Blue IS the Colour

In the exciting clash between Everton and Chelsea for the FA Cup, Chelsea came out holding the cup after the 90 minute battle. Everton struck first inside the first minute of play by a strike from Louis Saha. However, a combination from Malouda and Drogba soon but Chelsea on the board and pressure back on Everton. Everton was unable to respond to Drogba’s goal, and Lampard was able to score the winner in the 72nd minute. Once again, Everton did not respond.

Chelsea FC once again won the FA Cup, and has capped their season off with some hardware. Their success and celebration will be short lived. There will be many changes to not only the roster at Stamford Bridge, but also to the manager. Chelsea’s owner has hinted that there will be a few new faces next season to replace some of the underperforming talent at the Bridge. One could image that some players that Scolari signed will not be returning. In addition, whoever becomes the new manager will surely attract some more talent to the club.

Congrats Blues

Civil War in England

Tomorrow, Premier League teams Chelsea and Everton will square off in the oldest cup competition in the world. This will be the 128th year the cup has been around. This match up could be much more thrilling than the Man U vs. Barca match. On one side you have Chelsea…a team struggling to bring back hardware to Stamford Bridge after defeats in the Carling Cup and Champions League, and finishing third in the Premier League. This team is desperate for a championship win this season. Winning the FA Cup will not satisfy Chelsea’s season expectations, but hardware is hardware, and at least they will not go home empty handed. Frank Lampard and Alex are scheduled to be back in action for the match, and Skipper John Terry has dedicated the match to Guus Hiddink as a going away gift. On paper, Chelsea seems to be the favorite in this match up; they have some of the best strikers and offense in the league, as well as a strong midfield and defense. They have a lot of tools in their arsenal to get the job done, and could create some interesting match ups. However, Everton should by no means be counted out before the whistle is blown.

Everton isn’t looking shabby either. Everton had a tough road to make it to the finals. Everton beat not only Manchester United, but also Liverpool and Aston Villa…all three of these clubs finished higher in the Premier League than Everton. In addition, Chelsea has never beat Everton this season. On both occasions that these teams have met, they have left with a 0-0 tie. The FA Cup will fix this…someone will have to walk away a winner this weekend. Everton will feature both Phil Neville and winger Steven Pienaar in their line up after both suffered hamstring injuries in last weeks Premier League match against Fulham. These two players could add a huge moral boost, but will it be enough to sway the tide of the match in their favor?

Besides the bragging rights and the trophy, there is also a pretty penny on the line. The winner of this match up will walk away with £2m from the Football Association and the runner-up £1m.

Clash of the Titans?

If you have been watching ESPN in the past few days then you already know what’s up. However, if you haven’t been fortunate to see the Man U vs. Barca UEFA Champions League final match in Rome that has been replayed 8 times, it will be on for the next few weeks. In what was hyped to be the battle of the titans…Premier winners Manchester United and La Liga champions Barcelona, met in Rome for one of the most anticipated matches this year. Unfortunately it did not live up to the hype. Manchester United was favored to dominate the game, but after the first 5 minutes into the match, the Red Devils were no where to be found.

Barcelona stuck first with a goal from Samuel Eto'o in the tenth minute a play. It wasn’t until Lionel Messi scored an hour later that ended Ronaldo’s and Man U’s chances of a third cup of the year. This was not a well played game for Manchester United, and the favorites were defeated 2-0.

There will be another replay of the match this weekend on one of the ESPN channels.

Side Note

So Manchester United sealed not only a point over the weekend, but also clinched the Premier League with their draw over Arsenal.

Also, Shakhtar Donetsk defeated Werder Bremen 2-1 in the UEFA Cup final.

Shopping for Talent : Rebuilding and Reloading for 2009/10

With the conclusion of the Premier League in a short while, every team will be looking to beef up their roster with players and managers. There are a lot of big stars that will be eager to sign new contracts at the end of the season including former Manchester United striker Carlos Tevez, Chelsea’s Didier Drogba, AC Milan’s Ronaldinho and Kaka, Manchester City’s Robinho, and possibly even David Silva from Valencia!!!!!!!

Off hand, I know that there will be a lot of changes for Chelsea and Liverpool. The Blues are in a difficult situation. Not only do they have many contracts expiring at the end of the season, they also are in search of a new manager. Inconsistent management has plagued Chelsea in the last few seasons. In the last 3 seasons, Chelsea has been managed by 4 different people (Mourinho, Grant, Scolari, and Hiddink), with 4 different philosophies, and 4 different player preferences. With the conclusion of this season, Guss Hiddink will not renew his temporary contract with the Blues, forcing Chelsea to search for another manager.

In addition to the management problems at Stamford Bridge, many contracts on star players are expiring. The future of stars like Drogba and Ballack are uncertain. Anelka has proven himself all season to be the star striker for the Blues by raking up 17 goals in 23 games, while Drogba has only managed 5 in the same amount of games. Micheal Ballack has proven to be ineffective at the club. He was brought in by Jose Mourinho, but Ballack still has not found his place or his rhythm on the squad. These two players have been connected with the killing Scolari’s career with the Blues earlier this season. With many skilled strikers and midfielders available in the market, maybe the Blues should shop around…Tevez would be a nice addition, so would Andrei Arshavin, who has been reported to be in talks with Chelsea.

Liverpool is in a completely different situation, but, nevertheless, what they do this summer will have a huge impact on their title run for next season. Liverpool needs to cut a few players for financial reasons, but they also need to sign up one or two quality players. Currently, David Silva has been linked with a move to Liverpool this summer, which if signed, could be all the support Liverpool would need for next season.

You can expect a few moves from both Manchester City, who is still trying to buy players left and right with little or no impact on their current disposition, and Aston Villa, who sit 5th in the league.

It is interesting to note that Portsmouth is in a financial crisis due to ownership issues. Term players like Jermain Defoe, Sulley Muntari, Pedro Mendes and Lassana Diarra had to be sold to help balance the books in the credit crunch. Portsmouth may even need to sell key players like Glen Johnson, Peter Crouch, and even Niko Kranjcar. This could spell disaster for a team that has hinged on relegation this season.

The newly promoted Champions League teams will be dying to make trades once they have been officially promoted. In one of my previous blogs, I talked about all the changes that just Hull and Stroke made before their 08/09 debut in the Premier League.

However, with all of these teams making some or many changes to their roster, Arsenal’s manager has stated that the club will not seek additional players and that their current roster will be able to challenge Manchester United for the Premiership next season. Cocky words coming from a team that has struggled to hold their 4th spot in the League. With Manchester United being a dominate club, and Liverpool and Chelsea making some key moves during the off-season, which may include signing some key players from Arsenal, Arsenal’s comments seem hollow.. Arsenal’s current roster is far from the team that went undefeated in the Premier League a few years back. I am not seeing Arsenal winning the Premier League next year…it is either going to be Liverpool, Manchester United, or Chelsea. I can see Manchester City finishing higher than Arsenal next season if Arsenal does not make any key moves.

The thing that can change all of this is the fact that many clubs are cutting back their spending and have been influenced by rules that could cause a sharp decline in the amount of foreign players in the Premier League. Although not as strict as the 6-5 rule that FIFA has been pushing, the Premier League is supporting a home grown policy that will favor more English talent than foreign talent and help to strengthen the English National Team.

Dream Match vs. Re-Match: Let Ovrebo Decide

So last weeks sorry excuse of a game that pitted Chelsea against Barcelona for the UEFA Champions League ended with a foreign team stealing a win at the Bridge and a country ready to execute the Norwegian who masqueraded as a referee.

Chelsea was poised to advance among many disarrayed announcers and analysts who had Barcelona running up the score against the Blues. These very professionals even began pairing Man U and Barca in the finals weeks before the match even started. For more than 90 minutes, Chelsea kept their 1-0 lead. However, 2 minutes into stoppage time in the second half, Andrés Iniesta marched downfield and scored the equalizer. It was not the last minute goal that caused all of the problems at Stamford Bridge, although it contributed to it; it was the inability of referee Tom Henning Ovrebo to make obvious calls that cost Chelsea the match. Chelsea players, coaches, staff, and supporters believed that they were screwed out of win and their rightful ticket…and with good reason. One of the first issues came in the first half when Malouda was fouled in the box, which would have resulted in a penalty kick, but the ball was placed outside of the box. Drogba was also pulled down on multiple occasions…yes, I know he is a good actor and does not deserve all the calls he gets, but there were a few occasions where there should have been penalties called, some of which were in the box. In addition to this, there were also 2 blatant hand balls in the box. There were 4 legit penalty kicks owed to Chelsea. What did the ref do? Nothing at all. No fouls were called on these plays. I am not complaining just because I am a Chelsea supporter, but for crying out loud, that was the worse officiating I have ever seen…even worse than that zebra’s inability to see a goal go into the net 4 feet from him during the Red Wings game against the Ducks.

Even if Chelsea won the game, I do not think that they would be able to beat Manchester United in the finals. However, the finals should be a rematch of last year…not the English Premier Champions vs. the Spanish La Liga Champions. Personally, I think that UEFA may have planned this. Think about this: the two best teams in the world right now fighting it out for the Champions League Title in a winner take all game in Rome. Think of the marketing, the ticket sales, the media coverage, the merchandise sales, the hype, and more importantly the potential to create a lasting rivalry that could mark up ticket prices for future competitions between these teams. This type of game would appeal to a much wider audience if both Manchester United and Barca were playing than if Man U were to play Chelsea. Just saying…it could just be me.

Anyways, UEFA seemed more distracted with potentially disciplining various Chelsea players like Drogba for his remarks and behavior after the game and Ballack’s actions on the field after he did not agree with Ovrebo’s decision not to penalize Gerard Pique for a hand ball. UEFA has announced that both of these athletes have undermined the UEFA’s respect campaign, however, I do not think that Drogba cares for the UEFA big wigs.

Sorry I havent updated in the last few weeks, but with graduation, track championship, finding a job, and a place to live has taken priority. I should have a new post in the next few days....



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