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.”

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Semi retired Brazil international Cafu may be heading to Australia. The 38 year old Cafu is reported to have signed with Australian A-League club Golden Coast United. The club is looking for some big names and Cafu despite his age, should still be an asset to the Australian Club.

MLS expansion plans are heading north according to MLS’ commissioner Don Garber. Canadian cities Montreal and Vancouver look to be in the race for the next two expansion teams. Garber said “We think soccer can ultimately assume a place beside hockey as Canada’s national sport.”

Borussia Dortmund beat Bayern Munich 2-1 and retained their German Super Cup title. Dortmund’s Blaszczykowski opened the score in the first half and Hajnal added second goal a few minutes later. Bayern  added to the score making it 2-1 by a goal from Ekeci, but Borussia remained firmly in control through most of the match. It was the first defeat for Bayern Munich’s coach Jurgen Klinsmann after taking over the team on July 1st.

Chelsea’s coach Luiz Felipe Scolari insisted Frank Lampard is staying with the club despite lucrative offers from clubs like Inter Milan. Scolari said “Frank is staying with us. Finished.” Reports have it that Chelsea is offering Lampard $300,000 dollars a week in five year deal.

In preparation for next week’s Champions League match, Sparta Prague lost at home with French Ligue 1 team Rennes 2-0. Sparta started with their full squad including new signing Patrick Berger from Aston Villa and Bony Wilfried from Ivory Coast. Rennes opened the score in the 9th minute from a penalty kick by Leroy. Moreira added a second goal in the 60th minute after putting one over the goalie’s head.

Inter Milan’s new coach Jose Mourinho was booed by the team’s fans after he decided to hold training sessions behind the close door. Mourinho apologised to supporters and gave this explanation “Among the fans that come to transmit their support and affection to the team there are also coaches and scouts from other teams that may be our future rivals in the coming season.”

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Czech International and Fiorentina’s captain Tomas Ujfalusi is on his way to the Spanish Primera Liga. This would be his third European League after Czech Gambrinus Liga and German Bundesliga. He said that his dream is to play in many different countries and end his career in the American MLS.

Argentine club Fluminense reached the Copa Libertadores semi-finals on Wednesday after beating Sao Paulo 3-1. Fluminense striker Washington scored a pair of goals and Dodo added one. Fluminense is schedule to meet Boca Juniors, who have already won the Cup six times.

FC Dallas coach Steve Morrow was shown the door after a string of poor results recently. The “last drop” was Dallas’ loss to LA Galaxy at home by a score of 5-1. Morrow who is from Northern Ireland and played in Dallas for two years, took the team to the playoffs last year.

Manchester United won their third UEFA Champions League title by beating Chelsea on penalty kicks. The match ended 1-1 in regular time and overtime. Cristiano Ronaldo surprisingly missed his penalty kick, but so did Chelsea’s John Terry and Nicholas Anelka and that gave Manchester the victory.

Manchester City match with makeshift South China team was most likely the last for coach Sven Goran-Eriksson. Manchester lost this one 3-1 and was the team’s fourth loss in a row. Eriksson’s future with the club has been a subject of speculation for a several weeks now.

The 34 year old Ryan Giggs played his 759th match for Manchester United on Wednesday and broke Bobby Charlton’s all time appearance record. During his career with the club Giggs won an impressive 10 Premiership titles, 2 Champions League Cups and 4 FA Cups. He signed with Manchester back in 1987 at tender age of 14.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Zenit St. Petersburg confirmed their role as a favorite on Wednesday by winning the UEFA Cup. They beat the Rangers 2-0 in a match which they were dominating most of the ninety minutes. Zenit’s Denisov scored in the 72nd minute and fellow midfielder Zyrianov put one in at injury time. Zenit is the second Russian team to win the UEFA Cup in the last three years.

Czech international Milan Baros wants to finish his time with Portsmouth on a high note and win the FA Cup. He is on loan from Lyon till the end of this season. Portsmouth is facing the Championship team Cardiff and Baros and hopes to be a factor in Saturday’s finals and finally score a goal.

UEFA and the European Union launched an information campaign to help fans with variety of problems they may encounter during the UERO 2008. Fans can either go online: http://en.euro2008.uefa.com/ or use a free phone helpline in the EU (00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11) starting June 1st, which is available in all EU languages.

Celtic Glasgow’s former player and coach Tommy Burns died Thursday after a fight with skin cancer. He played for Celtic between 1975-89 and was the coach there for three years. He took leave from his coaching position early this year to fight the disease. He was 51 years old.

Bayern Munich goalie Oliver Kahn is retiring from soccer and will play his last game on Saturday against Hertha Berlin. It will be his 557th Bundesliga game, a record for goalkeeper. Kahn also played 86 caps and was voted the world best goalkeeper of the year three times.

Manchester United captain Rio Ferdinand extended his contract with the club till 2013. Ferdinand joined Manchester in 2002 from Leeds for a record breaking fee of 33 million British pounds. He said “It is a great honor to be part of this trophy winning team and to share in the success, which I am sure will continue for many season to come.”

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

David Beckham said that he is fit and ready to play his 100th cap for England. His team LA Galaxy just finished the Asian Tour and Beckham played in all three games. Fabio Capello, the English National team coach or his assistant Franco Baldini will be in Dallas on Saturday to watch Beckham play in a friendly against FC Dallas.

Chelsea’s goalie Petr Cech could be back from injury on Saturday for the game with Sunderland. He sprained his ankle before the Champions League game against Olympiacos last week. Originally his injury looked pretty bad and the prognosis called for two or more weeks off.

The US Women’s soccer team buried Norway 4:0 to win Group B in the Algavre Cup. The ladies advanced to the finals where they will meet Denmark who beat Finland by a score of 3:0. The US won their Group by winning all the games and they are the favorite for Wednesday’s final.

Portsmouth will play West Bromwich Albion and Cardiff City will face Barnsley in the semifinals of the FA Cup. The semifinals will be played at Wembley stadium on April 5-6, and the final is on May 17. Portsmouth is the lonely Premier League team while the rest of the semifinalists are coming from the Championship League.

Celtic Glasgow issued a statement Monday, that their coach Tommy Burns is to receive continued cancer treatment. Burns was diagnosed with skin cancer two years ago and had surgery to remove two lumps from his leg. He will keep coaching during the treatment and our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.

Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso will be watching Tuesday’s duel between Liverpool and Inter Milan on TV from the maternity ward. His girlfriend is having a baby and Xabi won’t be traveling with his team to Milan. Coach Benitez will most likely field Mascherano instead, who is fit and ready to play.

We have seen two major upsets in Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-finals. Manchester United was downed by a penalty after goalie Kuszcak took down striker Milan Baros and was ejected from the game. Kuszcak replaced injured Edwin van der Saar and because of that Rio Ferdinand had to substitute as a goalie when Kuszcak got kicked out. He tried but could not stop the penalty kick which was awarded after Kuszack’s foul. Man Utd had a few chances after that but Portsmouth held on and reached the semi-finals for the first time since 1939.

“The Giant Killer” Barnsley has another scalp under their belt. This time the mighty Chelsea is the victim. Barnsley was the better team in the first half with a few good chances, two of them coming from Ferenczi and Odejayi. Chelsea cranked up the second half but couldn’t brake through the well playing Barnsley defense. The shocker came in the 66th minute after a cross from Martin Devaney to Kayode Odejayi netted the winner and he became an instant hero to 22,000 Tykes fans. Chelsea staged an all out attack in the last 15 minutes, but Barnsley somehow survived the shooting range.

We have to go all the way back to 1912 when Barnsley last reached the semi-finals and went on to win the FA Cup.

Two games remain; West Bromwich vs Bristol Rovers and Middlesbrough vs Cardiff City are being play on Sunday.

The oldest soccer competition on earth is back with round 6th and eight teams are left. The Premier League is represented by four teams, three teams coming from Championship League and one team is from League One.

The only all Premier League tie, Manchester United will host Portsmouth in what should not be an easy game for them. They have the home advantage but Old Trafford is not an automatic victory guarantee.

Barnsley side beat Liverpool by a score of 2:1 in round 5. Pairing with Chelsea is according to their coach Simon Davey a dream come true for them. Chelsea is without their goalie Peter Cech who injured himself this week. Carlo Cudicini will step in to replace him.

Former five time winner West Bromwich Albion is meeting the lowest ranking club left in competition, “The Pirates” Bristol Rovers.

Middlesbrough hosts Cardiff City but shouldn’t expect easy passage because Cardiff is a good team with players like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink on the roster.

We should be in for good quarter-finals entertainment. You can watch all four games on Fox Soccer Channel TV. All times are EST.

TV schedule