Whats Wrong with British Football?

Today, Napoli beat Chelsea in the Champions League 3-1 in Naples, and one has to wonder: What is going on with English football in European competitions, most notably the Champions League. Both Manchester clubs were knocked out in the group stage, and the teams that did make it through (Chelsea and Arsenal) are down big from their first leg match-ups. Arsenal got destroyed by AC Milan at the San Siro, losing 4-0, while of course Chelsea losing today.

So what's the deal? Usually British clubs do extremely well in this competition. I have a few ideas:

1.) The Premier League is too competitive. With no less than 7 teams fighting it out for the top four spots in the league, the league has become extremely entertaining for the observer, but really taxing, for the clubs involved in the scuffle. One might argue that in previous seasons of the EPL, Manchester United might be able to glide through 2 or 3 games where they knew they were clear favorites and had no hope of losing. The club's second team was better than many clubs' starting 11, so they could focus on the big boys from across Europe. 

That is no longer the case. With Manchester City, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and even surprise Newcastle clawing for those top four spots, none of those top clubs can let off for one match. Drop points against lower level opposition (ie the Wolves or Wigans of the league) and that just might be the end of your champions league hopes. But it's not just the threat of losing points, the average mid-table finishers in the EPL are head and shoulders above their cohorts in other foreign leagues. Who would you take in a match: Everton or Parma? 

So with such a difficult league, by the time the English Champions League clubs get to mid week and their Champions League opponent, they are mentally still worried about the last weekend and of course the weekend to come. Many other leagues, such as the Bundesliga (in Germany) or La Liga (in Spain) have clubs like Bayern Munich and Real Madrid who don't have to worry each and every week. They can focus on Champions League football because they know their weekend opponents have little shot at dethroning the kings.

Being the Premier League is starting to have some disadvantages. 

2.)  Having a target on your face is NEVER easy: As stated in point 1, England has been quite successful in the Champions League for a long time, and extremely successful in the last 10 years or so. Many foreign teams use this to their advantage. Coaches can get their players fired up by saying things like, "NOBODY thinks you can win against the big boys. Prove them wrong." And they are. teams like Basel (from Switzerland) were able to play David vs Goliath and prey on just those emotions to claim Premiership scalps. 

With such a worldwide following like Manchester United or Chelsea, smaller clubs can potentially get better motivated for a European match than a club worried about their big match on the weekend. 

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To me those are the major two reasons why this year English teams have been playing quite poorly. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is only the beginning of this trend. If the Premier League continues to grow and become more popular, English clubs may continue to have this issues.

But, then again, they could win the Champions League next year, you never really know. But hey, that's football.

Put Me in Coach!

Today, finally, after months and months of complaining about the weather, its started to get cooler in Albuquerque. It was decent earlier in the day, so hopefully the cold comes sooner rather than later. Albuquerque's weather is strange, because just as I say this, it might be 95 degrees outside tomorrow and be hotter than hell. So who knows. Here's to hoping.

In other news, all the best sports are getting underway once again. I've been watching soccer on my computer (English Premier League mainly) which has been awesome. Whenever I tweet about matches on Twitter, I get asked what team to I support. Honestly, I've been following Arsenal quite a bit lately, but I haven't historically had a favorite English team. I just love the drama of it all. Also excited about my first amateur soccer match this weekend. As an update, I joined a soccer team recently who I've been practicing with, and its been really good to go out there and play again competitively after so long. Our team is marginal, with maybe 3 or 4 players (including myself of course) having real talent, but its fun to just get out there. Plus the exercise always helps.

In addition, the NFL starts up again tonight (with college football already underway last weekend). Its amazing how football crazed the USA is. Listening to ESPN on my way to work, it seems like for the past 4 weeks, that is all anyone on the radio has been talking about. I like football, but I prefer soccer (mainly because I play it and watched a lot more of it in high school). I do follow college football quite a bit more because of the University of Michigan. My dad probably would let me hear it if I didn't.

Anyway, the great thing about having a strong and fast laptop is that I can watch a show my wife wants to watch (Project Runway) while using my computer to keep an eye on sports (the NFL game tonight). Its a wonderful way to make sure the wifey is happy without bugging her with sports she gets annoyed by. Win-win.
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I'll finish this blog post with a great article about a poor Swedish moose. Enjoy:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14842999

Best Practices

So its Saturday, and hopefully Priyam and I can do something fun today, I miss Boba Tea, so I think we'll get some drinks in the morning, go to Verizon to handle a minor billing issue, and Priyam will probably get her haircut. Who knows what else we'll do, probably go see a movie or something as well.

Meanwhile, while reading my news and blogs this morning, I can upon this ridiculous article. Now, I love football (soccer for all you yanks), and I try to watch as many live matches as I can. Its tough in the states to watch, because of the lack of matches put on tv. Priyam got me Fox Soccer Channel for christmas though, so I've been enjoying that quite a bit. But, back to topic, I learned about Hamburg based club St.Pauli not too long ago, who in the Bundisliga is considered sort of a dark horse, but I saw this article, and it sort of takes things to a whole new level:

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(ESPN Soccernet's Off the Ball Blog by Dominic Raynor)

St Pauli strippers get sent off

German side St Pauli have always done things differently but even the The Pirates of the League have to draw the line somewhere and the Bundesliga club have asked the owners of one of their executive boxes to stop strippers performing during matches.

The problem arose after executives from Susi's Show Bar, situated on Hamburg's main red-light drag, the Reeperbahn, forked out around £60,000 for a private box at the Millerntor-Stadion and promptly installed a pole and mirror.

A toy train that delivers hotdogs and personal beer pump just isn't enough for some people. Off the Ball can't help but wonder what Andy Gray and Richard Keys would say about the situation.
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Now that is a soccer match, my favorite about that is the idea of the front office executives allowing the strippers in their box prior to and after the match, just not during. Classic.