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.

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.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson will have the services of striker Wayne Rooney for Sunday’s match with Newcastle. Rooney contracted a virus on the team’s trip to Africa last month, but is healthy and ready to play now. It was believed to be malaria according to some early reports, which was denied by the club. Ferguson now has at his disposal two strikers, but he will be without injured Cristiano Ronaldo.

There is a talk about Bruce Arena taking over LA Galaxy. He watched the match between Galaxy and Chivas and Thursday night with the club’s president and CEO Tim Leiweke. Galaxy parted early this week with coach Ruud Gullit and Cobi Jones filled in on an interim basis. Leiweke said, “I personally think he’s the best coach in the history of the league and we’d be lucky if we can get him here.” Arena’s last coaching job was with the NY Red Bulls were he resigned last November. The match ended in a 2-2 tie after Alan Gordon scored from a header in injury time.

The Olympic Soccer tournament continues Saturday with the quarter-finals and we should see a couple of interesting matches. 2004 Olympic champion Argentina will face a strong Dutch squad with names like Babel, Makaay or their leading scorer Gerald Sibon. Brazil against Cameroon will try to avenged their loss to this African team in the 2000 Sydney games. Cameroon knocked them out in the quarter-finals and went on to win the gold medal. In the other two matches Italy meets Belgium and Ivory Coast is facing Nigeria. Italy is a favorite in this match especially after Belgium’s biggest star Vincent Kompany left the Olympics for his Bundesliga team Hamburk SV.

Struggling Chelsea striker Claudio Pizarro was on loan to Werder Bremen, where he played in from 1999 to 2001. He than moved to Bayern Munich and in 2007 signed with Chelsea. But the 29-year-old Peruvian didn’t live-up to his reputation and became mostly a substitute during the last season. He appeared in 21 matches, scoring only two goals.

Major League Soccer expansion team the Seattle Sounders made their first big signing by getting Kasey Keller from Fulham. Keller was born in Washington state and started his soccer career with the Portland Timbers back in 1989. He played in England, Spain and Germany. Keller said: ‘When I started my career in Europe, I always said that I wanted to finish playing back at home in the US.” He represented the US in four World Cups, appearing 102 times for the national team.

After a US men’s team disappointing knock-out by Nigeria, the US Women’s team lived-up their potential and reached the semi-finals by beating Canada 2-1. The winning goal came in the 11th minute from Natasha Kai into the extra time.  The match was suspended for almost two hours because of lightning. The US team will now meet the underdog Japan who beat host country China. In the other semi-final match, tournament favorite Brazil will face Germany.

EPL is back and so is the excellent coverage of the matches on Fox Soccer Channel. All times are EST. Sit down, relax and enjoy the biggest show on earth.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

The US Men’s Olympic soccer team is heading home after they lost to Nigeria on Wednesday by a score of 2-1. They were handicapped from the beginning after Michael Orozco got a red card for a needless elbow foul four minutes into the match. Not having Freddy Adu and Michael Bradley didn’t help either, but all the team needed was a tie. Nigeria opened the score in the 39th minute and added one more in the 79th minute. The US converted a penalty with two minutes to go in regular time. The Americans came close in the closing minutes but Nigeria, the 1996 Olympic champions managed to survive the late surge.

Frank Lampard has put speculations to an end about him leaving Chelsea. After 18 months of contract talks the 30-year-old signed a five-year extension and had this to say, “I feel for sure I’ve made 100% the right decision, for myself, for my family and for Chelsea Football Club.” Lampard was at one point linked with a move to Inter Milan and Barcelona.

Mario Balotelli who is considered to be one of the world’s best young talents, became an Italian citizen on Wednesday. His parents are Ghanaian immigrants, but he was adopted in 1990 by the Balotelli family. By Italian law he had to wait until he turned 18 to become an Italian citizen. He hopes that this will open door for him to the Italian national team. Nicknamed Super Mario, Balotelli joined Inter in 2007 making 11 appearances and scoring 3 goals.

Dynamo Kiev trashed their old rivals Spartak Moscow by a score of 4-1 at Spartak’s home field in Luzhniki Stadium. Spartak went ahead with a goal in the fourth minute, but Dynamo regained the rhythm and scored two goals before half-time. They added two more in the second-half and all but qualified for the Champions League. More results here…

Republic of Ireland coach, Trapattoni announced that Liverpool defender Steve Finnan has agreed to return to international soccer. Finnan was nominated for a friendly against Norway on August 20. The 32 year-old Finnan announced his retirement from international soccer early this year after appearing in 50 matches for the Republic of Ireland.

The Bundesliga kicks-off this weekend and its biggest signing is Bayern Munich new coach Jurgen Klinsmann who replaces Ottmar Hitzfeld. The opening match will pair old rivals Hamburg SV against Bayern Munich.

Bundesliga: Round one: August 15,16,17

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

US Women’s Olympic Soccer team trashed New Zealand 4-0 and qualified to the quarter-finals. Only 41 seconds into the match is when Heather O’Reilly scored the fastest goal in Women’s Olympic soccer history. Amy Rodriguez, Lindsay Tarpley and Angela Hucles added one goal each. The US finally  showed the confidence everyone expected from them after a surprising loss to Norway. In the quarter-finals they will face Canada, a team they beat four times this year alone.

Contrary to earlier reports that Former Chelsea coach Avram Grant was killed by a landing plane he is alive and well, says his spokesman. Grant who is in Namibia on charity work, was waiting on the tarmac with his family when a small plane crashed about 30 yards from them. The plane was completely destroyed but the pilot managed to survive. Grant was fired by Chelsea this May and is presently “retired from soccer”.

The opening of the EPL this weekend may see Dimitar Berbatov wearing a Manchester United jersey. According to unofficial reports, Tottenham Hotspur agreed on a $56 million dollar transfer fee for the 27 year-old Bulgarian striker. Berbatov has made no secret of his desire to join Manchester, but Tottenham’s initial asking price of $72 million dollars was too much even for Man Utd. This would be a boost to coach Ferguson’s plans to reinforce the striking line since key players are out with injuries.

Strikers Adrian Mutu and Alberto Gilardino scored one goal each in the win against Slavia Prague in this third qualifying tie of the Champions League on Tuesday. Slavia wasn’t much of a threat to Fiorentina and only a few fine saves by goalie Martin Vaniak prevented the Italian side from scoring more goals. Fiorentina is well on their way to group stage with this win, and will return to Champions League after eight years of absence.

Brazilian striker Robinho who showed interest in joining Chelsea, reportedly told his team Real Madrid if they double his salary to almost $8 million dollars then he would stay.  According to sports newspaper AS, Real is only prepared to offer $5.5 million dollars. Robinho wants to join Chelsea where his paisano Luiz Felipe Scolari is the coach. Real supposedly turned down a $37.5 million dollar offer from the Premier League club for the 24 year-old Brazilian star.

English Premier League season will start on Saturday August 16 with Arsenal hosting newly promoted West Bromwich Albion. The other promoted teams are Hull City and Stoke City.  Once again the US viewers will be able to watch the EPL matches on Fox Soccer Channel.

Socceroverload.com will post weekly TV schedules of the EPL matches.

Schedule of EPL’s week one

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

The US Men’s soccer team will need to draw or beat the very good Nigerian team to advance from their Group B. The US will have to do it without suspended Michael Bradley and  Freddy Adu. In the other Group B match the Netherlands will fight Japan for their chance to advance to the quarter-finals. The Dutch have to win to qualify, a rather surprising situation for them considering their strong squad.

The Community Shield match ended 0-0 in regular time, followed by a penalties shoot-out which went the Manchester United way. Portsmouth was  struggling and despite the striking duo of Defoe and Crouch they showed a disappointing performance. Coach Ferguson sent out a strong squad led by Gary Neville who finally saw some action after a lengthy recovery from an injury. Man Utd clearly missed their striker Ronaldo and Ferguson may have to come up with a solution to the team’s weakened strike force.

Brazil led by Ronaldhino showed no mercy and destroyed New Zealand by a score of 5-0. It took Brazil only four minutes to open the score from a header by Anderson.  Pato put in another one after the half-hour mark. Ronaldhino himself contributed two goals and Rafael Sobis added the fifth goal deep into extra time. Brazil leads Group C with six points from two matches without conceding a goal.

LA Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit and  president/general manager Alexi Lalas are out of a job as of Monday. According to Galaxy’s boss Tim Leiweke, the recent string of a seven-match win-less streak demanded action. Former Galaxy player Cobi Jones was named interim coach while the team looks for a new man to fill the post. LA Galaxy remains fourth in the Western Conference with 23 points.

Due to war conflict in Georgia UEFA decided to move the UEFA Cup match  between WIT Tbilisi and Austria Vienna to Rize in Turkey. War conflict between Russia and Georgia could also interfere with World Cup 2010 qualifier between Georgia and Republic of Ireland in September. Irish Soccer Federation asked FIFA to move the match away from the capital Tbilisi.

French Ligue 1 opened a new season over the weekend and Olympique Lyon looks like a title contender once again. Sunday’s comfortable 3-0 victory over Toulouse set them on track for a possible eight league title. Jean Makoun opened the scoring in the 12th minute from a free kick by Brazilian Juninho. Striker Karim Benzema added two goals in the second half.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Czech international Milan Baros may be heading for Spanish Primera Liga. According to French newspaper L’Equipe club Betis Sevilla showed interest in Olympique Lyon striker. Baros was on loan to Portsmouth of English Premier League for the end of last season and may have a hard time finding steady spot on Lyon’s first team squad. He previously played for Aston Villa and had his best years so far in Liverpool.

Chelsea striker Didier Drogba put to rest stories about him leaving, by pledging to stay with Chelsea. When Jose Mourinho made his return to soccer, it was predicted that Drogba would follow him to Inter Milan. This is what the player himself had to said, “I have always said, I am always with Chelsea. It is a great team with great players and a great coach, and a president who has ambition.”

Russian sensation Andrei Arshavin is still confident that his move to Tottenham will go through. His desire to move to Barcelona is over for now since they signed Alexander Hleb and Tottenham is the only club left with a serious interest. Arshavin was unhappy with his club Zenit because they raised the price tag for him to $42 million dollars. He fears no club will offer that much and that will leave him priced out of the market. Some reports in the English press suggest that the player is on strike, refusing to play.

Sunday’s Community Shield match at Wembley between the league champion and FA Cup winner will pair Manchester United against Portsmouth. Man Utd coach Alex Ferguson is planning to use the players coming back from injuries like Nani, Gary Neville or Carrick while Harry Redknapp’s team will try to duplicate the success from the FA cup competition. This will be the first big test for Portsmouth’s new striking duo of Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe. “Sunday is going to be a really difficult match, but we will be fit and ready and hopefully we will give them a good game,”said Crouch.

The stadium of Portugal’s club Boavista was seized by the government and will go on sale for a starting price of $42.5 million dollars. Boavista club was demoted to second division after a match fixing scandal, in which FC Porto was also found guilty of bribing referres trying to influence the outcome of the matches. The club is in a deep finacial crisis and unable to pay players salaries plus their investment plan earlier this year fell through.

Chelsea offered around $40 million dollars to sign Brazil striker Robinho from Real Madrid. The 24 year old Brazilian international joined Real in 2005 became unhappy with his club lately, saying they treat him like a second-rate player. His agent Wagner Ribiero said, “Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari knows him well, calls him every day and is giving him the attention he needs.”

The United States opened their Olympic competition with a hard fought victory over Japan by a score of 1-0. The U.S. team had more possessions in the first half with Japanese applying late pressure. Stuart Holden scored the winning goal in the 47th minute by striking a loose ball at the penalty area. This was a must win for the U.S. since they have heavy favorites Nigeria and Netherlands in their Group. Next, the USA faces the Dutch team on Sunday August 10.

Results

Standings

Read the rest of this entry »