Good morning folks. Wednesday is here, which means today is the day of the Manchester United-Barcelona Champions League semifinal. It promises to be a match-up for the ages and will certainly have most of us glued to the TV this afternoon.
Since that is still several hours away, here are some soccer stories to tide you over this morning:
Vidic doubtful for semifinal
Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic is doubtful for today’s Champions League semifinal vs. Barcelona with a stomach flu. He had been a doubt because of a knee injury but now has apparently caught a flu bug. There are still conflicting reports on his availability, with some papers believing that Vidic will play. Both he and Wes Brown should face late fitness tests but if I were a betting man I would bet on Vidic being in the lineup.
Milan says price too high for Ronaldinho
Just when it seemed that AC Milan had locked up the services of Ronaldinho comes word that Barcelona is asking for too much money. According to this report, Barcelona is asking for 30 million Euros while AC Mialn is willing to pay 16 million. Considering all the needs Milan has going into the summer (a forward, a goalkeeper and some midfielders) they would be crazy to pay that much to a player who would amount to a luxury item.
Aussie goalkeeper has Olympic dream revived
Australian goalkeeper Danny Vukovic had his suspension for making contact with a match referee reduced from nine months to six months, clearing the way for him to play in the Olympics. For those of you who forgot, Vukovic was suspended for striking the arm of a referee after the referee missed a blatant handball in the penalty area that would have given Vukovic’s team a chance to equalize late in the Australian League final.The contact, which amounted to a forceful high five, never deserved a lengthy suspension and certainly didn’t deserve to cost Vukovic the Olympics.
Here is the video of the incident:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJr2HaxGaSQ&hl=en]
Boca, Atlas reach Libertadores Round of 16
Defending champions Boca Juniors and Mexican power Atlas advance to the Copa Libertadores Round of 16 on Tuesday night. Boca advanced with its win against Maracaibo, and thanks in part to Atlas tying Chilean champions Colo Colo, 1-1.