NYON, Switzerland -- Tottenham will face Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the last 32 of the Europa League without the coach who led the team to an unbeaten record in the group stage. Tottenham was drawn against the Ukrainian side on Monday, an hour after Andre Villas-Boas was fired as manager following a 5-0 loss to Liverpool in the Premier League. Dnipro is coached by Juande Ramos, who was also fired by Tottenham, in 2008. After its controversial Champions League exit in Turkey, Juventus will again travel there for the second leg against Trabzonspor. Juve dropped down to the Europa League after losing 1-0 to Galatasaray in atrocious weather and pitch conditions in a match that was suspended and later completed almost 18 hours after it kicked off. The loss left the Italian side last in in its Champions League group. "Im not very happy about going back to Turkey, it didnt go well for us recently," Juve director Pavel Nedved said. "It will be a long and hard trip. We will have to find the right motivation to approach the game as Juventus should." One incentive for Juventus is that the May 14 final will be played in its home stadium in Turin. Napoli, which also dropped out of the Champions League, was drawn to play away first against Premier League side Swansea. Viktoria Plzen plays Shakhtar Donetsk in a pairing of teams which started the season in the Champions League. Porto, which won the 2011 Europa League with Villas-Boas as coach, will play Eintracht Frankfurt. Dynamo Kyiv hosts Valencia, the 2004 winner. Sevilla, which won in 2006 and 07, is away to Maribor. First-leg matches are played Feb. 20, with return legs on Feb. 27. UEFA also drew the last-16 pairings which will be played in March. Juventus can potentially face Serie A rival Fiorentina, Sevilla could play fellow La Liga club Real Betis, and Tottenham could face Benfica. . "Youre next." Hardly. Iguodala tormented his former team with a game better than any he ever played in eight seasons with the 76ers. . As future stars prepare to make the big leap to the professional ranks, TSNs Draft Week delivers wall-to-wall coverage of both the NHL and NBA Entry Drafts, highlighted by exclusive live coverage of both events.
http://www.cheapchinaairmax.com/. -- Golden State Warriors reserve centre Ognjen Kuzmic is expected to miss at least six weeks after undergoing surgery on his fractured right hand. . Returning to Davis Cup tennis, Federer cruised past Ilija Bozoljac, winning 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 in less than two hours. Federer faced little challenge from Bozoljac, who served well but still was no match for his Swiss opponent. . -- DeMarcus Cousins had 29 points, nine rebounds and six steals to lead the Sacramento Kings to their third straight preseason win, a 107-90 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night.Over the past two seasons, the B.C. Lions have had good teams that havent won a playoff game. And because of that those good teams are not remembered as exceptional, just non-producing playoff teams. This is a high pressure year in Lions football because of that fact. You can justify losing once, especially coming off a Grey Cup winning year, but losing twice transitions your team into re-evaluation and, sometimes, over-evaluation. Losing three times tends to lead to a more dramatic change. But can you build a team in May and June for success in October and November? Part of me thinks yes, if you have exceptional depth and a quarterback who performs at his best when the pressure is highest - playoff football. Also, a nice balance of veterans and youth helps on your roster. Veteran guys know and have the ability to rise to a challenge, a playoff game, because they know how to raise urgency both individually and collectively. My argument that you cant develop a playoff capable team early relates to how teams change as the season progresses. Injuries are the single biggest factor. If you lose a lot of players over a season it is difficult to find new performers to play as well as their predecessors. Or if you lose key players, a quarterback, a top defensive back, your best receiver, that individual may not be able to be replaced without a drop-off in production. When it comes to training camp and the regular season, all you can do is demand and hope for progressive and consistent improvement so come playoff time, you are at your best and competing against yourself. Last year BC was good on defence but needed to improve on offence. They finished with the third-ranked rrushing offence, averaging 107 yards per game, but only seventh in passing with 244 yards per game.dddddddddddd. On the other side of the ball there was a clear contradiction. They allowed the fewest passing yards but were at the league bottom in red zone defence. It was tough to move the ball against the Lions between the 20s, yet easier from the 20-yard line in. The vast majority of the time the opposite is true: the closer to the goal line, the tougher to advance because the defence has less space to defend. An unusual contradiction. Still, when you study last season and notice that BC was seventh in kickoff returns and eighth in punt returns, you see just what may be the priority for improvement may not be anything with or without the ball. Where you start drives and the length of field you have to overcome determines success in a season as much as any other aspect of football. As always, the Lions strength will be personnel change at just the right time. More youth on the offensive line and more experience at quarterback will prove beneficial at key moments of the season. Travis Lulay will be ready to go but that is not the concern. It is whether he will be ready for 18 games as his shoulder will be tested at some point in the season. In what may turn out to be the smartest move in the draft, acquiring Kevin Glenn as a veteran alternative is a nice luxury that only half the league has.The Lions will win their fair share of games, maybe even more than what is fair. The question will be whether they can break the “one and done” streak in the playoffs. You cant really prepare for it until the week of. And that week is months away. ' ' '
