World Cup draw

The world cup draw, event in which the teams qualified are put into different groups, took place last friday. The groups are overall evenly matched, but as always there are some easy and some harder groups. The group of death, which is thought to be the most difficult group, includes two of the world's best teams, Brazil and Portugal. Both of these teams are full of superstars, but some of the squad shine brighter than others. In Portugal, the undisputed best is Cristiano Ronaldo, who after a month of absence came back and has made his presence felt, he is a great player and could make all the difference in a game. In Brazil, the resurgence of the likes of Ronaldinho and Ronaldo have caused attention to go towards them.
On the other hand, is the easy group. This group includes Italy, Paraguay and two other teams that are not known for their great soccer. I feel italy will have no problem getting first in their group, and will go all the way through to win the World Cup for second time in a row. Last time around, defence proved to be everything, with the champions italy only con

Champions League

This last week was the last matchday of the group stage of the Uefa Champions League. The groups, even though a little shaky at first, came out as everyone had hoped, with the top guns on top where they belong. Teams like Real Madrid, Ac Milan. Barcelona, Inter, Arsenal, Man unt. and other of the biggest culbs in the world made it through to the next round.
My question is who will win? Now your decision is a little easier to make, because there are only 16 teams left on the competition. My personal favorite as much of you know is Real Madrid. In their game, Cristiano ronaldo came back from the injury in a big way, by scoring two goals, and one of them an incredible free kick. In other news, Messi, the young star of Barca, also scored an amazing goal, but got hurt in the last seconds. He has an ankle injury and will be out for only about two weeks.

World Cup

This past week the last spots for the World Cup were booked through the last match-day of world cup qualifying. Of the big teams that still had some work to do and were unsure of their presence in South Africa in 2010, most of them made it through. Out of the top guns France, Portugal, Russia, and Uruguay, only Russia failed to qualify and gave their spot to Slovenia. As for the other 28 remaining spots, only squads capable of winning the World Cup are filling them, teams of the biggest stage like Italy, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, and England among others. The question is place today is who do you think is going to win it all and come out victorious next summer in South Africa? Most people tend to go with the big names, the ones before mentioned like Italy and such, but could this be the year of a new-comer? The year in which finally an African team will win it? I personally think Italy are going to win, but what do you think? Comment and let me know!

Real Madrid-Barcelona

This upcoming weekend is going to be by far the most exciting match-day of the Spanish League and maybe of all soccer so far this season. What is the big occasion? The top two teams in Spain, and questionably of the whole world, will face each other in "El Clasico," name given to the game between Real Madrid and Barcelona. What makes these teams such world powers is that in them are the best three players, for most people. In Real they are in the form of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, and Messi is who plays this role in Barcelona. The last time these two teams played each other, Barcelona came out on top by a score of 6-2. However, this score does not indicate with exatitude how this rivalry really is, for the games are always close. This is like Yankees-Red Sox of soccer, and it is going to be an exciting one this year, so tune in to see it. Also, leave your comments about your opinion on who is going to win this one.

Real Madrid

By now, some of you might have realized that Real Madrid are my favorite futbol team. So I am bringing the latest news on them. Over the summer they signed Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, who is arguably the best soccer player on the world right now. Real Madrid are in some what of a crisis, they are doing good in the Spanish League, but they just got knocked out of the Cup by a third division team, and suffered a real scare last weekend when they saw their 3-0 lead being dimished to 3-2 and almost got tied by their city rivals on a game they won with much nerves. All of this, however, can be attributed to one cause, Cristiano Ronaldo being injured for about the past month. Ronaldo is the top scorer of the Champions League and one of the top in the Spanish League, and Real are really feeling his absence. He also going to miss the desicive two-legged match against Boznia with his country Portugal in the World Cup qualifiers. This injury is not a major one, but in the case it was, economically Real would not have been affected with the payment of the treatment, since right before the season they insured his legs for 100 million Euros, in case that he suffered a major injury. Check this article for this crazy spending:

Best Player of all times...

Recently I posted a blog about the upcoming FIFA World Player of the year award, which is given to the current best player on the planet. Now I want to know who do you think is the best player of all times, someone who is either currently playing, or played a while back. I would like to hear your opinion, is your favorite player Diego Maradona? the small Argentine who revolutionized soccer with his great dribbling. Or maybe it is Pele, "The King." He was a Brazilian player who many people perceive as the best of all times, known for his bicycle kicks and incredible dribbling skills, he is the most prolific scorer according to Guinnes World Records. Perhaps your favorite player is someone who is playing right now, like Ronaldo, or Messi. Let me know what you think...

Real Madrid out of Copa del Rey

As much of you might remember, or maybe not, about a week back I made a posting about Real Madrid falling 4-0 to a third division team named Alorcon in the Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup). Well this Wednesday was the return leg, and Real were playing in their home ground Santiago Bernabeu to try and overcome the 4 goal deficit. The fans did not know what to expect, and the result they saw was not a very likable one. In order to go through on to the next round, Real needed to win by 5-0, and they simply did not get the job done. They only neted one past the Alorcon goalkeeper, failing to go through. The crowd's disapproval could be seen, or rather heard, toward the end of the match when they started booing everytime Real got the ball, and applauding everytime Alorcon got the ball. So Real are out of the Cup, but they still have very good chances in both the Champion's League and the Spanish League.

UEFA Champions League

 This week was matchplay 4 of the Champions league. The main stage was protagonized by AC milan against Real Madrid on Milan this past tuesday. On paper, the Real squad looks far more advanced in skill and much better in play, but in the game Milan prove to be just as better. Milan have a squad that is constantly plagued by injuries, and their average age might be older than any other team in the competition.

 The final score was 1-1, with Ronaldinho scoring Milan's only goal against his old enemies Real Madrid. Ronaldinho was said to have been approaching the end of his career for lack of skill, but in past weeks he has been showing great skill and might be staging a come back for best player.

Great Weekend for Big Teams

The weekend marked a great match-day for some big teams like Real Madrid of Spain, or AC Milan of Italy. Both of these teams had been going down the wrong path to become champions of their countries, but they both a victory this weekend that will lift a huge weight off of their backs. Real Madrid had achieved two ties and one loss in their last three games, and the manager Manuel Pellegrini was in danger of being fired. On Saturday however, Real Madrid played their town rivals Getafe, and the Real coach made a great decision on starting Higuain, because the Argentinian had not started in a couple matches, but got the two goals that gave Real Madrid the 2-0 victory over Getafe. This victory gives new hope to the title, and a little less to worry about for Pellegrini.
Crossing over to Italy, AC Milan had also been in bad form in the league recently, and their star player Ronaldinho had not done much to help this season. They played on Saturday as well, against Parma, and also got a 2-0 victory. Ronaldinho, two-time winner of the FIFA World Player of the Year award, came out of his slump on this game, giving assists to both goals scored by the Milan team. The scorer of these goals, Marco Boriello, also was having a bad year, plagued by injuries since late last season, this was the first game he started in 09-10 season, and what a start he had by scoring two goals and leading his team to victory.

Who is the Best?

With the upcoming FIFA World Player of the Year award coming up, which is given to the best player of the year, everyone keeps asking themself the same question, who will win the award? Last year, the award was given to Cristiano Ronaldo, and the year before to Brazilian forward Kaka. These have more than one thing in common, but what strikes the most when it comes to winning the award was that they both won the Champions League the year before the won the award. The Champions League is the most important club competition in the world, so perhaps we are seeing that the prize this year will go on to one of the winners of the Champions and not perhaps to the true best player. What I mean to say is this, the mayority of the soccer fans around the world would agree that as of right now, the top three best players in the world are Kaka, Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo, in no specific order, but seeing as how Kaka and Ronaldo already won the awardn and Messi won the Champions with his club last season, he would probably get the World Player award for this, rather than the real best player. We will have to wait and see, but I am definately sure that the award will stay within these three players.

Real Madrid shocked by 3nd Division team...

The Spanish Cup, or Copa del Rey as it is commonly known in Spain, is underway and what a surprising start it had! Real Madrid, heavy favorites to not only the Spanish Cup and League but for other titles, started the road to a championship by losing to the way less popular and rated Alcorcon, a team from the "segunda division B" (which would be like the AA in the MLB) by a humiliating score of 4-0. Although the Madrid team have their superstar Cristiano Ronaldo being injured as a possible excuse, there is no real excuse to this defeat. However, like I have said before one loss does not mean the whole season for top teams like Real Madrid, and we will have to wait for the home-leg to see if they come back and eventually beat Alcorcon by more than 4-0, which is what they have to do to go on to the next round of the cup.

UEFA Champions League

 The Uefa Champions League, the most prestigious club soccer tournament in the world, is undergoing its third match-day this week, on tuesday and wednesday. After the first day of the match-day, there are top guns that found themselves surprised after loosing to the underdogs, specially Barcelona. The Spanish team were the Cup's champions last year, and lately have been in incredible form, only loosing one game in the whole season, tuesday on the Champions league. Barcelona played on their home field, Camp Nou, where they are pretty much unbeatable, against a not re-known Russian team, Rubin Kazam. Only after two minutes of play, the Barca (as they are commonly know) defense made their first error, and it was costly one because the bad pass originated the first goal they gave up that night. Later on the game, Barca closed the gap and tied the game 1-1, thanks to a goal by the swedish star Ibrahimovic. But yet another mistake would cost Barca the match, it was Bojan this time who made the mistake, after trying to pass the ball back, he gave it to the opposing team and the goalie found the goal on the back of his net before he knew it.

 This goes on to prove that maybe this is year that a top gun would not take it all, that maybe we are to witness a surprise and watch one of the underdogs make it all the way through and get the trophy on May. But it is yet to soon to assume this, for one loss does not mean the end of the competition for Barca, or any other top team. They are top teams for something, they know how to bounce back, and they will find a way to do it.

David Beckham to go back to Europe.

 It was just announced yesterday by AC Milan vice-president that David Beckham is already a "done deal" to go back to Europe and play from January until May, off-season of the MLS where Beckham plays regularly. Beckham already tried this last year, and it caused some controversy because the deal was made for him to originally come back to the U.S. on march, but he after decided he wanted to stay longer and signed an extension until May of 'O8.

 Ever since the L.A. Galaxy signed David Beckham a couple of years ago, there has been huge controversy because it was said that he just wanted to come here for the money, because a top-rated player like himself would find no match to his high level of skill in the MLS. I think what happened last season when Beckham went to Milan to play was that he remembered how good and pleasant it is to play at the highest level of soccer, which is in Europe. Then his contract was up, he did not want to come back and play here in the U.S., because the competition is not has high and soccer is not as big.

 The L.A. Galaxy are taking a huge risk by agreeing to this deal, because just like last season he wanted to stay more, this season he might just want to stay for a long time. There were a lot of problems last season when he wanted to stay more, especially since the MLS season starts in March and the Galaxy payed $250 million for Beckham to play for them, but he was not there for the start of the season since he was helping out in Europe. I think when Beckham's contract with Galaxy is up in a couple or years, he will go back to Europe and we might see him at his highest level once again.