Roy Keane stepped down as Sunderland manager after 100 games with the club. Keane took over at Sunderland in 2006 and guided the side back into the English Premier League. Keane stepped down after watching his side win only four league matches this season.
Landon Donovan and David Beckham are spending Major League Soccer's offseason far away from Los Angeles. Both have loan deals - Beckham with Italy's AC Milan and Donovan with Bayern Munich in Germany. Whether either will return to the Galaxy is an open question.
In an action-packed semifinal encounter, Cruz Azul took a big step towards the Torneo Apertura 2008 Final with a clear and convincing 3-1 victory against Atlante. The Potros never gave up their attack, but received three goals that hand an important series advantage to the Cementeros.
Standard Liege advance to the knockout round of the UEFA Cup with a thumping 3-0 victory against Sampdoria. Oguchi Onyewu scored the second goal to cement victory with one more round still to play in Group C. In the same group, Sevilla repeated that score over Partizan Belgrade.
Goal.com's African correspondent Samm Audu rates the top ten African players of 2008. While the list of players is full of superstars, the name at the top might be a bit of a surprise. Plus, Sulley Muntari tells Michael Essien to come play at Inter with him.
Just as as they appeared to be heading back on form, Milan have been knocked out of the Coppa Italia after their ten-man side were stunned 2-1 at home by Lazio. Mauro Zarate canceled out Andrei Shevchenko's opening goal, before Goran Pandev netted an extra-time winner.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar has passed his Real Madrid medical and has been given a clean bill of health, despite concerns over an injury. This means the La Liga giant's newest Dutch player can focus on what all the Real fans are hoping he will bring, goals in bunches.
Aston Villa
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MSK Zilina
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