Soccer European Soccer

A rough couple of months for American midfielder Maurice Edu might have hit a new low on Tuesday night. While going to his car after Rangers' stunning 4-1 home loss to Romanian minnows Unirea Urziceni in Champions League group play, Edu said via his Twitter page that he was racially abused by his own home fans.

Edu posted this late Tuesday:

"Not sure what hurt more: result last nite or being racially abused by couple of r own fans as I'm getting in my car...smh...off to rehab."

It's hard to imagine a scenario where the date Oct. 14, 2009 doesn't become the stuff of lore in the European country of Slovakia as it turned out to be the day the nation booked its place in its first FIFA World Cup finals.

And the Slovaks achieved history in perhaps the most adverse conditions possible in a soccer match, downing Poland 1-0 at the Silesian Stadium during a driving snowstorm that would seem more at home for an NFL playoff match than a World Cup qualifier.

The puzzle pieces for the 2010 FIFA World Cup became a lot clearer on Saturday on the penultimate day of UEFA qualification. Longtime stalwarts Germany and Italy both punched their tickets, while Denmark and Serbia also booked passage to South Africa next June.

Germany was the first European country to qualify on Saturday, defeating Russia 1-0 in what was essentially a first-place Group 4 playoff game in Moscow. The Germans held on with 10-men after a first-half goal from Miroslav Klose. Meanwhile, Guus Hiddink's Russia must now await its fate in the second-place playoffs. For the Germans, it's the country's 15th-straight World Cup finals berth and 17th overall placing it second to Brazil. (These streaks include time as West Germany.)

There are times when the marketing aces at the Barclay's Premier League home office must get a little tired of constantly telling anyone who will listen that the league is the greatest in the world. Surely partisans in Barcelona and Madrid would argue otherwise.

However smug these assertions might come off, the Premier League did get another amazing game to add to its resume and worldwide popularity in the form of Manchester United's last-minute 4-3 derby victory over Manchester City at Old Trafford. As far as a 90-minute soccer game goes, it's hard to ask for more than anything than this match because it had pretty much everything.

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Wednesday England became the ninth team to qualify for the 2010 World Cup thanks to its comprehensive 5-1 victory over recent nemesis Croatia at Wembley Stadium. Manager Fabio Capello completed the turnaround for the Three Lions in the first cycle after missing out on Euro 2008 as they improved to 8-0-0 in qualifiers.

What made England's victory a double-delight is that midfield stars Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard each scored twice. Former England coaches Steve McClaren and Sven-Goran Eriksson were continually criticized for their failure to find a system where both Premier League standouts could function successful for the country.

Wayne Rooney also scored, keeping him atop the UEFA qualifiers leaderboard with nine goals.

Let's face it, Chelsea isn't exactly the most beloved club soccer team in the world. Whether it's because you loathe how Roman Abramovich ushered in a new era of big-money transfers when he bought the West London club in 2003 or you can't stand the on-field antics of guys like Didier Drogba, the Blues are a team many soccer fans love to hate.

Love them or hate them, from a logical standpoint Thursday's FIFA ruling that Chelsea cannot sign another player until 2011 because the club induced French teenager Gael Kakuta to breach his contract with French club Lens in 2007 at first glance seems extremely harsh.

It's not everyday a soccer highlight on YouTube nets an age warning restriction. Standard Liege ace Axel Witsel's tackle on Anderlecht's Marcin Wasilewski this weekend in a Belgian league match certainly warranted such a warning. (Again, you've been warned.)

If your stomach is strong enough to watch the clip, Witsel's ban until Nov. 23 doesn't seem that out of line, especially since Polish international Wasilewski's broken leg will keep him out for up to 12 months and will certainly next June's World Cup. Witsel should miss at least 10 league matches and Standard Liege's upcoming Champions League matches.

If there's one edict that U.S. National Team coach Bob Bradley has established since taking over the reigns from Bruce Arena at the end of the 2006, it's that if a player wants to be included in the U.S. squad he'd better be playing for his club team.

U.S. semi-regular left back Heath Pearce found this out the hard way when he was left off the 23-man roster for the upcoming crucial qualifiers against El Salvador and Trinidad & Tobago since he was out of contract and without a club to call home.

Much of what we all detest about modern soccer exists because the authorities who control the game do nothing. Clubs whose fans sing racist songs are slapped on the wrist, cheaters who dupe the referee escape without penalty (and are celebrated in some cultures), the same wealthy teams repeatedly run roughshod over the opposition and Major League Soccer continues to allow every club to play in all-white uniforms.

Now, Michel Platini is riding to the rescue. When it's all said and done, the French legend and UEFA president may be known as much for what he's accomplished as an administrator as for what he did in central midfield. He has spoken out against the oligarchy in European club football and opened the Champions League to a wider variety of teams. Then on Tuesday, his organization handed down a brave and perhaps historic decision -- banning Arsenal's Eduardo for last week's embarrassing diving spectacle against Celtic.

ESPN's commitment to airing European soccer matches continued Monday afternoon when instead of the block of "Around the Horn" and "Pardon the Interruption" it was reigning La Liga champion Barcelona hosting Sporting Gijon in their 2009-10 league debuts.

Viewers were able to watch as Barcelona dominated over the 90 minutes at Camp Nou winning 3-0 with big-money summer transfer Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring on a header in the 83rd minute.