Liverpool will be hoping to take another step on the road to recovery this weekend when they tackle Blackburn Rovers, who showed in midweek that they are more than capable of running with the Premier League's big boys.
Rovers booked their place in the League Cup semi-finals on Wednesday with a shock win over table-toppers Chelsea.

To say the U.S. got a tough draw at the 2006 World Cup would be an understatement. Paired with European heavyweights Italy and the Czech Republic and African upstart Ghana, the Americans struggled in Germany and finished a disappointing fourth place in their group.

But it was a different story this time around for the U.

photo credit: Crystian Cruz

The knockout stage of the Champion's League was drawn the other day and now we've got some clubs with big, fat smiles on their faces while others can already feel the doom and gloom of an impending loss to a VERY powerful club.

Internazionale drew Chelsea in a crapper that is going to sting all the way until the 90 minutes ends on the field.

The pots for the World Cup draw on Friday are now official, and it is likely that the groups will be fairly even in terms of playing strength.
The only real anomalies are South Africa's elevation to a seeding as hosts, France lurking as a non-seeded team in Pot 4, and, dare I say, the presence of New Zealand in Pot 2.

Group Stages are over. Half are out. Some very exciting matches.

Yesterday Juventus got a big upset by losing at home, 1-4, to Bayern München and is now out of the nockout stages. Bayern is in along with Bordeaux, who beat Maccabi Haifa FC 0-1. Real Madrid or shall we say C. Ronaldo? did it's job by winning 1-3 against Olympique de Marseille, and helped AC Milan qualify as well on group C (Milan tied Zürich 1-1 in Switzerland with a goal by Ronaldinho).

1. It was a great weekend for the Premier League. It is always good for the big boys to be taken down a peg or two and for the other teams to sense they are still within reach. 2. Arsene Wenger seemed to conclude that too. A draw for Chelsea, defeat for Man Utd and victory [...]

Apparently, during his time managing in England, Jim Gannon refused to talk to Sky Sports for a number of months. Not in an Alex Ferguson, Harry Redknapp type bust up. No, Jim wouldn't talk because he got a bad picture from his satellite dish at home.An amusing anecdote but also a sign that Mr Gannon is not above taking an unconventional approach or taking on the big boys.

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has branded Aston Villa as a "very dangerous" team that could break the domination of the so-called 'big four' this season.

Villa trumped Sunderland 2-0 at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday, but not before toppling three of the big boys, as they have registered victories against Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool so far.

Martin O'Neill and his Aston Villa team were paid the highest of compliments recently by Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti, who believes that the job O'Neill has done merits Villa being mentioned in the conversation among the top teams in the English Premier League.
Carlo Ancelotti has delivered a massive compliment in the direction of Martin O'Neill and his Aston Villa side, claiming the Premier League's third-placed team have the quality to break into the top three.

I put down my writer's notebook to join the fans at the 2004 European Championships in Portugal; This was before the Holland-Czech Republic quarterfinal.

View full size photo »

I really don't know much about my lineage.

14 years down the road what had we achieved?
"Below-average moderate" as I am to grade the overall achievement for the league.
Yes, it provides a chance for any budding footballer to earn a livelihood out of kicking a ball around, also ample of jobs in coaching and club administration, etc.

Sunday isn't the biggest day in the world of European soccer. The Premier League has little to offer (though Saturday was a big day in England, read about it here), Italy's landscape is relatively barren and Spain doesn't have either of its big boys in action (though Deportivo La Coruna v. Valencia -- on at 2 p.

I wrote a bit about this yesterday in a more reasoned capacity for the Pitch Invasion Sweeper, but this being my own blog, with its own grammatical errors, errors of fact, quotes without citations, photos without attribution etcetera, I'm going to dive in exactly the sort of way that doesn't win web awards.

There are many reasons why Liverpool's defeat to Portsmouth on Saturday was the lowest point of a season with, let's face it, quite a few contenders.
But the one that sticks out for me came before the game even kicked off – it was the way the team was set up.
I find it really worrying that we go to the team at the bottom of the table and turn up with seven defensive outfield players.

The Sun has uncovered the seedy goings on in the top flight with one of Britain's most famous mangers getting his nuts wet with some Thai brass. Looks like whoever it is also a fan of ping-pong balls as well as sizes 5's! Rumours abound that it is one of the big boys in the north of England.

Phil Brown (I thought it was tanning salon) and Big Sam (No wonder his tickers giving him jip) are big web favorites but I'd love it to be Mancinni as he's just getting his feet under the table.