Weekend Thoughts From the Editor

It’s not every weekend we get Manchester United vs. Chelsea, Roma vs. Juventus, and Barcelona vs. Sevilla. Toss in the women over in China against England and we’ve got ourselves quite a solid weekend of footie. Obviously, the ManU/Chelsea clash oozes with questions, most of them centered around The Special One’s departure. How will the Chelsea lads perform? If it’s true that many of them now want to leave Stamford Bridge, how will that affect their performance on the pitch? And how will the new guy (Avram Grant) lead out his charges? Over on the red side, will Rooney find his form? Will his teammates start scoring? Lawro says it’ll be 0-0 and I fear he could be correct.

Another big club that’s hurting is Juventus. Their visit to the Eternal City presents a real chance for Roma to put some space between the two clubs in the race for the scudetto. Camoranesi has been the Juventus sparkplug this year, and without him they lack ideas and verve. Nedved and Del Piero are well past their prime and Trezeguet relies on service to be effective. From where will he be served? As for Roma, Totti is scintillating at the moment and the Golden Boot winner has picked up right where he left off. I see a Roman Holiday here.

It’ll be a case of reverse fortunes at the Camp Nou when Seville arrive after their 3-0 defeat at Arsenal midweek. They’ll need to regroup quickly because now that Henry has scored for Barca, the bubble could burst. This should be most entertaining match of the three biggies, as both clubs like to attack and open things up. There will be plenty of goals on offer – miss it at your own risk.

To finish, let me just say that if the USA Women’s team loses to England I’ll be pissed. Our women are the best in the world. Period. And even if England’s star striker plays for Arsenal, I still like them only a hair more than the men’s team. And that ain’t much. Come on WomenYanks! Bring home the Cup!!

That’s it for this week. Have a good one. -Sanford