Liverpool nearly suffered a humiliating loss in the Soccer Betting Champions League qualifying but they got an extra time goal to defeat Standard Liege 1-0 and move into the group stage. Dirk Kuyt scored the only goal between the two teams in the 28th minute of added time. That was just two minutes before the game would have gone to penalties. It was the only goal scored between the two teams since the first leg was a scoreless draw.

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Liverpool can thank goalkeeper Pepe Reina or they would have suffered the loss. He stopped Dieumerci Mbokani in the seventh minute and stopped Marouane Fellaini later in the match. Liege goalkeeper Aragon Espinoza stopped Fabio Aurelio’s free kick and overall the Liege squad outplayed Liverpool. Newcomer Robbie Keane continually missed the goal as did Steven Gerrard. “We knew it was a difficult team to play against,” Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez said. “They played good on counterattack. It was difficult, but we were playing better than in the first leg.”

Read more on Soccer News: Liverpool Barely Advances in Champions League

The top of the Soccer Betting Premier League is expected to be a battle between Manchester United and Chelsea once again this season. The Blues are doing their part, starting the season with two wins while United has a win and a tie.

Manchester United was able to get a 1-0 win against Portsmouth even without a number of their key players including Cristiano Ronaldo. Also missing were Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves.

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Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp believes it is a two-team race in the Premier League once again. “They are still so strong that I can see them and Chelsea being the two slugging it out again for the title. They will probably meet again in a repeat of the Champions League final too, I shouldn’t wonder. Certainly, I think Arsenal and Liverpool have it all on to finish above them. Chelsea were very strong last week and United will be even stronger than they are now if they sign Dimitar Berbatov (from Tottenham), as I think they will, in the next few days.”

Read more on Soccer Betting Preview: Manchester United and Chelsea both get 1-0 Wins

FC Barcelona and Juventus both advanced into the group stage of the Soccer Betting Champions League based on their first leg wins last week. Barcelona routed Wisla Krakow 4-0 last week while Juventus won 4-0 against Artmedia. Tuesday’s second leg results were virtually meaningless as Barcelona lost 1-0 and Juventus played Artmedia to a 1-1 draw. Juventus and FC Barcelona both easily advanced on aggregate.

Greek side Panathinaikos advanced as well into the group stage of the Champions league with a 1-0 win over Sparta Prague. Panathinaikos had won 2-1 in the first leg last week.

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Juventus has not been to the group stage for two years because they were relegated to the second division because of the match-fixing scandal. They had no trouble in this qualifying matchup with Artmedia. Barcelona advanced even though they suffered a meaningless loss that gave new coach Pep Guardiola his first defeat. “I don’t think today we have taken a step backwards in our preparations,” Guardiola said. “Perhaps we weren’t so precise but we had an opponent which was also playing and we had five or six chances with only the goalkeeper to beat. We lost but we could have drawn or even won.” Since Barcelona really had things clinched with the 4-0 win in the first leg they rested Olympic champion Lionel Messi, who recently returned from Beijing after playing for Argentina.

Read more on Soccer Betting Preview: FC Barcelona and Juventus Advance in Champions League

The Los Angeles Galaxy will play their first game under new general manager and head coach Bruce Arena on Thursday as they host the Chicago Fire. The Galaxy are winless in their last eight games overall but they have owned the Fire of late, losing only one match at home against Chicago in the last four years.

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The Galaxy have not won a match since June 14th at San Jose. They are 0-4-4 in their last eight games and have been outscored 21-12 in those matches. The Galaxy’s longest winless streak in history is 10 games during the 2006 season. The winless streak caused owner Tim Leiweke to make a change and he brought in former U.S. national manager Bruce Arena as coach and GM. He will be expected to get Los Angeles back into the playoff picture and has little time to do it. The Galaxy have just 10 games remaining in the regular season. “In this league there’s not a big gap from top to bottom. If a team can get a couple of wins under their belt, get a couple of consecutive wins, it becomes a team with momentum and things change,” said Arena. “You see it throughout the season in the league. What we need to do is get ourselves on a bit of a run where we start collecting some points and position ourselves to be in the playoffs.”

MLS Betting Preview: Chicago Fire at Los Angeles Galaxy

The United States men’s Olympics Soccer Betting team lost 2-1 to Nigeria on Wednesday in Olympics action, costing them a spot in the quarterfinals. Promise Isaac and Victor Obinna scored goals for Nigeria as they earned a place in the quarterfinals at the expense of the American squad. The game was really decided before any scoring took place. In just the third minute of play, American defender Michael Orozco was given a red card for swinging his elbow into Nigeria’s Solomon Okoronkwo’s chest with the two players fighting for the ball. “I can’t say if it’s justified or not,” said U.S. coach Peter Nowak, “There was a big scene from the Nigerian player, but I don’t know. We didn’t expect this kind of reaction. … It’s kind of unacceptable.” The loss of Orozco left the U.S. squad with 10 men for the rest of the match and it was too much to overcome.

Isaac scored in the 39th minute for Nigeria as he tapped in a pass from Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi while Obinna scored in the 80th minute for Nigeria. The United States scored on a penalty in the 88th minute as Sacha Kljestan put home the penalty shot on a low shot into the right corner. The U.S. had a great chance in the 90th minute to tie but Benny Feilhaber’s header hit the post.

Nigeria really didn’t play that well considering they had the man advantage for the entire game. “We have a good team when it’s not playing like this,” Nigeria coach Samson Siasia said, “You go out there and play with showboating … if we don’t take care of these things, we’re going to have a lot of problems.”

Read more on Olympics Soccer News: U.S. Men’s Soccer Team out of Olympics

Arsenal won the first leg of their Soccer Betting Champions League qualifying match, 2-0 against FC Twente on Wednesday. The victory puts Arsenal in excellent shape to advance to the group stage. The first half against Twente was not what Arsenal expected but captain William Gallas and Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor scored in the second half as Arsenal got the win.

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Arsenal now doesn’t have to be too worried about advancing in the Champions League after the 2-0 win. They can now focus on their Premier League opener against West Brom on Saturday. Arsenal started slowly against FC Twente and could have been trailing at the half but Twente couldn’t put away their chances. The second half was controlled by Arsenal as they proved they were the superior squad.

Another Premier League team escaped in first leg qualifying action. Liverpool was able to get a scoreless draw against Standard Liege in a game they easily could have lost. Liege easily could have won by two or three goals and now probably won’t advance as the return leg is at Liverpool.

Read more on Soccer News: Arsenal Looking Good in Champions League Qualifying

The Premier League season gets underway on Saturday with seven games including Arsenal hosting West Brom. Defending champion Manchester United and second place finisher Chelsea will start their seasons on Sunday.

Manchester United will not start the season at full strength so manager Alex Ferguson will have to mix and match early on. Last year Manchester United started slowly with just two points in their first three games but came back to win the title. Manchester United will start this season without superstar scorer Cristiano Ronaldo who is out until October. Ronaldo had 42 goals last season. Also missing to start the season for United will be striker Louis Saha, Nani and Anderson. “Last season we had a staggered start, Tevez and Anderson joined us and weren’t 100 percent fit, Ronaldo got suspended for three games after the first game, then Rooney got injured in the first match against Reading and was out for three games,” Ferguson said, “By the time we got everyone focused and fit, we then went on a fantastic run with our consistency and really good football. I’d prefer to get a good start, we want that, but we are also able to go the long distance.”

Read more on Soccer News: Premier League Season Begins Saturday

The Soccer Betting Los Angeles Galaxy had a major house cleaning on Monday as head coach Ruud Gullit resigned and general manager Alexi Lalas was let go. “We are stepping up and doing what we need to do to straighten this thing out,” Galaxy CEO Tim Leiweke said. Los Angeles is winless in their last seven games despite having stars David Beckham and Landon Donovan on the roster.

The Los Angeles Galaxy has gotten good play out of Landon Donovan and David Beckham but not enough from other players or from the coaches. “There are two good people that for different reasons aren’t part of this organization today, and that’s a shame,” Leiweke said. “The fact is, the players have to look deep inside themselves and understand they have to be responsible for some of this. Am I angry we find ourselves in the situation we find ourselves in? Yes. This is not a fun week. The Galaxy hasn’t made the playoffs for a couple years. Punting on this season is not acceptable. It starts Thursday.”

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Gullit didn’t get a lot of time on the job. He signed a three-year deal last November but the winless streak has the Galaxy with just 23 points and a record of 6-8-5. Gullit will be replaced on an interim basis by 37-year-old Cobi Jones.

Read more on Soccer Betting News: Gullit Resigns as Los Angeles Galaxy Coach

2008 Beijing Olympics Soccer News

The United States men’s Olympic Soccer Betting team opened with a 1-0 win against Japan on Thursday as Stuart Holden scored the lone goal. It was the first win at the Olympic Games for the U.S. in eight years. “The first game is never easy, and you never know how it is going to be,” U.S. coach Peter Nowak said, “You train for three weeks and you try to find the right recipe….It was important to get the three points.” The win was a big one for the U.S. team and its head coach. “My first Olympic win,” Nowak said, “There’s nothing better than that.”

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The United States is leading their group after one match since the Netherlands and Nigeria played to a scoreless draw. The United States faces the Netherlands on Sunday. The win against Japan was a must for the U.S. if they hope to advance from this group. The United States played a scoreless draw in the first half against Japan and was fortunate not to be trailing. Japan had a number of good scoring changes but couldn’t finish. Masato Morishige missed an open net and Hiroyuki Taniguchi missed a header.

Read more on Olympics News: U.S. Men’s Soccer Team Opens with Win

The New England Revolution finally found a way to beat the Houston Dynamo in a Soccer Betting championship match but it wasn’t easy.

New England defeated Houston 3-2 to win the SuperLiga championship on Tuesday. The two teams tied 1-1 at the end of regulation and 2-2 at the end of two 15-minute overtime periods. New England defender Chris Albright scored against Houston goalkeeper Pat Onstad to give the Revolution a 6-5 lead in penalty kicks and New England goalkeeper Matt Reis tipped a shot by Corey Ashe off the crossbar to give the Revolution the win. It was the eight round of penalty kicks.

The game really got exciting in the overtimes. In the first 15-minute overtime, Houston took the lead when Kei Kamara headed in a cross from Brian Ching in the 98th minute. Just four minutes later New England’s Shalrie Joseph headed in the tying goal with an assist from Steve Ralston.

Read more on Soccer Betting News: New England Wins SuperLiga 2008