Domestic action on Sunday the 18th.

Well, the Old Firm in Scotland played today and Rangers were quite successful! Yes, Celtic led 1-2 at the half thanks to goals from Gary Hooper and Badr El Kaddouri in response to Steven Naismith's 23rd minute goal. Into the 2nd half Rangers began to dominate. Nikica Jelavic equalized for Rangers in the 55th before Kyle Lafferty struck in the 67th. With a 3-2 lead, Rangers then went a man up after Charlie Mulgrew of Celtic was sent off in the 75th minute. Naismith slotted a 2nd in the 3rd minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half to finish the embarrassing match. In Sweden Gefle edged Syrianska 2-1 thanks to scoring the first and last goals. Hacken beat Elfsborg 2-0 while Helsingborg continued the success of the home sides as they defeated Mjallby 3-0. Malmo and Trelleborg tied 1-1 while Orebro were the only home side to lose, 0-2 to Goteborg. In Germany, Hannover edged Dortmund 2-1 thanks to 2 late goals from Karim Haggui and Didier Ya Konan respectively. Schalke were unlucky when they were defeated 0-2 by Bayern who scored a goal in each half through. Nils Peterson and Thomas Muller respectively. In Spain meanwhile, Athletic were defeated 2-3 by Betis while Atletico thrashed Racing 4-0. Getafe were edged 0-1 by top-flight newcomers Rayo who scored through Michu in the 4th minute. Zaragoza were able to win against Espanyol 2-1 while the biggest news of the day was probably Levante's 1-0 win over Real Madrid. Sami Khedira's sending off in the 40th minute may be said to have led to Arouna Kone's 68th minute goal. It was an extremely ill-tempered game though. Just in the 1st half there were 6 yellows and a red handed out. 5 more yellows came in the 2nd half. Over in the border in Portugal Benfica and Porto actually remain even on the top of the table after Benfica hammered Academica 4-1. Porto were held to a 0-0 draw by little-known Feirense. Leiria were defeated 1-3 by Maritimo while Vitoria edged Beira-Mar 1-0. Up over in England, Fulham and Manchester City actually drew 2-2 in their match while Manchester United laid the smack down on Chelsea 3-1! Chris Smalling, Nani, and Wayne Rooney had each scored their goals before Fernando Torres brought Chelsea 1 back in the 1st minute of the half. Sunderland hammered Stoke 4-0 while last but certainly not least we had Tottenham slam Liverpool 4-0 too. Finally, we go to Italy where there were a ton of games today! Atalanta edged Palermo 1-0 thanks to German Denis' 34th minute strike. Bologna were beaten 0-2 by Lecce who scored 1st through Guillermo Giacomazzi in the 37th and then through Carlos Grossmuller in the 60th. Catania beat Cesena 1-0 while Lazio were edged out of points by Genoa 1-2. Giuseppe Sculli gave Lazio the lead in the 11th before Rodrigo Palacio and Juraj Kucka struck in the 54th and 71st minutes respectively. Napoli beat AC Milan 3-1 thanks to a brilliant hat-trick from Edinson Cavani! Parma were a bit better than Chievo on the day as the 2-1 scoreline illustrates. Juventus beat Siena 1-0. Last but not least: Udinese 2 - 0 Fiorentina. Cheers!

More Champions League!

Well, Manchester City were somewhat surprised by Napoli who tied with them 1-1. Edinson Cavani's 69th minute goal for the Italian side was equalized with by Aleksandar Kolarov's 74th minute free-kick. Meanwhile, Benfica actually drew with Manchester United 1-1 thanks to an opening goal from Oscar Cardozo in the 24th minute. Ryan Giggs proved why United still need him when he equalized 3 minutes before the half to end up saving the English side a point. Bayern coolly defeated Villarreal 0-2 thanks to goals from Toni Kroos in the 7th and Rafinha in the 76th. The biggest news of the day though, was Inter Milan's 0-1 loss to Turkish side Trabzonspor in Milan! Ondrej Celustka did the honors in the 76th with quite a beauty while Trabzonspor's Gustavo Colman and keeper Tolga Zengin had very good games. Keep watching what is sure to be an exciting year of European football!

Champions League opening results! 9/13/11.

Chelsea were successful against Bayer Leverkusen after a pair of 2nd half goals. David Luiz got the Blues off with his 67th minute strike before Juan Mata tacked on a 2nd just to secure the English side's 3 points. Meanwhile, Portugal's FC Porto edged Shakhtar Donetsk 2-1 despite falling behind in the 12th minute after Luiz Adriano had scored for the Donetsk side. Hulk equalized for the Dragons of Porto in the 28th minute while Kleber scored the winner in the 51st minute to get the Portuguese side's season start off with a bang. Dortmund and Arsenal actually tied 1-1 in their match with Robin Van Persie giving the Gunners the lead 3 minutes before the 1st half ended. Ivan Perisic was the man to equalize for the Germans with 2 minutes left in the 2nd half! On a similar note, Barcelona were heart-broken in the dying moments of their match with AC Milan who scored both the 1st and last goals of the game. Pato gave the Milanese side the earliest of leads with his 1st minute strike before Pedro Rodriguez equalized for Barca in the 36th minute. Going into the half it was thus 1-1. David Villa gave Barcelona the lead for the first time in the game with his 50th minute goal. Despite holding on to it for about 40 minutes, Thiago Silva finally did equalize for Milan, in the 2nd minute of extra time of the 2nd half! In even worse news for Barcelona, Andres Iniesta was severely injured, picking up a potentially month-long service of bench-duty. Initial reports were that he had sustained a hamstring tear. That adds to the injury roster which already includes summer signing Alexis Sanchez (thigh injury, out for about 8 weeks). Obviously my prayers go out to them both. Stay tuned for more!

Exciting Champions League match-ups! 9/12/11.

In the opening of the group stage tomorrow we have some terrific games with Chelsea taking on Bayer Leverkusen, Porto face Shakhtar Donetsk, last year's German Champions Dortmund play always-threatening Arsenal while Spanish Champions Barcelona meet the impressive though depleted AC Milan. On the 14th meanwhile, Manchester City face Napoli while talented Portuguese side Benfica face England's defending Champions Manchester United. Villarreal will have to face a pumped-up and ready-to-go Bayern Munich who will hope to start their European title attack off to a good start. Big sides from the Netherlands and France also face-off as Ajax and Lyon will be playing. Make sure to at least catch one of these great games!

Beach Soccer World Cup conclusion!

So when you think of beaches, you may think of Portuguese, Brazilian, Spanish, or Caribbean ones right? Well, it's time to start thinking of Russian ones because they are the new Beach Champions! That's right, Brazil have finally lost a World Beach Final! And it was in terribly convincing too as the Russians hammered the Brazilians to a 12-8 scoreline. Egor Shaykov gave the Europeans the 1st 2 goals before Ilya Leonov added a 3rd. Andre brought Brazil 2 back to make it 3-2 by the end of the 1st period of time. The 2nd period was no better for Brazil as the Russians Egor Eremeev and Alexey Makarov each scored twice. Betinho's own goal gave Russia a 8-2 lead before Dmitry Shishin scored the 1st of his 3 goals. Betinho and Sidney both scored for Brazil in that period though, so the scoreline was 9-4 at the break. Leonov and Shishin scored once and twice more respectively for Russia in the 3rd period to make it 12 goals for the unstoppable Russians. Andre was the only player to score for Brazil in the 3rd period but he did get 4! It still wasn't enough though as Russia were well deserving winners. Over in the 3rd place match, Portugal did well to defeat a talented team from El Salvador. Wilber Alvarado gave El Salvador the lead a minute and a half into the game but Madjer brought Portugal level 4 minutes later or so. Belchior then gave the Portuguese the lead into the 14th minute which was equalized with 4 minutes later by Frank Velasquez. Madjer then gave Portugal the winning goal in the 24th minute to much acclaim. While it is another 3rd place title for the Portuguese, they are still consistently one of the best sides in beach soccer. Hope you enjoyed the games as much as I did!

Quick beach soccer update!

Hello, I almost forgot about the Beach Soccer World Cup! In beautiful Italy, Russia and Brazil have set up quite a fantastic Final while the 3rd-place game between El Salvador and Portugal will be eagerly anticipated as well. So how did the Semi-Finals pan-out? Well, the Russian steamroller continued apace with a 7-3 drubbing of El Salvador to book their Final spot. It was 4-1 in the Russians' favor by the end of the 1st period. Each team scored 2 more in the 2nd period of time to make it 6-3 while Russia added a 3rd in the 3rd period to finalize what we had known for some time: Russia were through. Brazil v.s. Portugal was a closer affair with the Portuguese holding a 0-1 lead through the 1st period before Brazil struck 2 goals in each of the following periods to wipe the floor with their long-ago colonizers: 4-1 Brazil. Look for the Final and 3rd-place matches tomorrow! (9/11)

Domestic update. 9/10/11.

Let's start in Northern Europe where in Scotland we have seen Celtic obliterate Motherwell in Glasgow 4-0 while rivals Rangers edged Dundee United 0-1 to keep their top of the league position. Kyle Lafferty was the man to keep 'Gers at the top of the table when he struck in the 61st minute to clinch the lead. Inverness and Hearts tied 1-1 with the away side equalizing late in the 81st minute to salvage a point. Kilmarnock edged Dunfermline 3-2 despite the away side taking an early lead through Jason Thomson in the 14th. Last but not least St. Mirren and St. Johnstone played out a goalless draw. Over in Sweden just 1 game played today and that was between Mjallby and Norrkoping. They played out a 0-0 draw. Down in Germany Bayern completely tore apart Freiburg in a 7-0 victory. Notably, Mario Gomez scored 4 while Franck Ribery struck twice. Nils Peterson added a 7th in the 90th minute to end a truly one-sided game. Dortmund were upset by Hertha Berlin who won 1-2 in quite a surprising match. Hoffenheim defeated Mainz in Mainz 0-4 while Monchengladbach defeated Kaiserslautern 1-0 thanks to a 58th minute goal from Juan Arango. Stuttgart defeated Hannover 3-0 in their match while Bremen led Hamburg 1-0 as I posted this. Going south some more, in Spain, Real Sociedad did very well for themselves as they leveled with Barcelona despite falling 2 goals behind by the 11th minute. Villarreal and Sevilla also drew 2-2. Before closing I'd like to go back up to England where Arsenal edged Swansea 1-0 thanks to Andrey Arshavin's 40th minute goal! Everton and Aston Villa tied 2-2 while Manchester City defeated Wigan 3-0! Stoke upset Liverpool 1-0 thanks to Jonathan Walters' 21st minute converted penalty. Sunderland were beaten 1-2 by Chelsea though Ji Dong-Won did begin to bring them back with a goal in the 1st minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half! Finally, Wolves were beaten 0-2 by Tottenham who scored both of their goals in the 2nd half. Keep enjoying these awesome leagues!