Both Celtic and AC Milan have striker injury concerns heading into their Champions League encounter today. For the home side, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Craig Beattie, and Maciej Zurawski all missed practice yesterday, though coach Gordon Strachan is hoping (praying?) at least one of them will be able to join Kenny Miller, who was pronounced fit and should be in the lineup.

Clarence Seedorf and Alberto Gilardino will both be gametime decisions for visiting Milan.

PSV and Arsenal have striker worries of their own. PSV will likely not have the services of Jefferson Farfan, who picked up a foot injury in an Eredivisie game over the weekend. Visiting Arsenal will be without Robin van Persie, out with a metatarsal injury, and William Gallas is expected to take the place of Emmanuel Eboue in defense.

Only a couple hours to go! Enjoy the games!

It's time we welcome back the Champions League, as Scott and Bill preview all of the Matchday 7 encounters. Who needs to do the most in the first leg? Who might be able to pull an upset?

Plus we look at some noteworthy results from this past week's UEFA Cup Round of 32.

Also, be sure to check out the EPL Talk podcast.

As the Champions League winter break comes to a close, we take a look at recent news of note:

Match suspensions in Italy
Prominent transfers within Europe, and moves from Europe to the US
Americans sweep in to become new owners of Liverpool FC

Plus we discuss whether increasing foreign ownership of European soccer teams is a good thing or a bad thing, and how far will it go?

The long wait is almost over- be sure to catch our next episode, when we'll preview Matchday 7 of the Champions League, which starts on Feb. 20!! As always, e-mail any questions or suggestions to scpodcast@gmail.com.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased that the US was able to beat Mexico last night, and keep a clean sheet to boot.  Some of the US squad will gain confidence from their ability to hang with our biggest competitors in CONCACAF.  On the other hand, the over zealous spin that some of the ESPN-US crew were spouting, made me want to turn the sound off the TV.

For starters, Mexico demonstrated superiority for long stretches and I'm sure that Bob Bradley would have accepted a nil-nil draw up until the first goal was scored.  That goal was well-taken by Jimmy Conrad but had more to do with very poor marking than great US tactics.  Conrad didn't even have to jump, let alone fend off an opposing player.  After the goal, the dynamics of the game changed and the US found more space for counter attacks. 

The US created very little in the final third of the field until after the first goal was scored.  The Americans seemed to have great difficulty maintaining possession and creating real danger for Mexico.  The second goal probably wouldn't have happened without a big assist from the referee.

So what is ESPN's message?  Essentially, that the US maintains its dominance over Mexico and should remove the 'interim' part of Bob Bradley's title.  As I said on Podcast Episode  #9, the decision on a permanent coach for the MNT should be based on the candidates' total body of work, not the team's performance in a couple of friendlies.  If Sunil Gulati didn't think that Bradley was the right man to take the US team to a higher level, then the feel-good effect of a fortunate victory over Mexico is virtually irrelevant.  Honestly, would it be any more fair to call for Bradley's dismissal if we had lost both friendlies? 

Rob Stone in particular made me shake my head.  He has been working US MNT games for years but his post-game comments made him seem like a cheerleader, not a journalist.  I won't get too riled about Dave O'Brien, but virtually everyone agrees that he should learn more about soccer and soccer play-by-play before being given responsibility for marquee games.  If the Mouseketeers demand an American accent, I'm sure that the very underrated Howard David is available.  (Husker du, Cosmos fans?)

What do you think?  Send your thoughts to scpodcast@gmail.com.

 - Bill

All Felix Magath has done recently as coach of Bayern Munich is finish first in the Bundesliga, and win the German Cup, for 2 years running. So what does that get him? The pink slip apparantly, as today Bayern fired Magath and replaced him with the man Magath had replaced in 2004, Ottmar Hitzfeld.

Bayern is currently struggling, in fifth place in the Bundesliga and in danger of missing out on the Champions League next season (where they have, admittedly, struggled under Magath's reign). But shouldn't Magath's recent track record at least allow him the opportunity to turn things around!? Seems to me that Bayern was a little trigger-happy with this move, unless there are other things going on behind the scenes that the public doesn't know about.

However, Hitzfeld has a pretty decent pedigree as well, guiding Bayern to the 2001 Champs League title in his last stint there (after doing the same for Borussia Dortmund 4 years prior).

-Scott