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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.

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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

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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.”

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Another high profile European club was dumped out of the Champions League competition. Belarus Club BATE Borisov overcame 10-man Anderlecht in 2-2 draw on Wednesday. Yesterday the Glagow Rangers, this year’s UEFA Cup finalist, were defeated by the weaker FBK Kaunas from Lithuania. Rapid Vienna met the same fate, losing to unknown Cypriot’s Anorthosis Famagusta on 4-3 aggregate. Champions League will continue with a third qualifying round from August 12 to 27. The 16 winners of the third qualifying round ties join a similar number of automatic entrants in the 32-team group stage.

US Women’s soccer team lost their opening match at the Olympic Games to Norway by a score of 2-0. Norway scored two quick goals in the first four minutes Wednesday and never lost control of the match. The U.S. team, without injured leading scorer Abby Wambach, was sluggish and out of sync. They have two more games to go, facing Japan and New Zealand. The U.S. men’s team will face Japan on Thursday and you can watch the match on MSNBC at 4:55 EST.

The latest news from Cristiano Ronaldo’s camp confirmed his pledge Wednesday to stay with Manchester United for the coming season. But Ronaldo expressed his desire to join Real Madrid in future. Ronaldo said. “For some time what I wanted was for Manchester to have agreed to my transfer to Madrid,”  “Saying otherwise I would be fooling myself and others.” Alex Ferguson blames the Spanish club for too aggressive approach to the matter.

Despite a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, upholding an appeal from top European clubs, Liverpool said that they have no intention of recalling their players from China.  Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano, Ryan Babel and Lucas Leiva are at the Olympic Games in Beijing to compete for their country. Rafa Benitez knows that taking them out of the tournament would probably make them upset and unhappy. It’s not known at this moment what other clubs will do.

FC Barcelona won an easy match on Wednesday night beating the NY Red Bulls 6-2 at a friendly in front of 38,152 fans at Giants Stadium. Barca coming out of Sunday’s 5-2 victory against Chivas de Guadalajara opened the scoring in the 17th minute from Hernandez. Eto’o added two goals and Rafael Alverz Marquez, Jeffren Suarez, Pedro scored one each. Seth Stammler and Jorge Rojas scored for the Red Bulls. Barca coach Josep Guardiola made 8 substitutions compared to 5 by New York coach Juan Carlos Osorio. It was the last friendly match for Barcelona on their North American tour.

The latest world soccer rankings published by FIFA on Wednesday showed Spain still holding top spot. Germany climbed from third into second changing places with Italy. Brazil meanwhile fell to number six, their lowest ranking in 15 years. Argentina is seventh, France twelfth and England fourteenth. USA occupied thirty first spot, second lowest ranking since being thirty fifth in 1997.

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Bayern Munich started their Asian tour with a 4-2 win over Japanese club Urawa Red Diamonds. Miroslav Klose opened the scoring on a cross from midfielder Zé Roberto. But it was Lukas Podolski who stole the show by scoring a hat-trick. Several big stars are out injured and this was Podolski’s chance to shine and he did.

The Superliga which is a competition between the US and Mexican clubs reached an all time low on Wednesday night. The match between New England Revolution and Atlante saw 40 fouls, 11 yellow cards, 6 red cards, 4 of them after regulation time. Things got really nasty after the final whistle when  players from both teams attacked each other. The stadium security had to be called in to brake up the fights and separate both teams.

According to Spanish sports daily newspaper AS, Cristiano Ronaldo has not given up on his desire to move to Real Madrid. The player’s agent Victor Mendes had a message from Ronaldo to Real, “Keep calm, I’ll sort things out next week. I will go to Manchester and tell them I only want to play at Real Madrid and that the decision is non-negotiable.” At the same time Manchester United insists that there is no chance they will sell Ronaldo, not even for the reported $134 million dollars. The 23 year old Ronaldo signed a new contract in 2007 which keeps him in Man Utd till 2012. The saga goes on.

Russian Premier League club Samara beat Saturn 4-0 in a match where former Czech international Jan Koller set-up two goals. Koller came to Samara from Bundesliga club Nuremberg this June in a deal worth $1.57 million dollars. There he joined former Celtic Glasgow player Jiri Jarosik, also a Czech international. The 35 year old Koller who started his soccer career as a goalkeeper had his best years with Borussia Dortmund where he played in 137 matches scoring 59 goals.

Teams participating in Men’s Olympic Soccer tournament revealed today the official list of their squads. Thanks to FIFA’s order telling the clubs to let theirs players go to Olympics, we will see some of the best in the game. Pato, Ronaldhino, Riquelme, Babel, McBride, Kalou and Rossi are a few of the big stars.  Argentina is the 2002 defending champion beating Paraguay 1-0 and Carlos Tevez winning the Golden shoe by scoring 8 goals. The tournament will open in Shanghai on August 7 with Australia vs Serbia.

Tottenham paid close to $38 million dollars for Blackburn’s midfielder David Bentley. The 23 year old who started his career with Arsenal signed with Tottenham for six years. Bentley, who was called  the “new David Beckham” by England’s former manager Steve McClaren, said It means the world for him to join Tottenham. He is known for his impressive technique and crossing ability.

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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 63^rd minute with a header by Jamison Olave. Toronto answered back in the 84^th 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.

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Coach Bruckner comes out of retirement

Former coach of the Czech national team Karel Bruckner to the surprise of many people was named Austria ’s new coach….read more

Carlos Tevez will become a permanent fixture at Man Utd

Manchester United is going to pay a record fee of 63.52 million dollars to  Media Sport Investment for Carlos Tevez….read more

MLS All start team beat West Ham United 3-2

Another English team fell victim to MLS All star crew who previously beat Celtic Glasgow and Chelsea….read more

Brian McBride is going back to the US

The 36 year old McBride will be moving to Chicago Fire from FC Toronto after both teams agreed on terms of his trade….read more

Is Michael Owen’s future in Newcastle uncertain?

According to the English media Newcastle United is hesitant to match Owen’s demand for a salary increase….read more

Claudio Pizarro won’t be moving to South American club

Pizarro’s agent denied that the player was planning to join Argentine club River Plate….read more

Bernd Schuster hopes Robinho will stay put

Real Madrid’s coach is hopping that the club wont let Robinho leave….read more

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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.”

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Chelsea started their five game pre-season tour of Asia and Russia with a 4-0 win over Chinese club Guangzhou Pharmaceutica. The club’s new coach Luiz Felipe Scolari sent a strong team on the field and they dominated the game giving the Chinese no chance. Salomon Kalou, Frank Lampard,  Franco Di Santo and Shaun Wright-Phillips scored to secure the team’s victory.

Blackburns Rovers’ goalie Brad Friedel could be moving to Aston Villa if a replacement is found for him. The 37-year-old has expressed his wishes to move to another club and Villa and Manchester City have shown the biggest interest. He joined the Blackburns in 2000 and played 287 matches for the club.

War of words broke out between FIFA and the European Club Association (ECA) about releasing players under 23 for the Beijing Olympic Games. FIFA’s president, Sepp Blatter, said that clubs must release the players, while the ECA issued a statement saying that there was no legal obligation for the clubs to release them. While we wait for the outcome of this, one thing is clear, once again money seems to be ruling over the sport.

The Swiss star Valon Behrami is moving from Serie A club Lazio to English Premier League’s team West Ham United. The English club paid 10 million dollars for 23 year old Switzerland international who was born in then Yugoslavia. Behrami started in 64 matches for Lazio scoring four goals.

Arsenal defender Kolo Toure was taken to the hospital on suspicion of catching malaria during his trip to his native Ivory Coast. He fell ill during Arsenal’s tour of Austria. More tests need to be done, but if it is malaria he could very well miss the beginning of Premier League season.

As was reported yesterday Spanish club Mallorca was for sale and today they reached a preliminary agreement to sell the club to a British investor. Owner of pipe fitting company Fluid Leader Group Plc., Paul Davidson known as “The Plumber” will pay 57 million dollars in exchange for 93.6 percent of the club. Mallorca chairman Vicente Grande and the management will remain in charge of the club.

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The Olympic Soccer Tournament starts on August the 6th but we won’t see too many well known stars playing there. Their clubs are refusing to release their stars even though the players have been nominated by their countries and showed desire to go to the Olympics. The Club’s main argument bad timing because it interferes with the beginning of the European Soccer season and the possibilities of losing players to injuries.

A group called Camorra which is branch of the Napoli mafia tried to purchase Seria A club Lazio. Roma’s police arrested 10 people in an operation called “Broken Wings.” Among the people who were detained is  Napoli businessman Giuseppe Diana known for his connections to Camorra. Lazio won the Serie A title back in 2000 but has been struggling the last few seasons.

Real Madrid’s captain and Spain’s all-time leading scorer, Raul, is hoping he will return to the national team under new coach Vicente del Bosque. Raul who fell out of favor with former Spain coach Luis Aragones, played his last international match back in September of 2006. Del Bosgue was Raul’s coach in Real Madrid and Raul has this to say about the new Spanish coach.  “He’s a person who can bring forward the work of the past years.”

The collapse of real estate markets is worldwide, hitting all walks of life and soccer is one of them. Several clubs in the Spanish Primera Liga with primary investors coming from the construction business are debt ridden and unable to pay their players. Just recently Real Mallorca’s president Vicenc Grande had to sell his controlling interest, after his company Grupo Drac filed for bankruptcy. Because some clubs decided to go into administration, most likely players won’t get paid.

North American Superliga which is made out of four teams from the MLS and four from the Mexico’s Primera Division is set to play the semifinals on July 29 and 30. Defending MLS champ Houston Dynamo meets CF Pachuca in Houston on July 29. New England Revolution will face Atlante of Mexico in Foxboro stadium on July 30. The SuperLiga Final will be played on August 5. Last year’s winner was CF Pachuca who defeated Los Angeles Galaxy on penalty kicks at Carson, Calif.

At the Beach Soccer World Cup tournament, Argentina who already qualified for the quarter-finals beat Cameroon Tuesday by a score of 3-0.  Brazil beat Mexico 7-1 and have gone unbeaten in their last 70 matches. In other two matches, Russia outplayed United Arab Emirates 5-0 and Spain trashed Japan 6-1. The defending champions Brazil, Spain and Russia completed the line-up for the quarter-finals joining France, Portugal, Uruguay and Italy. The tournament is being held in Marseille, France and the final will be played on July 27th.

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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.