Football Fan-atic

Where I'm At

2008-02-14T10:02:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Because some of you have been kind enough to inquire, I wanted to let you all know that I am still blogging the beutiful game. I am now the Fiorentina blogger for a great website called www.theoffside.com. To find me, simply go to the main page. If I have posted recently, there will be a "Fiorentina" box with my thoughts. If I have not posted in a few days, you can find my most recent writings by clicking on the Italy sub-page and then clicking on the link for the club Fiorentina.

As I said in my last post, I enjoyed blogging about the world game a whole, but it was too much for one person to cover. I am having great fun, however, being part of a very big and very skilled team at The Offside, and I am very much enjoying the responsibilities of covering a single team. Of course it helps that I am coving my favorite team in my favorite league.

I may at some point start posting my writings simultanously to The Offise as well as here, just to keep this old page going. But, in the meantime, I strongly encourage you to check out theoffside.com.

A Note to My Readers (All Seven of You)

2007-11-30T16:24:00.000-05:00

If you regularly check this blog, you will have noticed that there hasn’t been much posting going on since November came around. Part of this is due, as I have explained, to the fact that I went to Italy for a good chunk of the month. But since I’ve been back, I’ve hardly blogged, except to detail the Rome riots. That’s because I’ve decided to close down the blog, at least temporarily, and maybe permanently.

I started the footballfan-atic blog on January 1 because I wanted to write about football, and I wanted to write stuff that was published instantly. (I write lots of stuff for magazines that are published four months after I complete them.) On both counts, I had fun writing about the beautiful game.

The point of the blog, or its point of view, perhaps, was that of an American who was a fan of the worldwide game. That was why I tried to talk about the big stories from all over Europe and South America, and also why I published the “games of the weekend” column every Friday: to help an average American like me get more out of the sport and the joy of watching it.

This was fun, but as the summer turned into fall I began to realize more fully the obvious: that the world game was simply too much for one blogger. Hell, some of the great football blogs (like theoffside.com) have dozens of staffers doing the same thing. And as a result, they are doing it much, much better.

This has combined with some changes in my personal life (all good ones, thank goodness) which has made it more difficult to blog regularly. When I started footballfan-atic, I vowed that I would only do it if it was fun. I would not maintain a blog simply for the purpose of “trudging on” or seeing how long I could keep the posts up. Well, because I am questioning the purpose of this, and because of time constraints making it less fun, I am going to stop maintaining the site. For now.

I am going to be effectively taking the rest of the year off from football bloging, and reassess where I am in the New Year. I am strongly considering retooling the site and making it much more specialized, such as being centered on a particular team like Fiorentina or my local team, the New England Revolution. I could also focus more tightly on particular players or even competitions. (I admit I am getting more and more into Series A and Italian football in general.) Or, I may just hang it up. We’ll see what happens in the New Year.

I want to thank all of the readers who checked out what I had to say over the last year, and also thank my buddy Matt for his generous posts on the EPL.

Finally, I do want to let everyone know that just because I am giving up this blog (at least temporarily) does NOT mean I am giving up on football. On the contrary, I am actually more into football than ever. I lead a fairly busy life with work, family, friends, and various writing projects on the side. When I have a moment of free time, I am almost always watching or reading about football, and that is one of the main factors that prevents me from writing about it more often. Right now I don’t feel like I will ever be able to let go of this game.

More Italy Thoughts

2007-11-20T10:46:00.001-05:00

I had a few other bits and pieces left over from Italy before I turn my attention back to other matters, including the Europe qualifiers, Champions League, and some goings-on in England.

Italian skipper Fabio Cannavaro had one of the saddest and most poignant quotes relating to the whole mess in Italy when he said: 'I play at Real Madrid, a club that has a perfect stadium, full of children, without violence. From the outside I realize the awful images Italian football gives itself. We cannot go on like this.' And he’s right: you go to a match in Italy and there are no kids around, because of the potential danger. That is madness. What else do we even have sports for?

Read the full article at http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=481976&cc=5901

Robert Gotta has a great article on the state of Italian football here, from ESPN.com

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=481617&root=europe&cc=5901

CNNSI’s Jonah Freedman reported that Manchester United (Roma’s next opponent in the Champion’s League; who are visiting Rome) has offered a FULL REFUND to any of their fans who bought tickets to the game but are now too frightened to attend. Think about that: is there a sadder referendum on the state of Italian football? Manchester United fans being AFRAID to attend a football match?

Finally, and most furiously, even the exchange rate in Italy is now killing football fans. I always wear football shirts, and look forward to picking up new ones in Italy. I loaded up on a ton of Fiorentina stuff and got a cool SSC Venice shirt, but I paid through the nose. If this keeps up much longer I will have to start wearing MLS stuff – Damn!

Rome Soccer Riots

2007-11-19T16:53:00.000-05:00

I want to thank everyone who has stayed with this blog even through my extended absences. I know it can be tough to stick with these things sometimes, and especially when there are not posts on a regular basis. I do appreciate all the people who read this.

As a few of my friends know, I haven’t been posting to this blog for the last week or so because my wife and I took a brief trip to Italy. We vacation there, of course, because we enjoy it; we enjoy the cities and the art and the museums and the people and the food. It should be said, moreover, that we also enjoy the football. I have said on this blog that I believe Italian football is the best in the world, and in spite of all that has happened this last month, I still believe it.

Anyway, I went to Italy. Readers know that I am a fan of Fiorentina, but my travels were taking me to Rome on the weekend, so I purchased two tickets to the Roma-Cagliari game that was scheduled to take place on November 12. The game was originally scheduled for 2:30 in the afternoon, but it was changed to 8:30 at night. This made me a little nervous, as I am aware of the violence that can happen at an Italian football match, but I still wanted to go. Plus, I had been to Fiorentina games at night and everything had been fine.

We spent the day as many tourists do in the Eternal City: we went and saw the forum and the Coliseum. At night we went back to our hotel room near the Spanish Steps to relax before the game. We watched some TV, and although we do not speak Italian, it was obvious to my wife and I that things had gone very wrong in the Italian football world that day. There was a protest and violence in Milan, and a game had to be stopped at Atalanta because ultras were destroying the stadium. I suspected the Roma game might be canceled, but we were not sure. The hotel concierge did no know anything, so we decided to take a train ride up to Olympic Stadium to check things out. It was a foolish decision to bring my wife, but she knew I really wanted to go to the game and she didn’t want me to go alone. Plus, we hoped everything would be fine. It was, as I said, a foolish mistake.

Of course, I now know things I did not know at the time. On the morning of the game, the Italian police accidentally killed a young man who was traveling on the way to a different football game. The Italian ultras decided that all football matches should be cancelled that day to mark the young man’s death. When a policeman was killed last January in football riots the games were postponed for weeks; now the Ultras saw it as disrespect that the games were still to be played. So they marched in Milan and tore up the stadium in Atalanta. And the Lazio and Roma Ultras decided to team up to wreck havoc in Rome.

We got on a tram around 6:45 to get to the stadium. We turned a corner when we were about a mile from the stadium and witnessed chaos. We saw about 100 young men, almost all disguised (many wrapped their soccer scarves around their face) fight toe-to-toe with around 50-75 uniformed police officers. And all of them were really going at it: clubs flying, punches and kicks being thrown, flares being thrown, all of that kind of stuff. We saw the police batter the ultras and force them into an alley; we saw fans smashing windows and turning over dumpsters. We saw a bus that later, on TV, we would recognize as it burned to the ground.

Remarkably, the tram we were riding on then dropped us off in the middle of this warzone. We had to get in a train that was in the front of the line to get out of there. I was terrified that my wife would be hurt, so we sprinted across the park and boarded a train that, sadly, contained a number of not-so-scared people. They had simply become used to the ridiculous levels of violence and knew that if they kept their heads down and stayed out of the way of the police and the Ultras, they should be okay. They shared none of our fear and outrage.

Twenty minutes later, we were back at the Spanish steps, sitting among children eating ice cream and wondering if we had just imagined the riot scene we had walked through. In our room we watched hours of television coverage of the riots. Eventually the ultras attacked and attempted to destroy a police station, broke into and damaged the headquarters of Italian football, and generally destroyed a bunch of property of innocent people.

My wife and I were unhurt, and spent the rest of our vacation at museums and restaurants and other places where there was no violence.

After last season’s riots, I wrote an impassion plea to clean up Italian football. (See my column from February 4). Now, I don’t know what to say. The chaos, violence and hate I saw at the riot were a symbol of the very deep-seeded and real problems of Italian society. I may love the country, and its people, and its football, but Italy is also a country full of profoundly angry young people. Many have chosen to use football as a means to express that anger, a shame doubly both because of the violence and also because the great sport of football has nothing to do with it.

Last winter I wrote that if Italian football did not clean up its act, it would become a joke. It is now another step closer to becoming that punchline, and it becomes harder and harder for me to defend the game. As a reasonable man, I most certainly can never take my wife to a Series A game ever again. As I reasonably sane man, I wonder how long it is before I cannot even allow myself to go again.

Weekend Matches: Nov 2-3

2007-11-02T12:14:00.000-05:00

Solid weekend of football coming up, with two very obvious highlights. One, of course, is the Manchester United v. Arsenal game being featured bright and early on Saturday morning. Jonah Freedman of SI, in his bi-weekly football power rankings, has them listed as the two best teams in the world. We’ll see. Arsenal is clearly firing on all cylinders.

The other big matchup is Juve v. Inter in Milan on Sunday. I’m rooting for Inter if only because if my Fiorentina wins (who are playing on Saturday night) then they can slide into second place. Regardless, fun stuff coming from England, Spain, and Italy this weekend. Enjoy it.

Saturday

8:30am Arsenal vs Manchester United Setanta Sports

11:00am Newcastle vs Portsmouth FSC

12:30pm Bayern Munich vs Eintracht Frankfurt GolTv

1:00pm Blackburn vs Liverpool FSC

3:30pm Milan vs Torino FSC

5:00pm Sevilla vs Real Madrid GolTv

7:30pm New England Revolution vs New York Red Bulls FSC

10:00pm Lazio vs Fiorentina FSC

Sunday

9:00am Empoli vs Roma FSC

1:00pm Barcelona vs Betis GolTv

2:30pm Juventus vs Inter FSC

Orange Deviousness

2007-10-30T09:50:00.000-05:00

Check out this amusing video from Holland, where a prankster brought a bunch of remote controls into various bars and turned the TV off during critical moments of football matches. The worst nightmare for football fans, but funny, at least.

http://current.com/items/85740121_guy_turns_off_soccer_games_during_exciting_parts

Matt's Premiership Review

2007-10-29T15:24:00.000-05:00

Here is the latest update on all the premiership action from my buddy Matt. Matt looks forward to next weekend's hopefully monumental clash between Manchester United and Arsenal after this past weekend's fun action.

If you've noticed that Matt has been posting almost as much as me recently, well, you've been right. As I've said earlier, I am trying to truck through a busy period at work, and I confess I have also been a bit sidetracked by the Boston Red Sox (the local baseball team, who just won the World Series for the second time in four years). Between the Red Sox and the Patriots (the local American football team, for all of my outside-the-U.S. readers) I've had little time for soccer, but I still managed to cram in this weekend's Fiorentina game as well as most of Roma v. Milan. That actually reminds me of that great line from the "Simpsons" when Homer was reminiscing about his early years of marriage: "In spite of working a full-time job, being a newlywed, and raising a young son, I still managed to pack in six hours of television a day..."(I'm paraphrasing here)

Anyway, I am glad that Matt is reviewing the English league. My beloved Series A was actually quite boring, with low-scoring draws and 1-0 matches as far as the eyes could see. I'll be back more this week as I get back into the football world.

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Wow. What another great weekend in the EPL with games filled with goals galore, and a big game that actually lived up to the hype. Arsenal and Liverpool played an entertaining game where both sided were attacking each other from start to finish, and the 1-1 scoreline doesn’t give justice to what a great game it was. Liverpool took the lead on an early free kick by Steven Gerrard, but eventually Arsenal’s class allowed them to tie it up through Cesc Fabregas, and keep both teams undefeated for the season. The question becomes which team should be happier with the result, and I would have to say, it’s got to be Arsenal. Liverpool dropped another 2 points at home, and they simply can’t afford to do that if they want to challenge for the title. Although both fans and players of Arsenal might feel that they should have won the game, they still can be happy that they remain undefeated and atop of the Premier League. However, they are now tied atop the League with the defending champs, and sets up this week’s clash between them and Man U at the Emirates. I was knocking on Man U at the beginning of the season, but they are on form now. They are scoring goals in buckets full like they did last year, and the Tevez/Rooney partnership is really starting to jell. Rooney did a beautiful back pass to Tevez to set up the third goal of the game in their 4-1 romp over Middlesbrough, and he is starting to show once again why he is seen as England’s savior. I can’t wait for this week’s game between these two powerhouses, but I think Arsenal will hold out for a 3-2 win.

In other games, Avram Grant has done something that the Special One couldn’t seem to do with Chelsea; have them play entertaining football. Chelsea demolished Man City 6-0, and has pundits pondering whether Man City’s early season form was just a flash in the pan. While I don’t think it was anything more than just a bump in the road for Sven’s men, you do have to wonder if Sven is a one trick pony, who can easily be figured out. He didn’t seem to have a plan B for Chelsea after his 4-4-2 formation fell apart, and it was like we were seeing signs of the England team again. One thing for sure is that Chelsea are back, and they aren’t going to give up on the title so easily yet.

Speaking of a one trick pony, those were the words I was using to describe Michael Owen as I yelled at the TV while watching Newcastle’s dismal display against Reading this weekend. They are without a doubt the most Jekyll and Hyde team in the Premier League. You never know which team is going to show up; the one that should be guaranteed a spot in Europe, or the one battling a relegation dog fight. As for Owen, he is good at doing one thing only. Scoring goals when the ball is delivered directly to his foot or head while he is in the box and there is no one around him. If that doesn’t happen, don’t expect him to do much else except get called for being offside. Why Sam insists on placing him above Martins on his striker depth chart is beyond me. I certainly have my fair share of problems with Obafemi, but at least he is out there trying, has pace, and can actually do something with the ball when outside the box. When he has the ball, I at least have some hope that Newcastle might score. I don’t feel the same way about Owen. I pray to God he proves me wrong.

Finally, as many of you know, Martin Jol was finally given the sack this past week. Despite this, Tottemham still found a way to lose and remain in the relegation zone. Somewhere Tony Soprano, I mean Martin Jol is laughing.

Premiership Thoughts

2007-10-26T13:10:00.000-05:00

Apologies to any readers who have noticed I haven't posted all week. To be honest, I've just been crazy-busy at my real-life job as I try to finish some stuff before I take a quick visit over to Europe. And, yes, I will be catching some top-flight football while over on the continent. I will report back in full.

The irony of my week-long layoff is that some great football has been played. On Saturday in Italy Roma and Napoli played to a 4-4 draw that was one of the best matches I've seen in ages. And in Madrid on Wednesday Real Madrid cam back from a 2-1 deficit to win 4-2 in the Champions league. That match might finally be the club-level coming-out party for Robinho, who dominated the game.

In the meantime, my buddy Matt has a little belated but very interesting look at last week's action in the Premiership and in English football. It was a busy week in England (Martin Jol finally left Spurs) but Matt helps us unravel everything, including what could be a very good title race.

----------------------

Although not much has changed among the placement of teams in the standings, things are starting to come cleared as a quarter of the season has come to the end. Manchester United have seemed to found last season’s form with another spectacular victory at Aston Villa by the score of 4-1. Meanwhile, Arsenal continued their winning ways at the top of the league with a 2-0 victory over Bolton. It wasn’t the usual flair of an Arsenal game, but one in which they showed they could get stuck in, and respond to tough tackling by fighting back with similar tactics. But there is no need to worry that they will change their ways and start to play like Chelsea as Tuesday’s Champions League 7-0 victory showed. And what about Theo Walcott? With Van Persie out for 4-6 weeks, he will get his chance to continue to shine and display his blinding pace, that was shown in Arsenal’s last 2 games. Arsenal’s opponents this weekend, Liverpool, got an extremely lucky win this past weekend over Everton to keep them in 4^th place and on pace for a run at the title. I have to laugh at that last statement because I don’t think Liverpool will challenge for the title event though I picked them as my pre-season favorites to do so. The only reason they won last week was because they had the ref in their back pocket, and while they did deserve the 2 penalties they were rewarded, they should have had 2 red cards against themselves for a flying tackle by Kuyt on Phil Neville, and for Jamie Carragher’s take down of Lescott in the box. The later should have given Everton a penalty kick, and a chance to get a point from a draw in this derby. However, it seems that Liverpool’s luck may have run out based on their defeat to Besiktas this past Wednesday in the Champions League. Maybe this loss combined with the subbing of Gerrard in the Everton derby will cause the eventual sacking of Benitez and his stupid rotational policy. Arsenal can help him on his way if they thrash Liverpool at Anfield this weekend like they did last year.

Speaking of sackings, Sammy Lee and now Martin Jol have joined the unemployment line. I’m happy to say that it was Newcastle’s fine display at St. James in their 3-1 victory over Tottenham on Monday that hammered the final nails in the coffin of Mr. Jol. Although it didn’t help that Berbatov started on the bench with a sour look on his face, and couldn’t be bothered to warm up or really participate when he eventually got on the pitch. Maybe it was the Bulgarian’s reaction to his benching that really caused the board at Spurs to get rid of Jol. In any event, it seems the next manager to go in the sacking race is between Billy Davies at Derby, Lawrie Sanchez at Fulham, and Gareth Southgate at Middlesbrough. But I’m sure there are Liverpool supporters out there, that feel as I do, and are hoping that Mr. Benitez soon takes pole position.

Weekend Matches: October 20-21

2007-10-19T12:51:00.000-05:00

Now this is what I’m talking about. A good, solid weekend of football coming up, especially Saturday, which is the kind of day DVR was invented for. Although I am becoming increasingly tired of English football, the Premiership seems to have the best matches of the weekend, including the Liverpool derby and an intriguing Arsenal v. Bolton match. (Villa vs. Man United could be okay as well.) In Spain, Espanyol vs. Real Madrid should be okay, as should Roma vs. Napoli in Italy. Juventus vs. Genoa and Boca Juniors vs. Juan Sebastian Veron’s Estudiantes looks to be the cream of the crop on Sunday. Thank goodness for the return of league football!

Saturday

7:30am Everton vs Liverpool Setanta Sports

9:30am Bochum vs Bayern Munich GolTv

10:00am Arsenal vs Bolton Setanta Sports

10:00am Middlesbrough vs Chelsea FSC

12:00pm Aston Villa vs Manchester United FSC

2:00pm Villarreal vs Barcelona GolTv

2:30pm Reggina vs Inter FSC

4:00pm Espanyol vs Real Madrid GolTv

8:00pm Roma vs Napoli FSC

Sunday

9:00am AC Milan vs Empoli FSC

2:30pm Juventus vs Genoa FSC

3:00pm Atl. Madrid vs Zaragoza GolTv

3:00pm Boca Juniors vs Estudiantes FSC

Now That’s a Free Kick

2007-10-18T08:50:00.000-05:00

Below find a link brought to my attention by the FourFourTwo website, which refered to this as “possibly the greatest free kick of all time.” I don’t know about that...but Jesus. It’s pretty impressive.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=L7P6HQDe-_s

Mid-Week Reading

2007-10-16T08:50:00.000-05:00

I’ve decided to continue my semi-break from the Fan-atic page for a few days longer. One reason is that these Euro qualifiers just don’t interest me at all; I CAN”T WAIT to get back to league football this weekend. Also, frankly, I am little busy in my “real life” job (I am a writer and editor in that life as well, but in that life I get paid to do stuff, so that comes first) so I’ve put football writing on the back-burner until I watch some meaningful games this weekend.

I did, however, want to draw your attention to two very fine articles on ESPN.com. The first is Roberto Gotta’s analysis of the Italian National Team head coaching job, and more specifically, an examination of the culture of Italian football and how difficult it is to make a success of oneself there. If you are like me (Series A is probably my favorite league at this point) this is a solid read.

The second article is a piece by the much-linked-to Phil Ball, who writes about his son’s U-12 league and uses this to explain the Spanish National Team. I stand by my often-made claim that Ball is one of the best writers in the business.

One final point: one of my good friends have suggested that I link to ESPN too much, and probably at the expense of other really good stuff out there. Perhaps he is right; it is true that I don’t often link to sites that I actually like very much, including sites based in England and Italy. I don’t link to ESPN as much as I do because I have the typical American worship of all things ESPN (in fact, I hardly watch the channel excepting Champions League matches) but because they are able to recruit and keep an extraordinary group of international writers. Their coverage of Spain and Italy, most obviously, is quite good, especially as we are an English speaking readership. Their English League coverage is weaker (I tend to go to the English newspapers for that) and, strangely enough, I thing CNNSI.com’s coverage of U.S. soccer knocks ESPN’s out of the park.

Anyway, I link to ESPN’s stuff often because I think it is good. You be the judge:

Phil Ball:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=472599&root=euro2008&cc=5901&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos3

Roberto Gotta:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=472655&root=euro2008&cc=5901&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos2

Weekend Matches, October 13-14

2007-10-12T12:22:00.000-05:00

Since the beginning of the year, I have produced, every Friday, a list of matches that are to be televised that weekend in the United States that I recommend to my readers. I did it even in the dregs of July when there was little, if anything, going on. In the interest of keeping the streak alive I offer you a meager selection of one game, in the MLS, between two very poor teams. David Beckham will not play.

This, in my opinion, is the best of the bunch. All else that’s televised this weekend are ridiculous Euro qualifying matches between mismatched teams. If there has ever been a weekend to spend time with your family, go for a long walk, clean out the garage, or yes, even play a little impromptu football, this is it. See you next week.

Saturday

10:30pm LA Galaxy vs Toronto FSC

That makes two of us...

2007-10-12T07:50:00.000-05:00

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=471884&cc=5901

Quick News Updates

2007-10-11T10:44:00.001-05:00

Just a few quick things today, as I continue to be a bit busy with that pesky “real life” that gets in the way of my football watchin’:

Check out this story by the always-good Grant Whal on Michael Bradley, son of the U.S. National Team head coach. Interesting stuff not just about Michael but about how an American makes it overseas in the football world:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/grant_wahl/10/09/michael.bradley/index.html

See any of the major soccer websites for updates on Euro 2008 qualification, and especially for news on England. Stories this week include John Terry’s various injuries, the English striker situation, and whether the perennially-hurt Michael Owen should play. Wake me in June when the Euros start, please.
Finally, it looks like my man Neil Warnock has taken the QPR job. Good luck, Neil. They’re in 19^th place right now. Of course, if your team collapses down the stretch like it did last season, you can always blame Carlos Tevez again…

Early Week Thoughts

2007-10-09T11:23:00.000-05:00

This is my first post of the week largely because we have celebrated a holiday here in the United States this weekend called ‘Columbus Day,’ in honor of the man who discovered a continent already occupied by millions of people. Next week I might fly to Tokyo and discover Asia. But I digress. My apologies on the lateness of this post.

Also accept my apologies on the thinness of today’s content and the presumed short posts that are likely to come this week. It just looks like one of those weeks where the real-life work is going to get in the way of the fun footballfan-atic work.

Drab weekend coming up, too, with the European qualifiers. Prepare yourself for endless stories on who will start for England and whether they will make Euro 2008. God, I hope they win both games just so we can be subject to less of this in the future. If I read one more “referendum” article on Steve McLaren, I am going to fly over there and fire him myself.

Since the posts will be thin this week, I encourage all of you to check out the ESPN soccernet podcast that is done each and every week on Mondays and Thursdays. It is available for free on itunes, at least to people in the U.S. (I don’t know about the rest of the world.) I’ve listened to a bunch of podcasts and I find this one to be pretty consistently the best. The Monday show is always a good wrap-up of the week, and the Thursday episode is a good preview of upcoming action. The show is a little heavy on the premiership, but it is still a fairly balanced roundup of what is going on in the football world. The guys on the show are also pretty unbiased, aside from their universal, unrelenting disgust for all things Andrei Shevchenko. Fair play to them, then.

Weekend Matches: October 6-7

2007-10-05T10:39:00.000-05:00

As I said in an earlier post, it is a fairly weird weekend for football. There are almost no English games on Saturday, and a bunch are either not being televised at all or being shown scandalously late. Sad. I am excited to see my favorite English club, Sheffield United, play in a rarely-televised Championship match, but most of the good stuff seems (again) to be coming out of Italy. AC Milan vs. Lazio could be interesting, and the pick of the litter is probably Juventus vs. my Fiorentina. I do believe Fiorentina can nick at least a point here; they advanced in the UEFA cup yesterday and are looking good.

Saturday

7:30am Manchester United vs Wigan Setanta Sports

12:00pm Bristol City vs Sheffield Utd Setanta Sports

2:30pm Inter vs Napoli FSC

Sunday

6:00am Arsenal vs Sunderland Setanta Sports

10:00am Bolton vs Chelsea Setanta Sports

10:00am Liverpool vs Tottenham FSC

12:00pm Fiorentina vs Juventus FSC

3:00pm Lazio vs AC Milan FSC

10:00pm Barcelona vs Atl. Madrid GolTv

When Saturday Comes...No Football?

2007-10-04T09:13:00.000-05:00

The web page of FourFourTwo has a brief but interesting article on why they are only playing one game in the English Premier League at the traditional kick-off time of 3PM on Saturday. It seems to be the result of a combination of TV, UEFA Cup Matches, and travel difficulties. Whatever. This weekend the Premier League is all screwed up, and its going to be tough for viewers (especially in the US) to catch many of the games. Football purists have been going on for a while now about how football has become more and more of a business; this has both good and bad aspects to it, but it is hard to argue with the fact that tradition (the Saturday game) was probably best in this particular case.

http://www.fourfourtwo.premiumtv.co.uk/page/PlanetFootballTop/0,,11442~1127092,00.html

Manchester United News

2007-10-03T10:25:00.000-05:00

Today the red half of Manchester is on the mind, seeing how the Devils played an excruciating Champion’s League match last night. I watched it on ESPN, but my wife (an indifferent fan of football at best) summed up the match better than I ever could by falling asleep at halftime. A fairly lucky Rooney blast was the difference (coming only moments after a gorgeous Christiano Ronaldo backheel goal that was ruled offside) and of course they will gladly take the three points. But is Manchester turning into Chelsea? Ugh.

More bad news for Manchester yesterday included the report that Owen Hargreaves will be out for at least another month as his knee continues to trouble him. (Obviously making him unavailable for England as well.) Hargreaves Owen-like ability to stay healthy might make United rue the day they purchased him; especially with Nani, Anderson, and even Carlos Tevez providing indifferent results after a very expensive off-season.

LA Galaxy Playoff Bound?

2007-10-02T13:09:00.000-05:00

Here is an interesting, but weird, column by SI soccer writer Greg Lalas, brother of LA Galaxy President (and former US national team standout) Alexi Lalas. Greg essentially argues that the Galaxy need to step it up next year when Beckham is back, and not just when he is hurt and out of the country, or LA and the MLS in general will never be taken seriously on the world stage. The article then gets a little weird, and at one point he suggests his brother “choked” along with the rest of the team, but does not elaborate. The piece does make a couple of interesting points, but ultimately Greg seems to be trying a little too hard to be critical of his brother.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/greg_lalas/10/02/galaxy.dp/index.html

Premiership Week in Review

2007-10-02T10:26:00.000-05:00

Below find my buddy Matt's review of the weekend in the Premiership. In this week's edition, Matt looks at the English keeper situation, why Spurs shouldn't get too excited about yesterday's win, and why Stevie G is a good guy. Good analysis here...

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This week’s update is a day late due to the additional game between Spurs and Aston Villa being played on Monday night, and it is with that game where we begin. This game was to celebrate the 125 year anniversary of Tottenham Hotspur, and they had all their legends on the field before the match began. Berbatov gave Spurs the lead, before the horror show began with lead actor, Paul Robinson, and his supporting cast of the shambolic defense. It all started with Robinson dropping a ball that was in his hands which lead to the first Villa goal. By the 60th minute of the game, he had let in 3 more and the Spurs were down 4-1 as crowds of fans exited from White Hart Lane. There has to be someone in England who could actually be a good goalie for the national team. Since the “big four” have foreign keepers, and Tottenham are usually just outside looking in, Robinson seems to get his caps by default. Why doesn’t McClaren look to the Championship or the lower leagues for a keeper if he can’t find a reliable one in the Premiership?? Peter Shilton was one of England’s greatest keepers, and he wasn’t playing for any big clubs. Of course some would say that Scott Carson should be given the chance, but then he let in 3 goals in the last 30 minutes for Tottenham to salvage a draw. Now not all the blame could be placed on him, as one of the goals came off of a penalty thanks to the sheer stupidity of Marlon Harewood, and Villa fans must be in shock at how they blew 2 points in a game they were winning comfortably. Tottenham’s late equalizing strike as time was expiring led to all the players surrounding and hugging Martin Jol as if they just won the Premiership. And while it was impressive to come back from 3 goals down in under 30 minutes, all they got was a point, at home, on their special anniversary to keep them in 18th place!! Somehow I don’t think staying in the relegation zone is going to keep Jol’s job no matter what show of solidarity the players show him on the pitch.

Moving on from the bottom of the table to the top, all 4 top teams remained in the same position as last weekend as each won their respective games. 1-0 to the Arsenal was a common saying of the Gunners of the 80s and early 90s, and so that sentiment was echoed this weekend with their 1-0 victory over West Ham, a team they couldn’t beat last season. It must be said that while the score line echoes the past, the style of play is completely different with the current team showing why they call it the beautiful game.

The same can’t be said of Manchester United’s 1-0 victory over Birmingham. The Blues dominated the game putting more shots on goal than the Red Devils, but it was a lapse in Birmingham’s defense in the second half that allowed Ronaldo to knick a goal. Man U still haven’t displayed the goal scoring form of last season, and hopefully tonight’s game with Roma in the Champions League will bring back the goals from last year’s 7-1 demolishing of the Italian club, but Man U continue to do what Champions are required to do which is finding a way to win no matter your form. They went to a hostile environment in Birmingham and got 3 points, while the week previous Liverpool hosted Birmingham, couldn’t score a goal, and dropped 2 points in a 0-0 draw. Once again, I hope Liverpool are paying attention because this is what they have to do if they ever want to capture their first Premiership crown.

Speaking of Liverpool, they held onto their 4th spot in the table with a blah 1-0 victory over Wigan, but that’s what they need to do. See above. Which leaves the 3rd place team, Man City, staying put thanks to a 3-1 win over my unfortunate Newcastle United. It was a bad week for the Magpies, with Owen getting hurt (again), getting knocked out of the Carling Cup by Arsenal (are we ever going to win a trophy?), and then leading by a goal at Manchester before letting it slip away. I have recently been reading the season preview from When Saturday Comes, and each team is compared to a type of food. Newcastle is like a 2 day old glazed donuts at Dunkin Donuts; they have the glaze of the all their star players, but the’re always on the (injury) shelf and there is a big whole in the middle. I sure hope Joey Barton comes back soon, as they need some creativity in the midfield, but if he doesn’t get injured as soon as he comes back, he will probably instead get arrested for attacking one of his teammates.

Then there was the goal fest between Portsmouth and Reading, with Pompey winning 7-4, and in the process setting a Premiership record for most goals scored in a game. It could have been more, as David James saved a penalty shot from Nicky Shorey, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he still gave up 4 goals, I would be pushing for him to reclaim his England slot. It should be noted that Pompey, Reading, Spurs, and Villa each scored more goals then the combined goals scored by the “big 4” (4-3 thanks to Chelsea failing to score again). What does this mean? Absolutely nothing, except that the Premiership is certainly been entertaining so far this season. Let’s hope it keeps up.

One last note: Apparently Steven Gerrard was involved in a car accident in which he hit a 10 year old boy causing him to break his leg. Cue the stories of millionaire player carelessly and recklessly driving his Bentley and hitting small children, but nothing can be further from the truth. While he was driving his Bentley, he wasn’t speeding when the boy ran out between 2 cars causing the accident. He immediately exited his car, knelt down and held the boy’s hand comforting him until the paramedics arrived, and was extremely distraught according to witnesses at the scene. He also has been in constant contact with the boy’s family to check up on his condition and how he is doing. It is nice to see for once a star athlete doing the right thing, and just goes to show that not all footballers (soccer players) are like those portrayed on Dream Team and Footballers’ Wives.

Champions League: Tuesday and Wednesday

2007-10-02T09:28:00.000-05:00

Here is the US Television line-up for the next two days in the Champions League. Lots of good games here (especially Man United v. Roma and Real v. Lazio), but I do wish the big American channels (especially ESPN) would show more than just the English teams and Real Madrid and Barca. I’m a big Madrid fan, but we see those teams all the time, and the Champions league is a good chance to see good, but different, teams. At least Setanta is showing the Portuguese teams.

Anyway, also keep an eye on the Liverpool v. Marseille game, if for no other reason than to ensure that Steven Gerrard doesn’t hit any kids with his car on the drive to the stadium.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=468744&cc=5901

(As Triumph the Insult Comic Dog says: “I Keed, I keed.”)

Tuesday

2:30pm Manchester vs AS Roma ESPN2

2:30pm Steau Bukarest vs Arsenal Setanta Sports

5:00pm Stuttgart vs Barcelona Setanta Sports, ESPNCC

6:45pm Dynamo Kyiv vs Sporting Setanta Sports

Wednesday

2:30pm Liverpool vs Olympique Marseille ESPN2

2:30pm Valencia vs Chelsea Setanta Sports

5:00pm Lazio vs Real Madrid Setanta Sports, ESPNCC

6:45pm Besiktas vs Porto Setanta Sports

Who’s the Best?

2007-10-01T11:44:00.000-05:00

Below find a link to (big surprise) Phil Ball’s latest Spanish roundup. Good stuff in there, but also interesting because Phil looks at the ever-changing question of whom is the best in the world. Ball suggests that it might be Barca’s Leo Messi, who has certainly played like it lately.

What we all know for sure, however, is that the title of anointed one changes all the time. Kaka will probably win this year’s player-of-the-year awards, and he is, without question, a deserving candidate. He was also named the best player in the world by FourFourTwo magazine. Christiano Ronaldo, however, was “the best player in the world” last spring, and Ronaldiho was “the guy” just a little over a year ago. Last year also, don’t forget, Fabio Cannavero was world player of the year. This year’s European season is only a few weeks old but it already looks like Leo Messi and Cesc Fabregas must now be considered in any argument about the best players in the world.

In other words, the game right now lacks a truly clear-cut number one. Which is probably good for the game, and good for debate.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=468523&root=europe&cc=5901&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos1

Did Someone Just Play a World Cup?

2007-09-30T22:45:00.000-05:00

Below find a game report of the 2-0 victory today by the German Woman’s National Team over Brazil in the final of the Women’s World Cup. This was a strangely underreported tournament that really went underground in this country after the US Women were eliminated. Tonight, for instance, the game was only reported on the ‘Fox Soccer Report’ (a soccer news show broadcast every night at ten on FSC) at the twenty minute mark, after the scores of the Everton-Middlesboro were reported, along with a bunch of other meaningless games. Keep in mind that this was World Cup Final. If women’s football can’t make the top story on a soccer newscast on this day, than the sport is in trouble. As I said in an earlier post, if I were a betting man, I wouldn’t put a lot of money down on the Women’s Football League opening next year to be open for very long.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/soccer/09/30/worldcup.final.ap/index.html

Weekend Matches: September 29-30

2007-09-28T11:52:00.000-05:00

It's football dawn-to-dusk this weekend with good matches being played out all over Europe and even in the MLS. I have been particularly drawn to Series A all season, as some of the best games this year have come from Italy. This week we have a Turin derby as well as Milan and Fiorentina playing in separate, interesting matches. The match of the weekend, however, will hopefully be Roma-Inter, as Inter is getting back on form and Roma sees if they can recover from the draw put on them by my boys from Florence on Wednesday. Hope you enjoy it!

Saturday

7:30am Manchester City vs Newcastle Utd Setanta Sports

10:00am, Bayer Leverkusen vs Bayern Munich GolTv

10:00am Chelsea vs Fulham FSC

12:00pm Birmingham vs Manchester United FSC

1:00pm Roma vs Inter FSC

4:30pm Livorno vs Fiorentina FSC

7:30pm New York vs Salt Lake FSC

Sunday

9:00am AC Milan vs Catania FSC

1:00pm Getafe vs Real Madrid GolTv

2:30pm Torino vs Juventus FSC

More US Women Fallout

2007-09-27T12:28:00.000-05:00

Yikes. Check out this video of US Women's National Team starting goalkeeper Hope Solo (no relation to Han) ripping her coach and her teammate for being benched in favor of backup Briana Scurry. Not that she's wrong (Scurry was apparently terrible) but its rare to hear an athlete go off like this on a coach and teammate. Good times are apparently NOT being had by all.

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3039111&categoryId=2378529

US Women Lose in World Cup

2007-09-27T10:30:00.000-05:00

Today the United States Women lost in their semi-final World Cup match to Brazil. Apparently they were destroyed to the tune of 4-0. You can read about it here:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/soccer/09/27/us.brazil.ap/index.html

It will be interesting to watch how this plays out for women’s football here in the States. Organizers were hoping to build on a US victory in the World Cup, as well as a possible victory in next year’s Olympics, to start another professional women’s football league here in the US. As many readers remember, there was a women’s league in the States in the 1990s and 2000s, but it eventually closed down shop due to very poor attendance. Bearing in mind that that league was built on the American team that won two World Cups and the celebrity of all-time great Mia Hamm, it is hard to see how this league will compare. They have no momentum coming from a World Cup that few paid attention to, and did not even make the finals. Perhaps they will do better at the Olympics. But the league will have no stars the caliber of Hamm or Julie Foudy, and no base of potential fans as they did after the 1999 World Cup held here in the states. I hope women’s football succeeds in the US, but this performance at the World Cup did not help matters.

Programming Note

2007-09-26T10:20:00.000-05:00

Today there is a great game being broadcast on FSC at 2:30 EST. It is a Series A matchup between Roma and Fiorentina (probably my favorite team). It should be great.

Roma, of course, has pretty much been the best team in Italy this year. Even without striker Francisco Totti (who is out with a thigh strain today) they are still a formidable team. But keep your eye on Fiorentina. With young guns Sebastian Frey, Dario Dainelli, Fabio Liverani, Riccardo Montolivo, Martin Jorgensen, Adrian Mutu, and especially Giampaolo Pazzini, and along with grizzled vet Christian Vieri, they are one to watch for the future. They should be right in the thick of title races for the ext few seasons. But frankly, with a few breaks, they could be right in the middle of it THIS season. Look for them to put up a game fight at home in Florence today.

Rumors: Spain and England

2007-09-25T13:51:00.000-05:00

As readers know, I provide a link to Phil Ball’s column nearly every week, because he is both very good and also because he provides a very useful window into la Liga, a great football league that tends to get overlooked here in the States because of the focus on the Premier League.

Two or three times a year, however, Ball’s columns are transcendent, and move from being “really good” to “almost beautiful.” This week’s column is an example of the later. Not only is it a summary of the weekend that was in Spain, but it is also a charming meditation of how football is integrated into everyone’s life in that nation; how they live and breath football just as they do their food, friends, and family. It’s a must-read.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=466209&root=europe&cc=5901&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1

On a more pedestrian note, Ball thinks that Ronaldinho is gone after the telling events of this week. (Reports are that the smiling Brazilian was clubbing and boozing 48 hours before his latest game.) Ball thinks Barca was the source that ratted Ronnie out to the press, a sign that he will be sold either during the winter or next summer. Interesting. Ball certainly knows what he’s talking about, but we will see what become of Ronnie’s performance over the next few weeks.

In England, rumors are circulating as well; this one has it that Martin Jol has already been fired from Spurs. Spurs and Jol are denying, but separation can’t be far off if the draws and losses mount.

One hope by Spurs fans does need to be quashed: they won’t get Mourinho. Apparently there is a clause in Jose’s contract that states he can’t be hired by an English club for a specified period of time. I don’t know if that’s true, but it makes sense. Would Ramos from Sevilla come over to coach Spurs? Probably not mid-season. The question remains, then, of who would guide Tottenham to their traditional 5-th place finish. Although the way this season is going, it might be a more un-traditional 18^th place finish…

Premiership Review

2007-09-24T09:41:00.000-05:00

After a very exciting weekend of games, we have my friend Matt's typically excellent summary of weekend action in the Premiership. See below for his thoughts on who already has the league wrapped up in a bow and also what Sammy Lee can do for work after he gets the sack.

Readers of the blog will know I am not as careful a follower of the EPL as Matt; I try to distribute my game watchin' between England, Italy and Spain. I did watch a bunch of Premiership games this weekend, however, and I must say I was entertained by a number of them. Three games in particular were wildly different in style, but I found all three to be great:

1). Fulham v. Man City: Any 3-3 draw with that much back-and-forth action is going to be fun to watch. Lots of entertaining players on display as well, including Dempsey, Richards and David Healy. Conventionally, the "best " game of the weekend.

2). Arsenal v. Derby: By any conventional measurement, conversely, a 5-0 drubbing would be a bore, but I have found Arsenal riveting in recent weeks. They play gorgeous football with gorgeous passing. The beautiful game, anyone?

3). Man United v. Chelsea: Essentially a 1-0 game with a lousy penalty scored at the end, the supposed highlight game of the weekend seems to have been a dud. But in fact I enjoyed the game immensely; not for the goal chances created but for the skill on display at virtually every position for both teams on the field. The television announcers correctly noted that it took players some time to sub-in to the games; that is essentially because the ball never went out of bounds. Also, Avarm Grant kind of scares me.

Don't think I'm going soft on the Premiership, however. The best game in Europe this weekend was still probably the Juve-Roma thriller which ended in a 2-2 draw. But that is digression; I do hope you enjoy Matt's excellent Premiership review.

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Before I begin this week's review, I wanted to inform the readers why I talk about certain teams. For starters, I'm a Newcastle fan, so despite who they play I will watch the game, and despite how bad of a result, I will usually have something to say on the matter. I then follow other teams that either have a player I like to watch and follow, like Clint Dempsey at Fulham and David Bentley at Blackburn, or who not only have a player I like, but also have a history I'm fascinated with (Steven Gerrard and Liverpool) or love their style of play (Fabregas and Van Persie and the lovely football of Arsenal). Besides that I tend to watch and comment on the big games of the weekend, which usually feature the big 4 or teams that believe they should be in the big 4. So you most likely won't see me writing about the likes of Wigan, Derby, Reading, Bolton, Portsmouth, or Birmingham unless they involve the teams above. With that in mind, here is my weekend review.

I start with the best team right now in the Premier League, who also have the current best player in the League: Arsenal and Cesc Fabregas. I know it is still early in the year, but both are my current choice for champions of the league and player of the year. While the chances of Arsenal winning the Premier League will be discussed further in a little bit, I wanted to begin discussing the amazing talent of one Mr.

Fabregas. In a word WOW!!! This 20 year old is simple amazing, and is quickly making Arsenal fans forget about the departure of Thierry Henry. Now some may say I'm a bit biased based on my previously mentioned feelings on the player, but it can't be debated how well his form has been lately. This is a player that his manager, Arsene Wenger, this week compared to the great Michel Platini, which is quiet a complement, and hopefully that rings true for both fans of Arsenal and Spain. The past couple of years, Fabregas has reminded me of Cristiano Ronaldo, prior to Ronaldo's season last year and minus the latter’s penchant for diving. Fabregas has always had pin point passing, but the thing that was missing was his finishing, much like Ronaldo prior to last season.

However this has clearly been cured with Cesc seeming to score in every game he plays, and usually with some amazing shots. He was at it again this weekend, when Arsenal demolished Derby 5-0 (that's what you get Derby when you beat my beloved Newcastle). While Adebayor led the way with a hat trick, and Diaby had a beautiful goal to get the route started, it was once again Fabregas tearing apart the Derby defense with his pin point killer passing from midfield. Arsenal looked like champions, and did so while playing entertaining football. Also the continued success of Gael Clichy at left back has made Arsenal fans forget about Cashley Cole. The only thing I see stopping Arsenal to the title is some shady defense by Phillipe Senderos and not so strong goal keeping by Manuel Almunia, but that should be taken care of when William Gallas returns from injury and Jens Lehmann get his game back on if not from the January transfer window (maybe they will get out of favor goal keeper Shay Given from Newcastle).

Now I know that before the season began I predicted Liverpool to win the league, but at that time I thought Rafa Benitez had decided to given up on his rotational system and focus on winning the league title. I couldn't have been more wrong. Picking up a topic from last week, Liverpool dropped two points again, this time at home to lowly Birmingham.

BIRMINGHAM!!! AT ANFIELD!!! Not only did they drop two points, they couldn't even score a goal in a very poor and boring 0-0 score line. How could this be?? Well look no further than the gaffer, who decided to start Kuyt with Voronin, while leaving the 27 million pound summer transfer hit-man Fernando Torres on the bench. Didn't Benitez learn anything from last week's nil nil result at Pompey, when the star striker started the game on the bench there as well. Why spend all that money on a striker if you aren't going to start him? You can't tell me that his was resting him for the "big" league cup draw this week with Reading. As I mentioned last week, it doesn't appear that Rafa is focusing on winning the title, and I don't think it will be long before the Kop end start chanting that he be sacked. Furthermore, if his plan was to get the ball into the box by playing wide, why did he wait till the 80 minute before putting Peter Crouch in who would be his best target man?? What is this gaffer thinking?

One further note from the game is that Steven Gerrard was given man of the match. For what??? I love Gerrard, he is one of my favorite players, and god knows he tries hard and wanted to win the match badly, but he played poorly. There simply didn't deserve to be a man of the match in this lackluster display by Liverpool.

Then after these 2 games, I checked on the best American playing soccer right now. Mr. Clint Dempsey.

Unfortunately the team he plays for isn't that good, but they never give up and keep on fighting. The Fulham v. Man City match was probably the best of the weekend as Fulham came back from a goal down to earn a point in an exciting 3-3 draw keeping them just above the relegation zone. Although Clint couldn't score a goal in his 4th straight game, it was interesting to see him and Micah Richards go head to head (literally) in a heated dispute. I wonder what they said to each other, but I'm sure they weren't congratulating each other on their recent form.

In other notable games, Middlesbrough and Sunderland drew 2-2 in their northeastern derby, but we all know that the real team from far up north is the Toon Army.After a disastrous display this past Monday when they lost to the worst team in the league, Newcastle bounced back with a 3-1 win at home over West Ham. Mark Viduka decided he wanted to play, and scored 2 goals, Martins , who started on the bench in favor of Michael Owen missed an open net, and speaking of Mr.Owen, he got hurt. AGAIN! Big surprise. The Jekyll and Hyde team of the premier League currently sit in 5th place. Also it the battle of which gaffer will get the sack next, Sammy Lee's Bolton came back to draw 1-1 with Martin Jol's Tottenham to keep both teams in the relegation zone. How about both teams sack them both tomorrow, the Spurs can hire Mourinho (although I doubt he would go there), Jol can go to Bolton, and Sammy Lee can be Gary Busey's stunt double in his next straight to video film.

Speaking of the Special One, I am sad to see him go. Believe me, I won't be missing his boring style of play while in charge of Chelsea, but I will miss his quotes and his attacks on Ferguson, Wenger, and Benitez. It seems that the Big 4 have just dropped to the big 3 with his departure. Which leads me to the so called "game of the weekend". I must say last week I wasn't looking forward to this match as I figured that with Chelsea's style of play and the poor start from Man U we would be looking at a dull 0-0 game. However with Mourinho leaving Chelsea, I was curios to see how they would react at Old Trafford and the game wasn't all that bad. Ok it wasn't great, but at least there was some attacking from Chelsea until Mikel Jon Obi (whose first and last names have switched over the past couple of weeks) was unjustifiably dismissed with a Red card. Carlos Tevez scored his first goal as a Red Devil, and someone in the stands shot Louis Saha while he was in the penalty box, allowing him to make 2-0 from the spot and secure Man United 3 points. Although the win puts Man U in second place, they still don't look all that good to me. As for Chelsea, it looks like they might not get a Champions league spot this year, but both teams have a plethora of good players that I can count either one out at this time. You never know what will happen when Saturday comes.

Weekend Matches: September 22-23

2007-09-21T09:40:00.000-05:00

We have a loaded weekend of very good football coming up, with some great head-to-head matches to enjoy. First, I am very lad to see that GolTV apparently has settled their issues with Spanish television, so they are now once again allowed to show Barcelona and Real Madrid games. I’ll believe it when I see the games this weekend, but I’m very excited. The Barca-Sevilla game should be very exciting, in spite of Sevilla getting spanked by Arsenal this week. In Italy Roma v. Juve is surely the pick of the litter, but football fan-atics everywhere will have their eyes on Old Trafford on Sunday. The Manchester United — Chelsea clash has always been a big game, but most fans will want to see how the blues do without Mourinho at the helm. I know I’ll be watching. Finally, you will note that I even have a game listed from the Women’s World Cup, the Saturday morning match between USA and England. How progressive!

Saturday

7:55am USA vs England ESPN2

10:00am Arsenal vs Derby County FSC

12:00pm Fulham vs Manchester City FSC

2:30pm AC Milan vs Parma FSC

4:00pm Barcelona vs Sevilla GolTv

Sunday

8:30am Newcastle Utd vs West Ham Setanta Sports

9:00am Roma vs Juventus FSC

11:00am Karlsruhe vs Bayern Munich GolTv

11:00am Manchester United vs Chelsea FSC

3:00pm Valladolid vs Real Madrid GolTv

Champions League Overshadowed

2007-09-20T11:38:00.000-05:00

Today’s post was supposed to be a brief recap of the action in Matchday One of the Champions League. And it certainly wasn’t a bad two days. We saw Arsenal absolutely dominate a very good Seville team, (the gooners might now very well be favorites for the cup, as well as other trophies) Thierry Henry score his first for Barca, Manchester United squeak by Sporting in a snoozer, and we watched Real Madrid do what it has done for the past eight months: turn on the jets in the second half and outlast the competition.

All of this has been overshadowed, however, by the most shocking result so far: Chelsea drawing with lowly Rosenborg at home in front of a half-empty stadium that had seemingly become bored by their home team. Or, to be more specific, the Champions League was overshadowed by what seems to be the direct result of that match. Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has resigned.

Although there have been rumors circulating about Mourinho leaving Chelsea for quite some time now, the particular timing of the resignation could not be more shocking. Yes, it’s true that Chelsea have not been getting the results they wanted in the Premiership, and the draw in Europe was a bad omen, as was the sparse attendance. But with key players injured and Manchester United hosting on Sunday, this was the worst time for Mourinho to walk away (or be pushed away; details of what exactly happened will surely become clearer in a few days). Avram Grant has taken over the club for now; he has a “good guy, good coach” reputation but we don’t know much about him.

So this could be, at the very least, a short-term problem for Chelsea. They are already a little behind in the standings and missing key players Drogba and Fat Frank. Dropping three points at Old Trafford on Sunday could drive them out of the top four for the first time in recent memory.

That situation will bear watching, as will considerations about Mourinho’s time in London as a whole. I, for one, have mixed feelings abut the man the press insists on referring to either as “The Special One” or, perhaps even more stupidly, as “The Portuguese,” as if the newsmen from The Sun had never met someone from Portugal before. On one hand, I sort of liked Mourinho personally (not that I knew him, but from afar); he was smart, funny, and spoke his mind. He also obviously won, which is kind of the point of football in the first place.

But Mourinho was also increasingly making me despair. His version of football was getting grimmer and grimmer, as his team ground out one 1-0 win after another. It got to the point for me personally that I couldn’t stand watching Chelsea; I really can’t tell you the last time I watched an entire Chelsea match. Reportedly, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich first wanted to buy a football team after watching the now-legendary Real Madrid-Manchester United Champions League match in 2003 in which David Beckham came off the bench to score two goals, a game so good that Beckham ran into the locker to get an extra jersey so he could swap shirts with more than one player. Obviously, Abramovich loves attacking football, and he wasn’t getting it with Chelsea. Mourinho, for his part, was clearly getting players he didn’t want (like Andy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack) and felt he was getting undercut by front-office men brought in by Abramovich.

So the Mourinho era is over at Stamford Bridge. For all the boring games, I will miss Jose. As he once said, however, he will simply take some time off, watch professional wrestling with his son (Jose is a huge fan of the WWE, bizarrely) and then get another million-dollar contract to coach another team. Chelsea, on the other hand, must now see if they can continue the winning tradition they only so recently started.

Champions!

2007-09-18T10:21:00.000-05:00

As all the readers of this page presumably know, the Champions league begins today and continues tomorrow. Below please find a guide to all of the Champions League games that will be televised in English in the United States. I eliminated Spanish-speaking television because, obviously, this website is in English and thus, presumably, all of my readers speak English. ESPN Deportes, however, (the Spanish-language ESPN channel) has some great games.

So, ESPN2 shows one game each day at 2:30, live. Setanta Sports also shows a live game at 2:30 and other games on tape later in the day. ESPN Classic usually shows a game on tape at 5:00, but is doing so only on Wednesday this week. (I will get to that in a moment.) The website UEFA.com shows pay-per-view games on its website as they are being played. I have never done that, so I can’t vouch for quality.

I am very much looking forward to seeing Real Madrid (since it is the first chance I’ve had to see them) against a good opponent in Weder Breman. Barca-Lyon should be good, and most people see Arsenal v. Sevilla as the pick of the litter. It should be, on the whole, a very good slate of games.

Finally, you will note that ESPN is only showing one game and not two today. Why? Because they are showing a Woman’s World Cup game instead. This leads to a question sent to me by a reader who asked about my thoughts on the Cup. My answer, unfortunately, is that I don’t have any. I’m not watching. I have too much football on my plate, and I just don’t care enough about woman’s football. I wish my country well, and will (maybe) watch the Cup Final, but to be honest I would rather watch the Champions League. Unfortunately I have to watch one less game of it than I wanted.

More coming later!

Tuesday

2:30pm Chelsea vs Rosenborg Setanta Sports

2:30pm FC Porto vs Liverpool ESPN2

10:00pm Real Madrid vs Werder Bremen Setanta Sports

Wednesday

2:30pm Arsenal vs Sevilla Setanta Sports

2:30pm Sporting CP vs Manchester United ESPN2

5:00pm Barcelona vs Lyon ESPN Classic

8:00pm Barcelona vs Lyon Setanta Sports

10:00pm Fenerbahce vs Inter Setanta Sports

News from the Front: Spain

2007-09-17T14:25:00.000-05:00

Last season I almost always linked to the columns of Phil Ball, a writer for ESPN.com as well as a gifted chronicler of the history of Spanish Football. His weekly review of the action in Spain was always essential reading because he is the most literary football writer I have found on the Internet.

This season, however, Ball's work is more necessary than ever to American readers, as Real Madrid and Barcelona games are STILL not being shown on GolTV. Even though I am huge Real Madrid fan (and I desperately want to see how Henry is fitting in at Barca) my first chance to see them will be this week when the Champions League starts.

I don't know what the specifics of the problem are, GolTV, but you better get your act together soon. People here in the states are finding less and less reasons to watch your channel. In the meantime, readers, below please find a link to the latest Phil Ball round-up of action in Spain to keep your interest whetted.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=463801&root=europe&cc=5901&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos2

Premeirship Weekend Review

2007-09-17T08:54:00.000-05:00

We are going to start this week with another excellent and comprehensive look at the weekend that was in the Premiership with my good friend Matt. In this column he explores the idea of the “good” draw and the “bad” draw, and also asks if Rafa really has the Premiership title in mind, or if his eyes are again turned towards Europe.

Also, this week marks the start of the group stages of the Champion’s league, and we will spend much of the rest of the week previewing and then reviewing the start of the most entertaining club competition in the world. Now, onto Matt…

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A few weeks back, Liverpool played Chelsea at Anfield, and what should have been a win for the Scousers ended as a draw when Chelsea were awarded a dubious penalty on a non-existent foul in the box, and which Frank "I ate all the pies" Lampard slotted home for the 1-1 draw. At the time, Liverpool were furious, and Mourinho couldn't comment because he didn't have the opportunity to see a video replay. Despite most pundits calling for replay to be introduced to fix these poor referee decisions, most also agreed that these calls and decisions even themselves out over the course of the season. That statement bore fruition this weekend, when a perfectly good goal by Salomon Kalou was disallowed because of a mistaken offside decision by the ref. As a result, Chelsea were left feeling blue as their game with Blackburn ended nil-nil. Not that I'm complaining.

Chelsea's style of play usually puts me to sleep, although I must say they did attack the goal quite a lot, and were stopped from scoring by a combination of good goalkeeping from Brad Friedel, poor marksmanship from Shevchenko, and the above erroneous call. It was funny to see that Jose Mourinho had a video replay device at hand this time to show the 4th official that they got it wrong on the disallowed goal. It must have been the fact that he was at home that he had the capability to have this device available.

Speaking of Stamford Bridge, I couldn't help to think of the difference between a good draw and a bad one. Here the draw was certainly not bad for Blackburn considering they were on the road, but it was certainly a disaster for Chelsea as they blew 2 points in a game in which they dominated, and to a team that they should beat at home. It was a result that might come to haunt them at the end of the season.

Carrying on the topics of both bad draws and blowing points that may lead to losing the title race, I move to the equally bland 0-0 result between Liverpool and Portsmouth. I guess Liverpool should be thankful that they got the draw after Kanu choked on his penalty shot on what was once again a poor decision by the referee (is anyone noticing a pattern here?). And while it is true that Liverpool got a point on the road at Fratton Park and did so without Kuyt playing or Gerrard and Torres starting, I can't feel that Rafa's boys threw away an additional 2 points against Pompey, and the blame should go to Mr. Benitez. It was his rotation policy that kept their above mentioned best players on the bench to start the game so that they can be fresh for the Champions League game this week against Porto. But Liverpool fans aren't craving Champions League as much as they want to win their first Premiership title, and his decisions should be made with that in mind by putting forth his best team in League matches. If Liverpool fails to win the league, this game will certainly be looked back upon on contributing to the failure.

Which leads me to Man United, and their match at Goodison Park against Everton. For anyone who watched the game, Man U still does not look all that good.

Tevez can't seem to do anything, and they aren't jelling like they did last season. I know they have had their injuries and suspensions, but I just don't think they are going to do it this season, and see it as a transition year of out with the old of Neville, Scholes, and Giggs and allowing players such as Anderson and Nani to grow into their replacements. Be that as it may, Man U did something this weekend that championship teams do; they found a way to win on the road even when they didn't play so well. Everton deserved a draw, but the Red Devils found a way to knick a goal from a Vidic header to get a crucial 3 points in 1-0 victory over the Toffees, and put themselves back in the title race. Liverpool, I hope your paying attention and taking note of this.

Now on to what I thought was the game of the week: the North London derby between Tottenham and Arsenal. Wow. What a fun game to watch, with both all the goals, and the saves. Seriously this game could have ended up 6-5 to Arsenal, but for the great goalkeeping in the first half by Paul Robinson, and the equally poor finishing of Keane, Berbatov, and the 16 MILLION pound man, Darren Bent, in the second half. Instead the result was a 3-1 victory to Arsenal as Robinson came back to earth in the second half. The Spurs took the lead on a beautiful free kick from Gareth Bale, but a strong header from Adebayor, a cracker of a shot from early player of the year candidate Cesc Fabregas, and then a goal of the year candidate once again from Adebayor, gave Arsenal both the win, and sole possession atop the Premiership table. Keep it up Arsenal. Your by far the most entertaining team to watch, and this is coming from a Newcastle fan. As for Martin Jol, I'd get my things packed because me thinks you might be gone before the end of the week. Maybe you should have spent that 16 million on some more defenders. But don't worry, they will be a position waiting for you at Bolton in a few days.

Lastly a quick shout out to Deuce. Once again Clint Dempsey scored a goal, and is quickly becoming both a fan favorite at Craven Cottage and the best current American outfield player in the world (Sorry Landy-Cakes). Unfortunately, Fulham gave up a late equalizer and had to settle for a draw again. I just hope they find a way to win a few games so that this great talent isn't playing in the Football League Championship next season. Then again, if they are, maybe he will be sold to Newcastle and experiencing European football with them in the Champions League.

Don't laugh!! With a win against Derby on Monday, the Magpies will be sitting in the fourth spot and the last Champions League birth. As they say, Fourth is the new First!!!

Weekend Matches: September 15-16

2007-09-14T07:58:00.000-05:00

Happily, club football is back on the field and back on the air. No more of this international nonsense. For me the pick of the litter this weekend is Sienna v. Milan, but that is purely for personal reasons. (Believe it or not, I am wearing a Sienna shirt right now. In fact, I kind of wish I was relaxing in the beautiful piazza of Sienna right now, but I digress.) Bayern v. Schalke should also be a good game, as should the Sevilla game, particularly for the chance to see if Dani Alves is as good on TV as he is live. The best English option this weekend is probably Spurs v. Gunners, but even that doesn’t get me very excited. Manchester United gets Christiano Ronaldo this week, so their attacking potency should increase.

I will be back later with a book review. Enjoy the games this weekend.

Saturday

7:00am Everton vs Manchester United Setanta Sports

8:30am Tottenham vs Arsenal FSC

9:30am, Bayern Munich vs Schalke 04 GolTv

10:30am West Ham vs Middlesborough FSC

12:00pm Chelsea vs Blackburn FSC

2:30pm Lazio vs Empoli FSC

4:30pm Sienna vs Milan FSC

Sunday

9:00am Juventus vs Udinese FSC

11:00am Murcia vs Atl. Madrid GolTv

1:00pm Sevilla vs Recreativo GolTv

Brazil v. Mexico Roundup

2007-09-13T10:26:00.000-05:00

Last night my wife and I, along with some good friends, attended the Brazil-Mexico friendly held in Foxboro, Massachusetts. It was our first time attending a Brazil match, and it was quite an experience.

We live only a few minutes from the stadium, but left our house nearly two hours before the start to make sure we arrived in time, and it was a good thing we did. 495, one of the major interstate highways that leads to the stadium, was jam-packed with cars full of revelers, with many hanging out of their windows waving giant flags. The Brazil fans outnumbered Mexico’s (probably by a ratio of 8-1) but the Mexican supporters were very noticeable in their large sombreros.

After negotiating 495 and the equally treacherous Route 1 (the notorious two-lane blacktop that directly feeds Gillette Stadium) we arrived at the parking lot, and forked over $40.00 for parking. Because the Kraft family (owners of the stadium and the MLS team the New England Revolution) haven’t ripped us off enough this year.

Eventually we made our way into the stadium. It was a beautiful sea of yellow. The crowd was already going crazy ten minutes before kick-off, and just got louder as the teams came out. We were lucky, too. We had great seats behind the goal and both national teams brought their stars: Mexico had Rafa Marquez in defense and Brazil brought Robinho, Dani Alves, and Elano. Oh, yeah. Also Kaka and Ronaldinho.

The first half was great. Brazil played in constant attack and we sat right behind the Mexican goal and watched one shot after another. Ronaldinho was particularly fine the whole night; his incisive passes set up countless attacks, and he really looked like one of the best players in the world (often times he does not when he plays for Barca.) Clearly everyone on both sides came to play. Kaka was quoted after the game as saying everyone played so hard at least partially because of the fanatical Brazilian support from the stands.

Although Brazil was clearly the better team in the first half, Mexico struck first on a lightening-quick counter-attack finished by Juan Carlos Cacho in the 42 minute. Brazil got it back moments later on a corner finished by Klebler, and Brazil never looked back. In the second both teams opened it up and really starting attacking. Brazil got a second on a sweet goal by Kaka and a third on a killer strike by Alfonso Alves. The big stars stayed on the field until nearly the end, and thus I left feeling I got my money’s worth. Everyone played, everyone played hard, and I saw some fantastic football played by genuine world stars.

Other assorted thoughts from the game…

It isn’t hard to figure out why Dani Alves is one of the best players in the world if you watch him closely. The right back was constantly moving up to threaten in attack, and would then zip back to break things up on defense. Truly a two-way player, and a clear threat on offense. Chelsea, he might very well have been worth it…

I wish both teams would have put names on their shirts as well as the numbers. I thought Elano scored the first goal, and I didn’t even realize that 18-year-old Barca starlet Giovani Dos Santos had taken the field as a sub for Mexico. I would have watched this up-and-comer much more closely had I known.

The ‘Keystone Kops’ level of security at Gillette was laughable. Our section (right behind the goal) was flooded with people from the cheap seats who wanted to be closer to the action. Many were sitting in seats they didn’t buy and the aisles were completely blocked. Twice security tried to clear things out and openly gave up the second time, clearly intimidated by the Brazilian and Mexican supporters. If something bad had happened, it could have been a bloodbath. Luckily, everyone we encountered, from both sides, was good natured, so everything was fine.

But, as my wife has pointed out, the security goons at Gillette don’t mind busting chops and cracking heads when it’s the 13-year-old girls who attend the Revolution games. Then security keeps the aisles clear.Let’s not be frightened just because some guy is wearing a sombrero, okay fellas?

Finally, the Boston Globe is reporting that the game was considered such a success that Brazil will almost definitely come back again. I say great: this was a fun experience for any football lover, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Porno Fiorentina?

2007-09-12T11:52:00.000-05:00

In my excitement about the upcoming Brazil-Mexico match being played down the street from my house, I almost let an important footballing story slip through the, um, cracks.

Readers know that Fiorentina is one of my favorite clubs in the world. (Fiorentina is the club of the beautiful city of Florence in Italy.) They are off to a particularly bright start this year and have an exciting team of young stars. Now comes news that they will be broadcasting at least one of their games (an Italian Cup match) on a hard-core Italian porn channel.

Now, between the violence and the deaths and the corruption that is infecting the Italian game, one knew that the sport would have to go in dramatic new directions to revive interest. I thought this would mean taking steps to reduce the corruption in the league, hiring honest refs, etc. But no. Instead they are just going to show footie on a porn channel. That should work.

For more on this bizarre story, see here:

http://shakedownsports.com/2007/09/11/another-reason-to-pay-for-porn-channels/

Brazil-USA Clash

2007-09-11T11:01:00.000-05:00

Below find a link to a story about the upcoming Mexico-Brazil game that is being played in Foxboro, Massachusetts tomorrow night. It is gratifying to know how many tickets have been sold. This, more than David Beckham, indicates that there certainly are football lovers in the US. Sometimes they are just a little hard to find...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/soccer/09/11/bc.soc.brazil.mexico.ap/index.html

Internationals and Qualifiers

2007-09-10T08:57:00.000-05:00

Below please find notes from my friend Matt on this past weekend’s internationals. As usual, I agree with almost everything he says, and the things I don’t agree with (his summary of the USA/Brazil game) stems from the fact that I haven’t seen the match yet. I’ll catch it on my DVR in a day or two.

Other than the flood of internationals, the only other big football news from this weekend was that everyone’s favorite chubby center-forward, Ronaldo, will be hurt for at least another month. Apparently he has a bum knee. Whether the bad knee resulted from having to lug around an extra 25 pounds of Ronaldo is largely beside the point; sadly, we won’t see the big fella in the black and red for some time yet.

Finally, note that my friend says he can’t wait to see Brazil live. That’s because, as I said, we have tickets to the Brazil-Mexico match in Foxboro, Massachusetts, on Wednesday night. We are both looking forward to it, and I will report back here to the fanatic after the game.

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Just a quick note on this weekend’s internationals. Not that I could watch them, but apparently England looked impressive for once. At least for the first time under McClaren. I guess his job is safe until Wednesday. I’m glad to see that Owen scored. Hopefully this will be a sign of things to come for Newcastle.

The Italy v. France game was a bore, but good for Scotland, who are in second place in the group. They have a big game with France on weekend, and if they can pull out a win or even a draw, they will be sitting pretty. Unfortunately, Northern Ireland wasted a chance to put some distance between themselves and Spain after they lost to Latvia, and Spain failed to beat Iceland. Speaking of Spain, they are even a bigger disappointment than England. I think it could easily be argued that they have better players than the England squad, yet they always have a hard time qualifying for tournaments, and when they do qualify, if they get out of the group stage, they promptly get dispatched in the quarterfinals. I know they used the same old excuse about players from different regions of the country not getting along, but that is bullshit. If Iraq can win the Asian Cup with a team of Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis, then there isn’t any reason why a team of Basques, Catalans, and Catalonians can’t do better as well.

Then there was the USA/Brazil game, which can be looked at from two points of view if you support the USA. The pros include the fact that Dempsey had another great game, the Americans hung tough, they played tough by challenging the Brazilians, especially in midfield, the first goal against them was a joke, and they weren’t getting any of the calls (they should have had at least one penalty call go their way). On the con side, they still lost by 2 goals to a Brazil team that was on top gear, they were playing at home, and Bocanegra’s goal was a joke. It just happened to hit him and go in. All in all, I guess the US could be somewhat pleased with the result, but they are a long way from being in the elite of soccer nations. In any event, watching the game wet my appetite for Wednesday’s game. I can’t wait to see Brazil live!!!

Fantasy Football

2007-09-07T14:46:00.000-05:00

This weekend, in America, the 2007 NFL seasons begins. For anyone outside the U.S. who doesn’t know, the NFL is the National Football League, and the sport they play is football on the gridiron, much different from the sport we celebrate here on this website.

That means this weekend also marks the start of the 2007 Fantasy Football season, and it is quite possible that each event equals the other in importance.

Fantasy Football is remarkably popular hear in the States, and I most certainly don’t have to explain it to any American readers. In a nutshell, a group of friends or co-workers get together and draft real players from the NFL, and their play in real life mirrors how well you do in your fantasy league. The system works wonderfully well because anyone can play, it’s fairly easy, and it generates massive interest in the NFL. For instance, I watched with great interest a game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints last evening, even though I did not care at all who won the game. I “had” players in the game on my fantasy team. I am the commissioner of a Fantasy Football league and also participate in a fairly serious fantasy baseball league. This keeps my interest high in both sports, even though at heart I am a fanatic only for real football.

In the United States, at least, this fantasy craze has not caught on to the sport of Soccer. In England it obviously has more traction, but it has still not reached the massive level of popularity here in the states.

Fantasy Soccer (I use the term to differentiate it from American football) has two broad types. One can either participate in a league where all the players in, say, the premiership are available for all fantasy players. You just have to fit them under your salary cap. Thus all of the teams in the fantasy league can employ, say, Christiano Ronaldo if the owners so wish. The other format is an auction league (the format that I suspect will be more successful in the long run.) In this format participants use monetary value to draft players; thus the fantasy owner who wants Christiano Ronaldo the most will bid the highest for him. This format is probably the more challenging and rewards the fantasy participant who knows the most about the game.

Still, as I said, Fantasy sports have not caught on in Europe like they have in America. This is probably because, unlike the American sports of baseball and football, soccer is not driven by statistics. It is difficult to measure the worth of a player in soccer by statistics. For instance, anyone who watches Chelsea knows what a great player Michael Essien is; the fact that he can play anywhere on the pitch only adds to his value. But he doesn’t score as many goals as, say, Andy Johnson, a so-so striker for Everton. Someone who knows his football would never swap Essien for Johnson, but in fantasy value Johnson is close to being more valuable, since he scores more goals. That is because, of course, in soccer goals, along with assists, are virtually the only useful measurable statistics. Everything else is just noise. To know a great player we must watch the game with our eyes, and not read about it on a stat sheet.

Does this mean Fantasy soccer will never take off the way fantasy football and baseball has? Perhaps. It is a shame, on one hand, for clearly fantasy sports brings new and enthusiastic converts to the table all the time. On the other hand, however, I like the game just as it is, with the game being played on the field and not on the stat sheet. And it is my fantasy that it stays that way.

Weekend Matches: September 8-9

2007-09-07T11:06:00.000-05:00

I guess I am supposed to be excited about this weekend’s upcoming international matches, but I just can’t get all that worked up. I am moderately interested in the Italy-France game, which is a rematch of last year’s World Cup final and also the best game of the weekend. The most hyped game in the English-speaking world, however, is surely England v. Israel, as the pinheads at the FA still cling desperately to the hope that they can qualify for Euro ’08. England will be playing with approximately 28 of their 29 best players out injured, and Paul Robinson will be in goal. So it should be interesting.

Saturday

11:00am Russia vs Macedonia FSC

12:00pm England vs Israel Setanta

12:00pm Iceland vs Spain FSC

2:30pm Italy vs France GolTv

Sunday

4:00pm USA vs Brazil ESPN2

Premiership Report: September 1

2007-09-06T08:19:00.000-05:00

My very good friend Matt is another football fan-atic. He was the person who was most influential in encouraging me to follow football more closely, and he himself is a massive fan of English football in general and Newcastle United in particular. He is a very close and careful observer of the English game, and he always has interesting things to say about the premiership matches of the week.

Because of this, we have decided to try a little experiment here at the Fan-Atic. We are going to publish Matt's thoughts and summaries from the premiership action he watched the previous weekend, both because I think there is some smart analysis there and also because I think it is useful to get the perspective of football fans who are watching from the U.S.. That is, after all, what this website is all about.

So here is Matt's first report on Premiership action, which covers the Premiership matches he watched on Saturday, September 1. If this works out, and we both wish to keep doing it, we will presumably post these reports much sooner after the actual matches. This first one took a little while, as we were trying to co-ordinate.

I do hope you enjoy these summaries as much as I do. Let me know your thoughts...

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Here is my review of today's games (either seen in entirety or fast forwarded throughout with DVR; shameless plug for DVR).

The day started with what would be the game that actually turned out to be the best one of the day to watch: Fulham v. Tottenham. Tottenham got out to an early 2 goal lead, and Tottenham's defense was so shambolic that I was saying to myself that Fulham will be getting relegated this year. But then came the cavalry led by Clint Dempsey, who scored a fabulous header before halftime to give Fulham a glimmer of hope and make me happy as well as he is on my fantasy team. Things worsened for Fulham at the beginning of the 2nd half, but brightened even more for me, when another one of my players, Gareth Bale, scored, giving a 2 goal advantage once again to the Spurs. However, Fulham kept fighting, and through two more assists from Dempsey (although Yahoo only credits him with one), they salvaged a draw. I wonder if Martin Jol still has the vote of confidence after dropping 2 more points?

The next game I watched was the absolute destruction of Derby by Liverpool at Anfield, as the Scousers won 6-0 behind a 2 goal performance by Torres (yet another player of mine) as my day brightened further. Then came the Newcastle/Wigan game, which had lots of emotion for me. Newcastle absolutely dominated the game, but I was having fits when after 80 minutes the score was still nil nil. In fact at that time it should have been 6-0 to Newcastle, but for 2 incorrectly offside calls, which cancelled an Owen goal and a Steven Taylor goal, two hand balls by Titus Shambles which weren't called, including one in the penalty area that should have rewarded Newcastle a penalty kick, and about a gazillion break-aways and one-on-ones with the goalie in which Newcastle couldn't put the ball in the old onion bag (most of the time Owen blowing them). I was screaming his name until he headed in a beautiful cross from Martins to secure a 1-0 win. Naturally I am happy with the win and the fact that Owen finally scored, but I was upset that he blew so many chances, that Newcastle could have won this game comfortably instead of waiting until the end to secure a victory, and most of all about how terrible the referee’s decisions were once again. Two perfectly good goals had been called off, and the ref was the only person in the stadium that didn't see the hand ball by Bramble. If they had lost because of this I would be fuming, but I can't remember the officiating being this bad last year. Yes there were bad calls last year, but it seems this season has already surpassed all of the one from last season. Newcastle even gained an advantage of a referee blunder when a Wigan player was red carded after receiving his second yellow just as the second half began, which he shouldn't have gotten. They say that these bad decisions work themselves out over the course of the season, but I have my doubts. Still I can't be too upset with a Newcastle win and with them remaining undefeated.

I quickly fast forwarded through the West Ham/ Reading game in which the Hammers won 3-0 so I could get to the game of the day if not the weekend: Man U v. Sunderland. Nothing could have been farther from the truth as this game was an absolute snooze-fest. I thought that I was watching Chelsea play Chelsea except that the players were taken from the Galaxy (without Beckham) and Toronto FC. Even though they eventually won, I do believe that Man U are not going to win the title. With the exception of Saha coming on, they never looked like scoring and with Liverpool running on all gears and Chelsea doing their thing, I think Man U fans are in for a long and trohpyless season.

International Week......sigh

2007-09-05T15:12:00.000-05:00

This season's first international week has ground the leagues around Europe to a halt; after a fun weekend, this gives us a chance to look around and see what is happening in the football world.

* The always candid LA Galaxy GM made a long appearance on FSC's "Fox Football Fone-In" last night. I've got to give him credit; as sleazy as he sometimes appears, he is willing to go on a public forum and take his medicine. Among other gems, he admitted that David Beckham didn't play in New England because of the turf (essentially saying 'Fuck You, suckers' to all the families who paid $50.00 a seat to multiple games to see Becks) and that ESPN put pressure on the Galaxy to make Beckham appear in that meaningless exhibition vs. Chelsea in July. Good job, guys. If anyone gave a crap about the MLS, this would be big news. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: this whole Beckham thing could end up hurting American soccer more than it helps it.

* In England, two games within the next week will tell us if Smilin' Steve McClaren will be fired or not. He doesn't have David Beckham, probably doesn't have Fat Frank Lampard, and Steven Gerrard has a bum toe. Still, I'm pulling for England. The Euro's won't be the same without them losing on penalties in the second round.

* The perpetual circus at Chelsea continues unabated. This week they left midfielder Michael Ballack of the eligible-list for the first half of Champions League play, insisting that he still isn't fit. However, reportedly Ballack told his German national coach that he is ready to go. Nice. They're paying $250,000 per week to a player they don't like. Hey, I'll play midfield for a third of that...

* One thing I am looking forward to: next Wednesday's Brazil-Mexico clash at Foxboro Stadium. Maybe I like international week after all....

More coming soon!

La Liga Roundup

2007-09-03T14:51:00.000-05:00

Apologies to the readers this weekend. In the US we celebrate Labor Day today, so I spent the weekend avoiding, well, labor, while relaxing up in the mountains. I will have a more thoughtful post tomorrow, but in the meantime I can link you to Phil Ball's always excellent round-up of action in Spain.

This coming week will be a little slow with the international break, but we will have plenty to talk about, including fun in England, Italy, and elsewhere, as well as a rather quiet close so the transfer season. More soon.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=459955&root=europe&cc=5901&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1

Weekend Matches: August 31-September 3

2007-08-31T10:40:00.000-05:00

Interesting matches this week. AC Milan plays twice this weekend, first in the Super Cup today (which would be a great match) and Monday against my favorite team, Fiorentina. Hopefully Milan is a little tired by Monday. Regardless, all of the eyes of the football world will be in Manchester on Saturday, to see the combustible Roy Keane face off against his former team. May not be much of a game, but we shall se.

Friday

2:30pm AC Milan vs Sevilla FSC (UEFA Super Cup)

Saturday

10:00am Fulham vs. Tottenham FSC

10:00am Liverpool vs Derby County Setanta Sports

12:00pm Manchester United vs Sunderland FSC

2:30pm Empoli vs Inter Milan FSC

Sunday

8:30am Arsenal vs Portsmouth Setanta Sports

9:00am AS Roma vs Siena FSC

11:00am Aston Villa vs Chelsea FSC

11:00am Hamburg vs Bayern Munich GolTv

Monday

12:00pm AC Milan vs Fiorentina FSC

Beckham: Progress Report

2007-08-30T13:54:00.000-05:00

It has now been almost two months since David Beckham officially joined the Los Angeles Galaxy and became a part of the MLS. Since this was easily the most newsworthy thing to happen to American league football since Pele left, I thought this would be a good time to see how things are going. Beckham’s arrival was supposed to change American soccer, and turn all of us into Football Fanatics. How’s it going so far?

The Good:

1). First and foremost, David Beckham, when he has played, has been very good. The Galaxy look like a different team when he is on the field (in other words, not awful) and Beckham himself looks like he is close to being the best player in the MLS already. Beckham’s ability to make lesser players around him look better is good for him personally and good for the MLS and American soccer as a whole.

2). David Beckham has made a lot of people (including himself) lots and lots of money in the few weeks he has been over here. Reportedly, the LA Galaxy has already earned back his salary on shirt sales alone. One would hope this would encourage other MLS owners to bring big stars over to play in the U.S.

3). David Beckham has brought a lot of attention to the game, just as everyone thought he would. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and has been responsible for tons and tons of ticket sales. When he has played, people seem to really enjoy watching him. His beautiful free kick against D.C. United is an iconic moment that played on sports reports across the country, something that doesn’t happen to often in America.

4). By all accounts, Beckham is a nice person who treats everybody with kindness and decency. He is as good an ambassador for the game as one could find.

The Bad:

1). He has been injured. A lot. He missed his first few games because of injury, came back in fits and starts, injured himself again, flew to England and played 90 minutes for the national team, injured himself again, and then finally seriously injured himself again last night playing in a silly tournament concocted to pit MLS teams against Mexican clubs. Any publicity momentum from his signing is long gone; America has turned its attention elsewhere, and the MLS may have a hard time getting it back.

2). Beckham’s selectivity in deciding where to play has been disappointing. He played in Washington, D.C. (which has natural turf) then claimed he was “injured” again for the New England Revolution game, which has artificial turf. He was remarkably healed again in time to play the New York Red Bulls the next week. He later disappointed fans the same way in Colorado. Doing this has earned him more detractors than he probably needs.

3). Beckham’s intense dedication to the English national team is admirable, but in doing so he has made the MLS (and by extension their fans) seem as if they are far less important to him. For example, Beckham flew 4,000 miles to play in an absolutely meaningless friendly in London. He then flies 4,000 miles back to L.A. to play a club game the next day, seemingly to prove how dedicated he is to his club. Doing this, of course, caused him to miss his next game, and probably led to his extended absence due to injury now. He should not have gone to England, as much as he wanted to. This may be the moronic Steve McClaren’s fault more than Beckham’s, but he is still left alienating American fans.

The Ugly:

I’ve written about this before, but the ugliest situation of all is how the MLS and the American clubs have tried to greedily cash in on the Beckham phenomenon with little regard for their own fans. Obviously, the MLS and teams in the league have been advertising Beckham’s arrival as bigger than anything that has happened to the MLS, and forcing their customers to pay for this “event.” As an example, consider what the Revolution did. I am most familiar with what the New England Revolution, as I am a season ticket holder. If one wanted to buy a ticket to the Beckham game (which was massively hyped by the Revs, who advertised Come See David Beckham, one had to purchase tickets to four games. Then, when Beckham announced he would not play (in retrospect, he was not as injured, probably, as he claimed) the Revs sanctimoniously announced that one buys a ticket to “see a team, not one person” which was entirely contrary to their advertising campaign throughout the season. To top it off, Beckham took the field in a tracksuit and most people in attendance (including myself) hoped he would play as a sub. The home announcer never let on that Beckham wouldn’t play, forcing the sell-out crown to stay, presumably to buy more beer and hot dogs.

I’m not picking on the Revs alone here. They have been undeniably sleazy by cashing in at the expense of gullible fans, but virtually every other club (and especially the Galaxy) has done the same. Beckham is largely uninvolved in this, but if he fully understood what was being done in his name, perhaps he would be less enthusiastic about the MLS.

The Grade (so far)

Beckham is a great player who has looked good when he has played. But it hasn’t been enough, and all the momentum from earlier this summer is lost. By cashing in with little regard for their fans, the MLS has looked exactly like the image it is trying to change: a small-time league pretending to be the big-time. Perhaps next year, which is probably the next time we will see David Beckham in a Galaxy shirt, they will get it right.

GolTV Update

2007-08-29T14:26:00.000-05:00

GolTV's website put up the following notice in regard to this last weekend of crummy TV broadcasts:

To Our Viewers:
First and foremost we want you, our viewers, to know that we value your following. At GolTV we care and aim to offer the best soccer as well as to uphold your expectations with regards to scheduled matches. Regrettably, and due to circumstances beyond GolTV's control, this weekend’s match of Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid were blacked out not only to GolTV's viewers, but to viewers worldwide. This black out stemmed from a conflict between the right holders and the locals transition company in Spanish. We are doing all that is in our power to resolve this situation and will do our very best to keep you informed should there be any further issues.

The long and the short of this is that GolTV apparently won't be showing any big games from Spain until this gets resolved. There is a rumor that is going around the internet (always the bastion of truth, of course) that someone owes someone else $80 Million, and until that gets resolved this rights issue won't get resolved. Whatever. In the meantime, if there is anyone who wanted to see how Henry was doing in Barcelona, or how Madrid was making out without any Galacticos, well, you might have to sit tight for quite some time.

------------------

In other news, the transfer rumors are going fast and furious. One plausible rumor has rotund Inter striker going somewhere, anywhere, by Friday. I can see that. Another more amusing rumor has Ronaldinho going to Chelsea. I doubt it, but I will also keep an eye on it.

GolTV

2007-08-28T13:53:00.000-05:00

I have used this space, in the past, to complain about the coverage of football on GolTV, one of the “full time” soccer stations here in the United States. After a fun football weekend here, I don’t want to start on GolTV yet again, but I do feel like something needs to be said.

There are a number of outlets for watching soccer on television here in the states. ABC and ESPN have occasional coverage of the MLS and the Champions League, and various regional channels (especially non-English channels) focus on leagues in Mexico, Portugal, or Italy, depending on their language and expected audience. We also have a number of channels devoted fully to football programming, including Sentanta, which airs (mostly) games from England. The best soccer channel in the U.S. is surely Fox Soccer Channel, (FSC) which airs games from England and Italy, the MLS, internationals, and friendlies, as well as other leagues and various regularly-scheduled shows dedicated to football. All-in-all, I feel FSC does a pretty good job.

Then there is GolTV. In the past I have described the poor quality of game coverage on GolTV and the difficulty of listening to some of their announcers. One thing I have found particularly galling is the fact that GolTV always announces all of the games they broadcast from a studio in the United States. FSC, in contrast, presents the same feed that viewers see in England, featuring English announcers who are at the game. (Which makes a world of difference.)

Still, I watched GolTV often because they had the rights to some very good football. In particular, they broadcast games from Italy and Spain, two of my favorite leagues. Thus I was a little concerned when I realized this summer that FSC had gained the full rights to broadcast Italian games in the United States; GolTV would not longer show them. I was concerned not because FSC now had the rights; (as I said, they do a better job than GolTV) but because I still want to have multiple all-soccer stations here in the US following the basic idea that competition will increase the quality of everyone involved.

But I am now starting to have second thoughts. After watching this first weekend, I noted that FSC’s coverage is as strong as ever. GolTV’s, meanwhile, was just as abysmal as I remember it from last season. While they broadcast games from South America and elsewhere, there is no doubt that the premier games they still own the rights to are Spain’s la Lega. When I turned in this weekend, however, to watch first the Real Madrid game and later the Barcelona game, I saw with regret both times that the international feed of the broadcast had been cancelled.

Once again, I was left unsatisfied with GolTV. At then end of the day I don’t know if the fault of this particular boner was with GolTV or their overseas partners. I did note that again today the advertised Liverpool game that was supposed to be broadcast at 2pm EST was pushed back to 3pm, regardless of what GolTV’s viewers had previously been told.

GolTV needs to be careful. They no longer have Series A from Italy. The most famous player from the one big league they have left, David Beckham, is long gone. With a greatly weakened schedule and indifferent efforts to broadcast games for their viewers, fewer and fewer football people will be watching GolTV, and soon FSC, as good as it is, will have no competition at all, and viewer in the United States will end up as the real losers.

Weekend Matches: August 25-26

2007-08-24T10:27:00.000-05:00

Yikes. I don’t even know where to start in describing this weekend. Just a great, great weekend to stay in and watch football. The Premiership goes on, as does the Bundesliga, while Italy and Spain kick into high gear. There are literally five or six games I want to watch, including Real Madrid’s, Juventus’, Manchester United’s, Sheffield United’s, and Inter’s. Its gonna be a busy weekend. And hopefully a great one.

Saturday

7:45am Sunderland vs Liverpool Setanta Sports

9:00am Bayern Munich vs Hannover 96 GolTv

10:00am Arsenal vs Manchester City FSC

10:00am Chelsea vs Portsmouth Setanta Sports

12:15pm Sheffield United vs West Brom Setanta Sports

2:00pm Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid GolTv

2:30pm Juventus vs Livorno FSC

4:00pm Sevilla vs Getafe GolTv

4:30pm Lazio vs Torino FSC

Sunday

9:00am Inter Milan vs Udinese FSC

11:00am Manchester United vs Tottenham FSC

1:00pm Racing vs Barcelona GolTv

2:30pm Palermo vs AS Roma FSC

One last thing: apparently Roy Keane has come out and publicly defended referees. Essentially, he said that Refs are only human and that we all make mistakes and that we shouldn’t take the game so seriously and just ease off.

I know, the end of the world is now coming. I hope it holds off until the end of the season. Roy’s crazy comments can be found here: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=456361&cc=5901

Bayern Munich

2007-08-23T11:24:00.000-05:00

Although I am becoming almost unhealthily excited at the prospect of both the Italian and Spanish football leagues beginning this weekend, I would like to turn my attention briefly to the Bundesliga and, more specifically, to Bayern Munich.

To be honest, I am just not into German football. Between England, Italy, Spain, the MLS and the occasional international, I have about as much football watchin’ on my plate as I can handle. If I pick up one more league my lovely bride might decide she’s seen enough of both the beautiful game and me.

But I’ve seen every Bayern Munich game so far in the young season. I am fairly indifferent to the club as a whole, since as I’ve said I have no real attachment to German football. I decided to watch the games because the club employs one of my favorite players, Luca Toni, who formerly played for one of my favorite clubs, Fiorentina. I also enjoy the work of Franck Ribery, who is always fun to watch.

Aside from this, I really didn’t expect to really get a kick out of watching Bayern. But so far they have been a revelation; the best team in this very young season in all of Europe. They play Toni up from with the equally-dangerous Lukas Podolsk and Miroslav Klose. In the midfield they have Ribery on the right (who frequently drifts to center and orchestrates the action) along with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Ze Roberto. They play Philipp Lahm and Christian Lell in back in front of the redoubtable Oliver Kahn. So far they have played very smooth attacking football with emphasis on crisp passing. They are deadly on the counter attack and tough on defense. In some ways their approach reminds me of Real Madrid’s Galactico project from five years ago, but Bayern has a much better balance between offence and defense. They should win the Bundesliga easily.

Hey, it’s easy to make fun of Bayern and some of their players. The team is a very big fish in a (somewhat) small pond that can’t match their popularity at home abroad, as the other big clubs seem to be able to do. And mercenary players like Ribery and (as much as it pains me to say it) Toni look foolish for claiming they want to play Champion’s League football and then signing for Bayern because of the money. So be it. But beautiful football is beautiful football, and that is what Bayern Munich is playing right now.

Busy Day of Friendlies

2007-08-22T20:17:00.000-05:00

Today I spent a less-than active day parked in front of my television set watching internationals. Always hyped to the hilt, internationals can be a mixed bag: they can bring out the passion and excitement, but some matches (especially friendlies) tend to be bores. Here’s what transpired:

1:00pm: I started the day with the second half of the Portugal-Armenia game on Sentanta. The game was 1-1 in the first half and that’s how it finished. Not that I knew that while I was watching it: they never showed the game clock or the score during the second half, so I had only a vague idea the teams were tied. On top of that, because the game was played in Armenia, the footage was all grainy, like the Zapruder film. I kept waiting for the motorcade with JFK to go by. Perhaps Christiano Ronaldo was the second gunman?

2:00pm: After Portugal I switch over to watch the end of the Brazil-Algeria game. Saw Ronaldinho score. Spent most of the game fantasizing about the upcoming Brazil-USA friendly which will be played in Foxboro Stadium, my home soccer stadium. Will Kaka and the other big names come to Massachusetts? Ah, the drama.

2:30pm: Live on Fox Soccer Channel, its USA v. Sweden! My Dad, who watches part of the match with me, is positively startled by the size of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s nose. The game finishes 1-0 Sweden, but the US really doesn’t play all that badly. As with everyone else, they need to finish their chances. Benny Feilhaber continues to impress me.

5:00pm: The main event, England v. Germany. Kind of like World War Two, except without the bombings and the genocide and the whatnot. Germany wins 2-1, but England actually plays pretty well. Beckham, Micah Richards and fat Frank Lampard all look good for the Three Lions. Paul Robinson, er, does not. By the time the game has ended English columnists are already filing stories killing mildly-retarded England skipper Steve McClaren for flying Beckham 8,000 miles to play a full 90 minutes on a bum ankle for a friendly. If he then loses Beckham for the next three months (and thus blows his shot at qualifying for Europe) he really only has himself to blame.

Regardless, a rare fun of day of international friendlies. But back to business this weekend!

Premiership: Two Weeks In

2007-08-21T14:13:00.000-05:00

(Author’s note: I refuse to call it the Premier League. Premiership just rolls of the tongue.)

As the world takes a breather for internationals, we here at the fan-atic want to take a moment to see how things are going in the English top division. Here are my thoughts after a few weeks of action:

Anyone who read my Premiership predictions column knew I liked Manchester City this year, and I’m glad that at least appears that I know what I am doing. I don’t really expect them to win the league, but I still feel they will do well. Anyone who read a book like Forza Italia (by Paddy Agnew) or was just interested in Italian football knows Eriksson is a good coach; obviously he didn’t get the English National Team job by accident. One could argue as well that he did about as well as he could with the English team, as he usually finished each tournament in eighth or ninth place, and it is certainly reasonable to argue that England is the eighth or ninth best team in the world, regardless of what the English press say. Anyway, Eriksson is a good coach, and I am glad to see him doing well.
Manchester United, in contrast, does not look good. I never thought their problem would be scoring goals. One of my close friends thinks Ryan Giggs is done; I’m not so sure, but I would like to have seen him finish a few more chances in the season’s first three games. I think they will be allright once they get Ronaldo back in two games and Rooney in a few months. But will the season be done by then? And will Fergie make a panic buy in the meantime?
Chelsea: good, but still boring.
Liverpool has been more fun to watch than in season’s past, and Fernando Torres has settled in nicely. When Shevchenko was struggling with Chelsea last season everyone said that players need a season to become accustomed to the grind and physicality of the Premiership. Apparently Torres never got that letter.
Obafemi Martins is fun to watch.
Apparently the bookies in London have stopped taking bets on fat Martin Jol winning the sack race. (The first manager in the league to get shitcanned.) My money is still on lil’ Sammy Lee of Bolton.
I’m glad to see David Healy is doing well with Fulham. I think I may be the only person in America who regularly wears a David Healy shirt. (Northern Ireland.)
Lastly, (and this is Championship news, and not Premiership) my club Sheffield United is in 19^th place in the Championship. I asked a club employee this week how new coach Bryan Robson was doing. The employee answered, quite politically, that everyone was impressed by Robson’s ‘professionalism.’ Great. Robbo is a professional. He shows up on time wearing a clean shirt. Now if only we could win some games…

Weekend Matches: August 18-19

2007-08-17T11:12:00.000-05:00

Yay! The return of my weekly Friday column, ‘Weekend matches.’ That can only mean that there is some fun and meaningful football on this weekend. Highlights include Bayern Munich (with their own collection of galacticos to rival the gang at Barca) and that old-tyme galactico David Beckham doing his thing for the Galaxy. The best matches again are on Sunday (as it has been for the past few weeks) highlighted by a Manchester derby that has lost a little luster and the Liverpool-Chelsea clash. Should be fun.

Saturday

9:30am Werder Bremen vs Bayern Munich GolTv

10:00am Reading vs Everton FSC

12:00pm Newcastle vs Aston Villa FSC

2:30pm Birmingham vs West Ham Setanta Sports

2:30pm Wigan vs Sunderland FSC

7:30pm New York Red Bulls vs LA Galaxy FSC

Sunday

8:30am Manchester City vs Manchester United Setanta Sports

11:00am Liverpool vs Chelsea FSC

4:00pm Real Madrid vs Sevilla Telemundo

5:00pm San Lorenzo vs River Plate FSC

Beckham Scores and Premiership Thoughts

2007-08-16T11:14:00.000-05:00

In spite of my frustrations with the David Beckham saga over the past week, he scored off a sweet free kick last night in his first start for the LA Galaxy. All hype aside, he played great (scored one and set up another) and generally treated the game like it was a scene from a sports film. That why he gets the big bucks, I guess. His goal can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr_qwkmWukI

In other news, Chelsea has still not yet closed the deal on the great Daniel Alves, although it looks like that is still coming. Chelsea actually desperately needs the defensive help after Ricardo Carvalho joined John Terry in the treatment room with an injury. Alves is a fantastic player, will help on defense, and will certainly make the dreadfully boring Chelsea a little more fun to watch.

One disappointment of the early days of the Premier League season is that Manchester United will be playing in their Sunday derby with Manchester City without their two best players, Wayne Rooney and Christiano Ronaldo, the latter of whom is out three games with a red card. Too bad, as at full strength Manchester United is one of the most fun teams in the world to watch. Still, I am so far happy with my controversial "Manchester City will finish 5th" prediction.

Roy Keane at it Again

2007-08-15T08:19:00.000-05:00

I used to think Roy Keane was an insufferable prick. The most negative bastard alive. I then read his autobiography, (which I have reviewed on this website) and found it to be incredibly refreshing and honest, one of the few genuinely great football books I have ever read. It was so honest, in fact, that I kind of started liking Roy Keane as a result. Mind you, I still know he is pretty much an angry jerk.

Roy Keane is now the Manager of Sunderland, and by any account he is doing a great job. He was promoted from the Championship in his first year and is now 1-0 in the Premiership. However, he has become more and more frustrated at his lack of ability to get good players to move up to the sticks and play for his not-so-famous club. Yesterday he inevitably lashed out, blaming the wives and girlfriends of the players who wouldn't sign for him, claiming these men are too cowed by the ladie's desire to be close to the shopping scene in London. Here are a few of the better outbursts:

Sunderland manager Roy Keane has launched a withering attack on 'weak and soft' players who are dictated to by their wives and girlfriends.

Keane, famous for his tirade against corporate Manchester United fans who he dubbed 'the prawn sandwich brigade' when he was captain at Old Trafford, said some players were not interested in playing for clubs outside the English capital.

...'I think it's weak. You see it with a couple of big players now. Clearly their wives and girlfriends are running their lives and that's a bad sign. I realise it is part of the package and more so when there are children and schools involved, but ultimately you're a footballer.

'Retire at 35 or 36, you can live wherever you bloody well like -- London, Monaco, wherever -- and any half-decent footballer will be a multi-millionaire anyway.
'Why is there such a big attraction with London? It would be different if it was Chelsea, Arsenal or maybe Tottenham, but when they go to a smaller club just because it's in London, then it's clearly because of the shops.'

...'Their priorities are not the same as mine. We will do the best for our players' families, but we've had a player this summer who didn't even ring us back because his wife wanted to move to London. And shopping was mentioned. It might astonish many people, but it's true,' he said.

Yes, Roy. It's just because of the shopping. I'm sure it has nothing to do at all with the club, the money, or even with you.

Meh. I still like him.

Mailbag and more on Beckham

2007-08-14T13:47:00.000-05:00

Grant Wahl, the fine Sports Illustrated writer, has an occasional mailbag about U.S. Soccer which always has some fun tidbits. It can be found here:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/grant_wahl/08/14/soccer.bag/index.html

I found his writing on Beckham to be particularly interesting this week, especially his take on the sleazy way the New England Revolution handled the whole thing. To quote Mr. Wahl:

Well, if you're talking about Beckham's on-field efforts, let's be honest: The guy has only played for 20 minutes in a competitive MLS game, and there's no denying that Beckham's lingering ankle injury has been a huge buzz-kill for ticket-buyers (like the ones in New England, who had to buy tickets for four games if they wanted to see Beckham, only to have Becks not dress for the game in Foxborough on Sunday).

Still, I try to bring the voice of reason to this column, and Beckham's standard line these days ("I'm here for five years") is worth remembering. It's not like he's faking the injury, after all, and he's in a tight spot.

Would Becks and the Galaxy have been better served if he'd stayed in L.A. to rehab his ankle instead of playing only 20 minutes on the Galaxy's three-game road trip?

Sure, but it would have been a p.r. disaster if Beckham hadn't at least been in the stadiums. (I do have a problem, however, with the fact that it was never announced to the fans in New England that Beckham was unavailable to play. It reeked of an attempt to keep people in the stands -- and buying concessions -- for as long as possible.)

I'm not trying to beat dead horse with this, but just point out that I'm not quite crazy.

Assorted Injury Bullshit, parts I & II

2007-08-13T09:59:00.000-05:00

Last night the David Beckham Traveling Roadshow came to Foxboro, Massachusetts as the LA Galaxy took on the New England Revolution. I was there as always (I have season tickets) and can report that it was a strange, frustrating experience.

We left home early to get to the game. Normally, anywhere from 8-12,000 people attend regular season Revolution games. This means that I can normally arrive at the stadium ten minutes before kick-off, watch the game, and leave immediately afterwards. For David, however, we left two HOURS before the game, and it took us nearly an hour to get there. We were comfortably in our seats 45 minutes before the game. The Revs reported that 32,000 seats had been sold for the game.

David Beckham did not play. We did not know it in the stands, but he did not even dress for the game. (He was wearing a tracksuit that looked like his uniform.) He did not warm up, and only came out a few moments before kickoff. He signed autographs for children before the game and apparently signed more for a half-hour after the game ended. The crowd had a weird vibe, partially because so many of them seemed unfamiliar with soccer and partially because almost everyone expected Beckham to play at some point. When they showed Becks on the big screen in the 88^th minute, he was roundly booed.

The Revs won 1-0 on a nice Taylor Twellman goal, and thus there was a happy ending. But the crowd (and myself) were disappointed that Beckham didn’t play, especially as he played 20+ minutes in Washington, D.C., on Thursday night. I left a little disappointed that I didn’t see the big star and wondering if the Revs would ever get that kind of crowd again.

A few other thoughts from the evening:

If there was any one element of the experience that was more frustrating that any other, it was the sanctimonious bullshit being slung by the Revs, the Galaxy, and the MLS. All we have heard from all three organizations since January was about David Beckham. As a Rev’s season ticket holder I can assure you I have received countless emails and ads proclaiming ‘Come see David Beckham!’ But when Beckham got hurt, the mantra changed, and weasels like Alexi Lalas started mouthing the line ‘You buy a ticket to see a team, not one man.’ Fair enough, but that makes the sleazy ad campaign deceiving and a bit frustrating. And extra sleaze props have to go to the New England Revolution, who made fans buy tickets to four games just to get a ticket to the Beckham match. Nice money-making scam, and I am quite sure no refunds will be offered.

Some of the fans at the match were ridiculous. The crowd seemed largely split between those who openly wanted to see Beckham and those pretending to be fanatical Revs fans who spent most of the game screaming obscenities at the Englishmen. The problem was that I had never seen many of the “fanatical” Revs fans before, even though I have season tickets. I have a feeling these fanatics won’t be attending any more Revs game sin the future.

Lastly, there’s Beckham himself. I like Beckham and am a fan. I also understand that there is nothing you can do about injuries, and that Beckham is not soft; if he isn’t playing, he’s genuinely hurt. He was also a good guy for signing all that stuff for the kids. But he made a rare faux-paux earlier in the week when he claimed he may not play in New England because of the artificial turf; a premonition that sadly came true. Beckham backtracked when he realized his mistake, but the truth is he knew this league had artificial turf when he signed up, and he is going to have to learn to play on it.

In other depressing injury news, Wayne Rooney broke his foot yesterday and is likely out for two months. I’m not a big Rooney fan, but I wanted to see him in that side, especially playing alongside handsome Carlos Tevez. Football is always more fun when the best players are on the field, so this is sad news for fans of the Premiership and Manchester United. Will Rooney turn into one of those players who has enormous promise but never quite fulfills it? He has had THREE broken foot bones in his young career, and could use some unbroken playing time. Come back soon, Roonster! We need some cheering up here at that Fan-atic!

Predictions: Spain!

2007-08-10T14:53:00.000-05:00

As we inch ever closer to the big kick-off of the Premiership tomorrow, I will turn briefly to Spain, as I take some wild stabs at how the league will finish next year. Obviously all eyes (at least here in the states) will continue to big on Barcelona and Real Madrid, where the big names and big feuds continue to dominate. Here are my picks:

1) Barca
2). Real Madrid
3). Sevilla
4). Zaragosa
5). Valencia
6). Villareal
...
18). Real Betis
19). Almeria
20). Vallodolid

Not much explaining to do here, as the table is very close to how the league finished last year. Essentially, I just decided that I couldn’t deny how great the front line of Henry, Messi, Eto, and Ronaldinho looks, at least on paper. We’ll see how they do in real life in a few weeks. My heart is with Real Madrid, and I like many of the signings they’ve made this year, including their manager Bernd Shuster. But for Real this is their sixth manager in five years, and until they get some stability and consistency in that strange, madhouse of a stadium I think they are going to find the success they found last year to be elusive. Look out, however, if they let Schuster do his thing for more than a year; right now they are building a team, not a collection of galacticos.

I still like Sevilla in the top three (and close to the top) but we’ll se what happens with the rumors of Alves going to Chelsea, as if they need another attacking fullback. I have Zaragosa improving a little on last season and Valencia and Villareal rounding out the top six. I predict that two out of the three promoted teams, Almeria and Vallodlid, will be going back down.

_____________________________________________________________

As I said, there is a great slate of games this weekend as the Premiership kicks off once again. All eyes are on the cheerful Roy Keane as he makes his Prem debut as a manager, and fans wonder if, once again, the season will see a two (or four) horse race or whether other teams will be allowed to compete.

I will be back early next week with thoughts on opening weekend and also my final predictions column, on the Champions League! Finally, I will also be attending David Beckham's traveling roadshow on Sunday night as the LA Galaxy play the New England Revolution. If the big fella plays, I will give you the scoop.

Predictions: Series A

2007-08-06T08:42:00.000-05:00

Although Italian football does not begin yet for a few weeks, I thought I would continue in the risky game of predictions with one of my favorite leagues, Series A.

A few notes of caution should be included whenever anyone is making predictions about Italian football. First, I will be making predictions based on who I think are the best teams, and NOT based on who is best at, say, bribing referees and gaming the system. I am also basing these picks (and desperately hoping) that the season is played in one continuous run without any extended breaks for murdered policemen or anything like that. Finally, since I’m doing this early, I believe I should be allowed a mulligan if there are any other major transfers between now and September. Okay, without further delay…

Series A Picks 2007-2008

1). Fiorentina

2). Inter

3). Milan

4). Roma

5). Lazio

6). Juventus

…….

18). Cagliari

19). Catania

20). Genoa

Obviously, I’ve got some ‘splaining to do. I picked Fiorentina partly out of sentiment; they are my favorite Italian team. But they were also very strong last year, finishing 5^th despite being deducted fifteen points for the, er, match-fixing. They’ve lost my favorite player, Luca Toni, but they seem to be very strong up front with Mutu and Piazzini. I would love to be in Florence the night they clinched Series A.

I do think Inter will follow their strong season with another, and I have them finishing 2nd. I have Milan 3^rd, based on the ability of last year’s club strengthened by a full year of the Phenomenon and (hopefully) more games by my favorite player, Yoann Gourcuff. Roma, Lazio and Juve round out the top six.

I have Cagliari, Catania, and Genoa going down. As with my English picks, I have two promoted teams staying up: those crazy fellas from Naples and Juventus, who will cheat to stay up if they need to. Of course, all of these picks are just blind guesses. I think most followers of Italian Football will be happy if we can simply get through a season without any criminal investigations or, more importantly, without anyone being killed.

NEXT: la Liga!

One last quick note: Yesterday’s Charity Shield match in Wembly was fun and full of attacking football. It served as a real “might-have-been” for last year’s FA Cup final. If we see more of that during the season, we should have a fun premiership.

Predictions: Premiership

2007-08-03T10:46:00.000-05:00

One of the things I want to do over the next week or two is to get my season predictions for the big European Leagues out there. I am going to do the Premiership, Series A, la Liga, and the Champions League, for reasons little better than because those are the leagues I like and follow, and thus the ones I actually know a little about.

In each league I am not going to go so far as to try and predict the entire table, but I am going to take a stab at what the top of the table will look like, and I will also let you know who I am thinking about going down. Without further ado, let’s get stated; just to head off any potential e-mailers out there (whether you are going to write tomorrow or in May) please be aware these are little more than blind guesses. I wouldn’t particularly bet the farm on any of this.

Predicted Premiership Final Table, 2007-2008

1). Chelsea

2). Manchester United

3). Liverpool

4). Arsenal

5). Manchester City

6). Aston Villa

7). Newcastle

….

18). West Ham

19). Wigan

20). Derby

At the top of the table, the temptation was to pick Manchester United to repeat, especially with Carlos Tevez being added. (That was just confirmed today.) I do like Manchester and obviously think they will do well. But Chelsea (who I hate watching) played impressive football last year, in spite of numerous injuries and bringing a number of new players into the squad. This year they are fresher, and have had a season to gel as a club. I also admit I have to admire the fact that Chelsea played in the maximum number of games possible last year and competed in every one: they won the league cup, got to the final of the FA cup, competed in the league until the last possible moment, and got to the semis of the Champions League. I think they are a great team masked by the fact that they are INCREDIBLY boring to watch. That’s why I picked them to win, although I assure you I would much prefer United.

I have Liverpool third, and hope that with the addition of Torres that can compete a little more in the league. I have Arsenal fourth, and obviously believe they will not be destroyed by the loss of Henry. I also think it will b too much for them to overcome the loss to win the Premiership, however.

I picked the five, six and seventh team based on my respect for coaching. Manchester City is probably the only real surprise pick I am making, and it is out of respect for Erickson, who is remembered by the world as a half-decent England Manager (at best) but was a phenomenal leader of club teams, particularly Lazio in Series A in the 1990s. I do believe good times are ahead for the blue half of Manchester, and also think Aston Villa and Newcastle will have solid years under good coaches.

At the bottom, the most noticeable thing is that I believe two of the clubs that come up will stay up; I think Sunderland and Birmingham will bee all right. I think Derby, however, has a weaker team and will go down along with Wigan, who always plays hard. Finally, I obviously think this is the year West Ham goes down as well. I don’t think they’ve done enough to improve their team, but I also think the bad karma from their cheatin’ ways will come back to haunt them.

Next: Series A.

New Season!

2007-08-01T15:30:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to write a quick note to everyone today to let you all know that I am officially back from my mini-break from the Football Fan-atic site. It was a good time to take a break; I sort of despise a lot of the off-season football press, including the constant speculation about who-goes-where and the made-up stories that get play for a few days from a bored media. I also could have done without writing about the David Beckham hype for the last month. So instead I just relaxed and watched football without writing about it, catching the Gold Cup, the Copa America, the MLS, and some matches from South America. I am ready and very excited for the new European season, however, as well as the second half of an admittedly fun MLS campaign. Over the next couple of days I will be offering predictions (i.e. blind guesses) about some of the races in Europe, and I will also be making some slightly more educated predictions about where the MLS teams will finish up. Of course, we'll soon be back in the thick of it, as England's Community Shield is this weekend (Manchester United v. Chelsea) and things go from there. I hope everyone is looking forward to the new season as much as I am. Also, thanks to the readers who wrote in asking about me during the break. (All three of you.)

Finally, a note of congratulations to my good friends Matthew and Fritha, who brought fourth a new fan of Newcastle United this weekend, the beautiful Kate Elizabeth. May the Magpies win SOMETHING in the poor girl's lifetime.

A Little Bit on Carlos

2007-07-13T11:13:00.000-05:00

Since I am thinking about the ridiculous today, just a word to let you know that if you aren't following the Carlos Tevez transfer affair, you are missing out not only a completely bizarre story, but one that essentially sums up everything that is wrong with football. Just look at the Tevez story over the past year:

* Tevez and pal Javier Mascherano are transfered to West Ham. Almost certainly illegally. Mascherano is later loaned the same season (again, almost certainly illegally) to Liverpool, helping them to the final of the Champions League. West Ham looks like fools for letting him go. Meanwhile, West Ham stays up thanks to the admittedly awesome play of Tevez. Sheffield United, playing by the rules, go down. (See the When Saturday Comes cover for a clearer explanation if this is confusing.)

* Tevez announces after the season that he loves playing for West Ham.

* A few weeks later, Tevez announces (through intermediaries) he would love to play for Inter Milan. Milan is very interested, and then backs off. Noises are made about Tevez going to Spain.

* Tevez once again opens negotiations with West Ham. The team announces the two sides are "close."

* Out of nowhere, Tevez and agent announce he will be loaned out to Manchester United. West Ham denies this. Hilarity ensues. No one, even respected journalists, seem to understand why West Ham would loan Tevez to ManU.

* When West Ham begins to stall, Tevez's "representative" Kia Joorabchian announces he will essentially release the details of Tevez's contract to the public if the loan isn't approved. The implicit threat is that EVERYONE (Tevez, West Ham, Manchester, the Premiership, FIFA, England, and God's Green Earth) will all be embarrassed and in trouble if details of the contract get out. Suddenly West Ham knocks it off with the threats.

* Newshounds break the story that Kia Joorabchian is a wanted man in South America.

Great. Anyway, it looks like Tevez will sign with Manchester next week, and he will probably be awesome. And a little piece of football fan's souls everywhere will die.

Evil Sheffield United Supporter

2007-07-13T11:04:00.000-05:00

I have been taking it easy with the posts this month, but I had to share this. It is ridiculous, bizarre and in very poor taste. It is also one of the funniest football videos I have ever seen. Go Sheffield United!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg5HsG7AN1Y

My Silly Season

2007-07-10T12:30:00.000-05:00

My apologies to my five or six loyal readers who have been wondering when I will return. Like my football-playing brethren, I have been taking a brief summer break to re-charge my batteries. I have also been taking the occasional trip, although unfortunately I have not and will not be going to Venezuela to see what's left of the Copa America. I will be checking in occasionally over the next month to talk about transfer news, gossip, and the MLS, but I won't be back full-time until August, when the Premiership season starts up again. From there we can together enjoy the start up of all the European Leagues and the wrap up of MLS, as well as the first appearance of David Beckham in an MLS shirt.

So I will only be checking in periodically in July before I come back again full-time in August. Thanks to everyone who wrote in, and enjoy all all the summer football that we get to watch this year!

U.S. v. Argentina Tonight

2007-06-28T10:47:00.000-05:00

Most football fans are watching this year's Copa America, which is already shaping up to be a fun tournament. (Last night's late match, where Mexico spanked Brazil, was great to watch.) Tonight will see one of the highlights for American fans as the U.S. national team takes on Argentina. Most people think Messi and the boys will take apart this inexperienced American squad piece by piece. SI's Jonah Freedman certainly thinks so, in this article below, and I guess I'm inclined to agree. The U.S. didn't bring much firepower. It sure would have been fun to see the U.S. bring their full Gold Cup suqad, however, especially after watching Mexico hand it to co-favorites Brazil last night. (Mexico played a great game and the first goal was GORGEOUS. However, if Robinho had finished that bicycle kick it would have been one for the ages.) Regardless, even if tonight turns into a Messi/Tevez exhibition, it should still be fun.

http://www.fannation.com/blogs/post/24812

In other news (well, Real Madrid news) the team fired coach Fabio Capello less than two weeks after winning la Liga. Gutsy movie, I guess. Capello wins wherever he goes, but I was just as frustrated with him as everyone else at the mid-year when the team was playing so poorly. I guess this just highlights the fact that at Real Madrid the perception is just as important as the football, and when the crowds started to get down on Capello and his "boring" game, nothing could save him. We'll see how the fifth coach in five years does for the boys in white. David, you may have left just in time.

Funny Football

2007-06-26T10:22:00.000-05:00

Since it is a quiet Tuesday morning here in the football world, (nothing much is happening, although Klose just signed with Bayern Munich and Trezeguet resigned with Juve) I need something to distract me from the thought of Henry in a Barca shirt getting a hat trick at Real Madrid. Thus here is a fun little collection of clips (brought to my attention by FourFourTwo) chronicling the lighter side of football. My favorite bit is when the player gets hit by the football. Wait, that's every bit. Anyway, its pretty funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70UrBGfChCA

Monday Quick Hits

2007-06-25T12:40:00.000-05:00

A couple of quick hits on a sunny Monday morning….

Pretty much everyone agrees that yesterday’s Gold Cup final was spectacular. Mexico played very appealing, attacking football the entire game, but the United States’ strong second-half surge won them the cup. Mexico’s goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez played wonderfully in net (it could have been 4-1) and Landon Donavan played a brilliant, brilliant game. He passed it beautifully, especially in the second half. It was fun to watch on television, and it must have been a blast to be there in Chicago in person.
Now I’m really looking forward to the Copa America, which begins in a few days. Like everyone else, I’m excited about seeing the big names on the Argentina team and seeing if they can go all the way. I am also pleased to see that Robinho will get the opportunity to be the fulcrum of the Brazilian attack; he is still one of my favorite players. Hopefully the U.S. can advance to the second round, but they are bringing a VERY young squad. We shall see.
Here is a very sad photograph of Thierry Henry. I did not enjoy seeing this photo this morning. Only a French football player, incidentally, could get away with searing a cardigan and still be considered really cool. Good for you, TH.
Finally, here is an interesting article from the Boston Globe celebrating the rising attendance at New England Revolution matches. Why didn’t that goon reporter interview the Football Fan-atic? Because I always keep it real…

http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer/articles/2007/06/25/spending_it_not_just_on_beckham/

Goodbye Thierry

2007-06-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Thierry Henry, perhaps the greatest player in Arsenal history, and also perhaps the single most popular and admired player in the English Premier League, announced yesterday that he would be playing for the next four years with Barcelona FC. Among the reasons he gave include the departure of club chairman David Dein and the instability surrounding genius manager Arsene Wenger, but it may very well be that Henry believes Arsenal has shot its bolt. After a few years of trophy-laden greatness, Arsenal won nothing this year, and although some thought their youth would come on strong next year, others felt it would be sometime before Arsenal could win again, due largely to the massive debt service the club has to pay to play in its new Emirates Stadium.

It’s a sad day for Arsenal and English football. Henry was a great player, a good guy and the face of his franchise. Some players, whether you like them or not, just belong at their clubs. Stephen Gerrard, for instance, belongs at Liverpool, whether you like him or not. Same for Paulo Maldini at AC Milan or Raul at Real Madrid. Even after they lose it (as Raul has) some guys just belong at certain clubs. I’m sorry to see Henry go.

And as much as I like Thierry, I’m not to happy about him going to Barcelona, where he will play my Real Madrid club at least twice a year. If Barca keeps the rest of their team together (which is a big IF) they will have Henry and Eto’o at forwards with Ronaldinho and Messi on the wings. That, simply, is the best attacking team on the face of the earth. Both Eto’o and Ronaldinho may still go, but it will be interesting to see what happens. In the meantime, goodbye, Thierry. Thanks for the memories.

U.S. National Team Tourney News

2007-06-22T10:03:00.000-05:00

It’s been an interesting week for American international football. Last night the United States squeaked by the Canadian national team in a 2-1 thriller that is already generating controversy in conspiracy circles. At the very end of the game (there must have been ten seconds or so left) Canada scored what looked to be a very good goal that would have tied the game at two goals a piece. The goal was ruled offsides (although no one can see where the offsides were) by the Mexican Referee, and now thus the U.S. will play (surprise!) Mexico in the hotly anticipated final this Sunday on Fox Soccer Channel at 3PM EST. That game should be great fun, in fact, and it is my only recommended game of the weekend. As I said last week, we’ve really entered the lean times in terms of good soccer matches.

I don’t want to look too far ahead when we’ve got such a great game coming, up, but Sport’s Illustrated’s Grant Whal had a nice piece this week that mentioned some of the men who will be playing for Argentina next week against the U.S. in the opening match of the Copa America. Just a few of the Argentineans who will be suiting up in the powder blue stripes to play against the Americans: Lionel Messi, Hernán Crespo, Carlos Tévez, Javier Mascherano, Juan Román Riquelme, Fernando Gago, Diego Milito and Pablo Aimar. Now that, my friends, will be a fun game to watch. It starts Thursday.

A Bit of Extra Reading

2007-06-21T10:25:00.001-05:00

Two interesting little pieces from Sports Illustrated’s soccer page this week: the first is Jonah Freedman’s always fun (and always controversial) Football Power Rankings. This week it is not so controversial (since it is based on trophies won) but still fun.

The second piece is Gabriele Marcotti’s opinion piece on why there has been so little transfer activity so far. I think he makes a few fair points, but I also think he may have shot his load a bit too early; I think we will still see some big names move before the window closes, regardless of the obstacles involved.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/jonah_freedman/06/21/rankings/index.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/gabriele_marcotti/06/20/transfers/index.html

One Last Dance with Phil Ball

2007-06-19T13:11:00.000-05:00

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Phil Ball is one of the best writers in the world writing about football in the English language. His coverage of la Liga is superb. Frankly, I like his stuff so much I would read his column if it was about fly-fishing in Montana.

These last two columns are a wrap-up of the Spanish season and an “all-star” team of la Liga players. Both are a lot of fun. Have a good summer, Mr. Ball. We’ll see you in September.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=439750&root=europe&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1&cc=5901

and

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=439749&root=europe&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos3&cc=5901

Seven Questions About Real Madrid

2007-06-18T10:59:00.000-05:00

Watching yesterday’s stirring Real Madrid victory over Mallorca was probably the most fun I’ve had watching a game this year. Not only did Real win the game, but they did it in their own particular style, coming from behind to win the game and the Liga title over Barca. I loved every minute of it.

Since I live in the U.S., I have the luxury of supporting a number of clubs around the world. Aside from my hometown New England Revolution, I like Fiorentina in Italy, Sheffield United in England and Real Madrid in Spain. Of course, it was nearly a very dry season. Sheffield was relegated (virtually assuring I will not see them on television for all of next year) while Fiorentina had to fight for its life after a huge points deduction. Real Madrid, meanwhile, started the season with some hope before nearly collapsing around the holidays due to infighting, out-of-control egos, poor coaching and even poorer play. On January 7, I tried a new gimmick column where I “graded” every player on the team after a particularly frustrating loss. I didn’t keep up with the idea because this is a general interest football page and not one dedicated solely to Real Madrid. But today I want to talk about the blancos a little more, looking forward to next season in celebration of the great victory they have achieved this weekend. Below are seven questions every Real fan needs to ask as they finally head into the silly season.

What’s Capello Going to Do?
Head Coach Fabio Capello had a strange year. He began the season with great promise and expensive new signings. He loaded up even more during the winter break. But the first half of the year was a disaster; winnable games were lost and even wins were completed in a grim and boring style. There was serious talk of the great coach being fired around Christmas. After the holidays he benched David Beckham, a move he himself later judged to be among the worst decisions of his career. (This week he said Beckham was one of the greatest players he has ever coached.)

On the plus side, Capello eventually reinstated the former English skipper and the club went on an unprecedented winning streak that culminated in the league title, Real’s first in four years. By the end of the season Real was virtually spotting the opposition a goal every time then coming back with two or three of their own. Capello got the boys to believe in what they were doing, and by admitting and correcting his own mistakes, he saved the season. Should he be brought back? Yes? Will he? I don’t know; no one is even sure if he wants to come back at this point.

Why would Real Madrid let some homeless man play center-forward for them, and while wearing Raul’s shirt, no less?
Wait, that was Raul. He just played the entire season like a homeless man who had never seen a football before, alternating between being terrible and being invisible. Capello’s hard-man coaching style did not extend to Raul, probably the only sacred cow left in Real’s stable. Will they put up with another year of this for the fans or finally get some help for van Nistleroy? Stay tuned…

Who will replace Beckham?
David Beckham, along with Rudd van Nistleroy, was Real’s best player and arguably one of the five or six best players in all of Spain for the last two months of the season. We all know he is going to LA to become a scientologist, but who will play the Beckham role for Madrid? Franck Ribery was an appealing option, but he has gone to Bayern Munich. Real will have to look elsewhere, and replacing his passing, crosses, free kicks, and leadership will not be easy.

What’s the future of Robinho?
Robinho, at times, looks like he has the potential to be the best player in the world. And I love how he attacks, attacks, attacks. But he was given a major chance to start a bunch of games at the tail end of the season and didn’t produce like his fans had hoped. Like Christiano Ronaldo, he needs to move from the pretty stepovers to finishing, and he needs to do it soon. There are rumors he may be sold this summer; if not, he probably has one more chance to prove himself, and I sure hope he does.

How fast is Cannavaro going to high-tail it back to Italy?
Presumably, very fast. As I said in my January 7 column, there has probably never been a worse reining player of the year than Fabio Cannavaro, who has had some nice moments but generally has looked startlingly slow as opponents have continuously blown by him for easy goals. Cannavaro was more comfortable in defensive-minded Italy, and Real needs a stopper in the back that allows the hugely talented Sergio Ramos to go forward.

What will Real do on the transfer market?
Most of the news involves Kaka, with a smattering of stories about Henry. Obviously, either one would look great in the white shirt, but someone would need to explain to me why AC Milan/Arsenal would sell either one. Regardless, Madrid needs help at forward, on the wings and at center back. Plus, they have to fill the geriatric shoes of Roberto Carlos. And there could be, of course, massive changes at Barca, where everyone seems to be available except for little Leo Messi. Hard not to imagine there won’t be one major (dare I say “galactic”) signing.

Am I looking forward to my vacation for Ray Hudson?
In a word: yes. Like a kid looking forward to Christmas.

Real Madrid Wins!

2007-06-17T21:35:00.000-05:00

Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! Real Madrid Wins! v=Real Madrid Wins!

More tommorow.

Weekend Matches: June 16-17

2007-06-15T10:29:00.000-05:00

If you happen to hear any quiet, gentle sobbing in the distance this weekend as you go about your business, just ignore it. It is me weeping because the Spanish football season is coming to an end. We will know who the Champions of Spain are by about 5:00 PM EST on Sunday. Meanwhile, all three games I am featuring on Saturday will actually be played at Foxboro Stadium, which means I will be in attendance in my usual corner seat. If you see a fat guy watching the game, that’s either me or one of the other ten thousand fat guys taking in a Gold Cup match.

Go USA. Go Real Madrid.

Saturday

1:00pm Canada vs Guatemala GolTv

4:00pm USA vs Panama FSC, GolTv

6:30pm New England Revolution vs Columbus Crew FSC

Sunday

11:00am Bilbao vs Levante GolTv

3:00pm Real Madrid vs Mallorca GolTv

3:00pm Mexico vs Costa Rica FSC

Gold Cup

2007-06-14T14:30:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, June 12, my buddy and I took in the gold cup double-header in Foxboro, Massachusetts. On the field, we saw some decent action; the U.S. manhandled El Salvador by a score of 4-0. Old friend Clint Dempsy (who used to play for the New England Revolution, the tenant of Gillette Stadium in Foxboro) looked strong, as did fellow New England homeboy Taylor Twellman. Honestly, El Salvador wasn’t much of a test (they played one man up front, packed the midfield and looked like they were praying for a draw) but it was still fun to watch. The nightcap saw Trinidad and Tobago draw Guatemala 1-1. I saw most of this match from the comfort of my couch; as soon as the US game was over I headed home because of a downpour. I know, I’m a baby.

Probably the most fun aspect of the games was not the play, however, but the fans. This was my first international tournament, and it was a pleasure to see the various peoples come out in their national colors and support their teams. It seemed to my eyes that the US had the biggest following (unsurprising, since the game was played in the US) but not by much, and the US fans not in the “singing section” of Gillette tended to be on the quiet side. The Guatemalan fan contingent were nearly as large as the US, and twice as passionate, coming draped in flags and face paint, and carrying drums. Even though Guatemala was not playing the US, they came out to passionately cheer for whoever was playing against the hosts. El Salvador’s fans were not as numerous but were also quite impressive, cheering hard for every tackle and won ball, especially early in the match before the score got out of hand. Only the T&T fan group was small and relatively quiet.

Matches held at Gillette stadium are usually quiet affairs involving ten or eleven thousand people; it often seems even less than that because the stadium is so big. It was good to see a big, enthusiastic crowd there on Tuesday, and I am looking forward to the triple-header on Saturday. On top of a Revs game we also get Canada v. Guatemala and the U.S. v. Panama. It should be fun.

Prem Fixture List

2007-06-14T08:05:00.000-05:00

Below find a link to next season's fixture list in the premiership. I love it; la Liga isn't even over yet and we already have the matches for next season in England.

I'll have more later today on the Gold Cup.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=438257&cc=5901

Henry on the Way Out?

2007-06-12T13:08:00.000-05:00

Today has seen a flood of conflicting reports concerning the future of, perhaps, the most popular player in the English game: Arsenal striker Thierry Henry. France Football magazine reported this morning that Henry was going to Barcelona. (Perish the thought.) Henry rubbished this but enigmatically said his future "still hasn't been decided" and continued to express anger over David Dein leaving the Arsenal boardroom. Curiously, it seems the papers are continuing to go with this story in spite of the Henry denial, so there might in fact be a little fire to go with this smoke. Keep your eyes on this one, for it could be the biggest move of the year. if it isn't all crap.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=438251&cc=5901

More Spain

2007-06-11T14:48:00.000-05:00

Here is an amusing column by CNN/SI columnist Greg Llalas on the whole Beckham/Real Madrid/LA Galaxy non-controversey that has been going around lately.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/greg_lalas/06/11/beckham.real/index.html

Weekend Wrap-Up

2007-06-11T10:46:00.000-05:00

Well, it was an all-around fun weekend these past few days for the football fan. There was some great football and some fun moments. I’ll wrap things up this week with a few quick hits that can get you caught up on anything you missed.

1). There was a PHENOMONAL weekend of football in Spain this past weekend. We saw controversy, heroics, and a ton of action. All three of the top three clubs drew, which means next week will finally (and sadly, as I wish this fun could go on forever) settle everything. I could summarize al the action for you, but the great Phil Ball does it better in one of his best columns of the year.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=437945&root=europe&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1&cc=5901

2). Staying in Spain, this weekend also demonstrated why I have a love/hate relationship with GolTV. On one hand, they showed all three big games in Spain this weekend. (The Real game, the Barca game, and the Sevilla game.) They showed the Real game live, and the latter two on tape. All this is good.

However, they made the ridiculous decision to try this triple split screen at times, which did nothing but make all three games unwatchable unless you had a mega-big screen. Further, because of the split screen nonsense, I missed one of the van Nistleroy goals. Bah. On top of all this, they used the same announcer for the Barca game that they did for the Real game, and he called the game as if it was live even though all the viewers well knew that he had just watched the damn game while calling Real. That’s bad enough, but to top it off the announcer was the unfathomably bad Ray Hudson. All of that is bad.

3). One more weird note from Spain. Now that Beckham is playing great (Capello says he’s as good as he was when he played at Manchester United), we are getting the inevitable slew of stories about how Real is trying to get him to renege on his contract with the Galaxy and stay there. A typical story can be found here:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=437906&cc=5901

All along, I had hoped Beckham stayed in Spain. He is a world-class player and deserves to play in a world-class league. I could have waited a few years to see him in the MLS. But Real screwed up by not signing him (they have admitted it was a huge mistake) and now there’s nothing they can do about it. So they might as well stop bitching and get on with finding a replacement. I can’t believe they let Ribery go to Munich…

4). Finally, the U.S. is cruising through the Gold Cup, although interestingly enough Mexico is having some problems. I will be at the third U.S. group match in Foxboro, Massachusetts on Tuesday and also at the quarterfinal on Saturday. I will file a report when I get a moment.

Weekend Matches: June 9, 2007

2007-06-08T09:36:00.000-05:00

All right, I’ll admit it: it’s a weird weekend coming up. Saturday is an absolutely gangbusters day of football, but Sunday is so poor I didn’t find a single game that interests me. So just DVR some of the Saturday games and watch them on Sunday. The highlight of the day is the three big matches in Spain which might, just might, settle things. But look for things to go until next weekend. Anyway, Hopefully Real can get the job done against Zaragoza and Espanyol doesn’t take the day off vs. Barca. We shall see.

Also keep an eye out for the second US group match in the Gold Cup (they beat a feisty Guatemala team last night, thanks to the efforts of once and future New England Revolution players) as well as the usual slate of MLS games. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Saturday

3:00pm Zaragoza vs Real Madrid GolTv

5:00pm Barcelona vs Espanyol GolTv

5:00pm USA vs Trinidad FSC

7:00pm Mallorca vs Sevilla GolTv

8:30pm Chicago Fire vs CD Chivas FSC

Programming Note

2007-06-07T14:34:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder to all of you out there that the U.S. Men's National Team will be playing footballing and geopolitical powerhouse Guatemala tonight at 9PM in a Gold Cup Match. The game will be broadcast on Fox Soccer Channel. I encourage you all to watch.

Book Review: Keane: The Autobiography, by Roy Keane with Eamon Dunphy

2007-06-06T13:05:00.000-05:00

“Taking him [Eric Cantona] down a peg or two seemed to be objective number one for the opposition hard men. Perhaps part-time men would be a better description. For what really bugged us was the thought that these guys were out to make a name for themselves by sorting us out. Why the fuck didn’t they put that effort in every week, then maybe they wouldn’t be playing for fucking Norwich or Swindon.” (page 114.)

The above quotation from Roy Keane’s autobiography tells you everything you need to know about this fantastic book. First, it has deservedly earned the reputation of the being the best, most honest autobiography ever written by a player still in the game. (Keane has since retired and become a very successful manager with Sunderland.) Every line makes you feel like you are living Keane’s VERY intense life right beside him. Secondly, the book is incredibly funny, just as the quote above can’t help but make you laugh. Finally, and sadly, Keane intense life largely makes him unlovable; as you can tell from the quote above, he was often an incredible jerk.

Roy Keane played center midfield for Manchester United for more than a decade. During that time they had a remarkable run of success, winning multiple premierships trophies, FA Cups and a European Championship. There were flashier player at United during the decade (Eric Cantona, David Beckham, and Ryan Giggs, just to name a few) but none worked harder or more intensely than Keane. By anchoring the midfield he allowed the scorers of United to go forward and win so many critical games by wide margins (4-1 seemed an average premiership victory at Old Trafford in the 1990s). Along the way Keane becomes disgusted by, well, nearly everyone for their lack of commitment to the cause. No one is as hungry as him; no one will take the game as seriously. The only two people to escape serious criticism in the book are United gaffer Alex Ferguson (perhaps the only man as intense and committed as Keane) and Keane’s saintly wife Theresa. God bless her.

Keane obviously loves United and most of the players who played there (with the exception being Peter Schmeichel), but he eventually decided they became too soft and complacent after winning the Treble in 1999. Keane saves his harshest criticisms, however, for the Irish national team, which he persuasively argues did not take itself or any of the tournaments it entered seriously, always taking a “just glad to be here” attitude. It was an attitude that disgusted Keane, and he eventually and famously left the Irish national team on the eve of the 2002 World Cup.

Keane personally comes off at times as a very unlikable man. He’s critical of almost everyone he meets, and openly states that no one (except Alex Ferguson) cares as much about football as he does. He constantly bitches about things that would make a regular person gag, such as carrying his own luggage through an airport or having to sit in coach on airline flights. (Poor baby.) It’s a bizarre thing to (constantly) complain about, seeing as he makes a point of describing how he grew up relatively poor in Ireland.

Still, this is a remarkable book. Reading it, one is given an idea of how football really is, how it is a business, and how sometimes its employees don’t care as much as they probably should. It gives you a glimpse into the life of a truly great player, and what things are like in the clubhouse, on the pitch, and on the street. Keane (and his co-author Dunphy, who has done a remarkable job) deserve all the credit in the world for writing this truly honest, engaging book. It has well earned its title as one of the best football autobiographies ever written.

More Spanish Hype

2007-06-06T09:48:00.000-05:00

Here is a good column by Jon Carter summarizing the last two weekends of Spanish football that are coming up. I can't really express how excited I am by these last two weeks. It's pretty much all I have left. After this it is just the MLS and South American football until the Charity Shield is played in August. I don't know how I'll make it. Prepare for a few entries on the exciting world of Argentinian league football!

In other Spanish/Real Madrid news, it looks like old friend Roberto Carlos will be playing in Turkey next year. Turkey!?! C'mon, Roberto! Come to the MLS! It's wine, women, and song over here! Plus, the plane ride to Rio is a hell of a lot shorter. I would love to see you playing a half-assed left back for the New York Red Bulls or something. Next contract, come here! Hopefully you can play until you're 45....

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=436827&root=europe&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1&cc=5901

Chelsea News

2007-06-05T13:06:00.000-05:00

I know I am running the risk of this website becoming little more than a collection of links, but hey, it's the Silly Season. Not much is going on. I can only write so much about the New England Revolution midfield and what David Beckham had for lunch before I go nuts. Below is an interesting article on the summer spending of Chelsea FC, and how they buck the trend of spending lots of cash this summer. It's hard not to assume, however, they they will not ultimately be real players in the market.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=436381&root=england&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos1&cc=5901

Rumblings from Munich (No, not the bad kind)

2007-06-04T14:51:00.000-05:00

Lovable Fatherland club Bayern Munich is making quite a splash in the early days of the silly season. First, they bought one of my top-five favorite players, Luca Toni, from Fiorentina for a mere 11 million pounds. (At the rate good strikers are going these days, I thought that was a steal.) Now rumors are that Bayern is also going to get Franck Riberey. (See the related story below.) This all quite impressive for a club that will not be playing in the Champions league next year; apparently they have sold themselves quite convincingly to these players. Or they just gave them a bunch of money. Anyway, keep your eyes on those crazy Germans in case they do anything else unexpected. Don't forget what Churchill said: "Bayern Munich is either at your feet, or at your neck..."

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=436431&cc=5901

Weekend Fun!

2007-06-04T10:19:00.000-05:00

This weekend I attended the grim 0-0 draw between New England and Real Salt Lake in an MLS showdown. If it wasn’t for the delicious frozen lemonade they sell at Foxboro stadium, the night might have been a complete disappointment. New England played a fairly lackluster game, often losing the ball in the midfield. They did create a few scoring chances, but nothing could come of it. My buddy commented that no one on the Revolution seems to be able to create their own shot; the exception is Khano Smith, who can always create his own shot but promptly shoots it into the fifth row of seats…

If New England looked bad, Salt Lake appeared dire. All eyes were on Freddy Adu, who had a moment or two of nice stepovers, but otherwise was invisible for 85 minutes. I think we can close the book on Freddy playing center-forward for Manchester United or Barcelona; the poor kid has enough to worry about just keeping his spot in the MLS.

Below find a good article by Kevin Palmer on why Steve McClaren will likely be shitcanned if he doesn’t lead his squad to a convincing victory against Estonia on Wednesday. That should be fun.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=436100&root=euro2008&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos1&cc=5901

England V. Brazil

2007-06-01T22:43:00.000-05:00

Jon Carter's fine take on the England-Brazil friendly played today at the new Wembly can be found below, and it is worth a quick read.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=435746&root=england&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1&cc=5901

Weekend Matches: June 2-3

2007-06-01T14:31:00.000-05:00

Meh. We are on an International weekend, so no matches in Spain, etc. England plays Brazil today, and there are a FEW interesting internationals, including France v. Ukraine and USA v. China on Saturday. Don’t forget that the MLS is steaming ahead as always this weekend, so check your local listings for your local teams…

Saturday

2:30pm Latvia vs Spain FSC

2:45pm Belgium vs Portugal Setanta PPV

3:00pm France vs Ukraine Setanta

8:00pm USA vs China ESPN2

10:00pm Los Angeles Galaxy vs. DC United FSC

Sunday

3:00pm Colon vs Boca Juniors FSC

Finally a Fun Friendly?

2007-05-31T11:12:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder that that England and Brazil play in a friendly tomorrow at the New Wembly stadium in London. There’s a lot of hype surrounding the game, what with Beckham’s return, Hargreaves’s first appearance since becoming a Red Devil, and the Samba boys at the new home of football. Hopefully, regardless of the hype, it will be a fun game, despite the fact that it is a friendly, and thus it could potentially be ninety minutes of guys kicking the ball around the field. There is hope, however, as England really should be playing to win in spite of the essential meaninglessness of the game. If England goes down early to Brazil, expect the boo-birds to come out in force calling for Steve McClaren’s head.

I also wanted to add to the American readers that the game will be shown on Fox Soccer Channel, and not Sentana, so more soccer viewers will be able to see it. The game will be shown live at 3PM, EST. Enjoy.

Fun in Foxboro

2007-05-30T13:11:00.000-05:00

This weekend my buddy and I exercised our season tickets to catch a double-header at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. First we saw a friendly between Ireland and Bolivia and chased it with the Kansas City Wizards vs. New England Revolution.

We had high hopes for the first match but, as with many friendlies, we were left disappointed. We saw a few minutes of good football and about eighty minutes of 22 guys kicking it around. We saw Kevin Doyle, a guy we’ve been watching with Reading all season, so that was fun; but otherwise it was poor game.

The nightcap was fantastic. A classic. Kansas City won 4-3 because Eddie Johnson was the best player (by far) on the field and had a sweet hat-trick. The Revs played with real guts, however, and kept coming back for more. We believed they were close to tying the match when time ran out. They are a fun team and their success this season has been no fluke.

However, the game will also be memorable for other reasons. During the match we saw Khano Smith (who has been fun to watch this season) launch what is already being called by some on the internet the “worst free kick of all time.” In all honesty, it was pretty bad. In the clip from youtube attached below, you can see the kick along with the nutty coach Steve Nicol appropriately took when he saw what his winger produced. If you look closely you can also see my buddy and I watching things from the second row, or at least two colored blobs that are located approximately where we were during the match.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECpv353fjkA

Two to Read

2007-05-30T08:51:00.000-05:00

Here are two fun columns on the genial wackiness happening in Spain. Unfortunately, we are taking a little break from la Liga this weekend for some internationals, but this should whet your appetites until things start again in a few weeks. The first article is a nice piece on Real and Beckham by SI’s Grant Whal, while the second is Phil Ball’s Spanish weekend round-up which I provide every week. (A little late this week, due to the US holiday Memorial Day.) I’ll be back with more later.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/grant_wahl/05/27/beckham/index.html

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=434532&root=europe&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos3&cc=5901

Not a Bad Day for David Beckham…

2007-05-26T22:22:00.000-05:00

…although, honestly, he probably doesn’t have all that many to begin with, what with the millions of dollars and the playing football for a living and all. Still, this one was pretty good. First, he was the central part of his club, Real Madrid, winning today, keeping them in first place in la Liga. He did it by setting up two goals and generally commanding things from midfield. If you watched the match carefully you would note that he missed a hat-trick by about two feet, although he actually didn’t score at all; he banged a free kick off the post and rolled two other shots that passes within a foot of the outside post. So, all-in-all, it was a good game. Barca won as well today to keep pace, although Ronaldinho was given first dibs on the soap because of a red card and thus will not be playing next week. Just like this week (and the last few weeks) next weekend looks to be another great one in la Liga.

David Beckham was also called back up to the English national team today, a band of merry men he used to captain. Since Steve McClaren’s men presently could not beat the England U-13 girls squad, the coach thought it might be a good idea to bring back a guy who can do crazy things like complete short passes and, you know, cross the ball once in a while. Becks will get a shot during next week’s friendly against Brazil (meaningless but hopefully two tons of fun) and also their Euro 2008 qualifier versus Estonia. Better win that one, boys, or the crazy English press will REALLY get mad. And let’s all admit that it’s good to see Beckham back in the fold. I’m looking forward to getting him here in the states this summer.

Weekend Matches: May 26-27

2007-05-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

Ugh. The end of the European Leagues is sad: no more Premiership, no more (meaningful) Series A, no more Cup runs and especially no more Champions League. I’m getting a little chocked up. Thank God for la Liga. Everything is still tight and still going strong. Real Madrid and Barca play on Saturday; Sevilla tries to keep up on Sunday.

Stateside, I have a fun slate of games to go to Saturday afternoon. The Irish national team takes on Bolivia at Foxboro, Massachusetts’ Gillette Stadium, followed by the New England Revolution taking on the Kansas City Wizards. I will report back. In the meantime, keep an eye on your local listings for MLS games televised near you.

Saturday

10:00am Celtic vs Dunfermline Athletic Setanta

12:00pm Valencia vs Villarreal GolTv

2:00pm Real Madrid vs Dep. La Coruna GolTv

4:00pm Barcelona vs Getafe GolTv

Sunday

9:00am Reggina vs Milan GolTv

3:00pm Sevilla vs Zaragoza GolTv

American Ownership of Prem Clubs

2007-05-25T09:12:00.000-05:00

Below find a link to an article in the Boston Globe (?!?) about Americans buying English football teams, and whether it is good for the English game. It is rare that an American paper has a serious article about football (never mind that it is my hometown rag) so I wanted to link to it. Nothing ground-breaking here for the serious fan, but it could serve as a good primer for someone wondering why the same guy who owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers also owns Manchester United.

http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer/articles/2007/05/25/over_there/

Champions Thoughts

2007-05-24T13:55:00.000-05:00

President Bill Clinton (the man who will be remembered as the guy who served as President right before the Worst President in U.S. History took over) once said "Even a pig finds shit sometimes." He said it after scoring a rare birdie on the golf course and was suggesting that even the meek get their day in the sun once in a while.

The same thought could apply to me: after humiliating myself most of the year with God-awful predictions, I correctly called the Champions League final yesterday being a 2-1 victory for Milan. It's nice to be right once in a while. I will now go back to being consistently wrong.

One could ALMOST apply the phrase to Milan as well; they played like pigs in the first half but came into the break leading 1-0. They probably were the superior team in the second, and deserved the win. Liverpool played well (except for their two wingers) but they played very defensively, even after going down 1-0. Its hard not to think the better team won.

It has been, as many have observed, a funny season for Milan and for Italy in general; I have covered many of the ups-and-downs in this space and won't start rehashing things yet again, but it is instructive how much a football season in Italy can reflect the vicissitudes of real life. Anyway, congrats to Milan, and kudos to UEFA for putting on a tournament that I, at least, really enjoyed this year.

On another note, with the end of UEFA Champion's League, it means the silly season of rumors and transfers can get underway. Much more on this as the summer progresses, but here is a fun column by ESPN's Jon Carter on potential transfers in the premiership.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=432875&root=england&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab4pos1&cc=5901

Champions Final

2007-05-22T13:58:00.000-05:00

I’m a bit busier that I expected today, so I am just throwing out a quick prediction for tomorrow’s big, big game.

Milan 2, Liverpool 1.

Really just a guess. First, I don’t think the 2005 final is going to have much to do with it; in spite of the media hype it was two years ago and there is tons of turnover every year at the big clubs. Essentially I like Milan because I think they are a little stronger on attack and do a better job of holding onto the ball. I also think that Kaka will be the best player on the pitch and in this year’s Champions League is playing as well as he ever has in his life. I like the Liverpool team but think their magical run is coming to an end, in spite of the wonderful work done by Rafa and the coaching staff.

All bets are off, however, if Dida has one of his stinkers. There isn’t a world-class goalie around who can look worse (on his off days) than Dida. If that’s the case than 3-2 Liverpool. Bold predictions, isn’t it?

Weekend in Spain before Vacationing in Athens

2007-05-21T16:47:00.000-05:00

Sunday was a fun day to plunk in front of the television and watch Spanish football. Eleven AM (EST) had Sevilla’s come-from-behind victory, followed by Real Madrid’s strange (but phenomenal) win and finally Barcelona’s destruction of Athletico Madrid in the late game. Real Madrid stays in front but level with Barca on points with Sevilla (and others) only a hairsbreadth behind.

Readers know I am a Real fan, so that is the game I watched the closest. The turnaround the team has produced in the last two months has been quite remarkable; it got to the point in yesterday’s game when, after Recreativo tied the match with less than four minutes to play, I honestly believed Real would come back to win it. This is from a team that, when I watched them mid-winter, would genuinely surprise me when they scored a goal.

I’ve been though a lot with Real in their up-and-down year. At one point, after a particularly embarrassing loss, I tried a new gimmick of giving each of the players a “grade” as a way of expressing my frustration with the team. (See the January 7 entry of the blog.) I remember that game clearly but it seems a long time ago now. The feelings of rage and frustration while watching Real play have been replaced by a very hopeful optimism.

Regardless, we are essentially where were last week. Real, Barca, and Sevilla all still have a perfectly good shot at the title. After looking poor for weeks, Barca manhandled Athletico, just a few days after Xavi essentially told the media that the Barca players have stopped trying. What we are left with, then, is another fun weekend coming up and a wide-open race.

Below please find the link to Phil Ball’s latest column, where he discusses conspiracy theories and the sordid underbelly of la Liga. Yikes.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=432179&root=europe&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1&cc=5901

Finally, I will be posting predictions tomorrow for the Champions League final. Mostly I am hoping for a good game. There have been a few “big games” this year that haven’t really lived up to the hype, and I’m hoping we have a classic.

FA Cup Reaction

2007-05-20T11:11:00.000-05:00

Yesterday’s FA Cup final held at the new Wembly Stadium in London was hardly a classic, but it was a good example of why Chelsea has been such a successful team these past three years and also why Jose Mourinho is such a good coach.

I would argue that for the past year Manchester United has looked liked the stronger team. They attacked more, and when healthy had a very convincing defense. Emotionally, (and personally) they won me over during their second leg 7-1 thrashing of Roma in the Champions League, when they attacked and attacked with unrelenting flair and pace. I found myself rooting hard for them the rest of the season, almost as hard as I rooted against Chelsea, a team that seemed to win every match in a negative fashion, usually 1-0.

Does that score sound familiar? They ground another one out yesterday, thanks to a fine Didier Drogba goal in the 116th minute of tense extra-time. The game was not particularly exciting, and many of the stars (Christiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Frank Lampard, etc.) did not play very well. In what was probably the least impressive piece of prognostication ever uttered, I commented to my friend that Drogba would be dangerous if he got in the box with the ball, which is about as sharp as commenting that Diego Maradona was a pretty good footballer. Anyway, Drogba proved me right, and Chelsea came away with an uninspiring win.

The point is, I guess, that Chelsea did win. It’s their second trophy of the season in a year that has been labeled a “down” season and one in which the manager’s job is apparently in jeopardy. Look: if football was judged solely on aesthetics, Mourinho should be fired, and the team should be broken up. But Chelsea wins, even when they are going through a tough time, and you have to admire that, no matter how big the payroll and not matter how negative the football. Congrats to them.

All the same, I will be avoiding their games like the plague until they start playing a little bit more pleasurable soccer. But I will admire them from a distance.

Weekend Matches: May 19-20

2007-05-18T11:52:00.000-05:00

I would like to begin today with a quick note about an invention called the “DVR” or Digital Video Recorder. I have commented to friends that said device has literally “changed my life” since it allows me to watch anything I want, when I want to watch it, without commercial interruption. This is a great thing especially for football fans, since many of the best matches come on the weekends when we should be mowing the lawn or taking our wives shopping or some such thing. (I presume, nay hope, that I might have one or two female readers; please excuse the sexism of the previous sentence.) Anyway, a DVR is great, since I can tape the games of a Saturday afternoon and watch them at my leisure, which is usually midnight on Sunday since I pretty much don’t have leisure time. However, there is a flaw in the DVR system. When you record a show, you essentially record a block of airtime on a channel; this is a system that works well for regularly scheduled programs that run at set schedules. It actually also works well for soccer, which rarely has “overtime” as American sports fans understand it. The exception, of course, are cup finals.

Which is what we had Wednesday with the UEFA Cup final held in Glasgow. Sevilla and Espanyol kicked off at 2:30 (EST) but I turned on my recording around 4. I saw an exciting game and the recording ran all to way to Kanute’s extra-time goal 105 minutes in. My recording then ended (ARRGGGHHH!) but I presumed Sevilla won. Of course I missed Espanyol’s classic equalizer and Sevilla’s eventually win in the shootout. The lesson: live by the DVR, but die by it as well.

This weekend has a great slate of games. If you are a fan of Spanish football, you get to see three in a row on Sunday that could determine the fate of the league. Either block off five hours mid-Sunday, or set your DVRs, and hope for no extra time.

I have also heard rumors that there is to be some sort of important football match in England this weekend. I shall look into and report back to my readers if I discover something significant.

Saturday

10:00am FA Cup Final - Chelsea vs Manchester United PPV

4:00pm Milan vs Udinese GolTv

8:30pm Huston Dynamo vs New England Revolution FSC

Sunday

9:00am Atalanta vs Inter GolTv

9:00am Cagliari vs Roma FSC

11:00am Deportivo La coruna vs Sevilla GolTv

1:00pm Recreativo vs Real Madrid GolTv

3:00pm Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona GolTv

The End is Coming!!!

2007-05-15T10:29:00.000-05:00

With a little distance I am becoming calmer and more rational about Sheffield United going down. This too shall pass. But now some of the news agencies are starting to come up with stories suggesting just how serious this legal challenge might be to West Ham not having points deducted for their fling with their Argentines. And on top of all that, it looks as if Sepp Blatter and his cronies at FIFA also want to get involved; so maybe we haven’t seen the last of crazy ole’ Neil Warnock quite yet. See related article below.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=430364&cc=5901

Also, in my attempt to look on the bright side of life, I’ve had time to reflect on the awesomeness of Real Madrid over the past few weeks. Thank goodness we have a few weeks left of la Liga so I can continue to be entertained. It will be a great race. The always excellent Phil Ball’s weekly column, by the way, can be found here.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=430331&root=europe&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1&cc=5901

The only sad part of all this is my slowly dawning realization that the European season is coming to an end. Take a look at the weekend schedule for soccer on the great website livesoccertv.com: you will see that some channels, like FSC, are already switching over to re-runs. It’s like waking up as a kid on December 26 and realizing there are 364 days ‘till Christmas…