Posted by Steven Cohen

Hope you enjoyed last week on World Football Daily. We concluded the week with a great interview from Newcastle United manager Chris Hughton who joined us to talk about the season just gone, now that they are champions of The Championship. They will rightfully take their place in the Premier League starting next season. It was a good week of guests which we started out with Pat Dolan along with Tim Vickery. Phil Ball made his first visit for a while and Oli Kay who was outside the Vincente Calderon stadium in Madrid, just prior to the Europa League game between Atletico Madrid and Liverpool. We also caught up with Kris Voakes on Tuesday outside the San Siro before Inter v Barcelona and the very next day we grabbed Ben Gladwell outside the Allianz Arena in Munich prior to Bayern v Lyon...if you can tell me where else you can get that kind of coverage I am all ears, as Ross Perot once said.

I do feel I need to keep banging the drum about subscriptions. We are seeing an upswing, which is great and thanks and welcome to all the new subscribers but we just need to see a bigger upswing. Listen if you are getting this Kick Around newsletter but have not yet decided to subscribe, take a chance on World Football Daily because at the $4.99 price point we are asking, for 25 cents per day for a 90 minute daily show with outstanding guests that is easily the equal of any other football show anywhere in the world. It is 25 cents a day from right here in the US! What are you waiting for?

Seriously, if you are reading this newsletter and are still undecided on whether to subscribe, I would love to hear your concerns and you should feel welcome to e-mail me any and all your concerns at steven@worldfootballdaily.com. I want to hear from you and answer any questions you might have.

We will be launching our new website starting early in May and with it will come a terrific mobile app that will not be limited to just the iPhone but will be available to all manner of mobile devices, so please stay tuned for that.

OK to the football...

So if you are reasonably new to the game then you must be thinking that this is how it is every season. Sadly no but even more reason to enjoy what you are witnessing. Going into the weekend the leads in the Premier League, Serie A and La Liga all separated by a single point. Germany and Holland just 2 points and so as we head into the final 2-3-4 weeks of the European seasons, we are looking at quite an ending and if for no other reason than this weekend in the Premier League, City fans will be cheering for United and Spurs fans will be cheering (albeit quietly) for Arsenal to keep Manchester City off Tottenham's back.

Football always throws up surprises, which is why they always say, "that is why they play the games."
The Europa League was dull this week. Liverpool failed to show up again for any game anywhere that is not called Anfield. The real shame is that they will probably overturn the 1-0 loss to Atletico Madrid next Thursday and get themselves into the Europa League Final in Hamburg next month. Got to see former Manchester United striker Diego Forlan get the goal.

Fulham played a good tactical game in Hamburg without ever looking likely to score but they were strong in defense had a couple of decent breaks which could have gone somewhere but sadly did not. They will still have it all to do at Craven Cottage next Thursday and if they can keep a clean sheet then they will find themselves in utter dreamland in Hamburg next month.

In the Champions League a decent game in Munich saw Frank Ribery sent off at the half hour mark for a tackle that was atrocious and a clear red card. But the club from Bavaria never really looked that troubled even before Lyon were also reduced to 10 men when Jeremy Toulalan picked up 2 yellow cards in 3 minutes. Arjen Robben was the star and he looked menacing every single time he picked up the ball and his goal was top draw not unlike the goals he has scored vs. Fiorentina and Manchester United in the previous two rounds. But the game that the world would be focused on was in Milan on Tuesday night. Poor defending by Maicon and Cambiaso gifted Pedro and Barcelona an opening goal but that was the end of highlight reel for Barcelona. The kind of preparation that Jose Mourinho puts his teams through is epic and impressive and the way Cambiaso and Zanetti locked up and collapsed on Messi every time he got the ball really was a game changer. Xavi did not have the options he is used to. I thought that Pique and Puyol were playing a really dangerous and risky game tactically playing such a high line against forwards with the speed of Pandev, Eto'o and Milito. Inter Milan answered with three from Wesley Sneijder, Maicon and Diego Milito (although clearly offside, he really did deserve a goal) and Barcelona have it all to do next week at the Nou Camp. But they will not have their captain Carlos Puyol who will miss next week's game through suspension, which means that Gabi Milito might get the start for Barcelona. That would mean for the first time that brothers have faced of in a European Cup/Champions League semi-final and more to the point they would be marking each other.
Then of course there is the drama that seems to follow Mario Balotelli around. Giving the Inter fans the finger, throwing his shirt to the ground and getting into it with teammates...physically and verbally. He is not long for Inter and has already submitted a transfer request.

I cannot wait for this coming Wednesday. To see Barcelona have to chase a game will be something to watch. I cannot see Inter ruining a 2 goal lead and so my predictions for the two European Finals is:
Inter over Bayern and Liverpool over Hamburg.

In The Premier League it was the same old result if not the same old performance for Spurs up at Old Trafford. In the lunchtime kick off Spurs fell to two nailed on penalty=is by Ryan Giggs and a sublime goal from Nani which moved United back to the top of the table if only temporarily and this time United got it done without Wayne Rooney who was out with a groin injury.

In watching the United v Tottenham game I found myself for the first time ever really cheering for a team to do Chelsea harm. Early on Saturday morning I had received an e-mail from a friend here in the US (he has been on the show before) who has been contributing some writing to the official Chelsea website. In his latest offering he had referenced me and our show and was talking about the topic that I have mentioned many times before that I think the US is the best country in the world go out and watch football in sports bars and pubs etc... My dear friend submitted it to the club only for it to come back completely edited with every mention of myself, and the show taken out. They even said that there was no way that they wanted to be giving me, or the show any publicity. I don't care if they score 7 or 70 they are as an organization total and utter scum.

I was really upset for about half an hour and then I realized that it simply validates the decision I made a few weeks ago. I will be scouring the house this weekend to get every single everything with any mention of Chelsea out of here and the license plates will be gone by Tuesday.

Around the rest of the league: with West Ham coming back to win and Hull losing 1-0 to Sunderland it is sad to say but Hull are officially relegated being 6 points behind West Ham with 2 games to go and a goal difference of 23 worse than the Hammers. Ok it is not official but it is as good as done.

Burnley however are officially relegated to the Championship. They lost 4-0 at home to Liverpool and that was all it took. They tried to do it the right way by not spending themselves to safety and they will enjoy some pretty decent parachute payments to try and mount a promotion challenge next season. We will miss them as their press people have been amazing at providing us with everyone we have ever asked for.

Aston Villa won the midlands derby vs. Birmingham with a James Milner penalty and are now tied with Tottenham and ahead of City with two games two go which for just happen to be away to City and home to Blackburn. So the race for 4th is really alive and That said lets not forget that on May 5th Manchester City host Spurs at Eastland's in what should be a serious decider for the 4th Champions League spot. Villa though are making it quite a battle.
Stoke joined Sunderland and Aston Villa as teams who have had 7 put past them by Chelsea. What was strange was the lack of fight from Stoke...very unusual for a Tony Polis managed side.

So safe to say that the title comes down to Chelsea's visit next week to Anfield! Didn't you just know that is how it would work. They have to win otherwise it opens the door for United. A draw would only give them a point obviously and with United going to Sunderland much will be revealed next weekend. In case you are wondering Chelsea play Liverpool in the early game next Sunday and United play Sunderland in the late game on Sunday so United will know what they have to do.

Dodgy penalty gives Everton all three points against Fulham who clearly have other things on their mind. And what might I ask was Jozy Altidore thinking? I can only imagine what Bob Bradley must be thinking. That was stupid stupid stupid.

In Europe and starting in Germany: Bayern who lets face it would appear to have bigger fish to fry in the form of Lyon and the Champions League took their eye off of the Bundesliga prize and slipped up with a 1-1 draw against Borussia Monchengladbach while Schalke 04 beat bottom of the table Hertha Berlin 1-0 away. The title will come down to will come down to Bayern or Schalke 04who with two game to play looks like this for Bayern: home to VFL Bochum and away to Hertha Berlin which Schalke 04 home to Werder Bremen and a way to Mainz so you would probably say advantage Bayern. And also lets not forget that Bayern are going for the treble.
In Germany with 2 games to go it is tied at the top between Bayern Munich and Schalke 04.

Talking of trebles Inter Milan got their domestic form back on course with a 3-1 dismantling of Atalanta as they get ready to FLY to Barcelona for their Champions League 2nd leg vs. Barcelona. Having already booked their passage into the Coppa Italia 10 days ago they are very much in for the treble.

What is amazing about all this is that just like when he left Porto after winning the Champions League he is more than likely to leave Inter and does anyone have any doubt that after Inter pick up the CL trophy at the Santiago Bernebeu Jose will head upstairs and sign his deal. I am not convinced, that unless the United job was available, he is coming back to England any time too soon.

Some of the football AS Roma is playing at the moment is quite breathtaking. But at home they looked amazing in the first half taking a 1-0 lead thanks to Mr. Roma himself Francisco Totti but a brace by Pazzini undoes them in a game that I am not sure that they could afford to lose, but lose they did and how lucky is Jose Mourinho...the treble is on and he must be laughing his ass off.

In Italy with 4 games to go it is a two point lead at the top between Inter Milan and AS Roma.

In Spain both Barcelona and Real Madrid won. Real Madrid with the tougher fixture won 2-1 away to Real Zaragoza while Barcelona made reasonably easy work of bottom of the league Xerox winning 3-1 at the Nou Camp.
Four games to go in La Liga, Barcelona lead by a point and their run in looks like this: away v Villarreal, hone to Tenerife, AWAY TO SEVILLA, home to Valladolid.
Real Madrid with four games to go and behind by one point: home to Osasuna, AWAY TO REAL MALLORCA, home to Athletic Bilbao and away to Malaga.

It would seem pretty close in terms of toughness of schedule and obviously there are two game that stand out: Barcelona away to Seville and Real Madrid away to Real Mallorca who have only lost twice at home all season. Stay tuned in Spain with 4 games to go, it is a one point lead at the top between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

In Major League Soccer Edson Buddle is still the only scorer for LA Galaxy as Kansas City are the first team to cause LA to drop points with a 0-0 in Kansas.

The Red Bulls march on with a nice 2-1 win over the Union and last years MLS Cup winners went down again this time to Columbus. Colorado had a good win at New England and we will get the chance to ask Gary Smith all about this week on the show.

And good for Chivas who got their second win this time at home to San Jose where you have to believe that things are not going as well as Frankie Yallop would like.

Dare I say it but it looks like Seattle are having some second season jitters.

And finally congrats to Rangers for winning the title in Scotland...their 53rd I believe Kenny was saying on Friday and to nobodies surprise but congrats to Wayne Rooney and James Milner who picked up the PFA Player of the Year and PFA Young player of the Year awards respectively last night in London.

OK so enjoy this coming week on World Football Daily. Loads to talk about especially these great European battles on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Until then...

Steven