The last time FC Barcelona and Real Madrid met in the Copa del Rey, Cristiano Ronaldo and company took the trophy in the Final. Unfortunately for “Los Blancos,” the dropping and destroying that trophy from their victory parade bus is what people remember more than actually winning. For Ronaldo, Barca is that thorn preventing aspirations for soccer supremacy Read the rest of this entry »
Take a look at this unbelievable goal by Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard scoring from his own box (insert joke here) during Wednesday night’s EPL action. Credit this play on shoddy defending or just a lucky bounce but this is one of the craziest goals you will ever see. Read the rest of this entry »
FC Barcelona’s goalkeeper flubbed a clearance resulting in a Real Madrid goal in the first minute of the game but with a little luck and resiliency, Barcelona won 3-1 to tie their rivals as league leaders in Spain. Read the rest of this entry »
In the “Subway Series of Soccer,” Manchester City trampled Manchester United 6-1 on Sunday to prove they weren’t pretenders but contenders for the Premier League Crown. For Americans, the Manchester derby can easily compare to baseball’s famous local rivalry. Read the rest of this entry »
There’s a threat to tradition that’s being floated in the world’s most popular sports league, England’s Premier League, that would end its adherence to the relegation/promotion system. According to a story by Yahoo! Sports’ Martin Rodgers, an increase in American ownership has made the move a serious consideration.
“‘There are a number of overseas-owned clubs already talking about the avoidance of promotion and relegation in the Premier League,’ said Richard Bevan, chief executive of the powerful League Managers Association, which represents the interests of head coaches in English soccer. ‘If we have four or five more owners, this could happen.’”
Scary. The English Premier League and the rest of the world’s major soccer leagues utilize the unique system that relegates a league’s bottom-feeding teams (sends them to a lower professional division) and promotes a lower league’s winners to the next-level league. It’s a system that allows world soccer to stand alone in comparison to American sports leagues. In the case of England its practice dates back over a century and creates an ultimate importance within the regular season’s framework. Smaller clubs battle for the right to play against the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, while mid-level clubs joust to avoid falling into oblivion.
The relegation/promotion system (especially in the EPL) makes every result do-or-die and the atmosphere that comes with such a structure ensures that teams don’t flounder along just to take from the league’s year-end bounty. It also ensures the English equivalents of a Tampa Bay Rays or Cleveland Cavaliers don’t bomb entire seasons just to proclaim “there’s always next year” and lay in wait for a potential draft pick.
Although the richest clubs always vie for the title, destitute clubs’ mad-dash scramble at the end of every EPL season to avoid relegation fosters the greatest final weeks in any professional sports league. It’s an energetic situation that American leagues can only dream about and it avoids the hokey, pre-manufactured attention generators that eight-team, postseason American playoffs create.
English legislators and Football Association officials should fight tooth and nail to keep this Americanization of a completely non-American sport from occurring. It would be a shame to see foreign, money-hungry influence dictate a system that has worked for over a hundred years.
Banning entire crowds from attending European soccer matches isn’t a new phenomena. Scores of hyper-passionate fans (known as “ultras” and “hooligans”) demonize venues from England to the Balkan states, often inciting violence, xenophobic chants and, some times, death. Recently, Turkish club Fenerbahçe S.K. – long known for its hooliganism – was ordered by the Turkish Football Association to play a match against Manisaspor in an empty stadium. Read the rest of this entry »
In a move that brings new meaning to the word preemptive, Spanish soccer super-club Real Madrid signed a seven-year-old by the name of Leonel Angel Coira to a one-year contract that will put the little guy in Madrid’s development system for the foreseeable future. Read the rest of this entry »
Over in the soccer world, championships were decisively won and lost this past weekend.
Beginning in Spain, only five points separated Barcelona and Madrid in their annual two-horse race at the start of Saturday morning. By day’s end, Madrid’s title challenge was effectively over. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve attended only one soccer match prior to last night’s viewing of USA Vs. Paraguay and the game I did see was composed of 6-8 year-olds in a youth soccer league. Obviously not a very strong comparison point. Still, saying no to comp tickets to check out the second of the two game series seemed dumb and I’m always open to suggestions for things to do. My daughter and her friend in tow, I set off to Nashville’s LP Field, the usual playing field of the Titans taken over on Tuesday night by futbol and its fans. Read the rest of this entry »
After their dramatic late show against Algeria, the US now has a legit shot at making a run deep into the knockout stages of the World Cup. The first test is an on-the-up Ghanaian squad. Here are five things to watch for come kickoff. Read the rest of this entry »
There’s Germany, Netherlands, and Spain sitting atop their respective groups. But then there’s France and Italy sitting rock bottom of theirs. The collective failure of European squads, especially in comparison to their South American rivals, can be attributed to the long domestic seasons that also caused so many injuries prior to the World Cup. Read the rest of this entry »
Last weekend’s Champions League final had more than a few winners outside of deserving champs, Inter Milan. First, there was raging cokehead yet the game’s greatest player, Diego Maradona. As current manager of Argentina, he’s been utterly incompetent with his team selections, but the play of Inter striker Diego Milito—in scoring both goals—helped to solve Diego’s conundrum as to who amongst Argentina’s stable of strikers should play alongside Leo Messi. Then, there was Holland, whose two most important matchwinners, Inter’s Wesley Sneijder and Bayern Munich’s Arjen Robben shone brightest in the match and walked away unscathed, despite fellow countryman and resident headcase Mark Van Bommel doing his best to injure Sneijder in the match’s latter stages.
And then there was Real Madrid. With Inter coach José “The Special One” Mourinho becoming only the third manager to claim Europe’s top prize with two different teams (his first came with Portuguese underdogs FC Porto in ’04) as well as adding the Italian league and cup titles to a cabinet already including English league and cup titles, Mourinho has been talking up his chances of leaving Inter to pursue the only worthwhile club honors still eluding him: Spanish silverware and a Champions League title with an unprecedented third different team. And so, while the basketball world has their eyes transfixed on LeBron and his next move, the futbol world patiently awaits Mourinho’s game-changing switch to Real Madrid to coach the likes of Ronaldo, Kaka, and whomever else money and Mourinho’s clout will soon buy.
Over the past two seasons, Madrid has been stuck chasing their bitter rivals Barcelona team in the Spanish league. In Europe, the difference has been more damning. In the last six seasons, Barca has claimed two Champions League titles and two more semifinal appearances, while Madrid has failed to progress past the round of 16 even once. But all that will change with Mourinho. Here’s four strong reasons why.
1. Ego — Madrid’s lack of patience has made their managerial position the most unenviable, pressure-cooker situation in futbol. But that shouldn’t bother Mourinho and, if it does, we surely wouldn’t know. Sh#t-talker supreme, Mourinho says what’s on his mind and does what he wants, right or wrong. And he even fancies himself God’s gift to management, once telling the English media upon his arrival at Chelsea, “Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one,” hence the nickname. Coupled with his conquering of Barcelona with Inter, this should be enough to intimidate the defending Spanish champions.
2. Smart Spending — Though he has a penchant for buying Portuguese talent that has failed to work out (Tiago, Maniche, Ricardo Quaresma), his eye for African talent has been spot-on. Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o now look like steals and the decision to purchase Michael Essien and not teammate Mahamadou Diarra from Lyon back in ’05 was a masterstroke. In addition, he was famously against Chelsea’s signing of legend-of-the-fall-offs Andriy Shevchenko and plucking Lucio from Bayern Munich last summer was one of the differences in Saturday’s CL final.
3. Cristiano Ronaldo — Both are Portuguese, the best at their respective positions, narcissists, but most importantly, always have a point to prove. A match made in futbol heaven.
4. Lassana Diarra — At each of his most successful stops, Mourinho’s had world-class talent in his coveted “Makélelé” role of midfield destroyer—Costinha at FC Porto, Makélelé himself and Essien at Chelsea, and Cambiasso at Inter. There are few other players who can currently fill the position (Mascherano, Fletcher, Song, Busquets) but the twenty-five-year-old Diarra, who has teetered on world-class level for the past few seasons, looks poised to transcend with Mourinho’s coaching.
5. Defensive Solidity — Surely he’ll teach Sergio Ramos how to defend again.
Our resident soccer fiend Devin has been traveling the past few days, otherwise he’d be doing this writeup. So I’m stepping in to handle the duties even though my knowledge of futbol is next to nil. Still, even I’m aware that the brand’s latest “Write The Future” spot for the World Cup is pretty dope with cameos by Kobe, Homer Simpson, Roger Federer and featuring every big name futbol star I’ve seen mentioned by Brother Chanda and every site commenter (Ronaldo Ronaldinho, Rooney & Drogba; I pay attention hehe). Safe to say the advert just help to revise D’s original list of eight great Nike futbol commercials by adding one more to the list. Read the rest of this entry »
Now you can begin to get those bets in order. Not much else—the 2010 World Cup is still seven months away. But with yesterday’s draw, we now at least have some idea of what matches will be on display. Obviously, the one that jumps out to folks here is US v. England, because it’s still 1812. Anywho, here’s a group-by-group breakdown to give you something to think about until June.
Note for all y’all smart dumb cats: First place in each group advances to the round of 16 where they play the runners-up of the corresponding group (A-B, C-D, E-F, G-H) and vice versa. Read the rest of this entry »
Teams hailing from “The Big Three” leagues are most likely to advance the furthest in the Champions League. However, representatives from the smaller European leagues can’t be denied, especially when you consider the consistent forays of the likes of Portugal’s FC Porto, France’s Lyon, and Holland’s PSV into the latter stages of the Europe’s premier club competition. Here are the clubs likeliest to emulate the aforementioned, taking the top spots in their respective leagues and thus qualifying for the CL in 2010/11, then shaking some shit up once they’re in (hence, no Holland or Russia in this overview).
FRANCE (LIGUE 1)
1. Olympique de Marseille
2008/09 Ligue 1 Finish: 2nd
2009/10 Champions League participants: Yes
Midfield headcase Hatem Ben Arfa will be mad that Bordeaux’s Yoann Gourcuff took his tag of “The Next Zidane,” and should finally get his act together in order to make it to the World Cup next summer for France. Playing alongside newly acquired Argentine Lucho Gonzalez will surely help, as well as the defensive cover provided by Stephane Mbia. Adding Gabriel Heinze and Fernando Morientes now gives Marseille a look that resembles a team that can go top 8 in the CL.
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