The Champions

Group stages begin shortly. Matchday 1 for groups A-D brings us the following matches:

Atlético APOEL
Beşiktaş Man. United
Chelsea Porto
Juventus Bordeaux
Maccabi Haifa Bayern
Marseille Milan
Wolfsburg CSKA Moskva
Zürich Real Madrid

followed tomorrow by groups E-H

Dynamo Kyiv Rubin
Internazionale Barcelona
Liverpool Debrecen
Lyon Fiorentina
Olympiacos AZ
Sevilla Unirea Urziceni
Standard Arsenal
Stuttgart Rangers

The Besiktas/Manchester and Marseille/Milan fixtures are already scheduled to the DVR for today. Inter/Barca is can't miss football for tomorrow.

Are Man City For Real?

Manchester City passes their first test as they defeated Arsenal 4-2 to remain undefeated in the English Premier League.

I expected Arsenal to control play with the better midfield but in fact it was the Man City midfield of Wright-Phillips, De Jong, Barry and Ireland who controled the entire match.

Adebayor haunts his own team with two goals and over-celebrating. He might be reprimanded for that.

It'll be interesting to see how Man City does in their 8 matches against the BIG Four. Match 1 of 8 passed with flying colours.

Finally

The leagues are back. It feels like it was much longer than two weeks. While I enjoyed the World Cup Qualifiers, I am happy to be back to club football. Managers across the globe must be infinitely frustrated by having to have a long break at the beginning of the season.

There are some tasty fixtures on tap this weekend.
On FSC has the EPL's third place United at second place Tottenham at noon Saturday. They follow with Juventus at Lazio from Serie A. Those four teams have taken 33 of a possible 36 points this season.

Big World Cup Qualifying Matches

There are a bunch of big matches today.

Europe:

Group 1
Portugal-Hungary

Portugal must win or else Ronaldo will be staying home next year.

Group 3
Northern Ireland-Slovakia

Northern Ireland could take the lead in Group 3 with a win. Incredibly the two teams in the group who made Germany 2006, Czech Republic and Poland have had disasterous campaigns.

Group 5
Bosnia-Turkey

Bosnia are 4 points ahead of Turkey for 2nd place and can secure a playoff spot with a win.

Group 6
England-Croatia

England, who have a perfect record, are 4 points ahead of Croatia and with a win will qualify for the World Cup.

Group 7
Serbia-France

Serbia are 4 points ahead of France and with a win will qualify for the World Cup, reducing Les Blues to a playoff spot.

Group 9
Netherlands-Scotland

Scotland need a point ensure 2nd place in the group. However the worst of the 2nd place teams doesn't make it to the playoffs and with a draw, Scotland's 11 points may not be enough. Scotland would be in a more comfortable position with a win against a possible weakened Dutch side.

Africa:

Group A
Cameroon-Gabon

Incredible Gabon currently leads this Group of Death. Gabon can take a big lead and almost ensure qualification with a road win here.

Asia:
Saudi Arabia-Bahrain (0-0)

2nd leg of the Asian playoff in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia should be favorites after a 0-0 in Bahrain.

Winner plays New Zealand for a trip to South Africa

South America:

Paraguay-Argentina
Brazil-Chile

Argentina are on the ropes. A Paraguay win qualifies them for the World Cup and could possibly knocked Argentina down to 6th place with 2 matchdays to go.

Chile qualifies for the World Cup if they beat Brazil.

CONCACAF:
Mexico-Honduras
Trinidad-USA

Honduras and USA are tied at the top with Mexico on point behind.
No one can qualify in this round but can take one important step closer.
Consider it moving day.

Argentina On The Ropes

I don't know how the schedule for the South American qualifying was made but for Argentina to have a week where they play Brazil at home and Paraguay on the road is as hard as it gets. It's even worse when they lose 3-1 to Brazil.

Maradona's team looks lifeless and I can't see them getting anymore than a draw in Paraguay. If Ecuador beat Bolivia and Columbia beat Uruguay, Argentina could find itself in 6th with only 2 more matches to go. Even in 5th place, they would have to be in a playoff. If Maradona is somehow still at the helm, they'll lose that playoff no matter who their opponent is.

A World Cup without Argentina? The last time they failed to make it to the dance was in 1970 when they were knockout by Cubillas' Peru.

To a Career Well Done

We are not closed, just not open for to the public

The 30-year old National Soccer Hall of Fame is shutting its doors to the public and reducing staff from 8 down to 2 according to this story. This is a shame as I have never been and wanted to add it to the list of HOFs on my bucket list. Well you can't expect anything less when a US Open Cup out draws its annual attendence.

National Champions Start Their Defense

Packed house in College Park, MD for the #8 Maryland Terps v. #9 UCLA Bruins. Unlike tomorrow's football game in California, the Terps are not 22 point road dogs. Terps havehad good home field support in recent years which has pushed for expanding the stadium this year (now holds 7000). Maryland students (as you can see in the picture) sit right behind the visiting goalie and make sure they are in his year all game.

As for the Terps, well they have a returning goalie from that national championship, but all 4 full backs are replacing folks now in the Pros.

Also in action this weekend is the DC College Cup with top 20 George Mason. They are coached by an ex-MLS staff and have Fro Adu (yes Freddy's brother).

COLLEGE SOCCER IS UNDERWAY