Champions League: Tuesday and Wednesday

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

Champions!

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

Champions Thoughts

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

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?

Champions Recap

After a relatively exciting four matches in this week’s Champions League play, I thought I would provide a brief recap of the games. I’m looking forward to at least three of the four games next week.

Liverpool – PSV

Tuesday’s Liverpool game was the only blowout; by winning three nil on the road, the Merceysiders virtually assured advancement to the semi-finals. As the otherwise intolerable Tommy Smyth pointed out, Liverpool didn’t even play that well; Steven Gerrard was in and out of the game, for instance, but did score a nice goal. Incidentally, if Tommy Smyth refers to the goal net as the “auld onion bag” one more time, I am going back to being a baseball fan.

Bayern Munich – Milan

An exciting game that saw Bayern pip two away goals, resulting in a 2-2 draw. Strangely, Milan was probably the better team for the majority of the game (probably for about 75 of the 90 minutes) but should have lost; Kaka was awarded a very dubious penalty with little time remaining. Milan is confident going into the next round, but those two away goals are crucial. Hard not to see Bayern advancing.

Valencia – Chelsea

In my mind the stinker of the bunch; has there been a Chelsea game this year that has been exciting for a neutral observer? 1-1 draw suits Valencia, and right now I expect them to hold on to win it, even though earlier this year I picked Chelsea to win the tournament.

Manchester United – Roma

Maybe the best game of the week. I thought it was curtains when Manchester went a goal and a man down, but they managed to get one back and hang on for a 2-1 loss, which puts them in decent position for the return at Old Trafford. I usually give nut-stomping Wayne Rooney a hard time, but he demonstrated excellent control in chesting down the entry pass and scoring a sweet goal. I’m happy for that little fire hydrant of a man.

The Champions are back

This weekend witnessed a pretty good slate of games, including further proof that this is Peter Crouch’s world, and that the rest of us just live in it. He scored three goals in the Liverpool game against Arsenal, using both his feet and his head. I personally saw the Milan game, which was better in the second half than in the first, and the Real Madrid game, which was better when Robinho came in with about 35 minutes left in the second half and eventually scored the winning goal.

It’s going to be a good week this week, seeing how the Champions League is starting up again. On Tuesday we have Milan v. Bayern Munich and PSV v. Liverpool. On Wednesday we have Roma v. Manchester United and Chelsea v. Valencia. I am very much looking forward to watching all four games.

So who do I like? I have Milan and Liverpool winning on the first day, and Manchester and Valencia on the second. All four games seem like they should be good, but for the best bet I am looking at the Roma v. Manchester match, which will be a good test of two very good football clubs and also an interesting test of two leagues as the Premiership and Series A go head-to-head. With the right breaks the Champions League could turn into the England Invitational (three out of the four semi-finalists could be from England) but I do think Totti and co. will give Fergie’s boys all they can handle.

Champions League Draw

The draw was announced this morning for the next round of Champions League play; looks like the organizers managed to keep the English teams apart and generally set up some good match-ups. The Roma-Manchester tie and the Chelsea-Valencia tie seem to have the potential to be great matches.

I‘ll have this weekend’s matches up in a bit.

Tuesday, April 3

AC Milan v Bayern Munich

PSV Eindhoven v Liverpool

Wednesday, April 4

AS Roma v Manchester United

Chelsea v Valencia

Tuesday, April 10

Manchester United v AS Roma

Valencia v Chelsea

Wednesday, April 11

Bayern Munich v AC Milan

Liverpool v PSV Eindhoven

Semi-finals

Tuesday, April 24

AS Roma/Manchester United v AC Milan/Bayern Munich

Wednesday, April 25

Chelsea/Valencia v PSV Eindhoven/Liverpool

Tuesday, May 1

PSV Eindhoven/Liverpool v Chelsea/Valencia

Wednesday, May 2

AC Milan/Bayern Munich v AS Roma/Manchester United

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL

Will be played at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, on May 23 2007.

The Prediction Business

In Monday’s column, I threw out an educated guess suggesting Inter and Chelsea would be playing in the Champions League final. I also suggested that Lyon would continue to do well in the tournament. Of course, Inter and Lyon were booted last night and Chelsea had to squeak by Porto (in a dreadful game, by the way.) The basic lesson is that you should ignore any predictions I make in the future.


I did enjoy yesterdays’ Barca-Liverpool game, however. Liverpool deserved to win, and played very well particularly in the first half. I was surprised Messi and Eto’o really had no effect at all on the game; credit Liverpool’s defense, I guess, but I do wonder if the Barca team will be broken up at the end of the season; there are rumors surrounding all three of their star players, and in truth they are not playing well together.

Today I am excited for three out of the four games: Real-Bayern, Celtic-Milan, and Manchester-Lille. I expect Manchester to pull it out with the goal advantage, and I am hoping Milan wins at home. The Real game is, perhaps, the toughest to predict: Real is a goal up but allowed two away goals to the Germans: It’s a tall task for any team, and Real really has been awful all season. It’s absolutely amazing that Beckham was “permanently” benched a few weeks ago, but he has now become so instrumental to Real’s success that his knee injury seems to have spelled doom for his club. Real is truly dysfunctional, and I predict they will loose tonight. However, you can see above what my predictions are worth. Enjoy today’s games.



Today’s games are:


2:30pm Arsenal vs PSV Eindhoven Setanta, UEFA

2:30pm Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid UEFA

2:30pm Manchester Unites vs Lille ESPN2, UEFA

2:45pm AC Milan vs Celtic Setanta, UEFA

5:00pm Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid ESPNCC, Setanta

Champions Games Today

Today features a big slate of games as the Champions League continues. I expect Chelsea to win today, as well as Lyon and Inter. The best match of the day should be, of course, Liverpool v. Barca. Liverpool is a goal up and scored two away goals. I keep waiting for Barca to turn it on, but they continue to struggle (by their standards, at least) both in Europe and in La Liga. I am hoping it is an entertaining, attacking match. I can’t see why it wouldn’t be. Today is the sort of day we are interested in football in the first place.

(Note: All games are broadcast on a pay-per-view basis on UEFA.com, if you do not receive the channels the games are televised on. I have never done the pay-per-view thing on UEFA, so I can’t say how it works. ESPN2 will show the Liverpool game live, followed by the Chelsea game on tape at 5:00 on ESPN classic. All times are EST.)

2:30pm Chelsea vs Porto Setanta USA, UEFA

2:30pm Liverpool vs Barcelona ESPN2, UEFA

2:30pm Lyon vs Roma UEFA

2:30pm Valencia vs Inter Milan ESPND, UEFA

5:00pm Chelsea vs FC Porto ESPNCC

Predictions, Predictions

This weekend, one of my readers asked me for my picks of who would win in Europe. (Thanks, “Soccerfan.”) Since “Soccerfan” is presumably one of the eight or nine people who actually read this column, I thought I would answer. “Soccerfan” wasn’t really clear in what he was asking: I presume he was asking about my picks as to who would win the Champions League, but I am also going to provide some quick thoughts on who will come away with the three major European leagues that I follow: England, Spain, and Italy.

Italy

The easiest work is done in Italy, where Inter is running away with the league. As of March 5 they have 70 points and are 16 points up on their nearest competitor. Only a fool wouldn’t pick them.

Much more intriguing is the race for the top four spots in the league, which grants the teams places in next year’s champion’s league. Inter obviously has their spot and Roma seems to have theirs as well. The final two could be Palermo, Lazio, or Empoli, but two of the most intriguing stories in football right now are AC Milan and Fiorentina as they fight for a Champions spot. Milan and Fiorentina, remember, started with major points penalties (8 and 15 points, respectively) and yet are threatening a top-four spot. My favorite club, Fiorentina, has been particularly impressive; without their penalty they would have 50 points and would be sitting pretty. Their utter destruction of Torino yesterday suggests they will not end the season without a serious fight.

England

This weekend Manchester United managed to squeak by Liverpool and remain 9 points up on Chelsea. While I agree with Jose Mourinho that the race is by no means over (Manchester still has to go to Chelsea) I am picking Manchester to win the league by a relatively close margin; perhaps three or four points. While both of the top two teams in England are relatively thin, Manchester has managed to create more depth due to the Henrik Larrson signing and the remarkable health of their team. Also, in spite of Didier Drogba’s fantastic year, I think Christiano Ronaldo is having the best season of any player in the world, and Manchester, I think, should be able to use him to keep their competitors at bay. Just think how good this team could be if Wayne Rooney played as well as his reputation.

I predict that the top four in England will be United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. I also predict the sun shall rise tomorrow.

Spain

La Liga is, by far, the closest and most competitive league that I am following this year. Sevilla played a great match against Barca this weekend, beating them and taking over first place. In spite of this, I do believe that Barca will ultimately win the league; once they get Ronaldinho, Eto’o, and Messi back in form they seem to me they will be quite unstoppable, in spite of the team’s defensive deficiencies. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see Barca drop the ball, both as Real Madrid fan and as an admirer of beautiful football. Sevilla is a fun team to watch. I just think Barca is a better team than we have seen so far.

My top four in Spain is Barca, Sevilla, Valencia and Atletico Madrid. Real Madrid finishes fifth, misses the Champions League, fires Capello, signs two more big-name players (Franck Ribery for one, maybe) and starts over yet again. God, that’s depressing.

Champions League

This is probably the toughest league to predict, as there are literally six or seven teams good enough to win it. Thus, I am going to go out on a limb here: I predict the final will be…(drumroll please) Inter v. Chelsea. And I believe Inter will win it.

Strange prediction, I know. I don’t think Chelsea will win their domestic league, but because of this I do think Mourinho will pour everything he has into winning the Champions again before he leaves Chelsea. Inter, of course, has to get by a very tough Valencia team who scored two away goals in their first meeting two weeks ago. I do believe Inter will pull Tuesday’s match out, however, and I do believe they will go on to win the Champion’s league simply because the seem like the strongest and most complete team this year. If Inter has ever had a year of destiny, this is it.

Champion’s Day Two: A Day of Caution

Yesterday’s four matches in the Champions League were, in my opinion, less interesting than the first day’s. Three of the four matches drew and the fourth, Liverpool v. Barca, was seemingly won by accident by the merseysiders as they gratefully accepted a number of defensive errors by the Catalans.

In truth, all eight squads were probably set to be happy with ties, as it would leave clubs in a position to make their move in the second leg. This left the viewers with, from what I saw, was some fairly uninteresting football. I saw the two ESPN games; the Chelsea-Porto match was dreadful, and the Liverpool game only really became interesting in the second half and especially after Liverpool got its second goal and Barca went into all-out attack. From what I’ve read, the Inter game was interesting while the Roma game was, um, not.

Regardless, we should have some interesting matchups set up for us in two weeks, where we will hopefully reap the benefit of the cautious play this week. Hopefully we will see attacking football played in the Barca-Liverpool match at Anfield, the Real-Bayern match in Munich and the Arsenal match at Highbury. I’m also hoping Inter, Lyon and Porto come out firing on all cylinders. We shall see.

Champions Recap: Day One

To call it an interesting first day of the Champions League would be an understatement; here is some very brief analysis of the four games from yesterday.

Real Madrid v. Bayern Munich

One of the two games I was able to catch on television. Madrid won 3-2, giving up a second crucial away goal with only a few moments left in the game. Madrid may have the lead, but fans of the Whites can’t feel good about that late goal, knowing all Munich has to do is win 1-0 at home to advance and eliminate Real. Otherwise, it was a great game; Beckham, remarkably, played great again and was man of the match. Raul even scored…twice! On the other hand, Fabio Cannavaro continues to look like the worst reigning player-of-the-year of all time.

Arsenal v. PSV

The other game I saw yesterday and a bit of a snorer. Did Henry even play? PSV scored a late goal to win 1-0, a surprise only because the match had a 0-0 draw written all over it. I spent most of the game wondering whether I should just go back and watch the recorded Real - Bayern Match again, since it was so much more exciting than this snoozefest.

Manchester United v. Lille

Okay, I admit, I wish I had the chance to see this one: it had everything from a sleazy Manchester goal (courtesy of a Ryan Giggs free kick while the keeper was still setting up his wall) to fan violence on both sides. Wow! Fan violence in France! I can’t believe it! And what is this, 1985? No wonder everyone hates Manchester; I wonder if a new edition of Among the Thugs will be released with a chapter on Lille?

Milan v. Celtic

I wanted to watch this match to see my man Gourcuff, but all-in-all, if I have to miss a game, it might as well be a 0-0 draw in Scotland. I like Milan playing in the return at home, but it will all depend on whether someone can get the bal in the net.

I will have more tomorrow about tonight’s games; let’s all hope for at least one thriller: I’m looking at you, Barca v. Liverpool!

Champions!

It’s been a bit of a crazy football day today, gossip-wise, as there are stories floating around that Zinedine Zidane is coming to the MLS to join either the Chicago Fire or the New York Red Bulls (I’ll believe it when I see it) and a separate tale being floated that Fabio Capello is about to resign as chief of Real Madrid. (I’ll believe that when I see it as well, but I believe I will see it in a day or so.) I will address each of these rumors if and when they come true, but right now I am more interested in fact, and right now there is one fact that is more important than any other: the Champion’s League starts again tomorrow!

I believe the Champion’s league is the most fun yearly sporting event in the world. It is a year long tournament featuring the various “champions” of European football. I use the quote-marks around the word “champions” because the tournament actually features top finishers from all of the various leagues, including winners and various levels of runners-up. In the case of smaller leagues, like the leagues in Portugal, Greece, or Holland, only one or two top teams are invited to the league. In the case of the big guys like England and Italy, four teams are invited. Thus, not everyone in the competition is really a champion, but the tournament is unquestionably a chance to see the best teams in the world compete.

The tournament works like this: in the fall, 32 teams are split into eight groups of four, and they play a round-robin mini-tournament with the top two teams of each group advancing. Then, after the New Year, the 16 remaining teams play home and away matches against each other until there are two left, and those two play for the big trophy in May. The second half of the tournament starts tomorrow and goes on Wednesday. Then in two weeks, those same two teams play again, but this time at the other team’s stadium. Then we will be down to eight teams, and the beat will go on.

So we should see some great football over the next few days, and my next few columns will be discussing the Champion’s league. But here are some questions to think about as play is beginning:

Will England continue to dominate? So far, all four of England’s teams are still in the tourney and looking strong. Could we see an all-England final? Do we even want to? If we do, will this prove that the Premiership is the strongest league?

How will Real Madrid and Lyon do? As readers of this page know, Real has basically stunk all season, regardless of what their record says; now we will see how they do in against Bayern Munich. Meanwhile Lyon has hit a few speed bumps as of late; while they be able to advance to the next round?

Will we care about phony-baloney, media-invented storylines? How will Jose Mourinho do against his old club, Porto? How will Celtic do against Milan, even though Milan almost had its home game taken away? Most importantly, who cares?

Finally, will the Liverpool-Barca clash live up to the hype? This round features a big clash between the champions of the last two years, Liverpool and Barca. Everyone is hoping we have a classic, but some people are quietly expecting a Barca blowout. Will Stephen Gerrard have anything to say about it?

More to come…