Credit where Credit is Due

I'm sure you all watched last night's (afternoon for those Stateside...) Champions League Final, and if your viewing experience was anything like mine, you were amazed continually by the virtuosity of Barcelona's players. The list could go on through every player on the pitch, but to name a two, Iniesta and Messi were ridiculous. The Spaniard carried the ball, connected with his forwards, recovered the ball on countless occasions fom the deflated Man U defense, and really was the thread that wove together Barcelona's attacking 2/3. I couldn't help but get chills when literally minutes ticked off the clock while the ball was under Barcelona's control. Especially in the final 30 minutes of the first half, they were untouchable.

Messi dominated as well - even the english, admittedly Manchester-supporting commentators noted his performance clearly outshined Ronaldo's. The Argentinian ran circles around Man U's defense, climaxing his amazing performance with a simply towering header to conclude the game's scoring. Messi's leap, suspending him in the air for a near eternity, put the 5'7" man on top of the football world. For lack of a more eloquent way of putting it, it was disgusting.

No team could match Barcelona last night, evidenced not only by their skill but by the scorecard which read 2-0 over the (previously) most likely candidate for best club in the world.

What impressed me very much, aside from the unreal level of play, was that in response to this skill, the Man U fans seated next to me were clapping and shaking their heads in disbelief after each astounding feat of Barcelona. That's called giving credit where credit is due, even if your team is at the losing end. In da words of my main man Ali-G, RESPECT.

Sportscenter Makes My Day

Soccer is not common fodder for ESPN. On Sportscenter, soccer shows up once and a while, and while all MLS and US National Team games are shown, others are rather rare. Maybe an "ESPN Deportes" update with a couple goals shown from all the games of the world in the past week. In the Top 10 Plays, maybe an absolutely nasty goal will get the 8th spot or something. The only time they ever really promote soccer is when it involves the UEFA Champions League because...THEY SHOW IT. While I was thrilled that ESPN picked up the games, thinking it would result in a lot more exposure, I really don't see a huge difference yet as there is no real independent analysis. If ESPN picked up La Liga or Premiership games, I think it would result in a huge boon in the sport's interest, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

The reason I bring this all up is that the Top 10 Plays segment today was made up of the Top 10 plays from this year's Champion League! A rather strong list, though lacking some good contenders, and I liked that Iniesta's goal is first due to its importance. The anchor, don't know his name, kept referencing how much he loves soccer and how he freaked out during the Essien goal in the Barcelona game. All in all, very encouraging signs that the world's biggest sports network is dedicating its most popular segment of its popular and iconic show to soccer, even if only for a day.

Survival Sunday

The 38th and final week of the Premier League season is just about upon us, and with it will come the relegation results. WBA are already down, with 4 other teams (Sunderland, Hull City, Newcastle and Middlesbrough) competing to stay out of the final 2 spots. The way I see it, Boro are already down. They have to win by a large goal difference AND get some help, not going to happen. Sorry, Mr Southgate, and good luck with your yo-yo skills.

Hull City have got no shot against Man U, as even Sir Alex Ferguson's C team is good enough to crush Hull. This simplifies things greatly, for if Hull lose, then Sunderland are safe. So for the final relegation spot, it is between Newcastle and Hull.

If these predictions hold true then it all comes down to Villa vs Newcastle (at Villa Park), from which (again if the predictions hold true) a draw will save the Geordies. Can they do it? Villa have been less then stellar for months, a shadow of the team that once held a 6 point lead for the fourth spot. The Villans have lost or drawn in 10 of their last 11 games, against arguably weaker opposition than what the Geordies will offer up on Sunday. As much as I hate to say it, I have a sneaky feeling that the Barcodes of Newcastle will achieve a 0-0 bore draw, enough to keep the Toon Army in the Premiership.

Well, so long, Phil Brown... and take your spray on tans with you.

Update: Chase for the Europa League!

Ok, so as it stands, if Totts is gonna make it to Europa league, we've got to catch Fulham, who are 2 points up. Their remaining games are away to Newcastle and home to Everton. Ours are home to Man City and away to Liverpool (yikes).


The way I see it, Tottenham will beat Man City, but lose to Liverpool. That's as realistic as I can get. In that scenario, we would need Fulham to drop points in both of their remaining games.


So to break this down, is there any situation in which I can enivision Fulham dropping enough points? Well, It is easy to see Fulham losing to Everton. Newcastle have been abysmal and I know you can't rely on them to get the job done... but maybe by some miracle Shearer captures the magic of Tyneside and holds them to a draw?

Overall, I don't think it's looking too good for Tottenham. We basically either have to beat Liverpool or hope Newcastle beats/draws Fulham. Pretty unlikely to happen, in my opinion.


Anyways, I wish you luck, Harry, in your chase for Europe... You're gonna need it!

A mire of despair

It seems every year there's one great escape story, or at the very least, an attempt at one. Last year was Fulham's great escape, however, this year there seem to be no surprises. The bottom five teams are absolutely dreadful, and I don't expect any of them to go on a run to safety. Hull and Sunderland have points on Boro, Toon and WBA, and that's all they'll need. Toon and Boro are stuck on 31, and if they end up with 33, that'll be great for them. All five of these teams simply suck. Newcastle and Boro play next week, and if a team wins that, they'll have a chance, as none of these teams face each other outside of that one match. If Boro and Toon tie, they'll both go down. I'd vote to have all five go down this year; none of them have any fight in them. I think there should be a new rule: 38 point threshold. If you don't average a point a game, you don't deserve to stay in the premier league. Rovers will (hopefully) get a point out of their next three matches, meaning that this would send these five awful teams down. You won't have a repeat of 2002 when West Ham went down with 42 points, and then bounced straight back up because they were too good for the Championship. I won't shed any tears of more yo-yo clubs being denied a year in the Premier League.
Lets look at the teams currently bouncing back up this year:
Wolves I think Wolves will get up and stay up. They're a big club, a quality side and the irony of Mick McCarthy taking the place for (hopefully) Roy Keane's former club in Sunderland will be great.
Birmingham CityYo-Yo city. Destined for another 18/19th place finish.
Playoff Winner (Sheffield Burnley Reading Preston) Lets just look at the history of the last playoff winners: Hull City (dreadful after an amazing start, if they stay up next year bet the farm they go Derby the year after), Derby County (the worst Premier League season in history), Watford (20th by a mile, dreadful dreadful season), West Ham United (stayed up, well done), Crystal Palace (18th, down), Wolves (20th, down), Birmingham (stayed up for a few years, before yo-yoing again).
Outside of West Ham, no playoff team in recent memory has avoided either a yo-yo fate or a fate to drop straight down to the Championship for awhile. When I look at these clubs, I can't say I see a different fate for any of them. If Hull stays up, I'm calling right now a bottom 3 of Hull City, Birmingham City and whoever wins the Playoff.