Note: This might be my worst post ever, I'm just really bored...
To most Americans soccer begins and ends with the World Cup, to others it began and ended when they or their kids played youth soccer, to others it never started. But every year there is a tournament that is worth watching, and right now the British are crushing the competetion. The UEFA Champions is by far the most important yearly soccer tournament in the world, and is just a few notches below the World Cup in excitement, so watch it atleast once.
Anyway onto the actually results of the tournament after I tried to give it some pub, the British are killing everyone. The Champions League typically consists of a maximum of 4 teams from any domestic league. For the English Premiership, that meant Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and my boys Chelsea (picked them up when I was in London, right before they were bought by a multi-billionaire that dumped boatloads of money into the franchise and turned them into soccers version of the Yankees or Red Sox depending on how you want to classify Real Madrid and/or Manchester United). So basically out of all the teams in Europe currently 3 of the 4 best squads reside on a little friggin island. I am definately pleased by this considering this is the league I follow the most and I know who the majority of the players are and thus the games are even more relevent for me.
So the British are good at soccer this year and equally as good at starting riots throughout foreign stadiums. It's about time these things balanced.
Note 1: That's Didier Drogba a sweet player for Chelsea, just thought it was a funny picture. More random soccer caractures.
Note 2: I know I'm probably the only person I know who actually cares about soccer, but hey I was bored and needed something to write about and just ramble for a few minutes and really had nothing but the Imus stuff, which I only want to write on once more. So this is a pretty horrendous post, but oh well, if you read that whole thing I'm sorry.
Comments
That said the Champions league is about the richest clubs not the best and all these teams are full of imported talent.
Many in England feel that the money is spoiling the English Game, the top four you mention have far bigger squads than the rest and over a season will virtually always take up the top for places in the English premiership. Its an achievement when another team breaks the monopoly.
Chelsea are backed by a Russian Billionaire, Man Utd are the biggest supported club due to a media obsession and are owned by an American Tycoon, Liverpool are in the process of been taken over by an American Billionaire, Arsenal although packed with foreign players have to their credit brought a lot of them through their youth ranks, but recent reports suggest an American billionaire is trying to buy them out. For the record the managers of these 4 clubs are Portugese, Scottish, Spanish & French.
I am a Leeds United supporter and we are suffering for overspending to try and compete with these clubs. We got to the Champions league Semis 5 years ago (only English Club that year) got beat, went bankrupt and are now struggling in the 2nd flight of English soccer, could go down to the third level. We'll be back though.