So, this week is all about the quick turnaround and I'm sure we'll all continue to experience some frustrations as players are unexpectedly rotated without much warning from their managers. As an added bonus we have the first "double" week of the season featuring the re-scheduled Blackpool vs. Liverpool match from late in 2010.

Fla fans broke down the gates to get to Ronaldinho when he joined the club. If he doesn't start to perform, they may do that again.

Hello and welcome to my fourth guide to Brazil's national football championship, the Campeonato Brasileiro.
The 41st Brasileirão gets underway on Saturday.

I've been raising quite the verbal stink about the importance of the Dynamo's gauntlet run-like stretch of games to end the month of May. It began Saturday night at Rio Tinto and despite the fact Houston left some quality goal chances unfinished, I have to consider it a job well done. A road point at Real Salt Lake is nearly like a victory and getting a clean sheet thanks to a very strong defensive performance an added bonus.

Cantona, Pele and Cobi Celebrating 15% Savings After Switching to GeicoDisclaimer: The opinions expressed within The Smacks Forehead Report do not necessarily represent the views of The Viper's Nest... unless it's about DC or Philly scum, in which case we wholeheartedly approve this message.

Los Eternos Rivales, eh?

It certainly started to look like it after about 30 minutes when the Mexico we've come to know and love started asserting is prickish best after looking in a different class for the first half hour. It's been weird lately, watching Mexico play within themselves, so it came as something of a relief when their true colors started bleeding through.

I Hope West Ham Win! Not something you'll hear a Spurs fan say everyday, and I know there are plenty of you out there that are all for the move to the Olympic Stadium but there are a lot of us that don't want to. While you may think this is just another anti Stratford blog update it's more than that and I hope even if you're very pro moving, you'll appreciate the possibilities of what I'm about to say.

One of the greatest goal in Champions League final history off the top of the head, anyway and one which, if memory serves, has maintained a spot high in the legacy definers known as YouTube compilations. The final between Real v Leverkusen was back when the Galacticos were more warning sign than Champions League punch line, and Zizou wouldn't have been able to pick Marco Materazzi out of a lineup.

Let's get our weekly catch-up out of the way before Will takes over with CONCACAF Champions League coverage...- Dempsey double downs Bolton, sets Fulham record- Postcard From Europe w/ Oguchi Onyewu- A quick word with weekend AaB hero Chris Rolfe- The latest Top 5 Continental Shifts at S365- Groove to Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" - as RDA advisesAs an added bonus, how about a few stray Gooch quotes

It appears this saga is intent to drag on for at least another two weeks. More after the jump:

When Harry Met Luka

I've just about had it with this one. Despite Tottenham imperio Daniel Levy's claims that Modric will be going, and I quote, "nowhere" this summer, the rumor mill continues to produce stories about his exile from White Harte Lane.

Last night saw Bolton put out of the Carling Cup by an Arsenal team containing a mixture of new young players with the added bonus of the experienced Arshavin, Benayoun and the return of the Verminator. Many supporters had come to see if Ox, Park and Young could live up to their hype and whether they were ready for the first team.

Reina
Johnson Kyrgiakos Skrtel Konchesky
Cole Gerrard Lucas Maxi
Torres Ngog
Goals:
Olsson 32'
Benjani 38' 57'
Gerrard 81'
The most embarrassing defeat in a season full of them.
We saw a side more shapeless than against Blackpool. A loss more unexpected than the 2-0 drubbing at Stoke, and far more unexpected that the deserved thumping suffered at Manchester City.

The Baltic Champions' Cup, the first of many a pre-season indoor tournament in Eastern Europe in the next two months, takes place in the Olympic Sports Centre in the Latvian capital of Riga this weekend in a mini-tournament exclusive to the national champions of the three domestic leagues in the Baltic States.

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

BY ADAM SERRANO

Often when a new player joins the national team program, their performance is ripe with expectation. Each move is scrutinized and each pass dissected. For Mixx Diskerud, the story is no different.

For those who would like to revisit Chicago's long and distinguished soccer history the Chicago Riot are conducting Chicago Soccer Heritage Night this coming Sunday at the Odeum in Villa Park. The list of local soccer luminaries is one of the most impressive I can recall, managing to gather members of the Fire, Sting, Power, Mustangs, Shoccers, Horizons, Red Stars, Cats, Vultures, Stingers, and Storm all under one roof.

What a difference one result makes and more importantly a change in formation. Don't we all feel a lot better today? It wasn't just the three points won at a very tough place to go to and it's not like we were at our fluent best but the sight of seeing two strikers on the pitch, albeit one of them being Crouch and the other Defoe, who I thought enjoyed one of his worse performances in a Spurs shirt, gave us all renewed enthusiasm for the remainder of the season.

Good afternoon folks. While Live Q&As have become the standard on SBI in recent months I am also aware that not everybody can make it to our Live Q&A sessions so every once in a while I will bring back the old school SBI Q&A format.

Send in your soccer (and pop culture) questions and I will answer them in the coming weeks in a series of posts.

Predictably all today's headlines are dominated by tomorrow's game in the San Siro and much of the talk is about Gareth Bale. Meanwhile, another player who will definitely miss the match is Jermaine Jenas.

JJ is missing through suspension and admits that he is gutted to not be involved.

It's been a week alright chez Lower. Pretty much as soon as I had put the League Cup final post to bed I began to feel a tad squiffy, something I initially feared might be related to my demolition of the restorative post-defeat sirloin late on Sunday night.

I feared the very worst: a meat intolerance.

Up until the last four games, Jay Spearing's rarely looked liked having a long-term future at Liverpool. Admittedly, he also hadn't gotten a consistent run in the side until Gerrard's season-ending injury, only once playing more than two consecutive games: earlier this season against Steaua and Northampton.

In London for the week and what better place to visit than the ancestral home of football, Wembley Stadium.

I had gone to the old Wembley several times, but this was first visit to the new stadium and I was looking forward to it.

Wembley stadium is only a 10min tube ride from downtown London so getting to the ground was very easy.

In London for the week and what better place to visit than the ancestral home of football, Wembley Stadium.

I had gone to the old Wembley several times, but this was first visit to the new stadium and I was looking forward to it.

Wembley stadium is only a 10min tube ride from downtown London so getting to the ground was very easy.

The last time Colorado was in Toronto they left with their first ever win at BMO Field, and more importantly, the MLS Cup! Tomorrow they try to make it two in a row North of the border. The Rapids probably need 1 more win to really assure themselves of a playoff spot and their best chances are tomorrow and next week when they host San Jose.

Manchester City midfielder Owen Hargreaves has not given up hopes of playing for England, after scoring on his debut at Eastlands in the 2-0 victory over Birmingham in the Carling Cup.
The 30-year old has been plagued with injuries in the last four-years, and his career in the Premier League was in doubt when he was released by Manchester United at the end of the last season, after making just four appearances in the last three years for the club.

If there is one thing that we know at Dexy's Den, it's that we love a nice cold beer.. Chang Beer that is. What makes it even better is their new on-pack promotion for two lucky winners to win the once in a lifetime chance to Live The Life of a premier league footballer for a whole weekend.

Anthony Brooks in Action for the U-20s

One of the newer faces in the U-20 Men's National Team pool is John Anthony Brooks, who goes by Anthony. The big defender has been in a few camps before and he's enjoying his time here in Germany: "I think it's been greats," Brooks told the YNT Blog.

Their Words Other Sources What Happened to Landon Donovan's Uniform from the 2011 MLS Cup? - from Upper Deck's Chris Carlin: "As an added bonus, we even threw in his socks." Hollywood Ending - from Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl: But there was more to the Galaxy's title than writing checks. Don't airbrush Beckham's legacy - from ESPN.

Chelsea took another massive step forward in my eyes last night and received the added bonus with news that Genk had held Bayer to a draw - meaning we topped our group and avoided a nightmare draw in the next round!.
We had wondered if we could build on the Newcastle performance and result, wondered if we could step up on the biggest night of our season so far to ensure that we qualified for the next stages of the Champions League and wondered if by leaving Frank Lampard on the bench - AVB had made a big mistake.

Cardiff City are enjoying a good start to the 2011-12 season, and whilst the priority for all clubs in the Championship will always be to make it to the Holy Land of the Premiership, this season a rare opportunity has opened up for Malky Mackay's side.
Having defeated Blackburn Rovers in the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup, they now find themselves just two games away from an appearance at Wembley in what would be their second run-out at the famous stadium in the last four years – not a bad record for a side that has been stranded outside the top tier of English football since 1962.