In just a few minutes from now, the draw for the this season's UEFA Champions League will be getting underway to determine the 8 first round groups for the biggest club soccer competition in Europe where FC Barcelona from Spain is the defending champions.

The seedings were determined yesterday.

I will post the group stage draw results later today.

Top Seeds: FC Barcelona (ESP, Defending Champions), Manchester United (ENG), Liverpool (ENG),Chelsea (ENG), AC Milan (ITA), Arsenal (ENG), Sevilla (ESP), Bayren Munich (GER)

2nd Seeds: Olympique Lyon (FRA), Inter Milan (ITA), Real Madrid (ESP), CSKA Moscow (RUS), FC Porto (POR), AZ Alkmaar (NED), Juventus (ITA), Rangers (SCO)

3rd Seeds: Olympiacos (GRE), Olympique Marseille (FRA), Dynamo Kyiv (UKR), VFB Stuttgart (GER), Fiorentina (ITA), Atletico Madrid (ESP), Bordeaux (FRA), Besiktas (TUR)

4th Seeds:  VFL Wolfsburg (GER), Standard Liege (BEL), Maccabi Haifa (ISR), FC Zurich (SUI), Rubin Kazan (RUS), Unirea Urziceni (ROU), APOEL (CYP), VSC Debreceni (HUN)

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With the next bach of games coming up around the Labor Day Weekend. Groups 1-3 in Europe are filled with surprises and some very tight groups where some big teams could miss out on South Africa next summer. One of the biggest shocks is the underachivement of Portugal and Sweden while some teams like Switzerland, Northern Ireland and Hungary are hoping to make their nations World Cup Dreams come true next summer. (more)

With football practices now underway, you may see a group of people that works just as hard as the players on the field and the coaches just about anywhere on and off the field. I'm referring to the managers and trainers that work hard to get the players and coaching staff ready for the game. Being a football manager in high school at FM Marcus, it didn't take me long to realize how tough the job was. (more)

It's almost time for another set of WC Qualifiers. This time, the U.S.A. will head to Mexico City famous Azteca Stadium coming up a week from tonight. After this game, just 4 qualifiers will remain in the road to South Africa, however, it doesn't matter the records when the giants of CONCACAF play. So far this year, the U.S.A. have played two games, both times on U.S.A. Soil.

Back in Feb. the U.S.A. Just controlled the Mexicans with a 2-0 win in Ohio then back a couple of weeks ago, Mexico just crushed the Americans 5-0 at Giants Stadium in New York to reclaim the CONCACAF Gold Cup title after the U.S.A. had won it in 2005 and 2007. However, the U.S.A. has had very little success at the Azteca throughout the US Soccer Federation history. In fact, Mexico hasn't lost a WC Qualifier at the Azteca since Costa Rica beat them in 2001.

To check out the game updates, check out my twitter page at www.twitter.com/tanman9

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If your a fan of different hockey leagues like the Central Hockey League (CHL), the North American Hockey League (NAHL) and the United States Hockey League (USHL). You will notice that the league doesn't do their own stats. Instead, they use a stats site called Pointstreak.

 

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