Fighting Talker

Manchester Utd v. Barcelona

2:45 p.m. ESPN2

With the aggregate at 0-0 after United’s cowardice and Ronaldo’s arrogance cost them the first leg, I still see insufferable Alex and his legions as the favorite. Barcelona’s form has been awful and, while United just lost to Chelsea, they have played far, far better soccer all season. This whole tournament appears to be United’s to lose.

With Isiah Thomas fired, Frank Rijkaard becomes the poster man for lame duck coaches. He’s totally lost control of the squad, Eto’o is shooting his mouth off and they appear entirely dependent on two teenagers, the recently-back-from-injury Leo Messi and Bojan. That’s going to be too much to ask on those two great players and Barca will fail.

I can’t wait to tune in.

Prediction: 2-0 United.

Brian Williams avoided the wretched Correspondent’s Dinner, instead choosing to watch something far more intelligent… Talladega.

I did not attend the Correspondent’s Dinner this weekend, though sampled some of the festivities on C-Span (I thought the President was very good). I have attended those dinners for 26 years or so, and on occasion I opt for home and hearth. I saw the first 50 laps of Talladega, however, from the comfort of my kitchen. You were nice to ask.

Good man.

Whoever wins the Champions League semifinals this week, their fans will face a logistical nightmare possibly unlike anything they’ve ever seen before if they want to attend the final in Moscow. Martin Samuel of the Times sums it up well. Again, how is it UEFA could’ve approved this? It boggles the mind. This is one of the great disgraces of modern soccer that they are treating their supporters this way. (more…)

MLS is partnering with Spanish-language childrens TV channel Sorpresa! I like that this foray into the Hispanic market is targeted at youth, allowing their first soccer contacts to come from MLS players rather than Mexican league or European stars. I am interested to see which players MLS chooses to feature in the campaign. Will it be foreign guys like Blanco, Gomez and Schelotto, Hispanic guys like Reyna or Mastroeni or just a sampling of guys of all different backgrounds.

More details after the jump. (more…)

Getting rid of Sven doesn’t strike me as a terribly bright move for Manchester City. While it’s true that the bottom fell out this season, going from Champions League contender to ninth, they never had the services of arguably their best striker Valeri Bojinov and, had only a few weeks between being hired and the season beginning. (more…)

Here, I’ll take a stab at this.

No depth

No purchases

No trophies

There we go - short, sweet and to the point.

Police probe Ronaldo-transvestite incident

This is different.

Police said on Monday they were investigating allegations by three transvestites that Brazilian soccer star and AC Milan forward Ronaldo threatened to harm them after he took them to a Rio de Janeiro motel.

Can you imagine the lunacy if this happened to an American athlete? Though, considering what’s going on with Roger Clemens right now, I wouldn’t put it past him.

Will the month of May be a season-defining one for DC United? It’s certainly possible.  (more…)

4-1, DC.

Now that is what fans expected of this team. I was struck by just how good the attack looked in general and by how much they seemed to do it in spite of Emilio. While he did draw a penalty, he looked like he was in a fog for most of the match. He and Gallardo still do not appear on the same page but, and this is the important thing, rather than just continuing to try the same Gallardo-to-Emilio plan over and over again - they evolved. DC played the ball wide more (I’m getting the vapors at the mere thought), they got Gallardo forward into the penalty and used Moreno perfectly as both a pivot and a decoy. This was (despite Emilio) an eye-opening performance and one that should serve as a reminder to the rest of the league of just what this team can in fact do. Now they just have to do it on the road too. (more…)

Yet again, I find myself writing sentences I didn’t think I’d have to write this season. This time it’s:

DC United needs to beat Real Salt Lake to stave of what may be a crisis developing.

(more…)