UEFA Futsal Cup.

Holders of the Futsal Cup SL Benfica beat major group rivals KMF Ekonomac Kragujevac 5-2 as Sporting Clube de Portugal defeated  ElPozo Murcia FS 5-3 to top their elite round groups and complete the finals lineup thus enabling Lisbon to have 2 teams serving as representatives. Benfica's victory in Serbia was a pleasant surprise for the Portuguese side. Kairat Almaty and ASD Città di Montesilvano C/5 are the other teams in the knockout finals with one of the four hosting the apex game on the 28th or 29th of April. Sporting started poorly, going down one thanks to Saúl's effort for Murcia. Then, Déo came in for the Portuguese and scored twice as the second half ended. With the score 2-1, Murcia equalized after halftime only to go down again thanks to Vinicius's own goal, and then Alex scored Sportings 4th. Mauricio then came on as a free moving goal-keeper as the Spaniards fought to remain in contention but to no avail: Alex scored once more with about 40 seconds left to put the game beyond Murcia's reach. Murcia's fall means Spain will actually be without a representative  for the first time since the 06/07 edition. Benfica trailed their hosts Ekonomac on goal difference but that was an issue quickly rectified as the Portuguese were up 2-0 in 14 minutes thanks to the efforts of  Diece and Arnaldo. The Portuguese side continued in this vein of form to finish the match 5-2. Ekonomac's coach Ivan Božović lamented his side's poor early form after the match. Benfica is the only team that has had a perfect record thus far despite being tied second bottom in goal difference.

Sunday, 11/28/2010 Update.

First off, in Germany, Werder Bremen defeated St. Pauli thanks largely to the efforts of Hugo Almeida. Almeida scored twice in the first half, in the 1st and 20th minute, and another goal in the second half, in the 64th minute, to win the match 3-0. Koln meanwhile drew with Wolfsburg 1-1 as Milivoje Novakovic scored in the 51st minute. However, for Wolfsburg, Cicero scored in the 81st minute to salvage a  point from the game. Over in the Netherlands in the meantime, Ajax went to Venlo and got the three points due to strikes from Mido and Miralem Sulejmani in the 62nd and 70th minutes respectively. The home side were soundly dealt with, even though Ajax also received three yellow cards. Heracles edged Utrecht in their match, thanks in part to an own goal by Alje Schut in the 55th minute. Tim Cornelisse scored for the away side, Utrecht, in the 73rd minute, drawing the two sides level. But Heracles were saved in the 84th minute when Willy Overtoom scored a penalty, ending the game 2-1. At the same time, Feyenoord edged Den Haag in their match. Den Haag took a relatively early lead as the first half ended through Dmitri Bulykin's goal. Aleksander Radosavljevic ruined this lead in the 46th minute as he scored an own goal which drew Feyenoord even with their opposition. Luc Castaignos put the game in Feyenoord's favor though, scoring in the 59th minute. With no answer, Den Haag received no points. France in the meantime was shown a pretty good game as Caen welcomed Sochaux. Sochaux performed almost as well as Kaiserslautern did yesterday in Germany as they (Sochaux) took over, winning 0-3 due to the talents of Damien Perquis, Brown Ideye, and Nicolas Maurice-Belay. Auxerre though weren't able to get anything more than a goal against Toulouse. Daniel Braaten in the 8th minute and Federico Santander in the 35th minute won the game for Toulouse despite Alain Traore's goal in the 56th minute. The 2-1 victory was a positive for the Toulouse side. Across the Channel in England, Tottenham Hotspur were able to fend off Liverpool's challenge in the dying minutes to get the three points. Martin Skrtel scored in the 42nd minute of the first half, giving the Red's a positive air before they were deflated following an own goal by Skrtel in the 65th minute. To add insult to injury, Aaron Lennon scored in the 2nd minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half to put the game to bed in Spurs' favor. In Newcastle though, Chelsea were actually held to a 1-1 draw! Andy Carroll put Newcastle ahead in the 6th minute and the home side held on to that lead until the 45th minute, when Salomon Kalou put a strike in to tie the game up. The second half may have had chances, but no goals, continuing Chelsea's dreary performances. In Italy, Napoli fell to Udinese 3-1 only because of a free scoring Antonio De Natale who scored three goals in the first and second half before Marek Hamsik put one in for Napoli. Lazio meanwhile, drew with Catania thanks to two goals in about 5 minutes from both sides. Matias Silvestre put Catania up first in the 44th minute before Hernanes drew Lazio on par in the 2nd minute of stoppage time in the first half. Inter were very successful to dish Parma a 5-2 defeat thanks in large part to Dejan Stankovic who scored three goals throughout the game. Hernan Crespo actually started things off in the game, having scored in the 4th minute. Parma relied heavily on Crespo, as he scored their only two goals in this disappointing game for the away side. Finally, a report on the Portuguese clash between Beira-Mar and SL Benfica where the Eagles lead 1-0 at the end of the first half thanks to Oscar Cardozo's 1st minute of stoppage time goal.

Alright, I lied.. Sorry. But the U.S. Women's team are going to the World Cup!

Amy Rodriguez is a very popular player at the moment, due to her beautiful first-half goal. The U.S. side beat the Italians 2-0 aggregate to earn the final spot in the World Cup which involves 16 nations that goes on between the 26th of June to the 17th of July in Germany. Veteran of the side Abby Wambach especially knew the difficulty of this year's qualification journey compared to previous years however she applauded, as does any observer of the team, the spirit of the team. Following a shattering upset to Mexico in the regional semi-finals which was just their second loss since the 2007 edition  of the World Cup. Another veteran, this time retired, Julie Foudy had some words for the home crowd who still think the U.S. women are unbeatable: The rest of the world is getting better. (Foudy was a member of the brilliant squad(s) that won the 1991 and 1999 World Cups.) Having to beat not just Costa Rica in the regional third-place match but also a second play-off match against Italy, the U.S. have really had to work to keep up their reputation of world dominators, as well as their hopes of going to the World Cup. Having won in Italy last weekend 1-0, the U.S. were favorites to win at home. Patrizio Panico of Italy almost disrupted this confidence however, as she was found with the ball at the edge of the six-yard box. But Nicole Barnhart saved the U.S.'s skins and, following that experience, the U.S. went on a rabid assault against the Italians, who were only saved by their keeper Anna Maria Picarelli. Amy Rodriguez and Megan Rapinoe both had several open chances, but finally worked things out in the 40th minute when Rapinoe glided about two defenders before shooting at an angle with her left. Anna Maria Picarelli was able to paw the shot, but couldn't account for Rodriguez who the ball fell to. Rodriguez gladly put it into the net  from within ten yards. Lauren Cheney could have increased the lead in the 60th but was defied by the crossbar. It should be remembered that Italy were missing possibly their most important striker, Melania Gabbiadini, due to a terrible twisted ankle. Congrats U.S. Women's Team!

This is the final blog-post for Saturday 11/27/2010. I promise.

First off, in the Netherlands, FC Twente defeated NEC 4-2 despite allowing the first goal of the match, a fine shot by Bas Sibum in the 9th minute. Twente then came back with a vengeance, putting in three, two from Bryan Ruiz, and a contribution from Marc Janko to make it 3-1. But NEC fought back, scoring another goal in the 74th minute (scored by Bjorn Vleminckx) to bring the game to an interesting one goal margin. It didn't stay that way for long as Twente returned fire to restore a two goal thanks to Janko once more. Willem II and Excelsior meanwhile ended as they began: tied. However, Excelsior actually led for much of the game after Kaj Ramsteijn scored in the 51st minute, but the home side rallied in the dying moments of the match to get Evgeniy Levchenko the goal to salvage a point. Also, in Spain today, after taking the lead in their game today, Sevilla actually ended up losing the match quite badly to Getafe following a penalty goal by Manu in the 57th minute, and two more goals, by Miku and Pedro Rios in the 59th and 77th minute respectively. Atletico Madrid's match today, against Espanyol, started bad and has followed the same path for most of the match. Luis Garcia converted a 22nd minute penalty to give the visitors an early lead before Tiago drew the hosts level at the very end of the first half. But Verdu got the second half started very much as the first one began, scoring in the 53rd minute to once more give Espanyol a lead over their hosts. However, in the 66th minute, Sergio Aguero puts in a great goal to draw the two sides back onto level pegging! Despite this, Pablo Osvaldo won the game for Espanyol in the 78th minute, due to a nice goal which put the visitors above, a margin of 2-3 was the final score, giving Espanyol the three points. In the meantime over in Portugal, Sporting Lisbon take on FC Porto. And the Lions of Lisbon lead, at home, thanks to Jaime Valdes' 38th minute effort. Falcao brings the visitors level in the 58th minute which definitely gets things going. Then, in the 69th minute, Maicon gets a straight red card which gives Sporting Lisbon two advantages: first of all, Sporting are playing at home, and then now they are only playing against ten men. It'll be interesting to see whether the Lions can do anything with such things in their favor. But no, in fact, Sporting only manages to get a couple of cards. That isn't to say Porto were angels, they too didn't go for anything even with 11 players and they too received a ton of cards. No matter, the match ended as a draw. Fun fact: Porto received 5 yellow cards and a red card while Sporting amassed 4 yellow cards. Yep, that's 10 cards, more impressive than the amount of goals. In Italy, Juventus managed a draw against Fiorentina, stemming from an own goal in the 4th minute by Marco Motta that gave Fiorentina an early lead. Pepe came through for the Turin club however, scoring in the 82nd minute to take a point from a disappointing game.

Domestic Leaguue- 11/27/2010 continued.

The other game in Germany, Dortmund v.s. Monchengladbach is a 1-1 match. Reus scored in the 33rd minute for 'gladbach but Neven Subotic scored in stoppage time of the first half to bring the two teams level. But Dortmund have now pulled ahead with Kagawa's strike in the 52nd minute! And now Dortmund have pulled up once more with a strike from Kevin Grosskreutz in the 76th minute. With Lucas Barrios's goal in the 88th minute, Dortmund's success in the match is within all reason assured as they are now 4-1 ahead as the final whistle will shortly blow. The Italian clash between Sampdoria and Milan is still tied, 1-1, thanks to Robinho for Milan and Pazzini for Sampdoria. In the Netherlands meanwhile, AZ lead Heerenveen 1-0 thanks to the talents of Pontus Wernbloom. However, Heerenveen have pulled a goal back as well, thanks to the efforts of Vayrynen in the 53rd minute. In the 81st minute, Darryl Janmaat has now put Heerenveen, the guests, ahead. The guests aren't being very polite either, as they now lead 2-1. But bizarrely, Sigthorsson brings the hosts back to level heading! With the score 2-2 so close to the end of the game, this game may end in a tie. The other two Dutch games going on, between Roda and Groningen as well as Willem II v.s. Excelsior, are 0-0 draws at the moment. However, in the 40th minute, Roda has now taken the lead thanks to Arnaud Sutchuin. Pacos de Ferreira edged Olhanense in Portugal by the margin previously mentioned: 1-0. Meanwhile, Maritimo have pulled further ahead against Vitoria SC, through the efforts of Kleber and Baba in the 12th and 33rd minutes respectively. Indeed, Vitoria have ended the game 2-0 down. A fairly good game for Maritimo. Across the border in Spain, Zaragoza are falling hard against Villarreal, 0-3, thanks to converted efforts by Marcos Senna, Santiago Cazorla, and Nilmar. Sevilla meanwhile have also pulled ahead against their opponents, Getafe, 1-0 through the resourcefulness of Frederic Kanoute.

Saturday 11/27/2010 Action.

German Bundesliga:
The home team for the most part seem to be doing very well today as Bayern are rather comfortable in their game against Eintracht Frankfurt. The score is 4-1 in the second half with strikes for Tymoshchuk, Muller, and Mario Gomez for Bayern and the Greek Gekas notching one for Frankfurt. Hamburg are also flying in their match against Stuttgart, leading by a margin of 4-2 thanks to the usual suspects: Trochowski, Petric, van Nistelrooy, and Pitroipa. Stuttgart have only been kept in through the efforts of Marica and Gentner, both scoring in the early moments of each half. Hannover are also winning, 3-0 over Freiburg, to keep the goal tally in the league today at three goals per game or more. Hoffenheim meanwhile are the only home team not winning today as Bayer Leverkusen are proving too much for them to handle. Leverkusen only scored in the first ten minutes of the game thus far, including a penalty kick which made it a 2-0 game before Ibisevic and then Sigurdsson pulled one back each for the home side to steal a point from their opponents, with the score 2-2 as the final whistle blows. Finally, Kaiserslautern are obliterating FC Schalke 04 5-0 thanks in large part to some relatively unknowns compared to Schalke's squad: Lakic, Amedick, Ilicevic, and Moravek have each scored; Lakic twice, as the Red Devils romp over their opponents.
Scottisch Premier League:
Celtic lead Inverness 2-0 at Celtic Park thanks to the efforts of Ki-Sung-Yong a little before half time and McCourt in the 65th minute. And then, Inverness showed up, as Foran in the 70th and Munro in the 83rd tied the game 2-2. A rather disappointing result for the Bhoys. Kilmarnock v.s. Aberdeen was the only other game with goals as the home team once more lead, this time 2-0 thanks to Sammon and Hamill in the 18th and 51st minutes respectively. Kilmarnock were actually able to run the game down, ending the game in the lead. Hamilton v.s. St. Mirren and Hib's v.s. St. Johnstone were both 0-0 matches.
English Premier League:
Aston Villa v.s. Arsenal went 0-2 for Arsenal, to 1-2, to 1-3, to 2-3, to 2-4 with Arsenal in the lead as the final whistle blows. Arshavin and Nasri scored in the first half before Clark put one in in the 52nd minute. Chamakh put one more in for Arsenal, in the 56th, to make it 1-3. Clark had a really good game as he scored another goal to bring the home side back up, but Wilshere put the game to bed in the 3rd minute of stoppage time with a final goal to send Arsenal to the league apex; for a time. Bolton v.s Blackpool is a really close game, 1-2 for the away side. Martin Petrov has sort of rekindled Bolton's energy with the team's first goal in the 76th minute, but Blackpool still lead thanks to Evatt and Varney. But that lead has been shattered as Mark Davies puts in a goal in the 89th minute to make the match 2-2! In another part of England, Everton is losing at home, 1-4, to West Brom. Tim Cahill's one strike minutes before half time hasn't been enough for the home side as West Brom have scored two goals in both periods of the game to put themselves in quite a commanding position. Fulham v.s. Birmingham meanwhile is a game that seems like it will go right down to the death. The two sides are tied 1-1 in the dying minutes thanks to Clint Dempsey in the 53rd and Sebastian Larsson in the 20th for the respective sides. Manchester United on the other hand are a force of mass destruction, seeing Blackburn off 7-1 with 5 goals from Dimitar Berbatov alone! Park Ji-Sung and Nani are the other United players to score, overshadowing Samba's 83rd minute goal. In the meantime, Stoke at home held Manchester City to a 1-1 draw as both teams scored really late goals to end the match in deadlock. Richards scored in the 81st minute for City but Etherington's 2nd minute of stoppage time goal busted the Manchester bubble, salvaging a point for the gritty Stoke side. West Ham v.s. Wigan on the other hand had a clearer winner, as Valon Behrami, Victor Obinna, and Scott Parker put three in for West Ham before Tom Cleverley managed one in the 86th minute. Finally, from going 1-0 up, to 1-2 down, Wolves finished the match 3-2, defeating Sunderland in the last 10 minutes thanks to the efforts of Kevin Foley, Stephen Hunt, and Sylvain Ebanks-Blake. Sunderland managed two goals though, through Darren  Bent and Danny Welbeck. As I post this, Sampdoria and Milan are tied 0-0 in Italy while Zaragoza and Villarreal are also even, 0-0, in Spain. Pacos de Ferreira lead Olhanense 1-0 in Portugal as Maritimo are tied 0-0 with Vitoria SC.

Some undefeated titles up for grabs and a surprise.

• We all know about Manchester United from England. Well, the Red Devil's performances haven't been the stuff of legend this year, but their is something to be said: they haven't lost a single game thus far. Yeah, they've drawn quite a few matches they should have won, but the even tone with which they have faced all-comers seems to be paying off because they have flown up the table to be tied at the top with Chelsea. United will be taking Blackburn Rovers on this weekend in a game which should keep their no-defeats record in tact. In Slovenia there is another team which has an unbeaten record as well: NK Maribor. The club, led by Darko Milanič have had a record breaking start to this season, going 18 matches without a loss. Maribor have recently drawn their last two matches but for the most part their performances have been rather convincing, only in the last weeks has the team's dedication slipped, in the last moments in some cases. The team actually sit six points clear of the second-place side and have their hopes realistically set on becoming champions for a ninth time. Maribor's next game, against 8th place ND Triglav should be a chance to further their lead. In another Eastern European nation, Romania, FC Timişoara amassed a record similar to that of Manchester United: having tied half of their matches and won the other half, they have clawed their way to just shy of the league apex. Their next match however could feasibly be their undoing: they face fierce competition in FC Dinamo Bucureşti and, while the team have alot of hunger for a first time trophy, Dinamo may have too much for Timişoara to handle. In the part of Iberia known as Portugal meanwhile, FC Porto reign undefeated. They haven't lost in 20 games and four competitions. Yes history would be with their next opponents, Sporting Lisbon, but recent history definitely favors Porto. They have already defeated last year's champions SL Benfica so Sporting shouldn't be too much of a problem. But who knows, at home to the Lisboa club, anything may happen. Across the border in Spain there are other undefeated parties: Real Madrid have only tied two of  their first 12 matches, the other results are all wins. Can they continue this run against their most feared rivals FC Barcelona? That depends not only on the respective performances of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo but also on the team strength. Denmark and Bulgaria are two other nations that have undefeated title clashes: in Bulgaria PSFC Chernomorets Burgas will be taking on fellow undefeated side PFC Litex Lovech who may actually provide a bit of history: never before have two teams (excluding teams from Sofia) both been undefeated past the break. This clash may be the end of the history as Litex  top the standings with ten wins and four draws from 14 matches. Chernomorets have had a Manchester United-like season thus far, drawing and winning an even amount of games. The Danes have their own fun:  FC København have won 14 of their 17 matches thus far  this season. FCK is also 16 points ahead of second-place side Odense BK. København's next match, against Randers FC may be harder than expected. The last time the two sides met, FCK could only edge their opponents. It'll be interesting to see how the two fare this weekend. Finally, with the league already done,  Norwegian champions Rosenborg BK should definitely also be mentioned: they won without losing a single match!
• The other story that this post will deal with is Independiente and Goias will combat one another in the Copa Sudamericana final. Independiente, of Argentina, defeated the holders from Ecuador Liga de Quito after a very fierce game. Goias, a team from Brazil, knocked out powerhouse Palmeiras to reach the final. It's set to be a very interesting two-legged match which will decide the club champions of South America.