Wednesday Backpasses: Well, someone had to win

You know, by now, how the Champions League final ended. I'm proud of calling the 1-1 score line and the Ronaldo PK miss and was actually a little miffed when Brave John Terry missed his. Still, I had no dog in the fight, so, congratulations to Manchester United, champions of Europe. On to the links.

CL fans could have blown England's 2018 bid for the World Cup. Has anyone heard anything out of Moscow yet? [Guardian]
Ryan Giggs passed Bobby Charlton's all-time ManU appearances record, wore special boots [The Sun]
John Terry's boot bag. Is it the reason he missed the PK? [Daily Mail]

Non-CL links and a Toulon update after the jump.

Roberto Baggio was pretty good, despite taking Terry-like penalties [NYTimes Goal blog]
Torres finally got a haircut. It looks, well, not so good [This is Extra Time]
Looking at future MLS expansion [WV Hooligan]
New York Times discovers some NBA players also like soccer [NYTimes]


Toulon Update

Turkey 3-2 USA
USA looked about two steps behind today. Both first half goals could be attributed to ball watching. The Americans started off brightly in the second half, and gained a goal in the 58th minute. However, off the kickoff, keeper Dominic Cervi did not communicate with his center backs and allowed Turkey to score again. Ochoa notched a second for the US, but did not make up for his first half miss. Thankfully, given his rustiness, Cervi will miss the rest of the tournament. He spilled an early ball, and was clearly at fault on that last goal for not taking control of his box and instead assuming the defenders running with their back to the ball could make the play. Also, Feilhaber limped off injured in the 2nd half and will not be seen again at the tournament as he joins the full NT in training for England.

Italy 2-0 Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast dominated the first half of play, but could not translate the dominance into goals. They did have a golden chance after earning a PK, but Sekou Cisse's weak attempt was smothered by the Italian keeper. After the break, Italy started to come alive and took the game to the Ivorians. Sebastian Giovinco, who plays for Empoli, scored a brace, and the Ivorians just seemed worn out by the end of the game.

Tomorrow:
France - Japan 1200 EDT
Netherlands - Chile 1430 EDT

Oh, and if you read Spanish better than I do and want to keep up with Toulon, go here