Juventus Oust Real Madrid, La Liga Strike Won't Happen, Friedel to Retire

Well, now. Ronny and Co. will not be involved in the Champions League Final. Juventus made sure of that last night, with a 1 - 1 draw and 3 - 2 aggregate win. Most around SSN Headquarters were pleased with the result. There's not much to like about that Real Madrid team, and (unlike in years past) this Juve side is actually rather attractive, what with Old Man Pirlo covering the midfield in his Rascal and Alice Cooper Gigi Buffon keeping things clean at the back. And now we've got a final featuring Luis Suárez and his old buddies Patrice Evra (a little racial slur incident) and Giorgio Chiellini (a little biting incident) Anyway, here's the fallout:

Real Madrid 1 - 1 Juventus (agg. 2 - 3): Sid Lowe at Santiago Bernabéu

Real Madrid 1 - 1 Juventus (agg. 2 - 3): Three Quick Things

Amy Lawrence: Buffon still godfather in gloves as he gets set for date with destiny

Gabriele Marcotti: What next for Real Madrid?

Sid Lowe: Ancelotti nears end at Madrid, a club who never truly believe in any coach

Andi Thomas: How Real Madrid ensured their own downfall, again

Graham Hunter: Real Madrid run out of steam

Desmond Kane: Rush to blame Bale for Real's woes is wrong and unjustified

Is this the end for Gareth Bale as Real Madrid fall to Juventus?

They will finish the La Liga season after all. They talked to the judge and he said that a strike would be illegal. So that's that. Barcelona have it all to lose.

Back to Munich for a second. What's Pep going to do next? Will he stay? Is Bayern broken? Can he fix it? We shall see...

More matches today! The Europa League needs a final, too. We'll see if Fiorentina can overturn their deficit against Sevilla and whether Napoli or Dnipro Dnipropeptreptakniptrovsk will prevail.

Robin van Persie. He was pretty good. He was pretty good very recently. What's happened? Richard Jolly is on the case.

Backheel Breakfast

Brad Freidel will retire. It will happen. Finally. Sticking with U.S. stuff, Grant Wahl has a few notes of note. He has an update on Bob Bradley, for example.

Ashley Cole's got the same problem as RVP. He went to Roma but now he doesn't play.

That's it for today. Ta!

Onward!!

-SSN

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