Happy Birthday Wishes!

Happy birthday wishes to Vujadin Boskov - born on May 16, 1931. Boskov played professionally in Yugoslavia, Italy, and Switzerland, as well as for the Yugoslav national team. He is more famous as a coach - he has coached in many European countries, including Italy, the Netherlands, Spain (at Real Madrid), and as the manager of the Yugoslav national team. His greatest success came during the 1990-1991 season when he led Sampdoria to their only Scudetto.

Boskov is famous for his many quotations, including:

• "The game ends when the referee blows his whistle."
• "The team that wins the championship is the one with the most points."
• "It is better to lose 3-0 once than 1-0 three times."

Once again, from all of us here at Ape Canyon News Service, happy birthday, Vujadin!

Ancelotti Sings!

AC Milan - the four best goals of the year

Seedorf plays the ball through to himself in the penalty area off a defender's chest...Zambrotta shoots and scores from about seven miles out...Pato dives to connect with a header...Kaka scores from maybe even farther out than Zambrotta...These are possibly the greatest AC Milan goals of the 2008-2009 season. The most amazing part, however, is that they were all scored in the same game! (against Lazio on September 21, 2008). The other amazing part is that Zambrotta's goal is the only one he has scored all year.

Milan 1 - Juventus 1

Milan tied Juventus 1-1 today, pretty much ending whatever incredibly remote chance there was that they could catch Inter and win this year's Scudetto.  The tie also means that Juventus still have their own (remote) chance of catching Milan for second place in Serie A.  Seedorf scored for Milan early in the second half, but then Iaquinta tied it up only a couple of minutes later.  The most important statistics are these, however:

• Number of loud explosions set off by the fans during the match: 6.
• Numbers of times Inzaghi was whistled for being offside: 4

Photo above: Paolo Maldini, right, playing his last match against Juventus before his retirement, chases Juventus' Amauri.

In case you missed it - Iniesta's goal

Picture(s) of the Day

Above: Champions League semi-final (second leg): Iniesta has just scored for Barcelona in stoppage time. Clearly the Chelsea players can't believe what has just happened. (For a larger, and better, view, click on the photo.)

Below: Minutes later, Chelsea's Michael Ballack is sure the referee just missed a hand ball in the box by Samuel Eto'o.

Barcelona will face Manchester United in Rome on May 27 in the Champions League final. For a complete report on yesterday's semi-final match, click here.

What I have been listening to lately #19