Winding Down the Season Pt. 2: Champions and Europas

With the domestic seasons nearing the end that means that the continental competitions are also heading towards their exciting conclusions. While the domestic leagues (the big 5 in particular) are the meat of soccer, the continental competitions are the whipped cream and peanut butter on top of that meat. Doesn't make sense you say? Well fuck you. If you aren't eating your meat with peanut butter and fucking whipped cream then you're a nazi.

Anyway, the continental competitions are the proving grounds for the best teams. The UEFA Champions League is the best of the best. The winners and high ranking teams are all in this competition, which means the best dream matchups happen here. Man United, Chelsea, Inter, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Olympique Lyonnais, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Bordeaux are just some of the teams that make regular appearances. It's like the Super Bowl of soccer. The World Cup may be the premier event in soccer, but the Champions League happens every year and basically crowns the world's best team. It starts off in round robin groups but the real excitement is in the knockout rounds. It's pure nerves when you're playing for everything, pride and glory for your nation and league. It's a proving ground for the leagues to battle out for superiority. It's the best yearly competition in the world. Period.

The other European continental competition is the Europa League. This was previously known as the UEFA Cup tournament up until last year. A new structure and an image makeover went into effect this year in an effort to boost the level of this event. It's worked, let me tell you, and in it's inaugural season the Europa League has been more exciting than the Champions League. A bit of an explanation first. This is the second level of European club competitions, featuring domestic cup winners and usually 3rd-7th place teams. The kicker is that teams finishing third in the group stages of the Champions League participate in the Europa League knockout rounds. It's all a bit complicated the way everything intertwines and qualification works. This means that the if the big teams fumble early in the Champions League they can make up for it in the Europa League.

With the explanations out of the way let's take a closer look at the current situations of both these competitions.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2009-2010

The contenders that are still remaining are defending champions Barcelona, Italian champions Inter Milan, French powerhouse Olympique Lyonnais, and German leaders Bayern Munich. This is an extremely strong field and honestly I don't care which team takes it all. I think that Barcelona have the edge since they almost certainly the best team in the world right now. Inter Milan would be the team I'd be most excited about winning it, but I wouldn't begrudge Munich or Lyon. German and France aren't often in contention at this late stage of the tournament. It's exciting stuff since all four of these teams are having great seasons in their domestic leagues. No English teams in the semis for the first time in five or six years does disappoint me, however. Inter takes on Barca and Lyon faces Bayern in the semis. My prediction for the final is Barcelona vs Bayern, with Barca repeating as champions.

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE 2009-2010

While the Champions League is having a straightforward season the Europa League is having an amazing first run. The contenders at this point are my favorites Liverpool, Spanish side Atletico Madrid, German contenders Hamburger SV, and the Cinderalla story team Fulham. I'm pulling for Liverpool, obviously, but I'm dreaming of the all-England final of Liverpool vs Fulham. Atletico are no pushovers and had to down countrymen Valencia and defending runners-up Werder Bremen to get this far.
Liverpool has come from a losing leg in the last two rounds to move on each time. It may be one of the worst seasons in years for the Reds, but if they can salvage this tourney it's not a complete throwaway.
Fulham is having the greatest success of their entire history by beating defending UEFA Cup champs Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukrainian), German champs Wolfsburg, and ultra-powerhouse Juventus. Their 4-1 win over Juventus was Fulham's absolute greatest moment ever. I'm partial to Fulham since the USA's best player, Clint Dempsey, plays for the side. I think they'll make the final out of sheer will.
The last semifinalist is Hamburger SV. The final of this tournament takes place in Hamburg, so the team will be that much more motivated to put one over on Fulham. It'll be a hell of a fight and I highly suggest you try and catch Fulham vs Hamburg somehwere.
Sadly the Europa League isn't being played on any American stations that I can find. The final will be shown on ESPN2 like last year I'm guessing. It'll be an exciting match whichever teams are in it (PLEASE LET IT BE LIVERPOOL!).

So there is the news from the continent. Only a few weeks left until the climax of the season. Fingers crossed that we get some really good matches and really interesting results. Next time I'll talk about the upcoming World Cup. Yeah, it's time to get excited bitches.

Winding Down the Season Pt. 1: League Play

The 2009-2010 season is drawing to a close in all of Europe's top soccer leagues. It's getting to be pretty close in some leagues which is sure to lead to some really nice stretches as we head into the final games. It's actually getting pretty exciting because there are no sure fire champions pulling away in many of the big leagues. It's rare to see in a sport that is usually typified by one dominant force.

In particular the Premier League is a close three way dance between Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester United. Liverpool are, sadly, only fighting for 4th and a Champions League appearance next season. I expected a lot more out of Liverpool this season but a few preseason players leaving seemingly dealt a major hit to the team which has been sitting in the upper midtable for most of the season. They are, however, still in the running for the Europa League which I will discuss below. At the top I'm really hoping for Man Utd to stumble here at the end of the season as are many. Chelsea are ahead by two as I write this, Man Utd is in second and Arsenal are a point behind them. I really would love to see Arsenal string together a run of wins and overtake the other two. I suspect it will be Chelsea in the end. Liverpool are likely not to end up in fourth. Tottenham are looking strong and I'd say they'll take fourth with Man City in fifth.

Spain's La Liga is down to two, the only two really. Real Madrid and Barcelona are duking it out on equal points, with Valencia in third an without hope to bridge the gap. So it comes down to a race between two teams that are so damn rich that if they aren't fighting for first it's a shame on them. Especially Real. They went Yankees before the season, buying the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Kaka. Still they're barely ahead of Barcelona, mostly due to the sheer brilliance of the best player in the world, Lionel Messi. Go Barcelona I say, trounce those bastards.

Probably the most exciting league to be watching right now is the Italian Serie A. Inter Milan have led for most of the season and are looking like a strong contender to win their 5th straight Scudetto. However AC Milan and Roma aren't letting them get it easy. The race for the Serie A title is as close as it has ever been, which is producing some wonderful games. Palermo, the pink wonders from Sicily, are sitting in 4th and have a chance to go to the Champions League next season. To everyone's delight Juventus is completely bumbling, somewhere in 7th or so. The team that was forcibly relegated for cheating several seasons ago is languishing in failure. Having hilariously lost to Fulham in the Europa League, Juventus' glory days are long gone. My money is on Inter to win it, but they have more chances to get fatigued as they are still in the running for the Champions League.

French Ligue 1 Orange has a five way race for the title. Marseille, Olympique Lyonnais, Montpellier, Auxerre and Bordeaux are all within 3 points of each other. I'm not even sure who I think will win this league since I don't follow it too closely. To have so many teams in contention either shows the strength of those teams or the weakness of the league as a whole. With Lyon in the semis of the Champions League it's probably the latter. I'd like to see Auxerre take it I think. Anyone but Lyon.

Germany, Portugal, Greece, Ukraine, and Holland are all having some rather uninspiring seasons. Bayern is in the lead in the Bundesliga, with Schalke chasing. No Hoffenheim to present an exciting challenge, no underdog Wolfsburg chasing their first glory. Just Bayern at the top. How boring. Portugal is being contested by the same three teams. Braga is making a run at Benfica, which is great, but they won't win it. Braga isn't Sporting, Porto or Benfica so it can't win. The Portuguese league is probably the most boring of the 'major' European leagues. Greece I only mention because Olympiakos is in first, like always. Aris, the team that Freddy Adu sometimes plays for, is way out of contention. Greece sucks. Ukraine is a two horse race between Shakhtar and Dinamo Kiev. How will it turn out? Shakhtar I hope, but really couldn't care less. FC Twente is in the lead in Netherlends, which is pretty cool since they aren't PSV or Ajax. Last season's winner AZ is out of reach, and my favorite Feyenoord is barely ahead of them. I hope Twente takes it because I like seeing 'Yankees'-type teams like Ajax and PSV lose. I wish Feyenoord could get their shit together and win the league someday.

Finally I'll mention the Turkish league. This league has only ever been won by four teams: Fenerbache, Besiktas, Trabzonspor, and Galatasaray. These are all pretty interesting teams, but to have a league only have four champions in over 50 years is ridiculous. Imagine how boring American sports would be if only four teams won in that long. The sport would die. This season, however, there is another team on top of the table and is putting up a fight for their first ever title. Unheralded Bursaspor are taking second place Fenerbahce to the wire with a close race. Now I do love Fenerbahce, but I'm really rooting for Bursaspor to win in this one. I encourage you to as well.

Scotland isn't even worth a mention. There are only two teams in Scotland, and until something drastic happens... what's the point?

Next time I'll talk about the European club competitions and the semifinalists in each of those. Champions League. Europa League. Next time!

Kick It! Volume 591

Some of my thoughts on current affairs in soccer

The Good - Liverpool came in second in the Premiership. While, of course, it's not a first place finish it is still a damn strong performance from a damn strong team. Next year who knows what will happen. Especially since Man Utd is being torn apart. Which brings me to...
Cristiano Ronaldo moves to Real Madrid! Great excitement! The world's "best" player leaves England for Spain, which leaves a giant dent in the Man Utd squad. Couple this with Tevez leaving and you've got a United team in turmoil. Which means very good things for a strong Liverpool.
Three-ish weeks out from seeing AC Milan vs Inter at Gillette! This will not only be my first soccer game, but my first pro sports game. At the age of 25... yeah I haven't been in that much of a rush to see pro sports. The Milan Derby, however, gets me off my ass to see two of the best teams in the world in America.

The Bad - United States suffers defeat in the Confederations Cup final. After besting an on fire Spain team they got trumped by a tricky Brazilian squad. They put up a helluva fight, though. Goals from Dempsey and Donovan had the US leading 2-0 at the half. A weasely fightback from the Brazilians saw them get 3 goals in the second to win it 3-2. It was a FIFA final for the US team, a first for them. Yet, it could've been so much more had they been able to just hold on to that lead. It's a sad disappointment, a hard loss to take. Second place is hardly enough after beating best in the world Spain 2-0.

The Whatever - Real Madrid is buying players left and right with millions upon millions of dollars. They came in second in Spain, which for some reason seems to have made them go loony. Ronaldo, Kaka and Benzema have been bought so far and who knows who the next player will be bought. Where'd this money come from? Even giants are struggling in these economic times, but Real has money to shatter transfer fees TWICE?!