A Week in European Soccer (4/9/10 - 4/15/10)

EPL

- Over the weekend there weren't too many exciting results or much movement in the table. Manchester United wasn't able to get a much-needed win over Blackburn and Man City got a huge 5-1 win over Birmingham. United and City will be facing each other on Saturday. Will Rooney be fit?  Mancini hopes so.

- On Tuesday, Chelsea was fortunate to just barely defeat Bolton 1-0 and go 4 points clear ahead of United. However, on Wednesday, Arsenal suffered a huge 2-1 defeat against Tottenham officially knocking them out of the title race. Wenger certainly wasn't happy about that. Personally, I'd like to give my young, but what I think to be my mature opinion on this: WENGER NEEDS TO BE SACKED! The man isn't bringing the kind of talent into his lineups which can be seen as Arsenal simply haven't been able to produce the much needed results over the past few weeks (as was the case in their loss, essentially, to Messi). However, it seems the  Arsenal doesn't feel this way.

Spanish Premier League
- After Real Madrid suffered their huge 2-0 loss at home to Barcelona, they bounced back with great discipline and athleticism by winning earlier today 2-1 over Almeria. With the win, they are now only 3 points behind league leaders Barcelona. For Real, they are going to have to hope Barcelona slip up over their next six games otherwise Barca will be saying "hello" to another league title.

Photo Credit: Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Cleat of the post: Nike5 Zoom T-5 FS...awesome color way!

An Eventful Premier League Weekend

This past weekend was filled with disappointment and excitement for the 20 teams that played. Manchester United lost 3-1 to Everton, Arsenal and Chelsea continued their winning ways and Liverpool couldn't defeat Manchester City. However, the true highlight of these past two days has been revolving around Aston Villa and Tottenham; both clubs that, as of late, have been in "slump" mode. Aston Villa have simply "kissing their sister" for quite some time now and Tottenham hasn't been consistent. Fortunately, both sides were able to get huge wins heading into the tougher part of the season. Tottenham's win over Wigan Athletic will give them that much needed confidence for Redknapp and Villa's win over Burnley will give O'Neill's side a boost before their game this Wednesday in the FA Cup against Crystal Palace. (To the right is a picture of Aston Villa and Tottenham from last season.)
Photo Credit: Ben Sutherland

Remaining Results from the weekend:
Arsenal 2 - 0 Sunderland
West Ham United 3 - 0 Hull City
Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 - 2 Chelsea
Portsmouth 1 - 2 Stoke City
Blackburn Rovers 3 - 0 Bolton Wanderers
Fulham 2 - 1 Birmingham

Cleat of the post: Hummel 6.2 Concept.

Keane joins Celtic

Robbie Keane officially joined Scottish side, Celtic FC, on loan today. The Irish national team forward/ now former Tottenham striker. Lately, the captain has been getting little time off of the bench and simply hasn't been able to get the job done in the view of Redknapp. It seems Celtic has become keen on the Keane's (pun intended) seeing that it was first Roy Keane who joined the club and now Robbie Keane is following suit. This will be Keane's seventh club (including Celtic) that he will have played for. The other six clubs (in no particular order) have been Tottenham, Inter, Wolves, Leeds, Coventry, and Liverpool. Clearly, this guy knows a thing or two about playing a lot of different styles of soccer. Best of luck to Keane and his new team.

Robbie Keane, "The great man."


Cleat of the post: uhlsport Torkralle RG - the weirdest goalie cleats...ever.

As the good ol FIFA games say, "they are in Formidable form"

As you can probably guess, Chelsea is in 1st with a win, Man U follows behind with a win (only a 1 point differential between them), Arsenal is in third, and for a change this season, Tottenham is in fourth. I figured we could spend some time talking about what has propelled Tottenham to such a high standing thus far in the season.
First and foremost, credit goes to manager Harry Redknapp who has done an excellent job with his squad this year. Although Jermaine Defoe did miss a penalty earlier today that would have given them the win over Hull, I must say he is their best player. He has scored 84 goals in his lifetime career in the EPL. Personally, i think this is a feat reached by not to many in an 8-9 year span as a professional European soccer player. We need to realize that the competition, specifically in England, is unsurpassed in any other league in the world. Also, other players worthy to note on the squad are Huddlestone (Midfield), Keane (forward), and Crouch (Forward). If you noticed, it seems as if I have only mentioned an attacking group of players really and the reason for doing this is I want to point out that although this team has many strong attackers that lack a strong defense but they are able to pull together some fabulous results which allows them to do so well in the EPL. Therefore, it is absolutely fair to say that this is a real team that works in unity. Well done Hotspurs!

Cleat of the post: Nike Superfly (Nice Color Combination)

Beckham will return to AC Milan; EPL Review

After what seems like almost a year now, it has been confirmed that Beckham will in fact return to AC Milan this January where he will hope to once again make a positive difference in the Italian side. However, I once again return to my prior post regarding Beckham's initial move from the Galaxy to Milan last year. Here is the link to that:
http://soccerupdate.blogspot.com/2009/02/things-in-europe-and-especially-england.html

In the EPL, it seems that year after year it is the exact same teams who are in the exact same places and the exact same places in the season. Chelsea is in first with 27 points, Man U in second with 25 points, Arsenal in third with 22 points, and both Man City and Tottenham tied for fourth with 19 points each. I guess, this year, the only real difference is Man City. One thing that can certainly be said about City is that Robinho and Tevez are a duo that are making a big difference for that side and of course along with Adebayor and Wright-Phillips. But as all my avid readers know, I am a true Man U fan and they will always be first in my mind (corny, yes, but needed to be said and clarified).

Man U In Great Form

Over the past week or so, Man U has simply been unstoppable. With the team currently four points ahead of Chelsea, there is definitely need for explanation of what has happened. Looking back to last Tuesday, the Red Devils took on Internaziionale. Both teams did not have a large number of shots and to add to this low stat, Inter did not have single shot on net whereas Man U only had 5. Clearly, the teams were able to get into the attack at least a decent amount, but neither team was able to actually capitalize on their opportunities. The game would end 0-0 with both sides disappointed to not be able to leave the game with 3 points. An interesting fact between Ferguson and Inter manager Mourinho is that Ferguson has only been able to get 1 win out of 13 games against Mourinho.

Man U's next game was this past Sunday against Tottenham in the Carling Cup final. During this game, Ferguson was not playing his usual starters because he did not want them to be injured or tired before their next game which is tomorrow. he also wanted to give some playing time to the younger and less experienced players on the team. Once again, Man U ended the game in a 0-0 tie, but the game would head into overtime. Even after overtime, neither team was able to score and the game finally ended with penalty kicks. However, prior to the penalty kicks, back up keeper Foster took a quick look on his ipod which contained video of Tottenham Hotspur players taking penalty kicks. After viewing these videos, Foster was able to used what he had just learned and apply it to the game to help his side win the cup. the Fa tried to press chargers against Foster's use of the ipod but could not pass it because there were no rules that went against what Foster did.

Earlier today, Man U beat Newcastle United 2-1 with goals from striker duo Rooney and Berbatov. With the win, Man U now goes 7 points clear of Chelsea and keeps Newcastle at bay in 16th place. Let's continue to watch as Man U looks to once again lift the trophy!!!

An Update on Man U and Arsenal

In the Man U, West Ham clash, it was a game that looked as if neither side would be able to come away with three points. Just after an hour of play, Ryan Giggs was able to put away a nice shot past West Ham keeper, Robert Green. However, Giggs' shot was not the only one from Ferguson's side. The 20 total shots (with a pathetic 3 on target) cam from Red Devils veteran, Paul Scholes as well as midfield sensation, Cristiano Ronaldo. All in all, probably not the most exciting game to watch, but for Man U and their fans alike, an excellent result on the day; 3 points to go 2 points clear ahead of Rivals Liverpool. These two rivals will be meeting at Old Trafford on March 14th - definitely a game to be watched!

Also today Arsenal battled it out at White Heart Lane against Tottenham. In a first half that ended sorely for Arsenal, with a red card handed out by referee Mike Dean to midfielder Eboue, Arsenal was forced to hold off Tottenham for another 45 minutes. Although Tottenham may have had the upper hand in this match with the extra man, they were unable to capitalize on any chances just as Arsenal was reduced to few and futile chances. With these games completed, the standings are still not finalized in any way.

Man U - 56 points
Liverpool - 54 points
Aston Villa - 51 points
Chelsea - 49 points
Arsenal - 44 points

Premier League

Unfortunately, on 3/18, Manchester United was knocked out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 loss to Portsmouth. Although Man U lost, they were able to move clear into first in the Premier League; 3 points ahead of Arsenal and 5 points ahead of Chelsea. Just as we thought, Man U would move into first and will be looking to win the league.
Meanwhile, Arsenal drew with Middlesbrough; 1-1 and Chelsea 4-4 with Tottenham.

Just a heads up for all you die hard MLS fans: the season starts up on March 29. Oh yeah, did you hear Beckham might buy the Galaxy? Yeah, check it out at ESPNsoccernet.

Carling Cup Surprise!

Who would believe it, Tottenham were able to beat Chelsea in today's cup. It wasn't just any game, it was 11th placed Tottenham versus third place Chelsea. And to top it off, Tottenham won in the first OT thanks to Woodgate's perseverance to find the back of the net. This game goes to show that anyone can beat anybody on any given day; it comes down to who has worked harder in practice and who wants it more. Well down Spurs!

Start of EPL 06-07 year

As the new season of EPL soccer starts, the powerhouses are off to good starts, or at least the majority of them are! Arsenal tied to Aston Villa?! and Tottenham lost to Bolton which was quite upsetting for many. On the other hand, Chelsea and Manchester nited both started off their seasons well beating Manchester City and Fulham respectively.

standings from Soccernet:

Man U
Chelsea
Portsmouth
West Ham
Bolton
Reading
Everton
Newcastle
Arsenal
Aston Villa
Liverpool
Sheff Utd
M'brough
Watford
Wigan
Charlton
Tottenham
Blackburn
Fulham

WILL REIGNING CHAMPS WIN OR AGAIN OR WIL IT BE SOMEONE ELSE...

Man U recover quickly and face tough competition

Luckily for Man U, they beat the Hotspurs 2-1 yesterday after tieng last week against Sunderland. Rooney scored both goals for Man U and led them to another victory.


Next week on April 29th, Man U will play the Premiership's leaders, Chelsea. For Chelsea, if they win their next game it is almost guaranteed that they wilol win the league for the second year straight. Let's see if Liverpool can hold them off.

Fulham win over Hotspurs

Fulham 1, Hotspurs 0. It's true, the 4th place Spurs lost to the 13th place Fulham. It was as if Fulham were to nimble for the Spurs. For some, this game seemed quite palpable that it was in the Spurs hands but, with Dawson getting a red card in the 72nd minute, things changed in favor for Fulham. Luckily enogh, Bocanegra (also U.S. defender) was able to score in the 90th minute for Fulham giving them the victory!