Soccer Watch

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. 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 Petrucelli will 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. They 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: All four English entries had good days on the next-to-last day of Champions League group play; three are through to the final 16; Liverpool looks likely to join them, after their second straight lopsided win. Final games: Dec. 11-12.