My Teeth Are Grinding For News

-OUT! There is really only one shocking team knocked out of the Champions League in the group stage, and it just so happens to be Manchester United. Three others who had potential are out, but no one is surprised about Schalke, Lille or Porto not going through. But Man U. The old Red Nosed Devils. Out I Say! Get out! And take your Tampa Bay Combover with you! The Portugueses of Benfica are the Benefactors of Man U's disgrace.
The scores from Wednesday:
Club Brugge 1-1 Bayern
Rapid 1-3 Juventus
Arsenal 0-0 Ajax
Sparta 0-0 Thun
Bremen 5-1 Panathinaikos
Udinese 0-2 Barcelona
Benfica 2-1 Man Utd
Villarreal 1-0 Lille
And here now are the 16 who have progressed on to the home and away knock out stages:
Juventus
Bayern Munchen
Arsenal
Ajax
Barcelona
Bremen
Villareal
Benfica
Milan
PSV
Lyon
Real Madrid
Liverpool
Chelsea
Internazionale
Rangers
The draw for those 8 matches will be held on Fri Dec 16. Here are the rules for that draw.
-BDS sent in a fantastic photo of Man U's Cristiano Ronaldo flipping the bird to the Benfica fans when he was subbed out during his teams loss. It's funny when a guy with hair that bad is angry with fans who give him schtick. He should be mad at the hairdresser who gets all his money, and makes him look like such an idiot.
-Yanks Abroad have a feature on Eddie Lewis.
-Laguilla semifinal first leg last night saw UANL Tigres beat Monterrey 1-0 on a goal by Peralta. This is a mild upset, but seeing as Monterrey have the final leg at home, you would expect them to take care of business then. Tonight is the other first leg semi with Pachuca taking on Toluca.
-Another veteran is gone from MLS - Jeff Agoos has retired after 10 years in the league. For a guy who most fans picked on insistently he had one hell of a career: 9 All-Star appearances, 5 MLS Cups, a member of the MLS All Time Best XI, & an astounding 134 USA caps. Adios you crabby bastard. We will miss you. So now who do we kick? Lord Zathras sent me this link to an Agoos story from Metrofanatic.
-Steven Goff of the Washington Post chatted on line Tuesday with soccer fans. Here is the transcript.
-Jurgen Klinsman feature story by Kelly Whiteside in the USA Today.
-Marcus Hahnemann answers some question at the US Nation Soccer Players Assoc site.
-Cobi Jones will represent CONCACAF players at the World Cup draw on Friday in Germany. Other players include Pele, Johan Cruyff, Lothar Matthaeus, Roger Milla, Lukas Radebe, Masashi Nakayama & Christian Karembeu.
-Rochester's leading scorer and team MVP last year, Kirk Wilson, has left the team to sign with Montreal.
-Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune ponders about the future of Manchester United: United's fall hints at shake-up for Europe's elite
-Some more MLS home season opening matches have been announced:
Chivas USA v Real Salt Lake Sun Apr 2
MetroStars v New England Sat Apr 8
DC United v MetroStars Sun Apr 2
Columbus v Chicago Sat Apr 15
Los Angeles v New England Sat Apr 1
-Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer checks in from Leipzig Germany and the World Cup draw.
-Now that Harry Wobbles Redknapp is officially back at Portsmouth, I thought it might be appropriate to have a comment from a chap who grew up half way between Southampton and Portsmouth for a look at the hostility between the two. Take it away Churchly:
I feel you need to underline the treachery and weirdness of this redknapp thing.
Let me list some examples of this weird and strange business of Pompey vs. Southampton that happy 'arry has got into
I went to see QPR vs. Pompey a few years ago at QPR's ground in west London.
about five minutes into the game half of the Pompey stand stood up and sang to the tune of Pet Shop Boys song Go West:
stand up if you hate the scum
stand up if you hate the scum
stand up if you hate the scum
stand up
sung w/ hand on heart..
scum or scummers is what Pompey fans call Southampton fans.
they followed that song w/ the following
one man went to kill
one man went to kill a scummer
one man and his dog
went to kill the scum
I was on a train once that travelled from Pompey to Southampton a distance of only 20 to 30 miles and in the toilets on all trains is the sign do not flush when stationary or in a station and someone had written next to it 'unless in Scumhampton'
So what Harry is up to is very stupid and quite dangerous - when they play each other again it is gonna be ugly. these people are insane - whenever they play each other ALL police leave in the whole Hampshire is cancelled.
I knew the guy from Pompey and he told me how he picked up a beautiful girl at a club but then terminated the relationship because she had a Southampton post code and he said she was wonderful and so good looking but she lived the scum side of Hampshire so she got dumped....