...off the post!

Chelsea's Premiership title grab seems to have overshadowed Bayern Munich's triumph this weekend.

The German powerhouse secured its 19th Bundesliga title with a 4-0 victory at Kaiserslautern on Saturday.

Here's a nice profile of Eddie Johnson from the Dallas Morning News.

Wow. Nottingham Forest have been relegated again.

Chelski secured the Premiership title today, beating Bolton 2-0 at the Reebok Stadium.

The BBC has full coverage of the west Londoners' ride this year, including a timeline and analysis of the season gone by, a profile of the last Chelsea squad to lift the title, and a comparison of that 1955 team with this year's.

Congrats to the Blues. Of course, Roman deserves a nod for spending that cash and Mourinho, despite his widely touted arrogance, deserves kudos as well for putting together a fine campaign.

Here's the story:

A New York businessman said Friday he will make an offer to Major League Soccer next week to buy a franchise — either an existing team or an expansion club — and put it in either San Antonio or New York.

Andrew Murstein, who says he once considered buying the [San Antonio] Spurs, also lists Houston as a possible home for a team he predicted could carry a price tag of $13.5 million.

...Asked if he was interested in buying the Kansas City Wizards, who Dallas sports industrialist Lamar Hunt put on the market in December, Murstein said, "Anything's possible."

This article from the San Antonio Express-News speculates that KC will be moving to San Antonio next year and relays news that Lamar Hunt and SA mayor Ed Garza recently met in Monterrey for discussions with the Mexican club Tigres.

Season tickets have also started going on sale in SA. More details are here.

On a related front, this article about the recent Mexico-Poland friendly in Chicago quotes Garber as expressing rather explicit support for another Mexican club to join MLS and perhaps take up residence in the Windy City.

"At some point, Club America will wind up in MLS, and Chicago would be the perfect place for them to have a team," the MLS commissioner told the Sun-Times.

DMB suffered this horrendous challenge today against FC Twente. Amazingly, it looks like he'll be ok and able to go next Wednesday against Milan. Whew.

Landon Donovan tries to explain and justify what happened with his Leverkusen debacle in an interview with Soccer America magazine.

Further discussion of the article can be found on Big Soccer.

Liverpool and Chelsea put on a rather dismal display at Stamford Bridge tonight, ending 90 minutes of Champions League scrappiness level at 0-0.

Chelsea looked the more dangerous of the squads with several scoring opportunities. Still, none of their attacking options could capitalize: Drogba shanked at least 3 opportunities; Lampard boomed their best chance over the bar; Joe Cole dribbled a couple of weak efforts straight at Dudek. John Terry failed to exhibit any of his trademark magic on set pieces, as well.

Liverpool, despite having fewer chances to net a winner, at least got them on frame. Petr Cech had to make two quality saves, a block against Riise early on that looked easier than it was due to his excellent positioning and an extraordinary diving effort to knock away a speculative header from Baros.

Perhaps the most important event of the evening, however, was Xabi Alonso's yellow card, which will rule him out for the return leg at Anfield. Alonso was solid tonight, stifling attacks and distributing quality balls from deep, much like his performance two weeks ago in Turin. His absence will hurt Liverpool's ability to contain Lampard, although perhaps it will encourage Gerrard to ramp up his level of play. The Liverpool captain was, after all, nearly invisible tonight and it seems that his best games come when he's not paired up with the former Real Sociedad star.

Even though I would have enjoyed a more exciting game, it's hard to be too critical of either squad considering what's at stake. Chelsea came out of the box looking to play conservatively (which was somewhat of a surprise, and a sharp departure from previous CL home matches against Bayern and Barca), while Liverpool seemed more than content to go back home with a clean sheet. Hopefully tonight's less-than-stellar exhibition will set up a second leg barnstormer. In contrast to PSV-Milan, both English sides go into next week's tie on an even keel.

The bottle's almost bigger than he is!

Indeed we are, at least for the next two weeks.

PSV lost to Milan today, 2-0. It looked like they were going to go back to the Philips Stadium only down a goal, but Tomasson scored a rather fortunate second one in the 90'. This changes the dynamics of the return leg dramatically. Now it would take something close to a miracle for PSV to advance.

DMB started and went ~60 minutes. Reports indicate that he did ok -- clearly outclassed by the likes of Seedorf and Maldini at times, at others breaking down the line and inserting a dangerous ball into the box. Nothing to be ashamed of, particularly at this level.

On that note, here's a nice USA Today article on Beasley.

Ives Galarcep has a pretty good dissection of the Metrostars' problems. There sure are a lot of them.

1988 all over again? PSV can dream...

Grant Wahl has an interview with DaMarcus Beasley on the eve of his visit to the San Siro for the Champions League Semifinals.

Here's the Professional Footballers' Association team of the year:

Petr Cech (Chelsea)
Gary Neville (Man Utd)
John Terry (Chelsea)
Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd)
Ashley Cole (Arsenal)
Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
Arjen Robben (Chelsea)
Shaun Wright-Phillips (Man C)
Thierry Henry (Arsenal)
Andrew Johnson (C Palace)

John Terry won the award for player of the year, while Wayne Rooney was tipped as the young player of the year.

Regarding the above squad, I would knock Arjen Robben and Gary Neville out in favor of Lee Carsley and Jamie Carragher. Robben and Neville are better players overall, by far actually, but I think both of their respective replacements had better campaigns and were vital to their teams' success this year.

If you so desire, you can fiddle with the squad here.

From the BBC:

Uefa has rejected any overtures from the Football Association for an extra Champions League place next season.

The FA said it had "begun discussions" for a fifth place if Liverpool win this year's competition and fail to qualify through a top four league finish.

Everton are currently favourites to pip the Reds to fourth in the Premiership.

"The country has to decide between the fourth-placed (domestic league) team or the title holders (of the European Cup)," said a Uefa spokesman.

If Liverpool wins the Champions League, I predict riots in Stanley Park, no matter who gets the nod for the CL next year.

Wow, that was quick. The city of San Antonio's initial bond floating for its youth soccer and MLS-related projects ballooned from about $6m to $21m in just a couple of days.

Also, at the end of this story comes a piece of info that was new to me:

Dallas sports industrialist Lamar Hunt, the chief investor/operator of three MLS franchises, is trying to sell the Kansas City Wizards and was the one who approached [San Antonio mayor Ed] Garza about pursuing an MLS team last summer.

I don't think this is going to put Wizards fans at ease.

As the BBC handicaps Sir Alex's successor, the Independent's James Lawton asks in a complementary article, "Is it full time for Ferguson?"

Like most observers outside of Italy, I've only been paying close attention to what's going on at the top of Serie A, as Juve and AC Milan continue to swap positions.

I didn't realize the extent to which Roma's season has gone to hell. The Guardian's James Richardson fills us in on the details:

Roma have now clocked up six defeats and one draw in the last seven matches, plunging them down to just six points off the drop with six games to go. Frankly, at the rate they're going, that may not be enough to save them.

...Worse still, they'll face a sizeable chunk of the remaining games without their captain; Wednesday's red card was Totti's second in four games (the last was for kicking Milan's Massimo Ambrosini) and he's expected to receive a ban of three games or more.

Given that Roma rarely win anything without him, it should make for an interesting run-in. As should the list of teams they'll be facing; four of their direct relegation rivals (Brescia, Parma, Chievo and Atalanta), a Sampdoria side battling to maintain fourth place, and of course, cross-town enemies Lazio, a side that's always especially keen to help out their neighbours.

The Chicago Fire's handling of the Peter Wilt situation raised the ire of a lot of people last week. This piece encapsulates that rage best, I think.

Now comes the rehabilitation of John Guppy, someone, it should be said, who should be given an opportunity to do his job without incurring the wrath of Fire supporters. Such wrath should be aimed at the people that bungled the Wilt situation, not Guppy himself. Now, if Guppy screws over the Fire faithful, well, then, that's a different story...but he should be given a chance.

Still, Guppy should not attempt to win over his new constituency with quotes like this:

"If you look around MLS right now I don't know if there's a team that's got a better situation than the Chicago Fire," Guppy said. "The team has a successful track record on the field, fans that obviously care about the team — which I don't think you see in every other market, the MetroStars for example — and a beautiful soccer facility (in Bridgeview) in the ground that will open up in 12 months."

That's ridiculous. There's no reason to spit on Metrostars fans like that. I only hope the reporter mangled this quote.

Here's a rather critical review of the new film about the US upset of England in the 1950 World Cup, The Game Of Their Lives.

I've seen this pop up over at Big Soccer on a number of occasions, and it makes me chuckle every time.

Soccernet's Phil Holland writes:

A decade ago a little-known Belgian by the name of Jean-Marc Bosman saw his surname enter the football lexicon. Soon players 'Doing a Cole' could be as familiar as players 'Doing a Bosman' thanks to the Ashley Cole tapping-up scandal and an inventive, if distasteful, defensive strategy.

Incredibly, the sorry 'Colegate' saga could have Bosman-esque ramifications and make illegal approaches a thing of the past.

It is understood Cole, charged with approaching Chelsea while under contract with Arsenal, will argue that Premier League rules constitute a restraint of trade.

Interesting. I don't know too much about the legal ins-and-outs of this issue besides what Holland mentions in his column. What strikes me most, however, is that nothing like this has been mentioned since Cole's meeting with Kenyon and Mourinho. The Arsenal left back has caught a lot of people by surprise, I think, by turning his Chelsea rendezvous into a potentially transformative legal case.

Oh, and for a short exegesis of the Bosman ruling, go here. For the long version, go here.

UEFA's holding its periodic Executive Committee meeting in Estonia over the next two days.

Fan violence and "grassroots participation" in Europe's domestic leagues are the most pressing issues being bandied about.

Andres Martinez and Grahame Jones of the LA Times weigh in with interesting takes on Saturday's forthcoming Galaxy-Chivas USA derby.

If you're an Earthquakes, Wizards, or, hell, even a Metrostars fan, you have more reason to be worried that your favorite MLS team could be moving soon.

The city of San Antonio, as you probably heard, has struck a deal with MLS to put a team in the Alamodome as soon as next year. Nothing is finalized as yet -- the city still has some hoops to jump through -- but the deal being offered to MLS is pretty damn attractive. It's loaded with millions of dollars worth of incentives, and essentially hands the Alamodome over to whatever franchise arrives on its doorstep.

There's a chance this to-be-decided team will take one of the promised expansion slots, but it seems more likely that Texas will be the destination for an existing franchise. San Jose and Kansas City top the list, due to their existing ownership and management problems, plus the lack of concrete plans for soccer-specific stadiums.

The Metrostars have long been touted as the "crown jewel" of MLS, but after 10 seasons of a mixture of mediocrity and embarrassment, the ongoing Harrison stadium soap opera, and hints from Garber that MLS and AEG are close to fed up with the existing arrangement in NJ, the team that's supposed to straddle the Hudson cannot be ruled out as a possible contender to be packed up and shipped West. Is that likely to happen? No, I don't think so. But it is definitely a possibility, and, taking an optimistic view, something that MLS can perhaps use to encourage the unruly folks in Trenton from throwing more monkey wrenches into the plan to get the team out of Giants Stadium and into some realm where operating costs won't be hopelessly deep in the red.

For current and future reference, team previews for the recently-initiated MLS season from ESPN's domestic Soccernet site are available here.

This link takes you to Ives Galarcep's break down of the Crew, but the page also contains shortcuts to the other 11 franchises. Galarcep handled the Eastern Conference, while Marc Connolly evaluated the fortunes of those squads in the West.

There are interesting pieces on Vagner Love and the somewhat bizarre Leandro Desábato scandal over at Goal.com.

ESPN's Soccernet crew sure are banging the 'Gerrard ought to leave Liverpool' drum hard of late.

Take, for example, The Insider's report from Anfield last weekend, which was less descriptive of the action on the pitch and more prescriptive about what should happen come the summer: sell Stevie, collect £35m, and let Rafa go on a spending spree (paging Vicente and Aimar).

Couple that with Phil Ball's glowing piece about neighbor Xabi Alonso ("He has a flat just around the corner from me") and one cannot help but conclude that the logic of Gerrard's departure is obvious. Or, Abramovich has ESPN in his pocket.

Galaxy vs. Chivas USA: Los Angeles is gearing up for the first MLS derby this weekend.

The Allianz Arena in Munich is almost finished. Things are lookin' good.

A "revolution" at Newcastle? Perhaps it'll start with Nicky Butt's departure...