Thursday, October 27, 2005

Deportivo's un-surprising victory

David Beckham's suspension was strangely rejected by the Spanish football federation, so there was hope in the Madrid-camp that Real Madrid might come back with a good result from La Coruña. But David Beckham is not the only weak link in a weak team.
Tonight Real Madrid lost 3-1 to a far superior Deportivo La Coruña in the Galician capital. However, this might not be that surprising as some lesser-knowing football enthusiasts might think. Besides Real Madrid bad playing of the last two seasons, Deportivo has a strong statistic at home against Madrid: They have not won in La Coruña since the 1991-92 season.

Monday, October 24, 2005

Excellent football weekend

It has been an excellent football weekend (and I am not only saying this because of my personal joy this weekend).

In the English Premier League Chelsea finally lost a point, to league-trailers Everton. However, Chelsea's lead is so large with 28 points (Charlton on second has 19), that it is difficult to see how they would not win the Premier League.

Tottenham Hotspurs is on third spot. They managed a good 1-1 result in Manchester United, after a beautiful free-kick goal by Jermaine Jenas. Manchester United is looking more and more like a second rate team, just as some of it's players get themselves in trouble off the pitch.
Fulham defeated Champions League winners Liverpool 2-0. It seems Liverpool will only be fighting in Europe again this season.
Arsenal won a hard-fought victory against Manchester City. The more bizarre thing in this match was Robert Pires missed penalty. Seems it was not a good weekend for French penalty shooters, as Zidane's pathetic kick against Valencia demonstrates.

In Italy's Serie A, Juventus is five points ahead of AC Milan on top after a strong 0-3 away victory to Lecce.

In the classic battle for Rome, between AS Roma and Lazio, it ended with a 1-1 tie with goals by Francesco Totti and Tomasso Rocchi.

In Denmark, FC Copenhagen continued on top after a narorw 1-0 home victory against little Horsens. On the other hand, defending champions Brøndby kept a strong pressure on Copenhagen after an impressive 5-0 win against FC Midtjylland.

In Spain's Primera División, the most talked about was of course Valencia´s victory against Real Madrid. Valencia was far superior against a Real Madrid side that got two Red Cards: Gravesen after only six minutes on the pitch for his violent attack on Vicente, and David Beckham, for complaining. Seems Mr. Beckham is becoming good at the last, as he has also gotten red cards lately on the English national team. On top of this, Pablo García made a record appearance, becoming the fastest man to be awarded a yellow card in Spanish football. Another record in the match was better: Amadeo Carboni from Valencia became the oldest player ever to play in a Spanish League match. He is 40.

With Real Madrid's loss, the Spanish league is very close. FC Barcelona moved up in the table with 13 points, with a 3-0 victory over 5th placed Osasuna. Top team is still surprising Getafe with 17 points. They continued their impressive performance with an excellent 5-2 victory over Real Zaragoza. It will be interesting how far they can take it.

All in all, a great weekend!

Sunday, October 23, 2005

The worst that can happen a football fanatic

It is really bad to see your team humiliated. I was afraid this might happen by watching Real Madrid-Valencia, and so I was in doubt as if to watch it at all. In the end, I decided I might as well be brave and face the potential defeat in Madrid.

So I decided to go to my usual Sports Bar in Accra, Champs. I was more than delighted; the game was excellent. Valencia went ahead on a splendid free-kick by Baraja, after Zidane pathetically missed a non-existing penalty kick. Then Raul equalized on a lucky strike, and Valencia scored again on a non-existing penalty. The game had it all...

Then, 22 minutes into the second half, the staff at Champs decided to switch away from the game... Don't mind they have around 10 TV screens... No, they had to show a movie on all of them. Don't mind they had announced they would show Real Madrid-Valencia. Don't mind there were actually guys there watching the match...

A Sports Bar that does that is a joke of a Sports bar. One thing is that they would not show the match, another to announce it, and then turn it off in the middle of it. I am hereby starting my personal boycott against Champs in Accra. I had always gone there to watch football, and was very fond of the place. But to do this to a football fan is worse than pissing on him. Never go to Champs Sports Bar in Accra.

However, now I am delighted. Valencia won!!! They had not won in Madrid since 1999! But I missed it...

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Champions League Matchday 3

This season's Champions League has so far not had many goals, and there are still too many 0-0 games. However, particularly in last night's games, some of the big teams like Chelsea or Real Madrid showed great strength and started putting some goals in.
The result of this round are:
  • Bayern Munich-Juventus 2-1
    Goals: Deisler, Demichelis; Ibrahimovic

Great game by the Germans, although the victory seemed narrow in the end. However, it is never easy to defeat Juve. Demichelis has become an excellent goal scorer in the CL!

  • Rapid Vienna-Club Brugge 0-1
    Goals: Balaban

The Belgians got three points away, and are still alive in the tournament.

  • Ajax Amsterdam-Thun 2-0
    Goals: Anastasiou (2)

Important home victory for Ajax, while Thun will be fighting hard to hang on.

  • Sparta Prague-Arsenal 0-2
    Goals: Henry (2)

Thierry Henry is back! His first goal was amazing, and Arsenal is well on the way to win Group B with 9 points for 3 matches.

  • Panathinaikos-Barcelona 0-0

Many are talking about a crisis in Barcelona. While things are not going their way in the league, a 0-0 away in Greece is not a bad result, as they are still winning the group.

  • Udinese-Werder Bremen 1-1
    Goals: Di Natale; Da Silva Felipe (OG)

The group is very close, although this was Bremen's first point. All teams have a good option at following Barcelona into the next round.

  • Manchester United-Lille 0-0

Manchester United was a great disappointment at home to Lille. Scholes' red card was plainly stupid, and it is becoming obvious that the team's crisis must also have something to do with the player's attitude on the pitch.

  • Villarreal-Benfica 1-1
    Goals: Riquelme; Fernandes

Third tie for Villarreal, but at least now they have scored. Still, all teams in this group (the others are Manchester United and Lille) still have options for the next round.

  • FC Porto-Inter 2-0
    Goals: Materazzi (OG), McCarthy

After losing at home to Artmedia, FC Porto was being discounted in the tournament. However, they have showed that they are very much alive with this great victory against the strong Italians.

  • Glasgow Rangers-Artmedia Bratislava 0-0

A good away point for Artmedia, who is trailing Inter by 2 points for first spot. There could be another sensation on the way from the Slovakians!

  • Anderlecht-Liverpool 0-1
    Goals: Cisse

A very important away victory for Liverpool, with a good goal by Cisse. The Reds are continuing the fight to defend their title.

  • Chelsea-Betis 4-0
    Goals: Drogba, Carvalho, J. Cole, Crespo

Betis did not start bad, but made some stupid mistakes in defence, which a team like Chelsea never forgives. Chelsea is looking more and more scary, and is a serious contender for the title.

  • Real Madrid-Rosenborg 4-1
    Goals: Woodgate, Raul, Helguera, Beckham; Strand

A weak Madrid was losing 1-0 at half time, but came backa gainst a technically inferior Norwegian side. They showed that they do not need Ronaldo to score goals. However, their vulnerability in defence is still obvious.

  • Lyon-Olympiakos 2-1
    Goals: Juninho, Govou; Kafes

Lyon is winning the group with 9 points for three games. Although Real Madrid is getting stronger, the French side has been by far the best-playing in the group so far. They can get very far in the tournament,

  • AC Milan-PSV Eindhoven 0-0

Good away result for PSV. Milan is still winning the group with 5 points, being trailed by both Fenerbahce and PSV with 4.

  • Fenerbahce-Schalke 04 3-3
    Goals: Luciano, Nobre, Appiah; Lincoln (2), Kuranyi

This was a very exciting match, with an impressive scoreline. An important late equalizer for Fenerbahce by Stephen Appiah kept Fenerbahce on second spot. However, Schalke is trailing with 2 points.

We are now halfway through the first round. It is getting more clear who might be in the next round for some groups, and in others, the drama is growing.

Finally, in the UEFA Fantasy Football, my team Football-fanatics has been doing terrible. However, prior to this round I changed 5 players. It seems to have improved the team marginally, so I am still hoping!

Friday, October 14, 2005

European World Cup Qualifiers Play-off draws

Today was the draws for the play-off matches in November:
  • Spain-Slovakia
  • Norway-Czech Republic
  • Turkey-Switzerland
Predictions are tempting to make on Spain, Turkey and the Czechs. However, in these kind of matches all teams will try their best to take the three last spots for Germany. The Slovakians have their first game in Spain, which is a slight advantage. The Norwegians are always strong in defence against a Czech side which has been having attacking problems. Finally, the Swiss have been doing well against a Turk team that tends to underestimate other teams - just see their last play-off against Latvia for the Euro 2004.

It will surely be nerve-wrecking games, in particularly for the fans!