What a night in the Sunshine league! Aalbord won again, this time destroying Melbourne Victory. American teams Real Salt Lake, with new manager Dan Putland, and DC United with manager Dan Yates recorded second wins as well. Leeds, Reading and Bristol City all picked up important wins as well - so their managers will be pleased.
In the crunch matches, Luke Edwards and his Los Angeles Galaxy side beat Paul Langridge's Kansas City Wizards in a 4-2 showdown. Gytis managed to get another win with the Earthquakes, narrowly winning over Adie's lacklustre Brighton.
The heat is on now as the goalscorers in the league start putting them away. Aalborg's Guiza was given the chance to run riot again and he delivered. However Dutch masters VenneMcgregor of Hesselink and Rude Boy Van Nistelrooy have each scored three and know that there chances to up their tally will come against Lewes and Melbourne. DC United man Saborio is not expected to keep up with the others, but he has 4 to his name currently and could enjoy a further run in the player tables should his manager bolster the team.
In other news, Semak opened the scoring for Postie.
A shock was delivered to some of the big name teams on Sunday night, as Reading were held to a draw with an as yet untouched Los Angeles side, Bristol drew with lowly Brighton and Leeds lost to Tom Ashley's yet to be built St. Johnstone.
Aalborg BK's crushing of whipping boys Lewes was as to be expected, but even so Steven Joplin's team will be on a high. Cliff Allen's Millwall won without Joey Barton in the side (reported to be left out of the side as a reminder that Cliff was in charge) and Goods In team Gytis and Paul both had impressive wins with their respective American teams. Now it's all about Thursday night.
A lot of the big teams miss each other this week, but each one will be wanting to prove themselves as contenders. The biggest clashes as Cliff's Millwall against Sumpter's Leeds and Gtyis' San Jose Earthquakes against Luke's Los Angeles Galaxy.
Player of the Sunday night will have to be Aalborg's Daniel Guiza. Although in the side picture he is taking one in the face, he managed to get 5 goals against Lewes and although he will have tougher defences to get through, he is the man to catch now for the Golden Boot.
Steven Joplin, manager of Aalborg has not added many big names to his side, but has the Soccer Manager experience to crush the league with the same kind of cold determination that is in tune with a team name like Aalborg.
Resistance Is Futile!
Paul Scholes is a player who would warrant a place in any side, but has been tracked by Si's Reading and closely watched by Sumpter's Leeds and Postie's Bristol City as well.
But it was Gytis who has landed the mildfield man, just in time for the Earthquakes' big game against Sydney tonight.
Goods In workers Paul Langridge and Gytis Valciukas have had a couple of deliveries over the weekend - of new players!
Both Gytis of the San Jose Earthquakes and Paul of the Kansas City Wizards have added more than five players already, to try and stake their claim on the top spots.
Gytis has swooped for Roque Santa Cruz and free agent goalkeeper Dida, while Paul has opted for old heads Kevin Phillips and Nolberto Solano.
There's been a bit of dog-eat-dog in the transfer rush towards tonights first fixtures.
Both Postie at Bristol City and Sumpter of Leeds were trying to capture Vieira but their deals fell through because of lack of funds at the time. Si flew in and nicked him, adding him to his star studded Reading cast.
However, Postie has taken sweet revenge as he whipped in and got one of Si's personal favourite Soccer Manager players, Sergei Semak. Si spoke up about his transfer wish, but also let on he couldn't complete the deal untill the following day. Postie wasted no time in play tit-for-tat.
But which of these two midfielders will have the better debut? And which will have a better season as both Reading and Bristol City aim for the top?
Reading manager Simon Bethune finally owns his favourite Right-Back Gary Neville but his rating could fall at the next ratings change...
Cliff Allen has started recruiting for his new Millwall side, and has invested in bad-boy Joey Barton. Rumour has it that Cliff, in an effort to instill discipline at the club, has had Joey on regular 'litter-picking' duty.
Bristol City Manager Postie has made Sol Campbell one of his first signings as he plots to start the league campaign off with a clean sheet. Postie's keeper is David James, and those two have worked together before. Adie's Brighton team will have to work hard to get past these two giants.
New Reading FC signings Gary Neville, Patrick Vieira, Craig Bellamy, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Ryan Giggs and Michael Owen.
Reading seem to have stayed true to their word and 'invested in the long-term future'. Still, they could still get a result on Sunday against Los Angeles Galaxy who are yet to complete any signings because manager Luke Edwards has had a busy week.
