Sunday LIVE

It's a big day for Americans Abroad, and I'll be popping in and out throughout to give some updates.

Our first match in the spotlight is the visit of Mo Edu's Rangers to Dundee United. With a win, they clinch the Scottish crown, their first since 2005. Manager Walter Smith has named the same squad, meaning Edu stars in midfield while DaMarcus Beasley again watches from the stands.

The other early cracker is Zak Whitbread and Millwall's promotion-to-the-Championship final against Scunthorpe at Wembley.

Later, we will have Clint Dempsey and Fulham attempting to secure a Europea League berth against Tim Howard visiting Everton (preview link), as well as several Scandinavian tilts of interest. Finally, we go to Liège as Oguchi Onyewu and holders Standard get attack ace Milan Jovanovic back from a ban to battle arch rivals Anderlecht in the deciding round two of their championship bout.

But first, we have Rangers kicking off in a matter of moments (all time stamps CT)...

7.09 AM - Kyle Lafferty has Rangers up 1-0 after only six minutes, while Scunthorpe are also on the board against Millwall on eight minutes.

7.20 AM - A poorly cleared Millwall free kick serve caroms back towards the area and Whitbread wastes no time in ripping a low turnaround shot on goal, but the Scunthorpe keeper smothers.

7.23 AM - Millwall are suddenly all over their opponents, with a string of shots blocked away in desperation. The Lions win a danger free kick and ensuing corner kick, which kicks off another episode with three blocked shots.

7.35 AM - Lafferty puts another one in the net for 'Gers, but is flagged for offside. Meanwhile, Millwall has another big set of chances and somehow fails to get 2-3 great looks through to the target.

7.40 AM - Millwall are level on 37 minutes thanks to an absolutely stunning long range strike from ace Gary Alexander! WOW!!!

7.41 AM - Alexander has turned the final on its ear, nodding home to put Millwall up 2-1 in the 40th minute! Meanwhile, Rangers are leaning on Dundee United very hard right now. A Boyd shot is cleared from the line and Bougherra nods just over on a corner kick.

7.50 AM - On the edge of intermission, Pedro Mendes doubles the Rangers lead!

7.55 AM - Both matches have gone to the break with the good guys holding leads. Rangers are dominating theirs, while Millwall find themselves in an end-to-end slugfest.

8.28 AM - Finally grabbing my stupid computer back from the edge of insanity, I find that Kris Boyd has put Rangers up 3-0 and Millwall still lead 2-1, with both games past the hour.

I swear... one day, I'm gonna Office Space this thing.

8.31 AM - Just as I get the Millwall game running again, Scunthorpe ties it up. It's 2-2 in the 71'.

8.35 AM - With 15 minutes left and Celtic still locked in a scoreless draw against Hearts, Rangers are all but champions. Meanwhile, Scunthorpe have swung the momentum again and are have Millwall on the back foot.

8.37 AM - The Lions bust out on the counter and Alexander spurns his hat trick by somehow nodding wide from the doorstep.

8.41 AM - Koblenz look to survive in the 2.Bundesliga; they're losing 3-0 at Ingolstadt (Matt Taylor an unused sub, David Yelldell out injured) in the waning moments of closing day, but the two teams that would need to win to send them down are each also losing by multiple goals. Meanwhile, Luis Robles and Kaiserslautern are locked in a 3-all draw at title chasing Freiburg.

8.46 AM - After a long free kick into the area pinballs, Woolford fires Scunthopre ahead 3-2 with five minutes left. Whitbread immediately grabs the ball and urges his team to the center circle.

8.51 AM - Four minutes AT has begun at Wembley, Rangers are nearing time as well.

8.53 AM - It's all over at Dundee United and Rangers are champions!

8.55 AM - Millwall have fallen in a barnburner, 3-2. Three clubs of four in the playoff with Americans, and the one without goes up to the Championship. Meanwhile, Freiburg scored a last gasp winner to clinch the 2.Bundesliga crown and Koblenz avoid the drop despite losing.

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I'm gonna take a break, but I'll be back later in the afternoon for Fulham updates and some Standard preview info...

--

Back from a cat nap with a mosquito bite on my knuckle. Little bastard!

10.38 AM - Fulham v Everton is scoreless past the half hour, while Euro-chasers Spurs have fallen behind 1-0 at Liverpool.

In Denmark, Michael Parkhurst's FC have jumped out to a 2-0 first half lead at AC Horsens. Marcus Tracy is back in the line-up, and Aalborg have an early 1-0 lead over SønderjyskE. In fact, all Americans in the SAS Liga are starting, with Danny Califf at the back for FC Midtjylland, and the AGF duo of Benny Feilhaber and Jerry White in the eleven against Brøndby.

Also, I failed to mention this earlier: Maccabi Haifa defender Leo Krupnik went the distance as Maccabi Haifa clinched the Israeli crown (and a Champions League second qualifying round berth) last night. I mistakenly thought he answered an Israel call-up one time, but he did not.

10.48 AM - On the stroke of halftime, Leon Osman puts Everton up at the Cottage.

10.55 AM - All games we're watching in England and Denmark have gone to the break. The English games are both still 1-0, while both AGF and FC Midtjylland have grabbed the their game's first goal. Also, SønderjyskE has leveled with AaB.

11.28 AM - Liverpool are now up 2-0 on Spurs near the hour, so Fulham's Euro-invite looks safe. Meanwhile, FCN have bumped their lead up to 3-0 and White has gone into the book for AGF in Denmark.

11.37 AM - FCN have suddenly allowed two goals at Horsens, but still lead 3-2. I also just noticed that Parkhurst actually did not start, as is customary, but he has entered the match in the 73rd minute to help plug the leak. Also, Odense BK have tied up FCM 1-1.

In England, Robbie Keane has given Tottenham a glimmer of hope with a 78th minute goal, but they still need two.

11.44 AM - Yossi Benayoun replied a few moments later to restore Liverpool's two-goal edge on Spurs. It looks like MC Deuce is headed to the Europa League.

11.50 AM - Clarence Goodson has scored just before halftime to put third place IK Start up 1-0 against Bodø/Glimt. Leon Osman scored again for Everton near time, but it won't matter to Fulham.

11.55 AM - The Fulham-Everton, AaB, AGF, FCM & FCN matches are all final with all scores holding from the last announcement. Fulham are in the Europa League!

By the way, Feilhaber came off in the 67th minute, while Tracy saw his shift end in the 77th.

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I will be back in about 90 minutes with some Standard-Anderlecht pre-game bits.

--

And we're back... before we turn focus to the main event, let's take note that IK Start completed a 4-0 home rout to take a tentative league lead (second place Rosenborg, two points back, are set to kick of shortly).

According to Sport, these are the line-ups (though they had a mistake the other day):

Bolat; Marcos, Sarr, Onyewu, Mulemo, Defour, Dalmat, Witsel, Jovanovic, De Camargo, Mbokani

Schollen; Wasilewski, Juhasz, Van Damme, Deschacht, Biglia, Chatelle, Polak, Legear, Boussoufa, De Sutter

Back in a spell...

--

1.31 PM - Standard and Anderlecht have made their way onto the pitch at a raucous Sclessin, complete with massive card displays.

1'

I'm switching to a match clock instead of the timestamp. Game on...

6'

Yellow to Deschacht for a bad tackle.

7'

De Camargo opens a cut on Wasilewski's forehead with a nasty elbow; somehow, he is not booked. Mauves down to 10 men while their right back gets patched up.

11'

A very physical contest thus far, and Sclessin is matching the intensity with some singing.

17'

From a flicked long throw, Van Damme misses a wide open header high. That folks, was a missed sitter-and-a-half... Mini Me would have buried it.

33'

As our villain Van Damme goes over to take a long throw, the Standard supporters behind him are busy doing their best ape impersonations.

39'

Standard PK after iffy contact between Honduras defender Bernárdez and Mbokani! Witsel places it on the dot... 1-0 Standard!

42'

Bolan acrobatically tips over a mis-hit Defour clearance.

HALFTIME
--

This game may be on a Sunday, but it is no church picnic. These two teams are leaving it all on the line and clearly don't like each other. Gooch both left Van Damme to chase the flick man (De Sutter) on the missed sitter and started the play that led to the penalty with a nice outlet pass. I'm waiting for another good look at the PK decision, but my first thought was that it might have been harsh.

UPDATE: Now that I've seen it from the reverse angle, it's hard to argue the call. From that vantage point, it even looks a lot like a penalty.

--

46'

Standard starts us back up, and Anderlecht keeper Schollen is forced into two saves within 25 seconds.

49'

Legear forces a Bolan save, but could have done better.

By the way... is it just me or do Anderlecht's unis look like they could have been designed by Alexander Julian? Think early Charlotte Hornets.

55'

Juhasz NFL tackles Mbokani just before he bursts into the area on the left, drawing a yellow. Dalmat lines it up from 24... straight into the wall and out for a throw - his second poor danger restart.

56'

Mbokani narrowly missed wide on a nice Jovanovic set-up.

59'

Boussoufa is Chuck Norris-ed by a Bolan punch on a lobbed free kick serve. It takes him a minute to remember where he is, but he's up and trying it shake it off now.

65'

Mauves bring attacker Lukaku on for defender Bernárdez.

Also, I was told the English stream announcer was butchering names left and right, so I switched that on... he's pronounced Mbokani three different ways in a minute and called Gooch "On-EE-wu" and "On-UH-wu". Brilliant.

68'

Deshacht elbows Jovanovic on a jump, and the Standard boss is wondering where his second card is.

71'

Now, he's called Dalmat "Delap".

77'

Anderlecht brings Chatelle on for Deschacht.

83'

Witsel sees yellow.

85'

Van Damme is booked for an ice hockey check on Dalmat.

87'

Dalmat off for Goreux, a defensive move.

88'

Wasilewski with a flagrant elbow near De Camargo's neck as they chase toward the Anderlecht end. Somehow, not only is there no card, but there is no foul called.

90'

Lukaku is booked for a silly shove. Five minutes of added time announced...

90+4'

Sclessin is ready to explode.

90+5'

Wasilewski is shown yellow after a disturbingly cynical elbow to the face of Jovanovic. He should have been shown the gate.

FULL TIME

Standard are the repeat champions!

I will make a new post if I find any good post-match videos from the Rangers and Standard triumphs. Thanks for kickin' it with NSC, have a great night.

[Photo: Vincent Kalut/Standard]


- Greg Seltzer