This may be a bit long-winded and rambling but I hope you stick with me as there are a number of important points to discuss. UEFA recently released a publication entitled “Safeguarding The Heritage And Future Of Team Sport In Europe”, which outlines UEFA’s stance on principles of good governance, player agents and home-grown players. […]
Tags: ac milan·champions league·chelsea·debt·liverpool·manchester united·real madrid·UEFA
UEFA held the draw for the UEFA Cup group stage today and some fascinating pairings emerged. Both Martin Jol and Steve McClaren will take their new clubs back to England as FC Twente will face Manchester City and Jol’s Hamburg will take on Aston Villa.
This year’s groups are looking really tough and the field contains […]
Tags: ac milan·ajax·aston villa·benfica·cska moscow·fc twente·hamburg·martin jol·portsmouth·sevilla·steve mcclaren·tottenham·udinese·uefa cup·uefa cup group stage·Valencia
On the newly re-launched Third Half podcast (a roundup show for all the Talk web sites), I had a great discussions with host Jonathan Starling about the goings-on of Matchday 2. Download the episode from EPL Talk.
It was a Matchday that saw debutants BATE Borisov and CFR Cluj pull off draws (and one might say […]
Tags: chelsea·juventus·real madrid·third half podcast
How cliche that Transylvania is the setting for today’s Champions League encounter between Cluj and Chelsea, given of course that it’s Oct. 1 and we’re about to be bludgeoned for the next 31 days with the images and sounds of Halloween. Just check out the nearest Target or Wal-Mart if you don’t believe me.
The ironic […]
Tags: champions league·chelsea·Cluj·deco·Drogba·Lampard·scolari
Who says football can’t teach you stuff?
For instance, once today’s Arsenal-Porto match in Group G is done, we’ll know if the Gunners come equipped with an on-off switch. You know those devices: teams flick them to the “off” position against lesser opponents. They play down to the level of their competition, and usually lose in […]
Tags: arsenal·Arsene Wenger·fc porto·Gunners·Kolo Toure·Robbie Van Persie
In a new experiment, I am going to try a weekly wrap-up of news stories that caught my eye but that I don’t think require pages of analysis as I am prone to doing
So, here they are, concise and hopefully interesting.
UEFA are expected to formally confirm in December that Wembley will host the […]
Tags: barcelona·champions league·champions league final·cska sofia·everton·liverpool·real madrid·wembley stadium
Just a quick editorial note to start, I had hoped to complete my Group Previews before Matchday 1 but that was not the case. I will still be pushing those out, hopefully finish before Matchday 2 hits. Now, on to last night’s action.
After absences last season for perennial Champions League participants Bayern Munich (pictured at […]
Tags: ·bayern munich·cristiano ronaldo·daniel van buyten·juventus·manchester united·villarreal
Champions League debutants CFR 1907 Cluj came from behind to beat Roma and record a stunning 2-1 victory at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Beyond the absence of Totti, Roma had a strong squad out on the field and will be disappointed with their performance. There has been a bit of turmoil off the field […]
Tags: Frank Lampard·joe cole·juan culio·liverpool·manchester united·sergio aguero·steven gerrard
FC Basel 1893
How They Got Here:Basel beat Vitoria de Guimaraes (also known as Vitoria SC) 2-1 on aggregate in the third round of qualifying. Basel won the Swiss League last season.
Star Performer: MF Benjamin Huggel. An experienced member of the Swiss national squad, Huggel is a strong presence in central midfield. In his first […]
Tags: barcelona·benjamin huggel·cristiano ronaldo·elano·fc basel·helder postiga·nani·nery castillo·shaktar donetsk·sporting lisbon·tomas hubschmann
The group stage kicks off in about two weeks so until then I will be doing previews of the group stage in alphabetical order. I wanted to wait until after the transfer window had closed so that I would be able to judge the rosters fairly. There were some last minute moves that could have […]
