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If you take yourself back a year ago at this time, you might remember that pretty much every major league in Europe had their title basically settled. Germany was a tight race till the last day, but everyone else was pretty well settled a month or two before it all ended. Things are different though this season. Every week the race in England changes direction, Real Madrid and Barcelona will essentially have a La Liga title game on April 11th, and there’s a newly promoted side tied for 1st in France.

Over the next week or two, we’ll take a look at each of these leagues one by one and see who’s still in the race for the title. First up is France’s Ligue 1. Tables are accurate as of March 11th.

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Ross County F.C. v. Hibernian F.C. (Saturday)

Good news: despite a midweek loss to Raith Rovers, County have matched their point total from last year in twelve fewer matches. Bad news: the loss dropped them into third on goal differential and they lost ground on league leaders Dundee F.C.. Good news: this weekend’s quarterfinal Scottish Cup against Hibernian marks the Staggies’ furthest progression in the competition to date and one must feel that they are playing with the proverbial “house money” at this point. More good news: all 1,600 tickets allocated to the club have been sold and rumors are that, combined with those tickets sold “at large,” there will be around 2,000 County fans at Easter Road on Saturday. Fun Fact: Hibernian midfielder John Rankin and County assistant coach Craig Brewster have each played for both clubs.

Birmingham City F.C. v. Everton F.C. (Saturday)

Two of this year’s Premier League “surprises” meet with much to play for- a win for either club and both Aston Villa and the ever-wilting Liverpool remain in their sights for another week. City could actually pass Villa and move within two points of Liverpool. If they can do that, playing in Europe, improbably, will be a realistic goal down the final stretch of the season. Just as improbably, the big news on the blue half of Merseyside is that this weekend’s match could be the last for Landon Donovan as a Toffee. Unless the MLS season is delayed by the current labor-management kerfuffle, or Everton makes MLS an offer it cannot refuse, or, as has been rumored, Chelsea actually makes an offer for good ol’ Landycakes. Fun Fact: Alex McLeish and David Moyes grew up only 10 miles from each other. Continue Reading »

This week I’d like you to find the names of the pair of people- one a footballer, one not- to which each clue refers.

“Name” can mean first, last, nicknames or some combination of them. Note: Not all of the spellings are “perfect,” so just settle down. Good luck.

1. An American Transcendentalist and an English international.

2. A famous Scottish chef and a Welsh international.

3. An Enlightenment philosopher and a midfielder from the Cote d’Ivoire.

4. A well-known film critic and a German midfielder.

5. A Scottish defender and a guitarist who played with Joe Strummer and Mike Watt.

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Last Call

I’m begging for submissions for our new author slot.  That submission period will end on 14 March 2010.  So please, if you’re interested in writing for us, please submit a column or whatever you come up with to avoidingthedrop at the gmails.  Thanks.

We’ve got our first four entrants in the Champions League quarterfinal field.  They are Bayern Munich (Germany), Arsenal (England), Olympique Lyonnais (France) and Manchester United (England).  Lyon dumped out Real Madrid today, marking the sixth year in a row that they have gone out of the competition at this stage.  By the way, once again proving that money cannot truly buy championships, Madrid spent 260 MILLION pounds (approximately 388 million US dollars) this past offseason specifically because the upcoming finals of the Champions League will be held in their stadium.  Once again, they will not be there.  What will be especially galling for Los Galacticos would be if their bitter La Liga rivals (and last year’s Champions League winners) Barcelona end up playing once again in the finals on Madrid’s turf.  We’ll have a nice laugh if that happens.

Of course, there are other sporting events going on right now, including a virtual smorgasbord of college hoops, five NHL games, nine NBA contests, and of course, the Winter Paralympics in Vancouver!  Man, the fun never stops in Canada.

So here’s what we’re going to do.  You’re going to comment on the various events of the day and ogle Ms. Fox up there, and I’ll attempt to show up tonight at some point.  I have no idea what the lads are up to, but who knows who might show up tonight?  You have to be here to find out.  Okay, have at it, children.

This week’s challenge was a bit more…well…challenging that a lot of those I’ve thrown out there in recent months and I was glad to see that a few of you were up to the…er…challenge!  Regular participant Jeff P. did the best, answering 8 of the 10 questions correctly.  I’d also like to welcome aboard Tom B.- if I’m not mistaken this was his first attempt at the Thursday Challenge.  Well, anyway, I’m back from vacation- and only a little sunburned!- so let’s get to those answers. Continue Reading »

What you missed while spending all morning trying to figure out why Firefox decided to delete all your bookmarks…

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Just so Mags doesn’t tote the load for all of us this week, and since I seem to the be the media updater (and resident crank), here’s the scoop on today’s Champions League and Barclay’s Premier League ties:

Fox Soccer Channel has Bayern Munich/Fiorentina at 2:45, while Arsenal/Porto is on your local Fox Sports Net (anyone needing a look on DirecTV can check channel 630 which is the one I always use AND is in HD!).  Fox Soccer Plus has Sunderland/Bolton Barclay’s Premier League ACTION AT IT’S FINEST (this match should be subtitled: Managers Gone Mental) at 2:45, and Pompey/Birmingham Redux delayed broadcast will make it’s debut at 7:30 PM on FS Plus.

Oh, and for those interested in potentially seeing the only MLS team to play for the time being, the Columbus Crew’s CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal against Toluca kicks off at 8:00 PM EST on Fox Soccer Channel.  I wonder what would happen should the Crew advance (this is the first of two legs) and the players go on strike.  I guess we’ll all find out together, won’t we.  Hooray!

Okay people, get back to work.

John Terry would've given him "The Shocker"

Alright, look. I was going to try to write a controlled, poised piece about my frustration and anger watching Liverpool choke down another stupid loss yesterday, but I don’t have it in me. The control and the poise, that is; I’ve DEFINITELY got anger and frustration. So let’s just go with that.

So here’s where this pitiful, sad excuse of a team is at the moment. They’re in sixth place (sure to change once Aston Villa – in seventh – plays their three games in hand) on the table, which means that they’d just be in the Europa League if the season ended now (and Aston Villa never got to play any of those games). Their win percentage is a dismal 48%, and they’ve only managed to score 45 goals (Everton and Villa are within shouting distance of that, and both have games in hand). Plus, on top of all that, the team is top-to-bottom not talented enough to compete with other real teams on a week-in, week-out basis.

Oh, and we’re giving V-signs to referees who sympathetically don’t send us off after a two footed scissor-tackle. There’s that, too.

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