CNN's Alex Thomas and Pedro Pinto reflect on the Champions League final, and Chelsea's historic win.
With Chelsea's victory over Bayern Munich still fresh, here are five UEFA Champions League-inspired thoughts and observations from another MLS Saturday:
Sometimes football simply doesn't make sense. The cliché that a club's name is on a trophy can't have any truth, and yet it was hard during Chelsea's Champions League final victory not to feel it had some greater power behind it.
Three thoughts after Chelsea won the Champions League title on Saturday over Bayern Munich in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 tie:
CNN's Pedro Pinto and Alex Thomas set the scene for the UEFA Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea.
Didier Drogba scored the winner in a dramatic penalty shootout as Chelsea beat Bayern Munich Saturday to win the European Champions League for the first time.
The world's most important annual club soccer game is set to kick off in Munich on Saturday. Here are five thoughts on the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea (FOX, 2:45 pm ET).
UEFA president Michel Platini talks to Pedro Pinto about the Champions League final, financial fair play and Euros.
The annual Super Bowl of world soccer is finally here. Saturday's UEFA Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea (2:45 p.m. ET, FOX) may lack the sexiness of recent European finals -- neither team finished at the top of its own domestic league, after all -- but I still think this should be a highly entertaining contest.
A list of arguably the 10 most pivotal moments in the illustrious history of Bayern Munich.
The five best Bayern sides ever:
Heading into Saturday's Champions League final against Bayern Munich, here are five storylines to watch for Chelsea.
CNN's Amanda Davies interviews Dennis Tueart, former Manchester City player, following the team's historic win.
Since its inception in 1992, the English Premier League has grown into one of football's most compelling and commercially successful domestic competitions.
Kenny Dalglish's name is synonymous with Liverpool, one of England's most successful football teams, but after a disappointing second spell in charge as manager he has been sacked by the club's American owners.
Former England defender Sol Campbell has told CNN World Sport he is baffled by England coach Roy Hodgson's decision to omit Rio Ferdinand from the forthcoming Euro 2012 tournament.
Former England international Sol Campbell discusses John Terry's selection by Roy Hodgson for the Euro 2012 finals.
In the inner sanctum of the Bayern Munich players' quarters, on a wall next to the communal dining areas, there's a giant black-white picture with photos and red letters. They spell out the clubs unofficial mantra Mia san Mia (We are who we are) and a number of its defining ideals. Full of confidence, loyal, technically brilliant, innovative, effective, focused, attacking, tactically flexible. In between those big words there are snap shots of 11 men who don't need any names or introduction, Bayern's all-star team:
For the most part, another season is in the books for Americans playing abroad. Sure, some leagues around the world operate on a different schedule, and a couple will carry on throughout the summer, but with the UEFA Champions League final on tap this weekend and most major leagues involving Americans on break until next season, it's a good time to dole out a few superlatives from this season along with taking a look at the most pressing storylines involving Americans ahead of the summer transfer season:
Following Man City's dramatic triumph, here are several thoughts from the end of the EPL season.
CNN's Amanda Davis reports from Etihad stadium as Manchester City scores the winning goal for the Premiere League title.
Manchester City won their first league title in 44 years to deny rivals Manchester United a 20th league championship in a gripping conclusion to the English Premier League season.
Poland striker Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick as Borussia Dortmund swept aside Bayern Munich 5-2 in the German Cup final to win the domestic double for the first time in their history.
I've been thinking lately about Giuseppe Rossi, and about the twists and turns that a sports career can take, even for the most promising athletes. If you're a U.S. soccer fan, you know plenty about Rossi, the Italian-American New Jersey native who chose to play for Italy over the U.S. and became a budding star for the Azzurri and Spain's Villarreal (where he scored 32 goals in all competitions in 2010-11).
Italian football journalist Tancredi Palmeri analyzes Juventus' Serie A title success with CNN's Patrick Snell.
Five things we learned in Barclays Premier League action Sunday and the FA Cup final:
After their heroics last Monday against hated city rivals Manchester United, Manchester City went one step closer to securing their first league title in four decades after beating Newcastle United 2-0.
Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola will stand down at the end of this season. CNN's Alex Thomas reports.
Real Madrid may have ended Barcelona's Spanish title reign in midweek, but Lionel Messi is poised to dethrone Cristiano Ronaldo as La Liga's goal king after adding four more to his tally on Saturday.
Who will win the FA Cup? Ian Rush and Marcel Desailly give us their predictions.
What started out as Chelsea's worst season since owner Roman Abramovich arrived in 2003 is now on the verge of becoming one of the English club's best.
Borussia Dortmund capped a second successive title-winning season by setting a new Bundesliga points record in the final round of matches on Saturday.
Sol Campbell and Keir Radnedge discuss the big challenges faced by new England manager Roy Hodgson.
City beats United in the battle of Manchester. CNN's Amanda Davies reports.
A Spanish newspaper claims Real Madrid's manager will leave the club in June and fans react.
Real Madrid sealed a record-extending 32nd La Liga title after Wednesday's 3-0 win at Athletic Bilbao maintained an unassailable seven-point lead over arch rivals and defending Spanish champions Barcelona with two matches to play.
Roy Hodgson is hired to manage England's national football team.
Roy Hodgson was appointed England manager on a four-year contract on Tuesday, ending months of speculation over who would lead the national team at Euro 2012.
Bolton's Fabrice Muamba made an emotional appearance at their Reebok Stadium before their game against Tottenham Wednesday, just 46 days after collapsing on the pitch against the same opposition.
Martin Skrtel's early own goal gave Fulham a historic first win at Anfield on Tuesday and left Liverpool in danger of finishing outside the top eight in the English top flight for the first time since 1954.
The race to become the next coach of the England national football team took a dramatic twist when the country's governing body announced it was in talks with West Bromwich Albion manager Roy Hodgson about the vacant position.
The experience of Alex Ferguson could be the key to Monday's potentially title-deciding Manchester derby, according to one of the veteran manager's former stalwarts Edwin van der Sar.
Juventus maintained a three-point lead at the top of Serie A with a convincing 4-0 win at Novara on Sunday to stay on course for a first league title in nine years.
A Karim Benzema brace helped Real Madrid to a 3-0 win over Sevilla on Sunday to edge Jose Mourinho's side one step closer to a first La Liga title in four seasons.
A rejuvenated Fernando Torres scored a hat-trick on Sunday in the English Premier League as Chelsea thrashed Queens Park Rangers 6-1 at Stamford Bridge.
For Manchester City fans, Monday's night's crucial clash with United isn't simply the final battle of a season-long war. It isn't even just about clawing their way back into the race for the Premier League title. Their pain runs far deeper than that. City have lived in the shadow of their rivals for too long and they are desperate to break out into the light. You have to go back to 1991 to find the last time they finished above their rivals, a feat that was spoiled somewhat when United beat Barcelona to lift the now defunct European Cup Winners' Cup.
Barcelona captain Carles Puyol says Tito Vilanova is "the ideal man" to replace Pep Guardiola as Barcelona coach.
A Luis Suarez hat-trick earned Liverpool a 3-0 win against Norwich City in the English Premier League on Saturday to give the Merseysiders a boost ahead of next weekend's FA Cup final against Chelsea.
Newly-crowned Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund extended their unbeaten league run to 27 matches on Saturday with a thumping 5-2 win against relegated Kaiserslautern.
LONDON -- It¹s January 2008, and David Beckham, chasing appearance number 100 for England, has been given permission by the L.A. Galaxy to join the Arsenal squad for training. After a session with the first-team, he waits to join the reserves for some extra practice. As he approaches the squad, one player shouts out, "Hey, what¹s your name? Are you here on trial or what?" Beckham laughs and says, "I'm David and I'm just here for a kick-around." The player who asked the question was only 17, and his name was Wojciech Szczesny.
The English Premier League has decided to dispense with the traditional pre-match handshakes before Sunday's clash between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers due to the legal case involving John Terry and Anton Ferdinand.
"The best don't always win," Fernando Torres said after Chelsea's dramatic 2-2 draw away to Barcelona. It's a soccer truism that becomes ever more pronounced at the highest of levels. It's why no one will begrudge Chelsea or Bayern their advancement to the May 19 final at the Allianz Arena, both second legs could have easily turned out very differently. It ultimately came down to missed penalties on Tuesday and Wednesday, a margin of error so small that it should stop us from making sweeping statements. The reasons for success were as complex and open to debate as those for failure.
Dutch international Wesley Sneijder scored twice as Inter Milan continued their renaissance in Serie A by beating Udinese 3-1, keeping alive the Italian side's chances of European Champions League qualification.
Barcelona's failure to beat misfiring, mismatched, misbegotten 10-man Chelsea was one of the most surprising and indeed troubling results in recent history. It calls into question everything we thought we knew about the sport. Pep Guardiola's free-flowing tiki-taka merchants are supposed to be the greatest team on the planet, if not the greatest team in history. So what went wrong?
Veteran goalkeeper Brad Friedel played his first club game as a professional in 1995. At the time, Andrew Wooten was 6, and Greg Garza was 4. Fast forward to 2012, and all three Americans can look back on this past weekend as a landmark in their careers, no matter how far along each one is.
Pedro Pinto catches up with Barcelona president Sandro Rosell after his squad won Best Team of the Year.
Smarting from their first back-to-back defeats in nearly three years, Barcelona are on the defensive for a change as they approach Tuesday's Champions League semifinal second leg against Chelsea.
Manchester United's lead over neighbors Manchester City in the English Premier League was cut to just three points after being held to a 4-4 draw by Everton Sunday.
The race for England's last two European Champions League places took another twist on Saturday as Newcastle's sixth successive victory left London's three leading clubs battling for qualification.
Five things we learned in Premier League action Saturday:
Bayern Munich may be leading Germany's bid for success on European football's main stage, but Borussia Dortmund rule the roost domestically after winning the Bundesliga title for the second successive season on Saturday.
Didier Drogba will be out of contract at Chelsea in 10 weeks' time. Under Andre Villas-Boas, the plan was to leave it that way. Even now, with the future kept at arm's length, the club has offered only a one-year deal that Drogba has refused for being too short. Back in December, bookmakers had Russia as his most likely destination because, as The Mirror put it, "megabucks Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala are spending money like it's going out of fashion... and specialize in buying over-the-hill players." It is not just the odds that need some revision after six days in which Drogba's continuing value has been boldly underscored.
Manchester United faces the prospect of losing another jewel of its academy system to freedom-of-contract departure. Italy U-21 international Davide Petrucci is considering leaving Old Trafford at the end of this season to take up one of a number of lucrative offers to return to his home country.
You know how folks have a list of people in history who they'd most want to share a table with at a dinner party? I've got a few of those lists, but one that I really do hope to enjoy someday is this: Dinner with Ray Hudson and Dick Vitale. They're two of the most passionate announcers I know for the sports I love -- soccer and college basketball -- and they both happen to live in Florida, Hudson in the Fort Lauderdale area and Vitale in Sarasota.
Chelsea stunned titleholders Barcelona with a 1-0 victory in the first leg of their European Champions League semifinal on Wednesday
Mario Gomez gave Bayern Munich a precious 2-1 advantage in their Champions League tie against Real Madrid with an 90th minute winner in the first leg in the Allianz Arena Tuesday.
Arsenal's attempts to cement a place in next season's Champions League were thwarted on Monday as Wigan claimed a notable 2-1 win at the Emirates Stadium in the English Premier League.
Is the English Premier League title race done and dusted? Manchester United's Alex Ferguson gives us his opinion.
Some quick thoughts on this weekend's FA Cup semifinal contestants:
Chelsea romped into the English FA Cup semifinal with a 5-1 beating of London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in a controversial match at Wembley Sunday.
Manchester United restored their five-point advantage in the English Premier League with a 4-0 win over Aston Villla at Old Trafford Sunday.
An 87th minute header from beleaguered striker Andy Carroll handed Liverpool a 2-1 victory over Merseyside rivals Everton in the semifinal of the English FA Cup on Saturday.
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is warning that the English title race is not over despite his side holding a five-point lead over Manchester City with just five games remaining.
Let's come right out and say it: Clint Dempsey is having the best season ever by a U.S. international in Europe. With his late equalizer against Chelsea on Monday, the Fulham sniper now has 16 Premier League goals this season. The only Premier League players who have more goals in all competitions than Dempsey's 22 are Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Sergio Aguero.
In the March 13 Merseyside derby, Steven Gerrard scored his 87th, 88th and 89th league goals for Liverpool, the club with which he signed his first professional contract 15 years and 400 first-team appearances ago. Gerrard is one of several one-club Premier League players in their 30s -- Jamie Carragher (also Liverpool), Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes (both Manchester United), Tony Hibbert (Everton), Ledley King (Tottenham Hotspur), and Chelsea captain John Terry (if you don't count the six appearances he made while on loan at Nottingham Forest at 20 years old) -- but they're few and far between in these days of big-money transfers. That wasn't always the case; here is a selection of more or less well-known one-club players from the recent and distant past of English soccer.
Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed his seventh hat-trick of the season as Real Madrid won the capital derby against Atletico 4-1 Wednesday.
Borussia Dortmund took a giant stride towards defending their Bundesliga title with a 1-0 win over Bayern Munich Wednesday in a top of the table clash.
AC Milan returned to the top of Serie A with a hard-fought 1-0 victory at Chievo Tuesday, bouncing back from a shock home defeat at the weekend.
Barcelona notched up the pressure on La Liga leaders Real Madrid with a 4-0 home win over Getafe as Alexis Sanchez scored twice on the day that the Spanish club's defender Eric Abidal had a liver transplant.
Veteran American Brad Friedel tells CNN's Pedro Pinto about Tottenham's Champions League hopes and Fabrice Muamba.
Chelsea still have work to do if they are to qualify for next season's Champions League after dropping points in a 1-1 draw at Fulham in the English Premier League on Monday night.
Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes scored as Manchester United beat 10-man Queens Park Rangers 2-0 Sunday to strengthen their grip on the English Premier League title with six matches to play.
Real Madrid saw their lead in Spain's La Liga cut to just four points after being held to a 0-0 draw by Valencia Sunday.
Lionel Messi scored his 60th goal of the season on Saturday as Barcelona came from behind to beat 10-man Zaragoza 4-1 to close the gap on La Liga leaders Real Madrid to three points.
A dramatic injury-time goal by Juan Mata handed Chelsea a 2-1 victory over Wigan in the English Premier League on Saturday to boost their chances of qualifying for next season's Champions League.
Five things we learned in Barclays Premier League action Saturday:
It's been a very good season for Bundesliga strikers. Bayern Munich's Mario Gomez and Klaas Jan Huntelaar from Schalke 04 are head-to-head in the race for the leading goal-scorer trophy, with 23 league strikes each. (In all club competitions, the two of them have netted a combined 74 times so far). Polish attacker Robert Lewandowski has emerged as a key factor in Dortmund's title challenge (17 goals) while Claudio Pizarro (Werder Bremen, 16 goals) and Martin Harnik (Stuttgart, 14 goals) is almost single-handedly keeping his team in contention for a Europa League spot.
Valencia led a trio of Spanish clubs into the semifinals of the Europa League with a 4-0 thrashing of AZ Alkmaar Thursday.
Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has written off his former side Chelsea's chances of beating Barcelona in the semifinals of the Champions League.
Porto have been sanctioned by UEFA for the "racist conduct" of their supporters during a Europa League last 32 game against Manchester City on their home ground in February.
Barcelona booked a place in the European Champions League semifinals after convincingly beating AC Milan 3-1 on Tuesday, but the victory didn't come without its controversies.
Manchester United went five points clear at the top of the English Premier League on Monday after a 2-0 win away to Blackburn Rovers.
Liverpool's disastrous run in the English Premier League continued Sunday with a 2-0 defeat at Newcastle - the sixth defeat in the last seven for Kenny Dalglish's men.
Anzhi Makhachkala are preparing an extraordinary transfer spend of €300 million ($399M) with the aim of establishing itself as a Champions League club within the next three seasons. The huge investment in new players will be front-loaded on the upcoming summer window ahead of the Russian Premier League's conversion to an autumn-spring schedule.
Real Madrid took another decisive step towards their first La Liga title in four seasons with a thumping 5-1 win at Osasuna on Saturday.
Five things we learned in Barclays Premier League action Sunday:
Bayern Munich cut Borussia Dortmund's lead at the top of the Bundesliga to three points on Saturday with a 1-0 win at Nuremberg.
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