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.
Israel international Tal Ben Haim has joined Manchester City from Chelsea. The 26-year-old signed a four-year contract with City for an undisclosed fee. He said: ‘I spoke with my agent and even though we had some better offers I preferred to come here because I think it’s a good club with a lot of ambition. As I’ve said, we want to do better things here than over the last few years.”
FIFA could soon claim victory in dispute with major European clubs over releasing of their players for the Olympic soccer tournament. FIFA issued a statement which read: The single judge of the Players’ Status Committee, Slim Aloulou (Tunisia), decided today, 30 July 2008, that the release of players under the age of 23 for the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament Beijing 2008 is mandatory for all clubs. Previously, on 29 July 2008, the FIFA Emergency Committee also took a decision in the same sense.
Former US international striker Brian McBride signed with MLS team Chicago Fire until the end of the 2009 season. The 36 year old who is heading for Beijing Olympic soccer tournament as of one three over age players, played last for Fulham in Premier League. He joined Fulham in 2004 scoring 32 goals in 139 matches. He was often considered to be one of the best headers in the Premiership during his time there.
Bayern Munich midfielder Franck Ribery will have a metal screw removed from his left ankle on Friday. Ribery injured his ankle ligaments during this summer’s EURO 2008 tournament in a game against Italy. He is hoping to be fit by early or mid-September just like other big name stars Luca Toni, Franck Ribery, Tim Borowski who are all recovering from variety of injuries.
Dynamo Houston beat Mexican team Pachuca 2-0 to advance to the Superliga final. Houston had to wait for their first goal till the 77th minute when Bobby Boswell scored off a corner kick. Corey Ashe added a goal in the 87th minute on final 2-0. In the “all American Final” Dynamo will face New England Revolution who defeated Atlante of Mexico by a score of 1-0 on Tuesday night. The final will be played on August 5th at Foxboro’s Gillette Stadium.
Champions League continues withthe first leg of the second qualifying round and we saw a couple of unexpected results.
Tuesday July 29
FC Baku (Azerbaijan) 1 Partizan Belgrade (Serbia) 1
Brann Bergen (Norway) 1 Ventspils (Latvia) 0
Drogheda United (Ireland) 1 Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine) 2
Getafe annouced the signing of Real Madrid striker Soldano. He was on loan at Osasuna and he was hoping to stay there on a permanent basis, but Getafe offered close to 10 million dollars and Real said yes. The 22-year-old Spanish international forward will be officially introduced as a Getafe player today.
Real Salt Lake extended its unbeaten streak at home by beating Toronto FC 2-1 on a late goal from Robbie Finley. Real opened the scoring at the 63rd minute with a header by Jamison Olave. Toronto answered back in the 84th minute when Amado Guevara’s free kick made it 1-1. This win gave Real a four point lead over second Dynamo Houston in the MLS Western Conference.
UEFA released some interesting statistics on EURO 2008. UEFA said turnover during three-week tournament in Austria and Switzerland was 2.04 billion dollars with net profit of 394 million dollars. The cost of organizing the tournament was 934 million dollars. The 31 matches were watched by at least 155 million people all over the world. EURO 2008 also employed 10,000 security personnel.
Manchester United veteran Ryan Giggs blames the player’s greedy agents for some of the recent transfer sagas. He is obviously referring to his teammate Cristiano Ronaldo whose transfer to Real Madrid will net millions for his agent Jorge Mendes. Giggs said: “Many players want to make as much money as they can and change teams for ten grand.”
Chelsea won their third straight match on their Asian tour by beating Malaysian XI 2-0 on Tuesday. They have an impressive 13-0 score from those three matches as they are heading for for the Railways Cup in Moscow. “It was a good tour though for me to see how players are on the field and to decide which players I need. 7-0, 4-0, 2-0—it was all training for us,” said coach Luiz Felipe Scolari.
Deportivo La Coruna’s Fabricio Coloccini is prepared to quit the club if they block his move to Newcastle United. According to the player’s agent Marcelo Lombilla after Newcastle met the club’s original asking price of $19 million dollars, Deportivo upped the price to $22 million. Coloccini has threatened to use FIFA’s article 17 which would allow him to buy out his contract.
The United States National team player, Freddy Edu is going to Ligue 1 Club Monaco on a 1 year loan. Edu chose that move after Benfica’s coach Quique Flores said Edu doesn’t have spot guarantee on the first team roster. Edu made sporadic appearances for the club last season, scoring five goals.
2007 Uzbek league runners-up FC Kuruvchi made a serious offer to sign Barcelona’s star Samuel Eto’o. The signing will be short, for three or six months to help this club from Tashkent to win the domestic league and the Asian Champions League. A spokesman for the club said that they should know by Wednesday if Eto’o accepts their offer.
A halftime brawl at a Columbus Crew match with West Ham United on Sunday gave U.S. fans a little taste of the European soccer environment. Fans of both clubs scuffled and threw punches during what was billed as a warm-up match for Thursday’s MLS All star game. West Ham United beat Columbus Crew 3-1.
U.S. soccer star Abby Wambach had her first physical therapy Monday, after surgery last Thursday to have a titanium rod inserted in her lower left leg. Wambach broke her leg during a match against Brazil last Wednesday and is going to miss the Olympics, but hopes to return for the debut of the new Women’s Professional Soccer league in the spring.
Bayern Munich coach Jurgen Klinsmann said that striker Lukas Podolski is not for sale. The 23-year-old has been linked with a move back to his former club Cologne. But Podolski decided to stay with Bayern and had this to say “I am concentrating now fully on the season. I am looking forward to it.”
The Russian national team sensation at the Euro 2008, Andrei Arshavin may be heading to the English Premier League to join Tottenham. Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane wish to leave the club and Arshavin would fill the void. His club, Zenit St Petersburg, has been contacted but Totenham said that Zenit’s asking price of 42.8 million dollars is too high a price for the English club.
44 years of drought came to an end on Sunday night for Spain after they beat Germany 1-0 in the EURO 2008 final. Spain won their last major tournament title 44 years ago, beating the Soviet Union.
On Sunday, two different styles met. German efficiency against playful Spaniards. Both teams started rather cautiously, but the Germans were dominating the first fifteen minutes of the match. Then Spain slowly opened up their game and took over.
With David Villa being out with an injury, all eyes and hopes were on Fernando Torres and he delivered. In the 29th minute he caught a pass from Xavi, outran Lahm and flipped the ball over Lehmann into the net. Spain took a 1-0 lead and never looked back.
The second half saw Germany’s coach Joachim Loew making a couple of player changes. Lahm was replaced with Jansen, Kevin Kuranyi came for Hitzlspenger and finally Gomez for Klose. Despite all of these changes Spain was firmly in control of the match and created a couple of good scoring chances.
Germany continued to struggle till the end and so did their captain Ballack. He had a few good moments but just like the oldest man on the field, goalie Lehmann, he didn’t live up to his expectations.
Spain won their second European championship, Xavi Hernandez was named the best player of the tournament and David Villa is the EURO 2008 top scorer with four goals.
Spain played creative soccer, winning all of their matches, showing that you can play an attractive game and go all the way to the top.
Line up
Spain: Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Carles Puyol, Carlos Marchena, Joan Capdevila, Xavi Hernandez, David Silva (Santi Cazorla, 66), Marcos Senna, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas (Xabi Alonso, 63), Fernando Torres (Dani Guiza, 78)
Germany: Jens Lehmann, Christoph Metzelder, Per Mertesacker, Philipp Lahm (Marcell Jansen, 46), Arne Friedrich, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Hitzlsperger (Kevin Kuranyi, 58), Torsten Frings, Michael Ballack, Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose (Mario Gomez, 79)
The Italian Soccer Federation fired national team coach Roberto Donadoni and replaced him with Marcello Lipi. The 60 year old Lipi lead Italy to the 2006 World Cup triumph. “I’m very ,very happy and very motivated,” said Lipi.
Arsenal’s striker Emmanuel Adebayor denied rumors about him moving to Barcelona. He insist on staying with Arsenal where he has three more years left on his contract. AC Milan has also shown interest in signing the 24 year old player from Togo.
The captain of the US national team, Carlos Bocanegro is going to French Ligue1. He signed with Rennes who finished sixth in the French Championship last season. Bocanegro spent the past five years playing for Fulham in the English Premier League.
Spain will have to do without their top scorer David Villa on Sunday’s final against Germany. Villa injured a leg muscle during the match with Russia on Thursday. He currently leads the EURO 2008 goal scoring competition with four goals.
The Texas derby saw FC Dallas draw 1-1 with Dynamo Houston for the third time this season. Houston’s Brian Ching scored in the 21st minute and Kenny Cooper tied the match on 1-1 in the 62nd minute. Houston is presently third in the Western Conference, while Dallas occupies the fifth spot.
The Czech Soccer Federation apologized to French coach Gerard Houllier for naming him as one of the candidates to coach the Czech national team. Apparently a fake e-mail was sent to the head of the federation saying Houllier was interested in the job. Czechs are currently in the process of replacing retired Karel Bruckner.
…and then there were two. Tonight the Russian team was no match for Spain who outplayed them and reached the finals for the first time in 24 years. Russia didn’t duplicate their performance against Holland. They had only a handful of chances in the first half. The second half belonged to Spain who opened the score in the 50th minute from a volley by Xavi.
“The Super Sub” Daniel Guiza who replaced struggling Torres, beat the offside trap to make it 2-0 in the 73rd minute. Ten minutes later another substitute, Fabregas, passed the ball to Silva who made it 3-0 on final.
The only blemish on Spain’s victory is the injury of their top scorer David Silva who may be out for Sunday’s final against Germany.
The Russian team definitely deserves accolades for reaching the semifinals. Gus Hidink did a good job with a team, whom only few people were giving a chance to get this far. Especially after they lost to Spain in the opening match of their Group D by a score of 4-1.
Spain will battle the Germans hoping to end the 40 year drought without a major tournament trophy.
Line up
Russia: Igor Akinfeyev, Alexander Anyukov, Sergei Ignashevich, Vasily Berezutsky, Yuri Zhirkov, Sergei Semak, Konstantin Zyryanov, Igor Semshov (Diniyar Belyaletdinov, 56), Ivan Sayenko, Andrei Arshavin, Roman Pavlyuchenko
Spain: Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Carles Puyol, Carlos Marchena, Joan Capdevila, Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez (Xabi Alonso, 68), Marcos Senna, David Silva, David Villa (Cesc Fabregas, 34), Fernando Torres (Dani Guiza, 68)
The Cinderella story is over for Turkey. They came from being down 2-1 to tie the match, but this time it was the German team who scored the winning goal in the last minute.
Turkey opened the match with speed and attack. Ugul Boral gave Turkey the lead in the 22nd minute after Jens Lehmann lost the ball and it went through his legs. Four minutes later Bastian Schweinsteiger came to the rescue to tie the match at 1-1.
Turkey who was missing nine players due to injuries and suspensions continued to dominate the match, while Germany’s full strength team struggled. Then came the 79th minute and Miroslav Klose scored his first goal of the tournament. Once again Turkey wasn’t finished and Semih Sentuck scored in 86th minute evening it up at 2-2. But the Turkish string of three consecutive comeback wins came to an end when Phillip Lehm shot past goalie Rustu Recber giving the Germans the victory.
Turkey were a better team but Germany was a more efficient team and that decided this thrilling match. Germany will meet the winner of today’s match between Spain and Russia.
Line up
Germany: Jens Lehmann, Arne Friedrich, Per Mertesacker, Christoph Metzelder, Philipp Lahm, Simon Rolfes (Torsten Frings, 46), Bastian Schweinsteiger, Michael Ballack, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose (Marcell Jansen, 90)
Turkey: Rustu Recber, Gokhan Zan, Hakan Balta, Mehmet Topal, Mehmet Aurelio, Ugur Boral (Gokdeniz Karadeniz, 84), Sabri Sarioglu, Ayhan Akman (Mevlut Erdinic, 81), Kazim Kazim (Tumer Metin, 90), Hamit Altintop, Semih Senturk
The Russian team scored two goals in overtime, outplayed the Dutch team and advanced to the semifinals. What an incredible story this team has been so far. Considered to be the underdogs, they overcame Sweden on Wednesday in a do or die match and they id it again last night against favorites, Netherlands.
Russia demonstrated superiority throughout the game and when they finally scored in the 56th minute from Roman Pavlyuchenko, it looked like the semifinals would be theirs. But, with four minutes to go Ruud van Nisterlooy tied the match on 1-1 and forced the game into overtime.
They continued to dominate the match and took the lead in 112th minute by Tobinski on a pass from Andrei Arshavin. Five minutes later Arshavin added one on his own, making it on final 3-1 for Russia.
The Russian team who lost to the Netherlands in the 1988 European final, qualified for the semifinals for the first time since the break up of the Soviet Union. Present coach of Holland, Marco van Basten played in that final and was tournament’s top goal scorer. Russia will play either Italy or Spain on Thursday.
Line up
Russia: Igor Akinfeyev, Alexander Anyukov, Sergei Ignashevich, Denis Kolodin, Yuri Zhirkov, Konstantin Zyryanov, Igor Semshov (Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, 69), Sergei Semak, Roman Pavlyuchenko (Dmitry Sychev, 115), Andrei Arshavin, Ivan Sayenko (Dmitry Torbinski, 81)
Netherlands: Edwin van der Sar, Andre Ooijer, Joris Mathijsen, Khalid Boulahrouz (John Heitinga, 54), Nigel de Jong, Rafael van der Vaart, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Wesley Sneijder, Orlando Engelaar (Ibrahim Afellay, 62), Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dirk Kuyt (Robin van Persie, 46)
Turkey did it again. They came from behind to beat favorite Croatia last night, just like they did it with the Czech Republic and Switzerland. After a 0-0 draw in regular time, it looked like Croatia was heading for a victory with a last minute goal from Ivan Klasnic. Stunningly the Turks tied the match with only seconds to go. Semih Sunturk was the Turkish hero, scoring the decisive goal. Turkey’s coach had this to say “To lose a lead in such a short space of time would be a blow to any team. I knew they would be feeling it psychologically.”He was right, when the penalty shoot out came, the first two Croatian players Modric and Rakitic shot wide missing the goal. Arda, Senturk and Altintop scored for Turkey, while Srna was the only Croat who scored a penalty kick. The shoot out ended 3-1 for Turkey and they advanced to the semifinals for the first time in history. They will take on Germany next Wednesday in Basel. Turkey has a difficult task ahead, because four of their players are suspended and several others are out with injury.
Line up
Croatia: Stipe Pletikosa, Vedran Corluka, Josip Simunic, Robert Kovac, Danijel Pranjic, Darijo Srna, Niko Kovac, Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic, Niko Kranjcar (Mladen Petric, 64), Ivica Olic
Germany reached the Euro semifinals despite the fact they were underdogs in the match against Portugal. Once again the Germans came through when it meant the most. They beat Portugal by a score of 3-2 and became one of the favorites to win the tournament. In a battle between Cristiano Ronaldo vs Michael Ballack, the German was the clean winner tonight. Ronaldo “The Great” was covered tightly by German defense and besides a few sky high free kicks not much else to show.
Germany started the match with speed, outrunning the Portuguese side. Bastain Schweinsteiger was back after being sent off in a match with Croatia. He made an immediate impact by scoring the first goal in the 22nd minute on a cross from Podolski. Four minutes later Klose sneaked in unmarked and headed the ball in. Before they knew it the Portuguese were down 2-0.
Finally in the 41st minute after Ronaldo’s shot was deflected by Jens Lehmann, Nuno Gomez swooped it in, making it 2-1.
The second half saw Portugal push forward more and more, but Ballack delivered the final blow in the 61st minute with a header. Portugal was trailing by two goals but didn’t give up and Postigo gave them hope scoring in the 87th minute from a pass by Nani. Time was Portugal’s enemy and Germany managed to hold on to their lead. This was first time Portugal failed to make the semifinals in the last three international tournaments. Germany will meet the winner of Croatia/Turkey match on June 25 in Basel.
Line up
Portugal: Ricardo, Paulo Ferreira, Jose Bosingwa, Pepe, Ricardo Carvalho, Armando Petit (Helder Postiga, 73), Joao Moutinho (Raul Meireles, 31), Deco, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nuno Gomes (Nani, 67), Simao Sabrosa
Germany: Jens Lehmann, Arne Friedrich, Per Mertesacker, Christoph Metzelder, Philipp Lahm, Simon Rolfes, Bastian Schweinsteiger (Clemens Fritz, 83), Michael Ballack, Thomas Hitzlsperger (Tim Borowski, 73), Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose (Marcell Jansen, 89)
Russia beat Sweden 2-0 and reached the quarterfinals for the first time since the break-up of the Soviet Union. They outplayed their more experienced opponents by scoring a goal in each half. Russian star Roman Pavlyuchenko came through in the 24th minute and Andrei Arshavin added one in the 50th minute. Russia finished second in the group, three points behind Spain. They will take on their coach Hiddink’s home country Holland next.
Line up
Russia: Igor Akinfeyev, Denis Kolodin, Sergei Semak, Sergei Ignashevich, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (Ivan Saenko, 66), Konstantin Zyryanov, Yuri Zhirkov, Andrei Arshavin, Roman Pavlyuchenko (Vladimir Bystrov, 90), Igor Semshov, Aleksandr Anyukov
Sweden: Andreas Isaksson, Fredrik Stoor, Olof Mellberg, Petter Hansson, Mikael Nilsson (Marcus Allback, 79), Johan Elmander, Daniel Andersson (Kim Kallstrom, 56), Anders Svensson, Fredrik Ljunbgerg, Henrik Larsson, Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Defending European champs Greece are leaving the EURO 2008 after they finished dead last in their group without a point. Greece was playing for pride today and they opened the score in the 42nd minute by a header from Angelos Charisteas. Spain equalized in the 61st minute with De la Red shot that Greece goalie Antonis Nikopolidis failed to stop. Spain outshined Greece, but with their new line up they failed to finish some good chances. Finally Guiza put one in the 88th minute giving Spain a perfect score; three wins in three matches. The goals were the first international goals for both players. Spain won Group D and will go on to meet Italy on Sunday.
2006 World Cup finalist France was beaten by Italy 2-0 and is out of the EURO 2008. France only managed to score one point and finished dead last in Group C. The match didn’t start well for the French, they lost Franck Ribery to a possible broken leg. Their bad luck continued with Abidal’s foul on Toni which resulted in penalty kick and red card for Abidal. Andrea Pirlo was the executioner and put Italy 1-0 ahead. Ten men France wasn’t really a match for the well playing Italians and in the 62nd minute Daniele De Rossi made it 2-0. Adding insult to injury his shot from a free kick was deflected in by Therry Henry. Italy finished second in Group C and will meet Spain on Sunday.
Line up
France: Gregory Coupet, Francois Clerc, Eric Abidal, William Gallas, Patrice Evra, Sidney Govou (Nicolas Anelka, 66), Claude Makelele, Jeremy Toulalan, Franck Ribery (Samir Nasri, 10; Jean-Alain Boumsong, 26), Thierry Henry, Karim Benzema
Italy: Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta, Christian Panucci, Giorgio Chiellini, Fabio Grosso, Daniele De Rossi, Andrea Pirlo (Massimo Ambrosini, 55), Gennaro Gattuso (Alberto Aquilani, 82), Simone Perrotta (Mauro Camoranesi, 64), Antonio Cassano, Luca Toni
Netherlands vs Romania
The Netherlands stayed unbeaten after they downed Romania by a score of 2-0. Romania faced a team with several replacement players but didn’t take advantage of that. They showed very little passion and determination considering the fact a win would put them in the quarterfinals. Their strategy depended too much on striker Adrian Mutu but without support he didn’t do much. The Netherlands opened the score in the 54th minute by Klass-Jan Hunteloor who replaced Ruud van Nistrlooy. Robin van Persie added the second goal in the 87th minute on final 2-0. The Netherlands won Group C with three wins and an impressive score of 9-1. They will face either Sweden or Russia on Saturday in the quarterfinals.
Netherlands: Maarten Stekelenburg, Khalid Boulahrouz (Mario Melchiot, 58), John Heitinga, Wilfred Bouma, Tim de Cler, Demi de Zeeuw, Orlando Engelaar, Arjen Robben (Dirk Kuyt, 61), Ibrahim Afellay, Robin van Persie, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, 82)
Romania: Bogdan Lobont, Cosmin Contra, Gabriel Tamas, Sorin Ghionea, Razvan Rat, Banel Nicolita (Florentin Petre, 82), Cristian Chivu, Paul Codrea (Nicolae Dica, 72), Adrian Mutu, Razvan Cocis, Marius Nicolae (Daniel Niculae, 59)
