Starting up

 Following a post-tournament hangover and a pretty boring Olympic tournament that I did not even find worth writing about, we are now starting the European leagues with the Premier League starting yesterday when Manchester United defeated Fulham 1-0, starting a new season with a victory as they will try to improve on their 8th place in last year's PL.

In the meantime other favourites have also started well: Liverpool defeated Ipswich 2-0 with Mohammed Salah setting Diogo Jota up for the first goal and scoring the second himself. Arsenal, a side with huge ambitions after coming close to win the league the last couple of seasons, defeated Wolverhampton 2-o on goals by Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka, while last season's number four, Aston Villa, defeated West Ham 1-2 and will the looking to repeat their great season.

The champions of the last four seasons, Manchester City, are playing tomorrow in a clash against a Chelsea side that also will want to improve on their 6th place of last season.

In Spain the league started today as well with Valencia losing 1-2 at home to Barcelona. I don't think we can expect anything from the Valencians while Barcelona will be looking to upset a Real Madrid side that frankly looks like nobody can threaten them.

I am moving soon. My TV is gone and my place is full of boxes, so I did not in fact watch the matches, but certainly expect to watch more soon!

Top-10 teams of the year 2010

A list of what I consider the best teams of 2010:

10) Fulham: There are other teams in England than the usual big ones, and Fulham was a huge surprise in 2010 as they made it to the UEFA Europa League final. In spite of losing to Atlético Madrid, their performance deserves all the credit it can get!
9) FC Copenhagen: I admit that as Brøndby fan this hurts, but their overwhelming success in the Danish league and the Champions League obliges me to include them here.
8) SC Internacional: the Brazilian side won the Brazilian championship and the Copa Libertadores.
7) Ghana: The Ghanaians proved they are the best team in Africa, in spite of losing the Africa's Cup of Nations final to Egypt (who I nevertheless don't include for their World Cup qualification circus) with a young team, that later in the year, in the World Cup, became the flag-bearer for Africa. They had the best fans and a splendid team that did not play as naive as in 2006, but gave us one of the greatest dramas of the World Cup in the quarterfinal against Uruguay!
6) TP Mazembe: the Congolese side are undoubtfully the best team in Africa. Winner of the CAF Champions League, they came to the world's attention as they defeated SC Internacional in the semifinal of the FIFA Club World Cup, to become the first African side to make it to the final!
5) Uruguay: One of the greatest footballing nations in the world upset many by its powerful return to the world stage, making it to the semifinals in South Africa, and becoming the best South American side.
4) FC Barcelona: "Only" won the Spanish League in 2010, but they are still the most entertaining and best team in the world, something they have shown in particular in the second half of 2010, notably their incredible 5-0 victory against the arch-rivals of Real Madrid. They are again the team to watch in 2011.
3) Bayern Munich: Has had a poor fall in 2010 in the Bundesliga, but in the first half of the year won the "Double", and also made it to the UEFA Champions League final where they lost to Inter Milan.
2) Inter Milan: Winner of the "treble" in 2010 under coach José Mourinho. In December they took the title as World Champions, surely making the Italians the most winning side of 2010. However, a poor fall season in the Italian league and unconvincing Champions Lague, including a firing of coach Rafa Benitez, does not put them on the top of the list.

1) Spain: Spain had until 2010 been the best nation in the world never to win a World Cup. In spite of not scoring many goals (and some poor performances later in the year against Portugal and Argentina), they were undoubtfully the best side, and deserved winners of the world title.

It was not an easy list this year! There are some teams that nearly entered the list: Atlético Madrid, Egypt, Netherlands, Germany, Manchester City, Guadalajara and Shakhtar Donetsk.

Finally....

Valencia finally won a game, 0-1 against Racing the Santander, and although it held hard (Santander missed a penalty in the last minute) it gives hope for at least some satisfactory position for a team in deep crisis. But FC Barcelona remains the ones to beat in Spain: their attacking machine trashed Málaga by 6-0!
In the Premier League the title race drew even closer with Manchester United losing to Fulham, and Liverpool continuing riding on a wave by defeating the top-team Aston Villa with 5-0. As Chelsea lost, the title increasingly seems to be ending in either Liverpool or Manchester.
In Denmark Brøndby kept the pressure on FC Copenhagen by winning against Randers.