Good Thursday morning to you all! I don’t know what the weather is like in your neck of the woods, but for me it’s beautiful, spring soccer weather! Today we’ve got the news from the CONCACAF Champion’s League games last night, the MLS power rankings, where Jose Mourinho might be next season and tragic news about Eric Abidal. Here’s your Thursday Daily Kick Around!

CONCACAF Champion’s League

Well, well, if things aren’t a bit interesting already in the CCL! Seattle squared off with Santos Laguna and let’s just say Santos apparently were there to prove a point, along with USMNT forward Herculez Gomez. The Mexican side squashed the Sounders 6-1.  “If this was a boxing match, they would have knocked us out,”  Sounders Head Coach Sigi Schmid said. And he would have been right.

And they weren’t the only shocker last night. LA Galaxy hosted Toronto FC and let’s just say, the boys from LA showed again they are a team that can be beat. It looks like the back line is still the biggest trouble for the Galaxy. You can check out the highlights from the match here.

MLS Kick Off also has a ton of links concerning both games for all the information you could ever want!

Major League Soccer

The Montreal Impact might have lost their season opener to Vancouver this weekend, but clearly they aren’t thinking negatively. They are still building their team, and today they announced they would sign Italian Veteran Bernardo Carradi to their roster.

Now that we have First Kick out of the way, it’s time for that nice little thing called the power rankings. Real Salt Lake have taken the top after their impressive showing against LA and the Montreal Impact find themselves still at the bottom. But it’s only the beginning folks!

English Premier League

For once, it’s not a player’s miscue that is causing a ruckus, but none other than Premier League chairman Dave Richards. He took aim at FIFA, stating the governing body of world soccer stole the game from England.

“Then, 50 years later, some guy came along and said you’re liars and they actually stole it. It was called FIFA. Fifty years later, another gang came along called UEFA and stole a bit more.”

He  had to offer up an embarrassing apology for his words. But you have to kind of feel for him too; apparently while at the event where he had made his comments, he accidentally stepped in a pool and fell, hurting himself badly. Talk about adding injury to insult.

Okay, this saddens me a bit. According to Sir Alex Ferguson, Dimitar Berbatov is on his way out of Manchester United. And who could really blame him? Over the past two seasons, we haven’t really seen a lot of Berba in the line up. This does make me a bit sad because he was a top notch player and a great goal scorer for the Red Devils.

U.S. Men’s National Team

After making his debut for Leeds United a few weeks back and suffering a concussion, US international Robbie Rogers was back on the pitch for Leeds United Tuesday in a friendly match with Carlisle United. Rogers not only played 90 minutes, but he also scored a goal.

UEFA Champion’s League

Now that Real Madrid and Chelsea (which is a wonder in itself) are through to the next round of the Champion’s League, RM boss Jose Mourinho said he would “love” to face off with his old EPL club in CL final. What do you guys think? Can Chelsea, or Real for that matter, get to the final?

La Liga

Speaking of “The Special One,” rumors have been running rampant that Jose will leave Real Madrid at the end of the season and possibly return to England to take up another English team. However, he was quoted in the Daily Mail last week stating he would extend his contract with the Spanish club. Sounds like good news for Real fans!

Finally, our thoughts and prayers are with Barcelona’s Eric Abidal as it was announced today he would need a liver transplant. Last year, the French international underwent surgery after a tumor was discovered on his liver. We’re hoping for all of the best for Eric and that he is on a road to recovery.