Weekend Soccer Preview

First off, I owe everyone an apology for no rankings last weekend! That pesky little thing called school once again reared its ugly head and I was slightly under the weather. I have modified the most recent rankings slightly to reflect the games of the past weekend and mid-week. They are what I predict would have been the rankings had we done them!

1. Barcelona	2. Chelsea	3. Real Madrid	4. Manchester United	5. Inter Milan
6. AC Milan	7. Bayern Munich	8. Arsenal	9. Bordeaux	10. Bayer Leverkusen
11. Valencia	12. Manchester City	13. AS Roma	14. Liverpool	15. Tottenham Hotspur
16. PSV Eindhoven	17. Ajax Amsterdam	18. Twente Enschede	19. Schalke 04	20. Aston Villa
21. Benfica	22. Mallorca	23. Napoli	24. Montpellier	25. Landon Donovan

Like I said, these are somewhat thrown-together rankings. There were an incredible amount of losses in the top 30+ so it is near impossible to decide who deserves to be ranked.

Game of the Week
14:45 ET Sunday
(23) Napoli v (5) Inter Milan
This is the only match up between ranked teams this week in European football. Inter Milan effectively has a choke hold on Serie A, with a 9 point lead over second place AS Roma, and a 15 point lead over Napoli, who sits in 4th place. This is still an important match for Napoli because while they have no hope of taking part in the title race, they will want to remain in a Champions League spot. This would finish the incredible rise of Napoli, who was in Serie C as recently as 2006. Still, this will be a tough task for Napoli. Inter Milan has not lost since a 2-1 defeat at Juventus on December 5.

Big Games in Small Leagues
10:00 ET Saturday (English Conference)
Rushden & Diamonds v Stevenage Borough
Stevenage Borough is currently on top of the Conference with 63 points. Rushden and Diamonds are 11 points back in third with a game in hand. The Conference is the highest non-league level in English football, so promotion from this level is very prestigious for these teams. The first place team is automatically promoted while the second through fifth placed teams compete in a playoff for promotion. This game is vital for both squads as they look to become a part of the Football League in England.
14:30 ET Sunday (Belgian Jupiler League)
KAA Gent v Club Brugge
KAA Gent and Club Brugge are in a battle for the second Champions League spot out of Belgium. Anderlecht is solidly in first place, 8 points ahead of second-place Club Brugge and 13 points ahead of third-place Gent. A win for Gent would pull them within two points of Brugge and the lucrative second Champions League spot, while a win for Brugge would go a long way to ensuring their spot in Europe's premier club competition. In the first meeting of the season, Club Brugge came away with a 1-0 at home over KAA Gent.

England’s FA Cup (Round 5)
7:00 ET Saturday
(2) Chelsea v Cardiff City
7:30 ET Saturday
Southhampton v Portsmouth
10:00 ET Saturday
Derby County v Birmingham
Reading v West Ham
12:15 ET Saturday
(12) Manchester City v Stoke City
8:30 ET Sunday
Bolton Wanderers v (15) Tottenham Hotspur
10:00 ET Sunday
Fulham v Notts County
10:45 ET Sunday
Crystal Palace v (20) Aston Villa

Scottish Premier League
7:30 ET Saturday
Aberdeen v Celtic
8:30 ET Sunday
Rangers v Hibernian

Spain’s La Liga
12:00 ET Saturday
Sporting Gijon v (11) Valencia
14:00 ET Saturday
Xerex v (3) Real Madrid
16:00 ET Saturday
Villarreal v Athletic Bilbao
11:00 ET Sunday
Espanyol v Deportivo La Coruna
13:00 ET Sunday
Sevilla FC v Osasuna
15:00 ET Sunday
Atletico Madrid v (1) Barcelona
15:00 ET Monday
Tenerife v (22) Mallorca

Italy’s Serie A
14:45 ET Friday
(6) AC Milan v Udinese
12:00 ET Saturday
(13) AS Roma v Palermo
14:45 ET Saturday
Sampdoria v Fiorentina
9:00 ET Sunday
Juventus v Genoa
Parma v Lazio
14:45 ET Sunday
(23) Napoli v (5) Inter Milan

German Bundesliga
9:30 ET Saturday
(10) Bayer Leverkusen v Wolfsburg
Hannover 96 v Werder Bremen
Stuttgart v Hamburg SV
12:30 ET Saturday
(7) Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund
9:30 ET Sunday
(19) Schalke 04 v FC Cologne

France’s Ligue 1
13:00 ET Saturday
AS Monaco v Marseille
Lille v Boulogne
(24) Montpellier v Grenoble
15:00 ET Saturday
Lyon v Lens
15:00 ET Sunday
(9) Bordeaux v St. Etienne

Dutch Eredivisie
12:45 ET Saturday
Vitesse Arnhem v (18) Twente Enschede
13:45 ET Saturday
Heerenveen v (17) Ajax Amsterdam
14:45 ET Saturday
AZ Alkmaar v Roda JC Kerkrade
8:30 ET Sunday
SC Heracles Almelo v (16) PSV Eindhoven

Portuguese Liga15:15 ET Friday
Pacos de Ferreira v Sporting Lisbon
12:00 ET Saturday
(21) Benfica v Beleneses
16:15 ET Saturday
Leixoes v FC Porto
13:00 ET Sunday
Braga v Maritimo

Turkish Super League
12:00 ET Saturday
Gaziantepspor v Besiktas
12:00 ET Sunday
Manisaspor v Fenerbahce

Greek Super League
9:45 ET Sunday
Panathinaikos v Kavala
12:00 ET Sunday
Asteras Tripoli v Olympiakos

Belgian Jupiler League
12:00 ET Saturday
Royal Charleroi SC v Anderlecht
12:00 ET Sunday
Standard Liege v KVC Westerlo
14:30 ET Sunday
KAA Gent v Club Brugge

Austrian Bundesliga
12:00 ET Saturday
Austria Vienna v Kapfenberg SV
SV Josko Ried v SV Salzburg
9:30 ET Sunday
FC Karnten v SK Sturm Graz

Swiss Super League
11:45 ET Saturday
Young Boys v Lucerne
10:00 ET Sunday
FC Sion Sitten v FC Zurich
Neuchatel Xamax v FC Basel

A Comprehensive Weekly Look at the Top Teams in European Soccer

Big week of soccer! If you can’t figure out who wrote this intro…well then you probably don’t know us, in which case welcome to the blog!!

Shalom, and a warm welcome to another breakdown of the week’s European football action as told by Tom and Blaine. This week saw a fair number of upsets, grudge matches, Herculean efforts, and flops, so the rankings have been shaken up just a bit. The first big match of the new week occurred Tuesday (at 4:00am Hong Kong time, mind you), when Manchester United battled Manchester City in a Carling Cup match. It was the first leg, held at the City of Manchester Stadium, and City was able to pull off the 2-1 victory over the Mighty Reds. Both City goals were scored by Carlos Tevez, the former Manchester United striker who’s been no stranger to controversy since him move to City. During Tevez’s celebration, United legend Gary Neville let him know his displeasure at his antics by giving him a one-finger salute, which will likely lead to a fine by the FA. The second leg is due to be played in a couple of days. On the weekend, Manchester United bounced back with a 4-0 trouncing of Hull City to put them at the top of the table, albeit with more games played than Arsenal and Chelsea in second and third. Elsewhere in the Premier League, Liverpool showed that they aren’t complete garbage with an impressive, 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs continued their poor week with a draw against Leeds United in the FA Cup after conceding a 96th minute equalizer. Another enormously important match this week was the always intriguing Milan derby between Internazionale and AC Milan. AC Milan was coming into the match playing as well as any club on the planet, acting as more or less a freight train running through opposing defenses, and as a steel reinforced wall holding out their offenses. Inter was playing reasonably well, and sitting at the top of the Serie A table. A win for AC would have put them 3 back of Inter with game in hand, very much within striking distance. Inter went ahead early on with a 10th minute Milito goal, but then were dealt a blow when Wesley Sneijder was given a red card. That didn’t change much though, as Inter went up 2-0 on a 65th minute Pandev goal before a meaningless 90th minute red to Lucio and missed PK by Ronaldinho ended the match 2-0. Inter now sit 9 points ahead of Milan, although Milan does have a game in hand, making first a possibility, albeit an unlikely one. The 2 huge Spanish clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid, both rolled to easy wins in La Liga, with Madrid beating Malaga 2-0 and Barca beating Valladolid 3-0. Sevilla regained some semblance of dignity with a 1-0 win over Almeria, which was their first La Liga win in like 8 months or something, and as a congratulations to them I’ve decided to rank them 25th. For those who are paying close attention (and I doubt very much anyone is paying this close of attention), Sevilla was ranked 4th awhile back in these very rankings (or at least in mine). AS Roma continued their very hot form with a win over reeling (and my God, do I mean reeling) Juventus. Juve has now dropped to 6th in Serie A, with Roma and Napoli sitting in 3rd and 4th, respectably, and dark horse Palermo in 5th. Roma have still not lost a Serie A match since October. Not a whole lot of note happened to our Dutch representatives, as Ajax and PSV Eindhoven both won, while Twente drew. This moves PSV into 1st in the Eredivisie, putting Twente in 2nd and Ajax in 3rd. Bayern Munich enjoyed a respectable away win vs. Werder Bremen at 3-2, and Bayer Leverkusen extended their stay at the top of the table with a 3-0 win over TSG Hoffenheim. Bayern Munich is breathing right down their necks, though, only 2 back of first and playing in brilliant form. Also, don’t count out Schalke 04, who are only 3 back of Leverkusen and have been hanging around the top of the table all season. That’s about it for this week. The Champions League knockout stage starts in a couple of weeks, that should be absolutely epic. In the meantime, just remember, don’t eat the yellow snow (I sure won’t be, cause its 60 degrees here every day, in January!)

Biggest Riser: AS Roma from T19th to 16th.

Biggest Faller: Schalke 04 from T12th to 17th.

There was very little movement at the top this week. All that happened was Arsenal falling into 7th and Manchester United moving into a tie with AC Milan for 5th place.
Here are the rankings:

Rank Team Country Points
1. Barcelona (Esp) 50
2. Chelsea (Eng) 47
3. Inter Milan (Ita) 46
4. Real Madrid (Esp) 45
T5. AC Milan (Ita) 40
T5. Manchester United (Eng) 40
7. Arsenal (Eng) 38
8. Bordeaux (Fra) 35
9. Valencia (Esp) 31
10. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 30
T11. Bayern Munich (Ger) 28
T11. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) 28
T13. Manchester City (Eng) 24
T13. PSV Eindhoven (Ned) 24
15. Twente Enschede (Ned) 23
16. AS Roma (Ita) 22
17. Schalke 04 (Ger) 20
18. Aston Villa (Eng) 17
19. Ajax Amsterdam (Ned) 16
20. Benfica (Por) 12
T21. Braga (Por) 6
T21. Deportivo La Coruna (Esp) 6
T21. Napoli (Ita) 6
24. Marseille (Fra) 5
25. Lyon (Fra) 4

Also Receiving Votes: Mallorca (Esp) 3, Genoa (Ita) 2, Borussia Dortmund (Ger) 1, Sevilla (Esp) 1

Rank	Tom	Blaine
1	Barcelona	Barcelona
2	Chelsea	Inter Milan
3	Real Madrid	Chelsea
4	Inter Milan	Real Madrid
5	Manchester United	AC Milan
6	Arsenal	Valencia
7	AC Milan	Manchester United
8	Bordeaux	Arsenal
9	Bayer Leverkusen	Bordeaux
10	Bayern Munich	Tottenham Hotspur
11	PSV Eindhoven	Twente Enschede
12	AS Roma	Manchester City
13	Schalke 04	Bayer Leverkusen
14	Tottenham Hotspur	Bayern Munich
15	Valencia	Ajax Amsterdam
16	Manchester City	Aston Villa
17	Benfica	PSV Eindhoven
18	Twente Enschede	AS Roma
19	Aston Villa	Schalke 04
20	Deportivo La Coruna	Napoli
21	Ajax Amsterdam	Marseille
22	Lyon	Braga
23	Mallorca	Benfica
24	Braga	Benfica
25	Borussia Dortmund	Sevilla

Next five in for Tom, in reverse alphabetical order of the team’s country: FK Rubin Kazan (Rus), Napoli (Ita), Montpellier (Fra), Liverpool (Eng), Anderlecht (Bel)

Next five in for Blaine, in order of how many goals the team (or player) scored on the weekend: Wayne Rooney (Eng)-4, Galatasaray (Tur)-1, Juventus (Ita)-1, Lyon (Fra)-1, Fiorentina (Ita)-0

FA Cup Roundup
Full Results from Round 4:
Home Team Listed First
Preston North End 0-2 Chelsea
Reading 1-0 Burnley
Southampton 2-1 Ipswich Town
Aston Villa 3-2 Brighton
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-2 Crystal Palace
Everton 1-2 Birmingham
Portsmouth 2-1 Sunderland
Bolton Wanderers 2-0 Sheffield United
West Bromwich Albion 4-2 Newcastle United
Notts County 2-2 Wigan Athletic
Cardiff City 4-2 Leicester City
Derby County 1-0 Doncaster Rovers
Accrington Stanley 1-3 Fulham
Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Leeds United
Stoke City 3-1 Arsenal
Stoke humbles a somewhat weakened Arsenal side, leaving Chelsea as the only remaining "Big Four" club remaining in the competition.
Scunthorpe United 2-4 Manchester City

Round 5 Draw:
Wolverhampton Wanderers/Crystal Palace v Aston Villa
Manchester City v Stoke City
Derby County v Birmingham
Bolton Wanderers v Tottenham Hotspur/Leeds United
Chelsea v Cardiff City
Fulham v Notts County/Wigan Athletic
Reading v West Bromwich Albion
Southampton v Portsmouth

Weekend Soccer Roundup

There were not enough games in big leagues again this weekend for another edition of rankings, so they will make their much anticipated comeback next weekend! Also, Blaine happens to be in Japan at the moment (follow his blog here) where apparently the internet is not as reliable and/or available so that makes him sending rankings and keeping up with the football world more difficult. In any case it was still a fun weekend in soccer with FA Cup 3rd round matches and a round of La Liga in Spain.

-Leeds United stunned Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford in FA Cup action. As described last Thursday, this is a huge historical rivalry and Leeds United is not your average League One team. Jermaine Beckford scored a neat 19th minute goal and Leeds were able to hold off some late attacks from Manchester United for the great win. Leeds simply out-played a high quality Manchester United squad that included Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov and quality youngsters Danny Welbeck and Gabriel Obertan on the wings. Welbeck and Obertan were removed for Antonio Valencia and Ryan Giggs in the 57th minute, but it was not enough for Manchester United.

-Chelsea defeated Watford 5-0 at home and Arsenal enjoyed a good 2-1 win at West Ham. Liverpool was held to a 1-1 draw at Reading, leading to a money-making replay at Anfield that cash-strapped management will not be upset about.

-Preston North End dismantled Colchester United 7-0 at home with 5 second half goals including a second half hat trick for Jon Parkin. Preston North End is currently without a manager after the sacking of Alan Irvine on December 29th.

-Aston Villa defeated Blackburn Rovers 3-1 at home and Wigan Athletic won 4-1 at home against Hull City in matches of Premier League sides.

-Remaining Premier League team results (home team listed first): Bolton Wanderers 4-0 Lincoln City, Fulham 1-0 Swindon Town, Middlesbrough 0-1 Manchester City, Milton Keynes Dons 1-2 Burnley, Nottingham Forest 0-0 Birmingham, Portsmouth 1-1 Coventry City, Stoke City 3-1 York City, Tottenham Hotspur 4-0 Peterborough United, Tranmere Rovers 0-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers.

-The only Premier League team to bow out to a non-Premier League team was Manchester United, while Liverpool still needs to hold of Reading in a replay.

- The lowest team left on the Football League ladder is League Two Accrington Stanley, who has yet to play their 3rd round tie against League One bottom-dwellers Gillingham. The lowest team that has already advanced to the 4th round is Brighton, who is in 20th in League One. Brighton won 1-0 at League Two Torquay United.

-Barcelona and Real Madrid were both held to draws in La Liga, 1-1 home to Villarreal and 0-0 at Osasuna, respectively, so Barcelona is still on top of La Liga by two points over Madrid.

-Celtic and Rangers played to a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park, so Rangers still lead the Scottish Premier League by 7 points over Celtic, with one more game played.

FA Cup Draw
Draw for the 4th round, home team listed first. Matches to be played the weekend of January 23rd. Replays of 3rd round matches will be played January 12th and 13th.

Accrington Stanley/Gillingham v Fulham
Aston Villa v Brighton
Bolton Wanderers v Sheffield United/Queens Park Rangers
Bristol City/Cardiff City v Leicester City
Everton v Nottingham Forest/Birmingham City
Millwall/Derby County v Brentford/Doncaster
Notts County/Forest Green Rovers v Wigan
Portsmouth/Coventry City v Sunderland
Preston North End v Chelsea
Reading/Liverpool v Burnley
Scunthorpe United v Manchester City
Southampton v Ipswich Town
Stoke City v Arsenal
Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United
West Bromwich Albion v Plymouth/Newcastle
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Crystal Palace