Three goals in seven minutes from three different players. And by the 27th minute of the first half, it wouldn't have been arrogant to consider the game over. I'm surprised that Racing Santander didn't just turn out the lights in the stadium during half-time so that their shell-shocked supporters could split to feed their sorrows with plentiful plates of boquerones and mugs of Estrella Galacia. Click to continue reading...

One of the great heartbreaks of my soccer-watching life was watching Argentina lose against Germany in the quarter finals of the 2006 World Cup. But I knew that with so many great players in the squad--Messi, Riquelme, Crespo, Aimar, Cambiasso, Coloccini, Tevez, Mascherano, Zanetti, Milito, Heinze, and others--that they'd arrive in South Africa ready to make things right. Click to continue reading...

And now we come to the two teams I saw the least of in this tournament. (It was a scheduling issue, not deliberate avoidance!)
New Zealand. You know, as a sometime-supporter of the US team and an always-supporter of the Portland Timbers, I have an inkling of what it felt like to be a New Zealand fan in this tournament. Click to continue reading...

Brazil. To anyone who follows world soccer, it's not news that Brazil doesn't samba across the pitch any longer, and hasn't for a long time. These days they look like a talented team, but not one with a style that sets them significantly apart from other talented teams. But while joga bonito may have seen better days in Brazil, this is also not the leadfooted defensive-minded Brazil that shocked many of us in the 2007 Copa América. Click to continue reading...

Spain. Spain started out cool, calm, and collected, tiki-taka-ing right on over poor New Zealand with a 5-0 blowout. Here I confess that it really never occurred to me that they wouldn't be in the final. They entered the tournament with a winning streak of more than 30 games; who was going to defeat them en route? Click to continue reading...

Wow! That was fun!
For those of you wondering what the heck is going on with this international-tournament-that-isn't-a-World Cup, the FIFA Confederations Cup is played every four years in the year before the World Cup, hosted by the same country that will host the following year's World Cup. Click to continue reading...

Well... I don't have a lot to say about this because I only caught most of the second half. But what I saw (that second Chelsea goal from Lampard was brilliant) seemed to favor Chelsea all the way. Malouda was robbed of that goal in the 79 minute too, so the scoreline should have been greater. But Chelsea is used to disappointment of late. Click to continue reading...

Don't have a lot to say right now. My head is still spinning. But damn, Barcelona did it right.
Congratulations to Pep and the team!
More later.... Click to continue reading...

The aftermath of the Chelsea v Barca Champions League semi-final game yesterday has been... well, nasty. I can understand why Chelsea supporter's feel crushed and I won't dig the shank in deeper. But I have to say that Drogba's and Ballack's performances after the game and the supposed "handball" incident with Eto'o respectively, as well as manager Hiddink's comments about some kind of UEFA conspiracy that prevented Chelsea from winning, were ridiculous. Click to continue reading...

Derek: Still pre-game. Did Tommy Smyth just say that all Chelsea had to do was win? What a genius. No wonder I can't stand to listen to these guys.
Derek: So enough of the ESPN half-informed commentators. Let's get this thing going. I hate predicting anything at this point but I agree with Lynda that Barcelona will score within the first 15 minutes. Click to continue reading...

We've never live blogged before, but Wednesday afternoon we'll be hunkered down in front of the telly trying to keep our lunch down while we live blog the Barcelona v Chelsea match.
It will be biased and we'll probably make fools of ourselves trying to keep up with all of the action. But it will be fun. Click to continue reading...

Over at the FC Barcelona official site there are some absolutely fabulous pictures of supporters celebrating in the streets and welcoming back our Blaugrana heroes back to the city. Oh, to be there in person.
Check it out here. Click to continue reading...

Memo to Amy Lawrence: guess you didn't see Barcelona's 2-6 man-handling of Real Madrid today. The arrogance and ignorance of the English footie press never fails to amuse me. Click to continue reading...

I haven't seen this Spain team play since their exuberant rout through Euro 2008 and was more than a little apprehensive about how the team would fare without Luis Aragonés, who's moved on to coach Turkey's Fenerbahçe. Vicente del Boque, however, has maintained their streak of 30 undefeated matches, and they're at the top of their group. Click to continue reading...

Women's professional soccer is back in the US, and I'm writing this as I watch the inaugural WPS match on Fox Soccer Channel. a href="http://www.womensprosoccer.com/"The WPS website/a is billing this as Abby versus Marta--that's Abby Wambach---br /br /span style="font-style: italic;"GOOOOOAAAALLLLL!/span LA Sol defender Allison Falk scores the first ever WPS goal in the sixth minute! Click to continue reading...