CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

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.

Round two of Premier League: A surprising Arsenal loss to Fulham and West Ham trashed by Manchester City….. read more

Standings

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

Standings

Bayern Munich with 10 men only draw again and novice 1899 Hoffenheim won second match in a row and is leading the standings….read more

Hannover 96	0 - 0	Energie Cottbus
VfB Stuttgart	0 - 2	Bayer Leverkusen
Hamburg SV	2 - 1	Karlsruhe
Borussia Dortmund	1 - 1	Bayern Munich
Werder Bremen	1 - 1	Schalke 04
Hertha Berlin	1 - 1	Arminia Bielefeld
TSG Hoffenheim	1 - 0	Borussia M’gladbach
1. FC Köln	1 - 1	Eintracht Frankfurt
VfL Bochum	2 - 2	VfL Wolfsburg

Standings

Women’s Soccer:

US Women’s team overcame powerful Brazil by a close score of 1-0 and earned its third gold medal in four Games.

In a contest where both sides played rather cautiously, the USA was the lucky to get one in extra time.

The US were outplayed and overwhelmed for most of the night, but Carli Lloyd scored in the 96th minute to give the US the victory.

Brazilian coach Jorge Barcellos summarized his team’s misery: “We didn’t win a silver medal tonight; we lost a gold one.”

USA: Solo, Mitts, Rampone, Markgraf, Chalupny, Tarpley, Boxx, O’Reilly, Lloyd, Hucles, Rodriguez

Brazil: Barbara, Simone, Tania, Costa, Skarbo, Maycon, Daniela, Formiga, Ester, Marta, Cristiane

Mens Soccer:

Brazil beat Belgium 0-3 and won the bronze medal, little consolation for their loss to Argentina .

Diego opened the scoring in the 27th minute on a cross from Rafinha. Jo added one his own at the 45th minute and added a second goal in injury time.

Brazil was mostly in control, but Belgium had a few good chances of their own. Belgium’s Maarten Martens and Thomas Vermaelen came dangerously close to scoring, but could not convert.

Brazil once again came away empty in their quest for Olympic gold. They already have another bronze from Atlanta in 1996 and two silver medals from the 1984 and 1988 Olympics.

Ronaldinho said: “The bronze medal may not be important from the Brazilian’s point of view right now but in the future we will be proud.”

Brazil: Renan, Rafinha, Silva, Marcelo, Breno, Hernanes, Anderson, Ronaldhino, Ramires, Diego, Jo

Belgium: Bailly, De Roover, Vermaelen, Pocognoli, Simaeys, Haroun, Vertonghen, Martens, De Mul, Mirallas, Dembele

Brazil routed Argentina 3-0 in last year’s Copa America but it was Argentina’s turn this time and they did it in style.

Sergio Aguero who hadn’t been heard from much so far this tournament, scored two second-half goals in seven minutes. His first goal in the 52nd minute was reminiscent of Maradona’s “hand of god” goal. I’m sure this will be highly debated by Brazilian fans, but to pointless abandon. Aguero’s second goal came seven minutes later from a 2 yard kick and to put the nail on the coffin, he also set up a 76th-minute penalty kick that was awarded to Argentina after a foul on him.

But it was Lionel Messi who stole the show. He created many scoring opportunities and set-up two of the goals.

Brazil looked a little disoriented throughout the match and lost two players at the end because of red cards. It didn’t help either the fact that Brazil’s star Ronaldhino wasn’t really a factor in the match. Pato came on the field as a substitute, but his goal was disallowed because of offside.

Argentina will once again face Nigeria in the final, a rematch of the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta.

Argentina:Romero, Garay, Monzon, Zabaleta, Pareja, Gago, Riquelme, Di Maria, Mascherano, Messi, Aguero

Brazil: Renan, Rafinha, Silva, Marcelo, Breno, Hernanes, Anderson, Leiva, Ronaldhino, Diego, Sobis

Nigeria ran over Belgium 4-1 in the other semi-final match at Shanghai’s International Stadium. The 1996 Olympic champions reached the finals for the first time in 12 years.

Nigeria opened the score in the 17th minute by Adefemi who stroked a deflected ball in from 12 yards. Then striker Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi scored twice in the second half and Chibuzor Okonkwo added the final goal in the 78th minute.

Belgium kept pace with the Nigerians in the first hour or so but fell apart at the end. The seventy-fifth minute substitute Laurent Ciman scored the lonely goal for Belgium.

The surprise of the tournament will meet with Brazil for the bronze medal match.

Nigeria: Vanzekin, Okonkwo, Apam, Adeleye, Olubayo, Kaita, Ajilore, Obasi Ogbuke, Obinna, Okoronkwo, Odemwingie

Belgium: Bailly, De Roover, Pocognoli, Simaeys, Haroun, Vertonghen, Martens, Vanden Borre, De Mul, Mirallas, Dembele

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

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…

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson will have the services of striker Wayne Rooney for Sunday’s match with Newcastle. Rooney contracted a virus on the team’s trip to Africa last month, but is healthy and ready to play now. It was believed to be malaria according to some early reports, which was denied by the club. Ferguson now has at his disposal two strikers, but he will be without injured Cristiano Ronaldo.

There is a talk about Bruce Arena taking over LA Galaxy. He watched the match between Galaxy and Chivas and Thursday night with the club’s president and CEO Tim Leiweke. Galaxy parted early this week with coach Ruud Gullit and Cobi Jones filled in on an interim basis. Leiweke said, “I personally think he’s the best coach in the history of the league and we’d be lucky if we can get him here.” Arena’s last coaching job was with the NY Red Bulls were he resigned last November. The match ended in a 2-2 tie after Alan Gordon scored from a header in injury time.

The Olympic Soccer tournament continues Saturday with the quarter-finals and we should see a couple of interesting matches. 2004 Olympic champion Argentina will face a strong Dutch squad with names like Babel, Makaay or their leading scorer Gerald Sibon. Brazil against Cameroon will try to avenged their loss to this African team in the 2000 Sydney games. Cameroon knocked them out in the quarter-finals and went on to win the gold medal. In the other two matches Italy meets Belgium and Ivory Coast is facing Nigeria. Italy is a favorite in this match especially after Belgium’s biggest star Vincent Kompany left the Olympics for his Bundesliga team Hamburk SV.

Struggling Chelsea striker Claudio Pizarro was on loan to Werder Bremen, where he played in from 1999 to 2001. He than moved to Bayern Munich and in 2007 signed with Chelsea. But the 29-year-old Peruvian didn’t live-up to his reputation and became mostly a substitute during the last season. He appeared in 21 matches, scoring only two goals.

Major League Soccer expansion team the Seattle Sounders made their first big signing by getting Kasey Keller from Fulham. Keller was born in Washington state and started his soccer career with the Portland Timbers back in 1989. He played in England, Spain and Germany. Keller said: ‘When I started my career in Europe, I always said that I wanted to finish playing back at home in the US.” He represented the US in four World Cups, appearing 102 times for the national team.

After a US men’s team disappointing knock-out by Nigeria, the US Women’s team lived-up their potential and reached the semi-finals by beating Canada 2-1. The winning goal came in the 11th minute from Natasha Kai into the extra time.  The match was suspended for almost two hours because of lightning. The US team will now meet the underdog Japan who beat host country China. In the other semi-final match, tournament favorite Brazil will face Germany.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

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