It is with great joy and emotion that I inform I have recently become father to a baby boy. As agreed with the baby’s mother, who prefers to have her identity kept confidential, my son will be under my exclusive guardianship. No further information will be provided on this subject and I request everyone to fully respect my right to privacy (and that of the child) at least on issues as personal as these are.

So that’s that. C-Ron’s a Daddy, and that’s all he’s going to say on it. I’m the third-farthest person from a Cristiano Ronaldo fan in all of football, but I have to give him credit. He announced what sounds like a somewhat … complicated arrangement in a fairly simple anti-Paparazzi way. And with Portugal out and a bit over a month until La Liga starts up for his Real Madrid side, he can hopefully take a few weeks and get some quality time with Winker Jr.

The questions are (because I personally don’t care who the mama is), 1) is he sincere about wanting to keep the kid out of the spotlight? and 2) can he do it?

We don’t know the babys name but after Ronaldo’s Portugal are out of the world cup he can set his sights on looking after the little tot beforehe gets back to playing in La Liga, here are the early football odds for the winning of the la liga title.

All across Europe, league titles were being decided this weekend. Here is a breif round-up of the final standings in europes major leagues.

As you already know, Chelsea are th Champions of England and new F.A cup champions after they beat Portsmouth in the final at Wembley on Saturday.

La Liga
Barcelona retained their Spanish crown after beating Valladolid 4-0 in the final game of the season, and the galaticos of Real Madrid finished as runners-up as they could only manage a 1-1 draw with Malaga. Messi scored twice to take his tally this season to 34 goals, and with took the la liga golden shoe.

Seria A
Inter Milan and Jose Mourinho have their sights on a treble after securing their fifth straight League title, and the domestic cup. They were pushed all the way in the league by Roma, but a 1-0 win against Siena on the final day of the season clinched the title.

Ligue 1
Marseille are this season french league winners followed by Lyon and Auxerre, They did actually win the league with a game to spare, but it is a great result for the team.

Bundesliga
Bayern Munich are once again German champions and they aswell as Inter Milan have the chance to become a treble winning team, the final of the Uefa Champions league will decide which team goes down in the history books.

This is the best time to place a bet on the winners of next season compatitions so check the odds comparison at http://www.odds1×2.com and get your bet in early.

Spurs know that a win would guarantee they secure fourth spot in the Barclays Premier League – a massive achievement given they would have beaten mega-rich City and Liverpool.

And Redknapp has raised the temperature ahead of the crunch showdown by claiming he would rather keep all of his current players than swap them for any of City’s.

The Spurs boss told ESPN Soccernet: ‘We have Aaron Lennon coming back, and what a player he is, with his pace. Even behind him, there is Gareth Bale, who has come on in such leaps and bounds and has become an attacking force.

‘I wouldn’t swap our players for any of theirs. We have a terrific group of players, and that’s a nice position to be in.’

Redknapp has also questioned the value of Carlos Tevez, saying he agrees with Sir Alex Ferguson that the former Manchester United striker was over-priced.

He added: ‘There is only one point in it in for the race for the title, and that’s the fine dividing lines these days and, let’s face it, he has achieved that without Cristiano Ronaldo or Tevez.

‘To be fair to Sir Alex, he probably thought that £45million – or whatever the true cost for Tevez was – was a bit much, plus his wages  of £180,000-a-week, when he wasn’t even a regular in the United team last season, spending most of his time coming off the bench.

‘Sir Alex has spent £30m on Berbatov and he had Rooney and, at the start of the season, he would have thought that was enough, and so would most people.’

The showdown between Manchester City and Tottenham on Wednesday at the city of Manchester stadium is a winner takes all match, The looser will be in the Europa league whilst the winner will be in the champions league for the first time ever. Be sure to place a bet on the crunch game, as long as you check out the odds comparison before hand.

If you are a halfback, you must be aware of the fact that as halfbacks can move to forward positions, they can be used for serving the offensive purposes as well. This is particularly useful when the coach is thinking off some counter attack strategy and the halfbacks also get a chance to score goals themselves. The positions in a team game like football are very important and unless all the players stick to their basic roles, a game cannot be ever won.

Center Back

The “king pin” of a football team, this position is pretty commanding one. A center back actually plays the role of a central defender who halts the attack of opponent team with certain interceptions and if required some timely tackles. Proper heights, speedy movement, strength to do necessary tackling are they key physical attributes of a center halfback. In addition, confidence, decisiveness and tenacity can help a center halfback grow fast with time.

Midfielders

Midfielders or the playmakers are always with the responsibility of organizing any attack of the team. They change the pace of the football game. Unless they are in sync with their teammates, the team will be led towards a poor performance. Possession is pretty important in this team game and only midfielders can ascertain this fact that the ball stays with the team.

Wingers

They have two different responsibilities to handle with the changing flow of game. They can either supply the ball to the strikers or they can stretch the defense in moments of crisis. Not the physical attributes but speed is the most important factor while choosing a defender and an ability to dribble properly makes things even better. Remember, at certain conditions, wingers may need to go in a body contact with bigger players, so they should have the confidence and know the “principles of the width in an attack.”

Forwards

The scorers of a team and as it said “Goals win Matches”, indeed one of the most important roles. The strikers sometimes rotate their role in the game as feeders. They look out for any possible flaw in the opponent defense and a chance to score a goal.
But, if you think this one as the best position, think again. This needs you to withstand the pain as the strikers are most likely to face the hard tackles of an opponent team. Stamina and speed are two added factors which may help you out as well.

After the shocking relegation of Newcastle United last year, Portsmouth is confirmed to be out of the Big Boys’ list for the next season.  But Avram Grant’s side showed some determination that helped them to beat Tottenham and reach the finals of the FA Cup. Frederic Piquionne and Kevin Prince-Boateng were the stars of the night. Portsmouth is going to fight the battle out against the mighty Chelsea in the final. This is surely great news for the long-suffering fans Pompey who can still end the season on a high.

Initially things looked bright for Tottenham as they started very well. They created their first chance within five minutes when David Bentley’s corner almost found Defoe. Another corner taken a little later was saved by David James as Crouch’s header dribbled past the post.  But Portsmouth never lost their calm and slowly began to move the ball nicely. Dindane was playing with confidence; he provided a nice pass to Piquionne in the first half that failed to beat Gomes.

The second half was also dominated by the Spurs. Mokoena tackled Crouch very well throughout the match and their had been flashes of individual skills. But none of the teams was able to make it look like a thrilling FA Cup final. Pavlyuchenko replaced Defoe and Bentley was replaced by Kranjcar in the second half where as Pompey were yet to use their bench till then. The Wembley Stadium was stunned in the 99th minute when Piquionne coolly placed the ball inside the net from a close range. The centre back Michael Dawson, generally a reliable customer in the defense line, slipped that helped Piquionne to score the first goal.

Crouch converted Bale’s beautiful pass only after a couple of minutes of the first goal. But luck denied to stand by the Spurs as the referee ruled the goal out for a foul. Spurs created a few moves this time but all of them were defended away by the firm and determined Pompey defense line. Things turned even worse for Spurs when Palacios brought Aruna Dindane down inside the penalty box with just three minutes remaining on the clock. Boateng then made no mistake to drill home the penalty against his former team. John Utaka almost made it 3-0 but Gomes made a fine save. Unfortunately, the damage was already done.

To keep Track of the livescores in these games i use http://www.livegoals.com

Javier Mascherano has announced that he wants to move back to his home country before the end of his career.

“Right now I’m thinking about playing for another three or four years at the highest level and returning home to play at a good level there.”
“I want to enjoy Argentinian football for four or five years and I’d love to do it at River (Plate), the club that gave me everything and treated me so well.”

He is looking forward to signing a new deal with Liverpool to keep him at the club for another 3 -4 years, which is great news for all Liverpool fans as he is a integral part of the Liverpool team. He joined Liverpool in 2007 on loan from a struggling West Ham before making the move permanent in February 2008, he quickly established himself as a first team player and later in the year was voted the man of the match by Liverpool fans in the champions league final, which they lost 2-1 to Ac Milan.

He has only scored twice for Liverpool, the first a scrappy goal against Reading, but the 2nd of which was a cracking goal against Unirea Urziceni. The midfielder is well renowned for his tenacious tackling and attack stifling play, and has recently been praised by both Rafa Benitez and Diego Maradona
Benitez “ he is a monster of a player” and Diego had to say this about the Argentina side “ it’s Javier plus 10 others”

Here are some highlights of the little midfield chief

Fast Tube by Casper

I posted an article last week about the key battles which were going to take part in the 1st leg of the Quarter-final. The battles were intense and for atleast an hour of the game Barcelona won every single battle, how they were only 2-0 up at 60 minute mark only they know. The tie looked as if  it was over as a contenst and that the 2nd leg would be a fomality for the Catalan giants as they cruised into a 2 goal lead just after half time. But after bringing Theo Walcott on, the game turned on its head.

Arsenal got 2 goals late on to end the game 2 – 2. Now the tie is poised on a knife edge, but both teams suffered major blows in the 1st leg, with Cesc Fabregas, William Gallas and Andre Arsharvin all getting injured meaning they won’t take part for the rest of the season, and Barcelona loosing both of their center backs to suspensions.

The 1st leg didnt dissapoint and i’m, sure that the 2nd leg will be even better. Arsenal will look to get an early away goal and try to stop an onslaught from Barcalona, if it’s anything like the 1st leg Arsenal may come away having been comprehensively beaten at the hands of Pep Guardiola and his formidable barca team.

Here are the live football highlights just to wet your appetite

Fast Tube by Casper

Tonight is the night that possibly the best 2 footballing teams on the planet go head to head. Arsenal will host the first leg of the tie at the Emirates against the European champions Barcelona. Both teams could be without some key players, none more so than Cesc Fabregas and Andres Ineista both key members of either sides midfiled. Putting this to one side here are the Key battles which will take part on the pitch tongiht

Key Battles

Bendtner v Puyol
The sometimes brilliant Bendtner will have to be on top of his game tonight if he is to get the better of the Catalans skipper. Puyol is one of the best center backs in the world at the moment and will relish the taks of playing against the young Dane. If Bedtner plays tot he best of his ability he could give Puyol something to worry about, Puyol isn the quickest and can sometimes be caught out of posistion, i am sure the Danish striker will get a few oppurtunities to score,the only question is will he have his shooting boots on?

Arsenal Defence v Messi
It may seem a bit farfetched to say Messi can take on the whole defence but he has proven more than once this season that he can do it. Unless Arsene decides to try and set one man on the little argentine you can bet he will play against every single one of the back for at one point or another during the game, this is due to the way Barcelona will play, all 3 of their front 3 are interchangable. For Arsenal to have  any chance in the tie they must make sure they  keep Leo Messi off the ball as much as possible.

Fabregas (if fit) / Denilson v Busquets
This is one of the match-ups i think arsenal could have an advatage in espically if Fabregas is passed fit. Busquets is not the complete defensive midfielder yet, he is a tad on the weak side and is certainly not the quickest on the pitch, but he does have agood knoledge of the barcelona game plan as he is a like for like model of their coach Pep Guardiola. If fabregas plays i think Arsenal could really exploite this area of the pitch, Denilson will play in this role if Cesc isnt ft and even the young Brazillian could pose a threat to the Catalan giants. To stop this i personally feel Yaya Toure should be playing but i ma sure Pep will stick to his useuall line-up.

I want Arsenal to do well in this leg to make it an interesting leg in Camp Nou, but i really can’t see much further than a Barcalona win. I will be watching the live football game at livegoals.com

Who will win the race for the fourth and final champions league place, i would say it is currently a four horse race, with Tottenham leading the pack. This is how the table looks after this weekends action:

As you can see Aston Villa have some catching up to do, as they are 8 points behind spurs, Manchester City have 2 games in hand on liverpool and 1 on the others meaning that they could overhall spurs if they were to win them both.
Liverpool are jsut hitting form at the right time and have the easiest run in to the end of the season, which seems to ahve made them slight favourites with most of the bookies. I think the race could go down to the wire and it is hard to pick a team at the moment.

This is certainly one of the best premiership seasons for a long time!