Updates on Spain

As we all know (and if you didn't know) Real Madrid have won the Supercopa title with a 2-1 win at the Santiago Bernabeu. The aggregate was 4-4, but because the goal difference win of Real Madrid was smaller than Barcelona's they able to claim their first title and win of the season. I couldn't watch the game, but from my twitter updates, Real Madrid were really putting on the pressure and Barcelona were really off their game. Even though Valdes probably caused Barcelona the title due to the last game mistake, he made a lot of saves and good ones too to keep Barcelona in the running. All goals from Higuain, CR7, and Messi.

In other news, lots of stuff happened in Monaco today. First the Champions League groups have finally been draw! CHAMPIONS LEAGUE IS GOING TO START SOON! Below is a picture of the groups that will be played. Group D is considered the the death group or the group to watch. You have Real Madrid, Ajax, Manchester City, and Dortmund all of whom are the current winners of their own league. This is going to be the group to watch.

The other really important news that happened in Monaco today is the UEFA Best Player in Europe award was announced today. The top contestants were Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Andres Iniesta. And guess who won? No, not Messi or Ronaldo, but INIESTA! I'm sooooo happy that he won the award. If I were to choose the second person to get it, it would be Messi, but finally Iniesta won the award! He's being recognized for his AMAZING talent, and it's about time. Now we just have to wait and see who will win the Ballon d'Or this coming January. But then again that's a different story.

Week 2 of 2012/2013 Season

Lovely weekend of football. Lots of rain in England, but still lovely weekend of football.

Let's start with Saturday. Two biggest games going on were Chelsea vs. Newcastle and Manchester United vs. Fulham. For the Chelsea vs. Newcastle game, Chelsea have won their first three games in a row. A 2-0 win against Wigan, a 4-2 win against Reading, and now a 2-0 in against Newcastle. The first goal was a penalty caused by a foul against Torres. Eden Hazard was the one who converted it, making it 1-0. At the end of the first half during stoppage time Torres scored the second goal which was assisted with a toe poke, heel poke, or whatever by Eden Hazard. Eden Hazard has so far had a really good start to the Premier League. I think he's has been involved with almost all 8 of the goals Chelsea has scored so far. To be more exact (not really) I think it's about 6-7 goals he's been involved with. Torres has been showing his old self. He's looking more confident in front of goal which means he's scoring more goals.  He doesn't have the lingering shadow of Drogba on his back this season, so this is a great time for his shine you know after a good ending of last season (winning the FA Cup, Champions League, and Euro 2012).

The second big game on Saturday was Manchester United vs. Fulham. The first to score the goal was Fulham, but at the 10th minute Robin van Persie scored his first goal for the Red Devils. Kagawa scored the second, and Rafael scored the third putting the Reds 3-1 in front. Unfortunately Vidic put in an own goal making it 3-2, but that's how the game ended. Manchester United won their second game of the Premier League. The biggest news out of that game is definitely Wayne Rooney's gash on his thigh. If you haven't seen it's a really big nasty one. It's so bad that it has caused him to be sidelined for about four weeks. I think someone stepped on him on accident and woosh, huge gash. If you are easily disturbed by blood and any type pictures like that, I suggest you NOT go and look it up.


So today, Sunday, there were a lot of big matches played too. Let's begin with the Premier League. games played by Arsenal vs. Stoke and Manchester City vs. Liverpool. The Arsenal game turned out to be another 0-0 draw for the Gunners. I watched a bit of that game, and a lot of them seem to be scared to shoot or something. Arsenal dominated that game, yet they were very hesitant to shoot. Arsenal are playing well, it's just their finishing needs a little work. I guess you could say they are feeling the effects of no Robin van Persie (who scored 40% of their goals). The Manchester City vs. Liverpool game was played at Anfield and that game also game to a 2-2 draw. Goals came from Skrtel, Yaya Toure, Suarez, and then Tevez in that order. There have been lots of surprises this season, and I pretty sure there are more to come.

Moving on to La Liga. Barcelona played an away game at Pamplona again Osasuna. Barcelona was behind 1-0 a majority of the game until Magical Messi came up and got 2 goals in the second half giving the Blaugrana the win for that night. On the other hand of things, Real Madrid LOST their match against Getafe. Like I was really surprised to hear that. Real Madrid were the first to score with a goal from Higuain, but two goals from Getafe put them in front and gave them the win. I'm not really sure why Khedira hasn't been playing which may be a reason why they lost. Another reason could be that Madrid are feeling the effects of not having Pepe as one of their central defenders. When he comes back to play maybe a lot of things will change.

A lot went on this weekend, and a lot of is going to go on next weekend. Stay tune to keep up what's happening in the footballing world!

Nike Chance

Have you ever heard of the Nike Chance? Well if you haven't, this program allows young aspiring footballers to show their skills and have the chance to get noticed which gives them a better chance of signing a professional contract in the future. What happens is on the Nike Chance page on Facebook, and you create a team page. The more noise (or recognition, popular) your team page becomes the larger the chance you have for someone to come and scout you. Once that team has enough noise, someone like Rio Ferdinand or Pep Guardiola come out and watch you play a game. The person that stands out the most in the game gets some type of pamphlet which is their ticket to the Chance Finals in their country.


At the country level there are footballers from all over your area that have been chosen and given the chance to compete for a spot in the final 100. There are 55 countries that participated this year and only 3-4 players are able to represent their country. Those 3-4 players are then sent to the finals location which this year was none other than Barcelona, Spain. From then on you're competing with the best from all over the world. You have 100 players, which is then reduced to 52, 26, and then the final 16. The final 16 are the winners and get an all expense paid tour to play with some of the best teams at some of the best venues in in footballing history. This tour begins in January of 2013 and comes to an end in February of 2013.


The Chance Finals have been played and the final 16 have been chosen! If you want to check out the final match played and you want to see who moved on, you can click on the links below. The one person that I was rooting for and hoping to go on was the American Brian Iloski. He isn't that big (he's actually quite short) but after watching the final match, the boy has skills, I mean true potential. From what I saw he has the stuff to become the next big American soccer player. I think is an attacking midfielder/wing. He created a lot of scoring chances and he scored two goals in the semi-final match. I'm really proud of him because there aren't a lot of American soccer players that get recognized. I think this will give him the chance to represent American soccer (like Clint Dempsey who plays for Fulham and I think making a move to Liverpool or Michael Bradley who plays for AS Roma).

CLICK HERE TO SEE FINAL MATCH 

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHO IS THE FINAL 16

Reflection of Super Copa Leg 1

The first El Clasico of the season hit off with a bang at the Camp Nou. Both Spanish Giants went out onto the field and played a typical and not so typical Real Madrid vs. FC Barcelona game. The went onto a 3-2 in favor of Barcelona with goals from Pedro, Messi, and Xavi and from Ronaldo and Di Maria. Pepe wasn't able to play game due to an injury during the previous they played against Valencia. And we all know he always adds some type of impact to the game. The game did produce a lot of yellow cards, but luckily there were no red cards. In games like these there is usually a lot of tension first because this is probably the greatest rivalry in football and second a lot of the players on each team play together internationally (Higuain, Messi, Di Maria, and Mascherano for Argentina) and then you basically have more than half of the Spanish National Team who either player for Madrid or Barcelona.

One thing I want to point out is that Valdes made a big mistake in that game. A simple pass back from Mascherano was sent to Valdes, but the keeper over thought it to much. Di Maria was coming in on the attack, but he wasn't exactly putting much pressure on Valdes. It's understandable that Valdes is trying to play the Barcelona way, but because he was trying to set himself up (and with a bad touch) Di Maria took the mistake as a opportunity and a opportunity won. Valdes should have cleared the ball because Di Maria was right in front of him, and he should of known any small mistake LIKE a bad touch could be devastating which is what happened

The Super Copa winner is still in limbo. With a score of 3-2 anything can happen during the second leg which will be played at the Santiago Bernabeu. Madrid will have the advantage of the second-leg being a home game and all BUT still nothing is decided yet until next Thursday!

The Season has Begun!

Both seasons that I love to keep up with (EPL and La Liga) have begun finally. Most of the games have been played on Saturday (yesterday) and today some will be played on tomorrow (Monday). Here are the games that I've been able to keep up with so far are first the Arsenal vs. Sunderland game. This was a way for the new transfers, Podolski, Santi Carzola, and Giroud to show what they had. Unfortunately they weren't able to penetrate Sunderland's defense enough and the first game for the Gunners ended in a 0-0 tie. At least they got one point, but it isn't the three that they wanted. 

Chelsea vs. Wigan is another game that was played today. They were able to take the 3 points away with two goals, one from Ivanovic and the other from Lampard in the first half of the game. This was first Premier game for Hazard and he showed great skill that he has because he had a pretty good game. Oscar another young transfer was also able to make his debut and showed a pretty good performance. 

On the other side of things in England, the defending champions of the Premier League had a struggle during their first game. The newly promoted Southampton showed they weren't going to take the game lightly. They were the first to score which means Manchester City had some catching up to do. In the end City were able to take away a win by 3-2 with goals from Tevez, Dzeko, and Nasri. Hopefully this doesn't happen again in the near future for the them because that was one heck of a scary start for City. 

Manchester United will be playing Everton tomorrow. 

In Spanish news, both the Spanish giants, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid had their opening season games today. Real Madrid played Valencia FC and left the game with a 1-1 draw with Higuain scoring their only goal. Not something they wanted of course. On the other side of things FC Barcelona played Real Sociedad at the Camp Nou and beat them 5-1. The first goal came from the club captain Puyol during a corner kick from Xavi and then Sociedad drew the game 1-1 a few minutes later. The Catalan giants were going to take that and two goals from Messi and a goal from Pedro put the Blaugrana up 4-1 by half-time. The greatest thing is at the second half David Villa came onto the field after being sidelined from an injury since the Club World Cup in December 2011. What's even better is that he scored a goal and ended the game 5-1. This gives Tito Vilanova his first win of a La Liga season as the head coach. 

The first game is only the beginning and anything can happen during the season. But it's always good to start off the season with a win. It's a good moral booster and it helps set the tempo for what the season has in store. 

RVP to Man U

At the beginning of the summer transfer the Dutch striker Robin Van Persie made it clear that he wanted out of Arsenal. Many clubs around Europe went after him but it seemed that his price tag was a little bit to high. Recently, the Manchester giants made the swoop for the Dutchman and the transfer has been made official, Mr. Robin van Persie is moving to Manchester United for 22 million pounds.

The man is a goal machine, scoring 30 something goals in the last Premier League season, but was RVP's transfer really necessary for the Red Devils? Robin van Persie isn't 24 or 25, he's 29 and no one is able to age backwards. He's at his prime and he's about to reach the peak of it. Also, even though he is lethal in front of goal, he is injury prone. Last year Manchester United had major injury problems all last season which may have caused them the Premier League title. I'm not saying that is RVP get's injured is going to be a HUGE loss for the Reds, for they have excellent strikers such as Rooney, Chicharito, and Welbeck, but injury is something no team needs or wants.

I understand why his price tag was high, but to me it was a little bit to high. I would say around 17million pounds should have been good, business is business. Like stated before, he's not young and I honestly think based on his past injury history he'll have 2-3 years left on him maybe four.

BUT I can see why Van Persie wanted to leave the Gunners. Ever since he arrived in 2004 from Feyenoord, van Persie has only won the UEFA Cup, FA Cup, and FA Community Shield out of the 8 years he has been at Arsenal. Since he's not getting younger, he probably wants to achieve bigger success such as the Premier League or even the Champions League. Arsenal have always been so close to success, but it was never enough. Manchester United is the club that holds the most Premier League wins and maybe this season will be RVP's season.

I'm still skeptical about the transfer, but it definitely an interesting one and one that you will want to keep up with. This will also give the new transfers such as Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud more of the lime light. If you continue to read the blog I'll try to keep up with the Dutch striker. All the leagues in Europe are going to start soon. We're just going to have to wait and see how Robin van Persie fits into the Manchester side.

Olympics are over and the Season is Beginning

 

Today is the last day of the Olympics, and I write right now, the closing ceremonies are currently going on. I follow a lot of the Olympic athletes on Twitter and many of them are heading home, have finally landed, or have decided to stay for the ceremonies. The 30th Olympiad was great! Hosted by a great country and all the events were super exciting. Some were unexpected and some were so expected and mind blowing. I watched many different events such as field hockey, volleyball, handball, swimming, gymnastics, and the most important football (soccer for the Americans). Sadly I wasn't able to watch the finals for any both the men or women's finals because I had school the day of the women's finals and I had a scrimmage I had to go to for the men's finals! OF course when I came home I found out the results right away. I was soooo happy for the USWNT! They were able to retain their gold medal by beating Japan 2-1. Carli Loyd scored both goals and Hope Solo (from the highlights, replays, and everything I read on Twitter) played a really great game making multiple important saves. For the men's finals it was Mexico vs. Brazil and the score was also 2-1 with the Mexican side taking the gold medal. Brazil was the favorite because of all the big names like Oscar, Neymar, etc. But Mexico brought the gold home and this is their first time winning a medal in Olympic soccer. Not bad, not bad at all.

The medal race between China and the USA were really close. Each day or two the country in the lead would change. But near the end of the competition the USA took over. I mean took over. You can see the picture for yourself. The USA dominated the Olympics. America may be known for it's fast food restaurants and obese issue, but when we play sports, we take them seriously.

Sad that the Olympics are over, BUT football season is about to begin really soon. Most club's pre-seasons are over by now and everyone is getting ready for their first league games. The most recent major pre-season game was the FA Community Shield where Manchester City (current Premier League winners) took on Chelsea (current FA Cup winners). Chelsea were the first to draw blood as Torres opened the scoring (A new season and a fresh start from the success of Euro 2012, hope all goes well for him). But Yaya Toure equalized very soon after. Ivanovic got a red card for a reckless tackle sending him off and leaving Chelsea to 10 men. During the second half Tevez and Nasri were able to put City up 3-1. Chelsea fought back with a deflection from Pantilomon which gave Bertrand a goal to put the score to 3-2. That wasn't enough though as the whistle blew and Manchester City were able to grab the Community Shield. This is only the beginning and I can't wait till the EPL and La Liga start! EXCITED.

Off to the Finals!

It is set in stone and the two teams onto the Olympic Women's Soccer Finals are Japan and the USA! It was a very intense day of soccer which began with Japan playing France. Japan, who are currently the reigning world champions beat France 2-1. Japan got both of their goals from set pieces and France was able to get a goal in the last 15-20mins of the game. It wasn't enough though, as the final whistle blew, sending Japan off to the Olympic gold match.  

Now the USA vs. Canada game was a really different story. Nothing like the Japan vs. France game. IT WAS A NAIL BITING ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT GAME! INTENSE! USA were the favorites to go onto the final, but Christine Sinclair, the Canadian captain scored the opening goal at the 22' mark. Time kept ticking, but the USA brought it back with a Megan Rapinoe corner, which went into the goal directly. May not have been a pretty goal, but it's a goal none the less. The game is now tied, but Canada comes back with another goal from Sinclair which gives Canada the lead again. BUT the USA, a team that doesn't give up, came back again with a goal bouncing off the pole from Rapinoe. It's tied 2-2. No the game isn't over yet. Canada responded AGAIN with ANOTHER GOAL (a header) from SINCLAIR who was assisted by a corner kick, giving her a hat-trick and putting Canada in the lead AGAIN. As time was going, the Canadian goal keeper got called out on time wasting, which is a very rare call. This gave the USA an indirect free kick which then lead to a penalty kick because of a hand ball in the box. Wambach slotted the goal to the left side of the goal tying up the game 3-3. Overtime it went. 

Another 30mins of intense soccer continued on and it looked as if it were going to go into PKs. BUT OUT OF NO WHERE, during three minutes of stoppage time, a beautiful cross from O'Rielly met with Alex Morgan's head and went straight into the Canadian's goal. Morgan has been criticized for not scoring many goals during the Olympics, but I'm pretty sure that shut the critics up. She came up and probably scored the most important goal of her career so far and the Olympic games. And that ended it. The USA won 4-3 after 120mins of soccer. The Canadians played well, but they didn't get the result that they wanted (of course). So it's Japan vs. USA for the gold medal match and France vs. Canada for the bronze medal match. It's like a redo of the World Cup for the USA (almost). For the Canada vs. France match, whoever loses that game, it's going to be real tough because it's literally all that hard work for no medal. 

AGAIN GO USA, USA, USA. That game will be played on Thursday, August 8th at 7:45pm London Time. Sadly I will be back in school for that match, so I'm going to have to wait to get home to see who won that game. But still USA, USA, USA. 

Olympic Women's Soccer Semi-Finals

 

The Olympics have been very exciting this year. Original records being broken and world records being remade; it really has been a sight to see. As an American, I've obviously been rooting for America, GO USA and boy have the United States been showing their stuff. As of the current medal count, the USA has the most medals with 43 in total with China in second with 42 total medals. The USA also leads in gold medals with 21 and China with 20. I do get emotional when I watch the Olympics. I don't go all out crying, but I do get teary eyed. It's been good so far for the United States, with Missy Franklin, Ryan Lochte, The Fab 5, Gabby Douglas, and many others winning gold medals, especially Michael Phelps who was now broken the record for most Olympic medals won. He started out a little slow in the beginning of the competition, but as the races progressed, he showed that he is indeed the best in the world. 



But there is still a ways to go in the Olympics. Games and races are still being fought for and that brings us to the Women's Olympics Soccer semi-finals stage. The quarter-finals were played today: USA vs. New Zealand, Canada vs. Great Britain, Japan vs. Brazil, and France vs. Sweden. I was able to watch the second half of the US vs. New Zealand game, and I watched a bit of the Japan vs. Brazil game. The quarter-finals ended with USA winning 2-0, France coming back 2-1, Canada sending the host country off 2-0, and Japan stopping the Brazilians 2-0. So the semi-finals line up is USA vs. Canada and France vs. Japan.



I have to say that Japan is a very good side. I know they won the Women's World Cup, but I've never really watched Japan play until today. I was able to see their style and I gotta say that they have really good ball control and passing. They are also pretty good at defending. They have proven that even if your team is relatively small in size, that does not mean you can't play good soccer. I am still rooting for team USA as they are the favorites to retain their title from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and win the gold. This can get pretty interesting because for all we know the final can end up as a USA vs. Japan again and the Japanese are good contenders for the gold. We'll just have to wait and see. 

Happy Olympics everyone. Hope everyone is enjoying the games as much as I am. Love watching the Olympics! and.....GO TEAM USA!