One Emotional Weekend

I must say this was probably my favorite weekend of football out of this whole season. It began with the Chelsea vs. Liverpool, FA Cup final. I was rooting for Chelsea, because I personally do not like Suarez....so go Blues! And what do you know, the Blues won! Two goals, one from Ramires and Drogaba. Andy Carroll also got on the score sheet, but it wasn't enough to take the FA trophy away from Chelsea. THOUGH there was a controversial goal in which Carroll heads in the ball, but the ref says that it didn't pass the line. But none the less, Cech made a great save and kept Chelsea in the game until the last minute. Now it's off to the Champions League, and to win that competition is super, super important. If they win the Champions League final, they can say they've had a pretty successful season after all they've been through. I mean if they can take home two prestigious trophies, the FA Cup the Champions League, how can you say that's not a successful season? Second they would automatically qualify for the Champions League next year. That seems to be their only chance to to qualify for the most prestigious tournament in Europe because they are in 6th place in the EPL. (I'm still rooting for Bayern Munich for the Champions League Final though).

Speaking of the EPL, the title race between United and City is STILL ON. Manchester City played first, away at Newcastle. Newcastle are a very strong side, and they were fighting in hopes of breaking into the top three. Unfortunately (and fortunately), Newcastle lost and Manchester City was able to win 2-0 with both goals from Yaya Toure. On the other ends of things, Manchester United played Swansea City and they stayed in the title race with a 2-0 also, with goals from Scholes and Young. It seems that the title race is really going to be decided based on the last game of the season. Manchester City are to play QPR and Manchester Untied are to play Sunderland. Let's see how this turns out.

And in Serie A, the final winners of the league or Scudetto is Juventus! Juventus were able to take a 2-0 from Cagliari. While they were playing, the Milan derby (Inter vs. AC Milan) was going on and AC Milan lost to Inter 4-2, which caused the title to slip out of their hands. Finally after years of waiting, Juventus are finally Champions of Serie A, again.

Now to La Liga (this is where I got emotional). It was FC Barcelona vs. Espanyol (the Catalan derby). FC Barcelona was able to take a 4-0, all goals from the one and only Lionel Messi. A freekick, two spot kicks, and a great run gave him 50 goals during the La Liga season and a total of 72 goals during a European season. The Atomic Flea still has two more games to bag more goals. It's like he's unstoppable. But during the game and after the game is what got to me. This game was not only special because it was the Catalan derby, but also Josep Guardiola's last game at the Camp Nou as Barcelona's manager. When Messi scored his 4th goal, he went to Guardiola and gave him, I guess a farewell./thank you hug which was joined by the rest of his teammates. Now that's what I call mes que un club. After the match was the most emotional part. This was Guardiola finally saying goodbye as the manager to the supporters at the Camp Nou. I can't really explain it, but you can watch this video and see what I mean. You don' need to be able to understand Catalan to get the gist or the emotion, all you got to do is watch and be a supporter of FC Barcelona to understand. That's all. I've got to say a 4-0 win is a great way to send Guardiola off. Gracies Pep!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH GUARDIOLA'S FAREWELL TO THE CAMP NOU 

League Round Up (April 6-8th)

Let's bring all the games into one big pile of closure by starting with the English Premier League. The battle between Manchester United and Manchester City for the title win just seems to fade farther and farther away from Mancini's reach. Manchester City played Arsenal at the Emirates stadium and took a harsh defeat with a late strike from Mikel Arteta losing 1-0. City are now 8 points away from United who secured a home win with goals from non other then Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes which gave them a 2-0 win over QPR. Mancini seems to still be having problems with the young Italian, Balotelli who received a red card during the Arsenal game. From different news sources, City are going to try and sell the controversial striker. It looks like Manchester United have the league title all wrapped up for the 20th time and only 6 more games to play in the league (unless some miraculously happens and Man. U drop a bunch of points, and Man. City win all their games). Chelsea who are continuing their good form (even though the game they played Wigan was NOT a very good performance) won at Stamford Bridge 2-, trying to secure a Champions League spot for next season. Tottenham try and keep their 4th place spot with a 0-0 tie when they played Sunderland. The Spurs taking only one point from the game, they are now two points behind Arsenal and only 3 points in front of Chelsea. Newcastle though is not far, with 56 points TIED with Chelsea. Six more games means a potential 18 more points for any of these teams. 

La Liga has become more and more tight lately. Real Madrid played Valencia this Sunday and were only able to take away 1 point from the Santiago Bernebeu with a tie of 0-0. It may have been European fatigue that has caused this tie between the two sides, but non the less, Madrid now only sit 4 points atop the tables when only a few weeks ago it was 10 points. Valencia were able to take a crucial 1 point and still in 3rd place but only 1 point of in front of Levante and 2 points from Malaga who still have to play Racing Santander Monday April 9th. If Malaga secure a win, they will be able to gain the 3rd place spot. But for the gap between Barcelona and Madrid to even shrink a little, Barcelona took on threatening relegation team Zaragoza and were able to take a 4-1 win, with goals from Puyol, Messi (2), and Pedro for Barcelona and Aranda for Zaragoza. The title race and places are still being fought for and there are still a few games to be played which can decide anything. For the title winner it may come down to the Clascio on April 22nd.  

The last league I'll be talking about is Serie A. The title race is still live and high paced with a 2-0 win for Juventus against Palermo. They sit atop of the table with 65 points only 1 point away from Milan's 64. Milan were not able to secure a win as they lost to 2-1 to Fiorentina at the San Siro.

With the Champions League semis still yet to be played and leagues are still hot and winnable, I believe that the end of each season for each league will be exciting to watch, and everyone should keep up to date and be posted on all things football. You can check out the links above to keep up with your favorite teams or leagues. If you go to the Football News Link there you can check out articles and opinions of all the different games and teams!