Nasri and Torres Are Finally Vindicated!

And so the season finally ended. It was a season filled with drama, with more ups and downs for all clubs than in any previous season. Who would've scripted a more dramatic end to the Premier League title race? The excitement involved is what makes the Barclays Premier League the best league to watch.

What struck me most was that two of the Premier League's best players finally achieved what they had wanted in English football and that is to win titles and medals. The moves were controversial and the separation acrimonious but now with titles won, both players' actions can be considered justified.

Samir Nasri left Arsenal at a time when they needed him most, and also at a time when Arsenal were not in a position to challenge for any titles. The Arsenal fans did not take kindly to him leaving and he was vilified for leaving the Emirates. And now with the much dreamt about Premiership title under his belt, his actions are vindicated. His first trophy turned out to be the coveted Premier League trophy, making him a League champion. Something not even Steven Gerrard can claim to be.

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Diego Milito - Man Of The Hour

Inter Milan simply had too much in their back pocket for Bayern to contain. Inter's superb performance in the Champions League final is down to three factors,

1. Too many Bayern players froze at the Santiago Bernabeu

Bayern fans would always be wondering what if Thomas Mueller had scored...what if Howard Webb had blown for a half way line foul before Milito's brilliant 2nd goal. But the fact remains that Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Demichelis and co succumbed to the pressures much like Manchester United the season before. Playing at the Bernabeu do have that effect on teams, La Liga teams regularly roll over for Real Madrid.

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The Perfect Treble - Bayern Or Inter?

When Bayern Munich and Inter Milan battle it out in tomorrow’s Champions League final, not only will they be fighting for Europe’s top prize, but will also be aiming to complete an historic treble. Both Bayern and Inter have already won their league and domestic cup, and clinching the Champions League would mean adding their names to an exclusive group of treble winners. Whoever wins, it will be a first for the country they hail from.

Five teams have completed the ‘perfect’ treble - winning the league, main domestic cup and the most prestigious European cup all in one season. These five clubs are:

THE PERFECT TREBLE

CELTIC, 1967
Scottish Football League, Scottish Cup, European Cup
Celtic became the fi rst British team to win the European Cup after they beat Inter Milan in the final. As well as the two most prestigious domestic trophies, they also picked up the League Cup and Glasgow Cup as they swept aside all before them.

AJAX, 1972
Eredivisie, KNVB Cup, European Cup

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A Look Back At The Last 10 Champions League Finals

Here is a look back at the last 10 Champions League finals and a short recollection on how they ended.

1999-2000: All Spanish Encounter

Real Madrid 3

Valencia 0

Stade de France, Paris

This is the first time two domestic rivals contested a final. Real dominated from start to finish, clinching their second title in three years. Steve McManaman won his first Champions League winners' medal, justifying his move to Real Madrid.

2000-2001: Goalkeeping Hero

Bayern Munich 1 (5-4 on penalties)

Valencia 1

San Siro, Milan

Bayern goalkeeper, Oliver Kahn held on to Mauricio Pellegrino's spot kick to claim Bayern's first European success in 25 years.

2001-2002: Zizou's Wonder Goal

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Two Down, One To Go! Mourinho and Van Gaal's Treble Quest

Come May 22nd, either the master (Louis Van Gaal) or the apprentice (Jose Mourinho) would have achieved two milestones in their career. One, Inter Milan or Bayern Munich will have captured the unique treble (domestic league, domestic cup and continental cup). Two, either manager will become only the third manager to have won this prestigious tournament twice with two different clubs.

Everyone knows the history behind Van Gaal and Mourinho. It was Van Gaal who spotted the potential of Mourinho and offered him the chance to work with him. Mourinho calls Van Gaal his "teacher" and with good reason, as Mourinho's demeanor seemed to mirror the arrogance and aloofness of Louis Van Gaal. The tough taskmaster attitude towards their players are remarkably similar.

The similarities in team preparation have also been acknowledged by Louis Van Gaal when he spoke to Soccernet,

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Sore Losers Barcelona As Mourinho Shows His Tactical Genius

Jose Mourinho did it again. He has got Inter Milan into the Champions League final with the chance to win it against his old master, Louis Van Gaal. There are lots of similarities in the mannerisms and style of Van Gaal and Jose but I shall leave that to another post.

More importantly, Jose has once again proven that tactical organisation and a winning game plan can triumph over the most talented team. Mourinho is now in uncharted territory, becoming the first  manager to guide a star-studded Inter team into the Champions League final.

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Hollow Victory For Barcelona

This is what I picked up from the Malay Mail. It aptly captures what had happened during the match which turned ugly as Inter celebrated progress into the Champions League final in Madrid. Guardiola explains how the dismissal of Inter's Thiago Motta disrupted his team's focus and team play.

PEP'S PRIDE

Humbled Guardiola says Barcelona must focus on Primera Liga 

Thursday, April 29th, 2010 10:48:00

BARCELONA: Disappointed Barcelona manager Josep "Pep" Guardiola congratulated Inter Milan but noted the dismissal of midfielder Thiago Motta in the 28th minute worked against his team as the Catalans were knocked out of Champions League at the semifinal stage at Nou Camp this morning.

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Robben's Killer Goal Against Lyon In Colour

Arjen Robben once again proved that class remain permanent. The injury-prone winger/striker injected pace and a shoot-on-sight policy to help Bayern claim a slim one-goal lead in the Champions League semifinal at Allianz Arena.

There is a graphics representation of the Robben goal in the Malay Mail. It's hard to find these goal graphics nowadays and thus making this depiction of Robben's goal more valuable!

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Messi Joins The Ranks Of The 4-Goal Men

After his phenomenal four-goal salvo against Arsenal last night in the 2010 Champions League quarterfinal, Lionel Messi cemented his place in the Champions League history books.

He is the sixth player and the first Barcelona player to score four goals in a single Champions League match.

The other five who have done it are:

1. Marco Van Basten (Milan against IFK Gothenburg November 1992)
2. Simone Inzaghi (Lazio against Marseille March 2000)
3. Dado Prso (Monaco against Deportivo La Coruna November 2003)
4. Ruud van Nistelrooy (Man Utd against Sparta Prague November 2004)
5. Andriy Shevchenko (Milan against Fenerbahce November 2005)
6. Lionel Messi (Barcelona against Arsenal 6th April 2010)

and to think that Messi is only 22 years old....phenomenal!

Messi Champions League Masterclass!

If anyone wanted to know how the game of football should be played, the Champions League quarterfinal between Barcelona and Arsenal would be it. The two best footballing teams at the moment did battle and Barcelona came up trumps over two legs. It was always a tall order for Arsenal given that their main inspiration, Cesc Fabregas was sidelined.

I don't know how Arsenal players must feel knowing that they have just played a truly magical team in Pep Guardiola's Barcelona. Perhaps they would be wondering if they could ever play at that high standard. This Barcelona team was put together from their youth squads, with Ibrahimovich as the only significant addition this season. Barcelona (and also Arsenal) are shining examples of how investing in youth talent are the best way of achieving sustainable success. These clubs are a credit to the football industry as they are the ones who are enriching and producing the players to ensure the football industry does not suffer talent drains.

We have seen how Abramovich's money can buy success but it is almost always unsustainable. Memories of Blackburn and Portsmouth come to mind. A much more viable model is the Barcelona model where youth and talent are nurtured and nursed into first team action, giving rise to long term success and champagne football. With such incisive, imaginative football and solid all-round work rate, who's to say that Barcelona will not be the first team to successfully defend their Champions League crown.

The star of Barcelona is Lionel Messi.

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The Road to Rome

And then there were four.

After a very eventful two days of UEFA Champions League quarterfinals, Chelsea, Barcelona, Manchester United and Arsenal go into battle to feature in the May 27 final in Rome. Of course, I could wax on and on lyrically about the greatest match ever in Champions League history i.e. the 4-4 Battle of the Bridge where it was literally a thrill a minute. I could predict that Barcelona will face Arsenal in a repeat of the 2006 final. Or even say on hindsight that I expected Ronaldo to rise to the occasion which he did with that 40-yarder in Porto.....but I will choose to discuss something more serious and that is the choice of venue for the Champions League final.

Rome is notorious for football hooligans known as the Ultras. "Stab City" is what Rome is known as in the football circles. Several newspapers and sports blog have expressed their concern about the safety for fans and have urged UEFA to consider moving the final away from Rome. Considering the dislike of the Ultras for English supporters and the very real prospect of an all-English final yet again, it is logical to feel threatened and disturbed by this sense of danger looming on May 27. Watching a football match as mentioned in my previous blog on Hillsborough is meant to be a day out of enjoyment. Stabbing and hooliganism were supposed to be a thing of the past and yet, till today, the violence is not ceasing. Even in Malaysia, during an FA Cup semifinal match between Kelantan and Negeri Sembilan, where rioting took place, firecrackers were set off and stones were pelted on the police.

Authorities should really take this seriously and impose bans and fines towards clubs and FAs whose fans step out of line. Take a tough stand such as exiling countries from European competitions much like what England had to go through. Sometimes, the view is that the English are a bunch of moaners and whingers and complainants, but truth be told, they have been dealt the short end of the stick by UEFA in most cases. Only the English seem to be admonished by UEFA over football violence in recent years, no other country has been warned. Spain's horribly racist supporters get away with monkey chants and banana skins all the time. I have not heard of any Italian team fined when fans turned unruly and torched stadiums. Its time for the itinerants to pay and UEFA together with FIFA must take stern measures to combat hooliganism in football terraces.

UEFA says that security will be stepped up in Rome for this final and that's their safety net. I don't think it will be enough and I hope it will be the football that will be most talked about on May 28 and not anything else.

Way too depressing....must cheer everyone up with this Ronaldo video special. I guess he must have read my entry about buck-toothed, fatty Ronaldo being greater than him, otherwise how do you explain this sick strike.

Champions League 2009 Quarters Draw

With the buzz from the recent standout performances of Bayern and Liverpool, there was built up anticipation of what the quarterfinal draw will throw up. These are the fixtures scheduled for the month of April.

It had to happen, didn't it? The irritatingly annoyingly CL staple fare of Liverpool-Chelsea....sigh.

Apart from that, the English teams do have a relatively easy draw, probably 65% sure of a Rome final ticket at the end of May. Still let's crunch some numbers to assess the potential banana skins in the draw.

Villareal v. Arsenal

Robert Pires has said he relishes coming back to his old stomping ground for this. So he is clearly up for it. Villareal must be feeling pretty good drawing Arsenal. Nothing to choose from between these two sides, statistics-wise. Therefore, this matchup could swing either way.
FanZine Prediction: Arsenal to go through (away goals rule)

Manchester United v. Porto
United should be gunning for revenge in this one. But will they get past the Portuguese champions? Equal on the Goals Scored (11) column but Porto's defence is clearly porous (10 goals conceded) and this is an area that United should capitalise. Apart from Barcelona, the United attack has more shots on target (124) than the other quarterfinalists. This matchup is United's to lose and I tip them to go all the way and retain the title.
FanZine Prediction: Manchester United

Liverpool v. Chelsea
Yawn! The fixture that we all dread....Liverpool will typically be counter-punching. They are 2nd lowest in terms of possession (49%), making it all the more possible that this will turn out to be much like the previous Liverpool-Chelsea game. Both teams commit a lot of fouls as seen from the "Fouls Committed" column (135/145) suggesting that both teams will sought to disrupt the opponent's pattern of play. This is guaranteed to make the game very unattractive. Cat and mouse all the way.
FanZine Prediction: Chelsea (due to the "feel Guus" factor)

Barcelona v. Bayern Munich
The plump tie of the round. The joint top scorers (24) in the competition face off against each other. Both play the attacking game, but Barcelona are the masters at keeping possession (63%) of the football. Barca however will need to be wary as their defence will leak goals (11) which augurs well for an open game of attacking football. Barca's very low "Fouls Committed" stat (92) means that Bayern can actually come forward and play their brand of football. Should make for an excellent footballing spectacle. The most glaring weakness being Barca's leaky defence. Bayern has the attacking prowess to exploit that while keeping it tight at the back (only 5 goals conceded).
FanZine prediction: Bayern Munich

There you have it! The predicted semifinalists will be,
1. Arsenal
2. Manchester United (and to retain the title)
3. Chelsea
4. Bayern Munich

Oh, the prospect of a Man U-Bayern final is just too good to be true. A repeat of the '99 final, what an ending that would be to this year's competition.

Europe's Top Teams (Statistically)

Another interesting statistic...and something that Rafa Benitez was fussing about.
I never understood why Rafa wouldn't let the football do all the talking but insists on bragging about his management skills. If he did, Liverpool would be top with points to spare rather than having to hope that ManUre drops points.
For what it's worth, here are the UEFA 2009 top 20 ranking....this also explains why the Big 4 makes it to the Champions League quarters year after year.