Archive for May 28th, 2009

I was really looking forward to The Champions League Final. I wanted Manchester United to win. No such luck. It was a classic blow out. This was blow out city baby. Barcelona came out loaded for bear. Manchester United was loaded for a whimper.

The first ten minutes of the match told the story. Barcelona applied the pressure Manchester United couldn’t handle it. Samuel Eto’o goal was thing of beauty. He broke free and found the back of the net in the 10th minute. This was horrible defending by Manchester United’s Vidac.

Say what you want but Barcelona was the superior side today. Barcelona took it to the Red Devils throughout the entire match. Sure, Man U had a few good counter attacks but it was more a of token effort.

Barcelona wanted more.

Cristiano Ronaldo looked like he was going through the motions.

I thought Manchester United’s defense was going to make the difference. Not on this day. Messi, Eto’o, Xavi, and old Arsenal nemesis Thierry Henry proved to be too much of a load to handle for Manchester United.

Lionel Messi’s header in the 70th minute sealed the deal for Barcelona. It was beautiful pass by teammate Xavi and all Messi had to do was head the ball into the naked goal.
Enough said. Barcelona is The Champions League Champs.

The quarterfinals of The Copa Libertadores opened up last night. Two Brasilian heavyweights went at it Cruzeiro and Sao Paulo in Belo Horizonte. Cruzeiro won in their house 2-1.

Cruzeiro scored first blood in the 45th minute when Gerson Magrao waltzed into the box and found teammate Leonardo Silva. All Silva needed to do was head the ball into the net. He did and Cruzeiro lead 1-0 at the break

Sao Paulo found the equalizer on the other side of half time when Washington fired a rocket in the 56th minute to this puppy up at one all.

Ze Carlos scored the match winner in the 87th minute to seal the deal for Cruzeiro.
Most important for Sao Paulo is they picked up a very valuable away goal.

Uol.com.br said about the match:
O Cruzeiro não vencia o São Paulo há nove partidas. Na noite desta quarta-feira, escolheu aquele que pode ser considerado um dos confrontos mais importantes no histórico de encontros das duas equipes, venceu por 2 a 1 no Mineirão e encerrou um tabu que já durava cinco anos.

On the other Copa quarterfinal match played yesterday saw FC Caracas and Gremio tie at one all in Venezuela.

Caracas scored in the first minute of the match when Cichero headed the ball into the net. Gremio just stood by and watched as the goal was scored. It was horrible defense on Gremio’s part.

Gremio found the equalizer in the 74th minute when Fabio Santos header touched the twines to make one all.

Uol.com.br put it this way O Grêmio não teve boa atuação, mas conseguiu um importante empate por 1 a 1 com o Caracas, nesta quarta-feira, e volta da Venezuela com uma pequena vantagem nas quartas-de-final da Libertadores da América. Num gramado esburacado, as equipes fizeram valer a bola parada para marcarem seus gols, e o resultado mantém a invencibilidade do time gaúcho na competição.

That’s a wrap for today. Champions League is in the books. The EPL is done as well.