Pubs and panini

So I’m back in the US again after far too short a time in Europe, but that’s how it goes, I guess. Wonderful time, lots of history, lots of learning, lots of walking; all of the good things we forget about in the US. For now it’s time to get rid of the jetlag by sleeping, but first, a little taste of what most of you have already seen from the weekend:

Tomorrow or Thursday I’ll post something longer about the Siena-Fiorentina game and the ManU-Chelsea game (both 1-1 in case you forgot).

SoccerSpot Goes to Europe

Every now and then it pays to visit the places we talk incessantly about in this blogosphere we’ve created for ourselves. For that reason and a few others that are probably more important than sports (did I just say that?), I’ll be traveling over the next two weeks in Germany and Italy. Specifically it’ll be a Berlin and Florence trip, but there will be side trips throughout Tuscany and hopefully I’ll have a chance to see Siena play at home against Fiorentina on Sunday the 26^th. Unfortunately there will be no Bundesliga games in Berlin the weekend I’m there (Hertha is playing away to Borussia Dortmund), but hopefully I’ll be able to catch a second-tier match. We’ll have to wait and see.

Euro 2008 results 11/15/06:

Yiannis Okkas after scoring for Cyprus [UEFA.com]

F.Y.R. Macedonia 0-2 Russia

Israel 3-4 Croatia

Finland 1-0 Armenia

Republic of Ireland 5-0 San Marino

Belgium 0-1 Poland

Cyprus 1-1 Germany: The only surprise of the day, I think. Tying Germany is a huge boost for Cyprus, especially Germans were fielding a terrifyingly strong side.

Portugal 3-0 Kazakhstan

The tables have only changed slightly, but here they are.

Much more after the jump.

Weekend in Review

While he may look happy because he scored two as Barcelona beat Zaragoza 3-1 to go top of the table, Ronaldinho is no doubt grieving over the fact that Barca’s injury woes have started piling up excessively. Gudjohnsen is back, but it’s Lionel Messi’s turn to sit and watch from the stands. The Lionel Messi Weblog reports that Leo could be out for up to three months with a fifth metatarsal break in his left foot. Alongside Eto’o’s injury, that could spell disaster for Barcelona in the short term. Despite having a talented squadron of backups, there’s really no replacing creative attacking power like that of Eto’o and Messi.

MLS enters the Cold War arms race

The BBC has informed me that the MLS has decided big spending on superstars might just be the way to go. I suppose the salary cap rules are in place to prevent the spending wars that basically destroyed the NASL, but certainly some amount of investment in big names that aren’t Carlos Valderamma (or his hair) will help the MLS to rise above its mediocre status.

 

Just a little gift for visiting: silly goals video.

Results from Saturday

I’m sure most of you wanted to see pictures of Drogba’s fabulous hattrick, but I had to give it up to the provisional number 3 team in the EPL: Aston Villa. Chris Sutton scored his first goal for Villa away to Everton and it was enough for the Villains to win their first away game of the season. Results:

EPL:

Chelsea 4 – 0 Watford (Drogba 27, 36, 69, Shevchenko 52) They’re still second in the Premiership, but doesn’t it just seem like it’s a matter of time before they oust ManU? I hate the thought.

Everton 0 – 1 Aston Villa (Sutton 42): Cahill was stretchered off after his own teammate tackled him badly. Not the way to go out and Villa are three points up on Arsenal who play on Sunday against Liverpool (Game of the Week!) and also have a game in hand.

Man City 0 – 0 Newcastle: Wow. What bad teams.

Middlesbrough 1 – 0 West Ham (Maccarone 74): So much for the good run by the Hammers.

Portsmouth 1 – 1 Fulham (Cole 74 – Knight 57): Portsmouth is quickly losing ground to the league leaders with this poor run of form, though Fulham has, of late, been the Aston Villa of the first 9 games.

Sheffield 2 – 2 Bolton (Hulse 70, Kazam-Richards 73; Diouf 34, Davies 59): Gotta hold on to your leads because otherwise you get dropped in the standings.

Wigan 3 – 2 Charlton (McCulloch 13, Camara 41, Jackson 78; De Zeeuw og 52, Bent 90): Doesn’t sound as thrilling as the final score would indicate.

Blackburn 0 – 1 ManU (Saha 64): Poor run of form continues for the Rovers, but that’s not so unexpected against the Red Devils.

La Liga:

Atletico Madrid 3 – 1 Villareal (Ze Carlos 27, Torres [pen] 45, Aguero 64; Fuentes 14): Jose Mari got a red card, but it didn’t really matter anyway.

Valencia 1 – 1 Athletic Bilbao (Morientes 44; Llorente 90): Last gasp, is good enough gasp, I guess.

Serie A:

Fiorentina 3 – 1 Atalanta (Mutu 26, Pazzani 90, 90; Migliaccio 25): From the scoreline it looks like 2 minutes of insanity (25th and 90th).

Milan 1 – 2 Roma (Brocchi 56; Totti 7, 83): Milan’s bad run is continuing (1 W, 3 L in last 4), while Roma moves within 1 point of Inter Milan and Palermo at the top of the table.

Domestic Cup Roundup

Lots of action these last two days from all across Europe as the domestic cups kept going.

In England, it was the Carling Cup, where Aston Villa, “the greatest Cleveland-related football team in the universe” was smashed by Chelsea 4-0. Port Vale’s majestic run through the Cup was ended by Tottenham 3-1 and both Arsenal and Liverpool ran out 0-1 winners on the night.

In Spain there were likewise no real surprises in the 2nd leg of Copa del Rey 4th round. The notable games were (aggregate score given):

Barcelona 6-1 Badalona; Real Madrid 6-2 Écija; Osasuna 4 – 0 Peña Sport; Malaga 5-2 Real Sociedad; and Alavés 1-0 Celta de Vigo. Saviola grabbed 2 in Barcelona’s 4-0 home victory over Badalona while van Nistelrooy found the net twice and Ronaldo and Beckham once each in a 5-1 demolition of Écija.

In Italy they played the 1st leg of the round of 16 in the Coppa Italia, with the only surprises being Sampdoria 1-0 over Palermo and Serie B side Arezzo 1-0 over Livorno.

Freddy Adu in King Arthur’s Court

There are always rumors about players switching clubs, moving to big-name places like Manchester United, Real Madrid, the Red Bulls, and no one is the subject of these rumors like Freddy Adu. In the News today reported that despite heavy links to a two-week trial with ManU, Freddy isn’t going anywhere at all.

Is that a surprise? He is overpriced (at $5million, I believe) and underused. His skills are not in question, but his development, you would imagine, would take place like that of DeMarcus Beasley or Bobby Convey in a good team in a smaller European league (Convey, though, plays for Reading in England but the quality of the development remains virtually the same, however). Freddy should play for a Reading or a Watford (as does Jay Demerit) or at PSV/Ajax/Anderlecht to get a good footing in the European style and level and then perhaps move on to the big teams. Otherwise I think there’s a higher risk of a burnout ala Landon Donovan.

[Update: Immediately after posting I found this article from Soccernet that sort of turns the whole thing upside down and suggests Adu really will go to ManU, though the In the News article linked above says he wouldn't be able to make a move to England until June because of age restrictions. Not sure who is right on that one. Regardless, I think it's a bad idea for Adu to go to such a big club without testing the European waters with a team where he has guaranteed minutes.]

[Update 2: ManU is signalling firm interest in the 2-week trial.]

Light posting

Light posting this week (and probably for the rest of the month), specifically tonight as I watch election results here on the East Coast. Forgive me for not posting, but we all know it happens from time to time.

Does this affect our relationship?

Sunday EPL results:

Aston Villa 2 – 0: No surprise here, but what a nice win. Agbonlahor played well. Despite Barry scoring a controversial penalty, Angel put the game away in the 50 minute. The win puts them in 6th place on 18 points, even with Arsenal and still 10 points out of 1st.

Tottenham 2 – 1 Chelsea (Aaron Lennon after his game-winning goal, via the BBC; John Terry got a red card and Claude Makele [!!] scored a volley) What a way to respond to transfer rumors!

West Ham 1 – 0 Arsenal: Are the Hammers really back? Let’s hope so. Also, Arsene Wenger is mad again, imagine that. Regardless of whether he’s right or not about the penalty that wasn’t called against West Ham, doesn’t he come off as a tool every time the Gunners lose or tie…or don’t win 7-0? Mourinho, however, is not to be outdone.

Sunday La Liga results:

Sevilla 2 – 0 Osasuna: Sevilla takes 1st in La Liga by 1 point after Barcelona drew.

Real Madrid 1 – 2 Celta Vigo: First home loss for the Merengues this year. They slip to 4th.

Espanyol 1 – 1 Valencia: Los Che fall to 5th with the tie.

Zaragoza 3 – 1 Getafe: With this win, Zaragoza rises to third, which is fantastic from a small-town-boy-makes-it-in-the-big-city point of view, but anything Zaragoza does is marred by racism, it seems. I don’t want to pigeonhole them as a racist club if it’s merely a small part of their fanbase, but I am reminded of Eto’o’s stance last March.

Weekend in Review pt 1

[The Astronomy Picture of the Day for Saturday, November 4, 2006]

A few thoughts from Saturday (and a few results too):

I watched a few minutes of the Fulham-Everton game before switching over to the actually interesting Bremen-Cottbus game where they played the ball through the middle, out on the wings, and towards the forwards on the ground rather than playing a highly-paid version of kickball. As a reader has been pointing out in a previous post’s comments section, the EPL is somewhat boring at times. I can understand the passion if you’re a hometown supporter, but it is hard for myself to create a level of enthusiasm when only a select few teams play anything close to a beautiful style (I can think of three off the top of my head which at one point or another I’ve seen employ something other than 4-4-2 or 5-4-1 defensive-minded tactics: Liverpool, ManU, and Arsenal). I understand why Watford plays somewhat unattractive football since not everyone can afford Cristian Ronaldo or Cesc, just to name two randomly selected players. The continental leagues seem more attuned to better displays by their top teams, though for those of you who wish to bring up catenaccio, remember that Milan, Roma, and most of the time Inter Milan do play forward-minded games based around attacking midfielders (Kaka, Totti, and Figo/Stankovic/Cambiasso).

Back to the EPL, quickly: Aston Villa plays a 4-3-3, several teams play 3-5-2, but few play real attacking formations except Arsenal (Cesc, Helb, Rosicky, Henry, and van Persie as your forward 5 qualifies in my book as attacking, especially if Cesc is the one handling defensive responsibilities half the time when Gilberto runs forward). Even ManU will occassionally start 2 defensive midfielders (Carrick and Fletcher) alongside each other, though that is probably mostly due to injuries.

Ye Olde Rumor Mill

Thanks to The Disappointment Zone for pointing this out. Remember to check in there for all your Cleveland sports-related information.

According to German magazine/tabloid Bild (German; here very roughly translated) Jurgen Klinsman is close to signing a big deal with the US National team. According to DuNord, “Sunil Gulati, President of US Soccer, vehemently denies any of this has happened.” We’ll have to wait and see how this turns out.

Weekend Preview

EPL:

Manchester United – Portsmouth: There is danger here for the Red Devils, but coming off a lost to Copenhagen, I expect them to be motivated.

West Ham – Arsenal: after finally collecting a win, West Ham is facing a stiff test in Arsenal, but at least it’s at home. (Sunday)
La Liga:

Deportivo – Barcelona: It’ll be interesting to see who starts at forward for Barcelona. I’m personally hoping it’s Saviola and that he scores 2. I’m predicting a draw here, though, 2-2. [Update: Puyol and Xavi will miss, the former because of the death of his father.]

Serie A:

Roma – Fiorentina: With a recently reduced punishment, Fiorentina will be looking to move out of the relegation zone at the expense of 3rd place Roma. Will Roma ever be able to take advantage of their opportunity to grabe a title? I doubt it. (Sunday)

Aston Villa – Blackburn

Time: Sunday 9am EST

While Aston Villa is currently hoping to recover form after their 3-1 defeat at Liverpool last weekend, Blackburn are coming off a 3 goal victory in European competition on Thursday. The only benefit this can possibly have for Villa is that Blackburn might be a step slow due to fatigue. Currently Villa sits 10 points behind league leaders Manchester United while Blackburn is 11th on 12 points. Blackburn have a good forward line and a decent backline, so Villa will certainly have to bring some sort of game to get away with a victory.

Recent form:
Aston Villa had, until Saturday’s loss, been the only remaining undefeated team in the Premiership, but sit in 7th on 15 points after 10 games thanks to six draws. While they’ve tied both Arsenal and Chelsea away already this season, but they’ve also drawn at Villa Park to Fulham and a mediocre Tottenham team (all four games finished 1-1). Milan Baros and Juan Pablo Angel have yet to truly mesh in the attacking line (generally they are accompanied by Gabriel Agbonlahor in a 4-3-3 formation) and they need to step up in order to keep up the hopes for a 2007-2008 European adventure. In terms of home advantage, Villa has yet to lose at Villa Park, turning in a record of 3-2-0.

Blackburn has lost their last 3 EPL encounters, but has so far been strong in European competition, going 3-1-0 so far over the course of UEFA Cup qualifying and group stage action. Their 3-0 victory over Basle, a solid if not great Swiss side, is a good step towards recovering their current EPL form, which, away from home is 0-2-2, including last Sunday’s 2-1 loss away to a woeful West Ham squad (it can’t be denied that West Ham should be doing better than they are and perhaps last weekend was a warning that they’re going to begin to turn in good performances, making Blackburn’s loss merely a result of circumstances rather than lack of ability).

Probable lineups:
Barring injury or fatigue, I can’t see why both teams won’t start the same teams they started in their previous matches, with the exception of Gavin McCann returning in midfield in place of Isaiah Osbourne (why you’d replace a player with a name like that, I’ll never know).

Aston Villa: Sorensen, Barry, Bouma, Hughes, Mellberg, McCann, Ridgewell, Petrov, Agbonlahor, Angel Baros. (It is possible that Steven Davis will get a start in the midfield, but according to Soccernet Chris Sutton will not start in place of Baros.)

Blackburn: Friedel, Gray, Khizanishvili, Neill, Ooijer, Bentley, Tugay, Pedersen, Peter, McCarthy, Nonda (Francis Jeffers could get a start)

I’ll try to update the lineups as they come out with injury reports throughout tomorrow and Saturday, but probably won’t have the time to confirm them before 9am on Sunday. As always, you can stream the match here.

Prediction:
Aston Villa 2-1 Blackburn. At home the Lions are just too good for a mediocre-to-bad road team like Blackburn. I expect Martin O’Neill to get the squad back to its old tricks after suffering defeat for the first time and they should come out with guns blazing, hoping to catch Blackburn early to set the tempo of the game.

[Update: lineups have been updated.]

Now maybe they can accomplish something

FIFA and FIFPro have signed an “historic agreement” that allows players a voice in FIFA decision making. The full import of this decision is, of course, unclear since nothing has yet been done officially by this new co-operative pairing. There is a lot of good that can come out of it and also a lot of bitter partisanship. We’ll have to wait and see, but the biggest thing I noted in the article was the line “World football’s governing body FIFA and players union FIFPro will propose a limit on the number of foreigners who can play for a club.” The new system would require that “six members of a side must be homegrown.” It’s an interesting thought in any case.

The Great Goals of All Time

In honor of Lucho Gonzalez’s golaso against Hamburg yesterday, I’d like to find out what people think of as the best goal of all time. I won’t bother posting the rest of this week’s CL goals since 101 Great Goals has already done so (for the most part).

To start off, this is what I consider the greatest goal of all time:

If you’re not sure that’s truly the greatest goal of all time (perhaps merely the greatest freekick), then please rest assured that the nerds at the University of Augsburg (Germany, not the one in Minneapolis which I have had the “honor” of attending for a semester…) disagree with you, as does microfluidity in general.

In a list of great goals, you can’t discount the other goal in the Hand of God game or this gem from Ronaldo’s, um, lighter days. Post links in the comments section to greatest goals you’ve been witness to. Perhaps you’ll change my views.

Champions League Matchday 4 recap

Here are the full results from Champions League Matchday 4:

 

Tuesday:

Barcelona 2 – 2 Chelsea

Levski 0 – 3 Werder Bremen

Spartak Moscow 0 – 1 InterMilan

Bayern Munich 0 – 0 Sporting Lisbon

Liverpool 3 – 0 Bordeaux

PSV 2 – 0 Galatasaray

Roma 1 – 1 Olympiakos

Shakhtar Donetsk 2 – 2 Valencia

 

Wednesday:

Lyon 1 – 0 Dynamo Kiev

Real Madrid 1 – 0 Steaua Bucaresti

Benfica 3 – 0 Celtic

FC Copenhagen 1 – 0 Manchester United

Arsenal 0 – 0 CSKA Moscow

Hamburg 1 – 3 Porto

AEK 1 – 0 Lille

Milan 4 – 1 Anderlecht

[Update: Champions League standings have been updated here.]

[Update 2: According to Soccernet, these are the teams that have qualified for the elimination stage of the CL: Bayern Munich, Lyon, Real Madrid, Liverpool, PSV, and Valenica. Here's a quick quote to bring up my point,

Even if Steaua (3 points) were to match Real's tally of nine with wins in their last two matches, the Spanish giants would finish above them on the head-to-head record after beating the Romanians home and away.

That is, according to section 4.05 of the Regulations of the UEFA Champions League, wrong. 4.05b reads that in the event that total points does not seperate teams in the table, "superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question" will "determine the rankings." So that makes the statement about Real Madrid wrong, though likely to come true since Steaua is very unlikely to overcome a 6 point and 10 goal difference in just 2 games.]

[Update 3: Am I wrong about that previous update? Sports Illustrated also published an article saying Real have advanced, though they give no explanation of how that is true (one uses Reuters, the other AP as sources). If Steaua beats both Lyon and Dynamo Kiev, and Madrid loses to both those teams by enough that the goal differential puts Steaua top, how is it that Steaua won't advance, under the rules listed above?]