Author Archives: Paul Kennedy

[ENGLAND] Is the Premier League race over? Last week Sir Alex Ferguson said the chase was between his Manchester United and Liverpool, dismissing struggling Chelsea. Then Liverpool was held to a 1-1 tie at home with Manchester City on Sunday, leaving Manchester United with a seven-point lead.

[SPAIN] Barcelona lost for the first time since opening day when city rival Espanyol beat 10-man Barca, 2-1, at the Camp Nou Stadium on Saturday on a pair of goals by former Barca midfielder Ivan de la Pena. Barca’s lead over Real Madrid, which was 12 points a week ago, is down to seven.

[GERMANY] The Bundesliga has its third leader in three weeks as Hamburg took over first place with 2-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen thanks to two goals by defender Marcell Jansen on Sunday. Last week’s leader Hamburg and the leader at the winter break, Hoffenheim, are two points back. Bayern Munich dropped four points off the pace when it was stunner by FC Cologne, 2-1.

[ITALY] Inter Milan didn’t give challengers Juventus and AC Milan any chance to make a dent on its big lead when won at Bologna, 2-1, on Sunday. The win left Inter nine points ahead of Juventus, a 2-0 winner at Palermo, and 11 points in front of AC Milan, which edged Cagliari, 1-0, on a second-half Clarence Seedorf goal.

[WORLD CUP 2010] The sale of the approximately 3 million tickets available for the 2010 World Cup begins Friday. For information on how fans can purchase tickets …

[EUROPE] UEFA president Michel Platini issued a dire warning that European soccer was on the verge of a financial meltdown if measures to curb spending on salaries and transfers aren’t implemented. Speaking to the European Parliament, the former French star pointed out that American sports leagues were better positioned to handle the worldwide financial crisis and European clubs needed to learn from their example.

[PAN-PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIP] The Los Angeles Galaxy got goals on either side of halftime from Edson Buddle and Jovan Kirovski and beat Japanese club Oita Trinita, 2-0, Wednesday night before a slim crowd of 5,624 at the Home Depot Center to advance to Saturday’s championship against South Korea’s Suwon Samsung Bluewings.

[USL-1] Just eight days before they begin their Concacaf Champions League quarterfinal series, the Puerto Rico Islanders have signed Coach Colin Clarke to a three-year contract extension.

[WPS] An agreement was reached between Women’s Professional Soccer and U.S. national team players on the terms of the standard contract players will sign with the new league, which will kick off on March 29. Players will earn an average of around $32,000 in 2009 for a seven-month playing contract.

[SPAIN] Raul became Real Madrid’s all-time leading scorer when he scored twice in Real’s 4-0 win over Sporting Gijon to give him  309 goals, two more than Alfredo di Stefano‘s long-standing record of 307 goals. More importantly, Real Madrid picked up two points on Barcelona with its eighth straight win and moved within 10 points of La Liga leader. Barca had to come back from two goals down to tie Real Betis, 2-2.

[ENGLAND] Manchester United remained in contention for a record five trophies in a single season when it beat Derby County, 4-1, Sunday in the FA Cup fifth round.

[ITALY] Jose Mourinho downplayed Inter Milan’s lead after Sunday’s thrilling 2-1 win over AC Milan, but its ever-increasing margin over challengers Juventus and AC Milan makes the Nerazzurri likely winner of four straight Serie A titles.

[GERMANY] Hertha Berlin upset Bayern Munich, 2-1, thanks to two goals by Ukrainian Andriy Voronin to claim the Bundesliga lead after 20 rounds. Hertha’s move came a day after surprise leader Hoffenheim fell to Bayer Leverkusen, 4-1.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Late February isn’t the time to be opening the soccer season in Montreal, but the USL-1’s Impact has already sold 35,000 tickets for its biggest game ever, the first leg of the Concacaf Champions League quarterfinal series against Mexican club Santos.

[TELEVISION] Wednesday’s USA-Mexico broadcast on Univision was seen by 10.7 million viewers, making it the most watched sporting event in the history of Spanish-language television. The average audience of 5.9 million made it the most-watched sporting event for the season to date on Spanish-language television and the average audience of 1.2 million on ESPN2 made it the most-watched World Cup qualifier in history on that network.

[HEXAGONAL] Costa Rico joined the USA in first place after Day 1 of the final round of qualifying in the Concacaf zone thanks to a 2-0 win over visiting Honduras. Trinidad & Tobago had to settle for a share of the points at El Salvador when the hosts came back from two goals down to earn a 2-2 tie with two late goals by Osa Romero, both on free kicks and the second on the last kick of the game four minutes into stoppage time.

[BRAZIL-ITALY] Reports of Brazil’s demise are premature. The five-time World Cup champions got a much-needed confidence builder as they beat Italy, 2-0, in Tuesday in an international friendly at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. The star of the show was Robinho with a brilliant individual goal and an assist on Manchester City teammate Elano‘s goal, both in the first half.

[HEXAGONAL COUNTDOWN] El Salvador opens the Hexagonal Wednesday against Trinidad & Tobago as the longshot to claim one of the three automatic berths to the World Cup 2010 finals. The Cuscatlecos are coming off a disastrous Digicel Uncaf Cup during which they won only one of five games and were accused of laying down against Costa Rica in the semifinals.

[USL-1] The Carolina RailHawks, who have failed to make the USL-1 playoffs in their first two seasons, showed they are ready to make a serious challenge by signing former Uruguayan national team midfielder Marcelo Romero and two-time USL-2 Defender of the Year Mark Schulte.

[HEXAGONAL COUNTDOWN] Costa Rica’s bid to qualify for the World Cup finals for the third straight time begins Wednesday when the young Ticos host Honduras at Saprissa Stadium. Coach Rodrigo Kenton has almost completely made over the team from the one that played at the 2006 World Cup finals.

[SPAIN] Barcelona and Real Madrid ran their winning streaks to 10 and six games, respectively, with victories over the weekend. Barca’s 3-1 win over Sporting Gijon at Camp Nou left it 12 points ahead of Real Madrid, which had edged Racing Santander, 1-0, on Saturday.