I decided to go down to Poole/Bournemouth for the weekend and take in AFC Bournemouth's last home game of the season, against Gillingham. A good run over the last 2-3 month has seen them move out of the relegation zone and before Saturday's game, they were 5 points clear of safety ahead of Bradford (oh how the mighty have fallen - I remember Paul Jewell managing them to 1-0 win against Liverpool on the last day of the season at Anfield to beat the drop not-so-long-ago). Although safety was not assured, it was more or less predicted.

Well, as it happens so often (or so rarely) in football, everything just clicked on the day, and perfectly. Bournemouth went a goal down, but soon Chesterfield were beating Bradford 1-0. Chesterfield then scored a second to make things even more secure for the Cherries, and then Bournemouth equalised through a very nicely taken James Hayter goal to put the fans in terrific spirits. And by the time Chesterfield scored their third, the Bournemouth fans were all getting ready to run onto the pitch and celebrate.

An interesting backdrop to all of this was the plight of Leeds. I hate Leeds. Bournemouth fans hate Leeds. We have that in common.

Anyways, back in 89/90, Leeds had come down to Bournemouth for an away game, which they won. Leeds fans, being a bunch of utter ****ing yobs proceeded to trash and destroy the entire Bournemouth Town Centre and surrounding stadium areas, and since the game was on a bank holiday, the local police decided that there would be no more football on bank holidays - which is horrible really, since it's one of the few weekday opportunities for teams to get in big crowds. Anyways, Leeds went on to gain promotion (Bournemouth were relegated) and haven't played the mighty Cherries since. And so Bournemouth fans hate them. I hate Leeds because of Harry Kewell, Lee Bowyer, Rio Ferdinand, Ian Harte, Alan Smith and the other host of generally disgusting c*nts they always never seem to be short of.

But back to their "plight"; Leeds were in the relegation zone just below Hull in the Championship. Hull were playing playoff-chasing Cardiff away, and Leeds had Ipswich at home, so there was every chance that they could get out of the relegation zone. But, as I said before... "everything clicked". Leeds had gone 1-0 up at home to Ipswich, but Hull went 1-0 up away at Cardiff a bit later. Still not too bad for Leeds, but then the Bournemouth fans got a fantastic boost just before full-time when Ipswich scored. Hull held on to win, the Leeds yobs invaded the pitch with 30 seconds left to get the match halted and started fighting with each other, but then had to wait around and watch those remaining 30 seconds be played out. They're mathematically almost gone.

So sing along with the AFCB fans to the tune of Yellow Submarine

"Leeds are going down and we're staying up, we're staying up, we're staying up"

Hello... since the season is almost over (FINISHED if you're an Arsenal fan) and, quite frankly, not much is happening in the summer apart from International Football (yes, I used CAPS), I thought maybe it would be cool (fun?) to pick up the Copa America and really follow it from start to finish.

Of all the tournaments this summer (Gold Cup/FIFA U-20s/Pan-American Games), it's probably going to be the one with the best football and the best players, but as usual it will probably not be given much attention by the English-language media. I've noticed we have loads of Brazilians and Argentines on here, and more than a few USAians, so there's no reason why we can't make ourselves the best English source for the Copa America this summer. Anyone interested? I promise I won't keep talking about Denilson.

Anyways, if you have a blog and feel like keeping an eye out for the Copa, then have a go, and if you're interested in writing but aren't a member, then sign up!

This past Club World Cup (which NOBODY cares about outside of South America), OleOle probably had the most (and best) coverage of the event, and i'm sure we can generate a fair amount of buzz about the Copa America. This is after all the "World Cup of the Americas"... but I guess that doesn't make much sense. I'll stop now.

Last night was my first ever time at Stamford Bridge, and I have to say that I was underwhelmed. Most of the fans didn't know the songs (most of which were quite uninspired), some were audibly saying stuff like "how does that one go?" and "what are they saying?", and all the shirts were from this season or the one before - no history eh?

They also have some ridiculous anthem, and silly flags that they wave about, and it gave the general impression that I was in some bizarre kind of football Disneyland. I don't really mean to slag them off at Chelski, but it was seriously uninspiring stuff - there were chants of "Chewwseaaa", "Champeeeeyuns" and one or two others that are quite generic and which i'm fairly sure have been nicked off others. Ditto for the player songs. And their support mostly seemed to be in the form of vitriol and abuse at opposition players and fans, and maybe that is just emblematic of the Chelsea/Mourinho mentality of "Us Against The World". Anyways, enough of that, on to the football...

...which as you might expect in a Champions League semi-final was a very tense, cagey affair. I personally don't think that 1 goal is enough for Chelsea up at Anfield, and Fat Frankie Lampard had a chance from which he really should have scored. Shevchenko came close a few times (but was a passenger for the rest of the game), and Joe Cole and Didier Drogba were generally a dangerous duo for most of the game, although Drogba was heavily marked and didn't really have too many shooting opportunities (but he created chances for others, including the goal).

Seeing Drogba play in the flesh really gave me an idea of just how difficult an opponent he is - he's absolutely massive and a good athlete as well. Tall, very well built, and quite quick, time-and-time again he was first to long balls, and/or easily able to get the upper-hand at balls played into the channels. He works hard and really organises the game from the front (and on more than one occassion he lectured Shevchenko, whose timid personality doesn't do him any favours in this team).

Carragher dealt with him decently, but Agger was at his wit's end, and Drogba mostly operated in his area. In the second-half they dealt with him by having Mascherano/Xabi track him and pick-up the second ball when Agger challenged him in the air, but he had already done the damage with his contribution to the goal in the first half. He charged past Agger on the right-flank and put in a low cross to Joe Cole who neatly steered the ball in. Cole was influential all game and he finally gives Chelsea that bit of attacking flair and intelligence that they've missed this season.

Mamamamakekekekelelele was solid, Mikel was decent, and I finally saw Lampard for the overrated "lucky" player that many claim he is - he did nothing all game, doesn't beat players, and thumps long (/diagonal) balls up for the winger or Drogba to get to. But he does pick up scraps in front of goal, and if it wasn't for a super save from Reina, he would have volleyed in for 2-0 and more or less killed the tie. Ashley Cole might as well not have been there - at Arsenal he was an exciting, tenacious, attacking fullback; at Chelsea he is a slightly confused, reasonably steady left-back who just thumps 50-60 yard curling balls into the box for Drogba, and occassionally makes forays and crosses into the box. Chelsea really isn't the place for footballing fullbacks, and on the night Paulo Ferreira didn't seem like fullback who even knew how to play football - he was beaten time and time again by Boudewijn Zenden of all people, and he's just lucky that Zenden couldn't shoot, cross or pass to save his life.

That was it really, there were more poor performances on show than good ones, and Liverpool were really bad. I can't believe why Rafa Benitez put out the side that he did, but i'm sure that we'll see a completely different Liverpool at Anfield. Resting Peter Crouch was strange, and omitting Pennant (who has been in good form of late) was a sign that they were willing to play for a draw and maybe steal one on the break with Bellamy's pace. As it were, Bellamy was just awful - Chelsea defended deep, and never pushed up so he never had anywhere to run into. Kuyt can't quiyt act as the proper foil for him, and Liverpool generally looked like a side that didn't know what they were doing.

Gerrard was excellent, and influential, but had nothing happening in front of him (constant comments from the Chelsea fans all night along the lines of "ee should of come to Chewww-seee", which was also what they said in reference to any other good player that someone decided to talk about... amazing what a bit of money does to people eh?). He had one fantastic volley saved by Cech, which was the only real save that he made all game. This was in stark contrast to Pepe Reina at the other hand who made a series of breath-taking saves at the other end. He was Drogba's rival for Man of the Match, and if Liverpool go on to salvage anything in the second leg, they have him to thank for keeping the scores level.

Finally, a quick mention about the "ghost penalty" that Mourinho keeps going on about - I haven't seen the incident on TV, but I was seated directly in line with it, and to me it seemed that the ball bounced up off Arbeloa's knee or thigh onto his hand (which was by his side). Ball-to-hand if there ever was one and I think the referee made the right decision, although Mourinho being Mourinho, the Special One with Special Needs, no decision will ever satisy him.

Anyways though, it's all just fuel for the fire that is the game at Anfield. There will be the Kop and all the fans to deal with, as well as (i'm hoping) a more attacking line-up. Steve Finnan was badly missed, and Pennant and Crouch will play in the second-leg, maybe even Mark Gonzalez. The attack in London was completely void of any guile or invention, and Luis Garcia, inconsistent as he is, is a big loss in this department.

Anyhow, next week should be quite the game, and the atmosphere will be something special up there... let's see if Chelsea can handle it.

Hello,

Looks like there's been a lot of new signups of late, so I just thought I'd say hello and give you guys a little bit of insight into the direction the site is taking.

We're basically a football fan community (that much i'm sure you all know) that's trying to combine all the ways in which fans interact, and put them together in one great big splatch of footballiness - so you have blogs , you have comments, you have our social network and profiles , and the "Throw-Ins" , which are a digg style system where you submit interesting links you might have found elsewhere.

We've also got forums coming soon (i'm sure you're all wondering why such a basic element is missing), as well as video and photo galleries for the users to submit to, and user groups - so everyone can band up and discuss and argue and whateve else.

Lastly, on the non-community side of things we've got our "Scouts" , which I personally think are very cool - you can basically choose the teams and players than you want to track, and you'll get newsfeeds from around the web related to them. Note that it's still early days and we're working on improving the system and making it much much better, and any feedback from you would be invaluable.

Then there's the Live Scores , which although they might seem a bit confusing, are very quickly updated and cover more leagues than most places. Tip (since people get confused), click the + sign to see details about goalscorers, yellow cards, subs and so on.

There's also our very Oirish-flavoured podcast, where you can leave comments, suggestions and questions, and coming this summer is our quite grand fantasy football game which lets you pick players from the top leagues in England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany, and/or lets you play each of those as domestic leagues if you like. So yes, lot's on the horizon.

We're also redesigning the site, and building mini-sites for all the clubs and competitions, so you can choose how you want to interact, where, and at what levels. "Coming Soon!" is the name of the game right now.

So anyways, we hope you stick around, and if you have any questions, comments, feedback or anything like that, then just send me a message or leave a comment. Seriously, this is a community for the fans, so the feedback we get from you guys helps make it a better experience for you.

Sorry for the slight lateness of this, but as everyone knows, Platini's administration chose Poland & Ukraine's joint bid over the other top candidates of Austria-Hungary (are they trying to resurrect the empire again?) and favourites Italy. I'll confess, i've posted late because I spent the entire day laughing at the dismay of the Italians, most of whom were soooooo confident that they were going to get it.

Why? Because they're Italy. Because of the riots and match-fixing and other problems that they thought would secure the sympathy vote having assumed that people would want to see them rewarded for their self-inflicted problems. And Because they're "world champions". Guess what? They already got their sympathy vote - it's called the World Cup. Everything now is just karma for Fabio Grosso's honesty.

And there's the small matter of politics - Italy did not support Platini's UEFA presidential campaign (maybe because he seems to be slightly on the extreme side), and perhaps they are paying the price for that now. Italy still have the same old football administration that they've had for 20 years, and nothing has shaken it - not the doping scandals, not the riots and violence, and certainly not the match-fixing/calciopoli scandals. Perhaps they thought that they were too old and powerful for the young man, and now they've been shown up. This might be the catalyst for the shake-up that Italian football has required for some years now, and Platini might have precipitated it, which is ironic considering he spent his best years under the power shelter of the Old Lady in Turin. I'm not Platini's biggest fan, but I think if he had been president prior to calciopoli, there was no way AC Milan would have been allowed into Europe this season.

As for the decision in general, I think it's great. Countries like Poland And Ukraine are all part of "Europe", but let's face it, nobody really considers them to be. They will always be "those Eastern Europeans" to the self-important Western Europeans and it's time that something was done to give them a presence. Poland, despite being part of the EU are yet to be really accepted, and the Ukraine are just one of many nations trying desperately to gain membership into the EU. The leftovers of strife and communism are still visible over there, but it is major events like these that can literally transform the fortunes of a country.

It will help both countries (moreso Ukraine) on a financial/economical level, and will also bring them to the world stage. This is important especially in the case of the Ukraine, where a wave of mini-Abramovich's has seen football clubs being bought up and millions spent on bringing talent in from around the world. The announcement that the Euro is coming will only spur on the football interest in these countries, and meanwhile they will be busy cleaning up and preparing for a festival of fun and football. Meanwhile Sepp Blatter and his little sidekick Michel Platini can chuckle to themsleves. Who knows... maybe "incentives" from the Russian/Ukrainian mob were involved? With Blatter you can just never say.

Let there be no doubt about this boy's talent. Simply amazing:

Barcelona and Manchester United. They are both struggling. Oh yes they are.

On a weekend of upsets, Barcelona lost 1-0 away at Zaragoza, and United went down 2-1 at Portsmouth. Both sides are choking badly, and while United have a once-again consistent Chelsea grinding out wins and catching up with them, Barcelona are fortunate to have equally bad chokers Sevilla as their title challengers. Time and time again Sevilla have failed to capitalise on Barca's slip-ups, and on Saturday they could only manage a goalless draw against Racing Santander in response to Barca's defeat, which came courtesy of a typically opportunistic Diego Milito strike .

It all certainly has provided a very interesting twist to the finishes of Europe's two major leagues. A while ago, United looked confident and in-control, especially when Chelsea were struggling, but the tables look like they might be turned now. Henrik Larsson is being sorely missed. He might not have set the world on fire in his short spell at Old Trafford, but he was an experienced, top-class player that they had in an attack short of depth; his departure has left the attack short of ideas and confidence, and just 3 points ahead of Chelsea.

Rooney hasn't scored many this year, neither has Saha, and Solskjaer has been patchy when fit. Cristiano Ronaldo has been their main threat, and it looks like a situation where they will now have to prioritise between the Champions League and the Premiership, although that problem might not last much longer if they fail to overturn their 2-1 first leg away defeat against AS Roma. Ferdinand will have to regain his confidence after scoring a wildly entertaining own goal at the weekend, and Van der Sar has looked a bit shaky – he failed to cleanly either hold or punch away shots against Roma and Pompey , both of which resulted in similar rebound goals.

Barca however have no real excuses. Eto'o and Messi are both fit and the latter has been wonderful since his return from injury, they have a team that is far stronger than last season's and really should be doing better. But they have been generally shaky this term, and slipping up a lot. They are out of the Champions' League, and should be focussing 100% on domestic duties, but somehow seem to have confused their objectives even more by handing the initiative to everyone else. Barca are on 56 points, Sevilla are on 55, Real Madrid are on 54, and Zaragoza and Valencia are both on 50 .

Not many people have mentioned much about Zaragoza this season, but they have been steadily climbing up the the league, and whilst their 1-0 win over Barca might be considered an upset by most, there are some who will look at the league table and say that every team in the top 7 is very, very tricky. Barca have already lost to Real, Valencia, Sevilla and Zaragoza this year, and if you can't beat your opponents at the top, then you don't deserve to win. Something just seems to be awry at the Nou Camp, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Rijkaard gone in the summer.

Anyway, off to sleep for me. Tomorrow's Champions League action could make me a very, very happy man if both Man United and Chelsea go out of the competition :)

AC Milan 2 - 2 Bayern Munchen

Bayern Munich came away from Milan with 2 valuable away goals to set up an exciting contest in the 2nd leg.

Andrea Pirlo scored first for Milan, showing great reactions and technique to loop a header over the onrushing Michael Rensing from an awkward position. There were definite questions about offsides when the ball was played through, but Pirlo looked to be just on.

The lead didn't last too long however - from a set piece, a misdirected header fell to Daniel Van Buyten about 7 yards in front of goal, and he steered it past the keeper with his left. A neat finish, especially from a giant right-footed central defender, and Bayern were level with about 15 minutes to go.

Milan then regained the lead with some very questionable refereeing. Kaka glided into the box with his usual elegan style, went past a few players, and then headed for the byline. But Van Buyten muscled in and won the ball with a fantastic challenge that looked to have eased the pressure so close to the end. But the referee gave a penalty, cue furious protests from the Bayern players.

Kaka took a long, long time over the penalty, perhaps deciding whether he should miss it or not, but eventually he slotted low to the right, with Rensing going in the absolute opposite direction. You can't blame Kaka at all, he fell over when he was tackled, bounced straight up, and never onced appealed to the referee for anything, and honestly looked quite embarassed when the penalty was given. But he was professional, and scored his 7th goal of this year's Champions League.

Justice was to prevail though, especially for Van Buyten, and in the 93rd minute of the game, the ball once again broke to him in Milan's penalty area, and he took a touch and blasted home a left-footed volley at the near post. It was the last action of the game, and it ended there, 2-2. A very entertaining encounter, and two great left-footed finishes from the big Belgian, Van Buyten, the second of which any striker in the world would have been proud of.