The Spanish Super Cup remains in the balance after Barcelona beat Real Madrid 3-2 last night in
the Camp Nou in the first leg in the first El Clasico of the season.
Cristiano Ronaldo put Real Madrid ahead, heading home from a corner, but Pedro levelled
immediately from the kick-off.
Lionel Messi scored a penalty after Andres Iniesta was fouled, before Xavi scored a terrific
third.
The Spanish Super Cup remains in the balance after Barcelona beat Real Madrid 3-2 last night in
the Camp Nou in the first leg in the first El Clasico of the season.
Cristiano Ronaldo put Real Madrid ahead, heading home from a corner, but Pedro levelled
immediately from the kick-off.
Lionel Messi scored a penalty after Andres Iniesta was fouled, before Xavi scored a terrific
third.
The first of this season's inevitable sequence of several thousand El Clasicos was a bit of a
ripsnorter, with Barcelona taking first blood in the two-legged Spanish Supercopa final by virtue
of a 3-2 victory over Real Madrid at the Camp Nou all five goals coming in a blistering second
half.
Everton 1-0 Manchester United Premier League 20 August 2012
"Hey, 'little boy inside me', you're getting a right kicking when we get home"
While man of the moment Robin Van Persie was watching from the United subs bench, the
afro-tastic Marouane Fellaini was giving a virtuoso performance in the heart of the Everton
midfield at Goodison on Monday night.
Shorn of stars such as Gareth Bale and Joe Ledley, Wales went down by two goals to nil against
Mexico in Chris Coleman's first game as manager.
Playing in sweltering heat at the MetLife Stadium in New York, Mexico were much the better side
and went ahead towards the end of the first half after totally dominating the game.
Sunderland 0-1 Manchester United Premier League 20th May 2012
While the Etihad Stadium was serving up more drama than an omnibus Corrie, Manchester United
were going about their job in impressive fashion at the Stadium of Light.
With the final minutes of the first half ticking away on Sunday night, the New York Red Bulls
looked like they just might suffer their first loss at Red Bull Arena this year. Two early goals by
the Portland Timbers had the Red Bulls on the ropes and looking ripe for defeat.
This Wednesday marks the 14th game of the season for KC, and the final game against the Western
Conference. KC has already played 8 of the 9 teams in the West and will finalize that part of the
season with the trip back to the Pacific Northwest. KC close out the Western Conference playing the
Sounders at Century Link Field tomorrow.
BRIDGEVIEW, IL.- Fans at Toyota Park were treated to plenty of goal-scoring action early and
often in Saturday night's Chicago Fire-New England Revolution, with three goals coming in the first
15 minutes of the match. Luckily for most of those fans, the Fire came away with the edge during
that flurry, as they continued their recent hot form with another victory.
Continuing the country's recent trend of success on the youth international level, Mexico will
play for Olympic gold.
Mexico battled back from an early deficit and got a goal and an assist from Oribe Peralta to
post a 3-1 victory over Japan in their semifinal match at Wembley Stadium Tuesday, sealing a place
in the Olympic final against either Brazil or South Korea.
Gomez gets another (begins at 1:16) Herculez Gomez is at it again. The U.S.
striker scored his second goal in three games this season, heading home a cross in the 2-2 draw
between Santos and Pachuca. Gomez had two goals for the U.S. in the 'five-game tournament' earlier
this summer, scoring against Brazil before tallying in the 3-2 win against Antigua & Barbuda to
start World Cup qualifying.
Euro 2012: Can Ven Persie replicate his Arsenal form? Plus: Ronaldo, Lewandowski and Soviet
Russia - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Euro 2012 got underway on Friday night with two entertaining games in Group A.
Poland and Greece played out a hard-fought 1-1 draw after an elaborate opening ceremony, with
sendings off, missed penalties and a lot of passion on show.
Sporting Kansas City did something Wednesday night that no team across any level of U.S. Soccer
had been able to do in the last four years: Defeat the Seattle Sounders in the U.S. Open Cup.
Sporting Kansas City captured its second U.S. Open Cup in franchise history, outlasting the
Sounders in penalties 3-2 after a 1-1 draw through regulation and extra time and ending the
Sounders' hopes of becoming the first team to win four straight tournament titles.
The U.S. women's national team needed to come back three separate times against Canada, and
ultimately they were the ones that came out victorious in a thrilling match that is already being
considered an instant classic.
Alex Morgan netted the winner seconds before penalty kicks were to take place, heading home a
cross to give the United States a 4-3 extra-time victory over northern rivals Canada in the
semifinals of the Olympics at Old Trafford on Monday.
Blackpool sealed a showdown with West Ham in the Championship play-off final after a thrilling
semi-final second leg with Birmingham at St Andrew's.
Leading 1-0 from Friday night's first leg, Blackpool seemed to have the tie sewn up when they
scored two goals minutes either side of half-time from Stephen Dobbie and Matt Phillips.
Chelsea suffered a first defeat of pre-season on Wednesday night in Philadelphia, thanks to an
injury time winner for the MLS.
Eddie Johnson was the hero with the winning goal in the 91st minute with Chris Wondolowski and
Chris Pontius also scoring for the all-stars, and John Terry and Frank Lampard scoring for
Chelsea.
Call it an exhibition, not important, and heck, even some have called it stupid, but any way you
slice it, a team of All Stars from Major League Soccer defeated the reigning European champions,
Chelsea FC, 3-2 on Wednesday night in front of an amazing crowd at PPL Park in Chester, PA.
Some of the brightest stars in MLS shone brightest on the night, with players like Chris
Wondolowski, Chris Pontius, Thierry Henry, and others all contributing to what should be viewed as
a nice little victory for the team on the night, and the league as a whole.
The U.S. women's national team's Olympic campaign could not have started any worse, but after 14
nightmare minutes, the two-time reigning gold medalists restored order and opened group play with
three points.
Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach scored to eliminate an early 2-0 deficit, and early substitute
Carli Lloyd scored the game-winner on a long-range rocket to help the U.
Second-half substitute Diego Fagundez scored with the last kick of the game as the New England
Revolution opened up a three-game home-stand by rescuing a 2-2 draw with Seattle Sounders FC on
Saturday night at Gillette Stadium.
Fagundez entered the game in the 81st minute and scored the dramatic equalizer in the fourth
minute of stoppage time – heading home fellow substitute Fernando Cardenas' left-wing cross –
marking the second straight week the Revs did so after Chris Tierney's 94th-minute equalizer last
weekend against Toronto FC.
The Houston Dynamo's perfect record inside BBVA Compass Stadium was on the brink of coming to an
end, but Will Bruin came up with some late game heroics to prevent that from happening.
Bruin capped a comeback for the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday night, heading home a 90th-minute
equalizer in a 3-3 draw with Toronto FC.
Alan Gordon came through in the clutch to prevent the San Jose Earthquakes from losing for the
second straight week, and this time he did so in spectacular fashion.
A week after heading home a late equalizer against Chivas USA, Gordon repeated his late-game
heroics by scoring a sideways bicycle kick in the last minute of regulation to give the Earthquakes
a 1-1 draw versus the Columbus Crew at Buck Shaw Stadium.
When Bayern Munich's Tomas Mueller headed home the first goal of a tightly-contested UEFA
Champions League final, Chelsea chances of lifting the trophy looked doomed.
Didier Drogba had other plans though, delivering a vital late equalizer to set up extra time and
a dramatic penalty shootout for the ages.
Balotelli brace stuns Germany and sends Italy through to Euro 2012 final - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
Italy stunned highly-fancied Germany with 2-1 win on Thursday night to book a place in the Euro
2012 final against holders Spain. Mario Balotelli was the hero, scoring both Azzurri goals in a
commanding Italy performance before Mesut Ozil grabbed a consolation from the penalty spot in
injury-time.
Balotelli brace stuns Germany and sends Italy through to Euro 2012 final - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
Italy stunned highly-fancied Germany with 2-1 win on Thursday night to book a place in the Euro
2012 final against holders Spain. Mario Balotelli was the hero, scoring both Azzurri goals in a
commanding Italy performance before Mesut Ozil grabbed a consolation from the penalty spot in
injury-time.
With less than 1 week left in the Euro 2012 campaign and the countdown well and trule over , eyes
will start to focus on Premier league and especially the summer transfer market. Whilst England
Premiership players have packed their bags and are heading home to prepare for the Premier League
openers on Saturday 18th [.
After showing signs against England that they could be real contenders for Euro 2012, France
went out with an almighty whimper against Spain on Saturday night.
Laurent Blanc started with right-back Mathieu Debuchy on the right side of midfield (with
Anthony Reveillere talking the gifted full-back's place in defence), a tactical decision that told
us all we needed to know about how Les Bleus would approach this fixture.
Before Euro 2012 began, the common consensus was that Spain and Italy would progress to the
knockout stages from Group C, with Spain winning the group and Italy finishing second.
That is what happened, but neither Spain or Italy were convincing in their third group match and
Croatia has to consider itself really unlucky to be heading home today.
Portugal progress as Ronaldo returns to form - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Group B threw up two enthralling and captivating games on Sunday night, as four good teams were
all still in the mix to qualify for the quarter-finals ahead of play. Germany overcame a dogged
Denmark side 2-1 to progress through to the last eight, whilst
Portugal were inspired by captain Cristiano Ronaldo to also win 2-1 against Netherlands and
finish as runners up in the pool.
We saw the outcome of Group A yesterday and boy was it dramatic. Going in I head pegged Russia
and Poland as the two heading to the upper echelons of the tournament. Instead it was the Czech
Republic and Greece of all nations... Just goes to show that anything can happen in a
tournament!
In any case, today we have everybody's favorite group kicking off: the Group of Death.
Greece and Czech Republic qualify from Group A: Which teams from Group B will join them? -
originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Ahead of Saturday night's final Euro 2012 Group A fixtures, most of the talk was concerned with
whether Poland or Czech Republic would join Russia in the quarter-finals.
Sweden head coach Erik Hamren says he's learnt a lot about his side, despite crashing out of
Euro 2012 following a 3-2 defeat to England.
The Swedes lost both of their opening Group D fixtures from winning positions and have to settle
for an early exit from Poland and Ukraine.
Two goals at the start of the second half put Sweden in front on Friday before strikes from Theo
Walcott and Danny Welbeck gave England a dramatic victory.
Hodgson's England Live Up To Realistic Expectations - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Monday evening saw the conclusion of the first round of Euro 2012 fixtures, with England and
France sharing the spoils in the opener before Andriy Shevchenko wound back the years to give
co-hosts Ukraine a winning start over Sweden.
Frank Lampard was today ruled out of playing in Euro 2012 after picking up a thigh strain earlier
in the week. England have now lost two senior experienced players to injury in the space of a
week. Whilst losing Gareth Barry was a potential blessing in disguise, it's hard to see how
today's announcement can benefit the [.
When it comes to knock out games, the U.S. women's national team certainly like late game
heroics. In the 2011 Women's World Cup it was Abby Wambach in the 122nd minute against Brazil and
yesterday it was Alex Morgan and the 123rd minute against cross-border rivals Canada. Morgan's goal
propelled the USWNT to a 4-3 win and secured a berth in the Olympics goal medal match.
We are hours away from USA-Brazil, and ussoccer.com has posted all the news and notes to get you
prepped. Here's some highlights:
With the 5-1 win against Scotland, the U.S. has collected five consecutive victories dating
back to last year, including three straight shutout wins against Venezuela, Panama and Italy to
open the 2012 campaign.
