Champions League Update

Chelsea and Manchester Untied both won their games by one goal, giving both of them the advantage as the travel to next week's away return leg. Manchester united gave up two goals, which gives them a slight disadvantage if it ends in a draw, as away goals are the aggregate tie-breaker. C'mon Blues!

Champion's League on ESPN and ESPN Classic

This week the Champions League semi-final first leg will take place, and ESPN will be showing both games live!!! Very exciting time for soccer, as well as England, since three of the four teams are from the prem. and it looks like it will be an all English-final. Maybe now they'll shut up about the one World Cup victory in '66. Well, here's the schedule and the link to the full ESPN TV schedule.

Tuesday, April 23 (tomorrow) - Manchester United :( vs. AC Milan
@ 11:30 on ESPN 2
Wednesday, April 24 - Chelsea FC vs.
Liverpool FC @11:30 on ESPN
2
The games will also
be aired immediately following the
conclusion on ESPN Classic

More American Influence in England

The Vice-Chairman of Arsenal FC has resigned from his position citing "irreconcilable differences" as his reason. But there is more to it than just a disagreement, the VC David Dein was backing the takeover of the club by an American investor, Stan Kroenke. Stan made his money developing shopping centers and apartment buildings, and since his wife is a Wal-mart heir, he has built many of the plazas that Wal-Marts are in. He's also the co-owner of the St. Louis Rams and the full owner of the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, the Denver based professional lacrosse team, and more interestingly, the Colorado Rapids of the MLS (I understand that the teams, Arsenal and the Rapids, already are linked through some-sort of talent and playing agreement). Will Henry be coming to Denver, or will Wal-Mart be heading to Emirates Stadium (Arsenal's brand-spanking new stadium). Hmmm. More American influence in England can only be good for an American fan - more exposure and possibly more air-time. Tasty. Here's a quote and the full article:

Speculation that the Gunners are set to be the next target for heavy
investment from the United States has continued after Kroenke Sports Enterprises
upped their stake to 12.19%.

La Liga (Spanish Primera) Update

The latest from La Liga: Barcelona not the powerhouse once thought. Okay, I may be exaggerating a bit - they’re still one of the best in the world, but after winning the Champions League last year, one thought that Barcelona would be killing everybody, but not so. They were struggling to gain a hold on the La Liga tables, with Sevilla leading for a while, and then they got knocked out of European play (Champs. League) early, leaving them playing in only one tournament. They should have a large lead, considering Sevilla are still playing in Europe, but they failed to pull away. They only have one point with a few games left. It should get real interesting. Here’s the scoop:

Barcelona's defeat at El Madrigal stadium left it with just one win from its
past nine away games and dented its hopes of a third straight title.

Congrats to Inter-Milan!

It seems that the Italian league, Serie A, is all wrapped up. This years winner is Inter-Milan, the blue-and-black powerhouse that has really benefitted from the referee paying (also ex-chelsea striker Hernan Crespo) scandal last year. With the top two teams, Juventus being sent down to Serie B (the equivalent of AAA baseball except that in European soccer the teams can move up and down between the leagues – the top three from the lower league come up and the bottom three of the upper league go down) and AC Milan (still in Champions League) getting a point reduction, along with two other top class teams, Inter was left standing with the cash on hand to buy some of Juventus and AC’s stars. But AC, with the help of Ronaldo (that’s a joke – he’s fat now) have still shown that they are top class. Here’s the story on the win from ESPN’s soccernet:

Marco Materazzi scored twice, once from the penalty spot, as Inter Milan won 2-1
at Siena to clinch their second successive Serie A title with five games to
spare.

The First Had To Be For the Blues

Since the birth of this blog has come as the seasons are winding down, although the title races are heating up and the MLS is just getting rolling, I had to start by acknowledging the unprecedented success and opportunity for glory of the one and only, Chelsea FC. With the Carling Cup trophy already in the case, trailing the premiership title race (which would be the third straight) by only three points, in the FA cup finals, and gearing up for their UEFA Champion’s League semi-final clash with Liverpool, they seem to be poised for the treble, and maybe if by chance, the QUADRUPLE!! For those that don’t know, clubs, depending on their strength, compete in more than just one tournament at the same time with many different clubs (some from another country possibly), unlike American sports where there is one season followed by play-offs with teams all out of the same league. Winning two trophies is a double, three a treble, and four the quadruple. So, in Chelsea’s case, a team can win four trophies (two very prestigious, one prestigious, and one not so much) in one season, although none have ever done so, in recent history at least. Again using Chelsea as an example, they are playing in three domestic tournaments, league, which is decided on a points system and no playoff, the FA Cup, which is a tournament of all English professional sides including the lower divisions (it would be like the MLB having a tournament with all minor-league teams, the majors, and any random club team if they so choose), the Carling Cup (a less prestigious version of the FA cup with only the minors and majors playing – no outside teams), and one international tournament, the UEFA Champions League. The Champions League is put on by European soccer governing body, UEFA - a member of FIFA, the world’s soccer governing body known for the World Cup – which is made up of all the European country’s domestic leagues, like the Premiership. This is a very special tournament that teams must qualify for by doing well in their domestic league the previous season. Different countries, depending on league strength, are given a different number of “births,” ranging from a chance to enter the qualifying round by playoff for the winner of the domestic league, to one automatic “birth” to the tournament and three automatic qualifying round entries, as with England. So it’s sort of the competition to see who is the best in Europe, which in turn, because Europe is obviously the world’s regional power-house, is the best in the world. Confusing, huh? Anyways, I just wanted to explain that from the start because I’ll refer to it a lot. Here’s a quote from an article from Fox Soccer Channel talking about the coach and his chances – full article here.

Jose Mourinho is able to focus all his energy on completing
an unprecedented Quadruple at Chelsea
after learning he will not be sacked.

A Declaration of Americaneyes

I hereby declare this blog the European Football to American sports fans translator. I will be providing discourse and commentary on the Beautiful Game translated to American. I also must declare my allegiance to the Blues, Chelsea FC of the English Premier League, and my allegiance to primarily objective translation. Stay Posted.