Maybe Beckham Should Have Stayed in MLS

- So if you follow soccer at all you now by now that David Beckham tore his achilles in a Serie A match for AC Milan this past weekend, so his prospects for playing for England in the World Cup this summer are pretty much gone. Betcha he wishes he just hung out on the beach in LA this winter now huh? Note to Landon Donovan..come home and go on strike with the rest of MLS, then be fresh as a daisy for South Africa in June.


- It was pretty much an all around crappy week for Beckham. Earlier in the week, before suffering his season ending injury, he made his return to Old Trafford, where he starred for Manchester United as a young pony tailed dreamboat back in the late 90s. United welcomed him back by pounding him and AC Milan out of the Champions League, handing them a 4-0 drubbing that saw a pair of goals from Wayne Rooney. Man U advances to the final 8 of the Champions League.

- Real Madrid kept up their annual tradition of embarrassing themselves in the Champions League round of 16. The club that dropped all kinds of crazy money on Cristiano Ronaldo didn't get any farther in the Champions League than they have the last 2 seasons despite getting an early goal from Ronaldo. The furious Frenchmen of Lyon tied it in the 75th minute, and held on to get a 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu and advance 2-1 on the aggregate. Lyon advances to the final 8 and hopes to return to Madrid for the final.

- Since signing Ronaldo didn't work, Real is now said to be "obsessed" with getting Wayne Rooney in their whites next year. You are an obssession. You are an obsession. What do you want me to pay, to get knocked out in the round of 16 with me. Dunnn..dunnn dunnn dunnn dunnn.

- Porto went to the Emirates with a 2-1 lead in their matchup with Arsenal, but that proved to be a mirage as Arsenal went nuclear on them in the second leg in a 5-0 blowout. Nicklas Bendtner had a hat trick.

- Neither of these teams in my esimation have a prayer of winning this thing, but Fiorentina and Bayern Munich played one of the more entertaining matches I've seen in a while in windy Florence. Fiorentina won 3-2 in a seesaw match, but Arjen Robben scored the matches final goal in the 65th minute which allowed Bayern to advance by virtue of having more away goals in a series that ended in a 4-4 aggregate.

- Rounding out the week in European tournament play, the Zooropa League had the first legs of its round of 16, the 2 notable results I saw were Juventus topping Fulham 3-1, and Lille providing the latest episode in Liverpool's 2010 Carnival of Terror by beating them 1-0.

- The action packed week ended with good old house league play.

- In the EPL, Man U remains on top of a tense 3 team race. They beat Fulham 3-0, getting another pair of goals from Rooney, who had 4 this week and now has 32 this season in all competitions. Chelsea trails by 2 points, keeping pace with a 4-1 win over West Ham featuring 2 goals from Didier Drogba. Arsenal is tied with Chelsea, although they looked a little shaky in a 2-1 win at lowly Hull City who was playing with only 10 men by the end. Bendtner provided more heroics, getting the winning goal in stoppage time. Tottenham opened up a 2 point lead over Man City for 4th place and a spot in the Champions League by beating Blackburn 3-1 with 2 goals from the red hot Roman Pavluychenko, while City could manage only a 1-1 tie at Sunderland.

- In Serie A, Beckham's aforementioned injury came in Milan's 1-0 win over Chievo, which pulled them within 1 point of faltering leaders Inter, who were embarrassed 3-1 at strugglers Catania on Friday. AS Roma still has an outside chance at making it a 3 team race, but those chances decreased when the could manage only a 3-3 tie at bottom feeders Livorno. Palermo is holding on to 4th place and a Champions League spot by a single point despite losing 3-2 to Udinese, Juventus missed a chance to pass them when they blew a 3-0 lead against Siena and had to settle for a 3-3 tie.

- La Liga remains a dead heat between Barca and Real Madrid, with both teams flexing their domestic muscles over the weekend. Barca dismissed 3rd place Valencia 3-0, featuring a hat trick from Lionel Messi. Gonzalo Higuain matched that hat trick for Real in their 4-1 win over Valladolid. Sevilla, Mallorca, and Deportivo Coruna are scrumming for the last Champions League spot, but could manage only 2 points between them this weekend.

- Finally, the Bundesliga has Bayern and Schalke tied for 1st, with both winning this weekend.

That's a lot of futbol in a neat little package!

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- Week 2 of NFL Silly Season had some notable comings and goings...most notably, probably future HOFer LaDanian Tomlinson will be dressing up in the Oompa Loompa uniforms next year, backing up Shonn Greene for the Jets. The Jets swap out one old running back, Thomas Jones, for another who has considerably less left in the tank. I struggle to understand.

- The mediocre quarterback carousel of doom turned on its hideous axis for most of the week. Follow me here. Jim Sorgi, who I thought was going to be Colts backup QB for life, signed with the Giants to backup the other Manning. This was necessitated by former #1 overall pick David Carr leaving the Giants to be the 49ers backup, who sent their old backup Shaun Hill to Detroit to backup Matthew Stafford, who I presume will need backing up because he's one of those new style quarterbacks who doesn't know how to fall down without separating his shoulder. Just another reason I always get him and Sam Bradford confused. Jake Delhomme signed with the Browns, who traded Brady Quinn to the Broncos, who released Chris Simms. So the Browns have a scintillating quarterback competition between Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace, because they also released Derek Anderson, who made sure to insult the fans on his way out the door for not sufficiently appreciating his 42.1 passer rating he put up last year.

- Other moves...

- Denver signed former Patriot space filler Jarvis Green to occupy blockers in their 3-4. They also signed 2 time first team All Pro Jamal Williams to perform a similar function as the nose tackle.

- Thomas Jones signed with the Chiefs, which really doesn't make much sense being the Chiefs have only one player who is any good at anything, and that happens to be their other running back, Jamaal Charles.

- Maake Kemoeatu is a big fat Samoan nose tackle who missed all year with a torn achilles, so of course Dan Snyder couldn't help but throw 7 million dollars at him.

- The Bengals have ended their audition for dramatic wide receivers with vaginas, picking Antonio Bryant over Terrell Owens. Let's hope Antonio doesn't fall out of a truck this year.

- Former Patriots TE Ben Watson signed with Cleveland, as he really wants to be a part of that exciting Jake Delhomme/Seneca Wallace led offense they got going there.

- Larry Johnson signed with the Redskins. Him and Clinton Portis splitting carries would punch Dan Snyder's ticket to the Super Bowl if this were 6 years ago.

- And finally here's a story that's making its way around the interwebs regarding 2 time Super Bowl winning QB and noted Lothario Ben Roethlisberger..I cut n pasted this from Profootballtalk.com

Ben went golfing with Arnold Palmer at the Laurel Valley club in Latrobe, PA. Ben, supposedly, was a general jerk during his round with Palmer. So then Ben later wanted to play at Laurel Valley, and he dropped Palmer's name in the hopes of getting in. Palmer eventually made a phone call to help get Ben in/on the course without Palmer there. While on the course, Ben supposedly was rude to some kids. The kids ended up being Palmer's grandchildren.The kids called Palmer, who then drove to the club and went berserk on Ben.

BERSERKER!!!