Football (soccer) season 2008-2009

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Yeah, they are topping the league for now But we're only 2 games far and beating Mönchengladbach is more like a standard than an exceptional victory. Still, kudos to them for proving the odds wrong so far. Hope they can keep it up.

I was in Turkey for holidays and saw the start of the league (watched Gaziantepspor-Fenerbahce on TV and saw a few Eskisehirspor fans in the city, they had to sponsor state-sponsored team Istanbul BB later on the evening).
Fener played OK but still lost surprisingly in Gaziantep. There is something weird with Fener losing to inferior teams in the early season, last season their debut game was a 2-0 loss at Istanbul BB. Galatasaray started off well though: beating Denizlispor 4-1 (only saw highlights of that game). And IBB-Eskisehirspor was a 0-0, the 90000 capacity Atatürk Stadium was filled with 5000 fans of whom 95% visitors from Eskisehir. And still Istanbul BB with their less than 500 fans are in the highest division, in a way I love the irony of that and how the team funded by taxes from local citizens (supporting other teams) takes points from those tax payers' favourites

Return games of the Champions League qualifiers tonight. Some very interesting fixtures on the menu:

* Liverpool-Standard Liege : the Belgians were way better in the first leg and totally outplayed a disappointing Liverpool. Reina kept the 0-0 at the boards. But Liverpool at home could be a much stronger team than the one playing in Belgium. Can Standard shock the world or will Liverpool keep their strong home reputation alive and qualify?

* Olympiacos-Anorthosis: Olympiacos Piraeus from Greece have been present in the CL for many years, they became a regular. But they shockingly lost 3-0 away in Cyprus. Will the Cypriots survive the intimidating atmospehre in Athens and become the first Cypriot team ever in the CL, or can Olympiacos turn this around and still reach the actual group stages?

* Atletico Madrid-Schalke 04 : Schalke won he home game 1-0 so that means Atletico needs to score twice to get past the Germans. However, Atletico's home audience can make the Vicente Calderon stadium like a hell, and the question is if the Germans will keep their cool in those circumstances. Schalke are favourites, but especially if the Spaniards score an early goal it could get narrow.

* BATE Borisov-Levski Sofia : unlikely to see a Belarussian team in the CL? Well, BATE are close to realise what many people would think is impossible. Belarus never had a team qualifying for the CL and Borisov is a really small town. Can this village team cause one of the biggest shocks ever and reach the CL as first Belarussian team ever? They defend a 0-1 victory at home so it is not unlikely at all that for the first time, Champions League football will be played in Belarus soon.

* Kaunas-Aalborg : the Danes defend a 2-0 win from the home game, while Kaunas already proved they can upset bigger teams (they defeated Rangers beforehand). No matter whom wins this, an underdog is going to reach the CL.



So quite a few surprising teams could reach the tournament this year. The games of Juventus, Arsenal, Barcelona, D.Kyiv, are totally uninteresting tonight because all of them won their first game with such a big margin that it is impossible they will be eliminated. If Barcelona loses 6-0 in POland tonight, then I promise to jump in the local river here in Berlin.

Well, we got a quite surprising Champions League contenders list.

- BATE Borisov became the first ever Belarussian team to qualify for the CL. They held Levski at 1-1 after having won the first leg, thus qualify 2-1 on aggregate. Never before a team from Belarus qualified for the major tournament, and Borisov is a rather small town. Probably the team will move its home games to Belarus' national stadium in Minsk.

- Anorthosis Famagusta became Cyprus' first ever CL contender. The Cypriots lost 1-0 in Athens against Olympiacos but had won the home game in Cyprus 3-0. The story becomes even more unbelievable when realising Anorthosis is a team in exile: Famagusta is in Northern Cyprus and since the Turks invaded this part of the island the team has been playing in exile in the Greek part of the island. 34 years on and they still cannot return home, but they are on the map now thanks to their qualification for the CL.

- Aalborg won 0-2 in Kaunas and becomes the first Danish team to qualify for the CL twice (Aalborg had already been there 9 years ago)

- not sure if this is a real surprise, but FC Basel from Switzerland eliminated Guimaraes from Portugal



Apart from that:

- Barcelona lost 1-0 against Wisla Krakow but had won the home game 4-0 so it seems Barca pretty much just tried to avoid injuries and suspensions and was glad enough they came back from Poland without any damage.

- Liverpool won against Standard only after extra time through a Dirk Kuyt goal in the 117th minute. Standard were the better team most of the game, but Liverpool had the luck on their side (as usual)

- Arsenal crushed FC Twente 6-0 on aggregate (4-0 at home, 0-2 in Holland)

- Atletico Madrid beat Schalke with 4-0 and thus Germany will only have 2 teams in this year's Champions League

- Turkish champions Galatasaray did NOT qualify after losing 3-2 on aggregate to Steaua Bucharest. Vice champions Fenerbahce must keep the Turkish pride high ; they qualified after beating Partizan Belgrade 4-3 on aggregate

- the former USSR derby between Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Kyiv was won twice by Kyiv, both games were won 4-1 by the Ukrainians. Could this Kyiv side be the new surprise in this CL?




Anyway, we got a nice CL this year with a nice combination of some classic giants (Juventus, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Bayern, Lyon, ...) and a few huge surprises (BATE Borisov, Anorthosis Famagusta, Aalborg, ...). Especially those new faces from Belarus and Cyprus please me a lot and I hope to catch a few games of them.

Tonight is UEFA Cup football and judgement day for my favourites Rosenborg. We must overcome a 2-1 defeat against Djurgardens in order to stay in Europe. Fingers crossed I guess...

Rosenborg-Djurgardens 5-0 Nuff said. We got a new Scandinavian derby coming up now, facing Brøndby from Denmark in the next round.

After last night's (Australian Central Standard Time) Celtic v Rangers match - result: Celtic 2 - 4 Rangers, many wonder if that could be a blip or a cause for concern leading up to the Champions League group stage.

Celtic are in the same group as Manchester Utd, Villareal and Aalborg. Vilarreal have played quite well in the La Liga last season and Man Utd, as often, top of the EPL, that could be a threat to Celtic's chances in making it to the knockout stage.

I, on the other hand, am optimistic about the season.

What an amazing 'Old Firm' game ! Rangers looked like a completely different team from the one that surrendered meekly to Kaunas in the UEFA Cup.In some ways they were,with
new signings Pedro Mendes and Steven Davis making a big difference in midfield.It's not
often that Celtic lose at home,in fact they've got one of the best home records in Europe
but they'll need to play better against Manchester Utd.

Cmon you Reds!! !! !!

At last Liverpool finally beat Man United in the prem leauge. Its been 7 years since they last did it at anfield. My prediction that Berba wasnt going to fit into Uniteds system fell apart in only 2 minutes but as I suspected his work rate isnt the best and he soon faded out the game. I suppose why I dont see it working is that when ronaldo comes back, how are all their forwards supposed to play together - I hope it will disrupt their play.

For the first time in years Liverpool played as if they didnt have an inferiority complex...

Now if only Newcastle can sort things out on Tyne side. To me they have the best supporters in england. Its a pity whats going on in the club, they are really giving their fans a hard time of it.