The final international break for the 2012-13 season has come and gone, leaving the members of Europe's top leagues with a little over two months of uninterrupted club competition to close out the calendar.
While the transfer market has closed in most of Europe, it is still open in Russia, and Zenit St
Petersburg announced their Champions League intentions with a sensational double swoop today for
Porto striker Hulk and Benfica's Axel Witsel for a combined £70million.
The midweek fixture this week was no cup tie, no Champions League group game, just a fairly standard league game against West Ham. This is part of the run of games that I have said Utd need full points from. There's no real pressure on at the moment, everything is rolling by quite comfortably. Without being anywhere near great, Utd top the table, and still have another Champions League game where the result is irrelevant.
As Real Madrid and Ajax officially wrapped up their league titles in midweek, three of the six
major leagues in Europe have already crowned their champion.
The question of who will raise the Scudetto hinges on the penultimate weekend in Serie A as the
Milan derby looms large and the league leaders jockey for position.
In this episode Pedro and Luke discuss the weekend's best talking points. The San Jose Earthquakes
are still league leaders, but with SKC, NYRB and RSL at their heels, can they hold on? Dramatic
referee decisions in New York, woe for Portland, a solid match between Houston and Columbus, plus
is Montreal a playoff contender?
Seattle Sounders FC (10-6-7) vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC (10-7-7) William Schulz: Playing two matches on the road made last week was a rough one for the folks
in Seattle. Losing a cup final followed by a last-minute loss to the nigh-unstoppable Earthquakes.
It has been a topsy-turvy week for the Portland Timbers. After traveling to Colorado and logging
their poorest performance and worst loss of the year, the boys returned home on two days of rest
and beat the first place San Jose Earthquakes.
Unfortunately, the packed schedule has taken its toll on the starting lineup, and now Franck
Songo'o, Lovel Palmer, and Rodney Wallace are all likely unavailable for today's game.
Vancouver looks to stay hot against the Red Bulls (Getty Images)
It is an over-sized Wednesday night in Major League Soccer. Six games on the menu all taking
place west of the Mississippi River.
A couple of the games tonight look like real crackers too, just a shame they come in the middle
of the week and aren't getting properly hyped by the league or aired on national TV here.
Another week of former SKC Wizards updates. Two new former players are on the list Michal Mravec is
playing in the Dutch second division, while Milos Stojcev is playing for FC Akzhayik, the league
leaders in Kazakhstan. In fact, Stojcev scored on the weekend. Also active this week, was Yura
Movsisyan, who scored 3 goals in two games this week.
Another player gone this week, and so begins the reconstruction period. This time it wasn't
necessarily a player who was beloved by fans, but was a player who contributed in the background,
often coming on as a substitute in recent games. Still, that's not to say Mike Chabala didn't have
a good time here in Portland, and hopefully the fans will remember his contributions to the team
since last summer.
As a documented occurrence amongst many facets of western culture, the sophomore slump appears
to have nabbed its next victim: our own Portland Timbers. That's not to say that the players, FO
and coaching staff aren't responsible for this season, in fact they're the very cause of the these
second year woes.
Coming back from a miserable 0-3 loss to Colorado rapids last weekend the Portland Timbers bounced
back to beat league leaders San Jose Earthquakes 2-1 on Tuesday night and enhanced their reputation
as a team who can beat "in form" opposition when playing at JELD-WEN Field.
photo courtesy of Puerto Rico Islanders/San Antonio Scorpions
By FRANCO PANIZO
The San Antonio Scorpions were tripped up in their quest to finish the regular season atop the
NASL table, as they suffered a defeat that has made things much tighter in the standings.
Sunday's final regular season meeting between the two teams who've jockeyed for first place most
of the season ended with an away win for the Puerto Rico Islanders, 2-1, at the San Antonio
Scorpions' Heroes Field. Â Saturday in the NASL the Tampa Bay Rowdies staged a furious comeback to
earn a point against their hosts, [.
There's winning in style and then there is what the San Antonio Scorpions just did to the
Carolina RailHawks.
The Scorpions recorded the biggest rout of the season on Saturday, humiliating the RailHawks,
8-0, at Heroes Stadium. San Antonio jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 15 minutes of the game,
but it was the six-goal second half that really pleased the 7,186 fans in attendance.
The race for first place in NASL is heating up, and the Tampa Bay Rowdies are right in the thick
of things.
The Rowdies inched one step closer to the top spot in the league standings this past Sunday,
picking up a 1-0 victory over FC Edmonton that came courtesy of a late goal and despite them being
down to 10 men.
The fourth of July festivities were scheduled for today at Heroes Stadium in San Antonio, Texas
but not before NASL league leaders SA Scorpions FC took on FC Edmonton to round out a busy week for
both clubs. FC Edmonton drew with the Puerto Rico Islanders on the weekend amid a structural change
in formation [.
The Charleston Battery's quest to take first place became more difficult this past weekend, as
they suffered a pair of surprises losses to the rising Charlotte Eagles.
The Eagles first blanked the Battery, 2-0, on Friday courtesy of two goals in the second
half.
Orlando City SC were forced to settle for a pair of somewhat disappointing draws in their two
games in two days this weekend, but the way in which they grabbed a result in the second match was
testament to the team's character.
Newcastle United have recorded their highest home attendance for more than 35 years. Newcastle's
famous fans Sunday's last home game against league leaders Manchester City, saw 52,389 supporters
in the ground to watch Newcastle take on league leaders Manchester City, which we fianlly lost 2-0,
after a brave effort.
Newcastle held Manchester City for 70 minutes on Sunday, before the league leaders finallyÂ
breached the determined  Newcastle defense. Vincent Kompany challenges Demba Ba on Sunday And it
was an excellent goal too by one of Man City's real stars Yaya Toure. Yaya is a top player,
because he produces when it matters he's like the mail man (post man) he always delivers, and
his [.
Newcastle held Manchester City for 70 minutes on Sunday, before the league leaders finallyÂ
breached the determined  Newcastle defense. Vincent Kompany challenges Demba Ba on Sunday And it
was an excellent goal too by one of Man City's real stars Yaya Toure. Yaya is a top player,
because he produces when it matters he's like the mail man (post man) he always delivers, and
his [.
Manchester City's Summer 2012 Transfer Targets - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Backed by their wealthy owners, Manchester City have spent a fortune on players includingÂ
Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Carlos Tevez in recent seasons.
It's fully expected that the Manchester club will continue to spend big to bring in new,
quality, players as soon as the transfer window re-opens.
With Arsenal surprisingly loosing 2 points yesterday and drawing 3-3 at home to Norwich City,
 Newcastle's home game with league leaders Manchester City takes on even more prominence today
if that's possible. That makes it one defeat and three draws in the last four games for ArsenalÂ
- and that's 9 points dropped, and both Newcastle and Tottenham are now only 2 points behind the
Gunners with a [.
The rich get richer as Premier League leaders Manchester City have inked massive new six-year
kit deal with Nike worth £120million.
The contract, which will come into effect in the 2013-14 season, replaces the Premier League
leaders' existing deal with Umbro, who are now owned by Nike.
The rich get richer as Premier League leaders Manchester City have inked massive new six-year
kit deal with Nike worth £120million.
The contract, which will come into effect in the 2013-14 season, replaces the Premier League
leaders' existing deal with Umbro, who are now owned by Nike.
The Draw for the last 32 of this season's Europa League has been made and as you all know by now, Spurs have will face French side Lyon for the right to progress to the final 16. There could have been easier ties and as France heads for the start of 2013, Lyon are in second place in Ligue 1, level on points with leaders PSG.
Ah, the Clash Back to the main point of this blog. Things don't get easier for the
Rapids as their at the Supporters Shield leading Earthquakes tomorrow night. Not an easy place to
turn things around. Game time tomorrow is 8:30pm on Altitude, so go out and enjoy the bike race in
Golden, Boulder, or areas in-between, get a good dinner, and settle down for some soccer.
Playing as a striker in emergency circumstances, Helsingborg debutant Alejandro Bedoya has just
hopped on his bike to slam home the 37th minute opener in a key contest at league leaders Elfsborg.
The defending champs trail the current throne-sitters by seven points with 12 games to play, so
obviously a win today is paramount if they wish to repeat.
The first week of August means sweltering temperatures in Japan and the action in the J. League is
also hotting up. Sanfrecce Hiroshima are the current league leaders just after the halfway point of
the campaign, but second-placed Vegalta Sendai are hot on their heels.
Saturday's full round of action sees Sanfrecce host Shimizu S-Pulse in one of the day's highlight
fixtures, while Urawa Reds welcome neighbours FC Tokyo to Saitama Stadium.
The annual mid-summer dump of player salary information by the Major League Soccer Player's
Union has hit, and as always, it makes for a great read for fans. As always, there is plenty of
fodder for discussion for fans looking critically at the list of salaries. The Revolution's all
new Designated Player Jerry Bengston is making only $120,000, suggesting that his DP status is
based on his transfer fee and not his salary.
Apologies for missing last week's Western Conference update - it was a bit of a busy week. This
week has been busy as well, with lots of personnel changes happening all around the league.
Since the last time I posted an update 25 MLS games have taken place, including three involving
the Portland Timbers.
The Ottawa Fury headed first to Connecticut on Friday and then to Western Mass on Saturday
hoping to extend their lead at the top of the PDL's Northeast Division. What actually happened was
quite the opposite.
After being upset 2-0 by CFC Azul (4-3-4, 16 points) Friday, the Fury suffered another
disappointment, falling 1-0 to the Western Mass Pioneers (3-2-5, 14 points) in Ludlow on Saturday
night.
The fifteenth round of the 2012 Torneo Clausura starts shortly as Godoy Cruz host Argentinos
Juniors in Mendoza, and continues later tonight with Tigre taking on league leaders Newell's Old
Boys. Later in the weekend, San Lorenzo travel to Santa ... Continue reading →
The end of season play-offs are both exhilarating and exhausting. For the clubs that finish in
places just below the automatic promotion places, everything comes down those two or three matches
at the end of the season and they come so quickly after the end of the normal league season that
the work that has gone into securing a place just above that dotted line can feel as if it has come
and gone all too quickly.
The Indonesia Super League transfer window has been and gone with some notable names moving. I have
no idea about the supposedly official Indonesia Premier League though if the rumours are true then
no bugger there has any money and clubs are leaving.
Former Persitara striker Prince Bello Kabir is back!
