Heineken Cup Final Set

The Heineken Cup Final has its two participants set after Leinster crushed former champions Munster and Leicester Tigers saw off the Cardiff Blues in sudden death shootout.  The final will be played on 23 May at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh, Soctland.  The Tigers lead the Blues up until two yellow cards sin binned two forwards and left them with a two man deficit.  This allowed the Blues to come back and tie the match at 26 all forcing extra time and eventually the shootout.  

United 7 Away

Manchester United are only seven points away from winning their third successive League Crown with a win over struggling Middlesborough today.  Ryan Giggs and Park Ji-Sung scored to give the champions a comfortable six point lead over 2nd place Liverpool.  With four games left in the league, United are poised to take the crown needing only two wins and a draw playing Manchester City, Wigan, Arsenal and Hull.  United have wins in the first fixture of the season against all of those clubs but Arsenal.  United and Arsenal are also going toe to toe in the Champions League Semi-Finals for a spot against Chelsea/Barca in Rome on 27 May.  United lead that tie 1-0 facing them in the 2nd leg at the Emirates on Tuesday.

UCL Scores and Fixtures

Leg 2 Scores:

                    Chelsea 4 - 4 Liverpool

       Bayern Munich 1 - 1 Barcelona 

Manchester United 1 - 0 FC Porto

                    Arsenal 3 - 0 Villareal 

Fixtures for the Semis:

Manchester United v. Arsenal (Wed. 29 April & Tues. 5 May)

Chelsea v. Barcelona (Tues. 28 April & Wed. 6 May)

UCL Quarters Scores

UEFA Champions League Quarterfinals Scores:

Manchester United 2 - 2 FC Porto

                    Chelsea 3 - 1 Liverpool

                Barcelona 4 - 0 Bayern Munich 

                    Arsenal 1 - 1 Villarreal 

United Recover and Surge

Manchester United rebound from two straight loses (to Liverpool and Fulham) to beat Aston Villa in the 93 minute, regaining tops of the Premiere League.  United started the game poorly (after Liverpool regained the table for the first time) and found themselves fortunate to take the lead in the 14th minute.  Villa keeper Brad Friedel picked up a back-pass from defender Milner to give United an indirect free kick which Ronaldo converted.  

After that, Villa took control of the game and scored two goals (Carew 30' and Agbonlahor 58') and United looked like they were going to drop three in a row, handing over the title to Liverpool.  

But United surged incredibly to snatch the game, and possibly the title, with goals from Ronaldo in the 80th minute and Macheda in the 93rd minute.  Macheda, who made his debut at the age of 17, scored a brilliant goal after attacking the Villa goal several times.  

The commentators predicted that if United win the title, it will be because of this goal.  

FCD Start this year the way they left off last year ... Losing.

FC Dallas blows yet another lead to lose 3-1 to the Chicago Fire on the opening day of the 2009 MLS Season.  Kenny Cooper scored a miraculous goal in the 9th minute from the halfway line to beat sleeping Chicago keeper.  FCD played sloppy ball and was out hustled by Fire forwards.  On the bright side, designated player David Ferreira got a yellow card in the first four mintues of his FCD debut for obstruction and US U-23 star Blake Wagner was owned up and down the field by Fire midfielders and Sala was up to his old theatrics of stalling and complaining of injuries.  It seems like FC Dallas didnt even have a change of season and just took a 6 month break from last season.  Hopefully this is just a glitch and coach Shellas Hyndman can regulate his team and make them actually perform.  Last year FCD lost a ton of fans and ticket sales was at an all time low at Pizza Hut Park all the while not making the playoffs for the first time in 3 season.  Lets not repeat that this year.  

Ags are In

Texas A&M Mens team made it to the NCAA tournament despite losing to Texas Tech in the opening round of the Big XII tournament in Oklahoma City Wednesday.  A&M is a #9 seed in the West Bracket facing #8 BYU in Philadelphia on Thursday.  BYU and A&M faced off last year in the opening round, where A&M beat the cougars 67-62.  The bracket creators said they try and avoid repeat games, but BYU has a special case because they are not allowed to play on a Sunday (being LDS affiliated), so BYU is out for revenge. But the winner gets to move and face (more than likely) UConn.