UEFA Champions League Draw? More Like UEFA Champions League Win

UEFA.com states that yesterday, August 27th, was "a busy old afternoon." Messi won 2014-15 UEFA Best Player in Europe. Good for you Messi, but what really went on in Monaco yesterday was the champions league draw; soccer fans, you can scream -- or kick. Now we know who's going to face who between the best  European teams in the first round of the UEFA Champions League.

Eight groups of four, I wished it was ten groups. I command you to memorize those eight groups. The best matchup in this year's round of thirty-two is-- oh wait there's so many crazy games, I can't just pick one.

PSG and Madrid are both in group A. Di Maria vs Madrid!! Juventus will face City in group D. Juventus vs City?! Group F: Bayern vs Arsenal. Oh man, professors won't be seeing much of me this semester. Let's see, it starts September 15th which is a tuesday, I got English. I already speak English, I can miss that class.

The champions Barcelona found themselves in group E with Bayer Leverkusen, Roma and BATE. Sounds like a walk in a park for Barca at first thought, Messi scored 5 goals against Bayer Leverkusen in one game three seasons ago. But last UCL, Bayer Leverkusen made it to the knockout phases. Roma is getting back to their old days, they finished second for the past two seasons in Serie A and BATE finished first last season in the Belarusian league with just one loss.

Mourinho will face his former team Porto with Chelsea in group G. Casillas, show Mourinho you still got it. Group H is pretty interesting: Zenith, Valencia, Lyon, who will finish first?  Gent is the other team, could be them too. If they're not too gentle.

United is going to have to step up their defense, they're going against the speedy Doumbia from CSKA Moscow. They will also face the Dutch Champions, PSV (they had over ten points on Ajax) and Wolfsburg. Not an easy group, let's see how the nowadays United team handle it.

Last but not least, John Brewin titled his article on ESPN FC: Atletico Madrid Should Top Benfica, Galatasaray and Astana in Group C. C for can't wait to c if you're right Brewin.

This is too much, why so many strong teams? Oh yeah, it's the "champions" league. We got a memorable group stage waiting on us. Share your thoughts on the draw, predict standings. You still haven't memorized it?! Here:

GROUP A: Paris St-Germain, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Malmo
GROUP B: PSV, Manchester United, CSKA Moskow, Wolfsburg
GROUP C: Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Galatasaray, Astana
GROUP D: Juventus, Manchester City, Sevilla, Monchengladbach
GROUP E: Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Roma, BATE
GROUP F: Bayern, Arsenal, Olympiacos, Dinamo Zagreb
GROUP G: Chelsea, Porto, Dynamo Kiev, M. Tel-Aviv
GROUP H: Zenith, Valencia, Lyon, Gent

Who Did Good Enough During the Summer Transfer to Win La Liga?

Barcelona used 52 million euros to bring in new players this summer. Athletic Bilbao didn't use a penny, they signed three free-free players: Elustondo, Boveda and Eraso. Bilbao used all three of their free-frees in the Supercup when Barca couldn't even use any of the two players they bought for 52 million euros. We all know how the Supercup ended, Bilbao upset the soccer world and beat Barcelona 5-1 on aggregate-- Eraso had an assist. I know you're laughing, unless you're Barcelona's owner. Bilbao, go on and win La Liga with your free signings.

Season starts today, Friday, and of course our eyes will be on the giants-- big giants, I should say-- Barcelona and Real Madrid. Last season, they finished first and second with the players they bought during the summer. Only two points separated them. The third place team Atletico Madrid was 14 points behind them.

The new guns Barca bought to sing We Are the Champions again are winger Aleix Vidal from Sevilla and Arda Turan from Atletico Madrid. That's it?! And they won't be able to play until January 2016. Barcelona probably doesn't want players to come mess up their championship roster.

As for the Catalonians' exporting end of the summer transfer, their captain, legend Xavi went to Al Sadd. Xavi will be speaking Arabic soon. He's going to be like,  انا اسطوره, meaning I'm a legend. Pedro went to Chelsea, I heard that him and Mourinho made that deal since Mourinho's day at Madrid. I'm joking, I know you were about to google that.  One of Barca's defender Montoya is on loan at Inter, Affelay went to Stoke City...

The other giant, Real Madrid got six new guns this summer which include midfielder Mateo Kovacic from Inter and Brazilian right back Danilo from Porto, sorry these two guys are grenades not guns. The four more players are Marco Asensio, Lucas Vazquez, Carlos Abad-Hernandez and keeper Kiko Casilla.

Keeper Casilla in, keeper Casillas out. Casillas went to Porto, can Navas step up in the goal? Khedira went to Juventus.  Hernandez is back at United. And Benzema is in the process of going to Arsenal, more than likely this deal will be completed. This would leave Madrid with three strikers: Ronaldo, 22 year old Jese Rodriguez and Lucas Vasquez who only played one season of top flight football with Espanyol last year.  Mhhmm.

As for the small giants, Atletico Madrid's best signing is forward Jackson Martinez. That's one of the best signings in La Liga this summer so far, the Colombian was the top scorer in Portugal for three straight seasons. The fourth place finisher Valencia lost their star defender, Otamendi, to City, huge loss. They signed Negredo-- who was already on the team on loan-- for 22 million pounds from City. Sevilla will miss their top scorer Carlos Bacca, they sold him to Milan. But they brought in Ciro Immobile on loan from Dortmund.

Villareal had seven players in, one of them is Soldado. They also had eight players out including the 21 year old talent, Luciano Vietto. He scored 12 goals for Villareal last season. Last time, Madrid or Barcelona didn't win La Liga was in 2004, did the small giants buy enough talent to end that drought? If not, there's still eleven days left in the summer transfer. Buy me!!! I'm free.

Players win title. With players in and players out, the puzzle of La Liga title is building into pieces.  Good quick passing football will arouse our senses, the question left to answer is the title of this post. Answer it.

Premier League Week 2 Preview

Premier League Week 2 Preview

By Ralph M. Chery

August 13, 2015

NEW YORK – Week 1 games aren’t usually the games you would’ve missed work or your wedding for. You should’ve. Week 1 was The Beautiful Week. Swansea managed to get a tie against the champions, Chelsea. Swansea’s new signing Ayew played for his 9 million dollars transfer fee – he makes about $ 78 000 a week— he scored in his first EPL game. Arsenal and their new goalie Cech lost two nil to West Ham. Yes, West Ham. Coutinho scored a beautiful winner for Liverpool. Yaya scored twice for City in their 3-0 win over West Brom. Everybody’s saying Yaya is back from playing poorly last season, Yaya says: “I’m not back, I’ve always been there,” according to newsnow.co.uk.

While the players are still breaking in their new boots, referees still breaking in their new whistles, I predict the best EPL season of the century. No?  Okay, maybe not, but you can’t argue with me that last week was the best week of 2015-16 season.

30 goals were scored. 30 goals that foreshadow Week 2’s upcoming goals. Week two kicks off on Friday, Manchester United will take on Aston Villa at Villa Park at 2:45 pm. The Red Devils opened their season with a win but their performance was poor against the Spurs. Let’s see if van Gaal and new signing Sche—how you spell his name?—Schweinsteiger can start showing championship’s caliber.

Stoke City signed winger Shaqiri for a club record deal of about 18 million dollars on tuesday. He’s available to play against Tottenham. It would be fun to watch the Swiss speed against the Premier League defenders. The game is Saturday at 10:00 am.  

Chelsea plays City on Sunday, at 11:00 am, at City. Big games already?! 1^st vs 2^nd place of last season. 2014-15 champions vs 2013-2014 champions. Chelsea will play without their number one keeper Courtois whose serving a game suspension after seeing red against Swansea. And there’s no way Dzeko is going to score for City, they loaned him to Roma for a season on Wednesday.

Earlier that Sunday, at 8:30, Arsene Wenger will be praying not to lose to Crystal Place too. The game is at Crystal Palace, Selhurst Park. Following his mistake against West Ham, Cech twitted: “First game like this wasn’t in the script – mistake and no points but tomorrow is another day to get ready for next game.” I hope he’s been getting ready.

Liverpool will close a long Week 2 against Bournemouth at home Monday at 3:00 pm. The started-from-the-bottom club, Bournemouth, will seek their first ever point in top flight football. They started from the four tier English system, made it to the premier league in 125 years.

This should do it for the rest of the games.

Saturday:

Southampton vs Everton at 7:45 am

Sunderland vs Norwich at 10:00 am

West Ham United vs Leicester City at 10:00 am

Watford vs West Bromwich Albion at 10:00 am

Swansea City vs Newcastle United 10:00 am

That’s the whole Week 2 for you. Don’t get married Sunday at 11:00 am, Chelsea vs City. Predict scores if you’d like.

The MLS Renaissance

The MLS Renaissance

By Ralph M. Chery

August 11, 2015

NEW YORK-- MLS is into something with all these big players coming in. This season is the beginning of the MLS Renaissance, sports fans. Let's count the number of stars who joined the MLS between last season and now. 1:Kaka, 2:Villa, 3:Pirlo-- what?!  I'm losing breath here, I can't keep up, it used to be just Beckham and Henry.

Let's try again, in a different order this time. 1: Drogba impacted Montreal, 2: no Lampard didn't transfer to City, that's the light blue jersey of NYCFC, 3:Giovinco is in Toronto, 4:Kaka is playing for Orlando now, 5:Pirlo is playing for NYCFC, 6: Lampard is his teammate there, 7: Giovani dos Santos is in L.A.,  the Mexican scored in all the games he played for the Galaxy, well he only played two games but hopefully he can keep that record, 8: Gerrard is in L. A. Gerrard yo. The legend Gerrard.

That's eight.  Okay, excpet for dos Santos and Giovinco, these players are not even going to stay that long in the MLS because they're about to retire, therefore won't be playing at the level in which they made their name. They're following King Pele's footstep who ended his career playing for the New York Cosmos. Coming to America is becoming the icing on the career in the soccer world, Kaka probably goes to Disneyland every week.

This can only benefit the MLS-- not just Kaka going to Disneyland-- what I'm saying is that those world class players will attract people to watch the MLS. I know David Beckham told Queen Elizabeth to watch Gerrard pay for the Galaxy last Sunday.

Adding to more viewers, those stars will bring money. Remember how PSG bought Beckham to sell his jersey. I'm excited every time I see someone with a NYCFC Villa jersey on the train. StubHub Center had 27000 fans for the game between L.A. and Seattle. Why? Gerrard and dos Santos. MLS teams must use this income for a stronger academy system so the players to watch won't just be soon-to-retire players from the European leagues but young talents built in America. Youngsters like Cyle Larin, this kid needs to dial 311. That’s the number of the fire department, he’s on in on fire.

Last but not least, the presence of those stars will improve the MLS players. One: with their leadership-- Pirlo, when you speak enough English, teach your teammates how you won the World Cup. Two: Imagine how much experience a defender like Damien Perrielle will get from marking Villa for 90 minutes; and then the next game he has to deal with Kaka's late run from midfield. Mike Grella nutmegged Frank Lampard last Sunday, this guy is probably so confident that he thinks he can meg Terry too.

 Every MLS players want to be the MVP, they would have to outperform those eight players.  How much more do MLS players push themselves now?

Skills is contagious in soccer, if MLS keeps bringing high class players-- which they will-- Red Bulls vs NYCFC is going to be on City vs United level. Let's dream some more MLS fans: the 2025 MLS First Draft Pick will be a potential star from Barcelona youth system.

Darren Mattocks Shows Why He Was the Number 2 Overall Pick in the 2012 Draft as Vancouver Ties with Seattle

1-1     in CONCACAF

By Ralph M. Chery

August 7, 2015

NEW YORK— Mattocks probably had the worst game of his young MLS career Wednesday night at BC Place against Seattle in both team’s opener of the 2015-16 CONCACAF Champions League. It wasn’t his day, we all have those—some people everyday—it’s how you react through that pain. Mattocks kept fighting his boots off even when nothing was going right, his effort contributed in the Whitecaps’ single point. The game ended 1-1.

Both sides failed to keep a rhythm in their passes. When the ball made his way to the Whitecaps’ lone forward Mattocks, his passes found the cleats of a Seattle green jersey. Passes after passes. You expected him to lose the ball before the ball even came to him.

Remind you, Mattocks was the freshman sensation at University of Akron scoring 39 goals in 47 games. He was drafted as a freshman, he scored the goal that eliminated the US in the Gold Cup for Jamaica this summer. Though, the Jamaican’s  goal tally in the MLS falls short of expectation, he scored 19 goals in 88 games, he is a player to watch out for. Wednesday night he played far below of his capability.

The commentator of the game wasn’t shy to say how poor both teams were performing, he also said a few words on how Mattocks kept “giving the ball away” in the upper third. Mattocks’ mistakes didn’t walk him to the bench, Carl Robinson made six substitutions, none of them called the Jamaican’s number 11. Right decision?

Every time Mattocks lost the ball, he sprinted back like Usain Bolt, eager to make up for his mistake. Every time. What every coach teach young players, “When you lose the ball, go get it.” When his teammates had the ball, he ran to an open space. He often didn’t get the ball but that didn’t stop him. The forward is known for his aerial skills, he fought for every headers like it was the last play of the game. Indeed, he cleared two of Seattle’s corners with his head.

As said, the game was sloppy but the opening goal was world class. Vancouver's Tim Parker backheeled an inswinging corner kick by Morales, the ball flew in the far post, the clock read about 61:05. The team player, Mattocks, threw his hands in the air.

Seattle would equalize ten minutes later. Andy Rose’s cross whistled through Christian Dean’s legs to find the right foot of Lamar Neagle who one time the ball in the net. Vancouver came close to take the lead again late in the second half. A well placed cross from Morales found Mattocks’ head, on a good day the ball would’ve kissed the net, but that night keeper: Troy Perkins easily hugged the ball with his palms. That was Mattocks only shot of the game.

The 24 year old kept freeing himself, he was the target of most of the Whitecaps’ long ball. The last play of the game was a sweet backheel by Mattocks: the fighter—from a long ball—into space for Eamshaw, unfortunately, the ref blew the final whistle. Mattocks wasn’t victorious but, without a doubt, he showcased an example of never-get-down heart to follow, a character that allowed him to reach this far.