Across the Pond - Your Weekly European Soccer Update (April 12th-20th)

In this week’s edition, I’ll be covering a little more time than usual. So let’s wind the clock back a weekend and take a look at what happened across Europe starting in England.

                Arsenal will have its best chance to end a 10 year trophy drought after valiantly surviving and eventually beating Wigan Athletic (currently playing in England’s second tier) in the FA Cup. The FA Cup is the oldest association football competition in the world, the first tournament played in 1871. I’ll talk more about the FA Cup later on in this week’s spotlight. Arsenal was down for most of the game, they scored a goal late in the second half to send the game to extra time. No one scored in the extra time period and the game went into a penalty kick shootout. The pressure was definitely on Arsenal but the Gunners prevailed as goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski stopped two Wigan penalties and all four Arsenal players scored on theirs. Arsenal’s opponent will be Hull City, who fought off third tier side Sheffield United 5-3, in a thrilling game. It’s a great achievement for Hull, who were just promoted to the Premier League this year. The final is on May 17^th at Wembley Stadium, where Arsenal will be favored.

                On Sunday (4/13), Liverpool made a huge leap towards their first Barclays Premier League title in over 20 years by beating Manchester City 3-2. The game probably would’ve ended in a draw had Vincent Kompany not whiffed on a clearance in the 78^th minute. After the game, Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard was seen crying. Gerrard has had a fantastic career and it would only be fitting that he wins a Premier League title before hanging up the cleats. 

Tears of Joy for Liverpool's Steven Gerard

               The Premier League resumed during the week, and there were some major shake-ups to the table. First, Arsenal beat West Ham to move back into 4^th place. That’s because Everton suffered a shock defeat at home courtesy of Crystal Palace. The win for Palace all but secures their stay in the Premier League for next season, while defeat for Everton means they will now need help to get back into 4^th place. Elsewhere, Manchester City fell to bottom of the table Sunderland, giving Liverpool full control of the title race. City would’ve come away empty handed if not for a Samir Nasri equalizer in the 88^th minute. Both teams definitely needed all three points in this game, but it hurts City worse based on where Sunderland is in the table (dead last).

                Sunderland built on the mid-week result, and pulled what may be the upset of the season by beating Chelsea 2-1 at Stamford Bridge, essentially ending the Blues title hopes. Meanwhile, Sunderland are just three points from safety and have momentum on their side. Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho had never lost a Premier League home game in his two separate stints. His streak ends at a remarkable 78 games. After the game, in typical Mourinho sarcastic fashion, the Chelsea boss sarcastically praised the referees. Finally, in today’s games, Liverpool moved even closer to winning the title, beating Norwich 3-2 on the road. The Reds have yet to lose a game in 2014 and can win the title next week with a win and a Chelsea loss. Arsenal moved closer to the Champions League by beating Hull 3-0, but Everton kept the pressure on them as the beat Manchester United and former manager David Moyes. So, with most teams having 3 games remaining, here is what the top and bottom of the tables look like:

Overall							Home						Away
POS		TEAM	P	W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		GD	Pts
1		Liverpool	35	25	5	5	96	44		15	1	1	51	15		10	4	4	45	29		52	80
2		Chelsea	35	23	6	6	67	26		15	2	1	43	11		8	4	5	24	15		41	75
3		Manchester City	33	22	5	6	88	34		14	1	1	54	12		8	4	5	34	22		54	71
4		Arsenal	35	21	7	7	62	41		11	5	1	32	11		10	2	6	30	30		21	70
5		Everton	35	20	9	6	57	34		13	3	2	36	16		7	6	4	21	18		23	69
6		Tottenham Hotspur	35	19	6	10	51	49		10	3	5	27	23		9	3	5	24	26		2	63
7		Manchester United	34	17	6	11	56	40		7	3	6	22	19		10	3	5	34	21		16	57

The top 4 teams qualify for next year’s Champions League. The 5^th and 6^th place teams enter the Europa League, a secondary competition to the Champions League.

13		Swansea City	35	9	9	17	47	51		5	5	7	29	24		4	4	10	18	27		-4	36
14		Hull City	34	10	6	18	34	43		7	4	7	20	19		3	2	11	14	24		-9	36
15		Aston Villa	34	9	8	17	35	49		5	3	10	19	28		4	5	7	16	21		-14	35
16		West Bromwich Albion	33	6	15	12	40	51		3	9	5	22	25		3	6	7	18	26		-11	33
17		Norwich City	35	8	8	19	28	56		6	6	6	17	16		2	2	13	11	40		-28	32
18		Cardiff City	35	7	9	19	31	65		5	5	8	19	33		2	4	11	12	32		-34	30
19		Fulham	35	9	3	23	35	77		5	1	11	20	34		4	2	12	15	43		-42	30
20		Sunderland	34	7	8	19	33	57		3	3	10	14	24		4	5	9	19	33		-24	29

The bottom three teams are relegated to the Championship next season. Goal differential is the first tie breaker.

Spotlight: The FA Cup

                It’s the oldest competition in the history of football (soccer): the FA Cup. Full of tradition, big goals, big teams, and big upsets, the FA Cup is England’s domestic cup competition. This year 737 teams participated in the competition! That’s because entry is open to all teams who compete in the Premier League, the Football League and in Steps 1 to 5 of the FA National League System, as well as selected teams in Step 6. This means that clubs of all standards compete, from the largest clubs in England and Wales down to amateur village teams. The format is very simple, one match in each round, unseeded, meaning anyone can play anyone. If the match ends in a draw, there is a “replay” where the teams play a second match, with the team that was the road team in the first match being the home team in this one. Because there are so many teams, the Premier League teams don’t enter the competition until the third round, essentially getting byes until that point. The FA cup is most notable for its huge upsets which happen every year. Wigan Athletic won the title last year despite being relegated from the Premier League, beating Manchester City 1-0 in the final. Amateur teams often aim for the goal of making it to the third round, where the big teams are in the draw. Nine non-league teams made it this far in 2009. In 2008, Chasetown, an amateur side in the 8^th tier of English soccer, made it to the third round where they lost, but still received over 60,000 pounds in prize money. While an amateur side has never won the competition (in fact they’ve never even reached the last 8), the competition allows them to play professional teams. I highly encourage you to watch an FA Cup game, especially one where a big team plays an unknown team. Nothing is certain in this great competition.

 

The FA Cup Trophy

              

               Now that we’ve covered England, let’s briefly go to Spain where Real Madrid won its first trophy of the year. Real defeated rivals Barcelona 2-1 in the Copa del Rey (King’s Cup) final. Gareth Bale scored a brilliant goal late in the second half to seal the victory and his first trophy as a member of Real Madrid. Bale came over in the summer in the most expensive transfer in soccer history, and confirmed his worth by finishing a 70 yard run with a goal. The defeat condemned Barcelona to a third straight defeat and opened the door for questions about Tata Martino’s future as coach of the club. Barcelona are out of the Champions League, lost in the Copa del Rey, and sit 4 points behind Atletico Madrid in the league with just 4 matches remaining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QMTnnBUnqM

                Now let’s go to Italy where Juventus are very close to winning a third straight Scudetto (Serie A title). Juve have an 8 point lead on second place Roma with only 4 matches remaining. They can clinch the title next weekend with a win and a Roma loss. A big part of Juventus’ success is their home record: 17-0-0 having only conceded 9 goals. On top of that, they are in the final four of the Europa League. Coincidentally, the final of this competition will be played at Juventus’ home stadium. Juventus will face a stiff test from their opponents though.

                Benfica, who have already secured the Portuguese league title, will be Juventus’ opponent. The Portuguese champions lost their first league game way back on August 18^th, but have not lost in the league since then. Normally, the Europa League doesn’t get much attention, but this matchup should be very entertaining. If you can watch it (this coming Thursday and the following Thursday) I think you should give it a chance. 

Pavel Nedved (left) and Nuno Gomes (right) shake hands after learning their former teams, Juventus and Benfica respectively, will face each other in the Europa League semis. The vase looking thing is the Europa League Trophy.

                We’ll finish this week’s edition in Germany, where Borussia Dortmund had a very good week. After almost completing an epic Champions League comeback, the Black and Yellows strolled into Munich and spanked Bayern 3-0. They followed that up with a hard fought 2-1 win over Wolfsburg during the week to reach the German Cup Final. Yesterday, Dortmund beat Mainz 4-2 meaning they are guaranteed a spot in next year’s Champions’ League group stage. Bayern will get a chance for redemption as they also advanced to the German Cup final, beating second tier side Kaiserslautern 4-1. The DFB Pokal (German Cup) Final will be played on May 17^th in Berlin. 

Robert Lewandowski netted his 100th goal for Borussia Dortmund in their 2-1 win over Wolfsburg. Lewandowski added another in Saturday's league win over Mainz.