Weekend Roundup 3/29-3/30

OK, after a couple of weeks off Weekend Roundup is back. Here's a rundown of last week's games and an update of where each team stands in their competitions.

Colorado Rapids - My game wrapup can be found elsewhere in the blog but the 4-0 win put the Rapids in 1st place in the Western Conference, and in the lead for the Supporter's Shiled. So what if its only 1 game, you have to take the victories where you can find them. ;)

Queen of the South - Torrential rain and blowing winds greeted Queens in this home fixture, and it appears that the weather got the best of both sides. Noether team managed to put together a goal, and both seemed happy to just get out of the lousy conditions as fast as possible. In the end a scoreless draw was a good representation of the soccer on display.

The draw was followed with a 1-0 loss to Livingston on Tuesday night. A questionable non-call on Livingston's goal ended the game in some controversy as a Livingston player was standing on the goal line as the winning goal was scored but did not take part in the play. He was considered to be passively offside and the goal was awarded.

The good news from the Morton result is that the draw ensured Queens survival in division 1, as with only 4 games to play Morton can no longer catch the Doonhamers. Queens sits in 4th place, 7 points back of St. Johnstone who is the only team they can still catch. Partick Thistle and Dumferline are only 3 points back though, and Thistle has a game in hand against the probable relegation-bound Stirling Albion. QoS hosts Aberdeen in the Scottisch Cup semi-final a week from Saturday.

Blackburn Rovers - A drab first half and a colorful but futile second half at the Madejski Stadium resulted in a share of the points in the battle between two American keepers. There were no significant opportunities in the first half, while the second half had end-toend action that resulted in nothing but a red card for Reading's Marek Matejovksy and a man advantage for Blackburn in the last 20 minutes. They were unable to capitalize and left 2 points for the taking on the field.

Blackburn sit 7th in the table with 6 games to play. They are 7 points back of Everton for the last guarenteed spot in Europe, however Portsmough in 6th have declared that tthey will not be applying for the Intertoto Cup, so that route to Europe is open for Blackburn should the table stay the same. Aston Villa and MAchester City are each just one point behind Blackburn however.

Tenerife - This week brings a new link, I have found out that Tenerife fan and Armada Sur member Colin Kirby does an English match report on his blog. The updated Tenerife score on the right side will now link there.

Tenerife went into this weekend's match against cellar dwellers Poli Ejido with every expectation of an easy 3 points. After giving up a goal midway through the second half though it took 2 goals from Nino in two minutes to pull out the victory. For a team hoping to make a promotion push, this was much harder than it should have been.

Tenerife move up to 7th place with the victory, with 11 games to play. They are 6 points pack of Sporting Gijon in 3rd place, the final poromotion spot. Next week is the HUGE game againt their Canaray Island rivals, Las Palmas in Las Palmas. Las Palmas is in 15th place, so it should be another easy 3 points, but with rivalry games you never know.

Ebbsfleet United - Ebbsfleet travelled to York City for this week's matchup and faced a game in the driving rain. determined to make quick work of it the Fleet scored in the 8th minute on a Stacy Long free kcik that deflected off a York defender, fooling the keeper. After that it was a long 80 minutes od defending in the rain, but the clean sheet was successful and Ebbsfleet travelled home with 3 points.

Ebbsfleet is in 11th place with only 8 matches to play. They are 12 points out of 5th place, the last playoff spot. While still possible, it doesn't look like promotion is in the cards for Ebbsfleet this season. All eyes now look towards Wembley, where Ebbsfleet will face Torquay United in the final on May 10th.