Starting Eleven Football Blog Roundup

This is my semi-regular trip around the football blogosphere:

Fernando Torres has been the top Premier League acquisition this season--27 goals in 36 matches--and has kept Liverpool afloat in the FA Cup and Champions League, and for a 2009 Champions League berth. Oh You Beauty regales in Torres’ season--he scored the winner this weekend against Reading--pointing out that he has scored the game-winning or game-tying goal nine times this season.

Benfica--Portugal’s team turmoil--continues to tumble after a 1-1 draw against Maritimo this weekend. The draw was the team’s fourth straight, capping a sorry week which saw Camacho leave the bench for good and the club dumped out of the UEFA Cup by Getafe. Talking to the Doll has the gory details.


Center Holds it praises American Brian McBride’s efforts to keep Fulham from relegation in the Premiership. McBride scored the only goal in Fulham’s 1-0 win over Everton, keeping the “other” mercysiders from keeping pace for fourth in England.


101 Great Goals has its weekly roundup of what’s in the English papers, including the brilliant Martin Samuel of the Times challenging claims that the Premiership is the best league in the world.


Brian at Stateside Footy reports the U.S. will host Argentina June 8 at Giants Stadium. Glad to see the U.S. taking on some heavyweights on its friendly schedule.


English Soccer Talks revisits its preseason predictions; gutsy, most should do this periodically.


Finally, the Third Half has a guest post extolling the virtues of the U.S. Open Cup, it’s an excellent read and I’d be curious to hear a reaction from U.S. Soccer on the missed opportunity that is the U.S. Open Cup.

Rumor Mill: Champions Draw Rigged?

For you conspiracy theorists, this Bud's for you. The Champions League draw was posted at a Liverpool message board hours before the draw took place. Lucky guess? It's your call:

Read all about it:

Mike Whalley WorldofSport
JCP Election
Top of the 18

UEFA Cup Draw: Quarterfinals Ready

Sporting Lisbon's 1-0 win over Bolton yesterday capped off the round of 16 and eliminated the remaining English team from the UEFA Cup. Tottenham has been eliminated on Wednesday by PSV and Everton by Fiorentina--both by penalty kicks (why can't the English make a PK when it counts?).

This morning, the quarterfinal draw rendered some spicy matchups, namely Sporting-Rangers and PSV-Fiorentina. Rangers lead the Scottish Premier League, while Sporting is still alive in the Portuguese Cup and is looking to return to the UEFA Cup final as it did in 2005. PSV, meanwhile, leads in the Netherlands while Fiorentina is fighting for a Champions League spot in Italy.

Favorites Bayern Munich take on Getafe, which upended Benfica. Bayern leads in Germany, while Getafe is middle of the table. Coached by former Danish star Michael Laudrup, Getafe has a bunch of Real Madrid loans on its roster and could be a challenge for Bayern.

The final matchup pits Bayer Leverkeusen and Zenit St. Petersburg. Bayer is fourth in Germany nine points behind Bayern. Of note here: Should Bayer and Bayern win, you'd have an all-German semifinal and guarantee one spot in the final for the Bundesliga.

Champions League Draw: Arsenal-Liverpool Overload

Any major tournament draw is always met with the same levels of excitement and cynicism. Today, for instance, we have the quarterfinal and semifinal pairings for the Champions League, and with four English teams, there were bound to be eye-openers.

The spotlight pairing clearly is Arsenal-Liverpool, but shockingly, Manchester United and Roma were paired. ManU and Roma were in the same group, and this has to be disappointing to both sides and their respective fans; surely they're tired of each other. This matchup is worthy of a final; both teams are in top form and it will be interesting to see who survives this one and what the winner has left going forward.

The other two matchups feature Barcelona meeting Schalke and Chelsea taking on Fenerbahce. It would seem the two glamour sides here got the better of this deal. Barca won't have Leo Messi when it takes on the upstarts from Germany who handled Portuguese leaders Porto. Chelsea, meanwhile, are real sleepers in the Premiership, in spite of the pressure on their coach Avram Grant.

Back to Arsenal-Liverpool for a second, not only does the guarantee one English side in the semis, but it sets up three matches between these two teams in a week's span: April 2, 5 and 8. WOW. Rafa and Arsene will certainly earn their money that week, not only strategy wise, but in human capital. Who sits, who plays and how often? These are three high-pressure matches and this could be advantage Liverpool. Arsenal would likely need the Premiership match much more than Liverpool, which could take advantage of its fourth- or fifth-place standing and sit some players for the domestic match and focus on Europe.

Cynical view: UEFA's out to get Arsene here (just kidding).

The semifinals, meanwhile, shake out this way:

Arsenal-Liverpool winner vs. Chelsea-Fenerbahce winner
ManU-Roma winner vs. Barca-Schalke winner

Spare us another Liverpool-Chelsea semi, but if that's the price to pay for a titanic ManU-Liverpool final, then so be it.

Oh You Beauty has more on the draw.
101 Great Goals has a brief reaction too.
Abeloa didn't get his wish; read Anfield Talk.
Champions League Talk has some early predictions.

Champions League Preview: Inter Milan vs. Liverpool

The Premiership may have failed to get one of the big four into the FA Cup semifinals for the first time since 1912, but that may be forgotten by tonight should Liverpool finish the job against Inter Milan in their second leg round-of-16 Champions League match at the San Siro (ESPN2, 3:30 p.m. ET).

A positive result for Liverpool today means that the entire big four of England are in the Champions League quarterfinals; and extraordinary achievement.

Of the four, Liverool was the least likely to make it this far considering its roller-coaster season domestically. But clearly, Rafa Benitez has built his team to win this tournament, and he's admitted that he's more suited for coaching life outside the EPL. Should Liverpool give up its 2-0 first-leg advantage and be bounced out, Rafa is likely to follow the Reds right out the door at Anfield.

This would only add to the anxiety surrounding the club, whose owners are at odds over selling their respective shares to a consortium from Dubai. This is truly an injustice to the fan. The front-office discord is unhealthy; the on-field inconsistency is maddening to watch and the tease that is a sixth European championship is seductive.

I've always been one to root for the good story, and clearly here, the better tale is Liverpool getting in and running the table. Not only would Liverpool fans get a title, but it would be near impossible to ditch Rafa.

All indications are that Liverpool should manage to get through. Behind the fabulous Fernando Torres, the Reds haven't lost in the Premiership since late January, and the only blemish on its record is its monumental 1-0 loss to Barnsley in the FA Cup. Liverpool has scored 15 goals in its last five matches and has won four in a row.

Oh You Beauty examines today's match from a technical viewpoint, concentrating on Rafa's 4-2-3-1 alignment.

EPL Talk, meanwhile, says Liverpool has a mountain to climb; we'll see.

Italian Soccer Serie A has the 19 Inter players called up for today's match.

101 Great Goals has a rundown from the English press on the match.

Champions League The Offside has a preview as well.

Same goes for Great Red North.

Interesting Poll Results

Some of you who stop by regularly may notice that I regularly put up a poll. It's usually a fun thing for me, and I can pretty much guess how it's going to turn out.

The last one has me flummoxed, however. I asked where you think Jose Mourinho may end up, and while this is hardly scientific or even remotely close to a worthy sample, four of the nine who voted said Liverpool.

Honestly, I would have expected Barcelona to be the runaway winner, and if there was going to be an underdog winner, I would have pinned my hopes on the Portuguese national team; but Liverpool?

I'll repost the results here since the poll will eventually disappear:

Liverpool 4 votes (44%)
Barcelona 2 votes (22%)
Portugal 1 vote (11%)
Benfica 1 vote (11%)
Porto 1 vote (11%)
AC Milan 0 votes (0%)
Other 0 votes (0%)

9 TOTAL VOTES

I'll speculate here that I have some loyal readers who are Liverpool diehards and those folks voted with their hearts. My head still tells me Barcelona or even AC Milan, which got ZERO votes in my informal survey.

But it would be interesting to see him land at Anfield; perhaps from there he could carry out his "kill Chelsea" promise.

Upset Alert: Manchester United Out of FA Cup

Portsmouth upsets Manchester United 1-0. Sulley Muntari's penalty kick in the final 15 minutes ends the Red Devils' treble dreams. Sir Alex started Tomasz Kuszczak in goal, but he was red-carded for taking down former Liverpool scorer Milan Baros.

See the highlights at Footballocks.
RedRants laments United's tough April schedule.