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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.

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

Standings

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Czech club Sparta Prague is showing interest in signing their former player Jan Koller. The 35 year old Czech International is presently playing for German Nuremberg which was relegated to the second division this season. Koller joined Nuremberg in January from AC Monaco, but scored only two goals and spent the end of the season as a substitute.

The fight for the top spot in Copa Libertadores will continue today with the semifinal match between Mexican America and Liga de Quito from Ecuador. On Wednesday in the other semifinal Boca Juniors will take on Fluminense. America upset Brazilian team Santos and Liga de Quito overcame one of the favorites, San Lorenzo of Argentina to reach the semifinals.

England’s coach Faboi Capello named John Terry the captain for the friendly match with the USA on Wednesday at Wembley. There were some questions about how well Terry has recovered mentally after missing a penalty kick in the Champions League final last week. Capello said this about his decision to make Terry the captain “It is very important to be a leader and John Terry is a leader.”

The three nation Kirin Cup tournament was won by Japan after they played to a scoreless draw with Paraguay on Tuesday. Paraguay also tied with the Ivory Coast 1-1, but Japan beat them by a score of 1-0 and that gave them the overall victory. The teams used the Kirin Cup as preparation for their World Cup qualifiers next month.

“FC Barcelona and Manchester United have reached agreement for the transfer of Gerard Pique to the Catalan club. Gerard 21, will sign a four year contract with Barcelona,” said the message you could read on Barcelona’s Web site Tuesday. Pique joined Manchester United four years ago from Barcelona. He played only 23 matches and with players like Nemanja Vidic or Rio Ferdinand he found increasingly difficult to break into the first team.

EURO 2008 starts on June 7 and as a part of a campaign against racism in soccer, the tickets for the Euro 2008 will carry Unite Against Racism message. FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) and FIFA will promote race diversity in soccer during the tournament through different activities. An opening day reception by FARE will kick start all of these activities with the involvement of former soccer players, the European Commission and UEFA.

All major European leagues played their last rounds this weekend. Now it is on to the preparations for the EURO 2008 in June.

Inter Milan won the Serie A title for the third straight time. They beat Parma 2-0 with both goals scored by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Bundesliga played its last round on Saturday. Bayern Munich was already crowned the champion a couple of weeks ago. They finished 10 points ahead of second Werden Bremen.

Ligue 1 championship title went again to Lyon, for the seventh time in a row after a 3-1 win at Auxerie.

Real Madrid finished their winning season with a 5-2 exhibition with Levante. Real collected 85 points, 11 more than second Villareal.