European Soccer Outlook

The quarter-final draw for the UEFA Champions' League has been announced, and thus scrutinized, discussed, and predicted. Managers from around the English Premier League have been are debating over the state of 'English Football' after not a single English club has advanced into the quarter-finals. Also in the news of England and soccer has been the recent calling up of centre-back Rio Ferdinand to the
National Team, and Sir Alex Ferguson's reluctance to let him respond to the call. There's so much to talk about in the world of European soccer.

Sixteen teams have been abbreviated to eight in the UEFA Champions' League. No English teams remain, to the alert of critics. Of course, there were multiple shockers in second round play taking place earlier this week. AC Milan went into the second leg of the tie versus FC Barcelona ahead on aggregate 2-0. Barcelona was required to score two goals to send the second game into extra time and possibly penalties, or a minimum of three goals to win outright. They scored four, with no one other then Lionel Messi contributing two goals to the total. Another head-liner was Real Madrid's defeat of Manchester United. Manchester United had a slight advantage in the second game, having drawn the first at one goal a piece. Manchester had the momentum of one away goal. Instead, Nani was sent off in a controversial play, and Real Madrid scored two goals after United scoring only one; thus allowing Madrid to advance into the quarter-finals. The last game of major speculation was the tie between Bayern Munich and Arsenal. Bayern won the first match in London one-to-three. However, Arsenal struck back as hard as they could in Munich, winning a game filled with controversy 2-0, yet very nearly making the score 3-0 towards the end. Thus, the aggregate was 3-3, and Bayern Munich advanced on the away goals rule, meaning Bayern scored more away goals so they advance. So, after all the drama, the quarter-final draw consists of:

• Bayern Munich v. Juventus
• Paris Saint-Germain v. FC Barcelona
• Malaga v. Borussia Dortmund
• Real Madrid v. Galatasaray

I think that the amount of power in this quarter-final draw shows that the English shouldn't hang their heads. There's a lot of good soccer out there whether its German, Italian, Spanish or Turkish. I think there are someNemanja Vidić surprises in the draw though. One that really sticks out is the match up between PSG and Barcelona. Of course the draws are random, but Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona are arguably two of the better teams of the eight remaining. However, it is probably widely known that Barcelona has the upper hand. Another key pairing is Bayern Munich and Juventus. Juventus is the last Italian team left in the Champions' League which will serve as fuel to the team. However, Bayern Munich are hungry to go all the way after being the runners up to Chelsea. In addition, Borussia Dortmund shouldn't have a tough time with Malaga, a Spanish club lost in the shadows of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Speaking of Spaniards, Real Madrid shouldn't have an issue with the little known Turkish club going by the name of Galatasaray.

On a final note of discussion, the 32-year-old Manchester United back Rio Ferdinand has been in the news lately for his calling up to the English National Side. He's played a vital role in United's defence lately. During
Nemanja Vidić's injury-related absence, Rio has stepped it up, contributing largely in United's last four games, all being clean sheets, or shut-outs as described in hockey or American football. However, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is reluctant to let Ferdinand go play for the national squad, citing that he may be playing to many matches and thus cause to much physical stress on the 32-year-old footballer. However, I don't think this is a valid point, because during World Cup Qualifying matches, he will have to miss league games to play international games; Many of Ferdinand's Manchester United team-mates already do just that.

There's so much going on at the moment in the world of soccer. Many of the European leagues, such as the Premier League, have less than ten matches to go in the season. Soccer is at its busiest this time of year.

Getting out of Hand

NICK UNITED

Commentary for Futbol, Soccer, or whatever you call it!

Every professional sports league has its issues. Maybe its drug abuse, labour disputes, a biased distribution of wealth among players, coaches, and owners. The Barclays Premier League has a social issue that most leagues have been through with for decades, and it's getting out of hand.

 
The Premier League has been plagued with racial tension, and I really don't know why. So many of the American sports leagues maintain the "he's Black, and as long as he keeps scoring points I don't really care what his skin colour is," mentality. The English Premier League has failed to do that. There is know an epidemic across the FA of players, fans, and even referees, racially abusing one another. What makes the problem even more perplexing is that there is so much discrepancy whether certain claims of racial abuse are even valid. 

The primary example to help better define and identify this issue would be the John Terry Scandal. Of course, anyone who follows soccer/association football knows what happened. Basically, Anton Ferdinand of Queens Park Rangers claimed the John Terry of Chelsea 'racially abused' him. [Ferdinand] Terry and his club [Chelsea] launched efforts to try and prove Terry innocent. This included that team mate Ashley Cole, who is black, testifying on Terry's behalf. (Of course, the FA's verdict made Cole a little bit mad and caused him to go twitter-crazy, but we'll visit that in a minute.) Anyways, John Terry was eventually acquitted by the Magistrates Court, but the FA fined him and banned Terry for four games. This caused Ashley Cole to through a twitter fit and call the FA names when they declared Cole's evidence (which primarily included pointing out that Terry wasn't racist) invalid. The precise details, I'm not going to disclose, I don't really need Google kicking me out.

The solution to this issue is hard to come by. Of course the FA should expand punishments on those who racially violate others, but that doesn't totally fix the problem. The players have to not want to be racist, because its what they want, not because they'll get punished. The cliché for this situation could be, 'if white was a minority, would we [white people] appreciate being called derogatory names?' It's simple respect. A problem getting out of hand, needs to be fixed...soon.

Premier League Preview

Nick United

Commentary for Soccer, Futbol, or whatever you call it!

It's been awhile since my last post, and ironically enough, it's already time for the greatest league on Earth to rebut: The Barclays Premier League. Many moves have been made, money traded, and squads trained. It's time to hit the pitch and get down to business.

1. Manchester United

ManU is a truly elite squad: virtually the New York Yankess of association football. I think they have the talent (i.e. Fletcher, Nani, Rooney, Ferdinand) to go a long way. I think that last season was just inches short of triumph, and United has come a long way to not gain themselves a title. Manchester has made few changes, but the edition of van Persie will definitely make the Manchester United midfielder corps a lot much better. 

2. Chelsea

While the word on the street is that Wayne Rooney is the Premier League's best striker, thou could also make a case for Fernando Torres of Spain. Torres has an entire stockpile of morale after the Spaniards' Euro championship. However, Torres isn't Chelsea's only phenomenon, opposing strikers have Ashley Cole and John Terry to deal with, not to mention Frank Lampard and Juan Mata in midfield. Chelsea won't be any more than three points behind the title, and ManUtd should definitely watch out for the blues.

3. Tottenham Hotspur

The boys of White Hart Lane aren't necessarily filled with superstars like the teams named above, but the squad chemistry and management division are superb. Footballers such as Scott Parker, Luka Mordic, and Michael Dawson aren't the big all-stars we commonly association with being 'great', but they are all team players nonetheless. Heck, eleven men could beat out a solo Pelé any day.

4. Manchester City

Who's the top dog in Manchester now? Well, ManCity for now. The squad of Manchester city strikes me as 'overrated' and 'ego-induced, with the exception of Joe Hart. The "Why always me"-ism of Mario Ballotelli can, at times can make me want to puke, and at other times, make me want to burst out laughing. He also seems to contradict himself, because he a) gets himself benched multiple times after blowing a goal by showing off with a fancy shot, then b) boast that he doesn't celebrate goals because its his 'job'. However, City does have talent, and a top five finish is in order.

5. Arsenal

Arsenal is a lot like Spurs in the sense the the Gunners lack in stardom, but are big on team players and teamwork. There's not a lot to be said about Arsenal, besides that they have excellent side chemistry. Expect the Gunners to poke their heads into the top five, and might even soar a spot or two higher.

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That's about all for now, I am looking forward to the season of many domestic leagues.

Well, no one expected that.

Nick United

Commentary for Soccer, Futbol, or whatever you call it!

Spain and Italy, eh, well I saw Spain, but Italy? Well, the Euro 2012 ended somewhat unexpectedly. Well, let's dive right in, shall we?

To start from the top of the Euro 2012 Elimination Stage Bracket, an all-Iberian Semifinal was expected, hands down. Obviously, Portugal was going to beat the Czech Republic and Spain was going to beat an in-a-slump France. That was pretty straight forward. Now the battle of the Iberians was somewhat of a different story. Of course Spain, was going to win, but no one thought it would be so close. But in the end, Spain advanced on PK's 4-2, and the Portugese manager came under fire after the match when Paulo Bento put Cristiano Ronaldo last in the PK order, but the PK's ended before Portugal got a chance to take a fifth shot. Some people even blamed Ronaldo for not cutting line and helping his team, which is somewhat preposterous in my opinion.

Things get slightly more interesting as you look at the bottom of the elimination tree. Germany completely wiped out Greece 4-2, more-or-less expected. However, I personally did not see Italy coming out over England. England, I think, has one of  their better sides since Beckham's era. However, Italy dominated the entire game despite the score being even at zero goals a piece. England pulled ahead on PK's 2-1, and I thought the Brits were going to have it, (for once a English PK win!) but Italy rallied back and won the match 4-2 on PK's. 

It was an Italy-Germany semifinal, I think there was a boatload of upset gamblers at the end of this match. Ballotelli had a brace (two goals in one match) and Germany didn't score their single goal until the last couple minutes of the match. 

I could have sworn that the finals would be a lot more entertaining, for sure, but not so much I guess. Italy came along way to get to Spain, and then Spain completely walked over "the Blues". Four-no was the final score; Silva, Alba, Torres, and Mata all scored in that order.  It was exciting for some but boring for other to watch such a one-sided.

Well, besides MLS, soccer/association football will have a break until Premier League action starts up this fall. Untill then I will blog about other thing, particularly the Olympics in London.

Corrections:

• My last Football Friday (now known as Nick United) post, said, "...Ronaldo and Spain...", it was supposed to say Torres and Spain, I do not know how I managed that error.           

Football Friday: Premier League, Champions' League, Euro 2012

Football Friday will be a monthly special I will do on Association Football/Soccer. It won't be published every Friday, but a couple Fridays throughout the month. Despite not be European, I named this series Football Friday to get in the spirit of things!

A Manly Finish

This year's Barclays Premier League finish was highlighted by both Mnchester clubs. It was Manchester City who won the championship on goal difference. Both teams had 89 points each which was an astounding 19 points ahead of third place Arsenal.

*Note: I hope you guys like my clichè! 

UEFA Champions' League: Bayern Munich vs Chelsea

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A couple weeks after the closing of the Premier League, was the UEFA champions' league finale between the German squad, Bayern Munich and the English side, Chelsea. It was a very good match and despite continued efforts from Bayern, Chelsea narrowly won the match in penalty kicks, 4-3. 

Euro 2012 Preview

The biannual contest between European national team is here, and will be contested in the nations of Poland and Ukraine. I expect Ronaldo and Spain to perform well defending their title, and England also looks promising under new management. Overall, it looks like a good tourney.