The long awaited final is now upon us! Chlesea go to Bayern Munich’s backyard to try to grab hold of a Euro Championship that seemed far away from them earlier in the year. Roberto Di Matteo and John Terry’s boys have guided a revolution in London to again be one step away from Europe’s greatest prize!

As a preparation leading up to the final, UEFA.com’s team of reporters in the stadium, the city and beyond bring you build-up, comment and news ahead of the showpiece, which gets under way at 20.45CET – and our MatchCentre goes live 90 minutes before.

Track The Build Up Via UEFA Champions League live: Final build-up – UEFA.com.

The excitement of open leagues is illustrated by a vital Play-Off Final match-up today at Wembley. Blackpool and West Ham will both fight and scarp for a chance at promotion from the English Championship with a victory at Wembley today.

The Hammers boss, Sam Allardyce, is potentially 90 minutes from a return to the Barclays Premier League, 18 months after he was sacked by Blackburn’s owners Venky’s. All interesting stuff and there is great anticipation for the final by both sets of fans!

Read More via Preview: Blackpool v West Ham United – English League Championship – ESPN Soccernet.

The sad news is confirmed. The Women’s Professional Soccer league has folded after three seasons. But read through about another woman’s soccer alternative that is alive and well!

As you might have known earlier in the year, the WPS canceled the 2012 season with strong hopes of resolving issues that have plagued the league all 3 years of it’s existence. Besides legal issues with Dan Borislow over the folding of the South Florida team, magicJack, there were issues with the U.S. Soccer concerning sanctioning due to the league dropping to only 5 teams back in November.

After a lot of negotiations (and arguing), the league went ahead and allowed sanctioning despite it’s doubts on it’s structure. But as the legal wrangling continued and worsened it forced the hand of the remaining clubs to close operations.

A statement released by T. Fitz Johnson, Atlanta Beat owner and chairman of the WPS:”We sincerely regret having to take this course of action.”

Thomas Hofstetter, CEO and president of Sky Blue FC, said: “We are proud of what WPS has accomplished, having attracted the highest quality players in the world to play in the best women’s league, as well as the progress women’s soccer has enjoyed over the past three years,”

Though this is bad news in a large sense, WFN would like to remind all fans of women’s soccer that there is still a Woman’s league in existence at a very high level. The W-League is doing well and has just began play for the 2012 season. Many former WPS players are in this league and there are teams regionally spread out across the country.

If you are a fan of women’s soccer, you still have a place to go and to support for high level women’s soccer. Check out the site and learn about these women who play largely for the love of the game. They deserve your support!

Will Toronto FC fire Aron Winter from his post?
The team is 0-8 in the league, they are tied for least goals scored (6), and in the league they look listless and without a clue. However it looks like Winter isn’t going anywhere, especially with the changes in the front office that look to be more in favor of the Dutchman than pushing him away. Winter, who is also TFC’s Technical Director, appointed his first assistant, Bob de Klerk, to Technical Manager  which will have more front office responsibilities and promoted Jim Brennan, an Academy coach, to Klerk’s former role.

Why does it seem like there is no end in sight?
Even though Toronto cannot find a win in the league, their form outside of the league has been nothing short of amazing. They made it to the semifinals of the Concacaf Champions League after beating LA Galaxy in the quarterfinal round. Also they are currently in the finals of the Amway Canadian Championship, which will see the winner enter the CCL for the 2012/2013 season. The successes haven’t been in much supply during league games but as long as they continue to play well in matches that “matter” then Winter will sit comfortably in his hot seat.

Clubs might start slow in the league but the amazing thing about the league they can run off a 6 to 7 game winning streak and be close to the top of the Eastern Conference. Also if they do not run off a streak of victories, who cares? It isn’t like they will get relegated any time soon, right? As long as the club wins the Canadian Championship and get the exposure for promising youth talent in Canada or any DPs (Designated Player) to want to play in a competitive tournament, I think Toronto are perfectly fine with the development of the club.

There isn’t the desperation from the staff to get a winning product on the field for the league, unless the supporters’ groups show their displeasure for what is brought out on the field during the weekend matches then that will be the only way TFC will see change. Other than that, it will be business as usual even if they continue to lose league matches.

The lovely and Faz joins the rough and tumble boys on this episode of the WFN podcast. We dissect the end of the Premiership season and talk about what to expect in the coming off-season. You’ll particularly want to check out the epic Bobby Fu rant on Joey Barton (to be fair, we all have a crack at him and Carlos Tevez)!

If you want to join the banter, feel free to drop us a ling by sending us an e-mail to podcast @ Worldfootie.net or simply join our Facebook page and Twitter and leave us comments there. We welcome the banter, criticism and suggestions to the show. Get Involved!

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As it stands
Granada 43
Villarreal 42
Rayo 41
__________________________
Zaragoza 41
Sporting 38

Sporting was condemned to life in the second division by a Rondon strike to lead Malaga into the qualifying stages of the Champions League. I was watching the Rayo-Granada match and it was a snooze fest because they knew that they were safe in the meantime, until Real Zaragoza scored a penalty kick in the 58th minute to give them a 1-0 lead and they added a second at injury time to keep them safe from the drop. Rayo Vallecano knew the result of the Zaragoza match and needed to pick up their play because they were the ones who would get relegated if they drew with Granada and all the results stayed as they were.

Granada 43
Real Zaragoza 43
Villarreal 42
____________________
Rayo 41

Atletico Madrid’s leading scorer Falcao scored an 88th minute goal to give them the 1-0 over Villarreal and put them in trouble of being relegated, as long as Rayo didn’t score in the final seconds of their game then Villarreal would stay up due to a better goal differential.

Granada 43
Zaragoza 43
Villarreal 41 GD -14
___________________
Rayo 41 GD -21

I’m sure the news spread to the Campo de Ftbol de Vallecas and gave Rayo more inspiration to get that goal that would keep them safe, Granada were safe due to Villarreal’s defeat. Vallecano were pounding at the Andalusian side’s goal, and the breakthrough came. Medina Piti saw his shot saved by Granada keeper Julio Cesar and the 34 year-old ex-Espanyol player Raul Tamudo became Rayo’s folklord by reacting first to the shot and heading the rebound into the net and giving Rayo the 1-0 lead that keeps the Madrid side up. As Granada kicks off, I could see a couple of players from the visiting side pump their fist in the air too realizing that Villarreal lost their match and both teams stayed up. Shortly after the whistle blew and a full pitch invasion soon came after.

Rayo 43
Zaragoza 43
Granada 42
___________________
Villarreal 41

Being a Valencia fan, I took pleasure at the fact our rival and self-proclaimed “best team in the Valencian community” got relegated into the second division but the ramifications for the club even involved clubs in the second division. Villarreal’s B side automatically gets relegated to the third division to make room for the first side, in Spain the 1st and 2nd sides of clubs can’t be in the same division. So for example Barcelona’s B side can’t get promoted to La Liga. Well many of the Villarreal stars will be on the transfer market, Borja Valero, Nilmar, and Marco Ruben will most definitely be looking for new clubs as the Yellow Submarines look to rebuild their side to bounce back up to the first division.

Random Thought:
Atletico Madrid are jerks! They’ve made two sets of fan-bases and clubs cry in the same week, they defeated Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League final. A couple of days later, they basically condemned the Yellow Submarines to life in the second division. Diego Simeone and his club should be ashamed of themselves for leading clubs cry their eyes out! SHAME ON YOU! HAHA

by acosart

The End:
Lionel Messi won the battle for the Pichichi Trophy as leading scorer of Spain, beating out Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo by 4 goals. It is likely that Messi will win the Euorpean Golden Ball as top scorer of Europe with 72 goals, I wonder if anyone in Europe has had more goals than him. Barca won’t win La Liga but they are collecting all the individual honors, Victor Valdes won his fifth Zamora Trophy (best goalkeeper) to tie Antoni Ramallets as having the most Zamora trophies for a Barcelona player.

Even though the league is over with Real Madrid crowned as Champions, there is still the promotion battle in the second division and the Copa del Rey between Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona on May 25th at the Vicente Calderon. It’s been fun though and I can’t wait for the new season already.

I took a break from watching the professional sides to watch a PDL (Premier Development League) match between Carolina Dynamo and Real Maryland FC. Most of these players play college ball, the Dynamo has players from Duke, UNC, UNC-Greensboro, and Charlotte among others. Carolina scored a comfortable 5-1 victory at Greensboro’s Bryan Park, they overcame an early goal by Real Maryland’s Aboubacarim Ndaw to score five unanswered.  Jonathan Campbell (UNC), Robbie Lovejoy (UNC), Karo Okiomah (High Point) x2, and David Reitinnger (UNCG) were the goalscorers for the Dynamo.

The Greensboro based side looked decent in attack with Karo Okiomah, Robbie Lovejoy, and Donnie Smith leading the way, the RM couldn’t handle their pace and strength. Also dominated passing throughout the midfield and kept the Maryland team going backwards. They will most definitely look forward to their first round US Open Cup match with amateur side Aegean Hawks, and the winner of that match will take on the USL-2 side Richmond Kickers. Real Maryland, who defeated Virginia Beach Piranhas 2-0 last week, looked out of sorts in NC, they often resorted to direct passes and hoping to force mistakes from the Dynamo back line.  They ended the match with nine men due to a Ben Norton red card and an injury, they used up all their subs so they just had to play the rest of the match with two less players.

Carolina Dynamo:
Karo Okiomah (High Point) ST
Even though he scored a goal in the first half, he was quiet during the half. He was loose with the ball and just didn’t show to it enough. He started to find a groove in the second half, holding it up better and linking with his midfielders. He wasn’t great tonight but as a center forward it is all about getting into the positions to score. He did real well with that by scoring two goals.  He’s a fast and strong player, pretty average on his ball control. He holds it up well in certain spots but other times he finds himself in trouble. Karo was a willing player to pressure and hassle defenders, always trying to make them uncomfortable. Not a great passer and isn’t as skilled at running at defenders but has pace.

Robbie Lovejoy (UNC) RW
Had a goal disallowed because he was judged to use his hand, He was good, not great but good. His runs were dangerous and kept the LB running towards his own goal. Strangely enough, he cut inside to his left foot almost every time. It made me wonder whether he’s left footed or not, he did play a nice long pass to Donnie Smith with his left so I think he’s not afraid to play it with his left. His shooting wasn’t great, mainly because he was cutting to his left a lot, he did slot home one goal in the first half. Not as dangerous in the second half, he had more of the ball and was running at the defenders in the first half.  Tons of pace, good with his left and right foot, needs to work on his shooting on his left.

Jonathan Campbell (UNC) LCB
Tall CB who is good in the air, he scored a goal in the first half after a broken corner kick. He won the majority of his defensive headers. Campbell doesn’t have great pace but he is intelligent to be in the right places. Good technique on his passing, had the better game between him and his CB partner (Ibeagha). He has decent touch and trapping ability.  He was solid during tonight’s game.

Donnie Smith (Charlotte) LW
Donnie is a good LW with average size but good pace. He has close ball control and can use tricks to get around players.  Made several decent low crosses, he assisted on two goals after getting free from his defender.Good work rate, does track back when necessary.Left-footed player, liked taking players down the line rather than cutting inside to his right.  Didn’t get many opportunities to shoot, Donnie was forced out wide a lot.

Real Maryland:
Didn’t pay too much attention to these players because I didn’t know if they went to colleges in the NC area but I took notice of a couple of players that did well in this game. Quite tough when the team loses 5-1.

Julio Arjona (George Mason) is a good central midfielder with decent vision,  awareness and good technical ability. He lacks the pace and quickness however. Aboubacarim Ndaw was dangerous tonight, decent pace and has tricky moves. Ndaw is rather erratic with his dribbling, he’ll make a play in one instance then he’ll dribble out of bounds in another. He was more dangerous on the left wing where he scored a goal, once he moved inside as the second forward he was less effective.

America is an enigma when it comes to professional sports. In a land of the free and opporutunity, the sports scene across all leagues is the exact opposite philosophy with closed franchise systems that openly and actively fight competition with imposed parity.

Meanwhile in other parts of the world, including in closed governmental systems, sports (including football) are all in open leagues. Strange huh? What is the problem of implementing the system here? Interesting when asking the fans of footie, most would welcome it but don’t think America can’t institute it due mainly to money concerns. Is that really in fact true or just a ploy by the powers that control the leagues using as propaganda to fans to maintain their totalitarian grip on the leagues.

It may be amazing to consider that the United States is arguable the most commercialized nation on the planet, yet are unable to institute a financial solution to allow open league systems to work as they do in the rest of the world. Think about that, in the richest nations to the poorest nations on the globe, all use open sports leagues in football except the USA, Australia and South Korea. (Note: Both Australia and South Korea plan to move to open leagues in the next couple of years)

It can work. That is not a guess or a theory, it’s a proven fact from over the last 150 years in world sporting history has proven. So what is left is a question; Is the idea that promotion and relegation can’t work in America for financial reasons really more of a PR campaign by a few in league authority to discredit the idea? Only the fans can force their hand to get a true answer. Check the link below for a more in-depth analysis of the general idea of promotion and relegation not only in soccer, but in all professional sports in America. Let’s get some feedback on this and discuss opening and rationally.

Click to read more on the banter on the subject of American Promotion and Relegation

Goal Scorer George Wainaina

Next up for Sunderland Keroche FC will be a home game on Sunday 20th May, against Naivasha United. We will update our information as soon as we can as the games are played week to week.

Naivasha GilGil League Table   Team PL WI DR LO PO GS GA GB 1 Sunderland Keroche 7 5 1 1 16 13 6 +7 2 Gorge FC 6 4 1 1 13 9 2 +7 3 Kenya Nuts 7 4 1 2 13 11 8 +3 4 Aberdare Youth 6 3 2 1 11 11 3 +8 5 Wildfire 6 3 2 1 11 8 5 +3 6 Naivasha United 6 2 3 1 9 10 2 +8 7 Kihoto FC 5 1 0 4 3 2 8 -6 8 Desert Warriors 5 0 1 4 1 2 10 -8 9 Site FC 5 0 1 4 1 3 13 -10 10 Motorbike Riders 3 0 0 3 0 0 12 -12

In football terms, this coming Sunday holds vital significance for a number of teams. Well known are the various games with various things at stake in England this weekend. The League Title, European places in the Champion’s League and Europa Cup will be confirmed as well as the 3 unfortunate teams that will go down in relegation to the Championship. But in addition to this, an important game will be played in Kenya in the Naivasha Gilgil league.

Sunderland AFC Keroche are going to Gorge FC with a chance to go top of the league with a positive result against Gorge FC. Both teams are tied at 13 points but Sunderland have played one match and Gorge has a better goal difference.

Sunderland Keroche FC team manager Paul Karanja told Futaa.com; “We understand that the match will be a tough one, but we are working hard to ensure that we carry the day. Hopefully, by Monday the 14th, we shall be sitting pretty at the top of the log.”

Read more about Sunderland and the other leagues in Kenya at:

Naivasha Gilgil League Table   Team PL WI DR LO PO GS GA GB 1 Gorge FC 5 4 1 0 13 9 1 +8 2 Sunderland Keroche 6 4 1 1 13 12 6 +6 3 Kenya Nuts 7 4 1 2 13 11 8 +3 4 Aberdare Youth 6 3 2 1 11 11 3 +8 5 Wildfire 6 3 2 1 11 8 5 +3 6 Naivasha United 6 2 3 1 9 10 2 +8 7 Kihoto FC 5 1 0 4 3 2 8 -6 8 Desert Warriors 5 0 1 4 1 2 10 -8 9 Site FC 5 0 1 4 1 3 13 -10 10 Motorbike Riders 3 0 0 3 0 0 12 -12