Soccer Fan Blog

David and Gary ponder the situation…

It’s rare to approach a game of the magnitude of Saturday’s Champions League final with so many massive questions about the lineups of both sides. Four Chelsea players — defenders John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic, and midfielders Ramires and Raul Meireles — will be suspended for the final; Bayern Munich will be without three (defensive midfielder Luiz Gustavo, along with defenders Holger Badstuber and David Alaba). And that means any assessment of what might happen is going to be dotted with ifs and maybes.

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A total of 1,348,000 viewers tuned into the U.S. television coverage of the final day of the Premier League season, an increase of 72 percent over 2011. U.S. networks televised all 10 games Sunday on seven English-language networks, two Spanish-language networks and three Internet streams, up from coverage on two networks each in English and Spanish plus the Internet last year. The largest rating was for Manchester City’s title-winning 3-2 victory over Queens Park Rangers, which was seen by an average 600,000 viewers on ESPN2 and 189,000 on ESPN Deportes, according to Nielsen Media Research.

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It is appropriate that on the day François Hollande, France’s freshly-elected president, was picking key members of the team that will help him lead the country over the next five years, ‘Le President’ of Les Bleus was selecting his squad for Euro 2012. Monsieur Hollande would barely have had the opportunity to discover where Nicolas Sarkozy had hidden the Elysées Palace remote control when he moved into the presidential digs in Paris on Tuesday before Laurent Blanc made public the full 26 names of his preliminary squad for this summer’s European championship.

Francois Hollande and his companion Valerie Trierweiler…

Squad:
Goalkeepers: Cedric Carrasso (Bordeaux), Hugo Lloris (Lyon), Steve Mandanda (Marseille).

Defenders: Gael Clichy (Manchester City), Mathieu Debuchy (Lille), Patrice Evra (Manchester United), Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal), Philippe Mexes (AC Milan), Adil Rami (Valencia), Anthony Reveillere (Lyon), Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa (Montpellier).

Midfielders: Yohan Cabaye (Newcastle), Alou Diarra (Marseille) Yoann Gourcuff (Lyon), Yann M’Vila (Rennes), Florent Malouda (Chelsea), Marvin Martin (Sochaux), Blaise Matuidi (Paris Saint-Germain), Samir Nasri (Manchester City).

Forwards: Hatem Ben Arfa (Newcastle), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Olivier Giroud (Montpellier), Jeremy Menez (Paris Saint-Germain), Loic Remy (Marseille), Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich), Mathieu Valbuena (Marseille).

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Walcott’s brother Ashley revealed on Twitter that he and his father Don would not be following England during their group matches in Kiev and Donetsk next month because of concerns for their safety.

“Unfortunately my dad and I have taken the decision not to travel to the Ukraine because of the fear of possible racist attacks confrontations (sic) …” Walcott wrote on the micro-blogging site.

“Somethings aren’t worth risking, but begs the question why hold a competition of this magnitude in a place that can not police itself for foreigners of any creed to feel safe, but I’ll be watching every minute.

Sky’s Report 

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Away from the centre-backlash over John Terry’s controversial inclusion, the England squad selected by Roy Hodgson is largely a parade of familiar faces given an adrenalin shot by the exciting inclusion of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

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