Frankly Enjoying The Hell Out Of It News

I noticed that after the Colorado v LA game on FSC they had a live interview with MLS honcho Don Garber and he made special note of the big write in vote for Seattle to call their team the Sounders. Interesting. Maybe they will listen to the fans after all.

~and~

Anyone else saddened by what a terrible job Alexi Lalas has done now as GM at 3 different teams. And more disturbing, he seems to be getting progressively worse the longer he does it.


MLS First Kick - This Weekend!

Matches & Scores:
Columbus 2-0 Toronto - Colu goals by Adam Moffat & Alejandro Moreno.
Match report by Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch.
-attendance: 13,843
Salt Lake 1-1 Chicago - SL goal by Bakary Soumare(OG). Chic goal by Cuauhtemoc Blanco.
Match report by James Edward of the Deseret Morning News.
-attendance: 20,272
New England 3-0 Houston - NE goals by Steve Ralston, Adam Christman & Sainey Nyassi.
Match report by Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe.
-attendance: 11,116
Kansas City 2-0 DC - KC goals by Ivan Trujillo & Claudio Lopez.
Match report by Bob Luder of the Kansas City Star.
-attendance: 10,385
Colorado 4-0 Los Angeles - Colo goals by Terry Cooke, Christian Gomez(PK), Omar Cummings & Colin Clark.
Match report from the Rocky Mountain News.
-attendance: 18,713
Dallas 1-1 Chivas USA - Dal goal by Juan Toja. Chiv goal by Maykel Galindo.
Match report by Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
-attendance: 17,540
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Red Cards:
-Abel Xavier - Los Angeles - 2 Yellow Cards, one for dissent and a second for abusive behavior.
-Ciaran O'Brien - Colorado - straight Red Card for ugly foul on Carlos Ruiz.
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du Nord MLS Player Of The Week

Sainey Nyassi
Midfielder from the New England Revolution!
This right sided maniac spent an entire 90 minutes not going box to box, but endline to endline. As Company Flow once said a true "End to End Burner."
And it was not just speed. It was quality. His defense was driving Cory Ashe & Wade Barrett nuts. His passing was simple when it had to be, and creative when it needed to be. He fed some fantastic passes in to the forwards who did damage with the chances.
Then Nyassi capped the whole affair with monster dash with the ball from the midfield stripe all the way into the box, pulled a beautiful stutter step to throw off the defender Patrick Ianni, then crushed a shot to the upper near post to beat a very good goalkeeper in Pat Onstad. Game Over!
See the goal here from MLSnet.
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MLS News

CHICAGO FIRE

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune with post game notes on is Red Card blog.
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The Deseret Morning News with a report on the game in Salt Lake for a Chicago perspective.
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COLORADO RAPIDS

So rookie Ciaran O'Brien comes on late in the game for his debut and what is the first thing he does? Cracks down LA forward Carlos Ruiz was a stupid amateur tackle that even a master thespian like Ruiz can't make look worse than it was. Nice job kid, now sit down for a long long while and think about how stupid that was.
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Very good post game notes by our man George Tanner at the Rocky Mountain News blog FC Rocky.
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Speaking of Denver, I have to give a shout out to our old hero Lionel Bienvenue who used to host that incredible 2 hours Fox Sports World Premiership review show and is not a local sportscaster in Denver!
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Rapids Class VI blog asks 6 questions (natch) of coach Fernando Clavijo post game.
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COLUMBUS CREW

Will Hesmer saved a PK by Collin Samuel of Toronto.
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The team has officially signed Brazilian forward Guilherme So from the club Gremio Esportivo Brasil.
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Bob Hunter of the Columbus Dispatch loved the atmosphere and action at Crew Stadium for opening day.
-And a good note from Hunter on his blog about season 13 of MLS.
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Shawn Mitchell of the Dispatch on his Covering The Crew blog with more notes from the match. Has links to some other cool stuff too.
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FC DALLAS

Reserve team keeper Josh Lambo took a knee to the face in a game this weekend and has a concussion and broken jaw to deal with. What does this do to the loan of backup keeper Ray Burse to Portland?
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FC Dallas Updates with some post Chivas game notes.
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DC UNITED

Fred did not start, being rested for the Champions Cup on Tuesday.
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Steven Goff of the Washington Post with his match report.
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The Washington Times has a match report.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO

Craig Waibel did not play due to a muscle strain.
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Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated has some advice for the champs after week 1.
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The Houston Chronicle with a match report.
-Post game notes.
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KANSAS CITY WIZARDS

USA Today has a great Q & A with Jimmy Conrad about a wide variety of topics.
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LOS ANGELES GALAXY

At the end of their miserable first game, Colorado youngster Ciaran O'Brien chopped down Carlos Ruiz and got a Red Card for his efforts. But the bigger question is how bad was Pescadito hurt. He has been known to fake it, but this looked bad. Is he hurt? They say its a knee ligament sprain. Will he miss games? We shall see.
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Luis Bueno on the Sideline Views blog tells us what Abel Xavier had to say about the referee after the game.
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Personally I thought it was Xavier that the disgrace. He acted like a spoiled little brat, and then did it all again a few minutes later to get a Red Card. That really helps the team! Who knows, sitting his old slow ass on the bench might help.
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times with a match report from Denver. (Nice to see the paper allowing him to travel to a road game again.)
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Bueno at the Press Enterprise with a match report.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports looks at what its gonna take to fix LA.
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Simon Kuper at the Financial Times calls David Blankem second rate.
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NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Taylor Twellman did not play due to a leg muscle strain of some sort.
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Steve Ralston hit the ground hard late in the game and suffered a dislocated shoulder. He will miss several weeks.
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Kyle McCarthy of the Boston Herald with a match report, and an article on the Rev's young players who made such a great impact.
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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe with plenty of post game notes.
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Mike Biglin of the MetroWest Daily News with a match report.
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Biglin also sings the praises of one of the two young Gambian players who were outstanding for the Rev's in Week 1 - Sainey Nyassi.
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RED BULL NEW YORK

No game for them on opening weekend. They start their season next week hosting Columbus.
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Jozy Altidore writing for the New York Times Goal blog says his dream right now is MLS Cup.
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REAL SALT LAKE

Nice size crowd, but the football lines on the field were an embarrassment!
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James Edward of the Deseret Morning News rates the Salt Lake players on the papers soccer blog.
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Edward also has Monday morning reactions to the game.
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Other articles from the Deseret:
-MLS tells refs to let 'em play
-Dominating midfielders a bright spot
-Tie, tie again? Real needs to kick this habit — and fast
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The Salt Lake Tribune with a match report.
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The Trib also feels the Real defense actually does look improved.
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The Daily Utah Chronicle saw the opening game as being much rougher than before.
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SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

No game this past weekend. Start their season .
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San Jose shipped midfielder Chris Pozniak to Chivas USA in exchange for forward John Cunliffe. Both are 2nd year pro's.
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TORONTO FC

Toronto had claims for a goal ignored as Jim Brennan took a shot that some believe crossed the line.
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Larry Millson of the Toronto Globe and Mail with a match report.
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Jimmy McNulty of the Toronto Sun with a match report.
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McNulty (where's Bunk?) writes about a couple of expected TFC starters not in the first 11.
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Nigel Reed at the CBC sees the sputters in that TFC Penalty Kick, and in several other things they did too. That was ugly.
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Ben Knight of the Globe & Mail blog On Soccer traveled on a bus to Cowtown with TFC supporters and here is part 1 of his report.
-By the way the chant the TFC fans used "We don't pay for health care" is very funny, but countries with socialized medicine also rarely fund research into amazing medical breakthroughs. (Yeah, I know this is overly simplistic and I am gonna get crap for writing that, but I don't care, you know I'm right.) Sorry didn't mean to hijack Knight's great article!
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Morgan Campbell of the Toronto Star on the red invasion.
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The National Post of Canada has a story on the traveling fans too.
-I found this to be a very interesting quote from a TFC fan after the game: "We don't want this to become like it is England. I am ashamed to be Canadian today."
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The Toronto Star ran a Q & A with TFC coach John Carver on Saturday, and it gives us a little insight on him as a person.
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CNews in Canada even tells us that a witch tried to help TFC get off on the right foot this season. Oops.
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GENERAL

MLS has named Colorado midfielder Terry Cooke as the Player Of The Week. While he was very good in his teams 4-0 dismantling of LA, he was not as good as our pick (see above).
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Steve Davis at Soccernet has "10 Things" from Week 1. Excellent observations.
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Paul Gardner at Soccer America's Soccer Talk blog gives us his thoughts on the first weekend of games.
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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer with his Week 1 recap.
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Jen Chang at Soccernet gives us his impressions from Week 1.
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Kyle McCarthy at Goal.com with is roundup of Week 1 matches.
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times with notes on the opening weekend games.
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MLS Rumor City - Don't Tease Me Bro!

Remember a couple years back when Bruno Marioni tore up the Mexican finals with Necaxa and then we heard lots of stories about Houston trying to sign him. Well, there wasn't much to that. But Marioni is still tearing it up in Mexico, these days for Atlas and the new rumor has Chivas USA chasing after him. We shall see. Many players in the Mexican league have used MLS teams lately to get better deals in their current league.
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After i cried for MLS to chase after both Ronaldinho & Henry from Barcelona immediately, I got a couple of interesting emails saying that Seattle and Drew Carrey were seriously on the trail of the man they call Thierry. Nice idea.
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MLS Stadium Talk

The Salt Lake Tribune with the latest news on the marketing of the new RSL stadium.
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MLS Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Fri Mar 28
Portland (USL1D) 1-2 San Jose in Portland, OR at the Clive Charles Soccer Complex
Carolina (USL1D) 0-1 New York in Cary, NC at the Wake Med Soccer Park
-Tue Apr 8
San Luis (FMF) v Chicago in Mexcali, Mexico at Estadio Casas GEO
-Tue May 13
Vancouver (USL1D) v Los Angeles in Edmonton, Alberta at Commonwealth Stadium
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Americans In Europe

Worst news first, the 2 Americans at Derby, Eddie Lewis and Benny Feilhaber, have officially been relegated from the Premiership. Even sadder news is that no team had ever been sent down from that league in the month of March before. Oh that hurts.
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Great news next, Soccer By Ives is reporting that we may yet see Brian McBride in a USA shirt again - at the Olympics.
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How'd their recent matches go:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - was not on the bench for his teams 4-1 home win over Pacos de Ferreira.
-Bryan Arguez - Hertha Berlin - did not dress for a 2-1 loss at Energie Cottbus.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - lost at home 1-2 to Carl Zeiss Jena
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - unused sub in a 2-2 draw at Derby. They seem doomed to relegation.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - went the distance but lost at home 2-4 to Ajax.
-Adin Brown - Aalesund - played 90 minutes but lost 1-0 at Valerenga to start the season.
-Colin Burns - Ljungskile - at home against Hammarby on Monday.
-Dan Califf - Aalborg - started and played the whole of a 0-1 road win over Brondby. DC got himself another Yellow Card.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - went the full 90 in a 0-0 home draw with Stuttgart.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - on the bench but did not play in a 0-0 home tie with Blackburn.
-Charlie Davies - Hammarby - at Ljungskile Monday.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - unused sub in a 2-2 draw at Derby. They seem doomed to relegation.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - started and lasted 79 minutes of a 3-0 beat down at Hull.
-Joe Enochs - Osnabruck - play at home against Kaiserslautern on Monday.
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - on the bench but did not play in a 2-2 home tie with Fulham.
-Gabriel Ferrari - Sampdoria - dressed but did not get to play in a 0-2 road win at Empoli.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - all 90 minutes as always in a 0-0 road tie at Reading.
-Cory Gibbs - Charlton - did not dress for the teams 2-3 loss at Wolverhampton.
-Joshua Grenier - Koblenz - lost 1-0 at Monchengladbach.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - went all 90 in a 0-0 home draw with Blackburn. Got himself a Yellow Card.
-Tally Hall - Esbjerg - won at Aarhus 0-1
-Tim Howard - Everton - went start to finish as always, but lost 1-0 at Liverpoo.
-Nate Jaqua - Rheindorf Altach - went the distance and scored yet again in a 2-0 home win over Mattersburg.
-Will John - Randers - did not dress for the teams 1-0 loss at Horsens.
-Eddie Johnson - Fulham - came on as a 81st minute sub in a 2-2 draw at Derby. They seem doomed to relegation.
-Kasey Keller - Fulham - started and went 90 in a 2-2 draw at Derby. They seem doomed to relegation.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - played all 90 in a 2-2 home tie with Fulham.
-Clint Mathis - Ergotolis - came on in the 74th minute of a 2-1 home win over Levadiakos, who they are battling (and currently conquering) for the last relegation spot.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - started and went 90 in a 2-2 draw at Derby. They seem doomed to relegation.
-Lee Nguyen - Randers - a 64th minute sub in a 1-0 loss at Horsens.
-Pat Noonan - Aalesunds - stayed on the bench as the team lost 1-0 at Valerenga.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - played the full match as they went on the road beat 0-1 Mechelen.
-Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock - came on in the 56th minute of a 0-1 home loss to Wolfsburg.
-Matt Pickens - Queens Park Rangers - on the bench for a 0-0 tie game at Ipswich.
-Troy Perkins - Valerenga - debuted with a shut out as they beat Aalesund 1-0 at home.
-Luis Robles - Kaiserslautern - play at Osnabruck on Monday.
-Robbie Russell - Viborg - at home against Copenhagen Monday.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - out injured as team draw 1-1 at home against Stoke.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - got another start and played all 90, but lost 2-1 at Sunderland.
-Neven Subotic - Mainz - played the entire match as the team drew 3-3 at Erzgebirge Aue.
-Danny Szetela - Brescia - came on as a sub in the 56th minute of a 1-0 home win over Spezia.
-Brian Waltrip - Molde - on the bench as the team drew 0-0 with Stabaek at home.
-Brian West - Fredrikstad - did not dress for a 4-2 loss at Brann.
-Jeremiah White - Aarhus - played the entirety of a 0-1 home loss to Esbjerg.
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - did not play as the team lost at home 1-2 to Carl Zeiss Jena.
-Sal Zizzo - Hannover - did not dress for a 0-0 home draw with Stuttgart.
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CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying

2nd leg Qualifier Matches & Scores (with 1st leg scores included):
-Sun Mar 30
British Virgin Islands 2-2 Bahamas - series tied 3-3 on agg, but Bahamas win the away goals tie breaker. The will play Jamaica in the next round.
Cayman Islands 1-3 Bermuda - Berm adv 4-2 on agg. They will play Trinidad & Tobago in the next round.
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CONCACAF Champions Cup

Semifinals - 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Tue Apr 1
Pachuca v DC - live at 9pm on FSC
-Wed Apr 2
Houston v Suprissa - live at 9pm on FSC
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Mexico & FMF News

So Hugo Sanchez has been bounced as Mexicoach, and Jesus "Chucho" Ramirez (that's a great sounding nickname - what's it mean?) has taken the helm until a permanent coach can be found. I hear Bruce Arena is available!!!!!
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Guadalajara Chivas finally lost a game this season after 12 rounds (they play 17). Necaxa were 0-1 winners even with just 10 men for almost the entire 2nd half.
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South American News

FIFA.com has a Q & A with Sebastian Abreau. He may be a hell raiser, but he is River Plate & Uruguay's beloved hell raiser.
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Copa Libertadores

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Apr 1
Santos v San Jose
Universidad Catolica v Dep Univ San Martin
Bamin Real Potosi v Caracas
-Apr 2
America v River Plate
Fluminense v Libertad
Sao Paulo v Sportivo Luqueno
Lanus v Estudiantes
-Apr 3
Atletico Nacional v Audax Italiano
Nacional v Coronel Bolognesi
Cruzeiro v San Lorenzo
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Group Stage Standings
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England News

I guess all you have to do is lose - German Berti Vogts was a terrible coach at Scotland, followed it up by being just as bad for Nigeria, and will now get the job of building Azerbaijan. Oh goody, more crappy football.
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David James at the Guardian tells how he approaches Penalties for Portsmouth & England.
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The excellent Paul Doyle of the Guardian on the bumbling & fumbling going on with Sven Gore Erickson and his "mighty" Manchester City. They look like England out there!
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England coach Fabio Capello had hoped that talk of him being involved in some shady financial dealing would go away after he talked to prosecutors a month or so ago. But things appear to have actually gotten worse. No real details yet on what this is all about, but it's not over.
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European News

Moron's brought Serie A to yet another low water mark as Parma fans attacked Juventus fans before the game, only to see a Parma fan run over by a bus and killed. Further stories say this fan had been banned for 3 years from Parma games due to his previous violence, and if this is true then why are some papers in Italy actually mourning this guy. Don't get me wrong, I understand being sad for him as a human being and a member of someone's family. But this has gone way too far, and something real, not minor must be done, cuz some people still have not gotten the message. The Parma v Juve game was postponed.
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Paolo Bandini of the Guardian tells us about the horrible death and the rest of Italian top flight football weekend results.
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The Observer has an interview with Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri.
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Raphael Honigstein also of the Guardian on Germany's gamblers, divers and low-blow artists.
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And Sid Lowe of the Guardian on the miracle of Villarreal in La Liga.
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The Glasgow Sunday Herald looks at the youth Academy of Sporting Clube de Portugal aka Sporting.
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Football Italia's Week 31 Serie A roundup.
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Reuters is reporting that Porto has been accused of match fixing in the 03/04 season. Their coach was Jose Mourinho. And they won the Champions League that season. Uh oh.
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UEFA Champions League

Quarterfinals - 1st Leg Matches & Scores:
-Tue Apr 1
Roma v Manchester United - live at 1:30pm central on ESPN2
Schalke v Barcelona - live at 1:30pm central on Setanta & delayed at 4pm central on ESPN Classic
-Wed Apr 2
Arsenal v Liverpool - live at 1:30pm central on ESPN2
Fenerbahce v Chelsea - live at 1:30pm central on Setanta & delayed at 4pm central on ESPN Classic
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Francesco Totti is out of the game with a quad injury.
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La Gazzetta says Roma want victory, not revenge.
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Euro League Cup Competitions

Final of France's Coupe de la Ligue:
-Sat Mar 29
Paris Saint Germain 2-1 Lens
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There is a chance that PSG could win this Cup and be relegated from Ligue Un in the same season. They currently sit 2nd from the bottom. Football can be so bizarre like that.
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Big Euro Club Matches This Week

Matches & Scores:
Rangers 1-0 Celtic - the top dogs and old Firm. Rangers extend their lead at the top to 6.
Villarreal 3-0 Atletico Madrid - Villa's win and a Barca loss bump Villa into 2nd place!!!
Lazio 1-1 Inter - Luckily for Inter, Roma could only get the same 1-1 tie game at Cagliari and the lead stays at 4.
Bordeaux 2-1 Nancy Lorraine - Bordeaux are doing their best to secure 2nd.
Besiktas 1-2 Fenerbahce - the road team get the win and secure sole possession of the top spot.
AEK Athens 4-0 Olympiacos - woooohooo, #3 stuff #1 and climb within points with 3 rounds left, and #2 Panathanaikos are now just 1 point from the leaders!
Derby 2-2 Fulham - the Death derby - and they both died. I see no chance for Fulham now!
Liverpool 1-0 Everton - the Merseyside derby, and Liverpool gets 4th place aka the last Champions League spot.
Real Madrid 3-1 Sevilla - RM win & got help with Barca losing and now lead Villarreal by 6 points at the top.
Anderlecht 3-1 Cercle Brugge - Ander use the win to jump up to 2nd place.