A Return.

Not that I ever really "left" but I am back and ready to post some more on this little soccer blog. Sadly, my ability to view La Liga and Bundesliga has been hampered a bit by the sale of GOL TV to BeIN Sports (I think that's who got it). My favorite teams are harded to watch... especially with FC St. Pauli falling to the 2. Bundesliga. Both FC St. Pauli and Sevilla FC are near the middle of the pack, though it seems Sevilla is having the rougher go of it this year. For some, their next match is an important one, though it may or may not mean anything in the grand scheme of the season, the annual Antonio Puerta Trophy match.

I still have trouble believing this was six years ago. Check out the linked article, as his six year old son, who had not even been born when he tragically died during a match, will be kicking off the match against Almeria in this year's match. I certainly hope I get to catch this one just to see his son on the pitch.

Seems as though Sevilla still has a strong fan in one of their former players. Jesús Navas has reportedly backed his former team with some strong words of encouragement. I'll always back Sevilla and Navas, personally ... hope he's right. Besides the annual tribute match, they have two La Liga matches and a Europa match that they should win. Crossing fingers.

Now... let's see how St Pauli does without a full-time manager...

An interesting week for me...

It started last Wednesday, with my first double-header match i've participated in since I was in college (no need to discuss time frame, but it was a while ago). As the season ended in the league i'm currently in, we had to win to go on to the finals. Sadly, we did not do this, we actually played a pretty bad match and the opponents played an excellent match (no need to discuss the score, but there was a pretty big goal difference). The "consolation" match was between us and the last place team in the 5 team league. This match was played directly after our horrible loss...and was the last place team's ONLY match of the night. Though we were obviously a bit worn out from putting in the extra effort during the first match, ending proudly without getting shut-out, it seemed to be the warm up we needed...well, I needed. I thought I played pretty piss-poor in the first match but was not unhappy about my play in the second. Unfortunately, in the end, our second match was a draw though I think we had both control of the ball most of the match and several more shots on goal than our opponent. Here's to hoping we are able to find a keeper for the coming season...which starts in September.

Next we head to La Liga, another new season and another death to a prominent Spanish team's player. The captain for Espanyol, Daniel Jarque, died of a heart-attack this weekend. Yet another, high-end player in La Liga goes down to a heart problem. With little in the way of details about this, I'll just say it's sad to see such a thing happen to such a promising talent so early in life. And, like Sevilla's Antonio Puerta, from almost exactly two years ago, who suffered a heart attack during the first match of the season, Jarque had a child on the way. Just too hard to truly comprehend, but I do wish his family and his team well.

Also, in La Liga news, there were a few matches of an international friendly nature on US soil. The first I saw was the DC United vs Real Madrid match. I am NOT a fan of either team, but for some reason I still enjoyed DC getting their butts kicked by the La Liga giants. I'm not sure what outcome would have given me a more satisfying feeling but after watching Sevilla get knocked out of the Peace Cup rather early I've not really found any pre-season La Liga matches to be truly entertaining. Even was a little disappointed in Barcelona with their draw against Chivas de Guadalajara. Disappointing in that Barca held the ball most of the match and even had nine shots on goal to Chivas' two shots, but they were never able to get it in the net. Again, it's all pre-season friendlies i'll take with a grain of salt.

From here we head towards some good news in my book... St. Pauli wins the opening match of their Second Bundesliga 2009-2010 campaign, 2-1 versus Rot Weiss Ahlen. With two of their main attackers out with injuries this is a good start. Here's to a great season for St. Pauli!! To add to this, I just read an interesting article in which the author gives the MLS some advice about how they could learn a thing or two from St. Pauli and the way the team management/owners treat their "ultra" fans.

England all the way huh...

While all four teams making it to the Champions' League Quarter-finals are English Premier League teams...I feel I must make note of a certain "official" ranking site. I do this also because it is the EPL that is frequently touted as the greatest league with the greatest teams. An example would be the recent quote from Man. U.'s Sir Alex Ferguson, "'The Premier League is the strongest in Europe.
Personally, I agree with That's On Point's latest take on this, in which the top EPL teams are better than other leagues' top teams, but with the money the EPL has to spend how could they not buy the best teams?? But, to consider all teams from the top to the bottom I think the UEFA ranking is more correct.

While I may be a little biased, I still believe this "official" ranking holds true. Just look at the point spreads of each league. Currently, the comparison between the top and the bottom teams of each league are EPL = 56 points, Italy Series A = 46 points, La Liga = 43 and even the Bundesliga is only seperated by 33 points. I could be wrong but I think I remember a time last year (after the winter break) in which the top ten La Liga teams were only seperateda by about 12 points. I know this isn't the only indicator, some could say the whole league is subpar (and we know this isn't true), but when you have that strong of a league, there won't be as big of a spread.

Just wanted to put that out there.

(Total sidenote that I also just wanted to add: Here's an article about attendance for leagues all over Europe vs MLS.)

Nightmarish weekend in La Liga

Once again I was unable to watch the one match I truly wanted to see but it did not matter as nothing went right for me this weekend. First, and foremost, Sevilla lost in a match they should have won quite easily. Granted the team they played, Deportivo La Coruña, has had a late season run themselves, they are (or were) in the bottom of the bunch, in the relegation area. The final score was 2-1, but if you look at the shots and time of possession I'd guess it could have been worse. I'll still browse around and see if a replay of the match will be shown.
Next up was Barcelona (sort of my number two team), and they had a poor showing as well. Not sure why but they did not put in Messi until almost an hour of the match had past. They ended up losing to Atletico Madrid 4-2 which puts Atletico further ahead of Sevilla in the standings.
Lastly, Real Madrid somehow pulls out a win in the last SECONDS of the match to hold onto the number one position in the standings. After the final goal was scored, Recreativo Huelva only had time to tap the ball off of the midfield line to "re-start" the match before the ref blew the final whistle. Painful.
And to top all this off it was just announced that Sevilla FC has dropped in the world club rankings. For 17 months they held the top position, but understandably, they have dropped a bit. Now Sevilla sits in Third place behind AC Milan and Chelsea FC.
NOT a fun soccer weekend.
This week we have Sevilla's second match with Fenerbahce and of course next week Olympic qualifiers begin, In TAMPA, for the US Men's U-23 team (FSC will broadcast these matches).

A few must win matches...

Though they are down a goal, I think Sevilla has a very good chance against Fenerbahçe SK next Wednesday. This story and the quotes from Poulsen do a good job of stating the obvious, "this will be another thriller." Though they were handed a loss in Turkey, they do have the two away goals, which can help a lot.

With their placement in La Liga, all of their remaining Liga matches will be just as important and almost as exciting as this next Champions League match against the Turkish side. Fifth place with only nine matches remaining, the Andalucians have little room for mistakes. I think a strong run of wins would make for a fitting tribute to fallen teammate Antonio Puerta.

Let's Go Sevilla!!

And speaking of a need for an end of season run, Fulham is in need of a really good run. As i've mentioned in the past, Fulham being relegated will look very bad for US soccer with their American heavy roster. Not that Americans are the only important players on the pitch, because they aren't, but surely the "court of public opinion" will have some more things to say (or at least think about) regarding US soccer should they fail to remain in the Premier League.