Champions League Final Preview

Manchester United and Barcelona will battle Wednesday for the UEFA Champions League trophy.

Cristiano Ronaldo vs. Lionel Messi seems to be leading the discussion in the build up to Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League Final, but there are so many interesting things to look at with this match up. We’re lucky as fans to see a match between two teams who have just been crowned champions of their domestic leagues and who have enjoyed a season where they’ve both won just about everything on offer.

Please, share your thoughts. Who do you think will win? Will the Ronaldo vs. Messi match up live up to the hype? If not, who or what will decide the game?

MLS reaches quarter mark

Seattle Sounders FC's Freddie Ljungberg (10) dribbles down the field against the Los Angeles Galaxy in an MLS soccer game in Seattle, on Sunday, May 10, 2009. (AP)

Believe it or not, a quarter of the 2009 Major League Soccer season is in the books. Here’s a few things I’ve noticed from the start of the season, as well as a brief assessment of each team’s accomplishments — or lack thereof — thus far.

Parity all over the place

The past couple seasons, the Eastern Conference has been quite a bit stronger than the Western, as evidenced by the fact that five Eastern teams have made the playoffs in the past two seasons. This season could see that change, however. The two conferences are in a dead heat, each with 10 wins, 10 losses and seven ties in East vs. West games this season. While Chivas USA is running away in the West, there’s no other teams in either conference with an obvious playoff spot awaiting them.

EPL title race could effectively end today

Repeat of a repeat? It's looking more and more likely for Manchester United.

Manchester United kicks off a game with Wigan in about an hour-and-a-half. United are three clear of Liverpool at the top of the EPL, and this game against Wigan will bring them even with the Reds in games played. A United win means they need one point from their final two games to cement their third straight crown. This game effectively could end the race, as United would need to lose two straight and Liverpool would need to win out to draw even on points.

Away goals rule not perfect, but a plus for the game

Andres Iniesta celebrates his stoppage-time goal, which propelled Barcelona to the Champions League final in Rome on the away-goals rule. (Photo: Getty Images)

We got a comment on last week’s entry about the bad officiating and terrible behavior in the Champions League semifinals from the blog Sportology referring us to an entry there advocating the removal of the away-goals tiebreaker. Sportology argues that two draws don’t determine a winner and that a tie should be settled by extra time and penalty kicks or with a third game at a neutral site.  Good idea?

Champions League semis: The bad, the worse, and the ugly

Barcelona's Gerard Pique was lucky not to be called for handling the ball mid-way through the second half of a Champions League semi-final second leg against Chelsea. (Photo: Reuters)

Tuesday and Wednesday’s Champions League semi-finals were as engrossing as I’d expected given the high quality of the four participants left in the tournament. Unfortunately, both games are stained forever by decisions by the referees that affected not only the semi-finals, but the final on May 27 as well.

My candidate for World Player of the Year: Barcelona’s offense

With the outstanding play of Lionel Messi, it’s easy to look past other Barcelona players’ great seasons, but I’m curious why Samuel Eto’o isn’t getting more Player of the Year buzz as the season comes to a close. It’s hard to believe from the season he’s having that Barca was actually considering letting him go at the start of the season, because the line he has put up for the soon-to-be Spanish champions is unreal: Thirty goals and six assists in 42 games in all competitions for Barcelona.

With his recent about-face that he’d like to extend his stay at the Camp Nou, I think it’s safe to say the probationary tag that Pep Guardiola placed on him before the season will be lifted. In addition to a new contact, I hope Eto’o is also rewarded with more POTY buzz. Granted, it’s hard to argue against Messi, who has 36 goals and 15 assists in 47 games this season for Barcelona in all competitions, but it’s strange that Messi is the only Barca player getting a ton of buzz.

It’s amazing not only how many goals Barcelona has scored this season (142 total in all competitions), but how diverse the goals have been. Even in La Liga, Barcelona almost has three 20 goal scorers, and it’s hard to imagine on his current form that Thierry Henry won’t hit the net one more time to give them that impressive achievement.

I’m curious why there’s so much buzz for Messi but so little talk, at least in American soccer coverage, of the amazing seasons that Henry and Eto’o are enjoying.

Should the U.S. switch coaches?

Better times: Juergen Klinsmann waves to Bayern Munich fans in August, shortly after taking control of the German power. Klinsmann was fired April 27. (Photo: AP)

Yesterday I griped in my list of quick thoughts about the timing of Juergen Klinsmann’s dismissal from the coaching job at Bayern Munich and how it’s left me revisiting my fantasy of a big-name finally coaching the U.S. Men’s National Team. With Klinsmann’s dismissal, Michael and I have started talking again about whether the door to the National Team is still open on the United States Soccer Federation’s end.

Lots of quick thoughts

It has been far, far too long since either of us posted, but we’ll try to get in the habit again, or at least I will. Obviously, four months is far too long to go between posts, and to write about all that’s happened in that time would be ridiculous. So here are a few quick thoughts from the past four months.

It’s draft time, MLS!

After leading the nation in scoring in 2008, Akron's Steve Zakuani is widely projected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft. (University of Akron photo)

It seems lately all the talk concerning Major League Soccer has been whether David Beckham and Landon Donovan will be back in the league after their European loan moves this winter. But the MLS SuperDraft is creeping up steadily. ESPN2 will carry the first round from St. Louis starting at 1 p.m. CST this Thursday. Here’s a shakedown of the draft order as of Jan. 5, according to an MLS release. This is, of course, subject to change, even come draft day as teams shuffle players around and trade picks. Check back here as we break down the possibilities for each team in the draft.

A letter to Beckham

Not that I expect No. 23 to read this, but in light of his loan to AC Milan, I thought I’d try to sum up David Beckham’s motivations for the loan in a different way from our other entries. Here goes.