The mighty Crystal Palace

The oldest existing football tournament in the world, the FA Cup, is great because it is still a tournament where anything can happen, and this year another great surprise happened when underestimated Crystal Palace defeated mighty Manchester City 1-0 on a lone goal by the English striker Eberechi Eze, and a brave and fair fight by the entire team and a fantastic goalkeeper in Dean Henderson, who even saved a penalty.

Crystal Palace was founded 120 years ago, and the club had never won an important title. It was their third FA Cup final, and when the referee ended the match after scandalous and nerve-wrecking 10 minutes of added time, the fans, unused to winning, erupted in delight and tears of joy.

The victory is so much sweeter as it was against a Manchester City side who, since they became of the top sides in the world, have lost every sense of humility and dignity, something that is a pity for club that only in 2012 won a spectacular league, and entered a new phase after so many years as a secondary team. Today, Manchester City appears entitled, and nothing symbolized it more than Pep Gurdiola's refusal to shake hands with Crystal Palace's goalkeeper after the match. 

At these moments one loves football and wish Crystal Palace fans days of fantastic celebrations!

Premier League 2023-2024 Opening

I had the pleasure of watching an excellent openining match for Chelsea and Liverpool in the Premier League. Matches like this point to an excellent season ahead, where the usual suspects of Manchester City will be challenged by the likes of Arsenal (who opened with a 2-1 victory over Nottingham Forest), Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, and even other teams in one of the world´s most competitive league. 

Both Chelsea and Liverpool started well despite them sharing points with 1-1. Liverpool started best with two new signings in midfield, the Argentine Alexis MacAllister and the Hungarian Dominik Szoboszlai. It was Luis Diáz who brought Liverpool ahead, and ten minutes later Mohamed Salah had a goal disallowed by VAR. It was one of Chelsea´s many new signings, Frenchman Alexis Disasi, who equalized for Chelsea towards the end of the first half. Second half could have gone to either side. More interesting was to see more of Chelsea´s new signings, many of them young players, such as Levi Colwill, Noclas Jackson, Ian Maatsen, as well as the Ukranian Mykhailo Mudryk, players with a big potential and who will be exciting to follow. 

Summer is over. Let the leagues start!

Manchester City on the way

 Arsenal has had a great season under Mikel Arteta, and for a long time have been leading the Premier League, which they have not won since 2004. But for the last month mighty Manchester City have been edging closer to the top as Arsenal's run started to falter, and last week Manchester City edged much closer when they defeated Arsenal 4-1 in Manchester, and with two games less than Arsenal, took all cards to get the title into their own hands.

Today they took the first ace in the race to win the title, when they defeated West Ham 3-0, with goals by Nathan Aké, Phil Foden, and mighty Erling Halland, who already has 35 goals, the most in a Premier League season (and surely it will be a few more). With five games to go, and four for Arsenal, Manchester City appears likely to win the title, and also being in the FA Cup Final (where they will face Manchester United) and still in the run for the Champions League (where they will face Real Madrid), it appears that this could still be the greatest season for Pep Guardiola's team.

Five Hundred Years from now

My Grandfather took me to my first football match. It was not virtual, but on the actual ground, Nick Hornby Arena, for a local derby between Arsenel and Tottenham. It was their first Premier League clash following the Dark Centuries, when Arsenel had struggled in the lower leagues, while Tottenham had gone on to win their legendary 18 Champions League titles in a row, even winning the Penta in 2432 (Premier League, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, FIFA World Cup and the Toto Cup).
My Grandfather was a sucker for Arsenel, just like all our ancestors back for generations. In fact, when nations were eliminated my Grandfather had immediately taken Arsenal (as it was called back then) as his primary identification marker.
"Some suckers take some old nation state, a religion or some city! But not me! I am an Arsenal man, because that is REAL!", our ancestor appears to have said, although no definite proofs have been found in his Life-Social-Media-Footprint that otherwise registered most of his life to an embarrassing level of detail.
I had not really wanted to go to the Nick Hornby Arena. As most kids in our generation, more accustomed to the virtual world, I was more comfortable with the crowds of Avatars in the Immersive Internet, where nothing physical could hurt you.
"Nonsense kiddo", my Grandfather had said. "You will love it! It has happened to everyone in our family! And who knows? You may be the first to see Arsenel defeat Tottenham for three-hundred years!"
I did love it. And I have loved Arsenal ever since. That match in the Nick Hornby Arena became legendary, not just because it was the first victory of Arsenel over Tottenham for 311 years, but also because it was the return of the legendary Arsene Wenger to manage the team.
"Ever since Arsene Wenger left Arsenel in 2018, everything just went downhill", my Grandfather was telling me as he usually did when he wanted to educate me about history.
"The Sea Rising, the Alien Invasion or the Robot Rebellion were just mere details compared to what happened to Arsenel! After 22 years of being one of the best clubs in the world, it just went downhill. Back then fans never knew how good they had it with Mr. Wenger, but they soon knew all right! Only ten years later Arsenal were playing in the lower European Leagues, mainly against other shite clubs from Finland and Catalunya!"
Indeed, things had gone from bad to worse. Arsenal's best result for 298 years was a quarterfinal against FC MidtogOstjyllandGymnastikOgIdraetsforening in the Danish Cup, where they only lost on penalties (and to pour salt on the wound, it was a John Jensen who scored the winner for the Danes).
During the Dark Centuries, when Tottenham was winning everything and an evil Alien Force was ravaging the planet, and people were returning to religion, Arsenal fans had gotten together to erect shrines and pray to Saint Arsene: please come back and lead Arsenal back to glory! It was then that the club had been renamed Arsenel, and initially things had looked good when they made it back to the Championship, where they had stayed for some decades as the Robots, who had helped defeat the Aliens, rebelled when their team of Real Madrid Robots was destroyed in the Champions League final by none other than Tottenham (and to be frank, every Arsenal fan had supported the Robots, meaning that they had fared quite well during the Robot Rebellion).
But it still took another 160 years before Arsenel were back in the Premier League. By then the club had been bought by a Jovian multi-billionaire who promised Arsenel fans all over the Galaxy that he would make Arsenel champions of something, but only managed to get them back in the Premier League after a legendary promotion match against Charlton Athletic played on the low gravity of the Moon (Charlton fans have been complaining ever since that the low gravity was the reason they kept shooting over the goal).
Nobody knows where the idea first came to create a new Arsene Wenger. Some rumours said it was after two drunken Arsenel fans working at the robot facility on Mercury, visited Madam Tussaud's museum, where they had seen a pretty bad wax-android version of Jose Mourinho discussing Relativity Theory with David Bowie. They posted it on Instagram, and soon Twitter-Galaxy was swarming with the hashtag #createanewWenger.
Arsenel fans all over the Galaxy poured all their economic and scientific efforts into the endeavour. Of course there had been many advances in cloning and bio-engineering, but to create a true exact copy of a historical figure had never been successful until these Arsenel fans took over. Some decades later Arsenel signed their new (old) manager Arsene Wenger, and he was to have his debut as manager in a clash against the defending champions of Tottenham.
311 years since Arsenel had last beaten Tottenham I was there when Arsene Wenger led them to a legendary 5-3 victory, and eventually the first title since the FA Cup in 2017 (also under Arsene Wenger).
I was only a kid who fell in love with Arsenel. Since then I have seen Arsenel win 12 Premier League titles, 17 Champions Leagues, 3 FIFA World Cups, 15 FA Cups (where Mr. Wenger beat his own record from the 21st century), and an unprecedented 23 Toto Cups! Five Hundreds years after Wenger left Arsenal, we are again winning because Arsenel can only win anything with the great Arsene Wenger as manager!
My Grandfather is not with us any longer, but today, FA Cup Final 2518, I am taking my own Grandson to Wembley Stadium in Paris to watch Arsene Wenger lead Arsenel to another victory against Tottenham! 

PS: The match ended 5-5 and went into extra time, but we are still awaiting to hear the final result

The end of an era

Sir Alex Ferguson has announced his retirement as manager of Manchester United after 27 years at the end of this season. He took over in 1986 after a brief stint as Scottish national coach at a time when the club had not taken the English title since 1967. In the first years Manchester United didn't win the title, but steadily improving, Ferguson held on, taking the FA Cup in 1990, and the UEFA Cup winners cup in 1991. And in 1993 Ferguson won his first Premier League title. By the time he retires, he will have led Manchester United to 13 League titles, of the 20 that Manchester United have ever won. Besides the League titles he won five FA Cup titles, four League Cup titles and two historical Champions League titles.
The speculations about who will replace him next season abound, with the favourites being David Moyes and Jose Mourinho. But no matter what no new manager will achieve what Sir Alex Ferguson achieved, and not only Manchester United fans but all football fans should be sad and respectful of the end of one of the impressive eras in football.

Van Persie at center stage

One of the most noted club changesin the recently closed transfer window was that of Robbie Van Persie's change from Arsenal to mighty Manchester United. Truly the Dutchman has started well, and today against Southampton was the player everyone talks about. Manchester United had great difficulty against Southampton! Who started going ahead before Robbien Van Persie equalized. But in the second half Southampton scored a second, and when Robbie Van Persie missed a penalty it looked as a coming surprise with the Dutchman as the sinner.
With only three minutes to the end Van Persie decided to put United back into the match when he scored his second, and in the 91st minute he scored his third goal on a beautiful header to give Manchester United the victory.
Surely Van Persie is to take center stage as Manchester will struggle to be back on the title track.
In the meantime Van Persie's old club, Arsenal, Has not started with too much of a goalscoring capability without the Dutchman. Their first two matches ended 0-0, but today they got their first victory, 0-2 away against Liverpool, a team which in the other hand is looking as if it might be struggling to do anything worthwhile this season.

The best league in the world

The Premier League starts today, and every football fan should be looking forward to it. Last season ended spectacularly when Manchester City took the title in the final seconds of the last match ahead of their rivals of Manchester United. And City already took a title by winning the Super Cup match against Chelsea 3-2 last week and will still be hungry this season. But it will surely not be easy. Manchester United has bought a couple of high profile players to strengthen their side: firstly Shinji Kagawa, who was bought from Borussia Dortmund, will greatly strengthen United's midfield and attack; and secondly, Robbie Van Persie, the Arsenal captain has joined United and will contribute to their attacking power.
In the meantime there will also be other sides going for the title. The Champions League winners of Chelsea have lost their greatest superstar, Didier Drogba, but will be hoping that Fernando Torres can take over, while some interesting new players have joined the side, such as the Brazilian youngster Oscar and and the gifted Marko Marin from Werder Bremen.
With Arsenal losing Van Persie it would seem doubtful that Arsenal would be able to go for the title, but Arsene Wenger's side has purchased strong new players, such as the Spanish international Santi Cazorla, the French international Olivier Giroud and the German star Lukas Podolski.
Tottenham ended in fourth place last season, and keep the ambitions for more. Their most high profile purchase has been the strong Belgian defender Jan Verthongen, but most interesting will be to see whether their new coach Andre Villas-Boas can swipe away the fiasco he had at Chelsea.
Liverpool's main change has also been the coach, where Kenny Dalglish was fired and replaced with Brendan Rogers, who will have to try to continue the success he had at Swansea at Liverpool.
The best thing about the Premier League is that there are many "small" teams with strong sides that all can win against any of the giants, and that is what makes the league so exciting! Quality, drama, fight and great fans.
On a personal level I might say that unfortunately I have never had an English favourite team, which of course takes the passion a bit away, but at the same time it permits me to say objectively that it is certainly the best league in the world!

Chelsea champion

After a meager season, coach Andre Vilas Boas was fired and replaced with Di Matteo as Chelsea coach. Things have greatly improved under the Italian, who has brought the London side to the Champions League final, and now to his first title, winning the FA Cup final 2-1 against Liverpool. The FA Cup is one Di Matteo has helped Chelsea with a lot throughout the years: Roberto di Matteo played for Chelsea in 1997, when they won their only second FA Cup, calling forth a new period of greatness of the Chelsea side. He scored the first goal in their 2-0 victory over Middlesborough, and two years later, Di Matteo was again at the center stage scoring the winning goal in the 1-0 victory over Aston Villa in the FA final.
However, this is Chelsea's fourth FA Cup victory since 2007, and another player has helped them greatly in these four victories, the mighty Didier Drogba. Today, he scored the second goal for his side, continuing his impressive spell of scoring in every FA Cup final Chelsea has played since 2007, and is indeed the first player ever to score in four different FA Cup finals!
On top of it all, one must mention Ramires, who scored Chelsea's opening goal today: he is in fact the first Brazilian who has scored in an FA Cup final, thus adding a little bit of history to this great final, where all Chelsea fans deserve to be celebrating!

Low intelligence

I have always thought that one (of the many) reasons that I did not become a footballer was because I am too intelligent. In fact, as has often been the case, with some notable exceptions (Jorge Valdano, Socrates, Ruud Gullit....), intelligent footballers seems to be more the exception that the rule, and at a time when the media scrutiny is so intense, the demand on a bit of brains in footballers seems to be all the more important. Therefore, it is a bit tragicomic to see a brainless twit like Luis Suarez in action.
I do not believe that Luis Suarez is a racist. As has rightly been pointed out by others, the connotations of what he said to Patrice Evra are completely different in Latin America, where expressions of racism have more to do with class and xenophobia than with actual race. That said, Luis Suarez should have known, after many years in Europe, that such comments are out of place in that context, and for that, he fully deserved the punishment. When Mr. Suarez today, in the first match against Manchester United since those events, refused to shake Mr. Evra's hand, he went beyond issues of fair play and gentleman behavior, and for that, he should be punished again, and if a punishment is not in its place, he should at least be given a bit of education.
Give the man something to read!
Shamefully, Patrice Evra does not display that he had a brain much larger than Mr. Suarez' pea. At a moment when he could have acted like the greater man, a gentleman, he had to act like a little offended school-boy when the match ended with Manchester United's 2-1 victory, openly provoking Mr. Suarez with his celebrations.
It was a great match, but these two "gentlemen" should receive a warning since their behaviour undermines everything that football should do more to combat, like racism and unfair play.
That said, in a match that was intense and entertaining, this drama only adds to the epic fight, and perhaps that is what we all want to see.
Perhaps Mr. Evra and Mr. Suarez are just brainless pawns in the media circus of international football. Brainless nonetheless.

Excellent Liverpool

Liverpool under Kenny Dalglish is on the rise. Some of the new signings of the season, notably Raul Meirelles, and lately Luis Suarez, have blended well into the team. Today, Liverpool played their rivals of Manchester United, who is leading the league, in what was an expected match in the English Premier League. And this time, Liverpool was simply much better than a quite lame Manchester side: 3-1 was not one goal too little. All goals were scored by the Dutchman Dirk Kuyt, but what mostly characterised the match was an excellent team effort that made Machester United look ordinary.

Liverpool has had a habit of playing well against the big teams, but then pull bad results against smaller teams. It remains to be seen whether Kenny Dalglish can break this habit, as Liverpool is again looking towards the top five spots of the league. After today's victory, there is surely reason to be optimistic for Liverpool.

Goal of the season

There is something special about Manchester United versus Manchester City this season, as the latter has invested heavily on a long list of excellent players. I must admit that I felt great sympathy with City today, with outstanding players such as Carlos Tevez, Edin Dzeko, Yaya Touré, David Silva and Shawn Wright-Phillips. But what took the day was another extraordinary player from the opposite team, Manchester United. Wayne Rooney scored the Reds' winner one an extraordinary bycicle kick; one of those goals that makes football best. The balance, vision, power and technique from Mr. Rooney is simply perfect.
2-1 to Manchester United and magic from Wayne Rooney.

"It takes time to make a flower"

The English Premier League season started this weekend, and on BBC I heard an interview with David Ginola, who referring to Manchester City's massive investment in new players, nevertheless didn't believe that they would be fighting for the title this season: "It takes time to make a flower", he said poetically, and many other clubs that have invested massively in new players may want to listen!
Manchester City nevertheless started the season with an away victory against Blackburn, and I think that if anyone is going to challenge the big four, it has to be Manchester City, and I think it will be very exciting to see how they do with all the new big egos on their team.
After letting Ronaldo go to Real Madrid, Manchester United is not looking as awesone as the last three seasons, and they may have to fight more to retain their title. Wayne Rooney is one of the players that will have to take on a bigger role, and it started well with him scoring in their narrow 1-0 victory over Birmingham.
Chelsea is again looking to take the title, now with Carlo Ancelotti as coach. Their star Didier Drogba looks in great shape for the new season as he scored both goals in Chelsea's 2-1 victory over Hull.
Liverpool missed many chances in their 1-2 away loss to Tottenham Hotspurs. Although Liverpool will surely end in the top four, I do not believe they will take the title: Liverpool is better as a cup team, and they will continue losing in matches that they should win.
Of the big four, Arsenal is perhaps the one that is less talked about as they have not bought many players. Still, they started this season strongly with a 6-1 away victory against an Everton side that should be stronger. Emmanuel Adebayor may be gone to Manchester City, and Arsenal may be lacking in quality strikers, this seems not to have affected them as the season gets underway!
I would certainly watch out for Arsenal, where Arsene Wenger is again building up a powerful young squad!

In any case, it is good to have some of the major leagues of Europe on the way!

Champions

Some major leagues had their 2008-09 champions decided this weekend.
In the Premier League Manchester United just needed one point against Arsenal to proclaim themselves champions. It was far from the best match by Manchester United, and Arsenal put up at excellent fight, but in the end, 0-0 was enough for the Reds to lift the Premier League trophy for the 18th time.
In Spain Barcelona didn't need to play to become champions: Real Madrid maintained a meager hope that they might be able to catch up with the Catalans, but in their third defeat in a row, Madrid lost 2-3 to Villarreal, and Barcelona are thus unreachable no matter what happens in the last games. After having trashed Athletic Bilbao 4-1 in the Copa del Rey final this week, Barcelona is looking to crown an awesome season with the Champions League final in Rome.
A similar thing happened in the Italian Serie A, where AC Milan had to win against Udinese to keep the hope that they might reach Inter Milan. However, Udinese won 2-1, and Inter are thus champions for the 4th time in a row.

Congratulations to all fans of these great teams!

Obama and West Ham

The president of the US, Mr. Barack Obama was in London for the G20 summit this week. This has been reported widely, and this is not what I would like to dwell on here, but more on the fact that Mr. Obama apparently has a small football-fanatic heart in there, as he apparently supports the London side West Ham United.
It is always a bit obscure why people support certain teams, and this is one of the more obscure ones, although it certainly doesn't beat that Mr. Osama Bin Laden apparently is a fervent Arsenal supporter.
Anyway, I am not sure this makes any difference for West Ham, who yesterday defeated Sunderland 2-0, to move up to 7th place in the Premier League.

FA Cup final in Nairobi

I flew all night from Accra to Nairobi, arriving 6 AM Saturday morning. Did not sleep at all on the plane, as I was in the company of a friend; the whole flight was spent talking over bottles of red wine.

It was a nice cool morning, and after only a couple of hours of sleep had lunch and a hangover before returning in the afternoon to my hotel room. I turned on the TV in my zombie-like state, putting on the FA Cup Final between Liverpool and West Ham. I never thought I would be able to keep awake for it. Last year's final was a bore, and had little expectation for this one.

But I was wrong! How can anyone fall asleep in a match like that!?
After last year's Champions League final, Liverpool offered us another great and entertaining match! And thank you West Ham!!!

3-3 after extra time, and a nail-biting penalty shootout, where Liverpool again pulled the longest straw, and where Pepe Reina proved excellent. Another amazing player was Steven Gerrard. His 3-3 equalizer was simply superb!

No, I did not fall asleep at all, but did pass out shortly after it ended...

Congratulations Chelsea

Congratulations to Chelsea, for their second Premier League title in a row. It also came with style: beating Manchester United 3-0. Although I am not impressed by the tactical and sometimes too boring game of the Londoners, it is always impressive when a team performs as they have done. They will stay at the top of Europe for a long time.
On a more serious note, Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney fractured his foot. Now his appearance at the World Cup is in serious jeopardy. Bad for England (although I don't support them at all…), and bad for football fans. Wayne Rooney is a wonderful player, and I hope he will recover to make it.

Daniel Agger to Liverpool

The very talented young Brøndby defender Daniel Agger is on his way to the CL-Champions of Liverpool. Mr. Agger has been one of the best players on the Danish champions side during 2005, and is widely expected to be one of the future great players on the national team. This change to Liverpool comes at a good time. It will undoubtfully be a big challenge to play on one of Europe's greatest teams. But hopefully Mr. Agger will perform.

Chelsea lost to Manchester United

After being undefeatable for long, Chelsea has now lost twice in a row. Last week in the Champions League against Betis, and now they have suffered their first defeat in the Premier League.

In a well-fought match, Manchester United won 1-0 at Old Trafford, on a goal by the young Darren Fletcher. Manchester United has not been having a very good season so far, but this victory against the defending English champions comes at the right time, and may lead them on the right direction for the rest of the season. However, this is not all: Manchester has many internal problems, and no one victory will be enough to overcome these.

But congratulations to all United fans!

Arsenal-Manchester United

The match was no disappointment! 2-4 to the Reds after an entertaining and intense game! The players were probably a bit too excited, and the attitudes shown by the two captains, Mr. Vieira and Mr. Keane, by not greeting one another before the match, was simply scandalous. How are fans supposed to behave when players incite such animosity!?
However, an excellent referee kept things well under control, and all cards were given deservedly, specially the one to a stupid Mr. Silvestre.

Now, as to the match, it was great: Denis Bergkamp was playing an incredible game, and it was truly a joy to see him back, specially for his 2-1 goal. The ever-threatening Wayne Rooney displayed good overview when passing the ball to Manchester's equalizer, while Cristiano Ronaldo was a dynamo. In the end, the speed and technique of the Portuguese youngster proved to be one of Manchester United's best weapons.
And that Manchester United has a good arsenal of young talents, was proven by the late goal by John O'Shea.

Manchester United now takes second spot in the Premier League. But still seven points behind Chelsea, it is becoming more and more probable that Chelsea will be champions.