It will be interesting to see what sort of coverage and viewing figures the FA Cup semi-finals get when they go head-to-head with the Premiership this weekend. Portsmouth and Cardiff start as favourites but that is hardly an enviable position given the number of upsets in this season’s competition.
Portsmouth will probably bide their time looking for West Brom to push forward. Certainly there is no doubt about the Albion’s ability to score in the Championship (78 so far) but their defence does leak with 51 goals against in 40 games.
If you are a Barnsley supporter it must really be a case of nearly the best of times and nearly the worst of times – Barnsley have such a long history they have seen better and also worst. Even so their fantastic Cup wins over Liverpool and Chelsea have not earned them any easy points as they try to avoid the drop to League One.
One win in nine league games means that goal difference is the only thing keeping the Yorkshire team from the relegation zone. Cardiff harbours no such threat from relegation and have been able to maintain some decent league form during their Cup run to the point that they still retain a faint hope of securing a promotion play-off spot.
Prediction – West Brom vs. Cardiff in the Final.
The bookending of the Premiership match between Arsenal and Liverpool by the quarter final of the Champions League takes a bit of the sheen of this weekend’s game. Will the managers choose to rest some players or will it be a case of the same again. Wenger says he has not given up on the title and so if that is true then we should see little change. After creating a five point gap with Everton Liverpool will not want to risk that number shrinking.
With Boro and Manchester City having little to play for – City may look to have an outside chance of a UEFA Cup spot but not based on recent form – Manchester United and Chelsea will be hoping to increase the gap on Arsenal and Liverpool.
At the relegation end of the table Wigan vs. Birmingham, Fulham vs. Sunderland are six pointers while Newcastle (a much happier Newcastle) would like to keep Reading below them and Villa needs to stop a run of three straight losses (and shut outs) against Bolton.
Sevilla versus Villarreal has the makings of a top class game as does Mallorca against Real Madrid. Villarreal are the form team at the moment although there is a train of thought that when Villarreal gets into a position to really challenge for some silverware that is when it starts to go all wobbly for them.
Mallorca have only one loss in their last their last twelve although seven finished as draws. What’s more David Guiza is cracking goals in at the moment for Mallorca and they have been known to give Real Madrid problems – Real came a cropper in the Copa del Rey this season.
Matt Scott says that the Stevens’ Inquiry has produced evidence of financial irregularities in a number of player transfers.
After Jurgen Klinsmann opted to move on some expected the German rival to wither. Not so according to Raphael Honigstein.
We have a weekend menu of La Liga, MLS and Gold Cup. Real Madrid can win La Liga for the first time since 2003 this weekend but if you are a bettor then the odds apparently are not too good that it will come to pass. The Spanish paper Marca has had someone calculate the odds of Real securing their 30th Spanish title with one week to go and it is apparently less than 10%.
Real Madrid travels to play fifth place Real Zaragoza who are trying to make sure that they hold on to a UEFA Cup spot. Zaragoza has only lost twice at home this season although Real Madrid has already won 11 times away this season. That is three games more than the next best – Atletico Madrid – while league challengers Barcelona has four fewer wins and nine less points.
What is surprising is that Real Madrid and Barcelona share the same goals for and against when away from home. Both teams have scored 32 and conceded 20 but the Madrid side has obviously rung more points out of their efforts.
Barcelona is still unbeaten at home this season – the only Spanish side that can boast of such a record – and plays Espanyol at the Nou Camp in a derby match-up. Despite efforts to have Ronaldinho’s red card against Getafe rescinded it is unlikely to succeed. Espanyol’s 3-1 win over Barca earlier in the season was their first in ten matches and only their second in the last 15 derby clashes. With Espanyol sitting comfortably in mid-table they have little incentive to bring their best game – except that is, to screw up their bitter local rivals!
With talk of a Real Madrid league championship in the offing it easy to forget that Sevilla’s treble dream is still on alive. However, should Real Madrid and/or Barcelona win this weekend it will have to move to life support. Sevilla plays Mallorca who will finish the season at the Bernabeu next weekend. A run of four straight wins in April and May banished any relegations fears for Mallorca but the last two games have brought to 1-0 losses.
Fears that manager Juande Ramos might be seduced by big money offers from foreign clubs has meant that Sevilla has stepped up attempts to sweeten the pot and to tie Ramos down with a longer-term contract.
At the butt-end of the table Celta Vigo (away to Atletico Madrid) and Real Sociedad (home to Racing Santander) are both in need of divine intervention in order to stay in the top flight. Both sit on 33 points and trail Athletic Bilbao (away to Villarreal) and Real Betis (home to Osasuna) by four points. Celta Vigo and Sociedad both need nothing less than a win and even then they could still be demoted this weekend.
The Chicago Fire broke a horrible five-goal winless stretch when they beat Columbus by the odd goal in five the last time out. They hope to build a winning streak when Chivas comes calling. Former Lazio, River Plate and Juventus striker Marcelo Salas has been training with the Fire this week but no word yet of a contract offer let alone acceptance. Chivas arrives in Chicago with a poor away record of a single point in four games. A couple of weeks ago Chivas coach Preki was bemoaning the lack of scoring from the midfield. With the strike pairing of Razov and Galindo contributing three quarters of Chivas’ goals to date it is an imbalance that has not yet been rectified.
New York Red Bulls snuck out of Toronto on Wednesday with three points after a smash-and-grab win over the FC. Any debate of about which big signing will make the biggest impact seems pointless at the present given that Colombian Juan Pablo Angel has now scored six goals in his first five games for the Bulls – including both markers against Toronto FC.
The Red Bulls are in the middle of a stretch of game that has them playing six of seven on the road and on Saturday they visit Washington to play DC United. It will be a homecoming of sorts for the Red Bulls coach Bruce Arena who spent the formative years of MLS building DC United into its most successful team. His team will face a side that appears to have recovered from a tentative start to the season and are now unbeaten in five games.
Both Canada and the USA came through their opening games with wins while Mexico plays Cuba on Friday evening in their opening match. Mexico will have European based players such as Pavel Pardo, Ricardo Osorio and Carlos Salcido. However, Barcelona has been able to hold on to Rafa Márquez until the end of the Spanish season. Mexico plays Honduras on Sunday and with Cagliari’s David Suazo and Genoa’s Julio César León in the line-up Honduras could have worried Mexico. But neither player is in the Honduran squad.
On Wednesday evening Canada started the Gold Cup with one of their finest performances in some time. A second half double from Deportivo La Coruna’s Julian de Guzman (his first goals for Canada) helped to overcome Costa Rica 2-1.
On Saturday they play Guadeloupe, a French protectorate that is not a full FIFA member and therefore ineligible for the World Cup. Jocelyn Angloma, who played 37 times for France, may now be 41-years-old but he is still has some magic left. Angloma was a fantastic right back and played for the likes of PSG, Marseilles, Inter Milan and Valencia during his time in Europe. He played in three Champions League finals as well as the 1992 and 1996 European Championships. Now he has slotted into a midfield role for Guadeloupe who surprisingly drew 1-1 with Caribbean Champions Haiti in their opening match.
The USA with three points in the pocket after a 1-0 win over Guatemala hope to make it six points when they face Trinidad and Tobago. However, anyone expecting to see the ####mp;T side from last summer’s World Cup will be largely disappointed. Only Densil Theobold from the World Cup squad remains as the others are locked in a bonus dispute with the ####mp;T Football Association and have been suspended.
It is the sort of situation that CONCACAF or FIFA should step into mediate but when Jack Warner’s hands are all over another messy situation we are more likely to get a straight answer at a Steve McClaren press conference.
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
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