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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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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

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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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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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Unemployed and injured, Ronaldo will most likely be signing with Brazilian Team, Flamengo. According to Flamengo’s president, Marcio Braga, Ronaldo’s agent has agreed on a signing papers, after Ronaldo has finished his recuperation, and becomes fit again. It is the wishes of Ronaldo to finish up his career with his beloved team, Flamengo, and it looks like it will come to be.

The MLS Western Conference has a new leader. Real Salt Lake beat Columbus Crew by a score of 2-0, propelling them to the top of the Western Conference standings for the first time in the franchise’s history. Real Salt Lake opened the scoring in the fourth minute, from a kick by Javier Morales. Robby Findley added a second goal in the seventy eight minute on a pass from Kenny Deuchar. Salt Lake remaines unbeaten against the top four Eastern Conference Teams.

According to the Spanish media, the great Johan Cruyff is about to become Barcelona’s new sporting director. Barcelona’s president Joan Laporta is appointing Cryuff as a way to get the public’s approval of the job he has been doing. He is up for review in September and could be ousted if the support is not there. Johan Cryuff, also know as “The Savior” is wildly popular with local fans, from his days as player and coach of Barcelona.

Italian Serie A club AC Milan, is expected to finalize Ronaldino’s move from  Barcelona to AC Milan next week. Experts are questioning AC Milan’s acquisition of Ronaldino in the face of his lack of playtime last season, due to his “so-called” injuries. Ronaldino played few games last season due to injuries that some felt were more mental than physical, putting into question his motivation and passion for the game.

“L’Enfant Terrible” of Argentine soccer, Diego Maradona, will become a grandfather in the latter part of this year. Maradona’s daughter Giannina Dinorah, and Argentine National player, Sergio Aguero are expecting a child. Atletico Madrid’s president, Enrique Cerezo said that if it is a boy, he will sign him on from the day he is born.

During an interview for Spanish newspaper Marca, David Beckham said that the three years playing with Zinedine Zidane was like a dream for him. Beckham also said “… for me he is the best player of all time.” Beckham played with Zinedine Zidane in Real Madrid from 2003 to 2006.

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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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Inter Milan’s striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the new best payed soccer player. A three year extension on his existing contract will guarantee him a salary of twelve million euros till 2013. Until now Kaka from rival AC Milan was the world’s top earning player with nine million euros per year.

The preparation matches for EURO 2008 brought some interesting results. Sweden lost at home to the Ukraine, Poland only tied at home with Denmark and so did Greece, also at home with Armenia. Only the Netherlands won their match by beating Wales on goals from Robben and Sneijder.

Bologna who is rumored to be taken over by a group of American businessman, won a promotion to the Serie A. They are the seven time Serie A champions, but have been playing the last three years in Serie B. The Rossoblu (Bologna’s nickname) finished second behind Verona who secured their promotion to the Serie A already last weekend.

Brazilian club Botafogo player Andre Luis and the club’s president were arrested for fighting with the police during a soccer match. Luis ended up in fight with the police after displaying aggressive behavior towards local fans. All hell broke lose after his teammates tried to help him fight the police.

Cristiano Ronaldo promised to make an announcement about his future in next two or three days. For weeks now he has been connected with a move to Real Madrid, something Manchester United steadfastly denied. Manchester’s American owners said they would keep Ronaldo even if he would decide to sit out the season rather than play.

Gianluca Zambrotta is returning to AC Milan after playing two years in Spain. The FC Barcelona defender and Italian international spent seven years playing for Juventus before moving to Barcelona in 2006. He played there in 58 matches, scoring two goals.

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According to the Italian media Jose Mourinho is heading for Inter Milan as their new coach. He would replace Roberto Mancini who was fired Thursday despite winning the Serie A title with the club. Mourinho who quit Chelsea early last season will be officially introduced as Inter’s new coach next week according to unnamed sources.

Several South American teams visited the US for a couple of friendly matches. El Salvador tied Guatemala in front of 39,000 fans at Washington D.C.’s RFK Stadium. Fort Lauderdale saw a 1-1 tie between Venezuela and Honduras. Venezuela traced behind till the 77th minute, and then tied the match on a penalty kick.

Sven-Goran Eriksson’s appointment as new coach of Mexico, worries some of their top stars. Players like Carlos Salcido or Jared Borgetti question Eriksson’s knowledge of Mexican soccer and would rather have a Mexican born coach. They also worry about being able to communicate with the coach since not too many players speak English.

FC Barcelona will make their third trip to the United States this coming summer to play a couple of friendlies. Their first match will be in Chicago against Mexico’s Chivas Guadalajara on August 3. The second match is at the Giant Stadium with the NY Red Bulls on August 6. Barcelona is one of several top European clubs coming to the US to promote the game of soccer.

The Women’s Asia Cup saw Japan demolish Taiwan by an “ice hokey” like score of 11-0. Japan lost the first game to South Korea and Australia beat Taiwan 4-0 in their opening game. Australia is schedule to play Japan in their last group match, which should decide if Japan will qualify to the last four.

Brazilian player Edmundo announced he will retire a year earlier than he was planning to. He missed a crucial penalty the other day and admitted he is no longer capable of handling this kind of emotions and decided to retired. The 37 year old Edmundo who played for clubs in Japan, Italy and Brazil also represented Brazil 42 times, scoring 12 goals.

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According to the Mexican Soccer Federation, Sven-Goran Eriksonn will be introduce as the new coach of the Mexican national team next week. He beat Portugal’s Luis Felipe Scolari for the job. Eriksonn is presently coaching Manchester City, but after poor second half of the Premier League season he fell out of the favor with team’s owner Thaksin Shinawatra.

The MLS team, Seattle Sounders FC didn’t have to look for their sponsorship too far from home. Today Microsoft and XBOX 360 announced they will be the team’s new sponsors for next five years. When the Sounders take on their first match they will wear jersey with XBOX 360 logo on it for which Microsoft payed the team 20 million dollars.

Czech international and AC Milan defender Marek Jankulovski became Czech Footballer of the Year on Wednesday. He finished ahead of Chelsea’s Petr Cech and Arsenal’s Tomas Rosicky. Jankulovski represented his country in 63 matches, scoring 10 goals.

UEFA is considering banning FC Porto from Champions League for the next season. The reason for that is Porto’s involvement in Portuguese Liga bribery scandal. In a similar case AC Milan was banned for the 2006/2007 Champions League but later had the ban overturned on appeal.

Lithuania received an official apology from the Czech Soccer Federation for playing Litvia’s national anthem instead of theirs before the match between the Czech Republic and Lithuania. The Czech Federation information director was fired and another official was fined because of the mishap.

The friendly match between USA and England saw the US being totally outplayed by the English team. The final score was 2-0, thanks to Steven Gerrard and John Terry goals. The US showed very little on Wednesday night and they are now 2-7, an all time record against England.

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Kaka’s dream about playing in the Olympics this year has been doused by his club AC Milan. Milan’s general manager Adriano Galliani made it official that the club will allow the other Brazilian players Pato and Digao to play for the Brazil in the Olympics but not Kaka. “The Rossoneri’s club does not believe that it is fair that Kaka is included in the official games of the Brazilian Olympic team,” the club has said.

LA Galaxy scored four goals within 15 minutes in the first half on the way to beat FC Dallas by a score of 5-1. Edson Buddle scored his first MLS hat trick. David Beckham assisted on one of his goals and Landon Donovan had a hand in FC Dallas own goal.

Disturbances continue in the Argentine Clasura league with San Lorenzo’s coach Ramon Diaz being sent off for throwing stuff into the stands. Diaz and his players were repeatedly struck with things during a match when Diaz picked up one of the thrown objects and threw it back. In another match between Estudiantes and Gimnasic-La Plata four players were sent off because of red cards.

Czech Gambrinus Liga crowned its new champion Slavia Prague on Saturday. The title race went down to the last round where a draw with Jablonec secured Slavia’s title ahead of last year champs Sparta Prague. Slavia played their last liga match at their brand new Eden Stadium which opened on May 7.

Arsenal goalie Jens Lehmann may be moving back to his homeland after all. According to the media, he is about to sign with Bundesliga team, Stuttgart. Lehmann spent most of the past season sitting on the bench as a substitute to Spaniard Manuel Almunia.

Wednesday’s Champions League finals between Chelsea and