Notes

A few quick things. Full preview of Sunday's match tomorrow. If you are desperate for a bit of preview action, you can find some here. Unfortunately, it will not be on television in the US. But it is being televised, so there should be some streams on the internet. I will have them here before the match starts.

Rossi and Guille Franco are both ready to play on Sunday, which is a welcome relief. Especially heartening is the news about little Giuseppe, who will likely partner up front with Llorente in an effort to actually score this match.

Also back (for certain this time), will be Gonzalo, allowing the rightful pairing of Gonzalo and Godin to take their place in the back line, in an effort to prevent a tragedy of the type that happened last weekend.

In an interesting afternoon at Sport City, UEFA investigators came and took blood samples to test for performance enhancers from a number of the players. The tests were not based on specific suspicion, but were part of a random, regular test. The players tested were Sebastián Viera, Diego Godín, Fabricio Fuentes, Gonzalo Rodríguez, Matías Fernández, Bruno Soriano, Joan Capdevila, Cani, Joan Tomás and Edu Caballer.

And finally, Puma and Villarreal have renewed their equipment agreement for another four years. I am willing to be Puma was eager to keep up the contract, as the color scheme was not exactly all that difficult....