couple of thoughts

If you want a bandwagon to jump on, I'll say it again: has to be Manchester City. The speculation continues about Mourinho and if Inter fail to win the Champions League he will likely go to City. Also, I read an article today indicating that City are going to develop property around Eastlands, in some of the poorer areas of Manchester. Not only will this generate more profit...eventually, but it will help make City a more desirable place for players to go and turn it into more of a sports complex and entertainment center. Development will also provide Manchester City with some cachet to try to keep up with their cross-town rivals.

Wayne Rooney is killing it right now. He has 36 goals in all competitions this year. He is turning into one of those "beast mode" players that seems to be able to do whatever he wants whenever he wants. (a short list of other recent beast mode players include Kaka (2007), C. Ronaldo (2006 - present), Ronaldinho (2004-2007), Messi (2006 - present), Drogba (whenever he actually feels like competing), Henry (Arsenal days). I am by no means a Manchester United fan, but this guy is ridiculous to watch. It will be interesting to see if his club form will carry over in the World Cup. If it does, and this feels weird even typing this, Wayne Rooney is hands down world player of the year (whether it is the Fifa award or the Ballon D'or) and yes I know the Ballon D'or is for a European based player, but it is regarded as one of if not the most prestigious individual awards to win. List of recent Ballon D'or winners: Messi, C. Ronaldo, Kaka, Cannavaro, Ronaldinho, Shevchenko, Nedved, Ronaldo, Michael Owen, Figo, Rivaldo. So, after looking at that list, Rooney could be in rare air and become only the third English player to win the award since 1978 (Kevin Keegan, Michael Owen).

I have to touch on Real Madrid. I am not surprised at all that they crashed out of the Champions League. Real's line-up at the first leg in Lyon was laughable and Pellegrini has been rightly criticized for it. They need stability at the manager spot, and they need roster stability. I don't think they should freak out and try to overhaul their roster or try to bring in another individualistic creative playmaker - they already have too many of those. Manager-wise, I don't think Pellegrini is the "man" for the job. I think Juande Ramos was a better choice to manage this roster (he was Real's care-taker manager last year after they fired Bernd Schuster mid season, Ramos had managed Sevilla before crashing and burning at Tottenham). Ideally, Jose Mourinho is the right guy for this job. His focus is defensive and that is and will continue to be this team's problem.

Big Post

I haven't discussed soccer in a while and have probably annoyed people with forwarded articles. This is going to be a mega post.

1. Robbie Keane to Celtic from Tottenham: The January transfer window has closed and there weren't any "major" deals. The biggest deal was Tottenham (former Liverpool) misfit Robbie Keane's transfer to Celtic. Keane is Irish. Celtic is a club he has always admired. I think this transfer fits him well. Celtic have recently lost one of their best attackers to Birmingham of the English Premiership. Celtic sit well adrift of crosstown Glasgow rivals Rangers and perhaps his signing will spark life into what has been a lifeless season for Celtic (bounced out of Europe early, and I also believe they are out of the Scottish Cup). Although, it may take transition time, they dropped his opening game on the road at Kilmarnock.

2. The firing of Juventus' manager: no one should be shocked by this. Ciro Ferrara was not getting the results expected at Juve no matter what their current talent level may be. But, Serie A is fairly wide open this year aside from top spot Inter Milan which simply has had too much time and stability (even considering the transition from Mancini to Mourinho) and the ability to amass a solid roster. Inter remains a great destination for potential transfers to go to as they continue to rack up points and stay in competitions and have been the most consistent team in Italy for the past 4 years. The Inter/Chelsea round of 16 champions league tie remains the most intriguing match-up of the first champions league knock-out round. Even though England and Spain have stolen some of the spotlight from Serie A, Inter remains the most viable team for major transfers to go and as such, Inter continue to get the bigger names and success. It would take a collapse of historic proportions for this Mourinho led team to not win their fifth consecutive Scudetto.

3. The Pompey disaster: Portsmouth cannot get their act together. They pay their players late, they just had a transfer ban lifted (for no identifiable reason), Avram Grant has been completely handcuffed. The club is a disaster and at this rate, after relegation to the English Championship, they will be lucky to stay up and not get relegated to English league 1 the next year. Speaking of the lower divisions, former European Champions Nottingham Forrest are in a great position to crash the party and be in the Premiership next year.

4. Manchester City/Carlos Tevez: if you like anti-teams, Manchester City is your current team (until they get good and begin to win everything). Tevez' animosity towards Manchester United was palpable. I loved every second of it; from his taunting the United bench and higher ups, to seeing Neville flip him the bird in retaliation. Fantastic, but a shame they weren't able to win the tie and advance to the Carling Cup final. Manchester City are a fun team to watch because you just don't know what is going to happen.

5. Spain: my favorite league. Barca continue to stay on beast mode. Real Madrid can't quite get it together enough. But, holy god, did Jose Maria Guti have maybe the best assist of the year against Deportivo La Coruna. It was a no-look back heel flick to Karim Benzema. Injuries have made this Real team have to call on players to step it up. I love Higuian, but it is good to see Benzema stepping up (2 goals against Depor), and to see Guti continue to baffle analysts as his assist really turned back the clock. I haven't been intrigued as much by a player as I have been with Guti. He has so much potential, but has played a long time, and seems like he has the ability to decide when he wants to participate and be a genius, and when he could simply care less.

6. Happy to see my Norwich Canaries leading the charge in English League 1 (although some have two games in hand).

Current Thoughts

I started tweeting way too many thoughts and figured it best to just write a short blog post instead.

Mark Hughes getting fired:

I'm not sure he exactly deserved it, but i see this as a profile switch. Basically, Mancini is a higher profile coach and could likely attract bigger talent than Mark Hughes could (it still is Man City, and it is a Man City that has yet to have a high profile season). Mancini is good, but people will argue that 2 out of the 3 Scudetti that he won in Italy with Inter Milan weren't really true (1 was awarded after it was stripped from Juventus, the other was after Inter's main rivals suffered point deductions due to match fixing).

I'd like to see Real Madrid sign another defender. They keep getting dinged up and haven't exactly been convincing on the defensive side of the ball.

I'm not a huge fan of the Landon Donovan move to Everton. Yes, I think it is good experience, yes it may help him develop as a player, bla bla, I get all of that. But, I don't like it for a couple of reasons. First: Everton are sitting in 15th in the midst of a relegation battle. It is a far from ideal situation to put Donovan on a mediocre team. He may struggle since the team as a whole has struggled. Second: He's basically going to have to play football for 365 days. While experience is good and he will be "in form" he may also be completely exhausted by the time the World Cup rolls around, I'd rather have a fresh Landon Donovan than one who scored a few goals and helped Everton avoid relegation.

Thats all for now.

College Football Picks Week 10

It is the time of the year where I start getting bitter about college football. I think that will translate into this blog:

Vanderbilt @ #1 Florida: With Spikes suspended and not able to gouge peoples eyes out, this may be a tougher game for Florida. Just kidding, Florida will find some other way to cheat, get help from the officials, or play dirty. Florida wins big.

#9 LSU @ #3 Alabama: Home game for Alabama, they keep finding a way to do it. LSU doesn't commit many turnovers, so this could be a tough one for Alabama. I'll take LSU in a close upset.

#21 Wisconsin @ Indiana: Indiana is an impossible team to explain, other than the fact that they always lose. Wisconsin wins based off of another terrible officiating call or three.

Navy @ #22 Notre Dame: This game features teams with two completely different styles. Navy has had games recently where they don't even attempt a pass. Then there is Notre Dame which is one of the best passing teams in the country. I'll take Notre Dame....its Navy, come on.

Florida State @ Clemson: FSU's defense is terrible. If FSU loses this game, they are going to have a really really hard time getting bowl eligible. I think Clemson wins at home in Death Valley.

#16 Ohio State @ #11 Penn State: This is the game of the week in the big ten. Night game, white out. I like Penn State. Lets also not forget that Purdue beat OSU this year...so that scares me off of OSU.

Kansas @ Kansas State: The battle of Kansas. Both teams have a chance to get bowl eligible. I like Kansas State. This is Bill Snyder's second time coaching Kansas State, and he's the guy that put them on the map the first time. Kansas has struggled lately and their early weak schedule is shining through now.

Duke @ North Carolina: This game reminds me a lot of when IU and Kentucky play in football. UNC is like Kentucky in the football matchup, almost always better than IU and Duke. But, shockingly, Duke is one win away from bowl eligibility this year as is North Carolina. I hate both of these schools in terms of basketball and I don't really care or know anything about them in football. But, I believe in Butch Davis, as he was the guy that built the team at Miami that Larry Coker took to the BCS championship in 2001. UNC wins.

kind-of a weak sauce week in College Football

Quick Weekend-wrap up and CL preview

Quick story lines from the weekend:

1. Barca drop two points at Osasuna and remain 1 point ahead of Real Madrid.
2. Real win at home to Getafe and end a terrible week on a good note.
3. Liverpool lose again and are 9 points off the pace set by league leading Chelsea. I think we can start the Rafa Benitez hot seat countdown. As good as he is and as much as he has done as manager for Liverpool, this team just isn't responding
4. After Juventus thrashed Sampdoria midweek, even though Juve lost at the weekend, they have moved into 2nd place in Serie A, seven points behind Jose Mourinho's Internazionale.
5. In France, Lyon continue to creep up the table and now are only 2 points back of last year's champion, Bordeaux.

Champions league

The big Tuesday games are Real Madrid at AC Milan, and Bordeaux at Bayern Munich. AC Milan surprised Los Blancos in Spain a couple of weeks ago, and it will be interesting to see if Real Madrid can bounce back for what should be a tough game on the road. Bayern currently sit third in their group and could really use a win to bounce towards the top of their group and closer to advancing to the next round.

In the not surprising news of the week, AC Milan have announced that David Beckham will return to the San Siro in the January transfer window. Beckham hopes the move will increase his chances of making the England World Cup roster.

College Football Picks Week 8

I had a dismal record last week, 1-7 or 1-8, either way, it was ugly.

Indiana @ Northwestern: This is a match-up of two 4-3 teams desperate for a win to try to inch closer to bowl eligibility. I said I wouldn't pick IU again the rest of the year and I still won't. I have a feeling its 'lay an egg' time for IU and play like they did against Virginia (40 point loss). I have no faith in this team; mostly because they still make comments as if they were/are a great team.

#1 Florida @ Mississippi State: Still not picking against Florida until either the SEC championship or BCS bowl game. I don't think they deserve the number 1 ranking though. You can see they miss the speed of guys like Mercy Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy.

Tennessee @ #2 Alabama: Tennessee has some toughness, but I can't imagine Nick Saban letting his guys lose this one.

#3 Texas @ Missouri: This is a night game at Missouri. Missouri gave a tough Nebraska team a great game until the 4th quarter. Common sense tells you that Texas is too talented to lose this game.

#6 Iowa @ Michigan State: Ok, I'll start buying into the Hawkeyes. Read a good email to SI's college football sports writer. If it were U of M, OSU, or PSU that were undefeated...wouldn't they be getting a lot more respect? Answer, yes. Is that fair, no. But it is what it is. I'll take Iowa and drink the Kool-Aid.

#13 Penn State @ Michigan: I hate Tate Forcier. But, I'll pick my first upset this week. When Michigan's offense is clicking, it is really damn good.

Minnesota @ #19 Ohio State: As unfair as it is, this is the make or break game for Pryor. If he stinks up the joint and barely wins or worse-case scenario, loses, it may get ugly at OSU. Problem is, OSU doesn't really have a person to throw in the game to take over for Pryor. Unlike UF or USC, they do not have an embarrassment of riches at QB. I'll take OSU in a must win for the sanity of Buckeye Nation.

Florida State @ UNC: Homer pick alert! FSU coming off a bye week, maybe they figure something out.

Illinois @ Purdue: I think the wheels have officially come off the wagon for Illinois after they weren't really even competitive against IU. Purdue is going to be all sorts of jacked-up after the OSU win, and thus, this is your typical "let down game." But, man, Illinois is bad.

Boston College @ Notre Dame: This BC team has had ND's number lately. I enjoy the chaos of the Weis hot-seat discussion. So maybe my dislike of ND is showing through since I know nothing about BC and I'm picking BC. Still owe BC for FSU's 1993 National Championship.

Oklahoma @ #25 Kansas: To me, this is the most intriguing game of the week. Oklahoma isn't as bad as their 3-3 record indicates and Kansas (5-1) may be pretty good. Kansas' loss last week was to a hungry Colorado team who finally benched the coaches son, the QB. Lets not forget Todd Reesing's Heisman run and Orange bowl appearance, a very talented QB. But, I'll take Landry Jones and my Grandpa's Oklahoma Sooners.

Thoughts??

Quick Champions League thoughts

I'll start with the champions league. A few big notes:

1. Liverpool loses 2-1 at home to Lyon. Granted Lyon don't suck and I think they'll end up winning the French League, you still have to protect your home turf if you claim to be a European giant. Maybe things are getting stale at Liverpool finally. Benitez has been there since 2005 I believe, and it may be about time to switch it up. Liverpool are 0-2 in their last two and have scored zero goals in those matches. Sometimes managers get stale and just lose the motivation of the players. That probably isn't the case here, but if Liverpool fails to win anything this year, I won't be surprised if Rafa is gone...and then maybe he can go to Real Madrid where he belongs.
2. Pretty shocking result at the Camp Nou. Barca losing 2-1 at home to defending Russian Champions Rubin Kazan. Barca have a wealth of talent, just very surprised that they lose at home to an inferior team (talent and payroll wise) in the Champions League. I wouldn't sound the alarm bells though. This team is still ridiculously good.
   
3. The match for today is Real Madrid hosting AC Milan. They have a combined 15 or 16 European Cups between them. AC have lost their best player in Kaka to Real Madrid. I think it will come down to how many Real score versus if this will actually be a game.