenal because they see it as a very big team, but if we carry on like this without winning trophies, young players will not want to come. Everyone likes the appeal of Arsenal, the football of Arsenal, the young players of Arsenal, but if there is no result they will stop."

"If you play tennis tomorrow, you lose against Nadal, you can still say you are a good player."

Roger Federer might be comforted by Wenger's words but the fact is that he still lost and lost not because he played badly, he just came up against a more relentless player.

We would have no problems if Arsenal had done what Federer did, play a good game, and still lost. It was the abjectness of their defeats which have been so disquieting.

Wenger knows this. It has been a bitter end to the season and fans have reacted strongly. It is a bit fallacious to say that Man Utd's resources cannot be matched. This is not a David vs Goliath situation. Arsenal has the money but the conscious game plan has been to spend it on young and relatively inexperienced talent. It has worked superbly to a level just below the best but the last few matches have proved that it is not enough.

Cool finisher!

Its been 8 years since Sol Campbell left Spurs for Arsenal. For some fans, this was the final word in back stabbing. They reacted badly. Its been tough for him every time he returns to White Hart Lane.

Campbell might be a bit more relieved that a few of the most vituperative lot have been found guilty of homophobic chants against him.

A somewhat simpler explanation for all the ire. Spurs have never shown any consistent improvement in their defense, their Achilles heel in attaining a higher place in the league. Since Campbell left in 2001, they have conceded 40 goals or less only once, in 2006 when they achieved 5th place under Martin Jol conceding just 38 goals.

2001-2002: Goals against- 53
2002-2003: Goals against- 62
2003-2004: Goals against- 57
2004-2005: Goals against- 41
2005-2006: Goals against- 38
2006-2007: Goals against- 54
2007-2008: Goals against- 61

Guus Hiddink seems to be making a bit of a meal leaving Chelsea. He says he will be back and forth to support the club.

“Unofficially, I will keep my connection with the club,” he said as he prepared for tomorrow’s game at home to Blackburn Rovers. “By supporting them, by coming to visit every now and then.”

Forget the fact that Carlo Ancelotti or Frank Rijkaard might have problems with this seemingly innocuous Big Brother attitude.

Can Russia handle the distraction? Hiddink's entertaining notions of staying on at Chelsea had its star player airing his worries in public.

Nemanja Vidic was an undoubted success in Man Utd's reaching for the moon. No one denies that. Despite the much lampooned Vidic moment played out endlessly to You Tube rap song remixes when Torres took him to the cleaners in a 4-1 drubbing over Man Utd.

Ryan Giggs won the PFA award in dubious circumstances, on the strength of an Oscar worthy lifetime award, just not this season. Everyone rolled over. We celebrated the good guy passed over in his prime finally getting the PFA, with misty eyes.

Yet, we are treated to the selfish spectacle of Sir Alex complaining about Steven Gerrard getting the Football Writers Association award. What did Gerrard do? Waterboard the journalists? Or actually prove that because of his form, Liverpool have gotten the closest in years to challenging for the title.

I should also add on the 20th year anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, Gerrard shouldered the pain and despair of a club and its supporters admirably. A seminal moment in football history that led to far reaching reforms which ensured better playing circumstances for everyone, including Man Utd. Sometimes moments like this transcend the nuts and bolts of winning a title.

So zip it, Sir Alex. You tarnish your accomplishments with your constant whining.

Sister Act as you have never seen it before....................

The match was held held in memory of the 96 people who died as a result of the Hillsborough disaster.The Liverpool Legends, comprising ex-Liverpool footballers, beat the All Stars, captained by actor Ricky Tomlinson 3 -1.
Ian Rush, John Aldridge and Kenny Dalglish scored, with Teddy Sheringham hitting one for the All Stars.

The first leg resulted in a Atlante 2-0 win and the second leg was a 0-0 draw. Atlante won on aggregate.

It has been a very poor season for all the traditional heavy hitters. Cruz Azul, Club America, Chivas, and Atlas fell by the wayside in the regular season. Azul was the hardest hit finishing dead last in the Primera League, the first time in 47 years. Their lack of success has Ramon Raya and Mauricio Cabrera bemoaning the state of affairs in the big Mexican clubs.

Adebayor must have really impressed Roman Abramovich in the cameo against Chelsea where he touched the ball twice and dove repeatedly to get a penalty. In keeping with the CL semi-finals, he contributed very little to that match.

He is reportedly a transfer target for the Blues. Didier Drogba is an almost certainty to depart Stamford Bridge. Carlo Ancelotti now a distinct coaching possibility is a big fan of the Togolese striker.

Wenger appears to have no objections to him leaving for one of the big rivals. If there is anyone who knows Ade's weaknesses, it is Wenger. He has probablyl figured out a way to neutralize him. The money from his sale is an irresistible attraction. Ade should go for £25-30m.

Wenger should also seriously consider the transfers of Abou Diaby, Alexander Song, and Denilson. The three of them should net about £20m. We could also offload Mikael Silvestre and William Gallas.

With about £60m to £70m in player transfers and another £30m from the club for a budget of £90- 100m, here is who we should try and get:

Adebayor's replacement should be someone who outscores him in power and speed. Edin Dzeko at Wolfsburg is a big bold presence at 6' 4". He has outstanding stats with 22 goals scored in 30 appearances this season. At 23 years, he is already an outstanding contributor to the Bosnian national team and leads the World Cup qualifiers with seven goals.

You might argue that having another striker is redundant having RVP, Eduardo, Bendtner, Vela, Walcott, and Arshavin who can all score but this is a false notion. RVP is injury prone, , Eduardo's complete return remains in question, Walcott lacks the finishing touch in spades, Bendtner's recent form has been satisfactory but after much profligacy, and Vela has just begun getting some first place looks. Arshavin seems to be the only player who inspires confidence, so relieving him of goalscoring pressure would be extremely important.

Another bold move would be to seduce Mathieu Flamini back. It will take more money but Flamini has been under utilized in Milan and might want to get back to a more substantial role. I really believe Wenger dropped the ball and they should have matched or exceeded Milan's offer. Flamini alongside Fabregas forged the template for Arsenal's midfield potency last season.

We could also target Marcos Senna, Villareal's hard man, as holding midfielder. He brings serious teeth to the game. Senna has expressed admiration for Arsenal's young talent and he might want to move to a bigger stage. At 32 years he is at the older end of the spectrum but his Villareal and Spain performances suggest he is peaking. Without a doubt, he is an inspirational leader who would relieve Fabregas of that burden. For a younger player we could turn to Yaya Toure, Barca's everyday man on defense with some serious attacking chops. Brother Kolo could give him a few words of encouragement to encourage him to come to the Emirates. Xavi Alonso and Gareth Barry remain on the horizon.

Arsenal's central defense has been shambolic. They have also lacked being set piece threats. With an eye towards that, the following central defenders should be seriously considered. Raul Albiol of Valencia who with his 6'3" frame should give the inches that Arsenal's defense needs.

There is Juventus Giorgio Chiellini and Everton's Joleon Lescott, both hard to knock of the tackle and proven set piece goal scorers. If Wenger wants to go a bit cheaper he can try to get Nedum Onuoha at Man City or Curtis Davies at Villa. Both are the highest quality and performing beyond their years. Arsenal needs a central defender duo who can develop the sort of understanding that Toure and Gallas were unable to do.

Tomas Rosicky has just started attending training after 16 months away with injuries to his knees and hamstrings and if everything progresses well, should be back for next season's start. If that happens then the midfield has yet another option.

....a goal celebration that could have given Rooney some grief.Fortunately he got up smiling.

The Mexican Football Federation announced they were breaking all ties with CONMEBOL, canceling Copa Sudamericana, Copa America, and Copa Libertadores appearances. The fallout was set in motion when Nacional and San Paulo refused to travel to Mexico for their third round matches against San Luis and Chivas Gualdajara because of fears associated with the swine flu outbreak.

Nacional and Sao Paulo could not come to a subsequent agreement over alternate venues. San Luis and Chivas Gualdajara then withdrew from the Copa.

The FMF is particularly infuriated because it was given to understand that in lieu, COMNEBOL would give five spots to Mexican clubs instead of the three next year's Libertadores competition. But CONMEBOL seems to have had a sudden change of heart ordering the Mexican clubs to play one off matches at Sao Paulo and Montevideo. Controversy surrounds the CONMEBOL volte face. Were officials on the same page? It appears there is a rift between Julio Grondona, a powerful FIFA vice president and the head of the AFA, the CONMEBOL president Nicolas Leoz, and Ricardo Texeira, the CBF head and a FIFA member.

Grondona and Leoz's original position in sync with FIFA regulations, was to allow next year's expansion of spots available for the Mexican clubs, which is what Justino Compean, the FMF president received in his first communication. But the decision did not sit well with the CBF, and Ricardo Texeira appears to have exerted pressure on Leoz. In the meantime, Grondona also realized that they were losing money by foregoing these matches, thus there was a volte face.

This has set of a firestorm in Mexico, with CONMEBOL being accused of heavy handed chauvinism and favouritism towards the South American clubs. There is a feeling that the Mexican clubs have been shut out because the South Americans also feared an upset. The CONMEBOL decision came a day after Mexican health authorities had declared stadiums safe to reopen to the public. Meanwhile, an internet war has broken out between Mexican and Argentine fans.

I have a solution: Smithfield's public relations have taken a beating. Preliminary investigations show that pig farms operated by a Mexican subsidiary of the Virginia based Smithfield company, the world's largest producer of pork and pork products could be the probable locus of the epidemic. How about Smithfield rehabilitating its image by footing the costs of playing the matches here in the USA? Everyone walks out happy.

A truly sad moment for Reading fans as the club failed to make it to the Premiership losing to Burnley in the playoffs. It should not have come to this as the Royals had a number of chances for promotion but their miserable home record proved their undoing, as they lost their last nine matches in a row.

Steve Coppell resigned with minimum fuss, great dignity, and no excuses. It was quintessential Coppell. They are a vanishing breed as finger pointers have taken over the game.

I became a big fan of Coppell when the Royals were promoted to the Premiership in 2006 and their success that season lighted up the league. Their first match was a 3-2 win against Boro. Dave Kitson was injured in that match and was out till January but players like Kevin Doyle, Seol Ki-Hyun, Leroy Lita, and Steve Sidwell stepped up admirably.

Apart from a Steve Hunt moment where he attempted a prefrontal lobotomy on Petr Cech (the Chelsea goalie now wears protective headgear), the club preferred to make news with their performances. The Man Utd encounters provided some choice moments. Reading refused to go away in both Premiership matches. The highlight was the FA Cup fifth round that gave Sir Alex some very anxious moments as Reading fought back through Kitson and Lita after Man Utd had seemingly wrapped up the match in a three goal blitz in 6 minutes.

The Royals ended in 8th position with Doyle and Lita combining for 27 goals. The season threw up Steve Sidwell as a player to be watched for. Chelsea came knocking. Coppell was deservedly voted as manager of the year. The achievement was accomplished with the most minimal of sideline shenanigans as Coppell's stoic and unflappable visage became an enduring image.

A reason for their strong first season was Reading's super efficient scoring. They were the most accurate of all clubs. They scored a goal every three attempts. The number was significantly better than Man Utd, Liverpool, and Arsenal.

Doyle, Lita, and Sidwell were not just goal scorers, they were snipers.

So thanks for all the great memories, Steve. Here is hoping this is a brief interlude and you come back to coaching again.

The Seattle Sounders are the hottest team in the MLS right now.

The club is accommodating the demand for tickets by increasing seats by 4000. This increases the total capacity for MLS games to over 32,000. The Sounders also play Chelsea and Barca in the summer and Qwest will open up all its sections to increase seating to 67,000.

For more info on how other clubs are faring >>

Tevez brought Man U back into the game against Wigan with this deft backheel.Ferguson released Tevez from the bench only in the 58th minute and it had proved an anxious night for United until then thanks to a 28th-minute goal from Wigan’s Hugo Rodallega.

Barcelona are on course for the historic treble when they beat Athletic Bilbao 4-1 at the Mestalla Stadium on Wednesday to lift the Kings Cup for the first time in over a decade.Goals by Yaya Toure, Bojan Krkic, Xavi Hernandez and Lionel Messi..One down,two to go.....!

Yaya Toure, Kolo's younger brother shows why Arsenal should get this man. Brilliant footwork, great balance, and a killer finish. It all began at the half line. Yaya was shifted to the center back position because of Abidal's suspension and Rafa Marque's injury.

His goal scored the equalizer for Barca who went on to demolish Bilbao through goals by Messi, Krkic, and Xavi. The perfect scoreline was spoiled by Gaizka Toquero's 9th minute header which briefly put Bilbao up.

Barca won the Copa Del Rey for the first time after 11 years. Andres Iniesta and Thierry Henry did not play because of injuries but both are going to be back for the CL final against Man Utd.

Arseblog uses Jabba the Usmanov which I think is a perfect moniker. Well, the Uzbeki metal king wants to use his depleted bank balance to help the Gunners cover some of the debt associated with the stadium, so as to open up the transfer budget. It is as Arseblog says, a clever move, taking the side of the fans when he mentions that raising ticket prices is not the answer.

Nice populist gesture. But what is the quid pro quo? A takeover obviously. Of course, if that happens, ticket prices will be raised nonetheless, this time to pay him back. Yes, your money will go to a numbered account in the Cayman islands. There is no way a businessman who lost 74% of his wealth is going to hand out freebies.

I think all parties interested in the future of Arsenal need a way forward to reduce the debt. Which means setting aside personal ambitions for the summer and working together to get the players needed. It is going to be difficult what with Arsenal's byzantine boardroom politics calling for George Mitchell like negotiating skills. I think Ivan Gazidis will be a very busy man.

Rumour has it here that American R&B singer/songwriter/producer Akon has been hired to produce the 2010 World Cup theme song.Why Akon?The same source says "A quick look at Akon’s Wikipedia page reveals that he’s of Senegalese origin and his real full name is Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam"
While that may very well explain why Akon has been selected for the task it still is a bit much to expect anyone to read that name in a "quick look"

For all its parity with the other three big European leagues, the Bundesliga coaches have had considerably less sway in influencing other European big leagues.

Felix Magath's success with three Bundesliga teams should have seen his stock rise across Europe but has Chelsea come knocking? He is moving to Schalke. Juergen Klinsmann mentioned as a successor to Jose Mourinho at Chelsea finally landed up at Bayern before being fired. He is now being touted as Ralf Ragnick's successor at Hoffenheim. Ottmar Hitzfeld surely one of the biggest names in coaching circles is managing Switzerland after a lifetime spent coaching in the Bundesliga. Otto Rehhagel spent 14 successful years heading Werder where he built up the club as a force that challenged Bayern. Despite that enviable resume, Rehhagel never coached another big league club, taking up as Greece's national coach in 2001. Bernd Schuster's exit from Real last season, ended German representation in the top three European leagues.

The flip side of all this insularity is the inveterate parody of the itinerant globe trotting German coach. Jupp Derwall in 1984, after retiring as the German national coach headed down to Turkish club Galtasaray, revolutionizing the sport in that country. Over the years Berti Vogts, Bernd Stange, and that most recognizable of names, Otto Pfister have made a career of coaching teams all over the world. These modern day versions of Sir Richard Burton have struck out over the global terrain with little political compunction and financial compensation to coach a polyglot of teams.

The relative invisibility of German coaching success is remarkable when you consider other countries and their coaches. Italy's national team success seems to be rooted in home soil ardency. Their players are loath to leave but the coaches seem to have embraced the rigours of English football. West Ham lured Gianfranco Zola away from his coaching duties as assistant manager of the U21 Italy team to install him as manager. Zola was a favourite amongst Chelsea fans in his playing career under Gianluca Vialli, another Italian. Carlo Ancelotti is now being mentioned as a replacement for Guus Hiddink, a Dutchman, who built his reputation at PSV. Hiddink's success with Chelsea is a rebuilding process started under Claudio Ranieri in 2001, a base that Roman Abramovich could build on and Jose Mourinho perfected. Arsenal is coached by Arsene Wenger, a Frenchman, who previously coached AS Monaco. Rafa Benitez, a Spaniard, spent five years at Valencia before leaving for Liverpool.

The situation in La Liga and the Serie is no different. The foreign representation is less overall but the Liga employs coaches like Hugo Sanchez of Mexico and Manuel Pellegrini of Chile, arguably because of linguistic connections. Barca broke a recent stranglehold of Dutch coaches with Pep Guardiola and before Schuster, Real Madrid employed Fabio Capello and Carlos Queiroz. The Serie has been traditionally tough ground to break so it is not surprising to see Jose Mourinho as the only foreign representative. Mourinho, Hiddink, and Wenger, each of them started their coaching careers in smaller European leagues to reach its upper echelons underscores the paucity of German equivalence.

Here I end with a caveat: If it is any cold comfort, English coaches are infinitely worse off in any meaningful representation and impact outside of the Premiership. Even that is due to borrowed Scottish lustre. The big English moment ended when Bobby Robson left Barca in 1997.

The comedy of errors that led to Frank Baumann's goal against Hamburg. The culprit has been identified and it will be installed in Werder's hall of fame.

Werder had Hamburg's number this season. Make it three of three. Baumann's goal ended their UEFA aspirations. They also lost the German Cup. And this weekend Martin Jol's squad crashed out of title contention after being beaten by Hugo Almeida's brace.

..an internet game where the point is to get Didier Drogbaby to slap the ref as many times as he can in 30 seconds.

Link:

Wolfsburg bounced back from the Stuttgart drubbing last weekend. It was the Dzeko- Grafite combine yet again which sank Borussia. Dzeko opened the scoring with his 21st goal. Lovely one touch football!

Grafite added one more and Dzeko rounded of the rout with yet another. Grafite leads the league with 24 goals. Wolfsburg maintain their formidable home form and Magath is unbeaten against Juergen Klopp.

The 3 goal spanking was crucial as they remain in first place ahead of Bayern on goal differential who took apart Leverkusen by the same scoreline. Hertha also won, 2-1 against Cologne and remain on third, a point behind. Today Stuttgart take on Schalke in another must win game for them.

Tim Vickery, passionate follower of Brazil's hallowed sport, observes that some big time players were MIA on opening day of the national championship.

He cautioned against reading too much into the return of these stars to the domestic game. It does not mean that the Brazilian league have found the magic elixir. And if Wenger is looking for cheap talent (cue eye roll) to bolster the defense, then he should pursue Boca's Juan Daniel Forlin.

Meanwhile Brazilian sports medicine gets a shout out with the amazing job that they do with rehabilitating injured stars that Europe has given up on. Ronaldo appears to have been reborn.

I can vouch for this approach. I go back to India every year to find an extra inch in my trousers and the tailors there always find it. My waistline has burgeoned but its the same trousers that I partied in 1999.

Carlo Ancelotti is probably going to come to Chelsea after all. He can play coy. The fact is that his boss wants him gone.

"E 'tutta colpa di Ancelotti."

Silvio Berlusconi has laid the blame (link in Italian) on Milan's fading chances to win the scudetto squarely on Carlo Ancelotti. He believes with the quality of personnel on the field, Milan should have been ahead of Inter comfortably. He questioned Ancelotti's tactic of using Ronaldinho from the bench. The defensive woes which see Milan give up easy goals late in the game.

It was quite extraordinary, given that the outburst took place in Egypt where Berlusconi was attending a summit with Mubarak. Obviously the draw with Juve weighed heavily on his mind when Milan was unable to take advantage of Inter's stumble against Chievo. The Italian premier gave his opinion on Ancelotti at a dinner at the Sharm El Sheik with Italian dignitaries and tourists in attendance.

Andre Bikey does Drogba better than Drogba himself.Check out his reaction to being sent-off in Reading's Championship Play-off semi-final first leg against Burnley.

Actually he's better at this than Drogba.At least Drogba hasn't pushed a medic yet - or has he?

The most fascinating league this season has huge matches today and tomorrow with huge implications.

Three top clubs meet up today. Bayern meet Leverkusen, Wolfsburg encounters Dortmund, and Hertha tangle with FC Cologne.

Tomorrow another top club Stuttgart takes on Schalke.

Five points separate six clubs. Wolfsburg nosed ahead of Bayern in goal differential. Hertha and Stuttgart round up the top four. Borussia and Hamburg are leaning on them hard.

Wolfsburg is suffering a slump in form at the worst possible time in the season.

They have had to deal Felix Magath's rather tastelessly timed decision to announce his departure from the team at the end of the season to coach Schalke. A big distraction which might have led to their embarrassing 1-4 loss all at the hands or rather legs of Mario Gomez.

Borussia brings its seven game winning streak to VW Arena. The good news for the Wolves is that they are impregnable at home. Their big men, Grafite and Edin Dzeko combined have scored 43 goals. So offensive output should not be a problem. More tellingly, Juergen Klopp has never won against Felix Magath.

Carlos Tevez moves in mysterious ways.

Corinthians to West Ham. West Ham to Man Utd. Both moves were shrouded in intrigue and shady money. And now where? Wherever it is, Tevez's moves have always created controversy. He could swallow his pride, stay on at Man Utd, and hopefully win his way back from the bench. Or leave for another club in the Premiership where he is assured of starting. Or more boldly, leave England altogether and play in Spain where Real has made approving noises.

Add Spurs to the list of clubs that are now competing for Tevez's affections. Harry Redknapp's grand plan is to sell Pavlyuchenko, Bent, and Bentley to raise the cash for Tevez. However all this is moot if Tevez's stated desire is to play for Liverpool. That will really get Sir Alex's blood pressure up! Tevez's family lives in Cheshire so he won't have to move them if he leaves for Spurs or Liverpool.

Fernando Torres. Never missed him. Atletico have Diego Forlan another reason why La Liga still retains an edge in world class talent even with the EPL soaked with all that money.

In 30 league matches the Uruguayan has scored 27 goals. Against Espanyol he scored two including the match winner. He now threatens Samuel Eto'o for the Pichichi. The Camerounian leads with 28 goals. The 3-2 win over Espanyol challenges Valencia for the final CL spot. Valencia also administered a very satisfying drubbing of Real, 3-0 this weekend.

Newcastle won, 3-1 over Boro in the north east Derby as Obafemi Martins put them over the top after substituting Owen in the 71st minute. Shearer and his men can breathe a little easier now. They top Hull City on goal differential.

"This is a magnificent feeling, it really is. I thought my players were brilliant because I asked them to show courage, determination and ability - and they did all of that," Shearer insisted.

The Drogba dive for which Fabregas got carded and led to the Alex goal is par for the Chelsea striker. He does what he does. It should not become a rationalization for the rout.

The reasons are many and an ostrich in the sand attitude only ensures their prolongation. "In Wenger we trust" has been the 11th commandment but if your response is going to be:

"I don’t think the squad needs major investment. I believe we need to continue to improve. I’m not as doom-and-gloom as everybody wants to make it after a defeat and of course we play in a strong league against top quality opponents."

There is a major problem.

The improvement is not going to come out of thin air. We have a back four which is porous at its best. With injuries, the rejiggered line is a broken levee. We have given up 36 goals. 10, 13 and 14 more than Liverpool, Chelsea, and Man Utd.

Lets put it this way, we actually lost the season in the first half.

Conceding goals to Fulham, Hull, Stoke, Sunderland, and Boro. The Spurs match was a killer. We gained three points from those matches. That was when we had our first team back four with Gallas in and out with injury. Remember Wenger blamed it on the lack of inches. Toure and Gallas do not inspire confidence because as a duo they are undisciplined with suspect man marking skills. Clichy has his inexplicable moments but he runs back hard and is not afraid to tackle. Sagna is solid, although he has appeared lethargic at times. But there is no escaping the fact that it is a reactive defense.

Anelka's goal should not have come as a surprise. Samir Nasri might be at fault but we have had Geovanni, Jenas, and Grant Ledbitter making us pay because of the free space that we give them. One of the reasons why Man Utd is in first place is because they have the best tracking back forwards in the business. Tevez and Rooney are standouts. When you get that sort of help, the defense responds too.

Seeing Mathieu Flamini play for Milan against Juve yesterday was a poignant reminder of why he was our biggest loss.

Ronaldo after giving United the lead with a 18th-minute free-kick was replaced by Scholes.He seemed to be upset by the unkindness of it all and threw a training top to the ground for good measure.Then he appeared to question the wisdom of Ferguson's decision by mouthing his displeasure while on the bench.
Cristiano Ronaldo Moody Moment Against City - The most amazing bloopers are here
Meanwhile Man U are almost there after this 2- 0 win over Man City.

1 goal was all Arsenal could come up with in reply to Chelsea's 4.

Fabregas picked up a yellow card for making a diving gesture towards referee Phil Dowd after he was penalised for a foul on Drogba.Alex scored from the resultant free kick to give Chelsea the lead and Drogba the last laugh.Arsene had harsh words for Drogba later on....

Fou8943e - Celebrity bloopers here

Looks like a steady procession of injured and suspended players is complicating Pep Guardiola's preparation for the Cl final. He has a depleted back four with Abidal and Alves out through suspension. Rafa Marquez is injured.

However the bitterest blow could be Andres Iniesta who suffered a suspected muscle tear in his right thigh. Further investigations will be done Monday to ascertain the extent of the tear.

Not sure why Guardiola wanted to expose his best player to the rigours of the Liga. The title win is a just a matter of time. Iniesta will definitely miss the Copa Del Rey final against Atletico Bilbao but he is also doubtful for the CL final.

The long time Bolton midfielder who joined Ipswich Town in 2008 was released by Roy Keane.

Ipswich ended its season on a high note winning the last two games since Keane's takeover.

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Barca was comfortably on its way to a win and the title but Villareal fought back to draw the match, 3-3. Sir Alex might be video reviewing this a lot at as Villareal made Barca look very vulnerable on the counter attack.

The Sounders and Toronto FC are filling their stadiums to capacity. Their combined attendances contribute to little more than 30% of the total MLS attendance in the present season. The Sounders got off to a flying start when 32, 253 fans showed up for their inaugural match against the Red Bulls. Since then attendances have averaged 29,536 fans. A very impressive start. Toronto FC in their third year are averaging 20180 fans. The above graph shows they are boosting total MLS attendance substantially.

A very telling statistic: When Qwest and BMO are the venues as in week 4, the total attendance went up to 127,389. The next week both clubs were on the road, attendance fell to 84,577, a significant decrease of 34%.

The red bars represent average attendances while the blue bars represent total seating capacity. I have not given the seating capacities of RFK, Giants, and Gillette stadiums because these were basically designed for the NFL which are now also being shared by soccer teams.

As you can see the Sounders and Toronto FC are doing fantastically well with Qwest Field actually overflowing. Smaller soccer specific stadiums like Buckshaw and Community America, homes to the Earthquakes and Wizards are also operating at capacity.

The Texas based teams have one of the worst records when taking into account seating capacity. The Dynamo are averaging about half the total seating capacity of 32,000 at Robertson Stadium and Dallas is doing the same with 20,000 seat Pizza Hut Park.

There are dangerous signs that DC United and the Red Bulls are going to have a hard time filling seats when their soccer specific stadiums finally open. DC United has a 24,000 seat stadium in the works while an average of 14,561 fans attend home games at RFK. The picture is even more dismal for the Red Bulls who are struggling to fill 10,000 (9829) seats in cavernous Giants stadium. Next year, they move to Red Bull Arena which seats 25,000 plus. The same fate might befall the Revolution if they firm up plans to move to a smaller venue as they barely exceed 10,000 fans.

Stan Kroenke whose energies seem to be consumed by an Arsenal takeover might want to take a second look at his club, the Rapids who are not energizing their home base at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

Even impressive performances by Chivas and Fire with a loyal Latin American fan base are not enough to fill Home Depot Center or Toyota Park. They are filled to about 60% capacity.

A few more observations: East coast teams fare poorly compared to the West coast teams in attendances. Seattle, the home of Microsoft, is a hub for young technocrats who come from culturally diverse backgrounds. Soccer with its global emphasis is a natural fit. There also appears to be a suggestion that cities with an entrenched history in other major league sports like baseball, basketball, and especially the NFL, may be more impervious to soccer even with large immigrant populations from Latin American countries. A corollary, those exposed to good soccer in their countries might find MLS below par, which means that the MLS has to find ways to drive up quality by encouraging young foreign talent like Steve Zakuani in larger numbers.

Against Chelsea, Walcott had about 6 shots on goal. 3 clear chances, only one which was saved by Cech, the rest of them were "how in blazes did he miss that" opportunities. This has become a pattern.

Walcott gets caught between responsibilities of goal scoring and supplying. As a winger he is supposed to do the latter but with injuries to Eduardo, Adebayor and RVP and a drought in goalscoring, he has had to step up as a second striker under Wenger's shuffling of positions.

His shots are tantalizingly close to being considered crosses but they have too much power and are not carefully timed for other players to take full advantage. It also appears that he is taking shots at goal but the angle is wrong and has no bearing to where the posts or the goalkeeper is situated. In the end it really is neither one nor the other. The great tragedy is that with his pace and on ball skills he is always going to give you chances. He just has to make better decisions.

Arsene Wenger and Pat Rice have that familiar pinched look on their faces.

All that beautiful possession from Fabregas and Nasri, Sagna's and Gibbs forays up front, Theo Walcott's innumerable whacks at goal, can only mean one thing.

Chelsea is up at half time.

The Blues needed just two opportunities as Alex overpowered the defense to head the ball home off a Drogba free kick and then Anelka bulled his way through, firing a muscular shot which swung away from Fabianski.

Overpowered. Bulled. Muscular. Meanwhile, Abou Diaby is a fruit fly on the ball, easily flicked off.

Chelsea are in great position to win their first game in the Emirates.

Tevez's step son like treatment at the hands of Sir Alex has everyone agog. It provides the background to the Utd- City derby.

The Argentinian makes it clear in the NOTW interview that the manager is at fault for his sour mood, not his team mates or the fans. He has essentially written off continuing at Man Utd.

However, it appears that if this is indeed true, he like Ronaldo wants to be remembered for a very long time. Man Utd went up two goals at half time thanks to a Ronaldo free kick and a Tevez goal.

At this point we can safely say that Man Utd has a death grip on the title.

Chelsea meet Arsenal at the Emirates.

Two clubs licking their wounds. Nothing materially changes with a result but there are old favourites to play for, like the satisfaction of seeing Ashley Cole's nose caked in mud.

More interesting are the words of advice that Hiddink has for a recalcitrant Wenger.

He is a big admirer of the Arsenal system with its emphasis on long term planning. However, the Dutchman thinks its time for Wenger to invest in some experienced oomph up front. Sage words.

A Drogba like arrival would mean we can finally end Adebayor's on and off relationship with Arsenal.

Note: I said, a "Drogba like arrival" as in the power not the personality. Amy Lawrence believes that we need to go for the original which could mean Wenger spending more time with the shrink. Or spending good money on a PR firm just for Drogba.

Theo Walcott penned a new contract with the club, a good start to a rebuilding summer. Of course, all this may pale with what lies ahead in the boardroom drama of who finally gets control of the club.

As for the match itself, Clichy's season is over and Gibbs should get the start. Arshavin may not recover from the flu in time for today's match which means Diaby will likely get playing time.

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Bayern has a lot to thank Mario Gomez for. All four goals in Stuttgart's 4-1 thrashing of Wolfsburg were scored by him. Wolfsburg still managed to nose ahead of Bayern at the top of the Bundesliga due to goal difference. Bayern got the better of Cottbus, 3-1.

The race for the Bundesliga title manages to get more fascinating every week. Just 2 points separate fourth placed Stuttgart from the league leaders. Hertha is a point behind in third place. Borussia Dortmund and Hamburg also have an outside chance at winning the title.

It all comes down to the wage bill that sticks out like a sore thumb. And a lot of it is consumed by Joey Barton, who gives sleepless nights to all his managers.

They keep thinking however that they maybe the one digging out that kernel of talent from all the crud. Which means that Barton will always find employment as Alan Shearer gets set to offload him in the summer.

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Maurice Edu's team wins the most celebrated derby in the world and goes two up on their rivals. The win left the Ibrox faithful rocking and Rangers in great position to claim their fifth SPL title.

The match winner was scored by Steven Davis in the 36th minute. Edu acquitted himself well as the match report shows.

Not just Schelotto. But the whole name. Its so, how you say it? So deliciously foreign, it makes the MLS legit.

The drought is finally over.

The first dedicated soccer stadium in MLS history, Crew stadium turned 10 years old and celebrated the historical landmark in fine style as the title holders won their first game of the season in front of raucous fans. Veteran Frankie Hejduk was a standout. But before the final whistle blew they had many heart stopping moments as a resilient Wizards would not fold.

In the end Eddie Gaven's goal proved to be the difference.

The first goal that put Crew up would have made Barca proud as there were at least five first touches that led to the Emmanuel Ekpo goal.

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Real lost to Valencia, 0-3 on the heels of their most humiliating loss at the Bernabeu in 38 years against Barca.

Ruben Baraja's 68th minute goal reminded one of Michael Essien's goal against Barca, a stunning volley that upended Iker Casillas. Before that Mata got the ball rolling as the Real defense fell like nine pins and then Silva's speculative shot was parried by Casillas into goal.

It is clear Ramos will not be invited back as part of Florentino Perez's vision of rebuilding Real. 9 goals in two matches to your rivals is not a resume builder. Tomorrow, Barca can win the title with a win at home against struggling Villareal.

These players are central to their clubs fortunes but they always manage to live in the twilight zone with their questionable commitment and/ or their behavioral issues. In between they throw up tantalizing glimpses of their undoubted potential.

Emmanuel Adebayor:

On one of the biggest encounters in club history, the Togolese striker was AWOL against Man Utd in both legs of the CL semi-final, enhancing long held suspicions that his commitment to his club is skin deep. Milan should take note. One of the most infuriating thing about Adebayor: For all his size and strength, the striker plays like the incredible shrinking man. He is terrible at playing with his back to goal and is easily dispossessed of the ball. Unless this improves he is not one of the best strikers in the world, as he likes to brag. He still remains Arsenal's most productive goal scorer because RVP can't buy himself an injury free season.

Didier Drogba:

It remains a coin toss as to what keeps the Cote D'Ivoirian prima donna purring. The right manager? But even that may not be enough as Guus Hiddink found out in the CL semi-final against Barca as Drogba went Ovreboard. Drogba's form has been one of the keys to Chelsea's late season revival but his temperament is more tightly wound than one of Roger Federer's racquet strings. Drogba could have won them the game but his affinity for remaining parallel more than perpendicular robbed Chelsea of a much needed second goal. As it turned out it was Iniesta who cornered all the glory and Barca that goes to the CL final.

Robinho:

Greed lured the Brazilian to a club he probably did not know existed after Chelsea failed in its bid. The most expensive signing in club history was heralded as a player that City could build around and yet in the months past, Mark Hughes finally had to resort to benching him to get a pulse on the field. He has shown a bit more ambition in the last few games after a huge gap from scoring his last goal in December. In between he became more well known for his off field behaviour including charges of statutory rape. Robinho's commitment on the field remains a huge concern. His up and down performance have Hughes squarely in the management's firing squad.

Amr Zaki:

What can you say about the granite faced Egyptian? He had the Wigan fans salivating and the rest of the Premiership on tenterhooks every time he took the field. Wigan began its season as if a mule had kicked its behind and the mule was Zaki. Virtually unstoppable with treadmills for legs, Zaki was on a tear when he suddenly disappeared after national team duty in late March. Was it a hamstring injury, a lack of quality shisha cafes, or the miserable winter? It was all a mystery. Steve Bruce had had enough. He resurfaced again working his way back into Bruce's favour only for his season to be cut short with a knee injury.

Dimitar Berbatov:

The target of Man Utd's unrequited love finally made it to Old Trafford after what appears to be an Italian Job on Spurs. When not on his game, even a cardboard cutout shows more alacrity. The nadir came when Berbs did some fancy exaggerated footwork before lazily slugging it straight to Tim Howard in the FA Cup semi-final. The quintessential Berbs conundrum: He makes goal scoring effortless, if he can be bothered to show up at all. Man Utd fans work themselves into a frenzy in wonderment. That he has not been a target of sustained wrath is because, despite him, the club remains on target to win the Premiership.

Ronaldo [senior] was involved in a blaze of glory recently.His team Corinthians completed an aggregate victory over Santos and won the Paulista championship.The blaze of glory happened due when a combination of fireworks and confetti caught fire just as Corinthian's captain William lifted the trophy.
"It was obvious that it was going to catch fire," Ronaldo told a news conference later "They should have thought of something better.William could have been burned and, instead of celebrating, we could now be visiting him in hospital." Luckily the damage was only superficial.Take a look...

It turns out that this wasn't the first time that Andres Iniesta scored a last-gasp winning goal against Chelsea.In a Nike Cup match between the youth teams of Chelsea and Barcelona ten years or so ago a 16 year old Iniesta scored a late winner to see Barca knock Chelsea out of the tournament.It would have been a complete deja vu thing if a 16 year old Drogba and a 16 year old Ballack had also been around and had given the ref a hard time at the end of the game.But that unfortunately is asking for too much.The whole story here..( you have to know spanish)

Setanta is now negotiating a lower contract for the TV rights to the SPL matches as a way of moving away from financial fragility.

The SPL will probably have no choice but to accede because the Irish broadcaster's payment for TV rights injects crucial cash into the clubs. Even with lowered rates the SPL stands to pick up about £100m.

There also appears to be no other sports broadcaster in the horizon to telecast the SPL package, with Sky Sports only showing interest in the Old Firm rivalry, the most followed of all league matches, with the highest attendances. If the SPL decides not to re-negotiate the contract, then the league maybe in a fight for its survival.

Sepp Blatter sent his legal team to ensure that the elections to the FIFA executive committee went off smoothly in one of the most bitter and acrimonious campaigns that pitted incumbent Mohammed Bin Hammam, AFC president from Qatar against Bahrain's challenger Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa.

Today, Bin Hammam retained his seat in a close vote 23-21 on his 60th birthday.

India, Australia, Indonesia, amongst others voted for the AFC president while South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and the Gulf coast countries voted against him.

There is enormous amount of work to be done including the future of the AFC as the true representative of Asian football or whether it needs to be restructured into smaller, independent entities that manage regional aspirations much more effectively. There seems to be a groundswell of support for such a split.

...while the debate continues...

An Arabic metaphor is misunderstood by South Korean football officials and sets the tone for the poisonous state of affairs that Asian football finds itself in.

The AFC is becoming increasingly fractious under the weight of its 46 constituent, the largest regional group with a varied cultural, economic, and political background adding to the complexity. On the eve of the elections to the FIFA executive committee, divisive factors are coming into play which will decide whether the AFC truly serves Asian football in the best possible way or needs restructuring to accommodate more manageable regional aspirations. There seems to be a gathering sense that the AFC could be partitioned into West Asia and East Asia entities.

The simmering feud between two antagonists, Mohammed Bin Hammam and Chung Moon-Joon is expected to take center stage and influence the outcome of the elections.

Mohammed Bin Hammam, present AFC president and FIFA executive member who is said to be close to Sepp Blatter and whose personal initiative in professionalizing clubs and Vision Asia programs have been widely acknowledged in improving Asian standards. Opposing him is FIFA vice president Chung Mong-Joon, who was seen as a prime mover in the successful organization of the 2002 World Cup because of his powerful connections to the Hyundai conglomerate who took over the entire operation.

Both men have alleged ambitions to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president and have engaged in a war of words to marginalize the other. Bin Hammam accuses Chung Joon-Moon of being a soccer ingenue whose sole purpose is to unseat him to gain the FIFA presidency whereas Joon-Moon issues broadsides which question the Qatari's mental competence and accuse him of financial mismanagement. Moon-Joon believes that under Bin Hammam the AFC is run as a dictatorship.

The South Korean is supporting the candidacy of Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, a Bahraini royal to succeed Bin Hammam in this election. It appears the Gulf royal families are coalescing to undercut support for Bin Hammam. Peter Vellappan, a former Bin Hammam protege and ex- AFC general secretary, whose relationship has soured with his former boss is the public voice of opposition.

However, Sheikh Salman also does not seem to be above board and is being investigated by FIFA's ethics committee for using development funds to buy votes.

Bin Hammam has vowed that he will also step aside as AFC president, if defeated.

In the end, the campaign to oust Bin Hammam as an out of touch overlord who treats the AFC as his personal fiefdom and goes against FIFA regulations may not be enough because the timeline of Asian success and his own personal ascension are quite tightly interlinked.

Nicklas Bendtner has a wardrobe malfunction and is very contrite. Armani will be very happy. Arsene and Arsenal not so much.

Its all part of the angst sweeping the club following the Man U clinic.

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The Frank Baumann winner was a comedy of errors as Michael Gravgaard's clearance hits a piece of debris and bounces out for a corner. Frank Rost is unable to deal with the header adequately and the ball deflects of his hand into the area of Piotr Trochowski and Baumann. Trochowski standing on the line gets to the ball but his kick only manages to tattoo the forehead of the charging Baumann and the ball bloops over for the goal. Werder go up, 3-1.

Olic puts Hamburg up, 1-0. Diego finishes his work with a cheeky little chip for the equalizer, 1-1. Frank Rost is wrong footed on a Pizarro blast for Werder to overtake Hamburg, 2-1. Olic scores a late header sparking hopes of a Hamburg comeback, 2-3.

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A beauty of a goal. Iniesta's superb strike broke Chelsea's heart in the 93rd minute and became the talk of the world but this was a Messi like gem that came late and snuffed out Kyiv's hopes. Before that Ismael Bangoura had equalized 1-1 after another Brazilian, Jadson had put Shakhtar up, 1-0.

The Norwegians are not taking this too kindly.

Today, Drogba's apology was posted on the Chelsea website.

"I was very upset at what happened during the game, but having seen the pictures on TV I accept that I overreacted."

Good for him.

Ovrebo had to be smuggled out of England, switching hotels. On landing at Oslo, he avoided the media. Norwegian police have been patrolling his house. Hate groups have formed on the internet targeting the Norwegian referee and his family, including a group called Kill Tom Henning Ovrebo.

The creator of one group states: “We group dedicated to the hunt for (and brutal murdering of) the second-leg champions league ref of Chelsea vs Barcelona.”

Ovrebo was pursued into the players' tunnel by Drogba and Ballack with the Ivorian hitting the wall with his fist as abuse was screamed at the official.

No less than Graham Poll, surely, as controversial as they come, weighs on this issue.

Poll blamed the players for stoking the fans' anger. He added: “When you see players acting like that, fans are called fans because they are fanatics — they may feel it's time to take action themselves.”

The Norwegian Football Federation defended Ovrebo's game management.

They will now take over UEFA and review the game. Further action could be taken against Ovrebo but they expressed confidence that he would be cleared. However, if cleared, the NFF also stated that the decision to continue officiating would be left to him probably keeping in mind Andres Frisk affair after a similar situation four years ago, left Chelsea fans issuing death threats against the Swedish referee and his family, forcing his retirement.

Ovrebo is a trained psychologist, so maybe he can start by giving himself some much needed therapy.

The Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo had to change his hotel in secret and has had to be smuggled out of the England by the police after receiving a number of death threats. Ovrebo has become the target of a hate campaign after failing to award Chelsea a series of penalty appeals After Chelsea's fourth appeal for a penalty was turned down, Ballack chased Ovrebo for 40 yards, shouting in his face.This kind of referee intimidation is not allowed in Rugby,Basketball,tennis,cricket - to name but a few sports.It's time to change a few rules.

In the first leg of a 2005 second round match against Barca, the referee Andres Frisk sent off Drogba, which prompted Jose Mourinho's launching of yet another bizarre conspiracy theory that the referee had met up with then coach Frank Rijkaard before the match.

The Swedish referee was forced to retire after he and his family received death threats.

UEFA keeping that context in mind is going to be less charitable towards Chelsea's over the top reaction which might encourage fans to do the same with Ovrebo and his family.

If Hiddink was looking for a graceful exit back to Russian national team duties, he is not going to get it now. His players were a disgrace.

Both Drogba and Michael Ballack could face substantial bans for their over the top behaviour. Drogba as this video shows went bats**t insane.

The NFL has been revenue sharing for decades and because of it American football has become the most highly attended and anticipated major sport in the US.

Andy Burnham's most controversial proposal if implemented will have the top four Premiership clubs share their revenues with the league have nots. The idea is to break the stranglehold at the top.

The TV money right now is skewed in a 1:6:1 ratio which means that Man Utd received £49.3 million from the Premier League last season. Arsenal got £47 million; Chelsea £45.5 million and Liverpool £45.4 million. Reading, relegated from the Premier League received £30 million for its efforts.

The NFL model essentially guarantees a pot of $430million (£268million) to the bottom echelon teams from the top earning teams for the next four years. With the NFL draft and salary caps, low revenue teams like the Ravens and the Rams have won the Superbowl in recent years.

The hit of the Tribeca Film Festival opens May 8th and follows Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal as two feuding brothers, working in a banana plantation who end up being recruited as big time soccer players in Mexico City. The film was written and produced by the same people responsible for the hit Y Tu Mama Tambien.

Here is an interview with Carlos Cuaron, the director who also wrote the script for Y Tu Mama Tambien and Gael Garcia Bernal.

If it is anything like Y Tu, then it will be worth a watch.

Adebayor was virtually non-existent in the CL semi-finals. His lackadaisical performance was roundly panned (its not just Arsenal fans who were unimpressed, but future employers too, including Milan, might now be less interested). He seems to have realized that his commitment is in question.

"Arsenal put me where I am today. They made me one of the biggest strikers in the world. I have to pay them back.

“How am I going to pay them back? Make them win trophies. That’s what I am here for and I have to fight for that. Next season, 100 per cent, I am an Arsenal footballer.

Hold back on the biggest striker a bit. We needed you on one of our biggest nights and you disappeared.

The Spanish media reacts.

Drogba's eyes zone on the ground, his best friend all night

Drogba spent a lot of times flopping and at the end going ballistic at Tom Hennings Ovrebo, the Norwegian referee. He faces UEFA disciplinary action for that classy move as well as a invective filled tirade facing a camera.

Then there was Michael Ballack who pursued Ovrebo in an apoplectic fit after the referee turned down his appeal for handball. Replays showed that the call was correct, his shot struck Eto'o on back of the shoulder.

Dominic Fifield and Amy Lawrence, of course, highlight all the calls that seemed to go against Chelsea.

The only clearly wrong call was Anelka's flick that Pique blocked with his hand.

Yes, football is a cruel sport and cuts both ways. Eric Abidal can attest to that. Ovrebo gave the Frenchman marching orders for allegedly tripping up Anelka on his way to goal. Replays showed that it was very doubtful whether he had anything to do with it. Barca was a goal down and reduced to ten men.

Yes, it is a conspiracy to keep English clubs out of the finals. Cry me a river. This is just a lot of projection at the golden opportunities that Chelsea missed to put the game away. The chief culprit was Drogba who muffed two clear chances. Then cried the hardest.

Its a reminder that money can buy titles but not grace.

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Chelsea lost a heartbreaker in the 93rd minute due to a fabulous Iniesta strike. The aggregate was 1-1 but the away goal advantage applied in Barca's case and they will meet Man Utd in the final on May 27.

Michael Essien was involved in both goals.

The equalizer would not have been possible if Essien had not whiffed on Samuel Eto'o's heavy first touch, helping the ball along to Messi who collected and side passed to Iniesta who lined up and cracked the ball past all that heavy traffic and over Cech. It was Essien however, who came out of nowhere with an amazing volley that got Chelsea the goal which brought them so close, so tantalizingly close to their second consecutive CL final.

The reaction is varied:

Arseblog:

"My solution is simple and it's something I've said all season long: Arsene needs to spend some money on experienced, quality players."

A Cultured Left Foot

"Let me ask you one question. When talking about experience, how many Arsenal teams who had that commodity in abundance, won the European Cup in its various guises?"

Goodplaya:

"Equally though, I didn’t see before last night why we should fear next season that much and I don’t see why the events of last night should change that opinion."

Goonerholic:

"The time to properly reflect is probably a few weeks away, but I will express a desire at this stage to see the level of experience topped up in the summer window."

Arsenal Insider:

"I think the priorities are a world class goalkeeper and centre half. Possibly another centre-forward if Emmanuel Adebayor goes – frankly I hope he does. His continued public dalliance with Milan shows his head isn’t in the club, despite his massive pay rise."

If Barcelona do beat Chelsea tonight here's one goal celebration technique they need to avoid.

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I feel very badly for Gibbs. He looked so gutted. Almunia was a trifle too late in reacting to Ronaldo's free kick. The third goal was a great give and go between Ronaldo, Ji Sung Park, Rooney, and finally Ronaldo for the finish. Arsenal's goal came from a controversial decision give by the referee to award a PK after Darren Fletcher brought down Cesc. Fletcher misses the CL final with his red card.

It was all over in 11 minutes.

It must have been bewildering and frightening to find the team down by a couple, before your bum had warmed the seat. With Man Utd playing like this a weather advisory was called for so that fans could have stayed home.Yes, Wenger could not have foreseen Gibbs losing his footing or Almunia being beaten by Ronaldo's 40 yard free kick.

We can console ourselves as if these mistakes were the reasons for the loss but the overwhelming sense was that of a team comprehensively and utterly outplayed. Man Utd could have won in any combination of ways even if they were not bestowed these gifts. Even Kafka could not have written this better. Ronaldo was Gregor Samsa, a terrifying figure whose unstoppable presence turned Arsenal's legs to jelly every time he touched the ball.

Think of all the blighted young players on the team after this match and Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final. Lukacz Fabianski and Kieran Gibbs, in particular. Wenger's cause is noble but it can also be very cruel. They will undoubtedly bounce back from that bloodied nose but there may be sleepless nights, dry mouth, restless legs, and nightmares. Yes, nightmares.

I do hope with all my heart that Wenger does not sugar coat this loss. To his credit he did not do so in the presser. He was quite pensive but justified his approach with the usual noises about experience being over valued and the quality of this young team. The precocity of talent is indisputable but we have had many iterations where it is has proven not enough to take us to the next level. Wenger in the end supplies the answer to that conundrum.

"Tonight we were caught by a team who has the art to kill and take advantage of mistakes."

This will continue to happen if we turn our nose at proven quality. Arshavin has already become invaluable. We need to stiffen our defense, especially at the center. Another quality central midfielder to complement Fabregas. A proven goal scorer of the highest caliber. Wenger of course needs the support of the board which I fully expect will happen but the attitude needs to change. We need to pay good money, even exorbitant money for those players. It takes a certain amount of courage to do that. Frankly, we have gotten so used to the basement bargains, that a brazen offer like that of Man U for Ribery might leave us in need of therapy but Wenger and the board need to start the process of bringing that quality to our team.

As for Man Utd, it never continues to amaze me, with all the titles in hand, the hunger and intensity never dissipates for yet one more. We might talk of moments of inattention which the rest of the league celebrates as a sign that this year might finally prove different but they come right back up, eyes once more firmly on the prize. When it comes to match preparation, Sir Alex remains unparalleled. They fully deserve their place in the finals.

Arsenal v Manchester United
UEFA Champions League
Tuesday, May 05, 2009, 19:45

Go Gunners! An appeal to all the fans on one of the biggest games in club history. Get behind the team and make life harder for Man U.

A familiar face returns to Marseille.

Deschamps was part of the Bernard Tapie revolution of the late 80s and early 90s that saw L'OM dominate Ligue football culminating in their CL triumph over AC Milan in 1993. The squads became a virtual who's who of the international game.

He takes over Eric Gerets who resigned a week ago. Deschamps can finish off Gerets work by winning L'OM their first Ligue title in 17 years. Quite a role reversal for someone derided by Cantona as a "water carrier" during his playing career.

The look of terror on the goalie's face at 1:34 is priceless. For Juninho's free kicks refer to the Magnus effect.

This may not be a familiar sight anymore

As Juninho rose, Lyon did too. The Brazilian is now at the twilight of his career and the sun may also be setting on Lyon's era of dominance. Their loss to Valenciennes gives Marseille its best chance at a title since 1992.

Lyon is a remarkable record in the annals of French football. 7 consecutive seasons at the top.

Juninho joined in 2001 and that season saw Lyon win their first league title in club history.

What is more remarkable is that this nascence was achieved with a revolving door of managers. Four of them in the last 7 seasons. They found ways to win titles, despite different personalities, philosophies, and personnel changes.

Jacques Santini who began OL's era at the top in 2002, followed by Paul Le Guen's unbroken streak of three titles in the middle, and Gerard Houllier and Alain Perrin rounding of the decade with their wins. With domestic bragging rights firmly theirs, the lack of European success has been harder to swallow. Both Santini and Le Guen resigned following disappointing losses in the CL.

The constant was Juninho and with his creative passing, devastating free kicks and strong personality, it did not matter who came and went in the managerial position or whether players were transferred in or out.

However all that maybe coming to an end. The president Jean-Michel Aulas in an interview with L'Equipe reaffirmed his faith in manager Claude Puel. On Juninho, his age becomes an issue (he turns 35 years) and more tellingly, he thinks that the Brazilian is no longer indispensable to the club and cannot guarantee his place. Since Aulas almost always has the final say in personnel matters, it is safe to say Juninho's Lyon days are over.

The ladies. So don't get your knickers in a twist.

They are the best in the land and have been for a long time. This time they dispatched Sunderland. This makes it 10 out of 10 in FA Cup finals.

Benitez is waiting for not one but two mistakes that Man U is supposedly going to make..: "Manchester United are a good team with good players, and they will need to make two big mistakes to let us in. But I still believe they can be caught and they will make mistakes."
Liverpool themselves made no mistake as they made short work of Shearer's magpies..

In the Turkish league crossbars can be a goalkeeper's deadliest foe.Kayserispor goalkeeper Souleymanou Hamidou learned this bitter lesson in the game between his team and Trabzonspor.The crossbar which normally causes the ball to bounce off harmlessly in other leagues redirected the ricochet onto Hamidou's head and into the goal.

Edu played all 90 minutes in Rangers win against Hearts this weekend. The former Toronto FC man is relishing his starting role in the club and has turned in some solid performances.

He is now looking forward to the coming weekend's Old Firm rivalry in a huge match that will most likely seal the SPL title for one of the clubs. Only a point separate second placed Rangers from Celtics.

"Against Celtic next week, we're going to have to come out and deliver. We know what we're capable of and what kind of game it's going to be."

The weekend misery for all the drop zone clubs continued with Hull losing to Villa after John Carew scored his 10th Premiership goal.

Phil Brown's club is in huge trouble after their brilliantly bright start to the season. They were in third place after 9 weeks and in sixth after 18 weeks before beginning their steep descent into relegation horror.

There were no surprises in the tale of two Premierships. The toffs went eight for eight.

What is Man U using? AIG bailout money?

Ribery is definitely not worth £63m.

Great on and off the ball but he is not a goal scorer. You need a 20+ goalscorer to match Ronaldo's production. Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov generate 30-35. The rest of the squad chips in another 15-20. Any less will be fatal to their chances. Unless Kiki Macheda lives up to the George Best hype.

Its unreal to see these football valuations when the financial world has crumbled with pennies on the dollar offered for all those CDOs that caused this recession.

Ribery is probably about half that amount, if that. In the unlikely event bumbling Bayern does achieve a title by him kicking the winning goal on the final day, throw in another £5m.

Arseblog has more on the war brewing between Usmanov's Red and White Holdings (the dark forces) and the Stan Kroenke- Danny Fiszman axis (the good guys).

City regulators have stepped in to investigate aspects of Kroenke's share buying at the behest of Usmanov. The AST has issued a statement disapproving of Usmanov's actions and urging the club shareholders to work together.

The big dance is tomorrow. Arsenal finds out whether they can pull off what will be one of their biggest wins. Against a Man Utd team that is great at closing out the deal. The CL final spot is on the line.

A 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1?

The latter formation did not work because Adebayor was very effectively neutralized by Ferdinand and Vidic and there was no striker tandem to offset that advantage. Fabregas was sitting behind Ade in the unfamiliar role at the slot where he was wasted. He is a goal creator for which he needs more turf ahead of him.

RVP will be back, so Wenger has the option of reverting to the 4-4-2 which should give Ferdinand and Vidic more to handle.

However, the key is to get Nasri to define the left flank which he has been inconsistent in doing so far. Unlike Arshavin who has become a genuine threat. Nasri's L'OM days saw him as the chief playmaker which sometimes gets in the way of simple clarity. Its Fabregas responsibility to diagram plays with Song as his able assistant.

Cluttering the midfield is unhelpful. Nasri needs to eschew his natural left-center drift, consciously drag his game out wide, with more crosses and more shot taking. Widening the poles between Walcott and Nasri gives the center more opportunities and choices in attack.

Florentino Perez declares May 14 as the day Real football was saved. His signing wish list include Kaka, Cesc, Cristiano Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso, Esteban Granero, and Alvaro Negredo.

Arsene Wenger will manage all this talent.

The bill will equal Spain's GDP, a small price to pay for the Barca bollicking of the Blancos.

Thierry Henry suffered a knee injury during the Real match and is likely to miss the second leg against Chelsea.

He will travel to London but is day to day and Pep Guardiola and the medical team will re-evaluate him to decide his playing status.

Good read. I have always wondered why Newcastle resorts to inspirational figures in its past to pull its way through a crisis.

Shearer was courageous to take on the managerial position but he is a novice given the onerous task of staving of relegation. An outside figure with the experience of playing hard nosed football should have been made manager. Its not romantic or newsworthy, the Gary Megsons of the world roll up their sleeves and do their jobs to keep their clubs afloat.

The impression is of a club that yearns for its past glory but is unwilling to do anything against the grain to reclaim it.

- Replace Bruce Arena at the Galaxy and get them to win two games, back to back.

- Oliver Kahn, you want to come out of retirement now?

The upper echelon had its way with the lower echelon. There were no spoilers this weekend. It got bleaker for all the drop zone candidates.

Sunderland went down to Everton tamely, 0-2.

The relegation dogfight also saw Stoke, Blackburn, Middlesbrough, West Brom, Newcastle, and Portsmouth going down. Even Bolton who dreww against Wigan should not count themselves out of the woods.

Its left to Phil Brown and Hull to see if they can spring a surprise tomorrow against Villa.

After the Chelsea's win over Fulham, the English media indulges in some false equivalence to try and take the wind out of Barca's sails.

Of course, the real test would have been Chelsea replicating Barca's score against Real. But since that is unlikely, we have the come from behind 3-1 win over Liverpool in the CL first leg quarterfinal for a similar comparison against top rated opposition. Even then the most optimistic reading is that Chelsea is half as good as Barca.

Dropping back 9 men every time Barca attacked is a pretty good indication that Hiddink is aware that it could have easily been Ricky Hatton vs Manny Pacquaio.

Link:

9+ minutes video. Good stuff from mostly the youth squad. Carlos Vela getting his first goal in the Premiership. However, the impact of the older and more experienced Arshavin on the game is the key factor. He provided the team's steel. Wenger's winning it all with younger players is a beautiful fantasy. But you need a mix of older players to win titles.

Its been all bad news for drop zone clubs this weekend.

Stoke started it off by losing to the Hammers, the Baggies lost to Spurs, Portsmouth came a cropper to the young guns of Arsenal, Boro did not dent Man Utd's title hopes, Newcastle's misery continued with a loss to Liverpool.

The Sunderland - Everton match is tied 0-0 at half time and Hull meet Villa tomorrow.

Consequently its been all tame atop the Premiership with no surprises save a Petr Cech muff that gave Fulham false hope.

Update: It is not looking good for Sunderland as Everton went ahead through Pienaar.

Tyrone Marshall half volley jab of a Ljungberg corner scored a late equalizer for Seattle against the Fire. The ex-Arsenal player now has a goal and one assist for the season.

Steve Zakuani who cut his teeth in the Arsenal youth system also has two goals and two assists.

The match also saw and end to Kasey Keller's record breaking shutout performance.

With the Barca vs Real El Clasico, the world comes to an end.

But the real news is that the Galaxy finally won thus closing out employment opportunities for Juergen Klinsmann to take over Bruce Arena. Or not? The Galaxy won against the equally inept Red Bulls, 1-0.

Arena also won the "which manager would end his zero win record" sweepstakes.

Robert Warzycha continues Crew's search for their first win this season. The title holders are at the bottom of the Eastern standings.

Landon Donovan's PK was the difference. It was also veteran Chris Klein's 300th MLS appearance and he is 7th on the MLS list of all time appearances.

It seems like aeons ago, that Real won the title but it was just last season and the coach was Bernd Schuster. It of course has become de rigueur at Real to fire coaches who win them titles. Schuster was shown the door.

Link:

Anish's video of Barca vs Real has been posted below. But we can't get enough of how Barca pulverized Real at the Bernabeu. Is the gap so yawning?

The end result is mind boggling considering Real's emphatic start. Higuain's header should have sowed some seeds of doubt in the Barca camp but it looked like this was part of a grand scheme to systematically deflate their rivals. We have to go back 36 years to find proof that Real was that fallible. In 1973 they lost to Barca, 0-5 at the Bernabeu with Johann Cruyff at his peak. The results are pouring in with fans overwhelmingly voting this as the worst defeat.

Sure, this is all emotional and one can sleep over it and rationalize. But soccer is emotional and the pain, real. (pun not really intended but very apt in this case).

Barca gave Real Madrid a 6 - 2 mauling in the Spanish League.

And in the English League Chelsea beat Fulham in turn by exactly half of that score ie ..3 - 1 That makes it a pretty symmetrical warm up for the clash between the two teams.

Stan Kroenke will not be denied.

As his Colorado Rapids muddle along, Stan Kroenke upped his stakes yet again before the weekend and now controls 28.3% of the Arsenal’s shares which puts him in pole position for the 30% trigger to offer a buyout of the rest of the remaining shares. Kroenke bought up the Carr family shares for £8,500 and £10,500 per share, well above the £6,500 value for a total investment of £46m.

The era of cost cutting has seen Roman Abramovich decreasing his liability; Hicks and Gillett looking for outside investment to improve chances of refinancing in the summer, and the Glazers tightening their belt by increasing ticket prices. In the most egregious example, Southampton's fate teeters in the balance.

It would appear Stan Kroenke lives in an alternate world. He has moved from a 12% stake and more than doubled his shareholding in a years time when most club investors in this period have looked to lowering their risk. In a measure of where he has come, the Arsenal Supporters Trust welcomed this move as one that ensures the club’s long term stability. Two years ago, David Dein's support of a Kroenke takeover bid engendered such hostility with the board and club supporters, he was forced to resign.

The almost invisible way this has been done mirrors Kroenke's business acquisitions. He has made billions through real estate development. His marriage to the daughter of Bud Walton, the co-founder of Walmart, the ubiquitous icon of suburban life, ensured he was taught by the best in the business. After that learning curve, Kroenke opened his own company, Thf Realty (the acronym stands for To have fun) which catapulted in short time to become one of the top retail developers. The couple's joint net worth is $5.6 billion (£3.7b) , with Kroenke ranked 105 on the Forbes rich list and getting wealthier every year.

His company Thf realty has defied the reeling economy by turning in a profit. With most real estate companies going slow, the company's low cost mantra has seen high occupancy rates in their retail and office holdings, giving them an advantage over others in this economic downturn.

Along the way he has become the most powerful name in sports business with his acquisition of the St Louis Rams, Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, and the Colorado Rapids. His diversification into every facet of sports includes owning clubs, arenas, manufacture and retail of sporting goods, and media and entertainment outlets. He owns Denver's Pepsi Center and Dicks Sporting Goods, the sports retailers. Yet, outside his peer group, the name Stan Kroenke barely registers a ripple. He is notoriously publicity shy and even his friends acknowledge his bland personality. But you have to read between the lines to get a sense or in this case the bouquet of the man.

His inside man in Arsenal is chief executive, Ivan Gazidis whose previous tenure as MLS deputy commissioner brought him close to Kroenke. There is every indication that Kroenke and Danny Fiszman are working together to keep Alisher Usmanov away from achieving majority status. Gazidis has been entrusted with winning over estranged Nina Bracewell Smith and ensuring that her 15.9% stake is protected from Usmanov.

Once that happens, Arsenal will be in the hands of the man who is called Silent Stan in business circles.

Turns out it wasn't a balloon he was chasing but a bus...!

Hector Reynosa of Club Gualdajara uses Sebastian Penco of Chile's Everton as a spittoon. The Chilean media saw this as a way of intimidating players using the threat of swine flu. Reynosa later apologized but said he was reacting to taunts calling him "a leper."

Its quite graphic but it tell us that swine flu fears are causing havoc with soccer matches all across Latin and Central America with clubs like Boca Juniors expressing concern about traveling to Mexico to meet SLP in the Copa Libertadores. All 176 Mexican league matches this weekend will be played without spectators.

The CONCACAF beach soccer tournament scheduled to start in Puerto Vallarta in Mexico has been postponed indefinitely because of the swine flu threat.

"How can you prepare to play against a man who doesn't even know what he is going to do himself?" That's what Mourinho had to say about playing against the genius of Lionel Messi.
Leaving that aside here are the 5 things that Chelsea need to do nevertheless if they are to keep Barca at bay.