Soccer Week (7 of 8): American Player Tim Howard Shuts Down Chelsea

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
We now how Dutch international Maikel va der Werff, who plays for the Dutch soccer team Zwolle, felt when he kicked in an own goal which propelled Ajaz Amsterdam to defeat Zwolle 2-1.

As we were typing to score for the Southampton-West Ham game which ended in a 0-0 tie, we punched the wrong button and all of our work (if one can call blogging work) vanished.

But, our header was that American goal-keeper Tim Howard (pictured above) came back from helping Team USA earn a World Cup bid by defeating Mexico 2-0 in Columbus, Ohio. And, then he flew back to England to help his team Everton (based in Liverpool) defeat London powerhouse Chelsea 1-0.

The lone goal of the match was scored by Steven Naismith of Scotland during extra time of the first half.

Mesut Ozil, a German national of Turkish heritage, had a solid debut with Arsenal as he contributed an assist in the team's 3-1 win over Sunderland.

Gyfli Sigurdsson of Iceland score two goals for Tottenham Hotspur.

French national Yoan Gouffan scored the game-winner for Newcastle United in the 73rd minute of play.

Finally, the stars came out for Manchester United as both Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney came through for the home team.

Here is a complete list of weekend games in the English Premiere League:

Man U 2 Crystal Palace 0

Southampton 0 West Ham 0 (tie)

Liverpool 2 Swansea 2 (tie)

Aston Villa 1 Newcastle 2

Fulham 1 West Brom 1 (tie)

Tottenham 2 Norwich 0

Everton 1 Chelsea 0

Sunderland 1 Arsenal 3

Stoke City 0 Man City 0 (tie)

Hull City 1 Stoke City 1 (tie)

http://www.premiereleague.com

http://www.evertonfc.com

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com

http://www.nufc.co.uk/

English Premiere League Scoreboard

American women's soccer goalie Hope Solo certainly doesn't play in the English Premiere League, but we thought posting an image of her may help our hit counts; we understand she has a loyal following in Slovakia (well, we aren't 100-percent certain of that).

Many of the soccer games in the EPL this weekend (plus one on Monday) were lop-sided, but there were some real gems as well.

Tottenham Hotspur prevailed over Arsenal 2-1 with goals from English national Aaron Lemmon in the 35th minute and Welsh star Gareth Bale (pictured bottom); for Arsenal, the lone goal came from German player Per Mertesader in the 43rd minute of play.

Japanese sensation Shinji Kagawa scored a hot trick for Manchester United in front of a home crowd of 75, 586 spectators in the team's 4-0 dismantling of Norwich.

And, our beloved Chelsea won a 1-0 match on a goal from Senegalese national Demba Ba in the 28th minute in a game against West Brom on Saturday.

Here are the scores:


Everton 3 Reading 1

Queens Park 2 Southampton 1

Swansea 1 Newcastle 0

Manchester City 1 Aston Villa 0

Tottenham 2 Arsenal 1

Sunderland 2 Fulham 2

Manchester United 4 Norwich 0

Liverpool 4 Wigham Ath. 0

West Ham 1 Stoke 0

Chelsea 1 West Brom 0

Sports Desk- Baylor Wins NCAA Women's Tournament, etc.

The top sports news story tonight here in the United States is that the Baylor Bears, a school based in Waco, Tex., completed a perfect 40-0 season as the team won a NCAA championship in women's basketball by defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 80-61.

Brittney Griner, the top star in women's college basketball, scored 26 points for the Bears. Defensively, her teammates Jordan Madden and Kimetria Hayden helped stop Notre Dame's star guard Natalie Novoseal, thus assuring victory.

SOCCER (England): The English Premiere League (EPL) had an exciting weekend of play in which most major powers came through with victories. Here is a partial list of scores:

Manchester United 2 Blackburn 0 (goals from Antonio Valencia in 81st minute, and Ashley Young in 86th minutes)

Tottenham 3 Swansea 1 (Togolese national Emmanuel Adebayor score two goals for Tottenham in 73rd and 86th minutes of play)

Newscastle 2 Liverpool 0 (Both Newcastle goals came from Senegalese national Pappis Cisse in 19th and 59th minutes)

Chelsea 4 Aston Villa 2 (Serbian national Branislav Ivanovic scored two goals)

Manchester 3 Sunderland 3, tie

Soccer (Mexico):

Pachuca 1 Tijuana 0 (The lone goal came from Argentinian national Javier Munoz Mustafa in 63rd minute)

Puebla 1 Queretero 0

Monterrey 3 America 2

Santos Laguna 3 Toluca 1

UAG Tecos 1 Guadalajara 0 (Mexican national Edgar Mejia scored the lone goal in the 83rd minute to beat their cross-town rivals.)

COLLEGE GYMNASTICS:

Women's college gymnastics will have six regional meets on Saturday to determine the 12 teams which will compete for the national championships in Gwinnett, Georgia, from April 20-22. The defending national champion Alabama will head all the way to Seattle where they will face fellow Southeastern Conference rival LSU.

Here are three of the regionals; the other three regional meets are listed on "The Daily Vampire:"

Fayetville, Arkansas

1. UCLA
2. Arkansas
3. Boise State
4. Missouri
5. New Hampshire
6. Maryland

Auburn, Alabama regional

1. Georgia
2. Oregon State
3. Auburn
4. Michigan
5. West Virginia
6. Michigan State

Seattle regional

1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. Arizona
4. Washington
5. Iowa
6. Central Michigan

Sports Desk- Arsenal 5 Tottenham 2

We focus again on the English Premiere League (EPL) where an amazing seven goals were scored between Arsenal and Tottenham, which was won by Arsenal 5-2.

For Arsenal, the goals came from French national Barca Sagna (40th minute), Dutch star Robin van Persie (43rd min.), Czech national Tomas Rosicky (51st minute) and two goals from English national Theo Walcott (65th and 68th mins.), who is pictured with this entry.

For the losing Tottenham Hotspurs, which actually was ahead of Arsenal in the EPL table (they were in 3rd place, Arsenal in 5th) the goals came from French national Louis Saha (64th min.) and the Togo national Emmanuel Adebayor (penalty, 34th min.).

Chelsea had a big day on Saturday as it blanked Bolton 3-0 with a goal coming from the Ivory Coast superstar Didier Drogba (61st min.). Other Chelsea goals came from Brazilian national David Luiz (48th min.) and the team's English captain Frank Lompard (79th min.).

Both Manchester teams continued to fight each other for top of the EPL as Machester City shut out Blackburn 3-0 on Saturday with goals from Mario Balotelli (30th min.), Sergio Aguero (52nd min.) and Edin Dzeko (81st min.).

Manchester United won on Sunday with a 2-1victory over Norwich City; the goals for MU came from Paul Scholes (74th min.) and Ryan Giggs (92nd min.) while Norwich City's captain Grant Holt scored the lone goal for his side in the 85 minute.

Here are the tables for this weekend's EPL games:

Aston Villa 0 Wigan Athletic 0, tie
Manchester City 3 Blackburn 0
Fulham 1 Queens Park 0
West Brom Ath. 4 Sunderland 0
Chelsea 3 Bolton 0
Wolves 2 New Castle 0

Manchester United 1 Norwich City 1
Arsenal 5 Tottenham Hotspurs 2
Stoke City 2 Swansea 0