Weekend Roundup 4/19-4/20

Colorado Rapids - My game wrapup is here. The good news is that the West looks pretty bad so far, so even laying an egg against the E-Quakes we only dropped to second, and we're tied with Toronto for 6th overall in the league. We're tied for the 2nd best offense in the league still.

Queen of the South - The Doonhamers, fresh off of upsetting Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup Semi-Final, hosted promtion-hopefuls Dundee. Dundee needed a win and a loss by Hamiltion to stay alive i nthe promotion chase, while Queens are playing out the string and determining their best lineup for the Scottish Cup final. Apparently the compeition for a spot in the starting lineup for the final was enough motivation for QoS to control the game. 8 minutes in they had a goal waved off my a phantom foul call, and at the half hour mark they took a 1-0 lead. That combined with the news that Hamilton was up 2 goals and a man seemed to take the fire out of Dundee, and the teams settled on the 1-0 scoreline.

The win clinches 4th place for Queens, their best finish since returning to the 1st division, and their best point total as well. They are mathimatically still alive for 3rd place, but it would take some odd results to get it. Queens goes on the road to face Dunfermline in the season finale next week, then has a month off before the Scottish Cup final.

On Sunday the other Scottish Cup semi-final between Rangers and St. Johnstone went to extra time with no score, and to PK's tied 1-1 before Rangers won the PK shootout 4-3. This result means that, regardless of the outcome of the Scottish Cup final, Queen of the South will play in the UEFA Cup next season!

Blackburn Rovers - Rovers hosted league leaders Manchester United at Ewood Park. A win would keep their slight European hopes alive, and they came out determined to get it. Roque Santa Cruz scored in the 21st minute, but it took Big Bad Brad Friedel to keep United off the board. Alas, he couldn't hold out against the Red Devil's strike force forever, and 2 minutes from full time Carlos Tevez got on the end of a redirected corner kick and put it away to claim a point for the probable league champs.

The single point leaves Blackburn in 9th place with 3 games to play. They are 6 points back of Aston Villa in the Intertoto Cup spot, and they will lose the tiebreaker with them. They will be eliminated from European contention with a loss or Aston Villa win in any of the last 3 matches. The point does guarentee that they will finish in the top half of the table.

Tenerife - For the third straight wee a goal in the dying minutes of the match cost Tenerife points. This time CDT went down at Xerez, giving up agoal midway through the first half, only to tie it midway through the second. It appeared that Tenerife would escape with a point, only to conceed the winning goal 1 minute into stoppage time.

The loss leaves Tenerife in 8th place with 8 games to play, 8 points from a promotion spot. The good news is that a number of the teams ahead of CDT have to come to Santa Cruz before the end of the season, which gives CDt a chance to catch up.

Ebbsfleet United - The 'Fleet hosted relegation-threatened Altrincham, and the visitors did not enjoy the hospitality. Ebbsfleet scored on both sides of the break, and then coasted to the easy 2-0 win.

Ebbsfleet has 2 league games remaining, before the FA Trophy final at Wembley. The best they can finish is 7th, which is outside the promotion playoff spaces. They can drop to the bottom half of the table, barely, by finishing as low as 13th.