Good Day!

The big news going into the weekend is this morning's Champions League Quarter-Final draw. Manchester United and Chelsea will clash in a repeat of the 2008 final in Moscow that reduced our buddy John Terry to tears in the rain after United won on penalty kicks. The other match-ups are Tottenham and Real Madrid, Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk, and Inter Milan and Schalke. I'm not sure if the United/Chelsea matches will provide much in the way of entertainment for the neutral (except perhaps if the animosity boils over into some handbags), but Real Madrid and Spurs could combine for more open and attractive battles.

In other news today, Major League Soccer returns for real with a full slate of matches after the Sounders/Galaxy game that got things started earlier this week. As our MLS Expert Bobbie BS has justifiably complained, the expansion of the playoffs has done little to provide excitement about the regular season at SSN Headquarters.

Super Mario Balotelli is back in the news today for two reasons. The former is a wonderful video of him trying to dress himself and the latter is the red card he got to help his Manchester City side crash out of the Europa League. Liverpool are also out after Andy Carroll and his mates failed ot find the back of the net against Braga. My money is on either Villarreal or Porto for UEFA's second-tier competition. In Spain this weekend we've got the Madrid Derby, The Joy of Six is Goalkeeping Howlers, Dominic Raynor's Off The Ball features a hilarious stunt prior to the Bari/AC Milan match and much more!!

Onward!!