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Chelsea lost a heartbreaker in the 93rd minute due to a fabulous Iniesta strike. The aggregate was 1-1 but the away goal advantage applied in Barca's case and they will meet Man Utd in the final on May 27.

Michael Essien was involved in both goals.

The equalizer would not have been possible if Essien had not whiffed on Samuel Eto'o's heavy first touch, helping the ball along to Messi who collected and side passed to Iniesta who lined up and cracked the ball past all that heavy traffic and over Cech.

This has to be the worst in a while. As bad as the leg break.
Especially considering Arsenal was up 2-0 aggregate, with about a 2% chance of dropping out to Celtic.
A ban might be in the works. Totally deserved for my money.

A tip of the cap and a rise of the Miller Lite can to everyone involved with today's insanely bizarre Chelsea/Liverpool Champions League Texas Tornado match, which ended 4-4 at Stamford Bridge, with the Blues advancing 7-5 on aggregate. Honestly, I don't even know if whatever I cobble together in this post can do it any justice.

The Scene: The 2004 MLS Cup Final was played in the HDC, the Cathedral of American Soccer, and nearly 25,000 folks were on hand to watch DC United take on the Kansas City Wizards in a classic matchup. In the end, DCU would win their fourth crown (their first since 1999) by a score of 3-2.

After a fantastic performance by Manchester United in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final at the Emirates, United winger Park Ji-Sung has cemented himself as this week's Wednesday Wonder. The man of many names (Park Ji-Sung, Ji-Sung Park, Three-Lung Park) has now had two consecutive great performances for a Manchester United squad that is rolling.

Brescia will be staying in Serie B for the 2009-10 season after losing their two-leg promotion series to Livorno 5-2 on aggregate. Whether or not Danny Szetela will be with them is an open question, with his loan deal up as of the end of the season. Saturday's second leg ended 3-0 Livorno. Francesco Tavano opened the scoring in the 49th minute, Alessandro Diamanti made it 2-0 on the hour, and Martin Bergvold finished it.

You know what, there are some really interesting tidbits in this MLSnet preview. Whoever did it deserved more pub than "MLSnet staff." (Hopefully it wasn't the same guy who put a pick of Jhon Kennedy Hurtado up on the home page for this game; Kennedy was red-carded in the semifinal.)
Is anyone else the tiniest bit suspicious about the "We hate each other.

The "Football earthquake" is still causing tremors after REAL MADRID waseliminated by 2ºB Division (3ºrd Division elsewhere) team ALCORCONin the SPANISH CUP. The Spanish Football Goliath was stoned "dead"by one of Spanish Football's David with a 4-0 victory at home & onlylost 0-1 at Real Madrid's home ground "Santiago Bernabeu" to win thethe elimination phase with a 4-1 aggregate.

American midfielder Danny Szetela did not play in Brescia's 2-2 draw with Livorno yesterday, the first leg in a home-and-away series to determine who will play in Serie A next year.
Given that the away goals rule does not apply and the higher seeded team (Livorno) advances if the goal aggregate is tied, Brescia faces a must-win situation on the road next week at Livorno.

The Miami Ultras appeared on Univision during the USA vs Brazil game and Republica Deportiva. It was a fun event that also saw Miami FC players Danny Vasquez and Richard Perdomo interviewed by Presidente Fernando Fiore.
Here are a few pictures and video (In Spanish)
For more pictures and video head over to the Miami Ultras site.

Livorno crushed Danny Szetela's Brescia side 3-0 in the final leg of their promotion playoff and will return to Serie A next season. Livorno's win capped a 5-2 aggregate win in the Serie B playoffs. Lingering injuries kept Danny Szetela out of the side which will remain in Serie B for at least one more season.

With United beginining play in the prelimiary round of CONCACAF Champions League tomorrow, we put together a ton of information on the second edition of the CONCACAF tournament, as well as tomorrow night's opponent, Luis Angel Firpo.

Be sure to get your tickets...

... and read up:

CONCACAF hosted its first Champions League in 2008-2009, modeling the competition after the highly successful UEFA tournament.

The rain poured down and Roy Hodgson's black and white army marched on deeper into Europe. Goals from the impressive Dickson Etuhu and two from Andrew Johnson saw Fulham home, 3-0, 6-0 on aggregate. How good does that sound?

The first ten minutes was a crowded affair with little control and several tempers lost.

1) FC Salzburg, having drawn, Maccabi Haifa, look set to finally qualify for the lucrative group stage of the Champions League. The club was purchased by RedBull founder Dietrich Mateschitz with the intent to make it a player internationally, but it has failed in its attempts since the takeover to qualify for the competition proper.

Real Salt Lake beat defending MLS Cup champion Columbus 3-2 on Thursday night and 4-2 on aggregate to advance to the next round of Major League Soccer's playoffs. Crew midfielder Guillermo Barros Schelotto returned to the lineup after being benched for game one and looked like the hero. He scored in the 19th and 35th minutes to put the Crew ahead on aggregate.

The system needs to be changed - and fast. After watching a Cinderella run come to a crashing halt, I have seen enough. Burnley were unjustly knocked out of the Carling Cup, and it is all the FA's fault. In the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final between Tottenham and Burnley, Tottenham came away with an easy 4-1 victory.

Lauri Dalla Valle is not getting carried away after spearheading Liverpool Youth team's charge to the FA Youth Cup final.
The Finnish forward has played a key part in the run to the final, having scored seven times so far in the competition.
The 17-year-old scored twice against Birmingham in Friday night's 3-1 semi-final second leg win.

The question of who is the best club in Spain was clearly and emphatically answered Saturday in Barca's 6-2 (not a typo) beatdown of Real Madrid. Barring a miracle, FC Barcelona will now go on to claim their first Spanish liga title since 2006. The result gives Pep Guardiola's side the top spot in our ratings as well.

It certainly should have been a rematch of last year's Champions League final. Instead, Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo decided it would be a rematch of one of last year's semifinal clash between Manchester United and FC Barcelona. Manchester United progressed to the Champions League final in Rome after convincingly beating Arsenal 4-1 on aggregate.

Millwall v Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe nearly failed to make the playoffs. Needing a draw against Tranmere in the final game of the season, Scunthorpe were down 0-1 until a late goal from Cliff Byrne made it 1-1 to ensure that the Iron finished two points ahead of Tranmere. That meant 6th place Scunthorpe (76 points) were paired with 3rd place MK Dons (87 points) in the semi-finals.

After months of scintillating football, tremendous goals and a fair bit of controversy too, the Champions League reaches its climax in Rome on Wednesday but who could possibly take the crown of goal of the tournament?

The ball has hit the net a total of 327 times in Europe's premier club competition this season so there's certainly a fair few to choose from.

Four of Liverpool's backroom staff will be released as part of the ongoing review of the club's Academy.
Reserve team manager Gary Ablett is the most prominent name of the quartet with Rafael Benitez reassessing the set-up beneath the first team.
Under-18s manager Hugh McAuley, under-16 coach Dave Shannon and under-14s coach Paul Lever are also set leave, with their departures expected next week.

Ronaldo took some time off his busy Godzilla playing schedule to help Corinthians win the Copa do Brasil on aggregate after a 2-2 draw with Internacional in Porto Alegre on Wednesday. This is the second title won by them with Ronaldo on the squad, the first one being the Paulista State Championship.

Most of you don't care too much about Maccabi Haifa or the Israeli Premier League, but fans of Liverpool, Chelsea, or Manchester United need to be alert - as one of those teams could just meet up with "Hayerukim" (The Greens) in the Champions League group stages.
Haifa, the only Israeli team ever to advance to this stage, easily beat Red Bull Salzberg (5-1 on aggregate) over two legs.

So Arsenal are through the Champions League group stages after a 3-1 win last night, giving them a 5-1 win on aggregate.

Let's get the penalty thing out of the way first. In about the 25th minute Eduardo chased through a ball in the area, pushed it past the keeper, went to ground with minimal, if any, contact from the Celtic keeper and the referee gave a penalty.

TTM Samut Sakorn v DPMM 4-2 (Aly Camara, Pradit Taweechai, Thanongsak Promdad, Saksit Vuttipadadorn; Abdelhamid Berguiga, Ivan Jerkovic) 912
Mid table TPL team thumps SLeague high flyers...does this result, 7-3 on aggregate for the Thais, give us any indication of the relative strengths of the two leagues?

Andy Williams Seals the Deal for Real in Win

Andy Williams seals the deal for RSL with a late goal in Real's 4-2 aggregate win to advance in the 2009 MLS Playoffs and move on to the Eastern Conference Final. Last week after Real Salt Lake beat Columbus at home in Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, Jason Kreis said something interesting after the game.

Real Madrid beat Alcorcon 1-0 at the Bernabéu last night, which wasn't nearly enough to prevent Los Galácticos losing 4-1 on aggregate and exiting the Copa del Rey. So the team that spent nearly a quarter of a billlion euros this summer has been bounced out of the cup by a team from Segunda B, [...

Persib v Sriwijaya 1-1 (Eka Ramdani; Toni Sucipto) 30,000
Sriwijaya reach the quarter finals of the Copa Indonesia, defeating Persib 4-2 on aggregate. There were last minute red cards for the home team's Salim Alaydrus and the visitors Budi Sudarsono.
In other CI news Persitara are scheduled to play Persebaya this coming Sunday in Jakarta but it remains to be seen whether this game gets the go ahead or not.

Okay, so we didn't destroy Bayern again, but then, that's expected. The German team really put forth an effort last night, so they could leave with some pride; and perhaps they did, for 1-1 is much more merciful than 4-0.
And it wasn't any slacking off on our part, either, for the boys did quite well given the circumstances—here being three things: the fact that we'd as good as qualified since the fist leg, the tight match schedule plus traveling and playing away, and the fact that Bayern were determined not to lose this one.

In what is being called, by many UEFA pundits, arguably the most thrilling Champions League quarterfinal in recent memory, Chelsea knocked Liverpool out 7-5 on aggregate. However, the aggregate score is certainly flattering for the Blues, who defended amateurish throughout the second leg at home tonight.

That's why we watch football. Sometimes you have to sit through the relative tedium of Wigan v Sunderland, and sometimes even the Champions League throws up duds; but then every so often you get a game like last night's, a pulsating, thrilling, heart-stopping tie full of action, drama and intrigue.

by GIANFRANCO PANIZO

Alcohol and prostitutes.

That is what Peruvian striker Claudio Pizarro was accused of sneaking into a hotel while on national team duty, charges that led to a suspension from Peruvian the national team in 2007. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on Friday that there was not enough evidence to support those charges, and thus lifted his suspension.

Finally the time has come for some action for the Puerto Rico Islanders in the 2009 CFU Clubs Champions Cup, mind you it will be off the field.

Today at noon in the semifinal draw at the CONCACAF headquarters in New York, the Islanders will find out who will they face in their semifinal match on May 15th in Trinidad & Tobago.

The second legs of the UEFA Champions League are set to take place Tuesday and Wednesday to determine the final later this month in Rome. Here's a full preview of both match-ups, with Man U - Arsenal on Tuesday and Barcelona - Chelsea on Wednesday.

Manchester United at Arsenal - Tuesday - 19:45 GMT - Manchester United have a 1-0 lead after the first leg but have to be slightly disappointed with not getting more goals at home.

Arsenal 1 - 3 United (1-4 on aggregate)

What a fantastic performance from United tonight. I fancied them to clinch an away goal and progress to the final, but not with the ease in which they did.

The were fortunate with the opening goal, Kieran Gibbs slipping as the ball came across the area, and Ji-Sung Park making the most of the the error.

For the second year in a row United are marching on to the European final. Ronnie is amazing and Park might be the most underrated player in the world and that showed in their 4-1 aggregate win over Arsenal. But I feel for Fletcher who will miss the final because of a red card. So the Only Time Will Tell Tailgating Crew will be marching back to Fado in Philly for the Final again.

By now, I'm sure you're well aware of what happened during the second leg of Chelsea's Champions League semi-final against Barcelona. After drawing 0-0 in the first leg at Barcelona, Chelsea led 1-0 in the second leg until Iniesta scored in stoppage time to give Barcelona a 1-1 draw, which meant Barca advanced to the final on the away goals tie breaker.

The Youth team pick up their second trophy of the season with a 2-1 over Liverpool at Anfield (6-2 on aggregate). more to come

My Catalan isn't great but I believe the picture says "Players, Fans, Everyone United Makes Strength, Thanks To Everyone" Barcelona wrapped up its 19th La Liga title and all the European cup spots are pretty much sewn up. The final week of the La Liga season still has some drama left with 5 teams still fighting to avoid relegation.