La Liga correspondent Rick Minars brought this to my attention during pickup today…
Earlier this morning, the Italian news paper Gazzetta dello Sport published Jose Mourinho thoughts on who should win the Ballon d’or. Apparently Iniesta has now taken the lead to win the prize. Mourinho says, in his own words, that Andres Inesita might have scored the most important goal of the year (or the century?) in the World Cup final but he was injured for most of the long dueling European club season. Mourinho believes that if anyone should win the Ballon d’or it should be Wesley Sneijder. His other preferences are Diego Milito and Xaxi Hernandez, though he makes it clear that Sneijder is tops, followed by Xavi.
He made a point to say that Sneijder was no better than Iniesta, but that the dutch superstar simply had a better season and a great world cup. He concluded that Wesley is number one followed by Xaxi Hernandez.
Despite Mourinho’s bias (and my own bias toward Iniesta), I have to say that the man has a point. Milito wouldn’t have made my top 5, talented as he may be. What do you think?
The Champions League group stage begins in about three weeks and we are scouring the ONELOVE community for predictions, opinions, and irrational arguments surrounding the upcoming round. To get the ball rolling, we caught up with OLFC West teammates Darren Davies and Cameron Araghi.
Davies, an LA area club coach, says: ‘Chelsea will win it (slight bias). They’ve been together, relatively unchanged, for three years and they have depth. Barça could win, especially with the addition of Villa, and Real is pretty damn serious. Picking up Ozil was huge. And then Mourinho has the formula for success.’
Cameron Araghi, another ONELOVE Ambassador, chimes in: ‘I always say Barça. They have the statistics. They have an attack-minded forward in Villa and if Mascherano signs, they will be the best team on earth. I see Real Madrid doing very well this year, but they will fall short in the major tournaments. And I may be wrong, but something tells me that Rafa is going to ruin Inter.’
What do you say? Who will surprise us this year? Who will disappoint?
The group stage fixtures will take place in September (14/15, 28/29), October (19/20), November (2/3, 23/24), and wrap up in early December (7/8).
Here’s a bit of footage from Saturday’s training session at UCLA.
It’s hard to say who will make the starting XI, but we’re seeing plenty of attention paid to Angel di Maria, CR, Pepe, Higuaín, and Lass. Kaká is expected to be out there today, and we hope to see Iker, Ramos, and Xabi Alonso.
The jury is out on Benzema, but we can confirm without any shred of a doubt that the French-Algerian striker is in TOP form.
ONELOVE FC has been recognized as a community-based news organization for the North American soccer community. We will be able to attend press conferences, conduct interviews, and cover stories pertaining to the rise of American soccer culture.
Today, we’ll be with Real Madrid at UCLA. If you have questions for anyone on the team, ask away. We’ll do what we can to get them answered.
Inter Milan today tied up the Scudetto for the 5th successive year in a row by defeating Siena 1 nil. Jose Mourinhos men finished the season 2 points above 2nd placed Roma who also won today with a 2 nil victory away to Chievo.
The Milan side now head to Madrid and the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in chase of the Champions league winners title as they face off against German champions Bayern Munich.
Bayern themselves clinched the Bundesliga with a final day 3-1 away win to Hertha on the 8th May and yesterday completed a domestic double by hammering the cup holders Werder Bremen 4-0 in the German cup final.
Uncharacteristically, the champions league final is being held on a Saturday evening but this enables both sides a full week to prepare for what looks like being a fantastic prospect for watching football supporters all over Europe and the World.
The 8 day festival of football has already started in Madrid which started with the delivery of the Champions league trophy on Friday. The festival includes all manner of activities from exhibition matches which involves top former international talent from all over Europe to audio visionary spectacles from Champions league sponsers. It truly encompasses all age groups and encourages people to interact withy the Champions league experience.
It promises to be a magnificent spectacle and with players such as Arjen Robben, Franck Ribéry, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Claudio Pizarro, Mark van Bommel for Bayern & Lucio Marco Materazzi, Eto’o, Diego Milito & Wesley Sneijder for Inter, it really is lining up as a night of fireworks and superb footballing skills. Plenty of goals would be great as well.
Final – 22/05/2010 – 20:45CET ( 20:45 ) – Santiago Bernabéu – Madrid
Click on the image below to visit Marc’s football blog…
It was a hard-fought Champions League semi-final. Barcelona had opportunities to win, but couldn’t penetrate Mourinho’s defensive line for a second goal. We didn’t really see anything special from Barça until Pique scored brilliantly in the final 10 minutes of play. From there, you felt as if Xavi, Pique and Bojan would combine for something miraculous. It didn’t happen.
And now, Inter head to their first European final since 1972. They have a shot at winning their first European trophy since 1965.
Is Super Mario being neglected at Inter or has he brought the negativity upon himself? As you can imagine, it’s a combination of both. The real question is, would the 19 year old be better off elsewhere? He claims allegiance to A.C. Milan (funny, but not a terrible idea) and clubs all over the world would sign him in a heartbeat.
Just a few days before its weekend match against Udinese, Inter is trying to juggle roster spots and coaching duties to keep from losing more ground to AC Milan and AS Roma.
A 0-0 draw with Sampdoria Saturday was just the beginning of Inter’s woes. Not only did it allow title challengers AC Milan and AS Roma – who sit just four and five points back respectively – to narrow the gap atop the Serie A table, but the Nerazzurri lost four players and their coach to suspensions this week.
Defenders Walter Samuel and Ivan Cordoba were both shown red cards against the Blucerchiati and automatically ruled out of this weekend’s meeting with Undinese; once the final whistle blew though, the news went from bad to worse as the squad learned that coach Jose Mourhino would be suspended for three matches for a gesture he made toward referees during the contest. Midfielders Esteban Cambiasso and Sulley Muntari were also slapped with bans after the draw.
Even more, defender Cristian Chivu will miss the clash with Undinese with a head injury, while Marco Materazzi and Davide Santon may be rushed back from injury to fill vacancies in the defense. With three regular players missing from the defense, Inter will certainly field a makeshift back line at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Sunday. If all injuries and suspensions hold, the group will consist of Maicon, Lucio, Matterazzi and Santon.
Inter’s rough and ready defense will be pushed to its limits by one of Serie A’s most feared goal scorers, Antonio Di Natale. Currently leading the league with 18 goals – Inter’s Diego Milito is second with 14 – Di Natale has had three multi goal matches this season, with the most recent coming when he accounted for all of Udinese’s scores during a 3-1 win over Napoli Feb. 7.
If Matterazzi and Santon aren’t yet fully recovered from their injuries and Inter is forced to dig deep into its roster for substitutes Sunday, the Nerazzurri might find themselves in a much tighter title race come Monday.
