Before we move on to the Serie A preview, let's take another moment to digest the early season shock of shockers -- almighty Manchester United lost 1-0 to . . . Burnley? Yes, Burnley. The Clarets. A team that was just recently promoted to the English Permier League.

Consider that Man U had won 17 consecutive games against newly promoted teams, and outscored those teams 44-4. Already, the second-guessers have reared their skeptical heads and questioned whether it was such a wise decision to let Cristiano Ronaldo go to Real Madrid.

But manager Sir Alex Ferguson refuses to be ruffled.

``We do not enjoy losing but it has happened before and it will happen again,'' he said. ``The issue now, as it always is at this club when you have a bad defeat, is what are you going to do about it?''

Making matters worse, defender Rio Ferdinand's thigh injury is worse than anticipated, and he is expected to miss three to four weeks.

Meanwhile, in Italy, heavyweight Inter Milan kicks off its season Sunday against Bari. Inter is trying to become the first team in 75 years to win five consecutive Serie A titles. Of course, it must be noted that the 2005-06 title was awarded to them because Juventus was stripped of the title as punishment for a match-fixing scandal.

Nevertheless, Inter has finished atop the standings the past three seasons, and every indication is it will be the team to beat again, even though it lost Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona. Inter added Cameroonian forward Samuel Eto'o from Barcelona, Diego Milito from Genoa and Brazilian defender Lucio.

Juventus has the goods to battle Inter for the title, especially with the addition of Diego from Werder Bremen and the return of Fabio Cannavaro, 35, who is eager to prove he still has it after three years with Real Madrid.

In fact, Juve is so promising that Italian national team coach Marcelo Lippi picked it to win it all, which did not sit well with Inter coach Jose Mourinho.

``The Special One,'' as Mourinho is known, said it was ``indecent'' for a national team coach to make such a prediction. He also called Lippi's comments a ``lack of respect'' for Inter.

The third team in the mix is AC Milan, which made headlines this offseason for selling Kaká to Real Madrid for $90 million. Although Kaka's loss is big, the team still has Ronaldinho, who continues to show flashes of brilliance. American fans might make AC Milan their adopted Serie A team after the signing of popular central defender Oguchi ``Gooch'' Onyewu. He is the only U.S. player in Serie A.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Gooch said he has been surprised by the warm reception from his teammates.

``They're really cool,'' he said. ``I appreciate them a lot because they're making this transition unbelievably easy. They're really cool guys -- easy to get along with -- the coaching staff and everybody else has been very accommodating. I couldn't have anticipated the transition going any more smoothly than it is.''

He said the language barrier has not been much of an issue.

``I don't speak Italian, obviously, yet. But Clarence Seedorf, he speaks English, I can speak with him. Mathieu Flamini, he speaks French, I can speak with him. The captain, he speaks English, [Massimo] Ambrosini. He's always talking to me. [Ivan] Gattuso is a great guy; he's always saying things. Ronaldinho, making jokes, he speaks French as well. He played at PSG.

``Literally everybody, I don't know if they do it on purpose or it is just their character, but they've made me feel welcome. I don't feel any bit of an outsider.''

WOMEN'S LEAGUE

The inaugural Women's Professional Soccer season wraps up next Sunday with the All-Star Game, and commissioner Tonya Antonucci was enthusiastic about the league's first year.

The Los Angeles Sol, led by three-time FIFA Player of the Year Marta, lost 1-0 to New Jersey's Sky Blue FC on Saturday in the championship game.

``If anyone wondered whether we were creating the world's best soccer league for women, we answered those questions overnight with a resounding `yes' -- we have put together the premier soccer league for women in the world,'' Antonucci said. ``Games have been fast-paced and well-contested.

``Goals were frequently scored in bunches and we had some incredible finishes including one stretch when two national television games were decided in stoppage time on back-to-back weekends.''

As for attendance, the numbers reached her expectations. The average crowd was 4,500, and it tipped 5,000 on weekends.

``It a great base from which we can build in Year Two,'' she said. ``We were most pleased by the improvement that we saw at teams like New Jersey's Sky Blue FC, where they finished the season with a sell-out on a weeknight, or Chicago, where their August 2nd home finale against the LA Sol drew 8,000 fans.''

The league expands to nine teams for 2010 with the addition of the Philadelphia Independence and the Atlanta Beat.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@