Here’s a rare opportunity: MLS in Austin. The final game of the MLS preseason – Colorado Rapids vs. Dallas Burn – will be played at Nelson Field (Reagan High) on Saturday, March 26 at 7pm. Advance tickets are $15 at Soccer World/Soccer USA. $20 at the door. The MLS regular season kicks off the following weekend.
World Cup Mexican breakfast? WC Qualifying resumes this week, with key games around the world on five continents. But there’s only one game that matches two of the top 10 teams in the world, and it’s not in Europe or South America, but in Mexico City, where the U.S. faces its toughest challenge of the year. They’ve never beaten Mexico at home, going 0-21-1 in previous trips, in what has truly become one of the best football rivalries in the world. Things get only slightly easier down the road for the U.S.; they get just two days off before playing Wednesday night in Guatemala. Both of the U.S. games are being broadcast live on ESPN2. At Mexico: Sunday, March 27 at noon; at Guatemala: Wednesday, April 30 at 7pm.
The Champions League Quarterfinal draw is set for April 5-6 and 12-13, and it includes two dramatic matchups: a Milan derby between AC Milan and Inter Milan, and Liverpool vs. Juventus – the first time the two European giants have met since the infamous 1985 European Cup final at Heysel Stadium in Belgium, when 39 spectators were killed in prematch festivities. Also up: Lyon-PSV Eindhoven, and Chelsea-Bayern Munich.
In England, all the news is about struggling giant Manchester United. Chief executive David Gill was all over the airwaves on Tuesday, telling Sky Sports News that a 50% drop in profits didn’t make the club any more vulnerable to a hostile takeover bid by Tampa Bay Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer, revealing on Radio Four’s Today show that the team is looking for a new goalkeeper because Roy Carroll is leaving (making American Tim Howard the only experienced keeper), and insisting on BBC Radio Five Live that beloved coach Sir Alex Ferguson “is sackable.”
This article appears in March 25 • 2005.