Tons of domestic action! 8/13/2011.

I'd like to begin in Northern Europe, Sweden to be precise. Here, teams are getting into their 21st round of games and it is looking quite enticing! Today, Halmstad and Hacken played in what was expected an easy match for the away side. Never discount the home field advantage! John Chibuike's 31st minute goal was all that separated the 2 sides. 5 yellows and a red were handed out though, giving the match a darker side. That statistic just illustrates how competitive the game was though. Meanwhile, Mjallby defeated Syrianska thanks to 2 goals from Marcus Eckenberg in the 11th and 40th minutes. David Loken Lofquist tacked on a 3rd in the 62nd to leave the result in no doubt. Moving on to Scotland now, where Celtic destroyed Dundee United 5-1 with goals from Anthony Stokes (4th minute), Gary Hooper (33rd minute), Ki Sung-Yong (58th minute), Joe Ledley (71st), and James Forrest in the 1st minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half. True, Dundee did equalize through Johnny Russell in the 31st to make it 1-1, but Celtic's response was quick and painful. Hearts were also successful in their match, winning 3-0 over Aberdeen. Arvydas Novikovas' goal in the 24th opened the game up and John Sutton struck 2 to in the 35th and 52nd minutes to close down any lasting opposition from the team from Aberdeen. Up in Inverness, the home team was handled harshly by the visiting Rangers who won 0-2 thanks to a penalty conversion by Nikica Jelavic in the 60th and a smooth strike from Maurice Edu 8 minutes later. Both sides received 2 yellows and a red each which must call into question the discipline of these 2 sides. St. Johnstone v.s. Dunfermline ended 0-1 to the visitors after Andy Kirk's 30th minute strike was all they needed to hold on to a vital 3 points. On the downside for Dunfermline, they collected 2 yellows and a red compared to St. Johnstone's 1 yellow. St. Mirren v.s. Motherwell was by far the closest match in Scotland. I say that because it was only in the 2nd minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half that a breakthrough was found. Tom Hateley's goal was quite nice though, and a deserving end to the game. Now I'd like to go south of the border, to England. Here, in one of the best leagues in the world, Blackburn lost to Wolves 1-2 despite taking the lead in the 20th through Mauro Formica. Steven Fletcher equalized for Wolves in the 22nd before Stephen Ward gave them a well-deserved lead 2 minutes into the 2nd half. Fulham and Aston Villa could find no breakthrough in their match though, but yellow cards did flow aplenty! Liverpool and Sunderland were left even as well, though in this match they each got a goal. New-boy Luis Suarez gave Liverpool an early lead, scoring in the 12th to many cheers. However, the defense lacked in the 57th to give Sebastian Larsson and Sunderland an equalizer. Up in Newcastle, things were also goalless as the home side were stubborn enough to allow no goals from Arsenal, forgetting to score some in the process! QPR on the other hand, were not so lucky. They could not stop 4 from Bolton who had the talents of Gary Cahill, Ivan Klasnic, and Fabrice Muamba (as well as an own goal from Daniel Gabbidon) to thank for the handsome margin of victory. Wigan and Norwich tied 1-1 in their match after Ben Watson scored a penalty in the 21st and Wes Hoolahan equalized in the 1st minute of stoppage time in the 1st half. Moving on to the other side of the Channel, in the Netherlands we have Feyenoord defeating Roda 3-0 thanks to 2 goals from Jerson Cabral on either  side of Leroy Fer's 48th minute goal. PSV Eindhoven were able to edge Waalwijk 1-0 despite not looking at all convincing. Dries Mertens' 24th minute goal was enough to carry them. Twente on the other hand dealt well with a visiting AZ, winning 2-0 with goals from Marc Janko and Bryan Ruiz making the difference. Last but not least we had Vitesse thrash Venlo 4-0 with a goal coming in the 5th minute from Marco van Ginkel starting things off right. Marcel Meeuwis' 14th minute own goal didn't help Venlo's case. Wilfried Bony tacked on a 3rd in the 51st before Giorgi Chanturia finished the 4th in the 89th. Over to Germany now, where Freiburg were edged 1-2 by Mainz after a late comeback. The game did start a little late though, with the 1st goal coming in the 64th minute from Marcel Risse! Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting scored what would be the vital 2nd in the 79th. Only in the 2nd minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half was Papiss Demba Cisse able to bring Freiburg back 1. It was obviously too little too late. Hamburg and Hertha Berlin drew 2-2 after a half-time score of 1-1 following goals from Mladen Petric off the penalty spot in the 25th and Tunay Torun in the 43rd for the respective sides. Heung-Min Son scored a 2nd for Hamburg in the 61st but Andre Mijatovic was there to draw Hertha level once more late, in the 88th minute! Hoffenheim were able to edge defending champions Dortmund 1-0 thanks simply to Sejad Salihovic's 9th minute goal.Monchengladbach v.s. Stuttgart on the other hand finished level 1-1 after late goals for both sides. Filip Daems all too happily converted his 67th minute penalty while Cacau drew Stuttgart level with a strike in the 71st. Nurnberg were edged at home by Hannover 1-2 after 2 early goals from Mohammed Abdellaoue and Konstantine Rausch were too much to come back from. Tomas Pekhart's goal in the 56th gave Nurnberg some hope, but Hannover kept it together at the back and were rewarded with the 3 points. The Germans know how to beat people though, and Schalke's match against Koln was just such an example. The Gelsenkirchen side did go behind early, allowing Lukas Podolski the opportunity to score in the 12th minute but they quickly tightened up in the back and gave in return a number of goals. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored the first 2 goals, the 1st from the spot and the 2nd from open play. Lewis Holtby made it 3-1 in the 48th  while Raul did what he is the best at: scored a beauty in the 59th. Huntelaar struck yet again to secure his hat-trick and correct Schalke's disappointing 1st result. Finally, Bayern were left to ponder the serious question of whether they want to be champions of Germany this season after an unconvincing 0-1 victory over Wolfsburg courtesy of Luis Gustavo's 1st minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half goal. Over in Portugal, Rio Ave and Braga finished the way the game started: 0-0. Sporting v.s. Olhanense on the other hand scored, but so did their opposition in a 1-1 game. Wilson Eduardo opened the scoring in the 30th for Olhanense but Sporting were able to level things in the 77th through Marat Ismailov. Nonetheless, this serves as a disappointing season opener at home for the Lisbon Lions. Enjoy the new league action!