Aalborg Boldklub

With a 2-0 victory at home against Brøndby IF, Aalborg BK just became Danish champions for the third time in their history. This happens with style, as there are still two rounds left in the league, but they can not be reached by their nearest rivals, last years champions, FC Copenhagen.

I have been away, but was very surprised to see AaB (as they are usually called) be leading the league as I returned; but apparently, the team from northern Jutland has been a surprise throughout the season, showing stability and commitment, something the defending champions of money-spending Copenhagen hadn´t.

As a Brøndby fan, I am happy FC Copenhagen didn´t win the title, and well, happy to see the AaB fans party their asses off: they are great fans, a great town (Aalborg), and deserve to be champions.

I know they will celebrate it with massive amounts of beer: Cheers!

Zenit St. Petersburg UEFA Cup Champions

One can only imagine the amounts of beer and vodka being drunk today in Manchester, as thousands of fans of Glasgow Rangers and Zenit St. Petersburg decended upon the English city to see their teams clash in the 2008 UEFA Cup final.
In reality, there was only one team on the pitch: the Russians deservedly won their first European title. They were far superior in every facet of the game to the overly defensive and boring Scots, and it was a victory for football that Zenit St. Petersburg won.
I must admit that I know little of the Russian team; first time I heard about them was last year, when they won the Russian league, and after a poor start in the UEFA cup, I don't think anybody would have expected them to win. But the team under Dick Advocaat has been impressive, in particularly against Bayern Munich, which was the first time I had the pleasure to watch them play.
I am certain that this is not the last time we have heard about the Russian team, but I will also be looking forward to seeing more of their players at this summer's European Championship, and against some better teams in next season's Champions League.
Until them, congratulations to Zenit, their fans, and cheers in vodka!

Manager of the year

Alex Ferguson, the manager of Machester United, has just been made manager of the season in the Premier League after leading the Reds to their 17th Premier League title with a 2-0 win over Wigan Athletic, thus leaving Chelsea trailing with a useless tie.

Manchester United will have the chance to keep Chelsea trailing yet again at the Champions League Final in Moscow, possibly cementing an extraordinary season for Manchester United, not seen since the legendary 1998-1999 season (but this team, in my opinion is better than the team from back then).

But be sure that Chelsea will fight: they will undoubtfully not want this season to be remembered as the season where they were nothing but runner-ups to Manchester United. Everyone remembers the winners; nobody remembers the runners-up.



But my warmest congratulations to Alex Ferguson, whom I still consider to be one of the greatest coaches of all time.

Back to (football) life

I have now left the harsh football backlands of Northern Mozambique, where following football was so difficult. I have only followed (superficially) the champions league and the major European leagues. Now, I am extremely surprised to see that in the Danish league AaB (Aalborg Boldklub - Danish clubs have never been good with names...) is winning by a pretty large margin ahead of FC Midtjylland (those names...).
And my favourites, Brøndby B, remain on the lower half...

Champions League final

I watched the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League on a long road-trip of Mozambique: the first leg matches in a boring bar in Nampula and in a kitsch old hotel in Quelimane. On the following day I crossed the mighty Zambezi river, and eventually I arrived in Maputo exactly for the second leg of the semifinals.
I was not expecting Barcelona to go through, even though my support went for them, both personally, but also football-wise, since I believe we would get a much more exciting final with them there, than the two (great) teams we had got. But without scoring at home, it was bound to happen. I am nevertheless surprised that a team with Barcelona's firepower was unable to score in the first match at home, a sure sign of the crisis the Catalonians are clearly going through. Manchester United were surely not the better team in the first match, and did look shaky even at home; but football is about scoring goals, and after Paul Scholes' blast, they are deservedly in the final.
Liverpool and Chelsea gave us some great and intense matches. The first one was a tactical and hard encounter, while the second was intense and very entertaining. While Liverpool played their game, never surrendering, it seemed to me the entire time that Chelsea was the team that wanted to be in the final the most. The players are great, and Chelsea is surely hungry for their first European title.
The final will indeed be hard to predict; I do not expect a very entertaining match. It will probably be very tactical, a bit nervous, and with few (if any) goals.