Down a goal and missing captain Cesc Fabregas and its best defender William Gallas heading into the second leg of their Champions League match with Porto, the European obituary was already being written for Arsene Wenger's Arsenal club.
Some 90 minutes later, many Gunners fans are now wondering if the club might end up winning a pair of trophies this season.
Behind a Niclas Bendtner hat trick Arsenal thumped Porto 5-0 at the Emirates Stadium, winning the two-legged match 6-2 on aggregate.
Meanwhile in Tuscany, Bayern Munich and Fiorentina played out to a riveting second half, with the home side lodging a 3-2 result leaving it even on aggregate at 4-4 after 180 minutes of back-and-forth soccer. The Germans advanced to the quarterfinals thanks to the away goals rule.
Major League Soccer's inability to strike a deal with its players' union (mediated negotiations continue this week in Washington) might have a small silver lining - nobody's paying attention to the fact that there's an actual game tonight.
Why is that a good thing? Because that game is a CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal between Columbus and Mexican power Toluca (8PM ET, Fox Soccer Channel). It's a match the short-handed Crew are unlikely to win, meaning MLS's most embarrassing statistic - one that is far more damning to its credibility than a bit of labor strife - is about to get worse.
Landon Donovan entered Everton's game against Hull City Sunday at Goodison Park in the 69th minute to chants of, "U-S-A, U-S-A."
Less than 13 minutes later the crowd was once again singing, this time "Sign him up. Sign him up."
Chances are, barring a work stoppage before the start of the MLS season, Sunday was Donovan's swan song at Goodison Park -- at least for the time being. Donovan made sure his good bye -- he apparently took a farewell lap afterward -- was a memorable one, scoring once and assisting on Jack Rodwell's late goal that gave Everton a rousing 5-1 victory.
While Major League Soccer and the players' union have promised to continue negotiating, the Los Angeles Galaxy said Friday that they're not interested in entertaining Everton's request to extend Landon Donovan's loan. Both developments are good signs for those hoping MLS kicks off as scheduled later this month.
On the collective bargaining front, the league and players are heading to federal mediation. It sounds serious, but at least they continue to agree that disagreeing is preferable to canceling games. MLS has said all along that it has no interest in a lockout, but the players have been unwilling to make a similar pledge.
But preseason preparations continue nevertheless, and the league announced Friday afternoon that the two sides will head back to the negotiating table next week in Washington to try and hammer out an agreement. The season starts March 25.
George Cohen, named as the director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, will take part in the discussions. Even the government wants to see soccer this spring.
Coincidentally or not, within an hour of the labor announcement on Friday afternoon, Galaxy general manager and coach Bruce Arena told the league's web site that the club is "not interested" in extending Donovan's stay in Liverpool. .
Walking out of the Amsterdam ArenA Wednesday the U.S. National Team probably didn't feel too good about itself after falling 2-1 to the Netherlands.
Yet that loss could be justified and chalked up to playing the No. 3 team in the world, which by the way didn't lose a game in UEFA qualification for the upcoming World Cup.
That tact took a turn for the worse Thursday when news came out that midfielder Stuart Holden will be out at least six weeks due to a broken leg from a nasty tackle from Nigel de Jong in the first half.
Down a goal and missing captain 
Major League Soccer's inability to strike a deal with its players' union (mediated negotiations (2).jpg)
Landon Donovan
While Major League 
Walking out of the Amsterdam ArenA Wednesday the U.S. National Team probably didn't feel too good about itself after falling 2-1 to the Netherlands. 
