The Great SoccerSpot treasure Hunt!

In honor of their win over Charlton, I’ve decided to give credit where credit is due: to Arsenal’s storied history. Thanks to The Cannon for keeping up with Arsenal’s ups and downs throughout time.

The game is simple: find the ugliest kit and report back! Go to it!

Huevos, finally.

Turns out Aragones does have balls. That surprised me, but SoccerSpot is dedicated to bringing you the truth, regardless of how it reflects on the opinions espoused by this blog. “There are times when the best player is not in the best form,” Aragones is quoted as saying and that, ladies and gents, is why Raul will not be playing for Spain in their Euro2008 match against Sweden. To those who say, “But wait, he just scored twice against Dynamo Kiev and became all-time leading scorer in the Champions League!” well apparently Luis Aragones doesn’t care what you think.

Regardless, with Raul out of the picture, who will get to play? The forwards listed are Luis Garcia, Jose Antonio Reyes, David Villa, and Fernando Torres.

So I’m partially appeased (and I know that’s what Aragones was looking for), but where is Morientes? At least give him a shot! Also, what about Vicente? How come he gets shat upon by Aragones? Too many question marks in this post, I apologize.

Weekend Preview

It’s time once again for the Game of the Week. It’s on Sunday and comes from Madrid this time: it’s the local derbi between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. It’s at the Bernabeu so “home field advantage” goes to Real this time around. Apparently Capello is thinking about fielding the same starting lineup (Spanish) as he did against Dynamo Kiev. That lineup would be:

Casillas, Mejía, Cannavaro, Sergio Ramos, Roberto Carlos, Emerson, Diarra, Reyes, Guti, Raúl and van Nistelrooy

That’s a 4-2-3-1 if you’re trying to think of the tactical scheme, with van Nistelrooy being the lone frontman and Reyes and Raul backing him up on the flanks while Guti hangs around as the Zidane-esque attacking midfielder. Diarra and Emerson of course will sit back and occassionaly Diarra will move forward, but not often. Without Salgado starting, there’s less of a threat down the wings, but Roberto Carlos could cause a few problems for the Atlético defense. Ronaldo made an appearance, but it seems silly to think he would start of van Nistelrooy, who scored twice against Kiev. Cicinho is gone with a knee injury suffered in Saturday’s win at Real Betis, which could certainly affect the lineup late in the game if it’s tight.

As for Atlético, there’s little coming from their camp as to what the lineup will be (as per usual) — in fact, according to Marca (Spanish), there are several completely different lineups available, but the most recent one (against Sevilla) was this:

Leo Franco, Seitaridis, Pablo, Perea, Antonio López, Maxi Rodríguez, Costinha, Luccin Petrov, Fernando Torres and Agüero.

This sounds like a pretty solid lineup to me and any defensive laxness could really cost Madrid, especially if the Aguero of late and the Torres of the World Cup show up for the game. Prediction: 2-2 draw; it’s too much to ask Atlético to go into the Bernabeu and come away with a win and while current league form suggests either side could come away with 3 points, the safe bet is on defensive weakness on both sides.

In the EPL:

First, Chelsea – Aston Villa on Saturday. It’s a slow week in the EPL, so this will have to do as the big ticket show. Against Levski Sofia on Wednesday, Mourinho opted for a 4-4-2, but that hardly held its shape in midfield, with Mikel running willy-nilly behind Sheva trying to figure out where he should be going. Expect a more typical lineup such as the one against Fulham last Saturday:

Petr Cech, Ashley Cole, Terry, Carvalho, Ferreira, Essien, Lampard, Makelele, Drogba, Robben, Shevchenko

The truly observant of you will notice that Terry is in this lineup in place of Geremi. Kudos if you did notice it. That Terry is back is probably the biggest reason that Aston Villa are going to have serious problems finding the back of the net. This lineup I envision as a 4-1-2-2-1 (damn that’s complicated), massing in the middle of the park and letting Ferreira and Cole bomb down the sides. Boulharouz could step into the middle if he’s back from his eye-thingy which would mean Ferreira would take a seat and only Cole would saunter forward.

Aston Villa’s main chance to win this me is to attack the defense while Cole is forward. That means counter attacking and doing so in numbers. That, to me, means sticking to the same starting eleven as last week:

Sorensen, Barry, Hughes, Mellberg, Ridgewell, Davis, McCann, Petrov, Agbonlahor, Angel, Moore

I wouldn’t suggest putting in Baros because he hasn’t been playing with this squad throughout their season; they’ve been having a solid run (3 wins and 3 draws so far) and that’s not bad at all. With Chelsea currrently on 4 wins in a row, there’s not much hope, but certainly putting out an attacking lineup will increase your chances of at least potentially winning the game. But I’m an attacking football kind of guy so a forward-minded 4-3-2-1 is the way to go against Chelsea. Predicition: 2-0 Chelsea. Despite what I just said, Chelsea is the better team. But I am definitely rooting for Villa to come away with a draw here. A victory would be rapturous. [In case you're keeping track, Randy Lerner has now bought enough of Villa to require a compulsory sell by the rest of the shareholders. That makes him sole owner. I don't know if that's good or bad, but how can a Clevelander be wrong?]

Man U – Newcastle: Look for the Red Devils to move forward a bit more and for Newcastle to desperately try to get back into the EPL’s top half. Prediction: 2-1 Man U. They won’t be beaten twice in a row at home.
Tottenham – Portsmouth: With Berbatov still out and nothing really going their way, this might be a very, very sad match for the Spurs. Their title hopes are gone and now they probably just want a 6th place finish. Good luck. Prediction: 0-2 Portsmouth.

Jose Maria Nostradamus

What’s even the point of trying to predict games when someone like Guti is there to tell you what’s going to happen (Spanish) way before the kickoff? 3-0, goals by van Nistelrooy, Raul, and Reyes, eh? We’ll see about that, Señor Gutierrez. Maybe you should predict you scoring and then actually come through. Or perhaps he’s just trying to make up for his transfer saga-cum-nada with the “red’n'whites” this summer.

“This summer there was nothing serious with Atlético,” he said. Mmmhmm.

The New Vocabulary

Thanks to soccer, so many of us know a lot more about various body parts than we did before: metatarsals, ACLs, quadriceps, and now the meniscus of the knee.

According to Wikipedia the menisci (that’s plural for meniscus) seperate the bones from each other, keeping them from rubbing against one another; tearing that sounds extremely painful and very bad. Thus Spain’s AS (Spanish) and Britain’s BBC have stated that Eto’o is out for up to five months. According to Soccernet, Eto’o asked that the meniscus be repaired rather than removed, which I can only assume is because having it removed would potentially end his career, though the recovery will now take longer than it would have otherwise. It’s better than an ACL tear, but certainly not something Barcelona wanted to hear before their October superclashes: Oct 15 hosting Sevilla; Oct 18 at Chelsea; Oct 22 at Madrid; and Oct 31 hosting Chelsea…

Tough road ahead, but now we might see more of Saviola; I suppose he was kept around for just this situation? We’ll see how the team reacts this weekend against Athletic Bilbao.

[Update: There wasn't much fuss over it, but apparently Cincinho is out for quite a long time with knee ligament damage. Here's the scoop from OFutebol. I was surprised I missed that one...]

Adu and Convey back together?

According to SI.com, Freddy Adu may be bound for Reading during the January transfer window in a move reportedly worth £5million. It’s probably a lot more interesting for an American than for a Reading fan rather simply because Adu is our “phenom,” our answer to the growing (although in this case warranted) criticism of American soccer. The question, I think, is whether or not Adu will be able to make an impact in the EPL when he really isn’t even a superstar in the MLS (can someone remind me which is better? — bonus points: find the American team!)

Champions League results – Wednesday

Matchday 2 is over and now we’ll have to wait until October 17 before we get the Chelsea – Barcelona match to quench the collective jones that the soccer community has for these enticing fixtures. I know I’m addicted to that rivalry, but maybe only because Barcelona somehow always comes out on top.

While we wait for that, we might as well go over what happened today:

Werder Bremen 1 – 1 Barcelona: Messi saves the day with an 89th minute goal. That seriously has to hurt Bremen’s chances of qualification for the next round as they rest 3 behind Barca and 5 behind Chelsea. No doubt they’ll end on 6 points after the next two matchdays thanks to facing Levski Sofia twice, but that’s the only way they can hope to catch up to the others. Squandering a lead against Barcelona will always come back to haunt you. The worst news coming out of the game is definitely that Samuel Eto’o has suffered a potentially serious meniscus injury to his right knee. This could change everything in terms of La Liga and the Champions League. Have to wait for more infomation, though. I blame the really ugly orange jerseys.

Levski Sofia 1 – 3 Chelsea: I was impressed by Sofia and thought Mourinho’s decision to forego starting Cole and anyone other than Jon Obi Mikel was silly. While it should have been 4-0 at one point and 5-0 even had Kalou’s cross been a little less laser-ish and a little more pass-ish, Levski actually played well enough and can feel at least a little unlucky not to have struck first when Carvalho or Bridge made one of their many mistakes at the back. A note on the racism of the Levski fans: Before Tommy Smyth mentioned I had realized that the Levski fans were booing every time Mikel or Essien touched the ball in midfield and I thought that was a little off-putting. Racism crossed my mind at first until I realized that they were also doing it to Wayne Bridge. Those three commanded the majority of the boos so I was confused as to whether or not they were targeting Chelsea’s black players. If they were then I’m glad Drogba got a hattrick against their team. What’s so silly is that Levski have two black players who start for them on a regular basis: Lucio Wagner and Richard Eromoigbe…makes no sense to be racist if two of your best players are black…of course racism doesn’t make sense to me in the first place…

Spartak Moscow 1 – 1 Lisbon

Inter Milan 0 – 2 Bayern Munich: Two red cards for Inter meant there was no chance to come back once they were down and that’s basically all there is to why you shouldn’t get two red cards in a game.

Liverpool 3 – 2 Galatasaray: Wondergoal from Peter Crouch, apparently, which means God doesn’t love me because he keeps letting Crouch score. I’ll post the goal as soon as I find it.
Bordeaux 0 – 1 PSV: I keep overestimating PSV’s goalscoring abilities and underestimating their defense. They’re now second in Group C through goals scored.

Shakhtar Donetsk 2 – 2 Olympiakos: Surprise, a draw!

Valencia 2 – 1 Roma: All the goals came in the first half, which I always find weird. Regardless, it’s not good for Roma’s European credentials.

My score: 7/8 with 1 perfect score

My total score:  21/32 with 3 perfect scores (65%)

Wednesday’s predictions

Okay, so here are my predictions for Wednesday’s Champions League matches, but since Spartak and Lisbon have already tied 1-1, I won’t be predicting that one…I’ll count it as a bad prediction in my total score later.

Bremen 2 – 2 Barcelona
Levski 0 – 4 Chelsea
Internazionale 1 – 2 Bayern
Liverpool 1 – 0 Galatasaray
Bordeaux 1 – 2 PSV
Shaktar 2 – 2 Olympiakos
Valencia 2 – 0 Roma

The Homeless World Cup

Thanks to The Offside for point this out: It’s The Homeless World Cup! Now I’m down with charity and I’m down with helping the homeless find housing, employment, and stable lives, but I wonder two things:

One, what does this tournament really do for the homeless? I feel like it helps to increase worldwide awareness for homelessness in general, but the pessimist in me is wondering if the representatives playing in this tournament will remain homeless after it is over. Take Ruedi Kalin, a member of the Swiss team: he sells a newspaper on the streets and laments that it doesn’t earn him enough money to have a place of his own, but I can’t imagine he won’t return to that life after this version of the World Cup.

Two, is this good soccer? I wonder how good these players are. Some (like Kalin), look like they’re 60. Can’t be good for their abilities, but at least it’s only 4on4. I’m planning on tuning in to the live webcast of the final on September 30 and reporting back on what I see.

The USA is ranked 27th! Our homeless are awful at this game! But I bet we’d whip up at the Homeless Basketball World Championship…well, maybe.

Champions League Matchday 2 Results

Results from today’s Champions League encounters:

Benfica 0 – 1 Manchester United: I watched this game and found it to be a pretty boring affair most of the time thanks once again to the defensive approach Ferguson chose to take. Starting Carrick and O’Shea is like starting Carrick and Fletcher, obviously, and so the game had the exact same feel as the Reading match last Saturday. Not surprisingly, Benfica ended up with the majority of possession and the majority of real and half chances. Only a pretty superb counterattacking move leading to a deflected goal by Saha in the 60th minute gave ManU the points; they rarely created anything no matter how much Ronaldo ran at the 5-deep defense (again, doesn’t that sound familiar?). I hope Fergie isn’t considering this tactic against real opposition (and certainly he had a different approach against Celtic) because it just doesn’t work. Maybe I caught the two down games for them, but I don’t think so. Rooney looks out of place running around behind Saha as a forward midfielder and needs Scholes to move farther forward to provide passes for his runs; this can’t be done without one of the defensive midfielders turning into an attacker. Some might say you can’t argue with the results and in most cases that’s true, but in this match ManU were lucky to get out with 3 points rather than 1 or 0. [I think it's important to note that even Saha's goal was deflected around Benfica's keeper, Quim, who otherwise had the shot covered; unlucky for Porto really, but they should have put their chances away.]

Arsenal 2 – 0 Porto: Looks like I was wrong about whether or not Arsenal are back. Henry and Hleb scored and apparently Porto never really threatened Arsenal. I was under the impression that these Portuguese sides were better than they seem to be showing in the CL. Benfica is admittedly struggling in the Portuguese first division, but Porto is up 3 points on second placed Sporting Lisbon (who play tomorrow)…shouldn’t Porto do better in the CL than they have since Mourinho left?

Real Madrid 5 – 1 Dynamo Kiev: Wow. Madrid made a statement there. Remains to be seen which of the CL games they played was the fluke: getting drubbed by Lyon or thrashing Kiev…remember, Kiev were smacked around on Matchday 1 as well by Steaua 4-1.

Steaua 0 – 3 Lyon: The French are cruising on all fronts and that’s not really a surprise to me. I think Lyon will go far this year in Europe and will take home their 6th straight Ligue 1 crown. Steaua are about to get smashed twice by Madrid to further return them to Earth after their blistering start against Kiev.

Celtic 1 – 0 Copenhagen: I’m not really surprised, but I thought there would be more goals…

CSKA Moscow 1 – 0 Hamburg: Hamburg is going to find it tough going against Porto on Matchday 3 when they face a pretty up-in-arms Portuguese side looking to avenge their loss to Arsenal and take back second place from CSKA.

AEK 1 – 1 Anderlecht: Unless Anderlecht is playing Milan, 1-1 seems like a great call for their games. AEK are going to need some help pretty soon to survive this group.

Lille 0 – 0 Milan: I’m very surprised at this result despite reading that Lille were confident of getting a draw. Still, perhaps this goes to show that I wasn’t so far off about predicting Milan wouldn’t win it all this year or perhaps it was just a fluke game.

My score so far this week: 6/8 with 1 perfect score.

Total for the year: 14/24 with 2 perfect scores.

Champions League Matchday 2 Preview

Matchday 2 is upon us and so here are my predictions, a little late.

Madrid 2 – 1 Dynamo Kiev
Steaua 1 – 3 Lyon
Benfica 1 – 2 Manchester United: Coming off their disappointing game at the weekend, Manchester United should opt for a more forward thinking lineup rather than the defensive minded strategy employed so unsuccessfully against Reading.*
Celtic 2 – 0 Copenhagen
Arsenal 2 – 2 Porto: Despite this weekend’s successes at the Emirates, I’m still not fully convinced that Arsenal are up to full speed. After all, it was only Sheffield United.
CSKA Moscow 2 – 1 Hamburg
AEK 1 – 1 Anderlecht
Lille 1 – 3 Milan

*I was fortunate enough to catch the Reading-ManU match this Saturday, but I found it lacking in the tactical department. Their defensive 4-5-1 formations (two defensive midfielders — Carrick and Fletcher) was absurd once it became clear that the Reading defense was camped 5 deep in order to deal with Ronaldo’s invasive runs and Scholes ability to skip beyond the midfielders’ lunges. While I cheered for Reading’s lead after the penalty (and despite the pro-United commentary on FSC attempting to convince the world of the opposite, it was a penalty), I felt that United should have started Saha in place of Fletcher and been a little more forward thinking. Reading was unfortunate to not score more, but I blame that on Lita’s selfishness in front of goal (I can think of 2 moments off the top of my head in which if he’d passed instead of trying to take on Rio Ferdinand, his teammate would had a clear look at goal).

Champions League: Next Year Preview!

Okay, so it’s not really a preview of next year and you’ve probably never heard of this team, but Icelandic side FH Hafnarfjördur have qualifed for the 2007/08 CL first qualifying round. That is awesome. What is also awesome is that the Icelandic season lasts 3 months and has 18 games since there are 10 teams.

Soccernet’s article is here.

Don’t know anything about Hafnarfjördur? Look no further than the city’s official site. My favorite quote from the site is “Hafnarfjördur nestles comfortably among the lava, and the splendour of the great outdoors is everywhere.” Isn’t that sentence a bit, well, oxymoronic?

Weekend Preview: Color or Content?

So I’m having difficulty deciding what my Game of the Week will be. Is it the Barcelona – Valencia game, which might decide early season honors in La Liga or is it the Celtic – Rangers Old Firm derby? For some that’s a no brainer (be you Spanish or Scottish, with your respective views), but really, I’m just not sure which to choose: color or content? Obviously Celtic – Rangers has more tradition, more animosity, and a better atmosphere, but it’s at 7:30am here on the Eastern seaboard while the Barcelona game isn’t until 3pm, so why not have two Games of the Week?

Game 1: Celtic will win this. It’s not even a question, especially with Prso either not playing or not totally up to speed. Plus, Celtic is just better this year. (Yes, Rangers have scored more goals, but have drawn twice where Celtic won and have won and so are down 4 poiints after 7 games). I think here I should say that the SPL sucks. It has twelve teams that play a gajillion times a year and the only two who ever win are Rangers and Celtic and neither would ever challenge for a CL spot in the Premiership. The only thing interesting about the SPL is the Old Firm and that’s it. Sorry if you’re Scottish, but it’s the truth. The MLS sucks more, in case you felt like bashing my domestic league. Prediction: 3-1 Celtic.

Game 2: This is going to be a contest! That it takes place at Barcelona’s home is probably the biggest reason why I think the Catalans will take this game. Morientes has been on fire (which means his midfield is creating), but they haven’t had to play anyone even close to as efficient in shutting down moves as Barcelona. What Valencia lacks is, surprisingly, a strong back line. On paper they’re one of the strongest defensive units around, but while they’ve only let in one goal in three games — tied with Real Madrid for best — they also haven’t faced a striker the likes of Eto’o yet this year. When they faced Atletico Madrid two weeks ago, they faced a team that wasn’t well gelled and certainly not as cohesive a unit as Barcelona. As for Barcelona, they’re coming into the game off of several smashing successes in both Europe and domestically (5-0 to Levski Sofia, 3-0 to Racing Santander respectively) and should be looking for a big win over Valencia to cement themselves as the early season favorites in La Liga. Eto’o has already scored 4 goals in the season’s opening 3 games, scoring in each contest (twice against Osasuna). I’m not sure anything bad can be said about their midfield and front line, but like Valencia, their back line is just a tad suspect due to leaking 2 goals to Celta to start the season. Since then, though, it’s been lights out for opposing offenses: 0 goals in 3 games. They’ll look to control the play through midfield and man-mark Morientes and Villa (if he plays) out of the game. Vicente will make runs down the sides, but Zambrotta and Gio should be able to cover him if Puyol does his job of taking out the central striker. Not good odds on betting against Puyol, I wouldn’t think. Prediction: 2-0 Barcelona, Eto’o and Messi score.

Other games of interest:

Liverpool – Tottenham: someone needs CL credentials and the Kop is the place to get them. Berbatov is out and that’s a blow to a so far timid strike force. Didn’t think I’d be saying that this early in the season. After finally changing the scoreline against Newcastle, Liverpool will look to continue their goalward ways. Prediction: 1-0 Liverpool.

Aston Villa – Charlton: Looking to keep their good start to the season rolling, the Villains face 1-0-4 Charlton. Both teams come in off Carling Cup wins, but Villa has the better track record for the year (2-3-0)* and should be able to see off this challenge. Prediction: 2-1 Villa.

Real Betis – Real Madrid: Betis have deserved more from this season already and could really stick it to the big boys by beating Madrid. Sobis has proven himself to be a good addition to the squad, scoring twice in last weekend’s Sevilla derby, but needs to put in another solid performance against the merengues for Betis to win.  Prediction: 2-2 draw.

*Note: I always list records as W-D-L.

[Taking a break now and going to Boston, be back for commentary Monday]

Chelsea and the Elusive Champions League

Even as little as two months ago, I don’t think I would have believed I could be writing this right now: it is my opinion that Chelsea have the ability to win this year’s Champions League. Typing that out hurt. A lot. What’s more painful, though, is that it’s hard to find a weak point in Chelsea’s lineup at the moment to convince myself that I’m just overreacting. While the Blues aren’t currently lighting up the scoreboard (and they rarely have since the arrival of all their rubles), they’re solidly playing their style of football and rapidly adapting to the new faces around them.

The addition of Ashley Cole provides a way for the back four to be more versatile than it was last season, more attacking, meaning that the loss of a great player like William Gallas is virtually a benefit. Mourinho can now play with a denser midfield and allow Cole to pile forward alongside the midfielders. I agree with Norman Hubbard that Cole’s influence on the midfield is extremely high in that he allows Mourinho to forgo a classic right midfielder, though the lack of defensive capabilities in a purely attacking forward 5 (meaning Makelele stays home as the holding midfielder) could cause problems as it did against Liverpool as well as Werder Bremen. Boulahrouz, Carvalho, and Terry can provide a strong back line capable of staying back as a flat three and shifting back when Cole returns after a run. (Again, I have to credit Hubbard with that point.)

What is perhaps Chelsea’s greatest improvement is in their connection between the strikers and the midfield. Ballack (though currently suspended) is certainly a fantastic player and allows for Lampard to split wide to provide crosses, but Shevchenko should prove to be the best of the new additions thanks to his willingness to track back and cover the holes in midfield as well as play along the wings so that Drogba can remain in his favorite spot: the six yard box. With Robben able to play this position, even injuries shouldn’t be a factor up front or in the midfield. Remember, Geremi can play Makelele’s position and Kalou and Mikel are solid backups. I’m still pissed that Wright-Phillips can’t find a spot, but without true midfielders it doesn’t make sense to throw him into the starting eleven. I think it makes sense to drop Crespo if you think he’s not as good as Drogba (I don’t agree, but Mourinho obviously likes Didier) because there’s only room for one pure striker in the squad.

Comparing them to Barcelona is hard because they play such different styles, but it is certainly plausible that Chelsea goes all the way, if only because the rest of Europe is relatively weak this year. I’ve already discussed why I believe Milan is going to be a non-factor in the CL and the rest of the competition looks to be ready to fail to deliver as well. That is not to say that the games won’t be good, but as I see it right now, only Chelsea and Barcelona have the team to win it all. And don’t tell me Real Madrid will win, because they won’t. I’ll cover that later.

Basically this means I can’t wait for the Barcelona – Chelsea matches in a few weeks. Both teams should enter their first contest on 6 points (though Barcelona have to visit Bremen on September 27th—and I bet ESPN2 will show Liverpool Galatasaray instead because, well, they’re bastards), making all of this just so much more interesting.

 

Ya think?

No, but really, ya think? My favorite part was “The key for us is to start scoring goals.”

[Update: Liverpool took their own advice and beat Newcastle 2-0, Dirk Kuyt getting off the mark for Liverpool and Xabi Alonso also scored. And look: Gerrard started! Good job, Benitez.]

[Update 2: Here is the video of the Xabi Alonso goal, which I posted earlier in the comments.]

Carling Cup blunders are old news

Despite there always being a few upsets in the first few rounds, I always find myself shocked when someone is dumped from the early stages of a cup by the minnows. Obviously Wigan is not exactly a Premiership powerhouse, but they’re a few notches above Crewe, I think. Still, they lost 2-0 and are out of the cup they were finalists in last year.

SoccerSpot favorite Accrington Stanley fell today in the Cup to Watford, but not until taking the Premiership strugglers to penalties after a 0-0 draw, ultimately losing 6-5. Everton were forced to wait till the 87th minute before wrapping up the win, Reading won on penalties, Portsmouth slipped by 2-1, and Charlton and Sheffield United got by 1-0. Bolton and Birmingham weren’t really challenged, winning 3-1 and 4-1 respectively.

So here’s to Crewe winning it all!

[Update: Three Premiership teams fell today, Wednesday, to the minnows. Hot damn! Manchester City, Middlesbrough, and Fulham all fell to the little ones, with only Cleveland-owned Aston Villa making good on their financial advantage by beating League One Scunthorpe 2-1 on a Juan Pablo Angel brace.]

Ashley’s blues

Soccernet has a breakdown of Ashley Cole’s current use at Chelsea as well as his prospects of rebuilding his tarnished reputation. It’s a solid breakdown of Chelsea’s current squad and shows a little of Mourinho’s genius in the squads he selects.

More tragedy from the footballing world

Brazilian forward Nilton Mendes has died following a heart attack suffered during a practice session with his team, Kazakhstan’s FC Shakhtyor Karagandy. This is the second death since August in the footballing community. Uefa.com has a story about it.

The Weekend in Review

Starting with England, the SoccerSpot Game of the Week ended with Manchester United 0 – 1 Arsenal at Old Trafford. Somewhat of a surprise to me with both Thierry Henry and Robie van Persie missing in action. I’m not sure what this says for Arsenal’s future as they now sit on two straight wins and two straight games with Henry out. It’s an interesting question more than a profound one; no manager in his right mind would leave a fully fit Henry on the bench. Adebayor got the goal with 5 minutes remaining.
In other EPL news, Chelsea beat Liverpool 1-0. I’m sure the entire footballing world is shocked Liverpool didn’t score. I can’t wait for them to take on Galatasaray in the Champions League in a couple of weeks. Ballack was sent off during the match for stomping on Sissoko and is banned for the next three matches. The solitary goal was by Drogba and it’s worth a look. Liverpool need to start their season about right now, I think. Sitting in 15th place is probably good enough for Wigan (they’re in 14th) but not for the Kop faithful.

Aston Villa 1 – 1 Watford. Thanks to goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen and several wasted chances, the Villians failed to remain within 2 points of Premiership frontrunners Portsmouth. Instead, they rest 4 points down in 5th place (where they probably would have been anyway as 4th place Everton have them on goal differential), seperated from 6th place Reading by only 2 goals. After dominating the first half and creating several chances, Villa let Watford back into the game during the second half and almost paid the price in full, in the end coming out with a share of the points. The man of the match was probably midfielder Gabriel Agbonlahor who played very well and created well. Milan Baros made a 72nd minute substitution appearance. Here’s soccernet’s take on the action.

Several stories from La Liga:

Sevilla 3 – 2 Betis in the first half of the Sevilla derby, this one being played at Sevilla’s place. It took a late goal from Renato to wrap up the points, Kanoute and Rafael Sobis having previously notched a brace each for their respective sides. So far it looks like a good year for top-of-the-table Sevilla and a mediocre year for 10th place Betis, but only time will tell.

Racing Santander 0 – 3 Barcelona: A 90th minute penalty by Ronaldinho padded the scoreline a bit, but the Catalans remain 3-0-0 and are looking more and more like the side that won the Champions League last year and less and less like the side that dropped the UEFA SuperCup 0-3 to Sevilla.

Valencia 2 – 0 Getafe: Morientes continues his goalscoring ways with another. It’s wonderful to see Vicente back on the scoreboard as well after a tough year full of injuries. [Edit: UEFA reports that Carlos Marchena is another injury loss to Valencia and should be out until at least the end of the year. He joins David Albelda, David Villa, Ruben Baraja, and Asier del Horno on the injured list.]

Real Madrid 2 – 0 Real Sociedad: I wonder if the Basque side is missing Nihat? I truly wonder…Beckham running with the ball was fun to see, especially after Jose Antonio Reyes got off the mark for Madrid with a freekick.

Athletic Bilbao 1 – 4 Atletico Madrid: Even without Fernando Torres, Atletico had a big day, which could be fantastic for the competitiveness of La Liga assuming both Madrid squads and Sevilla continue playing well. We’ll see if this form holds up and we’ll also see if Villareal can’t put together an actual season after falling to Deportivo 2-0, putting them one spot out of the relegation zone in 17th.

More on Italy and Germany later.

[Edit/addition:

Italy’s Serie A returned with a second week and Roma and Palermo sit atop the league with 6 points (Roma leads on goal differential). Roma is currently in good form, having won their first 3 competitive matches, two in the league and one in the Champions League. Inter Milan, on the other hand, were held by Sampdoria (and here I’ll reiterate my prediction that Sampdoria will take the 4th CL spot at the end of this season)*. Fiorentina remains below the bottom of the barrel with 2 losses to compound their negative 19 start to the campaign. Milan are at -2, in case you’re keeping track of these things at home.

In the Bundesliga, Hertha Berlin and Nurnberg top the chart with 8 points apiece (2-2-0), Hertha leading on goal differential. Bayern are third on 7 points (2-1-1), but have recently lost Owen Hargreaves for at least six weeks due to a left fibula fracture. According to Soccernet, Oliver Kahn thinks Bayern Munich will still win the league. Would you argue with him? Yeah, neither would I. He’s like a roided out Galactus. I mean, seriously, what nuclear explosion happened to make this? Back to football: Werder Bremen sits in 9th place with 6 points (2-0-2). Eintracht Frankfurt lost it’s captain, Jermaine Jones to injury (He’s an American-German in case you, like I, wondered what someone named Jermaine Jones was doing captaining a German side — just didn’t sound too German, but apparently he plays for the German U-21 team) this weekend, but the team will no doubt try to continue their unbeaten streak…by tying another team…

*Yeah, I know they lost to Empoli. Shut up.

Phil Ball and the untelivised Sevilla derbi

The Sevilla derbi is over and Phil Ball is here with the weekly fix. Now none of us saw this game due to the TV restrictions, but I hadn’t realized until now that the fight would spill over into the year and disrupt all of our plans to watch various derbies. Does anyone know exactly what Sevilla is arguing with the TV companies about?

Otherwise, it’s fun to see Beckham back in the news for footballing exploits.

A new investigation for you, a new word for me

According to ESPN’s Soccernet (and probably a few other sources I haven’t bothered to read yet), the BBC is getting ready to stir the pots of British football with the release of a hidden camera investigation it undertook over the last year. The subject is apparently the “bung culture” in British football. I admit that’s a new word for me and a cursory look around the internet told me it means bribery — if that’s wrong, please let me know because I’m interested. I’m sure we’re not talking about a culture of plugging barrels with corks, so it’s probably the other definition.

If breaking the rules for sports is a new thing in England, well, you Brits have a lot to learn about the shady side of sports. Actually I’m pretty positive general shadiness and bribery is nothing new to England any more than the allegations against Reggie Bush are new to the US. The Italians, of course, are leading the way into a new world of regulated sports cheating, which could spell disaster for several British clubs if the FA and/or FIFA come down hard on anyone implicated in the BBC investigation. The actual contents of this hyped up piece will have to be viewed before any decision is made, of course.

Note: Bung definitely does not mean bribery in American English.

Standings updated

The standings page has been updated (specifically the EPL, La Liga, and Serie A tables). Check back tomorrow for more updates and reviews of the entire weekend’s action.

Let the praise begin

Emmanuel Edebayor scored in the 87th minute to give Arsenal a 1-0 win at Old Trafford. The meaning of all of this is that Portsmouth remain top of the league and Arsenal finally started their season. A game played without Henry shows that the Arsenal talisman may very well have headed to greener pastures during the offseason. Rooney turned in another unimpressive performance as the Red Devils fell at home to the Gunners for the first time since May 2002. Arsene Wenger is most assuredly back in the good graces of all Arsenal fans…

Hargreaves out with broken leg

Owen Hargreaves has a suspected broken fibula after colliding with an opponent in Bayern Munich’s 2-1 loss away to DSC Arminia Bielefeld. More information is available here. If it’s true, both Bayern and England’s international squad will be without a major component for some time.

[Edit: According to ESPN Soccernet, Hargreaves is facing at least six weeks out due to a fracture left fibula.]

Weekend Preview

The match of the week comes from the Premiership again: Manchester United – Arsenal takes place at Old Trafford on Sunday. Don’t expect too much despite injuries to Ryan Giggs and Park Ji-Sung, which leave ManU a bit weak in the middle. Arsenal are missing Thierry Henry and Robie van Persie are doubtful (I hate that status simply because it makes it hard to predict any outcomes) while a host of others are injured: Philippe Senderos, Gael Clichy, Lauren, and Abou Diaby all have long term injuries.  Prediction: 2-0 Manchester United. If Henry and van Persie play, 2-1 Manchester United.

Other notable EPL matches:

Chelsea – Liverpool at Stamford Bridge. This result should go Chelsea’s way, but perhaps only because I’m extremely down on Liverpool’s style right now after having watched their Champions League snoozefest in Holland. Prediction: 2-0 Chelsea. Liven up a bit, Reds! I’m almost (but not quite!) for Chelsea in this match, you were so bad. (Oh and just so we’re clear, I’m not sure Mourinho is all there. What the hell is this? Conspiracy theory? Or maybe your players go in harder than anyone else?)

Watford – Aston Villa. Another away test, but one which should see Aston Villa pick up the win to a team that has gone L-L-D-L in their last 4 matches. Perhaps Petrov can pick up his first goal for the Lions. The difference could be that Watford have a new striker: Tommy Smith (and no, not the PressPass commentator), but Milan Baros is back to full fitness and could start alongside Wilfred Bouma and new signing Didier Agathe. Prediction: 1-2 Villa.

West Ham – Newcastle could be good as well. Prediction: 2-1 West Ham.

Spanish La Liga:

The Sevilla Derby is on this Sunday at Sevilla’s Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. Betis will be hardpressed to come up with a result against a solid Sevilla team that is looking to build on their UEFA Cup success of last year, but Betis have opened the year well. Prediction: 3-1 Sevilla.