If Chelsea can secure a home win over their biggest rival (a task they couldn't achieve last season) they'll overtake Manchester United atop the Premier League table. The Red Devils were lucky to escape yesterday's Sunderland match with a tie following a late own goal. With Petr Cech sidelined due to suspension the pressure will be on reserve keeper Hilario as he faces a Liverpool attack anchored by Fernando Torres.

The match is airing shortly on Fox Soccer Channel, and I can pretty much guarantee that it will be more entertaining than Sunday NFL Countdown.

Later in the day the soccer world's attention turns to Spain, where Real Madrid will be without Cristiano Ronaldo when they travel to face unbeaten Sevilla. Ronaldo carried his Galacticos side to a midweek Champions League win over Marseille with two goals, however the Portuguese star went down with an ankle injury later in the contest. Oh well, they still have that Kaka guy.

Stick around here today to talk about the action on the pitch. And hey, how about a round of applause for Pompey? It only took them eight matches to secure their first point. Next step: figuring out who is supposed to be paying these guys.

Ronaldo was formally introduced as the newest member of Spain's Yankees. He came out in his new uniform, kicked a ball around for a few seconds and bathed in unashamed adoration. Fans made signs, painted their bodies, and even stormed on the field to get tackled by security. Most actual games don't have this much action.

So anyway no pressure, Chris. It only cost $131 million to bring you there and the fact that the Champions League final will be your home stadium next year, shouldn't really concern you. I'm sure the 80,000 crazy people will understand if it doesn't work out.

Real Madrid Flaunts Its Costly Superstar [NY Times]
Thousands greet Cristiano Ronaldo's "dream" move to Real Madrid [Soccernet]

This news may come as a mild shock to Man U fans since their manager, Alex Ferguson is on record saying ... and I quote ... "I wouldn't sell that mob a virus." Also, unlike A.C. Milan, the Red Devils are not exactly hurting for cash. (Or maybe they are?) They've been repeatedly listed as the most valuable franchise in any sport, anywhere in the world. But this is what is known as "an offer you can't refuse." United paid about $20 million for Ronaldo in 2003, so it safe to say they made a good investment.

On a related note, if you're having trouble paying your bills in this depressed economy, might I suggest moving to Spain? In the span of three days, Madrid has plunked down approximately $225 million for two players and that's not even counting the money that they have to pay the two men to actually play soccer. Both could earn in the neighborhood of $10 million a year. Plus, they get siestas over there!

The good news for any remaining English fans who might have been biting their tongues as long as the Portuguese Devil was playing in the Premiership, is that they are now free to hate Ronaldo with clear, rage-filled consciences. Judging by the reaction on the BBC, the Man U faithful aren't exactly broken up about this breakup. Sure, he was a great player who scored a ton of goals and helped us win titles ... but fuck that whinging, dive-happy S.O.B.

Plus, as one fan pointed out, if someone would just loan them another $10 million they could buy Newcastle.

Man Utd accept £80m Ronaldo bid [BBC]
Manchester United accept Real Madrid's £80m bid for Ronaldo [ESPN]

Madrid's transfer payment for Brazilian superstar Kaka (yes, I know) is believed to be a world record and one that will keep Milan in business for at least a little while longer. The gist of the story seems to be that Milan—which is owned by Italy's billionaire prime minister—is hurting financially, so Kaka humbly agreed to take a large contract with a free-spending club to help his previous team. What a trouper. I guess even billionaire prime ministers have bad decades.

Meanwhile, Madrid can apparently afford to spend money like a drunken sailor. Their new president, Florentino Perez, is actually the old one who built Madrid into a powerhouse in the early aughts by buying the world's best talent. If they're ever going to catch Barcelona, trying that strategy again seems as good a plan as any.

Perhaps someone with a more secure grasp of international sports could explain why U.S. sports don't try this transfer fee stuff. When teams like Milwaukee and Oakland and Minnesota watch their best players waltz away for big bucks contracts (or maybe get pennies on the dollar in a trade), would it help if Boston and New York had to dump big piles of cash on their old desks to take the talent? Or would it just give the small teams even more incentive to hoard money and stay terrible? The agents would certainly love to get in on that action. What's one little illegally restricted labor market between friends?

Kaká Ends Soap Opera and Moves to Real [NY Times]
Spanish Inquisition: Can Kaka Really Be The New Zidane At Real Madrid? [Goal]
Cristiano Ronaldo next on Real Madrid's shopping list [ESPN]

The best action of the day will be going down at Bernabeu in Madrid. A win for the home side would pull them within a point of their arch-rivals in La Liga. Real has played like a new team under Juande Ramos, and if they want to make their title run official they'll need a win today.

Arjen Robben will return to Ramos' starting lineup despite a leg injury that was expected to keep him out. On the other side Barca will be without central defender Rafael Marquez who tore up his knee in the mid-week Champions League semifinal leg against Chelsea. The good news for the visitors is that Carlos Puyol will be back in the starting lineup in Marquez's spot, although he won't be available for the second leg against Chelsea thanks to a suspension. It's a shame, really. The game can be seen stateside on GolTV at 2 pm EST.

Meanwhile, in England, the Premier League features five televised matches. Unfortunately the most important one(s) will kickoff before most of us are awake. Regardless of that fact, I feel pretty confident writing that Manchester United has succeeded in burying Middlesbrough deeper into relegation hell. If it turns out that they pulled the massive upset then that's just something I'll have to live with. Chelsea takes on Fulham in the day's second match, kicking off at 9:40 on Setanta. Expect to see plenty of Chelsea's bench in that one as they'll certainly be holding something back in advance of their showdown with Barca.

For the rest of the weekend's televised matches check out Ives' breakdown. Stick around to discuss all of today's matches in the comment section.

At this point, seeing a Spanish athlete in blackface just isn't that shocking. Sad, but totally par for the course. It's called the Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos, or Parade of the Three Wise Men, held all over Spain each Jan. 5 to celebrate the biblical trip to Bethlehem by Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar. And Real Madrid star Sergio Ramos really gets into the act.

From The Spoiler:

As part of their continuing quest to maintain ambivalence towards overt racism in society, Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos was invited to take part in the most recent Reyes Magos Eve procession, where he donned blackface, a turban and a pimp ring. Oh dear.

So Spain, what's wrong with you guys? Was it all the mid-20th Century fascism, or is it that your athletes are just nuts? Please get back to me.

Real Madrid Star Upholds Spain's Commitment To Racism [The Spoiler]

In stark contrast to last year's meeting Barca is sitting atop the league (and six points clear at that) while Real is struggling to crack La Liga's top four. They haven't even played yet and the game has already cost one coach his job. You hate to see a guy get fired for speaking the truth, but hey, Juande Ramos has a new job! Real is plagued by injuries and Barcelona has displayed brilliant form within the league. The match can be seen at 4 pm EST on GolTV.

Other televised matches of interest...

EPL - Middlesbrough vs. Arsenal In Progress on Setanta
Waaaay too fucking early to care.

EPL - Manchester City vs. Everton at 10 am on FSC
Hey, Buffon will leave Italy to take over the Citizen's net, and it will only cost them £250k a week! Of course that's on top of the £20 million they'll have to fork over to Juventus for the potential transfer. Serious Arab Money.

EPL - Liverpool vs. Hull City at 10 am on Setanta
The Scousers have a scant one point cushion over Chelsea at the top of the Premier League and this morning they're up against Tigers side that is without a loss in their last four matches. Torres remains out with a bad hamstring, but everybody else is back in the lineup for Liverpool.

Bundesliga - VFB Stuttgart vs. Bayern Munich at 11:30 am on GolTV
Munich can work their way back into first place over Hoffenheim with a win this afternoon.

EPL - Tottenham vs. Manchester United at 12:30 on FSC
The Red Devils head into White Hart Lane to face a rapidly improving Spurs side, and they will likely be without several key players. Rooney and Evra will serve suspensions while Rio Ferdinand and Dimitar Berbatov are both likely out with injuries. Ronaldo's also a bit banged up (pussy), but he's a bit more likely to play. Manchester might just need another four goal performance from Tevez to win this week.

La Liga - Valencia vs. Espanyol at 2 pm on GolTV
Watching David Villa and his Valencia side is a pretty good warmup for the big tilt later in the afternoon.

Enjoy the games, and follow along with the fun in the comment section.

Co-Matches of the Day...

EPL - Aston Villa vs. Manchester United at 1:00 pm on FSC
Honestly, what more needs to be said about this match between the third and fifth place squads on the EPL table? Martin O'Neill's club has been superb in recent weeks, and now even Sir Alex Ferguson believes that Villa could wind up qualifying for the Champions League by finishing in one of the coveted spots among the top four. Of course to do that the Scotsman will have to unseat one of the big four, but that hardly seems out of the question at this point in the season. Villa is coming off of a dismantling of Arsenal which has left them tied with the Gunners at 23 points, good enough for a top four spot on the table. Sir Alex's side rests just one point clear of today's challengers, and they'll need a superb effort all over the pitch to ensure a victory over an inspired Villa side.

Serie A- Inter Milan vs. Juventus at 2:30 pm on FSC
A win for Juve would vault them into a tie on points with Inter, however the Milanese side would likely remain atop the table based on goal differential (+3 over Juve going into the match). Of course Inter's rivals will have something to say about that on Sunday seeing as how they currently sit between the two age-old rivals. Jose Mourinho is calling it "another match" although the rest of Italy would probably beg to differ. The biggest question for the former Chelsea boss is whether he'll fit a disgruntled Adriano into the starting 11 for Internazionale. Regardless, the Special One will be looking to gain a huge leg up in the arduous Serie A season with three crucial points on the line. And yes, this is one of those Serie A matches that I'll force myself to watch, no matter how much I hate Inter. Sure college football will be on, but every good household should be equipped with a pair of televisions.

Other televised matches of interest...

EPL - Liverpool vs Fulham at 10:00 am on Setanta
Hey Fulham, you're going to lose, so the least you could do is let Deuce Dempsey play more than 20 minutes. Don't forget, we saved your asses in WWII and we kept you out of relegation last year. And that ends this week's installment of The Entitled American.

EPL - Chelsea vs. Newcastle at 10:00 am on FSC
Just win, baby! Oh, and be sure to humiliate the Magpies if you get a chance. Although I do enjoy their beer.

Bundesilga - Bayern Munich vs Energie Cottbus at 11:30 on GolTV
Don't blink or you'll likely miss a lot of balls traveling at high rates of speed past the Energie keeper. Seriously, how has Lukas Podalski not ruptured a net?

La Liga - Real Madrid vs Recreativo at 2:00 pm on GolTV
Another huge mismatch that should be good for the fan of goal scoring. Real is coming off of a bad loss against Valladolid and they've allowed a combined six goals in their past two victories, so to say Bernd Schuster's could use a positive result would be a gross understatement. Regardless, I'm taking it upon myself to set the number of goals scored by Madrid's Dutch internationals at 2 even without the services of Arjen Robben (stupid doctors).

Ligue 1 - PSG vs Lyon at 3:00 pm on Setanta
The Parisians are on fire so they couldn't possibly ask for a better time to face the dominating league champions from Lyon. The French might not have the money and star power of their European brethren, but this match will show that they still put out an impressive product.

La Liga - Sevilla vs Valencia at 4:00 pm on GolTV
Good God, what an awesome match this is going to be. In all honesty it should be amongst the day's featured matches listed above, but if you miss it it's your own damn fault. Pretty much any televised match from La Liga is worth your time, but when you're talking about two top contenders for the league's top four positions you should expect an epic clash. Earlier I mentioned Inter's Adriano, but the his namesake and fellow Brazilian playing for Sevilla is much more fun to watch.

EPL - Manchester City vs Arsenal at 5:00 pm (tape delay) on Setanta
Tape delay? Fuck you, television!

I'm sorry, I take that back. I love you television, with all my heart. If you love me back you'll show me nothing but glorious goals from Robinho and his fellow Citizens, no matter how hard Bertin and Hirshey pray for the opposite.

Enjoy the games and be sure to follow along in the comments as always.

And then Real Madrid destroyed them 8-0.

"We are very happy to be here, as we believe we have to work to help these kids," Raul said. "The team is very tired but we have to play a spectacular match for the fans and people watching."

This is why we have always hoped that, someday, Steve Spurrier would coach a charity game for disadvantage children and win 73-0.

Take That, Representatives Of Peace [I Dislike Your Favorite Team]

Barcelona and Real Madrid should both win ... which is problematic for Barcelona, since they're tied at the top of the table with Real Madrid, and Madrid has the tiebreaker. They need Mallorca to pull off a miracle. The best way to help speed a miracle along? Straight cash, homey.

There are reports that Barcelona has offered Mallorca $2.7 million if they're able to beat Real Madrid. This would be against league rules, of course but two Barcelona players are on record saying they want it to happen anyway. And it's probably going to. Brazen, these Spanish soccer clubs.

And it may seem dishonest or unethical, but ... it probably does ensure honest competition at the end of a season. Which is more than the NBA can say.

The $panish Premiere League [Winning the Turnover Battle]

That's all according to the London Times, anyway.

The Times understands that the former England captain has also decided on the next stage of his career and will turn down the opportunity to return to the Premiership, instead moving to the United States, with Los Angeles Galaxy the most likely club he will join.

You know what this means, don't you? Yes: the Beckhams have been brainwashed. Nevertheless, Maddox Pitt is delighted.

Beckham Will Reject Real Deal And Turn His Back On Europe [London Times]
Tom Cruise Has His Hooks Into The Beckhams [Deadspin]
Stop The World We Want TO Get Off [Deadspin]