I guess I’ll start with a profuse apology to all of my followers—mostly because there’s so many of you (last time I checked I had two)—for taking nearly five months to put up another post. The most recent one—from April 9, 2011—reads: Granada CF: Spanish Soccer’s Story of the Year. El Grana have since been promoted to La Liga—their first season in the top tier in 35 years—following one of the luckier playoff round runs in Spanish history. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Granada currently finds themselves at the bottom of the table due to back-to-back losses to Real Betis, and a 4-0 shellacking by newly rich Malaga just a few hours ago. Fabri Gonzalez’s team remains just one of three squads in La Liga who are goalless. Not exactly story-of-the-year caliber stuff.
No need to despair though. In my experience, teams that play in the city or general area in which I studied abroad slash lived and taught English last year tend to do very well the following season (I did all three in Granada, which is in Spain, and the winner of the Champions League both times was Barcelona…which is also in Spain. There. I proved it. Granada will be fine…gulp).
But let’s have at it, shall we? Here are some quick thoughts from the weekend.
FRONT FIVE
1) Sergio Aguero - Anyone who is still skeptical about how the 23-year-old wiz kid will fare at the Etihad Stadium this year after his £35 million move from Atletico Madrid this summer obviously hasn’t been paying attention to all-things Eastlands. The diminutive striker lit it up again this weekend bagging all three goals for the Citizens in Manchester City’s 3-0 drubbing of Wigan on Saturday, giving him six total for the year. And it’s September. Kun’s performances this season have been nothing short of magical, and I’m extremely proud to say that this young man is almost a year younger than me. Glad I put in all that time to practice after school when I was a kid!
2) Danny Sturridge – It might be a little premature to start talking about goal of the year, and while the 22 year old’s first of the campaign against Sunderland probably won’t win the award, pundits alike will struggle to find a more impressive finish in the Premier League this season. Chelsea won the game 2-1, Sturridge is proving to be a huge bargain, and Fernando Torres still has scored just once since his £50 million transfer from Liverpool last winter. All is well at Stamford Bridge.
3) Franck Ribery – He’ll forgive those of you who just assumed he fell off the face of the Earth last year after enduring a tumultuous, injury-riddled campaign at the Allianz Arena. But the Frenchman was back in a big way this weekend, scoring twice and setting up Mario Gomez for one of his four strikes in Bayern Munich’s 7-0 demolition of Freiberg. Teammate Arjen Robben enjoyed the thumping from the stands, as he is still recovering from a groin injury, but it should be a lot of fun for the rest of the vastly inferior Bundesliga outfits when the dynamic Dutchman returns to an already indomitable Bavarian side.
4) The Agnelli Family – It might come as a shock to all of you, but Agnelli is in fact an Italian name. Juventus’ owners invested a whopping €86 million on new players this summer, and the lavish expenditures paid immediate dividends on Sunday in the club’s 4-1 home victory over Parma. Newcomers Stephen Lichtsteiner, Simone Pepe, and Arturo Vidal all found the back of the net, which injected some life into the Old Lady. Yeah, that’s Juventus’ nickname: the Old Lady.
5) Real Sociedad – I have never made a toast to Royal Society before, but the time do that has never been more appropriate. Playing at home to Barcelona on Saturday, the Basque side that barely escaped relegation last season rallied from a two-goal deficit—following back-to-back strikes in the first eleven minutes, mind you—and somehow managed to even the score at two before time elapsed at the Anoeta. The draw, which has come to be known as the new loss for Barcelona, might turn out to be the only fixture in which Pep Guardiola’s squad actually drops points this year, and if so, I suppose it’s fitting that a Real had a hand in it.
All-Cool -Do
Raul Meireles – If you think I’m more excited about the 28-year-old midfielder’s distributing prowess, you’re dead wrong.
All-Cool Number
99 – Now worn by Lazio’s Djibril Cisse, Milan’s Antonio Cassano, and most recently by Anzhi Makhachkala’s (one of the easier Russian club names to pronounce) pricy new boy, Samuel Eto’o. It’s not the most orthodox of soccer numbers for the back of a shirt, but that’s exactly why these men have chosen it. Or maybe they all just really like Wayne Gretzky, Warren Sapp and restaurant popcorn.
All-Cool Quote
“He's different from Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo because they are strikers and score a lot of goals but I think he's the same as Xavi and Iniesta." – Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini on his talismanic midfielder David Silva.
To be clear though, David Silva is not—and I cannot emphasize this point enough—is NOT the same person as Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta. Xavi is one person. Iniesta another. And David Silva another. Shame on you for thinking they were the same person, Roberto.
All-Cool Headline
Joaquin the Park: Malaga dismantle Granada 4-0 in home opener
Take A Seat, Pal
Fernando Torres – The £50 million man who has scored just one goal in 18 appearances for Chelsea was left on the bench Saturday—shocker—in favor of Danny Sturridge who scored the game-winner; Torres is in the process—a process that may already be done—of losing his job on the Spanish national team to a younger Alvaro Negredo; and now El Nino is being investigated for disparaging comments he allegedly made in a recent interview about his Chelsea teammates, calling some of them “older” and “very slow,” which he blames for his severe scoring drought since joining the club. Torres has denied making the criticisms, asserting that he was mistranslated, but head coach Andre Villas-Boas is still keen on getting to the bottom of everything.
No matter what happens in all of this mess, can all of us just agree that Fernando Torres is already running the risk of becoming one of the biggest flameouts in history—not just in sports; in anything—and that by the time the next transfer window arrives he could find himself plying his trade elsewhere and marked as the single largest walking waste of money the world of soccer has seen (as if that already isn’t the case) since…well…he would be it! These comments have no place or tact, Fernando. We’re sorry you miss Xabi Alonso so much, but with the ever-changing personnel that all soccer teams—at both club and international level—undergo year after year, isn’t the one characteristic inherent in all great soccer players their ability to adapt to new surroundings, to new players?
As a wise man once said: work with what you have, not with what you want. Maybe one day, Torres will come to appreciate that. But for now, to all those Blues officials who are set on investigating Torres’ controversial interview, a little word of advice: “Odio a Chelsea” is Spanish for “I hate Chelsea.”
