Editor’s Note: Geoff Reid appears on WVHooligan.com each week. Today he comes back to preview the Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United.

Team news: Rio Ferdinand has just today declared himself fit which is massive for Manchester United, especially for Nemanja Vidic who has looked shaky without his fellow center half. United defense picks itself with the evergreen Edwin Van der Sar in goal and the back four consisting of Patrice Evra at left back and Rafael at right back with Ferdinand and Vidic in the middle. What will be interesting is what Sir Alex Ferguson does with his midfield. Does he go with the always reliable Ji-Sung Park on the left wing, or does he go for Wayne Rooney who has looked good on the left? Cristiano Ronaldo will take his place on the right wing in what possibly could be his last game for the club. Michael Carrick will be the holding midfielder with his partner in central midfield most likely being Paul Scholes if Ferguson is going for a 4-4-2. Ferguson could also use Park on the left wing, have Carrick playing deep just in front of the back four, and have Scholes in the middle pushing forward to support a strike force of Carlos Tevez and Rooney in a 4-1-3-2 formation. Either way, United has plenty of options with Ryan Giggs, Dimitar Berbatov, Anderson, Nani and Danny Welbeck coming off the bench.

For Barcelona, Victor Valdes will have his hands full not only with United’s attack, but with some pieces of his defense missing. Eric Abidal is suspended for getting sent off against Chelsea in the semi final second leg even though it was nowhere near a red card. Also serving a suspension is Dani Alves who has a yellow card accumulation. Mexican National Team captain Rafa Marquez is out injured but that shouldn’t make much of a difference defensively, if anything, it should help the Catalans in that department, however, they will miss his passing. Thierry Henry and Andres Iniesta are in a race against time to be fit, but should be good to go. Pep Guardiola has a number of options for his defense with players missing. Expect Gerard Pique, Carles Puyol, Yaya Toure and Gabriel Milito to make up the back four. Xavi Hernandez and Seydou Keita should hold down the central midfield area with Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets if Iniesta is not a go starting out wide, but will tend to drift inside. Samuel Eto’o will get the nod up front with Henry if the Frenchman passes the fitness test. Either way, Guardiola has plenty of options off his bench with former Chelsea frontman Eidur Gudjohnsen and wonder kid Bojan Krkic available.

Sir Alex Ferguson vs Pep Guardiola: Over 30 years of managerial experience vs one year! Sir Alex has won everything their is in the game, and yet he’s still hungry for more. If he can guide United to back to back Champions League titles on top of three straight seasons winning the Premiership, it will certainly be a first. Money has most definitely helped him build his last two great sides, but nobody can argue his man management skills in getting his players to play as one team. Same must be said for Guardiola after Frank Rijkaard’s side looked a little out of sorts a year ago. Both sides hit a little rough patch at about the same time but came through it unscathed. Should be a very good tactical matchup between one of the greatest managers of all time and a young up and coming manager with potential.

Messi vs Ronaldo: Could this match decide who the best player in the world is? Possibly. Certainly it would go a long way for whoever will win FIFA World Player of The Year in December although I never understood that part about that award because the accomplishment is based on the season until May and not afterwords. Ronaldo last season scored 42 goals in all competitions, yet by the time Euro 2008 came around, by his standards, underperformed. These two should cross each others path’s quite often tomorrow night.

My Pick: It pains me to say it but I just don’t see how you can look past United here. Barcelona has defensive issues which makes it harder for them. I think it will be a close match, but the final score will be 2-1 United, possibly going into extra time.

Editor’s Note: Geoff Reid appears on WVHooligan each week (typically on Mondays). Today he is back once again with a preview of the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-finals. As always feel free to leave your thoughts below.

Arsenal (ENG) vs Manchester United (ENG) at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, United leads 1-0 on aggregate

If we learned anything from the first leg last week it was that Arsenal looked toothless in attack without Andriy Arshavin. What was particularly disappointing was the play of Theo Walcott. He didn’t give Emmanuel Adebayor the service he needed to do what he gets paid to do. To be fair to Walcott, his first responsibility was to do the dirty work and help out on defense since the Gunners were playing at Old Trafford and United were going to attack from the opening whistle. However, it’s his job to help the strikers on counter attacks and with his pace, he should have done better. Some of the blame also lies with Samir Nasri. Continue Reading…

Editor’s Note: Geoff Reid appears on WVHooligan.com weekly, typically every Monday. He continues his look this week at the UEFA Champions League.

FC Barcelona (ESP) vs Chelsea (ENG) at Camp Nou Tuesday

If the Chelsea vs Liverpool tie the previous round looked to be a bore at best on paper, certainly this tie looks a classic. However, the last round showed us that on paper, it doesn’t matter.

The Catalan giants are the most feared attacking team in the world and why wouldn’t they be with players such as Messi, Eto, Henry, Iniesta, Dani Alves and Xavi Hernandez. They wrapped up their tie against Bayern Munich in the first leg, this time Chelsea will be a much sterner test and especially against Guus Hiddink who is one of the best managers around and certainly is not lucky in any way. He knows how to get the best out of his players and his players respond every time. Continue Reading…

Editor’s Note: Geoff Reid appears on WVH every week. Today he is stepping out of the MLS box and is previewing the UEFA Champsions League. Feel free to post your comments to Geoff below.

With the last eight teams in Europe locking horns this week I thought it would be appropriate to throw my predictions out there. Before I do, I will mention firstly I am as big of a Liverpool fan as you can get so if I at all sound bias I apologize. I like to think I am one of the most moderate football/soccer fans around so I’ll try my best to give my opinion right down the middle. As always if you agree or disagree with my thoughts please feel free to leave comments.

Villarreal CF (ESP) vs Arsenal FC (ENG): First Leg at Estadio El Madrigal on the 7th, Second Leg at The Emirates Stadium on the 15th Continue Reading…

One day you have an expansion bid and the next day you may still have an expansion bid. According to the Sports Business Journal, FC Barcelona is exploring an investment in MLS’s Philadelphia expansion franchise. Yes no less than a few weeks after backing out of one expansion bid down south in Miami, the Spanish giants are looking to potentially get on board with a club that actually will play in MLS starting next year.

Joan LaPorta, president of FC Barcelona, visited Philadelphia on Feb. 28 and toured the site of the franchise’s future stadium being constructed in Chester, Pa. The tour took place days before FC Barcelona announced it wouldn’t pursue an expansion franchise in Miami.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber declined to comment on the visit but said, “FC Barcelona has expressed for some time an interest in Major League Soccer financially and strategically. They spent a great deal of time with us looking at Miami and are continuing to look at opportunities around the league.”

MLS Philadelphia CEO Nick Sakiewicz said he didn’t discuss investing in the franchise with LaPorta but acknowledged that the Philadelphia franchise is still looking for strategic partners.

There has been loads of talk surrounding the financial health of this expansion club. Adding a backing like Barcelona as we all know would be a huge step for this club. Plus for Barcelona you could see Philly being just as important to them as Miami was going to be.

Barcelona’s involvement could help ease the blow of some financial loss that the Philly owners are having right now. Plus having them as even a sister club would be huge.

More details will come of this soon. Either way we will see Barcelona help someone out here.

It sounds like another MLS expansion bid could be dead. Marcelo Claure told newspapers in Bolivia (thanks to Marc S. for the translation) that there is now a 50% chance that Miami could get an expansion bid with Major League Soccer.

Claure states that “today I would say that this [Miami franchise] will not happen”. “I think, and this is being optimistic, we have 50% chances to get the franchise”, he added.

Claure also stated economic reasons and even put some blame on the whole David Beckham soap opera.

Either way this doesn’t sound too good for the Miami bid going into the final stretch of days before the league announces the two expansion sites.

You can read more of this article here (in Spanish). I hope to have more on this later.

Sorry Miami folks. There just won’t be any news regarding your potential MLS club today. Earlier some had thought there would be news regarding Marcelo Claure and his visit with Barcelona FC in Spain. But according to Total Futbol in Miami there will be no news given today.

Any notion that an announcement would be made by the league regarding Miami today was indeed premature.

But if some news does come down about Claure’s meeting with Barca and if he was able to keep them on board in the bid we may get that later on today. Its just a wait and see game right now for this bid.