CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Slovak team Artmedia Petrzalka managed to tie 1-1 with Juventus at home but a team from Turin won the first match 4-0 and advanced to the first round of the Champions League. Petrzalka opened the score with a goal in the 13th minute by Fodrek but Juventus leveled the score 10 minutes later and controlled the rest of the match. Even better results came from Wisla Krakow who beat European giant Barcelona 1-0. But Wisla also lost their first match 4-0 and will now enter the UEFA Cup competition alongside Artmedia.

Chelsea is ready to offer $48 million dollars for Real Madrid’s Robinho. His agent Ribeiro said,”The deal is about to be reached.”  The 24 year-old Brazilian was booed by fans during a weekend match against Valencia and is now desperate to leave Real. Robinho joined Real from Santos in 2005, scoring 25 goals in 101 matches.

Andriy Shevchenko is back at Milan and will try to get a starting place on the team and win the Milan’s fans back. “The most difficult challenge now is to win over the people who were disappointed when I left. Now I’m back I’ll try my hardest, it’s all I know how to do,” said the 31 year-old striker. He first joined AC Milan back in 1999 and left for Chelsea after 7 years. Chelsea paid a then-record transfer fee of $25 million for him.  Shevchenko was in and out of the starting lineup because of injuries, never earning a permanent starting position.

Tottenham will sign a Russian player after all but instead of Andrei Arshavin they will get striker Roman Pavlyuchenko from Spartak Moscow. The 26-year-old was his country’s top scorer at the Euro 2008 with three goals. Pavlyuchenko has a very impressive scoring record in Spartak Moscow as well, scoring 75 goals in only 145 matches. He should be a good replacement for Berbatov who may leave Tottenham for Manchester United.

Former Liverpool, Aston Villa and Lyon player Milan Baros signed a three-year deal with Turkish champions Galatasaray Istanbul.The Czech international was the top scorer at the Euro 2004, having his best years with Liverpool winning the Champions League trophy in 2005. The 26 year-old Baros will team-up in Istanbul with former Anfield team-mate Harry Kewell and will try to rekindle his career.

The same Uzbekistan team who made $30 million dollars offer for Samuel Eto’o last month will sign Rivaldo from AEK Athens, according to the player. The 36-year-old midfielder said that Bunyodkor made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. “It has been a tough day. I had to make a very difficult decision. Something very positive has come up late in my career and I cannot turn it down,” said Rivaldo during a radio interview.

Round two of Premier League: A surprising Arsenal loss to Fulham and West Ham trashed by Manchester City….. read more

Standings

Lyon and Marseille won thier matches and they slowly emerging as this season favorite….read more

Standings

Bayern Munich with 10 men only draw again and novice 1899 Hoffenheim won second match in a row and is leading the standings….read more

Hannover 96	0 - 0	Energie Cottbus
VfB Stuttgart	0 - 2	Bayer Leverkusen
Hamburg SV	2 - 1	Karlsruhe
Borussia Dortmund	1 - 1	Bayern Munich
Werder Bremen	1 - 1	Schalke 04
Hertha Berlin	1 - 1	Arminia Bielefeld
TSG Hoffenheim	1 - 0	Borussia M’gladbach
1. FC Köln	1 - 1	Eintracht Frankfurt
VfL Bochum	2 - 2	VfL Wolfsburg

Standings

Women’s Soccer:

US Women’s team overcame powerful Brazil by a close score of 1-0 and earned its third gold medal in four Games.

In a contest where both sides played rather cautiously, the USA was the lucky to get one in extra time.

The US were outplayed and overwhelmed for most of the night, but Carli Lloyd scored in the 96th minute to give the US the victory.

Brazilian coach Jorge Barcellos summarized his team’s misery: “We didn’t win a silver medal tonight; we lost a gold one.”

USA: Solo, Mitts, Rampone, Markgraf, Chalupny, Tarpley, Boxx, O’Reilly, Lloyd, Hucles, Rodriguez

Brazil: Barbara, Simone, Tania, Costa, Skarbo, Maycon, Daniela, Formiga, Ester, Marta, Cristiane

Mens Soccer:

Brazil beat Belgium 0-3 and won the bronze medal, little consolation for their loss to Argentina .

Diego opened the scoring in the 27th minute on a cross from Rafinha. Jo added one his own at the 45th minute and added a second goal in injury time.

Brazil was mostly in control, but Belgium had a few good chances of their own. Belgium’s Maarten Martens and Thomas Vermaelen came dangerously close to scoring, but could not convert.

Brazil once again came away empty in their quest for Olympic gold. They already have another bronze from Atlanta in 1996 and two silver medals from the 1984 and 1988 Olympics.

Ronaldinho said: “The bronze medal may not be important from the Brazilian’s point of view right now but in the future we will be proud.”

Brazil: Renan, Rafinha, Silva, Marcelo, Breno, Hernanes, Anderson, Ronaldhino, Ramires, Diego, Jo

Belgium: Bailly, De Roover, Vermaelen, Pocognoli, Simaeys, Haroun, Vertonghen, Martens, De Mul, Mirallas, Dembele

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

The semi-final match between Argentina and Brazil was attended by the legendary player Diego Maradonna, who said that he never saw Brazil play this poorly. According to Maradonna Brazil didn’t have a chance to turn the match around, because their offense was nonexistence and Ronaldhino was a loner without support. He also criticized Brazil’s coach Dunga for being too cautious when fielding the squad for the match. Dunga’s coaching position is already under scrutiny and there is strong possibilities he may get fire.

Zenit St Petersburg’s striker Andrei Arshavin won’t be joining Premier League club Tottenham this season. According Zenit’s website, Tottenham didn’t meet their demands. Tottenham agreed on personal terms with Arshavin but the deal apparently fell through because of the high transfer fee.

Presently injured Bayern Munich striker Luca Toni should be available for Bundesliga match with Borussia Dortmund this weekend. Toni who joined Bayern last season and scored 24 goals in 31 matches, said recently that he is happy in Germany but wants to end his career in Seria A. In an interview for a German newspaper he said: “I think I will end my career in Italy. I am stuck on 99 goals in Italy and I would like to reach 100 in Serie A, but there is still a lot of time.”

Toronto FC midfielder Maurice Edu signed a five-year contract to join Glasgow Rangers in Scotland. The Rangers will pay MLS $5 million dollars in transfer fees but the deal is subject to getting a work permit for Edu. The 22-year-old Edu would join another American DaMarcus Beasley who is with the Rangers since 2007. Edu made his international debut for the United States in October 2007, making six starts.

Brazil and the USA will meet again in the final of the Women’s Olympic Soccer Tournament. The teams met three times in the last two and half months and the US won all three of them. That makes the 2004 Olympic champions a slight favorite to win. But according to Brazilian striker Cristiane, her team is ready for revenge. She said: Yes, everything is falling into place for that to happen. It seems like someone has written this story just for us.” The final will be televised at 9:00 am EST on the USA channel with the bronze-medal match on MSNBC at 6:00 am EST.

The Czech Republic returned to Wembley Wednesday for the first time since they lost to Germany at the Euro 2006. They faced England for the first time under the leadership of new coach Karel Rada.  The Czechs had more possessions in the opening minutes and Milan Baros opened the score in the 22nd minute. England upped the tempo, got more chances and Wes Brown headed one in from Beckham’s corner kick in the 45th minute. The Czech team started the second half with a bang taking the lead from Marek Jankulovski’s free kick in the 48th minute. Once again England had more goal scoring chances but couldn’t finish them. The Czech defense made a terrible mistake in extra time and Joe Cole’s goal gave the poorly playing host team a draw at last.

Brazil routed Argentina 3-0 in last year’s Copa America but it was Argentina’s turn this time and they did it in style.

Sergio Aguero who hadn’t been heard from much so far this tournament, scored two second-half goals in seven minutes. His first goal in the 52nd minute was reminiscent of Maradona’s “hand of god” goal. I’m sure this will be highly debated by Brazilian fans, but to pointless abandon. Aguero’s second goal came seven minutes later from a 2 yard kick and to put the nail on the coffin, he also set up a 76th-minute penalty kick that was awarded to Argentina after a foul on him.

But it was Lionel Messi who stole the show. He created many scoring opportunities and set-up two of the goals.

Brazil looked a little disoriented throughout the match and lost two players at the end because of red cards. It didn’t help either the fact that Brazil’s star Ronaldhino wasn’t really a factor in the match. Pato came on the field as a substitute, but his goal was disallowed because of offside.

Argentina will once again face Nigeria in the final, a rematch of the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta.

Argentina:Romero, Garay, Monzon, Zabaleta, Pareja, Gago, Riquelme, Di Maria, Mascherano, Messi, Aguero

Brazil: Renan, Rafinha, Silva, Marcelo, Breno, Hernanes, Anderson, Leiva, Ronaldhino, Diego, Sobis

Nigeria ran over Belgium 4-1 in the other semi-final match at Shanghai’s International Stadium. The 1996 Olympic champions reached the finals for the first time in 12 years.

Nigeria opened the score in the 17th minute by Adefemi who stroked a deflected ball in from 12 yards. Then striker Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi scored twice in the second half and Chibuzor Okonkwo added the final goal in the 78th minute.

Belgium kept pace with the Nigerians in the first hour or so but fell apart at the end. The seventy-fifth minute substitute Laurent Ciman scored the lonely goal for Belgium.

The surprise of the tournament will meet with Brazil for the bronze medal match.

Nigeria: Vanzekin, Okonkwo, Apam, Adeleye, Olubayo, Kaita, Ajilore, Obasi Ogbuke, Obinna, Okoronkwo, Odemwingie

Belgium: Bailly, De Roover, Pocognoli, Simaeys, Haroun, Vertonghen, Martens, Vanden Borre, De Mul, Mirallas, Dembele

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Chelsea opened the Premier League season with a convincing 4-0 victory over Portsmouth. Joe Cole, Anelka, Lampard and new signing Deco were the scorers. Arsenal scored their first goal in the fourth minute by newcomer Nasri, but struggled to add more against newly promoted West Bromwich. Arsenal is still without Tomas Rosicky who should return next month, after a lengthy recovery from leg surgery. Another newcomer, Stoke City also lost, but third rookie team Hull City beat Fulham 2-1. The big surprise was Tottenham’s defeat by Middlesbrough and Manchester United could only come up with a draw with Newcastle. Liverpool struggled throughout the whole match with Sunderland and it was Torres who secured the three points for the team. The hero for Aston Villa fans has to be Agbonlahor who scored three goals within eight minutes in the second half. EPL standings…

Bundesliga got off to roaring start with a lot of goals and plenty of action. Newcomers Hoffenheim started their Bundesliga campaign with a historical away win over Energie Cottbus. Dortmund also scored an away win with a 3-2 victory over Leverkusen. It took only four minutes for Dortmund to score, but Bayer tied the match 17 minutes later. Dortmund scored two more and Leverkusen only managed one more goal with eight minutes to go. Schalke didn’t give much chance to Hannover and sent them home with a 3-0 loss. Wolfsburg had to work hard for their victory being one goal down in the first half. Second half saw an improved host team scoring two goals. Bayern Munich’s new coach Jurgen Klismann saw only a 2-2 tie with Hamburg SV and the newly promoted Borussia Monchengladbach lost to Stuttgart 1-3. Hertha Berlin outplayed Eintracht Frankfurt by a score of 2-0. Brazilian Raffael and Patrick Ebert scoring the goals. Bundesliga standings…

French Ligue 1 continue with round 2 with a majority of the matches being played on Saturday. Le Mans went home with an impressive 3-1 win over a sluggish Lille. Monaco managed to only draw with Nantes, Nice beat Nancy,  Saint-Etienne and FC Toulouse also won. Sunday’s match between Lorient and seven time champion Olympique Lyon saw a hard fought battle ending in a goalless draw. Meanwhile Grenoble won their second match in row and that propelled the team to the top of the standings. It was Nassim Akrour’s early goal that secured their 1-0 victory with Stade Rennais. The other Olympique, Marseille trashed Auxerre 4-0 and is slowly emerging as one of Lyon’s main opponents. Ligue 1 standings…