Champions League final tickets

World soccer update

Leaving aside Serie A for a moment, there was a lot of soccer played this weekend. The major matches include:

Chelsea 2 - Tottenham 1 (see photo above-- a goal was awarded to Chelsea despite the fact that the ball didn't cross the line)

Arsenal 1 - Manchester United 0-- The Premier League title race is not quite over yet.

Real Madrid lost to Real Zargoza, but then Barcelona lost to Real Sociedad.

Corinthians 1 - Palmeiras 1 (6-5 on penalties)-- Corinthians move on to face Santos in the finals of the Campeonato Paulista.

Video below

AEK defeated PAOK in the Greek Cup finals 3-0. The match ended a few minutes early due to rioting fans (see videos below)

Below are actual match highlights

What I have been reading lately #47

Cantona: The Rebel Who Would Be King - Philippe Auclair

Cantona after court

Why Cantona had to go to court

Cantona highlights

A specific Cantona highlight

Cantona in Turkey

Cantona throws his jersey

Cantona makes a tackle

Cantona's team prevented from going to the 1994 FIFA World Cup finals

Same video as above--"God is Bulgarian!"

Tomorrow is the last day of the Premier League season

Tomorrow is the last day of the Premier League season. Chelsea are in first place with 83 points and play at home against Wigan Athletic. Manchester United are in second place with 82 points and travel to play Stoke City. Given this situation, why would the management of Ape Canyon News Service be rooting against Chelsea and for Manchester United?

In one word-- Pato. It appears that there is a strong likelihood that Pato will follow Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti (pictured above) to Chelsea during the off season. The best chance of preventing this would be if Chelsea lose and Ancelotti is fired for losing the title on the last day. Thus, tomorrow we will be rooting (improbably) for the devil.

Champions League Update: Semifinals are set

Above: Arjen Robben celebrates the winning goal

Below: Seconds earlier, the Manchester United players watch Robben's goal go in the net

All four Champions League quarterfinal ties are over, and here are the results:

• Barcelona defeated Arsenal
• Inter Milan beat CSKA Moscow
• Olympique Lyon beat Girondins Bordeaux
• Bayern Munich defeated Manchester United

Below: Messi scores one of his four goals against Arsenal on Tuesday

In the Bayern-Man Utd. match on Wednesday, Bayern arrived at Old Trafford with a 2-1 lead and hopes that Wayne Rooney would be unable to play due to injury. Rooney did start, however, and United quickly built up a 3-0 lead. Bayern scored at the end of the first half (on a goal by Olic), and then, in the second half, Manchester United's Rafael was sent off with his second yellow card, and Rooney had to leave due to a re-aggravation of his ankle injury. Arjen Robben then scored a pretty astounding goal to pull Bayern level 4-4 over the two legs of the tie. Due to the away-goals rule, Bayern advance.

After the match, United coach Alex Ferguson denounced the Bayern players for being "typical Germans."

For highlights, watch this:

When You Tube takes this video down, try this link instead.

The semifinals will see Barca play Inter and Lyon versus Bayern.

Champions League update: Bayern Munich 2 - Manchester United 1 (First leg)

Above: Wayne Rooney lies injured while Bayern Munich celebrates their last second goal.

When You Tube takes down the above video, try this link.

Update 3/31/10: Yesterday I was too lazy to actually write anything about this match, but a number of things happened which certainly deserve to be written about-- Wayne Rooney's ridiculously easy goal at the 1:04 minute mark; Ribery's free kick goal that ricocheted in off Rooney; Olic's stoppage time goal which came right after Rooney's ankle injury (which could cause Rooney to miss the end of Man Utd.'s season, the Champion's League, and possibly even the World Cup). Somebody else is just going to have to write about these things, however. I am not up to the task.

Late official announcement from AC Milan

TODAY IN MILAN: MANCHESTER UNITED

2/16/2010

MILAN - Very soon, at their training ground near the San Siro stadium, Manchester United will have lunch. In their hour-by-hour account of the Red Devils' day in Milan, the official site manutd.com refers of the stretching session held this morning after breakfast by Sir Alex Ferguson's team.

Champions League match preview: Milan versus Manchester United

AC Milan has made several official announcements in advance of tomorrow's match against Manchester United:

Back To List

THIAGO SILVA AND THE OTHERS: THE MEDICAL SITUATION

2/14/2010

MILANELLO - The medical situation: today Thiago Silva, whose conditions will be further evaluated tomorrow, will do a double training session. Marco Borriello remains in doubt for Tuesday's match against Manchester United and will undergo a check tomorrow. Also tomorrow morning Mancini will undergo an MRI scan to evaluate his quadriceps injury. On Tuesday, meanwhile, there will be a new ultrasound exam for Gianluca Zambrotta.

MILAN-MANCHESTER UTD: THE ROSSONERI'S CALLED-UP PLAYERS

2/15/2010

MILANELLO - These are the 21 called-up players of coach Leonard for tomorrow's clash against Manchester United: Abbiati, Dida, Abate, Antonini, Bonera, Favalli, Jankulovski, Kaladze, Nesta, Oddo, Thiago Silva, Ambrosini, Beckham, Flamini, Gattuso, Pirlo, Seedorf, Huntelaar, Inzaghi, Pato, Ronaldinho. Unavailable players: Borriello, Zambrotta.

In case you don't remember what happened the last time these two clubs met in the Champions League (videos one and two are from the first leg; three and four from the second leg)--

Match report: Milan 3 - Udinese 2

• Goals scored: Huntelaar 7', Pato 39', Floro Flores 45', Huntelaar 57', Di Natale 86'
• What happened: Milan kept scoring but also played sloppily, so they kept letting Udinese back in the match. I spent most of the match worrying about injuries.
• Milan players who could not play due to injury: Seedorf, Borriello, Antonini
• Milan players who returned today from injury: Nesta, Pato
• Milan players who had to leave early due to possible injury: Mancini, Thiago Silva (!)
• Milan players who appear to be quite rusty despite having scored a goal: Pato
• Milan player who made the pass that led to each of Milan's goals: Ronaldinho. The second one, a long pass down the middle of the field to Pato, was especially nice.
• Famous visitors to the San Siro to watch the match: Sir Alex Ferguson
• Strange sightings from today's match: Escorting the referees down the tunnel to the pitch were three men dressed as admirals/hotel doormen. (Sorry, no photo was available)
• What this match teaches us: Manchester United are coming on Tuesday.

FA Cup Update - 3rd Round: Manchester United 0 - Leeds 1

Jermaine Beckford (above) scored in the 19th minute as Leeds United upset Manchester United at Old Trafford. These two teams were once heated rivals, but this was their first match in over five years. Leeds are currently first in League One, and Beckford is their rising star. This defeat means Manchester United have been eliminated from the FA Cup in the third round for the first time since 1984.

Below: Sir Alex Ferguson

Yet another official announcement from AC Milan

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE EIGHTH FINALS 2009/10: MILAN TO MEET MANCHESTER UNITED

12/18/2009

NYON - Manchester United are the team Milan will face in the two-legged encounter in the eighth finals of the Champions League 2009/2010. Milan will play the first leg at San Siro and the second leg at Old Trafford.

Liverpool - Manchester United: Red Card Report

Liverpool defeated Manchester United 2-0 today. During the course of the game, Manchester United fullback Nemanja Vidic (pictured below) was sent off with a red card. According to the announcers, this was the third consecutive Liverpool-Manchester United match in which Vidic has received a red card.

Later on in the match, Liverpool's Javier Mascherano (see photo below) received a red card as well. Apparently this was the first time in the last fifty-four Premier League matches that a Liverpool player has received a red card. Before today, the last Liverpool player to receive a red card was Javier Mascherano in a game against Manchester United.

Champions League Final: Barcelona 2 - Manchester United 0

Above: Lionel Messi scores Barcelona's second goal.

Below: Thierry Henry shows off his new trophy.

Above: Barcelona players celebrate their success by tossing rookie manager Josep Guardiola into the air.  In his first season, Guardiola won La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League.

Below: Sir Alex Ferguson walks off the pitch after the game.

What I have been reading lately #27

I just finished reading Dave Roberts' book The Bromley Boys: The True Story of Supporting the Worst Football Team in Britain.  This book is a fine example of a genre that they don't really publish here in the United States-- fan memoirs.  Roberts writes all about the 1969-70 season for Bromley, a time when he was 14 years old and completely obsessed with the local amateur squad.  

Checking back through my records, I count five separate books that I have read that fall into the category of football fan memoirs.  Here is my ranking of these five books.

1.  Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby.  I know that this book is quite well-known (even here in the USA), is all about Arsenal, and was even made into a movie about the Red Sox!  But it's still a fantastic book-- any fan of any sport could relate to Hornby's account of the completely ridiculous interconnection between his own personal life and the success (or not) of his team.

2.  My Favourite Year, edited by Nick Hornby.  This collection was published by When Saturday Comes a number of years ago and consists of short essays by a number of writers about their favorite seasons of their favorite teams.  I picked this up for a few dollars in a remainder bin at the University of Washington bookstore a few years back, and it has gone on to be one of my favorite books.  Because of this, I now spend way to much time scouring through remainder bins at bookstores hoping that lightning will strike twice.

3.  The Bromley Boys by Dave Roberts.  He makes my sports obsessions seem mild in comparison.

4.  Manchester United Ruined My Life by Colin Shindler.  A great title, obviously, but it was hard to have a lot of empathy for a Manchester City fan (and a whiny one, at that).

5.  Believe in the Sign by Mark Hodkinson.  This book is about a young man obsessed with Rochdale, his local, hapless Division 4 team.  I actually really liked this book when I first read it.  In fact, I liked it so much I contacted the author via email.  But when I pointed out an inconsistency involving the television mini-series Roots, Mr. Hodkinson claimed that it was part of a "fantasy sequence."  I'm not really interested in reading fantasy sequences in fan memoirs.

Movie Preview: Looking for Eric

No goals today

(Above- Nicky Butt, #22 for Newcastle, holds off Chelsea's Deco)

Today's results in the English Premier League:
Liverpool 0 - Fulham 0
Chelsea 0 - Newcastle 0
Aston Villa 0 - Manchester United 0
Manchester City 3 - Arsenal 0

So the top five in the Premiership tables scored a grand total of zero goals today. (And, yes, I did spend three-plus hours of my life watching. But, honestly, it was entertaining seeing Newcastle play defense for 90-plus minutes at Stamford Bridge while the petulant Chelsea fans got annoyed with their team. And it was also exciting to watch Man Utd. held without a goal.)

What I have been reading lately #7

I decided to read this book because a) I liked the title, b) I liked the cover photo, and c) I wanted to read another football fan memoir along the lines of Fever Pitch, My Favourite Year, or Believe in the Sign. The book turned out to be one-third cricket, one-third football, and one-third stories about growing up as a Jewish kid in Manchester in the fifties and sixties. I found the cricket sections to be pretty much incomprehensible (I am an American); the football parts were rather dull; the autobiographical sections were by far the best (and funniest) parts. I'd recommend this book, but if you have a better understanding of cricket than I do, you'll probably get more out of it. (As it was, I spent alot of time consulting my copy of Webster's Sports Dictionary - 1976 edition.)

Champions League Final

Manchester United 1 - Chelsea 1 (6-5 on penalties)

The pitch was falling apart (which made a difference - just look at John Terry...); the rain was pelting down (always a plus); there were a lot of cheap shots with plenty of yellow cards and even, of course, a red one (moral of the story-- always keep at least one ruthless, annoying Argentinian on your squad to drive the other team crazy or provoke a fight - you never know what will happen...), the actual goals ranged from the beautiful (Cristiano Ronaldo's) to the freakishly lucky (Frank Lampard's); the penalty kicks were thrilling (especially when Ronaldo's was stopped); and, of course, the wrong team won.



Since I am lucky enough to have a job and live on the west coast of the United States, I had to tape the match and watch it some six hours after it had taken place. It was hard to imagine that the rest of the world already knew what we happening and I was still just finding out.




Everyone knows that settling a match like this on penalties is an absolute atrocity - imagine ending the seventh game of the World Series on a home run hitting competition or the Super Bowl with a Punt-Pass-Kick contest - but it was nice to see two teams I don't really like being put through the winger.



If Chelsea had put in Shevchenko, he could have taken that penalty instead of John Terry.

More bad news #2

More bad news #1