The defending champions can be eliminated today. And Liverpool's long run of European glory can also be extinguished.
Those are the two main story lines as Match Day Five, part one, unfolds across Europe.

Here's a quick look at each group playing today, all kickoffs at 14:45 Eastern except for the Rubin Kazan-Dynamo Kiev game that begins at 12:30 in Russia.

Group E
Fiorentina vs. Lyon, FSC, DTV456
Debreceni vs. Liverpool, Setanta, DTV 468

Liverpool must win in Hungary to have any chance of advancing. Even if they achieve that needed result they will be eliminated from the knockout stage if Fiorentina beats Lyon in Florence. Lyon has already qualified.

Group F
Rubin Kazan vs. Dynamo Kiev, 12:30 p.m., DTV462
Barcelona vs. Inter Milan, FSE, Fox Regionals, DTV469

If Inter and Rubin Kazan both win, Barcelona will be out. The defending champions would be eliminated because even though they could still match Rubin on points, the Russians hold the tie-breaker against Pep Guardiola's team. Inter has been decidedly unimpressive so far, but their two-goal rally in Kiev lifted them top of the group. They will be looking to end the suspense in Barcelona tonight.

Group G
Unirea vs. Sevilla, DTV464
Rangers vs. VfB Stuttgart, DTV465

Raise your hand if you picked the Romanians to advance out of this group. They will if they can beat already-qualified Sevilla tonight and VfB Stuttgart fails to win in Glasgow. However, if the Spanish powerhouse picks up a road win, then Rangers and VfB would both remain very much alive. Rangers, of course, have suffered successive humiliations at Ibrox in their first two group matches while the Germans have been unimpressive, themselves.

Group H
AZ vs. Olympiakos, DTV466
Arsenal vs. Standard Liege, DTV463

Arsenal will advance with a win or a draw; a victory would also clinch first place in the section. If the Gunners do rebound from a Saturday EPL loss at Sunderland and triumph, that would open the door for Olympiakos to qualify with a win in Holland.

DAILY READS
Seattle the star of MLS Cup

NASL back? (Sorta: We’ll have more this week on this one.)

Emergency meeting called by FIFA to discuss fixing, France-Ireland

England 2018 WC bid in chaos

The Quiet American, Philip Anschutz: “He settles any legal dispute – and there have been many – with whatever money is necessary rather than appear in court or the newspapers, including those he owns.”

Beckham can and will buy an MLS team (he says) AND has asthma

Global players union FIFPro asks FIFA to take action against MLS

Must read: Wynalda says he would never have played in MLS had he but known....

Congrats to Real Salt Lake, winners of Utah’s first sports title in 25 years.

See the penalty kick shootout here

You may have missed it: Garber sez: “Montreal”

DAILY READS
UEFA officials accused of aiding, abetting fixers

Jermain Defoe becomes the third EPL player to rack up five in one game in Spurs’ 9-1 rout of Wigan

“But in the end I decided that for a player to get 0, he would have to have spent the 90 minutes unconscious.”

Fan parks around world for 2010 (Perhaps to take the sting out of expected low traveling crowds?)

   When Bruce Arena took over as US national team coach in the fall of 1998 his first match was against Australia in San Jose.
   The night was instantly forgettable, a 0-0 draw at the end of a long year that had seen the USA finish last in the France World Cup.
Arena picked Eddie Lewis for that game. It was thought that the decision had as much to do with marketing the game -- Lewis played for the local San Jose MLS entry, after all -- as it did with rebuilding the national side.
   It didn't take long to understand that Arena didn't operate that way.
   He picked Lewis because he saw something in the player that could be developed.  We all know what happened: Lewis became an integral part of the side, helped build the foundation for Arena's 2002 success in South Korea and went on to have a significant overseas career.
   Lewis will be playing for the Los Angeles Galaxy Sunday night in the MLS Cup final against Real Salt Lake. He was one of the first guys Arena brought to the team after taking over last year and his presence should remind you that the boss still knows what it takes to build a team.
   Yes, you've got to have a Landon Donovan and a David Beckham helps. You always need a goalkeeper and you'd better have a solid central defense.
   But winning teams need the Eddie Lewis's of the world and Arena understands that part of the game better than anyone else coaching in this country.
   He knows that if you put the right type of support players in the right spots, then don't ask them to do things they cannot accomplish, that you will ultimately have a working team that won't lose its way in the tough times.
--
Just the facts:
   The United States went 9-1-2 at home in 2009. The only loss was the 5-0 shellacking at the hands of Mexico in the Gold Cup final and we all know that was not either side's full team. With the exception of a victory over Sweden in January all of the wins came against CONCACAF region members.
   The United States went 2-4-1 on the road, winning at Trinidad & Tobago and Honduras in the CONCACAF Hexagonal. They failed again in Costa Rica and Mexico [they have never won qualifiers in either country] and finished the year with two more losses on European soil. The last two games, like the Gold Cup, featured an under-strength side.
   The United States won 2, lost 3 on neutral ground in the FIFA Confederations Cup. The most significant win was over Spain; the most significant loss was in the final when the team blew a 2-0 halftime lead and fell to Brazil.
   Draw your own conclusions.
--
Now some opinions:

--The USA without Donovan is a ship without a rudder.
--Just as important, the USA without Oguchi Onyewu and Jay DeMerit in the central defense is a ship waiting to be sunk.
--Frankie Hejduk -- love that energy, love that effort, love what he has brought for years -- is no longer the answer.
--No team can expose its wide backs the way the USA has done ... it's easy to point fingers at those guys hung out to dry, but the play usually has broken down before they get torched. Still, they are getting torched.
--It's time to play something other than 4-4-2 since the midfield apparently cannot support the attackers nor help the defense in the current set-up. How about a 5-3-1-1 with three in the middle of the defense?


TV THIS WEEKEND (All times ET; our picks in bold)
FRIDAY
OM v PSG            1500    Setanta

SATURDAY
Rubin Kazan v Zenit         0545    Setanta
Liverpool v Man City        0745    ESPN2
Schalke v Hannover        0930    GolTV
Chelsea v Wolverhampton    1000    Setanta
Sunderland v Arsenal        1000    FSC/FSE
Burnley v Aston Villa        1000    Setanta X
B’ham v Fulham        1000   
Hull v West Ham        1000
Rangers v Kilmarnock    1000    Setanta P
Cardiff v Barnsley        1000    ESPN360
Inter v Bolgona        1155    ESPN360
Deportivo v Atletico        1155    ESPND/360
Tenerife v Sevilla        1200    GolTV
Ipswich v Sheff. Wednesday    1220    Setanta
Man U v Everton        1230    FSC/FSE
Racing v Real Madrid        1355    ESPND/360
Parma v Fiorentina        1445    ESPN360
Auxerre v Monaco        1500    Setanta
Bilbao v Barca            1600    GolTV
Pereira v Medellin        2000    GolTV

SUNDAY
Perth v Sydney        0300    FSC
Dundee United v Celtic    0730    Setanta P
Bolton v Blackburn        0830    Setanta
Ajax v Heerenveen        0830    ESPN360
AS Roma v Bari        0900    ESPN360
AC Milan v Cagliari        0900    FSC
Tottenham v Wigan        1000    FSE
Stoke v Pompey        1100    FSC
St. Etienne v Lorient        1100    Setanta
Hamburg v Bochum        1130    GolTV
Zaragoza v Malaga        1300    ESPND/360
San Luis v Toluca        1300    Univision
Botafogo v Sao Paulo        1400    GolTV
Juventus v Udinese        1430    FSC/FSE
Montpellier v Lille        1445    Setanta
Osasuna v Valencia        1600    GolTV
Santos v Morelia        1800    Telefutura
MLS CUP            2030    ESPN/ESPND/360

   Fair Play?
   Now we'll find out if FIFA or UEFA or anybody else really believes that motto.
The whole world saw it: Thierry Henry handled the ball before William Gallas scored to knock Ireland out of the World Cup.
   Well, not everybody saw it. The match referee, two assistants and the fourth official apparently missed that part of the match, or if anyone of them saw it nobody did anything about it.
    We've been on about the need for replay in the world's game for a long time. We've suggested that MLS put itself forward as a testing lab. We've argued that at some point a major game would be decided by a completely incorrect decision.
    Now it has happened.
    The "bad calls" and the "human element" won't even out for the Irish Republic. They'll miss millions of FIFA dollars and their players will not get a chance to play on the great stage.
   The French will head to South Africa under under a cloud. Everyone will know how they got there.
   OK, Mr. Blatter. OK, Mr. Platini.
   Let's see if "Fair Play" means anything.
   The right course of action is to acknowledge what everyone knows, order a replay at a neutral site and let the players decide the matter on the field.
   According to the rules this time.

MORE:

Henry admits to handling the ball

FIFA scotch Ireland rematch

French players, media admit tainted game

Dept. of No Comment: Bradley: “The six minute stretch really teaches us some lessons in terms of our reactions and our ability when a team really comes after us. That's something we can really look at closely and try to use down the road.”

   One of the best things about the World Cup is that you have to actually play your way in.
   It's not like the BCS, where a group of conference guys gerrymander the pairings while a bunch of pundits spend 16 weeks arguing whether that team from Idaho really, really would beat that one from Alabama if they actually played.
   Of course the reverse of the equation is that in the World Cup you don't play if your nation doesn't qualify.
   Which brings us to the final day of qualifying when the organizers must face the reality that their 2010 event could proceed without Andrei Arshavin, Thierry Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo.
   Oops.
   Who would organize an event and leave three of the world's best players -- OK, Henry is on the other side of the hill these days -- off the guest list?
   Arshavin's Russian side heads to Slovenia with a narrow 2-1 lead, having coughed up a late goal in Moskva that will give Slovenia every reason to think they can end Guus Hiddink's run of World Cup appearances.
   Henry's France will be looking to protect a 1-0 lead against the Republic of Ireland in Paris, but there are still many who believe that the Irish will somehow get the result and offer us six weeks of Robbie Keane next summer.
   And then there's Portugal. Ronaldo, of course, isn't playing and hasn't been since the end of the group stage qualifying a month ago. His teammates managed a slender 1-0 lead against Bosnia-Herzegovina but have a history of fragility on the biggest of occasions.
   From a purely entertainment standpoint you have to hope for the French, Portuguese and Russians to get the job done and take their places in South Africa. There are already too many quite ordinary European and South American sides who have qualified and if anybody expects entertainment from the Asian or CONCACAF qualifiers they must be kidding. There are seven nations whose best hopes for advancement start with the "let's try to score from a set piece while keeping all eleven guys in our half of the field" approach.
   Entertainment isn't the thought which comes to mind when contemplating the remaining UEFA fixture, either: Ukraine and Greece aren't teams which conjur up free-flowing images.
   Uruguay should finish off Costa Rica in our region's interzonal playoff but the African showdown in Sudan must be a toss-up. Egypt's two-time African champions face Algeria in that one.
   There will surely be plenty of grit, passion, atmosphere -- every cliche you can think up.
   Hopefully there will be an artist or two among the survivors.


TV TODAY:

Egypt-Algeria           1230   ART/Dish 601
Ukraine v Greece    1300    ESPN2/D/360

Denmark v USA    1430    ESPNC/360 (*this game will move to ESPN2 at 1505)
Italy v Sweden        1430    RAI/GolTV
Holland v Paraguay    1440     ESPN360
Bosnia-Herz v Portugal    1445    Setanta

Slovenia v Russia        1445    Setanta (Xtra)

France v Rep. Ireland        1500    Setanta P

Uruguay v Costa Rica        1800    Omnisport.com


DAILY READS
Funny: The Hammers branch out

Not funny: Egypt-Algeria violence prior to critical playoff game