Starting Eleven Football Blog Roundup

Cristiano Ronaldo not only stands to make a world record salary from Real Madrid by the end of the month, but more importantly, he stands become the world-record 11,000th notch on Paris Hilton's bedpost by the end of the week!! Awesome. It's good to be CR7; I wonder whether he'll insist on full color for his sex tape, or whether he'll stand for night-vision goggle green?

Either way, here's this week's jaunt around the football blogosphere:

• Portugal may miss out on the World Cup if it doesn't get its act together quickly. But more tragic than Portugal's absence would be us, as fans, missing out on Paris Hilton being the top WAG in South Africa. Here's to Paris and Ronny, long may they... well, whatever...
• Spain stomped all over New Zealand in yesterday's Confederations Cup, 5-0. Fernando Torres scored three goals leading Spain's emphatic win. The hosts, meanwhile, opened the event with a 0-0 draw against Iraq. More awesomeness.
• You know the RSA-Iraq match sucked when SoccerBlog opens its game story with a quote from Sepp Blatter.
• Sinnacle lives up to its name, but makes up for it with a pretty picture of the actual Confederations Cup.
• Some People are on the Pitch talks up Day 1 of the Confederations Cup; solid review.
• Final word on the Confederations Cup; the Washington Post offers you an explainer, complete with a schedule. Apparently, the U.S. plays Italy, today at 2:30 p.m. ET.
• BTW, the cruddy Paris-Ronny pic up top is from TMZ.com. Here's more on Ronny's easiest score!
• Inside World Soccer has the news out of Milan that Inter is chasing Deco, who wants out of Chelsea.
• Soccernews says Ricardo Carvalho may leave Chelsea as well for an Inter reunion with the Special One.
• Soccernet reports Manchester United is chasing David Villa. Barcelona, Chelsea and Real Madrid have already expressed interest in the Spain star.
• Headline: Tight pursestrings at Liverpool. Also, the sun will come out tomorrow.
• Oh You Beauty has a nice rundown of the Silly Season spending. Recession? What recession?
• And finally, my bud at Talking to the Doll, a Benfica blog, has a very telling quote from Benfica's recent Argentina signing Ramires, who wants to have a big season in Lisbon and spring off to a bigger club in Europe. Awesome. Says it all about Portuguese soccer.
  

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