Soccer Watch
Italians fair to middling; and the return of MLS
By Nick Barbaro, Fri., March 31, 2006
The quarterfinal round of the European Champions League began this week with Italian teams as favorites in three of the four games. They'll go into the second leg of the home-and-away matchups next week with a lot of work to do. Italian champs Juventus dug themselves a huge hole in London, falling to Arsenal, 2-0, while the two Milanese squads got only fair results, Inter coming from behind to beat Villarreal at home, 2-1, while AC Milan struggled to a scoreless draw at Lyon (as did favored Barcelona at Lisbon's Benfica). The return leg matches are next week, April 4-5. ESPN2's games of the week are Inter Milan at Villarreal, 1:30pm Tuesday, and Benfica at Barcelona, 1:30pm Wednesday.
Major League Soccer kicks off their 2006 season this Saturday, April 1, with a TV doubleheader: Chicago Fire at Dallas FC, 3pm on ABC, and at 10pm on ESPN2, a rematch of last year's title game, the New England Revolution at defending champs L.A. Galaxy.
