Chelsea sees its dreams dashed by FC Barcelona - by Graham L.Jones
There was anguish and outrage in London. In Barcelona, there was nothing but bedlam. What else to expect after FC Barcelona had plunged a Spanish dagger into Chelsea soccer hearts Wednesday night, scoring a goal 2:12 into stoppage time to earn a 1-1 tie in a nail-biting European Champions League semifinal at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge stadium?The vital away goal, which under competition rules counts double in the event of a tie, was enough to propel Barcelona into the May 27 Champions League final against Manchester United in Rome. Chelsea had held Europe's highest-scoring team to a 0-0 tie in the first leg in Spain last week. The Blues then held Barcelona at bay for another 90 minutes Wednesday night. They were only 108 seconds away from what would have been a deserved 1-0 victory in the return match. Chelsea, having lost last season's final to Manchester United on penalty kicks in Moscow, was that close to having a chance to avenge that bitter defeat.
With the seconds ticking away and Barcelona desperately seeking a goal that had shown no sign of arriving, Chelsea's players scrambled to clear their lines. Messi, who had done nothing of note in the game to that point, found himself with the ball at his feet just to the left of Chelsea's penalty area. He knew exactly what to do. The Argentine forward slipped a square pass to the unmarked Iniesta and the Spanish international fired a swerving shot into the upper right corner of goalkeeper Petr Cech's net. It was Barcelona's only shot on target all night.Manchester United, the defending champion, defeated Barcelona in last season's semifinals and will be favored to win in Rome.
Soccer: Manchester United reaches Champions League final
Back in the UEFA Champions League final for the second consecutive year, Manchester United wants to add to titles it won in 1968, 1999 and last year. "I've said it many times, we should have won this cup more times than we have," Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said after the defending champion defeated Arsenal 3-1 in an all-English semifinal Tuesday in London. "We've got the hunger and the quality." Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals and set up another. Park Ji-sung also scored for Manchester United, which won the home-and-home, total-goals series on 4-1 aggregate and will play in the May 27 final in Rome against Chelsea of England or Barcelona of Spain.
European soccer - Why Karl Marx would love America's sports -- and hate Europe's - by Steven Stark
When it comes to big-time sports, it's Europeans who are the real free-market meritocrats - rewarding success, leaving failure behind, and letting every man fend for himself. By comparison, American professional sports is organized as a giant welfare state, where wealth is shared, luxury spending is taxed and passed to the poor, and even the weakest are never allowed to fail.
The contrast is most striking in football. To many abroad, the National Football League is America. And the NFL is about as redistributive an enterprise as one can imagine - a living example of "share and share alike." The league's revenue-sharing provisions mean that its massive television revenues go into a huge pot, which is handed out evenly regardless of success - the bigger, successful teams essentially subsidizing the smaller failures. There are also salary caps, and scheduling and draft mechanisms that empower the poor at the expense of the rich - all in the name of equality, otherwise known as "parity."
European Soccer Championship - All million tickets for 2008 European soccer championship sold out
All 1.05 million tickets for the 31-match soccer tournament in Austria and Switzerland that starts Saturday have been sold. "All tickets have been sold, not one single one left - and haven't been so for a while," Euro 2008 chief operating officer Martin Kallen said Sunday. "We are obviously trying to stop tickets from being sold on the black market. But all tickets now being sold are black-market tickets."
Euro 2008 organizers said 38 per cent of the tickets went to national football federations, 33 per cent to the general public, 14 per cent to sponsors and TV partners, with the remaining 15 per cent being broken up between hospitality, UEFA members and host city and stadium owner factions. A ticket for the June 29 final at Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna will cost between 160-550 euros ( US$ 250-855)
Darren Ennis
Referees will stop all matches in which soccer fans shout racist abuse at players, starting with Saturday's European Under-21 Championship final, a senior UEFA official has confirmed. The announcement follows the launch of a UEFA investigation into racist chanting and a fight in the players' tunnel after England's 2-0 win over Serbia in the European Under-21 Championship on Sunday. Serbia face the Dutch hosts in today's final in Groningen.
UEFA European Under-21 finals go global
The UEFA European Under-21 Championship in the Netherlands has attracted worldwide television coverage - giving extensive exposure to the finals both in and outside Europe.
As far as the host nation is concerned, Dutch TV station Tien has acquired the rights and will also produce the TV signal for all broadcasters worldwide. Viewers will also be given extensive coverage of the tournament in other European markets. RTBF and VRT (Belgium), RAI (Italy), TVI (Portugal), Czeska Televize (Czech Republic) and B92 (Serbia) will include the games of their respective national teams in their schedules, while W9 (France), Eurosport (Germany) and Canal+ (Spain) have committed to showing several group-stage matches and the final phase.
