Saw a really good match between newly crowned La Liga Champions Barcelona and Villareal. It ended in a 3-3 draw and it was truly one of the best matches I have seen in recent months. Barcelona were determined not to lose to an attacking Villareal side, despite going 2-0 down to two goals by Uruguyan sriker Diego Forlan. You really have to hand it to this guy - he has proven that being dumped by Manchester United is not the end of the world (or your footballing career). Often critisised for not being able to adjust to the English game (there was even one announcer who dubbed Forlan the match's "worst defender" after a particularly bad loss for United. I happened to agree with the comments at the time. But look at Forlan now, 23 league goals in the season in Spain and vying for the "Vichichi" or top scorer award in La Liga. Entering the match at 20 goals, he scored a hattrick against Barcelona to move just one goal shy of current scoring leader, Barca's own Samuel Etto. Etto's teammates were trying to make sure that he finishes the season as No.1 on the socring charts by creating chance after chance for the African player of the year, but to no avail.



Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen qualified for the Champions' League after Saturday's dramatic final round of Bundesliga fixtures this season. Schalke, for whom Danish International striker Ebbe Sand scored a truly wonderful goal, won 3-2 at Freiburg to cement second position and a direct spot in the tournament's group stages next season, but Werder Bremen had to leapfrog both VfB Stuttgart and Hertha BSC to steal the third qualifying slot against the odds.Bremen's 2-1 win at Kaiserslautern was enough to take the 2004 German champions above Stuttgart who lost 3-1 at home to Bayern Munich and Hertha BSC Berlin who could only draw 0-0 with Hannover in the capital. Tim Borowski and Nelson Valdez were the Bremen heroes with crucial goals at the Betzenberg, but there was misery for Mathhias Sammer's Stuttgart who settled for UEFA Cup qualification after succumbing to goals from Michael Ballack, Hasan Salihamidzic, and Roy Makaay. Imre Szabics netted a consolation for the Swabians. After the game, Sammer said: "After such a good season the UEFA Cup feels too small." They will be joined there by Hertha who blew the chance to qualify when held goalless by Hannover.

The failures of their two immediate rivals allowed Bremen to prosper, with coach Thomas Schaaf telling reporters: "Obviously we’re very pleased about the way this has gone. It’s been a good season all in all and it’s finished very well." Elsewhere, Marek Mintal became Bundesliga top-scorer with his 24th of the season in a 2-1 home defeat by Mainz, relegated Bochum won 1-0 at Hamburger SV, Wolfsburg won 2-1 at Bielefeld, Dortmund beat Hansa Rostock 2-1, and Bayer Leverkusen qualified for the UEFA Cup with a 5-1 crushing of Borussia Moenchengladbach thanks to a Dimitar Berbatov hat-trick. The German season concludes next Saturday with the DFB Pokal final in Berlin between Bayern and Schalke.



Dutch international midfielder Rafael van der Vaart has revealed that he has agreed personal terms with Hamburger SV and expects to move from Ajax to Germany in due course. The 22-year-old said on Monday: "I’ve agreed personal terms and it’s certain that I’ll be moving to Germany. HSV is a great club and I’ll be signing a four-year deal with them." However, despite the certainty of the player, Ajax and HSV have yet to agree a fee for the transfer. The player has a contract in Amsterdam until 2006 and Ajax are looking to recoup about 7 million Euros on his sale. The Germans are willing to fork out 5 million Euros, so a compromise of sorts must be agreed before the deal is finalised. Hamburger SV missed out on European qualification this season, and see van der Vaart as a major contributor in next season's push. Another player reported on the move is Liverpool striker Milan Baros. He says that his agent is talking with several clubs, at the top of which is Valencia, who are interested in sigining the Czech player. Baros has not yet fully captured his international form to the club level with Liverpool.



Arsenal won the FA Cup by beating Manchester United 5-4 in a penalty shootout. The match ended in a stalemate despite United having the upper hand by means of better scoring chances. In a sense they dominated the match and it was all credit to Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehman that they didn't. Time & time again, Jens pulled out important save after important save. Watching that you knew for sure that Arsenal were going to win the Cup & they did.

My dad's eldest sister died on Sunday evening. I hadn't seen her in 13 years. I was at work till 12 am so I left for Irinjalakuda on Monday morning and went to her son's, my cousin, house and then to two other relative's houses. I hadn't been to see any of my relatives in Irinjalakuda in 13 years; since my dad's mother died. So it was strange seeing my cousins' kids. After that since I was only 24 kms from Thrissur, I decided to give Asha a surprise and visit her. I went to see her at our company's office in Thrissur and spent half an hour with her. My timing couldn't have been better, since she was having a tough day and was in an upset mood and I'm happy if my going there cheered her up. I miss her a great deal. I made it back to the office by 8:30 and was working till 12:30 am after which I left for home and collapsed on my bed and went into a deep dark sleep with no dreams.



Darcy Tucer is a tough center for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The hard hitting forward who shoots left, is 5'11, weighs 185 pounds was born on March 15, 1975 in Castor, Alberta. Tucker played his junior years with Kamloops, (WHL) & was acquired by Leafs in a trade on February 9, 2000, with Tampa Bay. Gritty and abrasive, Darcy Tucker is a hard working forward who can put the puck in the net. He loves to play the physical game despite not being the biggest player. Darcy doesn't back down from anyone but and is know for using his emotions to propell himself and his team to success.



Song for the day - "At The Hundreth Meridian" - THE TRAGICALLY HIP