Photo by ISI Photos
Good morning folks. It is the end of an unforgettable week of soccer action and while today may not have any games to look forward to, there is still plenty of news to go over.
Let’s start the day with a few stories from last night and this morning to get your Friday going:
Villa set to miss Euro final
Spain striker and Euro 2008 goal-scoring leader David Villa looks set to miss Sunday’s final against Germany with a leg injury. Villa injured himself during Spain’s 3-0 win against Russia and looks very unlikely to add to his tournament-best four goals.
With Villa out, Spain will likely turn to Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas, who came on for Villa against Russia and promptly set up two goals.
Adebayor to stay at Arsenal
Despite constant links to both AC Milan and Barcelona, Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor has stated that he will stay with Arsenal. Part of Adebayor’s decision may have had to do with the fact that Milan is focused on buying Ronaldinho while Barcelona has set its sights on Andrei Arshavin, which may have removed his two best options for a transfer.
The news is good for an Arsenal squad that would have been hard-pressed to replace the lanky striker. It will be interesting to see if Arsenal still goes after Dutch striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. With Eduardo still on the road to recovery, and Robin van Persie unable to stay healthy, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Arsene Wenger to land the Ajax striker.
Asian World Cup qualifying draw set
If you are a fan of rivalries then this morning’s draw for the final stage of Asian World Cup qualifying is right up your alley. North Korea and South Korea were drawn into the same group while newly-minted rivals Australia and Japan are in the other group for World Cup 2010 qualifying.
Here are the Groups:
Group A: Australia, Japan, Bahrain, Uzbekistan and Qatar
Group B: South Korea, North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
The top two teams in each group qualify for the 2010 World Cup while the third-place teams meet, with the winner facing the winner of the Oceania region for a place in the World Cup.
Tottenham lands Gomes
You can scratch goalkeeper from the list of needs for Tottenham after the London club landed highly-regarded PSV goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes. Adding Gomes to a list of new acquisitions that includes Luka Modric and Giovani Dos Santos makes Tottenham the big off-season winners in the EPL transfer race.
Gomes’ arrival means that, as expected, Paul Robinson will soon be looking for work. I’m not sure where he might end up but I have to say it’s a pretty shocking tumble that Robinson’s career has taken. That’ll teach him to take an American goalkeeper’s job (okay, I’m kidding).
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Please feel free to share your thoughts on these stories, or any other stories from the morning or last night, in the comments section below.