Archive for April, 2009

Manchester United wasted too many scoring opportunities yesterday at Old Trafford.

Man U had many chances to put away a stubborn Arsenal squad.

The Red Devils didn’t.

Manchester United won 1-0 on John O’Shea’s goal in the 17^th minute on a perfect laser strike from right inside the box.

The goal was set up on tick, tack doe passing by Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.

I mean The Red Devils applied relentless pressure on Arsenal’s defense all match long.

I’m not too sure if it was great defense by Arsenal or Man U ‘s ability to not finish the scoring opportunities.

The more I think about it the more I think Man U had trouble finding the back of the net.

This could come back and bite Manchester United in the butt.

The Red Devils have a second leg encounter with Arsenal at Emirates Stadium next Tuesday May 5^th.

We will see.

I think Manchester United has huge chip on their shoulder because everyone has written them off winning this years Champions League title. Man U is attempting to become the first two peat winners since 1978 when EPL rivals Liverpool accomplished the historical feat.

The road ahead has many pitfalls and land mines for Sir Alex Ferguson and his weary merry band of brothers and their quest for that all elusive two-peat.

We will see if Man U has the stamina to accomplish this.

On top of that, The Red Devils are locked in a death fight with Liverpool for The EPL Crown.

The final month of the season should be fun to watch.

There was a bit of bad news for Manchester United.

Rio Ferdinand has some cracked ribs. He was taken to the hospital. Ferdinand could miss next week’s second leg match with Arsenal.

Rio Ferdinand is the Captain and the leader of Manchester United’s defense. Without him in the lineup, Man U’s defense is Swiss cheese.

This will also hurt The Red Devils in the quest for a three-peat in Premier League.

Manchester United has an all-important date with bottom feeder Middlesbrough on Saturday May 2^nd.

Man U has to win this tilt.

The Group Stage of The Copa Libertadores will finish up this week.

Last night Brasilian futebol Club Palmeiras had their ticket punched to the knock stage of the Copa.

Palmeiras defeated Chile’s Colo-Colo 1-0.

All Col-Colo had to do was tie Palmeiras and it was on to the next round for the Chilean squad.

Not.

Palmeiras striker and playmaker Cleiton Xavier fired a laser from thirty meters out in the 87^th minute to send Colo-Colo packing.

Mexico’s Chivas tied with Chilean Club Everton 1-1. Chivas advanced to the next round as well. 

Defending Copa Libertadores Champion Ecuador’s LDU Quito failed make past the group stage.

A huge shout out to  my friends Bruno, Carlos, and Ligia at Bola de Neve Radio in Sao Paulo, Brasil.

Palmeiras jogar muito bem.

Palmeiras precisa vitoria sobre Colo-Colo.

Muito muito bem vencer.

Check out Bola Radio website

www.comendobola.blogspot.com

You can hear them on the internet ar www.bolaradio.com.br

If you wanted fireworks, you got them. It was the miss firing of the Barcelona offense throughout the entire match.

Chelsea’s defense was suffocating.

There were times when Barcelona slipped through for a scoring opportunity but Peter Cech and the boys stonewalled Barcelona.

The first leg of The Champions League semifinal played in Camp Nou ended in nil-nil draw between Chelsea and Barcelona.

I was rooting for Chelsea to win but I am very happy with the tie.

I am not a huge Chelsea fan.

I am Manchester United guy.

I want to see the English sides do well.

Barcelona had their chances.

They fired brick after brick.

A great defense effort was recorded by the out manned Chelsea defense.

Ashley Cole missed the match. He served a one game suspension.

Chelsea’s defense reminded me of the old smothering defense played by the Pittsburgh Steelers in their glory years by Mean Joe Green and his merry gang of men called The Steel Curtain.

The Steelers shut you down.

Period!

End of discussion!

Chelsea played the same way.

The save of the match came in dying moments of the second half when Barcelona’s Alexander Hleb slipped through the Chelsea defense. This forced Chelsea keeper Peter Cech leave the net and directly confront Hleb. Cech’s sliding block of Hleb’s shot in the 92^nd minute was the game saver for Chelsea.

Now it’s off to Stamford Bridge for the second leg.

It should be a great one.

Boa tarde meus amigos Bruno, Carlos, Ligia em Bola de Neve Radio.

Brasil’s Gremio is kicking butt in the final match in Group Seven in The Copa Libertadores.

It’s halftime in Porto Alegre, Brasil.

It’s Gremio three and Columbia’s Boyca Chico FC a big fat zero.

Gremio’s Sousa is working on a hat trick. He scored the first two for Gremio.

Leo added another for Gremio.

Some Portuguese for my Brasilian amigos.

Gremio jogar muito muito bem.

Boyca jogar muito horrivel.

Boyca jogar muito mal.

Gremio already has their ticket punched for the knockout stage of The Copa Libertadores.

The second half was uneventful.

Gremio won 3-0 over Boyca Chico FC.

The loss stopped Boyca from advancing the knockout stage.

Universidad de Chile defeated last place Bolivia’s Aurora 2-1.

Bolivia’s Aurora has a perfect mark in Group Seven play.

Zero wins and six losses.

The victory moves the Chilean squad ahead of the Columbian squad into second place in Group Seven with 10 points.

Going into last nights match Boyca was in second place with nine points.

Universidad de Chile was in third place with seven points.

Give Gremio credit. They did not take the foot of the gas pedal and coast the final match in Group play.

Gremio played balls to the walls futebol.

Way to go guys.

For we all knew that Aurora would have as much chance at beating Universidad de Chile as a snow ball would have a chance to survive in hell.

Newcastle’s preverbal EPL lives were on the line in this match-up with Portsmouth.

What did the Magpies do?

Tie nil-nil with Portsmouth.

The clock is ticking on Newcastle’s season. Tick, tick, tick, marches

 Newcastle as they inch closer to the relegation zone. 

With the draw Middlesbrough and Newcastle each have 31 points in 34 matches.

Both are tied for 18^th spot but Newcastle is ahead of Middlesbrough on goal difference.

Newcastle goal difference is minus sixteen.

Middlesbrough’s goal difference is minus twenty-four.

Three points separate 17^th place Hull City, 18^th place Newcastle, and 19^th place Middlesbrough from the battle to get 86^th outta The EPL.

Two of these three teams will be sent packing.

Who will it be?

Four matches left and will know for sure who it will be.

A big match-up is set for today between Barcelona and Chelsea in the first leg of the semifinals of The Champions League.

All the media pundits and experts think Barcelona will advance to The Champions League finals.

I have this sense everyone is underestimating Chelsea. I think Chelsea has a real good shot at winning the first leg at Camp Nou in Barcelona.

We’ll keep you updated as the match progresses this afternoon.

The key for Chelsea will be keeper Peter Cech and Didier Drogba and how well they play.

Barcelona has very high-powered offense lead by Argentina’s Lionel Messi.

Messi has scored 136 goals in 51 games.

Chelsea’s defense will be hurting because Ashley Cole was suspended.

Barcelona’s weakness is bad “D”.

You have to check out this website. It’s great. Bola de Neve Radio station is on the internet.  It is a totally different radio station. You will love. A special shout out to Bruno, Carlos, e Ligia.

Muito muito obrigado Bruno e Carlos e Ligia para fazendo em mundo.

Check out this website  

www.comendobola.blogspot.com

The radio website is http://www.bolaradio.net/extreme/

It’s another one of those glorious Monday mornings. I can hear the singing, “Oh how I hate to get up in the morning. Oh, how I hate to get out of bed.”

I can dig it.

The birds are singing their songs of praise to God.

The sun is shinning brightly and all of that good stuff.

Let’s start with my Brasilian heart in an American body.

My team Flamengo tied with Botafogo 2-2 in the first leg of The Carioca Championship played at Maracana.

Flamengo was down 2-1 late in the match when Williams did a whirly bird just outside the box. This cat was nearly tackled but Williams kept the play alive. Williams broke free and fired a salvo right into the box. The ball bounced off of Botafogo player Emerson and went straight into the net.

Can you say Deja VO all over again.

Next Sunday Botafogo and Flamengo go at it again to determine The Carioca Championship.

This will be a fun match to watch.

Both of these teams and their fans hate each other.

So, you better watch out for the fireworks on the pitch as well as in the stands.

Katie bar the door on this one for this will be a battle royal.

In the Paulista Championship, Corinthians cleaned Santos’s clock 3-1 in the first leg of the series.

Corinthians made Santos look silly.

The aging Brasilian and World-class futebol hero Ronaldo is making a comeback. Ronaldo scored twice.

Both goals were artistic and showed once again the flair that made Ronaldo the three time FIFA player of the year.

The first was flick that slipped right past the Santos keeper.

The second made the Santos keeper Fabio Costa look really silly.

Ronaldo flipped the ball right over the charging Santos keeper and into the net.

Corinthians has a three –one edge.

The final leg is set for next Sunday.

Stay tuned for more.

Now to The EPL.

Arsenal had its way with Middlesbrough in a 2-0 win on Sunday.

This loss puts another nail in Middlesbrough’s coffin.

Can you say hello English Championship League.

Or hey, hey goodbye Premier League.

Blackburn may have saved their season with a 2-0 blanking of Wigan.

The win moves Blackburn to 15^th spot in the table.

The Rovers are six points clear of the drop zone.

Way to go guys.

In Brasil, England, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy there is a race to avoid the bottom three spots.

The last three teams get the heave hoe or they are 86^th outta the joint to the lower division.

Imagine this in the NFL, NHL, and MLB.

If this happened, where would the bottom three teams go?

Nowhere.

Now you see that’s what separates American sports from the rest of the world.

Many times, we revel in our teams having record setting losing seasons.

Think of the loveable New York Mets of the 1960’s or The Philadelphia 76ers record for most losses in an NBA season is 73.

The 76ers went 9-73 in the 1972-73 season.

What do you think our baseball history would be without Marvelous Marv Thornberry and his merry band of losers, the 1960, The New York Mets?

We wear these accomplishments with pride.

Only in the American sports world can this happen.

We love to celebrate losers as well as winners.

Oh, what a country.

Oh what a glorious Saturday morning. EPL futebol is on Fox Soccer Channel. I love this stuff. This is so much fun to watch. Yes, I can hear you screaming at me, “You’re totally nuts. True, but I have the papers to prove I am nuts. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.”

Chelsea and West Ham are engaged in a classic match-up.

Chelsea scored on a scramble ball off a corner kick. Salomon Kalou scored on a right-footed shot just inside the box in the 55^th minute to give Chelsea a 1-0 lead.

West Ham had a chance to level the match when Chelsea defender Salomon Kalou grabbed the jersey of N’Kongolo. Kalou pulled N’Kongolo to the ground,

It was a crazy foul.

West Ham’s Mark Nobel missed the penalty shot. Great save by Peter Cech.

Whew, that was close.

The clock is winding down. Tick, tick, tick, goes the clock.

It’s finally over.

Chelsea wins 1-0.

The Blues have the precious three points they needed to stay with in striking distance of the top spot in The EPL.

Chelsea has a more realistic chance of over taking Liverpool for second place and the automatic bid to The Champions League than to win The EPL.

Liverpool defeated Hull City 3-1.

Dirk Kuyt scored twice for The Reds.

This victory by Liverpool keeps the pressure squarely on first place Manchester United.

The race for the relegation zone is in full swing.

Bottom feeder West Brom killed Sunderland 3-0.

As it stands right now in the race of the bottom feeders

20. West Brom          28 points        34 games

19  Newcastle            30 points        33 games

18  Middlesbrough     31 points        33 games

17  Hull City               34 points        34 games

16  Blackburn             34 points        33 games

15  Sunderland           35 points        34 games

Middlesbrough takes on Arsenal on Sunday while Newcastle is a must situation when they take on Portsmouth on Monday.

It’s do or die for Middlesbrough and Newcastle. 

Only Newcastle has a realistic chance to win so if I were a betting man I would stick a fork in Middlesbrough. Wait a second! On second thought I’d stick one in Newcastle as well too.

Blackburn has a huge match with Wigan on Sunday April 26^th as well too.

Blackburn needs to win.

This has been a very insane and crazy match between Manchester United and Tottenham.

Do you want to talk about nuts.

Tottenham made Man U look silly in the first half.

Man U gave up two very bad first half goals.

The Red Devils defense looked like garbage in the first half.

The two first half goals were set up by stupid defending by Manchester United and brilliant passing by Tottenham.

Darren Bent’s tap in header in the 29^thminute and a few moments later Luka Modric slipped home a winner that made it 2-nil Tottenham.

I said to myself this is all over. Kiss this match good-bye. Yes, I was sad and I wanted to scream out all kinds of obscenities but I didn’t.

Little did I know that I would be screaming for joy in the second half.

Manchester United came out looking for blood in the second half.

The Red Devils found what they were looking for when Michael Carrick made a great run into the box. Tottenham keeper Gomes tried to get the ball away from Carrick but clipped him in the heels.

It was a good call.

Cristiano Ronaldo made the penalty shot to make 2-1.

Rooney scored on  power shot that bounced off the keeper into the net to level the match at 2-2.

Wayne Rooney made a great pass to Ronaldo who headed the ball home to give Manchester United the lead 3-2.

A few moments later Cristiano Ronaldo returned the favor and Rooney ripped home the winner that  bounced of the helpless Tottenham keeper Gomes and dribbled cross the line to make 4-2 Manchester United.

The rout was on.

Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov played pinball machine inside the Tottenham box. Berbatov tapped home the easy winner to make 5-2.

That’s all she wrote baby.

Manchester United played like crap in the first half.

The Red Devils turned it around in the second half and won going away 5-2 to move three points clear of Liverpool in the  race for The EPL crown.

Manchester is in first place with 77 points in 33 games.

Liverpool is in second place with 74 points in 34 games

Chelsea is in third place with 71 points in 34 games.

I can breath a lot easier now after Manchester United won.

This was rock em sock em futebol.

I love it.

Boca took the foot off the gas pedal and lost to Deportivo Cuenca 1-0.

Boca Juniors played with out the passion and fire I have seen them exhibit when they battle River Plate or Sao Paulo.

Boca stunk the joint out.

It was bad.

The good news is that Boca just needs a tie in their next match to advance to the next round.

This was a very lack luster performance for one of the top clubs in Argentina as well as in South America.

My only question how will this performance effect Boca’s play next week in the Clausura and Copa?

We will see.

Cuenca’s Edison Preciado was given a gift goal in the 79^th minute to lift the Ecuador club to the win.

With the win, Cuenca and Tachira (Venezuela) are tied for second spot in Group 2 but Cuenca is ahead of Tachira on goal difference. Cuenca goal difference is plus five while Tachira goal difference is zero.

River Plate has huge match with Nacional of Paraguay.

River Plate needs to win this match if they want to have chance to advance to the next round.

River Plate is in third place four points behind San Martin (Peru) in Group 3.

If River Plate can win, they will battle San Martin next Thursday to see who advances to the next round.

If River Plate losses or ties with Nacional then stick a fork in them, they’re done.

All the ifs have vanished for River Plate. River lost to Nacional 4-2.

What started out as great night for River Plate ended in disaster.

It was a horrible match to watch.

Stick a fork in River.

What is wrong with River Plate?

For the past three years, River has been playing like crap.

River has been one of the premier clubs in Argentina for well over a century.

But for the last few years River has struggled. They finished dead last in The Apertura (winter league) last year. 

River Plate has won 33 domestic league titles. This includes The Clausura and The Apertura.

River has won two Copa Libertadores Titles. The last title coming in 1996.

River also won the Intercontinental Title in 1986. This was later changed to the FIFA Club World Cup.

River Plate has a rich history but now they have fallen on hard times.

River’s last title was in 2008 when they won The Clausura but since then they have driven off the cliff into god knows what.

It’s bad folks.

River Plate needs a major revival. 

Maybe I will call Doctor Luis Palau and ask him what has happened to River Plate?

If you get a chance check out Doctor Palau’s website www.palau.org

It is great and you will love it.

There is lots of cool stuff and events happening.

Doctor Palau is help making the world a better place to live.

Enough for now.

We will talk later about the title race in The EPL and the drop zone as well too.

Manchester United accomplished what it needed on Wednesday with a less than convincing win 2-0 win over Portsmouth.

 Manchester United is now three points clear of second place Liverpool.

 Man U has five matches left while Liverpool has four.

 Wayne Rooney put The Red Devils on the books first with a beautiful right-footed shot from dead center in the box in the ninth minute.

Michael Carrick added the insurance goal in the 88th minute.

Manchester United’s win coupled with the Liverpool tie on Tuesday may have conceded The EPL Crown to Manchester United.

Manchester United according to The Associated Press and Rivals DM suffered two key injuries in Wednesday’s match with Portsmouth. Both Gary Neville and John O’Shea will be out for a few weeks due to foot injuries. This could really hurt Man U’s quest for a three peat in The EPL.

So, stay turned for As The EPL Turns.

 But hold on to your horses for it’s not settled quite yet with five matches remaining.

The fat lady is warming up and she is getting ready to sing, “ Turn out the lights. The party’s over.”

Everton and Chelsea kissed their sister with a one all draw on Wednesday as well too.

 Both teams had many scoring opportunities but neither found the back of the net.

Chelsea really needed a win to keep on life support their chance to win The EPL. Not on this day.

 Chelsea still has a lot to play for. The Blues are three points behind second place Liverpool.

Chelsea only has a six point cushion between them and fourth place Arsenal. With four matches left for both Arsenal and Chelsea it is conceivable that The Gunners can over take Chelsea for third place.

The top two teams in The EPL get an automatic bid to The Champions League.

The third and fourth place teams earn the right to play in The Champions league qualifying third round.

Chelsea can still overtake Liverpool for second place in The EPL.

Here is a quick look at the standings.

1. Manchester United 74 points 32 games

2. Liverpool 71 points 33 Games

3. Chelsea 68 points 33 games

4. Arsenal 62 points 33 games

The bottom feeders look like this

20. West Brom 25 points 33 games

19 Newcastle 30 points 33 games

18 Middlesbrough 31 points 33 games

17 Blackburn 34 points 33 games

16 Hull City 34 points 33 games

15 Sunderland 35 points 33 games

 Places 20- 18 get the heave hoe to the Championship.

With four matches left it looks like West Brom is a lock to get eight sixth out. Newcastle and Middlesbrough have a chance to move past Sunderland, Blackburn, and Hull City.

 The race is on for 19th thru 15th spots in The EPL table.

In the Copa Libertadores Sao Paulo is really stinking the joint out at home in Morumbi.

Sao Paulo is sorely missing keeper Rogerio Ceni. Ceni broke his ankle last week in practice.

Sao Paulo is not the same club.

Columbia’s America de Cali scored when Sao Paulo keeper Bosco came out net to stop Cali striker Wilmer Parra. Sao Paulo keeper Bosco got his hand on the ball but the shot bounced off of his hand and found the back of the net. Ceni would have stopped the shot.

It’s 1-0 at halftime.

It doesn’t matter if Sao Paulo wins or not, for they are on to the next round.

If Sao Paulo can’t shore up their defense they won’t make it past the next round.

Sao Paulo scored twice in the second half to defeat America de Cali 2-1.

 Sao Paulo ratcheted up the pressure on Cali.

The first goal was beautiful. Sao Paulo toyed with the Cali defense in front of the box with precision passing until they found Midfielder Dagoberto open in front of the net. Dagoberto tapped home the easy winner.

The second goal was totally crazy. Cali had the ball near their own box when the defender passed the ball back to the keeper. The Cali keeper attempted to get the ball out of his own end when Sao Paulo’s Dagoberto jumped in front of the kick and the ball ricocheted off his butt into the net.

You can say way to use your butt Dagoberto. 

 Argentina club Estudiantes and Brasil’s Sport-Recife both advance to the next round of The Copa Libertatores.

In wild crazy match at Anfield, Liverpool escaped by the hair of their chinny-chin chins with a 4-4 draw with Arsenal.

The entire match was a shooting gallery for Liverpool. I mean they peppered Arsenal keeper Lukasz Fabianski with 26 shots and 14 of those were on goal. Can you say, “duck.”  Or better yet, I hope Fabianski was wearing some armor.

The BBC Sport announcers said, “ An honorable mention too for Nasri and Fabianski also did well. The rest of the Arsenal players were a joke and they could have conceded many more than they did.”

Right on Bro.

Many of these so-called pundits didn’t report it or buried deep into the story that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger didn’t field his best squad. Arsenal already has the final spot for next years Champions League wrapped up and Wenger was saving his squad for The Champions League semifinal match next week with Manchester United.

Still it was a nightmare match for the Arsenal keeper Fabianski.

Yet with everything against stacked them Arsenal could have won the match if it wasn’t for a late goal by Liverpool’s Yossi Benayoun.

Yossi Benayoun’s pinball machine goal in the 93^rd minute secured the tie for Liverpool.

In basketball terms, it looked like Liverpool joined the masons. The Reds were firing brick after brick. Good show lads for this tie may have cost you The EPL Title.

But we will see for Manchester United has a date with Portsmouth later this afternoon.

If Manchester United wins today against Portsmouth this might seal the deal. If this happens Manchester United will move three points ahead of Liverpool in the table.

Liverpool had a chance to move two points clear of The Red Devils.

Liverpool is now tied with Man U for first place in The EPL. Liverpool is ahead on goal difference.

 After today Man U will have five games left while, Liverpool has only four.

The hero of the match for Arsenal was Andrei Arshavin who’s singled handedly kept Arsenal in the match and he almost led The Gunners to the win with four goals.

I wish the fans would throw hats on to the pitch celebrate a cats hat trick like they do in The NHL. But what the heck you can’t have everything. 

Liverpool should have won this match going away but it was stupid defensive mistakes that cost them the win.

This is Deja Vu all over again.

Now which team is it that has trouble handling the pressure and I will give you three guess and the first two don’t count.

Oh yeah before I forget Chelsea battles with Everton at Stamford Bridge this afternoon too.

 Oh yeah here’s another quick point for ya.

In the Copa Libertadores Nacional of Uruguay tied 1-1 with Universidad San Martin of Peru. Nacional surprised Universidad San Martin with their attacking style.

This match was played in high altitude.

This draw gives Argentina’s River Plate some new hope. River has four points and they must win tonight against Club Nacional if they want to glimmer of hope to advance to the next round in The Copa Libertadores.

Brasil’s Palmeiras defeated LDU Quito 2-0. The defending Copa Champs LDU Quito is in danger of not making it out of the group stage.

Palmeiras scored on two wild and crazy goals. The first was a corner kick placed deep into the box and the LDU Quito keeper tried to punch the ball out but missed and he hit is own player square in the head. This boneheaded play led to a tap in goal for Palmeiras’s Marcao.

The second goal by Diego Souza of Palmeiras was a perfectly placed free kick from just outside the box that squeezed between the keeper and the far right post. 

Let the fun and games begin as we head into the final weeks of The EPL season, The Champions League, and the knockout stage of The Copa Libertadores.

It’s almost midweek and we have a big match in The EPL brewing between Liverpool and Arsenal. This should be an epic clash between two of the titans of The Premier League.

Much is at stake in this confrontation. Liverpool needs to win this match to keep the pressure on Manchester United.

Manchester United has 71 points in 31 matches. Liverpool has 70 points in 32 matches thus far.

If Liverpool doesn’t get a win, this will definitely tip the balance towards Man U’s favor in the race for The EPL crown.

The Red Devils have a big date on tomorrow Wednesday April 22^nd with Portsmouth.

The media and all the brilliant pundits are raising a stink about Sir Alex Ferguson’s choice to field the second team in The FA Cup semifinal. 

I totally get it. What’s Ferguson supposed to do- KILL HIS PLAYERS for a second tier title? Give me a break. It’s the truth so deal with it. No one really gives a hoot about The FA Cup. It’s not worth a tinkers damn anyway. There I said it. So, shoot me.

Two of the premier futebol clubs in Argentina, River Plate, and Boca Juniors played to a 1-1 tie this past weekend. 

 Boca is sitting in 11^thplace in The Clausura with 12 points in 10 matches. Boca has three wins, three draws, and four losses. This is not good. However, my guess leads me to believe that Boca is putting all their energy into winning the Copa Libertadores. The Clausura is the summer league competition in Argentina.

River Plate seems to playing better after having a horrible winter season where they finished dead last in The Apertura.

River Plate is in third place in The Clausura with 16 points in 10 matches. River has four wins, four ties, and two losses.

River Plate has just about bombed out of the Copa Libertadores competition. River Plate is in third place in Group Three.

River has a big match with Club Nacional on Thursday April 23^rd.

River needs to win. If they don’t they will bomb out of in the group stage.

Not good. 

Oh yeah before I forget a big shout out to a good friend Doctor Luis Palau who is from Buenos Aires, Argentina and a big Boca Juniors fan. He is currently living in the land of the sun Portland, Oregon.

If you get a chance check out his website www.palau.org 

We will keep updated on the Liverpool-Arsenal match.

I hope it was a great a weekend it. Now it’s back to the grind. Oh! I how hate Monday’s.

It was hot here in LA or as they say, lower Alabama.

Now to the fun stuff at hand.

Newcastle had a chance to move up at least one spot in The EPL table. Not on this day.  Newcastle lost to Tottenham 1-0.

The Associated Press reported Darren Bent’s goal in the 24^thminute lifted Tottenham to the win.

This loss just about insures Newcastle will get the heave hoe from The Premier League.

The Magpies are 19^th with 30 points with four games left.

Blackburn and Hull City each have 34 points.

Newcastle needs to win at least three out of their next five remaining matches to have a chance to move out of the drop zone.

Manchester City doubled up bottom feeder West Brom 4-2.

As it stands right now in the race for the Championship League, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, and West Brow are headed out.

Blackburn, Hull City, Sunderland are just a step above the relegation zone.

The actual table has Sunderland with 35 points.

Blackburn and Hull City have 34 points each.

Middlesbrough has 31 points.

Newcastle has 30 points.

West Brom has 25 points.

In the very boring FA Cup semifinal Everton defeated Manchester United 4-2 in penalty shootout.

Man U decided to give their big guns a rest. Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Edwin Van de Sar, Ryan Giggs, and Michael Carrick had the day off.

Manchester United used their reserve squad.

The result showed in the 4-2-penalty shootout loss.

Give Everton the credit for the win but I still think Man U would have cleaned their clocks with the first team.

The second squad for Manchester United almost pulled out the win.    

Now to Brasil Futebol.

Sao Paulo played like crap. They lost to Corinthians 2-0 in the semifinals of the Paulista Championship. Corinthians kicked Sao Paulo’s butt.

My wife and I watched the match on GOL TV.

Sao Paulo sorely misses their keeper Rogerio Ceni.

It seems like the club is falling apart.

Sao Paulo gave up two easy walk in goals to Corinthians.

Former three-time FIFA player of the year Ronaldo is making a comeback with Brasilian Club Corinthians. Ronaldo scored on a breakaway goal late in the second half to salt away the win.

This goal was a thing of beauty as Ronaldo slipped the ball right by the helpless Sao Paulo keeper.

Both of these goals were the result of Sao Paulo falling asleep on the defense.

When this usually happened, Rogerio Ceni was the big eraser. Ceni nine times out of ten would put the kibosh to the attack but without him, Sao Paulo defense is suspect.

With the Brasilian Serie A league beginning competition in May Sao Paulo is deep trouble to repeat as champion.

My team Flamengo defeated Botafogo 1-0 and now both teams will play for the Carioca Championship.

We listened to match on Globo Radio do Brasil. Yes, I do speak Brasilian Portuguese.

Flamengo defeated hated foe Botafogo 1-0.

On a beautifully placed free kick from just outside of the box. The ball played pinball inside the box until the confused Botafogo player Emerson kicked the ball into his own goal.

Goal for Flamengo.

All of the 25 million Flamengo fans will take to the streets of Rio and have one huge party.

Way to go guys.