To read August 17, 2007 Edition, Click here

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Mad Dog and Master Class (Carlos Tevez and Ryan Giggs, respectively) limp into Sunday’s Manchester derby, slumping in comparison to their neighbor’s unbeaten start.

While Sir Alex Ferguson’s men have drawn their opening 2 matches against Reading and Portsmouth, former England manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson has prompted a revival of sorts at the City of Manchester Stadium with 2 quick victories out of the gate against West Ham and Derby County.

Despite their summer signings, Man. United have found it hard to jell at this early stage, and are not only hampered by Rooney’s foot injury, but will also have to play without Portuguese winger, Cristiano Ronaldo, who picked up a red card in frustration in the final stages of the Portsmouth match.

Man. City on the other hand has shown an attacking edge that was virtually non existent under Stuart Pearce. Of course new signings and money spent have not been a problem for the new manager, and the Swede looks determined to put out a side of attacking quality not seen since the days of Kevin Keegan.

Certainly, Man. United is now a monster in waiting and just need that little something to kick-start their title defending season. Putting an end to Man. City’s best ever EPL start is just what Sir Alex has ordered. 

David Beckham finally made his full debut on Wednesday in the Galaxy’s 2-0 victory over DC United in the SugerLiga semifinal, leading LA to a final showdown with Mexican club side Pachuca.

In his first start for LA, Beckham also usurped the captain’s armband from Landon Donovan, but Donovan will not be complaining too much if Beckham continues to deliver as he did on the night, scoring with a trademark free-kick and then assisting the ex-captain for LA’s insurance goal.

The other semifinal was a rematch of the Champions’ Cup final between Pachuca and Houston. In another game that went down to the wire, Pachuca outlasted the Dynamo again, this time needing penalties to separate the sides–the dependable Brian Ching missing an all important spot-kick this time around.

So, now we will have to wait another 2 weeks time as the final is scheduled to be played on Wednesday, August 29th. LA will benefit the most as it will give Beckham more time for his ankle to completely heal and a few more games to get more acquainted with his new teammates.

However, the competition will certainly be the toughest he has faced in a LA jersey, and though they lost to LA in the opening group stage, Pachuca is no longer in pre-season mode as the Mexican League is in full swing with Pachuca already leading Group A out of the gate.

Home field advantage will not be enough for the MLS side in this one as Pachuca will collect their fourth successive trophy. 

EPL bosses Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez will renew their intense rivalry and word throwing this weekend as Liverpool will host Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday.

With Chelsea near the top of the early EPL table (along with Everton and Man. City) this will be their first real test against another team who consider themselves true title contenders.

In truth Chelsea has had a tough time in their first 2 games as they have had to come back from behind both times on their way to victory. Liverpool, on the other hand, have only played 1 league game thus far (a debatable victory over Aston Villa), having traveled to France in mid-week to face Toulouse in the Champions League Qualifying round.

With captain, John Terry out injured, Chelsea’s usual defensive blockade has been leaky, and even the usually steady Petr Cech has made some early uncharacteristic errors. Chelsea is also determined to play this season with more attacking flair, which could also leave them more exposed at the back this season.

Even with all of Liverpool’s attacking signings this summer, Rafa continues to rely on the lone striker system with the other forwards pushed wide. This reluctance to play all out could have detrimental effects in the league as it usually does for Liverpool as they ended third place last year 15 points behind second place Chelsea.

The importance of this game is illustrated by the fact the Liverpool’s inspirational captain, Steven Gerrard is likely to play even though he suffered a hairline toe fracture in the 1-0 victory over Toulouse.

Still Chelsea will dismantle Liverpool this time around, reminding the Kop faithful that a reserved philosophy is what keeps them from ever winning an EPL title.

Chelsea started the new season with a 3-2 victory over promoted side Birmingham with new signings Claudio Pizarro and Florent Malouda among the scorers. 

Although the score points to an evenly poised game, Chelsea actually dominated their first home match at Stamford Bridge, setting a new English record of 64 unbeaten home games and counting.

Ex-Bayern and Peruvian striker, Pizarro, filling in for the injured Drogba and Shevchenko, brought the title contenders level only minutes after Birmingham went ahead through Mikael Forssell’s flick header (against the run of play) early in the match.

It was the other new boy, ex-Lyon and French winger Malouda who added to his Charity Shield goal and put Chelsea in the lead before Birmingham scored an incredible leveler through Olivier Kopa before half-time.

Chelsea concluded the affair with an Essien winner, grabbing all 3 points to kick off the season. The result was good for both teams as it showed once again that Chelsea have the quality and the mental character to win and score when coming from behind.

For Birmingham (relegated from the EPL 2 seasons ago), it showed that this time around Steve Bruce’s men will have a better time finding the back of the net, though he may need to think twice about his keeper selection as Colin Doyle was suspect in 2 of the 3 goals.

To read August 10, 2007 Edition, Click here

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The EPL kicks off this weekend amid a dull of games that look simple for the taking. True, there have been many changes through the summer, and not everything has settled yet, but it looks to be another race between defending Champs, Man. United and Mourinho’s Chelsea.

Liverpool have made some big money spendings, but will have to totally overhaul their playing style if they really believe to make a run for the title, and Arsenal is only kidding themselves if they believe their 2 pre-season trophies will equate to league leaders come early-,mid-, not to mention end-of-season.

Spurs will hope to avoid a 2nd horrible start to the season, but will know that a finish out of the top 4 will be theirs, and the rest will fighting out for scraps again.

The 2 most meaningful matches of the opening round will be Saturday’s Bolton vs. Newcastle and Sunday’s Man. United vs. Reading.

Big Sam and a re-vamped Newcastle will square off against the Wanderers in Sam’s old home—the Reebox. Bolton has also received a face-lift over the summer and the question is “who brings more class to the usual slug-fest in this one?” Remember Bolton is one better as they will play in the UEFA Cup this season while Newcastle has been struggling for seasons now.

The Man. United game against Reading is also interesting if only for the revelation of how Reading plans to build off the success of their promoted season last year against the team of the land. With the 2-year loan signing of Tevez final complete, another Man. dynasty could be in the making.

The LA Galaxy lost another one as David Beckham made his MLS debut, albeit for only a cameo appearance, in front of a sold out flood of camera flashes at RFK Stadium.

The Ex-Real and Man. United midfielder was brought in for the last stages of LA’s Thursday night game against DC United, but it was DC’s Brazilian forward Emilio’s goal in the 27th min. that mattered most as the lone goal was enough to claim victory and 2nd spot in the Eastern Conference.

Unfortunately, LA was reduced to 10-men moments before Beckham’s introduction. Martino was shown red for a nasty tackle from behind on United’s Fred, and though they had several chances, DC could not take advantage of the man advantage as LA’s keeper Cannon made several unbelievable stops.

LA actually had several chances of their own, but forward Buddle could not capitalize on a point black opportunity, and DC’s keeper came up trumps by blocking Donovan’s route to goal, at the edge of the penalty area, after a trademark through pass from Beckham.

Becks will have another chance to feature this weekend as LA continues their East Coast tour with a match against Eastern Conference leaders New England on Sunday. Beckham may be reduced again to a substitute’s role, but barring any re-injury to his million dollar ankle, it can’t be long now for the champagne midfielder to start playing the full ninety.

The question for LA still remains: will there be enough time to pull out of the cellar?
 

Having surrendered their usual lock-grip on the Bundesliga title last season, Bayern have made a number of summer signings to bring back the smiles to half of Germany including Franz Beckenbauer.

With an uncharacteristic 4th place finish last term, however, the high profile, new faces will have to be content with UEFA Cup action this time around while they fight through the Bundesliga, looking to ensure Champions League Football for next season.

Gone are the South American forward line of Pizarro (to Chelsea) and Santa Cruz (back to Paraguay or something), replaced by German International Miroslav Klose and Italian International strike force Luca Toni.

Owen Hargreaves has also left, thank God. French International Frank Ribery and the re-called Brazilian, Ze Roberto, will far out-way the loss of the Canadian, er-I mean English midfielder.

The new boys have already gotten a run out with their new team and looked absolutely lethal as they won the German Pre-season tournament. Of course the league will be a tougher story, but with how much Bayern have spent, anything less then title holders will be frowned on by the Bayern hierarchy.

Their opening run out against promoted side Hansa Rostock on Saturday couldn’t be any easier either while defending champions Stuttgart have a punishing, pulsating 1st match against league runner-ups Schalke in the Bundesliga opener on Friday.

Man. United defeated Chelsea in penalties on Sunday in the Community Shield thanks largely to Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.

The win gave Man. United their 1st FA Community Shield victory since beating Arsenal in 2003. Of course the win is solely for bragging rights as the real deal (the EPL League Season) kicks-off this coming weekend.

Ryan Giggs opened the scoring in the 1st half, sweeping home a cross by Patrice Evra with his left foot after a nice build up on the left, but new signing Florent Malouda tied things up with an incredible individual goal at the death of the half. The French winger ran on to a through ball, battled off Rio Ferdinand, and struck the ball with the outside of his left boot to the far post past van der Sar.

The match then moved straight into penalties as both teams failed to create a winner in the 2nd half.

Claudio Pizarro (another new signing for Chelsea), Frank Lampard, and Wright-Phillips scratched from the Penalty Kick line. The Man U. number 1 and Ex-Juventus keeper Van der Sar blocked all 3 spot-kicks while Ferdinand, Carrick, and Rooney found their way past Petr Cech into the trophy-case.