By DAVID MOSSE

Argentina and Brazil may well end up meeting in the final of the 2011 Copa America as most people envisioned before the start of the tournament, but the days of the two countries towering over the competition in South America appear to be over.

Por Maxi Bibbo / @maxi_balcarce
Uruguay y Perú pudieron pero no concretaron
Uruguay y Perú abrieron el Grupo C de la Copa América 2011 con un empate 1-1, sumando la cuarta igualdad en los escasos cinco partidos que van del torneo. El resultado dejó un sabor amargo para los charrúas, ya que aparecen como uno de los candidatos por su actuación en el último Mundial y por la realidad que viven muchos de sus jugadores.

Another introduction, you ask? But of course. We're ramping this thing up to 11. Eleven.

Crank it the **** up

Suitor No. 2. The second suitor, if you will (apologies for the plethora of film references today), is familiar to those who frequent The Offside.

Rigore, as penalty kicks are known in Italy, are games of luck. A well-aimed kick has a much better chance of going in than being saved by the goalie, who often must take a literal leap of faith before the ball is even struck. For Roma, however, there is of course more to the story. Claudio Pizarro has proven that he has the bottle to take a decisive spot kick when it matters.

Rigore, as penalty kicks are known in Italy, are games of luck. A well-aimed kick has a much better chance of going in than being saved by the goalie, who often must take a literal leap of faith before the ball is even struck. For Roma, however, there is of course more to the story. Claudio Pizarro has proven that he has the bottle to take a decisive spot kick when it matters.

By DAVID MOSSE

Uruguay is now in the somewhat unenviable position of being regarded as the favorite to win the 2011 Copa America following a remarkable quarterfinal round that saw both Argentina and Brazil crash out on penalties. The Celeste must guard against any kind of letdown after knocking out the hosts on Saturday in a pulsating encounter that will probably go down as the match of the tournament.

Bayern home games have a fascination of their own. For the past couple of seasons I developed the habit of watching the first half of a FC Barcelona game to cap off a hectic and unpredictable day of Bundesliga action. I did it less for the uncertainty of the result, but the uncertainty of how many goals Barca could score before the break.

Those were 150.000 Euros not well spent for Wolfsburg. Felix Magath loaned Aliaksandr Hleb from Barcelona for a special €100k per game and €50k per goal fee. Thus, Magath's total expenses for Saturday's trip to Dortmund added up to €150k, not counting the damage Dortmund's fresh in form offense caused all afternoon.

Kyle Barber wrote a review of Ronald Reng's recently translated book about Robert Enke. (Bundesliga Lounge) Nick Amies examined the reasons behind Mario Gomez' Super Mario form... (Deutsche Welle) Ryan Bailey wrote about how Union Berlin is planning to sell shares of its' soul.