Injuries non-stop?

Over the past couple of months, 3 key players for national teams have been injured forcing them to possibly miss some or all of the World Cup this year. The list includes:

Shevchenko (Ukraine) - 95% chance he will be back for world cup - out with left knee sprain and minor ligament injury.
Rooney (England) - 60% chance he wil be ready - out with broken bones in right foot.
Owen (England) - 94% chance he will be ready - still not fit to play, he has been out since 12/31/05 with injured foot.

(Shevchenko - top left, Rooney - top right, Owen - bottom left)

Henry gets Barclay Player of the Year Award

This year, the EPL chose Tierry Henry as the winner of the Player of the Year Award. Many reasons are for this, but the biggest is because of his league leading goals (24)! Although their were other choices for the PYA (Player of the Year Award), Tierry Henry was chosen because he had a consistency of working his but off and always putting away either a simple a clean finish or a fancy dancy finish. Because a forward got this award, the EPL voters should see that there are more positions than a forward. Every time a team wins its because who scored the goal, no because how many saves the goalie makes. If the goalie were to make 0 saves, how would a team survive? That, is what I personally feel. It's who worked their behinds off and this year it clearly was Tierry Henry. Next year, who knows? Maybe Van der Sar could get the award, who knows??

England in trouble

Unfortunately for Man U, England (national team) and Wayne Rooney, Rooney fractured a bone in his right foot which has questioned his readiness for the 2006 World Cup. According to his doctor, Rooney has slight chances of playing in the 1st World Cup game, but has chances of being ready for the 2nd or 3rd game.

Also, Rooney will be usiing an Oxygen chamber. This is supposed to speed up the recovery with no side effects. Ferguson wanted to also make it clear that anything to try at the moment is worth it. 'There is no conclusive evidence that it does improve injuries but there is no evidence against it. It won't do any harm and everything is worth a try at this stage.'

Not only is this an issue, but England Manager Eriksson is unsure to name Rooney in his 23-man squad before the FIFA deadline to send in the rosters.

As for now, England is in colossal problem and we hope they can resolve this problem. Bst of luck to Rooney and England!

-from Soccernet

Standings - Points

1 Chelsea - 88
2 Man U - 79
3 Liverpool - 76
4 Tottenham - 62
5 Arsenal - 58
6 Blackburn - 54
7 Newcastle - 54
8 Bolton - 52
9 Wigan - 51
10 West Ham - 49
11 Charlton - 47
12 Everton - 46
13 Man City - 43
14 Middlesbrough - 43
15 Fulham - 42
16 Aston Villa - 39
17 Portsmouth - 35
18 Birmingham - 33
19 West Brom - 29
20 Sunderland - 12

Barcelona are headed to the Champions League Final

After Barcelona tied with AC Milan today. Surprisingly, Barcelona put away no goals even though Milan put very little pressure on their defense. Although the game was scoreless, two yellow cards were handed out. One to Milan's Costacurta and Barcelona's Edmi­lson.


Because Barcelona won the first leg 1-0, they were able to advance to the finals where they will be playing against Arsenal. Based on stats, It is almost clear who is going to win this competition... Barcelona. With Arsenal having ups and downs in their season, their chances of beating LaLa Liga'ss1stt place team are very slim. Although Barcelona may feel the have the advantage to win this game, they have to be careful to not get to cocky as well as play a very strong and defensive game. The two key players to look out for will be Ronaldinho and Henry.

Man U recover quickly and face tough competition

Luckily for Man U, they beat the Hotspurs 2-1 yesterday after tieng last week against Sunderland. Rooney scored both goals for Man U and led them to another victory.


Next week on April 29th, Man U will play the Premiership's leaders, Chelsea. For Chelsea, if they win their next game it is almost guaranteed that they wilol win the league for the second year straight. Let's see if Liverpool can hold them off.

Ballack

Unfortunately for Bayern Munich, their chances (according to manager Uli Hoeness) of holding on to Ballack are very slim because it looks as if Ballack will join Chelsea in the summer. On the other hand, there is a slight issue: Ballack will increase the number of midfielders to 11 and, he may not recieve his number 13 which he holds as a Bayern Munich player and German national player.