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...

A new dawning...in many ways.

This will be a short one, I feel like i've gotta put something down in here to get the ba...blog rolling.

First, if you don't know already, FC St Pauli did it. They got promoted and will be playing "with the big boys" this season, the 1st Bundesliga. I don't know what their first season back will be like, but i'm hoping to catch a match in person in case they don't fare too well.

In light of this news, here are a couple bits of info for ya that I find interesting or entertaining.

First we have info that Naki WILL remain at St. Pauli. This is definitely good news. Granted, many will say picking up bigger names or new and upcoming talent is needed, i also like the devotion that most St Pauli players and staff show in this promotion.

Next up, rumors were flying that Arsenal defender Sol Campbell was offered a one year contract. But at this point it seems St Pauli could be low on that totem pole.

For now, that's enough about the transfers... I don't usually pay attention to that until the season starts anyway. Something else I don't usually pay attention to are the new jerseys that come out every year. I know it's all about marketing and making money for the team/corporation, but I can't buy into that (partially because I don't have the kinda scratch you'd need to buy one for all the teams (or jerseys) I like every year... BUT, with St Pauli being promoted this year AND it being their centennial anniversary, I will be picking up a trikot at some point (hopefully in the fan shop outside the stadium). Heck, I might even buy a couple of them in celebration, especially if they do play well this year. I'm kinda waiting to see what the "third jersey" will look like before I pick out my "first one." Seems as though a lot of folks will be jumping on this bandwagon, i'm sure their fan base will grow quite a bit this year (which is always a double edged sword).

I could add a few things about Sevilla and their preparation for the new season but all I know so far is Fabiano will be staying even though there were rumors he might be picked up by AC Milan or Tottenham.

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.

Games of the week...

First, Sevilla FC:

With races for the Champion's League and UEFA Cup qualifiers on the line, every single La Liga match for Sevilla will be important from here on out. After last week's extremely disappointing loss to Atlético Madrid, Sevilla now faces a possibly tougher foe in Real Madrid.

Sevilla has already beaten Real Madrid three times this season, one more would make it a clean sweep, though it will be tough in Madrid. They really will have to play one of their best matches of the season, especially with a prime mid-fielder sittin' the next few on the bench. Then again, Real Madrid have had some problems lately, losing their last two matches to Valencia and Deportivo La Coruña. Also on Sevilla's side is the fact that Kanoute is set to play even though his heal has been giving him some troubles lately. Let's Go Sevilla!!!

With Villareal and Atlético Madrid more than 3 points ahead and playing each other ...I almost wonder if a draw between those two would help Sevilla the most ...and that's IF Sevilla could beat Real Madrid somehow. Anyway, in La Liga, the matches to watch would be:

Saturday:
Villareal v. Atlético Madrid 5 pm

Sunday:
Real Madrid v. Sevilla 3 pm

St. Pauli FC:

At the other end of the scale we have St. Pauli struggling a bit in their first year back in the second bundesliga. So each match is important for them as well. Last week they won for the first time in 2008, and of their last 13 matches 10 have been a draw. I think many of those could have been 3 points but several they were lucky to get the point. This Sunday's match would be a definite must win as they pair up against SCPaderborn 07, who is currently in last place in the 2nd Bundesliga.

Sligo Rovers:

Seems as though the Rovers are off to a very rough start and are struggling a bit as well. Tonight they face UC Dublin who currently sit 7th in the standings with Sligo Rovers behind them a few in 10th place. Got my "third" jersey on in support today at work. Let's Go Bit O' Red! (Still looking for some sort of update on this match as this is being published.) (EDIT: Ended in a 0-0 draw.)

Other matches of note:

As you probably know, i'm not a huge EPL fan, but with all the US players getting picked up, it's hard for me not to hope Fulham does well...and, lately, they haven't. Saturday's match is the true definition of a "must win" match as they face the team that sits firmly in last place.

Derby v. Fulham 11 am on Saturday, FSC

The MLS Kicks-Off later in the evening on Saturday, and while i'm probably and smidge
more interested in this than the average US soccer fan deeply into any other foreign league, I'll probably pass on these...maybe. Pretty surei'll miss the New England Revolution v. Houston Dynamo match due to other plans throughout the day. That one's at 7:30pm on FSC.

If I catch any of either one I might watch some of the Colorado Rapids v. LA Galaxy at 9:30 pm on FSC.

A must win situation...

Only a few hours away from match time and stories about it are everywhere.

UEFA.com story about what the team will need to win.

and

...Meanwhile, Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido has described the second leg tie as "one of the most important in the history of Sevilla FC"...

Sounds like the Sevilla
match is also one of the most intense in its history. Just finished 30
minutes of overtime and aggregate score is still tied at 5-5. Certainly hope Gol TV or FSC replays this thing.

Possibly one of the worst matches i've "watched" online via matchcast. And yes, it's because Sevilla
lost after a full overtime in penalty shots (possibly the worst way for
any sporting event to be decided). Not sure I want to watch it now, but
I had to know how it ended. So,Sevilla is out of the Champions' League finals this year and we can only hope they survive and qualify to compete in it next year.

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.

Sevilla releases Kerzhakov...and other stuff.

"Alexander Kerzhakov's move from Sevilla to Dynamo Moscow has finally been confirmed by both sides, putting to rest weeks of speculation..."

And as a follow-up to the Fulham match I commented on earlier, looks like McBride understands the importance of the rest of their season just like the rest of us...

A pretty good soccer weekend...

We'll start with the Sevilla FC match against Zaragoza. Sadly I only got to watch the first half hour as I had to go to my own season finale'. But, from the hightlights and all the stories i've read Sevilla pretty much put on a clinic in their 5-0 win to Zaragoza. I'd still like to see the full match, even though I did get to see Fabiano add to his goal tally (leads la liga with 19 in all this season). This win moves them into 5th place in La Liga, just ahead of Espanyol by goal differential (both have 39 points but Sevilla has a +18 to Espanyol's +3 goal differential). Though I believe Sevilla are out of the running at this point, it was nice to see Barcelona gain on Real Madrid this weekend as the Madrid side lost, at home, to Getafe, who have only won half as many matches as Real Madrid. Go Barca! Sevilla's next match will be with Deportivo La Coruña on Saturday and then next Wednesday they play a Champion's League match in their second round with Fenerbahce. Go Sevilla!!

On to my match...Liam's United went into our final match of the Crazy 8s season undefeated (only one tie in the full season). So we were optimistically cautious going into this final match. As with last week's last minute win, the match was against a side with several pick-ups (if a team does not have enough players those that are not a regular team member for another side OR those that want to play in more than one match a day can "pick-up" and play for another side, teams are given a fair amount of players so they have enough to play a match). This can be bad as frequently it's the better players that want to play multiple games in a day (us "old" folks are lucky to finish a full single match). Plus we were missing our star scoring machine, Josh. This match ended up being pretty even and at the half we held the lead with the only score of the match (1-0). But as the second half started they began working their own scoring drives. In the end, the final was 2-2 and Liam's United remained undefeated. Not sure I can remember the last time I was on a team that went undefeated. Good times.

Next up is FC St Pauli...against Greuther Fürth, who are currently third in the 2nd Bundesliga (St. Pauli is currently 11th). With several players out either injured or due to yellow cards, St Pauli had many opportunities to score and capitalized on very few of them. Eventually they also tied their match at 1-1. I suppose a single point is better than none, but to start gaining some ground they really need to win some more matches. St. Pauli have tied their last four matches against FC Köln, Carl Zeiss Jena, TuS Koblenz and now against Greuther Fürth. This has left them in the middle of the pack in 11th place out of the 18 teams. Let's go St. Pauli!!! [Edit: Glad to hear the MillernTaler idea was squashed before it really got going.]

Addendum: Love this shot of Eto celebrating his (first?) hat-trick with his Barcelona teammates.

A new blog for a seperate subject...

My original blog was set up to post about music. It quickly pulled in some politics and some soccer. The politics sometimes works, but I found that no one reading my music and politics posts were interested in my futbol rhetoric. So...thus begins, Futbol in the Shadows. I'll be discussing futbol/soccer in general but my favorites include the US National Teams, the Republic of Ireland's National Teams, FC Sevilla and FC St. Pauli. I'm also a fan of Fulham in the EPL but that's mostly because they've picked up so many US National players for their roster.

Anyway, on with the show...

The first post will be about this evening's Champions League match that Sevilla will be playing in Turkey. The Fenerbahce coach is already spreading some harsh words to the press about how they plan on taking control of their destiny with this match. Should be an interesting match...just wish I could watch it instead of keeping track of it online via matchcast. At least Sevilla is a lot closer to full strength with several players returning.

Let's Go Sevilla!!!

[Edit: So, I was able to "watch" the gamecast off and on while at work. It sounded like a nasty match (Fenerbahce had 4 yellow cards) and I guess their coach was correct...at least for this match. Fenerbahce ended up beating Sevilla 3-2 with a goal in the final three minutes of the match. We shall see how the next ten years works out for him. I certainly hope Sevilla has better control over the second match which will be at home.]

...(Not a fun first post.)...