Durzblog

Oh and what a week it was!

Germany:
The highlights of the week began in Wolfsburg as Bayern were crowned "Deutscher Meister" for the 21st time. The club from Munich were definitely deserving of the title as they led the standings from the start. The signings of Toni and Ribery proved successful as the club captured the domestic double. Luca will likely bid Ciao to the club and head back to Italy, where he belongs...Also this week Bremen secured second place and automatic Champions League qualification. Gladbach and Cologne celebrated promotion back up to the Bundesliga, while Rostock and Duisburg were relegated back to Bundesliga2. One more promotion spot and another relegation spot will be decided this weekend.


England:
The excitement was huge as D-Day has come and gone in the UK. Manchester United took the Premiership title yesterday (their 10th) by defeating Wigan on the road courtesy of a Cristiano Ronaldo PK and Ryan Giggs ended the suspense on a nice feed from Wayne Rooney with 10 minutes to play. Chelsea gave up a late game tying tally at Stamford Bridge to Bolton, but were already aware of Manchester securing the full points -- making the the Blues result meaningless. Didier Drogba and John Terry picked up knocks and at the moment are questionable for the Champions League final in Moscow a week from Wednesday..At the other end of the table, just as much seemed to be up for grabs. Reading jumped out early and did all that they could by beating already relegated Derby 4-0, but Marcus Hahnemann and his club will be headed back to the Championship. Fulham in a stunning turn of events won four of their last five contests after being left for dead and made the club $70 million yesterday on Danny Murphy's 78th minute header to beat Portsmouth 1-0. Ahead on goal differential Fulham finished tied with Reading in points but will stay-up. Good news for the five Americans (McBride, Keller, Bocanegra, Dempsey, Johnson) on the Cottagers club. In addition to Reading, Birmingham and Derby will be heading back to the Championship.

Italy
(Here ya go Vin, Happy Birthday:)

Inter Milan have their fans about ready to vomit. After a shocking draw home to Siena this weekend they are staring at one of the biggest collapses in modern Italian soccer if they fail to get three points on the road to bottom three Parma. Inter were 11 points clear in mid-February, but with one round of games left they lead Roma by just one. The stage was set for Milan to take the scudetto, but the chance was blown as Marco Materazzi forced himself to the spot -- literally fighting with Argentine Julio Cruz to take the kick -- and the missing it. Next weekend Roma and Inter both face clubs fighting relegation (Catania, Parma respectively) in what should be a doozer of a finale. None of it will be shown on Fox Soccer Channel of course. My guess is that I will see Cagliari for the 30th time this season...

Notes -- In addition to the huge weekend in Italy and some more business in Germany, there will be some interesting action in the next few weeks in France as well as Scotland. In France, third from bottom PSG, look to stay up and keep Paris from becoming the only current major European capital without a top flight club. In Scotland, Rangers trail Celtic by four points with two games in hand -- the competition has been a bit cloudy due to rescheduling caused by Rangers UEFA Cup run. They will likely need to run the table.

Enjoy all the games