/ /
Just to point out a few articles I found quite interesting in the last week or so:

* F365’s John Nicolson puts forth a passionate defense of US soccer fans

* Landon Donovan slags Beckham in a new book by Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl called The Beckham Experiment, which they’ve also been talking about on World Soccer Daily

* F365’s Peter Gill makes a strong case for Spain having a stronger league than England based on the star power it attracts

The transfer season has only just begun but already things look quite interesting for the future in England and Spain. Conventional wisdom says that reigning Spanish league, Spanish Cup and Champions League champions Barcelona don’t need to change a thing considering they have a balanced, motivated squad that ended the season firing on all cylinders under a young, hip manager. The only big name rumored to be on the way out is striker Samuel Eto’o, and even that’s questionable. Even if he does go, plenty of strikers would pine to play with Barca’s midfield so a strong replacement wouldn’t be far behind.

Yet WTF is happening in Madrid? The Kaka’ deal wasn’t so surprising, nor the Ronaldo deal. Their move for Albiol didn’t make the big headlines but is a smart move, since the back line needs work. But now it looks like they’ve got Benzema, and perhaps Ribery not far behind? As many critics have pointed out, this flash approach wasn’t a huge success last go-round for Madrid, but I am reserving comment. If Madrid can latch onto another (perhaps unheralded) decent defender and a midfield enforcer, look out. Barcelona might still have the edge based solely on team cohesion, but this Madrid squad could push them. And they might make a dent in European competition to boot.

The other side of the Madrid shopping spree is that other clubs are now denied these players. Man Ure and the Ars* both had their sights set on one or two of the aforementioned, who are now off the shelves. It’s still early days but you’d have to say Man Ure are smarting. No more Ronaldo or Tevez, and Ribery and Benzema apparently spoken for. While I’m sure they’ll pry some decent players away here and there, can they possibly make the same kind of impact?

Chelski and Liverpool will be interesting birds this upcoming season too, depending on who moves where. If Liverpool loses Mascherano and Alonso, they’re screwed. You can’t gut the team of that kind of midfield talent and expect to push for the title. Besides the fact they’re not the most stable of clubs at the moment, so who wants to move there? The same goes for Chelski. The shine has gone off the club and they’re no longer the hot spot for big league transfers. The same goes for the Arse and Man City, both of which would have problems attracting a prostitute at the moment.

There’s a lot of shaking and baking to happen before September, but it’s fascinating stuff.

Current Mood: Good |

Hey! Nothing like setting modest goals and instantly achieving them. I’ve become a huge fan of World Soccer Daily and resolved to get an email read on the air. After the first two losses by the US, I sent an email about Bradley’s record (which is largely summed up by the last bullet in this post) and was quite happy to receive a positive email back from co-host Kenny Hassan.

After the valiant defeat to Brazil, I sent a second (more inspirational) email to the guys about how the US needs to shake off this heartbreaking loss and focus on beating Mexico at the Azteca next month. Happily, Steven Cohen read it on air during Monday’s show. You can hear it around 1:24:45 on this MP3 version of the broadcast.

Pretty pleased about it.

In footie playing news, I broke my scoring streak at five goals in five matches. My touch left me at the worst possible time as our under-strength team went crashing out of the play-off semifinal two weeks ago against a team we’d beaten 3-0 twice during the season. I had an awful personal outing, but injuries and absences of key players really did us in. Having fewer subs on a scorching hot day (90+ humidity) did not help. So we won the league handily but in the end by a couple points plus a massive advantage in goals scored and goal differential, but all for naught.

In happier news, I scored a hat-trick the following Monday night but it wasn’t much to crow about considering we were playing against 8 men on the other team. Still, three decent finishes if I do say so myself. And two days ago I popped in a dandy of a goal off a corner in the first half, then recorded three saves in a 20 minute stint in goal in a second-half shut out. So four goals in two games? Again, I’ll take it.

I put down Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, the book I’ve been reading along with a bunch of graphic novels, because I was having a hard time reading it. I finished Ana Castillo’s So Far From God, which I really started enjoying about half-way through, and I’m midway through The Sand Child by Tahar Ben Jelloun. All of these are on my reading list for my preliminary exams.

A plurality of voices and abrupt shifts in time in the narrative (jumping from past, present, and future) are common traits of “magical realist” texts. I’m realizing now that while this technique can be interesting and provocative in a single work, it gets to be a bit much when you see it in book after book after book. I’m ready for a straight up beginning-middle-end novel, thank you.

I’m also trying to figure out the shape of the two courses I’ll be teaching in the fall, one of which is Intro to Creative Writing. After reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and a slew of graphic novels, I’ve decided to work “visual narratives” as part of the course.

I’ve also decided not to make it a separate unit but rather work it in as an option over the course of the semester. I wasn’t convinced about the idea until I started browsing through an examination copy of Creating Nonfiction: A Guide and Anthology I received, and noted that the authors use a number of graphic illustrations featuring nonfiction. By scouring the Internet, I’ve also found tons of PDF copies of graphic novels I admire both for their art and their storytelling, so it will be easy to excerpt sections and share them with the class. I’m excited for it, especially since a quick scan of the class roster revealed that nearly a third of the class are coming from the art school.

Current Mood: Fine, Thanks |

Well, about an hour ago the US went down to Brazil in the Confederations Cup final 3-2. Only the most blinkered myopic fan wouldn’t admit that the best team won. The US battled as hard as they possibly could and did fantastically well to get themselves up 2-0 but couldn’t hold off the more talented Brazilians. (Anyone else think this game was practically a carbon copy of the Aston Villa vs. Manchester United match back in April?)

What this game and, to a lesser extent the Spain game, has shown is that the US’ first team actually can hold their own with the big boys. The problem is that the starting eleven cannot go a full 90 and the subs mean a serious drop in quality. Feilhaber did a good job filling in for Michael Bradley but when Ricardo Clark started to wobble (as he did against Spain) there wasn’t another good option off the bench to steady things. Bornstein and Kljestan were not good replacements—how many times did Kljestan pass the ball to Brazilians? They’re wearing bright yellow for God’s sake.

Alexi Lalas said ad nauseum (god is he annoying) that this was the one that got away, but was it really? When Brazil kicked the game up a notch the US simply couldn’t respond. I started talking to Bob Bradley through the television at about the 65th minute telling him he needed to start using his subs. I think he did make the changes too late, but in hindsight I can see why he hesitated. If your subs aren’t going to give you a boost or settle things down, it’s hard to rush them on. I mean, Brazil throws on Dani Alvez and the US responds with… Jonathan Bornstein? My only question is what’s up with Jose Torres? It’s a shame he never got a look in, but maybe he’s been sucking it up in training. Hard to say unless you’re the manager.

Even though the Confederations Cup ended up being a huge success for the US and nearly marked the pinnacle for the USMNT, you can’t ignore a few key points:

* I’m still not convinced by Bob Bradley. He finally found the right starting lineup but it was very nearly too little too late. Anyone who thinks suddenly Bradley is a genius, I have two words: DaMarcus Beasley.

* In my opinion, bad press got the US team fired up more than Bradley. After Brazil wiped the floor with them, they were serious underdogs for the remainder of the tournament. As I said in a previous post, the US plays best when they’re heavy underdogs. The big question is whether this will carry over into qualifying and, more importantly, into the World Cup group stage. The key here is that this team needs to be pissed off and ready to rumble rather than being overconfident. Overconfidence leads to the lackadaisical play that’s haunted them through qualifying and at the last World Cup.

* A lot of folks are now flapping their lips about the clubs that will now be in for many US players. I’m less than convinced. For me, the only one who seriously upped his stock was Landon Donovan. Dempsey and Howard are already known quantities, and Josie Altidore has been inconsistent. Onyewu has been outstanding in the last two matches, but he was equally awful in the opening two. The key here is consistency. If Onyewu can eliminate the mistakes from his game, I could very easily see him being a great player in the Premier League or Bundesliga. However I think clubs who might be shopping would take a look at those first two games and consider Onyewu to be a risky purchase. His play for Newcastle was not good, and that won’t help.

I am mighty relieved to see that this team is a lot better than I gave them credit for. Remember, gentle readers, that they have been dreadful for much of the qualifying campaign against inferior competition and the spark they showed against Italy was completely doused by the pathetic display against Brazil in game two. It was only against Egypt that they started passing the ball around with pace and accuracy. Which leads me to this…

I want this team to go to Azteca in August and win. We’ve never beaten Mexico in Mexico City. This is the perfect time for the US to lay a marker down and Mexico is ripe for the taking. If they play anything remotely close to what they’ve shown in the last 180 minutes, it can happen. It can. I believe.

Current Mood: Proud of the Boys |

/
The near-impossible happened: the US upset the #1 ranked team in the world, and what’s more they deserved it. They rode their luck hard and took enough of the few chances they created to win. In fairness, 2-0 was harsh on Spain. A more truthful scoreline would have read 1-0 or 2-1 considering the tilt of the game but no matter how you cut it, the US earned their win.

First, a word to those good friends throwing this result in my face in light of my last post: I have watched, in their entirety, the last fifteen matches involving the US national team (going back to Feb of last year), and I’ve only missed a couple overall since the ‘06 World Cup debacle. To be blunt, they haven’t looked very good in ALL of that time. Unlike a lot of folks, this team showed me very little in the games against England, Spain, and Argentina last year, and even when they’ve been winning in qualifying, they’ve largely looked apathetic and doing the bare minimum to get a result. The game against Egypt could have easily been a blip.

Frankly, I didn’t think this squad this kind of performance in them. Here’s what they showed yesterday that they haven’t in a long, long time:

* Foremost, heart. Guys diving into tackles, chasing down lost causes, tracking back, hustling. They played with passion and you could see it in their faces. They were up for this from the word ‘go.’ Props to Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey to acting like the leaders they’re supposed to be.

* Passing. Nothing says “we suck and we know it” like playing long ball. It’s an admission that your team is incapable of moving the ball on the carpet. Lumping long balls to a big striker has been Bradley’s primary tactic. The US hadn’t scored a decent game in open play in ages until they faced Egypt and scored some beauts. The two against Spain? Lovely.

* Committed defending. The defense has been particularly laughable lately. No one seemed to know who they were covering, and there a pall of tentativeness has settled over the whole group. They shook that off yesterday. How many blocked shots did they have? How many times were the Spanish strikers hustled or harried off the ball? While scoring two goals against Spain is nothing to sniff at, the real accomplishment is shutting out that offense. And even though the defenders lost individual battles all night (Riera worked over Spector something fierce) the US did enough when it counted. And where did this Onyewu character come from? He’s been spectacular the last two matches.

However. While it’s all well and good to crow from the rooftops, there were problems. The team needed a string of superb saves from Howard and quite a bit of luck to hold off Spain. Torres and Villa each missed chances they could have easily converted, and the US started coughing the ball up with alarming frequency (especially Ricardo Clark) when they should have been working on possession.

And if I may rant, what the @#$@ is it with these mother @#$@ing refs dishing out straight red cards to the US? A straight red? A straight red? Those should be brought out for decapitations and dismembering tackles. So far, the US has been dished three of them, and none of them have been warranted. Three in four games? Ludicrous. I would also point out that none of these allegedly violent tackles have led to the fouled opponent having to leave the field of play, much less suffering an injury. Not that injury should determine the color, but the fact that none of these fouls have even caused injury suggests perhaps they weren’t so bloody violent after all, no? Missing Bradley for the final is a huge, and unjust, blow.

Finally, might I point out that the US is a far, far better team when they’re the underdogs? What made WC ‘02 so special is that no one gave the US much of a chance against pre-tourney favs Portugal or hosts South Korea, against whom they played brilliantly. In US circles, people tend to conveniently forget that they looked past Poland and got their butts handed to them 3-1 and only made it to the second round thanks to the Koreans beating Portugal when both sides only needed a draw to go through. And what drove me crazy about WC ‘06 was how these same pinheads somehow thought the Czech Republic and Ghana were readily winnable games. I think the US squad thought it too, and again they got stuffed.

If Bob Bradley knows what he’s doing, he will cultivate this “us against the world” mentality that’s worked for the US team for the last two decades. The whole “we are among the best nations in the world so we better start playing like it” doesn’t work. And if this squad doesn’t want to get rolled over in the final, they should ignore the last two results and believe in their heart of hearts that they’re still massive underdogs.

As for Spain, this is not the end of the world even if it is the end of their unbeaten and winning streaks. Spain had three fairly easy games in the run-up to this one and they only really looked great against New Zealand, who were clearly the worst team at the tournament. What this team has shown me (and certainly many others) is how much they rely on a Xavi/Iniesta combo in the midfield to pull the strings. Sorry Ars*nal fans, Fabregas is a big time downgrade, as is Cazorla. Iniesta brings a different dimension when paired with Xavi, and it gives del Bosque more options when deploying subs. The midfield looked more or less the same after the subs yesterday, and that’s got to be a major cause for concern should either Iniesta or Xavi head into the World Cup less than fully fit.

Also, it’s worth pointing out that neither Torres nor Villa played blinders yesterday. It just goes to show that in order to beat a team like Spain, you have to be at your best and hope they have an off day. More or less, that was the story of the game. Let’s hope that carries over to Brazil on Sunday!

Current Mood: Whew! |

/
Call me a traitor but I’m really having a hard time deciding who I should be rooting for more during today’s Confederations Cup semifinal betwixt my two most favoritest national teams, the US and Spain. Consider:

* I’m American. Believe me, if I wasn’t, it would be very hard to root for the USMNT lately. The squad has in the past quite literally brought me to tears, both for good (Copa America ‘95, WC ‘02) and for bad (WC ‘98, WC ‘06).

* I adore Spain. I adore the language, the landscape, the people, the culture, the wine, the food. And the football. Can’t forget the football. I started truly following the Spanish national team and La Liga in 1998 and my fondness has only grown for both.

Normally this wouldn’t be much of an issue as I’d be for the US hands down. But Spain is on a 36-match unbeaten streak (tying the world record) and an unprecedented 14-match winning streak. What irks me is that in some quarters, people consider Brazil and (how in God’s name) Italy as the best in the world. There is nothing more I would like than to see Spain dismantle Brazil in the final and put their marker down on the World Cup.

My problem with this US? They’re really not that good. They were lucky to advance in the tournament and should be thanking Egypt and Italy for not showing up for game three of the group stage. Should the US somehow pull off a miracle upset of Spain (unlikely) then I seriously can’t see them getting lucky three games in a row, meaning they’d likely lose to Brazil in the final. This would only add to the Spain haters’ argument about them not being the best in the world.

In an alternate dimension where the US consistently played well, I’d be for the US with all my heart. I predict I will root meekly for them and not be all that concerned if they lose. I am hoping for them to go down with some dignity though and put in a good showing. And if they’ve somehow transformed themselves and can beat Spain with grace and style, then all the better. The worst case scenario would either be a foul-filled bloodfest or an absolute walloping. After the US winning the Confederations Cup, the next best result is Spain coming in first and the US finishing third. That would almost be the best of both worlds.

Kickoff in 15 minutes. Nervy.

Current Mood: Eyes Peeled |

Like many critics of the US Nat’l Team, I have to take back a few things. I didn’t give them a shot in hell in qualifying after a hard-fought but disheartening loss to Italy and a complete no-show against Brazil. Frankly, I figured Egypt would mop the floor with this US squad. Happily, they proved me quite wrong yesterday.

But. We also need to recognize a few things. Like that Egypt were a shadow of the team that played Brazil to the wire and beat the Italians. And that the Italians had to completely capitulate against Brazil in order to help the US go through. However, all you can do is take the tournament one game at a time and forget the past. That’s exactly what the US did and it paid off big time.

Donovan played well and Bradley and Clark played very well. Onyewu put in one of the best, if not the best, performances of his USMNT career. Demerit, Spector, and Bornstein played pretty well. But you can’t gloss over the fact that Dempsey played poorly for about 70 minutes, giving the ball away way too cheaply. If it wasn’t for his crucial goal (and a nice header it was) then it would have been another disaster outing for me. Charlie Davies had highs and lows. Altidore didn’t do much, and neither did Guzan.

So while the US passed this crucial gut check, it may be a Pyrrhic victory as they play Spain next. Now, after the US, Spain is a close second. A close second. I can’t root against my own country, but I do hope that if the US loses (which I think they will) then they do so with dignity. Spain has the ability to hang six or seven on the US, and the US has the ability to prematurely end the careers of some of my favorite players. It should be a riveting watch.

Current Mood: Wow |

My pre-Confederations Cup prediction for the US? Three games, three losses. Right now it looks a great bet!

The team’s in shambles, really. DaMarcus Beasley shouldn’t be on the roster much less in the starting lineup, a fact patently obvious to everyone except Bob Bradley. While the goal in the sixth minute was definitely a blow, Beasley’s lazy mis-trap on a US corner paved the way for Brazil to sprint 105 yds for a virtual tap-in and the game was effectively over.

These aren’t easy games but since when are coaches judged on easy games? Bob Bradley has struggled with a competent team selection in five of the last six games, the one exception being the mighty Trinidad & Tobago at home, for God’s sake. We have to accept the fact that these are the best players the US has to offer (a sobering thought in itself) but we do not have to accept a manager who has no idea how to put a team together. The changes to the lineup were uninspired to say the least. And the US advances late in the second half can be discounted since Brazil had long since put on the cruise control.

Was Kljestan’s tackle a red card? I would still say no, but it was reckless and stupid. Again, I would contend if that was an Italian tackle or a Spanish tackle, it’s a yellow. Since it’s an American, and we’re widely regarded as being clumsy and violent, it’s a red. Fair? No. Predictable? By this point, yes. I would also point out that these red card tackles have not been committed in dangerous areas or as the last man back.

Other fun facts, some mentioned during the broadcast:

* The US played more long balls against Italy than any other team in a first round game; the US also completed fewer long passes than any other team in the tournament.

* The US has conceded 10 goals in their last four games, half of them coming inside the opening fifteen minutes.

* The US has scored 11 goals in their last seven games, of which seven have come from set pieces or penalty kicks. Three of the goals that came from open play were scored against Trinidad & Tobago.

* According to some quick counting, of Bradley’s 25 wins as the US coach only 8 have come against opponents outside CONCACAF: Denmark, Ecuador, China, Switzerland, South Africa, Sweden (twice), and Poland. Of these teams, only four (Ecuador, Switzerland, Sweden, and Poland) qualified for the ‘06 World Cup, and none of them made it past the second round.

None of this will cost Bradley his job.

Current Mood: Whatever |

Well, that sucked.

The US tragically lost to Italy by a score of 3-1. Once again, any neutral would have to agree that the US got royally, royally screwed by the referee. There is no way, in any shape or form, Ricardo Clark should have received a red card for his tackle. A yellow? Of course. A stern talking to? Absolutely. But a red? No way. Never. Had a German, or an Italian, or a Brit, or a Frenchie made that tackle, no way in the world would the ref dish a red. But since the US has a (well-cultivated) “battling” mentality, refs at this level seem to interpret violent intent in even innocuous challenges.

Should the US have won carrying a 1-0 lead into halftime? Maybe. But even as critical as I am of the USMNT, you can’t really complain too much. Surviving 65 minutes a man down against one of the best teams in the world is a tall order. With that out of the way, I will say I that Bradley should have yanked Feilhaber about ten minutes before Italy’s first goal. He was giving away lazy balls in the midfield too often and he was a liability. Would Torres had provided better value? Possibly.

Other observations:

* This team played far better than expected. Is it that they can only raise themselves against top-notch competition? If so, this damns Bradley’s ability to get these guys up for qualifiers.

* I like Bornstein and Spector as the outside backs. I like them quite a bit. But for all Onyewu’s physical presence in the back, he’s a liability. He’d be better if he had two extra heads and no feet. How many clearances did he slice? How many clumsy tackles did he give away? Sadly, Demerit isn’t the answer either as he’s just another in a long line of awkward, lumbering central defenders.

* Altidore is going through Eddie Johnson syndrome: score out your butt in your first few international starts and then fade. Altidore played fairly well today but he’s got to improve on the ball. He lacks confidence taking guys on, and he went looking for a penalty rather than just burning his man and stuffing it in the bottom corner.

* I have warmed to Ricardo Clark and he should be the first pick for holding midfielder, certainly before Mastroeni or Edu. The rest of the midfield remains a mystery. When exactly has Dempsey done something remarkable for the team? Besides dribbling into a crowd of fourteen opponents, that is. Donovan and Bradley are quite potent in spurts but both are lacking consistency, as is Kljestan, as is Feilhaber.

* It has reached crisis levels: we must find where DaMarcus Beasley is keeping the pictures of Bob Bradley naked with a billy goat and destroy them so he can stop finding his way into the team.

* F— Giuseppe Rossi. Seriously. He is the only American-born player producing for club and country and the little weasel chooses to play for Italy over the US. I don’t care where his parents are from; he is a traitor, and there is a precedent for what you do with traitors.

So what have we learned? It’s hard to say really, but at the very least this team showed they can man-up under tough circumstances. They didn’t play prettily, but they didn’t just whack it down the field either. Both Bradley and Altidore had good chances to score from the run of play via smart passing for once, yet flubbed them. The offense is still missing that vital spark too. I’d push for dropping Dempsey to the bench and giving young Freddy a shot from the start. Sure, he may only give you an hour, but at least that might mix up the midfield a bit.

It’s hard to get too excited with that defense though, and for all the hard work the guys put in, it was the same kind of huff-and-puff performances in defensive-minded formations against top-class competition we saw against England, Spain, and Argentina last year. Oh, and if you forgot, those games ended in two losses and a zero-zero draw. Less than inspiring stuff from Bob Bradley.

Current Mood: I Still Blame the Ref for Ruining the Game |

Over the past week or so I’ve read From Hell, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and V for Vendetta. Between Alan Moore and Frank Miller, I find Moore’s work to be far more nuanced and compelling. In undergrad I took a course on comics where we read Miller’s Give Me Liberty and, while I liked the graphic novel’s premise, I didn’t like the execution. I would also say that I had high expectations for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and felt a little let down. In Miller’s stories, he does a better job with his characters than the worlds he builds, which far too black and white. Media coverage is one-sided and absurd, politicians are narrow-minded and crooked. I also felt TDKR moved at a breakneck speed and could have easily been longer by two or three episodes. I loved the artwork though.

Moore in contrast understands the need for subtlety. The media in V for Vendetta, for example, simply broadcasts the state-scripted news without any hint of the absurd, which makes it more realistic and chilling than the cartoony reporters in Miller’s work. And From Hell is a brilliant and intricate work that places a lot of demands on the reader. Sunday morning funnies this is not. Good stuff.

The silly season began with a bang when Real Madrid made the double swoop for Kaka and Ronaldo. Why do I feel like I’m one of the few people on the planet who were not surprised at all with the Ronaldo transfer? Of all the news reports flying around over the past year, here are the two things that (for whatever reason) I seemed to home in on as being key:

1) Ronaldo wanted to go Real Madrid last year but Fergie, who was resigned to losing him, convinced him to stay for one more year to try and win the Champions League, World Club Championship, and Premier League before he starts blooding a new crop of players.

2) Ronaldo’s petulance at being subbed against Man City felt contrived. In fact, I suspect that his hilarious histrionics over the past year have been intentional in order to further alienate him from Man Ure fans and ease the pain of him leaving.

Will Real’s mad spending spree result in them challenging Barcelona’s throne? I kind of doubt it. It seems to me that they need to be buying the highest quality defenders available rather than buying purely offensive talent. And now David Villa and Franck Ribery are allegedly next? Not a lot of fellows there who enjoy tracking back to get a tackle in.

And let’s spare a moment for poor Valencia, who look to offload their best players in order to stay afloat. Villa, Silva, Juan Mata and Albiol seem pretty certain to leave in order to pay back the club’s debts. Valencia have unearthed some of the most exciting talents in the modern game, and I used to love to watch them play with the likes of Gaizka Mendieta and Joaquín in their heyday.

The US plays Italy today at 1:30. I predict a loss. I watched Brazil and Egypt play an absolute barn burner this morning. The US plays Brazil on Thursday and Egypt on Sunday. I predict… erm… um… a loss and a loss. I would certainly love to be wrong, but the order of the day at the Confederations Cup has been slick, quick passing on the carpet. The US’ long ball schtick will not work. Will. Not. Work. And if Egypt and Brazil play like they did today, they will both shred the US defense.

Spain? OMG. So frigging good it’s sick. Easily the most fun team to watch on the planet. They made the Kiwis look absolutely clueless. Gotta love it.

I scored again last Saturday. That makes it five goals in five games. Mad City United topped the tables with a record of 13-0-3 and will steam into the play-offs as the number one seed this upcoming weekend. If we win that, I will regrettably be out of town for the final the next weekend.

My end of the regular season stats? Six goals in the twelve games I played. Once again, I have to toot my own horn: a goal every other game from the defensive midfield? I’ll take it!

Current Mood: Fine |

/

A few years ago I started tracking the champions of European soccer leagues in a database to see if I could see any definite trend in competitiveness after the introduction of major advertising revenues via television rights deals, which exploded in the early nineties. I also wanted to compare them against the major US sports to compare turnover, meaning how many times new champions were crowned. I dropped them into a grid going back to 1984 (twenty-six years) and the results surprised me. (full tables below the cut)

First off, from looking at a list of champions alone, you can’t say that things changed dramatically for European soccer. In each of the big five leagues, the champions have always come from a very select few teams. In England, they’ve had 3 different teams win the title in 6 years; not so bad considering that the number only increases to 7 if you go all the way back to 1984. Also, I was surprised to see that the other European leagues had been just as static over that time period. Italy leads the pack with 9 different champs since 1984. The numbers look even worse if you toss out the teams that have only won one championship; Spain’s the worst offender as it really just boils down to two teams in Real Madrid and Barcelona, with Valencia winning twice and Atletico Madrid, Deportivo La Coruna, and Atletico Bilbao only topping the table once.

This stands in stark contrast with US sports, whose leagues have tried to maintain a higher level of parity. Even though it seems like dynasties are fairly common in US sports, the table shows quite a bit of turnover: fourteen and fifteen different champs for NFL and NHL, a whopping nineteen for MLB, leaving only the NBA as having numbers similar to the European leagues with 9. Only the Champions League (formerly European Cup) comes close to those numbers with fourteen different winners. Of course, there are a couple important variables: it’s cup competition not a league, and it runs concurrently with a domestic league season.

This data also discounts the fact that many of these title races go right down to the wire, but it also reveals the fact that certain teams always seem to win out in the end. Still, it’s hard to see how an eighteen-team, single-table European league wouldn’t be significantly more competitive and perhaps more interesting. I also can’t see a salary cap being put in place anytime soon, considering the clout these major European teams have, and there’s also no denying that the rich have become richer and that vying for these domestic league titles is a very, very expensive proposition.

Draw what conclusions you will.

(more…)