Start of EPL 06-07 year

As the new season of EPL soccer starts, the powerhouses are off to good starts, or at least the majority of them are! Arsenal tied to Aston Villa?! and Tottenham lost to Bolton which was quite upsetting for many. On the other hand, Chelsea and Manchester nited both started off their seasons well beating Manchester City and Fulham respectively.

standings from Soccernet:

Man U
Chelsea
Portsmouth
West Ham
Bolton
Reading
Everton
Newcastle
Arsenal
Aston Villa
Liverpool
Sheff Utd
M'brough
Watford
Wigan
Charlton
Tottenham
Blackburn
Fulham

WILL REIGNING CHAMPS WIN OR AGAIN OR WIL IT BE SOMEONE ELSE...

Itlay wins, and other transfer news

As we all have known, Italy won the world cup 12 days ago with Cannavaro leading them to lifting the trophy for the fourth time. Surprisingly enough, only 7 teams have won the Worlc Cup: Brazil, Argentina, Germany (including West Germany), France, Italy, Uruaguay, and lastly, England.



Transfers around Europe:
- van Nistelrooy is not for sure moving to Real Madrid this upcoming season
- del Horno to leave Chelsea and join Valencia
- Duff to possibly move to Newcastle (leaving Chelsea)
- Emerson and Cannavaro to go to Real Madrid
- Vieira possibly to move to AC Milan

Quarter Finals

The World Cup contenders have finally been narrowed down to 8 of the strongest teams: Germany, Argentina, Italy, Ukraine, England, Portugal, Brazil, and France. Each of these teams will play in the next 3 days. The highest bidded to win is none other than Brazil. Although, Brazil will be having a rematch of the 1998 World Cup final with France. So, the big question is, can France beat Brazil once again? We will have to wait until Saturday to find out!

Germany vs. Argentina
6/30, 11 am

Italy vs. Ukraine
6/30, 3 pm

England vs. Portugal
7/1, 11 am

Brazil vs. France
7/1, 3 pm

Brazil's World Cup Squad=?

Brazil's World Cup Squad will be one of the hardest to break down. With their skills, it seems as if they will win another World Cup. For Brazil, their goalies include: Dida (AC Milan), Julio Cesar (Inter Milan), Rogerio Ceni (Sao Paulo). And defense: Cafu (AC Milan), Cicinho (Real Madrid), Lucio (Bayern Munich), Juan (Bayer Leverkusen), Roberto Carlos (Real Madrid), Gilberto (Hertha Berlin), Cris (Olympique Lyon), Luisao (Benfica). As for the midfield Brazil have many options making them one of the scariest midfield attackers in the World Cup: Edmilson (Barcelona), Juninho Pernambucano (Olympique Lyon), Emerson (Juventus), Ze Roberto (Bayern Munich), Gilberto Silva (Arsenal), Kaka (AC Milan), Ricardinho (Corinthians). Lastly, the attackers: Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Robinho (Real Madrid), Ronaldinho (Barcelona), Adriano (Inter Milan), Fred (Olympique Lyon).

Brazil's last World Cup team



- from espnsoccernet.com

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