Horns, Lions, Out

It's "wait until next year" for the UT Longhorns, who crashed out of the NCAAs with a 4-0 drubbing at Florida State on Friday. The Horns were out-shot by a 29-5 margin, capping a postseason in which they were out-shot in all six games, including a 110-38 margin in the last four. It's worth noting, of course, that they did win the first five of those games, and that statistics are largely meaningless, but still … after finding at least two dynamic strikers in this year's freshman class, to complement senior Kelsey Carpenter (thanks for a great four years), coach Chris Petrucelli will no doubt be looking for improvement in the center third of the field in 2008.

There'll always be an England … but not at next summer's European Championships.

England came into the last day of qualifying needing only a home draw to advance, against a team with nothing to play for. So they gave up two early goals on two defensive howlers, then wasted a dramatic comeback, inspired by halftime sub David Beckham, and lost 3-2. How bad is that? The team they lost out to, Russia, only made it by virtue of a 1-0 squeaker over Andorra.

English club soccer, on the other hand, is alive and well, as the 2008 Champions League season starts to take shape. All four English entries had good days on the next to last day of group play this midweek: Manchester United, Chelsea, and Arsenal are through to the final 16; Liverpool now look likely to join them, after their second straight lopsided win. The final group games are Dec. 11-12; the knockout rounds will begin in February.

In all, eight teams have advanced to the final 16 – Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Roma, Barcelona, and Sevilla – all of them from the Big Three: England, Italy, and Spain. Another unsurprising trend: Among the four teams already doomed to finish last in their groups, and thus drop out of European play altogether – each is the easternmost team in its group.

Champions League Group Standings
After five games played, out of six

Group A
FC Porto 8
Marseille 7
Liverpool 7
Besiktas 6

Group B
Chelsea 11
Rosenborg 7
Schalke 5
Valencia 4

Group C
Real Madrid 8
Olympiacos 8
Werder Bremen 6
Lazio 5

Group D
AC Milan 10
Celtic 9
Shakhtar Donetsk 6
Benfica 4

Group E
Barcelona 11
Rangers 7
Lyon 7
VfB Stuttgart 3

Group F
Man Utd 15
Roma 10
Sporting Lisbon 4
Dynamo Kiev 0

Group G
Inter Milan 12
Fenerbahce 8
PSV Eindhoven 7
CSKA Moscow 1

Group H
FC Sevilla 12
Arsenal 10
Slavia Prague 5
Steaua Bucharest 1