For Your Non-Calcio Pleasure1. AZ Alkmaar won again in Holland. They're now 11 points up and close to notching only their second title ever, and first since 1981. Good, you can't help but feel for them after they kicked the title away in '07. Do yourself a favor and catch one of their matches on ESPN360 as the season winds down. Sometimes you can find them in a nice, early Sunday timeslot before you settle in to watch Serie A.
2. Former Roma man Giuly provided the goal that brought PSG to within a point of Lyon, whose loss to Lille I had on in the background at times on Saturday but not for long enough to have any idea what went wrong. As vulnerable as Lyon has looked all year long in Ligue 1, I'm still not entirely sure I'm a believer in PSG yet. Can't complain about an exciting title race though.
3. Valencia lost to Numancia and apparently their players aren't being paid. Even heard them linked with an appearance in the MLS All-Star Game, presumably because they need the money. Sad state of affairs at the Mestalla, hopefully they can get everything in order. It just takes me back to the early part of this decade and how much it set the Italian game back to have some of its most important teams go through financial woes- Cecchi Gori and Fiorentina, Parmalat, Cragnotti's Lazio, the Napoli mess, Roma bypassing the transfer market. Arguably, Serie A still has never recovered.
