The Majesterial Messi (ode to Ray Hudson)

How does one improve on a hat trick performance? how about by scoring another hat trick and then after earning a penalty kick in which he was well with in his rights to take and earn his fourth, giving it to the player who has been in a slump recently. Unselfish, unbelievable, uncanny...Messi.

Europa League Quarterfinal Draw

QUARTER-FINALS: April 1 & 8
Fulham v Wolfsburg
Hamburg v Standard Liege
Valencia v Atletico Madrid
Benfica v Liverpool

SEMI-FINALS: April 22 & 29
Hamburg or Standard Liege v Fulham or Wolfsburg
Valencia or Atletico Madrid v Benfica or Liverpool

The home team in the final will be Valencia/Atletico Madrid/Benfica/Liverpool to be held at the HSH Nordbank rena, home ground of Hamburg, on Wednesday, May 12 2010.

Europa league roundup

first off, Could I really start with anything but Dempsey's goal... DEUCE!!!

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the action in the Europa League was even better then the Champions League and comeback from Fulham being down 3-1 to Juventus and wining 4-1 at Craven Cottage in London was insane. Shout out to David Villa who did what he does best for Valencia and scored a hat trick against Werder Bremen to draw 4-4 and go through on away goals. Also I have to shout out my Liverpool team who believe it or not have won 2 games in a row!!! They beat Lille 3-0 with one from Gerrard and a brace (2 goals) from Fernando Torres.

The Quarter final draw...so good.

QUARTER-FINALS: March 30 & 31 plus April 6 & 7
Lyon v Bordeaux
Bayern Munich v Manchester United
Arsenal v Barcelona
Internazionale v CSKA Moscow

SEMI-FINALS: April 20 & 21 plus April 27 & 28
Bayern Munich or Manchester United v Lyon or Bordeaux
Internazionale or CSKA Moscow v Arsenal or Barcelona

The home team in the final will be Bayern Munich/Manchester United/Lyon/Bordeaux, in the Bernabeu, Madrid on Saturday, May 22.

Manchester United supporters have to be happy with this one. Well Im disappointed that the final can't be Barca v Inter as I wouldn't be disappointed if either of them won. Arsenal Barca should be a cracking tie...really all of these should be great. Have I said how much I love this competition?!

Chelsea v Inter, does it get much better?

Well it's finally here after the great 2-1 victory for Inter over Chelsea we will finally see the conclusion to the ongoing saga that is Mourinho v Chelsea. Will the away goal give Chelsea the advantage? Will Jose lose only his second game ever at Stamford Bridge or will he do what he always does at his old home and win? At 5:00 central on Fox Soccer Channel we will get the answers.

players to watch:
Chelsea
Drogba
Anelka
Lampard
Terry

Inter
Eto'o
Milito
Sneijder
Cambiasso
Maicon

What is the UEFA Champions League

UEFA = Union of European Football Associations

Champions League: Consists of the champions from almost all European professional soccer leagues. Teams qualify for this competition the season prior and compete in this competition concurrent with their own league season (League’s mostly play on Weekends and European competition occurs midweek). In the case of the biggest leagues (England, Spain, and Italy) the top 4 teams qualify for the Champions League and almost as big leagues such as Germany and Portugal etc get 3 or 2 qualifiers. There are 32 teams when it gets to the group stage (8 groups of 4) and then the top two from each group qualify for the round of 16 (which is where we are now). These games are two legged affairs in which each team gets a game at home and then the total aggregate score determines the winner. Incase the score is even over two legs then it goes to “away goals” as the first tie breaker. For ex. A team loses 2-1 away and wins 1-0 at home the total aggregate score is 2-2 but the team that scored away from home goes through. These two legged ties only go to overtime and penalties if the teams are tied on total and away goals (ex. 1-0 and 0-1 total 1-1). This competition is the biggest and most watched club competition in the world as it is has the best players and clubs in the world involved and is the dream destination for every footballer in the world.

Barca's back

Without Zlatan and Guardiola, Im sure Valencia wish one more Barcelona player was missing...Messi. He scored his second and third almost back to back. TV's were still showing the replay of his second and cut immediately to him on another break which resulted in the same, another goal. The first half of this game was like watching paint dry, second half when Henry came on Barca came alive and looked reminiscent of last year. Well done boys now do it against Stuttgart midweek.