October 22 UEFA Cup Matchday 1, Group stage results.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Tomas Ujfalusi disgusted with loss

Tomas Ujfalusi revealed that after Saturday’s 6-1 trashing by Barcelona he dumped his soccer shoes into the garbage, out of disgust. When he was asked about the debacle, he jokingly said that after two nights of sleep he doesn’t remember it.  He admitted that Barcelona had one of the best offensive lines he ever played against. Ujfalusi is right, it took only eight minutes into the match for Atletico Madrid to be down by 3-0.

Rush of injuries for Marcello Lippi’s team

Italian coach Marcello Lippi has to deal with a rush of injuries before Saturday World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria. Gianluigi Buffon, Marco Materazzi, Mauro Camoranesi, Fabio Grosso and Andrea Pirlo are all on the injury list. According to Lippi the most likely replacement for Buffon is Marco Amelia from Serie A club Palermo.

Ze Roberto headed to Dallas?

FC Dallas is reportedly interested in signing Bayern Munich’s Brazilian star Ze Roberto for the next season. Ze Roberto’s contract with Bayern will expire at the end of this season and he wants to move on. He is planning to play for two more years and the MLS sounds like the place to finish his career. Ze Roberto joined Bayern in 2002 and had a one year spell with Santos in 2006-2007 season.

AC Milan under pressure to win UEFA Cup

AC Milan’s role as a favorite to win the UEFA Cup got little more difficult after today’s draw. Milan will have to face  Portsmouth FC and VfL Wolfsburg in their Group E. Equally difficult is Group F were Bundesliga leader Hamburg SV is facing AFC Ajax, Slavia Prague and Aston Villa. But Group A can definitely be called the group of death, where former Cup champions Schalke 04 drew Paris Saint-Germain FC, Manchester City FC, Real Racing Club and FC Twente. The Cup’s competition resumes on October 23.

Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel back soon

It’s not all bad news for Liverpool regarding Martin Skrtel’s injury. The 23-year-old defender injured his right knee on Sunday but won’t need surgery and should be back by December. Skrtel was injured during a match with Manchester City and left the field on a stretcher. He joined Liverpool in January 2008 from Russian club Zenit St. Petersburg.

Juande Ramos in a fight for his job at Tottenham

Tottenham Spurs have had the worst Premier League start since 1912 but the management of the club stands behind their coach Juande Ramos. According to the team’s sporting director Damien Comolli, the team seeks stability, not change of the coaching staff. But according to some opinions it is Comolli who is to blame for almost all of the current problems. With two points in seven matches and in dead last place, lets see how long before the coach will have to go.

David Beckham will miss the next two matches with Galaxy

LA Galaxy will have to do without David Beckham in their next two matches. He received his fifth yellow card, which means a one game suspension. He will miss Sunday’s match with the Colorado Rapids because of duty on England’s national team. So he will serve his suspension on October 18 against Houston Dynamo. This shows once again how the unwillingness of the MLS not to play during national teams qualifiers penalizes teams with players on international duties.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Once again the dark side of the sport reared it’s head, when for a second day in a row fans of Croatian team Dinamo Zagreb battled in Prague with local police. The fans were there for the UEFA Cup’s match between Sparta Prague and Dinamo Zagreb. According to the police the fans attacked them with bottles, bricks and in the end seven fans and four police officers were injured. The match itself was without incident and police as a prevention held Dinamo’s fans at the stadium for half an hour after the match.

Good news for Chelsea’s striker Didier Drogba who won’t need surgery after injuring his knee on Wednesday. It happened during a Champions League match against CFR Cluj and initially looked like a serious knee injury. According to Chelsea’s statement he only suffered from two forceful rotations in his knee and ankle and should be back within a few weeks. The team is already missing Joe Cole, Ricardo Carvalho and Michael Essien, all out with various injuries. To the surprise of many, Chelsea only managed a draw with this very little known Romanian club.

This year UEFA Cup favorite AC Milan easily beat FC Zurich by a score of 1-0. They will advance to the group stage on 4-1 aggregate. The only goal of the match was scored by Andriy Schevchenko on a pass from Ronaldinho. It was Schevchenko’s first goal since his return to AC Milan.

The war between FIFA and the Polish Soccer Federation is escalating after FIFA said it could cancel next month Polish World Cup qualifiers. The whole situation started after the Polish government suspended the Polish Soccer Federation for not doing anything about corruption in Polish soccer. FIFA and UEFA said they will not recognize the new administration and would take appropriate steps to deal with the situation.

Juventus‘ draw with little known Belarus team Bate Borisov could signal the end of coach Claudio Ranieri’s days with them. It was the third draw in a row for the team and there are more and more signs that a new coach may be coming. Juve’s former defensive star Ciro Ferrara is ,according to some claims, high on the list of potential replacements.

Czech international Milan Baros is back in old form after scoring in the forth match in a row for his new club Galatasaray. Baros won the Golden Boot at the EURO 2004 but was struggling lately. He joined Turkish champions Galatasaray S.K. from Olympique Lyonnais in August and has scored seven goals in five matches.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

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.

A day before Inter Milan’s title match with Parma it was revealed that a possible Mafia connection exists in the club. It involves Milan’s coach Roberto Mancini and his assistant Sinisa Mihaljovic. These two had compromising conversations with the club’s tailor Domenico Brescia. According to the police, Brescia is a convicted murderer and has close ties with the Crisafull Mafia organization.

Tottenham Hotspur is seriously interested in signing Barcelona’s Samuel Eto’o. Their offer of 45 million dollars is less than Barcelona is asking but more than clubs like AC Milan or Inter Milan are offering. The 27 year old Cameroon striker joined Barcelona in 2004 from Mallorca where he was the club’s all time leading scorer with 54 goals.

The ban on high altitude matches was criticized by Bolivian president Evo Morales. He called the ban discrimination against teams living at such heights. Morales made this comment after playing and scoring a goal in a match with Peru’s 1970 World Cup team.

Getafe coach Michael Laudrup decided to leave the club at the end of the season. “My time at the club has come to an end” Laudrup has said. He took the team from previous coach Bernd Schuster who left for Barcelona. Under Laudrup the team reached the King’s Cup finals , the UEFA Cup quarter-finals and scored some important wins at Primera Liga.

Bayern Munich goalie Oliver Kahn expressed the desire to score a goal in his last career game. Kahn is retiring today after being with Bayern since 1994 and playing a total of 557 Bundesliga matches. He attempted to score before from a penalty kick six years ago but missed.

The former captain and the most successful scorer for the Spanish national team Raul was once again left out of the national team. There were many calls for him to be a part of the EURO 2008 squad from the Spanish media and fans. Spanish team coach Luis Aragones who is obviously not a big fan of Raul opted instead to go with different players.

Manchester United beat West Ham 4-1 on goals from Ronaldo, Carrick and Tevez. That puts Manchester within one win from the Premier League title. Ronaldo continues his incredible season scoring his 39th and 40th goal. If Manchester wins at Wigan next Sunday they will get the title because of a better goal difference compared to Chelsea.

Totenham outplayed Reading and sent them into the relegation zone with a 1-0 win. Robie Keane scored the lonely goal in the 16th minute.

The visiting Wigan secured their Premier League safety by overcoming host Aston Villa by a score of 2-0. Both goals were scored by Antonio Valencia with only 10 minutes apart. A disappointing loss for Aston Villa who is chasing the fifth spot in the standings to qualify for the UEFA Cup.

The dead last Derby County were no match for the Blackburn Rovers and lost to them 3-1. Derby surprisingly opened the scoring with a goal in the 19th minute but Blackburn responded with three of their own in the second half. With only one game left Derby became the team the with lowest points scored in Premier League history.

Middlesbrough needed a win to secure their Premiership future and they did just that by beating Portsmouth 2-0. Both of Middlesbrough’s goals were headed in from corner kicks. Portsmouth had several very good chances but Milan Baros’ and Niko Kranjcar’s shots went wide.

Fulham recorded their third win in four matches to edge towards Premier League safety. This was a crucial match for both, and Fulham came on top by beating Birmingham 2-0. Brian McBride and Erik Nevland scored one goal each and kept Fulham’s survival hopes alive.

What an exit for this year’s UEFA Cup favorite. Bayern Munich got run over by Zenit St. Petersburg 4-0 and 5-1 on aggregate. Zenit could follow in the footsteps of another Russian team CSKA Moscow who won the title in 2005.

The host opened the score early on from a free kick by Pavel Pogrebnyak. His shot from 23 yards went through the wall of defenders and past goalie Oliver Kahn. Pogrebnyak also scored the fourth goal in the 73rd minute. Konstantin Zyryanov and Victor Fayzulin added one each in the 39th and 56th minute.

Bayern’s Italian star Luca Toni saw his big chance cleared on the goal-line by defender Kim Dong-Jin. Coach Hitzfeld sent in Lukas Podolski and Christian Lell in the second half to reinforce the attack. It almost payed off. Podolski set up Toni but Zenit’s goalie Malafeev deflected the shot. Podolski got his own chance but sent the ball over.

Zenit showed maturity tonight with a very good defense and excellent striking power. Unfortunately they are going to miss their striker Pobrebnyak because of the suspension after getting yellow card. He leads the scoring competition with 11 goals.

The finals are on May 14 in Manchester and Zenit will meet the Glagow Rangers who beat Fiorentina in the other semi-final on penalty kicks 4-2.

UEFA Cup semi-finals second leg is showing on Fox Soccer Channel TV. All times are EST. Enjoy the show.

Ibrox/Glasgow

The Rangers survived the first half pressures from Fiorentina and managed a goalless draw at home. Fiorentina dominated the field but got only a few chances and could not score.

Mutu fired a couple of shots, but mostly from long distance. He also used his hand at one point to control the ball but escaped without a yellow card.

The Rangers’ biggest scoring opportunity came from Jean-Claude Darchutte, but his cross was deflected straight into Frey’s hands.

The second half saw the Rangers gain more ball possession, but once again Fiorentina was the one with more scoring chances. Mutu struck a kick from 30 yards, but Alexander saved that one.

Christian Vieri who came on in the 80th minute fired a shot from a free kick, but the shot was deflected over the crossbar.

Fiorentina went home with a precious tie, but the Rangers probably think they have a good chance to advance because of their away match record this season.

Allianz Arena/Munich

We saw a repeat of Tuesday’s Champions League match between Liverpool and Chelsea. Bayern Munich was leading till the 60th minute when Lucio’s own goal gave Zenit a big chance for the second leg in St. Petersburg.

Bayern who is the favorite to win the UEFA Cup this year surely started with confidence.

Franck Ribery opened the score with a penalty kick in the 18th minute. Zenit’s goalie saved the spot kick, but Ribery put it in on the rebound.

Bayern upped the tempo and put pressure on Zenit. But the visitors pushed Bayern back in the second half as the match progressed. Pogrebyak and Tymoschuk had couple of good chances, but the score stayed the same.

Bayern had the last chance by Podolski in injury time, but he put it wide after a free kick from Lucio.

Zenit have themselves good opportunity to reach the finals, but Bayern won’t give up so easily.

The UEFA Cup action continue on Thursday with the first leg of the Cup’s semi-finals. Fox Soccer Channel showing both of the matches. All times are EST. Enjoy the soccer show.

Eindhoven/Philips Stadion

Fiorentina scored their 50th European competition win by beating PSV Eindhoven in their house.

Striker Mutu was the man of the match scoring both goals for Fiorentina. The first goal came in the 38th minute after a free kick from Liverani to Mutu who drilled it in with a powershot from 20 yards. The second goal from Mutu came in the 53rd minute when he struck the rebound just outside the box making it on final 2-0.

Fiorentina was a better team tonight and they advanced to the semi-finals where they will meet the Rangers Glasgow.

St. Petersburg/Petrovsky stadium

Zenit St. Petersburg started with a 4-1 advantage and they played according to that. Bayern Leverkusen at least managed to salvage a 1-0 victory after last week’s terrible loss at home.

Ironically it was Russian born player Dmitri Bulykin who scored the lonely goal for Leverkusen. Zenit could have leveled the score in the 85th minute, but Tymoschuk missed the penalty kick.

Zenit won 4-2 on aggregate and progressed to the semi-finals.

Lisbon/Estadio Jose Alvalade

On a rainy evening in Lisbon, host Sporting lost to the Rangers by a score of 2-0. Sporting put Rangers under constant pressure but it was the Rangers who opened the score in the 60th minute. Rangers striker Darcheville put one in from a cross by Davis.

Sporting’s biggest chance of the match came when Liedson hit the post in the first half.

The Rangers added a second goal in injury time by substitute Whittaker’s solo run from his own half.

The Rangers won 2-0 on aggregate and will meet Fiorentina next.

Getafe/Coliseum Alfonso Perez

A couple of late goals sent Bayern Munich to the semi-finals on away goals. Definitely the most exciting match of Thursday’s UEFA Cup action.

Getafe didn’t have good start to the match when they first lost Ruben De La Red to a red card in the 6th minute and a little bit later lost Uche to an injury.

Getafe regrouped and Contra put them ahead with a solo goal just a minute before halftime.

Just when home fans started to celebrate Bayern’s Franck Ribery equalised in the 88th minute.

The match went into overtime and Getafe scored two quick goals in the 1st and 3rd minutes. When everyone thought it was over Bayern striker Luca Toni pulled one off in the 25th minute and struck again at the last minute giving his side the semi-finals.

TV schedule for Thursday’s EUFA Cup second leg quarter-final action.

Fox Soccer Channel is showing all but one match.

All times are EST. Enjoy the treat.

Last Friday’s draw for the European second most treasured trophy, the UEFA Cup gave us some interesting matches.

Perhaps the most interesting of them all will be the one between the Spanish team Getafe and Bayern Munich. Getafe who is making their first start in the competition will have to deal with the strongest team in the quarter-finals. Bayern is consider by many as the favorite to win this year’s UEFA Cup. The Germans won the Cup back in 1996 and are one of the three former Cup winners in the competition.

Bayer Leverkusen, another former Cup winner will meet with Zenith at home in St. Petersburg. Zenith is one of the top Russian clubs and has been under experienced Dutch coach Dick Advocaat since 2006. Leverkusen’s sport director Rudi Voller said: “Our chances of progression stand at 50:50.”

The Rangers and Sporting have met before in the year when the Rangers won the trophy. They haven’t conceded any goals at home in the knock out stage and seem to be the favorite to advance.

Dutch Eredivise leader PSV Eindhoven takes on the fourth team in the Serie A Fiorentina. The Italian team will be without Alessandro Gamberini and Martin Jorgensen for the first leg after both players suffered thigh injuries. We can expect a tight game for these two equally strong teams.

The first leg of the quarter-finals will be played on April 3rd and the second leg on April 10th.

The final will be held at the City of Manchester Stadium on May 14 th. On Monday, last year’s winner Sevilla FC handed over the trophy back to the president of UEFA and he than handed it to the city of Manchester. The Cup will be put on display for the public to see until May 13th.

You will be able to watch most of the matches on Fox Soccer Channel TV. We will bring you the exact schedule as soon as it is announced.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

AC Milan’s striker Ronaldo said on Thursday that he is preparing for a possible comeback once he has recovered from his injury. He said ”For now it’s still early to speak about decisions, but I’m preparing myself for the great challenge of returning to play.” Ronaldo suffered a ruptured tendon in his knee in what many people thought would be his career ending injury.

Ranger Glasgow advanced to the UEFA Cup quarterfinals and is the only English team left in the competition. Bolton is out after losing to Sporting Lisbon, Tottenham and Everton were eliminated on Wednesday. What a contrast to Champions League were four teams out of the last eight are from England.

Seven Cuban players participating in qualifying tournament for the 2008 Olympic Games in China defected from the team and Cuba. They will most likely seek political asylum in the U.S. under the “wet foot, dry foot” policy. Cuban team officials said that the team will continue in the tournament, but who knows how many more players will decided to stay in the US.

River Plate beat Universidad Catolica of Chile by a score of 2-1 and lead Group 5 in Copa Libertadores. River opened the score in the 42nd minute from Sebastian Abreu’s kick. Catolica leveled on 1-1 two minutes into the second half but River’s Rosales scored the winning goal with only three minutes to go.

Frank Lampard became the first Premier League midfielder to score four goals in one game. Lampard scored the first goal in the 28th minute from a penalty kick. Then, in the second half he added a hat trick in a game where Chelsea buried Derby County 6-1. Hopefully he sent a powerful enough message to Chelsea’s bosses to start the talks about his future with the club.

Dutchman Jacobus “Co” Adriaanse will replace Giovanni Trapatonni as Red Bull Salzburg new coach. Trapatonni is leaving to take over Ireland’s national team in the summer. Adriaanse coached teams like Ajax, FC Porto and most recently top Qatar team Al-Sadd.

UEFA Cup Results for matches on March 12.

Bolton vs Sporting and Rangesr vs Bremen is being played on March 13.

Advancing to Quarterfinals:

Only something like a miracle will stop Bayern Munich from advancing to the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Bayern won 5-0 in Anderlecht and is the favorite to win the UEFA Cup.

In an all German derby, Hamburg has a player crisis on their hands, with players like Juan Pablo Sorin, Vincent Kompany, Guy Demel, Romeo Castelen out on injury and Nigel de Jong suspended. Leverkusen celebrates the 20th anniversary since winning the Cup and they sure will try to repeat it. The two teams are separated by a single point in the Bundesliga.

City of Lisbon has two teams in the competition, but only Sporting is close to making it into the next round. They drew with Bolton 1:1 and have home advantage which sure helps. Benfica on the other hand lost their coach who resigned over the weekend. They need to overcome the 2:1 loss with Getafe, who enjoys the home advantage.

Tottenham lost at home to strong looking PSV and has their work cut out for them. PSV meanwhile emerged as one of the favorites to reach the final. Everton is visiting Fiorentina who has not been beaten in four away games this season. The Rangers travel to Germany with a two goal advantage over Bremen.

Bolton has a slim chance of making it after they only tied at home with Sporting 1-1.

The only French team in the competition, Marseille is 3-1 up against Zenit St. Petersburg and shouldn’t have any problems advancing to the last eight.

You can see up to the minute scores from all of the UEFA Cup matches here. Keep it tuned.

Fox Soccer Channel will show the game between Everton and Fiorentina on Wednesday March 12 at 3:30 pm EST.

Here are latest results of the UEFA Cup Matchday 8 played today March 6. The Cup is down to the knockout stage with 16 teams competing. Germany has the most teams in the competition, four, followed by England with three and two from Portugal.The second leg will be on March 12-13. The club scoring the greater aggregate of goals is qualifying for the next round.

FA Cup will continue on March 6 with 16 teams left in competition. Germany has the biggest representation, four teams. One of them is Bayern Munich, the favorite of this year’s Cup. Schalke 04 was the last German team who won the Cup back in 1996/97.

England has three teams in the Cup with Tottenham winning it twice since the competition became known as the UEFA Cup. The two other clubs are Everton and Bolton. Everton is one of the five former Cup winners still in competition. The others being PSV Eindhoven, Leverkusen, Bayern Munich and Anderlecht.

Portugal city of Lisbon supplied two teams into the Cup. Lisbon will meet Bolton, while Benfica will face the Spanish club Getafe.

The only Italian team left in the Cup, Fiorentina will host Everton at home .

One surprise is Russia Zenit St. Petersburg who beat top Primera Liga team Villarreal on away goals. Fox Soccer Channel is showing the match between Tottenham and PSV on Thursday March 6th at 3:00 pm EST.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

AC Milan’s Ronaldo who is recovering from knee surgery in Paris said that he has not decided yet what he should do after his full recovery. According to his doctor’s prognosis, Ronaldo won’t be able to run for five months and train before end of this year.

Tottenham overcame a scare and advanced to the Round of 16 in the UEFA Cup. They tied 1:1 with Slavia Prague who was more than an equal team and came close to winning the game. Tottenham opened the score but Slavia leveled in the 51st minute and had several good chances at the closing minutes.

LA Galaxy lost to Japan’s Gamba Osaka at Pan-Pacific Championship in Hawaii and will face Sydney FC in the third place play off. Rather poor results against a mediocre team, but it was Galaxy first game in a while and it showed. In the other game Dynamo Houston beat Sydney FC and will be playing Gamba Osaka for the tournament’s title.

UEFA Cup will continue on March 6st with a Round of 16. Germany has the most teams left in the competition, four. England is second with three teams and Tottenham is among the five former Cup winners. The others are Leverkusen, PSV Eindhoven, Bayern Munich and Anderlecht.

Manchester United is trying to re-sign Wes Brown with an offer of 80,000 dollars a week for him, but Brown rejected that offer. According to coach Alex Ferguson, Brown’s agent is behind the whole thing in what Ferguson called “players living in pockets of their agents”. Wes Brown has been with Man Utd since he was 12 years old.

Marc Van Basten will take over as Ajax Amsterdam’s new coach on July 1st. His contract with the Dutch national team is over after the EURO 2008. He will join Johan Cruyff who signed on as technical director recently. Ajax hopes this move will bring them back to their glory days.

Preliminary results in day two of UEFA Cup competition. Results are updated as they come in.