It's always something with Liverpool, isn't it? Whether it be bickering board members, Rafa Benetiz grumblings, transfer sagas or stadium proposals there's always something afoot at Anfield.

Today it was scrapping by 1-0 against Belgium's Standard Standard Liège in the final qualifying round of the Champions League. Thanks to Dutchman Dirk Kuyt, Liverpool avoided embarrassment and qualified thanks to his 118th minute winner.

Admittedly, I did not watch this match but followed on a couple game-trackers. By all accounts, Liverpool was somewhere between dreadful and awful. Never have I seen the word "shambolic" used so often. Yet it's a results based game and Liverpool lives to play another day and by token of the victory adds £12 to the kitty.

From the cynics behind the keyboards, American defender Oguchi Onyewu wasn't much better for Liège, getting involved in numerous collisions and fouls. Probably not exactly the best game to showcase oneself for a transfer out of Belgium. (Onyewu has been linked to moves in Italy and France.)

In other Champions League qualifiers of note, Arsenal mushed Steve McClaren's 4-0 to advance 6-0 overall. Atlético Madrid dropped FC Shalke 4-0 to eliminate last year's quarterfinals and reducing Germany's entry into the Group Stages to just two. England, Spain and Italy each have four entrants.

The shock result is that FC Bate Borisov trumped Levia Sofia to become the first team from Belarus in the Champions League proper. Making the accomplishment even greater is the team is comprised of players from just Belarus and Russia and not full of Brasilian mercenaries.

Bate joins Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta in the Group Stage, which upset Greece champion Olympiacos 3-1 over two legs.

The draw is tomorrow and rest assured the European powers are keeping their fingers crossed they end up in the same group as the club that gave Alexander Hleb his start.

After weeks and weeks of transfer speculation, the saga of two of Europe's biggest targets finally appear closed. Within a couple hours of each other, Brasil's Kaká and Spain's David Villa ended any talk that they're moving before the summer transfer window closes.

Early Wednesday Kaká pledged his future to AC Milan. Later in the day, Villa penned a new six-year deal with Valencia, though as we know contracts don't mean that much in European soccer, but Villa shouldn't be on the move at least until the next transfer window opens up. .

The duo's future had been bandied about the tabloids all summer, naturally with Chelsea at the forefront. The transfer cost of both players hovered around the GDP of a couple European microstates.

Apparently fiscal sanity finally won out, well, until we see the amount of zeroes on the check Chelsea sends to Real Madrid to end the tedious Robinho saga.

To complete the sticking-around trifecta, the long-rumored Gareth Barry to Liverpool move finally, mercifically seems dead with the Aston Villa captain saying he's sticking with the club. Thankfully its only a couple more days when we can put all this talk to rest and focus on the games themselves.

Steve Nash's favorite Premier League team appears to have finally inked a forward in the form of Euro 2008 breakout, Russian baby face Roman Pavlyuchenko. The deal isn't 100 percent, but it appears Tottenham and Pavlyuchenko's Russian club Spartak Moscow have come to an agreement and the player himself is quoted as saying the move is done.

Now, does this move pave the way for Spurs to sell Dmitar Berbatov to Manchester United? Seems pretty likely.

Either way, it addresses a glaring need for the North London club, which basically only has Darren Bent as a forward, while Berbatov pouts with the reserve team. Oh right, Tottenham is winless in two Premier League matches so far.

How good Pavlyuchenko is and how he'll adapt to the Premier League is another good question. He did tally 77 times in 147 matches for Spartak and did show a knack for goal in Russia's nice run to the Euro 2008 semifinals. (Oddly enough, he was dubbed 'overweight' before the tournament.)

At the very least, he'll offer a physical presence with his 6-foot-2 frame to the pint-sized Spurs' midfield consisting of Luka Modric, David Bentley, Aaron Lennon and Jermain Jenas. Pavlyuchenko is considered fairly tall in the world of football, yet he's actually shorter than the 6-foot-3 Nash, who you'd never consider to be 'tall' in NBA circles. (Nash formerly played as an attacking-midfielder, not like Spurs need another of those.)

The final question, for this post anyway, is when and if Pavlyuchenko's Russian teammate Andrei Arshavin is next for White Hart Lane. In case you're wondering, he checks in at a towering 5-foot-7.

After two lost seasons, Andriy Shevchenko's disastrous flop of a run appears over at Chelsea. Numerous sites are reporting that the one-time £30 million signee is returning back to AC Milan. The deal seemed dead Friday, but was pulled off sometime Saturday, as Chelsea cull players for a run at Robinho. The deal is contingent on Sheva passing a physical.

At AC Milan Sheva was billed as the world's best striker, with 127 goals in 208 Serie A matches, before coming to England in 2006 in what most pundits saw as a trophy-signing by Chelsea's Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich. Turns out, for once, the talking heads were correct -- though no one could have speculated how quickly the wheels would fall off for the Ukrainian. (It's like 1980s action director John McTiernan, going from directing 'Predator' and 'Die Hard' to helming shlock like 'Medicine Man' and 'The Last Action Hero' in the span of 10 years.)

Once with Chelsea, that astronomical goal-rate plummeted in a 1927 Stock Market-fashion. Overall he made seven appearances with the Blues, finding the net only nine times in 47 Premier League matches. In the 2006-07 season he was famously out-scored in the Premier League by current U.S. captain, Carlos Bocanegra -- then with Fulham 5-4 and Bocanegra was a defender.

Shevchenko is only 31-years-old and should have some decent production left. Oddly enough, the 2004-Ballon D'Or winner teams with the 2005 winner -- Ronaldinho -- at the San Siro with both fading stars trying to jump-start their careers.

At least him American model-wife Kristen Pazik (pictured) didn't appear to lose her looks or fall victim to any English dental practices during the family's ill-fated stay in London.

Barcelona FC is doing everything in its power to keep Lionel Messi out of Beijing.

Despite repeated reminders from FIFA that clubs must release players under the age of 23 for the Olympics, Barcelona is refusing to let Messi, 21, play for Argentina, claiming that Olympic soccer not a FIFA-sanctioned event and that FIFA has no right to demand any player's release. The Spanish superclub plans to take its case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport this week while taking Messi with them on their American tour.

Barca isn't the only one holding players back. Two German Bundesliga clubs, Werden Bremen and Schalke 04, are defying a FIFA order to release under-23 Brazilian stars Diego and Rafinha for the Olympics. They plan to go to the CAS as well.

By contrast, Liverpool was under no obligation to release Javier Mascherano, 24, for the Olympics, but they did anyway, and Messi has made it clear that he wants to join Mascherano in Beijing and win the gold for Argentina.

This begs the question: why do these Brazilians and Argentinians care so much about Olympic soccer, which certainly doesn't have the prestige of a World Cup or even a Copa America? They care because, as the BBC's Tim Vickery points out, it was the Olympics that put South American soccer on the map -- and begat the FIFA World Cup.

Remember Giorgio Chinaglia? The Italian soccer star who came to play with the New York Cosmos in the 1970s and proceeded to make everyone from Pelé on down hate his guts? "Every time I breathe, I insult someone," he once told David Hirshey. "If a dog chokes on a bone around here, they blame Chinaglia."

It seems Chinaglia left more than a few choking dogs in his wake this week in Italy. He's wanted on extortion and insider trading charges after allegedly trying to influence the share price of Lazio, a publicly traded Serie A club where Chinaglia made his name in the 70s, so that it could be sold to a consortium that reportedly used laundered money supplied by the Naples-based Camorra crime syndicate.

Yes, Lazio, a club that was docked points in 2006 in a match-fixing scandal, was almost sold to the mafia. That's just how doomed Jose Mourinho's mission of saving Italian soccer really is.

Chinaglia, who currently lives in the New York, denied the charges in a satellite interview on Italian television. He reportedly went out with his family and ate onion rings after the interview.

The Major League Soccer All-Star Game kicks off tonight in Toronto, and the best players in MLS, all of whom are in mid-season form, will face a mid-table Premier League club (West Ham United) just starting its preseason. The All-Stars will probably win -- just as they did against Celtic, Chelsea and Fulham in the last three All-Star Games -- and MLS will hold it up as an example of how their players can compete in any league in Europe.

Of course, this is nonsense. No MLS club could survive the Premier League season, because no club is deep enough or talented enough to handle it. (I could explain why, but I'd be repeating myself.) Plus, playing a team still in preseason mode is much easier than playing team in midseason form. That's why MLS hasn't won a CONCACAF trophy in eight years.

It does bring up an interesting question, though, which I will pose to you, FanHouse readers -- if this All-Star team was its own club, how would it fare in Europe?

Spartak Moscow defender Radoslav Kovac took out a pitch invader last week with a time-honored technique -- stick a leg out there and take him down. It was the soccer equivalent of a James Harrison body slam and, surprisingly, just as effective.

And what was Kovac's reward for helping security get that wanker off the pitch? A yellow card. Seriously, justice has not been served.

(H/T: Unprofessional Foul)

FIFA president Sepp Blatter should not have to remind clubs that they are obligated to release all players aged 23 and under for the Olympics. That's what he did today, though, after several European clubs attempted to hold back big name players from the competition.

Barcelona, for example, insists that it will not allow Lionel Messi to go to Beijing, because the Olympic soccer competition not a FIFA-sanctioned event. They reportedly have the backing of La Liga on this matter. Likewise, Werder Bremen is attempting to hold back world-class striker Diego from Brazil, and Schalke 04 has no plans to release Brazilian right back Rafinha. Both those players, however, are with the Brazilian national team in defiance of their clubs' wishes.

Blatter's statement comes just days after Real Madrid pulled Robinho from the Brazilian squad after discovering he had a groin pull. Robinho, however, is 24, so Madrid is under no obligation to release him, though the move didn't make the Brazilian Football Confederation any less angry.

This saber-rattling could continue right up until the opening ceremonies, though I suspect the clubs will eventually relent. What's Barca going to do, bench their biggest young star in retaliation? Argentina and Brazil are serious about winning gold, and they're not about to let any Europeans stand in their way.

Two weeks ago, rumors emerged that Ligue 1 club AS Monaco were pursuing emerging American soccer stars Freddy Adu and Michael Bradley.

Half that rumor came to fruition yesterday. Portuguese club Benfica has sent the 19-year-old Adu to Monaco on a one-year loan deal with the possibility of a permanent move at the end of the season -- unless Adu has a career year in the French league, which would cause Benfica to pull him back and sell him to the highest bidder next summer. Still, it's a great move for Freddy, who is expected to get plenty of playing time in Monaco's midfield after he returns from the Olympics in Beijing, and right now, playing time is what he needs the most.

Monaco, a club whose French-American president is also on the U.S. Soccer Foundation Board of Directors, is continuing to pursue Bradley, though Middlesbrough and Bayer Leverkusen remain in the picture. At last report, however, Monaco was offering Heereveen a $13.6 million transfer fee for Bradley, which would be a record for an American player. Spanish runner-up Villareal paid MLS $10 million for Jozy Altidore last month.

(H/T: Soccer By Ives)